Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09

I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.

Lynn

On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
(in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):

> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>
> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>
> Lynn

Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them) into the
box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I carefully
open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along thje
tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot until the
warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
_anything_.)

On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>
>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>
>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>
>> Lynn
>
> Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them) into the
> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I carefully
> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along thje
> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot until the
> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
> _anything_.)

Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines. Puts the decrapifyer
to a real workout.
https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

Lynn

On 10/08/2022 16:16, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>>
>>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>>
>>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>>
>>> Lynn
>>
>> Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them) into the
>> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I
>> carefully
>> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along thje
>> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot until
>> the
>> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
>> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
>> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>> _anything_.)
>
> Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines.  Puts the decrapifyer
> to a real workout.
>    https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
>
I once got the classic delivery from HP - a 1m * 1m * 30cm box,
containing a single A4 sheet of paper, (inside a heat-sealed plastic
sleeve), authorising the use of HP-UX on the Spectrum 3000 machine we'd
had delivered a few months previously. It'd been up and running since
the day we got it, and making money since a week later. (Bureau
services, the good old days. :-) )

I did file the piece of paper somewhere, I doubt it matters now, but I
did recycle the box pretty quickly... Well, quickly after taking it
around and showing the entire office and any loitering clients what we
had received. :-)

At least the box didn't have any packing in it...

Cheers,
Gary B-)

On 8/9/2022 11:16 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>>
>>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>>
>>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>>
>>> Lynn
>>
>> Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them) into the
>> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I
>> carefully
>> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along thje
>> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot until
>> the
>> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
>> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
>> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>> _anything_.)
>
> Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines.  Puts the decrapifyer
> to a real workout.
>    https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
>
"We've decided to discontinue support for The PC Decrapifer and it is
currently no longer available for download

The information on this site is for reference purposes. We are not
responding to any requests at this time. Thank you."

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

Gary R. Schmidt <grschmidt@acm.org> wrote:
> On 10/08/2022 16:16, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>> On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>>> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>>> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>>>
>>>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>>>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>>>
>>>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>>>
>>>> Lynn
>>>
>>> Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them) into the
>>> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I
>>> carefully
>>> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along thje
>>> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot until
>>> the
>>> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
>>> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>>> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
>>> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>>> _anything_.)
>>
>> Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines.  Puts the decrapifyer
>> to a real workout.
>>    https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
>>
> I once got the classic delivery from HP - a 1m * 1m * 30cm box,
> containing a single A4 sheet of paper, (inside a heat-sealed plastic
> sleeve), authorising the use of HP-UX on the Spectrum 3000 machine we'd
> had delivered a few months previously. It'd been up and running since
> the day we got it, and making money since a week later. (Bureau
> services, the good old days. :-) )
>
> I did file the piece of paper somewhere, I doubt it matters now, but I
> did recycle the box pretty quickly... Well, quickly after taking it
> around and showing the entire office and any loitering clients what we
> had received. :-)
>
> At least the box didn't have any packing in it...

We never had that happen, but our management got talked into OpenSpew. It
was licensed on a per-machine basis and each license was on a printed sheet,
in its own envelope, inside of a mailing envelope. They each had to be
entered into the system manually. I don't remember exactly how many systems
we had, but it was in excess of 500.
To add insult to injury, it was realized some weeks after the entire setup
was up and running that the main thing the performance monitoring piece of it
identified was that we were short on memory...the OpenSpew agent was using
all of it.

Robert
--
Robert K. Shull Email: rkshull at rosettacon dot com

On Tue, 09 Aug 2022 19:50:06 -0400, Wolffan <akwolffan@zoho.com>
wrote:

>On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>(in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>
>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>
>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>
>> Lynn
>
>Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them) into the
>box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I carefully
>open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along thje
>tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot until the
>warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
>Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
>thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>_anything_.)

I do much the same thing, but keep the boxes forever, as a result of
moving every three years while in the Army. I /used/ those boxes to
keep the equipment safe during the move.

Indeed, for my great cleanup when I got my present computer, I boxed
all the prior equipment before having it hauled away.

When I did my second great cleanup when I got my BD Player, I actually
taped 3x5 cards recording the state of the equipment on the outside of
the boxes. This is because electronic stuff can be donated to Goodwill
and might actually get re-used.

