Most consumers wouldn’t know what you’re talking about. I think they stopped buying Sony because Sony stopped being a value at it’s high price point. It’s products may have been superior once, but they are no longer. They’re lucky if they’re competitive.
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That’s not how things are decided in capitalist havens, such as the United States, but I’m sure you already know that… This kind of BS is decided in a board room, with non-technical, already obscenely wealthy (because inherited money and connections) board members staring at some balloneyshit numbers the “number crunchers” cook up, representing the fictitious additional wads of cash they will be paid. No rationale, facts, or disparaging of rural United States required.
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Exactly, sometimes you really need to print. I often need to bring dimensioned drawings into the workshop, sometimes I even print full size hole patterns, glue them to material and drill on the X. What I really miss is my 24 pin trackfeed printer, I could tile drawings into long strips, print, and tape them together for like 5 ft square drawings.
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This is the handmade, artisanal printer I made. Constructed of the finest woods and plastic filaments.
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Jesus, would the both of you quit goldbricking around the BBS and go file a memo or something?! 
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Again, you seem to be eager to put words in my mouth for some reason. I suggested acting directly against some of HPs infrastructure, find some way which directly impacts their ability to conduct daily business. Sure, you could demolish one of the buildings, but that seems wasteful. Even a couple of skilfully applied tubes of super glue can keep a facility closed for a day. DDOS their teleconferencing. Disrupt their financial services. Get their parts and fab shipments routed to the wrong places. If you study how their business works, you can probably think of a few things without me needing to hold your hand through the process. Here’s a good one! Have people launch their HP printers through their glass cube building with a catapult. That’s a great visual for the media and I guarantee it will get their attention more effectively than a meaningless class action lawsuit which they’ll laugh off after giving you a $30 scooby snack.
What else I would suggest is communications so that they have some “inkling” of why they are experiencing these problems. Meet with a board member or two, maybe in their house. Be polite but firm and force them to enjoy a nice discussion with you over a nice dinner or something.
The point is for them to be acutely aware that there are direct consequences for fucking customers over. Without this, there will be a power imbalance between the consumer and the corporation and they absolutely will not take any complaints seriously.
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Yes but you see, nobody else is advocating violence. So are you actually blowing up HP? Or just hoping somebody else takes up your cause while you sit home?
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It is presumptuous both to assume that I am advocating violence, as well as that “nobody else” is.
You seem really eager to frame this a certain way! For the 3rd/4th/? time I said that the crucial thing is to directly affect the way that they conduct their daily business. It seems that you are not reading my posts very closely.
Again, I already explained that I am not one of the people affected by this. Why do you assume that I am in a home? Why do you assume that it matters whether it is you, me, or somebody else who confronts HP? My “cause” is that people learn to not resign themselves to buying into the power imbalances perpetuated by institutions, and instead deal with them directly as equals. Do you think it’s “violent” when they broadcast code which directly affects the way their customers do business? It seems like a double standard if you frame that as an unfortunate reality when HP does it, but some kind of violent atrocity when I suggest doing likewise.
I am sure that all of those who sit upon their hands and cry “somebody please do something” can be just as hapless when the next corporation decides to milk them dry. But like I said, if even 1/1000th of their customers called them to task, HP would need to re-think the ways they do business.
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I haven’t used my printer in years. Even back when I did use it, it was so rare that the heads were clogged, and it would take a half hour, and who knows how much ink, just to clean the heads.
Now when I have something to be printed, I “print” it to a PDF file, copy it to a memory card, and pay 11¢ to have it printed at my nearby office supply store. Sometimes I go crazy, and have a backup copy printed, 'cause that’s how I roll.
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Time bomb? Well at least it isn’t a dumpster fire!
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I just used to buy the dixons prinz cameras in the old physical world
Aren’t there printers with refillable ink wells out now?
Most expensive crayons in this gravity well; possibly well beyond.
At least the machines are finicky, the OSes gone from bad to byzantine since Xerox ate Tektronix; and they want to be left to cool for half an hour before you can move them.
The prints are nice and glossy, though.
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and watch the lights dim everytime you turn it on
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You must be deep green if a printer’s your energy hog. Mine is on and cool as a cucumber, no lights dim. Ridiculously, my Krupps burr grinder is warmer on standby.
It’s not ‘dimming’, it’s your lights paying their respects to a legendary titan of the Before Times; a living avatar of the heroic age of engineering, from before the ruinous era of MBA-driven ‘innovation’ and cut price consumer tat.
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yeah, yeah, yeah.
great printer for its time and some time after…
but there are data centers that are smaller and take less power
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Just hire a scribe!
Added bonus: “Job Creator”!
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Here’s where you did that:
In the United States, you would, at a minimum, be charged with reckless endangerment. If anybody got injured, you would be charged with more. The fact that it is possible that nobody would be hurt doesn’t mean it’s not a violent act. If there is a reasonable expectation that someone might be harmed, then that’s violence. As far as I can see, the plain meaning of the term, in regular usage, is pretty well aligned with how it is defined in the law. You don’t have a leg to stand on here.
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For a printer that doesn’t fuck up mid-task? THIS IS ACCEPTABLE.
Plus have you seen BRAILLE printers? Ye Gods and Little Fishes seeing and hearing one of those things in action and then seeing the cost up front and for repairs will make you appreciate what we have.
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