Heart attack

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Setting up New Canon Printer

Carol had hoped to spend the day doing preparation for lessons before she goes back to work at The Academy next week. It does take some considerable amount of time and energy to plan lessons. Which is why I get annoyed when she comes home and tells me she's had to deal with behaviour issues with the children she teaches. Not all of them, of course. It's usually a very small percentage who play up. They don't care that it's taken so long to plan a lesson and then have it disrupted. Carol uses the internet and her lap-top and needs a printer to produce her resources for the lessons she plans. So, it was somewhat annoying for her to discover that the printer we had was not working properly. I had only bought ink cartridges myself a week or two ago so I could print out material I needed myself. Then the H.P. printer, which is housed in the spare room upstairs, began to make some awful noises. As if something was caught in the paper feed. It wasn't going to stop. So, it was decided that we'd need to buy a new one. It's crazy that the ink cartridges cost more than the actual cost of a brand new printer. We decided to go to Argos and check out prices. We went for a new Canon printer, actually a fairly reliable brand, one that I knew well as I used to own one myself. Also, my digital camera is a Canon, which is good and has no end of features for what it cost. Amazing how technology improves as the years pass. The printer is not only a printer but can scan and copy, so it's actually a 3-in-1 device. Also, it's wi-fi connected so there's no need to plug in bits of cable. The same with our internet connection. This laptop, a MacBook Air, is connected to the internet through our Sky router. We had to download the drivers onto this laptop and Carol's laptop, a Toshiba, because the printer came with a CD ROM with the software on it and neither laptop has a CD drive in which to put the disc. So, we had to download the drivers from the Canon website and then spent a good two hours attempting to get the software to connect to the wi-fi system. I can also link my new iPhone to the printer if I want to print anything off from that, which is actually unlikely.

Mind you, I'm annoyed that the old printer has packed up. It's only a few years old. Having said that, I suppose it has done reasonably well. There is also the fact that technology changes so rapidly and it's quite difficult to keep up with any changes. Generally the changes are for the better. Computer operating systems change so quickly you have to keep things up graded otherwise they don't operate properly or even efficiently. I often think it's a cynical device set up by manufacturers to get you to part with more cash. My MacBook upgrades without any further payment, thankfully. So parting with some more cash for the new printer isn't such a bad idea and the new printer costs a fraction of what one would have cost 15-20 years ago. I remember when I bought my first Macintosh in the mid 1990's the printer, which was only a black-and-white model cost around £400. Today you can print, scan and copy from one machine, on two sides of the paper and in near-perfect quality as well as print photographs and graphics, which that old model wouldn't do.

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