Ugh

Today's HP Touchpad fire sale, and the whole "out of the consumer biz" HP move put me in a sour mood.  The sale because it was a huge tease.  Us mere mortals know that such discounts are out of our reach, yet we cling on to this miniscule hope that maybe we'll luck out.  It never actually happens.  The stores were simply not on the same page, and some of them might have been playing games.  I heard of at least two people go to Walmart and be told that the tablets weren't being sold for the $99 sale price.  Three hours later, when they called back, the store was sold out.  Playing favorites?  Anything is possible with this shit.

As for the business move, it just shows you f-ed up the business world is.  HP's computers were profitable, but not profitable enough.  So now they're probably going to be gone.  We all know the deal - businesses aren't charity cases, they have to make profits.  But the amount of profit desired, and the steps shareholders are willing to take to get them, are getting absurd.  When you have people who are willing to burn something to the ground in order to line their pockets, maybe this whole "publicly owned company" thing is a bad idea.  Not that it is a bad idea in general, just when you have a society that can't be trusted to handle such decisions.  Libertarians often think that the free market will fix anything, but I think a lot of the business decisions you see today show that companies will leave money on the table if it means going after a bigger table with a bigger pile.  If that means that you and I can't find a decent PC (or an operational Postal Service), "tough noogies" is the answer we get.

Gahhh, I need a drink.  And a cheap Touchpad.