topic Re: Why owning nothing is so expensive. (Youtube) in SmorgasBoard

Why owning nothing is so expensive. (Youtube)

AndrewF — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 02:20:59 GMT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AKn-zJMIwY

I came across this great Youtube video that goes over "subscriptions". I don't subscribe to anything.

I'm tired of explaining to people how they're being ripped off and eaten alive by a cascade of things that they're mostly paying for and not using.

My local library, which I am already paying taxes for, see it as a line item, has several thousand DVDs and Blu Ray discs and hundreds of magazine and newspaper subscriptions, and I can use any other library in the fourth richest county of America with over a million people in it without leaving my apartment because they'll mail it to each other and send someone to give it to me.

I thought it was pretty funny that the video starts out with HP printers. You have to subscribe to the number of pages you want to print each month and there's a per-page fine, apparently, for exceeding those pages, regardless of how much ink is in a cartridge, and the EULA actually says you never own the printer itself.

I send print jobs either to the library or to FedEx. With FedEx, be sure to play around with it to go to Black and White, which is cheaper, and then the option to use standard paper, also cheaper, comes up. Then you can use a FedEx Office account number, even if you're just some guy, to shave off another 10%. Way cheaper than an HP printer.

Subscriptions are designed to make the ultimate cost of something unknowable, and many people put them on credit cards they're having trouble paying. This creates some sort of unholy alliance where you not only paid for something you don't actually have, but the bank might even charge interest on it.

I especially despise software subscriptions. Why should I do it? I grab software that doesn't cost anything, like LibreOffice, and my package manager makes sure I always have the latest improvements.

Re: Why owning nothing is so expensive. (Youtube)

FicoMike0 — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 02:40:53 GMT

you're right about the library. Got both print and audio books. You can access them online with the libby app. I've found I can get a digital library cards from many libraries, increasing selection and reducing any wait. Among the best are the la library, Miami- dade, and Harris cty (houston). I even got a card from Newcastle nsw in oz, but they never have anything I want.

I also got an account at an irish library which uses the borrowbox app. They had a Brendan O'Carroll book I was looking for.

You can get movies from the hoopla app, if you have a card from a library that supports it. I use Multnomah County for that.

Re: Why owning nothing is so expensive. (Youtube)

crystal626 — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 02:53:23 GMT

I make it a point not to have extra subscriptions. It's very easy to get in over your head with them.

I also try to find my subscriptions on r/accountsharing. Saves me a bunch of money on them. In fact the three that I have from there right now combined plus my Amazon I pay for are less than just paying for the Apple One Premier myself.

We bought an Epson EcoTank ET-2800 printer in November of 2023. We are about to buy our first black ink refill as it's down to 1/4 but the color is still at 3/4ths. As long as you make sure to print a test page every couple weeks to keep the ink from clogging, it's a great investment as the ink lasts ages. I had an offer from US Bank that got us $47 off so it was only about $150 and it's got a copier and scanner function too, which has come in handy. I have always hated printers but this one has been less hassle than any other I've had before.

I refuse to get on board with this subscribe to everything nonsense.

Also, HP sucks.

Re: Why owning nothing is so expensive. (Youtube)

AndrewF — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 03:05:18 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:
I make it a point not to have extra subscriptions. It's very easy to get in over your head with them.

I also try to find my subscriptions on r/accountsharing. Saves me a bunch of money on them. In fact the three that I have from there right now combined plus my Amazon I pay for are less than just paying for the Apple One Premier myself.

We bought an Epson EcoTank ET-2800 printer in November of 2023. We are about to buy our first black ink refill as it's down to 1/4 but the color is still at 3/4ths. As long as you make sure to print a test page every couple weeks to keep the ink from clogging, it's a great investment as the ink lasts ages. I had an offer from US Bank that got us $47 off so it was only about $150 and it's got a copier and scanner function too, which has come in handy. I have always hated printers but this one has been less hassle than any other I've had before.

I refuse to get on board with this subscribe to everything nonsense.

