Older version is preferred

[Roger Hicks]

What's a few hundred years between friends?

BTW, my comment about hair splitting was based on a discussion that rumbled on for weeks about what wood should be used for making a bread board! The answers sycamore, btw. At one point thick reference books were being consulted about Young's Modulus of Elasticity for various woods but I don't think they got the calculators out to do all the sums. I benefited from it by discovering the figures for Ramin but it was short lived as it went on the protected list soon after. I still search it out as avidly as I search for old camera and accessories in flea markets.

Regards, David

PS As for old versions of Windows, at least you had some say in what the things did then. Ad my current spreadsheets and word processers were acquired with Wndows 3...

Dear David,

Or even a couple of thousand. This is certainly more rational than worrying about the perfect wood for bread-boards -- though I'd have thought that antibacterial properties are at least as important as Young's modulus. What little research I've seen suggests that wood is a better antibacterial than plastic.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Yet another thought-disposable income is higher, so folk are more likely to replace rather than repair things, and buy that replacement on price, so the manufacturers respond.

Remember how old a 10 year old car seemed in the '60s? Remember when getting to 100,000 miles seemed like a big deal? Remember RUST?

Oh, I dunno. My TR2 was around 20 years old (early 70s); my Rover 3 litre, 10 years old (late 60s)... Neither seemed that old. Nor the 1936 MG TA I nearly bought. Nor a school friend's XK120.

But, oh, yes, rust...

Cheers,

R.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

I think the rot set in when the engineers stopped designing things that the repairers had a say in and the sales people took over the design spec.

And as for those so and sos who decided that the thing had to be connected to a special computer costing several thousands for even a minor repair, well, um, I think I'd better go and lie down quietly somewhere.

Regards, David

 

[dave lackey]

Considering the ME is a cheaper, stripped down version of the M9, and that the M9-P is the most highly refined commonly available M9, this is an interesting insight.

The M (model 240?) with its electric illuminated VF mask system, live view and video, is a radical departure from the original concept and the M9-P, could well be the digital M4.

Great observation, IMO.🙂

 

[goamules]

I'm an occupational technologist, but avocational Luddite. By that I mean I work with a lot of high technology; aerospace and communication systems training, so I enjoy hobbies that take me back to a simpler age.

While cars are much better than those 60s machines I drove in high school, a lot of modern appliances are not. Case in point, refrigerators. My mom still has one she bought 25 years ago, and before that another lasted her 30 years. I have had 3 crash and burn in 18 years. I just had to replace the one I bought brand new a few years ago. The compressor froze, and it would cost about the same amount to fix as buying another. I agree, getting a new fridge for $400 in 2013 is like getting one for $75 in 1970! But still, they just don't last like they did back then.

There are old things that would not be affordable if manufactured today. Railroad grade pocketwatches (about 1 man-year went into making a pocket watch in 1890), Non-electronic cameras, some tools (I just bought a 1915 geared hand drill for 20 bucks), guns, and other things built in the golden age of industrialization are incredible values today. An 1800s large format lens for 8x10 cost a year's salary and was only bought by an entrepreneur ready to start a studio photography business. They were hand ground, tested, and sold to studios that sometimes used them for several generations. I have several from prior to the Civil War, and I can tell you nothing is made today that can do what these old lenses can.

So enjoy using the old stuff, there is often no substitute!