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Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

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Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#211

Post by marttt »

Termitiono wrote: post #191
marttt wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, this is one of the main (subconscious) reasons why I stick with old tech for as long as I can. It is really frustrating to imagine a computer I would "throw away" to literally land on a landfill and rot there. In reality, this is not quite how it goes -- some parts get recycled; students in my country (Estonia) are currently refurbishing donated laptops for Ukrainian war refugees, etc. But there still is a lo…

If it's not broken, my stuff goes to ebay. An advantage to buying better hardware in the first place: it will still be worth enough for someone else to buy it from me. I sometimes also donate my stuff and repairing issues before. Like my two last laptops

> An advantage to buying better hardware in the first place: it will still be worth enough for someone else to buy it from me.

Yep, a great source of inspiration for this line of thinking: https://forum.thinkpads.com/

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#212

Post by ilirium »

Bom dia, tude bem, andrecarini! :)

Currently I also live in Brazil but I came from another country.

I also realized that in Brazil custom fee + taxes for abroad equipments are too high, a custom fee is 60% (yes, sixty percents!), the reader can look prices for Apple devices in their site for Brazil. When I compare prices between US and Brazil Apple sites, I found that difference is about 100%!

But, you known, there is some options. I asked my Brazilian friends and they said that you can go to Paraguay (especially a city near waterfalls) and buy goods there. It is seems Paraguay don't have a custom fee only taxes. You can use https://www.comprasparaguai.com.br/ to compare prices. Brazilian citizens do not need a visa.

Also, I found that sellers on local Amazon and Mercado Livre also sell goods which are much cheaper, then in officials stores. For some goods prices are about like in US Amazon.

Other options are to travel to other countries, like US, Costa Rica, Ecuador or ask you friends or family members from abroad to buy and to bring to you.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#213

Post by trhoad »

Termitiono wrote: post #188
trhoad wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, this attitude is endemic; the only goal in life is to make things as easy as possible for yourself, rather than leave things in a better state than you found them. You might be giving yourself "extra life" (the massive assumption being that repairing and reusing tools is a net negative timesink rather than a positive pleasure) but you're taking life from the people at the other end of your supply chain.

That's a weird sentiment. Without the investment of early adopters the hardware would not be as cheap or as good as it is right now. Also no one throws older hardware away.

People literally throw old hardware in the bin where I'm from

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#214

Post by southerntofu »

Jonanin wrote: post #210
jamal-kumar wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever lived south of the USA before? Shit gets EXPENSIVE out this way for electronics. I mean I can get my groceries extremely cheap and rent hasn't ever been more than 200$/mo, but electronics are all manufactured out of Asia and the supply lines and/or taxes on specifically that just add all this extra cost that's hard to justify in certain cases. We're talking like 50%+ of the cost you'll find in the USA.…

Why are the import taxes so high?

Why are multinational companies who rely on slave labors from the mines to the factories selling for so high prices? (And how is it even legal?) That's a rhetorical question of course.

As for the import taxes, i would guess because electronics are a luxury commodity in many places they are taxed as such. When not used as a luxury good for rich kids to play video games, they're used by industry which makes a lot of money so taxing them makes sense.

Remember many places around the world still don't have reliable electricity (if any at all) or internet infrastructure. Some regions don't even want it as they'd rather preserve their eco-friendly way of life than contribute to the crazy show we've been offering them: first invent new problems (eg. electronics in cars or in agriculture) then sell solutions that will create more problems (eg. mining/refining/factory/landfill pollution).

Most times low-tech is the best answer, and i personally would argue the world and the environment would be much better off if IT/electronics industry were highly regulated and taxed, and had strong obligations to make everything 100% recyclable and actually recycled (also: interoperable, repairable, etc).

