Dot matrix printers.
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Some of our clients still use them. Gave us programmers quite a headache... :sigh:
It's an OO world.
public class Naerling : Lazy<Person>{
public void DoWork(){ throw new NotImplementedException(); }
}Shoe, back in the early 90's I wrote a function to print barcodes on a epson lx800 (before barcode fonts). Had to dig into the manual and learn all the "escape codes" for the epson standard - that function is still in use today to print slips for a file store. Will remember that rithmic grrrd,grrrd,grrrd till the day I croak!
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
Banks still use them. In highschool I learnt that dot matrix printers outdid laser printers in terms of economy (which probably still applies). However, I would assume the maintenance cost benefit has become more marginal over the years and it makes no sense to do this as an average user. EDIT: This whole argument excludes InkJet - those are just wasteful.
He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. [Chineese Proverb] Jonathan C Dickinson (C# Software Engineer)
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
DOT Matrix printers are still used to print Braille. You simply print onto paper with a peice of soft foam in front of it. You could also use it to make embossed paper...
Have a nice life!!
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
You could eke your printer ribbons out even more - I used to pop the top off my ribbons when they had gone dry, spray the fabric roll with WD40, reassemble and leave for a few days in a plastic bag - the WD40 diluted the unused ink on the regions not hit by the print head and distribute it across the ribbon - you could then re-use it and get at least an additional 50% print capacity - slightly fainter, but still fine for most uses.
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
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Banks still use them. In highschool I learnt that dot matrix printers outdid laser printers in terms of economy (which probably still applies). However, I would assume the maintenance cost benefit has become more marginal over the years and it makes no sense to do this as an average user. EDIT: This whole argument excludes InkJet - those are just wasteful.
He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. [Chineese Proverb] Jonathan C Dickinson (C# Software Engineer)
They are often ,amdatory for security printing - e.g. on cheques or legal documents Toner from laser printers can easily be scraped from the surface of paper - a dot matrix will embed the ink in the paper fibres making it much more difficult to remove
==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
in India , Many Bank Passbooks are printed on DotMatrix, and Our Collages use DM to print C, C++ program assignment.
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
I bought my TRS-80 Line Printer VII somewhere in '80. My purpose was to draw high resolution graphics thanks to the avaialble 1x7 bit patterns allowing independent dot access. Using a "huge" memory buffer, I could store a 400x400 black & white image and print it out after it was computed. Among others, I recall having programmed a surface rendering algorithm with hidden parts removal, for plotting of f(X,Y) functions, as well as line drawing of arbitrary polyhedra. As the equipment was stored in me bedroom and I usually finished debugging close to midnight, I was regularly woken up at four when the plotting started...
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
I was in a spa a couple of weeks ago and in the tranquil foyer there suddenly came the deafening racket of a dot matrix printer printing out the daily summary - I couldn't believe they would use one in that environment - multi-part forms of course. The spa is a chain of about 30 shops here in Malaysia so plenty of dot matrix printeres still here I guess.
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PHS241 wrote:
Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak
First, a confession: I work for Eastman Kodak Company; my division makes commercial ink-jet printers. The business model in the printer industry is now based on the customer paying for usage rather than hardware. The printer mechanism is sold at or even below cost. Manufacturers make money by selling consumables. In the consumer market, the primary consumable is ink or toner. Competition is fierce, and cartridge prices are confined to a relatively narrow range. 40 pages of black and 20 pages of color is reasonable for a consumer ink-jet printer. I typically get less than that from my HP. Printers differ in how they use ink based on the type of printing you do and the type of paper. It's up to you to set those preferences each time you print in order to get the results you want. If you leave the driver set for photo paper, for example, you're going to use more ink than necessary. Setting 'draft' mode can help you economize on ink usage for day-to-day printing.
Software Zen:
delete this;That figures! The cost of consumables is way too high, and the added software locks on the cartridges (making sure that it is not easy to just pour in some 3rd party ink into them) it annoying. There is something not healthy when I find it cheaper to buy a completely new printer that a new cartridge...
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
Up until 2011, my previous employer used dot-matrix printers at POS stations (it's a large electronics retailer in the US - not Best Buy) because they were cheap, reliable, and the ink was also cheap. They switched to laser printers to make it easier for employees to print out other things at any computer in the store (inventory lists, web pages, etc.) I still remember trying to align the pre-printed receipt pages just right. Plus, we knew when someone made a sale (commissioned place, so it mattered) when we heard the noise.
