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:
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
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.”
Fun question to think about: when was the last time HP made a product that you would actually recommend to anyone?
1970s probably?
the Laserjet 4M from the 1990s, the incredible unstoppable tank of lasers
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?
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 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
highest tech battlefield gopnik discomobile
LOL. HP buying you is a guarantee your tech will get messed with and forgotten. Just ask Palm.
RIP Palm Pilots
And to think, almost a year ago to this day, they had just announced a partnership with Softbank.
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.
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.
venture capital has been very reluctant to unambiguously realise the losses
don’t believe the broadsheets / the gravy train’s a-rockin’
