Vanisle_BC
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Complaints about modern "design"

imafan26 wrote:
Wed Oct 07, 2020 1:20 am
I got my oven fixed today. A fuse had broken. A part that costs less than $10 cost almost $300 to fix. I hate the electronic appliances.
Yes. when I became old enough to be interested in cars, a new fuel pump cost about $20 and I could replace it myself in about 15 minutes. Now the fuel pump is inside the gas tank (WHY?) which has to be dropped & emptied to replace it. The pump will cost from 500 to 1000 or more, and the total bill for replacing it will be at least $1000; more likely $1500 and up ... and up... and up. SO: modern in-the-tank pumps must be made more reliable and long-living, right? No they're not. If anything they're (deliberately?) less so. GRRRRR!!

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TomatoNut95
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As prices on stuff increases, the quality decreases. Companies do it to 'save money' and possibly to make the product wear out quicker so you'll have to keep spending money on a new one. I've had to buy so many pairs of ear buds, it's sickening. My fairly new mattress already needs replacing because the inner springs are already poking into my body and the mattress creaks noisily when I get off or get on it. I can't find a decent CD player due to people complaining about it's inferior quality. It's nice to know that some people still listen to CDs instead of stupid downloads and mp3 players. You CANNOT find cassette tapes and recorders anymore unless you pay a fortune. The CD player I'm using now is a piece of junk, it sounds like an aquarium pump running and it sucks battery life worse than gasoline.
My new DVD player is a piece of junk, it sounds strange as well. My old DVD player was a Blu-Ray and it worked for years before start to give out. I had another player I was using that was quite ancient, but it worked beautifully until recently it mysteriously stopped the DVD and the disc tray opened on its own.

Probably the oldest appliance I have is the microwave. It's ooolllddddd for an electronic, but it still works. My food usually comes out unevenly heated, but it still works.

CANT PEOPLE LEAVE STUFF ALONE, QUIT MAKING STUFF CHEAP AND STUPID?? Or at least make it high quality enough to last you years!! And stop outdating stuff by the next day!

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I have a Farberware countertop convection oven, from 1977, that is not really electronic - it's got a fan, an electric heating element and thermostat, of course, but not all those other high tech things, that are the things that die in new appliances. I also have a range I bought in 1983, that will outlive me, and the next owner of the house! That's because it is a commercial range, built for constant abuse, and as much as I cook, I have probably not done the equivalent of cooking on it in all that time, that would be done in a good restaurant in a year. And nothing electric in it, except one of the ovens is a convection oven (that countertop got me hooked on convection, before it was found in almost every new home oven). In that same time, I'm on my 3rd fridge, and second washer, dryer, and dishwasher in this same time, with a number of repairs, though I will say all of those have not been overly high tech electronic models, like just about everything I see now.

I have one of those "fuel pumps in the gas tank" cars, that I needed done a couple of years ago. I never understood the logic in that, except to make it impossible for the home auto mechanic to repair it.

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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Wed Oct 07, 2020 10:51 am
CANT PEOPLE LEAVE STUFF ALONE, QUIT MAKING STUFF CHEAP AND STUPID?? Or at least make it high quality enough to last you years!! And stop outdating stuff by the next day!
T-nut, I empathize but we probably have ourselves to blame. 'Ourselves' meaning the mass of us who have not only succumbed to the lure of low priced but shiny, high-convenience, up-to-the-minute shoddy goods, but demanded them; to the point where there are often, nowadays, no affordable alternatives. I hate that situation but I have to acknowledge my part in bringing it about.

But I'm not clear on the extent to which 'low cost' necessarily results in poor design. I think that's more a matter of un-think, of plain carelessness & intellectual laziness.

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Yep. Just because an item is low priced, doesn't mean it's good. But sometime I don't think it depends on brands anymore, ALL stuff is getting cheap and cheaper made, yet the price on some brands just go up.

Due to my high love of music, I've worn out two CD players over time. My first one lasted many years, and was a heavy quality one. My second one was lighter weight and cheaper made. Both players died the same death: first the tape deck wore out, and then CD tray wore out, leaving only the radio.
But people are fussing about the new cheap junky players due it not lasting long or it sounding bad.

