Alterslash

the unofficial Slashdot digest
 

Contents

  1. AI Cracks Superbug Problem In Two Days That Took Scientists Years
  2. California Takes Steps Toward Officially Recognizing Bigfoot
  3. Meta Claims Torrenting Pirated Books Isn’t Illegal Without Proof of Seeding
  4. Rivian Reports First Quarter of ‘Positive Gross Profit’
  5. Ghost Ransomware Continues To Infect Critical Infrastructure, Feds Warn
  6. YouTube Plans Lower-Priced, Ad-Free Version of Paid Video Tier
  7. Netflix To Invest $1 Billion In Mexico Over Next 4 Years
  8. Apple Is Bringing Visual Intelligence To the iPhone 15 Pro
  9. ChatGPT Reaches 400 Million Weekly Active Users
  10. ISP Must Unmask 100 Alleged BitTorrent Pirates In RIAA Lawsuit
  11. Dark Mode Might Be Burning More Juice Than You Think
  12. Amazon Surpasses Walmart in Revenue For First Time
  13. FTC Launches Broad Tech ‘Censorship’ Probe Targeting Meta, Uber
  14. Twitch is Limiting Streamers To 100 hours of Highlights and Uploads
  15. HP Deliberately Adds 15 Minutes Waiting Time For Telephone Support Calls

Alterslash picks up to the best 5 comments from each of the day’s Slashdot stories, and presents them on a single page for easy reading.

AI Cracks Superbug Problem In Two Days That Took Scientists Years

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
A new AI tool developed by Google solved a decade-long superbug mystery in just two days, reaching the same conclusion as Professor Jose R Penades’ unpublished research and even offering additional, promising hypotheses. The BBC reports:
The researchers have been trying to find out how some superbugs - dangerous germs that are resistant to antibiotics - get created. Their hypothesis is that the superbugs can form a tail from different viruses which allows them to spread between species. Prof Penades likened it to the superbugs having “keys” which enabled them to move from home to home, or host species to host species.

Critically, this hypothesis was unique to the research team and had not been published anywhere else. Nobody in the team had shared their findings. So Mr Penades was happy to use this to test Google’s new AI tool. Just two days later, the AI returned a few hypotheses - and its first thought, the top answer provided, suggested superbugs may take tails in exactly the way his research described.

Be wary about assigning credit.

By Petersko • Score: 3 Thread

What did they give the AI to work with? If it was years of research, the fingerprints of the hypotheses under consideration will be all over the evolving test data, even if they didn’t state them explicitly. It could be more like asking the AI, “Given these evolving datasets, what are the likely questions being asked?”

A very impressive feat, to be sure. But maybe not the one they’re in awe of.

California Takes Steps Toward Officially Recognizing Bigfoot

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
California is considering officially recognizing Bigfoot as its state cryptid through Assembly Bill 666, introduced last week by North Coast Assemblymember Chris Rogers. “Rogers’ district spans Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Sonoma and Trinity counties, a region known as the epicenter of Bigfoot lore,” reports SFGATE. From the report:
Assemblyman Rogers’ Assembly Bill 666 is still in its early stages. According to the California Legislative Information website, the bill’s title has been read aloud in the state Assembly and is now being printed and distributed to committee members for review. If it clears committee, it must then pass the Assembly and Senate before reaching the governor’s desk to be signed into law.

[Matt Moneymaker, a longtime Bigfoot researcher and former star of the Animal Planet series ‘Finding Bigfoot], is eager to witness history. “If there’s going to be a date, an occasion when they’re voting on whether or not to make it the official cryptid, I would love to be up there in Sacramento,” he said. “I would gladly pay my way to be there when that happens.”
“Mankind has always had a fascination with monsters, and mythologies from around the world include stories of strange and terrifying creatures,” writes Slashdot reader Pickens in a story published in 2008. “Examples include the half-bull, half-human Minotaur of Greek myths, the living clay Golem of Jewish traditions, British elves and Chinese dragons…” What’s your favorite monster?

Shweet

By locater16 • Score: 3 Thread
Can Florida claim Matt Gaetz as it’s cryptid?

Assembly Bill 666?

By Bruce66423 • Score: 4, Funny Thread

Guys, guys, April Fool’s Day isn’t for another six weeks…

Re:Shweet

By 93 Escort Wagon • Score: 4, Informative Thread

Can Florida claim Matt Gaetz as it’s cryptid?

