I’ve had a Laserjet 2605dn for a few years. It’s been a pretty good printer, but I’d like to throw it in the bin. But first, if you will:

fraud, n.

1. A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain.
2. A piece of trickery; a trick.
3. a. One that defrauds; a cheat. b. One who assumes a false pose; an impostor.

It’s no secret that printer companies don’t make any money off the actual printers. The supplies (like toner) are where they make their millions.

When all three of my cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges in my HP Laserjet 2605 ran out of toner simultaneously (i.e., on the same page), I was immediately suspicious. The printer’s LCD flashed “Replace Supplies” and refused to print another page (even grayscale!) unless I replaced all three cartridges, to the tune of about $300 CAD.

My suspicion was confirmed when I pulled the yellow cartridge and realized it was almost full. The printer ticks a counter every time a page is run through the printer, which has nothing to do with how much toner is actually consumed.

Thankfully, there is a printer setting that HP probably doesn’t want you to know about.

How to use ALL of the toner in your HP Laserjet 2605 or 2600

1. On the printer itself, hit the big green checkmark button to access the menu.
2. Select System Setup -> Print Quality -> Replace Supplies.
3. There is likely an asterisk (*) beside “Stop at out”.
4. Hit the > arrow once, and the display should read “Override out”.
5. Press the checkmark to confirm that (the asterisk should now be beside “Override out”).
6. Back out of the menu. The LCD should now display “Override in use”, meaning, you can now continue printing for as long as you actually have toner in the cartridges (and beyond, probably).

Thank you HP, for providing this “feature”, and for burying four levels into a completely non-obvious menu. I guess they had to call it “Print quality”, because “Not paying triple on already overpriced toner” wouldn’t fit on the LCD. Now we know how they turn a healthy profit on their oh-so-green cartridge recycling program. (“It’s free!”)

HP does describe this feature on their knowledge base. They also strongly recommend against using it, because it may cause “Color matching and other print quality defects related to the absent(sic) of a color.” Ha! Who would have thought. Oh, and–better yet–this feature voids the warranty on the toner you were about to throw out send to HP for recycling anyway.

Yes, printer companies have done this before, and yes, I’m still page flipping mad about it. If this article saves one poor soul the expense of $300 worth of toner cartridges, it’d make my day.

[Photo credit: jepoirrier (flickr)]

If you are a bank, and you are going to advertise investment services in uncertain (or downright ugly) economic times, it pays to choose your language carefully:

Far be it for me to question the marketing strategy of a banking giant like CIBC, but the best answer they can come up with to their own provocative yes/no question is “It’s worth a talk”?

Lisa Neal Gualtieri of CIO.com just published an article, “Job Hunting? Think Twice about Revealing your Hobbies”. In the article, she discourages job applicants from including the ubiquitous “Hobbies” section on their resumes, suggesting that “employers can read anything the wrong way”. She goes on to list examples, such as:

and:

As someone who has made selections based on just a few tens of thousands of resumes, I completely disagree. I would never, ever pass on a candidate based on my own preconceived notion of where I think their priorities lie. Not only would I likely be overlooking well-qualified candidates, but potentially opening myself to liability via the labor laws in most jurisdictions, too.

In fact, I would be a little concerned about someone who wouldn’t put their children first. Employers, for the most part, recognize the value of a healthy work/life balance with their employees. Why on Earth would an employer not want to hire someone who had a passion for something outside of work, assuming no illegal activity or conflict of interest?

As a manager, I have happily granted leave requests for World of Warcraft campaigns, kids’ sports games, sick pets, religious holidays, band gigs, unicycling contests, and, my all-time favorite: “Hey Ryan, is it OK if I stay home today? I think I pulled something in my leg playing Wii Sports Bowling”. These people all applied the same passion and focus to their software development, and were among my top performers. Unlike some of their more dedicated counterparts, these folks didn’t burn out.

Besides–depending on your outlook–any employer that passes on your resume because you might have a life outside of work may just be helping with your job screening process.

What do you think? Please post your comments below.

[ CIO.com Article ]

Tags: jobhunting, recruiting, interview, resume, hobbies