As for CD players all I have left are two portables. One is 13 years old and still works. However, it started having an issue with volume control knob so I hunted in Walmart for a new regular plug in player but all they had were cheap portables and oddly colored weird stuff. Boomboxes I think they were called. But I bought the portable which is Walmart brand (ONN) and it's a piece of junk. When you push a button on it, makes it a loud clacking noise. And you HAVE to use ear buds on a portable, and ear buds are another gripe.
But the player sounds like an aquarium pump, the battery indicater is wrong and I'd like to flush it down the toilet.

Also, my razor. I had one that was old and did the job good! But an accident occurred and it fell off the bathroom counter and broke. The one I got to replace it was junky, painful and didn't do a good job. I have another razor now that is smaller and battery operated. It does good, but most of the time I have to beat it to get it to come on.

I just know that most items, electronics especially, are cheap made and with each one you get you just don't know how long it will last you. I could buy a used 5 dollar CD player at a rummage sale and it last me for years. I could pay 1,000 dollars for a brand new, popular brand one and it last a month. You just can never be sure.

Kinda like my phone. My old one lasted two or three years. This new one could last only one more year, or go on to live 5 years. Doesn't matter the brand really, one thing could be good and last a good long time, and another item coukd be a lemon and just keep falling apart.

I do know that stuff used to be better made, heavier duty and longer lasting. AND PROBABLY MADE HERE IN THE US AND NOT IN CHINA...

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It's interesting. The design of products has improved in many ways and not in others. I'm personally a bit of a Luddite. When I bought my first car with electronic fuel injection I feared it would give me a lot of expensive trouble, but it never did. In fact I won bets with it: So long as the battery had enough guts I could start it at 40 below, on the key, without even getting into the car. I still have EFI but my car is as all-manual (by choice) as I could find; stick shift with wind-up window handles etc etc: As someone said "parts left out never break down". I wonder if such a vehicle can still be bought. But I'm stuck with silly, even dangerous features like steering that only works if the engine is running. Duh!

TomatoNut, do you subscribe to the belief that good vinyl recordings sound better than digital? I still have my excellent Japanese Akai turntable from 40 years ago; was even able to find a (Chinese) replacement belt to keep it going. I think I may hear a slightly higher quality on vinyl but it could be just my imagination, or the care with which the recording was made. CDs and the equipment to play them do wear out but so did old-style disks and vacuum tube devices. In my younger days if you dropped a 'record' (they were made of shellac) that was the end of it. In any case I can do without the timeworn pops & clicks of my one-time favorite disks. And as my age increases I'm sure my ear is a lot less discriminating anyway.

Edited to add: The performance of small speakers has improved more than I would ever have thought possible

I have two coffee makers configured so it's near impossible to pour water into them without spilling it all over the counter - why?? Designers should be compelled to make daily use of the devices they dream up. Actually not just designers; the whole company from the CEO down! things would change PDQ.

Ah, that's enough for now but I'll likely be back. Can't resist a good rant! :).
Last edited by Vanisle_BC on Wed Oct 07, 2020 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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And then there is our twenty year old Sony TV that cost us $2000. It was state of the art with so many features we still can't figure them all out. It runs every day for several hours without a problem ever. Lately the thing has begun to growl a little.

For more TV in a little bigger screen (we have a limited space to put it) the best rated will cost us $250. So in twenty years I can go through nine TVs to match the cost of the original. The TV set will last longer than I will I am sure.

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These are cassettes I used to use. They go untouched now. I used them to record and group music off CDs and radio then wear the tape out. I also own a microcassette recorder. As time went on I acquired three digital recorders. The black RCA ones record and playback nice, but in both, every minute or so in playback makes an electric one second skip over. It's annoying sometimes, but I love them. My little Sony recorder has very good clear playback but only holds four recordings. RCA recorders hold 99. Or 100.
Here's my only two CD players. My first Magnavox portable is actually 17 years old, not 13. And if not for the issue with the volume control knob, the poor thing still works. The ONN thing is the new piece of junk. Battery indicater in my 17 year old was accurate, battery indicater in new one is stupid.
I could never gripe enough about how the new player hums like a weary aquarium pump during playback.

