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"How to use a printer" satire perfectly captures our frustration with modern technology

There's a word for why everything that should be awesome by now seems to be getting worse.

Canva Photos

Home printers are incredibly frustrating to use, and they aren't getting better.

Anyone who has ever printed a document at home knows the inevitable rage of dealing with your standard home-office inkjet printer. They're clunky, unreliable, and prone to a litany of problems—everything from drivers to ink cartridges to the WIFI is bound to malfunction at some point. And without a usable interface, they're extremely difficult to troubleshoot on your own.

The problem with printers is that they have been around since at least the 80s. And while the technology has improved in some ways, they remain incredibly buggy and difficult, and printer manufacturers have found infuriating ways to make them even more annoying and expensive to use. (Ink cartridge subscriptions, anyone?)

office space, printer, printers, home office, technology, profitsThe boys from Office Space knew how to handle wayward printers.Giphy

But YouTuber Gus Johnson is here to help. He's created a perfectly simple guide for anyone who wants to get their printer set up and begin printing documents. Let's go!

First, Johnson walks us through how to make sure our printer is turned on. It's on? OK, great! Now we're ready to print—well, after the printer installs the 18 mandatory driver updates.

Once those are all done, it's time to print. Except it turns out the ink is low—well, not low, but low-ish, which means the printer won't print until you replace all of the cartridges. And no, you are not allowed to print in black and white if your magenta is low, just so you know.

The cartridges, by the way, are not compatible between printers and often not reliably sold in stores. So, Johnson shows us how to order them online and then wait. Days later, now we're ready to print! Well, after one more new cartridge update installs, and of course given that you can figure out how to get your supposedly "wireless printer" to talk to your laptop.

Johnson's video is a gut-busting watch for anyone who's grappled with a home printer and been tempted to pull an Office Space on it with a hefty baseball bat. Watch the whole thing here:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Printers are a really complicated piece of technology. But that shouldn't let them off the hook. Most of the problems spoofed in Johnson's video are solvable. And that's exactly the larger issue.

The Wirecutter writes that "there is some amazingly complicated technology in your printer, including the printheads, the ink, and the mapping software. You take your printer for granted, but that box can cover a piece of paper in millions of dots of precisely located, color-matched ink in a few seconds," and that most manufacturers take a loss on the actual machinery of a printer, hoping to recoup the earnings via ink sales later down the road.

If printers were the only piece of technology that seem to get worse and worse, bleeding us for more and more money while offering a rapidly deteriorating product, maybe we'd be willing to spare a few tears for the poor manufacturers. But this is a global problem affecting practically everything we touch—from social media, streaming content, journalism, and even restaurants. We pay more or the same for something that doesn't ever get any better, and often gets worse!

There's a term for this phenomenon. It's officially called "enshittification," or platform decay.

Writer Cory Doctrow, who coined the term, describes the pattern like this: "Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die."

Bill Maher described Silicon Valley's approach to technology as, "If it ain't broke, f*ck with it."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Doctrow even mentioned printers specifically in a recent Medium post:

"They make printer-scanners that won’t scan unless all four ink cartridges are installed and haven’t reached their best-before dates. They make printers that won’t print black and white if your $50 magenta cartridge is low. They sell you printers with special half-full cartridges that need to be replaced pretty much as soon as the printer has run off its mandatory 'calibration' pages. The full-serving ink you buy to replace those special demitasse cartridges is also booby-trapped — HP reports them as empty when they’re still 20% full. ... HP tricks customers into signing up for irrevocable subscriptions where you have to pay every month, whether or not you print, and if you exceed your subscription cap, the printer refuses to work, no matter how much ink is left."

Ink is outrageously expensive, but the printer companies exploit copyright laws to make sure you can't buy third party cartridges. When that fails, they push out security updates that break compatibility with anything but their own ink cartridges. These kinds of offenses go on and on.

In other words, long ago it was very exciting that we were able to print our own documents at home. Initial innovations focused on making that process better and better. But we're long past that now and the problems with most home printers will probably remain forever, or as long as manufacturers think they can keep squeezing our wallets. They're not really incentivized to make a printer that actually uses 100% of an ink cartridge or reliably connects to WIFI—they just want to make sure we buy the next one.

Johnson's YouTube rant is so funny precisely because it's true, but also because it finds humor in the frustration we all share at this cycle of enshittification. If we can't get our $300 printer to reliably spit out a basic black and white document, at least we can all laugh at our shared misery.

Danielle Marie Carolan/Wikimedia Commons

Jimmy Fallon asked his fans to share stories of being caught in the act.

