I bought a new printer yesterday. It’s ridiculous but it’s nearly as cheap to buy a new printer than to buy ink for the old one.
This one has all the bells and whistles; it connects to the internet, can download all sorts of things, and even update itself.
This is all very well and for a kindergarten child I suppose setting up a printer is child’s play – pun intended. When I got mine set up it would only print in black and white, although the test pages were alive with lovely hues.
Hours later, with many web searches behind me and frustration creeping in (maybe I should say charging in), I thought maybe the old computer software was interfering with the new one’s functions. So I uninstalled everything that had any connection to a printer and re-installed the new printer software.
Now the printer wouldn’t talk to the computer or vice versa and I was ready to throw the thing into the nearest rubbish tip! Blow this new wireless connectivity, I’d had enough, and connected the USB cable that it had insisted I disconnect earlier in the process.
Hooray – it worked and printed in colour at last.
Perhaps someone, somewhere, at some time, needs all this technology but all I want is a printer that prints. I couldn’t care less that it can do wonderful things on the internet all by itself – my old printer did all I wanted without any fuss.
Why do we need things to be so complicated when what we really need is cheaper printer ink cartridges?
The trouble is that it would cost more to dump the thing at the Recycle Centre than I paid for it yesterday! I suppose now that it’s working I should be grateful they supplied a cable so I can communicate with it the old-fashioned way.
With our flaky internet connections out here in the bush, these new-fangled gizmos are not a lot of good – but then again I suppose most of the people buying these things live in the big cities and haven’t a clue about life in the country or the problems we face. Nevertheless, I love it here and wouldn’t swap with them and go back to suburbia no matter how much grief new, over-the-top technology gives me.
And it’s not just at home that it’s an issue. When you’re on the road, its technology that keeps us connected with friends and family, and it’s great. But sometimes I wonder if we are going too far.
So how do you go with keeping your technology going on the road? What are your technology woes?