Dysmey Post Archive > Pages for 1999 > 6 December 1999 Edition
My Linux machine is running like cold molasses until I found out that the minimum memory needed by the OS is 32 megabytes and I had only 24. I will have to jack up the memory and get Linux to run at a decent speed. Then I can fix its other problem: Lack of modem recognition.
I have collected a lot of animé (Japanese animation), a hobby I acquired from my freelance-editor sister. Some of those have come from Aquarian Productions, a fan subtitling service. I have gotten a lot of good animé from Aquarian.
Sadly, Aquarian no longer exists. It's not hard to figure out why. Most of Aquarian's titles, like Kimagure Orange Road, City Hunter, The Cockpit, Video Girl Ai, and Vision of Escaflowne have been picked up by commercial animé distributors. What is left are fairly obscure titles. Worse, another site made off with the Aquarian Productions name.
It will be missed.
My normal experience with printer repair at work has been with Hewlitt-Packards. They are a breeze to fix with maintenance kits — fifteen minutes tops. So when the sole remaining non-HP printer, a Lexmark Optra, broke down with paper jams, I ordered a maintenance kit for that printer. I figured it should be easy to install, as it is for HPs.
I got the kit for the Optra. I discovered to my horror that the Optra kit required me to practically dismantle the printer in order to install the kit. It took an hour and a half to do the work and reassemble the Optra.
Guess what? The printer still didn't work. And to top it off, while removing jammed paper I inadvertently put two of my fingers on the heating unit of the fuser, which cooks the ink onto the paper and has a temperature of 180°C. :-o
In the end, the Optra went to an outside repair shop, and I went to a clinic to fix my second-degree burns. But at least the Optra is fixed and, when it's time to replace it, it will be with an HP.