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    1. Are the memes about setting up and troubleshooting printers overblown nowadays?

      I haven't really messed with printers in probably 15 years or more, but it felt like any time they were brought up, there were two flavors: Older printers, which decided if they wanted to work or...

      I haven't really messed with printers in probably 15 years or more, but it felt like any time they were brought up, there were two flavors:

      • Older printers, which decided if they wanted to work or not based on absolutely nothing at all
      • Newer printers, which are covered in DRM and mostly a nickel-and-diming scam

      Now, for the former I remember having some issues, but generally just clearing the printer's cache (or whatever it was called) would fix most of the problems. I think the bigger issue is that I always helped people set up cheap Walmart-sold inkjet printers that had more hardware issues than software, along with ink that would go to shit instantly.

      But I was out today at a thrift store and they had a Brother for $25, with an entire extra unopened toner cartridge (I think that's what it's called?). I asked them if it worked, they said it did, but if it didn't I could return it by tomorrow.

      So I brought it home, assuming something would be wrong with it, but in about 10 minutes I had it plugged in, connected to my wifi network, and connected to my computer. I tried scanning-- it worked fine. I tried copying-- it does that no problem. It took longer to install the drivers on my PC than set up the printer itself.

      So are printers really as straight-forward as I experienced with this cheap used one, or am I just lucky?

      21 votes
    2. What do you do with old electronics?

      I'm making an effort to declutter and trying to get rid of my old electronics. I have a bunch of old Oculus hardware, my old gaming PC with a Ryzen and a RX480, an old Xbox console and other...

      I'm making an effort to declutter and trying to get rid of my old electronics. I have a bunch of old Oculus hardware, my old gaming PC with a Ryzen and a RX480, an old Xbox console and other things around the house. Do you recommend going through eBay, or Swappa or another specialty website, or if there may be a hobby shop willing to take things off of hands, or just go to Goodwill and accept the resale value as sunk cost?

      27 votes