This is TERRORISM in the United States!
-Trump’s NSPM-7 which classifies ANTI CAPITALISM as TERRORISM!
At this point, saying
“Release the entire unredacted Epstein files” is probably considered terrorism.
Some of us might not make it, but at least we didn’t ignore or support a real terrorist
I see a lot more ignoring than anything else. I think Americans have failed utterly.
Please don’t call me “American”, I am a citizen of the world
A computer shop once laughed in my mom’s face for asking if they’d repair her printer. The accepted practice is to just throw the whole thing out when you want new ink or it stops working.
Eventually she tracked down a guy in another town who fixed printers, and he fixed the printer (a bottle cap was jammed inside, in case you were wondering. He returned the bottle cap).
That was 20 years ago and things aren’t better.
Man I know it.
I’ve definitely bought a new printer before because it was cheaper than ink. More than once.
Nowadays I’ve got a Samsung B&W laser that gets most of what I need to print, and a brother MFP inkjet for the rest. I’m keeping my eyes out for a color mfp laser when I visit thrift shops…I’d gotten one before and it worked well for a while but it was an HP so it broke and became non-economical to repair (and really, I didn’t need/want a giant corporate LaserJet in my home office).
But I don’t even really print in color…very rare that is even needed. If it is, it’s probably stuff like kids birthday invites and I’m gonna be better off sending it to a print shop like Staples or Kinkos or just order it online, anyway.
In fact I’m fairly sure the heads on the inkjet are a solid glob now.
If you, for some reason, need a printer that can make colored things, i highly suggest Epson ecotank printers, they cost a lil more than many inkjets but the ink last a lot because it’s a fucking tank where you put a lot of ink instead of a cardrige with little to none ink
I found my pair* of Brother color laser MFPs on Craigslist, being listed by a small business that was getting rid of them. I think you’ll have a lot better luck finding them via some method like that than by checking thrift shops.
That said, they are pretty giant, being designed for small/medium office use. However, I’m not sure there even is such a thing as a “small” color laser, since they inherently have to contain four sets of rollers instead of just one.
(* if you find somebody selling more than one of the same model, definitely get two so you have one for spare parts.)
The concept of these repair cafes are great. I’ve volunteered in a couple. But some of the things that people bring in… pair of 10$ flats that the sole has fully fallen of. The damn glue costs more than the shoes. A run of the mill blender from the 90s that just should be retired. Damn t shirts with holes. Please just use the shirt as a rag at this point.
Other things made sense. Laptop hinges, bikes, outdoor power equipment. Holes and buttons in jackets and sweaters.
I sewed a patch into my pants today instead of buying new ones!
This is the mindset that keeps the world going!
The hacker mindset exists beyond information technology.
A basic sewing machine & knowing how to sew a seam will save you a lot of clothes. YouTube has this covered. Full lessons from old ladies.
Bernadette Banner also has many videos on doing this with simple hand sewing equipment, if you aren’t inclined to get a new machine!
I am also always willing to share what information I have about Darning and Clothing repair if needed… but I am just some person on the internet…
Bernadette Banner also has many videos on doing this with simple hand sewing
I was looking for historical costume project information once on YT and saw her channel. Very interesting. It’s worth noting that the hand-sewn historical garments she was copying, hundreds of years old already, are often worn, even well worn, and where there are defects it’s because the material itself failed before the seams did.
One time I had to sew up the entire side seam of a dress shirt with needle and thread, there was no one around with a sewing machine to do it for me and I needed that shirt, so I did it myself. I drew a line and used a backstitch with the smallest spacing I could manage. It took a couple hours maybe. When I got done with it, it looked and felt indestructible. Couldn’t even tell it had been resewn from the outside.
But I can’t take credit for just knowing how. Long, long ago when I was a kid, everyone had to take Home Ec at some point in their schooling; for me it was junior high iirc. It was a required subject. Everyone I went to school with knew how to turn on a stove, follow a recipe, use an iron, sew a simple project like a potholder, that kind of thing. All of it was useful, but hand sewing especially is an incredibly handy skill to have. I honestly thought it was stupid at the time – “For what purpose could I possibly need a potholder?” – but I can’t count the number of times I have used that skill since.
I was the last generation at my school system to even have the options of a home ec class. It is a tragedy.
You might as well. If you’re going to trash it anyway, good odds you’re not going to hurt anything by loosening some screws and seeing what’s what.
