The printer knows when you are in a hurry
I build distributed systems for a living. I can make a thousand servers agree on the order of events across three continents. I cannot make the office printer print one page.
Today it wanted a driver update. Then it wanted me to install a companion app, sign in to the companion app, and agree to share usage data with the companion app. Then it said it was out of cyan, which, fine, except I was printing a black-and-white boarding pass.
I am convinced the thing can sense urgency. On a slow Tuesday afternoon it prints perfectly. Ten minutes before a flight, it enters a spiritual crisis. Somewhere there is a firmware engineer who knows exactly why, and I would like to have a very long conversation with them.
Deborah Okafor @deb_from_accounts ·
Ours asks for a PIN that nobody has ever been told. It has asked since 2019. We just go to the library.
Tomas Reyes @tomas_parents ·
Out of cyan while printing black and white is the most relatable sentence I have read all year.