Add blog post about the Little Printer mystery

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     @include img-responsive;
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+  img.img-shadow {
+    box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
+  }
+
   .footnotes {
     margin-top: $line-height-computed;
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_posts/2014-09-09-a-little-printer-mystery.markdown

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+---
+layout: post
+title:  A Little Printer Mystery
+date:   2014-09-09 12:15:00
+tags:   printer
+---
+
+<img src="/images/mystery/start.png" class="img-shadow">
+
+Some [sad news](http://blog.bergcloud.com/2014/09/09/week-483/) from BERG today, one consequence of which being that the Little Printer service [may only be running for another six months or so](http://littleprinterblog.tumblr.com/post/97047976103/the-future-of-little-printer), depending on whether or not another company can be found to buy the service.
+
+This reminded me that I still haven't posted about a Little Printer thing that happened earlier this year: printers everywhere started producing strange, unexpected output.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+<style>
+.printouts .mystery-printout {
+  width: 30%;
+  margin-right: 10px;
+  float: left;
+}
+
+.mystery-printout img {
+  box-shadow: 0px 2px 4px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.5);
+}
+
+.printouts .mystery-printout:nth-child(3n+1) {
+  clear: left;
+}
+
+.printouts + p {
+  clear: left;
+}
+</style>
+
+## The mystery begins
+
+It all started on the 27th of March, 2014. Amidst the normal publications I subscribe to, something else appeared (click to enlarge the images):
+
+<div class="printouts">
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-02-27.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-02-27.png"></a>
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-02-28.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-02-28.png"></a>
+</div>
+
+I wasn't the only person to notice. People posted on instagram:
+
+<iframe src="//instagram.com/p/k6OQdmo9LB/embed/" width="612" height="710" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
+
+... and then, a few days later, some more:
+
+<div class="printouts">
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-02.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-02.png"></a>
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-03.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-03.png"></a>
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-04.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-04.png"></a>
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-05.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-05.png"></a>
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-06.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-06.png"></a>
+</div>
+
+<iframe src="//instagram.com/p/lNufWXo9O-/embed/" width="612" height="710" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
+
+Everything was back to normal on the 7th of March, but the next day, more strangeness:
+
+<div class="printouts">
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-08.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-08.png"></a>
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-09.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-09.png"></a>
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-10.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-10.png"></a>
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-11.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-11.png"></a>
+</div>
+
+<iframe src="//instagram.com/p/lZbZ9-sIis/embed/" width="612" height="710" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe>
+
+The comments on one instagram were particularly intriguing; even the people responsible for Little Printer had seen this strangeness, but didn't know what was going on.
+
+> *Matt Webb*: I don't know... but I have a theory
+
+Then, some more sporadic conversations, even going so far as to quote Beckett.
+
+<div class="printouts">
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-13.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-13.png"></a>
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-15.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-15.png"></a>
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-21.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-21.png"></a>
+</div>
+
+This, at least, felt like a clue:
+
+<div class="printouts">
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-22.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-22.png"></a>
+</div>
+
+And then some meta-physical self reflection:
+
+<div class="printouts">
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-25.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-25.png"></a>
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-03-26.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-03-26.png"></a>
+</div>
+
+And, weeks later this final message:
+
+<div class="printouts">
+  <a class="mystery-printout" href="/images/mystery/2014-04-17.png"><img src="/images/mystery/2014-04-17.png"></a>
+</div>
+
+... and since then, nothing. But who was having those conversations? What happened to them? What did it all mean?
+
+## A source of mystery and delight?
+
+Well, we hinted as much that this was going to happen in [our 'Advent Calendar' post](/2013/11/18/little-advent-calendar-publication/).
+
+> Anyone who subscribes to this (or indeed any) publication cannot know for certain what might pop out of their printer from one day to the next.
+
+Would it be possible to make unexpected content appear? Indeed, it is. However, what I found most surprising was that nobody really found it particularly strange. Actually, as I kept tabs on Twitter and instagram, and with 150 subscribers to the piggy-backed publication, there was really almost no reaction at all.
+
+So, some mystery, but really not much delight. It's interesting to explore how far "personality" can enter into the world of connected products; [NTLK's view is particularly interesting](http://ntlk.net/2014/03/20/internet-of-dependent-things/):
+
+> I’m assuming it’s designed to give this object an opportunity to appear as if it has a life and identity independent of the owner, to make it more lively, interesting and playful; but for me it just regularly reminds me that someone else is in control.
+
+BERG themselves wrote about explorations into the personality possibilities of connected products. They called this "[BotWorld](http://www.wired.com/2013/02/little-printer-gets-a-haircut/all/)". In our view, the results of that experiment were inconclusive; some people were delighted by the haircuts and sunglasses, while others (such as NTLK above) feel it highlighted that the device was being externally controlled.
+
+And, perhaps, there is another slice of Little Printer owners who didn't pay much attention to it at all, which would be a shame if it were true, but unfortunately not surprising.
+
+## Postscript
+
+The mystery messages stopped in April, but a few months later Nick Ludlam (then BERG's CTO) finally -- and accidentally -- discovered what had been happening:
+
+<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/lazyatom">@lazyatom</a> I think I just found a bunch of easter egg content in your LP advent calendar publication :)</p>&mdash; Nick Ludlam (@nickludlam) <a href="https://twitter.com/nickludlam/status/476058574855372802">June 9, 2014</a></blockquote>
+<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
+
+While there was no deep meaning to it, I'm glad that Nick unearthed our little game; for me it was as much a conversation between me-the-developer and BERG-Cloud-the-system as it was an attempted conversation between two mystery characters, or between the Little Printer and its owner.
+
+BERG explored the fringes of the world of connected products, and it was fun to in-turn explore the fringes of their exploration.