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TechMan springs for a printer, Part II

TechMan springs for a printer, Part II

01.22.07

When we last left TechMan, he had bought a Canon MP830 all-in-one inkjet printer.

Well, this morning, TechMan's spouse, TechMaam, set up the printer and it went pretty smoothly. After making a passel of settings on the fax machine part, the software installed pretty cleanly on the computer.

A few little surprises. When setting the fax machine for Daylight Savings Time, I discovered that in 2007 the time changes on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November. It used to be April and October. I forgot that Congress changed it as part of a 2005 energy bill.

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When trying to register the machine, Firefox killed the window with the registration form because it was a pop-up. But on second try it was OK.

But the biggest thing was that no USB cable came with the printer to connect it to the computer. I believe I encountered this with my last printer also, but it's sort of like buying a phone and getting no cord to connect it to the wall jack.

Then in buying a USB cable I encountered another thing I had known about -- USB CABLES COST A BLOODY FORTUNE.

At a popular discount retailer, a 10-foot cable was almost $40.

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A quick search of the Internet didn't turn up any technical reason for the cost. In fact one site said USB connector ends are cheap to make. However, a contributor to one site advanced the theory that mainline retailers charge so much for the cable because the printers are so competitive in price they have to make their margins from accessories like cables.

Its been known for a while that the high price of ink subsidizes the relatively low cost of printers. I guess this is just a variation on that theme.

First Published: January 22, 2007, 5:00 a.m.

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