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#215

Post by whazor »

Phenom x4 consumes 110watt idle, whereas an Intel Nuc consumes <11watt idle. With usage of nine hours a day, 230 working days a year this amounts to 207kwh which in my country currently costs 108 euro's (power is expensive here yes). New (cheaper) Nuc set costs around 250 euro's. Fancier Nucs cost around 500 to 600 euro. Upgrading to more power efficient devices can earn quite some money back.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#216

Post by tpoacher »

w10-1 wrote: post #119

Give yourself extra life. Buy the best tools you can. Don't let virtues learned by necessity become the vices that suck up your lifetime. You'll never get the time back that you spend working on unimportant projects, sustaining old builds, placating unhappy people, working on slow computers, etc. Unless it's the fastest way for you to deliver whatever good you have to the world, put it aside, especially if you've inv…

This may be good advice under very, very specific circumstances, but it's making a lot of specific assumptions that were not stated by the submitter.

For all we know the attachment this has created for this machine may well have enriched its user's life instead, with no practical hindrance for their work and enjoyment of the machine.

If anything, this person felt proud enough of this little triumph that they felt the need to share on HN. (it didn't sound like an "I hate me shitty 15-yo machine" rant to me ... quite the opposite)

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#217

Post by HenriTEL »

w10-1 wrote: post #119

Give yourself extra life. Buy the best tools you can. Don't let virtues learned by necessity become the vices that suck up your lifetime. You'll never get the time back that you spend working on unimportant projects, sustaining old builds, placating unhappy people, working on slow computers, etc. Unless it's the fastest way for you to deliver whatever good you have to the world, put it aside, especially if you've inv…

I completely disagree with you. First it's really not that hard to replace components in a desktop and second the virtues of reusing components are some of the most valued one in today's world. I mean, global warming is not going to solve by itself right?

Apart from specific needs like gaming and video editing you don't need newer components. What may slow your computer is crappy corporate software, dozens of greedy tabs open, fancy animations on your 4k screen.

But you know what? All this is gone when you use an OS that's does not make high-end components assumptions (i.e. linux). Yeah, you don't need macOS or windows to be a productive programmer.

Edit: added some punctuation

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#218

Post by Narishma »

Nition wrote: post #67
dijit wrote: post #8

I would have kept the same hardware forever too, but for some reason my tools seem to take more and more resources every year. Silly example is gmail, which loaded in 1s on my 2011 MacBook Pro when new, if it load it again today (I just tried) it takes 35 seconds before I can click anything. Another might be everyone’s favourite software to hate on: Teams. On my 2011 MacBook Pro: fans squealing, UI of the OS becomes…

I know this isn't your main point, but for GMail there's always "Basic HTML view": https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/h/1pq68r75kzvdr/?v%3Dlui

They're doing their best to kill it. Last time I checked, they stopped honoring the setting that used to allow you to permanently switch views. Now they always use the default slow view unless you use a specific URL.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#219

Post by wingerlang »

dijit wrote: post #8

I would have kept the same hardware forever too, but for some reason my tools seem to take more and more resources every year. Silly example is gmail, which loaded in 1s on my 2011 MacBook Pro when new, if it load it again today (I just tried) it takes 35 seconds before I can click anything. Another might be everyone’s favourite software to hate on: Teams. On my 2011 MacBook Pro: fans squealing, UI of the OS becomes…

gmail just loaded in 1-2s for me.

Re: Tell HN: I used the same computer since 2007 (with minor upgrades)

#220

Post by justinclift »

jbmny wrote: post #104
alxmdev wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What replacement battery do you use? I'm looking for a backup for my X220, but all the aftermarket batteries have terrible reviews and I'm afraid the $90 original Lenovo ones are degraded after 10 years and not worth the money.

I'd love to know too. I have a T530 from 2012. I ordered two replacement batteries from Lenovo's official supplier, and both bricked within a week of use. (Thankfully I was able to return both for full refunds.) The machine still runs Linux like a champ -- I'd just like a new battery so I don't have to have it plugged into the wall at all times.

If you can't find a suitable source, would it be feasible to replace the cells inside the replacement batteries instead?

Most replacement batteries seem like they use fairly "standard" cells, which aren't all that hard to obtain.

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