this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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Technology

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I'm an American software developer and the "broligarchs" don't speak for me - ratfactor (ratfactor.com)
submitted 2 days ago by mesamunefire@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 41 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Actually, my distaste for Big Tech is nothing new. It’s been building for decades.

First, little stuff like the inkjet printer that you invited into your house that claims to need, "Just a little more cyan, bro. I’ll print your black and white page after I get my cyan. Come on, bro."

That's because it needs to print the tracking dots on every page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots

[–] josefo@leminal.space 3 points 17 hours ago

Developed by Xerox and Canon in the mid-1980s, the existence of these tracking codes became public only in 2004.

No fucking way

In 2005, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sought a decoding method and made available a Python script for analysis.

In 2018, scientists from TU Dresden developed and published a tool to extract and analyze the steganographic codes of a given color printer and subsequently to anonymize prints from that printer.

The scientists made the software available to support whistleblowers in their efforts to publicize grievances.

This article gave me the creeps, is awesome and terrifying

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 day ago

We need to homebrew our own printers

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 14 points 2 days ago

I am sure the end user really needs these dots bro...

Can't live without them !

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

jokes on them, I print all my ransom notes using a Gutenberg press.

good luck tracking that shit down!

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 days ago

God dammit! I'm going back to sending my ransom notes using cut up words from magazines!