I still truly miss the last car I owned that I could self-maintain, though its emissions were dirty enough that it's probably just as well that it's gone. I have a reusable shopping bag which I am disgracefully bad about remembering to bring shopping. I am still working on converting all bulbs in my house to fluorescents, let alone LEDs. My only originally pedal-operated sewing machine (of the four I have in the house) has an electric motor add-on, but could probably be unconverted. I would also miss the zigzag stitch, though I already hand-sew my buttonholes. I suspect a fountain pen in my hands is an accident waiting to happen given the amount of ink I cover myself with just using ballpoints. And I'm not sure I'm clueful enough to run Linux, though I've been thinking about trying.

I do possess and use a hand-cranked flashlight!

When my current car dies I am thinking seriously of giving up car ownership and shifting to a combination of Zipcar (available through my day job) and rentals for my weekend trips. I live where I can walk to work, so on a daily basis I don't need a car, and a little planning efficiency could reduce my driving to once or twice a month on travel weekends and once a week for errands. It would be quite a wrench psychologically to give up the sense of freedom the car gives me, though. And I love driving.

Books written on parchment or pre-twentieth century paper last significantly longer than modern paperbacks written on pulp. I've handled eight-hundred-year old codices that, rebound and stored carefully, remain in far better condition than some novels I bought five years ago.

Then again, sheep died to make those manuscripts.

"The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet." - William Gibson

Susan @1:

We spent many years without a car, renting as required for big shopping trips or houseguests (it averaged about once a month) and taking the bus for everything else.

Thing is, once you have a car, you use it. It's actually taken some self-discipline to do the Saturday recycling + shopping run on my bike every week. It's not the travel time, which is roughly equivalent, nor the weather (it turns out I don't mind biking in snow and rain*). It's the time it takes to load the recycling onto my bike that bugs me. I think I need removable panniers.

Next year, when we have both kids in the same school—one I can shepherd them to en route to work—the car will become an occasional use item rather than a daily tool. But I don't think we'll get rid of it.

Shorter me: good luck going non-automotive; I know how hard it can be, but how rewarding as well.
-----
* yeah, I'm weirded out about that too

The supermarkets I go to are now selling reusable bags, and will give a bag refund if you use your own (including those they sell).
Groceries are easier to carry in cloth and paper bags.

(I'd pay for a treadle sewing machine. I think you should be able to get a zig-zag attachment for them - my mother had one for her old-but-electric straight-stitch machine.)

Manual typewriters.

Pencils. All they need are decent caps to keep them from puncturing your pocket. (Mechanical pencils are okay, but finding replacement leads is a non-trivial exercise.)

Susan --

My husband and I have been carfree since our car died last May. There was a bit of an adjustment period, but at this point we're both very, very happy about not having a car. (If I won one in a contest, my first question would be "um... can I get the cash-value equivalent instead? Because I really don't want the car, actually.")

I highly recommend getting rid of the car to anyone whose circumstances make it possible.

One thing to be aware of is that doing so seems to have a significant Red Pill effect that spreads to other things in one's life. At least, that's how it worked for us: You start by getting rid of the car, and you wind up examining all kinds of things about how you live.

I do my best to avoid being an obnoxious proselytizer for getting rid of the personal automobile, but if somebody mentions they're considering getting rid of theirs, I just can't resist jumping in to say "yes, it's great!"

By the way, did you know that Thoreau "developed for his family's business the finest lead pencil available in mid-19th-century America"?

By the way, did you know that Thoreau "developed for his family's business the finest lead pencil available in mid-19th-century America"?

#1: I overheard a conversation the captain of a Trader Joe's had with a customer. Apparently, the first phase is that you leave your reusable bag at home. The second phase is that you leave it in your car. The third phase is when the bag finally makes it into the store.

I have a hand-crank flashlight too. It's great. When there's a power failure, I know that my flashlight will work. It has its downsides, but I don't ever run into them. (e.g., A hand crank is probably a bad choice if you need steady, continuous light for hours.)

I haven't gone back to Linux yet, though. I really like handwriting recognition. If there were a viable Linux based solution, that would eliminate the only reason I have for using a Microsoft operating system.

As for sewing, I really need to learn how to do that. The extent of my sewing experience is to repair a few tears with needle and thread, using instructions I found on the web.

(I should also invest in a bicycle. Some places are just too close to drive to, but too time consuming to walk to. Currently, I walk anyway, but a bicycle would save time. I don't think there's always a place to park the bike though.)

Lexica @7:
If I won one in a contest, my first question would be "um... can I get the cash-value equivalent instead? Because I really don't want the car, actually."

Right in the middle of our car-free time, we* actually did win a car.

Fuji Film put out a promotional film pack with a number of giveaways: disposable cameras, iMacs, and four people carriers. We bought it for the film, of course, but the ticket inside said we'd also won a car. And it was signed in ballpoint pen (you could feel it on the underside). That's what made it real for us, so real we had to sit down for a bit.

There was no cash alternative, so we took delivery and sold it immediately thereafter. The money paid for a drum kit, a digital camera†, a wooden floor in our house, and more maternity leave time for me after our son was born.

-----
* Technically, Martin won it
† irony: we stopped buying film

Websites of note:

Worldchanging

http://www.worldchanging.com

James Cascio's Open the Future

http://www.openthefuture.com/

Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/

* * *

I keep my reusable shopping bags in my car. I remember them maybe 2/3 of the time.

I love and adore a good Alice's restaurant reference.

There are buttonhole-making attachments that work with straight-stitch sewing machines. My Singer sewing instruction books refer to them, and if the ones I'm finding on eBay are the right kind, bidding starts at 99 cents.

I've got a treadle Singer, unconverted, and it does work, although I confess I use it as a table to hold my electric-powered Bernette 440.

I wish I could go carless, but in my current location it's just not practical. If I lived in the Boston area, I'd seriously consider it, what with the T and Zipcar and rentals.

I have often thought I'd like to have a Mooncup in case of apocalypse.

Oh, duh:

MAKE folks do cool stuff with both new and old technology.

http://makezine.com/

pixelfish @15:
There is no requirement to wait for the apocalypse, or even a minor disaster.

Getting one and discovering you don't like it is a bit expensive—there isn't exactly a brisk secondhand market in them. But getting one and finding out that you love it and would never go back to anything else works out very cheap.

It's a gamble, sort of. You have to ask yourself if you feel lucky.

It offends me that so many modern things are built to be trashed in three years. I had a fine digital camera, it stopped turning on, there was no place to fix it, I opened it up and couldn't figure out how to fix it myself... Such a waste. I had an inkjet printer, it never worked well, it was worthless as soon as I took it out of the store... I had a microwave, it stopped producing microwaves. I had a MP3 player, it stopped turning on.

I wish companies were required to send out circuit diagrams and repair manuals with all of their electronics. I wish soldering and electrical repair were required classes in high school.

Heck, we have a perfectly good digital camera (only 2.1 megapixels, so not quite state of the art, but fully functional) that we may have to replace because the batteries don't seem to be made anymore. We can only take 3-4 pictures with the current battery before it fails. I bought one online, but it was old too (not used, but these things have a finite shelf life even unused), and we don't get much more life out of it.

Digital cameras are an interesting cleft stick.

On the one hand, the sensors on a digital camera go bad after a while. If enough of them do so, the camera isn't much use any more. And, as Madeline points out, you can't repair it, nor bring it to someone local who can do so.

But it's harder and harder to get black and white film, even 35mm film, without going mail-order. And home darkroom work on color film is space, equipment and chemical intensive, even more than black and white.

Good thing this is just an ideal, not an ideology we're discussing.

Just this morning, I found in a "take me, we're moving" pile a nice SLR camera with filters, cleaning stuff, a remote plunger and two flashes.

A film camera.

Dust in the wind.

I'm going to bring it to Goodwill at lunch.

The Amish have done a lot of adaptations of modern technology to fit their needs. One of those is taking modern sewing machines - at least basic models that aren't computer-driven - and fitting them for treadle or airpower. I would assume those machines do zigzag.

In fact, it's possible to order such a machine, complete with zigzag and buttonhole, here.

Rymenhild @2: Then again, sheep died to make those manuscripts.

Yes but the sheep also fed and clothed the scribe who made the manuscript. An animal that can produce food, clothing, tools and publishing materials is so useful, you'd think it came form some genetically engineering laboratory in the future, rather than from a damp field full of mud in the past.

One of the fascinating aspects of the past is just how much ingenuity our ancestors had when all they had at hand were a few rocks, twigs and livestock.

And we wonder that some stone age McGyver was worshiped as a God. How many of us could figure out, without ever having seen it done before, how to make fire out of couple of twigs, a flat rock and the power of our own lungs?

I've never had a driver's license, and own no car. Fortunately I now walk to work. I also walk to the grocery store and take my huge backpack; I have canvas totes too, but I nearly always forget them.

On the downside, if I have too much stuff to carry home, I have it delivered--and that's done in a bigass van thing.

I have the miniature version of the hand-cranked flashlight, which is kind of the "jerkoff" flashlight (from the motion used to charge it up).

Xopher @24:
"jerkoff" flashlight (from the motion used to charge it up)

You remind me that I have a pocket calculator that you shake in much the same way to charge up.

I bought it because the packaging told me that it worked without electricity (though it doesn't look much like an abacus to me) and without light (I presume it does, but I can't see the results).

How could I resist?

MamaDeb @22:
Your link is munged, and I can't retrieve it. Can you put the URL in plain text, or make sure you use quotes around it if you use the <a href=... formatting?

My mother's hand-cranked Singer sewing machine lasted her about thirty years (she bought it when I was a small child in the late 50s, and it travelled from England to Jamaica in the late 60s; it stayed in Jamaica when she left for good at the end of the 80s).

Some technologies may last even longer, of course. When we lived in rural Jamaica we cooked using a wood-burning stove rejoicing in the name 'Caledonia Modern Dover' dating to around 1900 (possibly older) that was still functional in the 1970s (I certainly had the blisters to prove it). For all I know, it may be working yet.

I haven't made the leap over to Linux, but I have switched from word processor to text editor, so just about everything I write is in future-proof ASCII.

And then there's "Amish computing" and the back-to-paper movement.

I've had the same cheap Black&Decker electric drill since January 1986. It was a parting gift from my co-workers when I left Québec. That thing has seen a lot of use.

Car maintenance is perhaps a bad example. We have a 1997 Saturn that has 112,000 miles on it, and get 30 MPG even when it's way out of tune. I figure it's good for another 50-100 thousand miles. My old Fiats and the like were a lot easier to work on (and in some cases possible to work on), but the flip side is that they had to be worked on. I remember distinctly the point at which I stopped working on cars. It was a Ford Escort that I had inherited from my father (he had won it in a contest), and it needed its timing belt changed. Rubber timing belt is routine maintenance, right? (You changed it religiously at 70,000 miles on the Fiat 131 engine, or you ended up with a valve stuck edge-on in a piston.) Well. I didn't have a garage, and of course it was 45 degrees (always is when you need to really sink yourself in the engine). And here we are, trying to figure out how to get at this thing, and we finally figured out that we had to put a jack under the engine, and loose one of the motor mounts, and lower the engine a few inches. And after all that I swore I would never work on my own car, ever again.

Fragano 27:
Thank you for the reminder of stoves; another good example of simple, flexible technology is the Coleman stove. My parents have used the same one at the cabin for over 35 years; it sits there still.

Avram @28:
The back-to-paper movement? It's a movement now? In harmony, one hopes, and singing loud.

It's why I became a bookbinder. I realised I was done with my Palm V and wanted no new gadget in its place. I just wanted really beautiful blank books, nicer than I could afford any other way.

I still use dial phones bought at garage sales long ago. I have a couple of extras, because they do fail eventually. Western Electric built good stuff, because way back then, you rented your phone from Ma Bell, so she didn't want it to fail. I also have an old touch tone phone for those times you can't access service without one.

And I *like* dial phones. It's how I think of using a phone, and the sound quality is great. I also prefer watches with dials.

I've been trying to use shopping bags for a long time. The local food co-ops used to pretty much require it, also your own jars and such. Now they have bags available, but give you a nickel back if you've brought one.

There was a time in my life I used flannel pads. Cups never worked for me; gave me cramps. I bought enough pads to get through my period. When it was over, they were tossed in the wash in cold water with a long soak. Now that I don't need them, I don't know what to do with them. But they gave several years of excellent use, much softer and more comfortable than disposable.

Random thoughts on sustainability and technology.

---My uncle has a lovely singing voice. About 25 years ago he gave us recordings....on 8-tracks. Unfortunately, that was the only format he recorded. Which leads us to Unfortunately #2: a couple of years ago someone in the family wanted to convert the recordings to some other format (ah, but how durable??), but it appears that all of us have gotten rid of all of our 8-tracks.

---when spinning wheels were first introduced, they were often vilified as potential job killers. Interesting how perspectives on the advantages of technology can develop.

---I wonder about tasks that are apparently efficient. Take cooking. In my experience it really doesn't take that much time to cook 'real' stuff, as opposed to buying things prepackaged and/or microwavable. Not to mention that my food processor's parts aren't dishwasher safe; it's less hassle to use other more 'primitive' tools.

---Jen Roth @19, we had the same thing happen to our telephone. We replaced the phone a few weeks ago before the battery gave up entirely.

---on the other hand, some appliances like washers and dryers have gotten very energy-efficient. I'll be sad to see my 20-year-old washer go, but will feel better about saving power and water with a new one.

---My 1910 edition of The Harvard Classics is in fine shape. My '70's paperbacks (Science Fiction Hall of Fame, waaaah!) are crumbling.

--- re: the Amish. I recently linked to an article describing some of their innovations. Here it is again.

My sewing machines are long-lived - the two I use most often (fraternal twin Singers) are both 40 years old and have never needed any repair other than a single gear under the bobbin case that seems to be a chronic weak point on that model. That's about a $30 repair every couple of years. My serger, which I rarely use and which really ought to be a candidate for disposal, is about 15 years old. My converted machine, which I almost never use, is a 1920s model of some sort, and works just fine provided I only want to do straight stitch. I consider it a backup in case I manage to munch the gears on both my main ones, as has happened occasionally, always at the most inconvenient possible moment relative to some costume deadline.

Diva cups -- better than moon cups in that they have no latex! I think they are not used so much in the US, though. US undergrads seem to be very squeamish about some things, and not at all about things that squick me no end.

I think most of those things are really obvious -- I started with the bags when I lived in Europe, and have lots of lower-tech stuff. But for a lot of people here in the US, non-car transport is difficult. There are lots of spots between my home and work, for example, where there is no pavement and the cars do not look out for bikers and walkers.

On older books: My 1923 copy of Government of the West Indies is still in excellent condition for what is, after all, a Wrong book.* Quite a few of my 60s and 70s paperbacks are, shall we say, very fragile.

*I treat it gently, on the other hand I have marked up my first American edition of Froude's Bow of Ulysses.

The use of disposable things, or short-lived things, can have its own complicated ecology. Maybe ecology isn't quite the right word. I mean a network of processes that depend on each other. I usually have a reusable (as in luggage) bag with me when I shop. When I need paper or plastic bags, I get one from the store, and put it inside my reusable bag, to take it home. Why? Because if a person wants to recycle paper, the local recyclers require it to be packaged in paper bags and taken to one of their drop boxes, conveniently located every 1/4 mile or so. (There's an exception for newspapers, which I don't read on paper at home.) I use plastic grocery bags for trash. I've seen plastic trash bags made for the purpose, but they're much thicker plastic, so if the idea is to minimize use of plastic it doesn't seem like a good use of money.

I overheard a conversation the captain of a Trader Joe's had with a customer. Apparently, the first phase is that you leave your reusable bag at home. The second phase is that you leave it in your car. The third phase is when the bag finally makes it into the store.

If you're walking, you'll make the mistake of forgetting your bag once or twice, tops. And if you're walking and you forget your bag the second time, odds are good that you'll buy a second bag rather than endure another walk with plastic ones.

Cars are very good at enabling some kinds of wasteful behavior.

Giving up the car was a lot easier than I thought. It started when my partner and I figured out that we could do all (and I do mean *all*) our grocery shopping on foot. Then he realized he could take the bus to work and save himself an annoying drive every day. 18 months later, we moved and decided to get rid of the car as it hadn't been used *once* in that time.

We now use bikes for quite a lot - we each picked up one when we moved. Mine is scheduled to be replaced, since I'm better at handling cargo than it is! I know it's possible to get a bike that works better than I do, so I'm comparison shopping for the replacement.

Pixelfish #15: you don't need an apocalypse to appreciate a mooncup! I use the Diva cup (silicone, not latex) and I couldn't be happier with it. It's comfortable, it can be worn all day with no leakage and no changing, and you never have to worry if you've run out of menstrual supplies. I've had mine for several YEARS now and it's more than paid for itself in the supplies I haven't had to buy. Also, I think it was the only thing that made having my period at Warped Tour a manageable situation. I would not have wanted to deal with disposables and Porta-potties -- something I could leave in and ignore until I got to better facilities was ideal.

I've also used the Keeper (latex, while serviceable, can kinda smell funny after a while) and the disposable Instead cups. Disposable doesn't address the environmental or deep-value concerns, but there are certain situations where the design of the Instead (it's like a diaphragm, the Keeper and Diva sit lower down) makes it the optimal choice.

Mooncups RULE.

Another Damned Medievalist @36:
Several of the cup anecdotes were American; that was when I found out that they weren't simply a British phenomenon. I suspect many women of my daughter's generation (she's currently 4) will use them as a default.

I confess, on the biking, that I have an obscenely, viciously unfair advantage. I live in the Netherlands.

When I show American bikers around, it takes me several hours to get them to relax and believe that the cars are really going to give them the space that they need on those few stretches of road that don't have a bike lane.

I've only been here eight months, and it still blows my mind. Dutch people don't even see how fantastic it is.

Susan @ 35... My serger, which I rarely use and which really ought to be a candidate for disposal

I gave you the best years of my life and this is what I get.

I've only taken a cursory look at the thread so far (I should have left work by now), so I apologize if anyone's already posted this, but the Group News Blog has this post about "The Real Deal" a couple of months ago that touches on just this topic.

I've only taken a cursory look at the thread so far (I should have left work by now), so I apologize if anyone's already posted this, but the Group News Blog has this post about "The Real Deal" a couple of months ago that touches on just this topic.

Rats! Double posts do not have deep value!

I am surely not the only Making Light reader who has a conflict of values pertaining to reading choices. Too many things in new-book stores are book-shaped objects, printed on very real paper. Ick! So I end up reading and enjoying books from second hand shops and libraries. That is very economical with the book-making energy, but tends to give the book-makers (authors, editors, designers, publishers, etc.) short shrift.

I'm hoping that an economic model will turn up that will make it possible to pay the makers regardless of the distribution chain I choose. And while distribution is important, I have no love for particular distribution chains and no wish to support them; I wish there were some reasonable way of rewarding/repaying authors and publishers for their work even when I choose a different distribution channel.

Debbie #34, on dishwashers: My parents recently got a new one, despite my father's skepticism, but he tried handwashing a medium-full sinkload of dishes and measured how much water he used, versus how much the dishwasher would have, and apparently the dishwasher won out by quite a bit. It startled the hell out of him, and me, and won him over to the dishwasher side of things. Sadly, I don't have a functioning dishwasher, and judging from the two years I've spent trying to get my landlord to do something about it, I might never.

On mooncups or diva cups or whatever: most of my ladyfriends have switched over to them over the past few years, and unanimously report satisfaction. They seem a dramatic improvement.

abi @ 41: you may be optimistic about your daughter's generation using mooncups as a default.

My daughter is 12, and although she was eager to try one, she can't wear it comfortably right now. I advised her to hang onto it and try again later.

I'm sure she can figure out the likely preconditions for "later," as I've also given her Our Bodies, Ourselves, but if I brought it up directly I'd just hear "Mo-om, you're embarrassing me!"

Going meta for a moment, I'd say that -skills- are very much one of the deep value items. I'm always surprised to find people don't all have some rough idea of how to weave, or make paper (or ink), or sew[0], or butcher, (more recent) how electricity works, even in general terms, or all sorts of remarkably basic ideas that underly modern technology.

"The magic just happens" is a spectacular form of ignorance.

[0] Sewing... I'm beginning to think that (at 5 sewing machines (one treadle, one hand-crank, one convertable power/handcrank, and one powered) and a serger) I might have a problem... (but I've sewn with all but the most recent of them - and that because the most recent was found lonely on the curb yesterday, and needs a belt)

Rikibeth @48:
Perhaps, if cups gather momentum, they will come in more sizes. Have you fed back to either company?

Thing is, once you have a car, you use it.

This is why I resist every suggestion that my life would be easier with a car (and given the sad state of public transport in small-town Lincolnshire maybe it would). I enjoy travelling by train, meeting interesting people and getting to know new stations along the way. But if I was running a car, I wouldn't be able to justify train journeys and I'd miss them.

abi 50: no, I haven't yet. I probably ought to. I wonder just how small they could make the things, though, before they started losing their advantages? I suspect that one made the size of a slender/junior tampon wouldn't be very effective.

The first "Our Bodies, Ourselves" contained instructions for using a diaphragm as a menstrual cup, which was my first introduction to the concept, but which indicates it's been around for a while. Even though I turned out to be incompatible with them, I love the idea and always beam with pleasure when I see a new brand name on the market.

As for variations, the Keeper had a 'no child has passed through this cervix' style and an 'at least one child has passed through this cervix' size/shape. (I forget how they phrased it, but that was the gist.) I *think* the Diva cup does too. For more variation yet, one can return to the diaphragm which (as I understand it) is individually fitted. More expensive, but it's not like one needs dozens of them.

Xeger @49 - I second that.

Moreover, skills are fun (well, probably not the butchering): make tofu from beans & sea water... you may have to fight off the paparazzi. Or knitting, spinning, crochet, and cooking. Etc.

I've found that not only is cooking fun, it helps keep out ingredients I'd rather avoid. (I've been known to make muffins, pancakes, and cakes without any of the following: eggs, wheat flour, oil, sugar, and milk. Good muffins and pancakes. Ingredient-free cooking - whee!) But I still find it surprising that cooking is something that counts as a skill, like all those other ones. I mean, how do people eat without cooking?

Instead cups aren't compatible with an IUD-- which is in itself a Deep Value contraceptive, not requiring daily pills or other small disposable objects.

(TMI warning for guys who would just as rather not engage with this sort of gynecology)

I've bought and tried all three types of reusable cups. So far, the Keeper has lasted the longest; this may be an unfair judgement in that I lost my Divacup within a few months of purchase, although I was not unhappy to do so-- I had a lot more trouble wrangling it into place, because of the shorter stem and slightly larger size (the cupmakers' size recommendation is partially based on age, but this didn't seem to work for me).

My Mooncup eventually developed some small holes/fissures in its main body, which may be attributable to a brief but intense interval when our two then-kittens decided that it was the Best Toy Ever; more than once, after I'd pitched it into the bathroom sink before settling down for a good read, I'd looked back up to discover that the Mooncup had disappeared somewhere in the direction of an ominous set of little red pawprints. It bounced real good.

I *have* had leaks with the cups due to overflow, even past a backup flannel pad. But they've still served me better than even the largest pre-toxic-shock tampons, which IIRC were once described by a comedian who said that every time she jumped into the pool with one, the water level went down.

And finally, there is the fabulous site http://mum.org/ , the online Museum of Menstruation.

The Keeper and Diva Cup both swear that if you've had a child, you NEED NEED NEED their larger size to prevent leakage. The Diva Cup even says you need the larger size if you're over 30, child or no child, because of natural loss of muscle tone.

I'm here to tell you they're WRONG.

I'm over 30, I have a child, and the larger size was frickin' unwieldy. The smaller size is comfortable and leak-free.

I got to play with an old treadle Singer sewing machine when my dad was fixing it for my aunt. (Inherited from her mother or grandmother.) Once you get in the rhythm with the treadle, it goes at an impressively fast clip! It had a box full of attachments that let it do dozens and dozens of kinds of frills and furbelows. I don't remember if there was a buttonhole attachment but I would be surprised if there was not.

One of our fundamental problems right now is that we have lots of ways to put materials together, and very few ways to take them apart again for reuse. If we can figure out how to make something that does *that* the green revolution will become immensely easier and more popular. Plastics, metals, and so on do certain jobs that natural materials just can't, so people are not going to give them up.

For those forgetting their shopping bags at home, a recommendation. I use one of these that I picked up at a co-op. It folds up wallet-sized and fits in my purse, so I don't forget it (unlike the five string bags and the big canvas bag that lives in my back seat). If I didn't have a purse, it would snap around my belt loop. Since I got it, my disposable bag consumption is down to what I need for my recycling and my lunch.

On sewing machines: I have an electric sewing machine that's a couple generations old (human generations, not tech generations) and much sturdier than the modern ones. I love it, but if I didn't have electricity I think I'd just go back to needle and thread. Whereas I would probably have to invent a treadle-powered word processor rather than go back to either manual typewriter or pen & paper.

This is only a placeholder for what I hope will be longer comments tonight or tomorrow.

I am troubled by how much deep value apparently depends on labor I can't add. There are presumptions going on about what kinds of disabilities and limitations apparently don't exist in people who'd like to be good stewards of their chunk of the world's resources. There's lots I would do, both physically and mentally, if I could, but it simply isn't going to happen. It wouldn't happen even if I sacrificed all of my chosen work and entertainment, in some cases, thanks to learning disabilities rising from nerve damage.

Some of this, to be sure, is spillover frustration at healthy young (generally male) bloggers who've done yeoman work analyzing the screwing over that the working and middle classes have gotten and then turn right around to enthuse about hiking the price of food and transportation, knowing damn well that nothing like sufficient aid to the needy will be forthcoming. And those who have even more trouble holding onto gainful employment or finding healthy food will...what? Blow away? Hire themselves out to each other laborers?

