HP CEO "our long-term objective is to make printing a subscription"

[Cmaier]

I used to print things at work as needed. Now that I work from home, I just don't print things. We have a printer. And I get tons of requests to print things since my Apple stuff works better with the printer than her Android phone. But I can't recall the last time I printed something I wanted to print out. I don't know if it has a scanner and fax and all the other crap. I have no need for those either.

On the flip side, I take screenshots nearly every day. On a work day I might end up with 5 or 10 or 20 screenshots. Back when we worked in person, I could barely remember the keyboard shortcut. I'd just call the person over to my desk or print something out I could take to their desk. Funny how working from home has changed how I communicate.

We are frequently reminded that, when proofreading, we should print out the document and do it on paper. Malpractice insurers say that cognitive scientists have proven that proofreading is more accurate that way.

What the cognitive scientists don’t understand, I think, is that no matter how many times my feeble mind forces me to try and pinch-zoom the paper printouts, if I actually want to be able to read some of these documents I need to put them on a display that I can actually zoom

 

[Citysnaps]

While printing may be dying it’s a shame at least as far as pictures. More people should be printing and framing their photos for display. I have a framed photo area where I switch out the photos regularly. You also don’t need to display the same photo for eternity. Switch things up.

I totally agree. Back in 2022 to 2023 my wife and I decided to "redecorate" our home with her various kinds of art, and photographs (matted and framed) I've made in San Francisco over the last 24 years. The goal was to create a kind of whimsical ambience as soon as someone stepped into our entryway from the outside.

My wife is an artist who paints, but also makes wood animals from various hardwood species (some as puzzles), and other things she's created. My photographs are a mixture of candid and engaged photos of people I encountered on the street, and other SF scenes. Some are goofy, some not. There's also whimsical metal and ceramic sculptures scattered around, and a bunch of large animal heads (not real animals), a T-Rex, Llama, Narwhal, Toucan, Rabbit, Bear, etc over room entries. I have around 130 - 150 of my framed photos on the walls, arranged in different patterns, trying to be far removed from a staid/serious typical gallery linear display.

Overall, for us, it's a nice fun departure from the serious and what we previous had. Most importantly, it puts a smile on our face living here. Visitors probably think we're in need of some kind of an intervention. And that's OK.

 

[MEJHarrison]

We are frequently reminded that, when proofreading, we should print out the document and do it on paper. Malpractice insurers say that cognitive scientists have proven that proofreading is more accurate that way.

I buy that argument. Back in the day, I used to print out my code and go at it with a red ink pen. I found that easier to debug than looking at code on the screen.

Of course now that I've been programming for decades, I find it more efficient to just not write bugs. Saves loads of time that way.

 

[Cmaier]

I buy that argument. Back in the day, I used to print out my code and go at it with a red ink pen. I found that easier to debug than looking at code on the screen.

Of course now that I've been programming for decades, I find it more efficient to just not write bugs. Saves loads of time that way.

I never debugged code by printing it. I did, however, frequently debug circuits by printing out the schematics. A lot easier to find things when you printout a wall-sized schematic or circuit layout than when you have to pan around and zoom in and out.

In fact, for a case I am working on I just grabbed a ton of legal paper, taped it together, and hand-drew a schematic of an infringing product, then re-drew it in Illustrator and printed it again to hang on my whiteboard. Something about electrical engineering lends itself to printouts.

 

[MEJHarrison]

In fact, for a case I am working on I just grabbed a ton of legal paper, taped it together, and hand-drew a schematic of an infringing product, then re-drew it in Illustrator and printed it again to hang on my whiteboard. Something about electrical engineering lends itself to printouts.

I worked with a guy who was good with SQL. He hung one on his wall. It was a printout of the optimization plan for the query. What SQL was doing to run the query. It was probably... Nevermind, I just found a picture. The old was 10+ minutes and the new was < 5 seconds. And you can see the new vs. old printout there.

 

[Yoused]

I find it more efficient to just not write bugs.

Can you do that with 5 partially-interdependent threads? Teach me how, before I graduate to something stronger than Afghan pound-cake.

 

[KingOfPain]

Would this have been such a bad thing considering that paper printing is going the way of the dinosaur anyway?

I have to admit that I also print out some things that I might do on a monitor.
But sometimes it's easier to make notes or markups on paper.
Also, I'm pretty sure that I proofread better on paper than on a monitor.

