A couple of years ago, Epson settled a lawsuit for selling ink cartridges that signaled they were empty when they weren't. A similar lawsuit followed for HP. Which begs the question: do we need electronic signals to let us know our print cartridges are empty? Won't we know when they stop putting out ink?

Before you give up on that ink cartridge that's telling you it's empty, here's something else to try: shake it. Take out the cartridge, shake it vertically, and put it back in. You might find that suddenly it's signalling it's ready to print. That's because you've splashed some ink (which alledgedly wasn't in the cartridge) onto the sensor (which is probably half-way up the ink compartment).

Of course, if that doesn't work, it's time to recycle the cartridge . . . or refill it. What ever happened to those refill kits anyway? You know what the recyclers are doing with those empty cartridges? Refilling them. Hmmm.