We went out yesterday to look at scanners (and a bunch of other things). We just need to scan some photographs to display on a computer screen, which means about 200dpi and 24 bit color. Even the very cheapest scanners do about 1200dpi and 48 bit color. Of course, you can do a lot better.

The salesperson at one place told us that the $100 scanners are equivalent to those used in the all-in-one devices, so we decided to look at those. Office Max had a decent looking HP, regular price $100 on sale for $80, according to the sign. We decided to get it rather than a Lexmark on sale for $50. However, when they scanned the HP, it rang up at $50. Bonus!

While we were there, I was salivating over a HP P2015dn network-capable B&W laser printer for $500. I decided against buying it yesterday. I don't print much and my twenty-year-old Cannon ink jet still works. Well, when we got home I looked at the sale flyers in the Sunday paper. That printer was $395 starting today. So I went back and got one.

It holds 250 sheets in the paper box, has 32M of RAM and 256M more can be added, understands PCL 5e and 6, and PostScript level 3. The latter means that it works as a remote unix or linux printer. And it prints very fast.

I also got a pair of 19" non-widescreen monitors from Best Buy. They dropped their price $70 each between yesterday and today, and I needed a pair of 1280x1024 monitors for a Christmas present. Unfortunately, that cat is well out of the bag.