On 12/03/00 Sam Heywood wrote:
<snipped>
>They would prefer to just give you the wrong answers than to admit that
>they don't even know the right answers. They are very much afraid of
>appearing to be ignorant. They think that if they give you some answers
>you will think that they are smart. They are too ignorant to realize that
>you are smart enough to determine whether their answers are correct. After
>all, since they are the technical experts, they have every reason to expect
>you to simply accept their answers and not to conduct any further
>investigations and experiments on your own. Arachne will provide you with
>some most valuable lessons on why you should always question authority.
-- So many strands are hyperlinking through my gray matter ... weird colors
on the monitor ... the "expert" as premium-call-rate "enemy" ... implied
2nd-class status based on OS ... even a link to the military service thread
implied at the end of the quote above.
The story: I needed a flatbed scanner to operate with my laptop running Win3.11
This was two years ago and the magazine reviews were poor in telling me the
alternatives to Win95 that were supported. The official distributors weren't much
better, nor were sales outlets (most of which would require return carriage and
charge a 25% restocking fee for returned items).
I settled on a Umax. The installation CD referenced Win95 files for the Win3.1x
setup! There followed a fraught time getting a replacement sent with intervening
Easter holidays. I used an external CD-drive -- no floppy alternatives offered.
When I got the scanner "operational", firstly it gave a cryptic message that I later
learned referred to a transparency adaptor that cannot even be used with that
model. This added several minutes to each scan attempt.
At that time I hadn't tracked down the 256-color Windows driver from Compaq's
labyrinthine website, so had just the 16 colors and the assurance that the
scanner would still work (I mainly needed grayscale and B/W output).
When I tried a color scan the red and green were reversed! Now you can imagine
the disbelieving tech-support and my trials with other folk's PCs yielding the same
result. Letters and floppies were sent to Taiwan and the same data emailed
to the States. The episode eventually fizzled out and the "high street" store
gave a full refund, no questions asked. I'd chosen not to use a member of a
"specialist" chain due to the restocking fee. That option would've been a
"lose:lose" situation -- no advice; then a penalty when returning the unit.
Though highly recommended I'd noticed several design flaws with the Umax.
It isn't a sealed unit, so the slight internal condensation on the glass can
ruin scans. I'm sure the tiny insects we call midges or thunder-flies, that
fill every nook and cranny at harvest-time, would've found their way inside.
A stepper-motor wasn't used, leading to inaccuracies when the scan-head
needed to pause.
At only moderately high dots-per-inch a software "thickening" was introduced,
like the Erode filter in PaintShopPro. I prefer to make such adjustments
myself if the auto-method is not too good. The effect couldn't be switched off
with this scanner.
The whole episode made me more wary of magazine reviews, suppliers,
manufacturers etc. I made the trip to the "specialist" to investigate an
alternative (to find whether the 16MB RAM was a requirement or a
recommendation). It was then that I was told that a unit returned
completely unopened would still be subject to the restocking fee.
They had no display items at that time and wouldn't allow me to see
a manual (i.e. open a box). The sales spiel on the box is all the
customer has for guidance, unless the staff are worth their wages.
The manager understood my plight and sent me a long way up the road
to a tiny outlet selling second-hand games and Amigas. They'd had some
old scanners at one time. I arrived at the right time. The owner wanted to
sell his own scanner, having upgraded to a SCSI type with transparency
adaptor.
It's a Primax. Not perfect with color-balance and gamma, but they can be
tweaked. Sealed unit, stepper motor -- great!, and at a good price. The CD
and its replacement both caused severe intermittent vibration -- never
experienced it with any others.
In summary, the highly recommended gear may have severe limitations even
when used as expected. The gear designed to be operable in a lower spec
environment may have higher "olde worlde" design value -- even if only a year
"out of date".
Jake
