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Saito2

Old man yells at cloud.

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We're all getting older as the world progresses so I imagine some of my feelings have been echoed by past generations as their worlds progressed too. There seems to be a variation of to types of people: those that get with the times and those that are stuck in the past. Its a scale and we all fall on it between those two extremes. I am pitifully stuck in the past and it was in putting together Legos with my daughter yesterday on Christmas that I reached a tipping point. Yes, good old simple Legos, the very same I played with in my youth (still do). Simple, backward compatible, perfect...except when there are no directions. Nope, there was a booklet (blowing the notion of saving trees out of the water), but something had to be scanned and instructions had to be downloaded...all over nice, simple Legos, sigh. 

To follow that up, my wife and I watched a news report about the disappearance of manual transmissions in cars. I'm a diehard stick shift guy and my wife enjoys knocking my love for something, apparently, virtually no one wants anymore. Oh well, at least few people could steal my Nova, Mustang, Sonic, MGB or GMC Highrider. 

Then, there's money. I use it. Like dollars and cents. No debit card and a credit card only for emergencies or online purchases. Again, I know I'm behind the times but I doggedly still use it. If I have issues with my paycheck or any of my benefits at work, well, no more going to HR. I have to use an app. I still read books... made from paper. The list goes on.

I don't hate all advancement. Medical advancement is so that my father who pasted nearly 10 years ago, may have lived a good bit longer. This internet thing and smart phones are pretty good in some respects if it wasn't so flagrantly misused/abused (looking at you social media) but its just a tool. It takes humans using that tool to screw it up. So, I accept some advancement. I understand the need for change but find myself digging my heels in about things I don't deem useful or necessary. 

The upshot is having "special" talents up and comers don't. I say "special" because I don't consider rewiring a busted lamp any great ordeal. I just do it but that doesn't mean it didn't mystify the younger crowd. Driving stick and not referring to flathead and Philips screwdrivers as "the minus sign one" or "the plus sign one" isn't wizardry to me but on the other hand most things on a computer bewilder me like an impenetrable wall. Just some random musings about a well worn topic.

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I was befuddled by the lack of instructions in my boy’s Lego boxes as well.  I opened all of the kits just to confirm the first was actually true. 
 

There’s a saying I keep telling myself; “Change is inevitable, growth is optional.”

I have to remind myself of this several times every day.  

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34 minutes ago, SupraChrgd82 said:

 “Change is inevitable, growth is optional.”

That’s a great quote because it is so true. Sometimes progress is good.  I resisted 2.4ghz, brushless and lipos for a long time. Once I got some I realized their benefit which effectively rendered all of my sweet FM radio’s, hot brushed motors and high end ESC’s obsolete. 

I don’t agree with the cashless society model. I see no benefits in that.  It’s just a way for the government to track and tax all your transactions. 

Automatic transmissions in cars have gotten really good. I had a rental mustang with a 10 speed automatic and it was always in the right gear when you mashed the throttle. Have said that, I still specifically sought out a 6 speed manual in 911 I bought. 
 

 

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I'm with you on the manual transmissions, but I'm very glad to not have to mess around with cash anymore. Especially now, with covid. Cash is filthy in the best of times; credit/debit cards are easy to disinfect.

I actually find it a source of amusement that the ability to diagnose and fix simple problems with everyday objects is starting to be seen as a kind of mystical superpower. It's simple, kids: take it apart, see how it works, and then you know how to fix it. (What are they teaching them in school these days, anyway?)

To that end, I think I might almost see the lack of instructions in a Lego kit as a feature, not a bug: an opportunity to see if you can reverse-engineeer it just from the photos on the box...

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I think manual are better to drive and probably still more economical with fuel if you know what you’re doing and up till now all my cars have been manual. But... I now have an automatic and to be honest it’s more comfortable to drive, simply because modern driving is now mostly in heavy traffic, stop start, crawling along at snails pace or stuck in a constant stream on the motorway.. So it allows you to be a little more lazy.. and the cruise control as opposed to a speed limiter is again, more comfortable. My current car though has an auto brake function.. I wasn’t aware of.. Can’t even remember what it’s called, but I first became aware of it when I allowed someone to join the main road and just lifted enough to let him in without losing too much speed.. the car however had a panic and applied the brakes which absolutely scared the living daylights out of me..if it wasn’t for the new light on the dash telling me what it was doing I’d probably have taken it to be serviced... I’ve also used the steep decent feature driving in some mountains, I didn’t need to but was just curious how it worked...

As with Lego.. The one thing that gets me is the price... It’s soooo expensive.. I can’t criticise them for all the movie and franchise stuff, it’s this that basically kept them alive and popular.  I’m not keen on too much single use plastic and as mentioned before.. the sets are so specific it does limit some of the creative functionality..

