Are we a disposable society?
blittled
Posts: 681
With the new Kindles and IPhones coming out I've been wondering if we live in a disposable society. My Kindle Fire has no easy way to replace the battery so it screams "Replace me when the battery dies in two years". On September 21 when the Iphone 5 comes out are all the old Iphones heading for the junk yard or onto Ebay where Erco scarfs them up as great deals? Call me old fashion but I want to keep my stuff until it wears out even though since it was made in China that only means an extra year! My money isn't disposable. Back in the old days they kept things until they wore out. Just imagine the following in 2nd century Rome between two centurions:
Sparticus: Brutus, you can't go to war!
Brutus: Why, Sparticus?
Sparticus: You have the iShield 4 which is SOOOO first century!
Brutus: My shield serves me well.
Spatricus: The iShield 5 is 10% bigger, 8% lighter and 5% stronger, besides don't you want to be one of the first Centurions to have one when you meet up with the enemy?
Brutus: Sounds great. I'll throw my shield in the ditch over there and run back to the armory for my iShield 5!
Sparticus: Brutus, you can't go to war!
Brutus: Why, Sparticus?
Sparticus: You have the iShield 4 which is SOOOO first century!
Brutus: My shield serves me well.
Spatricus: The iShield 5 is 10% bigger, 8% lighter and 5% stronger, besides don't you want to be one of the first Centurions to have one when you meet up with the enemy?
Brutus: Sounds great. I'll throw my shield in the ditch over there and run back to the armory for my iShield 5!
Comments
The CEDs that go bad and go into recycling are the least of our problems. It seems like we're throwing a lot away because we are, but all that gold plated and aluminum goodness is devoured, not dumped into the ocean like most other trash.
Anyway, you don't have to participate if you don't want to. I've had the same cell phone for 7 years, without even changing the battery: http://www.tracfone.com/phone_detail.jsp?contentID=PCTFMTW376P_EN&title=Motorola%20W376g
You can buy quality tools, as well. Don't get K-Mart furniture: buy the furniture that comes with a 10 year warranty or build your own. Choose things that are robust and well made, instead of just inexpensive. Take care of and maintain your things: do your own preventive maintenance instead of preventive replacement.
"Disposable society"? You mean we can throw this society away and get another one? Some would say not a bad idea.
Frankly I find it rather sad when batteries are created in ways that are no longer generic just to achieve this end.
My first notebook was an EEEpc that ended up being replaced due to battery issues. To clarify, the charging of the battery was behaving very odd and trying to get a consensus of what to do on the internet resulted in me buying a new (and larger) battery pack that would NOT charge for some reason. I did try to provide an alternative power supply, but it would refuse to charge with a jury rig. Finally, I capitulated and purchased a Toshiba NB250 as a replacement.
Now the Toshiba NB250 is facing a similar battery replacement issue and I am confronted with buying yet another new notebook computer or another replacement battery pack with the risk of that not working. The fact that MS refuses to transfer MS Office license to the replacement just makes the issue more disgusting.
Going back to the EEEpc, a Taiwanese friend took the broken netbook to local service, they replaced the wall wart and the original battery pack revived. But the new, larger battery pack never did work and was cannibalized for the 6 18650 cells. If it was merely a failed wall wart, I don't see why only the old battery pack would not work with it on a jury rig or why the replacement was never able to work. Could the BIOS have been reset by Asus as part of the service process?
My concern is that the BIOS and OS systems are making us think that a product it at the end of its useful life when it may not be. Any manufacturer can create a BIOS that claims a battery, a harddisk, or other item has failed after it has been in use for a given amount of time and block proper functioning. I wonder if we are entering an era where 'creative failures' are used to enhance replacement sales.
So now, I have a Toshiba NB250 that is giving me a popup message (in Ubuntu) that my battery pack is damaged or old and I must replace it. And I dread the idea of doing so as I fear that any fix is going to be a rather long and disappointing story of being exploited.
The fact that the new era of recycling has eliminated salvage of spare parts by immediately breaking down everything into raw materials is forcing us to buy new rather than to seek repair. Repair services are no longer a viable occupation. I pity the TV repairman as their days are numbered.
A valid concern. As you are using an open source operating system, Ubuntu, I would guess it's not possible there. Someone would soon look into it and report an incorrect warning as a bug.
The BIOS on the other hand is closed source software and it can lie to you all it likes. And here is the prime motivation behind the free software movement as proposed by Richard Stallman such a long time ago. The thing that kicked it of was his gripe with a misbehaving printer that he was not allowed to fix (no source) but the situation is the same today. And now they want to put keys into the BIOS to lock you out of your own system software even more.
This whole deal with a billion different incompatible batteries and wall warts is distusting. I would be happy if my phone ran off of 4 rechargable NiMh AA cells from my local super market. Even if the phone gets a bit bigger as a result. I could then swap and charge batteries to my hearts content.
And get this, If I pull the battery from my Galaxy S phone it will not power up even if connected to the USB charger. It want's to talk to that chip in the battery to operate. I guess that is normal for phones now a days but I find it appalling.
2 x 5/4 AAA cells...
Never did find them in stores.
Laptop batteries...
As the monitoring of battery-charge is done through the BIOS on most new computers, there's no real way to get a fair assessment of the battery status any more.
