Readers’ comments
Your views and feedback from email and the web
Clogged inkjet printers
Your recent review of printers failed to mention one of the main problems with inkjets: head clogging when the printer isn’t used for a while.
I require a small, colour multifunction printer to keep in a holiday cottage. There are often periods of several months when the printer is kept in a cupboard, and usually one or other of the cartridges is completely useless when I next try to use it. I’ve looked for a small colour laser MFD, since lasers don’t tend to suffer from this problem, but such a thing doesn’t seem to exist.
This problem is something that reviews of printers tend to ignore – along with advice on how to prevent and fix blocked inkjets. I recently managed to fix my Epson R3000 using a product called Magic Bullet, and now use a simple AppleScript to automatically print a small colour test image every few days on scrap paper.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who has experienced this problem and hope you’ll address this in a future edition of PC Pro. Peter Harris
Associate editor Darien Graham-Smith replies: You’re right – blocked nozzles is an inherent weakness of the technology. Some inkjets may be less prone to clogging than others, but it’s hard to make a definitive judgment, as different cartridges will seize up under different conditions and after different periods. If you expect to be producing only the occasional print, a laser may be your safest option. In the meantime, we’ll keep on working on our methodology to see if there’s a realistic way to measure this.
No-scan Canons
I was reading Nicole Kobie’s column about Nest’s Revolv now being just a doorstop ( see issue 261, p25). It struck a nerve as I now try to avoid Canon products for similar reasons. I have two Canon flatbed scanners, which I chose as they could scan 35mm film negatives and slides, as well as saving multipage scans into a single PDF (a rare feature at the time of purchase). Unfortunately, they can’t be used on recent operating systems since there are no suitable TWAIN drivers.
Canon is quoted on the web as saying that, because of its high standards, it can’t ship drivers for Windows 8 – or release enough interface data for anyone else to write a driver for Linux.
Then you get the sites with screeds of SEO-friendly content, followed by ads, and finally the content I actually want to get to. I understand the commercial drivers for all this, but I’ll make efforts to find other, more user-friendly sites, or be more inclined to install an ad blocker that will impact everyone.
I’m surprised that I’m not hearing more about how advertisers, content sites, and the networks are working together to find fast ways of delivering effective ads that also reduce the negative impact on the user. That’s surely the path to follow? If you just annoy your users, they’ll go away – or implement technology that helps them avoid what they don’t like. This month’s star letter wins a Creative SB Blaze performance gaming headset. To find out how it could give you the edge, visit uk.creative.com
Generally, these are available from UK suppliers for up to £120, but I got mine from China for £64.
The only downside, apart from the wait for delivery, was the odd battery display and incredibly annoying way that when apps update, their icons move to another location. Paul Winstone
Colour conundrum
Can I ask who designed the layout for the recent “fixing the unfixable” feature in issue 262? This interesting and well written piece was left pretty much unreadable by p34, thanks to the choice of graphics directly behind the text.
It drives me crackers in the same way that equally interesting TV documentaries often insist on having their presenter deliberately speaking to the wrong camera, as if to say “it’s not a mistake when we do this anymore, its young and trendy”.
Thankfully, the vast majority of pages within PC Pro are kept nicely readable with plain backgrounds. More of that please! Luc Van Giap
Editor-in-chief Tim Danton replies: Apologies about the lack of readability of that feature. The colours came out much more strongly than we expected, but we’ll be avoiding any similar problems in the future.
Dropbox fix for Windows?
I’ve had all the problems with Windows 10 – Start button not working, Edge refusing to start, the forced logout – but now seem to have fixed my problems by reinstalling Dropbox. I didn’t even uninstall it first; I just put it on top. Give it a try, it’s too simple not to. Keith Thomas