on the superior build quality of 50's and 60's cameras

[Pherdinand]

I tell you a weird example. Sometimes i use raytrace-type software to generate "photorealistic" images of 3D objects. Plenty of programs are out there for such thing - Lightwave, 3D studio, etc. Very expensive, very complicated gigabytes of software. However, one of the best interfaces imo is the POV-Ray called one. It does not use a mouse (unless you insist on it). Could run on a 10y old computer (although very slowly rendering ).

 

[Gordon Coale]

I still have my Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter that I bought when I was 13. Maybe I should get it working again.

 

[Pherdinand]

My father has a german Erika typewriter, made in the 1940's. Aside of a few letters that fell off and had to be replaced, it still works like a champ. The "ding" at the end of line sounds so cool...!

When i was in highschool, i put a loooong roll of paper into it and wrote "poetry" on it. 🙂) Did not fill up more than 10 meters, however. Should still have the roll somewhere.

 

[jon_flanders]

The worst examples of planned obsolescence are computers and software. Every two or three years I'm forced to spend thousands of dollars to upgrade my equipment and programs. Old desktops and notebooks are piling up around the house. Word processing was supposed to save time and make life easier, but no typewriter required the constant updating, virus protection, spam control, etc. I now have to do. ."

Hmm. Sound like you are in the world of the Dark Tower. I'm running the latest Linux and dual booting W98 when needed on a AMD 1ghz system with 512mb ram that handles everything I throw at, the most processor intensive being photography. No worries about viruses etc. I can see no reason to upgrade this system for quite some time, even though it is a few years old.

Excluding hardware melt-downs, of course.

I find that a lot of Linux apps, like the KDE desktop system, are running marginally faster on each iteration.

 

[dmr]

He said that the Singer company encouraged owners to trade in ther older machines for newer ones because the older ones could be repaired almost indefinitely ...

Very interesting thread ... 🙂 ... and something I can very much relate to. 🙂

Both my mom and grandmother had Singers and those were the machines I learned on. I don't EVER remember those having to go into the shop. My mom's (a portable) even survived being dropped off a wobbly TV tray {blush} once and you would never know it. These things were built like TANKS. All metal. I think these were really 40's vintage, I know they were around before I ever was. 🙂

My current machine is a Simplicity Quilt-n-Craft. Good machine, really, but I know it's not built as well as the Singers. All outer parts are plastic, it does stall on a seam sometimes (those Singers would bend a needle before they would stall) and if it snags or wraps up, I know better than to really force it. The old Singers could "take a licking and keep on ticking" to steal a phrase. 🙂

Does that sound like the cameras of the 50's and 60's to you too?

I can't speak for the cameras of the 50's or early 60's. I guess the Spotmatic came out in late 60's and my brother had a pre-Spotmatic Pentax (H3 or something, meter on top of the prism). I currently use a K1000, which I think came out first in the late 70's. These cameras are/were mostly metal and yes, built to last forever.

Whenever I go to Wally World or someplace that has those new Nikon SLRs on display I'll pick it up just to feel how light it is. These use a lot of plastic, and no, I don't think these are ever intended to last 30 years.

Our culture has moved from thinking of things like cameras, appliances, TVs, etc., as long-term devices to thinking of them as disposable devices. That's really the fault of they way society thinks to day and we're all responsible for it.

And yes, we're conditioned to believe that we always need the Latest And Greatest<tm> of everything.

More and more people seem to be going digital now just because that's what everybody is doing. 🙂 🙂

 

[dmr]

The worst examples of planned obsolescence are computers and software. Every two or three years I'm forced to spend thousands of dollars to upgrade my equipment and programs.

🙁 I've carried laptops with me for well over 10 years and I'm resigned to the fact that if I get 2-3 years out of a laptop I'm doing great. 🙁

They NEVER made laptops like they used to do! <lol> 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙁

They are NOT built like tanks. They never were.

They either break physically, die electronically, or just become functionally obsolete within 2-3 years. 🙁

The worst part is loading the new one, getting rid of all of the ads, come-ons, and just plain spam the new one has on it, then getting it the way you want and then
crossing fingers that the first time you take it on the road for real that it will really connect and do what you want it to do.

