Envelope printer suggestions?

[Fairlight]

Is it just me, or did Steve Wiltsie say:
> figure out what is wrong.  For one thing, HP TS old me I shouldn't be 
> sharing the printer from the Windows 2000 server but rather should load the 
> software on each PC and set up the IP port printing on each one.  They went 
> on to say that print jobs "can become corrupted" when printed from a server 
> sharing the printer.  That was news to me.  

Me too.  They call it a spooler for a reason.  This sounds like a tech that
didn't know what they're talking about.  I've had issues with Windows
spoolers before--mixing contents from multiple requests was not one of
them.  That's not even technically possible, as they create separate files
for each request.

> They also said that the laser printer shouldn't be plugged into a surge
> protector because that could somehow provide less electricity than just
> plugging it into the wall.  More news.

Sha, right.  *snickers*  They're right--IF your wall outlet is running -so-
hot that your UPS has to actually regulate the power downwards continuously
because it's running in a state of near-constant "surge".  A proper UPS
like an APC conditions the power flow and makes sure it goes neither two
high nor too low.  Well, okay, I see a difference in terminology here--you
said specifically surge protector, I'm talking UPS.  A flat surge protector
won't regulate the power, it'll just suppress surges and spikes.  There is
the possibility that there could be a resistance factor in a passive surge
protector, but I think it would be -so- minimal that they're still talking
about something that's unlikely.  If there's doubt, get a power-regulating
UPS like an APC, which regulates and conditions the power flow 100% of the
time.

> I came back to the office and got back with HP TS and was told that 6ppm for 
> envelopes was correct because envelopes are "Custom Media" and the printer 
> protects the fuser by pausing between 'pages' with custom media.  They were 
> even so kind as to send me a Knowledge Base document with the title "HP 
> LaserJet 4200 and 4300 Series Printers - Engine Speed Slow-downs, Slow 
> Printing".  Well, gee - that's just great!!!!   To bad they don't make a 
> point of that in the sales literature.

What, and sacrifice their profits?!  That's like asking Adobe to be honest
about Acrobat not being able to "act like a word processor" on a PDF.

After trying several editors that only had touchup capabilities, I decided
to see if Acrobat proper could act like a word processor--you delete a
paragraph, things move upwards.  I doubted it, as the other editors all
treated pages as sacrosanct with transforms for each element, basically.
The salesman flat-out told me that it -would- work in that mode.  I
downloaded the demo (6 times, because the first 3 times, the Akamai
downloader kept saying the server aborted early on six completely fresh
downloads at 96% each time--which was untrue because on a hunch I renamed
the file as it was left in the end and gee, I had the full installer).
When I installed and tested it, well surprise surprise (NOT!), I was lied
to by Adobe's drone--a snotty, harsh sounding fellow that makes me sound
positively genteel in most circumstances, who treated me as if I was
something to be scraped off the bottom of his shoe.

Adobe having dropped Windows 2000 support 3 years early pretty much means I
won't be doing business with them any more than I will with ATI.  Ever, if
I can help it.  You can NOT buy the prior versions flat-out, even if you're
willing to pay their hugely bloated prices.  You have to buy their current
version, then pay MORE for a license -downgrade- and the media to be
shipped to you (you can download the current ones, can't download the
prior, even from them, even if they downgrade you as a paid service).

Needless to say, you're not the only one that's been told some interesting
things by a vendor lately.  Nothing surprises me at this point.  Well,
Adobe suddenly being reasonable would, but if it's -bad-, it doesn't
surprise me.  :-/

mark->
-- 
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