Waste and planned obsolescence

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#2681288 26-Mar-2021 23:18

mattwnz:

Rikkitic:

A cheap Android box (around $30) works fine with Kodi or an app like TiviMate to play all Freeview channels on the IPTV playlists found here and elsewhere. It should work with any TV that accepts HDMI.

Might have to look into that. But for your average consumer, they don't want to bother with customising something like that, and that is where the vodafone box is reasonably cheap, and once setup (which can be a PITA to setup as the two I have setup seem to hate wifi) it is reliable. But I only use it on a wired connection. It does also seem to have access to quality streams, which one device I used didn't.

How long will a cheap Android box last for?

If firmware updates aren't provided, apps stop working, and another item goes in the dump.

Kiwifruta

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#2681289 26-Mar-2021 23:22

Rikkitic:

Washing machines are another pet peeve of mine. The programmes used to be controlled by mechanical dials. These worked fine and lasted forever. Then they were replaced by chips and LEDs. These constantly break down. The electronics add nothing at all to the old mechanical programmes except some fancy lights. They just introduce more points of failure.

The electronics do add the functionality of playing national anthems.

Suppose there could be pianola mechanical washing machines.

networkn

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#2681302 27-Mar-2021 08:29

Rikkitic:

People have been manipulated by commercial propaganda. It takes time to change their thinking. The right to repair movements are an important step in the right direction. So is shaming outfits like Kmart that encourage irresponsible profligacy.

Well, so is the presence of Aliexpress.

Rikkitic

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#2681305 27-Mar-2021 08:57

Kiwifruta:

How long will a cheap Android box last for?

If firmware updates aren't provided, apps stop working, and another item goes in the dump.

I have three that have lasted for years. No apps I use have stopped working. All run Kodi and other apps just fine even though they are still on 5.0.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

Rikkitic

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#2681306 27-Mar-2021 08:58

networkn:

Rikkitic:

People have been manipulated by commercial propaganda. It takes time to change their thinking. The right to repair movements are an important step in the right direction. So is shaming outfits like Kmart that encourage irresponsible profligacy.

Well, so is the presence of Aliexpress.

We all learn and grow. I have completely gone off the Chinese.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

Kiwifruta

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#2681308 27-Mar-2021 09:04

Rikkitic:
Kiwifruta:

How long will a cheap Android box last for?

If firmware updates aren't provided, apps stop working, and another item goes in the dump.

I have three that have lasted for years. No apps I use have stopped working. All run Kodi and other apps just fine even though they are still on 5.0.

That’s good going. My 1st gen Fire Tv (bought late 2014) is still going strong and getting firmware updates.

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#2681321 27-Mar-2021 10:31

Rikkitic:
Washing machines are another pet peeve of mine. The programmes used to be controlled by mechanical dials. These worked fine and lasted forever. Then they were replaced by chips and LEDs. These constantly break down. The electronics add nothing at all to the old mechanical programmes except some fancy lights. They just introduce more points of failure.

My Maytag may belong in a museum but has a grunty dial that you can feel and hear the click of each cog. It has no rust after all these years and can take a huge load. It’s just a beautiful mechanical machine. I hardly need to use the buttons because it’s always on warm wash, cold rinse. Press and turn the dial once and off it goes. No electronics and it just does the job it was made for. I hope someone is available that can repair it when it finally gives up as I’d rather pay whatever to repair it than buy a new machine that will develop annoying problems. It truly has been built to last a lifetime.

Edited to add photo

Gurezaemon

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#2681330 27-Mar-2021 11:18

YouTube channel Veritaseum covers the whys and wherefores of planned obsolescence, and even a proposed law many years ago making planned obsolescence compulsory and legally enforceable as a way of generating demand.

Get your business seen overseas - Nexus Translations

Rikkitic

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#2681335 27-Mar-2021 11:46

Maybe we should pass a law requiring everyone to only eat triple bacon cheeseburgers so we can just get it over with and leave the planet to heal itself.

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#2681418 27-Mar-2021 14:25

Rikkitic:
Maybe we should pass a law requiring everyone to only eat triple bacon cheeseburgers so we can just get it over with and leave the planet to heal itself.

Wait - what? There’s other kinds of food?!