Unfortunately no, since there’s unfortunately no denying Matt Gaetz exists.

Cryptid - “Any creature that may or may not exist. Sightings of various cryptids have been reported, but their reality has not been proved.”

(Yes, I had no idea what “cryptid” meant until a few moments ago)

Meta Claims Torrenting Pirated Books Isn’t Illegal Without Proof of Seeding

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:
Just because Meta admitted to torrenting a dataset of pirated books for AI training purposes, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Meta seeded the file after downloading it, the social media company claimed in a court filing (PDF) this week. Evidence instead shows that Meta "took precautions not to ‘seed’ any downloaded files,” Meta’s filing said. Seeding refers to sharing a torrented file after the download completes, and because there’s allegedly no proof of such “seeding,” Meta insisted that authors cannot prove Meta shared the pirated books with anyone during the torrenting process.

[…] Meta … is hoping to convince the court that torrenting is not in and of itself illegal, but is, rather, a “widely-used protocol to download large files.” According to Meta, the decision to download the pirated books dataset from pirate libraries like LibGen and Z-Library was simply a move to access “data from a ‘well-known online repository’ that was publicly available via torrents.” To defend its torrenting, Meta has basically scrubbed the word “pirate” from the characterization of its activity. The company alleges that authors can’t claim that Meta gained unauthorized access to their data under CDAFA. Instead, all they can claim is that “Meta allegedly accessed and downloaded datasets that Plaintiffs did not create, containing the text of published books that anyone can read in a public library, from public websites Plaintiffs do not operate or own.”

While Meta may claim there’s no evidence of seeding, there is some testimony that might be compelling to the court. Previously, a Meta executive in charge of project management, Michael Clark, had testified (PDF) that Meta allegedly modified torrenting settings “so that the smallest amount of seeding possible could occur,” which seems to support authors’ claims that some seeding occurred. And an internal message (PDF) from Meta researcher Frank Zhang appeared to show that Meta allegedly tried to conceal the seeding by not using Facebook servers while downloading the dataset to “avoid” the “risk” of anyone “tracing back the seeder/downloader” from Facebook servers. Once this information came to light, authors asked the court for a chance to depose Meta executives again, alleging that new facts “contradict prior deposition testimony.”
“Meta has been ‘silent so far on claims about sharing data while ‘leeching’ (downloading) but told the court it plans to fight the seeding claims at summary judgement,” notes Ars.

Aaron Swartz

By krakrjak • Score: 5, Informative Thread

So when Meta does this it’s altruistic, but when Aaron Swartz does it, it’s a federal crime with 25-life. Make it make sense.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

This… looks bad

By quantaman • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

I’ve actually been somewhat understanding towards the LLM companies when it comes to the data acquisition. Like you can’t really train these models without hoovering up the Internet and it is kinda tricky making sure you don’t scoop up some improperly shared copyrighted material along the way.

But Meta didn’t accidentally downloaded copyrighted materials. They deliberately sought out (and reshared) pirated materials, and tried to hide their involvement.

They should get hammed big time for this.

Re:Show me the seed

By msauve • Score: 5, Funny Thread
Bill Clinton, is it really you?

Re:Show me the seed

By OrangAsm • Score: 5, Funny Thread

Depends on the definition of “is”.

Re:We stopped being a nation of laws

By caseih • Score: 5, Interesting Thread

Russia still has laws, very strict ones even. All dictatorships do. But they don’t apply to the Putin’s friends, those doing his bidding, and those who’ve paid their oligarchal dues. Unless of course they fall out with Putin and have an accident.

And it’s the same in the US now. Just because the president and his cronies are violating the law and trampling on the constitution doesn’t mean that you, a mere citizen, can do the same. It’s been this way for quite a while (best justice money can buy), but certainly it’s going to get a lot worse now.

Rivian Reports First Quarter of ‘Positive Gross Profit’

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
Rivian reported its first-ever positive gross profit of $170 million in Q4 2024, driven by cost reductions and increased regulatory credit sales, despite a $4.7 billion net loss for the year. The company said it expects to sell 46,000-51,000 vehicles this year and achieve “modest gross profit.” The Verge reports:
Rivian reported $170 million in positive gross profits, which includes production and sales but does not factor in other expenses, for the three-month period that ended December 31, 2024. That was based on $1.7 billion in revenues. The company said its net loss for the fourth quarter was $743 million, as compared to $1.5 billion in net losses in the same period in 2023.

