davechan.com - a slice of dave

Computer Zen

Apologies for the blog drought for the last couple of days, but here we go...

Yesterday I had the fortune of experiencing two separate incidents of "Computer Zen". These are rare moments where you feel at one with the computer and everything works the way it is supposed to work, first time.

First off, I helped my friend Simone's parents install a webcam on their computer, and introduce them to the joys of MSN Messenger. The webcam installation went smoothly, with the only two hiccups being that I forgot to bring a CD with me and the Messenger download taking longer than I thought over a dial-up modem. Anyhow, no technical dramas, and a little while later after I'd finished, Simone and Gerald happened to also be online, and so we connected to them.

Simone's mum and dad had a fantastic time with the webcam, and since S&G also have a webcam, they were able to see live pictures of S&G and their 3 month old baby Elouise. We also happened to have a microphone and speakers hooked up, and so we started chatting using voice as well. The slow dial-up internet connection made things very very slow, but it was enough to get Simone's parents hooked, and the smiles and laughs out of her mum especially made it all worthwhile. It really was like something out of a Kodak or Microsoft commercial. For all its faults, Microsoft have delivered a terrific product with MSN Messenger, as it makes online video and audio fantastically easy to use.

I predict it will be like a drug - now they're hooked, they will want to upgrade their camera, and their computer, and then their internet connection to get a better experience. And really, isn't this a worthwhile application to spend your money on? For grandparents to be able to see and hear their little grandchild on the other side of the country.

My second "Computer Zen" experience came when I got home. This time the joy was provided by a new printer/copier/fax multi-function machine. The impetus for this purchase was twofold:

1/ Our old laser printer decided to finally pack it in and not work. The laser printer was used exclusively by my dad to print out stuff from online banking; and

2/ During Carmen and my recent property acquisition forays, we've had to fax a lot of stuff back and forth. It took awhile, but I eventually realised that taking about 20 minutes to fax through a single page indicated a bigger problem than interference from the ADSL through the phone line. I couldn't fax more than 2 pages out because it would just time-out and throw an error.

I knew that what I wanted was a multi-function centre. This is a single unit which combines the facilities of a fax, printer, and copier. I'd done a little bit of research, and had decided to check out a Brother model, which offerred all of this for about $700-800. After about a half hour of wandering around Officeworks weighing up the pros and cons of all the multi-function units, I decided I couldn't go past this little HP Officejet 4110. In a tiny unit, it offerred a colour inkjet printer, fax, and sheet feed copier for $299.

Like the psc1200 multi-function I'd raved about earlier, the Officejet 4110 didn't disappoint. In what I think is now typical HP style, setup was an absolute breeze, and the machine really delivers in spades. Not only does it serve as a very capable inkjet printer, its fax and copying facilities are extremely good, and very well implemented. Even my mum could use it, and that's a big complement considering her level of technophobia!

I can't recommend this little beastie enough for anyone that needs low volume printing requirements, and simple-to-use fax and copying facilities. The only issue which will become more apparent with use is the cost of consumables. HP have another endearing quality besides from easy to setup printers - very high replacement ink cartridge costs. I'll worry about this when the time comes though (hopefully not too soon!), and instead enjoy what I hope will be a continuing trouble-free unit that my parents can use with regular maintence from yours truly.

As one of my colleagues remarks constantly, "Life was meant to be easy". As an IT professional, I would normally disagree, but when you get such superb products like MSN Messenger and the HP multi-function units, sometimes I think, yeah, maybe it can be done.

Posted by davechan at October 28, 2003 06:06 PM