Monthly Archives: April 2019

Is Samsung in Cahoots with Toner Manufacturers?

Posted on by
Reply

A tried and true scam is to give away a gadget and charge for its consumables. One that comes to mind immediately is razor blades. And to add insult to injury, the messages from the printers are either incomplete or inconsistent or both.

We recently purchased two Samsung color computer printers from Fry’s in Palo Alto, CA. The first one (call it #1) was motivated by (1) the high price of toner for our aging printer, and (2) a super-low price advertised by Fry’s. The second one (call it #2) was motivated by the limited space available for it.  Strangely, when one or more colors of toner in printer #1 got low, it warned on the PC #1 “Toner Low”, but it didn’t tell WHICH color or colors were low. But on printer #2 it DID tell which color was low on PC #2. Interestingly, we found that yellow runs out first. And we weren’t the only ones who noticed this.

 

Even Silicon Valley’s Tech Museum of Innovation Has Poor Acoustics

Posted on by
Reply

Founded in 1998, The Tech Museum of Innovation (“The Tech” for short) in downtown San Jose, CA is an impressive facility, located in the heart of Silicon Valley. Ironically, the acoustics are far from state-of-the-art. We attended the Music for Minors gala on April 7, 2019, sitting at a table whose other guests (who included The Tech’s board chairman) agreed with us. This is a high-profile example, but we believe that most facilities lack thoughtful design (drapes, acoustical tile on the ceiling, etc.) to dampen challenging sounds or noises. We can only guess that acoustics get short shrift when buildings or rooms are designed and constructed. Restaurants, including upscale ones, are usually lacking in sound-dampening.