enter the dot matrix

[uzziah]

um well i put an add on freecycle saying: send me your printers! and someone donned on me a dot matrix epson. oh my goodness, this thing is a piece of work. it makes an ammount of noise equal to a jet fighter during takeoff- only problem is this one takes 5min to take-off one page. arghhh. that's what i get. i just put another add up: hp laserjet III wanted!

so, who's feeling nostalgic? you know you loved ripping the sides with the holes in them off. and that sound's pretty sexy eh???

ps: the epson says "QUIET" in large letters on the front. i don't dare to think what the non-quiet version sounded like

 

[Snake]

Nostalgic???? [dating himself seriously...]

 

[zotjen]

I prefer the clackity-clack-clack of daisy wheel.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah i just put another add up: hp laserjet III wanted!

My mom has a Laserjet III in her office at her work that she never uses. I've used it once (while trying to fix her compter (the IT department there is awful)) and the resolution is very poor in addition to taking forever to print (may be 150 dpi and 3 ppm). For some reason it also makes 12 point Times New Roman look bold even when it's not, probaby due to the poor resolution. She's getting a new printer though so who knows what her work will do with the LJIII.

 

[Angelfly]

In the mainframe room where my dad works there are two INSANELY LARGE dot matrix printers. They make an absolutely stupid amount of noise, I'd compare it to someone using a hammer drill to make a hole in the wall of a room you're in.

 

[Mr.PD]

What kind of printer makes a lot of noise, uses the continious paper with the tear off holes on the side, and a ribbon? When the ribbon is about gone, it looks like dots are making each letter, and sometimes the letters and or lines are incomplete.
These are quite abit faster than the old daisy wheel printers we used to use, and actually seem fast.
Whatever these may be, is what we use at the railroad to print out train consist lists and other paper work. There are three of them running 24 hours a day, and each one goes through a box of paper or more each day. We print a lot of stuff.

 

[mbriant]

Dot Matrix

 

[LobsterSan]

symphony for dot matrix printers - [The User]

Click it.

 

[KYTGuy]

HAH! When I started computing (circa 1968), we used teletype consoles to do the printing - you could load the inch-and-a-quarter tape rolls on the side, and copy any print job in the punched tape, so if you wanted a reprint, all you had to do was switch the unit offline, and rerun the tape reel! Talk about noisy! AAAND HOT! The print room literally vibrated and smelled of hot machine oil-in 120 degree temps... and the type reeled out at about 50 WPM...that's right, fifty words per MINUTE! Six or ten of the machines munching away at the tape and the paper all nearly in synch. Used to use the punched out dots for confetti...

That and those punch card stacks! You would see kids on campus with a full-sized suitcase, full of punch cards, at 2:00 or 3:00 AM, fresh from the (no-wait-for-computer time!!!!!!) lab.

A 500 MEGABYTE hard drive was the size of a full-size washing machine...

The advent of the dot matrix personal printer was a tremendous stride forward. My EPSON 9-pin never quit, and it never needed service - just feed it paper and ribbon - it ran the longest of any printer I have ever had, and it was pretty cheap even for those days.

 

[mbriant]

I probably still have my original Epson 9pin in storage somewhere with my first PC. Still use an OkiData dot matrix at work for printing cheques and invoices.