I wish we could expect computers to be like this.

My stepbrother wanted to print something. His own computer has no printer, but my father’s downstairs does, and can be accessed over the network (in theory, anyway). So he turned it on, only to hear four beeps and notice the screen not go on.

I came over with my MBP (look ma, no cables) and connected the screen – fortunately, with DVI – to check if that was at fault. The screen hot-plugged, and it immediately registered as a secondary display and displayed a desktop picture, even though I had never used that screen with my MBP before. Zero set-up. Nope, screen’s not at fault.

I spent about a minute trying to fiddle with the cables of the computer, but came to the conclusion that whatever’s wrong would probably take too long to fix, and that I didn’t so much care to look into it as I did to print what my stepbrother wanted printed.

So I connected the printer – fortunately, we can assume USB these days – to my MBP. It hot-plugged, and it immediately registered as my new default printer, even though I had never used that printer with my MBP before. Opened up Stickies (hey, it launches fast) and successfully printed out a small test document. Zero set-up. Yup, printer works just fine.

He showed me how to find the image; most of the time was wasted browsing Google Image Search to find a good fit. He wanted it duplicated across the page several times, so I thought briefly and eventually decided to simply use TextEdit with a bunch of tabs and carriage returns and put the image on the page six times. Launched Preview; yep, it fits; printed. Done.

I wish we could expect computers to be like this. But no matter the platform, we just can’t. While I’ve found Macs generally more likely to fit the “it just works” ideal, it can hardly be said that they always do.

My stepbrother was happy, and I was satisfied, but also intrigued as to what in particular (broken graphics cards) the mainboard’s/BIOS’s four beeps really mean. Presumably, it never even booted Windows; it just stuck there right at the beginning spitting out an error message that I wouldn’t be able to see. I could have tried connecting via VGA, I suppose.