Consumerist: obsolescence

HP Won't Issue New Drivers For Leopard, Tells You To Buy A New Printer

Carey — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 10:50:03 EDT

Matt's Officejet 6110 scans perfectly under Ubuntu, but won't play nice with Leopard. When Matt called HP for support, he was told that the company has no plans to issue new drivers so he should just buy a new printer. To soften the blow, the tech mentioned HP's trade-in program, which would give Matt a whopping $16 for his printer.

He writes:

I recently ditched Windows XP at my house, and have moved to the Macintosh platform (and converted my PC machines to Ubuntu)

I've had zero issues with the conversion, except for my HP "all in one" scanner/pc/fax machine. Although I can get it to work just fine with Ubuntu, I cannot scan from OS X Leopard.

After some googling, I contacted HP support who informed me that there are no plans to update their drivers for Leopard. This is not an old printer, I bought it 4 years ago and I'd think it's in their best interest to support the segment of the market that's moving to Mac.

Instead of solving my problem with a new driver, they're trying to solve it by offering me a "trade in / trade up" program where they want me to buy a new HP printer. The only thing this will serve to do is to kill any brand loyalty I had to HP and cause me to never buy another HP product again.

I find it funny that the open source community can get scanning working just fine on Ubuntu, but a company like HP can't tweak their drivers to get it to work on a mac. C'mon HP, get it together!!!

Here is HP's response-cum-sales pitch:

Hello Matt,

Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.

With the Officejet 6110 & the Leopard OS, you will be able to print dew to the pre-installed print driver with the OS. For scanning, there is no software and drivers that will support this. There will be no software updates for this product and the Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard). We do have a program called trade in trade up. This is where you can trade the older unit in on a newer model. If you would like more information about this program, please reply to this email. Thank you

If you need further assistance, please reply to this message and we will be happy to assist you further.

You may receive an e-mail survey regarding your e-mail support experience. We would appreciate your feedback.

For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running, please visit our Web site at: http://www.hp.com/go/totalcare

Sincerely,
Scott W.
HP Total Care

Matt might want to tinker with unsupported solutions. Try using drivers that aren't necessarily intended for the old Officejet.

Can anyone think of a way to translate the scanner's outdated language for Leopard? Suggestions in the comments.

Items Affected By The Cellular Analog Network Shutdown

Chris Walters — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 20:48:25 EST

The analog-to-digital TV revolution is still a year off, but the country's oldest cellular network will be shut down in February. Wired and Associated Press provide the following list of what kinds of items will be affected.

Cell phones
"In particular, check phones that are kept around as 911-only phones. Such phones, which don't have a phone number and aren't initialized with a carrier, were given out by some donation programs that collected old phones." Less than 1% of cell phones currently in use are analog, but the article points out that that still counts for over a million devices. Anything less than 5 years old or that can text message isn't analog.

Car communication systems
Generally, cars from the 2003 model year and older with OnStar from General Motors Corp., TeleAid from Mercedes-Benz or Lexus Link are affected, and most won't be upgradable. Upgrade kits are available for most OnStar systems from model years 2004 and 2005.

Home burglar and fire alarms
"Homes that have them will lose wireless backup alarms, which kick in if someone cuts the phone line."

"Gadgets Affected by Analog Shutdown" [Wired]
(Photo: Getty)

FCC Fines Radio Shack For Selling Analog TVs With No Consumer Warning

Meg Marco — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:59:28 EDT

The FCC is serious when they say they want retailers to warn consumers about purchasing analog TVs. This week they've announced fines against Radio Shack, HH Gregg, FYE, Fred Meyer Stores, Ultimate Electronics, and Boscov's for selling TVs without a warning label.

The consumer alert rule states that retailers have to post a warning like this one from Kmart's website:

CONSUMER ALERT: This television receiver has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the Nation's transition to digital broadcasting. Analog-only TVs should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products. For more information, call the Federal CommunicationsCommission at 1-888-225-5322 (TTY: 1-888-835-5322) or visit the Commission's digital television website at: www.dtv.gov.

The FCC supposedly has undercover agents working in stores and surfing the web to make sure stores aren't selling obsolete TVs to hapless rabbit-ear using folks. Meanwhile, Best Buy has stopped selling analog TVs outright.

Retailers vs. FCC: fines for warning-free analog TVs as ban draws near [Ars Technica]
(Photo:cmorran123)

FCC To Retailers: "Warn Consumers About Analog TVs"

Meg Marco — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:19:08 EDT

Retailers are trying to unload their dwindling stocks of analog-only TVs before the big switch to digital in 2009, but the FCC says that they have to place warnings in "close proximity" to models which will require a converter box to receive broadcast signals after 2009 or face the wrath that is FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's laser gun of doom. Just kidding, he actually has a pickax of happiness. Anyhow, Kmart seems to have gotten the message, they've posted this warning on a 15" Sylvania analog TV:

CONSUMER ALERT: This television receiver has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the Nation's transition to digital broadcasting. Analog-only TVs should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products. For more information, call the Federal CommunicationsCommission at 1-888-225-5322 (TTY: 1-888-835-5322) or visit the Commission's digital television website at: www.dtv.gov.

The FCC supposedly has undercover agents surfing the web and shopping in-store, on the prowl for analog TVs that are not clearly marked as such. Fear the FCC. The warnings come after retailers promised that federal regulations were not necessary, then showed that they were by ignoring the voluntary program. —MEGHANN MARCO

FCC is warning retailers on DTV warnings [Digital TV Facts]
FCC Warns Retailers To Label Analog-Only Sets Online [Broadcasting and Cable]
(Photo: Kmart)

Make Your Own Replacement Snow Shovel Blade

Ben Popken — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 12:25:08 EDT

"This last winter broken snow shovels starting appearing everywhere. I tried to track down replacement parts, but it turns out that replacement scoops don't seem to exist. So I set about to make a simple replacement scoop using basic tools and found materials," writes the author of this Instructable.

All you need is a clamp, wrench, vise-grips, hammer, drill bit, nuts and bolts, a flat piece of scrap metal and a scrap metal pipe with a slightly wider diameter than your old shovel stick.

When your neighbors look at you crazy for making a snow shovel in the spring summer, you can take pleasure in the quiet satisfaction of your preparedness. What was that one about the ant and grasshopper...

Like iPods, the makers of snow shovels want you to buy a new one every year. Fight this planned obsolescence by making your own, sturdy, metal, snow shovel blade replacement. — BEN POPKEN

Broken snow shovel scoop replacement [Instructables]

Products Are Designed To Break So You Will Buy Another One

Ben Popken — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 18:43:58 EDT

Stay Free! has an interview with Giles Slade, author of Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America.

STAY FREE!: Have you looked at consumer warranties at all? They seem to be shrinking. I saw some headphones the other day that had a 30-day guarantee!
GILES SLADE: Ha! All I know is that I went to the industrial standards board in Washington and they told me that the standard for durable goods was fixed at three years around the beginning of WWI. I guess that three years came from the three-year product cycle of General Motors. They figured a new GM car would come out every three years, so a car only needed to last three years. The funny thing is that three years now sounds like a long time.

Slade has faced a flurry of criticism but he's not saying anything insurrectionist. Figuring out long it's supposed to last is one of the first things a designer does when creating a new product. And over the years, that "product lifespan" has been universally decreasing. — BEN POPKEN

Are consumer products made to break? [Stay Free! Daily]
(Photo: Pro-Zak)