Ink Cartridges with Built-In Self-Destruct Dates 655
Linker3000 writes "The Inquirer has an article about HP ink cartridges having a built-in expiry date that can cause them to become unusable even if they aren't empty! Another twist on the 'chipped cartridge' stories--and also another kick in the teeth (and wallet) for the consumer methinks." This isn't really a new problem - here's a good piece about the problem.
All these fancy ink and 'laser' printers (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:All these fancy ink and 'laser' printers (Score:4, Interesting)
I agree totally. I have an old Okidata 380D that has outlasted 3 of those "fancy" printers. It always works, and does text just fine. Since I don't print pictures, it is all I really need.
I just need to remember to print my work before the babies are asleep.
Re:All these fancy ink and 'laser' printers (Score:3, Informative)
What [Cheap] Printers *dont* suck? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What [Cheap] Printers *dont* suck? (Score:3, Informative)
It's a free market. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It's a free market. (Score:5, Insightful)
Rus
Re:It's a free market. (Score:3, Informative)
If you continue to buy HP inkjets then you obviously don't really care and deserve everything you get.
Re:It's a free market. (Score:3, Interesting)
This doesn't work because these tactics take effect a long time after the customer made his buying decision.
Re:It's a free market. (Score:5, Insightful)
And herein lies the problem. The "free market" is an economic model that makes many assumptions. In a "free market" the theoretical consumers make rational decisions all the time, and are perfectly informed.
The fact that morons exist and are consumers is one of the uncountably large number of reasons that a pure free market will never exist in the real world, and therefore we can't magically expect the market's "invisible hand" to make things work well.
Re:It's a free market. (Score:5, Informative)
Not so. This is a simplistic, 19th century model which has been improved upon quite a bit in the last century.
Current economic theory does take into account irrational decisions, but on the whole individual irrational economic decisions do little to affect the economics of the entire population. There will always be some people acting irrationally, but on the whole most will make rational decisions most of the time, the end result of which drives the free market.
Note that a 'rational decision' also requires accurate information. If the population is given incorrect information (either deliberately or otherwise) it will act irrationally because the information available tells it that the irrational is actually rational.
The thing to keep in mind here is that there is no capitalistic model at work in any country in the world (with the possible exception of tiny places like Andorra - couldn't tell you about these mini-nations). Even the 'capitalist' economy of the United States is heavily socialized and government-controlled, although the government control often works opposite to that of fascism (i.e., instead of the government giving orders to corporations, it's usually the other way around). We have no idea - none whatsoever - how a capitalistic free market would work because we don't have any capitalistic free markets to examine. A socialistic, oligarchical corporate state does not a free market make.
So it makes no sense to criticize capitalism or the free market. You do not live in a capitalistic country, and you don't have a free market.
Max
Re:It's a free market. (Score:3, Informative)
> Problem is that once a company like HP sets a presidence like this others will think they can follow.
And that opens the door for companies like XFX, Goldstar, Leadtek, et. al. to enter the market and make cheap knockoffs without these limitations. Companies like this feed off of higher priced competitor products.
Re:It's a free market. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's a free market. (Score:5, Insightful)
in an ideal world, consumers would vote with their wallet and such manufacturers would have to change their practices. however in reality, the large majority of consumers are not well-informed, hence they make wrong choices that ultimately put everyone at a disadvantage. to be brutally honest i think this would be rather inevitable, given the general knowledge the average joe or jane has about computers and its related peripheral devices. the manufacturers probably know this, and are likely to prefer to keep it the way it is.
Re:It's a free market. (Score:5, Informative)
They're playing with fire if they do that; printer manufacturers are already under investigation for anticompetitive practices by the EU. If they have any sense, they'll back off fast.
Re:It's a free market. (Score:5, Insightful)
in my opinion, this whole fiasco started due to bad foresight by a bunch of marketing guys. they tried to emulate the shaver business model, but failed to realize that brand recognition is not as important in the computer industry; people in general would be more willing to pay less for an X-brand printer cartrige that works almost as well as the original, but wouldn't be as willing to buy a Y-brand replacement razor for a shaver that might nick your skin when you shave due to poorer QC that manifests itself in more obvious and painful ways.
now that they've set the standard for ridiculously low prices for printers, they realize their share of the profits of the ink cartridge business isn't as large as they anticipated it to be due to third-party manufacturers. unfortunately, they can't raise the prices of printers to the level they were once at to make up for this loss, since consumers would certainly cry foul and instead rely on older printers that are not fussy about ink cartridges. they've got themselves stuck in a rut, and they have only themselves to blame for it.
now they've even implemented self-destructing ink cartridges....sheesh. i don't forsee this going very far.
