HP are such scammers

I posted about this very cheap printer before, which strongly suggests that there is No USB, only Wifi. When I first got it I figured out how to print over the network without using the app they try to bully you into downloading.

It turns out it's even easier to print, just use the USB port they try to pretend isn't there!

No company is going to rewrite their firmware to remove the USB stack. It's even more expensive to redesign the hardware to get rid of the USB port physically. They opted for the cheapest option, a little sticker.

They are just trying to store everyone's documents in their stupid cloud service that some teenage extortion group is going to break into and leak one day. Don't give them your data.

UPDATE: Kitten's owner allegedly located, see follow-up toot. 😻

TL,DR: who can help locate a distressed cat's owner via HomeAgain chip lookup?

Details: a sweet and lonely cat approached a family, was immediately sociable and clearly in some distress. Took food gladly (she's underweight) and wants to come inside and be with others. They took her to the vet who confirmed that she's chipped.

But the vet won't disclose the listed party who are her humans. 😿

I presume this is just a service the vet subscribes to, right? Anyone out there with access so we might be a little more expeditious with contacting the likely owners? Scanning the chip is unlikely to be a problem for us, because we have proxmarks, flippers, etc. Looking to turn the chip ID into real human contact details.

(If they have moved, changed contact info, etc... I can bring my own considerable resources to bear on that problem.) 💔

This week, I went over to Bluesky and asked people who'd left Mastodon why they left, and lots of people told me. I grabbed the replies and crunched them and wrote up a summary. I think it's really interesting and often kind of wrenching.

https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt

#meta