Papers with U.S. State Department markings, found Friday morning in the business center of an Alaskan hotel, revealed previously undisclosed and potentially sensitive details about the Aug. 15 meetings between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in Anchorage.

Eight pages, that appear to have been produced by U.S. staff and left behind accidentally, shared precise locations and meeting times of the summit and phone numbers of U.S. government employees

  • FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    How often are you printing things? I don’t even own a printer. I spend maybe $0.50 a year printing things at the library.

    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Often enough that having a laser printer at home is vastly more convenient than having to make a special trip to the tree pulp store every time I want a physical copy of a document.

      Tax forms, manuals & documentation, tickets & passes, shipping labels, markable documents, patterns …

      • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org
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        22 hours ago

        I’ve never owned a printer, but have always had a job where I could print personal stuff. Highly recommend. My current job, I have a personal laser printer and it’s awesome. I use it to print letters, notes for doctor’s visits, and craft patterns.

        and there’s no way I’d trust my phone enough to not print travel tickets. Paper backups ftw.

        • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          A personal work printer is the dream! I used to print anything that required a large volume of paper on work printers, but now that I rarely visit the office any more, I just blast everything through my nearing-vintage Brother laser (that replaced the HP laser printer from the '90s).

      • FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Tax forms

        Those are digital

        manuals & documentation

        Also digital

        tickets & passes

        Also digital

        shipping labels, markable documents, patterns

        These are the couple times a year thing that I print. Well, not patterns. Even “markable documents” I usually do digitally with a stylus. How often are you needing to do these things at a hotel?

        • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Physical backups are not digital. Also, worksheets are easier done with pencil.

          Paper manuals are easier to flip through, dog-ear, and move around.

          Paper copies of tickets don’t need batteries or wireless service.

          The last few times I recall that I needed to print things at a hotel, they involved marriage license forms, credit reports and checklists. Most other times I’m visiting a facility that has a printer should I need anything printed.

          Oh, I’ve also had to print out plenty of hardcopy documents for mailing to various government services over the years, including the IRS and SSA.

          • FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
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            23 hours ago

            Physical backups are not digital

            Not needed, you can backup digitally

            Paper manuals are easier to flip through, dog-ear, and move around

            Digital is much easier to search with ctrl+f and can be fed to a RAG so you can ask your favorite LLM questions about it

            Paper copies of tickets don’t need batteries or wireless service

            Traveling with a power bank is normal and you can save tickets to your offline wallet on your phone

            The last few times I recall that I needed to print things at a hotel, they involved marriage license forms, credit reports

            There is zero chance I’m trusting the security of hotel equipment with those sorts of paperwork.

            Oh, I’ve also had to print out plenty of hardcopy documents for mailing to various government services over the years, including the IRS and SSA.

            Right, the once every other year sort of thing and why most people don’t need a printer. I’ve only needed physical print outs for the IRS once. I gather all those forms digitally, encrypt them, and send them to my tax guy.

            • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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              23 hours ago

              Digital backups work until your provider decides you don’t matter as a customer. Paper backups are also easier to flip through. Glad you agree with me about worksheets, though.

              I neither need nor want to slopify information. I don’t need to search a dozen-page document that I can flip through and move to various benches and worksites.

              A sheet of paper takes up much, much less space than a powerbank.

              All of your credit information has been leaked by Equifax ten times over already. A hotel printer ain’t shit.

              Does your “tax guy” handle every single interaction between you and every government agency?

              • FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
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                22 hours ago

                Digital backups work until your provider decides you don’t matter as a customer

                Don’t rely on a provider. And I have no idea what you even mean by worksheets, so I have zero opinion.

                I neither need nor want to slopify information. I don’t need to search a dozen-page document that I can flip through and move to various benches and worksites.

                This strongly depends on what you’re doing. I wish the papers I have to reference were only 12 pages.

                A sheet of paper takes up much, much less space than a powerbank.

                I’m carrying the power bank when traveling regardless

                Does your “tax guy” handle every single interaction between you and every government agency?

                How much do I need to interact with the government? Taxes probably are by far the most I interact with the government. Wither it is the IRS, Secretary of State, or DNR. All of which do digital or have the physical forms at their office, no printer required.

                Look, it’s obvious some people need a printer. Wither they actually need or just want the convenience like you do. I would bet most people don’t and I think fewer and fewer people do have them these days. That’s all kind of irrelevant to the use of a hotel business center anyway. It’s even more irrelevant when talking about the president who has an entire team of communication people that do bring the equipment they need with them. It’s vanishingly rare to need that business center, even if you do trust it, and it’s completely inexcusable for a government official. It’s also weird how hung up on a joke you’ve become.

                • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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                  22 hours ago

                  Ask an LLM what a worksheet is, then. Glad you tacitly agree about the ease of referencing a paper copy, though.

                  I frequently reference manuals that range from one page to the order of five thousand pages. The shorter ones are clearly more easy to use without a device in the way.

                  How much are you on your phone that you need a power bank to get through a normal day? I think there’s a separate underlying issue here. Also, I just happened to buy some tickets that had no digital wallet option, so I printed them out for ease. No need to fumble around with a phone and dig for a PDF when I can just whip a piece of paper out of my pocket in a fraction of a second.

                  Not even all correspondence with the IRS is e-filing. The SSA I explicitly mentioned also does lots of physical paperwork. And I forgot, the other day I got a form that I need to print and mail for some lab work my wife needs to send out. Pretty difficult to digitize samples.

                  It’s weird how hung up you’ve become on the fact that printing is common and useful.

                  • FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
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                    22 hours ago

                    Ask an LLM what a worksheet is

                    No thanks, I don’t care what it is.

                    you tacitly agree about the ease of referencing a paper copy

                    It strongly depends on use case

                    How much are you on your phone that you need a power bank to get through a normal day

                    Lol, thanks for making my point for me? A normal day you don’t need to worry about battery life. I specified traveling.

                    No need to fumble around with a phone and dig for a PDF when I can just whip a piece of paper out of my pocket

                    The thing is, you flip that statement around and it still makes sense. No need to fumble around with a piece of paper that I have to protect from the elements and getting destroyed or lost when I can just open the pdf on my phone.

                    Not even all correspondence with the IRS is e-filing

                    I didn’t say it was… But, my tax guy is there for that.

                    The SSA I explicitly mentioned also does lots of physical paperwork

                    Not a ton of people constantly dealing with the SSA.

                    And I forgot, the other day I got a form that I need to print and mail for some lab work my wife needs to send out. Pretty difficult to digitize samples

                    Wtf, all medical paperwork is digital these days. They usually create a portal for you that includes your results, records, and billing.

                    You’re still completely ignoring the intent of the joke and the context of the conversation in an extreme attempt to justify to yourself your own use of a printer. If you want to use a printer and the hotel printer, have at it.