The Mouse and the Printer
I broke down and picked up a new Logitech TrackMan Wheel for $30 at CompUSA. (Side note: CompUSA's Apple section is shrinking at a noticeable pace from even last week.) I tried out the mouse in the store and, although the floor unit was a eunuch, it seemed to be the best bang for the buck. I almost caved and got the latest incarnation of the Kensington ExpertMouse but I figured for $30 vs. $100, the Logitech was almost a no-lose situation. Don't worry Kensington, we can still be friends. I'll call you - I promise!
All the heavy petting in the store didn't prepare me for what I discovered when I got home. I've used the ExpertMouse almost exclusively for nearly 10 years now, so old habits die hard. In particular, whereas before my thumb clicked the mouse button and first 2 fingers moved ball, now my thumb moves the ball and my fingers click the buttons. This takes a little getting used to, and I'm finding myself trying to press the ball in with my thumb when I mean to click. I'm sure in time I'll get used to it. The only other thing I miss is the Kensington software had pretty exhaustive controls to set the mouse speed and acceleration curves, whereas the Logitech stuff relies entirely on the OS settings. Luckily, the defaults seem to suit me just fine.
The other struggle I've been facing started yesterday when I needed to print a FedEx shipping label. My printer, an HP OfficeJet d135, was being quite uncooperative...
It had been warning me over the past week that it was running low on color ink, but I'd been ignoring it, since I never print in color. That was unwise - it turns out that if it runs out of color ink entirely, it'll refuse to print anything at all, even something that's strictly black and white like a FedEx shipping label. ;-)
It took me a while to reach that conclusion though - longer than I had time for to make the FedEx dropoff time - so I had to use Beth's HP in the interim. It was only after searching HP's web page support that it was spelled out for me in, well, black and white. :-) So a trip to OfficeMax was made and a new color cartridge procured for $30. Considering I barely used the old one and now knowing that they simply dry out over time, I was a bit put off by HP inkjets versus to the Epson that I had used for years and never refilled.
Got home, dropped the new color cartridge in and discovered a new annoyance - the color ink was coming out in faded streaks and there was no magenta anywhere, which, after more googling, meant that the printer heads were either clogged or needed cleaning. I saved that task for today, and now it prints out much better than before, although still with some streaks.
The real problem is, I discovered, that I don't print often enough to keep these things from happening. I gather from what I read that extremely sporadic use of the inkjet will cause these problems (ink evaporation and dirty/clogged printheads) to reoccur. I'll have to do better about that, but with Beth sharing this printer over the net now, hopefully it won't be as much of an issue.
Oh for the days of my Okidata m92!
Comments
It might make sense to buy a laser printer for our everyday stuff, and save the inkjet for pictures. Lasers are a little more cost effective, too, I think with the toner vs. ink.
Posted by: lyssa | October 23, 2003 06:35 AM
Lyssa:
That's exactly what we do. I have an ancient-yet-totally-overengineered-and-therefore-thoroughly-indestructable LaserJet 5MP in my office. Bonnie has an Epson Stylus Photo 820 printer. The inkjet gets the high-impact color work; the LaserJet is for the run-of-the-mill textual shit we both need to hardcopy now and then.
Posted by: flargh | October 23, 2003 10:47 AM
Yeah, we probably should have bought the laser version of the OfficeJet (that would make it more practical for the copy function as well as printing) and use a cheap-ass inkjet for color prints. Oh well, c'est la vie.
Posted by: Brad Oliver | October 23, 2003 02:01 PM
Brad, I'd recommend trying USB Overdrive rather than Logitech's drivers. You get per app controls including per app mouse movement.
Posted by: a2daj | October 24, 2003 07:06 PM