>My "brother in law" works for lexmark (senior sales director) and I asked >him why Parallel has become extinct on "cheap" inkjets - he said ( as far >as he knows) it is because the Parallel interface is copyrighted and owned >by centronics, and royalties must be paid, whereas USB can be adopted for >free - therefore an extra few pence profit in the cheaper range printers by >adopting USB only. This is only part of the story. There is also a general move by the computer industry to have fewer interfaces and, by extension, fewer drivers on a system. USB II is much faster than Parallel - actually even USB 1.1 was. They also want to lose the PS/2 ports and use USB for keyboard and mouse as well. It is all part of the way that the physical makeup of the modern computer is being steered. As I have said before the floppy drive is going too!. Floppy drives have been on the out for a couple of years now - Apple started this off by dropping them from the Mac range. Now, here in Ireland at least, new DELL computers don't come with floppies as default, and they are a 15 euro additional extra. The push is now to use compact flash etc. as the removable easily transportable medium, or USB keyring drives (both of which work just fine with QPC!!) Darren. ******************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify us immediately at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and delete this E-mail from your system. Thank you. It is possible for data transmitted by email to be deliberately or accidentally corrupted or intercepted. For this reason, where the communication is by email, the Bank of Ireland Group does not accept any responsibility for any breach of confidence which may arise through the use of this medium. This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept for the presence of known computer viruses. ********************************************************************