Also, has anyone else besides me noticed a cloudy look on some Dvd discs that got old? One of my dvd's had that really cloudy look I cleaned it with the disc cleaner it only smeared the cloudy look and ruined the disc, it wouldn't play.
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Planned obsolescence. The legacy we will leave to future generations are piling up in the landfills. We live in a disposable society. Things are deliberately designed to make it cheaper to throw it away than to repair it. The life expectancy of anything with electronic or digital components averages less than 10 years. They don't build it to make it easy to repair. One of the screws holding the panel down was not accessible without a special tool. The labor charge is the real killer.

I had to throw away my VHS tapes out because they deteriorated over time. The player that played VHS and DVD's cannot play modern DVD's. It could only read a few of my DVD'. I had to throw it out, not because it was broken, but because it was incompatible. I have a $5 garage sale boom box with a broken tape recorder, but I really only need it for the radio and that does still work. My new laptop, only has two hubs and one c-hub. I had to buy a hub USB bar, which I did not know also has to be updated or windows 10 won't talk to it either. I am now on my third hub bar in less than a year. This laptop does not even have a DVD player. I would have to buy it separately and plug it into the hub USB bar. It probably would become obsolete just like my nighthawk router and phone that windows 10 refused to talk to.

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People rely too much on technology. Everything has to work fast, have screens on it, Wi-Fi capability and be stupid. People don't know how to do anything without the internet anymore and do things for themselves. I saw a commercial once where a mother was was folding laundry with her daughter. Mother checked her phone to look and see if her cookies in the oven were done. If that mother couldn't get up to go look at those cookies herself she's a lazy bum. Appliances that work off Wi-Fi and attach to your phone is STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!! Ditto on modern vehicles. I want to drive a vehicle, not a computer.

I went shopping on Amazon last night to hunt for Christmas presents. But I ended up hunting for CD players, most of what they had were portables, stupid looking stuff, expensive 1,000 dollar stuff and players for kids. I finally found a couple that were simple looking and cheap. One was a Magnavox, and Magnavox is supposed to be a good brand! But people were griping about it. I finally found a GPX brand one, I hope it works. It isn't my fault I can't find anything good anymore!
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...do you subscribe to the belief that good vinyl recordings sound better than digital?

It's not a belief. It's a fact. :D

The dynamic range of vinyl records is far wider than the limited range of CDs, which is capped at 20,000 hz.

Digital mp3 music is a joke, it has a high range of only 16,000 hz.

Vinyl can go as high as 70,000 hz and in high end equipment can go as high as 150,000 hz.

I've listened to vinyl music played through a system costing half a million dollars and the feeling that you are in the room with a musician was uncanny, sent chills up my spine.

I used to have a modest high end system and it gave me endless hours of joy. Vinyl on a quality system invites you INTO the music in a way that modern digital MP3 music does not and can not.

I listen to digital music all the time but it's not the same experience because there is so much nuance missing. It's just listening as opposed to experiencing the music.

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webmaster wrote:
Thu Oct 08, 2020 10:11 pm
...do you subscribe to the belief that good vinyl recordings sound better than digital?

It's not a belief. It's a fact. :D .
Haha, I was asking about someone's belief, which may or may not accord with any fact. How someone experiences sound is a subjective matter too. Depends on many factors physical & psychological. I doubt I can now hear anything above 16.000 cycles, if that. A half million dollars spent to produce 150,000 would not only send chills up my spine; it would be wasted on me :).

Doesn't 'dynamic range' usually refer to amplitude rather than frequency?

Bu we don't want to get pedantic here, eh ? Wink :wink:

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Doesn't 'dynamic range' usually refer to
Yes! I've been out of the audiophile loop for a couple decades now. I was referencing frequency response. :D

They say that humans have an upper limit of about 20,000 hz but some say that the ultra high ranges contain spatial cues. I don't know the veracity of that. I only know that a well engineered vinyl record is more engaging than modern digital formats.

A CD can sound fine as well.

My hearing isn't what it used to be either although this year it seems to be better because I was able to hear the Spring Peepers whereas last year I couldn't.

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webmaster wrote:
Thu Oct 08, 2020 11:34 pm
Doesn't 'dynamic range' usually refer to
I was able to hear the Spring Peepers whereas last year I couldn't.
Spring Peepers - are those frogs, or birds? We used to wake to the frog chorus every springtime but it's been absent for several years. Birdsong is down too. We don't see honey bees either or even mason bees but bumbles are numerous & hard at work, thank goodness.