Re:It's a free market. (Score:3, Insightful)
They're playing with fire if they do that; printer manufacturers are already under investigation for anticompetitive practices by the EU. If they have any sense, they'll back off fast.
Do you really think Carly cares about your silly rules? She is busy adding HP to her list of dying companies. As long as that rigged cartridge adds a nickel to her bonus, that's the way it will be.
Re:It's a free market. (Score:5, Funny)
But how can a judge indict them if they control the printers the indictments are printed with? ;-)
Re:It's a free market. (Score:3, Interesting)
Which is a market larger than that of North America. The EU may well lack political clout, but its an economic superpower.
(Not to mention that there are a number of printer companies inside the EU that would love to see HP out of the market.)
Best wishes,
Mike.
It's not a free market (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a free *market*. (Score:2)
Re:It's a free *market*. (Score:5, Informative)
Basically, companies that can manufacture ink jet cartridges (relatively small products) but cannot manufacture their own printers can be locked out of the market, eliminating consumers' ability to choose to buy from these smaller companies.
Re:It's not a free market (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's a free market. (Score:3, Insightful)
Any ideas?
Re:It's a free market. (Score:5, Informative)
Try Canon, for one. The S750 I purchased last summer uses the same non-chipped ink tanks as most of their other new-line home and small office printers, so even though I don't see the S750 on their web site any more, I'm pretty sure that they will be making their ink this way for some time to come.
(It's a very good printer, besides, if you were wondering for your own reference... Prints fast (I don't have a ppm count... not nosebleed fast, but notably faster than my roommate's HP), works well with the gimp-print drivers if you use Linux, prints photos well enough for my eyes, and has all sorts of other bells and whistles.)
Offset by the cost of a slightly more pricey printer ($140), the ink is pretty inexpensive. The black cartridge will set you back $15; the full set of three color cartridges costs $30. Canon ink comes in transparent plastic "dumb" cartridges that are completely sucked dry when the driver tells you they're empty... the printer won't cheat you out of any of it, as it actually measures how much ink is left in the tank rather than using HP or Epson style guesswork.
There are a few other non-evil printer manufacturers, I'm sure, but Canon seems to be the best as far as I've heard. Any other suggestions, anyone?
Re:It's a free market. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's a free market. (Score:2)
Re:It's a free market. (Score:5, Insightful)
This has very little to do with a free market. Even in a "free" market there are still laws... And the last time I checked, fraud was still illegal (at least where I live, the U.S.)
And IMO, this is fraud. If I sell you a consumable product, there is a certain (reasonable, I think) expectation that the product will function until the consumable resource involved is exhausted. If this wasn't a "computer" product, and therefore affected people besides geeks--imagine the outcry!
For instance, replace "ink cartridges" with "case of beer/pop." If you don't drink all the cans in your case before a certain date, they all automatically vent the CO2 and go flat so you have to buy more.
Folks, there would be riots in the streets and the FTC would be all OVER their asses...
Re:It's a free market. (Score:4, Insightful)
HPs motives aren't totally evil here... they really *are* trying to inform the consumer that you have to replace your cartridges more often than 2-3 years.
They do it with mobile phones (Score:3, Interesting)
Impossible? No: it actually happened in the Netherlands. And there weren't all that many cries of outrage - apparently people thought it was an ok thing to do. Some data: the offending phone company was KPN (the former state monopoly); 177,000 people were disconnected in a three month period (that's 1.1% of the entire Dutch population); even though t
Software patch (Score:4, Funny)
In other news, a bright soul has just been charged with a DCMA violation by HP.
Let's not forget... (Score:5, Informative)
This just adds to a list of reasons why I will never, ever, own a printer again [instructio...uals.co.uk]...
Old amstrad Printer (Score:3, Interesting)
Rus
Re:Let's not forget... (Score:2)
Oh, they call this an "environmental" program, since they don't want their cartridges ending up in landfills. Heh.
Isn't this illegal (Score:5, Interesting)
The Brady Law (Score:5, Funny)
Does the Brady Law on cars mean that there is a 3-day waiting period if you want to buy a Chevy Beretta?
