Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for January 14, 2025

Wait a minute, now! You’ve got the wrong model! The printer on the box is smiling, the one on the desk is . . . well, NOT.

I’ve had more than a few revert to the scrap heap!

And the replacement ink cartridges cost more than the printer.

Oh so true, Puck . . . except for maybe Brother printer (of New Zealand). It’s fantastic. We’ve had it for three years now, imagine that! Nothing to do with “Big Brother” of the book 1984 by George Orwell.

I have one right beside me that has survived two desktops.

I’ve had really good luck with Brother laser printers, both at work and at home, though I imagine The Woman has needs for color printing and I haven’t dealt with a color printer in at least a decade.

My second printer is a large format printer that I used to use a lot, back in the day. Now, hardly ever, but not never. But it can’t communicate with any modern computer, so I keep an XP computer just to talk to that printer. The computer is only turned on when I need to print on that printer, so it isn’t connected to the Internet anymore, much to the annoyance of the anti-virus software, which has been begging me to upgrade it for the last decade or so. And of course the battery that runs the time of day clock died eons ago, so any files I create are dated January 1, 1980.

I suppose that for the number of large format prints that I need these days, I could just email it to FedEx Office and print it there. But I don’t.

Printers have such expensive cartridges.

Our printer also copies, faxes, and suchlike.

I’ve been using my hp laserjet printer since 2012. It’s a very reliable beast. The only thing that has broken was the paper delivery tray which cost only $9 to replace.

Sigh. Plan ‘B’, boys. Puck, divert the Woman to pleasant activities. Lupin, open the window to let Burt in…

Does the little black cloud indicate that The Woman is reciting poetry?

“The rest revert much sooner.”

So some of them revert within a week?

I bought my Brother laser printer in 2010. I ask it for about 30 pages per week consistently. It works reliably and well.

Maybe Tortimer can do an intervention with the new printer.

We bought a Canon mega-tank printer. My wife does a lot of printing for her volunteer work and we still haven’t had to add ink after 2 years. It came with 2 extra bottles of black that we haven’t had to use yet and the colors are less than $20 a bottle although it will probably be at least another year before we need any. No problems with connectivity either.

With all the advance technology and everytheengs steenky hoomins can no come up with a steenky preenter which work propurrly.

This might have been accurate 20 years ago, but today most printers are plug-and-play.

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile

At the oPyramid Library

Beatrixia: I love your plans for building a moveable press for use right here in the library.

Iggy: Yeah. Wally, Iron Glove and I can do the building in our spare time and have it ready in a few weeks.

Bea: How are you going to get all the materials?

Iggy: The Ancient and Accepted Procurers’ Guild is meeting at Punn State next week. They’ve all agreed to bring items From Where We Know Not.

Bea: I’m looking forward to meeting the Sabre Tooth Guys again. And the Ursine Branch is always so polite.

Iggy: Elvis’ scribe apprentices are coming over to talk about plans pretty soon.

Bea: I have tea and scones at the ready thanks to the kitchen here.

Enter Apprentices Tira, Ebonee, Akil, and Hapi

Bea: Welcome friends! Help yourself to snacks, and we’ll get ready.

Iggy: I brought the Getting Better Kittens and Ora Z’s band Mallets Towards None to present my summary presentation in 15 acts.

My cats have no problem getting my printer to print its status pages. I swear, they look at it sideways and it spits out a page!

We’ve been pretty lucky with Canon printers, and haven’t had to pay $300.

That is one irritated printer. Then again, it’s being called a future paperweight on television, so the annoyance is understandable.

Funny, my Epson printer has been doing just fine for a few years now as has the wife’s HP printer. Both are compatible with Apples OS. The only issue, is the most common of printer issues, when they run out of ink. Easily fixed though if you keep spare cartridges on hand.

I’ve got two Bother laser monochrome printers. I gave the older one to my parents and the other is at least five years old. I use it to print documents needed for tax preparation. They both have printed thousands of documents with no sign of giving up. I’ve been lax about the cleaning maintenance, but if you do that your set for years.

My HP gives me no trouble!

Just look at the smug look on the Hamburger printer’s, box! That should tell you right there it’s trouble!

OT: Reuben Awards

I think the picture on the box looks mild and hopeful. Poor new printer, it is already being verbally abused.

No printers at home. Rarely need one. If so work or Fed Ex. Rarely less and less.

