Categories: GeekPlay

Much Clearer Than “PC LOAD LETTER”

Photo courtesy of M Thru F.

I assume that someone did this using this trick.

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

Joey deVilla

View Comments

  • Hey Joey, I’ve seen this done before. In face, I wrote a blog last year about it, AND I have a VS 2008 solution for your readers to try out….uh….play with! LOL

    A great Geek April Fool’s joke for the office HP LaserJet printer
    http://www.pchenry.com/Home/tabid/36/EntryID/117/Default.aspx

    This IS a lot of fun to watch people’s reactions to a printer saying things like,
    Press Cancel to Continue.
    Do I look landscape with this paper?
    Please don’t go Office Space on me?!
    Completed downloading the internet, please insert more paper
    Double-Double for me please?!

    There’s a few references in there too (including the code). Have a good one!

  • Here is the Ruby Version of the Printer hack...

    #!/usr/bin/env ruby
    # Simple HP Printer Hacker
    # Written in Ruby by Erik Gregg
    # 6/9/06
    # Status Usage: hp-message.rb status
    # Message Usage: hp-message.rb message ""
    require 'net/telnet'
    begin
    if ARGV[0].nil?
    puts "Read the script.
    Status Usage: hp-message.rb status
    Message Usage: hp-message.rb message \"\""
    exit
    end
    host = Net::Telnet::new("Host" => ARGV[0],
    "Port" => 9100,
    "Timeout" => 5,
    "Prompt" => /\b/n)
    if ARGV[1] == "status"
    host.cmd("@PJL INFO STATUS") { |c| print c }
    elsif ARGV[1] == "message"
    host.cmd("@PJL RDYMSG DISPLAY=\""+ARGV[2]+"\"")
    else
    puts "Oh Cmon. Look at the syntax inside me."
    exit
    end
    host.close

    rescue Timeout::Error
    puts "Time to go now!"
    exit 1
    end

Recent Posts

23rd blogaversary!

I’ve been at this “blogging” thing since the start of November 2001, which makes this…

4 hours ago

U.S. Election post #11: RFK Jr. wants to protect our precious bodily fluids

At his recent Madison Square Garden rally — yup, the grievance-fest where they let their racism…

5 hours ago

U.S. Election post #10: The Alt-Right Playbook

Here’s a set of videos produced in the first (and hopefully last) Trump era that…

1 day ago

U.S. Election post #9: Don’t let them kill the CHIPS Act

Of all the dunderheaded things the Republican party will do should Trump win the election…

2 days ago

U.S. Election post #8: They want “their women” under control

You’ve probably seen the headline: 1 in 8 women say they’ve secretly voted differently than…

2 days ago