ChestertonsMeme
blocking the federal fist
No bio...
User ID: 1098
ChestertonsMeme
blocking the federal fist
8d ago
Now and then I need to print sensitive documents like account recovery codes, and I don't trust internet-connected devices like basically all modern printers. I decided to see what kind of printers were out there that didn't need internet connectivity. There are a few that one can supposedly use over USB, but the printer I settled on was actually a USB receipt printer intended for point-of-sale use. The output is plenty big enough for notes, shopping lists, and recovery codes, and it's easy to operate, so I bought one.
It's been a lot of fun playing with this printer. It's really fast, and there's no ink to deal with. The best part is the document length is unlimited; it's just continuous paper on a roll with no page breaks. So longer-form documents come out as a looooong narrow page.
What has been interesting has been seeing the software bugs this exposes in common software. One would think that page size is completely arbitrary and it should be possible to print in any dimensions, but no.
- Chromium can't print pages longer than about a meter. It also (unrelated to the printer; I just discovered this during this exploration since I don't ever use Chromium at home) cannot print from reader mode.
- Firefox tries to be extremely clever in how it parses the paper size, and ends up barfing when it encounters the description of the receipt paper size. It falls back to treating the document size as A4 with the narrow column of text centered, which means the only visible portion of the document when printed is the blank left side of the A4 page.
- Many programs (Obsidian looking at you) can't print natively, falling back to a PDF renderer from which one is supposed to print. The trouble is that Obsidian's PDF renderer only allows common paper sizes like US Letter and A4. There's a community plugin for printing, but with this printer it only succeeds on every other attempt.
- Many websites can't render properly in a narrow window or document. Combined with Chromium not printing from reader mode and Firefox failing completely, I haven't figured out how to print blog posts and essays formatted nicely.
I'm not sure what I expected given that I was doing something unusual, but I also expect software to be getting better over time so I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Still, it works for what I really need it for, and maybe I can figure out how to work around these bugs.
I'm having a hard time thinking of any children's media from 20+ years ago where the main character really loses something at the end. There are a lot of stories with a loss at the beginning (Batman, The Land Before Time, The Lion King, for example). Let me do an informal survey:
G:
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971): happy ending
- Robin Hood (Disney, 1973): happy ending
- The Fox and the Hound (1981): loss
- An American Tail (1986): happy ending
- The Land Before Time (1988): happy ending
- The Little Mermaid (1989): happy ending
- Aladdin (1992): happy ending
- The Lion King (1994): happy ending
- Toy Story (1995): happy ending
- Babe (1995): happy ending
- Mulan (1998): happy ending
PG:
- Jaws (1975): loss
- Star Wars (1977): loss
- The Empire Strikes Back (1980): loss
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): happy ending
- The Return of the Jedi (1983): loss
- Ghostbusters (1984): happy ending
- The NeverEnding Story (1984): happy ending
- The Karate Kid (1984): happy ending
- Back to the Future (1985): happy ending
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1986): happy ending
- The Goonies (1985): happy ending
- Stand by Me (1986): loss (I think)
- The Princess Bride (1987): happy ending
- Willow (1988): happy ending
- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989): happy ending
- Home Alone (1990): happy ending
- My Girl (1991): loss
- The Iron Giant (1999): loss
- Spirited Away (2001): loss
I'd do a more thorough survey but I'm tired. The basic story, though, is that G-rated movies have always had happy endings without much real emotional impact (The Fox and the Hound being a notable exception).
If you're looking for kids' movies with depth, I'd recommend Studio Ghibli. There's not a lot you can do about your kids' peers liking saccharine trivialities but it doesn't hurt to try introducing something more interesting.
ChestertonsMeme
blocking the federal fist
26d ago
I just would have zero care that someone told me they thought about and planned to do a school shooting but didn’t. It’s not like they were stopped - they just didn’t do it.
I had the same reaction - who cares? This might really be a class thing. I think it's more about thinking of a gun as a legitimate tool than it is about how she planned to use it.
Yes; I bought paper that's supposed to have at least a 5-year lifespan before fading, and I'm keeping a skeptical eye on how the printouts actually fade. I'll probably get a USB laser printer eventually but the shopping is such a chore.
More options
Context Copy link