Earlier quoted context omitted.
Air is still free. ;)
still being the operative word here. ;).
We're in complete agreetion here it seems.
Epson customers report Google Cloud Print causing printers to power down
31–40 of 97 posts
Re: Epson customers report Google Cloud Print causing printers to power down
#32We'll have Fusion reactors before solid and enjoyable printers.
Airprint actually works really great. I have a Samsung printer with Airprint + Google Cloud Printing - set it up once, and it just works all the time. Just have to do your research.
Good point, that said forgive me for not including Apple things in my quick research since I have zero Apple device. I always assume anything Apple is Apple only.
Re: Epson customers report Google Cloud Print causing printers to power down
#33Re: Epson customers report Google Cloud Print causing printers to power down
#34How do you manage to engage an internal Google team on an issue? From the story: "We are working with Epson and internal Google teams to root cause this issue" I've seen many help forum threads go unanswered, after days and pages of postings.
Or post on HN as many google employees read it regularly for sure..
Re: Epson customers report Google Cloud Print causing printers to power down
#35We'll have Fusion reactors before solid and enjoyable printers.
I was dreading to buy a printer for a few years but a month ago I finally bought a small Brother HL-1110 laser printer. The instalation on Linix was completely hassle free and it worked perfectly fine. At least until I tried to print a gray-scale picture... For some reason tje printer refuses to print if the image covers more than roughly 50-60% of the page. Instead of giving any error it just blinks a few times and does nothing.
Re: Epson customers report Google Cloud Print causing printers to power down
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Canon 6030 was surprisingly good. It didn't have any driver issues (unlike other Canon printers that dropped support after 2000/XP) it just works on any Windows version, it doesn't need to reset chip in the cartridge to simulate new cartridge. And it worked for 1.5 years in hellish environment and is still going on - in extremely dusty tent (amount of dust that accumulates in an apartment in several months in one day…
Printers are a bit like cars, not enough genericity. It used to be worth it in the 90s when there was innovation but now it's going backward every time. Everything is coupled where it shouldn't. Fat proprietary drivers, bad interfaces physical and software, coupled network links, cheap tricks to ensure regular costs (ink drm etc); bad mechanics (HP printers are more and more noisy)... It's mostly a social problem, ma…
Now it's the razor blade model. Printers have become commodities but the manufacturers need to be able to make money.
So, by making shoddy products you have to replace them every few years and if you switch brands, so what because some one is switching to you as well.
Re: Epson customers report Google Cloud Print causing printers to power down
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Canon 6030 was surprisingly good. It didn't have any driver issues (unlike other Canon printers that dropped support after 2000/XP) it just works on any Windows version, it doesn't need to reset chip in the cartridge to simulate new cartridge. And it worked for 1.5 years in hellish environment and is still going on - in extremely dusty tent (amount of dust that accumulates in an apartment in several months in one day…
Printers are a bit like cars, not enough genericity. It used to be worth it in the 90s when there was innovation but now it's going backward every time. Everything is coupled where it shouldn't. Fat proprietary drivers, bad interfaces physical and software, coupled network links, cheap tricks to ensure regular costs (ink drm etc); bad mechanics (HP printers are more and more noisy)... It's mostly a social problem, ma…
Sadly, genericity is death for product margins. Profit comes from lockin, like HP's ridiculous cloud ink services.
I don't think there's a market for a more open printer, not at the price you'd have to charge for your small production runs.
Re: Epson customers report Google Cloud Print causing printers to power down
#38I didn't know Google Cloud Print before, so I made some research on their site: https://www.google.com/cloudprint/learn/
""" Using Google Cloud Print, you can make your home and work printers available to you and anyone you choose, from the applications you use every day. Google Cloud Print works on your phone, tablet, Chromebook, PC, and any other web-connected device you want to print from. """
Ok, so my printer is supposed to be registered to google cloud to make me print from anywhere. Ok. But my files?
https://www.google.com/cloudprint/learn/howitworks.html
""" When you print through Google Cloud Print, your file is securely sent to your printer over the web. Because it’s the web, Google Cloud Print works whether you’re in the same room as your printer, or on another continent. It also doesn’t matter whether you’re on a phone, a traditional desktop, or anything in between (like a tablet). """
So if I'm in my room, on my laptop, at 3 meters from my ubersupercloudenabled printer, I can send my file to it via the web. Securely. Ok.
""" Documents are transferred over a secure HTTPS web connection. After a job is completed, the associated document is deleted from our servers. """
The file is sent via HTTPS. But the file itself...is it encrypted? (Maybe the printer generates a keypair upon registration, and the same does every devices, etc etc...?)
https://support.google.com/cloudprint/answer/2541843?hl=en&r...
""" Who can see what I’m printing?
Google Cloud Print jobs are submitted and retrieved over a secure connection (https), and are only available to you and the printer you’re using. """
""" Any document you send for printing is kept strictly confidential. Google does not access the documents you print for any purpose other than to improve printing. """
"to improve printing" may be the "metaphor" behind the functioning of Google Cloud Print itself. This can be read, after removing the double negations and the other usual tricks as "Google access the documents you print to give to you the comfort to print your files while staying 3 meters away from your printer, by passing them to the cloud and our automatic eyes and godknowswhat".
NO. THANKS BUT NO.
Re: Epson customers report Google Cloud Print causing printers to power down
#39We'll have Fusion reactors before solid and enjoyable printers.
We used to have solid and enjoyable printers, around about 1990 was the peak (LaserJet III).
GPIB plotters. I still have one of those. It still works. It is the only "printer" I never had a single problem with. It runs on a now over 50 years old computer bus.
Re: Epson customers report Google Cloud Print causing printers to power down
#40On first glance Google Cloud Print looks like nothing more than an Internet version of networking printing, a technology which has been around for a long time; so one is naturally a bit surprised that Epson could get something like this wrong, but then I dug a little deeper...
https://developers.google.com/cloud-print/docs/devguide
...and the protocol involves HTTPS, OAuth, JSON, and XMPP(!), so rather more complex than existing protocols like IPP; although much can be said for having simple-to-parse protocols especially for embedded devices like these, some error occurring in the GCP part of the firmware shouldn't cause the whole printer to become unusable.