Don't Be a Luddite
My desire to Fix Everything And Keep It Running In Perpetuity has run straight up against the reality that Sometimes Things Really Do Become Obsolete. As an illustration, we have several case studies:
Case study #1—I gave the husband my old Mac tower when I bought my iMac a year ago. That Mac tower is still a fine, robust machine and more than enough for what he needs. It was old enough (circa 2009) that it didn’t have built-in WiFi (I had it hooked up to the router via an Ethernet cable.) My computer guru, Greg, installed a WiFi card in it. Lately, though, the computer has been dropping the WiFi connection. I didn’t think it was the card, but the husband was annoyed because in order to reconnect to the network, he had to go through a series of keystrokes that took a few minutes. The husband will spend hours patiently hand-finishing a concrete slab to perfection, but he has no tolerance for technology that doesn’t work.
Our router is an Airport base station of the same vintage as that Mac tower. I thought it was probably time to upgrade it, but Apple no longer makes Airport base stations. Instead, they recommend the Netgear Orbi, which is a router/satellite combination that creates a WiFi “mesh” around your house.
I asked myself, “Where in Kalispell do I have the best odds for finding an Orbi in stock so I don’t have to drive to five different stores?” I went to Best Buy (or Best Try, as the husband refers to them). They had the Orbi, but only in the router/one satellite configuration. I was hoping to find the two satellite configuration. I bought it anyway, thinking it was my best chance at finding what I needed.
And then I went to Costco. Lo and behold—they had the Orbi router/two satellite configuration for $30 less than what I had paid at Best Buy. I went back to Best Buy and explained the situation. As I wasn’t in a huge hurry, I was willing to wait for them to order the bigger system if they would match Costco’s price.
“We’ll just refund your money and you can go back to Costco and buy it there,” the woman at the customer service counter told me. “That’s easier.”
I wondered how Best Buy corporate would feel about that advice, but oh well. I went back to Costco and bought it there.
The network is far more robust now, and as far as I know—because the IT department has not received any complaints—the husband’s computer is staying connected to the network. I also cancelled YouTube TV after the trial because we weren’t watching it. Instead, I signed us up for YouTube Premium. He’s very happy not to have to watch ads, and each of us has a customized YouTube feed.
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Case study #2—The husband very helpfully took apart my 24 year-old LaserJet 1200 printer a few weeks ago and oiled the squeaky bearing. Unfortunately, the bearing has started to squeak again. I think it may be worn out past fixing.
I also have a Xerox Phaser 8560 bought when I was still printing hard copies of my knitting patterns for stores. It works well, but the “crayon” ink it requires is getting harder to find and more expensive and the printer wastes a great deal of it trying to keep the print heads clean. If I leave it turned on, it will spit out a test page of paper completely covered in four colors of ink once a day. You can imagine how long the ink lasts at that rate. I’ve only been using the printer as I need it.
I did the math. For one year’s cost of ink for that printer, I literally could buy four new B&W laser printers.
In addition, we have a fax machine (another HP product that has to be about 20 years old) for which I can no longer get ink cartridges. (Yes, we still use our fax machine quite a bit.) I now have three large paperweights on my desk—a B&W laser printer, a color laser printer, and a fax machine—none of which is reliably functional. While I am loathe to add to the landfill problem, I can no longer justify keeping these machines around if they don’t work or the cost of ownership is prohibitive. (We must have electronics recycling somewhere in town.)
I ordered a Brother B&W all-in-one from Costco yesterday and got the shipping notification this morning. We bought a similar machine for our church a few months ago and it is working well. If I need to print in color, I can hook up a one of the color inkjet printers that the girls left here. I will be glad of the extra desk space, too, now that one machine is replacing three.
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Case study #3—The husband also replaced the timer on the 24 year-old Amana dryer. Although the timer works now, the dryer doesn’t provide heat on the regular setting. I have to dry clothes on the “delicate” setting, and as you can imagine, it takes longer. I will be shopping for a new dryer in the next couple of months.
Am I happy about the outlay of cash for new stuff? Not really. I try to make myself feel better by amortizing the cost over time, although I know that the replacement items are unlikely to last as long as their predecessors did.
I noted to the husband that the BMW dealer in Spokane is now pushing a program to help owners take care of their “vintage” —2012 and older—BMWs. And the service guy told me not to get rid of my diesel any sooner than I absolutely have to. It makes me wonder if people really would prefer less complicated vehicles. At what point have we gone past the point of diminishing returns when it comes to technology?
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I did the last section of pieced border on the commission quilt yesterday afternoon. (Thank heaven for low-tech hobbies.) I’ll put the next border on today. It’s comprised of 5-1/2” wide strips of fabric so it shouldn’t take long. And if I can stick to the schedule, I’ll get the final border made and attached on Saturday. Yay.
I”m still plugging along on the embroidered needle case project. I have almost one and a half birds (of three) done:
I really do need some kind of pouch to hold my embroidery supplies when I am traveling. I’ve got several patterns and just need to make the time to put one together.