The betterness of things

[desperance]

The first novel I ever wrote on a computer, way back, mid-eighties (my second proper novel, that would be, "The Refuge"): it took me, very literally, all night to print it out. Daisywheel printer, without a paper feed: I stood over it from dusk till dawn, feeding in one sheet of paper at a time and watching the wheel scutter back and forth.

I just printed out a novel of a similar length in, what, fifteen minutes? Maybe twenty, allowing for one refilling of the feed drawer and its own occasional pauses to recalibrate.

Sometimes technology does make things better.

[The daisywheel was also the most expensive printer I've ever bought, which was why I couldn't afford the extra couple of hundred pounds for a paper feed; this current monster is the cheapest. Also the sexiest by a distance, being big and shiny and charcoal-grey. Definitely, tech gets better...]

Comments

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

Ah, but that first daisy-wheel printer was engineered, built to last, solid, wasn't it? Though in my view it was a step down from the golf ball. When I look at the dot-matrix printers they're selling down the post office for twenty quid, what I see is how much has been engineered out of them. they're not built to last, and they don't.

And the ribbons cost at most a few pounds -- how much is a new ink cartridge for your laser? There days the printer is all too often a vehicle for selling you expensive ink, the price of the printer is almost immaterial.

(signed) Grumpy old hacker

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Ah, but that first daisy-wheel printer was engineered, built to last, solid, wasn't it?

It was bloody heavy, that's for sure. Don't know how long it would've lasted; it was stolen after three years.

(My first and only inkjet, though, which replaced it - one of HP's very first models, lasted me ten years, was then passed on and is still I think going strong...)

Meanwhile, this monster colour laser actually weighs even more than that daisywheel; the instructions firmly tell you to get someone else to help carry it. Obviously I ignore that, being macho with my bad back and all, but none the less. Heavy. And I've just replaced the black ink cartridge, after eighteen months' heavy use: thirty quid, they cost. I think they're rated at 3000 pages, but I got considerably more than that. My only regret is the 'colour' thing. Which I really don't need, and have to manufacture excuses for using. Anybody know what colour would use equal quantities of blue, red and yellow (or whatever they are)? Maybe I'll print my drafts out in that colour, and so use 'em up...

[julesjones]

What model is your colour laser, and do you like it? [Is contemplating purchase of new shiny...]

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I have the Dell big butch office job (the 3100cn, when I bought it; there may be a new model number by now) and I love it to bits. It is massive, and self-important, and utterly efficient.

So tell me, what does one do with the colour capability...?

[julesjones]

In my case, print off colour bookmarks and postcards to use as promotional items. I don't have enough call for them to be worth paying to have a batch printed professionally, but they are useful to have on one's person at cons, especially at readings. (See the last item on the page of background material for one of mine for a particularly pleasing example.) And readers of epublished books seem to like getting signed bookmarks and postcards, because they're not going to get signed anything else...

David Friedman ran the numbers when he wanted to do a big batch of bookmarks and some flyers with a map for Harald, and decided that it was worth his while simply going and buying a decent colour laser and getting the local copy shop to cut them for him. I think it might have been cheaper for him to get one batch done professionally if all he cared about was the upfront cost, but he got a good printer out of it... I was living close to him at the time, so he ran off a few sheets of stuff for me at cost so that I could take some to Baycon to see how they'd go. The ones with the Spindrift cover art (as per user icon) disappeared rather rapidly. :-)

[julesjones]

Conversation elsewhere has reminded me of something else to do with the colour laser -- print bookplates, which may be signed, and offered to readers who send SAEs for same.

Also, when printing return address labels to use on envelopes, adding thumbnail of cover art. (I know a couple of people who do this -- it just hadn't occurred to me to do it because I don't particularly wish to advertise my fannish identity in mundanespace.:-)

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

The future is a nice place to live, for all its drawbacks.

What was not in your empty box?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

What was not in my empty box is Mr Stross's brilliant recommendation for the calamitous electricals in this room: a socket converter, to stretch the single power outlet into four switched sockets, Safely. Seemed like a really good idea, and I'm just in the mood for some DIY, what with two three manuscripts sitting here needed redrafting. Urgently. Oh, and an immediate proofreading job arriving this afternoon.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Here, lemme come hand you tools.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I knew you knew.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I am so not a gadget person that it's sometimes embarrassing. But printers... Printers somehow transcend the tech thing. They are like fountain pens, objects built with love and care to nurture and enable words. I love my HP inkjet dearly; I loved its predecessors, too (and my very first inkjet ran off an Amstrad with charm and grace and is still functional after about 15 years). They should be honoured in the hills and their praises rung from steeples... On the other hand, I do recall trying to print my first book -- academic and very serious -- on my Amstrad dot matrix printer and it did indeed take all day. But it looked so neat, and my then cat was so happy trying to catch the print head. We used that little printer until it became literally impossible to find the ribbons for it.
I got a parcel, too, which wasn't empty. But it had taken three weeks to get here from south London, so I'd rather given up on it.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I have an HP inkjet printer too. It has worked well so far and has good print quality, although the ink is a bit expensive. Recently I bought a massive daisy wheel printer in great condition with two new ribbons for $20, couldn't resist...