I never was a true audiophile in the technical sense but I love music (if it's music that I like :)) and took a long time comparing speakers before I bought mine - just two :() . They are now about 40 years old but I still enjoy them. I'm not into heavily boosted bass. A few years ago one of my speakers was damaged by a DVD movie that started with an extremely loud, distorted bass noise. I feared it would be toast (it rattled horribly) but all it needed was replacement of the sealing ring that attaches & centers the cone in the cage; an inexpensive job I could do myself - Yay! But it's a lesson learned: with unknown source material, it's wise to start with the volume control turned down.

I imagine speakers are still the weakest link in accurate reproduction?

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I'm glad somebody changed the bad word on the thread name.

Spring Peppers are cute little frogs.

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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Fri Oct 09, 2020 9:57 am
I'm glad somebody changed the bad word on the thread name.
@ TomatoNut95 - What ARE you referring to?
Spring Peppers are cute little frogs.
Thanks for the info but - haha - now the Peepers are Peppers. Was that the bad word that got changed? Don't think so :P .

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>>>>>I imagine speakers are still the weakest link in accurate reproduction?

Well sort of. The better the speakers are the better they'll reveal how bad the other parts of the system are. So it's kind of better to match components that work together well. Usually, for the average size room, a small monitor type speaker about fifteen or eighteen inches high is sufficient to bathe the room with a good quality sound.

I think most mass market speakers are tuned to make lower quality upstream components like inexpensive CD players sound better. So they make the speakers to produce a fuller but flabby bass to compensate for the thin and tinny sound of the CD player.

Seems like that's the strategy that Bose takes. I've never considered it an audiophile quality speaker but they do produce decent sound when matched to lower quality upstream components.

So if you upgrade the CD player and amplifier the lower quality speaker will begin to show it's limitations.

I use modestly priced monitor speakers for my home audio video set up, I think they are like Boston Acoustics or something like that.

That system I used to have in the early 1990's produced a nice and detailed sound that was so smooth and easy to listen to. Engaging is the word. I literally listened to classical music and jazz for four to six hours at a time, easily. It was easy to do because the sound was so natural.

Now, even though I own a home, there really isn't enough room for me to set up a proper listening area. So I gave up on that hobby.

But I still long for that high quality sound.

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I've never thought about the assembling of a stereo set, or listening to good music, as hobbies. For me the set has been a tool and the music is just the pleasure it provides. It's been so long since I could listen to a full orchestra in a good concert hall, maybe I forget what I'm missing by not having the same experience in my small living room. I'll never again see & hear Moiseivitsch in person at the piano. But thankfully I still enjoy music on the equipment I have, mismatched as it may be and just connected together with 'wire' :). It's the same with my computer, and my car. If they do what I want, to my own satisfaction, I'm generally not intent on perfecting them any further.

I recognize how fascinating it must be to achieve near-perfection of apparatus but I guess it's just not my 'thing' - even if I could afford it! I'm trying to think whether there's been an aspect of life where I've behaved much differently but I think not; although I don't mean to imply that I calmly accept low quality. It's interesting to ponder how/why we develop the attitudes, habits & hobbies that we do.

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I don't consider listening to music as a hobby. For me it is a pleasure. My love of music ran in the family: when my mother was younger she loved music and my grandmother loved it as well.

I saw on TV once about a doctor who previously had no interest in music whatsoever. But during a picnic he was struck by lightning and later developed a love for music and started composing it. He claimed the lightening unlocked his musical ability in his brain. In my opinion, a person's interests and everything are already embedded in their minds when they're born and slowly begin to show as time goes on. I suppose a person will take on the same hobbies and interests of their parents, on the other hand, such as my interest for drawing and gardening. Gardening, drawing and music are all hand-me-down traits from a couple of generations.

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Gardening can't be both a hobby and a pleasure? :P

I definitely have music in my background, as I have opera singers in my ancestry. My teen achieved a near perfect score in her state level choral auditions.

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Well on the subjects of poor design and stereo equipment: I must object to the replacement of decent sized knobs & switches with tiny buttons and even tinier grey-on-black labels, illegible to anyone past age 40; or even worse, just mystical wee symbols. Not to mention controls I can only access by switching on the TV and using a 'remote' that's picky about my aim, (and has the same buttons-&-labels deficiencies) to scan through a collection of ambiguously named menus.

