Build Your Own Clone Message Board

NOTE: The only reason I even bothered to mention this here is that laser printing is a key component to etching your own boards. You can go to a copy center to do it, or you can do it at work, but nothing beats the convenience of being able to make transfers at home.

My wife is a teacher, and we've toyed with the idea of getting a laser printer for a few years now. She has to print out her own tests (can you believe that sh!t?), and while we've been really happy with our Canon inkjet, the laser category is better (and cheaper) for higher-volume printing. Our "stimulus" check (gag) arrived this week, and we thought a laser printer would be a good buy, given that No Child Left Behind (*spit*) doesn't cover printouts of tests and handouts.

I set out to find the right printer, with a few important criteria:

* must cost less than $200
* must have reasonably priced toner
* MUST work natively under Linux and Mac OS X

I thought I'd be in for a long search, but it turns out that Brother makes some very nice SOHO laser printers that meet all of my criteria. Brother has a very strong Linux support system. Most of the their laser and inkjet printers have very well done Linux drivers. That's rare, even today.

I opted for the $150 HL-2170W. It's monochrome (black&white only), 23 pages per minute, and is a wireless or wired network printer. It plugs into a router or can be wireless so it can be used by all computers on the local network. Very handy. There is also a similar model, the HL-2140, that is USB 2 instead of network, and it's $120 (and there is a $20 rebate).

The toner is *relatively* cheap at $36 for a cartridge that claims 1500 full pages of printing. That works out to about 2.5 cents per page.

Setup with Linux was pretty easy. Brother has a whole section of their support site just for Linux, with a decent FAQ and tons of drivers. Check it out here:
http://solutions.brother.com/linux/en_us/index.html

If anybody here wants more info on setting up this printer under Linux, post your questions here.

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Function f(x)
TightCamera - Gear Reviews

I know that was post about the printer, but........

I can't believe they make your wife printout her own tests and handouts.

That is stupid!

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Technically, she *could* get them printed at school, but she would have to hand in the test at least one week before it's needed That far ahead of the test day, she doesn't know yet what will be on the test because each class progresses at different speeds. She makes a separate test for each class. If you don't submit the test for copies a week early, you're on your own for the copies. Almost none of the teachers at her school use the school's copy services because it's too time restrictive. They all either go to Staples or have bought their own copier or laser printer.

She's also expected to fully decorate her room, and change the decorations at least a few times per year. She, make that *we*, have to buy all that stuff out of pocket. There is one annual stipend of $250 that comes usually in January, but that doesn't even come close to covering her expenditures. We probably spend $1000 - $1200 each school year on supplies for her classroom.

And get this: She has to buy her own CHALK and GRADE BOOKS!!!!

Can you believe that crap?

Don't even get me started on how screwed up NYC schools are. And her school is a "magnet" school at that!

This is her last school year in NYC. Her last day is tomorrow.

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Function f(x)
TightCamera - Gear Reviews

It's funny because I just bought my grandmother's house from her for my mom in Hicksville, Long Island. She and my mom will continue to live there, but I wanted to protect her and her home in case she needs to go to nursing home or needs in home care. So my wife and I got to talking about maybe living in the house one day (we live in a 2 bedroom co-op in NYC) and made a pact to never let my son go to school in the New York Metro area.

I have several friends who are teachers and I know most of the crazy regulations, procedures and happenings that go on. My Favorite:

The singer of my band is a high school English teacher. When he taught at Lehman high school in the Bronx, he was instructed to not correct wrong spelling, grammar and punctuation on the essay parts of tests. You could only take off points for that questions that you were specifically asking about grammar, spelling or punctuation. Students could write one long run-on sentence with curses and if the content was acceptable......full credit was given. The students were not expected to apply any rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation to essay writing.

Isn't that the point?

Sorry to hijack the thread.

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