Author: Kim du Toit

RFI #2: Printer

Housekeeping

As I got such valuable input from y’all in my search for a vacuum cleaner, I’m throwing out another plea for help on the choice of a printer.

I need one that can work off a wi-fi network, but I’m ignorant / agnostic on the old inkjet vs. laser printer decision.  Actually, come to think of it, I could be satisfied with a USB cable-only printer if there’s a massive price difference.

I’m not interested in the do-it-all printers because I already have a good scanner, I cannot imagine any scenario where I’d need to send an actual fax and, from memory, the costs of said printers are outrageous.

A decent / low price is important simply because I only print about a dozen or so pages a month, and full color is unimportant.  Ditto cartridge / ink costs, which are really important.  Getting a $99 printer only to run up $1,200 a year on ink is counterproductive.

Most important is that I want a printer that doesn’t spy on me and send copies of whatever I’ve printed back to the manufacturer (I’ve heard that Brother printers do this, but my info may be out of date).  It’s not that I’m getting up to mischief on my computer, it’s just that when I do print stuff out, it’s generally taxes / financial / credit / legal stuff, and I’d rather keep all that private.

The last printer I actually bought for myself was a Hewlett-Packard HP500 inkjet number back in 1992, which should give you an idea how far behind the curve I find myself.

I await any and all recommendations.

Still Not Truckin’

Business

Looks like I got it right:

Shortage of truckers is stifling the economy.

Recruiters that show up daily at TDDS are offering jobs that pay $60,000 to $70,000, with full benefits and a $4,000 signing bonus.

I suggested in my earlier post that this would leave the door open to illegal aliens being hired for trucking jobs by desperate trucking firms, but I think that we’re missing an opportunity here.  Why not invite foreigners to do the jobs, on the equivalent of an H1-B visa, i.e. a temporary work permit?  But I don’t mean just anyone:  I’m thinking Eastern Europeans, specifically Poles, who are already doing a lot of long-haul truck-driving in the EU.

Discuss in Comments.

Thursday Night Movie

Music

Last week I ranted about the homogenization of cars, but I don’t want you to think that said homogenization is confined only to the automotive world.

Let me now turn my baleful gaze upon an old bête noire of mine, the poxy music industry, where this homogenization  has become economically critical. (I should say it’s become an “art form”, but “art” and “the music industry” are mutually-exclusive terms.)  It’s even worse than the auto industry, because at least the homo-cars are being driven by something other than pure sales appeal, i.e. fuel consumption efficiency.  Not so for the loathsome bastards who run the music business:  their homogenization is driven by naked profit-seeking — which is all fine and capitalistic, but then don’t try to dress it up as “art”, because it fucking well isn’t.  And they are just vultures — see here for just one heartbreaking example.

From Longtime Reader PeterB comes this excellent video, which explains why modern music sucks to People Of A Certain Age.  More to the point, however, is this:  beyond all the expressions like “timbral decline”, “harmonic compression” and so on, what becomes apparent is how music is being turned quite simply into the aural equivalent of Huxley’s soma:  something which delivers jolts of pleasure, but has no actual nutritional value whatsoever.

I know that manufactured pop stars — people promoted because of their looks rather than their musical talent — are not a recent phenomenon;  hell, that’s been going on since the 1950s.  (As an aside, the exquisite Cass Elliott would never have made it in today’s music world because overweight.) But at least the earlier pop idols could sing or play musical instruments, and record producers (grudgingly) allowed musicians some degree of latitude in the expression of their music — Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Lennon-McCartney and talents of that ilk were allowed to dictate what they sounded like.

No more. Now, Britney/Taylor/Justin are herded into the studio, given a lyric sheet and, having delivered the lines, are ushered out while post-production turns the synthesized noise into something that will be downloaded millions of times on Spotify.

It’s dreadful, it’s awful, and I am so glad that I am no longer a professional musician.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and listen to something which challenges my musical senses.  It may be a classical piece like Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2, it may be King’s X’s Gretchen Goes to Nebraska, or it may even be something simple like Alan Parson’s Pyramid.

But whatever I listen to, it will last longer than two minutes, and it will create a mood rather than deliver a brief dopamine hit.  For that, I’d just watch the wonderfully-talented (and sexy) Grace Potter.  No compression, sampling or any of the usual tricks there, just unrefined talent and ability.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

“When I watched Easy Rider (1969) it immediately reminded me of Woodstock (1969), an event I had hoped Lyndon Johnson would carpet bomb. Had he done so, roughly 100% of today’s college educators would… not have been. ”  — Rodge

Not much I can add to that, other than to note that (under his wishful scenario) a goodly number of our current Democrat politicians might likewise not have been.