2-20-13 – Office Space

Congrats to BecauseISaidSo this week! Very well played 😉 I’ve been wondering how you got the message to read that on the printer? Did you have to hack it?

Thanks Els! After the shocker bombed, I wasn’t sure how this one would play, but I guess it’s a little more specific to the theme.

Thanks also to everyone who voted. And congrats to fluffybunny on his combined win – a strong showing indeed.

As for the printer message, the status message on older HP printers (printers that use PCL – Printer Control Language) is programmable. So if you know the right PCL command, creating a program to set the status to whatever you want (as long as it’s 16 characters or less) is pretty simple.

When I first wrote the program a few years ago, I set the status to “FEED ME A CAT” and then waited to see how long it’d take until one of the kids noticed it. 🙂 I later changed it to “INSERT QUARTER” and tried to make some coin off of their homework, but the cheapskates never paid.

A note about that printer – that’s an HP Laserjet 4 Plus that I’ve had since the early-to-mid nineties. I put a new toner cartridge in it once a year and it just keeps going. I don’t think they make ’em like that anymore.

Thanks CISS.

Had me a HPLJ 4mp until about a year ago. It quit electronically, not worth fixing so I sacrificed it for the “Noir” / darkside contest. Awesome printer for many years (1995 maybe?).

There are some versions from that shoot with little pieces flying about in the frame. Not sure Why I didn’t use one of them.