Second time this has happened. “An unknown error has occurred. Unplug your printer and contact your dealer or authorized service center.” Info found here.

A Service Error where you get an “Unknown Error Message”, or a “General Error Message”, is normally a Maintenance Request Error. The maintenance request error is actually a Waste Ink Ink Pad Error and usually your remedy is to replace the Waste Ink Pad/Pads with a new one/ones and then reset the Internal Waste Ink Pad Counter. If you just reset the counter and don’t replace the pads, then your printers old pads will eventually overflow and normally start leaking ink out the bottom of your printer. You can see “Exploded Parts Diagrams” of most Epson Ink Jet Printers and can also check on possible parts ordering, by Compass Micro Inc, at http://www.compassmicro.com/parts_select.cfm . Some people actually wash the ink out of the old pads, by holding them under running cold water. Then they simply dry them out and reinstall them back into their printer. The choice on what to actually do, is yours to make. I would at least recommend getting that Waste Ink Counter reset procedure and performing it first, to make sure your printer will then work.

The Epson reset program download location is http://www.ssclg.com/download/sscserve.exe. To check printer compatibility, see http://www.ssclg.com/epsons.shtml.

The program has also features as well. The “SSC Service Utility” doesn’t work on all Epson Printers nor on all Operating Systems, and sometimes not even if the printer is a listed model, so you’ll just have to try it to see. If it doesn’t work, you might have to search for a Service Manual or the actual Reset Procedure to buy and download for reference while disassembling, troubleshooting, and servicing. You can normally find the Reset Procedures for most Epson Printers from 2manuals.com. The reset procedure is usually available for about $10. There’s a free download of an Epson Stylus Color 480 Service Manual from fixyourownprinter.com. This manual may be of some help in actual disassembly and servicing of the waste ink pads. However, you’ll still need the actual reset procedure in order to remove the waste ink counter error condition.
Here’s info about how to clean or replace the waste ink pad. I still need to do it sometime. I just had the program reset the counter, even though I didn’t replace the pad. That could be bad later on, but hopefully it won’t have much effect on the little bit of printing that I do between now and when I wash it.

Update: I actually came home after being out for the weekend, the printer suddenly started working again. I think it was the waste ink pad counter, but it needed some time to reset.

Another interesting thing to note is that the print queue was saved. On Friday I had tried printing something from Firefox, and it failed due to the abvoe problem. I shut down my computer for the weekend (power off). When I returned and powered on my computer, I opened a Word document and started printing it. The printer then started printing the page I had tried to print on Friday.

from Influence: Social Proof

He said he know understood the cause of a type of traffic accident that had always puzzled him before. The accident typically occurred on the city freeway during rush hour, when cars in all lanes were moving steadily but slowly. Events leading to the accident would start when a pair of cars, one behind the other, would simultaneously begin signaling an intention to get out of the lane they were in and into the next. Within seconds, a long line of drivers to the rear of the first two would follow suit, thinking that something — a stalled car or a construction barrier — was blocking the lane ahead. It would be in this crush to cram into the available spaces of the next lane that a collision frequently happened.

The odd thing about it all, according to the patrolman, was that very often there had been no obstruction to be avoided in the first place, and by the time of the accident, this should have been obvious to anyone who looked. …

So if a pair of freeway drivers decided by coincidence to change lanes at the identical moment, the next two drivers might well do the same, assuming that the forward drivers had spotted an obstruction … For drivers to the rear, there could be no question about the correctness of changing lanes: “All those guys ahead must know something.”

This applies to many other decisions in life as well. I noticed that here in Marks Hall, a huge number of people are applying to stay here next year. This is partly because just a few people early on decided they were going to stay. Other people, not knowing what other dorms were like or what the apartment experience is like, subconciously (or not) thought that these people must know something they don’t, and that Marks Hall is a great place to live and hard to get into.

Similarly, last year, a couple people decided to try the apartment experience. Suddenly, a huge group of people all got together to room together and live in nearby apartments, etc. In other words, the decisions of just a couple people that may have been coincidentally similar, sparked a huge following by the rest of the students here, all looking for guidance and basing their housing decision on what other people are doing.