It turns out that there is more to the IT fiasco than Red Tamarin initially realised. Of the 4 Dell Printers that MPs were offered, probably the most popular option was the 1600n multi-function machine which can do all kinds of extra things such as scanning and faxing.
But one thing it can’t do it seems is print in bulk on to the House of Commons headed paper. Dismayed staff have been told by Dell engineers that it was designed to take paper between 60-90gsm, and the Commons headed paper is 100gsm+
So whilst you may be able to get a couple of sheets through it without any difficulty, large mail merges can apparently cause it to jam incessently.
Red Tamarin is feeling distinctly less smug about his new Dell equipment now, especially the 1600n that is sitting on the desk next to him.
redtamarin[at]gmail.com
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Amusing PQ found on our site:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2006-06-22a.78609.h&s=dell#g78609.q0
Tom Steinberg said this on June 27th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
Hey, be glad that you’re in your nice, cosy Westminster office, not having to suffer the torture of the Parliamentary Virtual Private Network, like those of us out in the provinces! Yes, you too could have the delight of having to wait for up to a minute for Outlook to change from one email to another! Those on the Parliamentary Estate don’t know how good they have it.
remote staffer said this on June 28th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
Actually I have a very good idea how well off I am. I’ve done a good few days in the constituency on the VPN in the past, but for the first 6months I was in Westminster I had to use a machine that wasn’t directly connected to the network - had to work entirely through a Citrix window instead.
If you’ve never used Citrix for any length of time, then you don’t know how good YOU have it by having a direct connection to the VPN
Red Tamarin said this on June 28th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Citrix? You were lucky! We had a couple of tin cans and some string etc….!
When I first started, we were on Citirix - VPN is definitely more robust (i.e. it doesn’t randomly cut you off every few minutes) and much faster, but it’s not the technological wonder that we were told it would be. And, just to have the last word, I’m sure that using Citrix in the Constituency was worse than using it at Parliament!
remote staffer said this on June 28th, 2006 at 3:45 pm