Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
To: All-AI
Subject: Xerox copiers and Lazer Printers
Due to someone's IGNORANCE, CARELESSNESS, or LACK OF PA-
TIENCE, SOMEONE PUT DRY IMAGER FOR THE LAZER MACHINE
INTO THE XEROX MACHINE on the 8th floor. These supplies, although
both dry imager, ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE!!! It says on the box it
comes in (and on the bottle itself) which machine it is for.
We were warned by the Xerox people before that if this happened again,
they may discontinue servicing our machines - not to mention the cost of
having it corrected (or maybe having to get a replacement).
If there is a problem with the xerox or lazer machine on the 7th floor
and you do not know how to correct it or have a question, see D. . . She
is in charge of the overall care of those machines as I am the machines on
the 8th floor (I can be located at ...).
Because of one person's lack of resourcefulness (he/she could of went
downtothe7thfloororseenmeorD),weareallsuffering!Ifitisaf-
ter hours and you are not sure what to do, it is better to do nothing than
ruin a machine.
-J
In the old days, when the photocopier needed dry toner, one looked around,
saw the bottle marked “dry toner”, opened the machine, found the reservoir
marked “dry toner”, and put the contents of the bottle into the reservoir. Some-
times someone would put the toner someplace else, or they'd put something
else into the toner reservoir, but these things didn't happen often.
By the late 1980s, however, many rooms with photocopiers in them also
had laser printers in them. (Laser printers did not yet have disposable print
cartridges with their own toner supplies.) And in the copier/printer room on
the 8th floor of the MIT AI Lab, the two types of dry toner were incompatible.
So what happened when the copier ran out of dry toner? Exactly the same
thing as before. Except that the bottle marked “dry toner” one happens to come
acrossfirstmightormightnotbethecorrectdrytoner.
Does this happen because people are too lazy to check whether it's laser or
copier toner? After all, as J points out, “It says on the box it comes in (and on the
bottle itself ) which machine it is for”. Do the people just go irresponsibly ahead
