I used to be a tech enthusiast. I am becoming a tech dethusiast. I don’t want any more tech to buy. I don’t want smart appliances. I don’t want smart pants. I don’t want smart dumbbells.
I just want things that I can buy and that work for 20 years.
I just want things that I can buy and that work for 20 years.
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then, they charge a subscription to use the services they offer.
seems clear that ipod shuffle would never survive now if it can’t stream Apple Music
His name was Earnest Elmo Calkins and he essentially invented the concept of "planned obsolesence" when it became clear that industry's ability to make goods to buy was outpacing the public's need for them.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/
Just give me something electric that drives, preferably with real buttons. Then I’m out.
Thats right, right above the middle of the door, so every time you open the oven to check your food it gets heated and steamed.... I'm giving the thing 3 years of life max.
Burners are great. One oven, not giant, but we've cooked a Thanksgiving turkey in it. Other oven is a space heater, which keeps the pipes from freezing (no HVAC, old house).
It's perfect & beautiful.
Profit!
-Tech Bros High Five
And then they shut the program down >
>
(Still came out ahead on those shoes)
I'm looking for the Sony MDR 7506 headphones of any category and this has served me well
"Are you wearing?"
It was not good.
i just did a full body shiver
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108598/
When I was a kid, I was dreaming of Cyberpunk prothesis to see better, run longer and faster... then I became a programmer and realized that all software is crap and these would be full of DRM and trackers, and would fail or be hacked after just a few years.
Now I just see all the garbage most tech corps sell, and the problems they create.
And now I'm just broke and tired.
It cost <$25 and 45 minutes but this is a simple design flaw. Companies just aren’t interested in making quality appliances.
what’s interesting is I have the same brand for my other appliances and they’ve been great. samsung apparently just makes awful refidgerators
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/10/25/samsung-refrigerator-investigation-complaints-continue/70982873007/
One GE, one LG, one Samsung, and one Bosch. I think they all used the same trash panels.
I liked the layout of the Bosch best, but I went with the cheaper Whirlpool this time since I know whichever brand I buy will need a new control panel in 2 years.
And I bought a speed queen washer - i asked the salesman which one would outlive me and thats what he pointed to
I also have a 20 yr old GE Profile clothes washer, and an elderly KitchenAid fridge in the garage, all working. Old can be gold.
design this bad has to be on purpose, right?
I've no idea what you mean. But hey isn't it neat how these machines can still function basically perfectly after a hundred years????
if you bought any sonos speakers in 2015 there's almost zero chance you're still using them 'cause they started decommissioning that shit in, like, 2018
(also, i think we can all agree the all in one with 8 track was a better product than anything sonos has ever made)
Yes, please.
now tech seems to... be making existing tech worse? who needs all those screens in cars and smartfridges
This is the way to degrowth--to simply stop buying and letting them force us into their crapified new products and demand the new world versions of solar and heat pumps are not over-teched.
I really don’t want an essential tool or appliance that needs a software update to function properly
This was nearly impossible to find a decade ago, and I don't think things have improved much since then.
Respect
Planned obsolescence is capitalist theft.
only reason i even have any desire to upgrade our prius again really, with how large the other vehicles are and how bad drivers have gotten since 2020
When I was a kid and young man in the '70s, a car with 100K miles on it was likely junk. Now cars last two and three times that long.
But the mechanical improvements were here before the infotainment package crap.
have you seen the cybertruck. :p
Rubber compounds have improved vastly in the past couple of decades. It used to be that suspension parts would wear out pretty quickly.
Some cars managed to last. But the quality today is generally much higher.
Was that a '78 Chrysler Cordova? I'm amazed that any Chrysler product from that era lasted that long. Those were very dark days for Detroit iron.
Things did rather turn around after Iacocca’s arrival.
There have been some great improvements in safety and reliability, but I do not need more touchscreens in my vehicle.
It sums it up nicely.
The only touch control is for the stereo, which also doubles as the reversing camera screen.
Everything else is physical, including a glorious HVAC pod with toggle and organ-key style controls.
It needed new tires recently and I've put a bunch of dents in it. No mechanical trouble ever.
Our 2009 Lexus GX 470 is at 110k miles and I will drive it anywhere - literally. It's a 4x4 mini tank.
Only trouble was the battery really likes a weekly 20 minute drive instead of daily short ones.
My 2018 Subaru has a touchscreen and phone connectivity but it also has mechanical knobs and levers and works just fine without the screen
I hate planned obsolescence. I hate most smart appliances. I hate how you can’t fix anything anymore. but new cars, I like.
But I don't WANT my car to talk to my phone, and I take it as a personal offense that newer cars literally spy on you.
Smarty pants = ✔️
Pants with Smarties in the pockets = ✔️✔️✔️
Unauthorized Bread by Cory Doctorow
Its incredibly wasteful for that part to be disposable.
It all feels like it comes back to one saying;
Everything in moderation.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smalt-the-world-s-first-interactive-centerpiece#/
Two, there's something called Stay Tape by Dritz, they sell at Jo-Ann and Walmart, that you can use in particularly annoying areas to stiffen it. It's like a roll of interfacing ribbon.
Our dishwasher died a little while ago (a lower end Bosch that lasted 14 years).
I searched to find a discontinued model of Bosch that did NOT have “Smart Home”. All new Bosch models have this annoying unnecessary tech.
I want simple, well made & reliable. I don’t need an app!
They should be well made.
We need to find a way to get the production of tech in the control of the people, who know what we want and need, and not in the control of out-of-touch rich people and giant corporations
It’s cathartic as hell *and* you can keep the bent metal roller to shake at any future printers so they fall in line
Why doesn't Big Pharma do this w medication bottles? They need them to exist so they should accept our return waste.
Sorry I'm going off on your thread.
FM radio and CD's made me happy. Mechanical gauges, mechanical engine, manual keys - I hate that microchips run my car. I know how to back up and check my blind spot. Ugh. I don't want a computerized car!
When are mechanical cars coming back?
Tech enthusiasts live in "smart" houses that are basically a million unsecured Linux SOCs gradually being added to botnets.
Tech professionals only buy dumb devices, and keep a nailbat by the printer in case it ever makes a stray noise.
Along with that, the insufficient recycling wastes precious, expensive resources.
It's worked perfectly ever since and the interface has never changed.
The clock will still be good though.
My TV came with an unwanted spoken command option, and it keeps popping up reminders to use it, like it's offended that I don't. But it's still listening & I can't find how to shut that down.