161–170 of 208 posts
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The Verge is honestly pretty great. Usually. It's the only mainstream tech news publication that feels like it's not bought out by every company (re: CNET)
Even though Arstechnica is owned by Conde Nast, it's still my go-to for most tech news, albeit normally more specialized in certain fields. But at least once per week they have a really excellent and in-depth article about a variety of topics.
Get a used HP LaserJet from their professional line. They lack wifi, are way bigger then your normal printer but they work for years without problems and have cheap replacement parts and cartidges. One general advice is to look for recommended devices in the medical/law/military area. There is nothing special about those printers but their recommondation for such institutions makes them a safe bet and never failed me…
None of the anticompetitive and John Deere-esque lockdown crap.
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Even though Arstechnica is owned by Conde Nast, it's still my go-to for most tech news, albeit normally more specialized in certain fields. But at least once per week they have a really excellent and in-depth article about a variety of topics.
Agreed but the comments on ars articles are now sadly a cesspool.
The good becomes burried by the bad, in ever increasing volume. The tasty nuggets of information being eaten by ever-larger sewer-slimes.
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No, just as a section break.
It’s not, though
I bought a Brother monochrome laser printer (with built in scanner) for £250 and it was bundled with 6 spare toner cartridges. That was two years ago, we’re still on the first cartridge. The printer before that was also a monochrome laser printer and that lasted nearly a decade (only got rid of it because it didn’t support wireless and I couldn’t be bothered running cables anymore). Basically, I think monochrome lase…
I picked such a machine (a DCP-7065dn) out of the hackerspace's scrap pile. It's complaining that the drum is at the end of its service life, but still makes great prints. It supports wired but not wireless Ethernet.
So I got a $20 gl.inet router, glued it to the side of the printer, and tapped the internal 5v power point (the schematics are easy to find) to power the router. It comes on when I turn on the printer, and their bootup times seem agreeable enough; the router is configured with WDS so the printer gets DHCP off my main WLAN and Just Works™. It took a few hours to find the power trace and perform the surgery, but I love not having an extra power brick.
Get a used HP LaserJet from their professional line. They lack wifi, are way bigger then your normal printer but they work for years without problems and have cheap replacement parts and cartidges. One general advice is to look for recommended devices in the medical/law/military area. There is nothing special about those printers but their recommondation for such institutions makes them a safe bet and never failed me…
Seriously, just get a Brother instead. None of the anticompetitive and John Deere-esque lockdown crap.
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See linked, also from The Verge > Best printer 2023: just buy this Brother laser printer everyone has, it’s fine > The Brother whatever-it-is will print return labels for online shopping, never run out of toner, and generally be a printer instead of the physical instantiation of a business model. https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-...
The Verge is honestly pretty great. Usually. It's the only mainstream tech news publication that feels like it's not bought out by every company (re: CNET)
1. https://www.gawker.com/adult-website-editor-throws-twitter-t...
2. https://kotaku.com/the-verges-infamous-pc-build-gets-fixed-1...
I realize Kotaku and Gawker aren't much better reputation-wise, but a journalism outfit (The Verge) issuing DMCAs against people reporting on them rankled me much worse than the former two. Absolute hypocrisy.
I bought a Brother monochrome laser printer (with built in scanner) for £250 and it was bundled with 6 spare toner cartridges. That was two years ago, we’re still on the first cartridge. The printer before that was also a monochrome laser printer and that lasted nearly a decade (only got rid of it because it didn’t support wireless and I couldn’t be bothered running cables anymore). Basically, I think monochrome lase…
Their entire business model is to make great basic products.
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I thought this too! Then I saw the light. Get the cheap Brother laser printer "that everybody has" in the article that is linked from the linked article (the linked linked article?) https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-... Seriously. It's so stupid simple. It rules. It juuuuuust prints. No DRM, no nothing. No apps to install. (I think it has apps, but you don't need them. I certainly didn't ins…
Yup I've been using mine for years and years. But honestly, I don't understand it in the context of capitalism. Why does just this one good printer exist? Why doesn't it have competitors? Or if competitors aren't economical to exist, why does this one still exist? I'm thankful it's here. But I can't think of any other product category at all where there's only one really good one and then everything else is overprice…
Brother has a whole bunch of monochrome laser printers from $120 up to $250ish depending on if you want duplex printing, wireless, document scanning, multiple paper trays, etc. From what I can gather they're all well-regarded? HP, Canon seem to also have decent offerings in that price range though based on a totally unscientific review of scanning Amazon ratings it seems like people like the Brothers best.
I think it's just an issue of inkjets versus lasers.
Inkjets are just horrible. Every single freaking one. Why are they so bad? The ink cartridges always dry out and stop working unless you print on a regular basis, and they all have some weird predatory business model based on selling you a bunch of ink that you don't need. It feels like they lose money on the printer and bank on you buying a bunch of ink later on.
So how did monochrome laser printers in the same price range avoid that weirdo predatory business model? That's my question. I can't really imagine that a laser printer is any cheaper to manufacture than an inkjet printer.
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It works for you because you print a lot (1-3 pages per day!). OP prints fewer than 10 pages per year .
There’s a $1/month subscription. You get 10 pages a month. The author would pay $12/year for 10 pages per year, without the cost of the cartridge. You need 20 years before you reach the cost of a $240 cartridge. The cartridge would’ve dried out before then. This entire article is an exercise in “I can’t do math”
More directly to your point - the author plainly acknowledges the sunk cost fallacy at play here. I’m pretty sure he can do the math.