OT: Tandy DMP-2100 tractor needed

[Brian K. White]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Stockler" <bob at trebor.iglou.com>
To: <filepro-list at seaslug.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 6:08 PM
Subject: Re: OT: Tandy DMP-2100 tractor needed


> On Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 04:47:37PM -0400, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
>
> | On Tue, Jul 12, 2005 at 06:54:47AM -0500, Mike Schwartz wrote:
> | >         I don't recall who actually manufactured that printer.  Do any 
> of
> | >    you know the OEM for the DMP 2100 and/or the OEM model number?
> |
> | I *think* that was a Toshiba 321.  I'm sure it was a Tosh...
>
> I Googled DMP2100P and found some ribbon suppliers that grouped the
> ribbons with those for Toshiba models, so I guess you're right.
>
> I also found one site that had 3 sheet feeders (new) available for
> the DMP2100P.
>
> Come to think of it, I have a sheet feeder in a closet somewhere
> here that may be for a DMP2100P, but I think it's for a DWP-510.
>
> I still use both of those Tandy printers (I don't print much).

I was about to ask jokingly who else in your house you hated so much that 
you use a daisy wheel printer printer in the same building with them.

But I think the unique print quality of a daisy wheel (at least if you don't 
count typwriters) is yet another example of "progress" that took away 
something and didn't quite replace it with something equal or better.

I was trying to explain a gripe involving this phenomenon to a young 
co-worker a few weeks ago and was amazed I couldn't get him to at least 
accept my point as valid even if not shared by him.

My gripe was about how it takes 3 to 5 seconds on average, rarely less than 
2 full seconds, some times 10 or more in special cases+, just to change the 
channel on a modern digital cable box, and how that is a huge loss in 
goodness from older tv's where it was _instantaneous_ on the oldest analog 
mchanical pre-cable tuner knob. 3 to 5 seconds to change a channel? When 
I've got 200 channels to cycle through? Ridiculous!

He couldn't see past the dazzling benefits of the on-screen info display and 
built-in interactive channel guide. I agree those are nice but I hate the 
designers and whever else decided that 3 to 5 seconds of delay inserted at 
that point was acceptable. He probably never used an analog tv.

Probably another factor in the delay besides the info display, is the fact 
that some channels content itself is now digital, and it takes a few seconds 
for the digital stream to sync up, and as far as I'm concerned, unlike the 
info display, the digital channels give NO benefit back in return for 
introducing the delay. The claim is that the digitized signal eliminates 
forms of sound/picture quality losses that analog signals can suffer, but as 
far as I see, they merely replace one set of quality issues with another. 
There are sound/picture quality issues with digital chanels, they just have 
a different appearance and are caused by different things but the end result 
is about the same level and percentage of sub-par quality. And even when a 
digital channel is "perfect", it's still not as good as an analog channel in 
some respects. I see various forms of digital artifacts on all digital 
channels even when they are working as perfectly as they ever can, wheras an 
analog signal can be far superior. Examples are:
* extreme pixelation during fast motion or whenever a lot of the image 
changes at once, you see huge 1/2 or 1 inch squares on the screen because 
the data stream or the compression algorithm or maybe the cable box cpu, 
can't actually update the full screen in the space of one or even a few 
frames and only looks ok most of the time because most frames it only has to 
update a part of the image.
* blocks of distinct colors in areas of gradual shallow color change. Most 
easily noticeable in large dark areas, but also detectable in any large 
solid patch of a given color, where you see pixelated blocks of a slightly 
lighter or darker color. I think this is called "banding" and plasma tv's 
and any form of computer imaging has it to some degree.
* audio that sounds like a cheap mp3 player or a cheap digital answering 
machine or a low-bandwidth internet radio station.
* random stream re-syncs. The witness has been sucessfully moved by the 
prosecutors guilt-based attack and is about to finally divulge some 
completely unexpected secret that changes everything, and the screen goes 
black (and silent), and 3 to 5 seconds later returns, and you missed it. 
Actually, 5 seconds chopped randomly out of any ordinary dialog is annoying.

I'm not saying all progress sucks though. I have hdtv too and a tv that can 
display it and it's really quite nice.

(+) special "channels" that provide interactive services, where software and 
data are loading over a built-in cable modem whenever you switch to one of 
those channels.

Brian K. White  --  brian at aljex.com  --  http://www.aljex.com/bkw/
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