And I saved the box and everything for my new shopping (laundry) cart,
not because I ever expect to use it to hold the cart, but because it
is a convenient place to keep the spare parts, just in case. Not to
mention keeping the styrofoam contained.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

On Wed, 10 Aug 2022 15:56:02 -0000 (UTC), rkshullat@rosettacondot.com
wrote:

>Gary R. Schmidt <grschmidt@acm.org> wrote:
>> On 10/08/2022 16:16, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>> On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>>>> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>>>> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>>>>
>>>>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>>>>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>>>>
>>>>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>>>>
>>>>> Lynn
>>>>
>>>> Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them) into the
>>>> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I
>>>> carefully
>>>> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along thje
>>>> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot until
>>>> the
>>>> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
>>>> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>>>> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
>>>> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>>>> _anything_.)
>>>
>>> Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines.  Puts the decrapifyer
>>> to a real workout.
>>>    https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
>>>
>> I once got the classic delivery from HP - a 1m * 1m * 30cm box,
>> containing a single A4 sheet of paper, (inside a heat-sealed plastic
>> sleeve), authorising the use of HP-UX on the Spectrum 3000 machine we'd
>> had delivered a few months previously. It'd been up and running since
>> the day we got it, and making money since a week later. (Bureau
>> services, the good old days. :-) )
>>
>> I did file the piece of paper somewhere, I doubt it matters now, but I
>> did recycle the box pretty quickly... Well, quickly after taking it
>> around and showing the entire office and any loitering clients what we
>> had received. :-)
>>
>> At least the box didn't have any packing in it...
>
>We never had that happen, but our management got talked into OpenSpew. It
>was licensed on a per-machine basis and each license was on a printed sheet,
>in its own envelope, inside of a mailing envelope. They each had to be
>entered into the system manually. I don't remember exactly how many systems
>we had, but it was in excess of 500.
>To add insult to injury, it was realized some weeks after the entire setup
>was up and running that the main thing the performance monitoring piece of it
>identified was that we were short on memory...the OpenSpew agent was using
>all of it.

Which may explain why Bing found "openspew" hard to find: it's idiotic
licensing policy and use of memory killed it. A design decision that
went wrong, no doubt.

Bing /did/ pull up a link to a discussion about "spew"
<https://github.com/davecgh/go-spew/issues/53>, which may or may not
be related to OpenSpew.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

On Thu, 11 Aug 2022 00:22:40 +1000, "Gary R. Schmidt"
<grschmidt@acm.org> wrote:

>On 10/08/2022 16:16, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>> On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>>> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>>> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>>>
>>>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>>>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>>>
>>>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>>>
>>>> Lynn
>>>
>>> Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them) into the
>>> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I
>>> carefully
>>> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along thje
>>> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot until
>>> the
>>> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
>>> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>>> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
>>> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>>> _anything_.)
>>
>> Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines.  Puts the decrapifyer
>> to a real workout.
>>    https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
>>
>I once got the classic delivery from HP - a 1m * 1m * 30cm box,
>containing a single A4 sheet of paper, (inside a heat-sealed plastic
>sleeve), authorising the use of HP-UX on the Spectrum 3000 machine we'd
>had delivered a few months previously. It'd been up and running since
>the day we got it, and making money since a week later. (Bureau
>services, the good old days. :-) )
>
>I did file the piece of paper somewhere, I doubt it matters now, but I
>did recycle the box pretty quickly... Well, quickly after taking it
>around and showing the entire office and any loitering clients what we
>had received. :-)
>
>At least the box didn't have any packing in it...

Well, they missed their chance to use more styrofoam then, didn't
they.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

On Wed, 10 Aug 2022 01:16:45 -0500, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>>
>>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>>
>>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>>
>>> Lynn
>>
>> Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them) into the
>> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I carefully
>> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along thje
>> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot until the
>> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
>> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
>> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>> _anything_.)
>
>Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines. Puts the decrapifyer
>to a real workout.
> https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

My policy toward "crap they put on computers", including crap that
comes with Windows is:
-- if it isn't useful, it is disabled
-- if it persists, it is removed
if it came disabled, I ignore it.

Saves a lot of time and trouble, IMHO.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

On 8/10/2022 9:47 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 8/9/2022 11:16 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>> On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>>> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>>> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>>>
>>>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>>>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>>>
>>>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>>>
>>>> Lynn
>>>
>>> Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them) into
>>> the
>>> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I
>>> carefully
>>> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along thje
>>> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot
>>> until the
>>> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
>>> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>>> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
>>> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>>> _anything_.)
>>
>> Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines.  Puts the
>> decrapifyer to a real workout.
>>     https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
>>
> "We've decided to discontinue support for The PC Decrapifer and it is
> currently no longer available for download
>
> The information on this site is for reference purposes. We are not
> responding to any requests at this time. Thank you."

