I have an HP OfficeJet Pro device in my home office. This morning I woke to lights flashing on the front panel, and an error message on my screen saying I have an invalid yellow and black cartridge or printhead.

The first problem here is the description of the error code. There should be two different errors – one for the invalid ink, another for failed printheads. I have changed nothing and use this printer infrequently in order to promote longevity of the device. Unless you already know that they sell a print head called “yellow / black “, you easily waste money on replacing perfectly good yellow and black ink cartridges. So not properly managing your development department in India can lead to LANGUAGE BARRIERS that lead to a lack of customer satisfaction.

Secondly, when I called them, he did not want to listen to hear the problem, he wanted to sell me a support contract. In order to maintain a customer, they should offer 5 minutes of sincere support for the product, not ‘upsell’ a contract.

The reason they want to sell a contract is a) these technical support reps do not have technical skills and would prefer to replace the printer under warranty instead of diagnose the problem, and b) for profit and so they can make money – (I have NO problem with the idea of making money, just offering business-class devices that are not worthy of the title).

He wanted to sell me an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT CLASS AND TYPE OF DEVICE. I asked “Why would I want to replace a OfficeJet Pro with a consumer grade device?” He said he understood and proceeded to try and sell me yet another product entirely. After explaining to him that he should consider looking up any issues that could cause these errors, it was an afterthought to look up the actual problem in his database. He eventually did so, after I was red in the face, and he said I needed to order a replacement printerhead.

HP publishes its values to include “Uncompromising integrity; We are open, honest and direct in our dealings.”

HP is doing themselves a disservice in allowing overseas support people to try and think. These people have no mental tools to reason through things and they turn customers away from HP due to this anemia. They are not in line with the HP values.

This can grow into a huge blog entry, but I will keep it short.

The ONLY way the US Government will get ‘fixed’ in the best interest of the citizens:

1) Place a campaign finance cap on BOTH the party and the individual candidates.

2) Remove all allowances for earmarks on bills.

These two reforms will stop the motivations of ALL AMERICAN politicians to say one thing and do another – to stop their self-serving votes and involvements and concentrate on the desires and best interests of their constituents.

There are no longer party lines, there are only politicians and different marketing tactics; blue and red, donkey and elephant. These are no longer Republicans or Democrats, but simply congressmen who are manipulated by their own greed and little to no interest of their constituents.

Funny the automakers claim that failure to give them bailout money will mean another 2 million lost jobs.

First, we agree that the world they live in is a global one, and not just the US. SO US jobless claims are an almost worthless demographic. If we started to be concerned about the unemployment figures, then we are just a socialist country. If we start looking at what industries are doing to the US workforce, then we have to look at many industries that same way – and we do not.(As of today, look at a news search,  and clearly we could find another million job cuts from other industries and we do not even worry about those cuts. So why start worrying about it?)

Second, you may or may not agree with me that if the Big 3 fail, some other company(ies) will be sucking up the jobless ex-employee / manufacturing supply of the current Big 3, as the US demand grows for replacement autos and trucks. A perfect opportunity for Subaru, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc. to take up the slack. If the Big 3 fail, can’t congress just offer incentives for these companies to build business over here?  US profits and taxes are better from reliable new sources as opposed to a failing US group, right?

So when the Big 3 walked in the door and threaten they are world class kick boxers and will kick the American economy’s ass without a bailout- then they are actually deserving of a US kick in the seat of their pants.  They walk in a second time and have no real plan with accountability in place for overhauling their business, removing management, or redefining their product direction. They claim that the problems are because of this economy as much as their nebulous mistakes.

You may have not bought a car in years, but if you look at what the congress did for auto businesses the past eight years, they gave great tax breaks for individuals /businesses that purchased SUV’s and trucks. In a confession to the congress, the Big 3 claimed the purchasing was based on building what  people WANTED and demanded. But no one called the Big 3 out on these tax incentives during the bailout discussions.  To this end, the Big 3  also offered leases for more efficient vehicles at much higher and unattractive rates.  So is this an issue of demand of market manipulation?  Clearly a business in in business to make money and consumer demand is only secondary for the auto manufacturers. SO you could sign a lease for a big Dakota Ram Hemi diesel truck for $180 / month, but a low- end Buick would cost the consumer $2000 down plus a monthly fee of $399.  Which vehicle do you think that average American will sign for? Again, none of these factors are brought up in these congressional bailout reviews.