It's not that I disapprove of making things both lasting and repairable. It's that I get leery of too much endorsement of solutions calling for more physical labor and mental training without a good sense of what kinds of burden that can be, nor any real sense of what to do about it.

More later, though; this is not (in my intention) a completed thought.

I don't use a cup, as it is incompatible with the IUD I currently have in place, but I do like my cloth pads and sea-sponge tampons vastly better than their disposable alternatives. Right now, I can just toss the pads in with my son's cloth diapers, which is very convenient. Cloth diapers also seem to be making a comeback, and while we don't use them exclusively, I now look at a disposable diaper and think "I'm throwing out this big hunk of plastic and chemicals to take care of a little bit of baby pee that would just wash out?" I guess that's more of a "sustainability" rather than "deep value" argument, but they're related.

abi @41:
In 1990, before and after ConFiction, I spent some time bicycling in the Netherlands (and Denmark) (including a circumnavigation of the Ijsselmeer). One of the problems I had, as an American cyclist was that I was too cautious for the Dutch drivers, I'd slow and check at an intersection. They were expecting me to fly right through. It didn't help that I was extra wary since the bike trip was financed by the settlement from having my collarbone broken when me and my bike were hit by a car making a turn across traffic (Mass Ave, Arlington, MA).
I wanted a sign saying "Let Op! Amerikaanse Fietser".
Not only was there a bike path from the airport, it went in a separate tunnel from the auto traffic.
At one point on my long ride, a drawbridge started to go up in front of me. The bridgekeeper saw me and gave me priority over the bridge (I assume that he didn't actually have to slow the cargo ship down).

Rikibeth: Thanks for the heads up about the larger/smaller size issue. I currently am on the Ring, which I adore, and I assume that inserting a cup will be no more strenuous than inserting the Ring?

I'm posting this before reading past #20 -

Abi: I prefer a sewing machine that zig-zags, so that I can make buttonholes.

and

#5 ::: P J Evans :::

...(I'd pay for a treadle sewing machine. I think you should be able to get a zig-zag attachment for them - my mother had one for her old-but-electric straight-stitch machine.)

and

#14 ::: Rikibeth :::
There are buttonhole-making attachments that work with straight-stitch sewing machines.
I use a treadle sewing machine with a late-50's head that can do not only zig-zag, buttonholes, double-needle, but a wide variety of other built-in stitches and also takes cams for bigger/more elaborate patterns. I own two of those heads, both of which came from Canada. The second treadle cabinet I got from a company whose main business is catering to the Amish.

There are two versions of the clamp-on buttonholer, one for straight-stitch and one for zig-zag machines. They make an extremely nice buttonhole.

re: Mooncup
I used a version of these in the early 70's, until they stopped being made (or, at least, marketed in Kansas, where I was living at the time). If I were young enough to still need these, I'd buy a Mooncup in a heartbeat.

Back to reading this thread -

I definitely agree with the sad disposable nature of so much of what we have, but I find that a lot of truly good choices are counter-intuitive (ethan @47's story is a good example). Reusing bags is good, I will agree, but plastic shopping bags are apparently not the demon that everyone thinks they are, see here, and the cost of banning/taxing them might actually be counter productive (leading, for example, to an increased use of trash bags which, as pointed out above, are much thicker and less eco-friendly than shopping bags).
I think it's interesting how eager we are to focus on a problem, any problem, and totally ignore others (like, oh, the end of life as we know it when the oil runs out)--it's one of the reasons I tend to be skeptical whenever a people start cheering the latest environment saving fad (like Nuclear power as the answer to our prayers) .

It is important to think about taking steps to reduce our impact on the world, but deep meaning calls for deep analysis, I think. It might be beyond some of us ( though the guys at Freakonomics do a good job of the kinds of analysis I think we need).

Tying in with what Bruce said above, there's sometimes an annoying pain-in-the-ass factor that goes along with these old-timey Deep Value items. For example, I notice that two of the items in that "Real Deal" article Chris linked to -- the Pendleton shirt and the Hudson Bay point blanket -- are dry-clean-only.

I am troubled by how much deep value apparently depends on labor I can't add

I have some bone deformities and a rotated hip. I've had arthritis since I was 16. Exercise helps thankfully. Living 2 miles or less from everything also helps. If I did things the way the average American biker does, I'd be in terrible shape. Someone with more severe disabilities might not be able to bike at all. Or WALK. So I don't tell people to go car free, and I talk about the problems I've had. I talk about the solutions too, since someone else might learn from me.

It's important to do what is sensible and maintainable for *you*. It probably will not be the same as what I do, nor will it be the same as what Abi does. And it won't be the same as what my sister does (similar disabilities to me, and very different enviroment).

Pixelfish: I've never used the Ring, but seating a DivaCup is simpler than positioning a diaphragm, at least for me. It's sort of an intermediate complexity between tampon and diaphragm. It's basically fold, insert, rotate (to make sure it's unfolded). Very simple.

A gadget to carry plastic bags

And if you're not shopping, you can go fly a kite.

Hudson Bay Point blankets were invented considerably before dry cleaning. It's my experience that a wool blanket doesn't need washing very often -- and it's got to be possible to do it the old-fashioned way when it's actually necessary.

I wouldn't throw it in a modern washing machine and tumble dryer, but a washtub, and mild soap, and spreading it flat on the grass to dry? I'd be willing to risk it.

This seems to be today's conversation. I've already had it with two friends. We all seem to be thinking along the same lines -- if things go pear-shaped for a while, how can we make sure we can survive?

Having stuff that lasts and can be repaired is a big part of that. A rumor about a truckers' strike led me to make a shopping list last week of all the stuff we'd want stocked in case there was a temporary halt to shipping. We ended up with a lot of dried beans, peas, and lentils, canned vegetables, rice, and plenty of frozen veggies and meats -- and also plenty of shampoo, conditioner, soap, toilet paper, and paper towels. Because I have a Diva Cup, I did not have to put tampons on that list, and I thought that was pretty cool.

(I will evangelize for menstrual cups to anyone who will listen, actually. I've found that mine works a good deal better than the disposable alternatives, and it's darned convenient to never worry about buying stuff, because I'm always prepared.)

I would like to state for the record that those rumors were just rumors, and I have no credible source. We figured it was a good excuse to get a stockpile going, though. Turned out that it didn't cost much more than a regular shopping trip -- beans and canned goods are cheap.

I really want a sewing machine, so that I can repair, alter, and rework clothes as necessary. I have, in the past, stretched a pair of jeans that were a size too small by opening the side seams and adding a panel of colorful fabric on either side of the leg -- I got compliments on those in high school. That was with my mother's sewing machine. Not having to ditch clothes and start over when I go up or down a size would help a lot.

And I am planning to switch to reusable grocery bags just because I get extremely annoyed by dealing with the plastic kind. They pile up and fall out of the closet, and then the cats get hold of them and lick and bite them, and I have to take them away to prevent damage to the cats, and then I get fed up and just put them in the trash anyway, after which I feel guilty. A set of reusable bags is going to save me so much irritation.

Rikibeth, you're not making a good case for those blankets being easy to care for. Carting a wet blanket out to Prospect Park and watching it dry for a few hours is hardly less work than just dumping it in a washing machine and then a dryer. Leaving aside the question of what to do if I need to clean it in winter.

Back when I was on active duty at DLI, I had the usual problems with strings (the various pockets, flaps, gussets, etc. are prone to unravelling; this is frowned upon).

The default solution was to burn them. After I'd lost my third, or fourth, lighter one month, I said screw it, and bought a zippo.

It's been 15 years, and I still have the zippo. It was ten dollars as a lump, vs. a serial expenditure of 99 cents.

I wear the same knife today I bought 21 years ago. I'm planning to buy a scythe. No more hassling with the mower. It'll be a couple of hundred dollars, but it's less than a mower costs, has very little in maintainence costs (maybe the snath gets damaged, or you hit a really big rock; other than that, a new stone every ten years or so it about it, that and polishing the hammer and anvil), makes no noise and impresses the neighbors. One can clear about an acre a day; of wheat. Grass is a bit quicker.

Madeline@18: I wish companies were required to send out circuit diagrams and repair manuals with all of their electronics. I wish soldering and electrical repair were required classes in high school.

Moore's law is a pain in the arse. By the time many electronic devices break, they're also obsolete. And soldering a 200 pin surface mount chip isn't exactly easy, or cheap.

digital camera: sensors keep improving, storage keeps getting denser. the technology hasn't neared an asymptote yet.

inkjet printer: The cost of new black/white plus color cartridges for my printer nearly equals the cost of the printer with small cartridges included. They give printers away at cost or at a loss, and then make it up selling ink like it was a subscription service.

microwave: Well, I never felt comfortable monkeying around with radiation.

MP3 player: I'm surprised someone hasn't made a generic MP3 player, with a USB port built in for the actual storage of music. As the price of storage goes down, you can upgrade the memory, but keep the player. Then the interface would be almost zero dollars to build, and the cost of memory would be separated out. Of course, that just makes it more replacable, not repairable.

The main problem is the economics of electronic products push for more integration, which obsoletes older parts quickly. Combine that with ever plummeting costs for chips with more features, and it ends up costing you more to buy the old chip than to get the new one. I don't think it's going to settle out for a while yet.

The other problem is that the NRE to make an asic is like a million dollars, which makes it bloody hard for a mom and pop operation to come in and make a generic MP3 player that anyone can build or repair.

Avram, I wasn't exactly saying they'd be EASY to care for. Just that if dry cleaning disappeared, they wouldn't become entirely unusable. I have to admit I was thinking with my re-enactor brain -- the blankets are popular among Colonial re-enactors, and the house museum where I've volunteered in the past has done laundry demonstrations. Children seem to find it fun to play with the tub and washboard and the paddles for stirring the linens -- I'm sure they'd find it less so if they had to do the washing for a whole family, week after week.

I know that if my cat threw up on MY wool blanket (not a Hudson Bay, just a common blanket from probably the middle of the last century) in the wintertime, I'd sponge it off as best I could and drape it over the shower curtain rod while it dried, rather than trying to wash the whole thing.

Abi@26:

Sorry. Here.

Dena@46: Your mileage may vary, but personally I'm not particularly concerned about using up paper when I'm buying new books. Yes, there's an environmental cost to paper, but books use so small a portion of the paper-stream (1/2 to 1/3 of one percent of paper usage, according to Walt Crawford in the latest _Cites and Insights_) that I'm not that worried about it. The cost to me, as I see it, for forgoing books in the name of paper is higher. (We do buy used books more often than new, actually, but that reflects our interests and budgets more than a concern for paper.)

Seeing how much junk mail some other houses get, I'm pretty sure we save far more paper than we use in books just from having put ourselves years ago on the DMA's junk-mail opt-out lists. (It doesn't completely get rid of junk mail, but it reduces it substantially.)

Sometimes I think the most sustainable thing I can do is move elsewhere. Hawai'i, for me, has meant having to own a car (even though I prefer the bus) and eating mostly food grown in California, among other things. On the other hand, I don't have to heat my house with gas or oil.

I'd buy a treadle sewing machine without a zig-zag function - I prefer to sew buttonholes by hand. It doesn't take me any longer, since sewing them on the machine usually requires that I redo them.

When I lived in a town that had free recycling pickup (and charged a fee for trash pickup), I had stopped using plastic shopping bags, and didn't want to buy small plastic trash bag liners. I took the trash out of the house more frequently and scrubbed the bins at least once per week, which worked okay, but was really annoying to have to do during the winter when I couldn't just use the hose in the yard.

This reminds me that I ought to order a replacement set of the replaceable parts for my pressure cooker (see also: fast way to deal with long-storing grains and beans).

Try finding resole-able shoes. They aren't common at all anymore, especially for women.

I can get my Birkenstock sandals resoled until the cork actually breaks apart, but I haven't found a way to get my El Naturalista shoes done. It's frustrating, because they're both good shoe brands, and expensive, but one lasts up to five years, and the other doesn't.

Second for Chico Bags @58

We're carfree here in our little suburb of Seattle. Three years now. We walk and bike and take the bus. We rent a car once in a while. More often we borrow a car from one of our neighbors. Good neighbors are about as deep value as you can get.

To improve bicycle carrying capacity there's Xtracycle, a bolt-on frame extension that radically increases a regular bike's utility. Here are pictures of the more improbable loads I've carried on mine.

Another old technology that's still wonderfully alive is woodworking tools. For remarkably little money you can buy vintage human-powered drills, saws, and planes that surpass anything manufactured today for quality and utility. A good eggbeater drill is a joy to use--silent, safe, fast, and the batteries don't run down until supper time. Outrageous amounts of good information and help on this available on the Oldtools mailing list.

Any loss of the machine culture and we all starve.

Sure, some people will survive, but to a first approximation, none of us are them.

Deep value... I think this messily conflates two things.

One is that actual human utility innovates a whole lot slower than consumer products allege that they do; there are a great many things that are simpler, less expensive, better for you, and so on. Having stuff to do that has real, tangible results, of obvious or immediate value, is a goodness.

The other one is that the machine society runs as an open loop -- there are inputs, stuff, and garbage -- rather than a closed loop -- there are inputs and stuff -- and this has to change to the closed loop form as a matter of some urgency.

Me, well, no car, and have never owned one. Driver's license, and I use it occasionally, for 'not the last calendar year' values of occasionally. Linux since I got a computer that could run it, in 1997 -- I can claim no virtue for this; I learnt to use a computer on a VAX, and only unixes seem natural -- and heavy reliance on large reusable bags. (One of them has wheels.)

On the other hand, new digital camera I like very much; some things are better, more effective, expand the realizable choice space available to people. The problem isn't that consumer digital cameras don't last; the problem is that the question "what eats those?" doesn't have an answer.

(All that lives is food. Technology needs to live, is all.)

C. Wingate @30: That reminds me of the time I replaced the battery on my 1998 Dodge Stratus. I figured it'd be a simple operation: disconnect the leads, pull out the old battery, pop in the new one, reconnect. Until I realized the battery housing was not in the engine compartment but in front of the front left wheel. I had to turn the wheel all the way to the left, squat down, reach under one handed and unscrew the splash guard, yank that out from the wheel base, disconnect the battery and then figure out a way to slide it out of the casing without dropping it (still crouched down, fiddling in the wheel well, mind). Once the old battery was out then I had to somehow fit the new battery into the narrow recess with a tire in my face. Ever try lifting a car battery from a squatting position and holding it out in front of you? It really works those shoulder muscles, i tell you what.

In January of this year I moved from Raleigh, NC to Brooklyn, NY because, in short, I felt like I was stabbing the earth - to live somewhere sidewalks hardly existed, public transportation likewise, bicycles had no place on the road, and where I had to drive absolutely everywhere. Also because, even though my car gets good mileage, I felt like gas prices were never likely to come back down.

I am astonished by how little I miss having a car; on the other hand, all the steps up and down to the subway have given me Runner's Knee. So, in these kinds of threads on certain forums, the discussions seems to turn to You Could Do It If You'd Only Try Harder. What, it's ten miles on busy highways after dark? That doesn't mean you can't do it by bike! Be a man!

A person's willingness to make sacrifices turns into a measure of their toughness, even their manliness - which I feel is not only insensitive to older people and disabled people, it also turns the focus to "who can endure the most sacrifices"... when maybe we should be looking at how to change the infrastructure and the systems in place so that you don't have to do those ten miserable miles in the dark to get to work.

mk @ #77, hey, if our illustrious singing mayor has his way we'll have heavy steel-on-steel rail here in another ten years. Throw away that car!

I bought a used GEO Metro with 13K on it in 1998. At last inspection it had 49K on it, ten years later. It's not that I think about driving less, it's just that I don't go very far when I drive.

My Diva Cup rocks the house, and I write in plain text because that way I get the benefit of subversion's merge and conflict resolution features. I wish I could bike to work. I suggest it every time we fill up the gas tank.

Deep value - lasting stuff - good technologies...

*************
Cast iron pans - my mom is using her grandma's - still going strong after about 70 or 80 years. Can be used with flame or electricity - put in an oven as well.

Foot powered sewing machines (yes!) - I see them in use in Shenzhen and still a a few in Hong Kong.

Carrying poles - some people in HK still have them. I remember watching the news a few months ago and a water main burst near a big apartment block and the water trucks came & there were some people who were out there w/ their carrying poles to take their 2 buckets home. Good for carrying lots of things, not just water.

Electric trams - still going strong in HK after 100+ years http://www.hktramways.com/ - double-decked!

Hand-carts - very useful for moving big loads of stuff without a vehicle or a pack animal - seen more in China now rather than here now

Chinese cleaver & whetstone - you don't really need so many knives for regular kitchen stuff & it can eliminate need for meat grinder

Mortar & pestle - can help eliminate need for food processor

Thermos - keeps hot water hot!

Tankless water heaters - will make hot water when you need it. Electric is nice because you never run out of gas in the middle of your shower. Gas is nice because you can still have a hot shower if the electricity is gone.

LPG Cylinders - for the hot water heater or the cooker

Gas hot-plate (hobs) - two rings are great! very easy to attach and get going. Some are automatic, others you light w/ a match.

Gas hot plate -- like the Iwatami burners we use in catering that run off of canned butane? I LOVE those.

Of course, they aren't especially sustainable or deep value, as I see it -- you still need the butane cans. What makes them better than a regular modern kitchen stove?

Deep value doesn't necessarily mean buying different stuff. Sometimes it's just a matter of researching brands (aka "being thrifty, not cheap.")

Most people I know abhor toaster ovens because they "break sll of the time." We've had our (Krups) toaster oven for seven years now, seeing steady use for both toasting and oven duty, and it's still going strong. And because there's only the two of us, that means we don't have to heat up the big oven for a meal.

Same thing with just about anything else— do your research and your purchase will last you for years. Sometimes this is surprising— I still get good use out of my high school solar calculator, which has decided our 100W equivalent CFL is a perfectly legitimate light source.

And (looks around) I actually am still pretty happy with my six-year-old computer. Don't tell anyone, mmmkay?

Let's see -- my van is 21 years old and I drive fewer than 3K miles a year. I do have to drive. I'm disabled and I can't even get on buses here, assuming I could walk to the stop. And how would I get the trash and recycling out and the groceries and such in? I mentioned a reclining tricycle to my nephrologist and she said "Absolutely not!"

I only recently moved to reusable grocery bags -- my grocery store lets you recycle their bags and the WashPost bags and I did that for decades. I bought two of their bags and had to adapt them some (the weight would be too low and make me wobble and I'm not a Weeble) and I always ask the cashiers to balance them weight-wise as much as possible and some do. The one that refused to not only balance them, but insisted on putting everything in one bag "because it fit" was reported. I still put the WashPost bags in the reusable bag and that reminds me to take it with me that day.

After the stroke/coma, I couldn't use tampons, so I used reusable pads. I still have them even though I'm in menopause. Maybe I should repurpose them for rags. (This is also where I buy bras and underpants and my current ones are now uncomfortably large and I need to get more.)

I have three windup flashlight/radios -- one in the van, one in the bedroom, one in the office (it's a small condo, I think that's enough).

A lot of the hand/strength powered tools mentioned here are things I can't use anymore. As Bruce Baugh commented, moving everybody to more of these tools isn't possible. There will always be people who are not capable of using them.

If I couldn't use a microwave, I'd be eating a lot of cheese and bread and fruit. I can't cook anymore. I have about two gallons of trash every week, and most of that is frozen food packaging (the actual trays can be recycled). I have compact fluorescents in the bathrooms that are 21 years old. I do the best I can, but I can't meet an ideal.

Oh, fountain pens. I had one from about freshman year of high school to senior year of college-- the cap fragmented, and I don't know if it's the kind of thing that can be replaced-- and a Waterman Phileas filled with Noodler's, and... okay, I was weak and it was purple, Noodler's has a purple ink that looks kind of purple and it comes with a pen. I expect it to show up by Wednesday. If I don't like the pen, I'll pass it on to someone who does; if I don't like the ink, much the same.

Speaking of, anyone like Noodler's Nightshade? Too red for me. I wanted *purple*.

This post has reminded me to get a damned helmet. I like biking, and this is a good town for it... but I have hair. I didn't take the bike out at all last year because I felt people would hate me more for riding without a helmet than for driving. Time to see how much I'll have to spend for a helmet that I'll be willing to wear.*

A related question (I am full of them today): what *is* proper distance for a bike? I see them all the time, but all I know is that they're very skinny cars, and it makes me so nervous passing them because it's rude somehow.

And the Divacup is amazing. Tampons gave me cramps for years, and not always in logical places. My Divacup has some interesting side effects, but nothing as bad as pads, and once I figured it out, it was so much easier.

On the subject of older cars, I have another: old-people cars. You know the Buick the little old lady bought for her last car and splurged on because she was finally going to get a car she liked, and never drove? I have that car. Seriously. Little old lady and everything. If I get over my bike issues, I'll be driving Milady Buick to the mall once a month and out of town... whenever necessary. Why do I love this car? Because it is made for people who a) are not getting a substandard car for their last one and b) are arthritic or otherwise not fooling around with discomfort. It is such a good car.

*Please do not lecture me on why I should wear a helmet. I am fairly certain I will interpret any comment as lecturing. I know I should. This is why I haven't ridden a bike I love to things I love to do, because other people will think less of me for not wearing one. I have issues, yes.

Speaking of the jerkoff flashlight: my Dad has a wrist watch which automatically rewinds itself with the normal movements it's subjected to being worn on your wrist. So whenever you move your arm or walk around, you wind up your watch.

Rikibeth at #87,

No, bigger than that (I think)

Like these:
http://www.tradeeasy.com/photo/seller/6586/lgraphic/windynasty4079.jpg

http://www.tradeeasy.com/photo/seller/4434/lgraphic/twinklestar1040.jpg

The lasting value is:

1) The LPG cannisters can last for up to a month or more at a time & are re-fillable & recyclable. You put down a deposit for the cannisters.

2) The LPG cannisters are reasonably portable - one can carry them on one's back if need be - no need for infrastructure of gas mains.

3)The gas burners are relatively simple to hook up and move around. If you move house you could carry one in your arms (or on a hand cart).

4) The gas burners are cleaner & easier to deal with than cooking with coal briquettes, charcoal, or wood.

5) The gas burners can last for quite some time - I've seen some that are at least 30 years old.

It's hard to believe that this thread is up to 92 comments and no one has mentioned Wendell Berry's criteria for adoption of a new tool or technology:

1. The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces.
2. It should be at least as small in scale as the one it replaces.
3. It should do work that is clearly anddemonstrably better than the one it replaces.
4. It should use less energy than the one it replaces.
5. If possible, it should use some form of solar energy, such as that of the body.
6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.
7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.
8. It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that will take it back for maintenance and repair.
9. It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and this includes family and community relationships.

from WHY I AM NOT GOING TO BUY A COMPUTER

Dena @54 - As a recent convert to home butchery, well, it's fun! And incredibly educational. I can't recommend Merle Ellis' Cutting Up in the Kitchen enough; it's a practical introduction to what's in your meat counter, though you can get yourself up to whole beasts with a bit of effort. Getting closer to my meat has led to tremendous improvement in the quality of what I put into myself - if you're going to go through the effort, it's worth investing in free-range, local, and organic. Happier animals seem to taste better, too.

Avram @65 - They are only dry-clean only if you're lazy. Cold water gentle wash (or hand wash), and lay out to dry. Yes, you'll lose the pristine "I just bought it today" look, but you'll trade it for "I love it and use it", which I tend to prefer.

Greg @73 - The device you want doesn't doesn't really exist because memory grows so much faster than your connection bandwidth. In practice, you'd have a 16gig device that took eight hours to fill. [OB-related-but-not-really-Tech: while memory grows by the square of the process feature size, the off-chip connection can only grow by a linear factor, because it has to come out the edge, pretty much guaranteeing you won't be able to fill it as fast as you want].

neotoma@79 - You might want to track down a shoemaker and have them *make* you shoes. I had this done about 6 months ago, and I think this is the first pair of shoes I've had that actually fits right. They cost more, but they can be resoled and otherwise repaired. Although all the little nails in the sole set off the metal detectors at the airport...

Oh, in the midst of the long comment, I forgot.

I need grocery bags. Not reusable ones, have a couple of those bought in a fit of bike-optimism before it became apparent that it is Not Done. I use paper bags for recycling; as far as I can understand the recycling rules here, items must be sorted into bags and placed in the bin... where the bags will stay until a paper day. Plastic bags are for the bathroom trash can, the cat's litter scoops, and a gigantic bag in the pantry to drive over to the food bank one of these days.

Checkout people keep asking me if I want my milk in a bag. It's a gallon of milk. It is in a plastic jug with a handle. There is astonishingly little that can be done to make that more portable.

Stuff I don't have and seem not to need: microwave, cable tv, camera, iPod, iron -- none of my clothes need ironing -- food processor.

I don't own anything that needs to be drycleaned.

I have a cell phone, and in 6 months I've used it only once.

I try to remember to bring my cloth bags to the grocery store, but sometimes I forget. They are wonderful bags, though; huge, strong, much easier to hold than plastic ones.

I wish I didn't need a car, but I do.

One of the best deep value products you can have is your health and doing everything you can to hold onto it.
The better your health the more you can do yourself without fangled technology, freeing up resources for those that truly need them. We have become just a bit too delicate to survive without our toys at times.

"If you're walking, you'll make the mistake of forgetting your bag once or twice, tops. And if you're walking and you forget your bag the second time, odds are good that you'll buy a second bag rather than endure another walk with plastic ones."

well, my trick is I have a big Ortlieb compression bag with shoulder straps so it will function like a backpack in which I carry what I need during the day, generally my computer, power supply, training clothes. The size of this can be rolled down to a small backpack, when I go to the store I unroll it to the size of what I need to buy, since it can hold 50 liters it's seldom I reach that limit.

abi @ 11: That is a story of wonderful improbability.