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
I bet there is a video on youtube that shows you how to refill these things manually. I bet all you need is a syringe and a bottle of ink. I like to use the old Shaeffer fountain pens with the plastic cartridges; I saw a web page posting where they showed you how to refill them with a syringe and a bottle of ink. In this case, the fountain pen ink in bottles is more widely available. I bet the same goes for refilling laser printer cartridges. I know there are companies that recycle the cartridges and sell them at a discount on the web. Kind regards,
David
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
Takin me back to my childhood days. I remember my dad ripping off his music catalog at 2am on his TRS-80 and that 9pin screaching away. I still have my Panasonic KX-P2123 Color Dot Matrix. Currently stored back in it's original box on a shelf. Been probably 14-15 years since I've used it. What a great machine for it's time. 360dpi, Red, Yellow, Blue, black on 1 ribbon, Had this cool "quiet mode". Photo quality graphics were pretty limited but illustration graphics and full color document printing was great.. Better than those early generation "bubble jets" I could go thru half a box of continuous pin-feed paper before the ribbon started to fade.. In draft mode could almost get a whole box. The one millwork shop I worked at had a significant part of their manufacturing control software running Clipper 87 and we couldn't get it to print on anything but the old Okis.. 20+ years old, bulk buy ribbons for cheap, and they just keep screaming away day after day. Maybe the only other printers in that shop that have been equally as reliable are the HP Laserjet 5MPs. The 2nd gen manufacturing control software that was windows based printed to them. These printers have even outlasted the big monster all in one office document systems.
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
I haven't seen anything produced by Kodak in the last 15 years that I thought was worth shooting, myself. Ahh ... dot matrix, I used to love those things. It's been 15 or more years since I last had one. As for inkjet, I use the Brother MFC series units. The one I have currently has taken a lot of use, particularly the scanner, and continues to work flawlessly. As for ink, that costs me very little. I find that I can get ink cartridges for under $20 for a dozen on eBay. I haven't had to order ink in a year. My Canon photo printer, though, does need authentic cartridges (which I also get cheaper on eBay). I can't get away with generics with that one but for the Brother ... $85-$100 for the original printer unit and the paper and ink very low cost for the next year or two.
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
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Again, a confession: I work for Eastman Kodak Company, a manufacturer of both consumer and commercial ink-jet printers. Refilling ink cartridges may work for a while, but the quality is going to suffer over time. The orifices that spray the ink degrade due to electro-chemical effects. This leads to poor dot size control and print quality. Ultimately the cartridge will fail.
Software Zen:
delete this;In my experience, Gary is correct that over the long term the quality declines when refilling cartridges. But I usually get three or four refills per cartridge before it is noticeable and even then it may be acceptable for internal or casual applications. If you rarely print, you may also have problems with the print heads drying out. Seems to be more of a problem with refilled cartridges. Refill instructions are easy to find on the internet. Most cartridges can be refilled, but not all. You might also check out local refillers, for example in Calif the local CVS drug stores and CostCo, offer refill services. My first Epson MX80 cost close to $800. Makes inkjet cartridges look cheap!
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Speaking of CRT monitors, on the relaly cheap ones, I can hear the flyback transformer buzzing - sounds like a mosquitoe flying right next to my ear.
I need a 32 bit unsigned value just to hold the number of coding WTF I see in a day …
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They're still in use in many businesses. The venerable Okidata 320/390 series is alive and well in most small retail operations, and at least one major hardware chain. In addition to being more reliable and cheaper to feed than any "modern" printer, they have a key advantage - multipart forms. No ink jet or laser printer can work with a three-part NCR form, and quite a few businesses depend on them. I only a couple of years ago chucked my last dot matrix printer, an Epson wide-carriage (LQ-1070, I think). Cartridges for it cost $4 and lasted a year or so, compared to $120 or so for my new HP inkjet. This is progress?:mad:
Will Rogers never met me.
I have a wide-carriage Okidata Microline 395C 24-pin printer here in my office. In the automation industry, real-time records are printed to the line printer, one line at a time (try doing that with a laser or ink-jet printer...) to record plant activity. Sometimes the line printer is set into a 'bunker', in case of an 'accident' it is the 'record' of what has happened. Yep, they are still in use, and I just finished writing a Windows NT service to write to this Okidata a couple weeks ago.
I need a 32 bit unsigned value just to hold the number of coding WTF I see in a day …
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
They still use them to print pizza labels at Domino's. I think they still hand toss the pizzas there, and what that means is that the place is constantly filled with flour dust (I personally think it's a health hazard, that's how bad it is) - anyway, the only printers that last more than a few days are the dot matrix type. Inkjets fail quickly in that environment.
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Does anyone remember them? I know inkjet and laser printers largely killed them off but it irks me how much you pay for printer cartridges. I have a Kodak ESP printer. I bought a pack of black and colour cartridges about two months ago. I've probably printed about 40pp in black and maybe 20pp in colour, yet the printer tells me I have about 20% colour ink remaining. Clearly the printer is killing my cartridge so it can force me to buy another one: thanks a lot Kodak. What makes me even more annoying is that the printer driver's software will not honour my request to print using the black cartridge only; convenient, huh? I wish I could find a decent dot matrix printer and ribbons. What I liked about them was the almost therapeutic sound of the printhead slowly working its way to and fro. I also liked them because you could run a ribbon until it was almost bone dry and in danger of shredding and a cheap ribbon gave 100s of pages before you (the owner) felt it was the right time to replace the ribbon. I never objected to getting slightly inky fingers. I also remember those little tufts of printer fluff that gathered in corners. And if the paper wrecked when it slipped off the grip wheels you could manually advance it and carry on. By Jove; those were the days. Edit: I see that you can still buy them. It seems nostalgia is alive and well. :)
"I do not have to forgive my enemies, I have had them all shot." — Ramón Maria Narváez (1800-68). "I don't need to shoot my enemies, I don't have any." - Me (2012).
