A new respect for inkjet printers

I have been working on several printing project the last week using
several different programs, including Photoshop, Corel Draw,
WordPerfect, and so on.

During a printing of a WordPerfect document, something apparently
crashed in the print driver. What came out of my printer (in this case
a rather old Epson SC850 running on plain paper at 720 dpi) appeared to
be just a bunch of very fine dotted and dashed lines.

I tried make some changes and printed another time, and the same problem
developed although the spacing of these dots and dashes were a bit
different.

Fixing the problem required a reboot... no big deal, but later on that
day, I was taking a much closer look at the pages with the dots and
dashes, to try to determine if the problem was the Epson driver or the
printer driver WordPerfect uses.

Since I am rather nearsighted, I removed my glasses to look more closely
at these very tiny dotted lines, and I thought I was imagining things,
so I got my loupe out and looked again...

Much to my amazement, I found when looking through the loupe, those dots
and dashes became words, and the words we fully and quite easily
readable. Looking at what happened to the file I printed, I realized
something had set the aril font to 2 point size. Keep in mind this is
on plain bond paper, using the plain paper driver setting at 720 dpi on
a printer that's about seven years old...

And people tell me I should throw this printer OUT because it isn't fast
as the new ones, or because the current drivers don't support the latest
OS, or because they now have 6, 7, 8 color printers?

This technology is amazing. To think this printer using just small dots
could print microprinting that was fully readable under magnification,
says a lot about how advanced these printers were even seven years ago.

Now I know if I ever get really tight on paper, I can print at 2 point
and still decipher it later ;-)

But in all seriousness, it was quite unexpected. Now, I guess I'll have
to try 1 point type with 1440 dpi on proper inkjet paper and see what
happens.


Art

If anyone else were to quote one of my postings from way back in January
of this year, I might be flattered.

However, when "Mapi" goes about trolling for something to use as fuel
for his typical neo-con, inflammatory rhetoric and snags one of my "just
in passing" commentaries, it's just embarrassing and turns my stomach.

What Moore's law failed to mention is that the same multiplier factors
that allow for invention and progress in electronics, unfortunately also
allows for nut cases like Mapi to have access to a wider audience to
annoy with his racist, bigoted rants and slurs.

Yeap, technology is a double edged sword. But humans are evolving beyond
the goo he's still stuck in. If you happen to notice him while walking
past a tar pit, just wave as he sinks into the muck.

Art

Mapanari wrote:

Arthur Entlich wrotenews:WANHd.11656$u_1.10770
@edtnps91:


I have been working on several printing project the last week using
several different programs, including Photoshop, Corel Draw,
WordPerfect, and so on.

During a printing of a WordPerfect document, something apparently
crashed in the print driver. What came out of my printer (in this case
a rather old Epson SC850 running on plain paper at 720 dpi) appeared to
be just a bunch of very fine dotted and dashed lines.

I tried make some changes and printed another time, and the same problem
developed although the spacing of these dots and dashes were a bit
different.

Fixing the problem required a reboot... no big deal, but later on that
day, I was taking a much closer look at the pages with the dots and
dashes, to try to determine if the problem was the Epson driver or the
printer driver WordPerfect uses.

Since I am rather nearsighted, I removed my glasses to look more closely
at these very tiny dotted lines, and I thought I was imagining things,
so I got my loupe out and looked again...

Much to my amazement, I found when looking through the loupe, those dots
and dashes became words, and the words we fully and quite easily
readable. Looking at what happened to the file I printed, I realized
something had set the aril font to 2 point size. Keep in mind this is
on plain bond paper, using the plain paper driver setting at 720 dpi on
a printer that's about seven years old...

And people tell me I should throw this printer OUT because it isn't fast
as the new ones, or because the current drivers don't support the latest
OS, or because they now have 6, 7, 8 color printers?

This technology is amazing. To think this printer using just small dots
could print microprinting that was fully readable under magnification,
says a lot about how advanced these printers were even seven years ago.

Now I know if I ever get really tight on paper, I can print at 2 point
and still decipher it later ;-)

But in all seriousness, it was quite unexpected. Now, I guess I'll have
to try 1 point type with 1440 dpi on proper inkjet paper and see what
happens.


Art




I think we all forget the power of capitalism, greed and plain old yankee
inguinuity.

Moore's law and it's attendant technological counterparts have demonstrated
time and time again that given freedom, capitalism, low taxes and little
regulation mankind moves at light speed.

Put a technology under government control, bueracracy and unions, with no
rewards for good work, and you get NASA and we still haven't put a man on
mars.

If the NASA program had moved as fast and been free and capitalistic as the
computer industry, we'd all be on that Pan Am clipper Starships watching
the moons of Venus rotate in our comfy longe chairs on the observation deck
before the FTL drive kicks in and takes us to the beaches on Antaries
Prime.