Bruce Baugh @ 59: "Some of this, to be sure, is spillover frustration at healthy young (generally male) bloggers who've done yeoman work analyzing the screwing over that the working and middle classes have gotten and then turn right around to enthuse about hiking the price of food and transportation, knowing damn well that nothing like sufficient aid to the needy will be forthcoming."

It is a real problem, the extent to which confronting the wasteful nature of our society is seen as an issue of personal morality, rather than a problem of collective action. To be fair, though, there are those who are aware of the extent to which being environmentally conscious has become a luxury item, and are trying to do something about it. To grab two random examples from my daily blogs, one of Exra Klein's regular issues is the utterly bass-ackwards government subsidies on meat and dairy versus fruits and vegetables, which have the perverse effect of encouraging people to eat less healthily. Amanda Marcotte takes environmental issues on from the feminist perspective, addressing the way that coding earth-friendly action as the domain of middle class women works to trivialize the issue.

At its best, individual action serves as trailblazing, pointing the direction for society as a whole by saying "See, this works even without any social support. So let's make it easier for everyone to do!" At its worst, it prevents collective action from taking place. I think it's important not to discourage the former while criticizing the latter.

Various @ many: The discussion about sewing machines, manual and electric ought to remind us that there's nothing about modern technology that is inherently more prone to failure than old-timey stuff. My parent's KitchenAid is almost thirty years old and still going strong. It is arguably easier to design appliances and equipment to last forever than it was then--materials technology has only improved.

The fundamental thing that has changed isn't the nature of the product*, it's the design philosophy behind it. Producers have been shortening and shortening the lifespan of consumer items. It's just more profitable that way, and consumers have become habituated to it--why not force everyone to buy new stuff every five years, or every three? What alternatives do consumers have?

I like the idea of buying one really high-quality item and using it for the rest of my life. Whenever possible, I do. But it's almost never possible--I am frustrated, every time I buy new glasses, because the frames I got last time around aren't made any more. How can I buy items with deep value if no one makes them? /rant

*Cutting-edge tech aside. Greg's point about Moore's Law is well-taken.

#70 Caroline: From a tidy roommate in the past I learned this trick to keep plastic bags in check: stretch them out between your hands, twist them into loose ropes, and tie them into a loose half bow knot. Takes less than a second. Suddenly they are tiny and weighty, and you can fit oodles into the single bag that escaped this treatment, to be retrieved for wastebasket or "shoes in suitcase" duty, or taken to Longs Drugs to be recycled.

#73 Greg London: I say short lifecycle stuff sucks, you say short lifecycle stuff sucks. I think you're distracted by the shiny wrt your Moore's Law argument, though: it's the Broken Window fallacy. I had a perfectly good 5 Megapixel camera which reliably did what I wanted. Now I have an even awesomer 7 Megapixel camera with a wide aperture and unlimited video. In both cases I have a digital camera I like just fine; in the second case I'm $280 poorer.

As for my suggestions about making ours less of an economy built around disposable crap by requiring teaching and knowledge about fixing it, sounds like you're saying that most of our short lifecycle electronics are based on chips that are all baked together and pretty much impossible for a human to replace? I'm not sure I buy that most electronic failure is a result of something going wrong in these chips. They sound sturdy. Still sounds like a good idea to have the knowledge to test the power going to them and the stuff going on downstream.

Of course, if you have an idea about how to encourage fixable electronic bling, I'm keen on getting suggestions. Electronic bling has some really excellent applications.

Avram #65: "I notice that two of the items in that "Real Deal" article Chris linked to -- the Pendleton shirt and the Hudson Bay point blanket -- are dry-clean-only."

This is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard. As pointed out above, both articles listed are 100% pure wool and predate dry-cleaning. The Hudson Bay blankets, in particular, were designed for trading to indigenous northern peoples, who were not noted for their laundering technologies (nor, honestly speaking, their laundering -- it's tough to launder a caribou skin, which is the technology the blanket was replacing.)

I grew up a few miles south of the Arctic circle in a wood-heated log cabin. My parents slept under Hudson Bay blankets (they were deemed too expensive for child use, we got old sleeping bags from Salvation Army) and my father wore Pendleton shirts exclusively, as nobody else was selling a 100% wool man's button shirt at the time.

Solidly-woven heavy 100% wool fabrics are easy to launder. Hand wash, cold water, luke-warm if heavily soiled. Gentle soap. Woolite is great; Ivory works. Gently press out excess water. Hang on clothline.

But, here's the point. The blankets, in particular, never really need laundering; they're used in a clean environment with a cotton sheet between them and oily or soiled human skin. After a long winter, hang them in the sunshine for a day to air out accumulated smells, and they're as new. Barring kittens or catastrophes, they don't get soiled. If you've got special soil issues (sick people, children, pets, smokers, badly-chimneyed wood stoves) you use a russian-style blanket-cover that encapsulates the blanket like those things that protect goose down comforters.

Dry-clean only? Maybe in some yuppie universe, but not in the universe where those products were first marketed.

Which I think is a point to keep in mind about "old tech" in the context of this discussion. Tech cannot always be readily divorced from its context. In the modern world where you've got an electric washing machine with a spin cycle and a center spindle, 100% wool fabrics are not appropriate tech, especially if you live in an urban apartment with no outside clothesline. But if you're packing a bedroll every day for a dogsled trip to the next log cabin along the trapline, 100% wool is way lighter and more compact than furred hides, will keep you alive better than killer cotton, and will stay "clean enough" until the next time (spring?) that you do laundry, which realistically is going to be "by hand and in a tub" at best no matter what fabric you have.

"Looking at a world where the economy is probably going to be tightening up for a while"

A fairly short while, I think. We're at the cusp of an energy production shift, and it's going to be huge - the ball is already rolling. The age of the Douglass-Martin sunscreen is being ushered in before our eyes. At least three companies I know of are getting the price of solar down to below that of coal for electricity - one of them claims (I think correctly) that a Vermont-sized chunk of Arizona would suffice to power 90% of the US power-grid, including in that calculation a significant transition to electric cars.

But long or short, I think the right criterion for deep value is not the stuff we dream of keeping, but the stuff we actually keep. My house is 125 years old, and with a modicum of care, will last another 125, easily. I've hung around some of my best friends for over thirty years, and I don't expect that to end anytime soon. The system of government I've been fond of all my life has taken some hits recently, but I'm hopeful it will bounce back.

Perhaps I just find revealed preferences a better guide than stated ones.

xeger @49, Dena @54 -- I agree wholeheartedly about skills. Knowing how to do something, even if you choose not to do it yourself, empowers. That goes for all sorts of things, including finances, household and car repairs -- anything you can think of. It means you can be a better consumer, will stand a chance of not getting cheated, will get good value for money.

Not that I am a whiz at everything. My husband installed a nifty rainwater collection system that theoretically will supply the toilets with water. Also various computer controls for the window shades. Also the computer system in the house (I think we're up to 16 computers at the moment, including our own server). I haven't been able to master these systems, and this sort of thing worries me. If anything happens to him, I'm screwed. But the skill sets one acquires are a function of time, personal inclination and talent, and also sometimes (dis)ability, as others have mentioned.

xeger, #49: "The magic just happens" is a spectacular form of ignorance.

Yes, and it's one which has been deliberately encouraged in American culture for well over a generation. It's difficult to find toys that encourage tinkering and/or experimentation even for young teenagers now, and most mechanical and electrical items are marketed as black boxes -- when they break, it's cheaper to get a new one than to spend the time to fix it (if fixing it is even possible).

But then, tinkering and experimenting encourage logical thinking and critical skills -- and there is a large and powerful subset of authority figures who do not want citizens with the ability to think logically and analyze critically. (Actually, there are several partially-overlapping subsets, each of them having somewhat different reasons.) Because people who can reason and analyze also question... and that's not good for said authorities. They want drones, who will do as they're told without bothering to wonder why; smart enough to do the work, but lacking the habits of independent thought.

R. Emrys, #58: I am SO with you about the word processor! I've never been a fast writer; my typing is much quicker, plus there are the tremendous advantages of the backspace key for corrections and the ability to edit without recopying. Losing those things would be, for me, a severe hardship -- I could get along, but I wouldn't be happy.

Avram, #71: Wool fabric + washing machine agitation = felting. Not what you want for your blanket! OTOH, you can buy 2 yards of 60" acrylic fleece material for a lot less than one of those Hudson Bay blankets, and the resulting throw is completely washable and doesn't need any edge treatment. If you need a bigger blanket, buy 2 pieces and sew them together. Our experience has been that they wear pretty well, too.

SK-reader, #86: How do those tankless water heaters compare in energy usage? To me, it seems as though you'd use more energy with one in a colder climate, as opposed to storing heated water in an insulated tank. But I could easily be wrong.

B. Durbin, #88: We have a toaster oven as opposed to a toaster; it works just as well for toast, and then also lets us do a lot of things that a toaster won't, such as bagels and grilled-cheese sandwiches. We heat leftover pizza with it all the time -- it doesn't take any longer than the microwave, and the crust stays firm instead of going limp. Try doing that in a toaster!

Diatryma, #90: I hear you about the helmet issue. I grew up riding without a helmet -- only bike racers wore them in the 60s and 70s -- and dammit, I don't WANT to wear one, even though I understand intellectually that it's advisable. Yes, I'm still working thru my issues on this too, so you have my sympathies.

Altho' this story might be of general interest to y'all, ('Email archive to immortalise Australian life'), for this particular thread, I would draw attention to the last three pars of this version, in our local paper, the SMH. I'm assuming it's not an April Fools' joke.

Curses, for my fellow Aussies, I forgot to correct the link that was given in the email archive story; it should be: emailaustralia.ninemsn.com.au. The one given goes to a main page where I can't find any link to that project.

Bruce @59:
Coupla things.

First off, if things can be repaired simply, using easily accessible tools, then they can be repaired by a local craftsman as well as the owner (like the 2CV designed so that a French village blacksmith can fix it). Not everyone has the knack, tools, ability and time to repair things. But there is still a value in something that you can get fixed locally, rather than having to throw it away or ship it back to the factory.

Also, we all have our own lines and limits. Deep value is one of a number of factors that I use to make my choices, along with time, convenience, money, etc, etc. I don't know where other peoples' priorities lie, but I assume they're all in different places. The issue is as much stewardship as conservation: using the resources wisely, not saving them for saving's sake. For instance, one should drive when it's appropriate (which for some people = always, for others = never, but for most people somewhere in between). Reducing my car trips leaves more petroleum available for my disabled neighbor, and clears the road for her as well; it should not shame her.

The minute this topic, or this thread becomes a stick to beat other people rather than an exploration of our own values and discoveries, I am going to go out and buy the cheapest gimcrack piece of junk manufactured halfway across the world and stick it directly in landfill. Still in its indestructible plastic wrapping. Unless it has lead in it, in which case I will open it up and lick it first.

</rant>

Note that many wind up torches use the winding to recharge internal batteries (unlike the Bayliss clockwork radio). And rechargable batteries do still have a finite life, so if you are relying on it for emergency use, check it every now and again (and if it has failed, don't put NiCd rechargeables in regular trash for landfill).
#73: You can get generic MP3 players that take SD memory cards. But the ones I've seen aren't SDHC, so 2Gb is your limit. (You can still swap cards with different 2Gb collections though.)

One of the problems with a lot of modern portable electrical gear --- including the stuff I'm addicted to, like an Ogg player[1] --- is that they use lithium ion batteries. While these are really cool and have lots of advantages, like running, well, *cool*, and being reshapable into all sorts of strange shapes to fit into confined spaces, and recharging really fast without a lot of gas being given off and having no memory effect and not having a noticeable limit on recharge count and having a fairly hig power density, they do have a few notable disadvantages:

- if you recharge them too fast you *do* get gas evolution. A lot of it. And heat. And then the casing breaks open and you get hot liquid sodium metal. They call this 'venting with flame' because 'nasty explosion' sounds really bad.

- oxidation eventually raises their internal resistance to the point that, while they still have lots of power, they won't give you any of it in a useful fashion

Put those together, and you get batteries which are shaped for the specific model of hardware they come with, are coupled to specific charging circuits, and which wear out every three years unless you can breathe pure nitrogen. My understanding is that the consortium that holds the patents won't let you build a device using lithium-ion batteries if the battery is user-replaceable, because sodium burns are bad PR.

Of course there are perverse incentives here, because it's in the interests of the consumer electronics companies that you buy a new device every few years, or at least that you have to send it back to *them* so they can charge you almost as much to get a new battery fitted.

You can't throw it away when you're done, either: the chemicals inside make a lead-acid battery look environmentally friendly, so in the EU at least the immortally-titled WEEE Directive applies, so you have to send them to a special facility for destruction (they're too fiddly to recycle).

(Of course, last I heard there *were* no such facilities in the entire EU, and none planned to be built for years. Whoops.)

None of this stuff is conducive to deep value. (Personally I do the closest I can with my media player, which is to run Rockbox on it and learn how that works. The hardware may still be mostly-closed and disposable, but at least I know how the software that does the useful work functions.)

[1] hey, look, Ogg, not MP3! I'm a *rebel*, I am!

On shopping bags and "granny carts":

We do a fair bit of our grocery shopping at Aldi, where they do indeed charge for bags. The bags are plastic, but they're pretty durable and generally get used multiple times. At a cost of ten cents each, they're not expensive, but it makes sense to bring them back again and again on subsequent grocery runs. Another alternative is to use the cardboard boxes that Aldi receives and stocks many of its items in, and which they will gladly give you for free.

Another favorite place to buy groceries is Cleveland's West Side Market. Just about everybody brings a "granny cart" there, because by the time you've hit two or three stands, it's easy to rack up 15 - 20 lbs of purchases and still not be done with your shopping. In fact, this place is what prompted me to go out and buy my cart.

#100: I think Greg unintentionally defined "obsolete" to mean "not useful." A device can be nowhere near the state of the art, and still be useful as long as it still does what the owner needs it to do. I don't think we get to pin this one on Moore's Law. i.e., if a necessary, but unserviceable, device breaks after three years, we need to replace it regardless of whether it is obsolete.

Moore's Law doesn't say that companies have to design products which the end user can't service for himself. However, it can be a side effect of end user demands, in much the way Greg said. e.g., they surface mount chips, or integrate multiple chips into one to save space and, likely, power. Modern electronic devices often have specialized parts. Keeping them in stock after the device is no longer being manufactured is expensive. (This is assuming you can desolder and resolder surface mounts at home so that you can use it.) Sadly, this is even true for typically replaceable items like batteries and memory. Eventually, you hit a point where companies stop making them.

We, as a society, haven't made maintainability a must have feature in our electronics. I'm sure people still upgrade their desktop computers, but how many of them do? The trend is moving away from buying desktops towards laptops. In general, the latter aren't as user serviceable as the former. (Of course, some desktops aren't user serviceable any more either.)

Madeline, you wrote:
I'm not sure I buy that most electronic failure is a result of something going wrong in these chips.

What do you think is the cause of most electronic failure? If you have schematics, and diagnostic tools, chances are you'll find that the failure is the result of some chip not behaving as it's supposed to. They make up the bulk of the device, why wouldn't they be the problem much of the time? The act of using the device subjects semiconductors to lots of heat. They don't really like heat. Just because you can't see them wear out doesn't mean they don't.

(This isn't arguing that we shouldn't be able to check things out for ourselves, BTW. I don't care if there are "user serviceable parts" or not, I still want to see what's going on.)

I think what Greg is saying is:
If all electronic devices used only socketed 7400 series ICs, servicing those devices wouldn't be that big a deal. With some documentation, and a multimeter, the end user could diagnose the problem, isolate the errant part(s), and replace it (them). Oh, and the device is also laid out on a PCB where all traces are exposed somewhere on the top level (or the device can deal with you wiring pins together directly).

However, we, as consumers, want device smaller and less power hungry than what a pile of discrete chips gives us. Electronics which meets modern demands then has specialized parts difficult to keep in stock once the device goes out of manufacture. It connects those parts together in ways that are difficult to disconnect then reconnect. And, we're apparently willing to give up on serviceability to get smaller, less power hungry, and more functional.

Do we have to build devices what aren't end user serviceable? No, of course not. However, as consumers, we have to see the ability to service it ourselves as a feature we're willing to pay money for. (The Linksys WRT54GL is an example of this, albeit in terms of software, not hardware. There is a reason why open source hardware hasn't had nearly the level of success as open source software.)

However, we may have to wait for the day when we can all fab our own chips at home, not to mention deal with surface mount, before we can even start to consider servicing modern, highly integrated designs. Either we retreat back to manufacturing techniques the end user can already deal with, or we push ahead and find ways for the end user to deal with the techniques the manufacturer is using.

Lizzy L @ 96... none of my clothes need ironing

Are you implying that there are clothes that do need ironing?

Lee @ 104: "We heat leftover pizza with it all the time -- it doesn't take any longer than the microwave, and the crust stays firm instead of going limp. Try doing that in a toaster!"

Ah, I see you have indepedently re-created Heresiarch's Highly Excellent Pizza Rejuvenation Method. It is one of those rare instances when leftovers are sometimes even better than the fresh stuff.

abi @ 107: "The minute this topic, or this thread becomes a stick to beat other people rather than an exploration of our own values and discoveries, I am going to go out and buy the cheapest gimcrack piece of junk manufactured halfway across the world and stick it directly in landfill. Still in its indestructible plastic wrapping. Unless it has lead in it, in which case I will open it up and lick it first."

Hee! And seconded.

Emily H. @ 83: typing from here in the Triangle, I completely get you. I had a choice between here and Boston for grad school; I chose to come here because of the program, the research, and the advisors, but some days I wish I'd chosen Boston because of the lifestyle. I have to get in my car to do anything. (I grew up here. Instead of making me used to it, it's just made me more fed up.)

I had one friend, well-intentioned, comment that maybe real commitment to environmentalism meant taking the bus even if it was inconvenient. I appreciate the thought, but I'm inclined to think that the better thing to do is to work to make public transportation an actually viable option. (Also, "inconvenient" here means something quite different than it does in a city with a functioning transit program. Here, it means "get to work late if at all, stand on the side of a busy highway with no bench or shelter because bus stops are signs stuck in the ground, and walk half a mile in the dark along a curvy, hilly road with no sidewalk or shoulder to reach the stop." The walking in the dark is also a problem because no one else walks anywhere, which leaves me vulnerable to assault when I'm a lone female on an empty, dark road. Yes, as you say, I've been told You Can Do It If You Just Try Harder. Argh.)

Regarding mp3 players...I have a Treo 700p. Takes 4Gb SD cards full of music and I have two programs installed that will play any format I've ever come across. It also doubles as a phone and personal organizer so I don't have to buy/carry around several different gadgets. Solar chargers aren't in my price range yet, but they're getting there.

My grandmother had a treadle machine. It was given to her nurse when she passed away and while I would have liked it, I think she probably made better use of it. I've got my mother's sewing machine, that's currently being serviced because I want to start sewing again. It's electric and older than me, but could probably be operated manually in a pinch.

I bought a granny cart when I moved to this apartment. Mostly I use it to move stuff from my apartment to the garage and vice versa, but I have in a pinch walked to the supermarket with it. It's not an ideal walk - there's a rather steep hill in the way - and I usually do the grocery shopping on my way home from work or I'd do it more often.

I've attended a number of book and library conferences, and have an amazing number of bags I got as giveaways which I use for grocery shopping. Sometimes I'll forget to bring them back down to the car, but I'm getting better at that.

I had a bicycle when I first moved here, but it's very hilly (and I'm not in great shape) and my route to work is along a street with heavy traffic that I don't feel comfortable biking. I should walk more often but that's a time thing rather than a lack of desire. I'm terrible about getting out of the house in the morning.

Anyone who talks to me for a while knows that a great many barriers between what I want to do and what I do are in my head. I think that user-serviceable appliances are wonderful, but it takes a certain amount of daring to open up the first one. When my printer stopped pulling pages in, it took me a while to stop being angry, look up what the problem might be, and then spend an afternoon taking it apart, over and over and over. It took some Krazy Glue, some rubber cement, and a hairpin, and I have one screw I forgot to put back, but it works now.
The only way I could do it was by saying, "I bought a printer six years ago. I have not gotten a hundred dollars out of the printer. The printer has turned into a doorstop. There is nothing I can do that can make it less useful. Let's see if I can turn a doorstop into a printer."

Apparently, the first phase is that you leave your reusable bag at home. The second phase is that you leave it in your car. The third phase is when the bag finally makes it into the store.

My string bags make it into the car about two times out of three, with the ratio going up as I get used to having them. (The hurdle there was deciding that no, I didn't really need to net the damn things myself and could just buy a couple.) But once they're in the car, they get used even if someone has to go back out for them.

They don’t zig-zag, they don’t embroider, but they are immortal, and they break the dependence on the power grid.

It seems to me that there's no reason a treadle-powered machine couldn't zig-zag; the switch on many older electric machines (my mother's, for instance) is purely mechanical. Plus, I'll bet you could retrofit a normally electric machine to treadle power, in that there's that wheel on the side that you can hand-crank for extra precision.

The mooncup and its ilk

There's someone out there making reusable natural-sponge tampons. They're not immortal, but they last for 20 or 30 uses, so I'm told, which is vastly better than the one-use cotton tampon.

I also prefer watches with dials.

My current watch has a face that was designed in approximately 1911, and I didn't wear a watch for years because I couldn't find one with the face I liked. And it's all mechanical, albeit self-winding; if the Change hits, I'll at least know what time it is...

My serger, which I rarely use and which really ought to be a candidate for disposal

If you're really looking to get rid of it and it still functions, I'll happily pay for shipping. At the moment I have three sewing machines in my house and none of them work; the theoretically most easily fixable is only missing a presser foot, but it's a very old machine and the feet aren't made anymore. And I've got all this fabric sitting around wanting to be my summer wardrobe. The one skirt I did by hand for winter was more than enough.

Going meta for a moment, I'd say that -skills- are very much one of the deep value items. I'm always surprised to find people don't all have some rough idea of how to weave, or make paper (or ink), or sew[0], or butcher, (more recent) how electricity works, even in general terms, or all sorts of remarkably basic ideas that underly modern technology.

That's one of the things about hanging out with SCAdians--if The End Of Civilization happens in a reasonably survivable way (e.g. not by nuclear exchange), we're gonna be useful to have around. I can take a sheep and end up with clothes; they might not be great at first, but they'll be warm. And I have friends with similar skills down to "I can take iron ore and end up with a knife". Handy.

Looking at a world where the economy is probably going to be tightening up for a while, I find myself drawn to things with deep value, things a little less dependent on the state of our technology and shipping infrastructure1 to build and repair.

Won't that make the economic crisis that much worse? It's all well and fine to say "Well, I won't buy a new car every time I run out of gas" but what of the unfortunates languishing on the assembly lines?

Abi @ 107: Absolutely. Thirded.

It seems to me that a lot of this stuff is sold in some quarters as a quasi-religion: Consume less and smell more! Sackcloth and ashes are good for the skin! Your car kills kittens!

On the other hand, keeping your kit working for longer than it should can be fine fun and a route into finding out how it all works. My own excuse is growing up on a farm with parents/grandparents for whom 'make do and mend' and 'dig for victory' were still maxims to live by.

(Which doesn't quite explain how I got into the toxic and ephemeral computing industry, but there you go. Or maybe it does. Anyway.)

Heresiarch @ 99: I think what has happened is that the tech used for designing objects has got a lot better. There was the old Colin Chapman line 'If it doesn't break it wasn't light enough, if it breaks it was too light'. Which is fine for Lotus drivers but NBG for the rest of us.

If some careful simulation and/or finite element analysis can make a VW Golf lighter and stiffer, then it'll use less fuel and less steel. At the expense of any road accident worth the name wrecking the car, but rather that than it all going a bit pea-in-a-bucket for the poor passengers. Old Land-Rovers are tough, but you wouldn't want to shunt one properly.

I can't help thinking 'Foundation and Empire' here.

I switched to the reusable grocery bags a few months ago. I love them, but forget to bring them about half the time. I have taken to just buying more of the reusables when I forget my own and then giving them away to friends.

I really like my Divacup but can only use it around the home. I just can't get the knack of emptying and replacing in a public restroom. I got mine from lunapads, but use their reusable pads (and panties! With protection all built in!) much more often. Incredibly comfortable. They have a nice little program where you can also send menstrual products to girls in Africa so they don't miss school.

Carrie S.: I believe these are the sponges you were referring to. Lunapads used to sell them through their site but don't any longer. Not sure why.

Any suggestions on beginner fountain pens?

#101 ::: Daniel Boone [on wool blankets/dry cleaning]

Beautifully put. I have a similar ongoing battle with people who claim silk must be dry-cleaned. Tell that to several thousand years of Mandarins. The solution, as you've mentioned, is to put an easily washed baffle (often cotton) between the oil-or-grime producing skin/environment and the wool or silk.

This is one of the points of underwear. My grandmother's generation wore cotton underwear, and slips, and would hang clothes to "air" after a day's wearing. Heavily-constructed items like wool suits would receive a gentle but thorough brushing. Laundry was tedious enough, even with a good well close to hand. Dry cleaning not an option.

The other factor is that we've conditioned ourselves not to have smelly bodies, and go to great lengths not to "cause offense". The U.S. has plenty of water (not to mention deodorants and questionable antiperspirants). Or at least we think we do. This is a major component of culture shock with travel to third-world countries.

#117 ::: Carrie S.
It seems to me that there's no reason a treadle-powered machine couldn't zig-zag; the switch on many older electric machines (my mother's, for instance) is purely mechanical. Plus, I'll bet you could retrofit a normally electric machine to treadle power, in that there's that wheel on the side that you can hand-crank for extra precision.

