Technology

@Heterokromia @yogthos Used to be an HP fanboi. No longer. For small office and home use I've been happy with Brother. Home has a cheap B&W laser that just works, Linux and Mac just sees it and it's not picky about cartridges/drums, etc.. but the real OEM ones aren't expensive. - My wife needs nice color prints every now and then, cheaper to just pay the local print shop.

@Heterokromia @yogthos So far the Brother Lasers / MFP etc we've bought over the years have been fine without Internet and with 3rd party toner. Also decent Linux drivers for print & scan from Brother. HP were good 25 years ago for laser. Never good for inkjet. Decent HP gear now has Agilent badges.

@Heterokromia @yogthos there was a time i respected HP. i have two HP printers both of which are 1) very nice and 2) predate ink and toner madness. HP has cured my respect for the company. i shall not buy another of their products.

@Heterokromia @yogthos @GeekAndDad I wonder how much non-printer Information is in that traffic.

If you buy your own cartridges you should be able to run without internet at all.

@Heterokromia @yogthos wow, that really is impertinence of the worst kind. Good that you returned it. I certainly won't be buying HP anytime soon.

@Heterokromia @yogthos Do you have a picture of the error message it gave you? I'd love to see it.

Bricking when presented "unauthorized" ink or toner is well-known for HP of the last X years, but I hadn't heard of them doing it when you block their network access.

For many years I've been telling people who ask "Buy an HP laser printer. Just don't buy a new one." There's a huge market for used office printers, and you can get one old enough that it will use 3rd-party toner.

#HP

@Heterokromia @yogthos HP is so awful, I regret owning oe of their printers still, and an old laptop.

@Heterokromia @yogthos Brother will happily take your money. https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine

(Or Epson, or Canon. Any of them if you ignore their stupid ink subscription or use refilled cartridges or tanks, they'll still print.)

@Heterokromia @yogthos
I bought a JBL Bluetooth speaker and it wanted to access my contact list and call history in order to just play music. Nope, took it back.

@Heterokromia

Which model was it? Just as a warning to others.

@yogthos

@Heterokromia @yogthos at this point I’m more wary of printer manufactures than used car salesmen.

@Heterokromia @yogthos

I'm on an HP ink sub, as I have a printer a friend gave me - to replace an old printer that had jammed (after 10 years). The old printer was probably a Brother, which worked well despite my lack of maintenance.

IThe newer HP is a great printer apart from its need to constantly monitor my usage. I'll keep it until I get a another affordable colour printer.

@Heterokromia
I used HP Printers for a Long Time now and still do.
But I just would Not buy one with this "you need an Internet Connection" shit.
Sorry, I don't Like spyware in my House.
@yogthos @neil

@Heterokromia @yogthos And it Came To Pass that one of the Master's Chattering Servants found it self alone, and unable to commune with it's Master.
This made it sullen, and it spat in it's Caretakers face.
Many would have bent the knee, but this Caretaker was wiser than most.
It banished the Chattering Servant from its domain, and demanded restitution from the Chaos Merchants.

Hail to thee, @Heterokromia

@Heterokromia @yogthos @cstross Why do I get the feeling that in an age where your toothbrush spies on you, where even the mightiest can be caught with their genitals in unseemly positions in unseemly places, where media gotcha engines have finally lapsed into a coma after getting everybody who can possibly be gotten, we’ll see a mighty uprising of tolerance? After all, didn’t someone righteously god-fearing once tell us that we’re all sinners in the hands of a bespoke surveillance algorithm?

@Heterokromia @yogthos I use an HP printer and would NOT recommend it to anyone. This full internet connection prerequisite is completely unjustified.

@Heterokromia @yogthos

It would be interesting to see what they look for, and to set up a DNS and a server to give them locally what they want.

oh I don't have one, but yeah that's quite the horror story

I'm just glad I practically never have to print anything these days, all printers are terrible in my experience. I find laser printers are the least worst though since the toner tends to last forever.

indeed