Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why HP Fell

mondaynote.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 161 posts

Re: Why HP Fell

#31

Post by pjmlp »

Annatar wrote: post #23
pjmlp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was doing C in the early 2000's, our ANSI C code would cope with Aix, Linux, NT/2000 and Solaris. But on HP-UX 11 we still had a version of aCC that was a mix between ANSI and K&R, so it was the variant with more pre-processor logic.

That was solved in the newer versions of aCC. I had no issues compiling most contemporary code all the way ‘till 2014 when I finally retired my private HP-UX server infrastructure. For particularly badly written software, there was GCC on HP-UX.

GCC wasn't an option on our case back then, as we were required to use the system compilers due to our customer base.

Re: Why HP Fell

#32

Post by paulie_a »

amelius wrote: post #2

Does anyone know how to make the annoyingly large Medium top-bar, and "open in app" button (hovering over the article) on mobile go away without installing anything? Edit: found one solution: https://outline.com/SV3V7N

Personally I just stopped reading medium articles. They seem to be aggressively making their interface anti user that it's on my mental black list now.

Re: Why HP Fell

#33

Post by guidedlight »

flyinghamster wrote: post #16
ahartmetz wrote: post #9

The story does not seem very convincing to me. The split between lab instruments and computers - may actually help fix the next problem. The disregard of consumer products - partially fixed later when they managed to sell large numbers of printers and not only business laptops. So maybe the big problems did start around Fiorina's time after all.

Also, past the LaserJet 5, their printers started taking a nosedive in quality. In my own experience at work, the 1000 didn't last long before it started spewing toner all over the page, and the 4550N, a gigantic color laser with extremely expensive consumables, did likewise. Don't get me started on their inkjets. Nothing like an all-in-one that won't even let you SCAN when it decides to "expire" a costly printhead.…

The LaserJet 4 used Canon internals, but was a robust printer otherwise. LaserJet 5 onwards continued the outsourcing trend.

Re: Why HP Fell

#34

Post by XorNot »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #3
amelius wrote: post #2

Does anyone know how to make the annoyingly large Medium top-bar, and "open in app" button (hovering over the article) on mobile go away without installing anything? Edit: found one solution: https://outline.com/SV3V7N

If you have one of those browsers with builtin DOM element inspection/editing, you can make it go away by deleting the respective item. A bit cumbersome ...

Ublock origin can do loose text matches on whole elements.

I've used it to selectively edit content out of forums on occasion.

Re: Why HP Fell

#35

Post by krisroadruck »

flyinghamster wrote: post #16
ahartmetz wrote: post #9

The story does not seem very convincing to me. The split between lab instruments and computers - may actually help fix the next problem. The disregard of consumer products - partially fixed later when they managed to sell large numbers of printers and not only business laptops. So maybe the big problems did start around Fiorina's time after all.

Also, past the LaserJet 5, their printers started taking a nosedive in quality. In my own experience at work, the 1000 didn't last long before it started spewing toner all over the page, and the 4550N, a gigantic color laser with extremely expensive consumables, did likewise. Don't get me started on their inkjets. Nothing like an all-in-one that won't even let you SCAN when it decides to "expire" a costly printhead.…

Odd, I've gotten to the point where HP printers are the only ones I trust. I've had issues with just about every other major manufacturer of printers, but my HPs always held up like tanks. The only issue I've ever encountered with them seems universal among all inkjets. Namely that the ink cartridges seem to dry out if you don't use them often, even if they ought to have a lot of life left. Perhaps I've just had a lucky streak with HP? My personal nemesis brand for printers is Lexmark.

Re: Why HP Fell

#36

Post by mattkevan »

flyinghamster wrote: post #16
ahartmetz wrote: post #9

The story does not seem very convincing to me. The split between lab instruments and computers - may actually help fix the next problem. The disregard of consumer products - partially fixed later when they managed to sell large numbers of printers and not only business laptops. So maybe the big problems did start around Fiorina's time after all.

Also, past the LaserJet 5, their printers started taking a nosedive in quality. In my own experience at work, the 1000 didn't last long before it started spewing toner all over the page, and the 4550N, a gigantic color laser with extremely expensive consumables, did likewise. Don't get me started on their inkjets. Nothing like an all-in-one that won't even let you SCAN when it decides to "expire" a costly printhead.…

Mine too.

I made the mistake of buying an HP printer a few years ago. What a user-hostile piece of junk.

Apparently their ink cartridges are region locked – the first time a cartridge is inserted the printer is permanently set to the cartridge region. I didn't realise this until it rejected the ones I'd got to replace the starter pack.

Even though I'd bought it from a big UK retailer it had shipped with US cartridges, meaning it wouldn't work with any UK HP ink.

HP's support's response was basically ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Their determination to protect revenue by putting stupid roadblocks to buying cheaper HP ink from abroad meant I just bought third-party ink with unlocked chips. They never saw another penny from me on that printer and never will from anything else.

Re: Why HP Fell

#37

Post by Avamander »

flyinghamster wrote: post #16
ahartmetz wrote: post #9

The story does not seem very convincing to me. The split between lab instruments and computers - may actually help fix the next problem. The disregard of consumer products - partially fixed later when they managed to sell large numbers of printers and not only business laptops. So maybe the big problems did start around Fiorina's time after all.

Also, past the LaserJet 5, their printers started taking a nosedive in quality. In my own experience at work, the 1000 didn't last long before it started spewing toner all over the page, and the 4550N, a gigantic color laser with extremely expensive consumables, did likewise. Don't get me started on their inkjets. Nothing like an all-in-one that won't even let you SCAN when it decides to "expire" a costly printhead.…

My policy regarding HP is the exact opposite. It's so far the easiest I've ever seen in terms of setup on Linux and the trusty b/w laser has spewed out thousands of pages by now without toner change.

Re: Why HP Fell

#38

Post by LeifCarrotson »

paulcarroty wrote: post #5

Love their business laptops, good and reliable machines.

Currently at an HP Elitebook 8750W, and quite happy with it.

Only complaint is that it's most comfortable in a dock: The fan and heat sink exit at the top left (where I used to put a water bottle before I had this heater blowing on it), and this side becomes uncomfortably hot to use the integrated keyboard and trackpoint/touchpad.

Re: Why HP Fell

#39

Post by linker3000 »

lmm wrote: post #18
david927 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I swore off ever buying HP products after I bought an HP Envy with a year warranty and exactly after one year, the hinges wouldn't work. I still used it but just at home, until the hard drive had a catastrophic failure and I lost everything.

Every model of hard drive fails sometimes, and with rare exceptions the rate is more or less the same.

I used to work with someone who designed hard disks (electronics) and his mantra was '4 years'.

Re: Why HP Fell

#40

Post by erikb »

I'm working in a company that is exactly in this same position, that HP was in apparently around the 80s. The thing is that these big companies one or two generations after the founders are mostly staffed with people who know nothing else. They did their university internships in this company, they wrote their final thesis in this company, and now they work in this company. Of course that makes them super loyal, but that fact also makes it impossible for them to see that the company as a whole is currently colliding with an iceberg. I mean, it will probably still exist in 50 years and make a lot of money. I even own stock in my company because I believe it's strong. But it's quite unlikely that 10-20 years down the road it will still be the powerhouse it is now. The market is not continuing as it used to, but the company can hardly turn its course. People are not even recognizing that fact and confidently continue on the same path that worked for their mentors in their corresponding youth.
Post reply on HN