Oh, and why are the TV landscapes such a sickening bright green, as if spray-coated with Day-glow paint? Why do the studio announcers all have orange faces against a blue background, and interview-ees have a wide angle lens shoved up close to examine their nostrils?

What about the documentaries with subtitles illegible because they don't have their own background; chunks of them just disappear into the picture they're pasted onto.

Oh , and ... and ... and ....

Don't get me started, Hahaha!

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Oh I'm having fun talking about this.

I'd say there can be a difference between just enjoying something and making a hobby of it, but of course you'd expect to get pleasure from your hobbies.

My family included competent musicians and singers but none professional. And I have a granddaughter making a serious hobby of using her excellent singing voice; but the only thing that passed down to me was a love of music itself. I did take early piano lessons (not my idea.) I was said to have 'a nice touch' which I think meant 'He's not practicing enough. Not really trying. Probably won't be much good.' I did learn enough to get an inking of how exhilartaing it would feel to master the instrument and express myself through it; but I never had the dedication to practice, practice, practice & become proficient (you might say to make a hobby of it.)

I don't have a real singing voice - not enough range for one thing - but I did sing with a barbershop chorus for many years. I loved the harmony both musical & social; learned about the difference between the tempered and the 'just' or true scales - about singing 'in the cracks' - adjusting one's pitch to contribute to ringing chords with audible harmonics. In some sense it's the opposite of what opera singers must be trained to. The whole subject and the experiences were quite absorbing. I attended workshops where I'd be in a chorus of up to 300 voices - hairs on the back of the neck stood up.

Haha, I did say I was having fun talking :). Of course nobody has to read it but if you got this far it's too late & too bad!

Happy Thanksgiving if you're in Canada (or UK?)
US citizens have to wait a bit - sorry.

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webmaster wrote:
Sat Oct 10, 2020 3:42 pm
Gardening can't be both a hobby and a pleasure? :P

I definitely have music in my background, as I have opera singers in my ancestry. My teen achieved a near perfect score in her state level choral auditions.
Why of course gardening is both a hobby and a pleasure! :D

Wow, that's wonderful about your operatic ancestry and your teen! I know for a fact that I cannot sing a lick. I can't even hum good. I know I should never sing to my garden, I would kill everything with my caterwauling.

Speaking of music, my New toy arrived today. I've already tried it out a little bit, it's fairly simple to operate. It's cool because you can fix it to where it will play the music tracks in the order you desire. Playback on my rain CD wasn't too great, it sounded more like static. But I'm not through with testing it all out. It's nice that it's both electric and battery operated. It's cheap made like I expected it to be, a wind might blow it away.
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I stopped buying CDs altogether. I listen to Spotify. The quality isn't anywhere near CD quality but it's portable. I can create playlists or download albums and listen to them anywhere, in the car, on a bluetooth speaker in the living room or on headphones. Because it's a family plan my wife and daughter can have their own accounts and create their own playlists as well.

Syncing my phone to the bluetooth speaker or the car stereo can be a little frustrating though as they don't always "see" my phone. :P

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I will continue to buy CDs as long as possible. CDs don't need internet and you don't have to use whatever stupid Bluetooth is, and you don't have to hook your phone into your computerized vehicle to listen to it. Long live stuff that doesn't require internet!!

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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Sun Oct 11, 2020 11:00 am
Long live stuff that doesn't require internet!!
There's a slight hint of irony there somewhere. Just can't quite put my finger on it :()

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What I meant by 'stuff' I meant stuff that used to work without it. Like vehicles, listening to music, watching TV, appliances.
Getting on your phone to look for info, social media and shopping is a little different from a vehicle with a screen in it and you can hook your phone into it, and household appliances that connect to Wi-Fi.

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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Sun Oct 11, 2020 3:03 pm
What I meant by 'stuff' I meant stuff that used to work without it. Like vehicles, listening to music, watching TV, appliances.
Getting on your phone to look for info, social media and shopping is a little different from a vehicle with a screen in it and you can hook your phone into it, and household appliances that connect to Wi-Fi.
Yes I understood your meaning. But I often ponder which of our internet-enabled facilities, or other technologies, actually do enrich our lives; rather than locking us further into uber-consumerism with its resultant expense, stress and need for never-ending rat-race competition. Not sure where the balance lies.