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You're sounding like me!! 🙄😁

15 hours ago, Saito2 said:

I'm a diehard stick shift guy

I'm in the UK, so cars are normal,  or automatic, although unfortunately autos are becoming more common, especially in what I class as, old people's cars, executive cars like , Jaguar ,big Audi's BMW's etc. I think mainly it's because you can only afford to buy those, in your gaining years, when you prefer lazy comfort over driving satisfaction, you've a sore back, and your legs ache, so manuals didn't sell well, (I believe the later Lamborghini Gallardo didn't sell many with manuals, if any, so why would they keep manufacturing them🤷‍♂️). I'm still enjoying hitting the perfect revs, when heel toeing into corners on a B road, (not quite as satisfying ,when it's slightly out ,but...), just not the same having an 'auto blipper' with the DSG box, kind of like the Mrs with , toys, in the bedroom ,yes it gets the job done, probably quicker and constant repeated results, but theres some things i enjoy doing.....

I did buy a Jag XF sportbrake a few years back, beautiful car to look at, but with 8 gears, always in the wrong gear, woeful off the line (you had to hold it on the brakes with the left foot ,and wait a few seconds for it to realise you wanted to move) only kept it for a year..

I do think there's also preparation for swapping over to electric, a computer controlled auto, will swap the power from IC to Elec power seamlessly , something someone with size 10 clown feet, just can't do.

15 hours ago, Saito2 said:

there's money. I use it.

Alot of take aways and car garages near me swapped to only accepting cash during the pandemic, not sure what the reasoning was for that, but apart from that, the majority of my spending is done online, so use creditcard (with cashback deals etc).

Money seems more real though, instead of looking at just numbers. Years ago my ex's son wanted £100 trainers for his birthday, so I took him shopping ,and gave him £100 in £10 notes. He stood looking at the £100 trainers, then looked at the £50 ones, and asked if he could get those and a PlayStation game, - your money mate, so we came back with trainers and a PlayStation game 😂😂

 

So yeah, I'm with you, but I don't think we're in the wrong!! 

I don't mind modern things, like lipos ,brushless ,2.4ghz as they don't take away anything (ok, nicads dumping during a race, added an element, but I don't miss it....), same with modern fuel injection (although the drive by wire can do one....) more power from less fuel can't be grumbled at. It's the changing things for changing sake, that gets me...

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30 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

It's the changing things for changing sake, that gets me...

Same here. I realize a lot of the small changes in things that irk me probably do have their reasons for being (usually tied to money in some way/aka, more profit) but technology for the shear sake of technology isn't good enough for me.  There is beauty in simplicity when it fills a particular need. 

15 hours ago, markbt73 said:

Especially now, with covid. Cash is filthy in the best of times; credit/debit cards are easy to disinfect.

Good point. I should have specified I used cash before Covid. Nowadays, the only brick and mortar store we go to is the grocery store and we do use a card for it and petrol. I've probably got the same bills in my wallet since March, lol. Pre-Covid, I think @Wooders28 is right, money seems more real. We never overspend. There's a finite amount of cash in the wallet/purse at any given time, so when its gone for the week, its gone. I have a coworker who rents with 3 incomes in her household. They really want to buy a house but can't quite seem to manage it financially. I own a house and have a stay-at-home-mother and child and manage to get by. Of course, I don't have any car payments because my cars are "old" and we do things like planning meals and avoid eating out. When you go to Starbucks every day for a couple of drinks, that adds up and using cash makes that apparent real quick. On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with renting or going to Starbucks everyday or eating out frequently or using cards exclusively if that's what you want to do. Different strokes for different folks. Just don't take away my cash.

15 hours ago, markbt73 said:

an opportunity to see if you can reverse-engineeer it just from the photos on the box...

...which is exactly what we did, lol. My daughter not being the most patient of sorts.

15 hours ago, Shodog said:

Sometimes progress is good.  I resisted 2.4ghz, brushless and lipos for a long time. Once I got some I realized their benefit which effectively rendered all of my sweet FM radio’s, hot brushed motors and high end ESC’s obsolete. 

True, but I won't upgrade just for the sake of it. I thought of getting one transmitter with multiple model memory, but I'd never be able to throw out all my vintage AM radio gear anyway, so there's no space savings. The only thing it would benefit would be I wouldn't forever be swapping batteries around. Open endbell mod motors have a technical-looking "sexiness" about them but brushless is the way to go for power for sure but I still cling to Nimh.  Of course I don't run anything hotter than a Sport Tuned nowadays but I guess its good technology gives us choices. I just don't like being forced into it. I was bewildered by Kindles at first but now see their merit. That's fine, just don't stop printing books for folks like me. 

