Looking a Gift Printer in the Driver

Every year, as we get closer to the Big Regular Concert at the end of the school year, the parents of the soon-to-be-departing 11th grade members of the Ye Olde Academy music club always get some kind of thank you gift for the club.  That's GOOD.

Trying to come up with an idea for the gift tends to be a pain in the behindermost.  That's BAD.

This year I suggested that they replace the dying scanner/printer in the music office, and they thought it was a great idea.  That's GOOD.

They asked me to go around to the various electronics shops and find a suitable model.  That's BAD.

In the end, Herr Maestro Ogawa and I went to Yamada Denki together, and after consulting with a service rep, we settled on a nice one.  That's GOOD.

The thing came in an enormous box and was a serious pain in the butt (and back) to lug up the stairs to the music room.  That's BAD.

The scanner/printer itself, however, turned out to fit on the shelf perfectly, as if it had been made for it.  That's GOOD.

I got it all set up and hooked up, but when I tried to install the printer driver on the music club's aging Macintosh, it wouldn't work.  It turned out that it was compatible with OS X 10.4.11 or later, but our machine had 10.3 installed.  That's BAD.

Apple Computers still had online support for OS X 10.4 including the necessary updates (to 10.4.11).  That's GOOD.

However, I had to buy the 10.4 upgrade DVD separately...out of my own pocket.  That's BAD.

I ordered one (used) from Amazon and asked for an overnight rush order.  That's GOOD.

The 10.4 upgrade DVD arrived right on schedule...and was a scratched-up mess.  That's BAD.

However, it ran okay, and the upgrade went without a hitch.  So did the online updates.  That's GOOD.

One of the updates was a Mac firmware upgrade, and it wouldn't install right.  It kept asking me to restart the machine again and again.  That's BAD.

After the third try, I gave up and deleted the firmware upgrade.  Everything ran fine after that.  That's GOOD.

I finally got the driver installed and the new scanner/printer running.  Now everything is hunky dory.  Plus, the OS upgrade gave some other improvements to boot.  That's AWESOME.

Just another chapter in the Life in the Land of the Rising Sun..