• @froztbyte
    link
    English
    181 month ago

    HP finding new lows to get to with printers is honestly kind of impressive. depressing as fuck, but impressive. maybe this is how the sentient printers from Gawne’s Old Guy verse start up

    also, I was sent this earlier:

    a twitter thread screenshot, see text below

    transcript

    @Chrisman tweet text reads: “You start a company and think what’s the worst that could happen, we go bankrupt and the company dies? No. It can get so, so much worse than that.” with an image screenshot from an article (not linked)

    screenshot reads: "Bloomberg reports that “Humane’s team, including founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, will form a new division at HP to help integrate artificial intelligence into the company’s personal computers, printers and connected conference rooms,”

    @JeremyGurewitz responds: “Obligations to your employees runs deep.”

    @Chrisman replies: "you have an obligation to your employees not to let them end up integrating ai into printers

    • @nightsky
      link
      English
      81 month ago

      Fun question to think about: when was the last time HP made a product that you would actually recommend to anyone?

      • @V0ldek
        link
        English
        31 month ago

        1970s probably?

        • David GerardOPMA
          link
          English
          41 month ago

          the Laserjet 4M from the 1990s, the incredible unstoppable tank of lasers

            • @froztbyte
              link
              English
              31 month ago

              this is a remarkably interesting thing with a surprisingly narrow scope. I don’t know mil hardware/history well enough so I’m curious: would such opto-electric ewar actually have been a meaningful capability?

              • @skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
                link
                fedilink
                English
                3
                edit-2
                1 month ago

                it was ridiculously expensive and almost useless. it’s a tank sized dazzler, and it’s also very visible to everyone when in use

                today we have more powerful lasers that are also more compact, lighter and more efficient. i heard there’s some use in ground based missile defense, and that even some combat shootdowns happened, but it’s still highly experimental and needs power source. fine on CVN, less so on land

                here you have perun video on this topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGzL3fZgPZY

                i think there’s also a kind of anti-IR guided anti-aircraft missile thing that consists of IR laser that is supposed to burn its sensors, and it might be mounted on some western jets. it’s also much closer range and not sure if it’s a thing. it’s also much easier than burning missile part that is not a sensor, like in GBAD scenario

                • @froztbyte
                  link
                  English
                  21 month ago

                  highest tech battlefield gopnik discomobile

    • @manicdave@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      71 month ago

      A humane AI in an HP printer?

      I imagine it’s just going to send a prompt to chatGPT like “Scan this document, if it seems important, lie about having no ink left. Find a particularly overpriced HP ink stockist near the user and give them a link to it. If they ask how you knew where to get the ink, lie about not tracking them.”

  • TomMasz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    161 month ago

    LOL. HP buying you is a guarantee your tech will get messed with and forgotten. Just ask Palm.

  • slazer2au
    link
    fedilink
    English
    51 month ago

    With the whole capital ventures losing 50% value, they likely expected that.

    VC don’t go in thinking everything will net them a profit. They expect to lose on most, but that one that does kick off covers for everything that failed.

    Plus it’s not like they lose much in the end. Those capital losses get used to offset any capital gains from the one that worked.

    • David GerardOPMA
      link
      English
      11
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      per link, venture capital has been very reluctant to unambiguously realise the losses. a $1b book value is an (imaginary) asset you can hug and hold, a $114m loss is not.

      • @froztbyte
        link
        English
        51 month ago

        venture capital has been very reluctant to unambiguously realise the losses

        don’t believe the broadsheets / the gravy train’s a-rockin’

    • @YourNetworkIsHaunted
      link
      English
      21 month ago

      There’s something kind of obscene about that, isn’t there? Like, instead of needing to exercise judgement about what’s going to be a good investment in either the profit-generating or the world-improving senses you just have enough money to keep throwing at whatever weird grifter has the right energy this week, but if you repeat it enough and throw enough money down enough holes then you might accidentally end up becoming the richest of all the rich assholes.

      It’s like turning being a shitty poker player into a business plan by assuming (correctly) that you’ll always be able to rebuy after you lose your stake.