Remember that for some printers there are two parts, you need to change the ink and after some changes also the "cylinder". In any case I had seen a similar poor quality results in the brand. Can't recommend it.
Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia
271–280 of 297 posts
Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
Importing ink from another part of the world isn't gray market, it's a perfectly legitimate option that the vendor happens to not like.
Its the definition of gray market: "the trade of a commodity through distribution channels that are not authorized by the original manufacturer"
I looked it up and you are 100% correct. I now object to the existence of the term, as it clearly attempts to imply that legitimate activity is close to black market activity, but this is the correct use of the term as it exists. (Thank you for correcting me; it is far better to object to the right thing.)
Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
I shouldn’t be focused on the printer market when commenting on a post about printers ? The printer market is a commodity market - the very opposite of a monopoly.
Yes, when replying to my general comment, you shouldn't use the typical conservative rhetorical tactic of using the specific to ridicule the principle. I was making a general argument about the pattern one can see across the economy. The printer market is another example of the same pattern that we see all over the place. I don't claim that the printer market is a single entity that towers over all - my point is that…
Your point ill suits the topic of discussion, and you're being called out on it. You shouldn't then resort to tribal epithets like "typical conservative", it only diminishes whatever point you were trying to make.
> my point is that our economic system optimises for this eventuality. Again: this isn't controversial, antitrust laws have been in place for a very long time.
This is a very strange argument, the fact that laws exist to prevent/punish something doesn't mean that everyone agrees that society is optimized to cause such eventualities. Laws are on the books in case something "bad" happens, it doesn't mean that society or the economy is structured to hurtle us towards those "bad" situations. It just means, they could happen and we need to deal with them. There are numerous laws against murder, but I doubt anyone would argue that everyone agrees that our society is inexorably optimized towards common and widespread homicidal tendencies.
Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia
#274I 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…
They just don't get it... It's never been easier to _not_ print things.
Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. Every Fedex Print/Office center has this service. Most city libraries do as well.
And it seems the nearest "Fedex Office Print & Ship" is 176 miles away and gets 2.7 stars. No thank you.
Obviously, you can't expect businesses to be at every place in the world. There are 3 within 10 miles of me and I live ~30 miles from Seattle.
Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia
#276Yes, we all rage about this. K-cups, razors. Wait for the next decade: e-vehicle chargers, rocket booster packs (must be approved mixtures!). It never ends, not for this generation, or the next.
So, just picking an open publishing article:
Playing Super Mario 64 increases hippocampal grey matter in older adults
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
Unfortunately, I don't have the strength, and I just want a different way.
Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia
#277I 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.
Well, Brother had never done this to date. That is the real shocker.
Exactly. Brother was my goto printer - I've bought many of them (for myself and family), and recommended them unreservedly to others.
sigh.
Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly only applies to these high end ones; I got a cheap Epson one and found out after moving it to another country, that the cartridges are indeed vendor+region locked.
Region locked ink?! That's a special kind of stupid.
Amusing story.
Sun used to sell different (large) CRT monitors to northern hemisphere vs southern hemisphere.
Apparently the magnetic field was reversed and the CRT guns would be pre-aligned for the correct part of the world.
(insert northern vs southern hemisphere toilet joke)
Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
With previous Epson inkjets they've made me to print head alignment, nozzle declogging etc almost every.single.time I turned on the device. Does the EcoTank do this too?
Mine doesnt do much of anything when turned on, just takes a couple of minutes to connect to wifi.
Re: Tell HN: Brother printers now locking out non-OEM paraphernalia
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
The cartridge Epson's I've had were listed as 5ml cartridges, compared to the 100ml tanks my EcoTank has, that's the comparison I'm making.