There is something joyful, and perhaps slightly rebellious, about taking old hardware and giving it a renewed purpose today.
-
There is something joyful, and perhaps slightly rebellious, about taking old hardware and giving it a renewed purpose today.
It is somewhat frustrating that this is not the norm, and that so many things are built to be disposable, or are treated as disposable, within such a short time frame.
The constant push to sell people a new thing is wildly unhelpful.
@neil it also affects things like fridges and freezers. There's a huge backlog to get them recycled as there are so many of them. Newer ones don't last anywhere near as long.
-
There is something joyful, and perhaps slightly rebellious, about taking old hardware and giving it a renewed purpose today.
It is somewhat frustrating that this is not the norm, and that so many things are built to be disposable, or are treated as disposable, within such a short time frame.
The constant push to sell people a new thing is wildly unhelpful.
Reminds me to try to fix my ThinkPad T420. It was running fine until something shorted in the power circuit and any PSU I connect goes in to shutdown mode. Hopefully just a power FET. The little buddy (i5/8GB) was doing fine on MX Linux.
-
@neil it also affects things like fridges and freezers. There's a huge backlog to get them recycled as there are so many of them. Newer ones don't last anywhere near as long.
@smsm1 Yes! All sorts of things. Defective by design.
-
@smsm1 Yes! All sorts of things. Defective by design.
@neil @smsm1 yes and the ability to repair things is waning. Either because people don't have the skills any more, or the manufacturer doesn't offer parts, or because the whole thing is sealed. It's often (much) cheaper and easier just to replace the item.
We paid about as much to get our washing machine fixed as a new one would cost.
I've managed to repair 3 laptops and two fridges in the last few years, because buying new is so wasteful.
We're having some work done to our en-suite, and the bathroom guy is surprised at how much of the existing stuff we're trying to re-use, rather than just toss in a skip.
-
There is something joyful, and perhaps slightly rebellious, about taking old hardware and giving it a renewed purpose today.
It is somewhat frustrating that this is not the norm, and that so many things are built to be disposable, or are treated as disposable, within such a short time frame.
The constant push to sell people a new thing is wildly unhelpful.
@neil
100%
Just helped a friend breathe new life into an apple-abandoned 2008 Mac. Nice screen / soundcard so now doing service as his general lounge appliance - music / video / pics, with Debian. -
@neil it also affects things like fridges and freezers. There's a huge backlog to get them recycled as there are so many of them. Newer ones don't last anywhere near as long.
-
There is something joyful, and perhaps slightly rebellious, about taking old hardware and giving it a renewed purpose today.
It is somewhat frustrating that this is not the norm, and that so many things are built to be disposable, or are treated as disposable, within such a short time frame.
The constant push to sell people a new thing is wildly unhelpful.
@neil maybe there should be a new type of playful competition for people to showcase deriving most utility from the most depreciated hardware? Might be a bit hard to be rigorously objective about it, but maybe it's not so important.
-
Quite possibly but whether they are more energy efficient than the cost of manufacturing them and disposing of the old ones, especially if what has failed is a part designed to fail after a particular term, I don't know.
-
There is something joyful, and perhaps slightly rebellious, about taking old hardware and giving it a renewed purpose today.
It is somewhat frustrating that this is not the norm, and that so many things are built to be disposable, or are treated as disposable, within such a short time frame.
The constant push to sell people a new thing is wildly unhelpful.
@neil And repairs are not made easier by the fact that we now contend with surface mount electrical components instead of thumb size capacitors and valves (though I accept the valve voltages meant more care had to be taken ...). Dad kept a box of desoldered components for spares, and new ones could be had from an independent 'electrical' shop' in the high street which had boxes of stuff.
-
@neil @smsm1
Very true. I suppose it would be better to hang onto an older model that was slightly less efficient if it meant saving all of the resources used in making a whole new fridge.Planned obsolescence is so frustrating. I recently heard about a light bulb that was installed in the early 1900s that’s still running today. I feel like if they really put some engineering into longevity they could make huge improvements. Alas
-
@neil @smsm1
Very true. I suppose it would be better to hang onto an older model that was slightly less efficient if it meant saving all of the resources used in making a whole new fridge.Planned obsolescence is so frustrating. I recently heard about a light bulb that was installed in the early 1900s that’s still running today. I feel like if they really put some engineering into longevity they could make huge improvements. Alas
-
@neil maybe there should be a new type of playful competition for people to showcase deriving most utility from the most depreciated hardware? Might be a bit hard to be rigorously objective about it, but maybe it's not so important.
@openrisk Yes, that could be fun!
There is also merit in less novel, indeed totally routine, re-use - that a laptop is not dead because Microsoft chose not to let it run Windows 11, for instance, or that a repair might be as achievable as replacing a fuse or a battery.
-
There is something joyful, and perhaps slightly rebellious, about taking old hardware and giving it a renewed purpose today.
It is somewhat frustrating that this is not the norm, and that so many things are built to be disposable, or are treated as disposable, within such a short time frame.
The constant push to sell people a new thing is wildly unhelpful.
@neil I am tremendously enjoying using an eleven year old MacBook Air 11.6 inch as a video player/email device when I travel. It’s light, functional and when the battery wears out it is easy to replace. It also only cost me £50.
-
@neil I am tremendously enjoying using an eleven year old MacBook Air 11.6 inch as a video player/email device when I travel. It’s light, functional and when the battery wears out it is easy to replace. It also only cost me £50.
@davidbcohen Excellent!
-
@openrisk Yes, that could be fun!
There is also merit in less novel, indeed totally routine, re-use - that a laptop is not dead because Microsoft chose not to let it run Windows 11, for instance, or that a repair might be as achievable as replacing a fuse or a battery.
@neil ever since Moore's (ever faster) law has sort of stopped for the Intel/AMD CPU's (almost a decade now) it means that old laptops and desktops are not deprecating anywhere near as fast as they did before. With replaceable parts they could live long lives and running Linux means both stability and no artificial obsolescence (though support of drivers for very old hardware starts becoming an issue).
-
-
There is something joyful, and perhaps slightly rebellious, about taking old hardware and giving it a renewed purpose today.
It is somewhat frustrating that this is not the norm, and that so many things are built to be disposable, or are treated as disposable, within such a short time frame.
The constant push to sell people a new thing is wildly unhelpful.
@neil yes, it's such a good feeling 🤩
-
@smsm1 @neil @astar_7 Energy consumption for home refrigeration has about halved in the last decade or so, and old fridges and freezers can be huge energy hogs* (eg if they leak their refrigerant) that can be well worth taking out of service and recycling properly.
*If you have access to a power meter and your device is >>10Y old, check.
**FWIW, I help run a a Repair Café and keep running most of my stuff well beyond when it's fashionable.
-
There is something joyful, and perhaps slightly rebellious, about taking old hardware and giving it a renewed purpose today.
It is somewhat frustrating that this is not the norm, and that so many things are built to be disposable, or are treated as disposable, within such a short time frame.
The constant push to sell people a new thing is wildly unhelpful.
@neil Im actually excited to install a windows xp theme on my windows 7 in an old laptop and make it vintage
Also there are a lot of fun old games and im gonna start a collection! -
@neil And repairs are not made easier by the fact that we now contend with surface mount electrical components instead of thumb size capacitors and valves (though I accept the valve voltages meant more care had to be taken ...). Dad kept a box of desoldered components for spares, and new ones could be had from an independent 'electrical' shop' in the high street which had boxes of stuff.
@neil Plus to get into an appliance we now need hex, torx, star, phillips etc., tools - or we must somehow get two bits of plastic apart without cracking them or breaking the tabs that lock them together.
