Author: DOuG pRATt

Print-Out

One of my responsibilities during the first half of my career in technology was deciding on peripheral devices the company’s customers — hospitals — could use with our software system. Peripherals included things like terminals, modems and printers.

The first widely successful laser printer was Hewlett-Packard’s LaserJet. I got my hands on one right away after it was introduced in 1984. 8 ppm at 300 dpi for $3500, or about $9000 today, and competitors entered the market.

Some years later our biggest customer was interested in laser printers made by a very big corporation. One printer ran at 12 ppm, the other at 16 ppm. The faster model cost significantly more money. They looked identical, and by accessing the hidden service menu I discovered they were exactly the same printer. The less expensive model was set to wait between each page. The setting could be turned off, and suddenly the 12 ppm printer was spitting out test pages at 16 ppm.

If this sneaky bit of profit padding secrecy got out I’d be forced to admit I knew about it, or claim ignorance and appear incompetent. Not a good place to be, but nothing came of it, and I suspected the technicians at the hospital chain who were pushing for support had figured it out anyway.

Back in those days technical support was provided remotely via dialup modems, and I was also in charge of that bit of technology. CompuServe and AOL, and the early ISP’s, had cabinets filled with modem cards that answered incoming calls. We mostly used ours to dial out to customers. I could dial into a hospital and target a particular printer to send commands and generate test printouts. Ideally, somebody would be on the phone with me to describe what they were seeing on paper.

Some printer problems were in our software, but others were caused by printer firmware changes that were released without my approval. Way back then, a printer could do only what the firmware allowed, but the firmware itself couldn’t be changed without physically opening up a unit and replacing a chip. Today, firmware can easily be changed remotely.

Manufacturers continue to be sneaky in chasing a dollar, and they take advantage of their ability to send instructions en masse to printers remotely. With that in mind, listen to this Planey Money podcast.

It’s a Platter of Fact

Before records became a popular music medium again, good used turntables were cheap. This durable Pioneer PL-112D, for example, was an impulse purchase I made a long time ago.

Zombies under Stones

Because it’s endlessly fun to futz with audio gear, I bought a new belt for the PL-112D and pulled it out of storage.

Grado Green with Grado Black stylus

This latest exercise in retirement time wasting was done to see if increasing the tracking force of a Grado cartridge from the fixed P-mount setting of 1.25 grams to ~1.70 improves tracking.

Well, whaddaya know? It works. The distinctly annoying sibilance in George’s vocal on “Within You, Without You” is gone from my 1970’s British Parlophone pressing of Sgt. Pepper.

Gillette Stadium Freeze Out

Getting an appointment for a Covin-19 vaccination in Massachusetts has been a nightmare. Last week the online registration system crashed completely. Today had only an occasional application error, and despite having a good spot in the virtual waiting room I wasn’t able to get an appointment at Tom Brady’s former playground, Gillette Stadium. The problem is simply there isn’t enough vaccine available yet.

I’ll try again next week, but at least I snagged a pair of tickets at Gillette for Springsteen’s upcoming Tequila Road Tour. 😉

Praise for the Bose Wave

It’s been almost 13 years since I bought my Series II Bose Wave Music System, after I had the porch remodeled for year-round use. As I wrote at the time the CD player in the first unit had a problem. At least the problem appeared right away, unlike one of you out there, whose Bose Wave CD player failed after years of use.

Fortunately, my CD player continues to behave, and the older I get the more I appreciate the Wave. It’s what I’d keep if forced into extreme downsizing, because I was moving into — AIEE! — a retirement home.

That’s Lockjaw, from the Fantastic Four, sitting on Half-Face, from Iron Man.

From its introduction, the Bose Wave has been called overpriced, but the $500 price hasn’t budged for many years. The fact is nothing else does what the Wave does for its size, regardless of price.

The product name was taken from a speaker design term, quarter-wave, referring to using a cabinet baffle to extend the bass output of a speaker. Typically a full-range driver with no woofer/tweeter combination, and no crossover circuit. The waveguide design, combined with an active loudness control and a heavy-duty power supply, make the Wave’s bass response very satisfying.

The notorious CD player problems aside, Bose is confronting the reality that few people in their teens to 40 are listening to FM or CD’s. Rather than squeeze a Bluetooth receiver into the Wave, Bose offers a more expensive wireless edition with a base that attaches to its proprietary expansion port. The good news is the regular Wave is currently on sale for only $300, and for another $20 a Bluetooth receiver can be plugged into the auxiliary jack.