16 Apr
2013
16 Apr
'13
5:11 p.m.
On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 02:02:44PM -0400, David Riley wrote:
And they're an especially poor solution for text,
given how expensive
inkjet ink is compared to toner or (easily-refillable) ribbon ink.
Seriously! I have a pair of DEC LA95s that I bought over ten years ago
(Jameco was dumping them cheap -- I got a third as a spare but have
never even opened the box since other than popping the 160 uF caps in
the PSUs the first two have been bulletproof), which I use for printing
mailing labels and diskette labels. A year or two ago I bought a wad of
spare ribbons just because I couldn't believe someone was still selling
them new, but I don't know why because the original 1990s ribbons are
still going strong...
Last time I looked there was at least one vendor online still selling
brand-new bulk ribbon (for you to wind yourself onto the old spools) so
there's still a fallback for TTYs or LA30s/LA36s/LA120s/etc. when the
ribbons finally get too tattered to re-ink.
John Wilson
D Bit