Modern life may be ...
 

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[Closed] Modern life may be rubbish, but...

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Some stuff is better. Printers, for example. After so many years of anguish and torment, we're at the point now where you click print and it just works. I mean it sneaked up on us, but we're finally here. Printers work.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 1:51 pm
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From which planet are you posting, pray tell?


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 1:54 pm
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Lol. Kinda borderline agree with the OP though except of course when the home printer runs out of paper and as it has a plug on it its automatically my problem even if I'm in Polynesia.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 1:57 pm
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From which planet are you posting, pray tell?

My thoughts also.  With our home printer we go through a process of

a)on

b)press print

c) can't print, fault.

d) clear fault

e) two blank pieces of paper go through

f) start a) again

g) 1 pieces goes in (waits)

h) (more waiting)

i) Prints! or c) or e) again

And this is a 2017 Canon....


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 2:00 pm
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Can you PM me this weeks winning lottery tickets please?


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 2:02 pm
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I last needed to print something at home... ~15 years ago! 😆


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 2:03 pm
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From which planet are you posting, pray tell?

Planet HP, apparently it's not the same everywhere?

I last needed to print something at home… ~15 years ago!

Mortgage forms that need signing and returning. I don't print a lot but it's useful. Judging by the people who ask 'please can anyone print something for me' on our FB community page, I'm not alone.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 2:39 pm
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Some stuff is better. Printers, for example. After so many years of anguish and torment, we’re at the point now where you click print and it just works. I mean it sneaked up on us, but we’re finally here. Printers work.

Someone who looks vaguely familiar had a thought about this over on mumsnet not so long ago. (Obviously, sweary warning, because mumsnet).

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/3058228-household-objects-that-are-pricks?pg=4&messages=100


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 2:50 pm
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Mortgage forms that need signing and returning.

It's a shame Adobe Sign doesn't exist.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 2:52 pm
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#printerinklow


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 2:57 pm
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Of all the things I was expecting in this thread, home printers was somewhere close to the bottom of the list! I've not clicked through the mumsnet link but I can confirm that my home printer (newish HP) is indeed a prick.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 3:15 pm
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surely you just print home stuff at work on the fancy laser jet?


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 3:18 pm
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It’s a shame Adobe Sign doesn’t exist.

Tell that to the banks.

surely you just print home stuff at work on the fancy laser jet?

Assuming I go to an office, assuming it's not a hassle to set up office printers...


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 3:21 pm
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@kryton, my Canon does exactly that. The PCPro A-List printer TS6250, and it doesn't even print.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 3:23 pm
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And then Google decide they're had enough of the wonderful Google cloud print and announce they're going to bin it at the end of 2020 ☹️


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 3:28 pm
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...work, right now, bank of big shiny new printers. Two need toner, two have paper jams (how printers have fun), two have error messages designed to lure the unwary into a labyrinth of unintuitive menu options. Probably because it's no one's job to look after them and most of us prefer to waste our time in other ways. Luckily paper's going the way of cash.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 3:32 pm
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'Cant print black, because Cyan is empty'


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 3:39 pm
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#printerinklow

HP Instant Ink is the way forward

Very reasonably-priced (dare I say 'cheap' even - print less than 15 pages a month and its actually free) and, as it is connected to the interweb, it sends a message to their warehouse which automatically sends out new cartridges in good time before you run out.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 3:44 pm
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My Canon printer was heading to the tip, consumed ink at an alarming rate always Canons best brew but i gave it one last chance and bought cheapy ink and it works a treat, print off loads of pics and with my eyes i can't see any difference. Photographic paper bought from Lidl was made by a Swiss company top quality but much cheaper


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 3:47 pm
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HP printer here.
Quite a recent one.
Updated itself.
WIFI stopped working. At least not properly, the PC can see it, and says it is working, but it lies.
The android app still worked - yes, over WIFI - at that stage.

I tried updating the PC driver.
Wifi still did not work.
Also, various useful photo paper sizes vanished.

Later, the android app was updated.
Now, the printer does not work from that, either.