Re:The Brady Law (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, tell that one to Ariana Huffington, a 3 day cooling off period for purchasers of SUV's!
Could join it to Megan's law, force SUV owners to place a sign on their front lawn 'environmental disaster area lives here'.
Re:The Brady Law (Score:3, Informative)
I don't think it would apply to this printer situation. In fact, there are plenty of parts on a car that are pretty much only made by the manufacturer
Re:The Brady Law (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The Brady Law (Score:4, Informative)
Engine control is not exactly rocket science. My ECU has a 3MHz microcontroller and some counters on it, and that's pretty much it. Then there's a fuel map, a little 2d chart that says at so many RPMs and so much airflow, supply this much fuel, and keep adding more until the speed matches the throttle position. Admittedly, there's a bit more to it, like monitoring the O2 sensor and making the mixture richer or leaner or adjusting timing (usually the latter) to ensure that the maximum amount of fuel is burned, leading to higher efficiency and thus lower emissions, but you must realize that to just get a car to run and develop power you don't need to do all that shit. Cars were making hundreds of horsepower through forced induction before the invention of fuel injection, even. Check out some old studebakers if you don't believe me.
Tuners do reverse engineer that stuff, but there's really no need to because you can do it somewhat by the dimensions of the engine and somewhat by trial and error, especially watching the O2 sensor output. It becomes slightly more complex when you add in VTEC and the like because for staged VVT you must have two maps for different cam profiles, and for phased VVT you can adjust the timing much more broadly, but all of that can be reduced to relatively simple formulas, all of which will be adjusted by the sensor inputs.
Anyway even for VTEC (and other VVT, everyone seems to have it these days) you can replace the computer entirely, without doing any reverse engineering whatsoever, and just start from a basic set of assumptions about what an engine of that bore, stroke, and compression ratio will need in the way of fuel and air, and design a map accordingly.
That stinks (Score:3, Funny)
That is why... (Score:2)
Hell, even the organic celery in the local supermarket have their own serials. How far will this madness go?
Re:That is why... (Score:3, Informative)
And you damn well ought to have!
SoGA requires all goods to match the description on the box or in any advertising, to be of satisfactory quality - (ie. they must work and last a reasonable length of time), and they must be fit for the purpose they were sold under.
The company cannot claim that breaching the wrapping violates your rights as the goods were clearly not of satisfactory quality.
And it is the store not the manufacturer
Irony (Score:5, Funny)
The tagline?
HP- Invent
Time To Expiration (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Time To Expiration (Score:3, Insightful)
HP has sold me a printer for the last time, next one will be another brand... unless I find printer refills for my old ink cartridges.
Re:Time To Expiration (Score:2)
Re:Time To Expiration (Score:5, Insightful)
That means if a store sells you a 4 year old cartridge, you only have 6 months left.
But that doesn't matter, it's about principles. Where do you draw the line? If 99% of users are unaffected it's OK to purposely breake products? 95%? 90? 80? 60? By your logic, HP could dower these times a bit just for kicks and some morons would still defend their decision.
Purposely breaking products is vandalism. And just because there are not that many affected, doesn't change a thing. HP is not better than somebody trashing public phones, smashing windows or keying cars.
So WHY do it then? (Score:5, Interesting)
OK, I'll buy that. So why go to the expense of including an expiration chip in it then? Think about this for a second.
This also begs this question - Have they been testing this technology since 1999? Not likely. It is most likely a programmable chip. So maybe in the next batch of cartridges, they can change the expiration date to 6 months, and make it behave like it just ran out of ink. The end user will just think they ran out, and buy another cartridge.
I used to think I was a little paranoid, but then the DMCA gets passed, and greedy f'ing companies try to pull this kind of crap, and I think maybe I wasn't paranoid enough.
Re:Time To Expiration (Score:5, Insightful)
it seems reasonable for a printer compny to leech mponey from it's customers because they aren't buying enough ink? to add restrictions that were not there before, for no better reaosn than to make more money andmake a fully paid for product useless. if thats not illegal it's at least immoral in my book.
dave
Re:Time To Expiration (Score:3, Insightful)
I paid for that cartridge and the ink in it. I know damn well that I
Re:Time To Expiration (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Time To Expiration (Score:4, Insightful)
Does this give HP the right to burn down his house "because of the fact that its owner is just not using it"?