The point? Let’s call a spade a spade. This is all just big business. What they say is not their goal and not their intention. It amazes me that economists and MBA’s who are looked up to by everyone,  have been granted the best schools and the best of everything else. In the long run, most of these experts seem to have no clear successful performance history, and no punishments. They may get ousted from this role or that post, or bring down a company too fast to be punished, but never before a payment for their time and efforts. Why should we all try so hard to get educated through Ivy League schools  when the real cash is in playing a minstrel show to anyone who will buy in?  They should call groups like the Harvard Business School a branch of the thespian troop.  That would be more appropriate. I am not saying these guys are bad people or wrong, but I am saying that my expectations are that they can run companies and build products that maintain quality. But that is not how the business world works. Quality exists – if at all – to climb and remove your competition. Then, as the last standing company, you force your market into whatever quality gives them the most profit. Looks like this really is the land of opportunity. Classical training is just an obstacle to making a living.

Who can blame the Big 3? As one congressman said something like “We gave $700 billion to bail out the financial sector, and it was misused, we do not want that to happen again with the auto industry.” Then note that  Citicorp was given a  $300 Billion bailout (20 x the auto bailout money) and has no required time in front of these congressional audits. I suppose Citi has better lobbyists.

I love Lenovo Thinkpads. They are well-built and completely supported by most versions of Linux. They also offer 3, 4 and 5 year support on-site contracts, inside and outside the United States. Recently, IBM sold off this PC hardware division to their manufacturing company, Lenovo. Since this transition, Lenovo US CEO William J. Amelio has given a lot of lip service to growing the company.  Contrary to the discussion that he brings to various tables, what I have personally noticed over the past four years the deterioration of the support quality – making India seem more tolerable. Why?  He is not concentrating on the quality of hiring at their Atlanta, Georgia technical support department.  It is so horrific, that I can no longer suggest that people purchase Lenovo machines, no matter how well designed they are or how innovative.

Top Three Reasons to not buy Lenovo:

1. Customer Service and technical support is not poor, but horrible. Their intent is to get you off the phone and not take responsibility for the problem. But those that are hired do not have technical capability. They can only answer the phone. They know NOTHING about computers.

2. William J. Amelio has been claiming to turn around the company, yet the customer service has only become worse. His goals to make the division more profitable loses its way without hiring people who have the vision to make certain parts of the company function properly. POSSIBLY, he is forced to be cost cutting, instead of quality growing. But my sense is that he has lost control of the core value of ThinkPad products.

3. ThinkVantage software ships on every Windows notebook, and causes no less than 12 running processes at any given time. Not only does this slow the performance of the machine down, but it drops the apparent quality of the machine to the end users. Additionally, the amount of conflicts each of these have with Microsoft operating system tools leads to unnecessary errors and slowdowns. Drive protection and Rescue and Recovery is one thing, but 12 of them makes no sense for the average user.

I have to suggest that Lenovo is only worthy of machines where you will be out of the country and need the backup to replace the machine or repair it in major cities around the world. The other advantage is to instlal Linux of almost any time and get reliable performance. In which case, moves this from almost last place to first place for Linux stability, reliability, and compatibility.

I recent US News report by Adam Voiland stresses that you have to be careful with both the way food is marketed and the claims on food labels. It is clear America has the greatest obesity problem in its history. Diabetes is going up at alarming rates. The number of those who are both very obese and those I call colossally obese have risen by factors of ten.

There are facts that contribute to these factors; no longer mandatory to take physical education (aka PE) in public schools, significant family role changes (more parents are unavailable to oversee that kids are outside playing). Most families view ‘chores’ as less necessary than in past generations. Additionally, more defined neurotic conditions with parents, children and pets interfere with physical activities.  Previously, school lunches were the main source of dietary intake during school months.  There was no time to ingest chocolate bars and sugared sodas. When these kids would arrive home, they would eat healthier food prepared from fresh produce. At least one parent that did not work and could make meals.

