HP Forum Archive 13

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norm, take note Message #1 Posted by db(martinez,california) on 4 Aug 2003, 12:50 a.m. I just read an interesting article. It says that printer makers are getting rich off of their proprietary ink cartriges and that if gas cost what ink does; it would take $175,000 to fill your tank. Now that is onehellofa business model. It would probably only cost $99,000 to fill my small tank, lucky me. No wonder hp doesn't care much about us calculator users (ti, sharp and casio are even worse of course). http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-zay03.html

Re: norm, take note Message #2 Posted by Ellis Easley on 4 Aug 2003, 9:37 p.m., in response to message #1 by db(martinez,california) As Rush likes to point out, at $1 for a 16 ounce bottle, fancy water costs several times as much as gasoline.

Re: norm, take note Message #3 Posted by Paul Brogger on 4 Aug 2003, 9:45 p.m., in response to message #1 by db(martinez,california) Geez! You guys, thinking out of the box . . . You should watch where you put this stuff! If someone from GM drops in, pretty soon we'll be buying gasoline, oil and transmission fluid in big, plastic cartridges, no two of which will be the same. ("Sorry, we're fresh out of Cruiser cartridges. But I have a Hummer-to-Cruiser converter with which you can buy three times your original capacity, but it'll have to sit in the passenger seat . . .") Don't get these guys started!

Re: norm, take note Message #4 Posted by Speck on 4 Aug 2003, 11:31 p.m., in response to message #3 by Paul Brogger Perhaps they should start selling "Computer Health Insurance." After all, some drug makers sell eye drops after glaucoma surgery for about $50 for a tiny bottle (worked out to roughly $20,000 per GALLON!). You could get a "prescription" for new toner, and the cost would be subsidized by everyone else. People would still bitch about the cost of ink, but they would only be paying a fraction of the actual "cost." Call your Congressional representatives. Anybody know if they sell printer ink in Canada?

Re: norm, take note Message #5 Posted by Ellis Easley on 4 Aug 2003, 11:42 p.m., in response to message #4 by Speck How about the fluoride rinse the dentist charges $20 a shot for? What really gets me is that a few years ago, he told me fluoride rinse after a cleaning was nothing compared to using fluoride toothpaste every day, then I guess some vendor or trade magazine article shook him up by showing him how he could mark up a cleaning by 20%!

Yup, I hear yuh Message #6 Posted by Norm on 5 Aug 2003, 12:57 a.m., in response to message #5 by Ellis Easley Yup, I hear yuh, always thought the printer cartridges were a ripoff. Likd that specification of $175,000 to fill your gas tank. Well, what can you do, its not about building an honest product to an honest price anymore ..... its about seeing who you can $crew and how badly. Maybe I'll have to start thinking like that. Anybody want to buy a large bridge from me, it connects traffic to a major city . :o)

Re: Yup, I hear yuh Message #7 Posted by db(martinez,california) on 5 Aug 2003, 11:21 p.m., in response to message #6 by Norm Norm; i'd never make it in business; i always thought the "$crew-er" and the "$crew-ee" ought to BOTH enjoy the "$crew-ing" Check this out, it's a navigation calculator. i remember you expressed an interest in looking at them. If it wasn't for that dam "=" key i'd think of buying it myself. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3039400375&category=11713&rd=1 - d

business practice, old navigation calculators Message #8 Posted by Norm on 6 Aug 2003, 4:52 p.m., in response to message #7 by db(martinez,california) Business practice is supposed to be a mutual exchange in which both sides are better off for it (I pour cement for your driveway, you pay me, I wanted the money, you wanted the driveway both sides are happy with the trade). You mentioned both sides get $crewed but both sides enjoy it......... that would still classify as a win-win situation. What I am seeing lately in business leaders is an obsession with finding "win-lose" transactions. They dont care what they are winning, just so the other side is losing. They are happy selling buggy whips instead of jet engines, just so long as the customers pay too much and the vendors are going broke. these types of business leaders would rather shut the business down, than see a scenario where everybody is making it. True business leaders (gag, dare I mention Bill Gates?) want a great many factions to come out winners, i.e. the vendors and the employees are well-compensated. But business leaders to be wary of are the ones that dont care what the opportunity, the market, or the customers are saying, just so long as they make money and you go broke. Run for your life on those types. *************** old navigation calculators may well be an example where you really can't use it for much. I'm thinking it has to be an item approved for FAA exams, otherwise why bother learning its idiosyncracies and getting familiar with it. Therefore if it is no longer approved for an FAA exam, whats the use. That would point towards using the more recent Jeppesen navigation calculator products.

Re: business practice, old navigation calculators Message #9 Posted by db(martinez,california) on 6 Aug 2003, 9:34 p.m., in response to message #8 by Norm Norm; i remembered that you were interested but it looks like i forgot why you were interested. It sure is a pretty unit though, isn't it? - and no, it isn't mine.

wanna be pilot Message #10 Posted by Norm on 6 Aug 2003, 11:23 p.m., in response to message #9 by db(martinez,california) I'm just an armchair wanna be pilot, thats all. I took quite a lot of flying lessons, then stopped rather abruptly. They say that the theoretical principle of flight is that the air over the top of the wing flows more rapidly over the top surface than the bottom surface, thereby generating lift. But that is wrong. The actual principle of flight is that the flow of money out of your wallet generates the lift caused by the wing. However, the lift is only generated if the flow of money is very large. Otherwise the airplane does not fly. Realizing all of this, I decided that I did not wish to have a flow of money that large so I have left the airplanes and the navigator computers temporarily out of reach for now.

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