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A long weekend to look back

I got myself a new "All in One" HP Printer on Saturday.   After the cat stood on top of it and knocked it flying off the shelf, I managed to install the software..  I am glad the printer still worked after it hit the ground.   It took 30 mins to install printer drivers for this thing and it was very complicated - I don't know how non-geeky folks would put up with just a long install process.

Anyway, I scanned in some photos.. you remember photos, don't you?  Maybe in a shoebox somewhere or in a dusty album...   Yes, those.. the ones you flip through and you suddenly forget what you are doing and instead look at photos from sometime ago...   Well, here is one from my first software engineering job at a company named "Ashton-Tate".  This was 1991, just before Borland purchased the company.


What you may notice is the state of the art computers in my cube.   That was when we had 5 1/4 inch floppy disks.

Anyway, this made me think.  One, where did my hair go. Two, what actually replaces the photo albums that I/you grew up with... Somehow, when I take photos now it feels all too mechanical...you have to huddle around a computer to view them.  Where is the emotion? The discovery?      I love looking through photo's, passing them around.... I don't think that "emotion"has been replaced by cell phones, digi camera's or computers. Maybe that's one area AOL could tackle.      

 

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi Will,

I've had one of those all-in-one HP printers (HP Officejet 6300) for over a year now and it hasn't been a smooth ride. So here goes my rant :) ...

For starters, the Solution Center software was buggy and the background processes crashed all the time. So you'd see an application error prompt while running other apps or none at all. Thankfully, they fixed most of these problems with this year's update so downloading the latest updates is definitely a must.
Scanning is a nightmare sometimes, the software is uncapable of connecting to the scanner and it's probably because I'm connecting to the printer through my home network instead of USB, so I have to wait until the stars align to get a scan. Also, the PDF output format is a myth. I've never been able to produce a PDF. Maybe I will with the next patch :)

Non-software functions are OK (faxing, copying, etc).

Here's a tip: if other machines only need printing, download the barebones "office" version of the printer driver. It gets the job done without installing all the software, which consumes many resources.

Good luck
May 29, 2007 at 12:45 AM
Anonymous said…
I have a Lexmark all in one, the Mac tools that come are faily good. It also has an (and a major selling point for me) area for MiniSD and other memory cards. Putting them in to upload pics fires up iPhoto for auto import -  so it's all good. It has a scan mode that lets one scan mulitple pages to PDF file. Good for records retention... A bit slow on the printing but not horrible.

Yes, where did the hair go. AND.  

Now that you mention it, the admiration of photos has become monitor centric... and I'm not sure handing a Treo (or a Q) around the room will replace the photo.
May 29, 2007 at 3:48 AM
Anonymous said…
Ahh, where have all the pictures gone? From my experience, they are in my iPod. I tote around my iPod and my av cable when I go to family functions and share slide shows on the TV. It is really easy to pick a playlist and an album and let it go.  By the way, many of my photos are making their way into home video's that I share the same way.

As for AOL's contribution in this space, hopefully the Personal Media team will deliver that emotional experience for sharing on line with bluestring.
May 29, 2007 at 9:22 AM
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