I have tried to like automatics. I've had beefed up Hydros with manual valve bodies in previous street machines. Gated shifters, ratchet shifters, paddle shifters, etc. I know some autos surpass me as a human wielding a stick shift but nothing really replaces the feeling of it. Same with electric vehicles. They will/have surpassed the internal combustion engine but won't replace the soul of them. I half joke that we need to go back to how cars rode in the 50's. The dynamics of those old barges was so sloppy that the lowliest econobox of today would have supercar handling in comparison. If cars drove like 50's cars, you wouldn't have people messing with cell phones while driving (after Darwin took out those who tried) and more sticks would mean you'd need actual skill to drive.

 

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The nice thing is that, even if other people move on to a "better" version of something, the old ones don't just disappear. Folks like us can still keep using them, still keep doing things our way. And oour way has another advantage: it's cheaper. Paper books? Whole used bookstores full of them, more than you could ever read in a hundred lifetimes, and dirt-cheap, sometimes even free. Manual transmissions? They're more durable than automatics, and those of us who really know how to drive them can make a clutch last a very long time. If they quit making new clutch plates tomorrow, I'd just buy one or two for each of my cars and be all set for decades to come.

Even computers, if you're mindful, can be kept at the level of technology you're comfortable with. I have a second computer on my desk, an old Mac Mini that I bought in 2004 and spent a lot of money on software for. When that software became "obsolete," I just disconnected that computer from the internet, but kept it networked to the new one. That way I can work in the old software that I know and like, but it can't "phone home" and bug me about updating things or tell me I can't use it any more. It's stupid that I have to try to outwit a machine to overcome its own planned obsolescence, but the world is a stupid place.

As for learning how to drive, I've long thought that all drivers ed cars should be Austin-Healey Sprites. Tiny, slow, manual everything, scary to drive in traffic. Master that, and we'll turn you loose with something faster and easier.

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10 hours ago, Saito2 said:

If cars drove like 50's cars, you wouldn't have people messing with cell phones while driving

Amen!

I've been in cars with younger drivers, that don't even look behind them when reversing, just wait for the beeps! 😳

I'd love to know what they'd make of no power steering ,not much of a heater, vacuum wipers that slowed as you sped up, and P&P drum brakes (press & pray)😂😂😂

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1 hour ago, Wooders28 said:

P&P drum brakes (press & pray)😂😂😂

That's great! I'm going to use that one, lol.

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11 hours ago, Saito2 said:

That's great! I'm going to use that one, lol.

It was coined during the 90's, when I was still driving an old mini with no power assist drums all round, but new cars had power assisted vented discs all round , plus ABS!! (Side note - am I the only person that sees a mag in the summer, with a headline "how to improve your ABS" and disappointed when it's about lifting weights and fitness....?🤷‍♂️😬)

Anyway, I found that if I left a gap big enough in traffic, so I could safely stop, someone would pull into the gap , so I had to leave a smaller than safe gap, click the handbrake on a notch, and just pray I stopped in time....🤞🤞

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I try my best to keep up with technology.  

I tried an app called "Libby" to borrow library books. But I needed a library card. I don't think old ladies in my local library even know how to make online registration possible. So I might have to go get an old school library card when it's open. If I can borrow e-books for free, why pay for it?  

As @markbt73 said, old paper books are often cheaper.  But If they are just 1-2 years old or really popular, paper versions tend to me more expensive. I've got enough to read, I could wait a few years until there are enough used books.   

If you fully pay off every month, using credit card can be cheaper than cash because of cashbacks.  Cashback IS designed to LURE you into spending more money.  But if you are disciplined enough, even 0.5% cashback from $4000 of expenditure is $20.  Do that for 12 months, you get $240.  If it's 2-3% like spending on Amazon, it's several hundred dollars at the end of the year.  Of course, you lose more if you owe them money. That's their goal. I would think that for every person who's paying off everything, there are 2-3 more people who couldn't. Banks lose money to under-spenders. They make money on over-spenders.  

My wife's parents are over 70, that's not too terribly old.  But they don't know how to order stuff online.  We live in another state, so we have to order stuff for them.  If clothes don't fit, we'd try to get it back on next holidays.  So my wife orders stuff like a jacket online, have it come to us, have me try it on instead of my father in law, and text them a photo of the jacket to see if they like it.  And then ship it to them.  Thank goodness they can text at least....  Occasionally I see the opposite too.  My mom's uncle must be in his 90's now.  When he was almost 80, he was building a computer. He was designing a simple website just for fun too.   

I'm half his age and I'm lagging behind already.  Last time we traveled outside the country, we were the only people who were using paper tickets.  I feel like if I don't bother with keeping up with technology now, I'll be one of those old people who couldn't use virtual stuff in the future.  I don't need to be a hipster grandpa. I don't need to buy new gadgets every few months (except for RC stuff). 

I just want to keep up. Not too old, not too hip.  

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