2-20-13 – Office Space

I guess none of us have office jobs?

Glad that I don’t, that will suck the life out of you.

office by Craig in TO, on Flickr

This is my desk, it’s cleaner than usual as I’m in the office more these days. I’m supposed to spend 80% out in the field (literally)

Finally came up with 3 pics of one of our more distinctive downtown office buildings. All 3 are quite different from each other.

Phew.

I guess none of us have office jobs?

Glad that I don’t, that will suck the life out of you.

I left my last cubicle on September 14th, 2001. Best birthday ever.

I’d love to photograph some of the ancient screw machines in the plant where I’m working

My Uncle was a partner in a screw machine plant for all of his adult life. Must have had 50 or more going at once. Awesome place for a mechanically minded kid.

Thanks for the OBO, fluffybunny!!

De nada, anytime.

My own theme and I’ve got nothin (still) to post. Won’t start with the reasons, but enjoying what has been submitted (and voted for plenty of em).

Been there many times. Life gets in the way. Don’t let it stop you though.

Congrats to BecauseISaidSo this week! Very well played 😉 I’ve been wondering how you got the message to read that on the printer? Did you have to hack it?

Thanks Els! After the shocker bombed, I wasn’t sure how this one would play, but I guess it’s a little more specific to the theme.

Thanks also to everyone who voted. And congrats to fluffybunny on his combined win – a strong showing indeed.

As for the printer message, the status message on older HP printers (printers that use PCL – Printer Control Language) is programmable. So if you know the right PCL command, creating a program to set the status to whatever you want (as long as it’s 16 characters or less) is pretty simple.

When I first wrote the program a few years ago, I set the status to “FEED ME A CAT” and then waited to see how long it’d take until one of the kids noticed it. 🙂 I later changed it to “INSERT QUARTER” and tried to make some coin off of their homework, but the cheapskates never paid.

A note about that printer – that’s an HP Laserjet 4 Plus that I’ve had since the early-to-mid nineties. I put a new toner cartridge in it once a year and it just keeps going. I don’t think they make ’em like that anymore.