I can’t stand the screeching of a dot matrix printer. The correct way to print the news is with a teletype.
This is the future we were promised
So, a newspaper with a lot of extra steps? I understand the gee whizness of getting this all to work but not really sure there’s a solid “why” to this.
There are pictures and ads in a newspaper. This is much more minimalistic.
Because it is fun to him?
Maybe? But in the article he was talking about his priority being that he wanted to disconnect from his phone but still wanted news. Just seems there’s been a solution for that for a few centuries now. His solution seemed to me at least to be a lemon that wasn’t worth the squeeze as it were.
So there was two solutions for them:
- No-code, paid and pre-made
- DIY script writing, free(except materials) and custom built to suit personal needs
I choose 2.
I’d actually be interested to see a cost breakdown between this and just buying a newspaper subscription; it looks like he spent about $100 on materials, plus then there’s the ongoing costs of electricity (negligible), printer ribbons, and paper. Ribbons appear to be about $1 / ea if you buy in bulk, and I don’t recall how much printing you get out of a single ribbon, but let’s assume a 24 pack is enough to last you a year. Paper seems to be about $30 / 1000 sheets, so assuming he sticks to the single-page-per-day format, that’ll last almost 3 years.
So up front costs, $100 Ongoing costs, $35 / year, roughly.
Newspaper subscription is about $150 / year, so this’ll actually be cost effective if he keeps it up. Of course, you’re getting a lot less news than you would from a newspaper subscription, so the relative value is questionable there.
I mean clearly this is more of a fun little project than not. What I wanted to say is that it’s a bit missing the point if all we talk about is money.
Man, I wonder if it’s challenging to source a steady supply of paper for that thing…
Apparently not… Is it somehow still widely used. It’s the most likely paper to give you paper cuts though https://physicsworld.com/a/researchers-cut-to-the-chase-on-the-physics-of-paper-cuts/
