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.

so last week, i purchased the Canon i9900 with confidence (and a $100 rebate) and a few solid reasons that warrants a brand new shiny printer as my new tech toy. i’ve been taking a lot of digital pictures with my Canon SD500; most of them at the highest or near-highest setting with the intention of eventually printing a selection of them. so not only will i have the ability to finally print, but i can print them at 13″x19″ size (or any other poster-type projects). other than the positives of the new printer, the negatives of the current printer really sealed the deal for me. i’ve already mentioned the paper catch issue with my current HP. when mechanisms are old, they aren’t as efficient for the workflow. this COUPLED with the the fact that HP no longer ships my cartridges to retail stores is a big freaking sign that they’ve essentially pulled the plug for future product support/supplies. so even if the technology is older and you take the steps to care for and maintain that technology, what ends up killing it will not be you but the inventor of that same technology when it sees fit to stop making supplies to sustain it. so basically it becomes obsolete by starvation. what a way to go, huh?

but who has time to feel sorry for my old HP DeskJet 870Cxi? lets take a look a my brand new shiny Canon i9900 as it comes out of the box doing a little striptease showing off its slick formfactor.

all the contents: printer, ink cartridges, manual, software and drivers, and of course the power cord.

the printer is more sexy once the plastic and safety tape is removed.

eight individual cartridges! whoopee! i can’t wait to see how my prints will look. also i can just replace individual cartridges instead of one all-color one. nice!