MIKE ROSS wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

 MR> "Roy J. Tellason" wrote to "Michael Hall" (30
May 03  20:01:02) 
 MR> --- on the topic of "Printers"

 RJT> Are the economics of printer making really that scrwed up that they
 RJT> *NEED* to sell those cartridges in order to stay in business?  Or is
 RJT> there something else that I'm overlooking?

 MR> AFAIK they should give away their printers free since the real cost
 MR> of owning the printer is the consumables.

Heh.  Of the several printers I have,  the only one I use in the past
several years is the laser that's sitting here,  and although I have a
toner refill kit for it I haven't had to use it since I got it.  I also
just yesterday finally ran out of paper,  so I guess I've gotta get some...

 MR> If they resort to chips in their cartridges to protect their 
 MR> market shouldn't be so surprising though seemingly drastic.

I think it was Lexmark that did that?

 MR> It's similar to the situation with polaroids, their film packs are 
 MR> priced quit dearly.

I vaguely recall the last time I looked,  not at all recently,  the cost of
a color picture was something like 50 cents.  Not all *that* much,  but
then I don't take that many pictures anyway.

 MR> For obvious reasons digital cameras have taken a huge chunk out of 
 MR> that market.

Now there's a toy I probably wouldn't mind getting my hands on,  some time
soon.  We have a family member who comes around from time to time,  and
when they bring their camera over they show me stuff that's in it on the
little screen on the back of it.  It wasn't all that expensive,  either.  I
*think* that it uses USB for communications with a computer,  which has me
thinking about getting a USB card for the linux box,  too.

But I'm in no particular hurry to acquire any of this stuff,  just yet.

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