Cynical laughter from Hogwarts?

Story: Save as WWF? No thanksTotal Replies: 8
Author Content
Ridcully

Dec 05, 2010
1:45 AM EDT
After the "Harry Potter" thread I started earlier, words fail me:

http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/145563/index.html#threa...

Looks like all those who commented are spot on as well.
tuxchick

Dec 05, 2010
4:59 PM EDT
A no-print format seems a bit silly anyway. Some people are thoughtless and wasteful, and even if this hadn't already been cracked it wouldn't work. Nike and Tektronix both had high-end color printers and plotters, and the print trays were always full of expensive abandoned print jobs. Resumes, yard sale ads, kid photos, you name it, sent to the printer and then abandoned. It drove managers nuts, and they tried everything-- big signs reminding people to not waste, and restricting permissions. But anyone who got cut off could easily find someone else to do it for them. So much energy devoted to foiling sensible procedures...
Ridcully

Dec 05, 2010
5:27 PM EDT
Agree absolutely "tuxchick"........I have just had information from a friend of mine who read the first Beez article and the comments. He tried to conserve paper at a school by implementing a step in the printing process which forced the children to check if what they had asked to be printed was the correct item and the correct number of copies. As he remarked, it also tried to prevent Word from having its normal network hysteria and then print a couple of hundred copies instead of one. He indicated that it has at least partially succeeded in cutting down paper usage.

However, the "mindless fools" amongst them soon worked out how to bypass the process so that they could continue to print numerous copies of pages that just had endless LOL's on them or similar garbage because *they* thought it was clever. He reckoned that the problem is a combination of education, trained habits and intelligence. It's something like DRM if you think about it: the vast majority of users don't wish to do the wrong thing and try to comply; there is however, a minority that will not. And in each case, it is quickly demonstrated that "the procedures put in place to force compliance" can be broken at will.

As I said earlier, I support the concept that the WWF had in wishing to cut down on paper usage ~ but in my opinion, WWF went about it in completely the wrong way.
bigg

Dec 05, 2010
7:05 PM EDT
Maybe this is related, maybe not, but let me post it anyway. I'm a subscriber to Fortune. They send so much paper each issue, and I usually read through it, but I was thinking to check if they have a version for an ereader. Turns out that you can get a version for the iPad, if you pay $5 per issue, even if you're a subscriber. It's a business magazine, yet they have a strange understanding of the economics. Maybe they haven't yet figured out how to load it up with advertisements in the electronic version.
JaseP

Dec 06, 2010
10:52 AM EDT
So, they just put a new extension (*.WWF) on a no-print PDF & that's supposed to do the trick? People will just crack it with a ghostscript based reader, print it & be done with it. ... just 'cause they can...

A better way to save trees is to support things like hemp paper, not available (easily that is) in the USA. Another is for any company (like the one I work for) to create economic incentive for going paperless to its customers, in the form of discounts & waived fees for going to paperless billing. Another is to support more tablet based computing (for reading Documents & taking notes).

The WWF should publish statistics on the cost of tablet based computing against the cost of old-fashioned note taking (both economic & ecological). If someone sees a $$$ advantage in going green, they'll be more receptive.
bigg

Dec 06, 2010
10:54 AM EDT
As this organization is apparently concerned about the environment, they should definitely like the low power use of tablet computers.
azerthoth

Dec 06, 2010
11:37 AM EDT
Hmm, anyone have the metrics for the percentage of paper that comes from non sustainable unrecycled sources?

way to focus on sound bites instead of facts :/
JaseP

Dec 06, 2010
12:45 PM EDT
The wiki on paper recycling has some;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_recycling

azerthoth

Dec 07, 2010
2:48 PM EDT
erm, in regards to my question?

In honesty it was a rhetorical question, I know the answer to it already. Knowing this crowd though, on non technical issues some will argue one way and some the other unless they are made to do their homework and come up with the facts for themselves.

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