By Mark Tennent in Reader
Posted in Uncategorized on May 23, 2010 at 4:23 pm
In the last seven years we have been through: six new desktop Macs, three laptops, two scanners, four printers, eight operating system upgrades, twenty hard disks and seven cellphones. All of which, when shared between two of us, is at least fifteen grand each.
Then there are the 6 iPods (only two of which are mine), six monitors – CRT and LCD – a menagerie of mice, three routers, one switching hub, six TV capture devices and four colour TVs. Plus upgrades to various pieces of software such as Creative Suite (which always hurts the most), QuarkXPress and Filemaker Pro. In addition have been quite a few FTP clients and servers as they gain our favour over the previous favourite. If only Fetch, the grand-daddy of them all, would handle WebDAV, we would stuck with it. We still keep buying the updates in hope.
This profligacy is not something we are proud of but at least we have recycled as much as possible by selling or giving kit away. The computers themselves being most easily sold on. Macs at three or four years old may be obsolete compared with the latest computers but they are still capable machines with a high resale value. We have a drawer full of old cellphones, along with SCSI leads, terminators, Firewire 400 cables, wireless routers and a pretty decent Canon SLR 35mm camera complete with film. But it is completely the opposite for inkjet printers.
The dustmen have collected two Epson A3 and one Canon inkjet printers from the front of our studio. The only problem with them has been blocked print heads which are more expensive to repair than buying a new printer. With our latest printer we have vowed to use manufacturer’s OEM cartridges to see if it makes any difference.
It also shames us to think in the same period we have been through twelve garden shredders. They always seem to last about a year and we return them just before their guarantee expires. On the other hand we have only had three vehicles, two Hondas and a beaten-up, sixteen years old Toyota pick-up which I still shed a tear over selling.
Cars are supposed to be the most complicated consumer products which are the easiest to use. In our experience they are the most long-lasting too.
Rated: 100% (3 votes)
Loading ...Comment by Richard Shearwood - May 25, 2010 on 9:20 am
Well if we’re talking complex transport then my space shuttle spends more time in the shop than out of it but the Mars Rover was good value - the first one lasted nearly five years I think. That might be a record for a Rover of any description 
Comment by - May 25, 2010 on 9:26 pm
What about Voyager 1? Still going strong and at 10.5 miles per second. All contolled by a Commodore 64, or thereabouts.
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