The officers approached the door, a brief nod between them, and they knew it was time to begin the familiar sequence. The first officer knocked loudly three times, while the second took on a speaking role.

“Police! Open up!!”

After a few moments of quiet, a gruff voice, muffled behind the closed door, spoke up.

“Come back with a warrant,” came the unwelcoming reply.

“Oh, but we have one. We have a signed search warrant for this property, so come on out,” the officer confidently replied.

“I wanna see it, then,” the voice from inside countered. “Slide it under the door.”

The officers looked puzzled, no one had ever asked to actually see the warrant.

“Well, we don’t have a paper copy of it,” the first officer said.

“Right, everything is on Docusign these days,” the second chimed in.

“Put your phone through the letter box then, I’ll take a look at it on there.”

“I’m not going to give you my phone,” the second officer replied, his phone now in hand. “What’s your email address? I can forward you a copy.”

The gruff voice provided an email address to the officers.

“Ok, I’ve sent that it should be in your inbox now.”

“Nothing.”

“Ok, check spam - sometimes they go into spam,” the first officer interjected.

“Ah yes it’s in spam. But it’s not opening, it says I have to login to my DocuSign account. I don’t have a DocuSign account?”

“Well. Can you just sign up then?” Asked the second officer.

“I ain’t paying for DocuSign!” The voice replied abruptly.

“I don’t think you have to pay, it’s free to view documents.”

“I don’t wanna risk it, I have so many subscriptions,” the voice inside responded.

The officers contemplated their next move.

“Do you have a printer?” One asked.

“Yes,” the voice inside responded.

“Ok, does it have AirPrint?”

“I think so? How could I tell?”

“What’s your wifi password? We’ll join the network and we’ll be able to tell,” the officer responded.

“Ok. Wifi password is $42xnskwfgewzfgekueod!&3.”

The first officer rolled his eyes.

Fifteen minutes later, after breaking the WiFi passcode into manageable chunks, the officer was finally connected.

“Ok. I see the printer. It has AirPrint. Thank God. Ok, I’m printing now.”

“Nothing is happening,” said the person inside the house.

“Ah, it just said you’re out of yellow ink. Do you have any more yellow ink?”

“I do not, but why do you need yellow ink? Just print it in black and white?”

“Yeah these new printers want you to have all the inks before you print.”

“No way. And yet, I’m the criminal?” The voice inside replied.

“Right?” The officers laughed, before finally becoming resigned to their fate. “Ok, we’re going to go print the warrant at the station. I’m out of daily printing credits so will have to wait for them to reset at midnight. Please don’t go anywhere or remove any evidence from the property until we come back.”

@SecureOwl
btw. the reason printers need color ink for b/w prints is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots
Printer tracking dots - Wikipedia

@MetalSnake @SecureOwl

So the reason printers need color ink for b/w prints is that yellow ink must be used for identifying the printer if it is used to make counterfeit bank notes ... printed in black and white 🤔

@SecureOwl @sibrosan @MetalSnake once present, the dots will be used for far more than that…

@mirabilos They have been used to nail Chelsea Manning, IIRC.

(edit: I didn't R C, Reality Winner was found out that way.)

@SecureOwl @sibrosan @MetalSnake

@mirabilos @SecureOwl @sibrosan @MetalSnake

They've been used in the UK to try to find which Civil Service department printers were used for leaks in UK political scandals.

@sibrosan @MetalSnake @SecureOwl "counter-fitting" is the excuse, not the real reason
@sibrosan @MetalSnake @SecureOwl To be fair, there are MANY other kinds of documents that one can print that have criminal connections or are otherwise illegal, besides bank notes. Somebody sends a threatening anonymous letter, or forges a document.

@MetalSnake @SecureOwl

😯

Why did I not know this yet?

@knud Because you never sent blackmail from your printer. 😎
@MetalSnake @SecureOwl

@Linkshaender @MetalSnake @SecureOwl

From my 1997 HP Deskjet b/w ink printer?

@knud AFAIK the machine identification code is only used on laser printers.
And yes, your ‘97 HP would be safe for blackmailing. For dramatic effects I would suggest an old typwriter with a serial interface, however. ;-)

(bought a HP Deskjet 500 in 1988 for 1100DM — early adopter fee 😆)
@MetalSnake @SecureOwl

@Linkshaender @knud @MetalSnake @SecureOwl It can be possible to match even a mechanical typewriter to a typed document through defects and misalignments of the type arms.
@mansr That‘s why I wrote „for dramatic effect“. 😎 a little retro feeling when opening the envelope is always better when the camera zooms in to show the letter.
@knud @MetalSnake @SecureOwl

@mansr Oh and you don‘t use mechanical type writers. YOu use daisywheel printers like the old Brother models with a burner type wheel. Or an Axobot. All robotized within a clean room on old paper from a flea market you bought via someone else. Won’t tell more, the rest is in my novel I‘m writing. (spoiler: they get the guy anyhow 😎).

@knud @MetalSnake @SecureOwl

@Linkshaender @mansr @knud @MetalSnake @SecureOwl

And when the detectives ask around town, “do you know anyone who might have a really old printer?”, all your neighbors reply, “oh yeah, that’s definitely Armin!! You know the type, always thinking old ass technology is going to make it anonymous!”

