CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[perisoft]

[perisoft]

[Curt Palme]

[Curt Palme]

[Jeremy112]

[Curt Palme]

Seems like there are two camps here, those that want everything of the latest technology RIGHT NOW, at the rock bottom price regardless of the expected lifespan of said product, as it will be obsolete in a year anyways, and those that could care less about what's the 'it' thing right now, but want to buy a quality piece of equipment and have it last 2-3 times as long as a typical piece of equipment lasts right now.

I'm definitely in the latter category.

I'll never buy first generation anything, I was a really late adopter to MP3 players, probably 5 years after the first ones came out, and since it died 3 months ago, I've done without, and have simply burned MP3 CDs to play in the car. I can and will do without if need be. That's the way it was in the past, seems that a lot of people don't want that to be the case today.

[Curt Palme]

Seems like there are two camps here, those that want everything of the latest technology RIGHT NOW, at the rock bottom price regardless of the expected lifespan of said product, as it will be obsolete in a year anyways, and those that could care less about what's the 'it' thing right now, but want to buy a quality piece of equipment and have it last 2-3 times as long as a typical piece of equipment lasts right now.

I'm definitely in the latter category.

I'll never buy first generation anything, I was a really late adopter to MP3 players, probably 5 years after the first ones came out, and since it died 3 months ago, I've done without, and have simply burned MP3 CDs to play in the car. I can and will do without if need be. That's the way it was in the past, seems that a lot of people don't want that to be the case today.

[AnalogRocks]

Say Curt, if you ever come across the MP2 player that is a cassette tape I'll tape it.

[AnalogRocks]

Say Curt, if you ever come across the MP2 player that is a cassette tape I'll tape it.

[Curt Palme]

A WHAT?

[Curt Palme]

A WHAT?

[km987654]

[perisoft]

[Curt Palme]

For YOU, maybe. For the vast majority of us, something that isn't cutting edge is just fine. If nothing else, it helps with the natural resources that we are tearing through at an insane rate.

I still say that if you want cutting edge/ultra high performance, you should pay for it. You seem set wanting to argue with me, but if I can't convince you that building stuff with a better profit margin and better reliability goes on heck of a long way to save this planet, then you certainly will never convince me that cranking out disposable junk is the way of the future. We'll have to agree to disagree I guess.

From all of the people that I talk to, you're certainly in the minority though. Everyone I've talked to, from millionaires to people that buy refurb stuff off me on CL because they simply can't afford to buy new even from WalMart, no one likes the disposability of electronics the way it is now.

ONe last shot at ya.

Let's say that 500Gb hard drives are $300, and the life expectancy is 10 years. You only need it for two. It therefore is reasonable to consider that the HD will last another 8 years, right? So why not take that HD once you've installed a 2TB HD that ends up being $300 due to price drops over that 2 year period, and install it into some older spare computer you have, or worst case give it/sell it to someone else. You get some money back, they get a HD with a lifespan of 8 years at less than what it costs to be new.

The way it is now, if you buy that 500GB hard drive for say $99 with a life expectancy of 4 years, in 2 years you'll throw it out. That's a waste of natural resources. (and don't you dare come back with 'I don't give a crap what happens to the world in 40 years, as I'll be dead')

BTW, I'd think those 5-8 year old 30 did hard drives are built a lot better than the 500 gig drives of today. I could be wrong though.

[Curt Palme]

For YOU, maybe. For the vast majority of us, something that isn't cutting edge is just fine. If nothing else, it helps with the natural resources that we are tearing through at an insane rate.

I still say that if you want cutting edge/ultra high performance, you should pay for it. You seem set wanting to argue with me, but if I can't convince you that building stuff with a better profit margin and better reliability goes on heck of a long way to save this planet, then you certainly will never convince me that cranking out disposable junk is the way of the future. We'll have to agree to disagree I guess.

From all of the people that I talk to, you're certainly in the minority though. Everyone I've talked to, from millionaires to people that buy refurb stuff off me on CL because they simply can't afford to buy new even from WalMart, no one likes the disposability of electronics the way it is now.

ONe last shot at ya.

Let's say that 500Gb hard drives are $300, and the life expectancy is 10 years. You only need it for two. It therefore is reasonable to consider that the HD will last another 8 years, right? So why not take that HD once you've installed a 2TB HD that ends up being $300 due to price drops over that 2 year period, and install it into some older spare computer you have, or worst case give it/sell it to someone else. You get some money back, they get a HD with a lifespan of 8 years at less than what it costs to be new.

The way it is now, if you buy that 500GB hard drive for say $99 with a life expectancy of 4 years, in 2 years you'll throw it out. That's a waste of natural resources. (and don't you dare come back with 'I don't give a crap what happens to the world in 40 years, as I'll be dead')

BTW, I'd think those 5-8 year old 30 did hard drives are built a lot better than the 500 gig drives of today. I could be wrong though.

