Paper Jam Boy!

[#1 posted by zuzu , January 25, 2009 8:39 AM]

Toner is less expensive.

Networked color laser printers are no longer exorbitantly priced. (i.e. less than $500)

So why are people still buying inkjets for anything except occasionally printing photos?

[#2 posted by Alys , January 25, 2009 9:16 AM]

@Zuzu - I know my parents bought an inkjet because it came as a free promo when they bought their last computer. And they do bitch about the cost of the cartridges.

I still own an inkjet printer, but it's an all-in-one, and I can't remember the last time I actually used it to print anything.

[#3 posted by shanefer , January 25, 2009 9:27 AM]

I don't get it

[#4 posted by pork musket , January 25, 2009 9:33 AM]

What the fuck is PC Load Letter?

[#5 posted by dculberson , January 25, 2009 10:29 AM]

My LaserJet 5 in the basement recently said "PC Load Letter" on the screen. I cracked up.

[#6 posted by midknyte , January 25, 2009 11:30 AM]

@1 "...So why are people still buying inkjets for anything except occasionally printing photos?..."

Dunno. I buys them cheap on teh ebay

[#7 posted by Anonymous , January 25, 2009 11:50 AM]

Why do they talk like retarded versions of racist black stereotypes?

[#8 posted by haineux , January 25, 2009 1:27 PM]

I got a Brother HL-2040 black and white laser for about $50 at OfficeUSADepotMax, well over two years ago. I haven't run out of toner yet, so this is the BEST. PRINTAR. EVAR. even though it doesn't do double-sided or super-hi-res whatever. Works perfectly with Mac OS X.

Obviously, it's no good for photo prints, but those are quite cheap, more than acceptable quality, and almost convenient at WalLongs GreenDrugsAid. You can't QUITE select the drugstore as a printer -- you have to go to a web page and upload pictures -- but then the store will email when the pictures are ready, under an hour.

This works extra-great if you are sending pictures to the grandparents -- just select their local store. Heck, I can even pre-pay.

Best part: on the rare occasion that the store messes up a print, I don't pay. This is an enormous savings compared to, say, Epson printers which ALWAYS had ink problems because I don't use them often enough. And I'm happy with the color balance on the first try.

[#9 posted by help i cant comfirm my username themelonbread , January 25, 2009 6:22 PM]

@# haineux: Everyone knows WalLongs GreenDrugsAid sucks and has horrible customer service. Stop astroturfing for them, shill!!!1111

[#10 posted by Mister Moofoo , January 25, 2009 6:35 PM]

Wow.

I work in a print shop, and this is almost exactly what my job is like, except without the beer.

[#11 posted by mightymouse1584 , January 25, 2009 6:41 PM]

http://www.123inkjets.com/

i use their imitation cartridges for my epson cx7450. they work without a hitch and are much cheaper than the epson brand.

[#12 posted by nixiebunny , January 25, 2009 7:33 PM]

Regarding the punch line in the last panel...

He's lucky that it only ran out of ink. When our office's HP inkjet all-in-one fax machine broke last year, it was due to someone clearing a paper jam by pulling out the paper from the front where it had emerged halfway.

The helpful phone sales rep (it was still in warranty) said that if you read the user manual, it says never to pull out the paper from the front - it will strip the plastic gears in the mechanism and require a completely new printer to be sent to you. You have to reach around the back, open an access door, and pull the paper out that way.

I asked why there wasn't a day-glow sticker on the front warning you to not do the obvious thing to clear a paper jam. He was not so helpful answering that question.

So, yeah... screw Hurl-it & Puke-id. They used to be a decent company. Their 40 year old tube-based test gear works great, but their brand-new plastic crap isn't worthy of being sold at WalLongs GreenDrugsAid.

[#13 posted by damon , January 26, 2009 4:23 AM]

I stopped reading this strip in my paper because it was relentlessly unfunny. When I saw it here on Boing Boing I thought I'd take another look. And after that look, I still wish my paper would drop it.

[#14 posted by technogeek , January 26, 2009 8:52 AM]

So which strip is this, anyway? (Not that I particularly want to go looking for it, just that I think it's sorta rude to reprint without proper credit.)

[#15 posted by dculberson , January 26, 2009 9:02 AM]

Technogeek, it's Pearls Before Swine. If you click on the strip itself, you're taken to their comics.com page.

[#16 posted by Felix Mitchell , January 26, 2009 2:15 PM]

None of that's actually funny, yeah? Is the strip here ironically?

[#17 posted by Pelle , January 27, 2009 11:04 AM]

That one was very funny (especially as I, that is synchronicity for you, was at the time also reading a blog with a for or against debate about alternate medicine, and this sunday panel seemed funnily appropriate).

Pearls Before Swine is uneven, but sometimes a very good strip (but I, too, wonder what the point is as to the language the (male) crocodiles are speaking).