News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Ask HN: Do academics still use printers?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Do academics still use printers? by diffeomorphism on Monday November 21, 2022 @12:31PM (#33695282)
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.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Do academics still use printers? by abricot on Monday November 21, 2022 @02:44PM (#33696959)
Have you never had to use an id-card to start your print?

Takes care of the confidentiality issue.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Do academics still use printers? by diffeomorphism on Monday November 21, 2022 @04:43PM (#33698407)
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.

[ Parent | on HN ]