How much do we need?

[Serial_Apologist]

I bought my reconditioned Hotpoint washing machine in 2003 for £75. I had to have it repaired last year. Friends were amazed I just didn't throw it out but to replace the brushes, etc., only cost £25 and the local repairman (whose family have a shop selling washing machines) told me to stick with the machine which, if necessary, could be repaired cheaply and would outlast most new models.

My secondhand tv, acquired around the same time for free, is a 1994 Philips - ok it looks very old fashioned and people are aghast that I don't have a plasma flatscreen - but it works. I don't have a phone contract or smartphone, just a basic pay as you go Alcatel which makes phone calls and can text, cue utter amazement when I reveal it!

I just don't buy into the whole designer/consumerist/latest model mindset whether it's for domestic goods or clothes/shoes, it's all so unnecessary isn't it?

I worry about techological "advances" making everyday practicalities impossible for those unwilling or unable to afford regular equipment updates. What happens if one day the whole system goes pearshaped as a result of hackers?

[ahinton]

I worry about techological "advances" making everyday practicalities impossible for those unwilling or unable to afford regular equipment updates. What happens if one day the whole system goes pearshaped as a result of hackers?

Sensible balances need to be struck between worthwhile upgrades that actually provide better services for the purchaser and those which are mere vanity "improvements", of which the latter are almost certainly in the majority and sold mainly to bring in revenue for the manufacturers and retailers. I recall buying a dishwasher in a sale in Harrods 1983 where it was marked down by 63% and asking the sales person if he would buy one; "not on your life, sir! - it's the same make as the one that I bought in 1956 and which still works perfectly". The manufacturer concerned was Miele; who offer long warranties on some of their appliances (I have a washing machine and tumble drier bought in another knockdown sale in the 90s on each which they offered a 10-year one, which suggests that they're not especially into planned obsolescence, which is a mark in their favour, methinks - they've never yet develpoed any fault).

I have Windows 7 and only got that because support for XP was about to expire; do I want Windows 8 just because it's there? No. I got MS Office 2000 when it was relatively new and only changed it for Office 2010 in 2011. Do I feel deprived or left out of it? No.

...usw...

[MrGongGong]

In the Batemans brewery in Wainfleet there is a Victorian malt mill.
On the tour the guide explained that this 90 year old piece of machinery was made by a company that after manufacturing enough for all the breweries around at the time went out of business because they worked so well.

[teamsaint]

I worry about techological "advances" making everyday practicalities impossible for those unwilling or unable to afford regular equipment updates. What happens if one day the whole system goes pearshaped as a result of hackers?

well this is one of my main concerns about enforced digitisation.(libraries, media, communications).
And, to boot, it all going pearshaped might happen deliberately as well as accidentally.

Any road, I like Anna's philosophy, and am impressed at an economically repairable washing machine.

i think we had a " I'm more low tech than you" discussion before, from which I am now excluded on the grounds of my new stereo. (well in my eyes, anyway.)

Late adopters of the world , unite.


(Edit: our old toaster died yesterday, trying , and happily failing,to take the house electrical system with it.
I expect to find the current rage of 2 slice toasters digitised, minitutised, and needing regular firmware updates.).

[french frank]

The thermostat on my fridge isn't functioning properly, but my local supplier said they don't repair fridges because the cost is as much a new fridge. Just at the moment I have the setting so low it almost switches the fridge off - but according to the independent thermometer the temperature is about right. When it starts heating up again and I can't turn it down any further, I suppose I'll have to have a new fridge ...

[MrGongGong]

(Edit: our old toaster died yesterday, trying , and happily failing,to take the house electrical system with it.
I expect to find the current rage of 2 slice toasters digitised, minitutised, and needing regular firmware updates.).

What's a toaster ?
Haven't you got a cooker ?
They are all shite
(like electric kettles....... total waste of money)

[jean]

What's wrong with a toasting fork?

[teamsaint]

What's a toaster ?
Haven't you got a cooker ?
They are all shite
(like electric kettles....... total waste of money)

I have an Everhot, as it goes.
But , although you can toast things on it very well, sometimes time (including clean up time) dictates that the humble toaster is the thing to use, in a cost/benefit kind of way.

Do you only have one kind of recording equipment?

[MrGongGong]

I have an Everhot, as it goes.
But , although you can toast things on it very well, sometimes time (including clean up time) dictates that the humble toaster is the thing to use, in a cost/benefit kind of way.

Do you only have one kind of recording equipment?

Well made toast is a thing of great beauty
But i've never met a toaster that does that well
and if I did the money would be better spent on a Schoeps Microphone

[Anna]

The thermostat on my fridge isn't functioning properly, but my local supplier said they don't repair fridges because the cost is as much a new fridge.

