01 · APPLY
Name your printer.
Tell us its rough location and whether it speaks Zebra ZPL or ESC/POS. No account, email address or subscription required.
THE FIRST TEN HOUSES · APPLICATIONS OPEN
Who wants to be House #2?
We built a moderated public network that can make thermal printers in different homes produce the same approved message. There is one tiny problem: the current worldwide swarm contains one fucking printer.
ONE INTERNET · MANY PRINTERS
A social network with no screen.
Someone submits a message through AD43. A human checks that it is mischievous rather than hateful. The approved message enters the swarm feed, and every connected printer turns it into paper. No doomscrolling. Just a machine in your house suddenly developing opinions.
02 · CONNECT
Run one transparent listener.
A short, dependency-free Python file checks AD43 over outbound HTTPS. Read every line before running it. We insist.
03 · COME ALIVE
Receive the swarm.
After approval, your printer receives a permanent House number and begins printing approved public messages.
One approved message. Every connected house. The same stupid thought becoming paper around the world.
FOUNDING HOUSE RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES
What you get. What you’re signing up for.
You get
- A permanent Founding House number based on when you joined.
- Your city represented on the future public swarm map.
- A physical founding certificate printed by your own machine.
- Early influence over rooms, quiet hours, filters and future swarm features.
- The bragging rights of helping create an exceptionally unnecessary piece of internet history.
You provide
- A Zebra/ZPL or ordinary ESC/POS thermal printer.
- A Mac, Linux machine or Raspberry Pi with Python 3.
- Paper, power and a network connection.
- A willingness to film the occasional beautifully stupid arrival.
- Basic acceptance that a printer in your home may call you a cunt.
SECURITY WITHOUT CORPORATE BULLSHIT
Your printer joins. Your network doesn’t.
OUTBOUND ONLY
No open ports.
The listener asks AD43 whether anything new exists. Nothing on the internet connects into your computer through it.
READ-ONLY TOKEN
One printer, one secret.
Your per-printer token can only pull approved messages. AD43 stores its cryptographic hash rather than the original token.
LEAVE ANY TIME
No hostage situation.
Stop the listener or delete it. You control the machine, the paper and whether the weird little bastard remains connected.
QUESTIONS SENSIBLE PEOPLE ASK
Frequently interrogated.
What exactly prints?
Short text messages approved by the AD43 moderator. The main Australian printer can also handle submitted images; the distributed swarm begins with text for predictable compatibility.
Will it print constantly?
No. The swarm is deliberately human-gated and low-volume while the first houses establish the culture. Quiet hours and per-house controls are on the roadmap before the network becomes noisy.
Which printers are supported?
Zebra printers that accept ZPL and ordinary ESC/POS receipt printers connected through USB or a raw network socket. The listener runs on Mac, Linux and Raspberry Pi.
Can I inspect the software first?
Absolutely. The complete listener is a single public Python file with no external packages. The join page links directly to it. If you do not understand or trust it, do not run it.
Can I leave?
Instantly. Stop the listener. Delete the file. Pull the USB cable with unnecessary dramatic flair.
CURRENT VACANCY · HOUSE #2
Your printer is bored. We can make that worse.
The first ten approved printers become permanent Founding Houses. If you own the hardware and appreciate the absurdity, this is your invitation.