alexpgp: (Default)
alexpgp ([personal profile] alexpgp) wrote2007-02-16 11:01 am
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The fax machine is your friend...

Despite all the nice words said about "paperless" this and "electronic" that, there comes a time where nothing short of printing a file is going to get the job done. And printing is one perennial problem faced by road warriors.

Ages ago, I recall Jerry Pournelle pointing out that, if you were on the road and had a fax modem in your laptop, you could "print" files to your hotel's fax machine pretty easily, a technique that got only better when most hotels began to offer incoming faxes for free, and sweeter still when you could make use of services such as eFax.

The inkjet I bought a couple of years ago and kept at my parents' place probably needs a new set of cartridges, though I am not sure I want to spend $70 or so to find out if my diagnosis is correct. Some time ago, however, my folks did buy a Compaq laptop (long dead) and an HP printer/scanner/fax.

Unfortunately, the HP is equipped with a parallel port and my VAIO... isn't. So, the only alternative I was left with was to send myself the documents that I must translate for Monday morning. (Not to work from directly, but to refer to when working with the OCR that I finally was able to coax out of my machine.)

In other news, one of my new French clients offered more work, which I had to respectfully decline. I despise having to do that... sort of, as the reason for doing so is a plate piled high with stuff due Monday.

Cheers...