Success!

As I write this my trusty Mac is burning DVDs and running the printer to put the labels on. Talk about walk and chew gum! Each of the DVDs takes exactly four minutes to burn, and the printer finishes off labeling them in a little under two.

I had to plow my way through a ton of nonsensical software to figure out how to make the printer work. The teensy booklet that came with it suggested that I turn to the Help menu for additional information on printing on a CD or DVD disk. Help turned out to be completely useless. In the Search box, typing in CD or DVD produced no results. So it was time to plow through every possible way to get the recalcitrant beast to perform. Somehow I finally found the secret.

Here’s the difference between an Apple product and an HP product: To make a DVD on a Mac, insert blank disk. Period. No buttons, no commands—just insert the disk at the prompt. The computer burns the disk and ejects it. Then it says if you want another, just insert a blank disk.

The HP printer says to load the disk in its holder and insert it into the printer’s slot. Then it says to use the Print command. Then it sits there and does nothing–no acknowledgment that you have done anything. Then it MAY start printing after moving the tray in and out several times. Or sometimes it starts issuing commands hinting that you’re probably dumber than a sponge with mildew on it. In the meantime little messages appear on the computer screen that you have to click on to accept or dismiss. Very annoying.

But finally you get a disk that is pretty neat, assuming the artwork you created is pretty neat.

Another thing about the HP Photosmart C5550, it is smarter than the Epson Perfection V200 Photo scanner I used to make the slide show. For one thing, it doesn’t have to be restarted if it isn’t used within a few minutes of turning it on. When I scanned those hundreds of photos and documents into Photoshop, I had to do them one after another very quickly with the Epson or it would not respond. This morning I scanned a photo with the HP to put in an email, waited ten or so minutes, then scanned another. No problem. So HP makes a good scanner.

One of the guests at Adeline’s memorial is an old friend who used to work for HP. She designed circuit boards that were eight layers deep! This is rocket science! Without the explosive parts. She is smarter than a whip and a terrific golfer and a lot of fun to be with. When she left HP I bet the company suffered a real loss.