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Corruption my friend. Direct from a deployed friend's mouth: "When laser printers would run out of toner on base in Iraq, we wouldn't order more toner (we cou
by crushcrashcrush 8y ago
Corruption my friend.
Direct from a deployed friend's mouth:
"When laser printers would run out of toner on base in Iraq, we wouldn't order more toner (we couldn't) - we'd order another entire printer and use the toner cartridge in the new one, and shoot at the printer on the range."
Your tax dollars at work.
- csours 8y agoOn the one hand, yes that's terrible. On the other hand, I can totally see several scenarios where this is a reasonable outcome of an unreasonable system: 1. Toner not in order system. 2. Previous orders of toner found to be incompatible with printer. etc.
- genkimind 8y agoIt has nothing to do with corruption. See my other comment.
- module0000 8y agoHanlon's razor at work... "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"
- darkpuma 8y agoBut never forget that malice does exist, and the clever malicious will often conceal their malice behind a veil of plausible stupidity. For instance, "Oops I accidentally forgot my briefcase full of classified documents on the bus" is as old as spycraft itself.
- jjoonathan 8y agoEven calling it "clever" or attributing it to spycraft is a stretch. Kids learn to "play dumb" before they learn to form complete sentences.
- darkpuma 8y agoThat's right. Even very dumb criminals will often plead that they were dumb, not malicious, even when the circumstances of their capture make such an explanation ludicrous. "I'm sorry sir, I kicked in your front door and started looking for cash and valuables because I was drunk and thought it was my house! I made a huge mistake!"
- arminiusreturns 8y agoI like to remind people that Hanlons razor is a logical fallacy, and really shouldn't be used nearly as much as it is, especially the way it is (in an isolated context)
- setr 8y ago>Hanlons razor is a logical fallacy I'm not see'ing it, and a quick google search isn't finding any support for that idea; it seems to me quite reasonable: Given 2 common possible explanations, prefer one. Perhaps the "Never" is at issue, but I doubt anyone ever actually interprets never as never.
- darkpuma 8y agoLogical fallacies are not a finite set. Those you find listed on places like wikipedia are merely the most popular.
- setr 8y agoThat’s fine and well, but irrelevant to what I said. I failed to deduce the fallacy myself or find anyone else doing it for me, thus I’m asking.
- jessaustin 8y agoThe fact that it includes the word "never" was the clue for me...
- setr 8y agoWhich I responded to. Reading never as never is more of a misinterpretation than anything else.
- jessaustin 8y agoEven if we accept that (even though a maxim that starts out "we should hesitate to" rather than "never" will be much less rhetorically potent), HR claims to observe a fact about the world: that malice is far less common than stupidity, or at least that it's profitable to behave as if that were the case. I've never seen that observation supported, in any discussion about HR. My own experience of the world contradicts that observation much of the time. Probably not most of the time, but enough to make it a mistake to stop thinking, as HR advises us to do. In fact it's often wise to act as if one sees stupidity, even when one suspects malice. In that way one may tempt the malicious into overstepping. But HR doesn't say anything about actions, only about attributions.
- joe_the_user 8y agoHanlon's razor should not be employed with situations where money vanishes.
- boomboomsubban 8y agoYou say an overextension of resources is one of the factors, which corruption would play a role in.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Spooky23 8y agoThat's more systematic incompetence and happens all of the time. The reason is easy -- capex for new equipment is easier to get and more nebulous. The new printer may have started life on a budget spreadsheet as a truck. Opex is hard. It usually works like this: Some poor clerk had no fricking idea how many toner cartridges or replacement staplers were needed, so he wrote down a bullshit number. Some upstream beancounter patted himself on the back and zeroed out the supply budget to make his powerpoint look good, because he screwed up and didn't order enough bullets or whatever. Now you're stuck, and whomever orders stuff orders a printer to get toner, which is ultimately cheaper than getting some sort of special clearance to spend opex money that wasn't budgeted.
- vonmoltke 8y agoWith all of the above behavior being caused by regulations imposed in the name of cost control.
- dwd 8y agoThat's also the case for cheap office printers where a new printer is cheaper than replacing the ink. They make their money on the cartridges and practically give the printers away to try and lock you in.
- UweSchmidt 8y agoSupposedly those cartriges in those cheap office printers are not full when you buy them, so this crazyness doesn't work out. Besides, a large organization should be able to procure ink at a reasonable price...
- ForHackernews 8y agoOn the other hand, being able to unload on your printer with automatic weapons must be immensely cathartic.