Spoiler. On fixable things, it’s usually the on/off switch. I think they deliberately make them out of cheap plastic that will eventually break. Plug in oil heaters. Mixers. Lamps with foot switches. Etc.
some components fail more often than others, like caps or batteries, or are designed to, like fuses. sometimes it’s obvious after looking even without measuring
Microwaves and fuses.
Yeah just be really careful taking apart a microwave, those capacitors are nothing to mess with.
just yesterday i’ve fixed a blown smd fuse, these are also a thing (fortunately easy to diagnose)
TBF, the switch is a mechanical part that goes through a series of stresses, not just from the person actuating it, but also from the electrical forces causing the switch to bounce and arc for several ms before it settles. Putting all that stress into a little package with tiny contact wafers, and it’s bound to fail sooner or later.
My family has always liked working on things that are broke - what can go wrong, you were going to throw it anyway and sometimes you can fix it. If you can’t fix it a vacuum in parts fits in the trash better than it put together, and sometimes you get a working vacuum. (the implication here is you don’t put it together unless you think it will work)
Sometimes it’s worth putting it back together just to practice. I remember my dad giving me an old radio and a screwdriver just to keep me busy as a very young kid. After I had it all apart, he asked if I could put it back together. Kept me out of his hair for a while longer and gave me confidence that maybe I too could put things back together.
I had a VCR that I had to toss, many years ago, because some crappy little plastic gear had lost teeth. Replacing it would’ve cost almost as much as a new VCR. I could see someone with a 3D printer could build one without a lot of effort now.
I would love to do this. I’m great at changing out motorcycle tires and changing out brake pads, but I would love to learn how to solder or even diagnose bad diodes on a board.
It would be a great exchange of knowledge.
Go to Hacklab / maker space to teach and learn while making, fixing or tinkering.
Know anyone that’s into gaming? Modding old consoles is a great way to get into diagnosing board problems and fixing the crap PCBs in small electronics is fantastic for learning to solder. Two weeks ago I didn’t know shit about the eldrich slab of charms and runes inside electronics. Last week I successfully tested two power units for a playstation 4 and correctly diagnosed that mine has died due to APU overheating. Took about 2 hours, two videos, and a $15 continuity tester.
Unfortunately, mine’s dead in the water until I find someone who can reball the APU for less than the cost of a new system. In the mean time, I’m doing a tear down and mod on my Xbox 360.
Be the exchange you wish to see!!!
I literally learned to solder so that I could replace some cheap popped capacitors on a speaker preamp this week.
Worked like a charm.
It seems these repair cafes are very popular these days. Even my village of 7000 has one.
First I’ve ever heard of it.
“Anticonsumerist”… kinda a shocking/clickbait way to put it. I wouldn’t call myself an “anticonsumerist” just because I’m cheap, I don’t want to pollute the environment with more tech waste, and I expect the stuff I buy to last. I mean, these people bought it in the first place, right? Maybe just anti-disposable tech?
No they kick you in the shin and make slurs at you the entire time you are trying to fix your stuff. They really want you to feel bad about being a consumer.
What does pitching a zipper even mean?
A new euphemism for seeing a hot woman on the bus? “Man she really makes me pitch my zipper!”
Checks out
It’s an old racist term for when English sailors would throw an Asian person overboard. This came from old English doctrine that thought they brought jaundice, and this was the best solution. I’m just messing, this is all BS.
Thinking now of the old SNL sketch where John Candy has a repair shop for fixing things most people throw away. Two women come in with a piece of toast they dropped that landed butter-side down on the rug. He decides to freeze it down in some liquid nitrogen and take off the fuzzy side with a belt-sander. Missin’ you, Johnny boy!
Radical as fuck
I absolutely lament the enshitification of youtube. It used to be easy to find a video on how to fix nearly anything, but that’s bad for the algorithm, because then you turn the screen off and go about fixing the thing, as opposed to watching more videos :(
Yeah absolutely. Whatever search algorithm they have heavily promotes newer videos over old ones. And that really sucks because there’s a lot of creators with really excellent back content libraries like reference quality material but it gets buried because it’s not new
If I can’t fix something…instead of throwing it away, I save it to bludgeon the people responsible for creating something I can’t fix.
You better make sure I’m gone when you go into the bunker. I’m looking for air vents with company logos on them. I’ll have my deluxe HP ready, hung on a leather strap slung around my back.
…when “Squint” & “Cheesecurd” drag you from the depths of Mt. Florida, it’ll be me, “Ink Cartridge Empty” bringing the full weight of my HP2500XLRS down upon thine head!!!
