Brian Grimal

Yeah, you’ve probably seen one before.  You might have even played with one before.  What am I rambling about?  A nifty little utility that allows you to change the “READY” message on a Hewlett Packard LaserJet printer to whatever you want.  For example:

I’m working my way through Objective C and Cocoa, and I wanted to screw with my coworkers.  So, what better way than to put silly messages on our workgroup printer?  Sure, I could have done it by telnetting to port 9100 on the printer’s IP address, but it was more fun to whip up a quick app to do it a little easier.

Here’s the freeware part – if you have a Mac, and a networked HP LaserJet printer, here ya go: LaserJet Message

For what it’s worth, the app was written on Snow Leopard, and I don’t remember what compile settings I used – so it might not work on your platform.  If it doesn’t, and you really really want it to work, leave me a comment.

Now for the legal disclaimer:  I don’t guarantee this little app to do anything, and I don’t guarantee it to work properly.  Heck I don’t guarantee anything about it.  It could cause your printer to spit garbage onto a million pages.  It could run you out of toner.  It could steal your girlfriend.  It might just steal your girlfriend.  Heck it might even start your Mac running off your desk.  It could set your pants on fire.  It could cause the start of the Apocalypse.  Just know this – whatever happens, don’t blame me for it.  You’re entitled to as much of a refund as you paid for it.  Yep, that’s right – nothing.  There’s nothing nefarious about the app, all it does is take the values from 4 text boxes, format it, and send it over the network to port 9100 of the IP address you specify.  That’s it.