Yeah I know, bitch-bitch-bitch! <semi grin>

 

[Oldprof]

gee, if ya have an old notebook that would be good for writing only (word processing), i can send you my address ...

The problem is I still have stuff on those old notebooks that I use. For example, I keep my expense records in a DOS data base program on an old Toshiba notebook (also backed up on an older desktop). I could switch to a Windows XP tax program, but I'm comfortable with my old way of doing it. I also use DOS applications to store and analyze my anthropological research data.

 

[back alley]

it was a long shot.
i took it.
i missed.

i really don't mind dragging the pc around, but the cords a pain...

😉
joe

 

[NoTx]

...compare a real Browning with what bears that name these days... William

Hold up there a second. I have an A-Bolt II Varmint Special .308 with BOSS. I easily expect that to well out last me. I have put over a thousand high power rounds through it... and it is still under .25 MOA at 100 yrds (bipod + rear mono pod, 4 rounds Black Hills Moly). To me... that is real lasting power.

Now I would agree with the argument in general... but not all Brownings are created equal🙂

 

[NoTx]

I've carried laptops with me for well over 10 years and I'm resigned to the fact that if I get 2-3 years out of a laptop I'm doing great. 🙁

They are NOT built like tanks. They never were.

Have you ever seen a GRiD? Back in the eighties? There was a Marine unit that wanted a new windows laptop (I think they were PIIs at the time). So as they were flying in for a landing, over 30m in the air... they tossed out their grid. It landed... the cover came off. They took in their brocken laptop for a trade in to the base techs. The techs took it, bolted the case back on and booted it up. "Looks fine to me." And they did not get the new laptop that day. I never did hear what they did to get a new one... most have been drastic🙂

 

[aizan]

i forgot what they were called, but a friend of mine into computers had a keyboard good for up to some bajillion odd key strokes, and a laptop that could be thrown across the room or dropped from ten feet and not know the difference. if i didn't see it, i wouldn't have believed it.

 

[stet]

I used an old Tandy Model 200 laptop as recently as 2001 for writing articles. Up until then, it couldn't be beat for a portable writing machine, and it was made in 1984 (actually, it's the first clamshell laptop design) Man, I dropped that thing good on a few occasions. A lot of journalists held on to these machines for as long as they could because they were indestructible, reliable and until USB ports, mostly compatible. I got 20 hours on four rechargeable AAs, and there was no boot time. And since there was no save function necessary in the text program, you could turn it on, type and turn it off all within seconds. The only reason I stopped using mine was beacuse the paper I was at no longer used Power PCs, so I was stranded without the serial port. And I know that throughout the 90s, journalists and news associations were collecting the computers to donate to reporters developing countries, so they may still be in use in some newsrooms.

Sadly, when I did need a repair (old internal ni-cad leak), I had to send it to one of two guys (one in Minnesota and another in Mass) who could fix it. The NiCad was the one counting down the clock; IIRC, it should've been expected to expire then, roughly 20 years after it was new.

Anyway, the old-school technology isn't abandoned, though. I now have a more sleek AlphaSmart, which can play with the USB ports, but is basically a Tandy.

 

[rbiemer]

I just hope every body here realizes that we are considered anti social at best and subversive at worst for not buying the latest gee whizz gizmo. After all we aren't helping The Economy and as somebody from leica apparently said we are forcing the makers of this stuff into dire business straits.
I am happy to be "recycling" this old equiptment except that the stuff isn't through with its first cycle yet. Maybe when I'm gone and some nephew of mine has used the gear for a few years....
Rob

 

[DougK]

Cool! I always wanted to be a subversive. 🙂

 

[GeneW]

I used an old Tandy Model 200 laptop as recently as 2001 for writing articles. Up until then, it couldn't be beat for a portable writing machine, and it was made in 1984 (actually, it's the first clamshell laptop design) Man, I dropped that thing good on a few occasions.
[snip]

Anyway, the old-school technology isn't abandoned, though. I now have a more sleek AlphaSmart, which can play with the USB ports, but is basically a Tandy.

I hear you. I owned a TRS-80 Model 100 and pumped about 100,000 published words through the thing in the 80's. Wonderful concept and machine. I tried it again recently but found the LCD panel a bit too dim for my eyes today, but man I loved that machine.