 

[Huntn]

How to kill an already dying industry.

This subscription bullshit is contageous. For software, I am resisting, will resist

 

[GermanSuplex]

“Subscription” is a four-letter word, just more of a pain in the ass. Like… subscriptions.

I want to subscribe to cable, maybe a newspaper, and at one point I subscribed to Columbia House (but only until I got the free shipment of promised CDs and DVDs).

That’s enough for me.

I could write a wall of text about printers and ink/toner, but I’ve done quite enough of that elsewhere today.

 

[Eric]

“Subscription” is a four-letter word, just more of a pain in the ass. Like… subscriptions.

I want to subscribe to cable, maybe a newspaper, and at one point I subscribed to Columbia House (but only until I got the free shipment of promised CDs and DVDs).

That’s enough for me.

I could write a wall of text about printers and ink/toner, but I’ve done quite enough of that elsewhere today.

And then cancel, I remember those days.

 

[Herdfan]

And then cancel, I remember those days.

And then Rinse and Repeat. I remember Columbia House, but wasn't there another one? RCA maybe?

I will also show my age, it wasn't CD's. Or even cassettes, it was vinyl albums.

And now for $15/mo these kids have almost unlimited access to music. Same price we paid for a single CD/cassette/album which we would buy for hopefully more than one good song.

What is really most surprising is that this model was still going into the 2000's finally shutting down in 2009.

 

[KingOfPain]

Even more concrete information. The question is, will this become PaaS (Printer as a Service) or will customers give it a pass?

HP wants you to pay up to $36/month to rent a printer that it monitors

"Never own a printer again."

arstechnica.com

 

[Herdfan]

I guess we need Apple to start making printers again.

There is no way HP, or anyone else for that matter, is going to monitor what I am printing.

Hard No!

 

[Cmaier]

I interviewed at HP once. Back in the PA-RISC days. They gave me a free calculator (worth about $200 at the time, if I recall correctly). Good times.

I have two Brother laser printers at home (one color). They work fine, and I mostly don’t have to think about them. Don’t know why anyone would buy an HP.

 

[rdrr]

I interviewed at HP once. Back in the PA-RISC days. They gave me a free calculator (worth about $200 at the time, if I recall correctly). Good times.

I have two Brother laser printers at home (one color). They work fine, and I mostly don’t have to think about them. Don’t know why anyone would buy an HP.

I bought a Brother monochrome laser printer back last October, and I didn't even consider an HP. Knock on wood it is still working.

 

[KingOfPain]

I interviewed at HP once. Back in the PA-RISC days. They gave me a free calculator (worth about $200 at the time, if I recall correctly). Good times.
I have two Brother laser printers at home (one color). They work fine, and I mostly don’t have to think about them. Don’t know why anyone would buy an HP.

Well, Woz sold his HP calculator to get some of the funding money for Apple, IIRC. I guess they always were expensive.

I also had a Brother printer/scanner combo (which I mainly bought, because me father made lots of copies at that time). Unfortunately, it did no longer work with the new macOS when I bought my MacBook Air M1. Apart from the big office machines, nothing was available from Brother at the time (it was the Corona peak), so I bought a Kyocera instead, but I would have gotten a Brother again if any reasonable model would have been available.

I gave my old Brother to my father as a copy machine. But since he switched to an iMac M1, his old printer also didn‘t work anymore.
Then I had the idea to use his old iMac as a printer server. He only has to remember to turn on the old iMac together with my old Brother, otherwise the setup works like a charm. And he‘s extra happy, because in contrast to his old printer mine is capable of duplex printing.

 

[Herdfan]

I also had a Brother printer/scanner combo

I had a Brother, but it required a toner cartridge and a fuser cartridge. PITA.

Now have a Lexmark and am happy with it.

But if it were up to me, I would still be printing on my HP Laserjet 4. Best printer I ever had as it had multiple trays that would hold plain paper, letterhead paper and envelopes. Just select which you wanted to print to and you didn't have to put paper in the manual tray.

 

[Hrafn]

Probably going against the grain, but I've had Samsung laser printers for the past multiple years with no issues. Toner lasts forever, and knock-off replacements are usually less than $30. My wife got an Epson EcoTank that has been a workhorse when we need color.