PC LOAD LETTER is a technology meme, originally a printer error message, which has grown into popular culture as a reference to a confusing or inappropriate error message. A meme (miːm consists of any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation An error message is a message displayed when an unexpected condition occurs usually on a Computer or other device
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Origin
PC LOAD LETTER is an error message encountered when printing on older HP LaserJet printers such as the LaserJet II, III, and 4 series. LaserJet is the brand name used by the American computer company Hewlett-Packard (HP for their line of dry electrophotographic (DEP Laser printers The HP LaserJet 4 (abbreviated sometimes to LJ4 or HP4 is a group of monochrome Laser printers produced in the early to mid-1990s as part of the LaserJet series by The error is always displayed fully capitalized.
The actual meaning of the message is convoluted: "PC" is a two-character status code that stands for "Paper Cassette"[1], the tray that holds blank paper for the printer to use. These two-character codes are a legacy feature carried over from the first LaserJet printers, which could only use a two-character display for all printer status and error messages.
"Load", in this context, is an instruction to refill the paper tray. "Letter" is the standard paper size used in the United States and Canada. The Paper size Letter is the most common Paper size for office use in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, and a few There have been many standard sizes of Paper at different times and in different countries but today there are two widespread systems in use the international standard (A4 The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Thus, the error is instructing the user to refill the letter paper tray. A variant is PC LOAD LEGAL, meaning that the printer requires legal size paper be loaded.
The non-intuitive message confuses people for several reasons. The abbreviation "PC" is misleading because it is widely understood — especially in the context of electronic office equipment — to mean "Personal Computer", suggesting to many that the problem lies in the computer, not the printer. Office supplies is the generic term that refers to all supplies regularly used in Offices by Businesses and other organizations from private citizens to governments The word "LOAD" is also ambiguous, as it can also refer to the transfer of electronic data between disk and memory. Furthermore, in many non-US countries the word "LETTER" is not associated with paper size as A4 is the standard size used. A series Paper in the A series format has a 1\sqrt{2} aspect ratio although this is rounded to the nearest millimetre Thus, users encountering this message may believe that they are being instructed to transfer the data or contents of their letter to the printer, even though they have already sent the job to the printer.
Older LaserJet printers do not automatically resize a page when the page size of a document does not match the paper that is loaded in the printer. When trying to print a document whose paper size is set to "letter" on A4-sized paper the message occurs. The error PC LOAD A4 does appear in countries using this paper size; however, as many programs use "letter" as the default format the confusing message is often encountered by non-American users who are unaware of the recovery procedure (empty print queue and printer buffer or press "Shift/Continue"[2] and in extreme cases, restart printer and repeat). The LaserJet 5 introduced an easy-to-find "GO" button to override the warning message. The HP LaserJet 5 is a group of monochrome Laser printers produced in the mid-1990s as part of the LaserJet series by Hewlett Packard (HP.
Popular culture
The phrase is a long standing joke and cause for confusion for computer users because most users could not (and still cannot) decipher its meaning. The term was popularized by the comedy cult film Office Space. A cult film is a Film that has acquired a highly devoted but relatively small group of fans. Office Space is an American Comedy film, released in 1999, that was written and directed by Mike Judge. Michael Bolton (David Herman), one of the three main characters, reads the error message from the VFD status display on a fax machine, after which he asks, "'PC Load Letter'? What the fuck does that mean?" Ironically, this message appeared on the display just after Bolton filled the printer's cassette with blank paper. David Herman (born February 20, 1967) is an American Actor, Comedian and Voice actor. A vacuum fluorescent display (VFD is a Display device used commonly on consumer-electronics equipment such as Video cassette recorders Car radios Frustrations such as this led the main characters of the film to take revenge on the malfunctioning printer by destroying it in a vacant field with a baseball bat. A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the game of Baseball to hit the ball after the ball is thrown by the pitcher.
Since then, the phrase has appeared in numerous guises: on T-shirts, on the Internet (particularly in blog entries), as a 2005 Seattle band name [1], and referenced in the "System Administrator Appreciation Day" song by Canadian comedy troupe Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie ("He's the only one in the building who knows what PC Load Letter means"). A T-shirt (or tee shirt) is a Shirt which is pulled on over the head to cover most of a person's Torso. A blog (a contraction of the term " Web log " is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary descriptions of System Administrator Appreciation Day, also known as Sysadmin Day, SysAdminDay or SAAD, was created by Ted Kekatos a System administrator in Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie are a Canadian comedy group from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This message is also displayed in the game Doom RPG, on a computer terminal next to a broken door. Doom RPG is a Mobile phone game developed by Fountainhead Entertainment. [2] In the MMORPG game The Matrix Online, the printers in the office structures also display the PC Load Letter message. A massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( MMORPG) is a genre of Computer role-playing games (CRPGs in which a large number of players interact with The Matrix Online (also known as MxO) is a Massively multiplayer online game developed by Monolith Productions PC Load Letters is also the name of a championship corporate volleyball team in Malvern, PA. Volleyball is an Olympic team sport in which two teams of 6 active players (5 normal players and one 'libero' are separated by a net that is usually four feet Malvern is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States.
References
- ^ One of many official Hewlett-Packard technical documents defining PC as a short-form of Paper Cassette. Retrieved on 2007-03-30. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 240 BC - 1st recorded Perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
- ^ Instructions for solving printer errors.. Retrieved on 2007-04-23. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 215 BC - A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at
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External links
lp0 on fire (aka Printer on Fire) is a semi-obsolete error message still generated on some Unix/Linux operating systems in response to certain types of printer errorsDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic