Ignorant people. - Page 3 - Videokarma.org TV - Video

old_tv_nut · #31 08-04-2007, 10:16 PM

I stood in line at the Aquarium 2 weeks ago while three guys in front of me tried to figure out their total cost for tickets at $24.95 each. One was punching the numbers into the calculator function of his cellphone and showing it to the other two, who weren't too sure if the result made sense (it was correct). I can't say if their dysfunctional math arose from having no training at all, or to life-long reliance on calculators, and I couldn't figure out a way to determine that without probably pissing them off. It was entertaining, in a morbid way.

Regarding cell phones, I carry one, but it's only on when I really need to make an outgoing call, or when I'm traveling on business and need to be reachable. I don't WANT to be always reachable. I started carrying it constantly after I had a heart attack and the nurses suggested keeping it handy just in case.

By the way, for personal phone use, Miss Manners says the phone should never interrupt face-to-face conversations, and the answering machine or equivalent is a courteous convenience to provide for callers so they don't have to call repeatedly. So, when people comment that they HAD to leave a message (poor inconvenienced souls) I just ignore the comment.

I agree that businesses should be just the opposite, with phone answering set up for the convenience of the caller. However, it's just unaffordable, with what people are willing to pay, for a phone company to do what Illinois Bell did, for example - hire enough service reps so every call was answered by a person between the second and third ring. You will not see those days again.

simplynuts · #32 08-04-2007, 11:28 PM

i grew up with tube sets and remember spending time with my father fixing an old round tube black and white console so many times that my mother wanted something new. My first color set was given to me by a building super. It was a round picture tube rca with a tuning fork type remote. It was a great set that only needed a break in a circuit board jumpered to get it going. i like the build of the old stuff and that they are easier to repair. I had a lcd portable player that I rarely use just die recently. I paid $150 and the company would send me a new one for $70 becuase it was out of warranty. Told them I won't buy their products again becuase I can buy a complete new one witha new battery for that price. Most of the stuff i get from garage sales or street finds. I left a pair of pilot speakers on the curb today with a free sign (no one would take them unless they were marked free). They sat the whole day until my 18 year old came home from bowling with some friends. They asked why the speakers were there and then took them. Maybe all is not lost on the young.

Telecolor 3007 · #33 08-05-2007, 04:20 AM

People here think I have nothing better to do than collect old tvs. Unfortnley, my mom is one of them. She's with the new products, why buy old ones, the new ones have warranty... When I will have my own apartament (this will not be soon beacuase I don't have money) I hope I will get me some newer (post 1987-1990) tv sets, to show other people what qualty really means! The most easy way to destroy a people confidence in itself, is to destroy it's history, and this is valable in the case of the consumers - the corporations want to make us to think our products our obsolete, in order to make us, the consumer to buy thyer 2 dollars junks! . They think if I'm young (I'm 24) I'm another kid that is fashionable and will buy theyer's junks, but I ain't going to fell in theyr's trap. Why? Because I had the chance to know what a good product is!!!
A funny thing: people say that my old East-German radio that I use as an amplifier isn't good, but when they hear it they like it

About those kids: theyr's parents never talled them about V.C.R.'s?

Wonder why people prefer to buy new junks in stad of good old things? O.k., at a tv sets the tube may be used, an V.C.R. may be "absolete", but an radio?

Elfasto · #34 08-05-2007, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

Wonder why people prefer to buy new junks in stad of good old things? O.k., at a tv sets the tube may be used, an V.C.R. may be "absolete", but an radio?

Good point. Radio hasn't changed much since 1920 for the AM band, and very little since around 1970 for the FM band. Shit, some of the really old radio sets from the 1920-1940 range absolutely kick the crap out of a new receiver on the AM band for sensitivity, sound quality.

andy · #35 08-05-2007, 11:40 AM

I've never owned a new TV. Even my computers are all put together from surplus stuff. I don't own a VCR that was made after 1988. I think it's more fun to see what turns up at garage sales, flea markets, surplus stores, and even the trash than to just go shopping. There's no fun in it if anyone can just go out and buy one. I enjoy collecting and using things that were the best you could get at the time they were made.

