Re: rather than slap the user around the head with an empty paper packet
I kind of feel for them a bit sometimes.
After all, those printers are doing their best to be as unintuitive as can possibly be.
Americans won't know what I'm talking about but... "PC Load Letter". I think I was about 12 when I first saw that. And it was confusing. (keep in mind that English is not my native language, nor had I, at that point, been subjected to anything non-metric -- except that my granddad had taught me to measure stuff in inches)
"Jam" was also confusing. Eating a sandwich covered with strawberry jam helped me, but not the printer. Heck, at 46 not much have changed really, except I'll probably go for red currant jelly (supplied by my lovely aunt who recently sent a big jar by mail -- bless). Paper jams however seem to be a thing of the past. Some progress may have been made. Or I/we print less.
Printers are evil. Earlier this year I bought a colour laser (btw: is 1200 dpi beneficial, or just marketing wank? I haven't compared printouts yet) and so far it has been behaving well. I configured it to show its IP address in its display, and it is easily managed from its web interface. So maybe it is an exception, but I still half expect it to go up in flames at any moment. (I even installed a smoke detector) Or maybe things have changed.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
