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It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

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Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#51

Post by leereeves »

chmod600 wrote: post #48
leereeves wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The one I personally want everyone to take away is that most plastics are not recycled. This seems likely, but the one thing I can't understand is: if they aren't recycling the plastic, why do they pay for it?

Not sure if this is what you mean, but redemption systems are where you are just getting your own money back. Nobody is really paying you. Maybe there are some places that pay for the plastic itself, but I would imagine they are more picky. Or the government is paying them as part of some misguided scheme.

I don't mean redemption systems. Where I live, recycling centers pay for used plastic in bulk. We bag up a variety of plastic and take it to them. They don't pay a lot, but they do pay, and I wonder where they get the money.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#52

Post by derefr »

zizee wrote: post #41
ludocode wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even for those non-professional uses it's probably better to put the PDF on a flash drive, walk into Staples and print it on their machines. For anyone who hasn't done it, it's incredibly streamlined. You don't have to talk to anyone and you don't have to wait in line. You just walk up to one of the many printers, put in your flash drive, tap your credit card and collect your printouts. I'm just not convinced that ha…

> Even for those non-professional uses it's probably better to put the PDF on a flash drive, walk into Staples and print it on their machines I'm not trying to be argumentative, and what I'm going to say might be a "well obviously, duh" comment: This advice is really only applicable to those who have convenient access to a "staples", which is probably only 20% of us here. It is also only convienient if you don't have…

> which is probably only 20% of us here

Uh. Shops offering printing-as-a-service are one of the most common things found in every small town, all over the world. They're one of the first entrepreneurialist ventures to be developed in developing countries after electrification (just buy a printer and a computer, and charge $1 to print a page.) Every Internet cafe offers printing. Every parcel shipping store (UPS, FedEx, etc.) offers printing—and in fact many Internet cafes are just glorified print shops where you can pay to use the computers originally set up for printing. In villages of 500 people (such as the one I lived in as a teenager!), either the post office, the community center, or the elementary school (frequently all the same building) will own a printer, and allow people to pay to use it.

Okay, you might live in a cabin 200 miles away from the nearest town. 80% of people are not in that situation. 80% of people on this Earth have access to someone they can pay to print something for them.

> It is also only convienient if you don't have to regularly print things

Don't have to regularly print things in color. Most people don't. Unless you do photography for money, color very likely isn't a crucial part of anything you're required to be printing. (It might be a nice-to-have part of things you're required to be printing; or it might be a crucial part of things you don't really have to be printing; but it's unlikely for color to be crucial, and for the print to be required.)

I need to print things quite often, and yet I personally haven't needed to print anything in color... literally ever. (I did print things in color, when I used to own an inkjet, but in retrospect, I didn't need to have printed those things in color.)

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#54

Post by taurath »

> Good business sense is to do only what is reasonable for yourself but great business sense is to make others do what is not.

I think its interesting to meditate for a moment on the great amount of meaning in the closing sentence here. Great business sense by this definition seems inherently immoral and extractive rather than productive for one. Secondly the it seems quite the antithesis of competition under free capitalism producing better outcomes - the effects of concentrations and imbalances of power is something that is frequently left out of those debates.

I think that we should try to strive for a world where good and moral business sense is better rewarded than great business sense.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#55

Post by astura »

ludocode wrote: post #29
NortySpock wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great advice, and I echo 95% of it. My observation is that I have found Wifi useful when I need the printer in an odd location in the house, and color is useful for non-professional usage like "the kids need to print out their report for school" and "the med school student needs anatomy diagrams in color" My trusty color Brother laser HL-3170CDW cost ~$300 at the time and has been trucking along for 7+ years now with…

Even for those non-professional uses it's probably better to put the PDF on a flash drive, walk into Staples and print it on their machines. For anyone who hasn't done it, it's incredibly streamlined. You don't have to talk to anyone and you don't have to wait in line. You just walk up to one of the many printers, put in your flash drive, tap your credit card and collect your printouts. I'm just not convinced that ha…

Flash drive is entirely unnecessary and, honestly, sounds like a pain. You can simply email your print jobs to Staples.

