office

Bye, bye HP – Welcome Samsung

colorlaserprinter

My old HP ColorLaser Printer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I am finally saying bye bye HP to my old, defect HP color laser printer, and welcome to a brand new Samsung printer.

colorlaserprinter

HP Color Laser Jet 2600n. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I got that HP color LaserJet 2600n for FREE from my last employer (the big daily newspaper) where I worked at the support department. It was going to be thrown out and exchanged for other printers that could be run only by identifying yourself with your card of access to the offices. It was used at the newspaper for a couple of years and have served me well for at lest some seven years or so.

colorlaserprinter

The innards of my old HP color laser printer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

For quite some time now it has been leaking toner onto the printers innards. This time CYAN. It has happened before, but then it was the YELLOW. I then got a new toner cartridge from the toner suppliers. This time I just gave up. I didn’t want to throw more money after this old printer. Especially as the the HP toners are quite expensive and I have to pay them myself. The toners aren’t even all that good. They are re-filled, re-used ones. I decided already a couple of month ago, when the printer started printing with blue stripes all over the paper, that I would not buy any more toners for it when it would be unusable. (I still wonder though where in the printer it keeps the surplus toner that all lasers produce, the wasted toner powder that is… never found that out).

So I began looking for a new color laser printer. A current one, with features like copy, scan, wi-fi (to be able to print from iPhone and iPad) etc. And it had to be a laser and had to be color. I looked at several ones. In the end the choice stood between a Brother and a Samsung. In the end I choose a new model from Samsung.

samsung colorlaserprinter

My new Samsung color laser printer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Friday I went with my neighbor (who has a car) to the nearest Netonnet shop and bought a Samsung SL-C480 color laser printer. Welcome Samsung.

So. Now begins that painful period of getting to know all the quirks of this printer… And quirks there are.

samsung colorlaserprinter

Samsung laser color printer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

I’ve always downloaded the latest drivers from provider instead of using the ones provided on an installation CD/DVD. Normally those are newer/updated than on the installation CD/DVDs. So I did this time as well. And then it wouldn’t print anything but gibberish… An occasional page of real print, but most of the time gibberish. Wasted lots of paper on that. Today I uninstalled the printer drivers and installed from the CD instead. Same problem. One page printed, then gibberish on lots of papers before I managed to cancel the printing.

Then I found a trick. Quit the Samsung printer application after one successful print. Start the next print-job. That automatically starts the printer and the print application. And it prints as supposed to, one print-job at the time. Hm.

At least now I can print again and it prints beautifully both in black and color. I don’t know if the printing problems have something to do with my operating system (El Capitan10.11.1) or the Samsung drivers.

The printing problem (gibberish on several papers) appeared in any application I tried to print from. My MBP is still not El Capitan so will test from there when I have installed the drivers on it. I’ll wait for a while with updating the drivers again, now that I actually can print even though it requires a restart of the printing application between each print.

Also tested the copier. Nice to be able to copy in color. Works fantastic. Remains to test the wifi printing and the NFC printing… and the scanning. It installs a TWAIN driver. I thought TWAIN was dead? I didn’t buy this printer for the scanning though as I have an old Canon scanner and VueScan to run it. But I will try the scanning too.

It is nice to finally be able to print at all and not having big blue blemishes all over the print-out… The Samsung toners also cost less than the HP ones.

colorlaserprinter

Samsung Color Laser Printer. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Posted by nini in Nerdish, office, Thoughts, Various, 0 comments

TBT Work lying down

workstation

Yours truly testing the workstation lying dow.

[TBT THROW BACK THURSDAY] Lately there have been lots of images on FaceBook and other sites of a workstation for working lying down. During the period 1982-04-19 – 1989-01-09 I worked at Arbetslivscentrum, Stockholm (later Institutet för Arbetslivsforskning) as a project assistant (1 year), then administrative assistant, secretary to one of the research directors in one of the research departments. Our department researched in the areas of work organization and computers – coordinator of jobs for the assistants and assigner of jobs to the assistants, economic administration for the department. Parallell to this from December 1984 I was the main operator for the Macintosh installations in the house, responsible for three networks with a total of 70 Macintoshes. All support and installations and internal training programs.

The image above is from 1988. We were testing workstations of different kinds, among them one for working lying down, together with Ergonomi Design Gruppen (EDG). Conditions were very different in 1988 than today as there were no portables, no pads, no smartphones and no flatscreens. We used a Macintosh Plus… and hoped it wouldn’t fall down on the person sitting there testing the chair… You can easily say that we were too early with what we wanted to achieve. Conditions today are much different.

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Workstation from http://altwork.com/

Above tone of the images from Altwork.com that lately has been seen in various social media and on various websites. If you visit the site, there are more images and a video about the ideas around it.

