I recently bought a Brother colour laser printer, with the understanding that OEM toner was not chip-locked.
Wanting to update the firmware, and being on Linux, I started to look at ways to do it manually.
After finding a few guides to do so manually:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CUPS/Printer-specific_probl... https://www.earth.li/~noodles/blog/2015/11/updating-hl3040cn...
I decided to poll my printer. I then noticed an OSS/python project to just handle it via a package. However, I noticed this issue:
https://github.com/sedrubal/brother_printer_fwupd/issues/9
Startled, I Googled... and the printer listed is an inkjet. For a second I was relieved, but then started to search for other issues, and found this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/s9b2eg/brother_mf...
Not only is the above, post-sale firwmware update a change of what I understood to be Brother's historical policy, the method is beyond evil.
Brother seems to be apparently accepting the ink, but then purposefully making the print quality poorer.
I literally cannot think of something, product wise, more evil. It's one thing to say "We refuse to use 3rd party toner", and another to accept the toner, and then just purposefully print like garbage.
I was a happy HP customer for years, and only switched to Brother (which, by all accounts, is a much smaller / less renowned company) for the sole reason to not be vendor locked.
I will likely return this printer, but thought HN should know what Brother seems to be up to.
Also, actual example of a smart TV connecting to an unprotected WiFI: https://web.archive.org/web/20210912135232/https://forum.dev...
I purchased it in August 2021 and the demo toner it came with ran out this week.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B079Z44VZ7
Toner is like £40 which works out at like £3.30 a month
Oh and it's not user serviceable.
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.
I don't know how this is legal without informing the user. But that's the case with a lot of censorship/surveillance technology - they not only want to keep surveil/censor, they want to do so while keeping users in the dark about it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/s9b2eg/brother_mf...
Incredible.
https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk
Businesses are choosing to use their profits to perform stock buybacks instead of innovating or improving standards for their workers:
https://hbr.org/2020/01/why-stock-buybacks-are-dangerous-for...
Meanwhile the cost of living is going through the roof:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-...
And pay is not catching up, further aggravated by inflation:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1272447/uk-wage-growth-v...
In the UK we also have a 54% increase in the residential cost of energy (within the context of extreme profiteering from energy manufacturers):
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/03/business/energy-prices-uk...
And 9.1% inflation:
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/uk-inflation-rate-hits-...
This is true across the world. I'm not sure what your life is like, but it sure as hell doesn't match the lived experience of many.
There's a discussion upthread about some epson models being mostly alright (with caveats; read the whole thread): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31860555
Well, just as another data point... I've been using a HP LaserJet Pro M402dne for the last two years, and it's solid. I should point out it's not colour, and Ethernet (not wifi). Also prints fine from Apple and Android devices in the family through the network.
Before that, I struggled along with inkjets before finally giving up. I remember having an urgent document to print in mono, had a new black XL cartridge installed, and it refused to print until I went out and got some yellow too. So for a while, I've been telling anyone prepared to listen that inkjets are a scam.
Anyhow, the LaserJet came with a starter toner cartridge. I also got a 9000 page XL toner cartridge around the same time. Two years later, I'm still on the starter toner cartridge. For an intermittent user, it's really great. Inkjets have often dried up on me if there's significant time between prints.
Looking at sites such as this, the model that I use also works with compatible toner cartridges : https://www.tonergiant.co.uk/model/HP-LaserJet-Pro-M402dne-t...
<insert XKCD reference here>
I've had to dig into this a fair bit at work, and it's rather amazing. Certainly not perfect, but basically printers which are certified for IPP Everywhere (Mopria for Android, Airprint for Apple) are required to have built-in format support for a set of given formats. For example, Mopria certification requires PCLm (a backwards-compatible subset of PDF, designed for streaming), PWG Raster and PDF. IPP Everywhere mandates PWG Raster, JPEG and PDF. Of course Apple being Apple, they have their own Raster format (urf). The printers can support more (and typically do), but they have to include the base. Also the formats (and capabilities) the printers support can be queried via standard IPP. (*)
That sounds complex, but it means that as long as the printer supports any of those standards, you have a good chance of printing to it). I've printed to some pretty strange, limited printers via IPP, and had surprisingly good luck doing so (mostly via raster-urf).
Apparently in Linux CUPS is going this way completely, and has recently added built-in on-the-fly conversion. So CUPS will query the printer, and then send documents in whatever format the printer supports. If it's an AirPrint certified printer, then it'll send raster-urf; if it's IPP Everywhere it might send PWG-Raster or PDF.
Certainly not perfect (as my testing has shown), but it's a heck of a lot better than what we had before. And I've heard that they now have a standard for 3D printing (3MF*) aiming to replace STL. Apparently developed with the Linux Foundation. I have no personal experience with it, but with the complexity of 3D printing, I'd not be surprised if it's still immature.
(*) https://openprinting.github.io/driverless/01-standards-and-t... (**) https://www.pwg.org/3d/
https://www.keypointintelligence.com/news/editors-desk/2018/....
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.
" If your Brother HL-2130 does not reset properly after putting in a new cartridge, and is still showing a 'toner low' or 'toner empty' message, it is possible to manually reset the printer:
Ensure the printer is turned off.
Open the printer front cover.
Hold the Go button while turning the printer on.
When the Toner, Drum, and Error LEDs are on and the Ready LED is off, release the GO button. All of the LEDs will turn off.
Press the Go button two (2) times. The Toner, Drum, and Error LEDs will turn on.
Press the Go button six (6) times.
The Error LED should now be flashing, close the front cover. "