😁🤣

@mansr @Linkshaender @knud @MetalSnake @SecureOwl it pains me that I’ve lived long enough that this isn’t (a) common knowledge and (b) a plot device once per tv season on some crime show.

@InkomTech otoh, I don’t remember the MIC being part of a plot in a modern crime show.

@mansr @knud @MetalSnake @SecureOwl

@Linkshaender @InkomTech @mansr @MetalSnake @SecureOwl

Crime person scavenging flea markets for a working typewriter. Writing letters, then disposing of the typewriters from a bridge into a river...

Cue opening credits.

@knud Oh, the environment! Crime person using a daiywheel printer, melting the daisywheel and making it into a little dinosaur gifting it to the detective‘s child at the flea market 😎😁

@InkomTech @mansr @MetalSnake @SecureOwl

@Linkshaender @knud @MetalSnake @SecureOwl First you'd have to find a typewriter ribbon. And then they'd trace you through your desperate search for said ribbon.
@Linkshaender @knud @MetalSnake @SecureOwl oh the days… the deskjet was fine as long as you refreshed the rubber with isopropyl regularly. It was my second printer after a used thinkjet. That was such a nice little machine in a time when printing meant waking up all neighbors….

@Jtuchel Yes! And it had a cartridge slot, not for Zelda games, but for additional fonts. 🤗
I printed my girl friend‘s master thesis (we‘re married now) of 145 pages on a NEC P24 in 1988 in a single night (yes, we were the heroes of the appartment flat back then 🤣😆)

@knud @MetalSnake @SecureOwl

@Linkshaender @knud @MetalSnake @SecureOwl ah, the old manually typed page, beloved of mystery writers, when the detective can deduce who wrote the Poison Pen letter by the slight misaligned capital P (or B or C, etc)
@MetalSnake @SecureOwl and blue enhanced blacks, but yeah that too
@MetalSnake
Monochrome laser is perfect for most home use. For the occasional high quality colour print use an online service. For pro artwork you need a pro printer but for most us most of the time b&w is fine.
@SecureOwl @Maker_of_Things

@MetalSnake @SecureOwl Oh, duh.🤦🏽‍♂️

I'm not sure why that never crossed my mind before, thanks.

@MetalSnake @SecureOwl I never consented to this processing of my PII. Is this legally required?
@MetalSnake @SecureOwl Noteworthy that the only thing mentioned in the "Practical Applications" section is using the dots to track down a whistleblower.
@SecureOwl Lovely read. Got more?
@SecureOwl 🤣🤣🤣 best short story ever
@SecureOwl I can't wait for the movie.
@SecureOwl this is such nice fiction.

@SecureOwl

LOL.

Cops: Leave your cell phone on so we know you did not leave the house.

in particular the end sounds very unrealistic ...
@SecureOwl
But that's a fairy tale. The reality would be: cops shoot through the door. Or the man inside, if he is a real criminal.
@SecureOwl
I know this is bogus, but fun. 1stly police technology (phones laptops printers etc) rarely if ever work. 2ndly they wouldn't be able to log on to unknown networks. They hardly let them go on their own stations let alone another force's or outside a gov.wifi. I could go on.

@SecureOwl Hilarious! Turning the oppressive tech against the oppressive state.

@johannes_lehmann

@SecureOwl Priceless. Just priceless. Immediate follow, I laughed so loudly my wife asked if I was alright. Thank you for posting this, it made my day.
@SecureOwl I'd never let cops onto my network. Then again, perhaps someone who counts on this situation has one specifically for that purpose.

@SecureOwl Interesting. This is not that far from the mark. More and more these days I find I'm encountering these kinds of scenarios where modern technology makes things difficult to impossible.

What's wrong with this picture and how do we fix it?

@SecureOwl Yellow ink is used by ink jet printers to print patterns of small yellow circles and dots that can be used to identify which printer printed a given document. They use yellow because it is very hard for people to see.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots

Printer tracking dots - Wikipedia

@karlauerbach @SecureOwl If you want to see the yellow dots, illuminate the page with a blue LED.

It also works for finding gaps in inkjet test patterns.

@SecureOwl Good Hal energy, though I would never give a cop my wifi password.
@SecureOwl That went different than I thought. I thought they would kick open the door and kill whoever was inside.
@SecureOwl You know they're real cops because they knew what the ESSID was without asking.. 😉
What does a search warrant actually look like? How can I recognize one?

Suppose the police come to my door. “Open up,” they say. “We have a warrant to search the premises.” How can I tell if they are telling the truth? Do they show me the warrant? If they do, how d...

Law Stack Exchange

@SecureOwl I know this isn't the point of your post, but the actions described probably constitute impeding the police. If they have the warrant, they can break in if necessary.

Oh, and destroying evidence once you know there's an investigation is *another* felony count.

But, yes, the courts and the cops are still struggling to adapt to a modern always-on society.

@SecureOwl

Totally hearing entire thing with the voices of John Cleese, Michael Palin, and Eric Idle.

@Ultraverified @SecureOwl You're not an encyclopedia salesman?