Edited to add - I'd now hate to do without the internet. But how much energy does its existence consume? What are its net effects on the planet and the environment; how could they be reduced to a still-useful minimum?

If we were determined to seriously reduce our consumption of energy and natural resources, which technologies would we feel essential; which could we, which wouldn't we be willing to do without?

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My daughter and two of her friends wanted to watch a movie together yesterday.

As a member of a local organization, I have access to a rec room with a 60 inch Internet connected TV. So I gave her the keys to the building so they could have a safe place to go.

I loathe renting movies from Amazon because there are so many steps and confirmation emails and device activation emails etc.

So I tried renting the movie from YouTube. Wow! It took about two clicks and the movie was rented! Really great experience.

My daughter logged into my YouTube account and was watching a movie with her friends in a minute. Worked perfectly.

No need for a DVD. Some Internet services work great. Some are clunky.

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Meh, I'm going to keep buyung actual DVD and CD discs for as long as possible. I think it's stupid to have to use internet to watch TV and listen to music. Can't people be normal again and stick discs in players?
A vehicles purpose is to get you from one destination to another, not for you to sit there and tap on a big fat screen while your driving. A refrigerators purpose is to keep your food cold, not have a big screen on it so you get on the internet from your refrigerator. And if you can't cook food or wash clothes without that appliance being hooked to Wi-Fi and send you notifications when your stuff is done, you're pathetic. Get up and check it yourself.
Even the gas pump uptown has a screen on it so you can watch TV while you're pumping gas. Your mind is supposed to be on what your working on, not on a screen. Technology is everywhere and it's warping people's minds. They don't know how to do anything without the internet anymore and it's sad. It's caused people to be lazier I think. They must think it's so terrible to get off their big fat butts to check their oven or washing machine themselves.

Household appliances and vehicles operated just fine before people even knew internet was, so WHY ADD IT TO SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T NEED IT???

imafan26
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I don't even have a radio in the car. I have a couple of radios I rarely use. I guess I have been out of touch with music trends these days. I do agree that vinyl did have the best quality and longevity.

Cars are made to be disposable. If you airbag is triggered it is likely the car will be totaled because it costs so much to replace the airbag. Car engines are made so compact that even my mechanic has to take a lot of things out to get to anything. Oil changes only work from the bottom of the car. I dare you even see the oil filter from the top. Engines do last longer though. My last three cars did have over 130,000 miles on them. and the engines were not rebuilt. However, changing the timing chains every 60,000 miles was a major expense. The last car I had, a pontiac minivan, had way to many electronics. Antitheft system would not start the engine when the door locks would not work. The wiring under the floor was damaged because of a hole in the base that damaged the insulation. Door windows would not work, dashboard lites and sensors would go off and on at random times. Door locks would open on the road.

The replacement car has a problem with the alignment. It can't be fixed and I took it to two places, one was the dealer. It would cost more than the car is worth to fix it, but it has been optimized. The tires will have to be replaced more often, the radio does not work, the passenger airbag was recalled and it is turned off. Apparently it is not something that prevents me from passing a safety check. The car is 12 years old. It is basic transportation. It gets me where I am going. It gets good gas mileage ( the van was awful). It does not have a lot of trunk or cargo space. But it has roll up windows. That will last a long time.

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TomatoNut95
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My neighbor listens to the radio a lot. I gave her the last CD/Tape/Radio player I had because I wore out the tape deck and CD part on it. But that didn't matter to her, as she doesn't listen to tapes or CDs.
As for vehicles, they don't even put CD players in them anymore. Stupid. CD's are NOT obsolete!
My neighbors 1990 Ford Ranger has a tape deck in it, and no CD player. I like that old truck because it's normal. Not a single piece of computer in it. Windows are manual, the way I think windows should be. I always felt that what if my truck didn't start, the windows were down and the flood waters were headed my way. If my truck didn't start, I couldn't put the windows up to keep from drowning.

imafan26
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Actually, it would be better to keep the windows down or you might be trapped in the car. One of my relatives worked as a driver and fell asleep at the wheel in the early morning hours and ended up in a canal. The vehicle had electric windows, he was trapped and drowned.

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TomatoNut95
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Oh that is terrible. I'm so sorry to hear that.

In that case, electric windows are also dumb because you cannot lower them if you cannot start your vehicle. IMO, vehicles need both electric and manual windows. Are people that lazy they can't turn a handle on their door to operate their window?

