Get Louise Online

I have been having a challenge today trying to connect all of our computers and wireless devices together on a home network. I know that it should be a simple matter of a few keystrokes and badda-boom...badda-bing, HOME NETWORK with all of the file sharing and printer sharing we could ever want or need. That is in a perfect world of course.

I don't live in a perfect world, I live in a perfectly complex world where it seems that I get one set of instructions that Einstein would be hard pressed to figure out and everyone else gets the IKEA easy diagrams. When I ask people how you set up a home network they look at me, smile and say “Why nothing could be simpler! You just go to the network and sharing centre, click on “home network” and follow the instructions, easy peasy!” They then look at me and I know what they are thinking, “Poor old fart, I bet everything in his house is flashing 12:00.” I know, because I would be thinking the same damned thing.

I have been through this before. I didn't have any luck then, and I am not having any luck this time. The last time I just gave up and although I wasn't happy about quitting, I have come to accept my limitations. Okay, I just moved on and forgot all about it. Well, I forgot about it until yesterday when we had to go out and pick up a new printer. The two printers that had been paying rent on the desktop both decided that they were going to work to rule. They didn't do very much work at the best of times, so work to rule meant that they would do nothing. Bastard printers!

So, it was off to the Bestbuy and try to find the cheapest, best printer they had. It turns out that the printer that met those qualifications was the Canon MX452 for about $60. It seems to have multiple personalities, one a printer, another scanner and the third a fax machine. I can't figure out the network thing, I am sure there is no way that I will be able to hook up the fax capabilities. I have learned in the past that before you buy a printer, you should always find out just how much the ink cartridges cost. You might get a printer for $20 but the ink will cost you $100 a pop. It turns out that this particular machine has colour ink for $40 and the black ink for $30. Now, I freely admit that math was never my strong suit, but if the machine costs $60 (with full ink tanks) and the ink costs $70, I can and should buy a new machine every time the ink runs out. That's stupid, right?

Now, aside from being way wrong from an ecological view, from a financial point of view I would be a fool not to buy a new printer every time. How did we as a society come to this crazy way of consuming things? How can it be cheaper to make a very complex machine than to mix up two ounces of ink? I understand that our friends in the Far East will work for lower wages than we do, but are the machines made there and the ink made in North America. That doesn't make any sense, business or other wise. I guess I have something to spend today wondering about.

Well, I suppose I had best get back to trying to figure out just how to set up that network. You know, our house isn't that big and I know a place that sells cables pretty cheap. I can run the cables and use duct tape so that we don't trip on them. I just have to figure out a way to get Louise on line with the cable plan.