>>>But don't get me started about printer cartridges!
>>
>>Printing less doesn't get you much of a saving nowadays, as the software in the printer will declare your ink as "expired" after some time, regardless of how much you printed.
>
>I wonder if that's a conspiracy theory. I don't pay any attention to the software warnings. I change cartridges when the printed copies turn crappy and shaking the cartridge a bit doesn't clear it up.

Saw it firsthand. Daughter got a printer from office, but as we already had one (actually two, the old HP CVR was not used because it would randomly use up all the paper it had, printing endless self-tests) it remained unpacked for several years. Then when it was finally unpacked and plugged in, it refused to print, saying "your ink has expired". Along with the rebate scam they pulled on me on the laptop and the hardware problems on two laptops (left so as they usually took between 15 and 40 months to appear, so HP didn't care), I decided not to buy anything from HP ever, not even a pencil sharpener.

Now I have a Canon Pixma printer for about three years, and I go through about two sets of cartridges a year, and I haven't printed more than 1200 sheets so far, most of it with very little ink. Bought a Samsung laser and retired the Canon for the case I ever need to print something in nice colors. The laser allegedly comes with a lighter cartridge, worth 200 sheets, but as most of the stuff printed is sewing patterns - i.e. just a couple of lines per sheet, we're deep into 300 sheets now and it didn't even mention anything in the dialogs so far.

>Like you, I don't print very much. Mostly just Mapquest maps when I am driving somewhere I am unfamiliar with. And yeah, I know I should get those directions on the smartphone.

Did that a lot, too. Ten years ago, I wanted to drive to DC, leave the car at Union station and go on by train (as trains don't really reach Virginia Beach, no railroad bridges across the bay). Mapquest led me to Union station street... about six miles north from the station. Bought a real map and saw that I would have been better off without any map at all, just following I-95 would bring me to the place :facepalm:.

Couple of months ago I tried my GPS for real, in Belgrade. Went to see a man about a horse, well, a scooter actually, and the gadget led me the shortest and best way there, sidestreets and no big congestions to wade through, and then to yet another end of the city, again without a problem. Net result, been there, done what I went for, and don't ask me to find the way again - I have no idea where I was. Tetracing? No way.