"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
1 June 2007Big Blue is watchingLast summer I grumbled about the new printer's insistence on gen-you-wine IBM ribbons and how it checks a barcode on the actual ribbon spool. Eventually, of course, you get used to this sort of thing, and the fact that IBM is asking a 40-percent premium for its branded ribbons — well, they are producing about a 50-percent improvement in actual lifespan, so I'm not complaining. Then again, I'm not Trini, who objects to this sort of thing on principle. "What would it do," she wondered, "if it misread the code?" Brandishing a Sharpie with wicked precision, she drew a few extra lines on the spool, and then reloaded the ribbon. In a flash the little LCD screen scolded her: BARCODE DAMAGED : INSTALL NEW IBM RIBBON. At this point, you have one option only: pull a replacement ribbon from stock, chalk up another twentysomething dollars on the ledger, and resume. Interestingly, the printer reprinted, of its own electronic volition, the page on which the ribbon failure had occurred. These machines are getting too damn smart in some ways, while remaining spectacularly dumb in others. Maybe if we keep this machine for 25 years — wouldn't be the first such — we can run it for Congress: it should fit right in. Posted at 4:00 PM to PEBKACI wonder what would happen if someone accidentally xeroxed the bar code and, merely by happenstance, dropped it so it fell in the proper position on Brand X's ribbon cartridge, then clumsily tried to pick it off using a piece of tape. Just wonderin.... Posted by: Bill Peschel at 6:01 PM on 1 June 2007Well, there's one other angle: IBM's spindle is actually a tad smaller than Brand X's, so the generic ribbon will flop around just long enough for a different sort of failure. (I've tried shims to hold them in place, with no luck.) |