HP needs to hire real programmers

[Kulindahr]

My buddy who got himself in jail has been sending letters for his GF to my address (we don't know why). I was going to scan and email them to her, so I went to my mom's office where she has an HP printer/copier/scanner.

After finally giving up, I sent HP an email... a rather forceful one.

To scan an item requires one program. To edit it requires another program. To view it full size requires yet a third program!

That's a clumsy kludge job if I've ever seen one. I had an off-brand scanner once that had a nice interface where everything was in one program, with one window, very nicely done, very intuitive (like it was written by gamers). I didn't need a manual or help for it, it was self-explanatory. This HP mess wasn't even consistent -- the first two scans, it popped open an edit screen one I'd accepted the scan (never had to do that before!), but then it started sending me to "PhotoSmart", which was sufficiently complex that I shut everything down and started over.

I never did finish scanning the letter -- well, I might have, because one of the three programs said there were fifteen images in the folder of today's scans, but when I tried to open that folder in the editing program, it said "There are no documents in this folder".

PaintShopPro 7 is better software by far, and it's twenty years old.

 

[looseliam]

Can you scan it directly into the image program as a twain source? If it's still called twain. It's been some time since I've had a scanner.

 

[Kulindahr]

Can you scan it directly into the image program as a twain source? If it's still called twain. It's been some time since I've had a scanner.

That's how their scanner does it. But since it's their printer/copier/scanner, it has to use their software.

If I'd sketched out a software set like that when I was doing computer programming in college twenty years ago, I would have gotten it handed back to me in shreds.

 

[looseliam]

What model all-in-one do you have? I still think you should be able to scan directly into, say, photoshop.

 

[Kulindahr]

What model all-in-one do you have? I still think you should be able to scan directly into, say, photoshop.

It's a J3680, I think.

And my mom's computer doesn't have any image software more advanced than Microsoft Paint.

 

[looseliam]

From a quick glance around, you should be able to scan directly into imaging software.

As for only having MS paint, there are *cough* ways around that.

 

[Kulindahr]

From a quick glance around, you should be able to scan directly into imaging software.

As for only having MS paint, there are *cough* ways around that.

You mean like getting other software? I don't need the grief from adding software to my mom's computer -- she doesn't even like all the updates that keep filling up her drive space.

Though that reminds me: while she's in cardiac rehab, I ought to be able to get away with defragging her drive.

 

[looseliam]

Ooo, defrag. I remember when one had to plan around a defrag. Ahh, good times =]

 

[Kulindahr]

Ooo, defrag. I remember when one had to plan around a defrag. Ahh, good times =]

I recall deciding to go to a movie and then out for dinner together with a bunch of guys once, and the moment one said, "Hey, a defrag could get finished in that time!" we all hit our computers first.

Then they got fast enough to watch....

Now they're long again because drives are so monstrous -- but they can run in the background. I consider them good times to play Age of Empires or something.


Speaking of which... if HP's programmers were half as good as the people who wrote Age of Empires, they wouldn't have three pieces of software juggling a single task.

 

[JB3]

This is why I like Macs. Its all built-in. You can scan, crop, anything all from the same program.

 

[star-warrior]

If you have windows then paint.NET is free, I've been a fan for years. You can also do animated pictures too.

I've a HP 1510 and I've never installed any software for it on my win vista machine, the drivers seemed to come already preloaded with windows.

For scanning, you can open paint.NET, attach your scanner, then press Alt+F for the File menu, scroll down to Acquire and then the submenu gives From Scanner or Camera. You can save it in numerous formats like png, gif, jpg etc. It also has its own format if you want to save layer info if you need to work on the pic some other day.

How much disk space has she got anyway? Is it all crudded up with cherished photos? Get an external harddisk and move them over there for her. You're not gonna look at all the pics, only when and if you need to...

 

[Corny]

This is why I like Macs. Its all built-in. You can scan, crop, anything all from the same program.

same for windows 7, no need to use the always crappy programs from the manufacturer

 

[Kulindahr]

This is why I like Macs. Its all built-in. You can scan, crop, anything all from the same program.

Well, if I could afford a Mac....

They all seem to cost 60%+ more for the same thing.

 

[Kulindahr]

same for windows 7, no need to use the always crappy programs from the manufacturer

Yeah, well, she's running Win XP Home. It probably doesn't help that I've forgotten my way around that system.