I saw that and am disappointed.

Lynn

On 8/10/2022 10:22 AM, Gary R. Schmidt wrote:

> I once got the classic delivery from HP - a 1m * 1m * 30cm box,
> containing a single A4 sheet of paper

> At least the box didn't have any packing in it...

I assume you reported the omission to the HP shipping department QC officer.

--
Mark Jackson - https://mark-jackson.online/
There's no nondestructive test
for indestructibility. - Randall Munroe

Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Aug 2022 15:56:02 -0000 (UTC), rkshullat@rosettacondot.com
> wrote:
>
>>Gary R. Schmidt <grschmidt@acm.org> wrote:
>>> On 10/08/2022 16:16, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>>> On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>>>>> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>>>>> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>>>>>
>>>>>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>>>>>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Lynn
>>>>>
>>>>> Wouldn?t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them) into the
>>>>> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I
>>>>> carefully
>>>>> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along thje
>>>>> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot until
>>>>> the
>>>>> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
>>>>> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>>>>> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard, I?m
>>>>> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>>>>> _anything_.)
>>>>
>>>> Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines.  Puts the decrapifyer
>>>> to a real workout.
>>>>    https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
>>>>
>>> I once got the classic delivery from HP - a 1m * 1m * 30cm box,
>>> containing a single A4 sheet of paper, (inside a heat-sealed plastic
>>> sleeve), authorising the use of HP-UX on the Spectrum 3000 machine we'd
>>> had delivered a few months previously. It'd been up and running since
>>> the day we got it, and making money since a week later. (Bureau
>>> services, the good old days. :-) )
>>>
>>> I did file the piece of paper somewhere, I doubt it matters now, but I
>>> did recycle the box pretty quickly... Well, quickly after taking it
>>> around and showing the entire office and any loitering clients what we
>>> had received. :-)
>>>
>>> At least the box didn't have any packing in it...
>>
>>We never had that happen, but our management got talked into OpenSpew. It
>>was licensed on a per-machine basis and each license was on a printed sheet,
>>in its own envelope, inside of a mailing envelope. They each had to be
>>entered into the system manually. I don't remember exactly how many systems
>>we had, but it was in excess of 500.
>>To add insult to injury, it was realized some weeks after the entire setup
>>was up and running that the main thing the performance monitoring piece of it
>>identified was that we were short on memory...the OpenSpew agent was using
>>all of it.
>
> Which may explain why Bing found "openspew" hard to find: it's idiotic
> licensing policy and use of memory killed it. A design decision that
> went wrong, no doubt.
>
> Bing /did/ pull up a link to a discussion about "spew"
> <https://github.com/davecgh/go-spew/issues/53>, which may or may not
> be related to OpenSpew.

OpenSpew was a common derogatory name for OpenView, which underwent a number
of different rebrandings over the years (this was in the late 1990s). Pieces
of it may still exist under different names. We ended up ripping it out rather
than double the amount of RAM in 500+ machines so that we could get (among
other things, granted) reports on how much RAM was in use.`

Robert
--
Robert K. Shull Email: rkshull at rosettacon dot com

On Wednesday, 10 August 2022 at 19:17:00 UTC+1, Mark Jackson wrote:
> On 8/10/2022 10:22 AM, Gary R. Schmidt wrote:
>
> > I once got the classic delivery from HP - a 1m * 1m * 30cm box,
> > containing a single A4 sheet of paper
> > At least the box didn't have any packing in it...
> I assume you reported the omission to the HP shipping department QC officer.

And HP would send him packing.

On Thursday, August 11, 2022 at 1:43:56 AM UTC+1, Robert Carnegie wrote:
> On Wednesday, 10 August 2022 at 19:17:00 UTC+1, Mark Jackson wrote:
> > On 8/10/2022 10:22 AM, Gary R. Schmidt wrote:
> >
> > > I once got the classic delivery from HP - a 1m * 1m * 30cm box,
> > > containing a single A4 sheet of paper
> > > At least the box didn't have any packing in it...
> > I assume you reported the omission to the HP shipping department QC officer.
> And HP would send him packing.

I remember when HP were known as the manufacturers of expensive but excellent calculators and test equipment. Then (perhaps before the most recent re-organisation and split) I thought of them as the company that had worked out how to sell ink at ridiculous mark-ups. I do wonder if these different images changed the sort of person they were able to recruit. Was it easier to recruit engineers earlier, and MBAs later?

