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eftychia: Me in kilt and poofy shirt, facing away, playing acoustic guitar behind head (Default)
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QotD

posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 05:26am on 2007-12-12

"Somebody gave me a c. '68 clock radio that cut out after 20-30 minutes of playing. Obvious symptom that some component had thermal issues. Simple to get a can of spray coolant and selectively spray things until I found the one where it started playing again. And ten years ago there was still one place in our metro where a retail customer could walk in and find a generic replacement audio output transistor.

"I don't make a living having anything to do with electronics. And I think you will agree that methodically spraying a can of coolant around a chassis and noting what component was bad on the schematic inside the box honest to God ain't rocket science.

"But anyone I tell about the repair looks at me like I'm Einstein or something. And that's what I hate. The way everything from appliances to philosophies are packaged today to promote helplessness, kill curiosity and foster dependency on 'experts'."

-- Steven Christenson, 2007-11-01

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There are 8 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] marnanel.livejournal.com at 12:30pm on 2007-12-12
...not to mention software, of course.
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posted by [identity profile] sodyera.livejournal.com at 02:31pm on 2007-12-12
The feeling of imposed helplessness was exactly why I escaped Windows for Mac as soon as I could afford to do so. As reference, I offer my roommate's PC troubles--started, no doubt, by a "PC pro" who held her system hostage.
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posted by [identity profile] jmax315.livejournal.com at 04:31pm on 2007-12-12
This is an honest question (from a linux bigot), not an anti-Mac rant: Do you really find this to be less of a problem on Macs?

'Cause I'd expect the opposite; I've always gotten the impression that Macs are even _more_ closed to casual inspection and tinkering than Windows boxes (although they're *much* better designed and implemented).

[edit: being your own grammar Nazi is a terrible thing]
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] sodyera.livejournal.com at 07:14pm on 2007-12-12
I am not a computer pro or expert or tinkerer of any stripe; I'm just a creative person trying to get stuff done. Macs have always allowed me to do that, while PCs, historically, have not. PCs will insist one learns to navigate the intricacies of the PC in order to do the simplest things, Macs will just let one do things.
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geekosaur: orange tabby with head canted 90 degrees, giving impression of "maybe it'll make more sense if I look at it this way?" (Default)

(no subject)

posted by [personal profile] geekosaur at 07:39pm on 2007-12-12
Closed to "casual" inspection, but the "Inside Macintosh" series was readily available even for the older Macs — and, of course, modern Macs / OSX are Unix(ish) under the covers.

(I admit the hardware was, and is, a bit more opaque.)
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] jmax315.livejournal.com at 04:26pm on 2007-12-12
Amen. I once had people looking at me in amazement because, confronted by a washing machine malfunction which was obviously a problem with the "the lid is closed" sensor switch, I replaced the switch. Now, I'll accept a certain degree of awe for the feat of finding an exact replacement for the switch... but that wasn't what amazed 'em.
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posted by [identity profile] malada.livejournal.com at 06:47pm on 2007-12-12
A good number of years ago a friend of mine who owned a restaurant, called me in a panic when his dishwashing machine died. It was a Saturday night, too. The machine was an industrial strength that was old enough to vote. With careful sniffing I discovered one of the switches had burned out. Needless to say, there were no electronic/electrical stores opened so I agreed to help do the dishes - by hand. The next day we were lucky enough to a.) find an electrical store that was open and b.) find a reasonable replacement.

I was worshiped like a goddess for a week afterwards.

-m
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] doubleplus.livejournal.com at 08:42pm on 2007-12-12
Reminds me of a story from my first real job. One of our PCs had developed some problem, and my boss and I had opened it up and were pointing at things with screwdrivers and trying to guess what might be wrong, when one of our tech writers came in and said, "You shouldn't be poking around in there if you don't know what you're doing."

We looked up in bewilderment and replied, "How do you think you get to be an engineer?"
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