Why don’t printers ever just work?

If I had my way, I would never have to print anything, but that is a different problem. Faced with having to print something, why does a printer, whose sole job it is to print, splutter to a halt?

It’s not even a silent, resolute, protest of “No, I’m not doing that.”

The annoying red light blinks at you until you have to roll up your sleeves and get involved. Then the printer gets all sarcastic, saying: “Haha, there’s no paper stuck in that door, silly. Oops, look, now you’ve torn it. Still not having your print out, nah, nah, nah.” At this point, your hands will usually be smudged with black ink, that you then brush across your face.

Mr C recently remarked on the outstanding technical ability for us to produce a show with a guest on Skype from Denmark, routed through Finland for the better broadband, streamed up to a server in Dublin, and displayed to people across the world.

Yay for technology.

Now if only we could put ink on paper without a mammoth battle, I would be happy.

P.S - I apologise for the rant. I just had a fight with a printer that led to me inadvertently punching the wall. My knuckle is red and I am not impressed.

P.P.S - The printer in question is actually quite good because once you have bashed it into submission, it picks up where it left off a few pages back, so you don’t end up missing anything. Cool. Just don’t break in the first place.