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“Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

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Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#261
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shoes are this way for a lot of people, in that some of us can keep a pair of shoes long enough that the next fashion cycle has happened and you can't find anything like that again. I got to the point where if I really liked a pair of shoes, I'd buy a second pair and throw them in the closet for nine months, and cross my fingers that I like the shoes in the second refresh more than I liked the ones in the first one.…

If you buy stuff that's in fashion, you'll always have this problem, because fashion changes so quickly. If you just buy classic old-fashioned stuff, then you won't have this problem. I have a pair of old-fashioned leather boots, and when they were worn out after 5 years or so, I just bought exactly the same boots again. Those type of boots have been available for decades, and I really doubt they'll stop making them…

The thing is "classic old-fashioned" isn't something that is somehow timeless and is somehow outside of fashion trends. It's right in the name. It was fashionable but now it's old, old-fashioned. You can throw the "classic" in there all you want. The truth is all clothes come from some particular fashion. Some trends tend to change slower than others and that's what people seem to refer to when they say "classic" but it will change.

Wearing jeans at all is a trend. People have been wearing something other than jeans for far longer than they've been wearing them.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#262
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shoes are this way for a lot of people, in that some of us can keep a pair of shoes long enough that the next fashion cycle has happened and you can't find anything like that again. I got to the point where if I really liked a pair of shoes, I'd buy a second pair and throw them in the closet for nine months, and cross my fingers that I like the shoes in the second refresh more than I liked the ones in the first one.…

The shoes thing is so true. Especially runners, or any kind of athletic shoe really, where they feel the need to update not just the styling but the whole construction of the shoes every year. So when you need a replacement you basically have to start from scratch every time, because there's no guarantee even buying the new shoe in the same line will be a remotely similar experience.

So true! New Balance Vibrims from ~2014 I think they were called minimus. They were super thin soles for running and were useful for lifting too (crossfit). They event came in double extra wide. Nothing like it exists on the market today. All the new models are nothing like it :-(

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#263
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a good question and I should look into that but so far they come out like new and I've been doing this for more than a decade now.

I've understood that it's better e.g. for the soles of hiking boots if the boots are used somewhat regularly. Polyurethane degrades due to hydrolysis, and apparently using the shoes regularly (and letting them air and dry properly afterwards) reduces that. The movement and pressure help reduce moisture absorbed into the sole, or something. It probably depends on the material of the sole, though.

I've had this happen to boots that were stored for a few years. The soles split in the middle, not at a glue layer. It was like ripping foam apart.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#264
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happens to me a lot too. The first one that really stuck in my mind is BetaMax and I suppose the collapse of Be, makers of the BeBox and BeOS, was the most discouraging... though I've seen a lot of other brands & companies I liked fail.

You might like Haiku, then.

From time to time I do spend time with Haiku in a VM. To be honest, it's not a fantastic experience... though I want to emphasise that I don't mean this as any sort of insult or slight to the dev team of Haiku. I suppose the reality is that it's pretty amazing they've gotten as far as they have, without being able to freely use the source code from BeOS, which in my opinion is hugely disappointing because no one was willing or able to anything with it in a proprietary or commercial sense.

I view the collapse of Be as story about the many failings of the broader tech industry and the irrationality of the dot com bubble and not in any way an indication of the technical merits of the BeBox or BeOS.

Anyway, Haiku as it is today is kinda like what BeOS was back then but obviously incomplete in several really important ways. Meanwhile the world has moved on and I do everything I used to do in BeOS (and more) with Linux. Though I do wonder what BeOS might look like now had they not collapsed back then.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RIP 17" MacBook Pro too. Actually come to think of it. If I love a product it's rare I can ever find it again.

I mean, there’s a 16in mbp now that is almost identical.

Mine finally died so I'm going to have to get a new one, but I've always felt like the 16in have never been nearly what I wanted compared to the 17in. From the discrete GPU to the ports offered to the weight it is all just not quite what I want compared to the 17in.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, there’s a 16in mbp now that is almost identical.

Mine finally died so I'm going to have to get a new one, but I've always felt like the 16in have never been nearly what I wanted compared to the 17in. From the discrete GPU to the ports offered to the weight it is all just not quite what I want compared to the 17in.

You've always been able to get the 15" with discrete graphics. There was a brief period where the 17" could be configured with slightly more VRAM, but regardless of how much you spent, the GPUs in those computers still sucked.

The 16" was first released in 2019, and has always had both integrated and discrete GPUs. I do think the connectivity configuration is a little restrictive and one dimensional, but there's no way you could convince me to use a 17" 2011, what with it being limited to USB 2.0 and FW800 (no thunderbolt!). Thankfully this point is moot, because the 2021 16" MBP has really great connectivity.

I'm confused by your comment about weight -- you actually want a heavier computer? The 2021 16" is 30% lighter than the 17" and smaller in all three dimensions. The 2021 16" MBP GPU is light years ahead of even the previous generation 16", let alone the 17" from 2011.

Re: “Harbinger households” consistently buy products that get discontinued (2019)

#267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Shoes are this way for a lot of people, in that some of us can keep a pair of shoes long enough that the next fashion cycle has happened and you can't find anything like that again. Try working from home. It's guaranteed that by the time you need new shoes nothing resembling your current shoes that you know and love is available any more. Same for a lot of other clothing items that you only wear outside.

Leather work boots hardly change. I have some Red Wings that are close to an 80 year design or something.

Those are immortal too. But I wouldn't go for a walk in that in summer. My feet would surely melt.
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