In article <8dad0568-5d11-4789-adee-d3b7727cf322n@googlegroups.com>,
Andrew McDowell <mcdowell_ag@sky.com> wrote:
>On Thursday, August 11, 2022 at 1:43:56 AM UTC+1, Robert Carnegie wrote:
>> On Wednesday, 10 August 2022 at 19:17:00 UTC+1, Mark Jackson wrote:
>> > On 8/10/2022 10:22 AM, Gary R. Schmidt wrote:
>> >
>> > > I once got the classic delivery from HP - a 1m * 1m * 30cm box,
>> > > containing a single A4 sheet of paper
>> > > At least the box didn't have any packing in it...
>> > I assume you reported the omission to the HP shipping department QC officer.
>> And HP would send him packing.
>
>I remember when HP were known as the manufacturers of expensive but
>excellent calculators and test equipment. Then (perhaps before the most
>recent re-organisation and split) I thought of them as the company that
>had worked out how to sell ink at ridiculous mark-ups. I do wonder if
>these different images changed the sort of person they were able to
>recruit. Was it easier to recruit engineers earlier, and MBAs later?

(Hal Heydt)
They still make--somewhat pricey--but very good office-grade
printers. Do occasional maintenence on them and they'll run
nearly forever. I've got two HP 2055dn and one 2015 with an
added NIC.

On 11/08/2022 14:30, Andrew McDowell wrote:
> On Thursday, August 11, 2022 at 1:43:56 AM UTC+1, Robert Carnegie wrote:
>> On Wednesday, 10 August 2022 at 19:17:00 UTC+1, Mark Jackson wrote:
>>> On 8/10/2022 10:22 AM, Gary R. Schmidt wrote:
>>>
>>>> I once got the classic delivery from HP - a 1m * 1m * 30cm box,
>>>> containing a single A4 sheet of paper
>>>> At least the box didn't have any packing in it...
>>> I assume you reported the omission to the HP shipping department QC officer.
>> And HP would send him packing.
>
> I remember when HP were known as the manufacturers of expensive but excellent calculators and test equipment. Then (perhaps before the most recent re-organisation and split) I thought of them as the company that had worked out how to sell ink at ridiculous mark-ups. I do wonder if these different images changed the sort of person they were able to recruit. Was it easier to recruit engineers earlier, and MBAs later?

This was back in the late 1980s, perhaps early 1990s, they were still
making real electronic stuff - I had an HP line-analyser thingie and so
forth in the tool collection - as well as computers and peecees and
bits[1], and they had a strangle-hold on office printing with the
LaserJet, then the rot set in.

Thinking more about it, it was probably around the time of the release
of the Spectrum boxes that they started losing the plot. I recall
advising our customers (and ourselves) not to purchase the
bottom-of-the-line model as it could not be usefully upgraded, the next
model up was a much better buy[2]. Turns out they'd built lots of the
"loss leader" and couldn't move them, at least here in Oz, and HP
couldn't supply enough of the useful one. Lots of contracts where HP
agreed to buy-back the waste-of-space at 100% of initial cost when the
good box was delivered. :-)

Cheers,
Gary B-)

1 - I recall the release of the Nighthawk SCSI disk drive, an engineer
came out on stage swinging it around on the end of a cable, and pointed
out that the other end of the cable was plugged into the machine on
stage, which was talking to the disk. Quite an effective demo.

2 - HP salesdroids got really antsy when people said things like, "I was
talking to so-and-so from $ORK", some of the lies reported back to us
were hysterical!

On 8/10/2022 11:30 PM, Andrew McDowell wrote:
> On Thursday, August 11, 2022 at 1:43:56 AM UTC+1, Robert Carnegie wrote:
>> On Wednesday, 10 August 2022 at 19:17:00 UTC+1, Mark Jackson wrote:
>>> On 8/10/2022 10:22 AM, Gary R. Schmidt wrote:
>>>
>>>> I once got the classic delivery from HP - a 1m * 1m * 30cm box,
>>>> containing a single A4 sheet of paper
>>>> At least the box didn't have any packing in it...
>>> I assume you reported the omission to the HP shipping department QC officer.
>> And HP would send him packing.
>
> I remember when HP were known as the manufacturers of expensive but excellent calculators and test equipment. Then (perhaps before the most recent re-organisation and split) I thought of them as the company that had worked out how to sell ink at ridiculous mark-ups. I do wonder if these different images changed the sort of person they were able to recruit. Was it easier to recruit engineers earlier, and MBAs later?

