Good Girl, Weather, and JVC Gone Bad

Well, if you have not noticed, I put up my review for Rihanna's new album. If you don't feel like reading it all, I'll just say it is a damn good new album from her. Now I'm one of the people and don't enjoy rap music with the f-bomb everywhere (see Young Jeezy) and I don't like too poppy stuff, but I'm not one of those full underground listeners. I do like top 40 radio, just people that actually have talent, and Rihanna's CD is full of that. If you are into the old 80's electronica music, drop what you are doing and go get Good Girl Gone Bad. I've had some problems with her in the past, mostly in the singing department (see how she wrenched "Unfaithful", wrenched it I tell you) and I just thought she was another Beyonce knockoff until I heard this album--she has truly grown in vocals and presentation and I'm proud of her.

Anyhow, hey, don't you hate hot weather? Now I'm not talking 90 degrees NYC hot, those people are probably bitching already it's too hot. But they are probably the most fortunate people. See here in Arizona, the average summer temperature is 110 degrees. And when it's July, you can expect raindrops with the size of fists throughout most of the afternoon, and it doesn't get rid of the hot heat of 110 degrees. I'd love to be in NYC's weather compared to this. And it seemed two weeks ago it was upper 80's/lower 90's for top temps. Oh well, I guess it can't be May forever.

Now on to JVC. I hate you guys and I'm not buying any more audio equipment from you again. I don't feel like typing this four times, I'll just say avoid the HAS350.

Printer

Yes, finally, the new printer is here.

 

 

 

Because I don't feel like writing a ton, here's the details for it:

Sleek, stylish unit saves space and enhances any office

Prints 4 x 6 inch borderless photo-lab quality prints with dry-to-the-touch precision in just about 52 seconds

Offers print speeds up to 22 pages per minute (ppm) and color speeds of 17 ppm; memory card slots and PictBridge capabilities for fast and easy PC-free printing

Comes with a one-year limited warranty

All-In-One photo printer lets you print, copy and scan photos and documents

Now I know what you are going to say. Hey, that's a HP logo on the top of the printer. Very close, but you are wrong. That is instead a PIXMA logo for Canon printers. Yes, I bought a Canon. I went directly to Office Max and bought this printer with some deciding.....

HP: Screw HP.

Lexmark: They looked like garbage, and according to what I've heard, I'm probably right.

Brother: The machines were too huge, bulky, and complicated. (Unit considerations: MFC240C, MFC440C)

Epson: This was the last of the two. I actually liked the whole style and design of the printer, and the print quality was decent. What turned me off? $35 color ink cartridges. (Unit considerations: CX5000, CX6000)

So, in the end, I went with the Canon MP460 printer, and I'm pretty satisfied with it (I wrote a mini-review for it earlier) I was going to buy one of those $30 basic printers, but then I thought, "Damn it, who cares." Because when the HP worked (when it felt like it, but nonetheless), I was using both the scanner and copier quite a bit. You know, just for stuff, mostly photos. The print quality is actually quite good. I've tried the scanner, and while I did need to use some gamma correcting (and hue fixes for those old Polaroid pictures), the finished project looked great. And even though I can live without the one-inch screen and the memory card readers, who knows, who cares, besides, they didn't have the low-end model in stock anyway. And the best part? You wanna know the best part? No more print cartridge errors. No more paper feed problems. (And I mean it TEARED paper) No more waffle-looking scans. No more having to reinstall the drivers just because I want to cancel a document. No more messages saying a document was paused when I clicked nothing. No more. And it was worth the $100 to do it.

Fuck Apple and Fuck Hewlett-Packard

Well, first things first, I finally opted for a new blog under the new username 'qazwsx34651' I've been using for the past couple of months. I know that's nothing special, but having a new "internet name" around the web is like having a new identity and dropping your old one. And along with that means you must update anything that has your old name on it, so the new blog is here.

Now back to my title. I'm not the one to cuss, but fuck Apple and fuck HP. First I'll start with Apple. Now I'm not another iPod basher. I love my iPod; use it almost everyday and in my opinion, it's a good product. And I don't hate Apple because of the iPod. I hate Apple because of iTunes. You know, I haven't liked iTunes since version six...ever since 7 came out, iTunes has just kept on sucking. The first problem is that it starts "popping" while playing music. First guess would be system overload, but I have 1 GB of ram and a processor with 2.79 GHz of speed so my system rarely crashes. But I have another problem with iTunes and that is when it comes to downloading. I've never downloaded from iTunes before, usually when a pop-up says a new version is avaliable, it directs me to a website to download it. But instead, Apple decides to have this little download box installed. First problem is that it downloads QuickTime. I don't want to waste time updating my QuickTime program since I only use it when I visit a webpage that requires it, and when then, doesn't care what version it is. But instead, the Apple Downloader bundles the two up, so I have no choice. Now I know what you are thinking, "Travis, who cares if QT updates". Here comes why it bothers me, I have dial-up. No, I don't have fancy cable internet or the whole DSL hyperspeed internet. I have the plain, 56k (only connects to 41k really) dial-up, supplied by MSN. (At least it ain't AOL) And I really have no problem with it except when it comes to downloads, and then I regret trying to save the extra $20 a month it takes to get cable internet access. Now, iTunes alone is about a 20 MB file. That's approximently a two hour download on dial-up. That's not terrible for a program. It's when QT is included. Then it's a pain in the ass 5 hour download. Which is a can-do if I decide to download and leave it there. Now it is 11 o clock and the download is finished. I go to click on the file and I get something that no one could want, a message that should says "Haha loser you wasted 5 hours for nothing", but instead reads "QuickTime was not signed correctly". And after that message, you get the infamous "C++ Runtime Error". Fuck Apple.

Now, let me get to HP. This more has to do with HP printers than it does their computers. Now I have one of those all-in-one kind of printers, it's a scanner, copier, and printer in one device. Some people call 'em multifunction printers, either way, you should get what I'm saying. I don't use it all that often, just every once in awhile when I need to print something out that is important, or I want to scan a photo or something, or I need a duplicate and it's nothing I made on the computer that I can print out. I have nothing against the machine. What I do have is something against the drivers and error messages I get from the damn thing. Now I'm not a geek or anything, but I'm pretty good with computers. I'm not "Start button, and then what?" stupid, but I'm not hacking into computers smart. Saying I've never turned on a computer a "0", and making computer nerd a "10", I think I'm a 7 or 8. And I can't operate this bitchy lesbian of a HP printer. The thing is aforementioned, it's too bitchy and only works when it wants to. First thing is cancelling documents. Anytime I need to cancel a print, I must re-install the printing drivers or it the document will stay in "cancelling" forever. Next is all of the error messages. Ones I get are weird and usually incorrect. Stuff like printer not installed, printer installed incorrectly, check cartridges, document is paused, all kinds of weird stuff. And apparently the printer hates the cartridges on it, because it won't go off of "check catridges" no matter what I do. Oh well, at least I can now pick out a new printer (most definitely non-HP) to replace it. But until then, fuck HP.