Rivian earned $4.5 billion in revenue for the full year 2024, based on the delivery of 51,579 vehicles. It record a net loss of $4.7 billion, compared to $5.4 billion in 2023. Rivian cited increased revenue from the sale of regulatory credits to other automakers, which is also a primary revenue driver for Tesla. The company said it saw a $260 million increase in regulatory credit sales in the fourth quarter year over year.

Rivian is *almost* cool…

By Valgrus Thunderaxe • Score: 3 Thread
…If they would just re-work those headlights.

Ghost Ransomware Continues To Infect Critical Infrastructure, Feds Warn

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
Mirnotoriety shares a report from The Register:
The operators of Ghost ransomware continue to claim victims and score payments, but keeping the crooks at bay is possible by patching known vulnerabilities and some basic infosec actions, according to a joint advisory issued Wednesday by the FBI and US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The Feds warned orgs to beware of this spectral menace, which is known to have infected critical infrastructure and entities in every sector of a typical economy, and which has been observed scoring ransoms as recently as January. It is said to have racked up victims in more than 70 countries, including some in its China homeland.

Ghost first appeared in 2021, and according to the Feds, the gang will “rotate their ransomware executable payloads, switch file extensions for encrypted files, modify ransom note text, and use numerous ransom email addresses, which has led to variable attribution of this group over time.” The Chinese group has therefore been identified as Ghost, Cring, Crypt3r, Phantom, Strike, Hello, Wickrme, HsHarada, and Rapture over time. The group’s favored tactics, however, remain consistent: It targets unpatched systems to exploit known vulnerabilities that allow it to infect targets. […]

YouTube Plans Lower-Priced, Ad-Free Version of Paid Video Tier

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
According to Bloomberg, YouTube plans to introduce a lower-priced, ad-free version of its paid video service. From the report:
The package, dubbed “premium lite,” will be announced soon in the US, Australia, Germany and Thailand, according to a person familiar with the plans. The service will target viewers who primarily want to watch programs other than music videos. While YouTube may be best known for the free videos uploaded by users, the company also offers a variety of paid services. YouTube Premium is a $13.99-a-month package in the US that lets subscribers watch everything on the service, including music videos, without ads.

“As part of our commitment to provide our users with more choice and flexibility, we’ve been testing a new YouTube Premium offering with most videos ad-free in several of our markets,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. “We’re hoping to expand this offering to even more users in the future with our partners’ support.”

TFA makes my head hurt

By Powercntrl • Score: 3 Thread

Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube plans to introduce a new, lower-priced version of its paid video service, offering its vast library of podcasts and how-to clips without advertising.

The package, dubbed “premium lite,” will be announced soon in the US, Australia, Germany and Thailand, according to a person familiar with the plans. The service will target viewers who primarily want to watch programs other than music videos.

Well, that makes it clear as mud. So, is it only podcasts and how-to clips that would be ad-free with this new subscription tier, or everything except music videos? And when they say music videos, are they referring to only officially produced ones, or does that also include fan-made stuff that hit a content ID match? What about the Hollywood movies that YouTube has available to paid subscribers?

I’m just going to assume that the article is referring to all user-generated content. This is likely something Google/Alphabet is offering because they’ve annoyed people to no end with their anti-adblock campaign and the present cost of $13.99/mo is a damn rip-off if all you want to do is watch some lawyer pick locks in his spare time. Still, since (as the article mentions) many YouTube content creators insert their own sponsored content into their videos, any paid plan essentially just amounts to less ads, unless you only watch content creators who never accept sponsorships.

Reading between the lines

By devslash0 • Score: 4, Insightful Thread

No one’s buying our premium subscription because the price is an abomination so we’ve got to come up with a cheaper plan.

Netflix To Invest $1 Billion In Mexico Over Next 4 Years

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters:
The chief executive of streaming giant Netflix on Thursday announced a $1 billion investment to produce some 20 films and TV series in Mexico annually over the next four years. Speaking at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference in Mexico City, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said he looked forward to entering more partnerships with producers in the Latin American nation. Sheinbaum said the investments in the film industry should produce many jobs beyond immediate production needs, such as hospitality for actors and crew members, fashion designers and also spur tourism. “It’s an industry that gives a lot of mileage to the economy,” Sheinbaum said. “It’s not only important for Mexico to be seen in the world, but also because of the economic development and jobs generated by a production.”

