Print(F***)

One of my biggest peeves has always been the printer responsible for getting me crucial hard copies. It works fine when anyone else gives it a print job but when my turn comes, then NOOOOOO it will more often than not spew out garbage.

It all started during my engineering. The lab printers hated me for some reason or the other. Even a simple print command from notepad meant reams and reams of garbage. There were occasions when during a particular lab someone had to sit and take printouts from the lab for about 10-12 of us friends. If I was ever given the charge to sit and take those printouts then rest assured the job would never have been completed and I definitely would waste a ton of paper and toner. Now these printers were dot matrix printers. The ones which go "khrrrrrrrrr.... khrrrrr... ghreeee......khrrr". It always seemed to me as if the devil was operating the printer and foul mouthing us for abusing the device.

This thing with the printouts continued till the end of my engineering. After I moved to Rolla the library, lab printers seemed like angels compared to what I suffered. They obeyed my every command and paper, toner was never an issue. I may not be the only one on cloud nine over here too. After the discovery of color printers in the ECE bulding it was a riot. Desis totally abused those printers and how. Tons and tons of printouts of personal photographs were taken. The entire situation got so out of hand that by the time I was in my final semester the color printers were removed from the ECE building altogether. (Desis later took their photos from the Mech building and other labs.)

The UMR library was one the best places if printouts were ever an issue. All those resumes which were handed out in lieu of coffee cups, assorted junk were mainly taken out on the old faithful library printers. Those printouts which later weren't of any use were either just thrown away or dumped in the recycling bin in the library itself. Maybe a few overzealous students would have maintained notes meticulously and those slides,handouts would again be used by the next bunch of guys taking that course.

I wish there would someday be the ultimate printer in the market, something which could print as fast as your mind could think. (Also I hope I am alive to see that day.)