Halfway through the voyage, of course, a muslim fundamentlist bomb would
have exploded, thousands of sobbing liberals back on earth would have
castigated President Teddy Kennedy for not doing enough for safety and
Space Ship Ambulance chasers would be suing the Pan Am company into
bankruptcy....and so it goes and nothing really changes.

Oh, and just before they all implode into space and die quick decompression
deaths, some of the passengers would be using Epson Dot 9 pin Matrix
printers in the Osborn Server room to print out their reports.

Hey! I didn't say in my future everything went the same way, did I?

mapi

I posed the same question on alt.com.periphs.printers but discovered is very
quiet there...
Well, three days ago my old, loyal printer stopped printing with the low
black ink LED in the"on" state so I replaced the cartridge as usual but this
time LED didn't shut off and there was no way to make carriage move frome
the maintenance position...
Turning the printer off makes the head correctly going to parking position
but when
I turn it on again black ink LED is always on as if black ink cartridge was
still
waiting to be replaced...
The cartridge sensing switch (I discovered is located within the printing
head) seems clean and workink
ok...
Thanks for any suggestion
Adri

In message , Mapanari
writes
If the NASA program had moved as fast and been free and capitalistic as the
computer industry, we'd all be on that Pan Am clipper Starships watching
the moons of Venus
Do you know something we don't?


--
Timothy

wrote:

In message , Mapanari
writes

If the NASA program had moved as fast and been free and capitalistic
as the
computer industry, we'd all be on that Pan Am clipper Starships watching
the moons of Venus


Not too keen on watching anyone moon Venus . . . ;-)

-Taliesyn

Do you know something we don't?

wrote:
|| In message , Mapanari
|| writes
||| If the NASA program had moved as fast and been free and
||| capitalistic as the computer industry, we'd all be on that
||| Pan Am clipper Starships watching the moons of Venus
|| Do you know something we don't?
||
||

Yeah, the moons of Venus.. :-)

--
--
"Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the
privilege." - Unknown

In article , ()
wrote:

Do you know something we don't?

Obviously from an alternate universe where Venus has moons and Pan Am
didn't go bust.

Jon.

Sorry for the delay in response.

Most printers of that vintage used a leaf spring at the rear of the
cartridge compartment. You indicate you found it. They sometimes, over
time, flatten out and therefore do not make the correct disconnect and
reconnect during the cartridge exchange, so the printer doesn't
acknowledge the change over.

You can usually correct this by either carefully pulling the center of
the leaf spring out so it peaks there so it will get activated by the
side face of the cartridge, or you may be able to rectify this situation
by placing some extra material like cardboard on that side of the
cartridge to push against the switch. of course, it gets worse and
worse that way over time.

Usually, a gentle rebending of the spring to peak the center outward
into the cartridge carriage area is enough to set it right.

Art


Adri wrote:

I posed the same question on alt.com.periphs.printers but discovered is very
quiet there...
Well, three days ago my old, loyal printer stopped printing with the low
black ink LED in the"on" state so I replaced the cartridge as usual but this
time LED didn't shut off and there was no way to make carriage move frome
the maintenance position...
Turning the printer off makes the head correctly going to parking position
but when
I turn it on again black ink LED is always on as if black ink cartridge was
still
waiting to be replaced...
The cartridge sensing switch (I discovered is located within the printing
head) seems clean and workink
ok...
Thanks for any suggestion
Adri

Moore also didn't take into account people who can only read things
literally. I'm guessing you're an engineer?

Art

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:

In article 1VUTe.148529$Hk.17122@pd7tw1no,
Arthur Entlich wrote:


What Moore's law failed to mention is that the same multiplier factors
that allow for invention and progress in electronics, unfortunately also
allows for nut cases like Mapi to have access to a wider audience to
annoy with his racist, bigoted rants and slurs.


Moore's Law had nothing to do with invention and progress in electronics
overall, and was never--as in not ever--a social commentary.

Read up on Gordon Moore and what he said, and in what context.

"Arthur Entlich" wrote in message
news:mUzVe.189406$Hk.99257@pd7tw1no...
Moore also didn't take into account people who can only read things
literally. I'm guessing you're an engineer?

Art



I'm guessing that you actually have not read moore's law. See

http://www.intel.com/museum/archives.../mooreslaw.htm

ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moor...Moores_Law_2pg
..pdf

ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moor...eases/Gordon_M
oore_1965_Article.pdf

ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moor...eases/Gordon_M
oore_1975_Speech.pdf

ftp://download.intel.com/museum/Moor...es_Law_Origina
l_Graph_jpg.zip

or go to http://www.intel.com/ and enter the string

moore's law

Into the search box.

And ... yes ... Gordon Moore *is* an Engineer. One who every 'Personal
Computer' owner/user owes a lot of gratitude.