Have you ever sat in front of your monitor, twiddling your toes, waiting for control to return to the computer while the printer noisily churns away? Go on. admit it. This problem always occurs when you pnnt a long document or dump a screen. Frontier Software to the rescue! Frontier's Microstuffer is a smart device (with a smart price - half that of most competitors) that lies between computer and printer, unjamming the traffic, so you can get on with more important tasks [like twiddling your moustache - Prod. Ed.] sends it to the printer when the printer is ready to accept further information. The Microstuffer comes with 32 inches of ribbon cable, its plug fitting the printer's Centronics port. Your existing printer cable joins the computer to the Sniffer. There's also a power supply to support the buffer's 64k RAM. It's a nifty little transformer-rectifier that can convert mains to DC at various voltages between 3 and 12. But a battery might have been tidier as well as £10 cheaper. When you plug everything in and switch on, the Stuffer performs a quick self-test. This verifies its RAM chips, microprocessor and circuitry. An extended self-test will even indicate which bank of RAM is faulty or indicate a broken wire etc -reassuring. 
There are two pushbuttons on the front of Stuffer. Pressing one will cause the last document to be printed again: very useful if you need multiple copies. The second button clears the 64k. When the Stuffet is operating, a diode flashes to indicate how much buffer space is left. The faster the flash the less space available. t 1 am impressed by the Microstuffer. It is a simple no-frills add-on that does a fine job. It has useful self-test, multiple copy and buffer-space features. In terms of ifee it scores highly: its RAM can hold data for four entire screen dumps or over 45 pages of text -perhaps two hours'printing - letting you get on with other jobs. The Stuffer is a device all printer owners should consider. AA
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