iiiiiiitttttttttttt

746 readers

205 users here now

you know the computer thing is it plugged in?

A community for memes and posts about tech and IT related rage.

founded 1 month ago

MODERATORS

irelephant@programming.dev

Irelephant@lemm.ee

539

Lazerjet 4050 (infosec.pub)

submitted 3 weeks ago by irelephant@programming.dev to c/iiiiiiitttttttttttt@programming.dev

44 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Transcript

A piece of paper on an old printer (a laserjet 4050 to be specific. It says: "Hello, My name is LaserJet 4050 and I was made in 1999. I’ve been doing my job printing your documents for many many years, however I think the motor that powers my paper feeder is bad. This makes me sad because I’m not able to do my job very reliably. As such, I am formally presenting this document as a letter of resignation. IT is working on finding a replacement for me, but for the time being, I apologize if I tell you I have a paper jam. Please allow me to refer you to my coworker, LaserJet 3390. 3390 resides outside of Ray’s office and can be reached at: Please accept my sincerest apologies for failing. Thank you for replacing my toner and restocking my paper tray. It’s been a wonderful 14 years of working together. Much love, LaserJet 4050

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 68 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (9 children)

That era when HP made unkillable printers. Boss made me chunk a couple of these (think they were 4020s?). "But all they need is a $30 kit! Be like new for 10-20 thousand more pages!"

Drivers? ANY version of Linux or Windows would run 'em. Got a JetDirect card? ($15 on eBay.) Unscrew 2 screws, shove it in, turn it on. Boom. You got a network printer. I deployed Linux Lite in a kiosk for people to apply for jobs. Printed flawlessly, no downloads, and I sucked (still do) at Linux.

Anyone remember the LaserJet III, IV and Vs!? Does it power on? It works. Little jammy? Get a belt kit that any idiot, even me, can install.

Had a 36" 630c (model?) that was a fucking beast. Left it at my last job, didn't want to tote it home and get new cartridges. The belts looked like tires popping steel threads. Still worked. Again, on any OS. That machine was top-of-line for Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, was still flying high on Win10 with OS native drivers.

Got a P1102w work gave me 7-years ago. Beastly. Never had to fuck with parts, $20 toner cartridges still available.
15-years old, rocks out. Win10 had me wrestling with drivers for a brief period, updates cured it. Win11 runs it fine. And does wireless, if you're a barbarian.

End of a fucking era. The world has been stolen from you my young friends! STOLEN!

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

So you are telling me, that there was a time when peinters werent the hell-spawn that they are now?

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh, no, they always sucked, but it was mostly a drivers/OS issue.

NT 4 and Win2k were about the peak of printer not-as-much-hell, but then Microsoft decided to move the driver into the kernel for Vista and later (maybe XP), and back to shit it went.

And then vendors tightened their belts and found every way possible to make printers even more cheaply, pushed hard on inkjets, and now it's all worse than it ever was.

[–] b_tr3e@feddit.org 7 points 3 weeks ago

To be fair, they had their mechanical complications, too. Some more, some less but most of them were always good for a nasty surprise in an unexpecing moment.

load more comments (2 replies)

load more comments (6 replies)