I have exactly the same problem with my old (Indesit) fridge, it ices up as soon as you turn your back and I'm conscious it's eating electricity. I have no idea exactly how old it is but it's at least 20 years. When I've looked a new ones they seem very flimsy thin plastic compared to my old one so I keep putting off a purchase.

As to being left behind digitally, it is a worry as so much now, including banking, seems to depend on apps and scanning the squares with the phone. A very stupid example of this is our local buses which basically trundle around three routes. Apart from the main departure point all the timetable boards at the individual bus stops have been removed and replaced by a notice saying "scan this square doofer for timetables"! <banned steam from ears emoticon> So, if you're not local, have decided to go for a trek in the countryside or along the river but think a bus back woud be nice ..............

As to small kitchen appliances, now some charity shops sell tested and certified small electricals you can furnish a kitchen at hardly any expense. Our local Red Cross this morning has: slow cookers; breadmakers; coffee makers; three-tier steamers; handwhisks and toasters.

[Serial_Apologist]

As to being left behind digitally, it is a worry as so much now, including banking, seems to depend on apps and scanning the squares with the phone. A very stupid example of this is our local buses which basically trundle around three routes. Apart from the main departure point all the timetable boards at the individual bus stops have been removed and replaced by a notice saying "scan this square doofer for timetables"! <banned steam from ears emoticon> So, if you're not local, have decided to go for a trek in the countryside or along the river but think a bus back woud be nice ..............

Sitting here in the middle of <cool> Sarf London, old urban sophisticate that I am I would just stare bemused at such a sign as if it were in Swahili, without a clue. Fortunately bus timetables and routes are still clearly laid out at bus stops for us primitive Londoners!

[Serial_Apologist]

"DOCUMENTARY OF THE WEEK New series Fancy an upgrade to your mobile handset? Thinking of getting a new sofa? Oh, you capitalist patsy, you! Jacques Peretti knows exactly why you're locked into a consumerist cycle of shopping and throwing away, and he tells us in another of his crisply argued series.

"The gist of it is that, once we bought stuff that lasted, and only replaced it when it was knackered, now consumer goods are designed to become obsolete, to be thrown away and regularly replaced in favour of something newer, shinier and more fashionable.

"This hasn't happened by accident but as a result of antiheroes whom Peretti names and shames, froM the 1920s light-bulb-makers' cartel to Swatch watches to Steve Jobs at Apple. The programme is full of striking images, too: one look at a post-festival field strewn with new tents that have been used once then discarded, and you see Peretti's point. DAVID BUTCHER".

Not one to be missed!

This turned out to be an excellent programme - I hope others interested in capitalism's future will have a chance of watching it, if not already. Other episodes to follow, I understand.

[Anna]

S_A, to briefly go back to the sign at the bus stop, the square is called a QR Code which is a matrix barcode that a smartphone scans and converts to the URL of a website - I just couldn't remember what it was called yesterday. You find them now on your bank statements, etc., so you can do banking via your phone rather than a computer or face to face. The last time I went into my bank to do a transaction the girl behind the counter asked why I didn't use my phone and save myself a trip, so I asked her if she really wanted to do herself out of a job?

Back to the programme, who would have thought of inventing screws that no screwdriver known to man could unscrew in order to change a battery! <horror> The XBox, new iphone etc., launches are nothing short of mass hysteria, bit like old fashioned Evangelism isn't it? As to IKEA, fashions in interiors are constantly changing so I'm not sure that's so worrying.

[Serial_Apologist]

S_A, to briefly go back to the sign at the bus stop, the square is called a QR Code which is a matrix barcode that a smartphone scans and converts to the URL of a website - I just couldn't remember what it was called yesterday. You find them now on your bank statements, etc., so you can do banking via your phone rather than a computer or face to face. The last time I went into my bank to do a transaction the girl behind the counter asked why I didn't use my phone and save myself a trip, so I asked her if she really wanted to do herself out of a job?

Back to the programme, who would have thought of inventing screws that no screwdriver known to man could unscrew in order to change a battery! <horror> The XBox, new iphone etc., launches are nothing short of mass hysteria, bit like old fashioned Evangelism isn't it? As to IKEA, fashions in interiors are constantly changing so I'm not sure that's so worrying.

I wasn't aware Ikea stuff isn't made to last. Just as well I've never bought any!

[Anna]

I wasn't aware Ikea stuff isn't made to last. Just as well I've never bought any!

No, that wasn't the point was it (unless I missed something) I thought the point was waste, pure and simple because of the pressure, via their advertising, to view your current furniture as old fashioned/wrong colour/shape/uncool that you should ditch it all and start again with a new look as soon as that previous 'look' changes. (I quite like IKEA, they do good cheap and cheerful kitchen items, I don't have any of their furniture but I have a couple of their cotton rugs and a pair of lamps, none of which are very new)

Of course you mentioned you had inherited antique furniture - so you don't have to worry about not being cool - your home is furnished with Timeless Classics!! :-)