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Comment by nonrandomstring | Hacker News Reader

To some extent we can support them ourselves (as I do with my Canon). It can can be easily set with an IP/hostname and "just works". When it's not in use, it's unplugged. The main support issues are probably physical, right? Newer printers tend to break too easily. And yes, some academics are too dumb to fix a paper jam or change a toner cartridge. Hasn't it always been so?

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To a certain extent, you are correct that the physical support like jams and toner replacement was typically handled by the lab. However it still meant having 30 printers, all of them of different makes and models and firmware versions on the network. Thirty ethernet runs having to be patched in, and 30 more ports on the switch lit up, and 30 more static IP leases doled out. All of that is relatively minor on its own, but at the end of the day its still a liability. Not all liabilities are necessarily a bad thing though, if it allows you to reach a desirable outcome. So what was the desirable outcome in this case?

Not having to walk 30 feet down the hall to the shared copier/printer on every floor to retrieve your print.

If the printer down the hall were sufficiently better than a SOHO printer, wouldn't most people be willing to make that trip?

I'd rather walk 30 feet to a printer that prints at better quality, can staple, can print 5x or 10x as fast, doesn't make noise next to my desk, and can be loaded with 5 reams of paper instead of 0.5 reams.

Convenience and confidentiality, e.g. you don't want to print grant proposals or recommendation letters on shared printers.

A common setup is to have shared printers for high volume things like exams and additionally have low volume printers per group.

> 30 printers all different

Have you tried endorsing certain models? Most researchers don't want to spend time picking out printers and will just get a random one. If you suggest one, they will probably just agree.

Have you never had to use an id-card to start your print?

Takes care of the confidentiality issue.

No and it doesn't. There is a shared printer available to all faculty (by network from their workstations) in a locked room. So you go there to collect your print outs and usually they are between colleagues' print outs that were sent at around the same time.

So that doesn't fix the issue and is already much more annoying than a small printer (other room, lock, finding your print out). Add any further hassle like id cards on top and nobody will use it.

I suddenly see your point in the last stanza.

Why can't we share a communal printer? Good question. Especially considering how sparse usage is compared to the 80s/90s.

My guess is a "tragedy of the commons" type snafu, with the printer always seeming broken by someone else's job.

I actually liked going to the print room - kinda like the water cooler where you could meet people and talk - catch a look at their print job and strike up a conversation "Oh I see you're running regression tests...". IIRC at UCL CS the print room was also where the coffee pot lived.

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