If it is broke....
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I spend most of my productive earning days building and fixing things. It appears that nowadays philosophy is to get rid of broken thing and get an new one. Is it because it is less aggravation, cheaper or just lack of smarts to fix it? Vaclav
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I spend most of my productive earning days building and fixing things. It appears that nowadays philosophy is to get rid of broken thing and get an new one. Is it because it is less aggravation, cheaper or just lack of smarts to fix it? Vaclav
Annoyingly, it's generally cheaper. Fixing things needs spare parts (generally charged at stupid prices) and skilled labour to know what to replace (generally charged at high-but-sensible rates). See what happens when you take your car to a garage: an unskilled moron swaps large boxes rather than fix the problem in a small part of it and is charged to you at skilled professional rates!
The universe is composed of electrons, neutrons, protons and......morons. (ThePhantomUpvoter)
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I spend most of my productive earning days building and fixing things. It appears that nowadays philosophy is to get rid of broken thing and get an new one. Is it because it is less aggravation, cheaper or just lack of smarts to fix it? Vaclav
I still try and repair some of these new devices just as a challenge. It's probably more that the damnable things are so small that you can't fix them, if you can find parts, they cost almost as much as the device you're fixing. When you do successfully fix something it isn't compatible with any of the new formats. A lot of products are designed to become obsolete. Why would you buy a new one if the old one still works? This is the reason I got out of being a repair technician, rather than troubleshooting and repairing devices I turned into a board and parts swapper. I enjoy buying old tube guitars, amps and restoring and repairing them. I still build and repair my computers at home.
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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I still try and repair some of these new devices just as a challenge. It's probably more that the damnable things are so small that you can't fix them, if you can find parts, they cost almost as much as the device you're fixing. When you do successfully fix something it isn't compatible with any of the new formats. A lot of products are designed to become obsolete. Why would you buy a new one if the old one still works? This is the reason I got out of being a repair technician, rather than troubleshooting and repairing devices I turned into a board and parts swapper. I enjoy buying old tube guitars, amps and restoring and repairing them. I still build and repair my computers at home.
It was broke, so I fixed it.
I know what you mean. I have a big magnifying halo lamp on my desk, and I don't mind plugging in the soldering iron and doing my bit where I can (and if I'm desperate I can get Herself to do it - she used to hand solder TQFP 420 lead, 0.5mm pitch devices for prototypes) but modern consumer electronics are well and truly beyond me. Chip on glass lcd controllers, flexi-pcb because that's the only way they can get 3 boards in the thickness, heck, I can't even get the stupid things open without breaking the cases!
The universe is composed of electrons, neutrons, protons and......morons. (ThePhantomUpvoter)
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I spend most of my productive earning days building and fixing things. It appears that nowadays philosophy is to get rid of broken thing and get an new one. Is it because it is less aggravation, cheaper or just lack of smarts to fix it? Vaclav
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Annoyingly, it's generally cheaper. Fixing things needs spare parts (generally charged at stupid prices) and skilled labour to know what to replace (generally charged at high-but-sensible rates). See what happens when you take your car to a garage: an unskilled moron swaps large boxes rather than fix the problem in a small part of it and is charged to you at skilled professional rates!
The universe is composed of electrons, neutrons, protons and......morons. (ThePhantomUpvoter)
My vehicles are all over 20 years old. The mechanics don't know how to plug in there diagnostic equipment into "the computer". Usually I feel like a project manager on the phone talking with the mechanic as to what the best way to identify the problem is. I'm looking forward to the day when the car black boxes are wireless aware and a cop can shut your engine off remotely. In the future everyone will have LoJack functionality whether they want it or not... and everyone will wish they hadn't got rid of their 1972 Fairlane. :)
"Sanity is not statistical." - Eric Blair, 1984, Chapter 9
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My vehicles are all over 20 years old. The mechanics don't know how to plug in there diagnostic equipment into "the computer". Usually I feel like a project manager on the phone talking with the mechanic as to what the best way to identify the problem is. I'm looking forward to the day when the car black boxes are wireless aware and a cop can shut your engine off remotely. In the future everyone will have LoJack functionality whether they want it or not... and everyone will wish they hadn't got rid of their 1972 Fairlane. :)
"Sanity is not statistical." - Eric Blair, 1984, Chapter 9
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My vehicles are all over 20 years old. The mechanics don't know how to plug in there diagnostic equipment into "the computer". Usually I feel like a project manager on the phone talking with the mechanic as to what the best way to identify the problem is. I'm looking forward to the day when the car black boxes are wireless aware and a cop can shut your engine off remotely. In the future everyone will have LoJack functionality whether they want it or not... and everyone will wish they hadn't got rid of their 1972 Fairlane. :)
"Sanity is not statistical." - Eric Blair, 1984, Chapter 9
I know what you mean - until a few years ago I ran a old Mitsubishi Shogun (Pajero in the US I think). Mechanical diesel fuel injection, the only electrics it actually needed was glow plugs and a solenoid to cut the fuel and stop the engine. Alas, it was too expensive to run, and dying of rust anyway... But when it went wrong, you could diagnose and fix it yourself.
The universe is composed of electrons, neutrons, protons and......morons. (ThePhantomUpvoter)
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I spend most of my productive earning days building and fixing things. It appears that nowadays philosophy is to get rid of broken thing and get an new one. Is it because it is less aggravation, cheaper or just lack of smarts to fix it? Vaclav
