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[Junker]

John Walker's Fourmilab Change Log

Vendor Death Penalty: Hewlett-Packard

June 13, 2008

As a larval nerd, there were two technology companies I held in
the highest esteem: Tektronix and Hewlett-Packard.
...

Fourmilab's new printer? The Brother HL-5270DN which, expanded
with a Kingston KTB-HL5200/256 memory module has 288 Mb free for
file buffering and image rendering and, presumably, no more “low
memory” print hang-ups.

Hewlett-Packard? I turn my back on you, snuff the candle, and
walk away in disgust.

Yeah. To bad, H-P, it was nice.

[Ire]

How would it know RAM from one manufacture against another? Much less completely shut down.

That just seems totally wierd.

At least it didnt do that when I installed new RAM on my HP laptop o.o

[slidemansailor]

I worked almost a decade under Bill & Dave... learned supervision and management 'from them'. Then they retired. In the next three years, THE H-P WAY was killed off. I left the best job I had - well, it left me first, but I left when I figured it was irrecoverable. But I still figure it is a pretty good company with good products... just not a class above as it once was.

I suspect they could build something into their chips that informs other of their chips of non-proprietary component installation.  I just don't suspect them of doing that.  It is a maybe for me.

Folks get pissy about many ways businesses meet payroll, expenses and an acceptable rate of return on investment.  I have too much experience trying to do those things myself to pass judgment on how others attempt it.  I make my best guestimates on the product offerings, but don't expect any of them to produce anything for me out of love and compassion for me and mine... nor do I offer any in return.

[Bear]

I suspect they could build something into their chips that informs other of their chips of non-proprietary component installation.

Unless I misremember, both HP and IBM have been known to do this in the past. Whether they still do this or not, I don't know.

Bear

[lee n. field]

How would it know RAM from one manufacture against another? Much less completely shut down.

I'd guess the individual himself installed the memory.

Hewlett-Packard? I turn my back on you, snuff the candle, and
walk away in disgust.

Suckage from HP has increased greatly in recent years.  Our printer guy tells me that they drop parts support for some printers very quickly -- a couple years out of warranty, it's unfixable.  And I don't ever, ever want to call HP tech support again.

[Lazarus Long]

Folks get pissy about many ways businesses meet payroll, expenses and an acceptable rate of return on investment.  I have too much experience trying to do those things myself to pass judgment on how others attempt it.  I make my best guestimates on the product offerings, but don't expect any of them to produce anything for me out of love and compassion for me and mine... nor do I offer any in return.

Fair enough. But I'll never buy another HP printer, nor likely anything else with those damnable initials on them.

The ink cartridges for most of HP's newer printers come with an expiration date on them. Never mind if the cartridge is still full of usable ink. They just go belly-up and refuse to work, no way, nohow. Resetting the date on your computer's system clock won't fool the little buggers, either. This is the worst example of planned obselecense I have ever seen - and from a company that has a whole page about "Eco Solutions" on their website. Their print cartridges cost an arm and a leg to start with. "In order to enhance the profits of HP's shareholders, the print cartridge you paid $30 for has been rendered useless."

The Eco Solutions page claims, "HP is committed to reducing its environmental impact across all aspects of business..." So, how does forcing customers to waste perfectly good ink fit into this commitment?
 
Fair enough, then - it's still sort of a free market, and nobody's got a gun to my head forcing me to go get screwed by do business with HP again.

Maybe if enough customers were repulsed enough by HP's bald-faced, money-grubbing shennanigans and decided to spend their FRNs elsewhere, the individuals responsible would find themselves unable to meet payroll and expenses or make an acceptable rate of return on investment - and then they might have to go find themselves an honest way to make a living.

Like the author of the blog post Junker linked to, I'm now using a Brother laser printer, and have talked at least one other person into choosing a Brother printer in lieu of their not-very old HP inkjet that died for no apparent reason shortly after the warranty ran out.

[vonuvan]

Although I own an H-P laptop, I haven't had much respect for them since they spun off what they were best at and what the founders set them up as, a premier manufacturer of high-quality electronic test and industrial computational equipment. I still have the HP-45 calculator I bought when I was starting votech, and last time I checked it (it's in storage), it worked.