@cy @Some_Emo_Chick This kind of planned obsolescence annoys me too. But in the context of business-as-usual, the alternative is probably printers being super-expensive with no guaranteed supplier of compatible ink cartridges at all. What if there was a network of cooperatives that manufactured printers and applied ink, using a standardized cartridge design?
@dsfgs @Some_Emo_Chick @cy @strypey The ink was found to cost more than Chanel (or Channel?), which is a high-end perfume, some high end Champaigns, & even more costly than human blood. There are printers that are /designed/ to handle bulk ink (so you don’t have to drill & run ribbons of tubing). IIRC they start around us$ 500, but the ink is thereafter as cheap as ink gets.
@strypey @cy @Some_Emo_Chick @dsfgs If you don’t print enough to justify the up-front $500, then you probably shouldn’t buy a printer. Cycle to the library instead. It’s better than feeding predatory anti-consumer corps.
@dsfgs @Some_Emo_Chick @cy @strypey The cheapest option is probably to buy an anti-consumer printer and hack it to take bulk ink and buy the empty cartridges with hacked chips, and buy bulk no name ink. My problem with that is it still rewards the maker of a product designed to take advantage of you, and you’re also still in the minefield of tracker dots.
Diagram showing the #ethical consequences of various printer brands.
@dsfgs @Some_Emo_Chick @cy @strypey
@aktivismoEstasMiaLuo @dsfgs @Some_Emo_Chick @cy@mstdn.io @strypey This is great! We need a lot more of this, since corporations are so good at hiding in the abstractions of modern life.
