“The strategy for the discoverers and entrepreneurs is to rely less on top-down planning and focus on maximum tinkering and recognizing opportunities when they present themselves. So I disagree with the followers of Marx and those of Adam Smith: the reason free markets work is because they allow people to be lucky, thanks to aggressive trial and error, not by giving rewards or “incentives” for skill. The strategy is, then, to tinker as much as possible and try to collect as many Black Swan opportunities as you can.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

We have had laying around the office a rather old (2003) 24″ HP DesignJet 500 with a shredded belt. I took it home and brought it back to life. I did not use the ‘real’ belt that is available from LPS (though it looks perfectly correct) I just used this cheap Amazon belt. If it goes wrong later on, and if I actually use this thing here at home, I’ll replace it with the LPS one.

After an unsuccessful attempt at rehabilitating the printheads that have been in the machine for years. These printheads work perfect.