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I’m at the end of my rope. About two weeks ago, the yellow cartridge on our Epson Stylus CX4600 dried up. It was a replacement from Laser Monks (which I highly recommend, by the way) which I’ve used since I bought the printer. I’ve run 6 or 7 sets of Laser Monks cartridges through this printer with no issues. So when this one died, I had a spare already sitting on my desk, popped it in and thought I’d be good to go.

Not so, first the Laser Monks cartridge wouldn’t get recognized. I fiddled with it for a while, but the printer just wouldn’t recognize the cartridge. No problem, I figured the chip got damaged or something was just wonky; it happens. So we bop down to Best Buy and drop $14 and change on a genuine Epson cartridge. Pop it open, replace the cartridge, let the thing charge and the printer says we’re good to go; 4 ink cartridges recognized and full.

Print the first page and… only blue. Ok, it’s been sitting for a while, so I run a head cleaning. Print again. Nothing but blue. Hmm, ok. Another two head cleanings later and I’ve blown (according to the monitoring software) a perceptible amount of ink just cleaning the head. Print again. Blue again, but almost invisible.

Now I’m worried. I pull all the cartridges, give them a little shake, pop them back in. The printer charges them, does a cleaning, and sets up. Print another page, full color, photo quality. I’m going to get that clog out of there somehow, even if I have to ram the ink through. Blue again, then less, then less, and by the middle of the page, no ink at all. Blank paper.

I’m currently running what is likely to be the 10th to 12th head cleaning cycle on these cartridges. More than 1/4 of the ink has been wasted on just cleaning the heads. At $14 and change each, across 4 cartridges, that’s almost $14 to CLEAN the head. Which still doesn’t work. This is the second printer I’ve done this too in the last week (in-laws printer had the same swan song). Both printers lasted less than a year.

I know printers are a commodity now a days, but this is awful. The quality on this thing would make Yugo laugh. And where do I go for a replacement? HP? Lexmark? Brother? *shudder* Now I have to buy another all-in-one because a part (which likely costs less than $20, but can’t be fixed for less than $100) was engineered to break. I’ve loyally bought Epson printers for many years and for many people. I’ve given them as gifts, I’ve bought new ones with features I wanted. But the last few I’ve bought have been crap.

Goodbye Epson, I’m done with your products.

I’m committing the ultimate blogger faux pas, but I’m piling on and saying ditto to an entire post.

If I was the President of the country I would be on the ground in the command center with my entire team and NO ONE would sleep for the next three days or until things were under control. NO ONE. [Link]

Jason Calacanis is a smart guy and, like him, I tend to be conservative in my voting and political views, but the situation in the Gulf is unconscionable. Bush didn’t visibly do anything for almost two days, and he has yet to be on the ground there. Flying over the Superdome in your jet is NOT helping. Marine One should be lifting people off roofs. Marines should be sweeping through New Orleans shooting looters. Every available unit should be setting up shelters and delivering water. We have a military that can deploy anywhere in the world in less than 48 hours; what’s the problem with getting to Louisiana?

This whole thing makes me sick. We have an agency who’s SOLE PURPOSE is to manage emergencies (it’s in their damn name) and they are proving to be incompetent.

Never mind the idiotic stance on what was referred to as one of the top 3 likely disasters that could hit the US (Salon link; trust me, sit through the ads), but the reaction by governments (local, state, and federal) defies explanation.

New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. The tired and hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken.

“This is not a FEMA operation. I haven’t seen a single FEMA guy,” [New Orleans’ emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert] said. He added: “We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can’t bail out the city of New Orleans.”

Bloody, awful, terrible disgrace. I’m not one for over-reacting, but there will be an accounting for this week very soon for every twit that dropped the ball.

New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes – Yahoo! News

Back in March, Yahoo! bought Flickr, a growing community of people who upload their photos to share with whoever they want. Flickr was cool because it could be free (there’s a pay option) and it was well designed. It allowed people to comment on other people’s photos, tag them, and create groups to share.

So now, as Yahoo! starts to integrate Flickr into their portfolio, you know, like all acquired companies are eventually, Flickr Fans are pissed. Why?

At stake is a new user-profile stipulation that reads: “We will be migrating all independent Flickr accounts to Yahoo’s network in 2006. At that time, if you have not done so already, you will be asked to create a Yahoo ID (or link your account to your Yahoo ID if you already have one) in order to continue using your account.”

Members’ photos will be deleted if they later drop their account with the portal and search engine, disappointing some.

Wow, what a terrible, evil thing to do to people. And what is their protest going to be?

“If Flickr really forces me to join Yahoo in 2006 in order to still use my account, I will quit 24 hours before the deadline,” wrote Thomas Müller…

Yeah, that’ll show ’em! You stop displaying your 1,400 photos on Flickr and take them to… uh… hmm. On second thought, what other photo-sharing site has tags, tons of traffic, and a hell of a lot more people who don’t care about Yahoo! requiring a Yahoo! ID? That’s right, no one.

I’m sorry people think getting a Yahoo! ID is a terrible thing (although I suspect these same people have about 10 Gmail accounts and don’t anonymize their Google usage). But the fact is Yahoo! paid a lot of money for Flickr and they’re damn sure going to use it. For every person who tells Yahoo! to Flick Off (very creative), about 10 more will come on through the integration with existing Yahoo! IDs. Sorry people, this is a losing battle and your idealism is off the mark. Go fight for something worthwhile.

Found over at 90% Crud…

Opera normally costs $39. Today, you can get it for free. But only today (30 Aug 2005). Go here, give them your email address and they’ll give you registration codes for every platform they support.

Microsoft is finally coming out with a new natural keyboard. No release date or price, but one site is claiming next month and $55.

I’ll be interested to see how this feels. I miss not having the function buttons on my regular natural keyboard, but the new wireless versions just don’t feel right. Looking forward to this one.

I upgraded to MT 3.2 today. If anyone sees anything Wonky, let me know.

Interesting list. Anything that leads off with Hackers can’t be all bad.

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Says Ann Arbor’s Sourvell, “Students are horrible, disgusting. Their rooms smell. They live together like rabbits in a warren. They eat and sleep together. They have beer fights, and they don’t make their beds.”

What a brilliant business move in a town that is one quarter (that’s 25%, Mr. Surovell) students. It’s a good thing no students ever stay here, become community members, or buy houses.

The most ironic part about this? If he’d replaced “students” with any other minority, the students couldn’t have gotten their poster board stapled to a stick fast enough. Hmm.. maybe he does know something about this community.

Link [via AAiOR]

Because if it is, brother, call me bad.

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