Slashdot Mirror
Why Do Gadgets Break?
TurboTurnip writes "A post on the Crave blog at CNET asks: Why are modern consumer electronics so easily broken? It argues that the 21st Century is 'The Age of the Flimsy' where 'your gadgets will simply break within the year.' Post author Chris Stevens talks about how computers are fast enough for the average user, and the only way to make consumers upgrade is 'increasingly poor build quality ... Engineers have built obsolescence into mass-produced technology since the 1920s. There are two kinds of planned deterioration in a product: one is technical, the other is stylistic.' The writer compares the build quality of a 20 year-old IBM XT to the modern Motorola Razr phone and concludes that modern gadgets are 'delicate, beautiful supermodels that can't go the distance.'"
Where can I pick up one of those delicate, beautiful supermodels gadgets everyone's talking about these days? At an Apple store?
-Teiresias
Keyboards these days are neither supermodels nor even remotely stylish. Yet they are exceedingly flimsy. If you bludgeon someone over the head with a keyboard these days, it simply shatters into dozens of pieces. The old XT keyboard, however, could have been used to dispatch Jimmy Hoffa.
--
BMO
it's obvious... youre living in america. Do you think ipod nanos didnt exist 7 years ago. Of course they did... but why sell someone ONE mp3 player when you can sell them 5 or 6 of increasing HD space and smaller sizes... that way everyone enjoys getting something "better" while you sell the same product 6 times to each customer. Love America
I will testify to their sturdiness! They are being used as blocks, to hold up my 1962 Jaguar XJ12 - itself another of those time-honored robust technologies, in contrast to today's delicate and tempermental flim-flams!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
I found my Razr after it was missing for three weeks. Somebody had buried it in the backyard.
There was not a scratch on it, and it worked just fine after a recharge.
This guy must be using one of the pink ones- those are sissy phones.
Is seeing how much older electronics are still around compared to new. I have tube amplifiers that are over 50 years old and still operate because the parts are easily servicable. IMHO most of the electronics that fail early are due to bad solder joints. Your average tv is probably assembled by children in an open air factory somewhere in the pacific. Parts are bought from different suppliers constantly to save a penny here or there. Remember the recent rash of motherboard failures due to leaking capacitors?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
I accidentally washed and spin dried my new USB stick and it still works. You go try that with a 5 1/2" floppy and tell me how well that works out for you.
Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
And 11 of those 35 dollar DVD players comes out to $385 dollars.
They're up by 15 bucks, not counting for inflation.
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
And will they run Linux?
steampunk web design
I've read it. And just after I finished it, they brought out a 2nd edition!
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
Every time you fall on it?
Man... that just sounds weird. Do you fall that much?
"I have as much authority as the pope, I just
don't have as many people who believe it" - George Carlin
inefficient 4M+
Look, I've got a nice Ricoh CL2000 with nice power management. It cost a lot of money, and it will have to last for another 5 years. So, I'm okay with power savings... but the 4M+ goes into power management too. You don't hear them, and they don't use much power when not used. I know, I was in an office where they had 4 of those powered continously.
Don't diss old "office printers", they are perfect for light-home usage.
Besides, I doubt your new PC uses less power than your old one. Especially not at peak usage, and your old one did have power managment features... So that won't make a difference.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)