Our super connected WIFI printer is now a USB only PC only P.O.S.

Printers are crap.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 3:52 pm
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My Canon is great but would cost more to replace the ink with canon ink than to buy a new printer with full carts. Then I found local computer shop with carts at £2 ea. Expected rubbish but as good as OEM


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 4:16 pm
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This thread is ok, but that mumsnet thread is ****ing epic!
We need more swearing!


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 4:22 pm
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Two printers here. An HP in the loft that I gave up on. Or more accurately I gave up on the cartridges which failed in days or weeks. The other is a black and white Brother HL 1110 which as you say, just works.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 4:25 pm
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I tried updating the PC driver.

A driver? That might be your problem...


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 4:29 pm
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than to buy a new printer with full carts.

Except printers often don't come with full carts (unless this has changed in recent years), they come with "starter" cartridges which will be dead after a few prints. They're wise to this little game too.

This is why inkjet printers are so cheap - half the time they're sold at a loss so they can tie you in to their inks. Gillette have been pulling this stunt for decades.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 4:30 pm
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Gilette make printers?

They'd be the best a man can get.

So surely better than our crapola HP.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 4:40 pm
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In that Mumsnet thread, there are some very eloquent and well learn'ed Women.. (assume they're Women)

We lack that eloquence on here.

And the very poignant use of sweary words.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 4:41 pm
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I wish Apple would make a printer. It would be insanely expensive, but i bet it would work. And look nice.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 4:47 pm
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Except you'd have to connect it up with a new high-speed ApplePrint cable costing £99, it'd only print out documents which had been authorised and signed by Apple, it would require special iPaper which was 5mm larger than regular A4, and replacing the ink would only be possible at an Authorised Service Centre.

It would look nice though.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 5:19 pm
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I had some printing issues the other day as it happens so this thread is amazingly well timed and I always enjoy a printer thread.

The thing was you see, that I'd went to print some images, about five if I recall, and I'd hit print before I realised that I didn't need them full page and I could have fit all five on one page by hitting a different template setting.

I cancelled the print job and it was then that the print-based insanity started.

Basically the job would not cancel. Just would not. Every twenty seconds or so just as it had made me think the cancellation had been successful, it would fire up again and start printing off a whole image on one page.

Even turning it off and on again didn't stop it.

It's like the printer was just hell bent on printing off that photo and would stop at nothing to do it.

In the end I just let it do it.

Life's too short. True story though.

Printers ay!


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 5:50 pm
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Except you’d have to connect it up with a new high-speed ApplePrint cable costing £99, it’d only print out documents which had been authorised and signed by Apple, it would require special iPaper which was 5mm larger than regular A4, and replacing the ink would only be possible at an Authorised Service Centre.

Have you ever actually used an apple product (i’m guessing not 😂)

More likely that they’d completely re-invent the printer/paper paradigm, everyone would laugh at it as didn’t get it, but then be using it 2 years later after all the other manufacturers had copied the idea. (And we’d all be wondering why the hell we’d be dicking around with ink & mushed up tree for so long)


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 5:51 pm
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@cougar
🙂 probably.
And it would still be worth it if the thing worked.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 5:54 pm
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Upgraded all the pcs at work to Windows 10. Now noone can print on the big leased Canon and 4 Canon engineers in a row can't make it work or know why.

But yes, they just "work"


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 7:35 pm
 Kuco
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click print and it just works

You have never used a printer supplied to DEFRA? Even the most laid backed person I know wants to beat the shit out of our printers.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 8:24 pm
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More likely that they’d completely re-invent the printer/paper paradigm, everyone would laugh at it as didn’t get it, but then be using it 2 years later after all the other manufacturers had copied the idea

HAHAHA someone's drunk too much kool-aid!

Apple invent some stuff, sure, but the they rip stuff off other companies left right and centre and then convince their starry-eyed disciples that they came up with it and it's SOO much better than everyone else's and Windows blue screen blablabla shut up.

