[Info-vax] OT: HP Poised to merge PC and printer divisions

[Richard B. Gilbert]

On 3/24/2012 9:48 AM, Paul Sture wrote:
> On Fri, 23 Mar 2012 09:05:26 -0700, mathog wrote:
>
>> Paul Sture wrote:
>>>> Rich Jordan wrote:
>>
>>>> Well, this one is simple to answer.  Use Brother printers.  They don't
>>>> charge you anything to talk to you, before or after the sale.  Even
>>>> after the printer is out of warranty.
>>
>>> I've been very happy with the Brother printer I have. It just works, no
>>> fuss.
>>
>> +1 for the Brother printers.  We have a 5250DN (a little double sided
>> laser, the current version of it is the 5370DW) at home and that thing
>> has been fast and reliable since day one.  I'm probably asking for it
>> just by saying this, but in the 5  years we have had it we have never
>> had a page that didn't print correctly.  Mechanically it is great - so
>> far not even a single paper jam.
>
> Mine's a cheaper USB only version.  No double sided, but it's easy to
> print even pages, flip the paper and then do the odd pages.  Not that I
> do anything like the amount of manual printing I used to.
>
> No paper jams here either.
>
>> The one and only thing I don't like about that printer is that peak
>> current draw can top 10A, so it does not play nicely on a shared circuit
>> with anything else that uses a lot of current.  Average current use is
>> much lower, and when it goes into sleep mode it only uses about 9W of
>> power.
>
> Ah, the "delights" of circuit breakers which trip at lowish levels...  It
> took me a while to get used to that.  Fortunately my printer doesn't use
> so much.
>

I've been using an H-P Laserjet 4000 for almost ten years.  I'm only on 
my second toner cartridge.  I have the "JetDirect" card so all the 
computers in the house can use the printer.

As for circuit breakers, they come in various sizes; I have 15 Ampere 
and 20 Ampere breakers in my home.  You are supposed to match the 
capacity of the circuit with the rating of the breaker.  The largest I 
ever saw was rated at 300 Amperes.  It came to my attention and that of 
several hundred others when some idiot connected a 500 Ampere load.

The circuit breaker's protest was dramatic!  Much of it vaporized!
Power was off for much of the day while the mess was cleaned up and
a replacement breaker was found and installed.