Old washing machines that actually used water. These newfangled ones that take over an hour to wash a load of clothes and apparently are using water as a solvent with the main ingredient being Time...nope. Do not like.
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Old Technology That is Still Better Than It's Modern Day Tech Replacement
- Thread starter FingerDub
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- modern old replacement tech
Mileage is managed by the driving style of the owner. The final drive ratios of manuals are normally lower than in automatics, and the rivers generally aren't as obsessive about getting into the highest gear possible as soon as possible. This makes sense, as an auto can drop into 6th gear at 35 MPH if it's just idling along, and shift instantly when gas is applied. Doing the same downshift in a manual transmission car requires more physical work and quick reactions.
Personally, I don't drive for optimal gas mileage, I drive for overall vehicle control and I also use the transmission for braking in traffic. I'd rather stay off he brakes, follow back a few more yards and let the engine brake for me as much as possible. This costs me gas mileage, but it's my choice and I'm paying for the gas.
I also drive that way, which is why I detest automatics. I still get better mileage out of quicker rigs stick vs auto. As they say, your mileage may vary.
Agreed! My work clothes often get FILTHY, I wash them at the laundromat in the old commercial machines. My washer's fine for relatively clean stuff, but simply doesn't have what it takes for real dirt.
I would regret getting rid of anything with a 327 in it. I had a 327 years ago that I screwed together for $250 (including purchase price) that ran bottom 13's (with a Quadrajet) in a heavy 79 Camaro. I sold the engine many years later for $1000 and I've missed it ever since.
As much of a gearhead as I am, I'd take an auto over a stick any day of the year.
I would also prefer to have an automobile instead of a stick.
Why is old technology better? Because:
We must take every meaningful human activity, load it into a spread sheet, determine how to transfer the activity to machines, cut out as many humans as possible, destroy as much of its meaning as possible, commoditize it, cheapen it, degrade it, divvy it up, and declare success. We must find wholes and reduce them to pieces, mechanize them, specialize them, burrow down into their specific depths and obsess over the details and forget always any inherent or overarching meaning, forget anything that the pieces might make together. We must never see the forest; only the trees, and then only the value in cutting them down."
Of The Hands: Returning To Good Work.
We must take every meaningful human activity, load it into a spread sheet, determine how to transfer the activity to machines, cut out as many humans as possible, destroy as much of its meaning as possible, commoditize it, cheapen it, degrade it, divvy it up, and declare success. We must find wholes and reduce them to pieces, mechanize them, specialize them, burrow down into their specific depths and obsess over the details and forget always any inherent or overarching meaning, forget anything that the pieces might make together. We must never see the forest; only the trees, and then only the value in cutting them down."
Of The Hands: Returning To Good Work.
Here's the original manual live bait spinning reel for inshore saltwater fishing. Produced by the thousands over the years and while it may be black now, it is still available and works very well. They were out of production for a while and some people (guilty) started making counterfeit rotors for the newer Z series reels coming with a bail so you could go back to a manual if you wanted. A few of us even got together and offered to buy the rights to the 706 from Penn, but they weren't interested in selling.
Here is what is arguably one of the finest examples of a modern inshore live bait spinning reel
While the new one is very nice, and very much a product of someone with a CNC machine and time on their hands, it is also priced to reflect all the machine time required to manufacture it. Yes, it's a better reel in some respects, but few related to the actual job it does. When you turn the crank on either reel they oscillate the spool while turning the rotor cup. It would be like a MIM J bass compared to a full zoot Custom Shop J bass, both get the job done, but the CS bass is nicer.
To me it's another example of a design that was a home run out of the gate. This kind of thing gets minor tweaks and design changes, and changes to make it easier/quicker to produce, but the basic design is still the heart of the thing.
Here is what is arguably one of the finest examples of a modern inshore live bait spinning reel
While the new one is very nice, and very much a product of someone with a CNC machine and time on their hands, it is also priced to reflect all the machine time required to manufacture it. Yes, it's a better reel in some respects, but few related to the actual job it does. When you turn the crank on either reel they oscillate the spool while turning the rotor cup. It would be like a MIM J bass compared to a full zoot Custom Shop J bass, both get the job done, but the CS bass is nicer.
To me it's another example of a design that was a home run out of the gate. This kind of thing gets minor tweaks and design changes, and changes to make it easier/quicker to produce, but the basic design is still the heart of the thing.
How about some really old technology:
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I remember floor dimmer switches and I'm glad they were moved to the column. Up here in the dead of winter your floor can get packed with snow, ice, salt. The switch seizes up, corrodes, shorts out. But yes, my newest vehicle is a 96 Cherokee that was an early 80s design.
I always thought the CRTs had a better picture. And the rounded CRTs I thought were clearer than the flat ones. When I was a kid I'd look at the TVs and things in Sears and compare.