Vanisle_BC
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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Wed Dec 16, 2020 2:13 pm
..... electric windows are also dumb because you cannot lower them if you cannot start your vehicle.
On most modern vehicles there are much more important things you can't do if your engine stalls - like having effective brakes, even on small lightweight cars; or even being able to steer. The steering doesn't just get horribly stiff; it LOCKS. How could anyone be so stupid as to think that's a good idea?
IMO, vehicles need both electric and manual windows.
I don't understand. Why have both?
Are people that lazy they can't turn a handle on their door to operate their window?


Yes I think so. Or else they're obsessed with techy 'progress' whether it's useful or not.

I have a basic, reasonably fuel-efficient 'standard' hatchback with no bells & whistles; 5 speeds & wind-ups. I had to search for such a vehicle and it's far from new, but I'm still stuck with a car I couldn't steer, and could only stop with difficulty, if the engine quit. And it won't start unless I have my foot on the clutch. Who decided drivers are too stupid to make sure it's in neutral first? If that dumb, they probably shouldn't be driving at all. And what about the idiotic electronic lock system; my car can only be started with a special coded key that if lost can only be replaced expensively & slowly, by special order via the dealer .. while I use taxis to get around?

In my fantasy land I have a restored mid-1930s well-designed vehicle made of thick metal on a steel chassis, but with a modern power unit; fuel injection, electronic ignition etc. Today's engines are tremendously reliable, efficient and hard wearing compared with those of earlier decades (centuries!) Oh, and so are tires.

Vanisle_BC
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Well it was a Covid-19 stay-home boxing day so I virtual-window-shopped, looking for something really well-designed. Came up with these 2 vintage vehicles that spectacularly fulfilled very different specifications. I'd love to own them both and I'd keep them parked side by side at the very front of my very posh driveway :) Haha .....

(1954 'Deux Chevaux' and a '65 Silver Cloud)
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A - 1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III.jpg

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Dissily Mordentroge
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I’m amused nobody has pointed the finger at Chinese manufactured goods. There are two sides to this though.
Importers outside of China have learnt they can push the price of goods down by asking Chinese manufactures to cut costs. Then the real game starts when import companies are changed at an alarming rate. Each one refusing to service goods imported by their predecessor. In most countries the law allows them to get away with it.
But as others here have pointed out, often the fault for shoddy goods rests with buyers wanting ‘bargains’. I went through three cheap Chinese whipper snippers in a few years. The more expensive German replacement has lasted me ten years - so far - and is a far more ergonomic design. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
But hey, in areas such as high end audio/video gear there are any number of ‘boutique’ manufacturers who survive on selling totally idiotic, unscientifically designed rubbish to the gullible and pretentious. That doesn’t mean all expensive audio & video gear is rubbish - it’s just that buyers really need to educate themselves before plunging into the market.

imafan26
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I bought a robot vacuum. It is really great for picking up cat hair and it runs automatically. It does not pick up big rubbish and it gets stuck on rugs, door stops, and tries to eat plastic bags that fall on the floor. Then it calls for "help". However, my cats hate it and think it understands marking behavior. I wish it had A.I. The wheel broke after smearing cat poop that the cats left on the floor and I failed to check on time for. It messed up the machine so bad. There are no "spare" or replacement parts for it. So, I had to buy a new one after 3 mos.

Vanisle_BC
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imafan26 wrote:
Mon Feb 01, 2021 10:15 am
I bought a robot vacuum. It is really great for picking up cat hair and it runs automatically. It does not pick up big rubbish and it gets stuck on rugs, door stops, and tries to eat plastic bags that fall on the floor. Then it calls for "help". However, my cats hate it and think it understands marking behavior. I wish it had A.I. The wheel broke after smearing cat poop that the cats left on the floor and I failed to check on time for. It messed up the machine so bad. There are no "spare" or replacement parts for it. So, I had to buy a new one after 3 mos.


Sorry for your experience @imafan but it begs the question: Why buy a new one?

imafan26
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It really does a good job on the carpets getting out cat hair. If you have ever tried trying to get cat hair out of fabric and carpets, you would understand. I had to use tape to get the hair out before.

The problem was not with the machine so much as my cats thinking that it is alive and they don't like it going into their bathroom.



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