Epson and their customers

I own an EPSON scanner. It is not that old. It is a Perfection 1260 scanner. It works pretty well, and given that I do not need to buy a new one.

But it works pretty well in Mac OS X, because Mac does not need EPSON drivers, or it might not work properly. In Windows 7 the scanner simply does not work. There is not a driver from EPSON for this windows version. Worst than not having a driver (that should be made available freely, as the customer doesn’t should need to buy anything to make the hardware he bought to work on most recent operating systems) is suggesting the customer to BUY a third party software (VueScan).

Basically, EPSON is admitting incompetence: “Hey, we are not able to develop a driver for our own hardware, but there is some guy that have a good software that does the thing we should do…“

Buying an LCD monitor

I was looking for LCD monitors. Cheap LCD monitors. I really would like to buy an LG or a Samsung. Not sure why, but I have some good opinion on these makers. But I wanted a 22″ (or more) monitor, with Full HD and, more difficult to find, HDMI. Why? Because I am playing XBox 360 in an old CRT TV. And that sucks.

Now, as far as I can tell, HDMI makes monitors more expensive. A friend commented something on paying royalties. Probably some patent on effect? No idea…

And that is not relevant. Just wanted to say that the cheaper LCD monitor I found was an Acer TFT 22″ Wide P225HQbi. I confess that I have Acer as a cheap hardware maker without much quality. But I am giving them another chance.

And as usual, I know that in two or three days a cheaper monitor will be available somewhere…

Mac Book Pro Charger

Apple mac book charger

I hate Murphy. I hate him and his stupid rule. During vacations my Mac Book Pro AC adapter died. Nothing complicated. As far as I could understand, the problem was the cable, near the box. I cut it, and tried to fix it. It worked for a week, and died again. The cable is very thin, and strange. Instead of two copper wires, it is made of just one main wire, with a plastic skin, and then some kind of net, and another plastic skin. It resembles the old TV antenna cables.

Well, I needed to get a new one. I might fix this one using the proper tools, but I need to have a good one.

Unfortunately apple hardware is too expensive. And although people claim that it is good quality, sometimes I doubt it. A new 60W adapter was 79 euros on all Portuguese online stores. Was almost buying one when a friend asked… why do not you try ebay?

I did. I bought one. Paid 10 Eur for shipping. Total paid, 40 Eur. Half the price of a new one in Portugal. And it works. Difference? It is like the one in the picture: it doesn’t have the apple logo, and it doesn’t say Apple.