Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Refilling an ink jet cartridge with highlighter ink

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 71 posts

Re: Refilling an ink jet cartridge with highlighter ink

#61

Post by justinclift »

pugworthy wrote: post #59
userbinator wrote: post #4

Inkjet printers can use a variety of inks, one notable application is the special third-party inks used for thermal transfers on clothing and such: https://www.inksupply.com/heat_transfer_ink.cfm The printer shown here is based on the original HP Bubblejet thermal technology, and thermal printheads are less flexible with the types of inks they can use; hence why Epsons (piezoelectric head) tend to be preferred by tho…

I work with a very small group at HP that uses inkjet technology to dispense fluids for work in life sciences. Basically, inkjet TIJ technology lets you dispense very precise amounts of material with very precise timing. Normally that's just ink, but you can do it with quite a few other things. In our case, what we do is dispense liquids that normally would be done with a micropipette. We can mix up to 8 different ma…

Guessing you're in the group that makes these?

https://www8.hp.com/us/en/commercial-printers/specialty-prin...

There's no pricing on that page. :(

Any idea what kind of price (even range) they're in?

Re: Refilling an ink jet cartridge with highlighter ink

#62

Post by aidenn0 »

airstrike wrote: post #57
nkrisc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose if those jobs are so terrible that no one who has UBI wants to do them, they'll have to pay a fair wage to attract people. If they're truly necessary, wages will rise until until positions are filled. And yes, you may now have to pay more for work that was woefully underpaid previously. If your scenario comes to pass, it just means we've been taking advantage of the people who currently work those jobs beca…

> they'll have to pay a fair wage to attract people. Wages aren't defined based on what is fair or unfair. They're decided based on supply and demand for labor, thankfully. A "shit job" is by definition one that creates little value because value is defined as what is lost when someone exits the picture. Workers in those "shit jobs" can be immediately replaced so no value is really lost by their exit, so their value…

> A "shit job" is by definition one that creates little value because value is defined as what is lost when someone exits the picture.

There are two people involved in the transaction: the worker and the employer. The employer will value the work at a value greater than the wage, otherwise they would be more profitable just by firing the worker. Similarly the worker will value the wage more than the job, because otherwise they would quit.

When most people talk about the "value" of a job, they tend to not use either local definition, but from a more global definition of "how bad off would society be if nobody did this job" and that more closely aligns with the employer's value than the worker's (e.g. for services jobs the employer makes money on the spread between what customers will pay and what workers will work for, so clearly customers value the job at some margin above the wage, and we can use customers as a proxy for "society")

Without UBI, the wage is what lets the worker not end up homeless and starving (or begging), so someone with no better job prospects will value the wage very highly. Once you add UBI into the mixture though, maybe it's "move into a larger apartment" or "eat out somewhere nice once in a while" and suddenly they value the wage much less.

Re: Refilling an ink jet cartridge with highlighter ink

#63

Post by pugworthy »

justinclift wrote: post #61
pugworthy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work with a very small group at HP that uses inkjet technology to dispense fluids for work in life sciences. Basically, inkjet TIJ technology lets you dispense very precise amounts of material with very precise timing. Normally that's just ink, but you can do it with quite a few other things. In our case, what we do is dispense liquids that normally would be done with a micropipette. We can mix up to 8 different ma…

Guessing you're in the group that makes these? https://www8.hp.com/us/en/commercial-printers/specialty-prin... There's no pricing on that page. :( Any idea what kind of price (even range) they're in?

These here -> https://www8.hp.com/us/en/commercial-printers/specialty-prin...

I'm not 100% sure of the price but ... well we don't sell them at Best Buy :)

The whole SPS group (Specialty Print Systems) focuses on using the inkjet technology for things HP may wish to not sell or market to directly. Like barcode printers, etc.

Definitely reach out via the contact info at the bottom if you're interested.

Re: Refilling an ink jet cartridge with highlighter ink

#64

Post by pugworthy »

pugworthy wrote: post #50
paulmd wrote: post #34

Actually squeezing it from a highlighter is messy and unnecessary. You can buy bottled highlighter ink for fountain pens pretty cheaply. (there are special super-broad pen nibs for highlighting work. To use bulk ink, you have a "converter" cartridge with a piston or squeeze-bottle that allows you to suck ink out of the bottle and into the pen) Since you specifically seem to be after fluorescent, here's somewhere to g…

Emily's a hacker who does a lot for fun and amusement. I get the sense that doing this in an efficient and effective way was not the end goal.

Seriously, I've followed her for a while on Twitter, and she does a lot of really fun crazy stuff. I've really enjoyed having a twitter feed centered around positive, fun feeds.