Timesprout, you are sick. Seriously, you should think about what you are advocating, here.
And I didn't even start to talk about people buying several printer cartridges which of course will be on the shelf quite a while.
Re:Time To Expiration (Score:3, Informative)
Besides who gave HP (or you for that matter) the right to decide who needs a printer, and who doesn't. People choose to have a printer for their own reasons, regardless of whether or not they need one...
Re:Time To Expiration (Score:5, Insightful)
HP's cartridges still have ink in them. The ink worked satisfactorily yesterday, but today I can't use it because HP has decided that it's "expired". There is no physical reason that the cartridge shouldn't be working just fine: The ink is still there, and while it's not the "freshest", it still makes the marks on the page well enough.
Designing a product to wear out in a specified amount of time is done all the time, although I think it's reprehensible. However, ENFORCING that planned obsolesence by an artificial date-stamp is appalling.
I mean, should Sony get to come break my stereo because they decided it only is supposed to work for five years?
Better analogy (Score:3, Funny)
Or no, an even better analogy is if an ant is painting a masterpiece using Bob Ross oil paint and looks down and sees that the tube of paint has expired, and says "oh, no"
Or wait an even better analogy is if two people are arguing and one of them sees that the other's analogy has expired. Then he says, "Here, use mine"
whats the big deal (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:whats the big deal (Score:4, Insightful)
> if the ink hasn't dryed up by the time you get around to using it, the quality is going to be shit.
What, do you work for HP? So HP is looking after my best interest to make sure my documents always look their best. How nice of them. Perhaps they should cut the expiration date in half just in case...
Pffft. I'LL be the judge of when my cartridge is due to be replaced. If your goal is to truely make sure your customer's prints are quality, how about innovation instead of limitation. Try to figure out a way to make the carts last longer. If your printers have the reputation of "lasting forever", I gaurentee your sales will go up.
DANGER! (Score:5, Funny)
5...
"err... does anyone know how to change ink cartridges? Please"
4...
"Ok don't panic. It's probably under this cover somewhere"
3...
"shit, only 3 seconds to find the bloody thing. Why oh why didn't I read the user manual?"
2...
"Aha - that looks like it"
1...
"Just about got it out..."
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP POP
"eeewwwwhh"
This Has To Be Stopped (Score:5, Insightful)
prevent this. A vendor can't sell after-market printer
ink cartridges for some products as they would be in
violation of the DMCA -- hence restraint of free trade,
not the original intent of the DMCA. This only serves
to keep prices higher and harms consumers, again not
the intent of the DMCA.
Can you purchase after-market products, new seats,
new engines, new spark plugs, new oil and gas for
your car? Imagine if GM did the following:
network, all using encryption (seats, radio, engine)
the car to start unless you had all the original parts
parts from them
up engines, no customized or replacement seats,
no super stereo).
What's to prevent them from doing that?
Where is the competition? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Where is the competition? (Score:5, Informative)
Individual clear ink tanks, no chips, and the tank senses when it is empty with a little photocell (no ink counter). The printhead is user-replaceable if you really screw up. The printer was not cheap, but it has more than paid for itself by using cheap 3rd party inks.
I've Had Full Cartriges Go Bad for Years (Score:5, Informative)
I appreciate HP's support of Linux and would like to support them, but I stopped buying their printers a few years ago. There's just too many little quirks. The last one I had ran the paper through at a slight angle. I don't think I've seen an HP printer I felt I really trusted since the original Deskjet and Deskjet 500.
Hal
No surprises, please (Score:2, Insightful)
On a different note, I'd like to see a mechanism put in place to allow customers to "re-charge" their current cartridges - like a photocopier card - rather than
This is truely evil. (Score:2)
I'd like to see a consumers' group sue their arse off for this.
Cannon (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, the printers are a bit more, but if you're doing a lot of printing, they're cheaper in the long run.
A positive experience. (Score:5, Interesting)
Adverts.. (Score:2)
Rus
Ink Jet compaines are scared (Score:5, Interesting)
Once the POS market starts to take off again, these guys are going to ramp up their production and then its a matter of time before there is competition with larger bits of paper.
Remember Epson started out selling receipt printers and then went and undercut Centronics by a 1/3. I gives these guys about two years and the HP/Epson/Lexmark ink jet cartridge business will be dead.
