Categories: GeekPlay

Much Clearer Than “PC LOAD LETTER”

Printer displaying the message "I CRAVE BLOOD"Printer displaying the message "I CRAVE BLOOD" Photo courtesy of M Thru F.

I assume that someone did this using this trick.

This article also appears in Global Nerdy.

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Joey deVilla

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  • 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

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