Overdue clarification...
Jan. 4th, 2003 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpBack in October, I posted a couple of the "finalists" from a two-year British study on humor.
The joke that most Canadians found funny contrasted how the U.S. and Russian technical communities go about solving problems. In general, the anecdote is pretty accurate: Americans tend to be very "process" oriented in solving technical problems, while the Russians tend toward practicality.
However, in the particular case of a device that can write in free fall, I seemed to recall that the U.S. "space pen" was not the big deal the joke made it out to be, and my recollection fell short of the facts.
Herewith, a clarification:
The space pen that was invented in 1965 by Paul Fisher was developed at no cost to the government, and eventually found its way aboard Russian spacecraft, too. (You don't really want to use a pencil on orbit, as the material used for writing - commonly called "lead" - is a soft form of carbon called graphite. Between sharpening the pencil and using it, you'd inevitably end up with small graphite particles flying around the atmosphere of a spacecraft, which is not a Good Thing™, for a variety of reasons.)
* * * The Laserjet I repaired a while back at the shop seems to be deteriorating rapidly. A couple of weeks ago, it began experiencing a series of paper jams that - according to the information I found on the Web - was the result of a worn front roller assembly that can no longer "grab" a sheet of paper from the tray, which forces the logic of the machine to conclude there is something impeding the paper. The price to fix it was... $70. I've kept the unit more or less alive by cleaning that roller with alcohol on a regular basis. The alcohol tends to "roughen up" the rubber surface of the roller for a while.
Lately, the printer has developed a streak along the right-hand edge of (and on both sides of) any paper going through the unit. I have not investigated this problem yet, so it may be as innocuous as buying a new toner cartridge, or it may indicate that another repair is needed.
The printer came as part of a lot of stuff I bought at the county property sale last year, so it's hard to judge how much I paid for it (I paid $60 for everything, including two chairs, a cell phone, a rolling file, and the printer), but for sure I've already sunk $70 into repairing the fuser power supply. Assuming the printer is "free," all I need is another couple of repairs and I shall have spent enough money to have made it worthwhile to buy a new printer. (Moreover, the LaserJet is glacially slow, for whatever reason.)
For the short term, I've packed up my Epson ActionLaser 1000, which I've been using since 1991 (if memory serves), to use at the store now that all of our UPS has to be processed on a separate computer. In its place, I've bought an el cheapo HP 550C at the Humane Society Thrift Shop.
The unit was cheap, the cartridges were not. Unless I can find a source of very cheap cartridges on the Internet, the 550C will probably be only a short term solution to my printing needs.
* * * When we moved to our house in "the Meadows," as our area is called, we could not help but notice a huge yagi antenna array on the ridgeline as we approached the turnoff for our house. We were told the antenna (and the house, natch) belonged to a doctor from Albuquerque.
Of course, the only type of person who might find use for a yagi antenna is a radio amateur, and sure enough, the doctor (a retired cardiologist) and his wife are generally at the ham breakfast on Friday mornings, when they're in town.
Galina and I (along with the rest of the ham crowd) have been invited to their house for a small post-New-Year's celebration, featuring pot luck and a white elephant "auction." I still have yet to put together my "white elephant" gift, or cook something for the pot luck. My progress with translation has been pretty poor for the day, seeing as how I got back from the store only at about noon, and I've been... well, either "installing a printer and cleaning around the place" or "procrastinating" (depending on how you look at it).
Enough chatter. Time to get something done around here.
Cheers...
The joke that most Canadians found funny contrasted how the U.S. and Russian technical communities go about solving problems. In general, the anecdote is pretty accurate: Americans tend to be very "process" oriented in solving technical problems, while the Russians tend toward practicality.
However, in the particular case of a device that can write in free fall, I seemed to recall that the U.S. "space pen" was not the big deal the joke made it out to be, and my recollection fell short of the facts.
Herewith, a clarification:
The space pen that was invented in 1965 by Paul Fisher was developed at no cost to the government, and eventually found its way aboard Russian spacecraft, too. (You don't really want to use a pencil on orbit, as the material used for writing - commonly called "lead" - is a soft form of carbon called graphite. Between sharpening the pencil and using it, you'd inevitably end up with small graphite particles flying around the atmosphere of a spacecraft, which is not a Good Thing™, for a variety of reasons.)
Lately, the printer has developed a streak along the right-hand edge of (and on both sides of) any paper going through the unit. I have not investigated this problem yet, so it may be as innocuous as buying a new toner cartridge, or it may indicate that another repair is needed.
The printer came as part of a lot of stuff I bought at the county property sale last year, so it's hard to judge how much I paid for it (I paid $60 for everything, including two chairs, a cell phone, a rolling file, and the printer), but for sure I've already sunk $70 into repairing the fuser power supply. Assuming the printer is "free," all I need is another couple of repairs and I shall have spent enough money to have made it worthwhile to buy a new printer. (Moreover, the LaserJet is glacially slow, for whatever reason.)
For the short term, I've packed up my Epson ActionLaser 1000, which I've been using since 1991 (if memory serves), to use at the store now that all of our UPS has to be processed on a separate computer. In its place, I've bought an el cheapo HP 550C at the Humane Society Thrift Shop.
The unit was cheap, the cartridges were not. Unless I can find a source of very cheap cartridges on the Internet, the 550C will probably be only a short term solution to my printing needs.
Of course, the only type of person who might find use for a yagi antenna is a radio amateur, and sure enough, the doctor (a retired cardiologist) and his wife are generally at the ham breakfast on Friday mornings, when they're in town.
Galina and I (along with the rest of the ham crowd) have been invited to their house for a small post-New-Year's celebration, featuring pot luck and a white elephant "auction." I still have yet to put together my "white elephant" gift, or cook something for the pot luck. My progress with translation has been pretty poor for the day, seeing as how I got back from the store only at about noon, and I've been... well, either "installing a printer and cleaning around the place" or "procrastinating" (depending on how you look at it).
Enough chatter. Time to get something done around here.
Cheers...
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no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 12:35 pm (UTC)You won't find them cheap anywhere.
no subject
Date: 2003-01-04 12:48 pm (UTC)I used mine to print Christmas cards this year on Strathmore stock, which I discovered isn't right for laser printers. The toner didn't stick to it very well. So I had to keep running plain paper through it to pick up the toner that didn't stick to the card stock. Paper type does matter, it seems ;)
no subject
Date: 2003-01-05 01:00 am (UTC)Just out of interest, are you familiar with the 'fine print' software that lets you print 2-up (or more) plus watermarks on the page for 'draft', 'confidential' etc.? It probably doesn't save that much ink, the print is of course tiny in some cases but we've found it saves a whole lot of paper as long as it's still legible when reduced. Let me know if you want a copy: we bought the full version so all you'd need is our password. The freeware only lets you print 10 pages.
Our new toy is a shredder bought in the sales. I have a huge, huge pile of confidential stuff to start of... although I sometimes think a large bonfire in the garden or in our fireplace would be quicker as it only takes 3 pages at a time. The problem, we find, is that 'home office' or not, 'home office' grade equipment just doesn't live long enough or is too frail / too slow. Hmmm.
Look who's rambling again..