Unfortunately not. There has to be a groove beside the hand wheel (which usually has a rounded edge) for the belt to nestle in, and the machine head has to be cast with channels for the belt. Adding an exposed belt with enough tension to cup around the exterior of the hand wheel would be dangerous, even if you religiously wore a cap or hair net.

Re: natural sponge tampons
You can also cut cheap manufactured sponges into chunky cylinders that work quite well. I soaked mine in vinegar between times and never had problems in a couple decades' worth of use. They lasted considerably longer than the sea sponges, and no one saw the garish colors they came in.

Unfortunately not. There has to be a groove beside the hand wheel (which usually has a rounded edge) for the belt to nestle in, and the machine head has to be cast with channels for the belt. Adding an exposed belt with enough tension to cup around the exterior of the hand wheel would be dangerous, even if you religiously wore a cap or hair net.

I was thinking along the lines of replacing that wheel entirely with one that had spokes (for a more chain-like belt) or the appropriate groove. It'd be a pain, but once done it might work.

A related question (I am full of them today): what *is* proper distance for a bike? I see them all the time, but all I know is that they're very skinny cars, and it makes me so nervous passing them because it's rude somehow.

Proper passing distance is "do not squash the biker" or 3 feet. Some localities have a law for the 3 feet. I find it very unnerving when it's safe for a driver to pass me and they don't. If it's not safe to pass me, and I think that cars ought to, I'll pull over. I've got a right to use the road, not a right to *block* the road.

Proper biking distance is "one that means *you* do not collapse in a heap at the end of the day". For some people, this is 1 mile. For randonneurs, it tends to be in the 200-400km range, but most randonneurs will cheerfully tell you they're crazy (and if you let them, will then tell you *all* about the last bike part they broke, their favorite toys, their favorite food, and the best way to make your bike do silly distances). I am pretty ordinary, with my daily bike trips being 2 miles or less. Running a loop route usually means I go 6-8 miles.

Yes, as you say, I've been told You Can Do It If You Just Try Harder.

No. You can do it if you are in an appropriate enviroment, know what tools are needed, and have good support. I *can* get around by bike in Central PA... and I'm not willing to indulge in the level of try harder required to be without a car there. No sidewalks, which means if a hill is too steep for me to manage I can't bail and walk safely. Often, major bridges are motor vehicle only. Limited route selection. Very few roads have a shoulder. Lanes are narrow. And the road layout is challenging - very fun for low traffic and unholy hell given the normal traffic levels. Bike shops mostly think that bikes are for racing, not for getting groceries.

Instead, I live in Madison where things are far more manageable. There are sidewalks, and the roads are mostly wide enough that a car can pass me safely even if there's not a bike lane. I can *walk* to a bike shop if I have a problem I don't know how to fix or if I need a doohickey Right Now. And there will be a bike shop within walking distance of any place I go normally.

I tend to class the Just Try Harder group as misogynistic clowns and ignore them (and IME, if you present as female, there *will* be much rougher treatment than if you present as male). Their contact with reality tends to be tenuous. If you must deal with one, I find a strong dose of reality tends to make them be quiet.

Emily @ 125: Yikes. No wonder US bikers think us Euros have it easy.

Here (the UK) drivers are supposed to give a cyclist as much room as a small car.

Personally, I tend to ride about a third of the way out into the carriageway. Then the driver has to make a positive decision to avoid me when overtaking. If you ride tucked into the side of the road, yon car-driver won't get over and you'll feel a wing-mirror brushing your elbow.

Long hair, riding w/o a helmet and throwing in the odd wobble will also make the average car-pilot carefully avoid you.

I'm aware that such (Highway Code mandated) behaviour will get me killed in short order in the US.

I'm so glad it's getting warm enough that I can ride my bike again (as soon as I have the back wheel looked at); I lost a good two months of biking weather last fall to an unfortunate encounter with a woman who either didn't see me, thought I had a Stop sign too, or assumed I had to yield to her because I was on a bike. I sprained my back, which pretty much put an end to biking for four months or so, and then it was winter--and having given myself bronchitis biking when it was too cold once, I'm not anxious to repeat the experience.

Pittsburgh is not a very bike-friendly city*, what with the hills and the narrow windy streets and the bad weather in winter; I can get to work and back because it's one of the few long stretches of relatively flat in the city, but I don't blame anyone who doesn't want to try it, even if they're reasonably able-bodied.

I've got a right to use the road, not a right to *block* the road.

One of the few times I've been yelled at was when a driver refused to pass me despite my doing everything possible to safely allow him to; the guy behind him, who had perforce been traveling at bike pace, called me something that our respective vectors thankfully rendered incomprehensible.

* This problem is not made better by the many bikers who seem to assume they are fast-moving pedestrians: going up on the sidewalk when it's convenient (or riding on the sidewalk most of the time), ignoring traffic lights, failing to signal turns, etc etc. If they don't want to wear helmets, that is not my problem; their skulls, their skills, their issue. But it'd be nice if they didn't make it so that drivers assume a person on a bike is a dangerous loose cannon.

#120--Most of the large pen manufacturers have lines that they usually refer to as student or school pens. Pelikan has the Pelikano and Future, Lamy the Safari, Waterman the Reflex and Phileas, Caran d'Ache the Primo, Parker the Vector, Frontier, and 45, Cross the ATX and Century. There are others as well--Rotring's great strength and fame is pens for drafting work, but they make good writing pens as well, and if you're willing to go from the under-$30 range to the under-$60 range there's an even wider number of good basic pens.

I haven't tried all of these, but I have tried several of them, and they seem to be good, functional pens that don't leak* easily. It's possible to use many of them with cartridges, or with the appropriate (for that model) refilling mechanisms (I happen to be allergic to the bladder type--we just can't seem to get along--but the piston styles seem to be pretty good). it's also possible to refill the (supposedly) disposable cartridges, but you need something like an eyedropper or a syringe to so it, and I'd advise working over the sink.

My favorite place to shop is Montgomery Pens, the online arm of the Montgomery Stationery Store of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Other good places are Colorado Pen Direct, Fountain Pen Hospital, Pendemonium, and Swisher Pens.

Student pens tend to be fairly durable, since their expected environments include places like book bags and backpacks. They just aren't made with the exotic materials and fanciful details you see in the high-end models. My own philosphy is that company that can't make a good basic pen probably can't make a good one, period.

*Cheap Shaeffer cartridge pens, I'm looking at you. If these people can do it, what's stopping you?

OK, Colorado Pen Direct. Sorry about that.

Rather than fountain pens, I ended up using drafting pens, until I stopped being able to write for more than a minute-or-so.

neotoma @79: Try finding resole-able shoes. They aren't common at all anymore, especially for women.

Yes and no-- if small local shoe-repair shops can be found, they can attempt to resole anything you bring them, although they may not always be successful and the new sole may have a very different texture than the old one... my one attempt in that direction was disappointing (they replaced a worn-out rubberized moccasin-style sole with a slippery rigid leather one), but I mention it anyway out of support-small-local-businesses principle.

IME true resoleability is mostly brand-dependent, wrt whether the shoe manufacturer has made some of their own original parts available. I've had excellent results from mailing various Clarks and Rockports to this place, both my husband's and my own; the one exception has been a pair of cork-based Clark's sandals.

For the truly intrepid, there's the possibility of learning to make one's own shoes. There are various books and websites on the subject; many of the latter are SCA-based, but I mostly figure that shoes is shoes. An astonishing array of leather scraps can be found on eBay, such as the square yard or so of waterproof Timberland which (to my shame) has been languishing in my closet for the past few years since I bought it. At the least, however, such references also contain info which could be adapted for DIY shoe repair ("Barge Cement" at your local hardware store seems to be the glue of choice).

Diatryma @90: Oh, fountain pens. I had one from about freshman year of high school to senior year of college-- the cap fragmented, and I don't know if it's the kind of thing that can be replaced

Contact the manufacturer and ask if you can buy a new one from them; even if it's not a model in current production, they may still have spare parts in stock. If you're not sure what the model is, you may have to mail the pen to them for identification, but the worst that can happen is that you'll have spent the postage. (Or, I suppose, your mathom drawer will have divested an unused/unusable pen.)

Speaking of, anyone like Noodler's Nightshade? Too red for me. I wanted *purple*.

Haven't tried it, but based on the samples here, it doesn't look particularly purple to me either-- which is the new "purple" you've just ordered?

Private Reserve's "Tanzanite" is rather nice, imho-- it's been a while since I've refilled a fresh pen with it, but iitc it's slightly redder than the sample shown here. This multibrand chart may also be of interest.

I’m still using the same fountain pen I bought in 1992. The guy sitting next to me isn’t even using the same ballpoint he had in January.

Me too, exactly -- a next-to-the-top-of-the-line Pelikan bought at Pearl Paint in New York in 1992, when the brand still offered good lifetime value at fair prices. Now they're out and out luxury products. I hate disposables. To get me to switch, you'd have to pry my beloved Pelikan from my cold, dead hand.

Also dislike disposable computers, which is what these necessary evils all are these days. My handheld Psion Series 5 and I have been inseparable for more than 10 years. (The screen cable -- hard to fix -- went bad on the first one after three years, and I bought a replacement Psion on eBay. Since then I've opened and closed it very gently, and no problem.)

I take it everywhere, it has a cramped but real and very usable keyboard, it's instant-on because all the software is in ROM, rechargeable AA batteries last far longer than any laptop. Has a full MS Office-compatible software suite, but I no longer have a Windows 98 machine to sync to for the conversion. These days I just use it to capture keystrokes when I don't want to lug a laptop around. Upload as text files via a card reader to my Mac. Simply one of the most elegant computers ever made.

Caroline, #114: I had one friend, well-intentioned, comment that maybe real commitment to environmentalism meant taking the bus even if it was inconvenient.

First off, as you point out, "inconvenient" is one thing, while "dangerous" is quite another.
Secondly, my response to that comment would have been that a real commitment to environmentalism involves working to make greener behavior easy enough that it doesn't have to be inconvenient, because as long as it's inconvenient the only people who will do it are the ones you don't need to convince... and how many letters have you* written to the City Council about the need for viable bus service in the last year?

* That is, the person who made the original statement.

Carrie, #117: If the Change hits, knowing what time it is will become a lot less important. ;-)

James, #118: What we're probably looking at here, in the long run, might be called the Anti-Industrial Revolution. Whether that's the most accurate description or not, it's fairly clear that there is going to be some significant economic disruption, no matter whether it's the result of people moving back toward longer-usage items or of people simply no longer being able to afford the throwaway consumerist culture and not buying things at all. Eventually things will shake out -- but the shape of the culture we end up with will probably be as different from what we're used to today as the shape of Western European culture in 1850 differed from that of 1750.

I haven't finished reading, but to drop in a thought before it gets any further from the source...

#30, C Wingate -

I'm currently saving to pay for a timing belt replacement on my current Toyota (a 1996 model). I've participated in the changing of the timing chain on a 76 Toyota, and done a lot of wrenching myself on that same car. Heck, I replaced the rear brakes on the current car the last time it needed doing. But an engine task that starts with removing the passenger side wheel and proceeds to removing an engine mount, with potentially catastrophic consequences if you get it wrong?* I'm paying someone.

We did buy a 1976 Celica, the car both drove while we were dating in the 90s** to rebuild. If we can make it reliable enough, there's a good chance it will become my daily driver.

*My memory says that getting a timing chain right is easier than getting the belt right sounds. I could be misremembering, though.

**He had a 75 Celica when I met him, and I ended up buying a 76 in exactly the same color. It was disgustingly cute, though it was a practical choice as much as anything.

General announcement: I am not planning to get rid of my serger anytime soon. Thanks to everyone who's emailed to ask for it, but "candidate for disposal" does not imply "this week" or even "this month" or any other very-near-future timeframe.

Even after yesterday's discussion here I managed to forget to take my recyclable bag to the grocery store to shop. I feel like such an idiot about this.

Regarding bicycling -

I'm currently a bit frustrated by it because I live five miles from my work. Only five miles! In metro Atlanta! I could bicycle. But the first half-mile is a winding road full of blind curves, with no shoulder much of the time, much less a sidewalk, and I'm just plain too chicken to ride in the road.

This isn't helped by the fact that there is a large segment of pro-bicycle bloggers who seem to think that this is a good argument to convince people to bicycle in the roadways*:

Bicycles are vehicular traffic and have a right to be on the roadway. In point of fact, they should be on the roadway, not on the sidwalks. Sidewalks are for pedestrians. (I buy that.)

Auto drivers don't know how to drive safely around bicyclists in most of the U.S. (I agree.)

Therefore, more bicyclists should ride on the roadway to educate drivers on how to not kill bicyclists.

I just can't see how that doesn't amount to a segment of bicyclists martyring themselves for the cause. So I drive.

*"This" is my made up summary of the arguments as I see them, not a direct quote of anyone, heaven forbid.

John Chu@111: We, as a society, haven't made maintainability a must have feature in our electronics.

I'm not sure that's a decision we could have made. The way I understood it was that Moore's Law itself pretty much requires planned obsolescence to operate - if a fair number of us don't replace all our shiny at regular intervals there just won't be the money to keep the whole thing moving forward.

Susan #135: Even after yesterday's discussion here I managed to forget to take my recyclable bag to the grocery store to shop. I feel like such an idiot about this.

You and me both.

Jen B 120: best method I've found for emptying/replacing the Diva in a public restroom: dampen a paper towel before entering the stall and bring it in with you.

Of course, if you're in one of those restrooms with only hot air dryers, best method is to hope you haven't reached capacity yet. Even on my heaviest days I can go 8 hours before having to worry about overflow, but I'm aware that there are people for whom this won't work.

Jen B. at 120: Many of my friends swear by the Waterman Phileas as a good starter fountain pen. Do you like heavy pens, or light ones? If heavy, I would recommend a Sheaffer Prelude or Javelin; for lighter ones... hmmm. I migh suggest a vintage Esterbrook. They're light, durable, and have interchangeable nibs.

Abi: I've still got the second Pelikan M200 that I bought in 1993, but the oldest pen in my collection is close to sixty years old. It's had its sac replaced once, and its nib customized for me, but other than that, it's the same pen it was when Virginia Siegler bought it (that's the name engraved on it). I suspect my niece will inherit it, and it will still be in working order.

This is something that we've been discussing at my house recently. We moved from Portland, where public transit is easy, grocery stores were within walking distance, and it was possible to eat a diet that was fresh and (fairly) local. Now we live in Central Illinois, where public transit is non-existant, the nearest grocery store is 10 miles away, and if we want fresh local food, we best start a garden (broccoli, tomato and pepper seeds already started, actually). In addition, we're starting a family, and getting to hear "You'll be amazed how much stuff you'll need for a baby!" Well, we NEED a car seat, some way to carry the baby, clothes and diapers. Everything else just makes life easier (and more expensive and more crowded). We're currently in the middle of clearing out my dad's house, as mentioned previously, so I'm not really interested in bringing more stuff into the house. Moreover, I'm tired of feeling pressured to buy more disposable stuff all the time.
I quit my previous job in retail because I was tired of selling people useless gadgets. You know the sort of thing that makes people go "Ooh, that's handy!" and then never take it out of the drawer once they get it home? I wanted to be doing something that was actually worthwhile, or better yet, actually creating something that people could use. So I'm trying to learn to sew, I'm starting my first ever vegetable garden, and I'm debating whether I'm willing to invest the time necessary to have chickens. I don't know that I want to move off the grid entirely, but I would like to stop being driven to consume endless quantities of lackluster goods.
Oh, and tankless water heaters won't work if you have a lot of natural gas in your well water. I pushed for one, but apparently, being able to light your tap water on fire makes it incompatible with the high pressure heating? Who knew?

While I am 100% on board with the idea of buying durable goods that are actually, you know, *durable,* as someone professionally involved in the renewable energy sector, I would argue for the fact that electricity use in and of itself is not unsustainable. If an electrical appliance can be designed to be as durable as a manually operated version of the same thing without an undue load associated with it, I'm generally onboard. At the same time, though, when a design tweak can offer better results than the application of electricity- passive solar, skylighting, etc- then obviously I'd take that tack first.

Graydon: I might be among the first approximation, but I'm strange. I have seed corn, animals (horses, dogs and chickens), some access to acreage; know where there's permanent water and a place to hie me to until things settle down.

I have firearms, so meat is findable while food grows.

And I have a whole lot of those skills someone upthread (ethan?) was amazed everyone doesn't. My thought when watching "Castaway" was, "he didn't read the right books as a kid."

If we move back to SLO, no problem. We have farmer friends (and old farmers too, Webb is in his early seventies; he knows how to make do without the most modern of trappings.

Since I don't think the machine culture will just end, but break down in bits and pieces, I figure those of us who have skills/knowledge can trade them in for food.

I can tinker, do some smithing, reap corn, preserve foods, refine salt, cure meats, tan hides, work wood, maintain weapons, sharpen tools, plan sanitation, milk cows, grow crops, build walls, and I don't know what all else.

So, barring a Lucifer's Hammer sort of end to civilization, I think I'll come through it all right. Add the skills my extended family/friends have, and it might even be a reasonably comfortable one.

Now I have to catch up with all the posts I know have been made since I wrote this last night (our net was down, so I have been unable to post it).

Slowly making my way through the comments...

#91, Daniel Klein -

Oh, I had an old model "selfwinding" watch that I loved until it died. It was a Timex, so it wasn't repairable. I'm terrible about getting a battery replaced when it goes dead in a watch - I much prefer something that is self-sustaining or at least stemwound. I am definitely tempted by the new quartz watches that apparently charge a capacitor based on your movement, but the manufacturers seem to be aware that this is possibly the last watch you'll buy, and price them accordingly. I haven't convinced myself that I need a watch badly enough for the initial outlay of a long-term investment.

A related pet-peeve is the apparent fascination with battery-operated clocks that have (battery-driven) pendulums. I went into a clock/watch shop (one of those annoying ones at the mall) and while I waited for the battery in my watch to be changed, I noticed that all of the pendulum clocks on the wall were silent. As I paid my bill, I asked, "Why don't the clocks tick?"

The look I got suggested I'd asked why they didn't sing and dance. "Tick?"

"Yes, tick. Why don't the clocks tick?"

"They're quartz," came the answer, as if I were a bit slow.

I was so flabbergasted all I could say was, "Oh, okay."

#116, Diatryma -

"I bought a printer six years ago. I have not gotten a hundred dollars out of the printer. The printer has turned into a doorstop. There is nothing I can do that can make it less useful. Let's see if I can turn a doorstop into a printer."

Brilliant. And a train of thought I should try more often myself.

#122, Carol Kimball -

I don't quite understand what you're saying about the belts in regard to converting an electric machine to treadle. I wouldn't bother with the conversion with many of the new machines, and the older ones that are worth converting often are belt-driven, with an external motor and exposed belt. I'd expect converting them would be a matter of setting it into a treadle table and finding the right belt. Am I not thinking of it correctly?

You're definitely right about belts being a hazard to hair, though it was my fingers that were most in danger around the belt-driven industrial sewing machines* I used. If you cupped your hand too far around the wheel, it was possible to get between the belt and the wheel. I managed to only give myself a good scare a few times before I learned how to do it right, but it's a risk.

*Speaking only of durability, these are the best candidates for conversion, though I don't know how hard they are to drive - a treadle might not be enough power to make one run even through light material.

Paul Lalonde @ 94: We've been considering getting a real shoemaker for a while. Do you have any advice about how to find/identify a good one?

Lee @ 104: My parents are late adopters; I typed papers on a typewriter for most of my childhood, and finally an electric typewriter for the latter half of high school. I have not a shred of nostalgia for either of these devices.

Another good source of deep value items is Amish furniture stores. We discovered these when we went bed shopping last year. Our new four-poster is made of solid oak, and we know the name of the guy who built it. If our hypothetical grandkids snap one of the posts in 40 years, someone will come to our house and fix it for free. The only way we'll ever need to replace it (for certain definitions of need) is if we actually save up the money for the canopy bed from the same store with secret compartments in the footboard. Apparently the Amish are very fond of secret compartments; who knew? Not that I blame them. If I can't have a bookcase that swings out to reveal a hidden layer, secret compartments in the bed are the next best thing.

#124 ::: Carrie S.

I was thinking along the lines of replacing that wheel entirely with one that had spokes (for a more chain-like belt) or the appropriate groove. It'd be a pain, but once done it might work.

If you're getting into machining, it'd be better to use a rat-tail file and make a groove for the belt on the left side (inside) of the hand wheel, and open up the head casing where the belt needs to pass. That runs the belt in the channel that was meant for it, directly around the flywheel for the treadle.

Far less tricky work, and most of the path of the belt is out of harm's way. Even with the 7-8" of "standard" exposed belt at the front right of the machine, any bit of thread, fabric, hair (!) that wafts over that way will get grabbed by the belt.

Adrian Smith@137:The way I understood it was that Moore's Law itself pretty much requires planned obsolescence to operate

Moore's Law says that transistor density doubles approximately every two years, period. (It's really Moore's Rule of Thumb.) It says nothing about how we should use those extra transistors per unit area. It doesn't even say that we should make use of those extra transistors per unit area.

Planned obsolescence is one way of getting people to replace what they already have. Coming up with something irresistably shiny is another way. Those are hardly the only two ways.

There's nothing about Moore's Law that prevents companies from making user serviceable products. e.g., give a useful user serviceable product, a company might make money selling upgrades.

However, if we, as a society, choose tightly integrated, sealed up packages over bulkier, more user accessible packages, then the products that sell will be ones that are harder to service.

Incidentally, the project for African schoolgirls that Jen. B refers to in #120 is http://www.goods4girls.org/

They offer a variety of links to make-it-yourself reusable menstrual pad instructions (under "Patterns").

Rikibeth: It is more a problem of, um, re-insertion. There just isn’t enough room in the stalls where I work to be doing anything other than sitting or standing. And once you’ve dropped one in the toilet once or twice… I suppose the only answer is, “practice”.

Velma: I always use Pilot pens, so I suppose I would write with something light. I think what has kept me from fountain pens up until now has been the great variety: weight, materials, nibs, etc. I’ve just never known where to start. Of course, there is also the fear that I will break nibs left and right.

All the talk about the trend towards products which customers cannot fix themselves has put The Magnetic Fields’ Epitaph For My Heart in my head.

#145 ::: R. M. Koske
I don't quite understand what you're saying about the belts in regard to converting an electric machine to treadle. I wouldn't bother with the conversion with many of the new machines, and the older ones that are worth converting often are belt-driven, with an external motor and exposed belt. I'd expect converting them would be a matter of setting it into a treadle table and finding the right belt.

I messed around trying to do a conversion for some time before finding the proper head, hence all the minutiae. The problem is that when a head is cast to accommodate an electrical motor (we're in the home versions here), things don't line up properly to run a belt down to the flywheel.

The old Singers I have that were made for either treadle or electricity are model 411G. The 401 (+) gear-drive series was an attempt to make an industrial machine that would appeal to the home market, and almost every home ec teacher in the country bought one. I can set the timing in about twenty minutes as perfectly as when it came from the factory.

An industrial is far more finely machined, has a more powerful motor set apart from the sewing business for greater torque, and is noisy and (to a dainty 50's housewife) ugly.

The 401s were almost as finely machined, but limited to the size of motor that could be put into the right side of the conventionally home-pretty case.

One of the advantages of using the treadle is that I no longer have thunder thighs. Though only about 110#, I can generate plenty of power with my quads, so I'd guess an industrial conversion would be fine.

Both my machines were electric set in a convertible head. The first arrived without those guts, so I immediately ordered and installed a wiring harness to get the light working again. In a power outage of several hours, I propped a mirror up and worked by ample reflected light.

On fountain pens: I have a Waterman Phileas and the first time I used it... oh, yeah, not buying anything else. My handwriting has adapted to fountain pens; I am even less legible in ballpoint, and I once described a particularly bothersome professor as 'worse than pencil'.
Your handwriting may change as you get better at it; there are little weirdnesses to fountain pens. My mother can't write with one at all.

The Noodler's Violet Vote ink, formerly Iraqi Indigo, is an appropriate shade of purple, not as dark as I'd like (I'm waiting for the color that came out of purple Pilot Varsity disposables), and the pen feels flimsly after my darling Phileas, but it's good to have options. It's not perfect, but it's better than I was prepared for.

RM Koske, stupid brain tricks make me happy. Like I said, most of the problems I have with lifestyle changes are in my own brain. And I did manage to turn a doorstop into a printer! It works so well now, and every time I use it, I am happy because I fixed it. Yay go me!

I do have a thing with kitchen gadgets. Not a very big thing, but a thing. I bought a microplane zester to make Teresa's limeade (zester worked, alcohol didn't) and a food chopper to make heroin truffles (I am not hand-grinding an entire package of Oreos, no I am not). What I've learned from that is not to buy the cheapest appliance available. The five-dollar difference between the cheapest hand mixer and the second-cheapest is wide enough to burn out a motor on truffle filling.

I second the suggestion of fleecie blankets. My bed has flannel sheets, a cheap comforter, an afghan, and three layers of fleecies. Two and a half yards covers a double bed adequately.

Diatryma @152:
What I've learned from that is not to buy the cheapest appliance available. The five-dollar difference between the cheapest hand mixer and the second-cheapest is wide enough to burn out a motor on truffle filling.

My mother, in her aspect as a car mechanic, taught me to always buy the best tool that you can afford.

I haven't always followed her advice, and I haven't always regretted not following it, but I've never regretted following it, if you see what I mean.

#151 - Carol Kimball -

Ah, yes, I understand now. Thank you.

*goes to look up Singer 401+. Drools a bit.* Wow, those are really affordable on ebay! Wouldn't I love something like that! My current machine is one I picked up from the dumpster at my apartment complex. It has all-metal parts inside and oiling points that look a great deal like the industrial machines did. It's a brand that didn't survive ("Good Housekeeper") but it looks to be incredibly durable and I'll be using it for a long time, I hope.