Also, HP sucks.

HP used to be pretty awesome. I emailed their technical support in the early 2000s. I had a PC I bought at Walmart in 1998 that I was expanding on since the PC repair shop was getting rid of obsolete components that were still better than what I had.

I had a K6/2 300 processor in there, and the PC shop sold me a K6/2 550 for $5. They sold me some RAM modules very cheaply. I got an upgraded Voodoo graphics card that they didn't even want anymore. The hard disk went from 4 GB to 20 GB to 40 GB.

It started life with Windows 98 and ended up running Mandrake Linux.

I have a thing about my computers. I want to use them for at least 8 or 10 years after I buy them. I don't like buying new things all the time, especially cellular phones because they've all made phone calls for me and they all do texting well enough.

I bought one laptop in 2004 and custom made a Linux OS for it that was stripped down to the bolts. Booted and ran using 37 MB of RAM out of 1 GB (an upgrade from 512 MB). I was still using it in 2016 and one day it just didn't power on. I ran X11 and OpenBox, so it did have a GUI. I used a collection of small applications. To free up memory, a lot of them ran in a virtual terminal tab, like my chat programs and to play MP3s, since the GUI applications often used at least 20-30 MB of RAM and the text ones used 1-2.

I used SeaMonkey to browse the Web and mainly it was because most browsers were using too many processes and there's no win, when the processor you have is one core no hyperthreading. Just wastes memory. Also, with the main application loaded, I could use email, and IRC, at little extra cost.

Sometimes I had to shut that down to load my office suite. I preferred Abiword and Gnumeric when I could get away with it.

Needless to say, when you get 12 years out of a computer, you get 4 times the value as replacing one every 3 years.

Re: Why owning nothing is so expensive. (Youtube)

crystal626 — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 19:59:32 GMT

@AndrewF wrote:
@crystal626 wrote:
I make it a point not to have extra subscriptions. It's very easy to get in over your head with them.

I also try to find my subscriptions on r/accountsharing. Saves me a bunch of money on them. In fact the three that I have from there right now combined plus my Amazon I pay for are less than just paying for the Apple One Premier myself.

We bought an Epson EcoTank ET-2800 printer in November of 2023. We are about to buy our first black ink refill as it's down to 1/4 but the color is still at 3/4ths. As long as you make sure to print a test page every couple weeks to keep the ink from clogging, it's a great investment as the ink lasts ages. I had an offer from US Bank that got us $47 off so it was only about $150 and it's got a copier and scanner function too, which has come in handy. I have always hated printers but this one has been less hassle than any other I've had before.

I refuse to get on board with this subscribe to everything nonsense.

Also, HP sucks.
HP used to be pretty awesome. I emailed their technical support in the early 2000s. I had a PC I bought at Walmart in 1998 that I was expanding on since the PC repair shop was getting rid of obsolete components that were still better than what I had.

I had a K6/2 300 processor in there, and the PC shop sold me a K6/2 550 for $5. They sold me some RAM modules very cheaply. I got an upgraded Voodoo graphics card that they didn't even want anymore. The hard disk went from 4 GB to 20 GB to 40 GB.

It started life with Windows 98 and ended up running Mandrake Linux.

I have a thing about my computers. I want to use them for at least 8 or 10 years after I buy them. I don't like buying new things all the time, especially cellular phones because they've all made phone calls for me and they all do texting well enough.

I bought one laptop in 2004 and custom made a Linux OS for it that was stripped down to the bolts. Booted and ran using 37 MB of RAM out of 1 GB (an upgrade from 512 MB). I was still using it in 2016 and one day it just didn't power on. I ran X11 and OpenBox, so it did have a GUI. I used a collection of small applications. To free up memory, a lot of them ran in a virtual terminal tab, like my chat programs and to play MP3s, since the GUI applications often used at least 20-30 MB of RAM and the text ones used 1-2.