However, the couple times I've printed at Staples I've had to wait in line - there's only a couple printers and I had to wait for other people to finish printing.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#56

Post by glenngillen »

derefr wrote: post #52
zizee wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even for those non-professional uses it's probably better to put the PDF on a flash drive, walk into Staples and print it on their machines I'm not trying to be argumentative, and what I'm going to say might be a "well obviously, duh" comment: This advice is really only applicable to those who have convenient access to a "staples", which is probably only 20% of us here. It is also only convienient if you don't have…

> which is probably only 20% of us here Uh. Shops offering printing-as-a-service are one of the most common things found in every small town, all over the world. They're one of the first entrepreneurialist ventures to be developed in developing countries after electrification (just buy a printer and a computer, and charge $1 to print a page.) Every Internet cafe offers printing. Every parcel shipping store (UPS, FedE…

> Shops offering printing-as-a-service are one of the most common things found in every small town, all over the world.

FWIW, I live in the outer suburbs of Melbourne in Australia. By no means a small town. It’s a 20min drive to my closest place that does printing, which is apparently out in an industrial estate. There’s absolutely nothing in the 3-4 most accessible shopping/retail areas. These types of places have been shrinking with every passing year.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#57

Post by [deleted] »

derefr wrote: post #52
zizee wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even for those non-professional uses it's probably better to put the PDF on a flash drive, walk into Staples and print it on their machines I'm not trying to be argumentative, and what I'm going to say might be a "well obviously, duh" comment: This advice is really only applicable to those who have convenient access to a "staples", which is probably only 20% of us here. It is also only convienient if you don't have…

> which is probably only 20% of us here Uh. Shops offering printing-as-a-service are one of the most common things found in every small town, all over the world. They're one of the first entrepreneurialist ventures to be developed in developing countries after electrification (just buy a printer and a computer, and charge $1 to print a page.) Every Internet cafe offers printing. Every parcel shipping store (UPS, FedE…

[deleted]

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#58

Post by SavantIdiot »

He mentions "Smart TVs". I always thought you could just buy a SmartTV and not connect the internet and have a dumb TV.

Nope. HDMI changed that.

I bought a TV a few months ago and it started showing adverts because it was connected to the internet through my ROKU via HDMI.

That's right, you can't even have a dumb TV anymore.

Someone needs to make an HDMI internet filter, stat.

But Adobe? That smells like extortion.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#59

Post by Waterluvian »

MikeUt wrote: post #14
Waterluvian wrote: post #2

A lot of good thoughts in here. The one I personally want everyone to take away is that most plastics are not recycled. Unless it’s glass, fibre, or aluminum, you are lying to yourself if it’s going into the blue bin. Glass-contained milk delivery seems great. Someone needs to start a company. Sure it won’t be sexy or use AI but it’s useful. I have a local co-op that delivers local produce. It’s amazing to see a pile…

> Unless it’s glass, fibre, or aluminum, you are lying to yourself if it’s going into the blue bin. You mean you are being lied to , by well organized groups: https://www.startribune.com/lobbying-group-fights-insurgence...

True. But once you know the lie, it’s yours to continue or not.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#60

Post by sokoloff »

ludocode wrote: post #29
NortySpock wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great advice, and I echo 95% of it. My observation is that I have found Wifi useful when I need the printer in an odd location in the house, and color is useful for non-professional usage like "the kids need to print out their report for school" and "the med school student needs anatomy diagrams in color" My trusty color Brother laser HL-3170CDW cost ~$300 at the time and has been trucking along for 7+ years now with…

Even for those non-professional uses it's probably better to put the PDF on a flash drive, walk into Staples and print it on their machines. For anyone who hasn't done it, it's incredibly streamlined. You don't have to talk to anyone and you don't have to wait in line. You just walk up to one of the many printers, put in your flash drive, tap your credit card and collect your printouts. I'm just not convinced that ha…

I bought an HP 3600N networked color laser printer in Nov 2006. Cost me $574.39 delivered and gives reliable and excellent quality output for about $38/year so far in capex. 3rd party toner cartridges run around $110 for all 4 (they're about half the fill of the genuine HP article for about 1/8th the price). In home use, I've replaced the cartridges twice, so I'm around $800 plus paper for almost 15 years of convenient printing at home. $38/year in capex and $12/yr in consumables.

There’s no way I can justify leaving my house to color print in order to save $4.50 a month.

Having the printer for two pre-teens during COVID schooling was a bonus as well, but it was long ago “paid for” by convenience and time savings.

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