Your talk of setting the timing yourself makes me wonder about the cost of a sewing machine repair class. (Speaking of skills with deep value.)

#154 ::: R. M. Koske
*goes to look up Singer 401+. Drools a bit.* Wow, those are really affordable on ebay!

Over the years, I've owned maybe six or seven* of the 401 series and checked over a dozen or so, and never found one that didn't justify paying $200-250, and I see the current crop is substantially less than that. None of these appear to be convertible to treadle, no surprise - what to look for is the bobbin winder on top of the machine, and a rectangular hole (or maybe just knock out) at the base of the motor compartment.

* I currently own one 401A electric and two 411G treadles. The prices on ebay make me want to buy ALL OF THEM (calms down a little) for the next crop of begging students/interns/clients. Okay, I can send them there. The heirs of those Home Ec teachers of yesteryear don't know what they've got.

Your talk of setting the timing yourself makes me wonder about the cost of a sewing machine repair class. (Speaking of skills with deep value.)

In a heartbeat! The old Singers have built-in guides that make setting the hook quick and easy. I took classes for timing both sewing machines and sergers a decade or so ago and have never regretted it, though I'll pay someone to do the serger. Other sewing machines are a little more fiddly to set, but still, no big deal.

I'm just plain too chicken to ride in the road.

Sensible given what you describe. If the roads are laid out so that it's safe to walk and you've demonstrated to yourself by *doing* it... then you can probably ride a bike on them. With practice. I use pedestrians as a rough guideline: if a road isn't safe for pedestrians, it's not safe on a bike either.

I say probably because a clever department of transportation can manage to munge things up so that a sidewalk isn't bad, but the roads are downright terrifying still. Large chunks of Los Angeles are like that. I was quite happy to walk everywhere there, but I don't think there's enough money in the world to get me to ride a bike on a typical LA street. (and I'm scared witless of riding on a sidewalk... I wasn't allowed to do it as a child, and LA sidewalks can be extra specially exciting even as a pedestrian)

There are League of American Bicyclist classes in riding bikes on the road. I was taught by my parents, and the material they taught matches the PA Bike Driver's Manual (which didn't exist when they started teaching me, but is related to the LAB course material). This means I'm not very motivated to check out the classes, as PA law matches CA and WI law (for once)... but I know people who have taken them, and they seem to find them helpful. There's a substantial practical component of riding your bike on the road, and that seems to be what makes the classes work. The supervised practice can't hurt, and it might cut down on what road conditions you find terrifying.

And yes, I find the activist types annoying too. IME people who do not ride their bikes have sound reasons for their choice. Maybe they're more disabled than I am. Maybe they weren't taught. Maybe they have kids and don't want to turn their kids' lives upside down. Some of those reasons are fixable, others aren't. But if I'm not willing to help with the fixable ones and be kind about the permanent ones, I'm a pretty poor excuse for a human being.

Treadle-convertible Singer

It would need to have a groove machined in the hand wheel. You'd do this by taking the top section off, before disconnecting and pulling the motor.

Note the transverse fin across the top of the machine. This is to create turbulence, so that when you're stitching at great speed, nothing catches fire.

Oops, it's straight stitch only. Still a better deal for a treadle conversion than trying to refurbish one of the "granny style" spindly black ones of days of yore.

All the parts for this one are still available, and not expensive.

No, I have no connection with the seller.

Carol Kimball @ 155... The old Singers have built-in guides

"And over here, on the right, is Mark Singer, start of Beastmaster..."

#156, Emily -
Truthfully, it probably is perfectly possible to ride on the road that frightens me. I see cyclists doing it all the time. But they're sport cyclists, not commuters, so they do it early on Sunday morning most of the time, in a pack. Occasionally there'll be someone alone on a weekday afternoon. Even so, I wouldn't walk that street.

I'll have to see if there are any LAB classes in my area. A class might help, because if I went the other way (the long way around, really), I could be on the frightening road for the last, straight stretch instead. The difficulty with that route is that it is a much, much larger and more heavily trafficked road that I'd be turning on to. That does scare me, but not as much, and a class might be enough to make a difference there.

The activists...I'm probably exaggerating the situation. My most recent spotting of the problem was on a Treehugger.com comment thread where someone pointed out that

(Sharing bike lanes with traffic depends on...)1. The ability of the bike rider to understand how to ride in traffic, and that means to not be afraid of these metal monsters.
2. The understanding by the drivers of these cars that bikes belong on the road too.
The problem is that 2 can only happen when there are enough 1s, but most 1s want to wait until there are enough 2s. Catch-22.
My fear and guilt makes that read as an accusation that it probably isn't.

Things I love, which persist in usefulness.

Cast iron (hard to kill, easy to clean; purported to add iron to the diet).

Manual utenstils (mortar and pestle, madeline, pasta machine, planes, chisels).

Old machinery (the south bend lathe, drill press, etc. In a pinch we could convert them to lots of batteries fed from the solar panels). It's fixable. With the lathes, we can make every other tool we need. The shaper makes it easier (because that will make gears a lot more easily than hand filing them from turned wheels)

Heck, with some work, we could use the horses to drive things. Not the best, but a generator isn't that hard to build.

re helmets: I grew up without them. I can't really concieve of not wearing them now. I feel naked without one (be it horse, bike, or motorcycle; though those have always been a helmet item). Sort of like seat belt. I am not comfortable in a car without one.

Then again, I've probably spent more time in a helmet than most people.

re pizza (having worked in a pizzeria). Reheat them with a hot oven. (450-475). Arrange for some airspace below the crust (crumpling tinfoil will do it), this keeps the crust from getting soggy. That's also a good trick for baking them at home (though somethig like my baking stone will also work). Places like Domino's have a woven screen they use; even in the industrial ovens (small airspace, high head) they use.

re watches: I dislike things around my wrist (this may be a result of my having small wrists, tight enough to stay on = binding). So I use a pocket watch, except that my windup ones are all in need of new mainsprings (and the one I like best needs to have a competent watchsmith to repair the catch; the previous owner had the habit of pressing it shut). The electric one I bought when I shipped to Iraq works fine, but I forget to go and replace the battery.

So right now it's sitting on my dresser, useless.

Carrie s. I recall taking a class on the history of England. We got to changes in spinning, and I took a drop spindle and some wool with me. I think I'd spun about ten feet before the instructor noticed and then made me do a demo.

John Hawkes-Reed: I recall, when I was riding everywhere, the number of drivers who enjoyed being rude to cyclists (the honking, the swerving, the yelling out the window). Then the people who don't look when the open doors, or make turns without noticing, etc.

That I did this all without a helmet is why I ended up with a couple of concussions (the kid who shot out of the alley at 25 miles an hour... I am so glad I looked to my right, because I was started hauling as much ass as I could crank. Had I been a trifle slower it wouldn't have been my rear wheel he hit, it would have been my leg).

Then there was the time the guy just swung into the parking lot in front of me. Couldn't turn tight enough; wasn't able to lay it down before I hit the door. Trashed my front wheel, and left rubber marks on the rear window.

Then again, bicycles (here in Calif.) can second class pedestrians; they are allowed to use the sidewalks, so long as they yeild to foot traffic and dismount at intersections.

This was done so that children didn't have to ride in lanes.

Regarding bicycling -

I normally cycle if: it's under 5-6 miles and I'm not carrying/expecting to carry anything very heavy (I carry 10 kg in my backpack on a too-regular basis) or too large.

We still have a car; it doesn't get used very often (less than once a week on average) but it's the convenience when it is needed, whether to get two people, two cats and assorted luggage from London to Manchester via the workplace, or to take a neighbour to Accident & Emergency.

As a cyclist, I consider it important to be aware (including being aware that bus and lorry drivers can't see you while you're alongside them) and to obey the Highway Code (UK) - for example stopping at traffic lights, including pedestrian lights. I just wish powered vehicle drivers would be aware of that their airstream can make cyclists wobble, cyclists want to go around, not through, that pothole/large puddle ahead, and (for drivers of long vehicles in particular), cyclists are not stationary, so cutting back in when the back of your vehicle passes where the cyclist was when you started overtaking is a bad idea...

The canvas bags we've been using for shopping are still fine after about five years, and we very rarely forget them. We're finally running out of plastic supermarket bags to use as trash bags in the kitchen bin.

Emily: The San Fernando Valley (which is in Los Angeles, for those as don't know) is where I learned to use a bike for primary transport.

I think, actually, it made me a better driver. Looking out for traffic patterns (lest I be smeared by a truck) made me aggressively defensive.

I have what I will dub the "battleship" theory of mechanical appliances and devices. This theory holds that all such tools pass through a stage where they are built like a tank. For woodworking tools, this is epitomized by the Stanley 9 1/2 block plane (they don't make this particular model anymore, but the current model 12-920 is close). For sewing machines, it's the Singer 401.

I think there's some misunderstanding about Moore's Law. Moore's Law doesn't force any electronics company to do anything at all. Moore's Law is like a natural law, like.. the law of gravity. And there are plenty of ways to move around with gravity as a constraining factor. But if you happen to be a rocket ship that's about 2000 feet above a launch pad, you pretty much have to accelerate your ass off until you hit orbital velocity, or you're dead meat.

What Moore's Law ends up doing is this: Any chip I build today will have maybe four times the features as a chip I built maybe two years ago, and today's chip with more features will cost less than the chip from a couple years ago. That's because I can fit that many more transistors in a fixed space, and can do it for less money.

The other thing is that the chip I build today will have a fabrication NRE that's way more expensive than it was a couple years ago. This means I have to design a chip to be much more generic, much more able to be used in different systems. More flexible. And more generic at the same time.

Now, combine that with the most fickle human beings on the planet: i.e. customers, and what you'll find is customers have this really, seriously, annoying habit of choosing more features for less money when comparing that against less features for more money, or even compared to same features for less money.

We've lost big chunks of revenue because a competitor had a chip that reduced the board to two layers. Our chip took four layers. The savings per unit was a couple of dollars. The OEM decided to go with the competitor. You can't stand still in this business.

If anyone is interested in game theory concepts, this is an "arms race" scenario.

Now, if Moore's Law ever hits its limit, some very interesting things will happen. The biggest thing will be that those rocket ships will hit a ceiling and have to park in orbit.

This same outcome has been produced by other means. When CD Burners hit 52x, speeds, there really wasn't any more improvements you could do to the design, as far as features go. Spin a Disc any faster, and it is likely to go all 'splodey inside your drive. The only way to distinguish yourself from the competitor was to have the same features as everyone else, but at a lower price. When that happened, we got out of the business of selling CD Burner chips.

Thing is, have you ever open a CD Burner drive? Not a lot of user servicable parts in there.

Which brings us to the third law of nature that affects electronics economics: component failures. Think vacuum tube TV's. Not a lot of "gates" on those designs. We had one when I was a kid. Thing had a whole bunch of individual tubes. Each one had a mean time between failure. Add those together, and you tube TV could easily crap out quite soon after you bought it. A whole new TV was a lot of money. So, it was cheaper to replace the tube that didn't work.

Nowadays, you've got most of all your logic on a single chip. Rather than having high voltage circuits operating in a vacuum contained in a rather fragile physical medium (glass), you've got relatively more sturdy components made out of various metals and plastics. solid state electronics is inherently more sturdy than vacuum state electronics. Your transistor based television didn't have sockets for the transistors because the mean time between failure for transistors was a hella lot better than for tubes, which means your transistor TV is likely to last a lot longer than your Vacuum TV before it fails. Which means putting everything in sockets just adds more to the cost of the TV without any benefit to most customers.

Nowadays, the overall mean time between failures for most electronics is approximately equal to the mean time before obsolences and voluntary user upgrade. At which point, if you make it easier to repair by adding things that will raise the cost of the device, it is wasting most consumer's money. And the time between upgrades is partially an outcome of that harsh mistress called Moore's Law.

I bought one of the first 5MP digital cameras when digital cameras were really catching on and 2MP was standard. I still have it. It still works. But the wife hates it because it's the size of a box of frozen peas, and has an LCD that's like only an inch diagonal. When it dies, or when a thin, 5MP, digital camera is available with a 4 inch screen, for cheap money, I'll be upgrading.

assuming they don't have 5MP cameras integrated into cell phones by then. Everything is getting integrated into your cell phone, if anyone's noticed. The cost of cell phone hardware can be subsidized by a two-year contract of monthly fees, which means cell phone economics are controlled by Moore's Law on steroids.

Computers are generally converting over to either fully integrated laptops and/or component systems connected by USB and/or ethernet. No one crack's open their PC case anymore. That last bit of "repair" capability has been replaced with plug 'n play interoperability. If a box dies, replace the box and just plug it into where the old one way. USB will find it. and you're up and runnign again.

But when you combine the economic laws of Moore's Law, fickle customers who will always choose more features for less money, and mean time between failure versus mean time before upgrade, you get the current state of consumer electronics that you see now.

Is it "good"? Is it "deep value"? I dunno. But I've been working in consumer electronics, specifically in asic design, for the last decade or so. And it's just the way the current market operates.

Can it be changed? I don't know that either. I've been a big fan of Open Source for a few years now. I'm currently helping a group come up with an Open Source license that would actually provide hardware design with some Copyleft protection. (GNU-GPL, due to some quirks, provides no copyleft protection to hardware.) And as big of a fan as I am of open source and hardware design, I can't figure out a way to get out of the gravity well that is moore's law. The big hit right now is that the fabrication NRE for a chip can cost you a million dollars. Not something some hackers and a few PC's can pull together. FPGA's will allow some folks to play, but they will always be outpriced by someone who can afford to pony up the money to convert it into an ASIC.

ah well.

Re digital cameras --

I think that digital cameras, especially dslrs, are run a lot harder than the snapshot cameras that they replaced due to the whole 'each click is free' thing.

I'd be stunned if your entry level slr from 20 years ago would have it's shutter die. It just didn't happen, even though the shutters were only good for ~ 10k clicks.

I know someone who's worn out a Nikon D70. Killed the shutter from over use. I've run my Original Digital Rebel to about 40k images, and it's rated at 50k. That would be something like $15k worth of film, and would just never happen.

And now, If I need to replace the body, I have three choices: replacement in kind, original dollar value, or what I really want. Used 300Ds are ~$225, a new/refurb 30d is about $650 (same price as I paid, but one level up and 2 generations newer), or the 40d is more like $1200 (what I want).

It's somewhat freeing to know that even through this was originally expensive, its replacement cost is not that bad.

As for durability, the camera that the dslr replaced, a digital elph, also $600 new, is now my preschoolers camera. It just went through the washing machine in his pocket, and after drying, it still works.

Greg's summary is right on the dot. Kudos for putting it so clearly.

C@164: I have what I will dub the "battleship" theory of mechanical appliances and devices.

I have a vague (and totally would not bet so much as a dime that I'm remembering any of this correctly) memory of reading about some general during WW2 who was in charge of procurring a new artillery design. He had some companies build prototypes, and then he had each prototype thrown off a cliff. The one that fired the best after the cliff-drop was the design he approved and ordered manufactured in quantity.

Now that is what I call deep value.

;)

Greg @168: That reminds me of a friend of mine who used to work in the hard-drive industry, telling about a set of special extra-shock-resistant drives they made for some particular application that was willing to pay quite a lot for custom drives.

As he told the story, after the fellow running the tests on the prototype finished with the basic "not a brick" tests, he hooked up some long cables to it, set it on the edge of the lab bench, started up a read/write test, and swatted it off onto the floor.

It may have missed a beat or two, but it corrected for that and kept going.

Matt @ 142: "electricity use in and of itself is not unsustainable".

Absolutely: muscle power's still energy which as to come from somewhere, and in terms of minimising our use of resources I'd have thought that generate electricity -> transmit electricity -> use electricity was a more efficient cycle than grow food -> harvest and transport -> cook -> eat & convert to muscle power.

Providing, of course, that the generate electricity bit doesn't involve growing trees, compressing them for a few million years, and burning the resulting goo.

Distraxi at 170 wrote: [I]n terms of minimising our use of resources I'd have thought that generate electricity -> transmit electricity -> use electricity was a more efficient cycle than grow food -> harvest and transport -> cook -> eat & convert to muscle power.

It is more efficient if you a) have an application that absolutely needs electricity to work (eg. computers), b) can only get your power from something that won't cook your food or heat your house on its own (eg. hydro), and c) don't have to transmit it over long distances. The loss to the grid is something fierce.

The ground rule is not to change the form of any energy (chemical, kinetic, electrical, heat) unless you absolutely have to, because you'll always lose some down the thermodynamic cracks.

The second cycle you quote can be multipurpose too - growing food helps condition your land for more food, and preserves a friendly local ecosystem, while cooking also helps keep you warm. It's also far less vulnerable to problems outside your control than the electricity one is.

My Deep Value status:

Bicycling: Back when I lived in Cambridge (MA) and before that, I was an avid cyclist. When I moved down to NYC, I found the roads simply too threatening, and gave up on trying to bike them. Now that I've moved down to Charlottesville, I got a new bike, but discovered a couple or three problems:

(1) After 10 years in NYC, half of them sunk in depression, my leg strength is shot. That's gonna take a while to recover, especially as I'm 10 years older!

(2) There are quite a lot of bike-friendly roads around, but they don't include the roads I actually live near! (Despite being a non-driver, I seem to have a karmic attraction to big, dangerous, highways.) This leaves me in the peculiar position of having to take my bike on the bus to get someplace where I can ride it....

(3) This place is a heckuvalot hillier than Cambridge ever was, and more spread out too.

On the other hand, there are some advantages:

(1) I actually can take my bike on the bus -- they all have racks on the front. There's a lot of public support for biking too.

(2) The weather is much more clement than either Cambridge or NYC. In retrospect, I could have gotten a fair bit of riding in during the winter, but I was still adjusting to everything.

(3) My new bike is much more flexible, and lighter, than the Frankenstein Special (built from parts, thank you Broadway Bikes) I was riding up in Cambridge.

Other stuff:

I'm still using the canvas bags I accumulated back in Cambridge; they stuff nicely into my backpack, and one has handles long enough to sling it over my shoulder. I also get some plastic grocery bags, but those are good for litter-box maintenance.

I'm using a bunch of old cast-off computers, PCs ranging from 400 to 1200 MHz, running Linux and BSD. (The 400s are almost useless these days, but I am using one for a BSD firewall). I've been maxing out the memory on the faster machines, and generally upgrading peripherals and components. (Already my systems are doing a lot better than they were a year ago.) At this point I won't bother salvaging boxes under a gigahertz or so (except to strip them.

My digital camera (An Olympus FE-170) takes AA batteries. It drains them pretty quickly (2 at a time), but I got rechargeables first thing, and keep a spare set handy. I also have a flashlight that charges with a squeeze "trigger", but for some reason K-mart stopped stocking them since I bought mine.

Most of my furniture is gifts or salvage, some of it quite old. My bookshelves are steel-frame, I bought those back when a rabbit was vandalizing all my stuff, and undermined my prior set to the point of collapse. My book collection adds up as the most massive of all my possessions, and a goodly amount of it comes from used-book stores or sales. (The local library is doing their booksales this month, the SF part starts next week. I need another bookshelf.... ;-) )

R. Emrys @ 146 - I found my shoemaker by asking at upmarket shoe stores. The recommendations all agreed, so I went to visit Gaudio who turned out to be an elderly Italian man who has been operating in the same location for over 40 years. Nowadays he does more repair than fabrication, but he loves the new work when he can get it. His collection of lasts is astounding.

Yes, I've made my share of medieval leather shoes. Modern shoes don't look too much more difficult, but there are more fit and finish issues to deal with if you want to wear the shoes to anything nearing formal.

Sam@171: The loss to the grid is something fierce

I'm a digital guy, and I only took one power distribution course in college, most of which I can't remember other than vague-ities like "current, bad. voltage, pretty." But according to wikipedia, the loss on the grid for the US for 1995 was only about 7 percent.

The grid has a bunch of problems, mainly relating to the fact that anyone with a pessimistic streak, or with some experience in fail-safe design, would look at the grid and whimper uncontrollably.

But as far as efficiency goes, I think it's relatively decent.

Lee @ 104

You asked about energy usage of tankless water heaters.

From what I've read:
"For homes that use 41 gallons or less of hot water daily, demand water heaters can be 24%–34% more energy efficient than conventional storage tank water heaters. They can be 8%–14% more energy efficient for homes that use a lot of hot water—around 86 gallons per day. You can achieve even greater energy savings of 27%–50% if you install a demand water heater at each hot water outlet."
Via: http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/water_heating/index.cfm/mytopic=12820

I think they're popular here in Hong Kong because of the energy savings and because most flats are very small and there's no room for a "conventional" water tank hot water heater.

The electric ones are nice, because you don't have to worry about ventilation issues. The problem is that you have to have robust wiring in your house. So the gas ones (that run off of the big LPG cylinders) are better for places that have weaker or intermittent electricity or no electricity at all.

The retail prices for one of the big companies in HK is between US$150 (for a single point, small heater) to ~ US$ 650 for a large multi-point heater.

In our flat we have one water heater for each bathroom (2) and one for the kitchen. That way if someone wants to take a shower while another person is washing dishes, it's not a problem.

abi @ 107

Not only did that sentiment make me huzzah in agreement, I also laugh really hard every time I get to the last sentence. :)

I've been unemployed since mid-Decmeber, when my non-profit job was no longer able to fund my position. It was a bit of an extra sadness when on Christmas Day one of my tires decided to die. I'd known I needed new tires, but had been waiting till financial stability to get new ones. Now I had no choice, but I am trying to avoid digging myself into debt while looking for a job. So I've been going carless since then.

As I am yet another Madisonian (rather a lot of us on this thread, aren't there) this has been both easy and difficult. I have asthma and a hard time dealing with cold and won't bike if there is ice, so it meant a lot a lot of long, slow trudges to the store or the bus stop (often in snow). It was especially inconvenient that the buses only run till around midnight (and sooner on weekends) and most of my friends live across town from me.

Yet I realize that not having a car has really saved me money these past few months. No money going into the gas tank and fewer impulse buys. I need to plan what I am going to buy, when I am going to buy it, and how I am going to get it home. This has helped me to get by in my unemployment insurance.

It has also prompted me to start considering going carless once I have a job again. I'd love to get by on foot, bike, and public transit. Maybe make occasional use of Community Car. But so much of that depends on where I find work and what I do. It might be that a car remains essential. Madison has some areas that are very bike and ped friendly and others that are sprawling and impossible without a car.

(Of course the housing costs in the bike/ped friendly areas are shockingly high and the areas of town with my affordable rents are the ones that require a car. Six of one, half dozen of the other, I guess.)

R. Emrys @ 146 There are also some folk on Etsy.com how custom make shoes. I can't vouch for their work personally, since it is out of my price range, but it all looks pretty good.

I don't know if this qualifies as "deep" value, but I just received an 8 gig USB 2.0 drive dongle that I bought for $35. you can get one here.

I finally replaced the stereo in my car (last one was stolen a couple years ago, had a big gaping hole there for a long time). It is a nice unit that plays MP3 CD's, has a USB port connector, an aux input connector, and bluetooth for my cell phone. It was a clearance item that I got for $40. The wire harness was $7 from walmart. The mounting bracket I had to get from the toyota dealer cost $50 (fricken dealer anyway).

So, I got the USB drive today, and I'm dragging and dropping all my music so I can play it in my car, and damn but 8 gig is a lot of space.

I'm not sure I buy that most electronic failure is a result of something going wrong in these chips.

What do you think is the cause of most electronic failure?

As for fountain pens, I got a Namiki with a retractable tip for writing Japanese (ok, so I fell for the advertising blurb at Levengers) about 15 years ago and I'm still using it. It gets a lot of looks from strangers, because it sits in my shirt pocket (gah! nerd alert!) and people continually hold it wrong to play with it. I've noticed that a lot of people try to hold a pen with attached pocket clip downwards (opposite the gap between thumb and index finger), which for this pen puts the writing nib upside down.

Cameras: I have different expectations of them. I know people who wore out the shutters in Nikon FE2s (mostly because they didn't know that the titanium shutters don't do well with motor drives.

I wore out the shutter on my entry level SLR (N2000). The shutter, per se, didn't fail, but the stop on which it rested between uses degraded and started to cause sticking. I'd put, oh, I don't know, 15,000 frames through it.

But I'm not the typical user. The shutter on the D2/3 cameras (and I believe that's for the 200/300 as well) is the same as in F5/6, which is, so far as one can tell, the best Nikon shutter since the F3 (for which the record is, IIRC, something in in the insane 100s of thousands, before it needed to be worked on).

My D2H has, though I am not more than approximate, I'll dig out the actual numbers if anyone cares), about 100,000 frames in the past 2 1/2 years.

R.M. Koske, #160: Back in the late 60s and early 70s (for me, age 11-16), I rode all over my neighborhood -- including several busy main arteries -- in the street. All the older kids did; it was sort of a rite of passage to move from riding on the sidewalk to riding in the street. And I didn't particularly worry about the cars, because I'd seen how drivers responded to other bikes; there was a general expectation that yes, there were going to be kids on bikes in the street, and you just dealt with it.

Where I live now, it's a very different story. Houston is overall a fairly bike-friendly city, but there are a lot of streets that aren't wide enough for a bike to share safely with traffic (the prevalence of huge SUVs and monster pickups has a lot to do with this), and the sidewalks (where there are sidewalks at all) tend to be... poorly maintained, which makes them a challenge to ride. Even where the city has added bike lanes to the streets, there often isn't room for a bike if there's heavy traffic in both directions (see again, ultra-wide vehicles) -- and frankly, I don't trust the drivers to give a shit. This is doubtless unfair to a lot of them, but it doesn't take many bad apples to spoil the whole barrel.

