Monday, February 22, 2010

Where in the world... Pee Cee World!

Yes, I went to PC World at the weekend. That's my IT Geek credentials truly fucked.

However I went because (a) it's next door to the place that had Royal Canin Maxi Junior 4Kg bags on at half price (nothing but the best for my pocket wolves) and (b) I'd seen their TV add the previous evening for a half price all-in-one scanner/printer/fax/teasmade thingy and as I've been thinking about a wireless printer for a while and it means I swap two bits of clutter for one I thought I would check it out.

And I bought one. As did one person who was being sold a computer by a PC world drone when I got there and someone else who was buying a netbook from another smiling PC world drone whilst I had a look at the Flight Simulator add ons* - both these persons were quite evidently clueless computer novices, evidenced by the fact that they were letting a PC world numpy sell them computer gear.

Mind you come this morning they will also be outside PC World carrying their useless printers and hopefully a strong coil of rope and a portable gallows because I guarantee they will not have got their clever all-in-one office printer/scanner/fax/teasmade/sex-doll to actually function.

Firstly because I discovered on unpacking it that the unit had been shipped with a two-pin European style plug. No problem for me as I have tons of spare power cables about.

Secondly because on shoving the driver and wireless setup disk in my Windows 7 PC it promptly said "Can't run on this operating system, kindly sod off." Again no problem for me as I just fired up the lappy with XP-SP3 on it and it installed a charm but all those new PCs that were being sold will almost certainly come with Windows 7 Home (or "Windows for Girls" as my mate in Holland calls it).

Mind you I can't help think that this is a cunning ploy by DSG, PC World's parent company, to get a bit more extra cash out of its hapless customer because I noticed that for about 45 quid they would send one of the "Tech Guys" round to set your printer up and I can guarantee that your average Ethel Miggins will not be setting up one of these unaided any time soon. But Jesus, 45 quid to set up a 69 quid printer? I am truly in the wrong business.

Still it's a nice little unit. Quick and quiet. Only grumbles so far is there isn't a proper output tray so unless you catch your printouts they end up on the floor for the amusement of my Royal Canin eating friends and also the "Easy WiFi Install" whilst it works, had no option to set the IP address to one of my choosing which means that if there's a power outage and I boot up my network in a different order then the printer is going to end up not being able to get 192.168.2.5 and will probably disappear of the network until it gets told to find a new IP address.**





* Incidentally I noticed that they were selling a game called "Farming Simulator" now. As far as I can tell the gameplay involves driving a tractor about a lot, filling in loads of EU subsidy claim forms, buggering livestock and then committing suicide with a rusty shotgun.

** This can probably be fixed with the assistance of Professor Google but it was getting late and I could not be arsed at this point.

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