Writing Goes Well: Printer Knackered.

The writing continues to go well and I've finished Ch19, which runs to 5043 words and ends on page 190. So, a good day's work there.
Had a great walk with Valerie this morning, taking a 15 mile drive to a local village and walking along single track rural roads and an abandoned railway line with no track. Peaceful and spiritually uplifting. We did just 4 miles and returned home to have lunch in the back garden under a fine warm sun.
This afternoon, Valerie was trying to print from the laptop on my printer in the study. For some inexplicable reason, the printer would not respond. initially it seemed the spooler was at fault but I managed to cure that. Then the system said that there was no printer driver. I jumped through all the hoops and tried all the so-called 'help' solutions, but to no avail. Finally, I decided the best solution was to uninstall and then reinstall the printer, using the CD supplied. Big mistake! It uninstalled in a trice. But, since buying the printer, 3 years ago, I've updated the OS from Vista to Windows 7 and the CD won't install to the new OS. So, I tried online and got precisely nowhere.
Looks like the only solution is to buy a new printer. So, I go online to compare features of the various printers I might want to buy, but can I find a useful site for this? No, they all want to give me price comparisons, when what I need is somewhere that tabulates all the various features so I can quickly assess the most likely to suit my purposes. Is this too much to ask? In the process of looking, however, it's become clear I'm probably best off getting a mono laser for my text and a cheapish all-in-one inkjet for the colour work.
Ah, would that life were simpler!
The picture was taken on our walk this morning.

Printer peculiarities

Image via WikipediaAm I alone in wondering at the manufacturers of printers? They seem to delight in providing as many different ink cartridges as they can design, usually only half-filling them and pricing them so high that they frequently cost more than the printer they serve. And why is it that when I'm printing a completely black document, with no hint of colour, that the colour cartridges empty along with the black one? The printer gets all uppity when I dare to replace the overpriced manufacturer's cartridges with cheaper, fuller generic cartridges and warns me that my warranty will be invalid. I don't care, of course, because the warranty ran out ages ago. But the printer then makes it as difficult as it can for me to do a straightforward task, putting on a juvenile sulk because I've rejected the offerings of its parent company and used more productive offspring instead.
There was a time when the customer's wants and needs were important to the manufacturer and retailer of goods. With the coming of the computer age, we seem to have fallen into a strange land where the seller holds all the aces and wants to rule the habits and choices of the customer. Perhaps it's time for all of us to let each other know when we come across a computer product or peripheral that actually gives the user free choice. We can then all buy these and increase their sales at the expense of those arrogant suppliers who want to dictate to us. What do you think?