There is nothing worse than being caught in the act when you're up to no good. You can't lie about it, you can't take it back, all you can do is pray for forgiveness. Some people unfortunately have to learn that lesson the hard way, which makes for some pretty epic life stories, hopefully without too much lasting damage or embarrassment along the way.

While laughing at another's misfortune isn't cool, when someone brings it upon themselves and shares their misdeeds in a spirit of solidarity, it's fair game. So when "The Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon asked his viewers on X if they had ever been caught red-handed, asking them to tag stories with #IGotCaught, people's responses were too embarrassing, cringeworthy, and hilarious not to share.

Here are 11 of the funniest and/or most embarrassing Tweets of people being caught red-handed:

The teacher who ditched class only to run into one of his students doing the exact same thing.

"Called in sick to work one day. Saw one of my students at the beach. We nodded as we both realized we were skipping my class."

How do you explain this one?

"I googled a guy before meeting him. Later I pulled out my phone to show him a picture of my dog and he saw the picture of him."

And sexting your husband when your mother-in-law's in the chat? Mortifying.

"Sent a sext to my husband…forgot his mom was in a group chat."

When your crush catches you looking him up…

"#IGotCaught looking up a guy's info on a college computer. Heard his voice behind me telling me how to correctly spell his last name."

Life lesson: If you're going to try calling out sick from work, don't get caught on television at a rock concert.

"I called off sick to go to a music festival. The next day my boss said, 'Next time don't stand in the front row.' I was on TV."

Ah, the innocence of youth caught being not so innocent.

"I snuck out at age 15 to go to a drinking party. The doorbell rang, I answered the door, there stood my mom."


If you're going to fall asleep at work, at least make it entertaining for the boss.

"#igotcaught when my boss caught me dozing off at my desk. I raised my head slowly and said, 'Amen.'"

Oh, this is one that will stick for a long time. Ouch.

"On a first date and sent a text to what I thought was my buddy saying 'this date is awful SOS'…sent it to her."

At least this one was a compliment:

"I was telling my friend about a guy that had a cute butt. The guy heard me and said Thanks."

When you think your parents are noobs:

"Parents found out my bro threw a house party after finding the wifi password pinned up everywhere. His excuse, 'I forgot it…a lot.'"

Or, when your dad is already one step ahead of you…

"Once I tried to sneak out my window and it was dark so I put my hand on something for balance…it was my Dad."

Thanks for all the vicarious, second-hand embarrassment, Jimmy Fallon. Yeesh.

This article originally appeared eight years ago.


Canva Photos, Hawksmoor Manchester

An unwitting server accidentally gave away a nearly $6000 bottle of wine

Ever screw up royally at work? There’s nothing worse than that sinking feeling that comes when you realize you have to fess up to your manager. Next comes the uncertainty over whether you’ll keep your job or not. If your mistake happens to be one that costs your company money, let alone a significant amount of it, the stress is unimaginable.

A server at the Hawksmoor Manchester steakhouse and cocktail bar in England went through that same experience. She accidentally served a customer a £4500 ($5750) bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001 instead of the £260 ($33) Bordeaux they ordered.


wine, red wine, wine glass, vintage wine, fine wine, fine dining, funny restaurant storiesYou have to wonder if normal people can even tell if they're drinking a $6,000 bottle of wine Photo by Jeff Siepman on Unsplash

The server didn't realize the mistake right away. It wasn't until later that a manager clocked the switch, leaving the poor waiter absolutely mortified. It's not every day that a server makes a $5700 mistake! The few that do rarely end up keeping their jobs.

However, the server’s manager decided to handle the situation with grace and humor, posting a lighthearted message on Twitter.

"To the customer who accidentally got given a bottle of Chateau le Pin Pomerol 2001, which is £4500 on our menu, last night - hope you enjoyed your evening! To the member of staff who accidentally gave it away, chin up! One-off mistakes happen and we love you anyway," they wrote.


The manager even went a step further and excused the mistake by saying the bottles “look pretty similar.”

The post went mega viral, racking up over 53,000 Likes on Twitter/X. Commenters praised management and ownership for letting the server off the hook for an honest mistake.

"As someone who works in hospitality, bless you for being understanding and not flying off the handle at the poor lad/lass."

"Now that’s a good employer! Mistakes do happen, sadly some employees aren’t as forgiving and only see the value of what was lost. I’m certain your understanding and forgiving manner towards the member of your staff will win you more customers!"

"This is such a great way to deal with a member of staff who has made a genuine mistake - great to read about it, well done to the management team & a lot of leaders could learn a thing or two from this story. Thanks for sharing the story."

Working in any kind of customer service, especially food service, is brutally difficult and under-appreciated. These kinds of employees absolutely deserve some grace, so it's heartwarming to see them finally get some.

