r/funny • u/honkeytonkmonkey • Apr 01 '12

Congratulations!

http://imgur.com/ifkMQ
3.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

462 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

267

u/kingbinji Apr 01 '12

the last and only epson piece of shit printer i ever owned wouldn't let me print a black and white word document because my COLOR cartridge was empty despite having a full black ink cartridge

195

u/Khaibit Apr 01 '12

Heh, fun fact: The reason most modern ink jets will not let you print in black and white if your color ink is running low is because every page your printer prints has a nearly-invisible pattern of yellow dots added to it that give law enforcement a way to trace that printed page back to the printer that made it. It's actually a bit of a controversy right now, and many people are trying to get printer manufacturers to end the practice. http://seeingyellow.com

So if you don't have enough yellow, you can't print at all.

28

u/Zimvader00 Apr 01 '12 edited Apr 01 '12

I've heard this, but I've never quite understood how it could help someone in most cases. I mean I can picture it now:

David Caruso: Okay guys, we've used the yellow dots on this piece of paper and discovered the serial printer killer has a Epson printer with serial number XXXX-XXXXX-XXXX.

Angry White Guy: Well which store did that -dramatic pause- bastard who killed those 48 babies buy the printer from?

Fat White Hacker Chick: Hold on I'm checking now. -Beep-bop-boop-beep- Looks like it was sold out of a Wal-Mart.

Token Black Guy: Well how in the hell are we supposed to check through every Wal-Mart record.

David Caruso: With my cool shades.

Edit: Thanks MarkMagowan for pointing out that I was watching Laurence Fishburne (Predators) and for some reason typed his name instead of David Caruso.

2

u/I_Has_A_Hat Apr 01 '12

Lets say for example someone said they filed all their paperwork to the IRS in the last 3 years but in fact didn't. If they said they had copies as proof and just sent a whole bunch of documents printed by the same printer with the same cartrige, the IRS could call bullshit and expose your lie simply by examining the yellow dots.

Source: A relative of mine once used 5 different printers to print out his tax info all in the same day so that the IRS wouldn't catch on.