Doesn't make much difference in practice (Score:4, Informative)
I print only very occasionally, maybe a few pages per week or month, sometimes not at all for 1 or 2 months. I was tired to throwing away 90% filled but dry ink cartidges and therefore switched to a laser printer. They work even if you print a page after months without use.
Are there ink jets that don't jerk users around? (Score:3, Interesting)
But is there anyone selling a decent printer now that lets you refill the cartridges, a printer that's reliable, at a fair price?
I'm not talking about a printer that can compete on price with the subsized prices that the ones with the expensive cartridges go for -- just a printer that's priced fairly, and cartridges that are refillable without going broke.
Even a suggestion for old models to look for on ebay would be helpful.
batteries have expiration functions why not ink? (Score:3, Insightful)
As always, YMMV.
Bad comparison (Score:3, Insightful)
Plus my bet is you'd put up with the cost of replacing cache batteries instead of losing whatever the battery is there to protect (transactions and such).
Re:batteries have expiration functions why not ink (Score:4, Informative)
HP, however, seems to have chosen to make the expiration date manditory. Don't care about degraded print quality? Too bad, buy a new cartiridge. In my mind, it would be perfectly ok for HP to do what you mention compaq and sun have done: Warn the user that the cartiridge has reached the end of its life-expectancy so the user can make an informed decision regarding whether to replace the cartiridge or to continue using it.
Just ran into this at work (Score:3, Interesting)
Grabbed a cartridge from the storage room, as the one that was in there seemed to be out.
Funny, it wasn't printing yellow. Ran some cleaning routines, still no luck.
Then grabbed another cartridge.
IT wasn't printing cyan.
Then another cartridge.
5 cartridges later, I got one that was printing all three colors correctly. Expiry date was Nov 2000.
I didn't get any error messages about expiration dates on the computer, but seriously, these printer cartridges were sealed. They shouldn't be malfunctioning right out of the box.
The Gillette Business Model. (Score:5, Interesting)
This was thought up by Mr. Gillette himself (you know, the razor guy). He would sell razors at a loss, and then sell the refills at much inflated prices to make up the difference. Even today, a pack of 8 or so refills for a Gillette razor equals the price of just buying a new one.
HP is trying to pull this off in the computer world, and I don't know if it's such a wise thing to pinch your customers until they bleed dollars. Look at recent history:
1. HP inkjet carts used to be freely refillable, until HP modified the design to keep this from happenning.
2. HP printers generally stopped accepting third-party cartridge replacements.
3. Now the HP-only cartridges have a expiration date.
Now, since the first two steps haven't gotten the average printer user keeping up with ink cartridge consumption to keep the stock-holders happy; I guess just make the things stop working after a while! Perfect business plan, guys.
I really would love to see large companies use the good-ol sense of customer service to make a buck than bend-the-customer-over-because-we-can.
I know I'm not buying anymore HP stuff from now on.
Re:The Gillette Business Model. (Score:5, Insightful)
Slight nit-pick I guess, but it has always bothered me.
Re:The Gillette Business Model. (Score:3, Insightful)
No, you're wrong about that. The BLADE part is ancient technology -- it dates back literally thousands of years. (For that matter, so does ink.)
Back before refillable razors and disposable blades, everyone used a straight razor, which they sharpened themselves, and had to find their own hand-angle to hold it at, to avoid cutting their throat along with their beard. BTW this is why there were barber shops -- many people got their daily shave there, rather than mes
My Epson printer did this too... (Score:3, Informative)
Inkjet is a scam anyway (Score:5, Interesting)
laserjet: $100 / 3000 pages = $0.03 / page
hp inkjet: $40 / 650 pages = $0.06 / page
Pretty much all laser printers result in a lower cost per page than inkjet. Do a calculation with how many pages you print a year, and you may find that the laser pays for itself very quickly.
Cartridge Keyed to initializing printer? (Score:3, Insightful)
For home users this will be totally nuts.. cartridges may last 6 months at home..
First software, now everything (Score:3, Interesting)
Now that computers are about to be in EVERYTHING, expect EVERYTHING you buy to be licensed rather than sold. Expect to start paying a license to drive your car, to keep your tires inflated, etc. Not yet, but it won't be long, I assure you.
Even worse, expect the same monopoly conditions that prevail in the software industry to prevail everywhere else, too.