Apple Is Bringing Visual Intelligence To the iPhone 15 Pro

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
Apple’s Google Lens-like took called Visual Intelligence is coming to the iPhone 15 Pro, according to John Gruber of Daring Fireball. It’s unclear which update will offer the feature but Gruber speculates it could arrive with iOS 18.4 in April. From a report:
Visual Intelligence was originally introduced with the initial iPhone 16 lineup in September, and Apple showed it off as a feature that you launched from the Camera Control button. But yesterday, Apple announced that Visual Intelligence would be available on the iPhone 16E, which does not have the Camera Control button, through its Action Button.

That suggested that the feature could technically work with the iPhone 15 Pro, which also has an Action Button, and now Apple is confirming that Visual Intelligence will indeed come to that phone and be available via the Action Button. You’ll also be able to launch Visual Intelligence from the Control Center on the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple told Gruber.

ChatGPT Reaches 400 Million Weekly Active Users

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
ChatGPT has reached over 400 million weekly active users, doubling its count since August 2024. “We feel very fortunate to serve 5 percent of the world every week,” OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said on X. Engadget reports:
The latest milestone for the AI assistant comes after a huge uproar over new rival platform DeepSeek earlier in the year, which raised questions about whether the current crop of leading AI tools was about to be dethroned. OpenAI is on the verge of a move to simplify its ChatGPT offerings so that users won’t have to select which reasoning model will respond to an input, and it will make its GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 models available soon in the chat and API clients. With GPT-5 being made available to OpenAI’s free users, ChatGPT seems primed to continue expanding its audience base in the coming months.

Here comes the slashdot Amish parade

By sixminuteabs • Score: 3 Thread
I can hardly wait for the army of neckbeards who never use it tell me why it is not any good

ISP Must Unmask 100 Alleged BitTorrent Pirates In RIAA Lawsuit

Posted by BeauHD View on SlashDot Skip
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak:
Altice, parent company of Internet provider Optimum, must disclose the personal details of a hundred alleged music pirates. The request comes from a group of prominent record labels and is part of an ongoing copyright infringement liability lawsuit (PDF). Altice, meanwhile, will receive anti-piracy information, including that related to a letter the RIAA previously sent to BitTorrent Inc., the owner of popular torrent client uTorrent. […] Details are scarce, but the group will likely consist of subscribers who were repeatedly warned over alleged piracy activity. The music labels could use this information to gather further evidence to support their allegations. For example, subscriber testimony could help to strengthen the argument that the ISP failed to take effective measures against repeat infringers.

There’s nothing to suggest that these people will be approached with any claims directly. The names, emails, and addresses of the subscribers are marked as “highly confidential” and can only be viewed by attorneys acting for the music companies. The subscribers will be informed about the forthcoming disclosure of their personal details and any objections will be heard by the court. […] Subscriber details are just a fraction of the information requested by the parties during discovery. Altice, for example, will also gain access to some non-privileged documents and communications between the music companies and their anti-piracy partners, including the RIAA, OpSec, and Audible Magic.

This includes information regarding a letter (PDF) the RIAA sent to the company behind the uTorrent and BitTorrent clients in 2015. […] The nature of information sought by Altice isn’t clear. The company previously said that if music labels are concerned about piracy, they are free to go after developers of ‘piracy’ software. While neutral torrent clients don’t fall into that category, the ISP will be interested in any related legal considerations that took place behind the scenes.

Re: What country or state does this take place?

By greytree • Score: 4, Informative Thread
Wait, I think I see your problem - you came here for facts and journalism.

The true purpose

By devloop • Score: 3 Thread

There’s nothing to suggest that these people will be approached with any claims directly.

The true purpose is intimidation.

AI copyright

By stabiesoft • Score: 3 Thread
I imagine these individuals will have to roll over due to the sheer cost of fighting even if it is just one album or movie. Meanwhile, the AI companies with deep pockets are fighting infringement over every single thing ever published.

