Scientific Atlanta and Time Warner

We recently moved, and had to give up our much loved Grande Cable and internet. We had the HD service from Grande, and this required a switch away from using our Tivo as our DVR and tuner. It was a tough adjustment, as nothing compares to a Tivo in terms of functionality. After a time, we became used to the Motorola DVR, and it worked reasoably well for us. It was definitely no Tivo, but pretty acceptable over all.

Many moons ago, Scientific Atlanta made some of the first cable boxes on the market. There was nothing to compare them to really. The first boxes were just specialized tuners, with no menus, or any added functionality. In our new home, Grande services were not avaiable. We went with Time Warner Cable. A couple of years ago, we did have Time Warner expanded analog service, and were reasonably happy with it.

Enter the Explorer 8300 DVR/Tuner. This thing has to be the worst design of any such critter on the market. It's as if they considered what might be the intuitive operation, and did just the opposite. The DVR portion is suprisingly clunky. Want to search for a show by name? Be prepared to scroll through hundreds, as it only allows you to enter the first letter of the name!

At least it appears that Motorola at least looked at a Tivo. It seems Scientific Atlanta has never seen one. It's much like going from a modern computer back to a 1985 model running Windows 3.0. And yes, I do mean 3.0 and not 3.1! Why? Are these that much cheaper than the Moto? Does SA save that much by doing this in house and not working a deal with Tivo? Does Time Warner simply not give a s**t? I'd really like to know.

Is Epson green with greed?

After Epson's recent victory against aftermarket ink suppliers this past year, affordable aftermarket cartridges are nearly impossible to find. The ones that are available are either old stock, or of dubious quality.

Let me say that I do feel that Epson produces some of the Best ink jet printers on the market, if not the very best. Print quality is amazing, and you get a great bang for your buck. You will rarely find a photographer that uses any other make.

When my carts went low recently, I discovered the retailer of aftermarket carts no longer supplies Epson equivalents. This was also the case with several other retailers. I did finally find some from a small unfamiliar online shop, but I'm a bit hesitant to deal with unfamiliar suppliers.

I finally decided to simply purchase the brand name Epson carts. Six carts were $90! Just down the isle, I found the new model version of my printer. It was also $90! Well, I decided to just buy a whole new printer. Why not after all? I will turn the old one over to Goodwill, in hopes it may have some continued use, and would avoid the trash heap for a bit longer.

While pleased to have the new printer, It's disturbing that this practice leads to the sort of waste and pollution that is harming our planet. The ink recyclers I used to send my old carts to no longer accept Epson cartridges. It's hard to believe that anything but pure greed is at the root of all this.

Now I do believe every manufacturer out there deserves to make a profit, and has the right to protect their products, but this goes too far in my opinion. Onece I have a separate disc printer I doubt I'll buy Epson again.