I've replaced it with a Palm IIIc and Palm (Stowaway) Portable Keyboard. That, with a shareware text editor in it called QE gives me a highly portable writing machine that slips into a pocket of my camera bag.

Gene

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

Ok, here is a sick and twisted thought. A paranoid and somewhat out-there thought...

Imagine someone.. let's say Blofeld (of James Bond fame) detonates a nuke high in the atmosphere over North America... The only people who will be able to document the ensuing chaos (until JB sets everybody straight that is) will be those of us with our Zorkis, FEDs, Canons, Leicas and Petris. OH!- and writing about it on our Olivetti portable typewriters... Because everything that needs circuitry and current would be toast.

I have got to stop watching cable late at night. Told you it was twisted. 😀

 

[Penguin_101]

Oldprof - that "need to upgrade" is a false need. A 10 y old PS/2 computer could do its job exactly the same way as 10 years ago. Update is needed only if you want to use more "user-friendly" software, internet or peripheria that needs better hardware...which needs drivers and faster processor...and memory...and then, but only then, you're in the diabolic circle. If you just keep on typewriting on it, can last 10 more years without a prob.

Sometimes I have the feeling that softwares get so gigantic only because that way they force you to buy bigger storage and memory units...

Yeah, I have an Apple IIGS that still does what it and it's programs were made to do, and did.

 

[richiedcruz]

My father has a german Erika typewriter, made in the 1940's. Aside of a few letters that fell off and had to be replaced, it still works like a champ. The "ding" at the end of line sounds so cool...!

When i was in highschool, i put a loooong roll of paper into it and wrote "poetry" on it. 🙂) Did not fill up more than 10 meters, however. Should still have the roll somewhere.

🙂 That reminds me of how I learned how to type. When I was five my sister borrowed my grandfather's Royal typewriter, to bang out the invitations for her sixteenth birthday party. She thought that would be more grown up. This was way before inkjet printers. Anyway, she had something like 100 invitations to type up and send out the next day. By the morning she was so annoyed that she swore that she would never type again.

By contrast, I was fascinated by the big grey machine, with the green keys. Since I was five, I was not typing out anything that resembled words; but I was off and running. And, at this very moment, I have a big black Smith Corona sitting on a typing stand next to my desk, where I am typing this post out. And I still use it just about every day. I found out a long time ago that my hands are a little too well conditioned to the wide spacing of a typewriter keyboard to be able to get used to a computer keyboard.

Richie

PS 🙂 My current Smith Corona is a vintage model before they were labelled Smith Coronas. I used to have a seventies model, but the E broke off. My current one has been going for over seven decades, and it still has its E. I guess cameras and sewing machines were not the only things that have gotten worse since the sixties. 😉

 

[Pherdinand]

Ok, here is a sick and twisted thought. A paranoid and somewhat out-there thought...

Imagine someone.. let's say Blofeld (of James Bond fame) detonates a nuke high in the atmosphere over North America... The only people who will be able to document the ensuing chaos (until JB sets everybody straight that is) will be those of us with our Zorkis, FEDs, Canons, Leicas and Petris. OH!- and writing about it on our Olivetti portable typewriters... Because everything that needs circuitry and current would be toast.

I have got to stop watching cable late at night. Told you it was twisted. 😀

That's indeed twisted, Bob. I wonder if you still would have your fingers to press the shutter release. Not to talk about the interaction between photographic emulsion and gamma radiation. 🙂)

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I recently found a "Triumph 841 Oscillograph" while cleaning out the Attic in Nikki's little school. Rather than pitch it, I brought it into work and took it apart. Got the Tubes cleaned and back into place. Cleaned out all of the variable resisters and got it fired up.

Age? I told one of our Engineers that I had an old Oscilloscope, and he commented that he had a really old Tektronix that went to 10Mhz. I told him this one peaked out at 60Kcycles. It's from the mid-40's. The really funny thing is that I found replacement parts for it in my lab, such as the old bakelite knobs and switch handles. Parts handed down from one retiring engineer to another. Blofeld would not stand a chance against it. My Lab is EMI shielded.

And I still use Wordstar to write Assembly Language Code.