Collecting, Hacking and the Spooks (was: Gulf War, dummies,

Devices today are made to last untill the warranty just expires. They are made cheaply so you buy the same item again in a year or 2 keeping the companies cranking them out. If EVERY washing machine lasted 35 years the market for the machines would die in a few years and the companies making them would be out of buisiness. That and most people wouldnt want to spend 5x the cost of the cheap washing machines to get the good model. Ever notice that repair shops that used to thrive repairing tv's, stereo's, computers, vacuum cleaners etc are now non existant? Everything is built to get tossed, not to be fixed and reused. High quality and commodity equipmet dont mix. The reason your 10+ year old computers still work is because they had a high markup making the manufacturer alot of money. Take away the profit and all you are left with is cutting cost (crappy components, cutting corners) just to make a small profit competeing with all the other widget makers. PC's today are the cheapest and most powerfull we have ever seen.. but they wont last 10+ years of constant use either. That and very few companies are making a profit selling the commodity stuff anymore, they are living off the fat of the good old days and when thats gone so are they. Sucks that maxtors 3 year warranties just got dropped to 1 year.. you know they dropped the quality also. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric Smith" <eric(a)brouhaha.com> To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 8:29 PM Subject: Re: Collecting, Hacking and the Spooks (was: Gulf War, dummies,