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I built a receipt printer for GitHub issues

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Re: I built a receipt printer for GitHub issues

#151

Post by [deleted] »

jonpalmisc wrote: post #91
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

I thought about doing something like this so I could turn the tickets I work on into paper tickets but never quite got around to it. (I did buy a cheap receipt printer on eBay though and managed to burn it out in the first 10 minutes of printing. ProTip: a receipt printer with the width specified in inches is likely to be a quality printer by a reputable manufacturer, one specified in mm is likely to be a piece of ju…

What’s the reason behind the inches vs millimeters distinction? I understand it’s just a heuristic but I don’t get what the underlying cause is.

[deleted]

Re: I built a receipt printer for GitHub issues

#152

Post by xenadu02 »

cinntaile wrote: post #51
scottlamb wrote: post #21

This is a fun idea, but I've read thermal paper is surprisingly nasty stuff. [Edit: unless it's advertised as "phenol-free".] It's not just paper. It contains plastics (BPA or BPS) that you absorb through your skin when handling it. I'd avoid working with receipts at my desk all day. (I'd also avoid being a grocery store cashier...) https://www.pca.state.mn.us/green-chemistry/bpa-thermal-pape...

Why do they use thermal printing for receipts? Is it just cheaper because you don't have ink that runs out? Less moving parts so less maintenance?

If you're never seen a thermal printer hooked up properly with proper software... those things are insanely fast. It can spit out a meter/yard long receipt in two seconds. Nothing else comes close.

It also uses paper in rolls, without requiring spools, and no ink/toner/ribbons to replace which would be both more complicated and take longer.

Re: I built a receipt printer for GitHub issues

#153

Post by blahgeek »

iancmceachern wrote: post #120
iamjackg wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a comment I read a long time ago about somebody's experience working for a company that had a branch in Japan. They would demand that some spreadsheets be sent as a fax, and then some employee would be tasked with re-typing all that information back into a spreadsheet later on.

I once worked at a job where one of the owners of the company, when asked to send a pdf copy of a document, would print out the document on the shared office copier/printer, then scan it back in using the same copier/printer and have it email him the pdf. Every single time he ever made a pdf of any file, even hundreds of pages, he would do this way.

There's still plenty of places that specifically require a scanned copy of documents, instead of the original digital one. The printing and scanning process essentially makes it blurry and that's exactly what they want.

I wonder if there's any tool that can achieve the same effect.

Re: I built a receipt printer for GitHub issues

#154

Post by someweirdperson »

potatochup wrote: post #150
mushyhammer wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet code reviews with markers are fun though.

I've done code reviews on paper, although mostly when I want to understand something, not for review purposes.

I used to carry a red pen at all times for that purpose. Very useful when people had some hardcopy.

That use-case died with the invention of virus-defined wfh.

Re: I built a receipt printer for GitHub issues

#155

Post by creakingstairs »

SllX wrote: post #96
iamjackg wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a comment I read a long time ago about somebody's experience working for a company that had a branch in Japan. They would demand that some spreadsheets be sent as a fax, and then some employee would be tasked with re-typing all that information back into a spreadsheet later on.

Someone once told me this is how they share source code between departments at some software shops in Japan. I still refuse to believe this is true.

Well it’s not source code but my wife’s work print whatever they’ve worked on and it goes around the team while they make change requests one at a time using pen. Once they are happy they stamp it. So I could definitely see people printing source code…

Re: I built a receipt printer for GitHub issues

#156

Post by someweirdperson »

blahgeek wrote: post #153
iancmceachern wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once worked at a job where one of the owners of the company, when asked to send a pdf copy of a document, would print out the document on the shared office copier/printer, then scan it back in using the same copier/printer and have it email him the pdf. Every single time he ever made a pdf of any file, even hundreds of pages, he would do this way.

There's still plenty of places that specifically require a scanned copy of documents, instead of the original digital one. The printing and scanning process essentially makes it blurry and that's exactly what they want. I wonder if there's any tool that can achieve the same effect.

> I wonder if there's any tool that can achieve the same effect.

I wonder if that's sarcasm, because it obviously should be possible with a simple call to e.g. convert/imagemagick.

Of course, people who do the printing/scaning would need a simplified GUI to use it.

A quick search on $searchengine showed that e.g. win2pdf has an option to generate an image-only pdf.

The market seems to be covered. Maybe there's room for some advanced variant that adds wrinkles, a minimal rotation, and some coffee-stains.

Re: I built a receipt printer for GitHub issues

#158

Post by sejad »

scottlamb wrote: post #21

This is a fun idea, but I've read thermal paper is surprisingly nasty stuff. [Edit: unless it's advertised as "phenol-free".] It's not just paper. It contains plastics (BPA or BPS) that you absorb through your skin when handling it. I'd avoid working with receipts at my desk all day. (I'd also avoid being a grocery store cashier...) https://www.pca.state.mn.us/green-chemistry/bpa-thermal-pape...

No post body was provided.

Re: I built a receipt printer for GitHub issues

#159

Post by wwwigham »

Oh man, a friend of mine did exactly the same thing back in college, but using a tessel instead of a rpi: https://github.com/JRJurman/automated-ticket-printer

In action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOBhAbXNgUI

IIRC, he actually used it on coop for awhile with a physical ticket spike to store completed tickets on. It's pretty cool to see when the issue volume is just right.

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