Tubejunke · #36 08-06-2007, 02:06 AM

Does anyone get the impression that the DVD player is the exception to the rule when it comes to the normal high to low quality life span that trendy home entertainment devices usually have. It seems like they flooded the market with cheap DVD players from the get go. I tend to wait a while to jump on the bandwagon of creature comfort so I might have missed $200 DVD units. I think the market wanted to eradicate VHS badly. What better way to do it than make the latest "must have" available to the working (or not) poor. You would be hard pressed to find someone on welfare in America without a DVD player and a movie club card. Get my drift?

The best VCR's certainly were made in the 80's. I think that decade saw the peak of VCR quality production. I have a mid 80's Panasonic that refuses to stop. I cleaned the switch inside once that makes them go crazy perorming the wrong function at the right time to lock up. For about the past 10 years you can go pick up a one pound $40 Magnavox at Wally World that might last 2 or 3 years.

TV's have certainly been on a downhill trend in quality pretty much since the point of solid state technology. Actually for the first 10 or so years of solid state television you got a really good product. That brings us to some point in the later 80's when industry changed to the modern tactic of PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE/AND OR FAILURE WITHOUT HOPE OF REPAIR.

By the 80's I think the electronics industry relized that for one they had perfected the technology of solid state technology. With that perfection of a product that was likely to perform without fail in the case of a TV until the CRT finally burned out. Our 1984 Sears 27" console JUST got to the point of needing its first repair last year. Thats 23 YEARS and its NOT the CRT!! I still have it trying to decide if I want to see if a repair shop (exists) will repair it, a set that has proven its worth. Or should I go throw Wally world a couple hundred for a Chinese set thats CRT will go in 5 years.

Even home Stereo equipment got crappy somewhere in the 80's. I'll take my 70's Marantz Receiver anyday over just about anything else. I have not yet progressed to Surround or whatever. I'm happy with what I have. Furthermore I have an old Quadraphonic receiver in the closet that has FOUR channel stereo instead of three like surround.

I'm not meaning to be flying a solid state flag as far as what I prefer although in the case of Television for heavy use solid state is/was indestructable. Personally I love tube equipment. For Television it is more from a nostalgic standpoint. Now for sound/music equipment I would prefer nothing but tubes. People give me a funny look when I tell them that the most high end audio equipment available on the market is tube operated. It really can't be beat. Sure it takes maintenance but to me thats part of the fun. I feel like I have beat the system in a way when I can repair my own equipment, plus a sense of accomplishment.

Elfasto · #37 08-06-2007, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr_fixer

Speaking of technological dependency , did anyone here watch the tv series "Jericho"? I wonder if a EMP bomb that could black out North America could really exist? Logan

Any fission detonation (bomb) releases a huge amount of electromagnetism in the ELF range (EMP).

JimJ[VT] · #38 08-06-2007, 12:05 PM

Quote:

It seems like they flooded the market with cheap DVD players from the get go.

I remember DVD players being somewhat pricey when they first came out...just like what's going on with HD DVD players now. But they hit critical mass pretty quickly.

Quote:

Even home Stereo equipment got crappy somewhere in the 80's.

Going to have to disagree with that one, unless you're talking about completely mainstream stuff sold at the consumer level, the Best Buys and the Circuit City's. Unless you limit yourself to that market, there's a ton of very high quality stuff still being made everyday. Rotel, NAD, Forte, Classe, ARC, CJ, Marantz, Parasound, etc, etc. Too many to name.

