Old Common, Day to Day Technology. Waht do you hang onto?

[spitter]

You gotta know the technogily is gona wear out long before the iron does .:drink:

 

[California]

Why Hang Onto Olde Tractors.......... ?????

My 1980 Yanmar (see below) needed an alternator. $29 at Autozone. Same alternator as '72 Datsun no A/C.

Then the other day my '99 Subaru needed an alternator. $140 at Autozone for its 85 amp alternator.

Both were in stock at my nearest Autozone. Each project took me 30 minutes labor. A pro might take ten minutes.

How much does it cost when the dealer replaces a modern Deere alternator?

 

[Gem99ultra]

I kind of need my phone, but I came darn close to opening the front door and flinging that tablet out into the wilderness.

I'd sure like to know 'why'; I'm on the verge of buying my first one. They seem to be so handy, but maybe I haven't looked close enough at their drawbacks.

 

[shovelmike]

I tend to hold onto the old familiar stuff as long as I can, my daughter tried to pique my interest in Kindle, then she gave me hers when she upgraded to Kindle fire. I have grown to like it, fairly cheap downloads and no book taking up space. Books I treasure a lot I still like the old style hardbound book.
I resisted cell phone, my wife insisted..long work commute in a high mileage car..simple flip phone for a long time and relied on my laptop to get my part time work assignments(H.S. Substitute Teacher), until my laptop started giving me trouble, and people showed my present smart phone capabilities. I now don't know how I did without one!
Cars and tractors: I miss the days when they were simple and easy to fix, the flip side is that in the 60s cars were all used up at 100,000 miles, now we can drive them three times that without going into the engine. When I bought my little diesel tractor I thought it would still be the old mechanical fuel injection pump...wasn't quite prepared for all the computer control. So far so good, time will tell.

 

[stuckmotor]

I hate my dumb cell phone and my smart phone. Not too fond of the wall phone either. At least I can find it.

 

[shovelmike]

I hate my dumb cell phone and my smart phone. Not too fond of the wall phone either. At least I can find it.

Some kids had car trouble out front of our house a few years ago, they were absolutely amazed by our old rotary dial wall phone.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Another customer just switched to the cheapest IP phone service. Great, now you only hear half of what they are saying. And it always does that on the critical words. So you ask them to repeat at which time it usually looses bandwidth again and they think you have a hearing problem or something,

 

[k0ua]

I'd sure like to know 'why'; I'm on the verge of buying my first one. They seem to be so handy, but maybe I haven't looked close enough at their drawbacks.

Because people are not tech savvy or have enough experience to set them up. Especially "old" people born in the 50's and 60's. Some of us "old" folks embraced tech not only at work but laid down hard earned money to buy tech "stuff" like computers and the like as soon as they became available. We wanted them to "play" with and learn on. Many of my peers pooh, pooed the idea and said
"I sure wouldn't ever want one of those darn things in my house". Yeah OK, now they almost "have" to embrace some level of tech to survive in this world and they have 40 years of catching up to do and a very in opportune time to do it. Things are a lot harder to learn starting out when you are 65 than 25. They should have joined the computer club right alongside of me, and learned a few things. BUT, you make choices in life, I chose to go down tech road. I am an "old phart", and now I show other "old pharts" how do do things and try to make them understand a rapidly changing world.

 

[DKCDKC]

I'm an old person born in the 40s... But became fascinated by personal computers in the 1970s and bought an Apple II for $2,000 in 1979... Drawing my wife's ire but exciting the folks at Household Finance. It was so unusual at the time for an individual to by a PC that they put a story about my purchase in the local daily newspaper. Later I got into the Internet because most of my co-workers were scared of it. Never made the jump to full time webmaster or anything, but probably should have. I'd have a lot more money now I imagine. I have and use a smart phone, tablet, laptop and PC... Along with a big smart TV for streaming and such. As fantastic as they are in what you can do, I can also see how they are distorting our culture, isolating people, building "tribes" along political and identity lines, and building motor skills while weakening imaginations and logic. History teaches that every generation has faced some great challenge. Learning to use computers and the internet constructively is an enormous issue now for several different generations - including mine.

 

[Oaktree]

My 1980 Yanmar (see below) needed an alternator. $29 at Autozone. Same alternator as '72 Datsun no A/C.

Do 70s vintage Datsuns (or any Japanese car really) still exist in any significant numbers even on the west coast? Those alternators must fit something a little more common if a chain parts store had them in stock (unless they'd been gathering dust in the backroom for the last 40 years).