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Comment by lokimedes | Hacker News Reader

My HP inkjet will not print any color or black if the “photo black” cartridge is removed. I consider this a similar “greed move” by HP.

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The water dispenser on my fridge stops working if it decides the filter needs to be replaced. I get about ten days between the “new filter” light and when it stops working with the beeping and blinking getting progressively more annoying. Oddly enough the ice dispenser (which also uses the filter) continues to function. So it’s not a safety issue and someone apparently decided consumers would tolerate the inconvenience of no filtered water but not the inconvenience of no ice.

It’s a slight improvement over my last fridge which used DRM to make sure I only used their (way more expensive) branded filters.

What brand of fridge uses DRM? Asking to avoid them entirely

It's been a topic on HN before:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23484292

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22129801

(GE in both cases)

Since 1990: GE outperforms all other appliance makers in supplying reasons to avoid their products.

> someone apparently decided consumers would tolerate the inconvenience of no filtered water

What kind of person makes decisions like this? When handed a good product, who decides to make it worse on purpose?

> who decides to make it worse on purpose?

Management beholden to shareholders above everyone else.

You can sometimes replace the filter (take the old one out and put it back in) and then reset the timer to get more water.

If I remember right I also had to authenticate through their cloud service to send file to printer via direct cable connection from my PC.

Does your printer have two separate "black" and "photo black" cartridges?

Yep, and I am still (after 7 years) working out what the difference is. Photos come out just fine without any ink in the photo cartridge, photo paper is a must though.

I'd guess "photo black" is a higher-contrast dye, and would wonder if BW exposures printed with and without it come out with the same dynamic range.

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