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Podcast for 10 October 2016

Started by MrBogosity, October 09, 2016, 06:00:01 PM

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October 09, 2016, 06:00:01 PM
[mp3]http://media.blubrry.com/bogosity/p/podcast.bogosity.tv/mp3s/BogosityPodcast-2016-10-10.mp3[/mp3]


Co-Host: Travis Retriever

News of the Bogus:
22:10 - Biggest Bogon Emitter: HP Inc. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/09/what-hp-must-do-make-amends-its-self-destructing-printers
27:28 - Idiot Extraordinaire: Various Conservatives https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/08/congress-has-just-one-month-to-keep-the-internet-under-us-control

This Week's Quote: "'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' is the stupidest freaking saying in the world. All of the amazing things that have happened throughout human history is because someone decided to take something that they thought was working fine, break it, and build something better." —Bryan Lunduke
October 10, 2016, 10:27:12 AM #1
It isn't just home users who get hosed on occasion by Microsoft patches.  This is enough of a problem for custom business software (which is, admittedly, often really poorly written itself) that many corporations have a policy of not rolling out any patches until they have been thoroughly tested in a test environment.  (I've run into this from a support perspective as well.  I was supporting a server application that could store its' temporary files on a fileshare, and discovered when a customer had a server  that wouldn't start up and was reporting it couldn't access the fileshare that a Windows 2003 Server installation without SP1 cannot access a fileshare on an installation with SP1.  Fortunately, the were able to install SP1 on the server without it, and they needed it if they were going to upgrade to the new version of the application anyway.)

As another alternative to buying expensive ink cartridges (ink in OEM cartridges typically costs somewhere between good champagne and good perfume, or between about $5000 and $10000 a gallon) is a Continuous Ink System.  This replaces the cartridges with devices that look like ink cartridges to the printer but are actually feeding ink from large, external tanks.  These tanks can hold anywhere from 8 ounces of ink to as much as a gallon (although that's very much a specialty rig), and the ink is much more reasonably priced in bulk, in the range of $40-$120 a gallon.  You can also easily get things like archival quality inks (rated to not fade with time, even with UV light exposure, or to degrade the paper).  Inkjets can also print on things like transparencies, which isn't usually possible with laser printers (toner is essential plastic dust, and is melted on to the paper, which is a bad scene if you try to feed plastic printing media through).

But, for the way MOST people print, a CIS isn't all that beneficial.  If you print a LOT of stuff, or need special ink properties, then it's great, but most people print a few pages here and there and don't usually need them to last for many years.  Shane's recommendation of a color laser printer is ideal here, and still cheaper per page than inkjet, and it doesn't waste toner on cleaning cycles like an inkjet wastes ink (and sporadic use is the worst for getting cleaning cycles).  While toner cartridges are more expensive than ink cartridges, they also provide far more pages per cartridge than ink cartridges do.
October 11, 2016, 09:06:56 AM #2
There are a lot of good features in the Enterprise edition of Windows 10 that security researchers are lambasting Microsoft for not including in EVERY edition.

Epson has a series of printers that run the ink continuously from bottles, and you just replace the bottles.

Laser printers are perfectly capable of printing on transparencies, and people have been doing this for years. The temperature isn't anywhere near hot enough to melt the celluloid.

The only thing I'm aware of that inkjets can do but lasers cannot is print directly onto printable DVD-Rs.
October 11, 2016, 04:22:49 PM #3
Quote from: MrBogosity on October 11, 2016, 09:06:56 AM
There are a lot of good features in the Enterprise edition of Windows 10 that security researchers are lambasting Microsoft for not including in EVERY edition.

Including not automatically sending poorly defined data back to Microsoft that there's no reason to think they actually need for any legitimate purpose, and not having built-in adware.

Quote from: MrBogosity on October 11, 2016, 09:06:56 AM
Epson has a series of printers that run the ink continuously from bottles, and you just replace the bottles.

Well, a small series of all-in-ones, according to their web site.  (They probably decided to go the opposite direction to HP since they already know that they won't be able to stop people from using CIS with copyright law anyway, and they could see that any attempt would produce a backlash.  Some companies are run by people with absolutely no foresight on these things.)

I don't like all-in-ones, actually, I prefer to have my scanner and printer as separate devices.  (And my old LiDE 35 is about as good a scanner as any you'll find in an all-in-one and doesn't need an additional power supply.)  However, the ET-4550 has refillable tanks, comes with thousands of pages worth of ink, built-in duplex printing, and a not too high price.  According to the brochure, it can print up to 8.5 by 47.2 inches (which would ease problems making photomasks for setting up large silkscreens), although it doesn't list transparencies being compatible.  It doesn't indicate the ink is archival-quality, but it shouldn't be hard to switch over, as long as the colors are what they should be it won't mater what the source is.

Quote from: MrBogosity on October 11, 2016, 09:06:56 AM
Laser printers are perfectly capable of printing on transparencies, and people have been doing this for years. The temperature isn't anywhere near hot enough to melt the celluloid.

Celluloid isn't used, but doesn't normally melt anyway.  (Celluloid burns nicely, once you drive off the flame retardant, and is just nasty and prone to lose important components over time on exposure to common environmental factors like heat and moisture and turn into quite badly behaved materials.  Big lumps are usually not too bad, but thin, flexible forms can be quite volatile.)  It's different high-temp plastic.  Interestingly, upon looking it up, it turns out that laser-printer compatible transparencies are a lot cheaper than ones compatible with inkjets, and far cheaper than ones compatible with both.  (When I was a kid, the standard was an acetate plastic and that did not get along with printers at all.)

Quote from: MrBogosity on October 11, 2016, 09:06:56 AM
The only thing I'm aware of that inkjets can do but lasers cannot is print directly onto printable DVD-Rs.

Printing directly on disc media is a notoriously useless ability, because in high-speed drives the ink tends to slide.  If you absolutely MUST put a label directly on the disc, rather than printing it on a stick-on label, use the Lightscribe system.  If you can still find media, anyway.  You need both a special printer with disc printing capability and special media that will accept the ink properly for that to work anyway, so it almost always comes out better and more economical to use stick-on labels.
February 27, 2017, 01:00:31 PM #4
First ten minutes in and poop has been the dominating topic. Great podcast
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