You can literally get one from a bubblegum machine. My girls got one each the other day with little emoji graphics on them for 75 cents each. They swim with them. And the watches are telling time just fine.
I had a desktop computer with a CRT monitor for many years. I could look at the screen at night with no offset lamp and have NO eye strain. No way could I do that with my current laptop. I have to have a lamp on when I'm looking at the laptop screen at night, and even then there's eye strain after a while.
To me, the only old technologies that are "better" are things that we still use in a primitive manner. And even then, the newer versions don't work as well simply because the manufacturers are using cost cutting measures in the manufacturing process.
An old ax will have harder steel and a better handle than a new consumer grade ax. But that's not due to the lack of technology. That's due to manufacturers making an ax the average Joe can afford.
Then there is give and take. To me digital music technology is ten times better than vinyl. Why? Storage is tiny, cheap and limitless. Acquisition is cheap and limitless. Sound quality is great. Portability is tiny, cheap, and transferable.
Vinyl (or tape or whatever), to you, might "sound better". But storing the junk takes huge amounts of cubic footage, climate control, and shelving. You can't take the stereo, or even much of the music, with you without a huge hassle. If you damage the medium, it's all over unless you know how to splice tape or somehow regroove a record.
If you decide you want a live Miles Davis album I can have it downloaded and be listening to it before you find you car keys to go to the record store or find the album on Ebay. And if I don't lime it I can simply delete it and try something else.
I have 140 songs on my phone. Through the same account I can listen to any if them on any of millions of devices simply by logging into my account. I can delete and add all I want for 10 bucks a month. If my phone gets hit by an asteroid tomorrow I can get my songs back in another phone for free...other than the flat 10 bucks a month.
So, "better" is subjective. The get off my lawn crowd thinks I'm nut and thay there's "nothing better" than an old vinyl record run through a bazillion dollar tube mono block. I say "meh". Give me some ear buds or Bluetooth speaker or line into my stereo or Bluetooth to my car stereo or any number of other convenient options every time. Heck, I even run my phone into a powered mixer for learning songs in my jam room.
AM radio sounds horrible. I'm a ham radio guy and hear all kinds of varying quality radio signals. AM stinks for anything other than spoken word.
Old engines were OK to tinker with, I guess. But your attachment to them is romantic. They aren't "better". Modern engines work fine. You can do zero to them other than change the oil for over 100,000 miles. That was never true for any older car I ever owned. If something goes wrong with a new engine the mechanic can literally get a readout to a computer telling what's wrong.
I like old stuff too. But it's not "better". It's just old stuff I like.
An old ax will have harder steel and a better handle than a new consumer grade ax. But that's not due to the lack of technology. That's due to manufacturers making an ax the average Joe can afford.
Then there is give and take. To me digital music technology is ten times better than vinyl. Why? Storage is tiny, cheap and limitless. Acquisition is cheap and limitless. Sound quality is great. Portability is tiny, cheap, and transferable.
Vinyl (or tape or whatever), to you, might "sound better". But storing the junk takes huge amounts of cubic footage, climate control, and shelving. You can't take the stereo, or even much of the music, with you without a huge hassle. If you damage the medium, it's all over unless you know how to splice tape or somehow regroove a record.
If you decide you want a live Miles Davis album I can have it downloaded and be listening to it before you find you car keys to go to the record store or find the album on Ebay. And if I don't lime it I can simply delete it and try something else.
I have 140 songs on my phone. Through the same account I can listen to any if them on any of millions of devices simply by logging into my account. I can delete and add all I want for 10 bucks a month. If my phone gets hit by an asteroid tomorrow I can get my songs back in another phone for free...other than the flat 10 bucks a month.
So, "better" is subjective. The get off my lawn crowd thinks I'm nut and thay there's "nothing better" than an old vinyl record run through a bazillion dollar tube mono block. I say "meh". Give me some ear buds or Bluetooth speaker or line into my stereo or Bluetooth to my car stereo or any number of other convenient options every time. Heck, I even run my phone into a powered mixer for learning songs in my jam room.
AM radio sounds horrible. I'm a ham radio guy and hear all kinds of varying quality radio signals. AM stinks for anything other than spoken word.
Old engines were OK to tinker with, I guess. But your attachment to them is romantic. They aren't "better". Modern engines work fine. You can do zero to them other than change the oil for over 100,000 miles. That was never true for any older car I ever owned. If something goes wrong with a new engine the mechanic can literally get a readout to a computer telling what's wrong.
I like old stuff too. But it's not "better". It's just old stuff I like.
I had a '78 Triumph with this as well. It only worked at speeds over 50 M.P.H., but it did help reduce the buzziness of that little 1500 cc engine at highway speeds.
I prefer the "Richard Johnson" of years long ago to the "Richard Johnson" of nowadays. The modern day one is much lazier and less responsive, a bit droopier and adopts an attitude of ennui.
