My HP Laserjet 1200.  2001 – 2014.  You will be missed.

13 years is long time for any piece of computer equipment.  Sure, printers have gotten faster and more colorful, but for an aspiring writer living in his parents’ house just after college, this affordable laser printer was a godsend.  Back then, if you wanted to proof your own film/TV script, you had to either read it on a low res computer screen or print it up.  If you wanted someone else to read your script, you had to send them a hard copy.  PDFs weren’t the norm yet.  Functional tablets occupied just a couple neurons in Steve Jobs’ brain.  Being able to print an entire script at will, without having to go a copy shop… that was freedom.  That printer got me through many assignments in grad school.  It was there for me when I got a chance to write my first produced episode of television.  Thanks to the Airport Express’s ability to make any wired printer wireless, the HP 1200 even survived the transition to wifi.  This workhorse of a machine has quite literally out-lasted every other computer accessory I’ve ever owned.

Well, except for one.

My Harmon-Kardon Soundsticks purchased in 2000.