So yes, it's the catch-22 that you describe; however, I also feel that there's been a general cultural shift in the attitudes of drivers about bikes since I was a young teen. There was a high-profile case a few years back where a popular "drive time" comedy team was making JOKES about running down bike riders, and then some cretin actually did hit a biker on purpose and said that the DJs had been his inspiration. Of course there was a very large settlement, but IMO that doesn't make up for the level of injuries suffered by the biker, and the DJs lost their jobs at that station but probably just went to another city. Let's face it, in an altercation between a car and a bike, the bike is going to lose... badly. That's not a matter of opinion, and it's definitely a factor to take into account.

Re shopping carts on wheels, I've just started using one that folds up into a small "bag" when not in use, excellent for taking to work to use for your shopping on the way home.

Emily, #125, in Virginia, you do have the right to block the road. Bikes have the same right to use the road that a car does, and if a car can't pass safely, they're supposed to stay behind the bike. Of course, the instant a biker crosses on a red because nobody's coming, I'm going to feel more comfortable passing in a tight area.

fidelio, #128, I have the Pelikano Junior, but I have an older one. Mine has the yellow barrel (with the port) but a purple cap and the part right above the nib is purple. It has a flat side on the cap and around the port so it won't roll down your desk. I have really lousy handwriting, so I only use it for really important cards.

Madison Guy, #132, I have a Kensington trackball with ten programmable buttons that isn't made anymore and it's particularly valuable to me because my hands shake (it can take a minute to manage to double-click on a link with a mouse). I bought a backup from eBay so when this one dies, I'll have one for a while. I'm wondering if I should buy another backup.

Diatryma, #152, I have a down duvet and duvet cover on my bed because they're very light and I have gout. I made a plastic pipe thing to hold them up when even that's too much.

Sam Kelly @ 171:

"It is more efficient if you a) have an application that absolutely needs electricity to work".
If you absolutely need electricity, what's it more efficient than?

"b) can only get your power from something that won't cook your food or heat your house on its own"
Sorry, I fail to follow the logic here

"c) don't have to transmit it over long distances"
What Greg London said. Grid transmission is pretty efficient - thats why they use stupendous voltages. Transporting food in trucks, on the other hand, is not. Particularly when as in the real world it goes from farm to storage to processor to warehouse to supermarket to your home.

"The ground rule is not to change the form of any energy "
Which is precisely my point - there's more mode changes in the food chain than the electrical one, and while I'm not a biochemist I'd hazard a guess that some of them are pretty inefficient.

"growing food helps condition your land for more food, and preserves a friendly local ecosystem"
Dubiously true for the high-intensity farming practiced in most of the developed world.

"while cooking also helps keep you warm"
And doing so is an additional energy wastage. Most cooking processes have lousy efficiency and heat you whether you need it or not. The waste heat from your stove is using exactly the same amount of energy as if you turned the stove off and turned your electric heater on. Probably more because your heater's not wasting half of it up a rangehood.

"It's also far less vulnerable to problems outside your control than the electricity one is"
Now that one I'll buy.

distraxi,

Probably more because your heater's not wasting half of it up a rangehood.

well, without a good rangehood, a hoodrange can't range good.

(sorry! it could not be resisted.)

miriam beetle,

How much good could a rangehood range if a rangehood could range good?

Re: bicycles:
I didn't want to post this on the First of April, to make sure it retains at least a shred of credibility in the eyes of the poor USians reading here:

Münster, "Bicycle Capital of the World", has about 270.000 inhabitants and about half a million bicycles.

Every street wide enough for a line down the middle also has at least one bicycle lane on the side.

Every traffic light at a street with bicycle lanes has separate bike traffic lights, often with separate green times.

There often are special bike lanes for turning left, where cars stop somewhat behind the bikes, so that the drivers have the bikes well in sight when the light turns green.

There are several hundred kilometers of bike lanes in the city, and a total of eleven streets where cars are tolerated, but bikes have the right of way -- kind of like pedestrian streets for bikes.

There are two big bicycle parking garages, one in the middle of the city (for shoppers, mostly), the other at the railroad station. Commuters arrive by train, check out their bikes to ride to work, and return in the afternoon to check in their bikes and take the train home.

Within the city, 35% to 40% of all trips are by bike.

In my eyes, there's a lot to be said for old cities with narrow, crooked streets that never were adapted to the kind of traffic you get in a modern US city.

Make that "how much hood could"

Bah, who needs to proofread properly anyway? Mutters off back into lurkspace....

Distraxi at 184:

Re getting your power from something that won't cook/heat on its own - sorry, I skipped a few steps. My background for this is much more in microgeneration, so I was implicitly thinking about different ways of generating your own electricity. You want hot food and a warm house, it's smart to burn something in a good stove rather than burn something to generate electricity and then spend that on heating elements.

Good point about the high-intensity farming. I suppose I was trying to compare best practices there, rather than current ones.

Greg at 174: Looks like my informant was wrong. I don't know where Wikipedia are getting their figures or how they calculate them, since the link for the UK figures is suffering from VBScript rot, but this official National Grid plan claims that the total losses are consistently between 2 and 3%. Note that those are projected figures, but naturally they'll be projected from the real ones.

So I'm delighted to be able to retract that claim!

Sam Kelly @189, et al.: I'm curious -- are there any figures for the equivalent to "line loss" of natural gas pipelines? I can't find the right bit of jargon to include in my Google search.

I'd always thought that using gas for cooking rather than electricity made sense, exactly because the energy only changes form once, right under your pan, but if the inefficiencies in transport or in combustion are large enough, they might outweigh the benefits in terms of energy-efficiency. (Cooking over gas is still nicer and more controllable than cooking over an electric burner, IMHO.)

#170 electricity vs food

http://www.ebikes.ca/sustainability/Ebike_Energy.pdf (PDF) is a paper comparing the energy cost of electric and human powered bicycles.

Food production typically uses a lot of fossil fuels (in fertiliser, in farm machinery, in transport). If you eat a typical diet and live somewhere with significant renewable electricity (e.g. hydroelectric), the electric bike can be "better"/more sustainable. This ignores the fact that you are generally healthier with exercise, and if you use an electric bike to go to the gym to burn off just as much food as cycling would have, you would be better off just cycling.

(On the other hand, if you already have more exercise than you can cope with, an electric bike might be better even if its recharged from fossil fuel power stations while you only eat locally grown organic food.)

The hand-cranked torch sounds a nice idea; on the other hand, the hand-cranked torch I've actually used was really not much good for what we were trying to do, namely finding small telescope parts dropped in mud on a dark night.

It doesn't shine uniformly for very long, and the fading light is very distracting; you can't hold it usably still while cranking, and the wobbly light is unusably distracting.

Kevin Riggle at 190: [A]re there any figures for the equivalent to "line loss" of natural gas pipelines?

I've found a case study of Russian pipelines that quotes 0.6% as the "maximum allowable loss as
established by the Russian government (Federal Tariff Service, 2005)" and then goes on to cite the "IEA average leakage figure" of 3.2%.

US figures are scarce, but this EPA estimate of methane emissions from the US natural gas industry shows that most studies assume leakage rates of 1-3%.

I suspect it varies a lot, because the loss is a function of actual mechanical failure, and of different kinds of technology, rather than electrical heating and yer basic entropy.

(For reference, I found those using google: "natural gas pipeline" "leakage rate".)

And let's not forget the crochet hook. I don't go anywhere without a crochet hook, which means that I can whip up all sorts of necessities and luxuries at a moment's notice, out of anything remotely threadlike.

#189, Sam Kelly -

It's a minor quibble, but "you want a warm house" isn't true all the time, and some places it is not-true most of the time. I'm in Atlanta, and I'm already struggling to keep the house cool without resorting to air conditioning.

I have a top-floor apartment with all the windows on one side, so there's no possibility of a crossbreeze. It is very easy for my apartment to be warmer than the outside temp. In the winter that's nice, but it isn't winter here very long. Last week it was warm enough outside to make it uncomfortably hot in my apartment.

Methods of cooking that generate the least waste heat are of great interest to me.

R.M. Koske: A Catch-22 doesn't imply blame on any of the parties involved (in my world at least): the whole point is that all involved are acting rationally given the current state of the system.

In this particular case, it might be perfectly rational for cyclists to avoid the roads, since they fear being run over by drivers whilst in the meantime drivers don't think about cyclists because they never see them on the roads!

About mooncups... As a former user of the diaphragm for birth control, I thought this was an excellent alternative to tampons. I tried a US product "Instead" for one cycle, and had some "diffuculty" in the removal - it looked rather like a murder scene in the bathroom, and was a lot more difficult to use than a custom-fitted birth control appliance. Other than that, it was very nice. These products are not widely promoted in the US, and I am not even sure the local stores carry such things anymore.

R.M. Koske #136: I understand your plight. Consider that of the transit-dependent (i.e., poor) Atlantan who lives just outside the range of bus service (MARTA or CCT or GCT or C-TRAN). I've known people who've had to walk two miles to the nearest bus stop, with no sidewalk. When I lived in Gwinnett Cou nty, I had a half-mile walk to the nearest bus stop in DeKalb County.

I have a really old Singer (made of cast iron, with a crank on one side), and while it would be nice to be able to serge, I'm pretty happy with it (plus in the extremely unlikely event of my being attacked while sewing, I could probably use it as a weapon). My concern is needle replacement. Anyone know if interchangeability is an issue with old/new sewing-machine needles?

Sarah: if you can get me your machine's model information, or a picture of the machine if there isn't any, I can ask my Singer Guy. He's quite amazing.

Wendy @ 197 -- Instead cups are a whole different animal from Mooncups or Divacups. I've heard many people report that Instead cups didn't work for them when a Mooncup-type cup did.

While the Divacup, Keeper, and Mooncup aren't promoted much in the U.S., they can often be found at health-food stores (like Whole Foods or Earth Fare) -- that's where I got mine.

Just to note, they can be had even in the U.S.!

EClaire @ #141: congrats on the gardening! Here is the online text of a gardening-in-the-schools guide a friend and I wrote for the Square Foot Gardening Foundation a long while back; might include some info of use. Gardening also virtually guarantees that your offspring will (a) know where food comes from and (b) not regard fresh vegetables as the enemy.

Belated comment on treadle-powered sewing machines: I bet they cut down on the incidence of DVTs (deep vein thromboses, or blood clots) in the legs of those who use them.

In our definitions of Deep Value, we've included skills and things which can be repaired. So I've got a question -

Anyone know about repairing staplers? I've got a nice, heavy stapler on my desk. Not especially old, but not a cheap plastic number, either. It is showing it's age by not bending the prongs of the staples reliably. One side gets mashed wrong and doesn't go through the pages in at least one use out of three.

I can't fathom why it is doing that in the first place - it ought to be simple leverage, how can it go wrong? - so I can't figure out if it is fixable or how to start.

Greg London @ 165: "Can it be changed? I don't know that either. I've been a big fan of Open Source for a few years now. I'm currently helping a group come up with an Open Source license that would actually provide hardware design with some Copyleft protection. (GNU-GPL, due to some quirks, provides no copyleft protection to hardware.) And as big of a fan as I am of open source and hardware design, I can't figure out a way to get out of the gravity well that is moore's law. The big hit right now is that the fabrication NRE for a chip can cost you a million dollars. Not something some hackers and a few PC's can pull together. FPGA's will allow some folks to play, but they will always be outpriced by someone who can afford to pony up the money to convert it into an ASIC."

FPGA's sound fascinating, especially the ones that are basically an entire computer on a single chip. I can imagine a point in the near future where FPGA's are good enough, small enough, that they can be used for almost any non-miniturized application: cars, TVs, household appliances, etc. If a generic, Good Enough FPGA became standard in such applications it would massively increase user- (or friendly local technician-) servicability--just pop out the fried one, and pop in a freshly-programmed generic. If the initial design costs to fabricate custom chips are so high, and rising, this might become economically feasible rather quickly. Then, if there was wide industry adoption of FPGA's, that would drive the price per chip down. Does that sound at all reasonable to someone who actually knows anything about the subject?

Ugh, Fragano, yes. The transit in Atlanta is possibly the best in the state, but that isn't saying much.

I once waited an hour and a half to catch a bus that runs every forty-five minutes, and I used to pass on taking the bus to do errands when I lived in the areas Marta serves because I just didn't have time to make an hour-each-way trip. And that's speaking of Marta specifically. Non-marta transit isn't as good, and as you say, living outside the transit areas it is even harder.

Sidewalks are fast becoming a pet peeve of mine. They're apparently only for the wealthy, who don't use them (or only use them to walk their dogs). Buford Highway has a high immigrant/poor population and no sidewalks. There are stretches of a mile between traffic lights (and therefore, between safe street-crossings). People just cross when and where they can, and I personally saw at least one pedestrian fatality being loaded into the ambulance in the time I lived there. I don't doubt there are far more there than there should be.

On the other hand, the really wealthy sections of Buckhead, where the houses are stunning, have sidewalks. The only people I ever see on them are (judging by appearances) household workers, waiting to catch the bus. They are building new condos in a poor section of town I used to pass through regularly, and the first thing they did, before the started tearing down houses, was install sidewalks. Grrr.

One small thing that gives me a little hope is the situation in Smyrna. They're adding wide bike/pedestrian sidewalks in a lot of the area around Atlanta road, and near the Smyrna municipal complex I do see a lot of local people (mostly middle and upper-middle class, but not all) walking and biking apparently to the restaurants and buisinesses in that area. There's also a lot of mixed-use construction (businesses with condos above) going up. Mostly pricy stuff right now, but eventually those buildings will age and hopefully become more affordable.

I should have said for the non-Atlantans - Buford Highway is a seven-lane road. It is not something I'd care to cross without a light. But if you are on the wrong side of the road and need to catch the bus going the other way, you cross without a light or walk a mile out of your way. Most folks cross without a light.

Wendy @ 197:

The reusable cups are entirely different from the disposable "Instead." The instead has that awful wide floppy bowl, which tends to loose it's shape as your remove it, causing the bloodbath you mentioned.

The reusable cups are firmer. They will fold for insertion/removal, but the bowl of the cup stays down in relation to the edge. Much, much tidier. Plus, capacity is enough that I've found I can leave the cup for up to 12 hours, allowing me to empty at home, where the sink is by the toilet.

As far as shape goes, the Diva has a U shaped bowl, while the Keeper, Keeper brand Moon Cup, and UK Mooncup have a more V shaped bowl. I find the latter to be far more comfortable.

(There is a UK company that has been making the "Mooncup" for years. Now the company that makes the Keeper makes a "Moon Cup" from silicone, in the same style as the latex keeper.)

Best comparison I've seen of the different cups here:

http://afriska-engl.de.tl/Different-brands-and-sizes.htm

I've tried a Keeper, but it began to itch after a few years use (developed a mild latex allergy?), so I got a Diva, which I returned because I found the shape uncomfortable, and I've settled on a UK Mooncup.

Oh all right, I can't resist posting my whine about local transit after all.... Buses? Prescott AZ ain't got no stinking buses! (Or clean ones either.) Our "Tri-City Area" has finally started *discussing* plans for a transit system, but I won't be counting on any swift, efficient results.

It's also hilly where I live, and I never learned to ride a bike (poor vision and crummy balance, as a kid), so I'm just lucky they have now built a shopping complex with a grocery store, bank, and mailing center within walking distance -- about half a mile. My husband takes me and my mother shopping once a week, but I rarely see the older, more touristy section of our downtown. (Touristy, but there *are* a few neat shops and restaurants there.) And at times I feel nostalgiac about the good old days in both Berkeley and Emeryville, when I was in easy walking distance from a movie theater.

Are the current rising gas prices likely to turn more attention toward public transit or to cripple it? Depends on where you live, I guess.

(end of whine)

Musing on the idea of sustainability and gasoline use from driving, I came up with a rather evil plan.

Standardize all automobile gas tanks to the same size. Say, ten gallons (the size of the tank on my Echo.)

As it is, right now, if a vehicle is less efficient, car makers put in a larger gas tank. You pay more for gas, but otherwise, you suffer no inconvenience.

But, if every car has the same size gas tank, from the most efficient subcompact to the most gas-guzzling SUV, the SUV drivers would have to stop and fill gas far more often.

This would provide, I suspect, a much stronger incentive to buy a more efficient car.

Plus, it would address the problem that financial incentives for fuel efficiency are less pressing for the more wealthy, which means that auto makers have less pressure to make higher end cars efficient. If you can afford the luxury car, you can afford the gas. So there is little incentive to develop improvements that will be brought in with the high end cars, as improvements often are. The improvement of having to be less frequently inconvenienced by filling the tank is something people might pay for.

FPGAs are very nifty, but I don't think there are very many problems to which they're the right answer.

They gain their flexibility by using something like twenty times as many transistors as a custom solution which can simply lay down wires does, so they're unavoidably expensive: fifty dollars for a chip that does what a custom chip you could get ten million of from TSMC for five million dollars would do.

You've still got all the soldering problems that are unavoidable from putting eight hundred connectors on the bottom of something the size of a quarter - it's a black art to get the chip onto a board without destroying chip and board alike, a blacker art still to remove it - so you'll be in big trouble replacing the FPGA in your sewing-machine whose FPGA broke with the one from your TV whose screen broke.

(Though there is a little hope. I have been to malls in Thailand filled with little booths containing quite elaborate surface-mount rework kit, where you can bring in your broken mobile phone and have it repaired. It's a couple of thousands of dollars of equipment and quite a lot of training, and I think probably a bad sign for Thailand that they don't have higher-margin work for electronics assemblers - I assume that the people in the booths worked on electronics assembly lines and then left to work more for themselves)

You can't stick everything on the FPGA - you still often need external memory, you still usually need external analogue devices to for-example turn the digital signals from your MP3 decoder into something that can drive headphones.

FPGAs have cropped up in some kinds of consumer goods - the earlier LCD TVs used them, because it meant that they could use any kind of LCD panel available on the surplus market and program the video controller to drive it. They're ubiquitous in prototypes, they're ubiquitous in Weird Custom Military Things of which only a thousand will ever be made.

But that fifty-dollar versus fifty-cent thing means they're almost by definition used in niche applications.

@136:R. M. Koske - I hear you. I live in Atlanta, too. I'd love to bike to work, but my route takes me down a very narrow, very busy two lane road without sidewalks where people drive 50mph, and onto a limited access road that says "No bikes." I also live in the MARTAless 'burbs.

Oh, and I forgot to mention (@anyone in general)--linux is also very forgiving of old hardware, if you use the right distribution.

Marilee: In Calif. bicycles (which are in lanes) are vehicles, just as cars are. Then again, as a pedestrian I have an absolute right of way (even when I am not legally allowed to be in the street).

But, on a bicycle, I am really vulnerable if the drivers of automobiles don't want to yield to me the right of way to which I am entitled. Worse, I am not seen by them (in the main) as equal, or even notable; except as a nuisance.

I've been hit by two cars, and cut off so badly I've hit two cars. I've been pushed off the road (occaisionally to places where I was toppled) more than that.

That was in a five year period.

In the 21 years I've been driving, I've been in zero automobile accidents.

re gardening: I have grapes in half barrels. In those same pots I also have rue (to keep the damned cat from digging) some poppies (I'm a sucker for pretty flowers), onions (attracts bees), dill, carrots (also attracts bees), shallots and garlic.

I let the vetch grow, because it's a legume.

This year, I'm going to have to thin "The Cutting Grape" (they all have names) because it's got not less than 40, large, bunches of florets.

Jen B at #120

Pelikan makes some very good entry-level pens. Most of them are piston-fills, so they hold a lot of ink. And all of the M-series pens have interchangeable nibs. The M200 is the most reasonably priced of the M-series pens, I believe. If you have big hands or like heavy pens, it probably won't be suitable for you. Personally, I love the M200. It's the perfect size for me, and is light enough that it doesn't cause fatigue or pain. The M400 is the same size, but has a gold nib, and possibly better plastics. Generally, for the M-series pens, the higher the number, the bigger/heavier/more expensive the pen. The largest is the M1000.

Oscar Braun pens usually has a nice selection and really excellent prices. Pam also does special orders. http://onebeagle.net/oscarbraun/

If you want to get more advice about fountain pens, you could also check out The Fountain Pen Network. They're always happy to find more people to lure over to the dark side. http://www.fountainpennetwork.com

If anyone wants to try the Instead thingy, please contact me (email my livejournal name (visible in the link) at juno.com) and I will ship the ones I have and didn't use off to you.

Jen B. at 150,

I would suggest a Parker Vector - the nib is steel, and very hard to bend. You'll give you the springyness of a fountain pen, but won't have to worry about the nib. They're inexpensive, and make a nice, light starter fountain pen.

I finally bought one to replace the one from my childhood I lost.

I'm very leery of Linux for two reasons.

1. My husband is an IT professional who prefers Windows. He hates Linux, so my in-house tech support would evaporate if I switched.

2. My experiences with Linux have been pretty poor. I spent a long time once (forty five minutes?) trying to get an existing Linux setup to tell me what kind of Linux it was so I could see if a program I wanted to install would be compatible. I never succeeded. I had to get my husband to tell me (he'd built the box, so he knew.) Even armed with this information, I couldn't figure out what programs would be compatible because I had something like Red Hat 3*, but all the information I had gave compatibility answers in terms of "Fedora Core." I can tell that it is related, but I couldn't make the conversion to figure out if it was actually compatible.

I got hubby on the job, and he determined that it was compatible once we updated some files...which then persistently refused to update properly. He spent an hour telling it to update, waiting for it to do so, and then being told the update failed, without getting a helpful reason why. He gave up in disgust.

My impression of the Linux-education sites is that there are two types - the ones that want to teach you how to install and use a particular flavor, at which point they tell you that it is "just like Windows" and effectively teach you how to use Windows, or the type that thing that you're extremely familiar with *nix in general and only need to know the differences.

I like the idea of future-proofing my hardware by my choice of OS, but Linux is in a box in my mind labeled "hard." My impression is you learn it by apprenticeship, not by independant study. Can anyone recommend a site to begin learning about it? Is it actually helpful to pretend it is Windows for a while? Or should I put this off until I know a guru?

*I made these "version names" up. I don't recall what I had.

RMK, your stapler problem might be a simple misalignment.

You have a plunger which should press evenly across the top of each staple, shearing it off the strip, and forcing it donw through the paper against the anvil which bends the ends over.

The feed-spring should be pushing the strip of staples against a nice flat surface. But that's often the sides of the carrier assembly bent over to close the end.

If the bends don't quite match, you have feeding problems.

The detailed construction varies quite a bit, but this sort of misalignment can cause the fault yoiu describe.

Thinking something else with deep value: Cloth diapers. When the kid outgrows them, they are wonderful rags, quilting, etc.

Terry @217 -- re cloth diapers. I used them for my two children. I'd agree that overall they're less wasteful, and probably less energy-intensive in their production. I did wash them with much hotter water than the rest of the laundry, but I'm very proud of how little garbage we produced. We never filled our bin, while our neighbors' were overflowing.

On the versatility of toaster ovens (re #88, #104):

The frozen-food-in-a-paper-dish that says "Conventional Oven Directions" / "Microwave Oven Directions" / "Do not use a toaster oven"? Don't believe it.

Put it inside a baking pan that fits in your toaster oven and is taller than the frozen dish; place another (shallow) pan on top as a lid. Ideally both pans should be dark rather than shiny, to absorb the radiant heat from the oven efficiently. This way, you make a metal box which acts more like a regular oven with respect to the food inside.

We use this technique all the time and the worst trouble we've had is things coming out a bit undercooked, which can be adjusted for. Doing this also saves the preheating time and energy of a full-sized oven.

linux is also very forgiving of old hardware, if you use the right distribution.

I generally agree, but if you want to run X, watch movies, and browse with multiple tabs, you still need certain resources and hardware capabilities. Of course, with Linux, you can (and I do) get by with a lot less, than with Micro$oft bloatware!

R.M. Koske #205: Buford Highway contains stretches that are just plain insanely planned -- high density, no sidewalks, inadequate transit -- though both MARTA and GCT now provide some service at least. Jimmy Carter Boulevard is even worse. I get the feeling that nothing is going to be done since the population in both areas is largely Hispanic and has therefore been defined by the powers that be as 'alien'. I have a feeling that somewhere down the road, no pun intended, someone is in for a big surprise.

In Buckhead, on the other hand, they do want to make it easy for the servants to get from the bus to the houses that they clean. And they do want to make it easy to walk from the condo to the supermarket (which is what the new urbanism seems to be about).

There are a lot of condos springing up in the area where I work, which is one of the poorer sections of town -- or used to be (the public housing has now been totally emptied and fenced off, and there's a lot less derelict private housing left east of Joseph Lowery now than there was nine years ago). Of course, the current economic crunch has slowed gentrification down. But we do have sidewalks, and I'm increasing likely to have to dodge idiots driving Jags, Bentleys and Rollers.

R. M. Koske @#215:

I've generally been frustrated (and sometimes infuriated) by Red Hat's products, and by their successor Fedora as well.

The Debian-based distributions are generally much better, and the Ubuntu varieties are currently the best by far. (Knoppix is pretty good too.) Ubuntu now has a "try me" Live-CD mode, and Knoppix is primarily a Live-CD distribution.

Also, the distributions have gotten much better over the past few years, so these days you rarely need to go "under the hood", much less reboot the system.

And the "dmesg" output (repeats what zipped by at system startup) starts right off with both the linux and distribution names and version numbers.

About biking and disabilities - not everyone can ride a bike. However, you don't have to be in tip-top shape to ride, either. I have a bursitic hip, wonky lower back, bad knees, and I ride my bike to work in summer dressed like a girl - skirt, flats, little purse, the whole deal.

It took a few different bikes and a lot of bad attitude from bike shop workers (No, I will not use clipless pedals. Yes, I want a step-through. I understand that the other frame would be faster, but it would cripple me.) But standing up for myself and getting over being embarrassed (it's not uncommon for me to get off the bike and walk up hills) made it possible for me to be a regular biker, which has saved me a ton of money and given me the exercise I need to maintain the abilities I do have.

