HP decided to go the route of making money on their printer ink, and sell their printers sometimes below cost
You are completely forgetting the rest of the printing and imaging business (not to mention other businesses unrelated and managed separately, that don't factor into this). It was always about the consumables. But, do you think they sell high end lasers, multifunction devices, business inkjets (and designjets -- they aren't plotters) at or below cost? The revenue stream from all the consumables apart from the consumer business is staggering. The cheap inkjets ultimately were intended to be put out in the market quickly, cheaply, and with fast generation turnover, specifically to drive sales of consumables (and get into the consumer market too, but that's a different story). The quality is "good enough." It's not as if someone in marketing suddenly said, "Hey! I've got a great idea!" They are taking whatever steps they can to keep their bread buttered. And no, I'm not defending the company per se, but there were a lot of good HP "old timers" in the business; in the end even the crown jewel had to cut costs too, after propping up the rest of the company for years.
It isn't only about the dorms; in fact, I'll agree that students living at a university might have a legitimate gripe about network restrictions. But then again, you chose your university!
However, there is the issue of "legitimate use." The original poster is right: these networks are installed for educational purposes. I teach CS part-time at a California State university, and we have several labs that are "open," where students will from time to time install these tools. Bandwidth issues aside, serving MP3s and the like are not what these systems were put in for, period. They are hardware and software for use by the classes we teach.
Ahh, I remember the day in early '96 when I bought that first Pentium system. Of course the 3V 90s were out, but the performance? Ahh, no difference they said. These days that box is still one of two primary systems (along with a newer K6-2/300) I use at home. It used to run Linux and WFW 3.11, but these days it runs NT4 on 48MB of RAM (Linux on the other machine now, of course). I'll spare you a loving description of my 486SX 25 . . .
Geeks, Nerds, or whatever (I still prefer the term "nerd"), are generally considered antisocial dweebs, left-wing, etc. partly becuase of the media, but don't y'all think there's a ring of truth in there somewhere?
Do you consider yourself a geek/nerd/techie type? Then think back to your high-school days (or last spring if you're still there) and tell me that you were in a "popular" crowd, you were on the varsity football team, or were a cheerleader, you were among the student body, etc. I'll bet you weren't. I know I wasn't.
Okay, so high school may be a poor example. What about your college experience and/or career? The average non-technical person sees tech types as living in another world becuase they do! I'm sure the media helps, but every day on the job or on the campus, I see a division between those who are "technical" and those who are not. Technical people are somehow viewed as different, and that is not just driven by media. Technical people ARE different (but not better or worse). People who are by nature less social or who have differing views wind up finding their place among geeks/nerds, becuase most of us just don't care, or are mature enough to see a person's worth behind a facade, intentional or not.
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HP decided to go the route of making money on their printer ink, and sell their printers sometimes below cost
You are completely forgetting the rest of the printing and imaging business (not to mention other businesses unrelated and managed separately, that don't factor into this). It was always about the consumables. But, do you think they sell high end lasers, multifunction devices, business inkjets (and designjets -- they aren't plotters) at or below cost? The revenue stream from all the consumables apart from the consumer business is staggering. The cheap inkjets ultimately were intended to be put out in the market quickly, cheaply, and with fast generation turnover, specifically to drive sales of consumables (and get into the consumer market too, but that's a different story). The quality is "good enough." It's not as if someone in marketing suddenly said, "Hey! I've got a great idea!"
They are taking whatever steps they can to keep their bread buttered. And no, I'm not defending the company per se, but there were a lot of good HP "old timers" in the business; in the end even the crown jewel had to cut costs too, after propping up the rest of the company for years.
Cheers
It isn't only about the dorms; in fact, I'll agree that students living at a university might have a legitimate gripe about network restrictions. But then again, you chose your university!
However, there is the issue of "legitimate use." The original poster is right: these networks are installed for educational purposes. I teach CS part-time at a California State university, and we have several labs that are "open," where students will from time to time install these tools. Bandwidth issues aside, serving MP3s and the like are not what these systems were put in for, period. They are hardware and software for use by the classes we teach.
Ahh, I remember the day in early '96 when I bought that first Pentium system. Of course the 3V 90s were out, but the performance? Ahh, no difference they said. These days that box is still one of two primary systems (along with a newer K6-2/300) I use at home. It used to run Linux and WFW 3.11, but these days it runs NT4 on 48MB of RAM (Linux on the other machine now, of course). I'll spare you a loving description of my 486SX 25 . . .
Maharet
Geeks, Nerds, or whatever (I still prefer the term "nerd"), are generally considered antisocial dweebs, left-wing, etc. partly becuase of the media, but don't y'all think there's a ring of truth in there somewhere?
Do you consider yourself a geek/nerd/techie type? Then think back to your high-school days (or last spring if you're still there) and tell me that you were in a "popular" crowd, you were on the varsity football team, or were a cheerleader, you were among the student body, etc. I'll bet you weren't. I know I wasn't.
Okay, so high school may be a poor example. What about your college experience and/or career? The average non-technical person sees tech types as living in another world becuase they do! I'm sure the media helps, but every day on the job or on the campus, I see a division between those who are "technical" and those who are not. Technical people are somehow viewed as different, and that is not just driven by media. Technical people ARE different (but not better or worse). People who are by nature less social or who have differing views wind up finding their place among geeks/nerds, becuase most of us just don't care, or are mature enough to see a person's worth behind a facade, intentional or not.
Maharet