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[–] • 5 pts (edited )

Exactly. These things have existed for decades and the usability is terrible. The ink dries out, the list of one million drivers are impossible to match to your model and are never updated. Also good luck setting up a network printer. It's a four hour project if you don't know the model inside and out.

Can we make one that doesn't suck ass please?

The closest thing I've found is a brother laser printer, but I have to put PDF's on a USB drive to print them at this point because the drivers don't work on my machine. It's fucking ridiculous.

[–] [deleted] • 5 pts

Usually brother printers are pretty good fuck Canon fuck them in the clownass.

[–] • 1 pt

I've had a Brother HL-2350 (something like that) laser printer for a bit more than 10 years. Works over network with Windows, Linux, Android. No paper jams. No complaints.

[–] • 2 pts

Real brothers have your back and won’t let you down.

[–] • 0 pt

Yeah, brother is the go-to for the most part. Make sure to get a Laser not a ink jet.

[–] • 1 pt

I have to put PDF's on a USB drive to print them at this point because the drivers don't work on my machine

Something something Linux.

[–] • 0 pt

I was just going to say brother network lasers are the best. Hp is the worst from a driver user perspective .

[–] • 0 pt

I made sure the drivers were well known to work before getting the laser printer I got

[–] • 5 pts (edited )

…you guys realize that printers do this because on every document, they print a microdot serial code that allows the fbi to track down the serial number of the printer that produced a specific document?

The microdot pattern is typically printed with color instead of black so that it’s more invisible to the naked eye.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/09/how-tech-sleuths-cracked-the-mysterious-code-that-turns-your-printer-into-a-spying-tool/

[–] • 0 pt (edited )

If you want to print color photos or documents without much effort, with no tracking, and for a reasonable cost, then yeah... you're pretty much fucked.

But if you just need black and white documents or don't mind a tech project, should still be safe if you go with:

  • monochrome (black and white) printers ()
  • an old monchrome dot-matrix printer (note: i've heard that these are actually pretty hard to find these days and they are fairly expensive when you do find them. and for any that are wondering, YES, but I assume that you still had tracking patterns even back then). You could tho... both projects require an arduino and at least moderate tech skills.
  • (note: this will be quite a bit more expensive than simply buying an off-the-shelf, spyware-laden printer... and require some tech skills. as they say "freedom isn't free" and "if it was easy, everybody'd be doing it"). there was another project on too but it seems to require a no-longer-available kit and an out-of-print book that I couldn't even find pirated copies for (possible that it might exist somewhere on some private tracker or usenet but that's beyond me)... and anyway, that one did not seem to have any open-source code.
  • (again - very much NOT a cheap or easy option).
[–] • 4 pts

Hey laser printer, I know I haven't even powered you on in a year, but can you print something?

"Of course, I use toner which never dries out, and doesn't cost more than blood."

[–] • 1 pt

Until the drums go bad

Or the drivers realize it's the year 2023 and purposefully slow printing down to a crawl.

[–] [deleted] • 3 pts
[–] [deleted] • 13 pts
[–] • 0 pt

PC Load letter? What the fuck does that mean? (I do know what it means).

[–] • 3 pts

More like,

"Sure, but you haven't used me in 12 hrs so I'll need to think about it for 15 min while I randomly open and close my output flap and burn through the last 5% of ink." 15 min later. "Actually I'm too low on ink to print that for you, here's a convenient link to purchase more official ink cartridges."

[–] • 2 pts

Bussines tactic to sell more ink

[–] • 0 pt (edited )

I wish we had something like the better fax machine, something that burns standard paper, pyrogravure style, everything from black and white to grey scale, no ink or toner shit needed just paper and fuck colors, colors aren't that important for administrative papers, even a photo can render well enough in grey scale, it's only for some charts eventually that this color limitation could be a problem