Just an FYI in case anyone was interested: if you're printing something potentially clandestine, be careful about where you print it.

Just an FYI in case anyone was interested: if you're printing something potentially clandestine, be careful about where you print it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots

@vkc Somewhat ironically, the old dot matrix should be free of tracking dots.

@ozzelot hmmm, I wonder if that's why someone still uses it

@vkc gotta bust out the mimeographs. And I'm not even joking

@vkc I was completely unaware, and yet I am not surprised.

@vkc @ozzelot

Also still somewhat useful for multi copy transfer paper (not sure of the name in English) which work on impact (less and less common these days of course)

@Kiloku I look for one every month on Craigslist. It's on my bucket list of video topics to cover. "The sweetest copies you'll ever smell"

@vkc This is why I stick to cutting out letters from magazines and newspapers and taping them to the paper for my correspondence.

Reminded me of the caution people had around printing stuff out at pharmacies when I was younger.

@vkc@linuxmom.net

Reminded me of the caution people had around getting your photos developed at pharmacies when I was younger.

@vkc@linuxmom.net

@renatoram @vkc That might be the reason to use them in post offices and the like.
Sadly, when I was starting my new bank account last year, they just printed two copies of the paperwork on a laser, and why wouldn't they, it's fast as heck.

@vkc @Kiloku As a kid, a friend and I ran a small neighborhood newspaper. We talked businesses into advertising in it, and distributed it in a maybe 10 block area because many people needed birdcage liner, and also because who didn't want to read a review of a TV show by a kid?

We talked the bowling alley into letting us use their mimeograph machine in exchange for an ad placement.

Mmmm. Mmmmimeograph smell.

@vkc

Like accidently printing the Tickets for a fetish fair on the office printer at work, instead the printer at home.

@vkc Thank you. The Wikipedia article helpfully refers to software to help remove the pattern before publishing scans and thwart recognition of your printers pattern by adding a mask before printing https://github.com/dfd-tud/deda

@ozzelot @vkc used to be (at least in Italy) that two copies that were not the result of a single unique action weren't legally considered actual copies, I believe.

Plus, yeah, when printing hundreds of invoices in the early 2000s it was probably faster and cheaper (I remember pre-printed forms of continuous paper that would make 5 copies in one go).

@ozzelot @renatoram @vkc

Shipping companies still use them but it is becoming increasingly rare even amongst them (CMR form if memory serves me right)

Fun fact: I used to work at a call center supporting software that allowed printing those forms. I can't tell you how many little tips for resolving printer issues we had - but rarely if ever had genuine unsolvable defects. And if something broke, replace the part *maybe* recalibrate and off you go

@vkc Related: a lot of things labelled as "fax machine" can actually also function as stand-alone USB printers. And "fax machines" are often free on classifieds, and use cheap generic cartridges/toners, and (aside from stuff like doorbell cameras) that means there's basically no paper or money trail from the original purchaser to you at all.

It's not a bad way to get hold of a more or less anonymous printer.

@Aprazeth @ozzelot @vkc good old 120 columns Brother printers... They'd shake the table like a washing machine

@vkc The dot decoding was used in episode of The Night Agent, so hopefully awareness is increasing. Good reason to use a mono-only printer where possible.

Each of these leaks shows just how broken classified document handling in the USA is.

@SuperMoosie @vkc this is a toolkit that can do exactly that - https://github.com/dfd-tud/deda