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HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

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Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#61

Post by 4gotunameagain »

ahartmetz wrote: post #22
4gotunameagain wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your opinions about these devices are valid, but I highly doubt that any other country is so stuck to physical mail as is Germany. To the point that I wonder how it is still functioning. Only one country away: Denmark. You are provided with a state issued secure email address for all official communication. No paper. Minimal environmental impact. No looking through the 2013 brief to find a paper from the finanzamt.

> To the point I wonder how it is still functioning. It's a symptom of other dysfunction alright, but mail did and does work, so the superficial answer is: same as it always did? When I read about banking in the US involving checks and bills, I don't say "the system is collapsing", it's just... an aspect that sucks.

Of course mail did and does work.

Horses did work, and would still work if we still used them.

But for an official service to necessitate a physical form lettered to them, that is simply unnecessary overhead for the individual, for society, and for the environment.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#62

Post by anal_reactor »

mrweasel wrote: post #34

What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. How stupid do you need to be to release an online-only subscription laser printer? Somewhere in the HP hierarchy reality is removed. I feel like at least one of the lower level people saw this coming. Somewhere in the management layers this became a good idea, an idea completely removed from reality. The only logic that makes sense is that you h…

> What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. How stupid do you need to be to release an online-only subscription laser printer?

How is it possible that Putin wasn't aware of the state of Russian army on the eve of the invasion? Is it possible that all generals constantly lied to him because he killed everyone who disagreed with him and surrounded himself with yes-men, creating an alternative reality for himself? Still, being an ex-KGB agent, and maneuvering through all the quirks of Russian politics, he should be perfectly aware of how the system works. Yet, he sent to Ukraine tanks without fuel nor ammunition. How come?

The more I read about the shortcomings of totalitarian states the more I understand why corporations work the way they do.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#63

Post by dtx1 »

It's quite a thing to behold that the only technological advancement in printing technology in the last decade has been the erosion of ownership to the point of absurdity. In a fair world, this decades long clownshow should have caused the mother of all anti trust lawsuits, yet here we are.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#64

Post by throw092309 »

4gotunameagain wrote: post #18
ogou wrote: post #9

I found one these all-in-one units out on sidewalk and thought I had scored a cool freebie. It was nearly new. Now I know why they threw it away. Total garbage and bricked without that HP+ subscription. Can't use the scanner because the ink is too low. The worst part is that I couldn't even reset the printer to use a new subscription! It was tied to the previous owner at a hardware level and support said I had to con…

Your opinions about these devices are valid, but I highly doubt that any other country is so stuck to physical mail as is Germany. To the point that I wonder how it is still functioning. Only one country away: Denmark. You are provided with a state issued secure email address for all official communication. No paper. Minimal environmental impact. No looking through the 2013 brief to find a paper from the finanzamt.

I am in EU country that has similar system, but it has some problems:

- keeping verifiable trail for digital documents is difficult. You have to go to notary, and print verified copy at cost of 1$ per page. Old paper system just sends you hard verified copy for free.

- there is a fiction of delivery for digital mail.

- digital documents get deleted from mail box after 6 months. There is paid version that preserves them. There is no way to archive them outside of government servers, because signature trail expires.

- good luck with using digital documents at the court, there are laws, but those are unenforceable. Your fancy digital doc may just get thrown out as a fake.

- government owns all servers, and may just decide to delete some digital documents.

In short new "digital" system is buggy, cumbersome, abd very expensive if you want safety and reliability. Cost of paper is negligible.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#65

Post by impendia »

mrweasel wrote: post #34

What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. How stupid do you need to be to release an online-only subscription laser printer? Somewhere in the HP hierarchy reality is removed. I feel like at least one of the lower level people saw this coming. Somewhere in the management layers this became a good idea, an idea completely removed from reality. The only logic that makes sense is that you h…

> What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming.

I remember when US airlines started charging for checked baggage. Many more people started carrying on their bags, resulting in slower boarding and deplaning, and therefore problems for the airlines.

I read an interview with an executive at one of the airlines, saying that he didn't see this coming and was taken totally by surprise.

I am bewildered at how these people rise to positions of authority without even the most basic ability to predict obvious consumer behavior.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#67

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

impendia wrote: post #65
mrweasel wrote: post #34

What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. How stupid do you need to be to release an online-only subscription laser printer? Somewhere in the HP hierarchy reality is removed. I feel like at least one of the lower level people saw this coming. Somewhere in the management layers this became a good idea, an idea completely removed from reality. The only logic that makes sense is that you h…

> What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. I remember when US airlines started charging for checked baggage. Many more people started carrying on their bags, resulting in slower boarding and deplaning, and therefore problems for the airlines. I read an interview with an executive at one of the airlines, saying that he didn't see this coming and was taken totally by surprise. I am bewil…

> I am bewildered at how these people rise to positions of authority without even the most basic ability to predict obvious consumer behavior.

Me too. It seems to be some kind of selective blindness as they'll happily pay advertising money in an effort to influence consumers and then not realise that consumers are influenced by product changes too.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#68

Post by donw »

Havoc wrote: post #43
mrweasel wrote: post #34

What I find extremely annoying is that no one is charge saw this coming. How stupid do you need to be to release an online-only subscription laser printer? Somewhere in the HP hierarchy reality is removed. I feel like at least one of the lower level people saw this coming. Somewhere in the management layers this became a good idea, an idea completely removed from reality. The only logic that makes sense is that you h…

> no one is charge saw this coming They just don’t care. Corporate tactics 101 - push limits until someone screams bloody murder. It’s the big corporate equivalent of move fast and Break things that is so beloved of SV

True. Also government tactics 101.

Difference being that HP won’t shoot me for buying a printer from Brother.

Re: HP discontinues online-only LaserJet printers in response to backlash

#69

Post by constantcrying »

Dealing with an HP printer easily was the worst tech experience I have had in my life. I don't understand how "non-tech" people even deal with this. The process was so unimaginably convoluted, requiring third party software, new accounts a very bad mobile app, a tiny display with terrible delays on the printer and so much more.

This has to be another peak though and something where I think the EU could reasonably step in. Selling devices so utterly broken and ridiculous to set up and maintain should not be acceptable.

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