And Now For a Post on Technology...

I am not someone who is prone to endorsing products. However, my recent customer experience with Epson Canada has made me decide to endorse them.

My Eson Stylus C88 printer crapped out just before Christmas. Paper would jam up to the left and Bob's your uncle.

So after doing their online tech support, which consists of a comprehensive interactive computer program, I was told to call their tech support line.

I got on with a young man named Edward who was quite helpful, asking me what happened, what I'd tried to do to fix it, and then we did a couple of steps to clear the printer's memory and try again, in case it was a paper guide-memory issue. When that didn't work, he put me on hold, and a couple of minutes later came back and asked me how long I'd had the printer. When I told him he said "Your printer is defective, so we're going to send you a new one. You don't have to return the one you have, in fact, we don't take them back. So in a couple of days you'll get a new printer through Purolator."

I asked him if that meant if I could take apart the one I have now and tinker with it and he said "Sure, if you want. It has a manufacturing defect, so we're sending you a new one."

I am now officially an Epson customer, for life. I really encourage everyone out there to become one, as well.

The other day I went to that Starbucks on Parc and Laurier and a gentleman at a nearby table was working with a Nokia slider phone attached to a QWERTY keyboard:

This particular device and the keyboard aren't yet available in Canada, but hell, do I think it's cool! First, I am a HUGE "Matrix" geek, so slider phones have a fetishistic level of obsession for me. Second, the fact that you can JACK A KEYBOARD INTO A PHONE is just really fucking cool. Third, this is very similar to the "linx" and "console" technology I described when I first wrote "The Unearthing", some ten years ago.

Just another really cool gizmo that I used to imagine that's now real.

Now, if only they'd come out with fully operational light sabers...