Re: Refilling an ink jet cartridge with highlighter ink

#65

Post by minikites »

mardifoufs wrote: post #55
nkrisc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose if those jobs are so terrible that no one who has UBI wants to do them, they'll have to pay a fair wage to attract people. If they're truly necessary, wages will rise until until positions are filled. And yes, you may now have to pay more for work that was woefully underpaid previously. If your scenario comes to pass, it just means we've been taking advantage of the people who currently work those jobs beca…

But what happens when all prices go up? If everyone gets paid more, wouldn't the UBI be worthless? Landlords will just raise prices since working people will always have more money (UBI + salary) than non workers? Just like now? Same goes for almost every service. Real supply and demand will stay the same, real economic production will probably stay the same too. So what's the point? 2000$ only feels a lot right now…

>It is akin to simply denying a whole scientific field because you feel it's are wrong

Economics isn't a science.

Re: Refilling an ink jet cartridge with highlighter ink

#66

Post by aidenn0 »

mardifoufs wrote: post #55
nkrisc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose if those jobs are so terrible that no one who has UBI wants to do them, they'll have to pay a fair wage to attract people. If they're truly necessary, wages will rise until until positions are filled. And yes, you may now have to pay more for work that was woefully underpaid previously. If your scenario comes to pass, it just means we've been taking advantage of the people who currently work those jobs beca…

But what happens when all prices go up? If everyone gets paid more, wouldn't the UBI be worthless? Landlords will just raise prices since working people will always have more money (UBI + salary) than non workers? Just like now? Same goes for almost every service. Real supply and demand will stay the same, real economic production will probably stay the same too. So what's the point? 2000$ only feels a lot right now…

To a certain extent, it's like raising the minimum range, only more so. A lot of jobs will just disappear.

Re: Refilling an ink jet cartridge with highlighter ink

#67

Post by userbinator »

detaro wrote: post #12
mdip wrote: post #2

I had wondered how this individual was going to make Inkjet printer ink out of highlighter pens. I mean, considering the ink is priced somewhere around the same rate as liquid gold, I figured it was either going to end up being "way too easy" or we'd find out there was some important reason ink was so expensive. Neither was the result -- that's a Dot Matrix printer. I'd imagine if I'd have turned the volume on, you'd…

I always am impressed how people clearly can tell someone got the difference between a dot matrix printer and an inkjet wrong despite working with it for months, just from seeing a short silent video snippet. BTW: https://twitter.com/MLE_Online/status/1243551232087584770

To be fair, I think this may be the first time a lot of people, even HN users, have seen a tractor-feed inkjet.

Re: Refilling an ink jet cartridge with highlighter ink

#68

Post by justinclift »

pugworthy wrote: post #63
justinclift wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guessing you're in the group that makes these? https://www8.hp.com/us/en/commercial-printers/specialty-prin... There's no pricing on that page. :( Any idea what kind of price (even range) they're in?

These here -> https://www8.hp.com/us/en/commercial-printers/specialty-prin... I'm not 100% sure of the price but ... well we don't sell them at Best Buy :) The whole SPS group (Specialty Print Systems) focuses on using the inkjet technology for things HP may wish to not sell or market to directly. Like barcode printers, etc. Definitely reach out via the contact info at the bottom if you're interested.

Thanks, that's the page I thought I linked to, but didn't get right. :)

Was asking mostly from curiosity, as I've been helping out a local Community Biolab recently with "tech stuff" ;).

Will remember to point it out to the people there when I'm next in, likely after this COVID thing dies down. Hopefully. :)

Re: Refilling an ink jet cartridge with highlighter ink

#69

Post by stragies »

tracker1 wrote: post #58
stragies wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was my impression, that OP was using the term "shit jobs" to denote jobs with low pay, but high effort, manual, dangerous, etc. "Plumbing" is therefore not a "shit job". It's well paid compared to most (Uber/Taxi/etc-)driving, cleaning, trash-collecting and many other jobs.

Trash collecting tends to pay pretty well too.

Yes, but trash collecting is super-easy to automate compared to automated "finding-of-plumbing-solutions".

It all depends on the ratio "Ease-of-implementation" / "Cost of existing manpower" for each sector of job.

Re: Refilling an ink jet cartridge with highlighter ink

#70

Post by detaro »

userbinator wrote: post #67
detaro wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always am impressed how people clearly can tell someone got the difference between a dot matrix printer and an inkjet wrong despite working with it for months, just from seeing a short silent video snippet. BTW: https://twitter.com/MLE_Online/status/1243551232087584770

To be fair, I think this may be the first time a lot of people, even HN users, have seen a tractor-feed inkjet.

And if the submission was a question "what kind of printer is this", misidentifying it would be a completely harmless mistake. Assuming that the person owning it, clearly labeling it an inkjet, refilling its ink tank (did dot matrix printers ever have that?) must be the one wrong about it, less so.
Post reply on HN