HP bought Dec and Compaq. That changed them a lot. And the constant
battle with Dell.

Lynn

Op 10-8-2022 om 20:04 schreef Lynn McGuire:
> On 8/10/2022 9:47 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
>> On 8/9/2022 11:16 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>> On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>>>> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>>>> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>>>>
>>>>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>>>>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>>>>
>>>>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>>>>
>>>>> Lynn
>>>>
>>>> Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them)
>>>> into the
>>>> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I
>>>> carefully
>>>> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along
>>>> thje
>>>> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot
>>>> until the
>>>> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
>>>> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>>>> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case. (Hewlett-Packard,
>>>> I’m
>>>> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>>>> _anything_.)
>>>
>>> Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines.  Puts the
>>> decrapifyer to a real workout.
>>>     https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
>>>
>> "We've decided to discontinue support for The PC Decrapifer and it is
>> currently no longer available for download
>>
>> The information on this site is for reference purposes. We are not
>> responding to any requests at this time. Thank you."
>
> I saw that and am disappointed.
>
> Lynn
>
>
>

Is this the same software?

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/pc-decrapifier/

Rink

On 9/12/2022 12:53 PM, Rink wrote:
> Op 10-8-2022 om 20:04 schreef Lynn McGuire:
>> On 8/10/2022 9:47 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
>>> On 8/9/2022 11:16 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>>> On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>>>>> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>>>>> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>>>>>
>>>>>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>>>>>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Lynn
>>>>>
>>>>> Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them)
>>>>> into the
>>>>> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I
>>>>> carefully
>>>>> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting along
>>>>> thje
>>>>> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot
>>>>> until the
>>>>> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on the
>>>>> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>>>>> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case.
>>>>> (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
>>>>> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>>>>> _anything_.)
>>>>
>>>> Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines.  Puts the
>>>> decrapifyer to a real workout.
>>>>     https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
>>>>
>>> "We've decided to discontinue support for The PC Decrapifer and it is
>>> currently no longer available for download
>>>
>>> The information on this site is for reference purposes. We are not
>>> responding to any requests at this time. Thank you."
>>
>> I saw that and am disappointed.
>>
>> Lynn
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> Is this the same software?
>
> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/pc-decrapifier/
>
> Rink

Not sure.

Lynn

On 9/12/2022 12:34 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> On 9/12/2022 12:53 PM, Rink wrote:
>> Op 10-8-2022 om 20:04 schreef Lynn McGuire:
>>> On 8/10/2022 9:47 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
>>>> On 8/9/2022 11:16 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>>>> On 8/9/2022 6:50 PM, Wolffan wrote:
>>>>>> On 09 Aug 2022, Lynn McGuire wrote
>>>>>> (in article <tcuncc$1gkga$1@dont-email.me>):
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Dilbert: Keep The Plastic Bag
>>>>>>> https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-08-09
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'll bet Dogbert's tail is wagging.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Lynn
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Wouldn’t have worked on me. I put the plastic bags (all of them)
>>>>>> into the
>>>>>> box. I put the spacers, the cable ties, the lot, into the box. I
>>>>>> carefully
>>>>>> open the box and ant plastic bags in the first place, cutting
>>>>>> along thje
>>>>>> tape, not through the bags/box/whatever. And then I keep the lot
>>>>>> until the
>>>>>> warranty expires. On several occasions there have been Dogberts on
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> Customer No Service line who have been very disappointed that I had
>>>>>> everything sitting ready to go back. Just in case.
>>>>>> (Hewlett-Packard, I’m
>>>>>> thinking of _you_ There would be a _reason_ why I no longer buy HP
>>>>>> _anything_.)
>>>>>
>>>>> Plus all the crap that HP puts on their machines.  Puts the
>>>>> decrapifyer to a real workout.
>>>>>     https://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
>>>>>
>>>> "We've decided to discontinue support for The PC Decrapifer and it
>>>> is currently no longer available for download
>>>>
>>>> The information on this site is for reference purposes. We are not
>>>> responding to any requests at this time. Thank you."
>>>
>>> I saw that and am disappointed.
>>>
>>> Lynn
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> Is this the same software?
>>
>> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/pc-decrapifier/
>>
>> Rink
>
> Not sure.
>
The software at the second link does not list W10 as an OS is works with.

--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.