R. M. Koske @ 215: Well, it's usually easier to learn by apprenticeship than by self study, regardless of the topic, but giving up local technical support is a big inconvenience.

Have you played with the vmware images at all? They let you run linux in a virtual box inside your normal environment. That can be a good way to learn, and you can reverse the roles later if you decide you like Linux but don't want to give up your old system entirely. There are some instructions here and more images here, which are also not german by default. Of course, running two operating systems at once does use more memory and storage, so it will be slower. Running linux inside windows is free with the vmware player, but doing the reverse costs money.

As to whether Linux is "hard", it's definitely been improving for people with a GUI (Windows) instead a Unix background, and recent vintages are completely usable without resort to the command line. Some things are different, of course, just like with switching to MacOS, and that can take some getting used to.

There is an argument that people who love words should prefer the command line interface because it is so much more expressive. The visual metaphors used in graphical user interfaces are great for some things, but mostly they're about limiting what you can tell the computer to do. That makes them easy to learn, but it's also like filing out forms instead just saying what want to do.

Sarah @ 199 ...
I have a really old Singer (made of cast iron, with a crank on one side), and while it would be nice to be able to serge, I'm pretty happy with it (plus in the extremely unlikely event of my being attacked while sewing, I could probably use it as a weapon). My concern is needle replacement. Anyone know if interchangeability is an issue with old/new sewing-machine needles?

I've had no major issues[0] using modern sewing machine (flat on one side) needles with any of my singers -- the industrial singers take needles that have a round shank, though, so that can be an issue.

This page shows a number of handcrank machines -- I have a 27K Sphinx that's very similar to the second one pictured... the serial number[1] dates it to ~1905.

[0] I have had to futz a bit with how deeply the needle is set, as far as the length to be sure it picks up the bobbin thread correctly, but only by tiny futzes.
[1] If you're curious, Singer finally posted their list of serial numbers to years/locations made. They also have (only for the single-letter-prefix group, as far as I can tell), a serial number-to-model set of PDFs for some of the serial numbers.

I've never had a car! So I don't know what I am missing. I've been using the same bike that I bought in 1991.

Carolyn:)

heresiarch@204: FPGA's sound fascinating

The problem with FPGA's is they will always, by design, be more expensive and fewer usable gates than an ASIC. The ability to reprogram an FPGA adds a phenomenal amount of overhead, which leaves only a fraction of the total chip to be used for the logic that the user actually wants to implement. We recently purchased an FPGA to implement a single core on one of our ASICs. The core was rather large and required high frequencies, and the FPGA ended up costing $1,500. For one FPGA. Our ASIC, when finally implemented, included this core and probably two dozen other cores. Our chip, in quantity, sold for $15. Two orders of magnatude difference in price. maybe one order of magnatude difference in functionality.

If one were to continue the "gravity" analogy, with ASIC's being the rockets capable of lifting heavy satelites to geosynchronous orbits, then FPGA's are more like amateur rocket enthusiasts who can throw a digital camera just above the atmosphere. Whatever an FPGA can do, an ASIC can do better and cheaper, because of all that reprogrammability overhead. And the only way to improve FPGAs is to improve ASICs, which means ASICs will always be above an FPGA.

If there is going to be a shift anytime soon, it will probably be in the realm of generic embedded processors getting fast enough and cheap enough that you could buy a generic embedded processor chip with some programable IO pins and some internal logic, and then implement all your specific functionality in software.

This is how your remote controls pretty much all work now. Some generic embedded processor that is just smart enough and just fast enough to toggle your infrared LED to change channels or control the volume. The problem then is getting generic hardware to do the application specific stuff. Digital camera needs an image sensor. Not going to find that on a generic processor chip. MP3 players are probably at the point where you could implement one with a generic processor chip.

The requirement for this is that whatever application you have in mind, there needs to be a generic embedded processor that's fast enough to do it. I think more and more applications are falling into this category.

If you need to toggle a couple bits in a semi-smart fashion, you can buy a little PIC. They're available in as small a package as 8 pins and can cost less than a buck.

ANother alternative is Asic On Demand. This has been the holy grail of professors getting research grants to look into what it would take to make some sort of generic "box" that you could download a design into, and the box would fabricate the asic one semiconductor layer at a time. (ignoring the hazardous chemicals you'd be messing with for the moment.) I've seen blurbs about these things for as long as I can remember. So far, they're all turned out to be pipedreams. Building an ASIC is hard. There are timing issues and placement issues and RF issues and crosstalk issues and power issues that are complicated enough that people can specilize their entire career into dealing with one of these specific issues. The software tools that they use cost millions of dollars, and for all that money, are extremely dumb. If you can build a 3-d printer that can build an asic, you need something that can lay down a beam of material that's only nanometers wide. ASIC fabrication plants can churn out thousands of chips every day. A fabricator would have to be able to maintain this level of manufacturing, otherwise, ASIC's still win the gravity well race.

as a counter example, we've had automobiles for about a century. They're complicated machines. They require a lot of design work. Manufacturing is a massive undertaking. And yet most people don't entertain the idea of poeple being able to have a "car manufacturing plant in a box" thingy. The only way people can even entertain such an idea is if you get into a Star Trek world and make it something like a transporter, replicator, holodeck combination of handwavium.

I'm not sure why people are so much more predisposed to entertaining the idea of asics that build other asics, or an asic-on-demand box. I can only assume its because the sheer complexity of ASIC design and fabrication is so concealed from the average user that folks can imagine it being far, far easier than it really is.

#209, Ursula L -

I love it.

#216, Dave Bell -

Wow, thanks! My first look at the thing suggests that if that is the problem, it is unfixable - the ends of the carriage assembly are bent and then the whole thing was chromed*. I don't think I'll be able to bend them any more. I don't think I see a misalignment, but I'll look again when I have more time.

*Or made shiny, anyway.

#221, Fragano - Yes, exactly. To pretty much all of it.

#222, David Harmon -

That's very helpful, thanks. I've got a memory stick with a Live-CD version of something-or-other. Ubuntu, if I had to guess. Maybe I'll try that.

I don't really feel like I'm trying to go under the hood so much - all I wanted to do was to be able to install programs and that was where I got thwarted. I haven't given up. (dmesg at the command line, I assume?)

#224 - Ralph Giles -

Vmware images? No. As I mentioned somewhere above, I've got a memory stick that I can put into the computer and boot to Linux, but that and the pre-existing box are all I've got.

Is running it inside Windows inherently better or worse than doing the Live-CD thing? I think I'd just as soon dual-boot (that's the right term, yes?) because I keep a ridiculous number of tabs open in Firefox. That's both likely to impair the performance of the computer when it is under a heavy computing load and to make a crash more costly than I like.

The interface thing is interesting. I use a non-GUI interface for a program at work, but I haven't ever used a command line for anything else. Using the command line at work puts me in a weird mental place with regard to my opinion of the supposed expressiveness of the command line. I've learned a lot of the shortcuts in our program and use them instead of working my way through menus (which is what most of my co-workers do.) I'd much rather type
"avdm" than "F3, F3, 27 (enter) 11 (enter)", so I think I see the distinction between "filling out forms" and just saying what you want. Even so, I'm not sure that I can see myself choosing a command line when there's a GUI available. Maybe partially because the actions I can imagine myself doing most often would require me to know filenames and type them in accurately. That's unlikely.

#204: Tom@210 and Greg@227 are on the mark about FPGAs. I think your scenario is only plausible if

1. we've run out of process improvements, but haven't replaced CMOS with some other technology. (i.e., Moore's Law breaks down)

2. we value reconfiguration, field upgrade, and repair over continued miniaturization and integration. (i.e., exactly the opposite of how consumers behave now)

FPGAs are like the POD (the printing technology, not the so-called business model) of electronics. For some niche applications, they're the perfect thing to use. So far, they don't lend themselves to high volume general application. They have to get much cheaper, and the NRE costs of a new ASIC have to get yet higher. I think it's plausible if densities have gotten so high, that we don't have anything better to do than to use extra transistors to allow for reconfiguration. Right now, a decrease in feature size often means we fit more dies on a wafer. The chip, ideally, becomes cheaper to produce. (So, your scenario has to be one where making chips smaller does not make the chip noticeably cheaper.)

The other thing that occurred to me that you're suggesting, in a nutshell:

Lots of interchangeable elements which you can reprogram and reconnect on demand to suit any application.

You've just described the technology in any SF story about The Singularity. (Hey, maybe The Singularity happens when high volume FPGAs are practical...)

GUIs are not inherently equivalent.

Linux, any unix, makes a whole bunch of different fundamental assumptions than Windows does, and just because the GUIs can be similar doesn't mean it actually works like Windows.

People get into serious trouble equating the GUIs, because what they think what they are doing means and what it actually means tend to differ.

Installing programs in any modern linux is a question of getting them from a package repository; there is very likely a GUI app, but without some idea which distribution you're using, guessing which GUI app isn't going to be very effective.

Terry, way back up in 143 --

I can do a lot of stuff like that, too; have used 19th century farm tools and tech for real, have lots of general woodworking skills, etc.

I don't think it actually matters, as a survival strategy; general loss of the machine culture leaves effectively everybody dead, because most regions with dense populations are two orders of magnitude over their non-machine carrying capacity.

For coping with a stutter, yes; have water on hand, have water filters, have kerosene lanterns, food, shovels, and so on. But a real collapse? To a first approximation, there won't be anything like enough food, and there aren't any social systems for selecting who goes off and politely and quietly starves to death. There are also vicious nasty questions of timing about things like putting in crops and getting in fuel.

While I think being part of the machine culture is an excellent thing, as well as a present necessity, I think not being part of the consumer culture as a matter of default expectation is a very good thing, but that's in many ways because the consumer culture is trying its dead level best to make you really really insecure.

Being able to do real stuff, and making to a greater extent own personal choices about wants and desires, I think that's an excellent good thing as a way to stay out of the consumer culture; as a way to replace the machine culture? I don't think it's in the running.

My favorite bit of underused old tech is a clothes line. A bit of coated wire hanging between the garage and the house, and I can use solar energy without a collector. It doesn't work in all weather, but the benefit of the midcontinent's changing weather is that I usually have one day a week warm and dry enough.

We got a couple of the crank-powered LED flashlights from LL Bean and they work great. They have two settings using one or three LEDs and have even light that lasts a fair while.

It turns out that my first lasting fountain pen was a Parker Vector. I dropped it a lot, taped the cap back together a couple times and the barrel once, and the nib was bent to be... idiosyncratic, let us say, but boy did that pen do its job. I dropped it in the woods once, nearly cried, and then my lab teacher chanced upon it a couple days later. Loved that pen and felt guilty for switching to the more-right-feeling Waterman.

There's been so much said about bicycle power here that I now find myself thinking of Edward G.Robinson in Soylent Green.

Graydon: Well, I happen to live close enough to wilderness that I have, tolerable, expectations of being able to hie me to the hills (with some extra people) and enough gear to get by for 1-3 years.

Pack animals are wonderful things, and we can be in the hills, absent riding them, in about four hours.

If we're ponying, it's an hour.

Tom Womack, #192. The wind-up flashlight I have has three LEDs (and you can cycle through 1, 3, and off) and winding 30 seconds gives you 15 minutes of light. Mine also has a radio. I think we may be speaking of different types of wind-up flashlights.

Terry, #212, I haven't ridden a bike as an adult, so I don't know about that, but my van has been hit three times -- twice by people not paying attention who don't brake soon enough, and once by a woman who was sure I was going to turn into the shopping center she wanted to come out of, and I had planned to pass by the entrance. All three times there wasn't any damage to the van. I haven't run into anybody.

R.M. Koske, #228, I was going to suggest what Dave said about the stapler, but there can also be something stuck in the stapler that is bending the staple wrong. Is this a new batch of staples, by any chance? Not all staples fit in all staplers, even when they say they do.

R. M. Koske @ 229: It's not better or worse, just different. Running them in parallel lets you switch more quickly, without closing your 11 browser tabs. It lets you cut and paste between the two, which can be handy. That sort of thing. But dual booting (or separate hardware) works too.

Re the command line, I guess I do keep more of the directory structure in my head on machines where I use the terminal. One has to understand the filing system, as it were. But auto-completion (try hitting tab after the first few letters) means not having to always type things correctly, or even having more than a vague idea what they are, and it's not like you can't search for things.

But, I don't use a terminal-window for web browsing. There are definitely places where point-and-click is better.

There is a deeper sense in which the unix tradition is more amenable to the current topic. Traditionally, configuration is stored in text files, which can be directly edited by humans. The scriptability of things is more obvious and accessible. The system contains its own documentation, so it's easy to learn and explore, rather than being dependent on experts whether you want to be or not. When combined with complete source code like the Linux distributions provide, you really have something that can be maintained by anyone with the proper skill, and that makes acquiring that skill possible within itself.

Tom Womack @ 210: "But that fifty-dollar versus fifty-cent thing means they're almost by definition used in niche applications."

How big of a time gap does that money gap translate into? Like, how many years back do you have to go before an ASIC chip with the same capabilities as your modern $50 FPGA also cost fifty dollars? Are we talking a year, or a decade?

Greg London @ 227: "If there is going to be a shift anytime soon, it will probably be in the realm of generic embedded processors getting fast enough and cheap enough that you could buy a generic embedded processor chip with some programable IO pins and some internal logic, and then implement all your specific functionality in software."

Ah, that's much more like what I had in mind. I can imagine a generic interface being built to connect and parallel process however many of Cheap Enough Processor you need for application X, along with connecting it to whatever specialized chips you need (camera sensor, etc.)

How do processors compare with ASICs financially?

"If you can build a 3-d printer that can build an asic, you need something that can lay down a beam of material that's only nanometers wide. ASIC fabrication plants can churn out thousands of chips every day. A fabricator would have to be able to maintain this level of manufacturing, otherwise, ASIC's still win the gravity well race."

Yeah, as neat and exciting as the recent progress of fabrication technology is, using it to make chips in your basement seems to involve ridiculously high amounts of hand-wavium. It'll happen if/when nanotech happens, I think.

#237 different types of wind-up torch: yes, ones with rechargeable batteries will die as the batteries eventually die and fail to hold a charge (and cheap ones won't let you easily change the batteries), cheap ones without batteries and with a relatively small capacitor will slowly fade immediately you stop winding them (or shaking them), ones with clockwork-like mainsprings or with high quality supercapacitors and current regulation circuits will give an even light for some time after winding with indefinite shelf life, but will cost more to start with.

Crossing LED technology with bicycles, modern dynamo[1] lights are a huge improvement on old ones, and anyone with a utility city bike should seriously consider a hub dynamo. Modern dynamo lights generally (at least as an option) have standlight functionality that means they don't just go out as soon as you stop moving.

[1] a word here meaning "permanent magnet alternator without field coils", not "direct current generator" (though of course the LEDs need DC, unlike the old bulbs, the rectifying is done outside).

#231, Graydon -

So that's a definite argument in favor of playing with a pre-set version of Linux* to get accustomed to the GUI quirks. I sort of feel I'm better prepared for those than I used to be - instead of being just a Windows person, I now use OSX on the Mac regularly too, so I have a vague idea of the kinds of differences you mean.

Installing programs in any modern linux is a question of getting them from a package repository; there is very likely a GUI app, but without some idea which distribution you're using...

I followed that part of your statement. But "...guessing which GUI app isn't going to be very effective," doesn't make any sense in context for me. I didn't think you needed to know which GUI app you had to install a program. That was part of my frustration when I fought with it. I could get the GUI to tell me what it was, but not the distro. Or you just pointing out something that I pretty much understand, assuming I might not understand it? I do appreciate that.

#238, Ralph Giles -

I'm not as worried about remembering the filing system as I am simply remembering what I named the darn things. But I imagine there'd be a great deal of incentive in a command-line system to use consistent and logical file/folder names. And you can make it cough up a list, though if you have to do that often, the command line loses some of its elegance.

I think I might have observed my husband using the "tab to complete the line" trick, but I'd completely forgotten it existed. That helps a lot.

I definitely like the "configuration stored in text files" bit, but I must say that "the system contains its own documentation, so it is easy to learn and explore" seems a bit off to me. I'm not disputing you - I believe you. With the right knowledge going in, I bet it is amazing. But my experience makes it hard to believe. I'm guessing you mean that the documentation is inline with the code, and all I have to do is open it with a text editor to read it? Interesting. No one told me that before, and it is very very deep value. Logical (once explained.) Possibly easy. (Once explained.) But the explanation is mandatory, or it isn't either one.

I'm gonna drop it now - I don't wanna make this any more "Teach me Linux!" than it already has been. Plus I'm still a bit resentful of the number of times I've been told it is easy (no offense to anyone who's said it here) and found it impenetrable. The new info you guys have given me may very well help with that, but I'm afraid that if I don't go play with it a bit first, my resentment will sour the conversation.

I'm deeply grateful for the help and info, and I will definitely play with Linux some more. Thanks to everyone.

*I don't think I've managed to type "Linux"[1] yet without first typing "Linus" and correcting.

[1] Okay, I succeeded that time. But I had to go really slow to do it.

heresiarch@239: How do processors compare with ASICs financially?

processors are ASICs. The issue becomes more of a matter of whether or not the application can be handled by a processor or whether you need special hardware logic to deal with it. And that is more a matter of whether your application hits some sort of orbital limit that makes Moore's Law no longer apply for some reason.

TV remote controls are handled by extremely cheap embedded processors. Even the smart, universal, programmable ones. The job is just so simple that you don't need special hardware to keep up.

Other limits would be like the CD Burner issue. Except CD burners were always made out of dedicated hardware because no processor could keep up.

But your TIVO box is a Linux machine, mostly with generic hardware and specific software written to do it's job. So the bandwidth and processing power to do that job is low enough that a general processor and software can keep up.

But that doesn't help much for your portable MP3 player, since you won't want a linux box strapped to your hip. Same goes for a digital camera.

portable electronics have features that include "small" and "long battery life" that often makes them more suited for ASICs. you put in just the hardware you need, and you can design it so that you can shut down pieces that you don't need.

#232, affreca - I've never used an outdoor clothesline, but I want one. Whether they're allowed will definitely be something I'll be considering when/if we buy a house. Right now I'm using an indoor drying rack with pretty good success.

R.M. Koske @# 228,229

(dmesg at the command line, I assume?)

Yeah. I find a few major cases where having a command line is critically important:

1) Finding programs you surely have on the system, but rarely use, or haven't had occasion to use before. Commands like "apropos", "which", and so on, let you "poke around" to find things, without having to dig through umpteen windows and cascaded menus. The "See Also" section of manpages is helpful as well. Command line is also good for quick information, like "how much disk do I have free?" (df), and "What just filled up my home partition?" (du | sort -n | tail)

2) Impromptu logic and stream processing. For example, suppose I've got a huge pile of downloaded files, which I can see by the filenames fall into natural groups, but the downloader dumped them into a flat directory, and maybe the names aren't quite regular....

Feeding the output of "ls" to tools such as "grep", "tr", and so on, lets me rapidly select subsets of the files, fix the case of filenames, sort them into directories, and so forth. (Nowadays, the BSD-style filters "cut", "paste", and "colrm" simplify much of what I would once have done with the intimidating "sed".)

Using "for" and "while" loops lets me chain together a bunch of tools and run them over a group of files, maybe with some && chaining to back off when something fails.

For example: "par2" verifies checksums on downloaded files, and uses .par2 and .PAR2 checksum files to correct damage. In less than a minute, I can write, test, and run a "for" loop to run through a bunch of .par2 files, verifying each set of files. If and only if "par2" succeeds, delete the (now-redundant) checksum files, and go on to "unrar" to unpack the archive. If and only if "unrar" succeeds, delete that archive, and so on. Then while that's running, I can go make a sandwich, and come back to verified and unpacked files.

Just try doing that with a GUI, any GUI!

OK, I wrote that last comment before I saw #241. I'll release the hijacked thread now. ;-)

R.M Koske in 241 --

The different distros have different package managers, so, for instance, a Debian derived distro (such as Ubuntu or Kubuntu) will use the Debian package management system, which is called "apt", and one or another apt GUI front ends, such as "synaptic". A Redhat/Fedora distro will have a different package management system -- in the current Fedora case, yum, and I have no idea what the GUI is called because I never use it.

So you do need to know the name of the package manager to know the name of the command to set it off; synaptic won't work on a Fedora system (in the simple case, anyway) and yum won't work on a Debian or Debian-derived system.

The actual package source can probably be compiled on both without issues, but you almost certainly don't want to do that.

Two essential, essential things about Unixes and names -- "strong minds, weak typing", and puns. So there are rarely vowels if there don't have to be vowels, and you get things like yacc ("yet another compiler compiler", really a parser generator) having a GNU version/clone/functional equivalent called "bison", because a bison is kinda like a yak...

Graydon: I thought the plural of 'Unix' was 'Unices'. And of course you know that the name 'Unix' is itself a pun, right? There was an older operating system called Multix of which Unix was supposedly a (wait for it) castrated version.

#239:I can imagine a generic interface being built to connect and parallel process however many of Cheap Enough Processor you need for application X

As a side note, one of the discussions during ISCA 2006 walked through the important, difficult problems in computer architecture. One of them is that we don't have an easy, general, paradigm for writing efficient parallel programs. (This is not the same as saying we don't have paradigms for writing parallel programs. We do. We're just not happy with them, in general.)

So, yes, there is the hardware problem of having lots of cheap powerful computational units in the first place. However, there is also the software problem of figuring out how to get all of those units to cooperate with each other usefully. We do well with embarrassingly parallelizable problems. (e.g, go off to do X, then come back to me with your answer.) We do less well if the various computational units actually need to talk to each other in the course of doing their task.

#247: I've always used "unixes." Wikipedia also lists "unices" and "unixen." However, I have a natural aversion to treating English words as if they were Latin. (Don't get me started on "virus," which, according to my Latin dictionary, means "bog", and is defective, having no natural plural forms anyway.) I haven't decided how I feel about treating English words as Anglo-Saxon.

The Economist ran a story recently describing portable light, i.e. a fabric which combines solar cells and LED's. The fabric is sewn into a bag form, which one carries around all day, and in the evening you have light -- 10 hrs of light for 3 hrs of sunshine, according to the article. Pretty nifty idea, at least on the surface (and I claim NO expertise). But one thing that amazed me is the cost -- about $50 for one of these bags, less than the yearly cost for batteries, candles, etc. in developing countries. That price seems insanely low somehow -- I wonder why the manufacturing costs are so low?

heresiarch at 239: [Basement chip fab will] happen if/when nanotech happens, I think.

Nanotech is fast becoming a meaningless word - the field of "stuff controlled on the molecular level" is still at the stage where there are a lot of incredibly varied possibilities, and some of them even work. We've got MIT-style cogwheels (cogwheels, I ask you... they're practically steampunk), really cool zeolites, functionalisable sputtered sulphur-on-gold fields, and utterly smooth and regular Langmuir-Blodgett films.

Going by the strictest definition, recent chip designs are about as nanotechnological as it gets. The thingy itself is large enough to see & hold, but the working parts inside it are very much on the molecular scale. (For a quick reference, 1 nanometre == 10 ångströms == about 10 atoms.)

Being able to deposit single atoms exactly where we want them in a reliably repeatable manner would be really nice, but we can't yet. It'll be a few years before it gets to the point of industrial use, and given the prerequisites (hard and Extremely Cold vacuum, mostly) we might never see a desktop version.

R. M. Koske at 241: some Unixen, not all, do make it easy. I started running Kubuntu recently, and their start-menu equivalent has a prominent Add/Remove Programs option - that automatically runs a GUI package manager which gives you a menu of things it knows about and can retrieve from the internet. It doesn't know about all of them, but it makes most things easy.

R.M. Koske @241: but I must say that "the system contains its own documentation, so it is easy to learn and explore" seems a bit off to me. I'm not disputing you - I believe you. With the right knowledge going in, I bet it is amazing. But my experience makes it hard to believe. I'm guessing you mean that the documentation is inline with the code, and all I have to do is open it with a text editor to read it?

Not quite.[1] At least with command-line tools, all the widely-used ones install what are called man pages (short for manual pages), which can be accessed by typing "man command-name" at the prompt, eg. "man df", which give you a lot of information about how to use the programs. ("Program" and "command" are more-or-less synonymous.) All the major GUI desktop environments (Gnome, KDE) provide their own help systems, much like Windows does, but I personally find I rarely have to consult it. You're right, though, that the existence of man pages is not intuitively obvious -- it's one of the two or three pieces of knowledge that are essential to bootstrapping a working knowledge of the command line. I bet Linux distributions could do a better job disseminating that information.

Graydon @246 in re: R.M. Koske: So you do need to know the name of the package manager to know the name of the command to set it off; synaptic won't work on a Fedora system (in the simple case, anyway) and yum won't work on a Debian or Debian-derived system.

Err, in these halcyon days of Linux usability, if you're running from the GUI, you don't even have to know what the package manager is called. (You don't even have to know what a "package manager", or a "package", is.) In Ubuntu, you should be able to find it in two minutes of playing around with a fresh install -- it's literally two clicks away, under Applications->Add/Remove... (The problem with asking us old-time Linux grognards for help is that we'll tell you how *we* do whatever you're asking, which may no longer be the easiest or most logical way to do it. :-)

In this, as in a number of things, I personally find that, much like with Mac OS X, once you've learned the simple visual language of Ubuntu's GUI, it's substantially easier to use, more intuitive, and more consistent than the Windows GUI. (I punted Fedora Core in favor of Ubuntu a year ago and haven't looked back. Think of Fedora as "Linux Corporate Edition" and Ubuntu as... not "Linux Home Edition", more "Linux Not-Corporate Edition", and not any less powerful either.) Getting used to Linux still takes some work, but it takes a lot less than it used to, and if you're a tinkerer or an explorer it may even be *fun* work. I heartily encourage you to play around with a Ubuntu LiveCD and see if you like it. And if not, that's fine -- if Windows works for you, it works. :-)

[1] Documentation for programmers *is* usually inlined with the code, but that's waaaay beyond the scope of this post.