Other users teased that if this was the kind of service they could expect from the restaurant, they'd be making a reservation ASAP.

"How can I book a table?" someone joked.


Hawksmoor founder Will Beckett later clarified the story to BBC News saying that the server had been working with a manager from another location because it was a busy night. The manager accidentally grabbed the wrong bottle and the customer apparently didn’t notice the mistake. (Sure they didn't.)

Beckett said the server is “brilliant,” but he’s still going to “tease her for this when she stops being so mortified.”


wine, white wine, red wine, fine dining, sommelier, expensive wineAll wine is good wine. Cheers!Giphy

Some users questioned the very nature of a nearly $6000 bottle of wine. To be fair, reviews of the vintage call it "perfection," "luxury," and a "thrilling experience." Still, it can be hard for people to wrap their minds around such extravagance.

"Is no-one else disgusted by the fact that a restaurant charges £4,500 for a bottle of wine in the first place? No wine is worth that much; it's pure & excessive extravagance for the sake of it & I find it vile," a user commented.

Beckett followed up in another post adding that, while the wine was expensive, the restaurant has raised over £1 million ($1.3 million) for the Wood Street Mission children's charity.

This article originally appeared six years ago.

Images via Max/Curb Your Enthusiasm and Canva

Larry David looks at a couple breaking up

If there's one thing we know about comedian Larry David, it's that he tells it like it is. Well, at least like it "is" according to Larry. Having co-created Seinfeld (with Jerry Seinfeld), it was often rumored that Larry was represented through both lovably grumpy characters, Jerry and George. Things just seemed to happen to these guys, and while George would usually get easily agitated, Jerry was the embodiment of a shrug emoji.

Later, when Larry created Curb Your Enthusiasm for HBO, he leaned into the character even more, finding himself in hilarious situations with very little empathetic attachment. And because he was so true to that character, both in its writing and performance, a lot of people simply love him for it.

In a delightful Instagram Reel on The Seinfeld Addict page, Larry goes on Jimmy Kimmel Live and among many anecdotes, reveals what he believes to be his best quality: how he deals with breakups.

Larry tells him matter-of-factly, "I think my best quality is - I'm a great person to break up with." Jimmy laughs, while Larry reiterates, "Fantastic. So fantastic."

He goes on, "There's no histrionics. There's no scene. Ya know, everybody's afraid to say it. 'Larry, I'm so sorry, I just don't think we should see each other anymore.'" Larry then shows Jimmy how he reacts, cheerily exclaiming, "Oh! Really? Okay, that's good!" To which Jimmy asks, "That's your best quality?"

This conjured up Seinfeld memories in the comment section. "One of the best scenes in Seinfeld ever. 'Oh. That's okay. I'll meet someone else.'" Of course, they're referring to the "Even Steven breakup," where a woman dumps Jerry at the coffee shop and he's unbothered, to say the least. So much so that as he pays the bill, he earnestly says, "Anyway, it's been really nice dating you for a while. Good luck!"

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

This is in stark contrast to another famous Seinfeld episode, wherein Elaine must face the "Bad Breaker-Upper." She explains to Jerry, "He says the mean things you don't mean, but he means 'em." (Boy did he ever!)

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Handling breakups is quite the topic on Reddit, with countless threads dedicated to it. In the subreddit r/datingoverthirty, one person posed, "What would you want to hear during a breakup?" There were nearly 200 answers.

This Redditor shares, "Acknowledgment of the fact that it sucks and that it must be difficult for me, and that I'm allowed to feel whatever I feel. No excuses, no 'I'm letting you down gently so you're not allowed to blame me,' no 'you're so great I'm sure you will find someone that will make you happy.' Just the facts, an apology, and accepting that he may dislike you for a bit for hurting him."

And this one just wanted their meat back. "One thing I like is if a woman is going to break up with me, she brings me my stuff that I left at her place. One time, a woman broke up with me, but before that, I bought these t-bone steaks and left them in her freezer. She brought the steaks back (and also my books), and so it sucked that I didn't have a girlfriend anymore, but it was okay because I had a couple of steaks."

Break Up GIF by Studios 2016Giphy

Sometimes we can't all be as cool-headed as Jerry and Larry seem to be. In the article, "How to Respond Maturely, and the Benefits of Responding Positively, When Someone Breaks Up With You" by Alianess Benny Njuguna, twelve suggestions for handling a breakup are given. These include self-soothing, not trying to change their mind, listening, and perhaps one we often forget: forgiveness. "Eventually, find forgiveness for them in your heart. It's difficult, and it may even seem impossible right now, but holding a grudge against them will only hurt you in the end and keep you from having positive dating experiences."