Consumerist: planned 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.

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)