The other day, I heard a friend in an adjacent office talking to their printer. They were saying “C’mon, that’s it, that’s it” and occasionally tapping on something while they jiggled the paper tray. I said “Wow. Who’d have thought twenty years ago that one day we’d have voice-activated printers?” They stared at me blankly for a second and then busted up laughing. I added “and it only requires occasional percussive maintenance”. Why is it that even though the printing press was invented around 1450, they still can’t seem to produce a printer that simply does the single task appointed to it? If you’ve ever worked in an office, you’ve probably experienced the rage induced by cryptic messages like “PC Load Letter”, which is so commonplace that the movie Office Space included the well-known Going Away Present Scene, in which printer justice is finally served. The clip featured at left would go a long way toward explaining some of this phenomena; you might want to be careful how you treat your printer next time you’re frustrated. And also be careful how you word the notes you leave in a faulty printer at the office, especially if the problem is that an inkpen jammed the machine.