Some years ago (around 2000) I ordered the HPUX development system software.

It arrived in a large box, around 24x18x8 inches.

Inside this box was a smaller box, perhaps 12x10x2, and inside this was an envelope.

Inside the envelope was a single sheet of A4 containing the license key, and an smaller sheet with instructions on how to download the software.

I now wish I'd a photo, 'cos it now seems hard to believe that it really happened.

PS. the download instructions were wrong.

Oi Scamps, get on yahoo. I need to talk to you about stu

Health & Safety, don't you know.

Probably find that the courier operates a strict "no manual handling" policy requiring the use of fork lift truck devices all round.

It probably costs more for the pallet and packaging than for the contents on this one.

But hey, that's progress for you!

The Hi-Viz one everyone has to wear at work these days.

I hope someone from HP has been reading these. Not exacly green is it?

Health & safety and all that.

...and how can El Reg make sure that enthusiastic participants in the "packaging armageddon" contest won't go overboard and do a "Curveball" on it.

(aka. as a "Rafid Ahmed Alwan")

HP's inkjet cartridges suffer some serious packaging overload. A matchbox sized cartridge in a foil pack, in a plastic tray, in a box along with an instruction booklet in about 50 languages (of which the English instructions take up single page) and advertising crap, in a cardboard box inside a cellophane wrapper.

Is there one that says "this box deliberately left empty"?

I have a wood burning stove, I think I may get all my kit form HP from now on.

Think yourself lucky! A former client of mine used to keep the whole things in their "software library". It really was "I'm too chicken to throw that out" gone mad.

Dell once sent me a single stick of RDRAM in a box big enough for 24x330ml bottles of beer.

And Compaq sent me the serial number sticker for the Integrated Lights Out functionality in the same type of box they used to ship SCSI drives in their hot-swap caddies.

I suppose it's a case of "you use what's available". Certainly I did when I recycled all the boxes for packaging for my eBay sales.

"The Hi-Viz one everyone has to wear at work these days."

I want to know what you wear if you work in a factory making Hi-Viz jackets.

Stu is ginger. And I need to talk to Scamps about him.

Make sure that the pallets are untreated wood.

Maybe you can specify that on your order?

...but I once received a cheque (that's check to our American chums) from BP Exploration for the vast sum of £1

It was one of those corporate cheques (colonials see above) so it had boxes for hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands, thousands, hundreds, tens and pounds with all the boxes XXX'd out except the very last one

The admin costs and postage must have been at least double the value of the cheque itself, I wish I had kept it but I was a skint student at the time so suspect I may have paid it into my bank

HP don't generally distribute their own products, they have third party distributors do it for them. From this pic it looks like this was done by Kuehne + Nagel who are a logistics and distribution specialist probably working on behalf of a distributor or reseller?

My girlfriend works in a well known computer manufacturer's (who may have recently shipped US keyboards to the UK) configuration department which is located inside a hardware company's warehouse (for ease of purchasing etc). Apparently this kind of packaging nonsense is fairly commonplace for the aforementioned computer manufacturer, but after configuration is done away with and you get the final model in a normal box (cos all the bits are already inside the case obviously). However, it is not uncommon to have whole pallets given over to only a few boards or a single hard drive.

If you bothered to look at the picture before foaming at the mouth, you would see the package has been wrapped by Kuehne & Nagel (a shipping company) not HP. And if it is a PC mouse, then it will have come from a distributor or reseller from stock, not direct from HP (this is also obvious as the shipping label is not an HP label). In short, nothing to do with HP.

And to the idiots above still going on about licence certificates in boxes, you really need to get someone qualified to do your ordering so they can get you electronic licences instead. Again, nothing to do with HP - if you are stupid enough to order bits of paper you will get bits of paper.

I have to say that I fully support this packaging policy. All that is required now is that they move their DC (distribution centre) to Birmingham and buy lots of forklifts from me.

/dons company branded hi-vis

When I worked at a PC repair company we got a PC in for repair where the customer had simply written the RMA number on the top of the case and slapped an Amtrak label on the side. It arrived in perfect condition, as Amtrak took extra care due to the lack of packaging.

On the same wagon was a laptop in tiny pieces, it was well packed with loads of polystyrene peanuts. inner & out boxes & everything. But somewhere along the line clearly someone had drop kicked it across the depot & smashed it.

Moral of the story, save the environment by not using any packaging and the goods will arrive in perfect condition... or maybe not

"Some years ago (around 2000) I ordered the HPUX development system software."

Yes I expect the software did come in a pretty big box back in around the year 8 a.d?

Wooooooohh!!!! I'm gonna tell everyone.

Matt wants to kiss HP and everything. I saw them holding hands last week!

Now back to the crazy packaging stories....

As an HP employee I have escalated this to our environmental and packaging teams. They assure me they are on the case. May not be a quick fix but it will be fixed.

You are correct its a reseller again, as we are a buyer of IT products they don't ship it direct this way unless the order is big enough or is a heavy hp printer. I agree they use to much packaging for certain cheap items such as mice but then again we have never had a beaten up machine received

I once bought a SD Card - you know, it has the size of a postage stamp, just a little thicker - and it was inside an A4-size (*) plastic package. I wonder how large would be the box to ship a Land Rover, or any car for that matter.

(*) A4 - a sheet of paper this size measures 210mm x 297mm.

My coat is the one with the camping backpack attached, just to carry my MP3 player...

Even your momma?

Wtf is going on with that black bit of bin-liner hanging on by a tiny thread?!? If it was shrink-wrapped at the depot that would have fell off many ages ago! Ergo, it was blasted, after blackbag wrappage with Tracy's hair dryer in-situ.

I rest my case.

El Reg should own-up now! I have my suspicions...

I would like to point out that much of the overpackaging of consumer products is to deter or otherwise reduce shoplifiting, 'cause if the package is big, it's harder to fit in your pocket

As for the one pound cheque, I worked at one company which had been around for a while manufacturing clothing. It had a "seconds" shop which was open to the public run by a retiree. His pension had been increased the month previous so he received a cheque for the difference which had not made it onto his month pension cheque. He took it to the President of the company (whom he had known since the president was a baby) and suggested that it had not been necessary to send him a cheque for 1 cent.

Okay, since it's so easy to fake a packaging pic, how about an award for the best Playmobil reconstruction of an excessive packaging encounter?

I chose the icon closest to a Playmobil figure.

never ordered memory from across the pond for some cisco devices?

now that is ridiculous!

PH knows all the best things come in large packages.

http://xkcd.com/331/

That is all.

did the package or did the package did arrive at its destination unscathed ?

who's to say it needed less since we'll never know.

good job HP and the distributor, please please continue to pack things as you see fit and not as the environMENTALISTS would like.