h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

@Geggs:

Actually, I thought Effers' mention was quite in place.


But moving on. So far we've only done plain chocolate Bountys, beetroot and Walkers paprika crisps.

Here's another one. A well known DIY/Gardening company sells lawnmowers made by a well known lawnmower manufacturer. But they never, EVER have the replacement cable spools in stock. Surely to feck they're not expecting you to buy a new lawnmower whenever the spool runs out? Maybe they are.

I wouldn't be surprised. PCs are about the only major goods left where people expect and are expected to be able to upgrade and replace rather than getting a whole new one.

I'm not saying it wasn't, just that it started the chain of thought that lead to were we ended up.

Anyhoo. The lawnmower thing - it does rather point the idea that we live in a throw-away culture at the moment. If it's broke chuck it and get a new one. Do many people repair things anymore?


Geggs

Except...the cable spools do exist and are easy to replace. They're *meant* to be consumables. And they don't last that long either.

That said...they never *un*spool quite like they're supposed to. They get in a fankle and you end up having to buy a new one sooner than you'd expect. *If* you can find it.

I'd like to be able to home repair most electronic stuff, but it's mostly SMT these days which makes it rather difficult.

I bought myself a binocular microscope for SMT this year, now I can see the things I can't mend, in huge detail.

But I do mend stuff, recently:
The car brake light switch (for the second time)
Ankle wellies, sown together with sail making twine
Jeans, replaced weedy plastic zip with proper ZIP
Gameboy DS lite, replaced switch membranes
Lawnmower, duct-tape

"duct-tape"
I'm so glad that was in the list

"I bought myself a binocular microscope for SMT this year, now I can see the things I can't mend, in huge detail."

My laptop screen has been held together for the last few months with sellotape, after I dropped it and the plastic cracked. (I tried gaffer tape but it didn't work as well.) Apparently it would cost about 50 quid for a new screen frame - but why pay that when I have perfectly good sellotape? It does need to be replaced every couple of weeks when it finally breaks, but I quite enjoy this rote task.

sounds like the perfect opportunity for this Dogster
http://www.datamancer.net/steampunklaptop/steampunklaptop.htm

>>My laptop screen has been held together for the last few months with sellotape, after I dropped it and the plastic cracked.

I'm guessing that with gaffer tape the big drawback would have been opacity.