Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink • Hacker News Board

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#261

Post by jolmg » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 6:41 PM UTC

alerighi wrote: post #18

I stopped buying inkjet printers. They are a scam, the ink costs a fortune and they are built as cheap as they can, meaning that they will break and you have to throw them away because they are impossible to repair, they are slow and when you need them they don't work because they were not used for too much time. After having 5 broken printers in the garage I said enough, that is a useless waste, and invested some mo…

> I really don't see a reason for inkjet printers to exist, I hope they will disappear from the market.

They're still useful for cheap printed confections. You can use them with edible ink and paper. It's quite nice to print photos on cakes and stuff.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#262

Post by bondarchuk » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 6:42 PM UTC

quercusa wrote: post #250

ChuckMcM wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that not buying printers is the correct answer, difficult to get everyone to do it, but it is the metric most likely to change behavior. Inkjet technology is fine, it was the exploitation of it by HP which lead to copy cats that really made it ridiculous. I've got an HP inkjet wide format plotter (36" wide) that was built both before HP was all in on ink as a profit center and built by a different division (p…

I don't think I've ever seen an inkjet plotter in action. Does the paper go through a single pass? I was always fascinated by pen plotters, especially when drawing diagonal lines or changing pens.

It's called a plotter but it's really just a large inkjet printer these days.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#263

Post by jader201 » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 6:45 PM UTC

limeblack wrote: post #259

jader201 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my first printer in high school, around 90-91. It was an HP laserjet printer, when they were first going mainstream. I loved it, it always printed well, and the toner seemed to last forever. Of course, it was B/W, but that was all I needed. Fast forward to today, I have never owned an inkjet printer. Over the past 30 years I’ve owned a total of 3 laser printers. The second was in 2005, because I wanted a scanne…

> I agree, inkjets should’ve died a long time ago. Aren’t inkjets better for photos? www.ldproducts.com/blog/pros-cons-of-inkjet-and-laser-printers/amp/

Sure, but as I said above, unless you're printing a lot of photos, you're better of sticking to photo printer services (online or in-store) for printing photos.

Most people don't print enough photos to justify the pain of owning an inkjet printer.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#264

Post by coffeecat » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 6:46 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #96

lotsofpulp wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But between Consumer Reports, Wirecutter, the 18 million review websites, Costco, I feel like such an obviously superior brand and product should have had its reputation widely known by now, like Toyota/Honda.

I think you highly overestimate the amount of research the average person does on a printer purchase. Yes, some people will buy a CR magazine or ask their friends/relatives opinion for a $30k car, but will they do that before buying a $60 printer?

Reviews and anecdotes can be misleading in some cases. I bought a cheap secondhand Xerox Phaser printer, which has some horrible reviews online, and its previous owner was getting rid of it because of network connection issues. The network connectivity issue was fixed with a firmware update, and I've found it to be an excellent printer - useful documentation, supports every printing protocol under the sun, and the cost of aftermarket drum/toner replacements work out to less than half a cent per page.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#265

Post by RichardCA » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 6:47 PM UTC

EvanAnderson wrote: post #154

jader201 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my first printer in high school, around 90-91. It was an HP laserjet printer, when they were first going mainstream. I loved it, it always printed well, and the toner seemed to last forever. Of course, it was B/W, but that was all I needed. Fast forward to today, I have never owned an inkjet printer. Over the past 30 years I’ve owned a total of 3 laser printers. The second was in 2005, because I wanted a scanne…

Fed a diet of the necessary consumables-- toners/drums, fusers, rollers, separation pads, etc-- a 1990s LaserJet will outlive us all. For me, "peak LaserJet" was probably the LaserJet 4 w/ an integral JetDirect. The 4000 that followed was pretty solid and faster but more plastic-ey than the 4.

The 5mp was a straightforward parallel printer that fully supported both PCL5 and Postscript and was affordable. I think that was the peak.

Nowadays I get by with a P2015dn because you have to have Ethernet, and it suffers from the wake-on-lan issue but it's tolerable. I'm afraid to try anything more recent.

But the thing I miss most is that it used to be cool to be a fan of HP. Now that's just nostalgia.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#266

Post by TedShiller » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 6:49 PM UTC

alerighi wrote: post #18

I stopped buying inkjet printers. They are a scam, the ink costs a fortune and they are built as cheap as they can, meaning that they will break and you have to throw them away because they are impossible to repair, they are slow and when you need them they don't work because they were not used for too much time. After having 5 broken printers in the garage I said enough, that is a useless waste, and invested some mo…

I bought an HP LaserJet in 2003. It still works perfectly and prints like a charm every day. I've only changed cartridges twice.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#267

Post by TedShiller » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 6:50 PM UTC

nowherebeen wrote: post #223

jader201 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my first printer in high school, around 90-91. It was an HP laserjet printer, when they were first going mainstream. I loved it, it always printed well, and the toner seemed to last forever. Of course, it was B/W, but that was all I needed. Fast forward to today, I have never owned an inkjet printer. Over the past 30 years I’ve owned a total of 3 laser printers. The second was in 2005, because I wanted a scanne…

Funny enough, I never owned an inkjet. My parents bought a HP LaserJet 5 when I was 13. That thing was a tank. It lasted a good 15 years before it finally broke. I think in that time, we only changed the cartridge less than 10 times.

10? I changed it 2 times in 16 years.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#268

Post by gerbilly » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

I was fortunate enough to buy a 1990s laser printer.

Back then companies were still short sighted enough¹ to build them to last.

It's an Apple Laserwiter 12/640PS.

It's still chugging along today, with 64Mb of memory no less!

[1]: Recurring revenue wise that is.

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#269

Post by culi » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 6:52 PM UTC

marcodiego wrote: post #214

slim wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Condescending is used when you describe someone who thinks he is superior to others.

TIL! False cognate. I'm not a native speaker. In Portuguese there is the term "condescendente" which means "indulgent, one who doesn't imposes discipline". What is the equivalent term in English?

The actual correct translation would be "acquiescent"

Re: Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink

#270

Post by ksec » Sat, Oct 16, 2021, 6:54 PM UTC

greggman3 wrote: post #215

alerighi wrote: post #18

I stopped buying inkjet printers. They are a scam, the ink costs a fortune and they are built as cheap as they can, meaning that they will break and you have to throw them away because they are impossible to repair, they are slow and when you need them they don't work because they were not used for too much time. After having 5 broken printers in the garage I said enough, that is a useless waste, and invested some mo…

I felt lucky in Japan in that you can print at every convenience store so I'd just walk 1-2 mins to the local store when I needed to print. 10 cents for B/W, 50 for color. In SF you can print at the library which I've done once.

I still dont understand why printing as a services has not caught on anywhere else.