Rikkitic

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#2698156 26-Apr-2021 14:27

Another whinge:

Humanity's waste is killing the planet. This comes up from time to time, but I think it is worth mentioning again. I live on a farm, so no urban services. We collect our refuse and burn it or take it into town to the recycling. After a long hiatus due to circumstances, I started going through the current collection in preparation for permanent disposal. I was shocked at how much had accumulated. Then I was shocked at how little is 'recyclable'.

What especially struck me was the quantity of containers for different products. There is a lot of plastic, but also a lot of glass. Only a small amount of the plastic is of the 'recyclable' PET type. I still haven't figured out what the hell to do with the rest. Even the glass is not really recycled. It is broken up, melted down and reprocessed, at the cost of no small amount of effort and energy. Why?

A few small businesses are making a start on trying to reuse their own containers. I know of at least one. But most manufacturers and retailers still bury their heads and chant the 'out of sight out of mind' mantra. Once it goes out of the shop, they wash their hands of it.

Some effort is being made to reclaim valuable electronics materials, but supermarkets, department stores, hardware suppliers, and other retailers insist they bear no responsibility for their products once they have been sold. It all falls on the consumer.

So the buyer has to lug her bottles and jars and cans to the recycling centre and scratch her head over the endless variety and quantity of plastic crap. This is not only destroying our world, it is also very unreasonable.

Manufacturers and importers must be made responsible for rubbish they sell. There should be a return deposit on everything, with the seller required to take it back and properly dispose of it. Packaging and containers that cannot be properly disposed of should be banned. Where possible, containers must be made reusable. Where possible, bulk sales should be the norm, where customers fill their own reusable containers. In some essential ways, we need to return to the 19th-century manner of doing things. Above all, marketing people should be sent to forced re-education camps and advertising restricted to the purely informative. Only then may we have a chance of long-term survival.

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#2698207 26-Apr-2021 17:12

1101:

Lets put the blame firmly where it belongs
Its the consumer , the av punter is 100% to blame for this.

The av consumer wants the LOWEST cost .
$250 for a TV, or $2000 for a TV
$30 for a printer , or $800 for a printer
$150 for a microwave oven, or $600 for a microwave oven.
$60 for a vacuum cleaner , or $600 for a vacuum cleaner

Thats where the market is. The lowest cost. No surprise things dont last .
Unfortunately , some expensive stuff is is also now also poorly made & not made to last (eg plastic parts in car engine bays)

We put up with it.
The power is with us to just say 'no we wont buy that' . That isnt going to happen.
Its a race to the bottom .

100%. I can think of many items that cost a large portion of a weeks salary. Skilsaw for example. Now they are dirt cheap on the same salary basis. Customer goes buying today, a skilsaw for $299-99 and one for 59-99. The smart guy buys the 299 one, the other 9/10 buy the 59 one. Thats the way it is

Buying a TV? I'll always buy there one with lots of zeroes after the price.

Mehrts

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#2698365 26-Apr-2021 21:24

I've sometimes wondered how bare shop shelves would be if we could instantly apply a 'country-of-origin' filter, and enable the 'China Filter'.

Some stores would be totally empty!

jpoc

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#2698523 27-Apr-2021 06:52

Rikkitic:

Washing machines are another pet peeve of mine. The programmes used to be controlled by mechanical dials. These worked fine and lasted forever. Then they were replaced by chips and LEDs. These constantly break down. The electronics add nothing at all to the old mechanical programmes except some fancy lights. They just introduce more points of failure.

Yeah right.

I just bought a new washing machine with all those fancy lights.

When you turn it on, it weighs the load and decides whether it is running a full or partial load and adjusts the water and energy use to match.

I am not aware of that feature being offered on any mechanically governed machine.

Now, I could do that manually and indeed I used to do so but I would expect that the vast majority of users would not do so.

Those owners will see significant reductions in water and power charges. Probably enough to pay for the machine over 5 years.

Dingbatt

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#2698529 27-Apr-2021 07:20

Rikkitic:

Another whinge:

Humanity's waste is killing the planet. This comes up from time to time, but I think it is worth mentioning again. I live on a farm, so no urban services. We collect our refuse and burn it or take it into town to the recycling.........snip

Can I assume that because you are so concerned about the planet that you ensure that no toxins are released into the environment by your pyromania? And that you capture and sequester any CO2. And that you use any energy released by the combustion rather than let it be absorbed by the atmosphere?

Living in the countryside isn’t an excuse. As multiple people point out, it doesn’t matter where you are or how small your individual contribution is.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

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