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HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink

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101–110 of 110 posts

Re: HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real problem is that a certain political affiliation has opened the floodgates toward unbridled corporate meddling in politics. If coroporations can set the rule due to legal bribery (lobbying) that's a larger systemic issue that only underwrites my point. Fortunately there are other examples that show it can be done better, you may have to look for those examples either outside of the USA or in the past of the U…

My point is, more gov. regulation isn't working. That is not likely to change until there is a systemic change in our system of government.

bollocks. plenty of gov regulation works in other countries. European trains run on time and don't spew chlorine gas at people.

Re: HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink

#102

Remote update strikes again. Every manufacturer that abuses this mechanism for anything other than actual security updates should be fined in a way that registers on their stock price and if they do it twice they should be fined out of existence.

Just jail the CEO. One day for each printer that they do it to should probably suffice.

They decided what you paid for is not yours and will just change it. Not different from Microsoft forced Win 11 upgrades.

Re: HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink

#103
I think the US government should create an Energy Star like program for printers.

The average cost per year of ink would be shown and whether aftermarket cartridges are accepted.

The average person buys because they see the initial cheap cost. It is a bait and switch that is terrible for the environment.

Even worse, HP runs green washing ads on YouTube about printing trees.

Years ago, I switched over to Brother laserjets that accept aftermarket cartridges. Never worry about printing costs.

Re: HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink

#104
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DRM in printer supplies is hardly new. The first HP printer with DRM that comes to mind is the LaserJet 4100. RFID tags and whatnot, they backed off and went with cheaper solutions with the 4200 series. I think Lexmark pioneered selling the printers themselves as loss leaders. I think perhaps what's getting lost here is that in the consumer space printers are being sold on a razor and blade model. The printers themse…

Kodak had some serious reliability issues with the print heads in those printers. I think that was more the reason that it failed rather than consumers not liking the up front price on its own. No one likes buying what’s supposed to be the premium model just to have massive print head failures render your printer useless.

Maybe, IDK. Inkjets have never held much appeal for me. That said Lexmark lasted way longer in the consumer space and their inkjet printers were widely regarded as crap.

Re: HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink

#105
If I find my HP printer upgraded in this way, I literally will build a trebuchet in the back of my truck and hurl the now worthless paperweight through the window of the local HP division, which happens to be their printer R&D department.

I will happily face any resulting criminal charges, because I am pretty sure there would be enough sympathy here alone to raise bail and legal fees.

If they want to behave like criminals, then they should expect tit-for-tat retaliation.

Re: HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink

#106
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Refunds can be stymied, much harder with fines (the party on the other side carries a much larger stick). But fine (pun intended), let's do both. Seriously, this sort of stuff should be discouraged in the strongest possible way.

>But fine (pun intended), let's do both. Absolutely fine with that, plus a massive fine if the refund is not paid back in a fair amount of time ;)

[deleted]

Re: HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real problem is that a certain political affiliation has opened the floodgates toward unbridled corporate meddling in politics. If coroporations can set the rule due to legal bribery (lobbying) that's a larger systemic issue that only underwrites my point. Fortunately there are other examples that show it can be done better, you may have to look for those examples either outside of the USA or in the past of the U…

My point is, more gov. regulation isn't working. That is not likely to change until there is a systemic change in our system of government.

your point is clearly wrong on so many levels and from so many perspectives it's just laughable.

Re: HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The incentives of capitalism are such that unless there are very strict regulations, it degenerates in what the game of monopoly tries to convey in a visceral manner. A few people will own everything at the cost of everybody else. Because protection against monopolies is dead in USA, we see exactly this play out.

Not true, and well known as not true for ages in the economic field. The primary source of monopolies are government regulations (e.g. patents, exclusive licenses, etc). In fact the words "monopoly" and "patent" started meaning "the government will allow this and only this business to do that thing, and will prosecute whoever tries to compete". HP only have like 25% of the printer market. Realistic alternatives curre…

> The primary source of monopolies are government regulations

This is beyond ridiculous, it's just bad-faith.

Re: HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink

#109

Printers suck. They should be awesome. But instead, the print quality hasn't really improved since 1999. The last notable feture: tabloid size ink jets came out a decade ago. Printers still have paper handling issues, and inkjets still waste tons of ink unclogging print heads. All the innovation goes into lock-in and marketing strategies for consumables. The silver lining is that most printers have a Linux drivers th…

Printers suck the print quality hasn't really improved since 1999. In 1999 I was using a £150 canon colour inket with 360x360 resolution. Lasted ten years with fake ink at £20 a year. Now I am using a £150 canon megatank with 1200x4800 resolution, scan,copy,wifi and print plus an official bottle of ink costs £10 and lasts 5000 pages. Downside, I doubt the modern build quality will last 10 years but fingers crossed. S…

In 93, I bought an 720x720dpi Epson inkjet over the 600dpi Canon model. That printer was amazing, but by 99, everyone had caught up. By 99, I had a 1200dpi Tektronix printer at work, and at home the inkjet claimed to do 1200x2400 but looked about the same as the old Epson. My latest printer (a Brother) claims to do 1200x4800, and it looks... maybe better than the old Epson. The one thing, the Brother is really fast compared to the older printers.

Re: HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink

#110
post #93
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mikrotiks are cheap and more than required for home. I have one and super happy.

Never heard of them, Ill give them a look, thnx

I personally own this one https://mikrotik.com/product/hex_s
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