What, exactly, is the problem? (Score:3, Interesting)
One way or another, the consumer has to pay for the real cost of the printer, which includes the cost of R&D. There are two ways: upfront, or indirect. Now, you can ask consumers: would you rather pay $499 for the printer and get ink for free, or would you rather pay $99 for the printer and pay for expensive ink? The market chose the second option some years back, which is partly why HP took so much of the inkjet printer market from its competitors.
Now, having established that consumers prefer (and have chosen) to pay for the ink, HP is entitled to protect its ink sales. This just seems logical.
Look at it another way: paying for the consumables gives consumers much more freedom. If they don't like the printer, they chuck it. If you buy a more expensive laser printer that runs on cheap toner, you'll save money, but only if you run the beast for three years.
This is not a printer market problem. Do you buy regular lightbulbs or 'ecological long life' ones? Do you pay for your train and bus each time you get on, or do you buy a season ticket? Do you rent an appartment or pay a mortgage?
This really is a matter of the free market. If printer R&D costs were negligible, we would have already seen an invasion of cheap printers along with cheap ink. Look at what happened to scanners. There is no ripoff here, only people unhappy with the bargains they made.
This story keeps coming back to Slashdot, and every time it's "the poor consumer being ripped off by those bastard printer manufacturers." Does no-one actually bother to analyze the economics here?
Re:What, exactly, is the problem? (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't agree. Sure, people were suckered into buying "cheap" inkjet printers but don't try to tell me they did this in the full realization they would get ripped off on the ink.
Refusing to use a cartridge that is not exhausted is unforgivable. I'd have no objection to the printer (driver) complaining that the cart is old and advising me that the print quality may be less than optimal - in fact that would be a welcome feature. But to refuse to work? GMAB.
I will not be buying an HP printer.
Re:"Refilling" has always been a marginal activity (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think it's wrong that HP and others sell ink -- at whatever prices they think their market can bear. But I do think it's wrong to force the market to have no choice in whose ink they use. What's next, forcing us to print only on approved paper? It could be done, with a machine-readable strip in the paper (akin to what's used in money). No strip, no print.
That would be like Ford telling me I had to use
'Razor Blades, Not Razors' Model (Score:3, Insightful)
First, printers and particularly inkjet printers, follow the Gillette 'sell razor blades, not razors' marketing model. They practicaly give you the printer as an ink burner. So they do all kinds of nifty stuff to make sure you have things to burn ink on, and you keep running down to CompUSA to plop down another $50 on an ink cartridge. The printer also comes with lots of nifty printing software to give you reasons to burn ink.
In our printers, the cartridge was intelligent, and would keep count (yes, the cartridge did) of the number of individual dots of ink for each color of ink emitted. Knowing the average dot capacity of the cartridge (for each color), we could predict when the cartridge was running low and (kindly) tell the user to go buy another cartridge, and would even provide a handy hyperlink to our online store. Better, we would track the printer's average dots/page and page/day statistics to tell them they had x days of printing left. Buy now!
So this comes to me as no surprise that they have put an expiration date on the printer cartridge. They will due it under the guise that its ensuring 'fresh ink supply' and to ensure 'highest quality printing'. But, in reality, its only another means to force the customer into buying yet more ink. Cha-ching!
My advice, shitcan the inkjet printer, go buy a good laser printer. The total cost-of-ownership is much less in the long run.
p.s. - giving the inkjet away is evil and rude [catb.org] and only perpetuates the problem.
It's not the printer companies' fault! (Score:3, Funny)
The reason for all the ink cartridge price fixing is due to the fact that the printer companies want to have enough money saved up to defend themselves in court when the MPAA sues them for providing "devices which can be used for the piracy of a single frame of copyrighted motion picture material".
Damn HP and their cirrcumvention devices.
It really isn't on purpose! (Score:5, Informative)
The ink has many chemicals in it, many that don't want to stick together. The lighter elements in the ink tend to evaporate, turning the ink into a thick sludge. The sludge, as you can imagine, has a hard time passing through the nozzles of the print head. This has always has been issue since at least 1996, when we got our first high-end inkjet printers. At that time, you could expect the shelf life of the cart. to be about 6-10 months. In fact, back in those days, stores would occasionally sell you old stock, and there were no date codes printed on the ink carts. You were SOL if you got an "old stock" cart, because HP said it was too old. At least now HP will warrany ANY non-empty ink cart that has a date stamp before the expiry date on the cart.