[perisoft]

The environment line is a red herring. We can reduce all the waste we want and it won't matter a bit; the only real problem we have is power generation. Solve power and you solve everything. Power gives developing nations options other than deforestation. It gives you ways to recycle or flat-out get rid of stuff you don't want. It gives you new options for building stuff in the first place.

Unfortunately, the only way the level of power generation we need can be achieved is via nuclear or geothermal - both of which are being studiously ignored by greens, who seem more intent on reducing quality of life than improving the quality of the earth. Everyone is running around like headless chickens wondering what to do about oil, putting up solar panels and windmills that can generate tiny percentages of what we need - and then telling me what kind of light bulb to use while ignoring fridges and air conditioners and washing machines. It's marketing hypocrisy.

You want to solve the natural resources problems? Solve power. Nuclear power short-term, and geothermal when we can develop the materials to handle it. All people think when they hear about nuclear power is Chernobyl - which was run into the ground by bureaucrats until failure was a foregone conclusion that had nothing to do with the tech - and three mile island, which didn't even hurt anybody.

Breeder reactors use their own waste as fuel. Storing what's left is easy, despite people thinking the sh*t's all gonna blow up when it goes by on a railway car. It's safe, it has no CO2 emissions, and it can provide enormous amounts of power. But we're going to piss away our last opportunity to use it while the world burns around us, because electric cars and stationery with leaves at the top are more marketable - and end up with people thinking absurd things, such as that the disposal of electronics has any even remotely significant impact on the problem at hand.

If the problems are as bad as you say, and 40 years down the line we're screwed - trust me, longer-lived hard drives and TVs ain't gonna help. It wouldn't help if nobody ever bought a computer or TV again. The only solution to any of this is power, and it's the one thing we have a practical, waiting solution for, which is ignored in the name of a masturbatory false-alternative marketing blitz that'll f*ck us all while telling us that using oil-fired grid power to charge our leafy-green electric cars will save the world.

f*ck that. You want to help the world? Stop jawing about sustainability and pollution and oil and garbage, and start pushing for a practical solution. It might be unpleasant, and it might not be perfect - but it'll actually work, unlike every other option out there. The wind, sun, and sacrifice bull**** in vogue now is, as they say, rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic.

[Curt Palme]

I'm gonna stop. It really seems that we're on different planets in our viewpoints. I don't buy your last statement at all regarding power.


And you almost suckered me into typing another paragraph on power, but nah, I'm done.

[Curt Palme]

I'm gonna stop. It really seems that we're on different planets in our viewpoints. I don't buy your last statement at all regarding power.


And you almost suckered me into typing another paragraph on power, but nah, I'm done.

[huggy]

Walmart is not to blame here,nor are other large scale cheap manufacturers/suppliers/wholesalers/retailers. We the consumer are solely to blame,we want cheap,simple as that. You wanna buy a new hard drive? who here doesn't go online and look for the brand he wants at the cheapest price? We blame the banks for their excessive fee's, yet shareholders of said bank would demand heads roll if there isn't an obscene quarterly profit.Same goes for any other large corp,they need to turn large profits quarterly to keep us the shareholder happy and line their pockets with fat profits.

It's the way of the world ATM and if you don't adapt you will sink,people don't give a damn about quality anymore,it's about price,period! There are exceptions of course but these are a rarety in today's day and age.
Disposable electronics is the least of our problems.



Dave

[Jeremy112]

I think this whole new tv's suck thing has been blown way out of proportion

Happy Halloween

[stefuel]

I'm probably one of the worst offenders (although mine are of a technical nature) that "off topic posts shouldn't be here.
And especially where it involves politics, economy and religon.
It serves no usefull purpose and ends up pitting otherwise good forum members against one and other
If you get the urge to rant, go out in the back yard and bark at the moon.

OK, let's get back on forum topic, CRT projectors and breasts

[Jeremy112]

[perisoft]

[dvh99]

solar cells have a place in the future there is no denial.
developing of newer solar cells is ongoing, they have foils that work somewhat similar to fotosynthesis and can be put on buildings and work even when there is shimmer and the sunlight doesnt hit it at a 90degr angle.
the problem is that you cant tax sunlight.

[stefuel]

So what's the first thing I here when I turn on the news this am? It's expected that by Xmas, a price war on consumer grade tv's will result in about a 25% price drop on most flat screens.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it

[Curt Palme]

Fine then, I'll predict one of of the major electronics companies to go bankrupt sooner than later then. Of course they won't REALLY go under, gov't bailouts and political intervention will save them, and life goes on.

[Curt Palme]

Fine then, I'll predict one of of the major electronics companies to go bankrupt sooner than later then. Of course they won't REALLY go under, gov't bailouts and political intervention will save them, and life goes on.