Jun 27 2006

Some Technologies Die By Starvation

i love tech toys. if it weren’t for the limited supply of money, i think it would be very difficult for me to refrain from obtaining all the “cool” gadgets that are released. however limited resources definitely helps me become more sensible and critical as to how necessary an item is and how often i “upgrade” older toys for newer models. there are technologies that, even though they are old, still work and performs its function for the most part. take my 10 year old HP DeskJet 870Cxi for example. okay, it may not have the best color resolution compared with today’s color printers but for documents and printing internet directions or confirmations it does its job. the only other thing besides the color resolution that may show its age would be the paper catch. over the past couple of years its system of catching the paper and feeding it from the tray to the print head has been sketchy. most of the time it catches 2-3 sheets of paper at a time and every once and a while as it catches the paper it wouldn’t feed it properly thus jamming the paper into itself. to avoid this misfeed i would have to take out all the paper out of the tray except for the quantity that i intend to print… and even doing that it’ll do the opposite and not catch at all so i’d have to tap the papers so they’ll eventually catch. but aside from the catching-thing, the printing results were exceptable to my needs.

about two years ago Canon released a large format photo printer (i9900) that received a Kick Ass Award from Maximum PC and that definitely caught my eye. however in light of the inexpensive yet superior photo printers compared my HP 870Cxi, spending $499 to be able to print photo quality and at 13″x19″ if i so choose didn’t seem justified at the time. but knew that this would be the next printer for me, i was just waiting for the right circumstances to fully warrant the purchase.

well, a year later i was at Staples to pick up some ink cartridges for my HP 870Cxi because my backup supply and the one currently being used ran out. to my surprise Staples no longer carried the cartridges so i went to Best Buy and Office Max and learned that they too were no longer carrying the cartridge models for my printer. this forced me to search for them online which i was able to find a good deal at www.redtagtoner.com where they basically receive all the leftover stock that brick-and-mortar stores have when they decide to pull it from the shelves. as i placed my online order, i faintly heard taps being played for my HP. Continue reading


Jun 27 2006

If We Don’t Look Good, He Doesn’t Look Good

last sunday i decided to get highlights in my hair again. perhaps its a little indulgent of me to spend my hard-earned cash on something that may appear vain and attention-getting but its not like i’m always spending money on myself to make myself look good. i think i look good regardless of what my hair is doing. now let me explain my statement before you conclude that i’m full of myself. on the scale of appearances, i rate myself as “good” which, on my scale is neither horribly ugly nor incredibly gorgeous (though i wouldn’t use “gorgeous” to describe males, i’ve heard girls use it to describe guys so that’s why i’m referencing it on this scale). had i self-proclaimed myself as incredibly gorgeous, we would both agree that i was full of myself… or maybe just you would agree since being so full of myself i would be under the delusionment of my gorgeous appearance. Continue reading