Ink stink

We tend to think of progress in information technology W as a given, and in most cases, it is. The internet connection I use now is literally 69,000 times faster than the first one I used in 1993. Chips are faster, storage ever cheaper and more vast. And then there are printers.

- Russell Brown

To be fair, our printer does things printers didn't do in 1993. It prints in colour, it can scan documents and photographs and, if you're feeling a bit old-school, will even send or receive a fax. It will also periodically refuse to work for no discernible reason.

I did what I always do: consulted the internet to see what worked for the millions of people who abide with the same brand of printer (in our case, a Brother). It usually involves disconnecting a cable and pressing a particular button while uttering a magical incantation.

One element of printers' dysfunctional lives is there by design. The company that manufactured your inkjet printer makes its money not from selling you the printer, but from selling you expensive proprietary ink cartridges for as long as you own it. That's why it pretends it needs the yellow cartridge to be full for it to print a black and white document.