Tryst with Technology

Your childhood and growing up years shape how you think throughout your life.  And mine was not so much about machines and contraptions  as prevalent today. There was more emphasis on doing things yourself, whether it was learning tables, analogue time reading, calligraphy practice, grinding stuff on a grinding stone, churning liquids, or  drawing maps and stuff.

With the result, that I was always the last person to accept new fancy hardware. I still maintain that chutneys ground on a chutney stone by a person have that extra ingredient compared to a blender-based grinding, and the less said about buttermilk churned in a mixie, the better it is, because it doesnt stand a chance against the hand churned one.

Even with 50% of the family working in computer related fields, we got a house desktop computer fairly late, in the mid 90's. By and by an HP deskjet printer appeared, which did both black and white and color printing. That being still the age of screeching line printers a work,   we thought the Hp Deskjet  was a marvel.

Till the youngest offspring, then in middle school, figured out how to print, and we were greeted one day , on our return from office, by an A4 size printout of Hrithik Roshan, slowly emerging from the printer in complete technicolor glory, accompanied by the fatigued printing sounds, as a color cartridge scraped the bottom. Words were said, cartridge costs were investigated, and priorities were reset.  Several years later, we were more habituated to the speeds of obsolecence, and an HP all-on-one deskjet made its appearance to complement a new desktop.   The children were older, more aware and respectful of inks,  cognizant of the myriads of softwares , and used the computer for documenting their projects etc.  I was spared of being a co-creator of  class submissions.

Today, as I drown in the waves of technology, folks are into laptops, smart phones, fancy cameras, and video and things are named after stuff with no connection to them: viz Bluetooth, Apple,  and so on....

With a mindset that audaciously clings to the old days, I recently got the HP all-in-one repaired. It  took a long time to find a part which was almost obsolete.

And so when Blogadda and HP organized a blogmeet to tell us about their new wireless,  high quality printers, I decided to attend.

In earlier times, one tinkled glasses, and chatted and listened. Today, one whips out one's laptop, Ipad, smartphone ,notebook , blackberry et al, and simply tweets to the world.  One also side by side suddenly clicks and take pictures using the same contraption. Notice , That I used the word "one";  it would simply suffice to say, that I struggled with the wi-fi on my laptop, was completely overcome with an Ipad for use, offered by the organizers, and kept fiddling with an offered smartphone that couldn't decide whether to perform in portrait or landscape orientation.

The meeting began with the Blogadda folks handling introductions, like a game. We described ourselves using certain keywords, which turned out to be the hallmark features of the new HP Printers, later introduced to us by HP's Mr Ghosh.

The new age printers are something you might find useful for the kids projects as well as making brochures for your business needs. And for those who love clicking, ideal for printing your own photos. 

TouchScreens and thinking printers, and if it is to cost me upto 70-90 paise a page , then this is certainly a very attractive deal !

How much might  you love the the HP Deskjet Ink Advantage 5525 e-All-in-One Printer ?

 As a bard said once, let me count the ways!

--You can  create and personalise photos, and projects at home with HP Photo Value Packs with low-cost Original HP ink cartridges, as low as Rs 499 !

--Use your memory card to print photos directly. Save images to a card without using a PC.

--Scan photos and everyday documents to your email, that too, without a PC!

--Access a library of free HP apps  using the 2.65-inch (6.7 cm) colour touchscreen.

 --Print, scan, copy, and connect to the Web

 --Easily print and share, using built-in wireless

 --Print from virtually anywhere using your smartphone or tablet using HP ePrint while you are on the go

 --Print directly from your mobile device to your HP wireless direct printer

This is such a refreshing change from the current dark ages where printers are attached to one stubborn PC and configured, and you rush around with pen drives containing stuff to be printed from other machines. This is such a change from worrying about having to replace expensive printer cartridges. And while the multifunctioning of the printer is a huge blessing, for quick copies and scans, this is such a change from having to go to the photographer's studio, to get a print made , of a .jpg of the newest grandchild to join the family.

This  HP Printer intrigues me. Maybe they also have printers that just print and dont do all the other smart things, like scanning ,xeroxing , faxing and so on !


I know I get frazzled amidst all these new contraptions, preening in their hightech avatars. But the qualities of this particular printer attract me.  Blogadda and HP had tweet competitions and other things, based on which a young man ended up winning an HP Printer ! Several of my fellow bloggers won HP hampers, and all of us participating folks received pendrives !

I just spent two hours this morning , at a local xerox place, that does computer printouts, getting a draft of a book done. It does have a lot of photos.

For once, with all my anxieties of being bamboozled by high tech stuff, I dearly wished I had this printer !



(This post submitted for the HP Blogadda post meet blog competition)