(Sent from a Mac belonging to my work that's shortly to be changed for a Windows machine because Apple can't be bothered to invent laptop/tablet convertibles)


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 8:44 pm
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I lost my rag with a printer once trying to print off a last minute piece of coursework. Picked it up to launch it across the room and a penny coin dropped out of it. Put it back down, pressed print, success.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 8:53 pm
 ajaj
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I wish Apple would make a printer. It would be insanely expensive, but i bet it would work.

Says someone who's clearly never attempted to make a LaserWriter II work over AppleTalk.

We've got some shiny new Kyocera printers at work that seem to work well.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 9:00 pm
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I had a printer/scanner that always worked, even over the network. Current oh moved in and it would never print for her.
So we replace my perfect working printer for her two, no idea why she has two? Guess what? Neither of them like me. They drag through two sheets of paper at once or no sheets. The have phantom paper jams.
Allegedly I don't speak to them nicely enough. I think it's some sort of electronic jealousy.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 9:03 pm
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Have you ever actually used an apple product (i’m guessing not 😂)

It was kinda supposed to be a funny.

4 Canon engineers in a row can’t make it work or know why.

1) 64-bit drivers perhaps?

2) It's your own fault for not testing and staging properly.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 9:04 pm
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Also,

Why didn't I think of "i4 Paper" earlier? Damn it.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 9:05 pm
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Cougar, you work for Canon


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 9:08 pm
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I swear, I just plugged this thing in (HP Envy 5640) and went 'add new printer' and went to 'add printer' and clicked on it.. Maybe I'm charmed.


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 9:33 pm
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I mean it sneaked up on us, but we’re finally here. Printers work.

Unless you're one of those Apple wierdos who buys a shiny new printer without checking whether there are Mac drivers, only to find that Mac marketshare is so small that a lot of printers only have Windows drivers. They really don't see the funny side when you remind them, "Buy a Mac, they just work."


 
Posted : 05/12/2019 10:59 pm
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Posted : 05/12/2019 11:28 pm
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Err.....no they don’t. An OKI, two Brothers and HP. All temperamental bastards. I’d send yours back molgrips it’s clearly defective.


 
Posted : 06/12/2019 7:48 am
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Unless of course, it’s a HP printer that stubbornly sits “offline” even when it’s 3ft from the router, has full bars of WiFi goodness & can easily see both the router & my laptop from it lofty perch in the office. Never had much luck with WiFi printers. Never had much luck with printers full stop.
I took great pleasure in launching the last one 20ft into the air & watching it disembowel itself on the patio.

Cars. Running a new car is my acceptance of how far we have come. Much as I love older cars, I have to say that once you get past the (for some) psychological barrier of accepting that running a new car is going to always cost £xxx a month, the benefits of knowing that any eventuality is covered by a warranty, it’s just one less thing to worry about.


 
Posted : 06/12/2019 8:14 am
 Ewan
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My last two printers have 'just worked' 95% of the time - the difference between them and all my previous printers is that they're lasers. They don't mind not being used from one week to the next - it was always the nozzle blocked etc that caused me issues.


 
Posted : 06/12/2019 9:19 am
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yup, ISTR starting a thread about printer issues some while back. Different printer now, same issues.

anywayroadup, Modern Life is Rubbish was released in May 1993 so from our position of 26 years later we need a new idiomatic expression as well as a new printer


 
Posted : 06/12/2019 3:21 pm
 DrP
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From The Poke's "25 funny things today" tweets..

everyone: make better products

phone companies: ok

computer companies: ok

printer companies: here's an idea how about you go **** yourself

DrP


 
Posted : 06/12/2019 3:49 pm
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I've recently thrown away two printers at work, one of which had never been used because we couldn't get either of them working on anything running Windows 10. I took an old Brother printer of the shelf which has sat totally unused for the 6 years we've been in this building and possibly for a couple of years before that and it worked first time without any issues.


 
Posted : 06/12/2019 4:18 pm
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I have an Epson of some sort. It's connected to the wireless network at home. I can print onto it from my phone - from anywhere in the world I have a network connection.

Frankly amazing when you think about it.

But of course, who actually prints anything these days?


 
Posted : 07/12/2019 8:37 am

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