Quote:
Originally Posted by MrFluffy
If it is there, its there as a deep wry social comment and warning to a society at the insane business practices we seem to be sleepwalking into as acceptable... |
I agree, there seems to be a lot of sleepwalking in general these days, we need to question and oppose more. Only dead fish go with the flow.
While on the subject of questionable business practices.
I recently bought a new
Epson LQ-310 24-pin dot matrix printer (Yes, these are still sold new in Asia). You might think the reason for this was because it makes a cool retro sound while printing, or due to the fact it has three interfaces (USB, Parallel IEEE-1284 and Serial RS-232), or maybe because Amiga supports this printer natively in workbench.
While all this is true, the main reason I bought a dot matrix printer in 2015 was to get out of the current printer "refill racket" which plagues both the laser and inkjet printer market these days. The huge ribbon cartridges for the dot matrix printer last for a long time (several years even), and when it's time to change the original ribbon cartridge from Epson it costs roughly the equivalent of USD $5 in local currency.
The funny part is that it's not so much about the money, I just hate taking care of needy printers which cry about low toner, drum fail, low ink, etc. Especially when the modern laser/inkjet printers stop working with blinking leds due to firmware which is deliberately programmed to make you refill often, rather than actually sensing when the toner/color is actually empty. Yes, there are hacks for these things as well, but as a consumer, I felt it was high time to make a stand by choosing another product.
Back in the 80s when the first HP Laserjet was released a toner cartridge was good for roughly 5000 pages, now, 30 years later, it's usually around 500 pages in the "small" toner you get when buying the printer, and maybe around 1000 pages if you buy a new toner. Is this progress?
Sure, the dot matrix printer has its limitations, but at least it's sold using a decent business model.