On my old iBook(last 12" G4 model) originally came with a 4200mAH pack, which was later replaced with a 4400mAH pack(the first was of Sony 'easyfire' construction). And on that computer I could load an app that not jsut gave me an accurate voltage, but how many charge cycles it had, original capacity and an estimate of current 'full capacity'.
(The 4200 were down to about 3900mAH when it was replaced. Thanks! Sony!)
I have an old Psion MC400 laptop in my collection...
Not only could it use a pack of 8 x 1.5V AA lakalines(approx 60Hours runtime), but it had the choice between a 600maH/7.2V Ni-cad and a 1000mAH/7.2V Ni-cad pack.
Or you could roll your own...
There was NO charging circuitry built into the machine itself!
There was a 12V line in the compartment, or you could feed 12V through the external 'barrel plug' on the pack. The charging circuitry was built into the pack itself.
(Doesn't take much for Ni-cad)
In theory, it could be refitted with Li-ion, lead-acid or possibly even a fuel-cell if you could build it small enough...
They did the same with the HC-range of industrial handhelds, too, and on that I think there were upgraded packs available.
One thing I made certain of when I bought my latest cell-phone(Sony Ericson c702, 2008) was that there were 'emergency chargers' using AAs available that worked with it.
I only use Canon Powershot A-series digital cameras as they use AA cells.
My Garmin GPS also uses AAs...
I have a large pile of AA ni-mhs, and they're all labelled with 'pack number' so that I never mix cells with different age or usage, and I make certain that I always recharge cells that belong together at the same time.
I even have 'holders' that are used for inserting AAs into C or D size compartments.
No throw-away item, this.
The answer is yes. But we also live in a disposable body. About every 10 years or so, your body discards one set of molecules and swaps out those molecules for other molecules it takes in from the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/02/science/02cell.html?pagewanted=all&_moc.semityn.www
I am about to put a gas powered weed trimmer in front of my house with a FREE sign on it, just like I did with my gas-powered lawnmower 3 years ago, because I'm pretty sure it's got a blown head gasket and I can earn the money to buy a replacement for it far quicker than I could troubleshoot and fix it. The lawnmower wasn't there when the garbage men came and I'm sure the weed trimmer won't be either; the calculus is different for someone who constantly messes with small gas engines and who has the tools and access to parts to deal with them. I'd spend hours just figuring out where to get a new head gasket.
But I have fixed my cordless electric lawnmower several times in the three years i've had it, and I'm about to do so again; I just ordered new batteries for it. They're standard SLA scooter batteries, and the replacements will be higher capacity and designed specifically for deep cycling, unlike the el cheapo originals the lawnmower people put in. USD$60 with shipping. Some soldering required, but I'm up for that.
I've also replaced a bearing and installed baffles on that same cordless reel mower because I am seriously abusing it compared to the manufacturer's intent, using to mow thick tall southern Louisiana grass that frequently reaches 8-10 inches high before a rain-free weekend allows it to be mowed. But it has the considerable advantage, not found in many competing products, of not lethally throwing objects that aren't grass that the cutter hits. I find it sad that in the Amazon reviews most people who have had problems with the same product have thrown it away, but I kind of understand that; just like me with my weed trimmer, if you're not an electric stuff nerd (and I still had to buy a tool to remove split rings from shafts to take it apart) the $200 for a new lawnmower might be a smaller sacrifice than the effort to fix it or find and pay someone who can.
That's a very good point. From what I've observed, practically nothing is "disposable" if you put a FREE sign on it by a road that has any traffic on it whatsoever. It's amazing what people will haul away for you if you put that magic word on it. Really great candidates for said action are those guys who mow lawns and haul things around with trailers.
only Crack berry has mini USB . and comes close to some kind of reasonable standard ..
Lets See any other phone company make up there mind in 10 Years ..
same with laptops .. Dell has had more then I can count .. apple Pre Intel 2 Kinds and then post Intel 2 kinds ..
the latter can use a reducer ..
Micro USB was made by some Idot who I feel needs to be stripped of there Degrees and EE title
Mini USB was pico angstroms thicker and was was FAR more mech Robust .
Just By sheer numbers the dock has FAR more solder surface area for PCB to connector attachment .. and its more robust to flexing .
The EU is to blame for the micro USB issue ( and RoHS) . now we have a common charging plug.. and Yet people are tossing $500 Phones due to a failed connector........ no one won ..
I don't see ANY inductive chargers for Driod .. yet Crack berrys and Iphones have quite a few options to not Physically Plug it in.
palm had it IN the phone .. and could sync via the web ...... In fact Iam getting a Pixi Soon as WEBOS is Open and not hampered by Google
Micro USB
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Mico+USB++failuire&ei=UTF-8
the New dock Like mag safe has NO Wrong way to insert ..
Attachment not found.
for the record I HATE I OS !.
Peter..
Aliens, on the other hand, are an evolved lot, quite happy to stick with their technological lot for long periods of time. Case in point: the 1996 movie "Independence Day". Will Smith flew an old alien space ship from Roswell 1947 to sneak up and dock with the alien mother ship. It was still state of the art after 50 years! First of all, none of the aliens recognized it as missing, or any different from the other small ships. Then, the ships' computers connected flawlessly and the mother ship allowed a virus to be uploaded.
Now THAT's forward thinking and reverse compatibility.