I used to work in the ink cartridge industry. This is not new. HP has been actively blocking non-HP cartridges for at least 10y.
The issue is that there is a cat and mouse game between an handful HP "alternative cartridges" manufacturers and HP. HP is actively trying to detect and block non-HP cartridges while the manufacturers find a way to bypass it.
What probably has happened here is that HP had pushed a SW upgrade that detects non-HP cartridges a bit better. The manufacturers probably already found a way to bypass it and new cartridges will work on this firmware.
Reading the headline I was half jokingly wondering if they did those lockdown updates like a one-off project each time or if they already have a routine schedule, like a key change mid-March every second year.
From my experience (as a team lead who had to do that a few times unfortunately):
First, each department is usually allocated a number of employees they should layoff (based on high management priority).
Then, each department has to decide how to allocate it internally (cut-off teams entirely, or layoff a number of employees per team).
Then it goes to mid level management and lower management which has to choose specific employees (based on a number of criterias but usually based on performance).
Just happened to me this week with a quite large international company: I got interviewed for an engineering manager role (that was also the title of the meeting in the email), at the end of the interview (2 hours), the interviewer told me that he is sorry but "they want someone with 10 years of experience and my CV doesn't match" but they will be able to recruit me as a SWE role if I want and then wait one year and maybe I will get promoted. Needless to say that even if I was interested, I will never work for this company.
Maybe the solution here is do adopt the approach from humans: if you independently produce someone's copyrighted work and then discover about it - you'll drop it.
The same approach could be used here, they can add a check for the similarity between the output and the original training material, if it is above a threshold, they'll drop the suggestion (maybe they are already doing that).
That doesn't work, though - the problem is you have automated crime. When you do this, you can no longer handle this on a case by case basis - you have to resort to automating justice.
And at this point, you are getting both attacked and supported by AI, and not really better off in a meaningful way.
There's no good way of solving this issue, without general intelligence, and the problems that will bring (what reason does a generally intelligent AI have for supporting us or not enslaving us).
This is why all AI research IMO is unethical. Point me to a single AI use that has not already been abused, maybe I will change my mind, as it stands though we should be prosecuting the people misusing this technology, or at least irresponsibly releasing it, as fast and as quickly as possible before we get the point we are no longer fighting bad actors but the machines themselves.
AI research is basically just “the history of computer science”. Alan Turing’s Imitation Game being an apt example.
I don’t think AI research in a vacuum is as deeply unethical as you suggest. It’s about current societal context- people won’t like being worse at things; resources will be hoarded rather than distributed.
Someone who has been working in a small team for 4 years in a startup has to be "good enough". Which is far better than the average candidate who can't keep a position for more than a year and needs constant help from the manager in order to accomplish anything.
Maybe my standards are low, but unfortunately, I have seen so many of these cases.
OP didn’t state where they are from, but there are plenty of places where it is extremely hard to fire, even if an employee is consistently underperforming.
Not saying that this is the case in this circumstance (I don’t know OP,) but the “you must be good because you lasted 4 years” heuristic doesn’t work that well outside of the US, or similar markets with at-will employment.
if they were sole dev in a startup for four years and couldn't ship software the startup probably wouldn't have lasted the last four years... Or they very quickly wouldn't be the sole full stack dev any more and relegated to some shit job
Even in France which lots of people call "socialist", the company can fire you at any time and has to pay only about 3/6 months of salary for "wrongful termination". That's low enough to not keep constantly underperforming people.
They could, but usually you don't want this to happen as an employee. Alternatively the court can force the employer to pay a severance if they regard the working conditions as untenable. An obvious example would be bullying at the workplace. But all of this is only applicable in the case of an unlawful termination.
Mostly if they want to get rid of you they offer you a severance.
It is also much more complicated than I can explain in a single post. For example, you can be fired for working "slowly", but you can't be fired if you are doing your best - even if all your colleagues are faster workers. It mainly depends on if you are doing your best.
E.g. your colleagues are able to dish out 100 pizzas in a typical evening but you only manage to make 50, and your boss wants to fire you. You don't agree and sue him. The court now has to decide if you perform so badly because of something that is "inherent" - which is called a "personenbedingte Kündigung" or in English dismissal on grounds of personal capability, or if it is based on your conduct. A dismissal on grounds of personal capability is usually deemed unlawful, as long as you give your best, if you consistently only manage to make 50 pizzas it seems like it, right? However if you willfully (!) perform badly the dismissal is usually deemed lawful. But, if you e.g. suffer from rheumatism and you can't perform the way you used to but you want to perform better, you just can't anymore it gets a bit complicated: the employer has to make a prognosis on how and if you are able to someday perform better again or if you could do another job. So, usually it is cheaper to offer someone a severance in that case.
Only if the courts decide that it was unlawful, but companies have enough experience and lawyers who make sure they have enough dirt on you to justify them firing you. It's what my German ex-boss told us and I've had seen many colleagues get fired without any repercussions for the company. Plus, if you end up sueing your former employer, and the word gets out, no other employer will touch you.
Also, for your mental health, you wouldn't want to go back and work at the company who just fired you. That's like getting back together with an ex you just got out of toxic relationship.
Big companies have lawyers up the wazoo, but startups (esp. with a single dev like OP) struggle with funds in many cases, so often hire lawyers to the minimal extent possible.
I think this is a fair assessment, at least competent, perhaps not a one in a thousand superstar.
What someone in this range earns and their working conditions are going to be highly dependent on what they ask for and their self-esteem. Someone can probably lure them on the cheap or they could sneak into $200k job. I think a lot of the comments here about self-care and advocating for themselves are very helpful.
Interesting. Have you considered/tried to use fdio/user space networking? In my experience, it greatly improves throughout (simple ip forwarding can be more than 10mpps per cortex a53 on some platforms). Fdio also has a so that you can preload in order to use its ip stack in your app (instead of Linux's).
The issue is that there is a cat and mouse game between an handful HP "alternative cartridges" manufacturers and HP. HP is actively trying to detect and block non-HP cartridges while the manufacturers find a way to bypass it.
What probably has happened here is that HP had pushed a SW upgrade that detects non-HP cartridges a bit better. The manufacturers probably already found a way to bypass it and new cartridges will work on this firmware.