Dark Mode Might Be Burning More Juice Than You Think

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Using apps and websites in dark mode can actually use more energy than standard mode, according to researchers, as it causes people to crank up the brightness. From a report:
This counterintuitive finding is claimed by BBC Research & Development (R&D), which says that despite the popular energy saving recommendation to cut electricity consumption by switching to dark mode, doing so might actually make things worse. “Dark mode is a popular dark-theme colour content scheme and research has found that, for some devices, switching to dark mode can reduce device power consumption. Energy conscious internet users are therefore encouraged to browse in dark mode,” say the authors of a BBC R&D blog post.

“The catch is that the advertised energy savings haven’t been tested in the wild, where user behavior can cause unexpected consequences.” So the BBC’s R&D engineers put participants in front of the BBC Sounds home page and asked them to adjust the device brightness until they were comfortable with it, repeating this for both light and dark mode versions of the page.

Kay

By MobileTatsu-NJG • Score: 5, Informative Thread

Using apps and websites in dark mode can actually use more energy than standard mode…

That ain’t why I use dark mode. It works better with my stigmatism.

Eye strain

By Trukutu2k • Score: 5, Informative Thread
I always thought dark mode was to prevent eye strain, not to save power.

Publish or perish.

By msauve • Score: 5, Interesting Thread
What a worthless study.

engineers put participants in front of the BBC Sounds home page and asked them to adjust the device brightness until they were comfortable with it, repeating this for both light and dark mode versions of the page.

I’ll note they didn’t mention asking users if they actually changed the brightness in normal use when moving between light and dark modes. I’ll bet 99.9% of users don’t touch it. The study prompted users to change it.

I’d have thought it obvious.

By newcastlejon • Score: 5, Informative Thread
LCDs work by blocking light from an always-on backlight: darker = more power needed.
OLEDs work by directly emitting light: darker = less power needed.

Re: Dark Mode

By devslash0 • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

Exactly. Why does everything have to about ecology and energy savings these days? Some people out there have a seriously skewed perception of the world and what’s important for an average Joe, and those are low costs and usability. Most of us wouldn’t give a flying monkey about ecology if it wasn’t being forced onto us.

Amazon Surpasses Walmart in Revenue For First Time

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Amazon has dethroned Walmart in quarterly revenue for the first time ever. From a report:
Amazon said earlier this month that it brought in $187.8 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter. That beat out Walmart’s sales for the period, which came in at $180.5 billion, the company reported on Thursday. Since 2012, Walmart has held the distinction of being the top revenue generator each quarter, a title it gained after overtaking oil giant Exxon Mobil. Walmart still leads the way in annual sales, though Amazon is gaining ground. Walmart is projected to reel in $708.7 billion in the fiscal year ahead while Amazon’s full year revenue for 2025 is expected to reach $700.8 billion, according to FactSet.

Re:WM made some dumb decisions…

By backslashdot • Score: 5, Interesting Thread

Walmart isn’t losing money, at all. Their overall strategy is correct .. even if they needed more LP hires, because their profits and revenue is growing. If they tried to become Amazon they would fail. Self-checkout is convenient .. they are still making money off it by the improvements in number of customers. Walmart’s revenue and profits and its customers are both growing, they’re not headed for the poor house any time soon. References: https://companiesmarketcap.com… [companiesmarketcap.com] https://www.macrotrends.net/st

Re:WM made some dumb decisions…

By ArchieBunker • Score: 5, Informative Thread

Walmart and even Target are frequently cheaper than Amazon.

Walmart still leads US retail sales comfortably

By ac22 • Score: 3 Thread

2024 Walmart:
US sales $527B
International sales $114B

2024 Amazon:
US sales $387.5B
International sales $142.9B
AWS $107.6B

https://ir.aboutamazon.com/new…
https://www.statista.com/stati…

FTC Launches Broad Tech ‘Censorship’ Probe Targeting Meta, Uber

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has launched an inquiry into potential “censorship” by technology platforms ranging from Meta to Uber, marking an escalation in scrutiny of content moderation practices. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson called for public comment on what he termed “Big Tech censorship,” describing it as “un-American” and “potentially illegal.”

The broad probe could examine social media, video sharing, ride-sharing and event planning services. The announcement follows long-standing Republican claims that conservative viewpoints face discrimination on social media platforms.

witch hunt

By drinkypoo • Score: 5, Informative Thread

Until they do away with section 230, it’s legal to do just about any amount of censorship on your platform unless it is government funded.