I used SeaMonkey to browse the Web and mainly it was because most browsers were using too many processes and there's no win, when the processor you have is one core no hyperthreading. Just wastes memory. Also, with the main application loaded, I could use email, and IRC, at little extra cost.

Sometimes I had to shut that down to load my office suite. I preferred Abiword and Gnumeric when I could get away with it.

Needless to say, when you get 12 years out of a computer, you get 4 times the value as replacing one every 3 years.

Yeah we try to keep our tech around for as long as possible too. We just upgraded computers and phones last year so we will be good for awhile.

Re: Why owning nothing is so expensive. (Youtube)

Thomas_Thumb — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:06:28 GMT

I've had no issues with my b&w HP LaserJet 1200 series printer. Been using it since 2004. Just not wifi capable.

My Dell Alienware 13" laptop from 2014 with 512 gb SSD and 16 GB DDR3L ram is still going strong. It has a 5th gen Intel core i7 processor and came with Windows 7 pro. Updated to Windows 10 pro 7 years ago but, hardware (processor) won't support Windows 11.

Currently it is used as my alternate. It may be retired next year. Purchased its replacement in 2021 (Dell Precision laptop 15.7" screen) that runs Windows 11 and is now my primary.

I was using a 2007 Toshiba with 14" screen prior to the Alienware laptop. It had 4 GB ram and ran on Windows Vista. That computer was retired in 2019.

My experience is laptops can have 12 years of usefulness but not their batteries. Had to source replacement batteries for both the Toshiba and Alienware models after 7-8 years.

Re: Why owning nothing is so expensive. (Youtube)

AndrewF — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 23:31:25 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
I've had no issues with my b&w HP LaserJet 1200 series printer. Been using it since 2004. Just not wifi capable.

My Dell Alienware 13" laptop from 2014 with 512 gb SSD and 16 gb DDR3L ram is still going strong. It has a 5th gen Intel core i7 processor and came with Windows 7 pro. Updated to Windows 10 pro 7 years ago but, hardware (processor) won't support Windows 11.

You can forcibly override all of Windows 11s checks for TPM 2.0 and other compatibility stuff.

Generally speaking if it ran Windows 10 it'll probably still run Windows 11 but it's not a guarantee.

Better to opt-in for the additional year of EOL security updates for Windows 10 and back up data preparing to migrate to Linux or something, at least that's what I would do.

Re: Why owning nothing is so expensive. (Youtube)

AndrewF — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 05:29:39 GMT

Microsoft announced that Windows Media DRM "Janus" is being removed from a future release of Windows.

You might remember Janus DRM from Walmart Music, "URGE", or various other "music stores" in the 2000s.

It worked in a manner broadly similar to Apple's "FairPlay" DRM.

I used to call it FoulPlay, and well, for Janus I just dropped the J. Too easy. Or for the Microsoft marketing name "PlayReady", I called it FAILReady.

Most of the stores where these files were "sold" shut down years ago and there's no way to deauthorize the computer they were last authorized on and move the license to a new computer.

So it's unlikely that there's any left that actually still works.

People in 2005 be like:

You mean I have to pay for something then you tell me how I can use it, and then you can take it away from me? No thanks!

People in 2026 be like:

Oh, you call that streaming now? I have to sign up to 12 things and pay a monthly price that goes up every year? COOL! Oh, American Express will give me half off Disney's version! You know, that lowers the "effective annual fee" to....

All the Golden Age of Disney (roughly the 1940s through about the mid 2000s, it was a good run), is all on video tape or disc. Why rent it every month? These discs come in to Goodwill and they sell them for a couple of dollars because everyone wants to pay Disney Plus $20 a month so it can spy on you and sell your "consumer data" to Walmart. Which is weird.

True, they have a $12.99 /mo tier with ads. The purpose is to mostly drive you nuts so you'll upgrade to the $20 /mo plan, but they have plans that go up to $45 /mo. They try to stick you with some bundle that includes a bunch of crap.

The media companies have re-created the Hell of your dad opening up the cable bill and cursing and saying "Why do I pay this, we're never watching most of it!"