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Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

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Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#131

Post by blitz_skull »

s0l1dsnak3123 wrote: post #88
danpalmer wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't wrap my head around how the printer market has turned into this absolutely dispicable, foul state that it is in right now. This is the dying gasps of an industry that is mostly irrelevant in the modern age. When I was growing up we always had a printer, and while ink wasn't cheap, it wasn't too bad, so we used it a lot and printed everything we needed. The industry grew to expect this, most households with…

Once again the "market" is abusing everyone in the pursuit of endless economic growth. Our economic system forces successful businesses into enemies of the consumer once they can't keep momentum. Coupled with the concentrating monopolisation of the economy, this creates a phenomenon where helpless consumers are held at ransom: the ultimatum being that they either continue to be exploited in ever more devious ways, or…

Uh... Pretty sure the printer industry is holding literally no one hostage. As mentioned in several comments—this industry is dead.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#133

Post by nonrandomstring »

hyperdimension wrote: post #113
carpenecopinum wrote: post #13

I can't wrap my head around how the printer market has turned into this absolutely dispicable, foul state that it is in right now. Decades of innovation that have been invested, not to make a better product, but mostly on how to extract more and more money from their victims, I mean "customers". I would like to own a printer again, but for printing something like once a month, I just can't financially justify spendin…

I agree. It's so hard to recommend printers to family and friends now. It seems they all suck in their own very special way. The only reason I even have a printer is that I happened to find an old LaserJet for 10$ at my local thrift store. It was "broken" but all i had to do was oil the laser scanner motor. Right era of printer, toner cartridges are only around 20$, and I put in a JetDirect card. Only thing is the me…

+10 to this. Old monochrome laserprinters are the way to go.

Amd a very good case for anti e-waste laws and right to repair.

Never throw out a serviceable laser printer.

All my printing is via a 15 year old desktop mini laser printer rescued from a dump. It's been worth locating a printer engineering company to service it. Most of the time it sits idle in a clean, dry cupboard. When I print it's usually a whole document for marking, so it's worth the bother of getting it out, plugging it in and running one print job. Ink-jets, and that whole market is a failed technology in my book, not for technical reasons, but because the vendors have turned every product into toxic crap.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#134

Post by ascagnel_ »

kalleboo wrote: post #51
qwerty456127 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would like to own a printer again, but for printing something like once a month, I just can't financially justify spending several hundred bucks on a device For printing something like once a month, it is even harder to justify wasting space by putting a printer. Printers should be put around in form of vending machines which would let you you insert a USB stick, drop some pennies and print the PDFs.

Where I live convenience stores (7-11) and most larger supermarkets have this. Basically a combo photo printer + office copier with a touchscreen and USB/memory card readers. Some of the are also loaded with postcards (for xmas cards) or even sticker paper to make your own stickers. I also like to print out A3 posters for my kids and these printers can do that, whereas I'd never buy a huge A3 printer to have at home.

Your local public library is also a good option for this. Most, if not all, libraries have publicly-accessible computers where you can either log in to your cloud storage or email to print, and some have printers that can directly read from USB devices. Some will also let you send a file to a dedicated email address, where the library staff will print the document for you, should you be concerned about using shared hardware.

At my local library, prints are $0.05/page, vs. $0.15/page at my local commercial print shop.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#135

Post by toast0 »

sithadmin wrote: post #74
kalleboo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I live convenience stores (7-11) and most larger supermarkets have this. Basically a combo photo printer + office copier with a touchscreen and USB/memory card readers. Some of the are also loaded with postcards (for xmas cards) or even sticker paper to make your own stickers. I also like to print out A3 posters for my kids and these printers can do that, whereas I'd never buy a huge A3 printer to have at home.

Japan? US 7-11's absolutely do not have this service, and you're lucky if you find a grocery store that has a photo copier these days (was somewhat common in the 90s).

US drug stores commonly have a photoprinting area which I'd guess will do documents too. Not usually at the grocery stores or convenience stores though.

There's also reprographics places and most shipping stores do printing as well.

None of that is as convenient as a home printer, though. If you can get a decent color laser and lightly use it, it should treat you well for quite some time. Inkjets don't really like light use though, although I have fond memories of first page time on the ancient Deskjet 660C and 720C.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#136

Post by 300bps »

pid-1 wrote: post #80
danpalmer wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't wrap my head around how the printer market has turned into this absolutely dispicable, foul state that it is in right now. This is the dying gasps of an industry that is mostly irrelevant in the modern age. When I was growing up we always had a printer, and while ink wasn't cheap, it wasn't too bad, so we used it a lot and printed everything we needed. The industry grew to expect this, most households with…

IDK, I'm in my mid 30s and I really can't remember printers being alright.

I'm in my late 40s and I remember the joy of printing out banners with Print Shop on a Commodore 64 using a dot matrix printer. It was fantastic but it's been pretty downhill since there. Video to show what I mean:

https://youtu.be/BIltpheSZPs

In the modern era, I've just bought a cheap Brother black and white laser printer and called it a day. The toner lasts F-O-R-E-V-E-R.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#137

Post by lotsofpulp »

pid-1 wrote: post #80
danpalmer wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't wrap my head around how the printer market has turned into this absolutely dispicable, foul state that it is in right now. This is the dying gasps of an industry that is mostly irrelevant in the modern age. When I was growing up we always had a printer, and while ink wasn't cheap, it wasn't too bad, so we used it a lot and printed everything we needed. The industry grew to expect this, most households with…

IDK, I'm in my mid 30s and I really can't remember printers being alright.

I am mid 30s, and the Brother MFC black and white laser printers have been solid since I was 15.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#138

Post by mrjin »

alias_neo wrote: post #19
CrazedGeek wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about the laser side, but for inkjets, the Epson EcoTank line is the best at not fucking you - it uses ink bottle refills, no cartridges in sight.

I bought one a few months ago, about £200, because of exactly this sort of crap going on here. I didn't want to go the compatibles route, and the cartridges are so small in capacity anyway. It's been good so far, and I've been printing roughly once a week so it has been ok. I have kids so I've been photocopying pages from their colouring books etc for them to colour in and keep the books themselves clean, which means…

Are you sure it's really "small in capacity"? I was curious so I opened one of the cartridges my printer reported as empty. There was still plenty of ink in it...

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#139

Post by s0l1dsnak3123 »

blitz_skull wrote: post #131
s0l1dsnak3123 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once again the "market" is abusing everyone in the pursuit of endless economic growth. Our economic system forces successful businesses into enemies of the consumer once they can't keep momentum. Coupled with the concentrating monopolisation of the economy, this creates a phenomenon where helpless consumers are held at ransom: the ultimatum being that they either continue to be exploited in ever more devious ways, or…

Uh... Pretty sure the printer industry is holding literally no one hostage. As mentioned in several comments—this industry is dead.

My point is a general one - the printer market is doing exactly what all elastic markets do.

Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia

#140

Post by post_break »

johnatwork wrote: post #109
GiorgioG wrote: post #33

I have an epson eco-tank printer. I buy 3rd party bottles of ink once every 2-3 years. The upfront cost of the printer (multifunction model ET-4550) was high in 2015 ($500) but I've spent maybe $60-70 in ink to print (as of this morning) 19,536 pages (13,954 in color, 5,582 in B/W). I can't see a good reason to keep buying printers that are locked into proprietary cartridges or toners.

Don't they get you by making you change the proprietary sponge/ink pad though? Oh and it's not user serviceable. https://epson.ca/Support/wa00369

I've seen a few guides on youtube on how to replace or clean them out, then a paid service similar to unlocking phones to pay a hacker to reset the counter.
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