Cut off

The disadvantage of having an ISP through my business is that they choose to do vital maintenance during public holidays so between visits to the folks and shops, I've had little opportunity to drivel on. What's worse I've hardly taken a handful of photographs since the middle of the month and long for a day when the light level gets above gloom.

Now for a rant. Over the last few weeks my printer has been showing signs of age. Well it's two for pitys sake and also the second I've had in the last five years when I switched to A3 printing following the shock of a year when my print costs exceeded £1500 for large format stuff. As an Architect it gets fairly heavy use but you would expect machines from reputable makers like Epson to last a bit longer. I know that the problem is only the print head but they won't let their dealers repair them! You have to send them back to the factory. They arrange all the delivery etc costing a splendid £158 before any repairs or exceptionals. This printer cost about £300 which wasn't the cheapest but had good ink performance and costs. When I say good I mean better than attrocious and in researching what to buy over the years various nasties other than the extortionate rip off cost of ink have come to light. Such as

the cartridges supplied with new machines are specials and only partially full

every time you switch the machine on it charges all the ink jets so you use colour ink even if you do very little colour printing

cleaning the ink jet head is done by blowing a significant amount of ink through the thing using more ink and likley to cause a further blockage

So I approached the shops with the trepidation of a further sting on the bank balance and was pleasantly amazed. On offer A3 printer smaller, faster, neater than my current and with cheaper ink all for £139. How can they make them for that! The ink alone (assuming the cartridges are full) should cost £72.50. Apparently its reduced from £260 as Canon have brought out a new model which the assistant said is almost identical. Unable to resist such an offer I have switched makes and was pleased to see it has a detachable print head but in two years time or less I will no doubt be cursing Canon rather than Epson. What annoys me the most though is the staggering waste for such a trivial and repairable fault.

Oh yes, birding wise I went to Whittle Dene after Staples but the hide was somewhat inaccessible although there wasn't much around to see anyway. Anybody fancy a picnic in a wet suit?