Friday, September 11, 2009
Not possible before the Internet... The evils and heroes of technology
My printer stopped printing, with a red light that said the toner was out. The last page printed fine. WTF?
We started looking for places to refill the toner cartridge, but I felt that something was up. If the pages weren't getting lighter, there should be plenty of toner. I did the usual bit of taking out the cartridge and shaking it back and forth (which often works to provide lots more pages of quality printing) but to no avail.
So I googled, "can a toner cartridge be empty if the last printing didnt get lighter". The first entry provided this forum post on fixyourownprinter.com:
Sure enough, it worked like a charm.
Interestingly, almost a year later the guy added the following:
It's terrible that printer companies are creating products that bilk the consumer and hurt the environment all for an easy buck, but it's awesome that you can find information like this now so easily (the first hit even, though admittedly I think I got lucky this time). Woot!
Note: here's the full forum page: http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/laser/39806/laser/39806
We started looking for places to refill the toner cartridge, but I felt that something was up. If the pages weren't getting lighter, there should be plenty of toner. I did the usual bit of taking out the cartridge and shaking it back and forth (which often works to provide lots more pages of quality printing) but to no avail.
So I googled, "can a toner cartridge be empty if the last printing didnt get lighter". The first entry provided this forum post on fixyourownprinter.com:
Brother toner cartridge low toner override by OppressedPrinterUser (7/25/06 2:22 PM) reply + / -
Am using Brother HL-5170 DN and a TN-540 toner cartridge. The printer decided it was out of toner, even though the last page printed was fine. Rather than run out for a new toner cartridge I used a small (.5 x .5 in.) piece of black electrical tape to cover the sensor hole on the non-gear side of the cartridge. By covering the hole the printer is fooled into thinking the hopper is full of toner.
Sure enough, it worked like a charm.
Interestingly, almost a year later the guy added the following:
Re: Re: Brother toner cartridge low toner override by jwooden5941 (3/27/07 3:15 AM) reply + / -
Replying to my own note, after taping over the toner "hole" I was able to print about 1000 (yes one thousand) more pages before the low toner light started coming on again.
This morning I started a print session and got a "hard" low toner message that stopped the printer from printing ("toner end of life" on operator panel).
I removed the cartridge gently shook/rotated reinserted and we're printing again....
While black areas may not be "fully saturated" printing is still very good -- What in the !@#%#$^#%&#$^@%@# is Brother doing to us here? Ok ok ... I realize all the money is in consumables ...
It's terrible that printer companies are creating products that bilk the consumer and hurt the environment all for an easy buck, but it's awesome that you can find information like this now so easily (the first hit even, though admittedly I think I got lucky this time). Woot!
Note: here's the full forum page: http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/laser/39806/laser/39806
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Vancouver Pride 2009
A couple of snapshots from Vancouver Pride 2009!
The parade started with the traditional Dykes on Bikes!
It's so great to live in a country with legalized Gay Marriage. Though there's still work to be done, institutionalized recognition and respect are a great start.
Proud Mounties! (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)
Feelin' the love!
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence!
Trojan Men!
And of course, the crowd was as fun to watch as the parade!
A suit is worth a thousand words...
Free Hugz!!!
I love this because of the sweet youths holding hands and because the girl looks like she is saying something along the lines of, "Does this mean we aren't going to the Prom?"
I like this one because... Well, just because.
Paint the town Pink!
Monday, July 20, 2009
da place
Entering the apartment, a hallway leads in... (the door ahead leads to the bedroom).
To the left is the bathroom with our cool shower curtain...
The bood-wah...
To the right of the bedroom we enter the main living area...
Desks on the left, transformer loveseat with ottoman/couch/futon bed on the right. Love all the windows in our corner unit!
View outside the living room window.
Dining area and kitchen to the right of the living room.
Kitchen left side.
Kitchen right side.
View from the kitchen of the desks.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Sakura in Vancouver
There are lots of Sakura (Cherry Blossom) trees around Vancouver. It's wonderful.
Carlos took the bottom pic, which I particularly like.
