Senseless Waste

Region-locked printing ink.  Seriously.

So, it appears that if you attempt to forcefeed a Xerox printer not-from-around-here ink, it will potentially brick the device. At that point, you're forced to ask for a Xerox rep to drop by and unlock your purchased printer for you...

Sure, it's only 10 minutes of work, but it's $60 being shelled out by a paying customer just so his printer will go back to printing. The only thing actually "broken" is Xerox's business model. 

It's ink, for the love of heaven!  INK!

The whole idea of intentionally breaking something that is functional makes me twitch.

Whatever idiot at Xerox came up with this particular idea should be manhandled into the nearest convenient alleyway and beaten with garbage can lids until whatever is broken in their brain starts working again.

See also: planned obsolescence, cash for clunkers.

Being The Friendly Chap That I Am

I came across a really interesting article about Israel: their start-up culture, and how that is influencing and strengthening their growing relationships with China, India and other non-Western countries.

When I tried to pull a quote from the article, though, some javascript snippet asked me if I wanted to license the content.

License. The content.

So sorry, no.

I wanted to exercise fair use, quote enough of the article to give it some context, and then direct readers to your web site. Which would have increased your page views, perhaps provided a small bump in your revenue stream, and possibly gotten you some new readers.

But apparently you're not interested in that. Being the friendly chap that I am, I will honor your unstated wish to become an abject failure, and ignore you.

*plonk*

Pajama Boy Expands His Wardrobe

No.  Just... no.  Please, no.