Wednesday, August 13, 2008

It's Following Me...

So my mom bought this printer, and asked me to hook it up for her. What the HP website doesn't mention is that while the Officejet J5700 series features a fast USB 2.0 jack, it does not come with a USB cable through which your computer can transmit information to be printed. So, I'm off to the store for a 6-foot USB-A to USB-B cable. Once there, I beeline across the front of the store to the electronics section, blissfully unaware of the sight that awaits me when I arrive.

Now, it's one thing when I do it to myself as I've done from time to time over the last decade. I'm going into the situation eyes-open. I know what I'm getting into, and am prepared for the various varieties of disappointment and, yes, pain that I'll experience depending on the current information available (or, at times over the years, lack thereof). Even had I planed it, there was no way I could have prepared myself for what I saw on the bank of TVs along the back wall of the electronics section...




I knew what I was looking at immediately. I'd seen it before. Dozens of times. I've been tracking this beast for about a decade, only to have it taunt me as it stays just out of my grasp. Oh well. I'm sure I'll find something to fill the void.

8 comments:

cardinal23 said...

Are you sure it's not going to be playable on your MBP?

Qhorin said...

Initially looked like an ad for BioShock 2 to me. We all see what we want to.

avk said...

Actually, the system requirements for Fallout 3 have not yet even been hinted at, but I feel safe presuming (based on everything that BethSoft has released ever) that it won't run on a laptop that's more than a year old.

To be fair to my MBP, it runs Mass Effect all the way up (except for dynamic shadows) and crushed the Dark Messiah of Might and Magic demo. Also, before I posted this I looked again at the sysreqs for Oblivion and I bet I could get it functional at some setting- but I was too in love with the post as I concieved it to drop it.

Still, I expect the Fallout 3 sysreqs to exceed the Oblivion sysreqs significantly. I'll be the happiest man in the world if I'm wrong, but, well, war never changes.

avk said...

Besides, I was actually just hoping to elicit outrage that the printer my mom bought came without a USB cable. I mean, HP has to have a room full of them somwhere, right?

andrew said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
andrew said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
andrew said...

First, thanks for giving the enemy your money!

Second, yes, it does suck that a cable isn't included, but at least it says that on the box. Doulble evil suck comes from if you buy a printer with inkcartridges included. They don't tell you those included cartridges are only 1/10th full, so you can think "humm, spend a little more, don't need to buy an ink cartridge as one is included = total net savings" and be WRONG.

p.s. Ever since seeing this picture I've been thinking of it as FAL-out 3

FAL-out

Doh! created an image tag by hand by carefully examinine the html of a previous message of mine, only to be thwarted.

avk said...

I would be thrilled to cut the tape at the grand opening of a Best Buy store on the north side of Racine.

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