philosophy vs. information technology – printing requirements

I’m not a fan of discussing something in the context of that thing’s nature.  Thus I dislike saying things like: “well the nature of Wittgenstein’s philosophy is such that…”  Use of the expression imitates that conception of natural and/or logical necessity that Wittgenstein’s later developments (language games, the concept of grammar) nicely opposed, if not the necessity per se, its ill philosophical effects.

This is going to seem irrelevant but and it sort of is, but we could introduce another sort of language game where I’m apt to use or convey that sense of necessity I just got through justifying a disagreement with.  This has more practical relevance – printing requirements.  I figured my undergraduate stint with philosophy would, naturally, of necessity (yes I’m stretching it) – represent more in terms of printing costs vs. my graduate studies information technology.  After all, those old philosophy research papers from the 1940s, they’re available in PDF, but nobody would think (I hope not) to try to read them on a monitor where resolutions are roughly (something like) 40% that of the resolution of the real deal (i.e., reading a real book).  And since IT itself is a new discipline, it stands to reason that documentation ought to be primarily available on screen, right?

None of this turns out, with me, to be true.  I’m beginning to mooch off the network printers and/or printers of my family/peers.  So yeah, this is all leading up to my find for the week.  Practical knowledge is the new metaphysical necessity, it helps to not purchase your printing equipment at oversized vendors with terrible prices.  So yeah, this is definitely a practical post.

Printing needs

IT security surveys typically run anywhere from 20-50+ pages with lots of images and/or non-text/colored content.  Lexmark printers – especially the inkjets –  are pretty good for undergraduate/mid-level printing requirements.  I bought the Z1300 a year or so ago and while basic, its completely fine for low to mid-level use.  My gripe has to do with the software, and an aspect of it that’s quite irrelevant to its functionality.  There’s this annoying voice that activates whenever you use the thing, so I recommend NOT wearing headphones if you’re about to print something.  Of course you could shut it off in the options but who remembers that?  I’ll have to dig up an article on CNET which – I recall – named the z1300 a definite grab for the price.  If I buy online I tend to gravitate towards vendors who’ve been around for awhile and that sport high customer ratings.

Anyway, for printer toners and ink/other printer supplies its probably easiest to buy the stuff online. Make sure to review CNET or Tom’s Hardware Guide or something to make sure the stuff you purchase is legitimate and/or corresponds with your printer.  Might pay a few extra bucks for shipping but from what I can tell the price is initially reduced at the best online vendors.  If the vendor’s been around for several years chances are you should feel confident buying printing supplies from them.

Scanners

Scanners probably aren’t too necessary for most undergraduates unless they’re into photo editing and/or really wanna share old pictures on social networking sites.  Color depth is important to watch out for, although honestly I dont’ know much about scanners other than a few good shopping places online.

Although, scanners would be extremely useful if you’re considering going into digital/online publishing for instance.  Especially if you were an editor or content producer for an academic publication, since physical documents are still digitally scanned as part of the update process for large academic databases such as EBSCO.