The image with me in that contraption above was what I immediately thought about when seeing the Altwork workstation. The image of me and our workstation was published in a leaflet about how to make offices better in an ergonomic and organizational way. The leaflet was called Bakom Knuten, News from Knut-Projektet, December 1988. Still today, the leaflet is interesting. Some of those ideas have since been implemented, like working and meeting more flexibly standing up for instance.

gravitychair

Stokke zero gravity chair. Image from the internet.

We also tested various ergonomic chairs. The one above was good for relaxing or reading, but at the time not something you could use in front of a computer. Today yes, as there are pads of various sorts. Some found it difficult to use and were a bit afraid of using it as it leans quite far backwards.

Stokke kneechair

Stokke kneechair. Image from the internet.

One of them, the above kneechair from Stokke, stayed with us permanently as it turned out to be very comfortable and good to sit on and work. It was relaxing for your back. Trick was to not hang on your knees on it. I’ve missed that chair ever since… (I left that job in januari 1989 to join an Apple Center).

This was a research project. Some of it has become reality since, but not everything. Particularly the design of office furniture isn’t really there yet. Some of the more advanced ideas about how it would come to be in 2003, that were in that leaflet, seem dated today. Development on the technical side also has advanced much faster than the researchers then could foresee. It is interesting to compare the ideas from 1988 with the reality of today. To work lying down still has a long way to go though I think.

Posted by nini in office, TBT, Thoughts, Various, 0 comments

New computer table found

table, computertable, workspace

New computer table. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Found a simple solution to the computer desk problem.

Bought four adjustable legs (Olov from Ikea SEK75 à piece), that can be adjusted from 60 cms in heights to 90 cms in heights, and one table top (Linnmon from Ikea, SEK 79) at the size of 60 x 100 cms. All in white.

I didn’t have to move the printer into the kitchen. Its shelf goes in under the table.

I now have a table of the right size and heights, and hope that my neck-problem will disappear now that the screen is no longer too high up.

The old table has temporarily been moved to the bicycle shed awaiting if somebody wants it. Doubt that, but you never know.

Below the old computer table. The new table is approximately the heights of where the shelf for the keyboard is for the old table.

computer table

The old computer table. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

PS. The old desk above is now sold and collected and has got a new home.

Posted by nini in Furniture and Decoration, office, workspace, 0 comments

Finding a computer desk

computer desk, workcorner, office

My workcorner and computer desk. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2015

Finding a computer desk for those of us who use a keyboard and a mouse and have a stationary computer with a 24″screen (an iMac), is not easy. Particularly if the size of the desk cannot – because of space available – exceed 100 cms in width.

Above is my workcorner as it looks just now. It is placed in hallway number two on the way to the kitchen. I have no other space for it. The unit with the printer CAN be moved into the nearby kitchen (if I remove a chair that stands just there), but I don’t want it to be wider than that.

Present unit/computer desk is an old Ikea model with wheels and shelf for the keyboard at just the right height for me. It is 80 cms wide. The screen is too heigh up though and I would like it to be at the same height as my keyboard. Chair – which is really comfortable – cannot be raised more than it is.

So I need a table that can be lower than the default 73 cms in height. It needs to be around 66 cms high. Preferably including wheels so it is easy to move around when needed. But wheels is not the most important, the height of the table is.

computer desk

Micke desk from Ikea. Picture from Ikea.

Today’s equivalent from Ikea is the above, Micke. Right size. Wrong heights (for me). No wheels. And no place for a keyboard. It has a drawer… Who came up with that ridiculous idea to have a drawer there? You cannot put a keyboard in a drawer and be able to work with it. And the table itself is too small for both a keyboard, mouse and the computer (unless you sit really close to the screen).

computer desk

Picture from Ikea.

I actually like the above combination – if it wasn’t for the drawers…

computer desk

Picture from Ikea.

I like the above one too – except for the drawers. And the size is too big and it is also too high. But that dark grey color is beautiful.

Most work-desks/computer desks for stationary screens, computers and keyboards and mice, are much bigger than the ones above. All smaller desks seem to be done with drawers nowadays. As if people at home only have pads or portables. Not all of us do. My iPad and my portable (MacBook Pro) are complements to my stationary iMac. That’s is not where I “work” if I can avoid it. I would not want to do image editing in Photoshop on anything but my big iMac for instance.

In the end I will probably buy four legs that can be adjusted in height and a separate tabletop from Ikea. Their smallest tabletops are 100 cms wide. Which means I’ll probably have to move the printer into the kitchen. Not the ultimate placement, but… such is life in a small apartment. Compromises.

I noticed in the new Ikea catalogue (published online in the US) that the table tops can have a colored edge. Would be fun with a red edge… I’ll wait until next week when the new items are released. Then it will also probably take some time until the new items are available in the store.

Posted by nini in Furniture and Decoration, Interior Design, office, 0 comments