So what if they did?

By goldspider • Score: 5, Informative Thread

Platforms can moderate however the hell they want to. The First Amendment gives them that prerogative.

Re:I propose an easy test

By Ksevio • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

I wonder which “conservative viewpoints” are being censored? Small government? Fewer regulations? Lower taxes?

Surprising that moderators would crackdown on those....unless they’re talking about some OTHER viewpoints

Weaponization of the DOJ

By Ly4 • Score: 5, Informative Thread

Trump’s DOJ is sending letters to members of congress who called Musk a ‘dick’:
https://bsky.app/profile/rober…

Re: Based on what?

By drinkypoo • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

Nothing on earth is less surprising than alleged conservatives being hypocrites.

Their whole name is horse shit. The only thing they want to conserve is their privilege. Everything else is there to be consumed.

Twitch is Limiting Streamers To 100 hours of Highlights and Uploads

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot Skip
Twitch is planning to cull some of the content archived by streamers to save on storage costs. From a report:
On Wednesday the streaming platform announced that it will introduce a 100-hour storage cap for Highlights and Uploads starting April 19th, warning that users will have their content automatically deleted until it falls below the limit.

Twitch says it’s doing this because “Highlights haven’t been very effective in driving discovery or engagement,” and it isn’t worth the cost of storing thousands of hours of such content. Twitch is owned by Amazon, a market-leading cloud storage provider — a detail that hasn’t gone unnoticed by streamers criticizing the decision.

Making Twitch less useful

By Kisai • Score: 3 Thread

Twitch has this mistaken belief that people don’t watch old content. Clearly they do not want to be youtube, so you can’t upload thousands of hours of past VOD’s, and they expire broadcasts after 7, 14(affiliates) or 60 days (Twitch Turbo), so they are basically doing a lot to erode their platform’s discoverability and only favoring live content.

You know why they are doing this though? Because it’s easier to deal with copyright claims if you just make all content disappear.

Expect next year they will start booting partners who aren’t streaming 25 hours a month across 12 days. They want live content, not people to stream once and collecting “subs” once a month.

HP Deliberately Adds 15 Minutes Waiting Time For Telephone Support Calls

Posted by msmash View on SlashDot
HP will impose a minimum 15-minute wait time for consumer PC and printer support calls in five European countries, seeking to push customers toward digital channels, according to internal documents seen by The Register. The policy, implemented February 18, affects retail customers in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy. The outlet added that it anticipates “more countries could be added.”

Unspeakably sad to those of us who remember …

By ihadafivedigituid • Score: 5, Informative Thread
The HP Way is in the grave with Bill Hewlett, and what we have left is this bullshit racketeering.

The future is cool in a lot of ways, but we lost something when HP ceased being HP.

Re:HP Printers

By geekmux • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

Failure rate of business printers. HP fails less. Businesses pay more to fail less.

Given the insane price tags of larger MFPs, I’m betting most corporations don’t have a damn clue how often they fail.

Because they’re all leased hardware, and the only number that matters is 1-800-COME-FIX-YOUR-SHIT.

Hardware is replaced every 3-5 years. If we want to talk real longevity, go find the obscure-world office buying used MFPs with a few million miles on them to run for another decade.

rebranded

By awwshit • Score: 5, Insightful Thread

Hate People

Re:HP Printers

By karmawarrior • Score: 5, Interesting Thread

I think competition has broken down when HP makes decisions like these and doesn’t expect Brother, Epson, et al, to run TV ads saying “HP hates you so much they intentionally make you wait 15 minutes if you call them. We don’t. We actually like our customers and want you all to be happy with the stuff we sell you!”

It’s like most giant corporations actively hate their customers and employees these days. Why?

Re:Here’s your opportunity EU!!!

By nicolaiplum • Score: 5, Informative Thread

You’ve got the wrong end of the stick, dear boy.

The ambulances are queueing because A&E is full, and A&E is full because there are no ward beds to transfer patients who need to be admitted as in-patients, and that’s because the beds are blocked by elderly patients who need residential or home care arranged before they can be discharged but none is available, because local government funding (which pays for this) has been greatly reduced since 2010.

Nothing to do with service time guarantees. Those only applied to GP appointments, not A&E.