DENNYDOG · #39 08-06-2007, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tubejunke

Imagine not having a freaking TELEPHONE everywhere you go!! This is another modern day trend that I think is ridiculous. I walk around sometimes and feel like I'm in some bad 70's sci-fi movie or something where everyone is talking (or just playing with) a telephone EVERYWHERE you look. As if THAT werent bad enough they came out with that Hounds Tooth or whatever goes in your ear so you can go around looking like some kind of escaped mental patient munbling to your other personality. I really believe people buy those ear devices just to freak people out looking all crazy. I mean COME ON, how important are you, or how busy is your life that you have to have MA Bell wired directly into your brain? I just don't get it!

A couple of friends and I stopped by a fastfood joint to get something cheap to eat after the nascar race a couple weeks ago. We were sitting down and eating when we saw this younger guy and gal come in to order. He had a spiffy suite on and she was dressed up too. After they got their order and walked passed us to sit down, I notice this thing sticking out of the guys ear when they were sitting down, when I quietly said, "What is that, a hearing aid?". The guys broke out in laughter!! He must have been trying to impress the girl with his bluetooth sticking in his ear like he was all cool. If he was trying to impress her with his bluetooth and dressing up in a suit, why would he take her to a fast food place to eat? We all thought it was funny as hell!!

Tube Radio · #40 08-06-2007, 01:45 PM

What really bugs me is the quality stuff people throw out just because the newest model has one extra button on the remote. Most of my stuff except the computer and DVD/VCR player is stuff from flea markets and like places.

similost · #41 08-06-2007, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DENNYDOG

A couple of friends and I stopped by a fastfood joint to get something cheap to eat after the nascar race a couple weeks ago. We were sitting down and eating when we saw this younger guy and gal come in to order. He had a spiffy suite on and she was dressed up too. After they got their order and walked passed us to sit down, I notice this thing sticking out of the guys ear when they were sitting down, when I quietly said, "What is that, a hearing aid?". The guys broke out in laughter!! He must have been trying to impress the girl with his bluetooth sticking in his ear like he was all cool. If he was trying to impress her with his bluetooth and dressing up in a suit, why would he take her to a fast food place to eat? We all thought it was funny as hell!!

That is a hilarious observation!!!...

But remember how cool we all used to think that thing sticking out of O'Hura's ear was and wished we could have one instead of using a Communicator? mmm.. and to think we have the option of which one to use now...

Telecolor 3007 · #42 08-06-2007, 04:32 PM

If you love old stuff (not necessary electronics) in Romania most of people will laught of you. Some idiots even gave me add on yahoo messenger to sworn me because I like good old things. Usually I don't have problems with the people who likes new things, but it seems they have a problems with me.

Elfasto · #43 08-06-2007, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

If you love old stuff (not necessary electronics) in Romania most of people will laught of you. Some idiots even gave me add on yahoo messenger to sworn me because I like good old things. Usually I don't have problems with the people who likes new things, but it seems they have a problems with me.

Dude, that is complete BS on the other peoples part. Just because something is old does not mean it's crap. If one of your items is old, but it still performs to factory specs, or it does a better job than a new one, then it's not crap. Doesn't matter what it is. Hell, my dad still uses a Sunbeam toaster that is 35 years old because it still works and it doesn't turn the bread into a chunk of charcoal.

Elfasto · #44 08-06-2007, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by similost

That is a hilarious observation!!!...

But remember how cool we all used to think that thing sticking out of O'Hura's ear was and wished we could have one instead of using a Communicator? mmm.. and to think we have the option of which one to use now...

Yeah, but the new bluetooth stuff looks like Borg technology. Makes me have the opinion that we are becoming a populous of drones.

pilotprose · #45 08-06-2007, 04:55 PM

Duh, I guess that I am really going to sound old.....I worked in a television studio when b/w was still the standard......worst yet, I produced the first 911
commerical and, ready for this, it was recorded on a Sony 1/2" reel to reel helical scan tape deck! The camera was made by Ball, uh huh, the same folks that made the Ball/Mason jars...I am or will be officially 60 young years old on 8/7. It was remastered on an Ampex 2600, a 1" helical scan "broadcast" unit.