Think about it-- faster evaporation times on paper mean the ink doesn't soak the paper as much. You can get brigher brights, darker darks, etc. These chemicals in the ink don't magically want to evaporate only once they hit the paper. They always want to evaporate. Remember the $800 inkjet from not so long ago that had a halogen heater? It was to speed up the chemical reaction.
I could understand if the date codes started inching closer and closer-- to like just a month or two weeks. (Keep the ink in the freezer next to the t-bones, anyone? yeah, right)
I don't believe the ink has been engineered to have a shelf-life. It may be that they're in no hurry to improve their shelf-life, but it is nothing new. The date code is to help prevent customers from getting old stock. There may be better alternatives to this kind ink out now, but they're building on their ink research from 10 years ago.. which means it is probably also the cheapest technology. So if you want to claim that for the last decade, HP has been plotting this scheme to get more ink dollars out of people, we'd better put on our tinfoil hats.
This would be illegal in UK (Score:3, Interesting)
Under UK law, it's already illegal. If I have bought an ink cartridge, I own that cartridge and I have the right to use, abuse, enjoy or destroy it. If the manufacturers, or anyone for that matter, do something to it to prevent me using it, then that is criminal damage. No need even to call a solicitor, since it's a criminal act you should just be able to dial 999
Changing the subject slightly now. Me and a mate fished an Apple ImageWriter out of a skip. We found a power lead, cobbled up a serial cable and got the thing to print. Bit faint, but we got a new ribbon (purple!) and wound it into the cassette (it split open easily enough and the old ribbon was unlikely to stain much). No manual, though. So I found an ImageWriter II driver for the Amiga, stuck my faithful Citizen 120D [now that really was an excellent printer!] into Hex Dump mode, and rattled off a document with various text effects in it. Even managed to suss out bit image mode, and in the end we used the printer to print forged bus tickets. We must have had the best part of £2000 worth of free travel. We had to stop doing it when the bus company changed all their ticket machines, but the printer does still print, if a bit faintly.
Perhaps we should start a new forum for Printers We Have Known and Loved?
In other news...(parody) (Score:4, Funny)
Cameras expiring too (Score:3, Interesting)
Had it been me, I would have refused to buy this cam. (total cost was $600, btw, so $45/year equals about 8%, to say nothing of the hassle of sending it in and waiting for it.)
My (non-technical) friend didn't seem to react at all. While standing in line I asked what he thought of the forced cleaning. His response was to ask whether I thought the salesman was giving correct info. I said "You bet. You'd be shocked at what companies are doing, and the reason is because enough consumers let them get away with it."
Case in point: he shrugged and bought the camera.
Re:Congratulations! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Congratulations! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:HP has gone downhill in the last few years (Score:3, Insightful)
But you gender based drivel is just stupid. My company is led by a woman, and is doing very well thank you. In fact, I've got more respect for my CEO than any other I've ever seen. She's brought our company through the tech storm and over many other hurdles with grace, dignity, and forsight.
Perhaps you need to be let out of your cubical to roam around in the 20th century for a bit?
Re:HP has gone downhill in the last few years (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:HP has gone downhill in the last few years (Score:3, Interesting)
Indeed - but still bad practice (Score:5, Interesting)
From Carly's point of view this isn't necessarily a bad thing, she'll have bailed from the company on a lovely retirement due to the profits accumulated during her tenure.
RTFA, then use a brain cell (Score:4, Informative)
1) HP bought Compaq.
2) Last Year.
3) The print cartridge was manufactured 4.5 years ago.
Re:Thanks Co^&aq (Score:4, Insightful)
Compaq didn't turn HP into a crap company, it was merely the final step in a multi-year process. Things went to hell the day HP made printers a priority over the good quality innovative test equipment they built the 50 years before.
HP, do you want to spend the rest of your life selling colored ink ?
Re:Open Source Hardware (Score:4, Interesting)
For pure hardware, look no further than Radio Shack. Tucked on the back you will find a series of books by Forest E. Mims. In the pages you will find hundreds of building-block circuits, that frankly, got me most of the way through engineering school. He has a BSD style license for the designs.
I've always envisioned a sort of "freshmeat for hardware." What we really need are:
Anyone care to share some ideas?