19 March 2011 Ink levels may not be accurate

When I filed our income taxes, I printed out the customary hard copy to file and ignore. This was the time my J5780 all-in-one scanner/fax/copier chose to demonstrate its power over the household. It began printing properly and midway through the first page the print quality became nearly unreadable. Of course, I have two e-copies saved and those both can be used to generate hard copies in the future if needed.

We have, currently, four printers in the house.

One, no longer in service but usable, is currently hiding in a closet with other hardware.

One, received at no cost with a purchase I don’t recall, waits in its box to be called to duty. The newest printer, Gloria’s HP Photosmart Premium C309g-m, prints scans, and copies. It uses the newer and more expensive generation of ink cartridges. It prints well but does not fax.

The J5780 on my desk is seldom used to print documents other than letters to Congressional office holders. It uses the older ink cartridges, copies, scans, and faxes in addition to offending members of Congress. Since 2006, when we moved to Cassi Creek we may have sent five faxes and received, perhaps, three, almost all related to medical records. But it is 20 miles to the nearest fax-for-hire, which is, incidentally, also the nearest place to purchase new ink cartridges. Only the potential need to fax something in the middle of a blizzard on a high holiday when everything in the Bible belt is locked up awaiting the rapture keeps me from taking it out of service.

I’m faced today with the question of replacing the black ink cartridge on the rapidly approaching antique that demands space on my desk. I can mail order /purchase on line and pay exorbitant shipping costs for a 0.5-pound item. I can drive to buy a new cartridge at an in-store price that will barely exceed the cost of the gasoline used on the trip. Alternatively, I can ignore the lack of ink and use Gloria’s printer for insulting Congress.

There is a cartridge refill store near campus that I may visit Monday or Tuesday. The price of printer ink for inkjet printers is only slightly less dear than 24-carat gold. I’m not going to be surprised when I see some aging actor appear in a commercial about investing in ink. I wonder if we can convince speculators to quit running up the price of oil/barrel in order to run up the price of ink/cartridge.

In the mean time, it amazes me how the ink cartridge measurement is always falsely higher than the actual ink content.  The more important a print job, the more likely the cartridge to run out of ink.  It reminds me of the old dash board clocks in Detroit cars that seemed to be designed to fail at 11:57PM on New Years Eve.  Hard to beat American engineering!