Just do not buy HP printers.
this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024
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Technology
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It's a crime this company carries the name of Bill Hewlett and David Packard .
actually, it doesn’t. It is now just “HP inc.” Sole years ago they split the company into HP inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. HP kept the PC and printing business and Hewlett Packard kept the enterprise business.
(but I get you. I just wanted to share that detail )
Hewlett Packard Enterprise makes good products. It's very common to see their server and networking equipment, plus their subsidiaries (like Aruba). I'm always surprised that their consumer division is completely different and makes such terrible ones.
from the article:
Subject to the terms of this Agreement, You hereby grant to HP a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free right to use, copy, store, transmit, modify, create derivative works of and display Your non-personal data for its business purposes.
Holy shit. I wonder if HP is feeding customers’ data to an #AI machine to exploit in some way. It doesn’t even seem to be limited to what people print. HP’s software package is probably not just a printer driver. But even if it is, a driver runs in the kernel space, so IIUC there’s no limit to what data it can mine.
But... But... All my data is personal data...
So if you print your book on this printer. A book that you have written and are about to send to a publisher. HP can take it and sell it. And you are paying them for the privilege.
That is a HARD NO from me.
Best purchase I ever made was a Brother laser printer back in 2013. Paid $100 for it brand new. Almost 11 years later, I still have it, it prints every time I need it, and I'm still on the toner cartridge that came with it. Total number of paper jams: 1 (I failed at life one time trying to load an envelope lol)
I rarely need to print, but when I do, it's always something important (usually something I have to print, sign, scan, and email back).
Minus the cost of a few reams of paper, $100 has covered my printing needs for over a decade. I rarely, if ever, need a color print, but that's my only limitation (I think I did a color print at the UPS store a few years ago). For photos, I just have those printed at Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, or just about anywhere.
If you take anything away from this rambling comment, let it be this: Do not buy an inkjet printer, and also don't buy an HP printer. Laser printers cost a little more upfront, but the long-term costs are much, much less.
The mandatory comment to any printer discussion. Buy a brother laser. Nothing else. Preferably used.
have to print, sign, scan, and email back
Can't you scan or photograph your signature and insert it in your word processor?
Not where I live. You either need a physical signature on a piece of paper (can be later scanned) or a "Qualified Electronic Signature" to go full digital. The latter costs money it's not universally supported - small business owners often have no idea how it works.
Those are the only two options that are legally recognised as valid signature
This is also the only reason why I have a printer.
But Admiral Patrick (sorry, I still don't know how to link/tag users) wrote he has to scan and email the physical signature from the paper, so it is not really physical anymore? Maybe he has to send the physical paper by snail mail in addition to the email.
I have a Samsung mono laser printer. The toner lasts for years and it never ever lets me down. Just bought a Canon Pixma colour inkjet, for my sticker printing. I can replace all the carteidges with 3rd party ones for €10.
Added the hashtags as a test; testing with real content so I don't have a bunch of useless test posts floating around.
They’d work for someone reading on mastodon.
even if you were ok with renting a printer for some reason, I find it so creepy that HP needs to monitor all the stuff that gets sent to the printer.
Also I hope whoever decided that everything needs to be a subscription service is having a bad time.
My 12 year old Canon needed replacing, guy at computer store warned me about HP and their internet monitoring of printer and ink subscription, so I stayed with Canon.
if any one wants good corporate news; Sonos was initially bricking devices when you upgraded a product and asking you to recycle them at an electronics depo. enough people emailed/complained because CEO has his email contact on the webpage for concerns. They walked it back and you can transfer ownership now to reduce e-waste
I have this unsubstantiated theory but hear me out. I challenge an economist to look into this. Anyways, shareholder focus has replaced capitalism, even late stage capitalism, with something else. I'm not sure what it is, but it's whatever this subscription milk every penny movement is now built to support. It's like revenue maximization on steroids, like we must seek revenue maximization while remaining 100% efficient in revenue pursuit.
And it's killing everything in the way. There's no give.
Economist, get your nobel prize. What is this phenomena?
I think you may have confused capitalism with commerce.
Capitalism is about leveraging capital to generate wealth for the capital owner. The purist form of this is a subscription basedbsales model, where you always maintain ownership of assets, but everyone else pays you for access to them.
Capitalism is rent seeking. It will always devolve to this, given the opportunity, because this is the most efficient way of accruing more wealth, and that is what capitalism optimizes for.
Commerce exists separately from capitalism. It's just a form of trade.
Printers are a scam.
I got rid of mine a few years ago. I don't need one.
You don't need it until you do. Then it is a big todo to find one.
I recommend to everyone to just spend the extra $50 and by the BW Laser brother printer instead of the crap ink jet printer. I think they are around $100-150.
It will basically last you forever on the 10 pages you print a year.
TBH: If it's absolutely necessary, I'd just print something at work or at my friends'/family's house.