Must be buying the wrong sort of printers then…all the printers I’ve used have been fully workable with more than one type of computer for as long as some years. My current printer has been through more than one computer, and currently ONLY doesn’t talk with my newest one because the new computer doesn’t have a CD drive for me to install the printer’s set-up programs on it. :P But as I’m still using the previous computer before it, it’s not been too big an issue.

But as I said yesterday, grew up with a computer tech specializing in printers, so…

If you don’t upgrade the computer you can keep using the same printer. Just wish the ink cartridges didn’t dry out after 2 months on non-use. It’s like having an extra $50 cost to do your taxes every year just for the ink!

I’ve given up on printers for my computer. The last time I had to print something was 3 years ago. These days if I need to print something, I can go to my library and print it there.

Sadly true!

“Rage Against The Machine” never specified what machine they were enraged about, but it was probably a printer.

Love Lupin’s cute little listening/attentive pose, with his paws together and tiny head tilt! So considerate! So cute!

I didn’t have to replace my Canon until I had it at least 4 years. Then replaced with the exact same model. It copies, prints, and scans.

I have a Brother too, like many have posted. It self-cleans, which uses ink, but keeps it from clogging. It worked well, until I was trying to print a bunch of papers on a deadline last year; then it wouldn’t stay connected (I was printing from my iPad so had to do it via Wi-Fi). I actually bought a new one, but ended up taking it back after discovering that Brothers are notorious for having connection issues with Arris modem/routers! It still sometimes can’t be found, but usually after I restart it, it connects.

That looks like one angry printer…

We got a Brother DCP-7065DN back in 2012… bought it for the cheaper ink cartridges and simplicity of use… LOVE IT.

When it tells us the toner needs to be changed we pull the cartridge and shake it up and it prints another month – for a while two years ago it told us we needed a new drum – we bought one and kept printing for over a year before actually replacing it – did it myself in about two minutes.

The used ones are selling on Amazon for $450. so that is a reference as to their reliability.

Oh Georgia and cats! New and “evolving” technology is the bane of modern life. Between planned obsolescence and proprietary technology, it is a small miracle that any of us bother with any replacement tech.

Brother dreadnought, can you remember the wifi password?

I have a Canon printer that prints up to 16″ × 20″ and it’s been going strong for five years. Yes, occasionally I have to reset it to factory defaults and reconnect the wireless but that’s only when I change wireless routers. :)

After reading all the comments, I would conclude (to paraphrase Neil Diamond) that some printers are diamonds and some printers are stones. Or paperweights.

Suzy Eddie Izzard has a brilliant bit about this printer malarky: >

: when was the beginning of the puck mailman watching arc?

Our printers rarely sit idle for more than a day or two. So . much . printing. :)

Beware of the printer, Puck! It doesn’t look very friendly.

My first printer was compatible with my first computer and my second computer until the dreaded Operating System upgrade and then it became a paperweight. the good news is that it was free when I bought the first computer. Next printer stayed compatible through several upgrades. Then I got my latest computer and although I stayed with the same brand of printer I switched to a model that uses tanks of ink instead of the cartridges. Had the thing for several years and have yet to refill any tanks.

In 2006 I bought a new Canon laser printer for the office at a Black Friday sale for $60, I just needed it for very light office duty. When it mysteriously stopped working after 5 years of barely being used, and it was still on the sample toner, I ended up throwing it out. We also have a used (found behind a couch after an eviction clean out) Epson Artisan 720, its stained permanently in a coupe of spots despite being black. And it’s been banged around as well, but it copies, scans, and prints like it was new, even though we’ve had it for 12 years.

Must be a Windows plug-and-pray system.

Also too: wait until you get hit with the monthly ink fees.

A note about legal matters:

Anything stored on a hard drive is not currently protected, nor is it generally legally binding. This includes things stored in the “Cloud.” Any legal documents should be printed, at least in duplicate, and saved in several secure places.

I have an older Epson printer no matter how many times I reset it there are always vertical lines

Printers, among all small electronic things stand out by being so very horrible. That said, I think they may be better than our health care/drug/insurance system.

I solved the majority of printer problems by never applying printer system upgrades.

Hmm… The last time I remember printers being difficult was the early ‘90s. The only thing that annoys me is having to supply the cable. It’s ok. They’ve used USB B cables forever. I just keep recycling the same one. I’ll admit to the possibility that a cartoonist may have different requirements in printers than I do. I print something about once a month. I make my own greeting cards because it’s so hard to find decent blank cards. I do about 5 of those a year.

$300? Cheap!

Why is there no cat in the box?