Bonum Certa Men Certa

In Defence of Analog (Sometimes Digital and/or "Smart" is Objectively a Lot Worse)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 27, 2024

Pioneer DJ Mixing Unit

MR. Pocock has just told a long tale about why you should not get a "Smart Meter" (many Brits do not). I myself covered this topic many times in the past and in recent days it was discussed in our IRC network. Many analogies or similarities can be found in the realm of electronic voting machines. A lot can go wrong with data. Physical, mechanical things can be tampered with (so can paper ballots), but it's usually more complicated to do without getting caught or leaving some incriminating signs.

Having already mentioned why we're changing home insurance providers, perhaps it's a good opportunity to bring up a backstory. It's not the sole catalyst/cause of the change, but it's part of it.

This past weekend (2-3 days) I spent a few hours per day saving us 250 - 400 pounds in repair bills. That's savings of over 50 pounds per hour spent, maybe 100 per hour. I fixed and learned the operations of the gas boiler (which has many knobs, but is hardly digital, almost everything is mechanical). I also fixed and learned some of the central heating system, which is made of valves and about 8 radiators. A lot of the joins/links and pipes are accessible one way or another (like unscrewing parts of the floor, ceiling etc.) and the same cannot be said about "modern" buildings with "smart" things, typically made of metal and glass (not solids like bricks) because they're cheap and stuffed with plastic pipes that are neither reliable nor long-lasting. Like many "modern" cars, they're made to just look good; they won't last long though, for a whole lot of reasons that we covered here several years ago. A lot of modern electronics (notably gizmos like "smart" phones) are advertised as good and supported for only a few years. They basically tell people upfront not to expect these to last very long. Remember that DRM is coming to batteries! How cool is that, eh?

Anyway, so I managed to repair everything on my own, one step at a time, and I didn't need to be a qualified electrician or mess about with chipsets. In the process I visited 3 local shops (small and large) in search of tools and material. I also learned a lot from Web pages and some videos that are freely available online (videos help a lot when you see how it gets done "properly"). I also phoned the insurance company (Monday morning) asking if they'd cover anything. After more than half an hour on the phone I realised they're useless and recognised they would barely cover anything other than major floods and house fires. To make matters worse, they make it hard to speak to actual people. It's like all they care about is money coming in; they don't want any claims made and they'd look for excuses to not cover these (I canceled their policy after 10 years for a bunch of other and much older reasons, I won't renew again, I will look for another provider).

Had the boiler been the "new" model, things would be a lot harder because they add complexity and lock people out of the internal mechanisms (maybe to sell more "servicing" or "newer models"). Had the pipes been in a "modern" home, there would probably be no access to them (except by breaking walls and ceilings with heavy equipment, then rebuilding these with visible patching residues).

Sadly, "modern" cars cost a lot more to repair and maintain. They moreover last for a shorter period of time (don't expect a car purchased today to still be on a road somewhere in 2050). The same is true for homes; many have been conned into accepting "smart" locks (with "apps") and those need to be replaced when the company goes under, the "app" get too "old", the proprietary parts suffer wear and tear etc.

Costs of living increase not only because of inflation but also because products are made more poorly (sometimes by intention; planned obsolescence) and things like entertainment are merely rented, not sold. So you must "buy" the same thing over and over again... it's merely temporarily licensed and making backups is neither possible nor permissible.

All in all, I'm managing to fix almost everything in the home (because it is "dumb", not "smart") and it's giving me skills to use in the future. I can use the lessons and can spare some time to learn.

As we typically say, don't be fooled by this mainstream media concept that "new" is necessarily better; they push a lot of this mythology as Deny Friday approaches. As Dr. Andy Farnell put it a fortnight ago: "Hoarders were once maladjusted to late twentieth consumerist excess because, archetypally it was an old person who, having lived through world wars and rationing, insisted on preserving, adapting, repairing and creatively making-do. Every bottle and jam-jar was a useful object, to be kept 'just in case'. Today we have the opposite situation, where manufactured plastic and electronic goods flow into our lives as a river of tat too fast to be eliminated as waste. We are overwhelmed by an intolerable glut of wealth."

Speaking of preservation or repair, some old people say that their marriages lasted longer and were a lot better/healthier because back in their times people tried to keep and repair things, not throw things away impulsively in pursuit of "something new". Mending clothes and making things work again isn't something to be ashamed of; it takes skills, so it really merits pride or respect, not shame. The corporate "overloads" try to tell us to humiliate people who do not buy "enough", leveraging social forces or peer pressure to make themselves richer. The advertising "industry" and Social Control Media help them a lot in that regard, the latter partly based on collective envy - a glorification of extravagance. "Look how huge my wardrobe is! I never wear the same shirt, clothes are disposable to me!"

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft's Nat Friedman Became Unemployed the Same Time the SLAPPs Against Techrights Started Coming From His Friends (Weeks After We Had Exposed Scandals About Him and the Serial Strangler, His Best Friend, Who Got Arrested a Few Days Later)
Nat Friedman is not "Investor, entrepreneur"
Weeding Out Extremism in Our Community
To me it seems like Microsoft Lunduke is rapidly becoming like a "hate preacher" who operates online, breeding an extremist ideology or trying to soften its image
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day
Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
 
The 'Corporate Neckbeard' is Not the "Good Guy"
Works for IBM
The Nasty Smear (and Stereotype) of "Neckbeard" or "Greybeard" is Ageism
This is the sort of stuff they might try to volley at critics of Wayland
Why Many of Us Use X Server and Will Continue to Use It For Many Years to Come
Don't make this about politics
Brett Wilson LLP Uses Threats to Demand Changes to Pages or Removal of Pages Without Even Revealing Which Staff Member Does That (Sometimes People From Another Firm!)
This has been in the public for years
Dan Neidle Said "It Really Then Became a Job of Tormenting" Lawyers Like Brett Wilson LLP (Who Threatened Him for Exposing Crimes, Just Like They Threatened My Wife a Few Months Later)
he and his wife decided to take on the evil people and their evil lawyers
Large Language Models (LLMs) Externalise Their Cost to the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"The forty-sixth Free Software Bulletin is now available online!"
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.
“Twibel” Actions Against Comedians (and Why It's a Truly Low Blow)
they try to make up in quantities for a lack of merit or quality
Linux Foundation Apparently Flirting With Slop (Marketing by LLM-Generated SPAM)
The Web is in a really bad state!
COVID-19 Sped Up Site Improvements in Techrights
A few months later we created our very own IRC network
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: Negative Questions and 'Touching Grass' (Going Outside)
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Dalai Lama Succession as 90th Birthday Approaches, 40 deg C in China
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news