For the first time in 12 years, I own a printer again. My last printer was purchased alongside my first Mac--a StyleWriter (back when Apple still made printers). And just yesterday, I parted with a whopping $39.99 for a new one.
Forty dollars. This amazes me. What also amazes me is the speed. For forty bucks I expected this thing to take 5 minutes to warm up, but it seems rather fast. This little thing surely is the bottom of the line as far as printers go--but I just needed something to print envelopes, invoices and Journey lyrics.
For an extra $100 I could've splurged for the printer/scanner/fax/copier/coffee maker. But I don't need those things. It was hard enough just coming to terms with the fact that I needed a printer.
I've been meaning to buy one for quite awhile. But there was always the thought of extra wires, one more thing to plug in, cartridges that'll need refilling, paper jams, etc. that perpetually turned me off on the idea. There was always something about printers that annoyed me. But the need won, and I'm now getting used to the idea of being able to transfer bits to paper.
Geting by without a printer for so long hasn't been all that difficult. In the past, there was always the office printer to take advantage of. But recent trips to Kinko's to print out a single sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" was starting to seem ridiculous. Occasionally, they wouldn't even bother charging me for such a small job (a plus).
I should mention, that for $40, you get a printer with no way to connect it to your computer. The box didn't even mention the lack of a USB cable, or even list the required cable in the "system requirements". So back to the store I went, paying $17 for a 3-foot USB cable. The cable cost almost half as much as the printer. What an age we live in.