Now beverage and candy companies are placing highly caloric foods in vending machines, strategically in more areas around each school property.  Fast-food locations have increased by factors of ten. Each fast food chain offers food that has a long shelf life and little consideration for health.  Parents are too busy to prepare nutritious dinners during the week. Also, the invention of microwave ovens were as much a psychological break-point for an entire generation, as well as a device of convenience.  Instant satisfaction meals have become more commonplace in every household. In turn, this familiar idea of a fast meal has added to the expectations of every parent to make something for dinner.  Nutrition is no longer a consideration in daily life.

In addition to my idea, this article makes some very informative points. It lists the 10 Things the Food Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know

1. Junk food makers spend billions advertising unhealthy foods to kids.
2. The studies that food producers support tend to minimize health concerns associated with their products.
3. Junk food makers donate large sums of money to professional nutrition associations.
4. More processing means more profits, but typically makes the food less healthy.
5. Less-processed foods are generally more satiating than their highly processed counterparts.
6. Many supposedly healthy replacement foods are hardly healthier than the foods they replace.
7. A health claim on the label doesn’t necessarily make a food healthy.
8. Food industry pressure has made nutritional guidelines confusing.
9. The food industry funds front groups that fight anti-obesity public health initiatives.
10. The food industry works aggressively to discredit its critics.

Let me know what you think, and if you think it is possible to alter your routine to make better meals for yourself and your family.

Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

Marketing people are often in a world of their own. But in today’s world -  I am an old timer – I want the option to hide my data and for businesses to not sell it.  If one thinks about the advantages to selling information, the hope is that this information will lead to sales for other companies. I honestly believe that this is a weak means of making a profit in so many circumstances. The consequences of these ‘partnerships’ is that the everyday person has to contend with more emails, more junk faxes, more junk mail and more wasted time.  Today I was trying to get pricing information for a blackberry corporate server, so I can use calendar synching over a wireless sync with their exchange server.

As I look on their web site for pricing, they bury these prices on purpose, so that I sign up for their program. (I do not want to sign up, I want to see the prices!)  As I begin the sign-up process, I notice no note about keeping my information private. I look to their privacy policy link which takes me to a page where you cannot easily see the secondary privacy link.

If you can actually FIND the privacy link, the you will read this:

Except as part of the sale of all or substantially all of the assets of RIM, RIM will not sell, trade or rent your personal information to any third party unless we have your consent. We will only use and/or disclose personal information in order to:

1. understand and meet your needs and preferences;
2. develop new and enhance existing service and product offerings;
3. manage and develop our business and operations; and
4. meet legal and regulatory requirements.

We also reserve the right to use, disclose, sell, trade or rent data aggregated provided that the data is not linked to any specific individual.

Except where we are required by law to disclose personal information, we will require any person to whom we provide your personal information to agree to comply with our then current Privacy Policy. We will take reasonable commercial efforts to ensure that they comply with our Privacy Policy, however we will have no liability to you if any person fails to do so.

To be able to serve you, your personal information may be collected, stored and/or processed or otherwise used by or on our behalf both inside and outside of Canada by third party service providers or by companies in the RIM corporate family, to perform functions on our behalf. As a result, that country’s courts, governments or law enforcement agencies could obtain disclosure of such information under that country’s laws.

Essentially, the first sentence claims ‘we will not share or sell your information’, and then the policy proceeds to explain they ‘will share information if it is going to help my needs or the needs of Blackberry’.  Blackberry IS selling your information because it suits THEIR needs and the possible perception of MY needs.

Additionally, as with junk faxes, since they are outside of the US – they are in Canada – they can be excluded from the DO NOT CALL list laws and the privacy laws of the US.

I LOVE my Blackberry functionality, but will continue to look for an alternative, and hope that one day I can pull away from RIM entirely.  Google will release the Android phones, and eventually Microsoft will sync their calendar with them. I write this post not to start a revolution, but to present a case to all people to give them the knowledge to make a choice. When you sign up with all companies in the US, some will require you to opt out, some to opt-in to marketing.  But Blackberry will sell you down the road over and over again.

The alternative solutions include:

Goosync & Google Sync for Calendar

There are others, too, but these seem to be very strong contenders.