Thread

1. phkahler · 1790170056 · focus · HN ↗

   Reminds me of when Nest thermostats stopped turning on the furnace without an internet connection. If your product fails at its primary job because of some other priority its junk. A thermostat can be as simple as a coiled spring with a mercury switch - no software. Same here, what stupid functionality was so important they failed to ensure the fridge would fridge?

   IoT is not for me.

   1. cryptoegorophy · 1790171488 · focus · HN ↗

      Similar to when printer stops printing black when color is gone.

      1. Grombobulous · 1790172418 · focus · HN ↗

         I have never understood the negative controversy around this.

         I expect the printer to use whatever inks it has on hand to print in the best quality it can.

         The use of ink is an inevitability.

         It always struck me as one of those things analogous to “I don’t understand why my car needs oil when I already put gas in it.”

         Just give the machine the stuff it requires to operate.

         1. xattt · 1790172764 · focus · HN ↗

            A device like a printer can work without certain inks without damage, but at the cost of quality.

            Humans have historically been able to decide when quality is low enough that replacement/repair is necessary in these situations. This goes for almost anything: appliances, farming equipment, clothing, etc.

            Having a device/appliance/tool that decides for you that “it’s time”, especially when the manufacturer has a vested interest in coercing you into a buying a replacement right away, takes away that owner agency.

            1. Grombobulous · 1790173665 · focus · HN ↗

               My printer could theoretically print a black and white page in magneta when my black ink runs out, too. But logically, it doesn’t want to do that.

               I just don’t think it’s a big deal to consider the printer a device that requires all inks to be present to function properly. If the printer is consuming some color inks in order to print black colors better the implication is that less black ink is being consumed. Either way you’re buying ink.

               Some people are just cheap.

               1. kstrauser · 1790174178 · focus · HN ↗

                  It’s not cheapness. My kid couldn’t print her homework because I was low on cyan. It’s not that I don’t want to buy more ink, but that the thing I was printing only needed black. If it weren’t a color printer, the output would’ve been identical and it wouldn’t have needed cyan.

                  1. Grombobulous · 1790177923 · focus · HN ↗

                     Alternatively, the printer allows you to keep going regardless of status of the print ink and then the printer gets bad reviews and complaints about bad print quality.

                     Your unpreparedness on your kids’ homework isn’t the fault of the manufacturer. I can’t blame Ticonderoga if I run out of pencils.

                     If you ran out of black ink you’d be similarly in trouble.

                     1. xattt · 1790182273 · focus · HN ↗

                        > Your unpreparedness on your kids’ homework isn’t the fault of the manufacturer. I can’t blame Ticonderoga if I run out of pencils.

                        That analogy doesn’t hold up. You have other colour pencils at hand, but you can’t use them because the blue pencil is worn down. Let me use my goshdarn pencils.

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