John 248: Please consider the source on this. I'm the guy who BOTH refers to a single Kleenex™ tissue as "a Kleenek" AND calls more than one of the things "Kleenices."

I wasn't being remotely serious, in other words.

But being a bit more serious, I do think that '-ices' has become a standard English plural for words ending in '-ex'. Please note that I said A standard, not THE standard. I'm still being silly when I say, as I did yesterday, "Most dominatrices seem to be called 'Mistress' whatever."

As for the Anglo-Saxon...well, we do have plurals with '-en' in standard English: 'oxen', 'children'. And we already have some words that are distinguished only in the plural: one dwarf, two dwarves if you're talking about another species, or dwarfs if you're talking about humans afflicted with genetic dwarfism. So I don't object to calling more than one box "boxen" when they're computers, and "boxes" when they're the boxes the boxen came in!

That said, 'unixen' does seem kinda stoopid.

Ooop, Sam, no offense meant.

#245, David Harmon -

No worries (at least from me) - I think answering questions already asked allows for nicely-tied ends on a conversation, even if it is cut short.

And wow, that is definitely elegant use of the command line. Intimidating, but nice.

#246 - Graydon -

I believe the Gnome is one of the redhat/fedora GUIs. That was what was on the system I fought with.

And I'm sorry. I follow what you're saying, but I'm not sure how it relates to #241. Or maybe I only think I follow what you're saying.

One thing I'm not clear on - is the package manager system like the GUI - a separate choice made by the OS installer, and you have different ones that work with different distros, or is it more like "Macs use stuffed files and Windows use zipped files" (in other words, an OS choice that is "hardwired")?

And I'm terrible at cutting off a conversation, apparently, because I also want to know - why wouldn't I want to compile a Fedora source on a Debian system if it will work without issues?

#251 - Kevin Riggle - Ah. Okay. That's extremely useful. (I think I'll be scraping this thread into a text file for future reference!)

This is the sort of thing that I find so weird about my previous attempts to learn Linux from online sources, alone. I've never heard of this. Maybe I tuned out on the more techy pages too easily, but... *shrugs*

Debbie (249): That is immensely cool. I wonder if the fabric would be any good for clothes. Quilts? Rag dolls? The crafter in me is twitching.

#237, Marilee -

The staper is new-to-me (and better than my previous one) and has done this as long as I've had it, so I don't know if brand matters here or not. The stapler is a Swingline and the staples Bostitch, so there's a good possibility it's a problem. It might be worth buying my own box of staples to see if it makes a difference.

And for a little new non-Linux content:

Here's a trivial thing (staying with office-supplies theme) that I think may potentially have deep value. Dahle pencil sharpeners.

In a "fall of civilization" scenario, of course, we'd sharpen our pencils with knives and call ourselves lucky to have pencils and knives. But most of the time that's unsatisfactory and impractical.

I don't like using an electric device if I'm capable of doing the same job with minimal effort non-electrically, so I don't want an electric pencil sharpener.

I've never found the little single-blade sharpeners to be very useful. They're portable and non-electric, but they dull (and I'm not capable of sharpening one, even if I thought it was worth the trouble) and even when they're sharp, they don't seem to work well if the lead is off-center in the pencil.

What I want is a hand-crank rotary sharpener that isn't wall-mounted. (I'm an apartment dweller.) My grandmother had a wall-mount sharpener mounted on a chunk of 2x4, but it wasn't stable enough and it was unwieldy. Random googling in frustration turned up Dahle.

Their sharpeners include a clamp to hold the pencil so that you don't have to mount the sharpener on anything. You can adjust the sharpness of the point. Mine came with an item number on the blade mechanism and the Dahle site says they sell replacement parts, though prices aren't listed.

I've only had it a couple of years, so I can't speak of durability, but I'm very pleased.

R.M. Koske @203: My guess is that it's a matter of the staple not having pressure applied evenly so that both sides meet the paper at once. Either the pusher-plate isn't square to the receiver plate (I'm making these terms up; I hope you can figure out what I mean) or to the staple itself; or the receiver plate is uneven; or there's drag on one side of the channel the stapler goes down.

Try tightening up or oiling everything you can as a first step. Does the stapler produce neatly-folded staples when there's no paper? Also, try watching the staple (if you can) while producing just enough pressure on the handle to break it off its companions. That might give you some clues.

Re: the Unix discussion:

I am a 25 year old engineering Ph.D student, which means two things: 1) I have reason and inclination to learn, understand and appreciate *nixes, and 2) I grew up using Windows and am therefore not fluent in *nix, learning only what I need to do the parts of my work that absolutely must be done there.

No, I couldn't bootstrap knowledge of the OS. I did have to learn it through apprenticeship. It is hard to find things you don't know you have -- David Harmon @ 244, I know about "apropos" but you still have to pick the right search terms, and those aren't necessarily intuitive. I find that GUIs make exploration and discovery considerably easier.

Also, man, while useful for some things, is just confounding for others. I had to buy a book and lean heavily on the internet, coworkers and supervisors.

*nix has always struck me as being designed by and for engineers, which means it has very different design priorities than something like Mac OS X. Linux and Unix expect users to be willing to bend to the system and its quirks, rather than being designed to bend to the user's quirks. This is not necessarily bad, just different.

It is extremely powerful for certain things, as David Harmon noted. Certain things are just a million times more efficient with a command line. I can do things with a short shell script that are a pain in the butt to do using Mac OS X's Automator, or indeed impossible (Automator doesn't have if-then), and an even more major pain in the butt to do manually. It depends entirely on how much you need to do those things whether this is a useful feature for you.

(Since I switched to Mac, I now have both worlds, and I think it's great.)

Now if I can just find out why the backspace key on this machine is mapped to ` and how to change it back, I'll be a truly happy camper. (Am using the work Linux box today, not the Mac.) It's been a thorn in my side for the duration of typing this comment. Have learned that I am a fast but inaccurate typist.

#253: None taken, Xopher! 'Unixen' is a hacker's shibboleth, derived from Vax->Vaxen (and 'boxen' is an example of the same formation) - yet another example of the same tendency to extrapolate linguistic rules beyond all boundaries of sanity, common sense, and everyday usability.

I quite agree that it sounds silly, but then I think all attempts to pluralize 'Unix' sound silly.

Caroline: try "stty erase [hit the backspace key]". Failing that, "stty erase ^h" (spell out the ^h by actually using the carat, not hitting control-h) might work.

Mary Aileen @255 -- I think it sounds neat, too, on all sorts of levels. Quilts? Good for reading in bed (under the covers)!

I was reading this article in the context of an ESL class with a group of power plant engineers. They brought up the question of the (seemingly) low manufacturing costs, and also noted that the fabric was made into bags and not, say, jackets. I suspect that you probably *could* make garments out of the material, but that would greatly increase the costs of mass production.

More info here:
http://www.portablelight.org/

It sounds like they're certainly trying hard to go for deep value.

R. M. Koske @256 -- pencil sharpeners. I hatehatehate those tiny single-blade sharpeners, and we didn't want an electric one either. Couldn't find a rotary one here in Germany*, so we brought back two when we were in the States a couple of years ago. (Weird vacation souvenirs, but -- well, that sort of thing is par for our course.) One is wall-mounted, the other has a suction cup for the table top. That doesn't work particularly well; a clamp would be better.

*at least when I went to school, every classroom in the US had a pencil sharpener mounted next to the door. Here, each kid has his/her own little sharpener that he/she manages to lose at least once during each school year.

Caroline --

I have CAPS LOCK mapped to escape. This often causes interesting side effects when other people try to use my computer. (Most of the habitual unix users now know what my default text editor is, and what it would be if I had CAPS LOCK mapped to control, instead.)

I think the best way to think about unixes in general is that they are the product of two processes.

One is frustrated geniuses, unable to solve a problem of concern to them, produce a solution and have it reach a stage where it is of general utility. (This starts with the C programming language, and TeX is one of the purer examples, but an enormous amount of this goes on.)

Two is different frustrated people, often of similar mental capacity, trying to make the product of the frustrated genius in item one usable in the general case, as distinct from applicable to the general case.

These are both iterative processes, and they chain.

So it's more that the quirks are tolerated until they become either sacred tradition or someone gets mad and comes up with a better mousetrap which incidentally better reflects their quirks.

R. M. Koske --

There are four layers.

One layer is the flavour of unix -- Solaris, OpenBSD, NetBSD, the Mac BSD, Linux, etc.

Next layer is the distribution; this is the specific collection of programs that have been tested to work together. This is the level at which the package repositories -- the collection of individual programs -- exist. The programs that manage the repositories are different, and are different choices by different distributions.
(Many people will call this the operating system; I think it's more like the species epithet, we know what the genus is (and thus the type of OS) already.)

Next layer is X11, which is the common window manager system used on (most but not all; Apple has a different one, frex) Unixes. The open X11 project forked some years back so there are now two different code trees implementing the behavior of the X11 standard.

Next layer is the window manager/desktop, which is where Gnome, KDE, AfterStep, Blackbox, XFCE, et multi cetera come into things.

Since I'm old and somewhat command line focused, I think of things not in terms of 'oh, well, there's an Add/Remove programs in the right click', but in terms of "what is the wretched thing called so that I may invoke it directly?"

And that's where it matters what distro you're using, because the package management programs will be different, so if you just want to invoke the wretched thing, you need to know.

Generally distros tell you what they are when they boot, and otherwise there's a file in /etc with the version in it. (eg, /etc/fedora-release)

R. M. Koske @#254: One thing I'm not clear on - is the package manager system like the GUI - a separate choice made by the OS installer, and you have different ones that work with different distros, or is it more like "Macs use stuffed files and Windows use zipped files" (in other words, an OS choice that is "hardwired")?

Well, since you're still asking questions.... It's somewhere in between those. There are two basic sorts of packages: compiled binaries, and
source code, each with their own issues:

The binaries have compiled-in assumptions about what's already on the computer, where files are meant to go, and other subtle issues about the system they're meant for. So if you try to install one on the wrong system, its chance of actually working is poor, and there's some chance of disaster (breaking the system). For a while, this was a major problem, that made precompiling UNIX programs pretty much impractical. Thankfully, over the past few years, the major "families" (Debian, Red Hat, Mandrake, etc) have gotten their standards pretty well sorted out -- and more to the point, they now provide central repositories of compiled programs, that usually "plug in and work" for systems of their type. These go along with matching package-management systems that know where to find the right repositories and how to install the programs correctly -- for their host system, specifically.

why wouldn't I want to compile a Fedora source on a Debian system if it will work without issues?

Mostly because that's likely to involve "going under the hood" and dealing with operating system esoterica. I have dealt with such issues, and I find them frustrating enough that even as an experienced Linux user (and erstwhile programmer), I will avoid them if at all possible.

The source code packages are theoretically adaptable to any system... but there's a fair gap between theory and practice, because many of the differences among systems are things that do in fact affect compilation, even when you (or I) wouldn't think they ought to. There are worse problems when it comes to taking your newly compiled program and installing its various pieces into the proper parts of your system. So in practice, you still need (a different part of) the package management system that knows where things are supposed to go. For the very simplest programs, you may be able to just compile to a single binary and drop it into one of the .../bin directories, but these days a lot of programs include libraries, configuration files, datasets, and other chunks, all of which they need to be able to find after installation.

The upshot is, that "work without issues" part depends on just how well the program's author(s) did in terms of making their program portable. If they messed up anywhere, you get to deal with some really hairy details about how both the program, and your system, work behind the scenes. A lot of the "simplicity" up front depends on shoving those details behind a simpler interface, but that only works if you stay in front of that interface.

Kevin @ 251: Actually, one of the things about Linux that drives me mad is that the man pages are very poor. Often they're missing, even for important programs and drivers, or named according to some odd scheme that makes them difficult to find. Contrast that with any of the *BSD family of open source systems (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, et al.) where everything from command line programs to configuration files to system calls to device drivers really does have its own man page.

This is part of the difference in philosophy between Linux and the BSD operating systems - Linux is a operating system kernel, and so Linux distributions may end up packaged with very different sets of programs and organized very differently. The BSD systems are complete operating systems, so if you install FreeBSD (for example) you are guaranteed that a large number of base commands and functionality, and their associated documentation, will always be there and always in the same place.

Oh, and Xopher, "Unices" is an equally canonical silly plural for "Unix". In fact, the mid-80s DEC Posix-compatibility suite for VMS was called "Eunice".

My father recently had my great-great-grandfather's clock fixed (built in Sweden in 1872). It's still on the wall and needs winding once a week.

I think some people in this thread may be interested in the Maker Bill of Rights http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmtorrone/306528267/

I'm still envious of my coworker who got an old belt-drive Bridgeport milling machine for the cost of hauling it out of a basement.

I'm really mad at my employer for closing down the only mass-transit accessible buildings in the company. I now have a 42 mile commute each way until I can manage to sell my house. On the other hand I got rid of the 22mpg minivan in favor of a 42mpg diesel Beetle. The TDI diesel should be good for 250,000 miles and can run on biodiesel (way better energy balance than ethanol).

re post #166: I saw an engineering review in the 90's that stated that most consumer point and shoots sold and even most low level SLR's were used for less than 12 rolls of film, 360 shots.

re post #168: I've got an Old Town Tripper canoe. One of the old ads involved the canoe being thrown off the tall factory roof and then paddled away. My canoe is still in good condition after 32 years of hard use. Another testimonial was from one falling off a float plane, falling 1500 feet and still being usable when they hiked back and found it

#258, Caroline - Thanks for the confirmation that I wasn't necessarily just failing to try hard enough. I won't rule it out, but it feels better to know that someone else found it a non-trivial undertaking.

#262 - Debbie -

We had those wall-mount sharpeners in school when I was a kid, too. Lots of people claimed to hate them with all the passion a person under twenty can muster, but I tended to like them. There were bad apples, but most of them were excellent.

And I'm not sure I was clear about the sharpener and the clamp. The clamp holds the pencil into the sharpener. Since you don't need to hold the pencil in place, you have a hand free and can hold the whole sharpener in one hand while operating the crank with the other. It doesn't need to be fastened down at all.

#263, Graydon - Okay, that makes sense. Thanks.

#264 - David Harmon -

Hey! I followed the paragraph that begins "The binaries..." under my own steam! Not by assembling definitions and unpacking it carefully, but by knowing most of the concepts at the beginning. That's a good feeling, and makes me feel better about my chances of eventually learning this.

As for the why not compile Fedora source on a Debian system, yes, that is perfectly clear. Thank you.

Hamadryad @ 213: I actually love the vintage Sheaffer Balances more, but I have several Pelikan M200s (including the Telekom magenta-and-grey marbled ones, which are rare), and a 215 -- which is lovely if you want something the 200 size, but prefer a heavier pen.

(A useful guide for Pelikan sizes is on Richard Binder's site: www.richardspens.com. I mention Richard a lot when I talk about fountain pens, not just because he's one of the best at modifying and repairing pens, but because he has the same sort of cheerful, passionate enthusiasm for things that many of the people who comment here do.)

Linux being one of those subjects that tends to expand to fill all online discussion space, kudos to the commentariat here for not doing so.

(signed, guy who currently runs OSX, XP, and Ubuntu on his home desktop...)

My engineering building has wall-mounted pencil sharpeners. I've never seen one used-- they are a bit noisy for mid-lecture sharpening.

This just in: My wife and I went to Target in Norman, Oklahoma last week. Be bought twenty-three items. We had forgotten our sturdy reusable bags.

We got home with 9 plastic bags--fewer than 3 items per bag.

We will not forget the bags again.

I was recently very pleased to discover one of the desk mount, multiple-pencil-size sharpeners at my local thrift shop. Noisy as all get out, sure... but now I'm back to using sharp pencils, instead of trying to remember the last place I saw my pencil-case sharpener, or tracking down 0.5mm leads...

Clifton @ 265: No kidding. It doesn't help that most Linux distributions get a good chunk of their utilities from the GNU project (hence GNU/Linux) which is allergic to man pages.

Contrariwise the new shiny stuff is all for the GUI desktop, which isn't supposed to need much of a manual. And, "Developers hate writing documentation." I wish I understood why open source doesn't attract more technical writers.

Caroline @ 258: I agree *nix systems are designed for engineers, but I don't agree that MacOS X doesn't expect users to bend to it. We're a long way from any software that doesn't. It's just designed to easier for more people to (learn to) use, and concentrates on enabling certain forms of creative expression instead. Which, as you said, is fine.

Jen Roth: While we're not turning this into a 'teach me linux' thread, can you offer any advice about getting the delete key on MacOS X to work simultaneously in native terminal applications and with remote applications on a Linux machine? (Some of them do work without 'delete sends backspace' but e.g. nano does not.)

Reusable bags - I didn't remember them routinely until I mentally tied carrying them into picking up the grocery list. Now I pick up the list and I pick up the bags. I don't know why it suddenly worked. Possibly it worked as soon as I really committed to it. (Not suggesting that is the problem for others, just thinking out loud.)

For list-less trips I have a bit more trouble remembering, but I've got at least one bag stashed in the car most of the time. I have trouble resisting the temptation to acquire more bags.

#267 - Adam Ek

Ooh, I'm so jealous of the clock. Clocks and watches are one of those things that you have to go up an order of magnitude at least in price to get real quality, and it is hard (mentally) for me to do that.

I did have a keywound clock for a short time - it was one of two my father brought back from Korea in the mid-70s. My granny gave me hers when she moved into assisted living. It ran a few months for me and quit. It had run every day from the day in the seventies when she got it until a month or two before when it got put away for me. The clock-repair guy said those clocks were "a 15-day mechanism with a 30-day spring" and when they died, they were unrepairable*. I think resting breaks things before their time.

*I could have bought a new mechanism and had it put into the case, but at the time I didn't think the case had enough sentimental value to bother. I'm not sure now that was the right choice.

Ralph@274: "Developers hate writing documentation." I wish I understood why open source doesn't attract more technical writers.

(sigh)

I am currently on a two-week hiatus from my current asic project. I've been reassigned to go back over my documentation for our previous project, and make it readable.

You work on something, design it from the ground up, deal with every little nook and cranny that you created, spend months, maybe a year sweating over it, and the most natural answer to questions about how it works seems to be "Isn't it obvious?"

I know. I know. Back to documentation...

I wish I understood why open source doesn't attract more technical writers.

Because in order to document a program, you first have to figure it out... without documentation.

RM Koske #256 -- You have (ahem) a point about little single-bladed pencil sharpeners, but still, the Alvin Brass Bullet is a very satisfying-to-hold hunk o' metal, the sort of thing that feels like it'd survive a global apocalypse.

Ok, I'll bite. What documentation do technical writers usually use to figure out a program?

Greg London @ 242: This conversation has been very interesting and educational. Thanks! However, I've finally realized I don't even know enough about this to even handwave usefully, and will now shut up.

Sam Kelly @ 250: "Nanotech is fast becoming a meaningless word - the field of "stuff controlled on the molecular level" is still at the stage where there are a lot of incredibly varied possibilities, and some of them even work. We've got MIT-style cogwheels (cogwheels, I ask you... they're practically steampunk), really cool zeolites, functionalisable sputtered sulphur-on-gold fields, and utterly smooth and regular Langmuir-Blodgett films."

That's a really good point. What I meant to say was "nano-level manufacturing."

Ralph Giles #279:

Usually you team with the engineers & developers who create the project. They explain it to you, then you put it into user-speak. If you don't know the developers, or don't work with them, that's a good deal harder.

As for why open source isn't attractive to technical writers, I think it's because tech writing, while it has its pleasures, isn't a great outlet for creative expression. If I want to pay the rent, I'll write a manual; if I want to be creative, I'll write a story. The middle ground consists of writing free tutorials for art programs or how-to's for craft projects. That's fun, because the core project or program I'm writing about is fun. So in order to attract technical writers, I would think open source projects would either have to (1) pay money or (2) be fun to write about (like GIMP).

Oh dear Ghu, I have to spend some time documenting How to Read the Maps, part 2, for the newbies (we get three next Monday), and the people who've been around longer but still can't get it without help. Not that they're likely to read it - they didn't read part 1 - but I may tell them that the pop quiz on it is called QC, and getting the package back for corrections is Not Passing.

Ralph Giles @#279:

In a conventional company, the technical writer would usually be in the same building as the programmer. They'd start with the programmer's notes, which might not be complete and usually wouldn't be written in a style suitable for end-users. (Some will be handwritten!) Hopefully, they will also have the specifications and feature lists which were written as part of the company's decision to write the program. And then they can deal with the gaps in those, by going over to the programmer (or at least phoning them) and asking questions. And if the programmer doesn't cooperate, they can complain to his manager, who has a natural interest in getting the company product documented.

The problem with open source programs, is that you instead have one or more programmers who publish the program with minimal or no user-accessible documentation, or something intended for highly technical users. There may well be more information buried in the source code, but that's not even provided with binary distributions, which (for reasons I discussed above) are becoming more common.

And then either the programmer, or else someone whose role is limited to packaging and/or "marketing", puts a note somewhere: "Hey, somebody want to write a manual for this thing?"

From that point, anybody out "in the field" who hopes to actually answer that appeal, needs to do some or all of:

(1) Learn the program "cold", including exploring just what it can or can't do, how to accomplish an assortment of user-useful tasks, and what messages it presents in response to various user errors.

(2) Read through the source code for the programmer's comments and other notes.

(3) Read through the version history to note bugfixes and new features.

(4) Squeeze more information out of the same programmer who didn't have time, interest, or communication ability to write proper documentation in the first place. This of course would usually be done by E-mail, since the programmer can be anywhere on the planet and probably has a "day job".

(5) Possibly translate any of the above from geek-slang, a foreign language, or both at once.

And that's why Open Source doesn't get too much work from technical writers....

Re: Documentation -

The joke(?) I heard once was that a developer was asked how they handled security in their systems. He paused for a minute, then said, "No documentation".

Ralph Giles (#274): Experiment with 'stty dec' on the command line (which will set the terminal to use the DEL (127) character as backward delete) and/or adding 'set rebinddelete' to your .nanorc.

(My practice is to have the key-in-the-upper-right send DEL, and have DEL act as backward delete. This is an artifact of being a long-time Emacs user who started out using it on actual DEC terminals.)

The family's 18thC grandfather clock is still ticking as is the similar age mantel clock. The hour & half past gongs take getting use to but the clicks of the pendulum, chain weights and gears is soothing.

Steve C. @ 284...
The joke(?) I heard once was that a developer was asked how they handled security in their systems. He paused for a minute, then said, "No documentation".

I deeply and wholeheartedly wish that was a joke. Security through obscurity... isn't.

I feel compelled to post a comment since the the quest for "deep value" seems eerily familiar. You see, I also have a VW Bus (a beat-up '67 -- though I use it only rarely), treadle sewing machine, manual typewriter, 3-speed utility bicycle as my principle transportation, and of course reusable shopping bags. I love fountain pens too but lose pens too often to risk carrying one.

Self-reliance is very satisfying. You can get a lifetime of wood-cutting out of a good handsaw, a triangular file, and some knowledge of how to keep it sharp, without any other infrastructure. This could be important if you're trying to survive after a global apocalypse, yet another advantage of the deep value lifestyle.

Carbide lamps are like the fountain pens of lighting. Cave explorers still use them, because they are durable and easy to fix in the field (and in the dark), though finicky and messy. They work by dripping water on calcium carbide to produce acetylene which is burned from a jet. The lamp needs frequent adjustment and occasional recharging or clearing out of clogs, but the problems are usually easy and quick to fix. Electric caving lamps are indisputably cleaner and more trouble-free, but if something other than a battery or bulb dies, it is usually impossible to fix in the cave.

Okay, I was going to stick with things I know about myself (like biking when you're out of shape), but this question really struck me:

#277 ::: David Harmon ::: (view all by) ::: April 03, 2008, 09:14 PM:
I wish I understood why open source doesn't attract more technical writers.

My partner is a fulltime, paid Linux developer, a coder since he was in his teens, so I know an awful lot of coders & open source people. The culture is even more macho and workaholic/masochistic than other macho and masochistic subcultures (ecovillage building, bike courier, BMX) I've been on the fringes of, despite the niceness of most of the people in it.

An awful lot of coders in general seem to think that documentation is for the weak, and open source coders display this attitude even more intensely.

Regarding rag clouts - my mother (born 1924) taught me how to fold a cloth and pin it into my underwear. I found it vastly more comfortable (and secure) than the belt-and-napkin arrangement common at the time. It was also more comfortable than the peel-and-stick pads that came later. Disposability was the only drawback, and that only when I was away from home.
-Barbara

Adam@267: I'm still envious of my coworker who got an old belt-drive Bridgeport milling machine for the cost of hauling it out of a basement.

Holy crap. I might have considered volunteering to "help" move the thing, only to have said coworker become involved in an "accident". His dying words were that I take the damn thing myself.

Yes, officer, that's what he said, why do you ask?

I'd like to find some kind of training school that would show me how to run the dang things, and then maybe I could do a class project or something. Either it'd cure me of my desire to get a machine, or it'd solidify it. Either way, it seems like a win.

;)

Okay, one too many comments about grandfather clocks. Now you ALL get to share the earworm! Bwahahaha...

My Grandfather's clock was too big for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor.
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
And though years would congeal Grandpa's brain to Malt-O-Meal,
He'd one wish that would not be denied;
For his will said to bury him in the clock
When the old man died.

Now, Grandfather's grandfather built him the clock,
And he built it like no clock before --
But the old so-and-so built it so high and wide
That we can't get it out through the door!
So when Gramma'd been calmed and Grandpa had been embalmed,
We discovered the clock was too wide,
But the god-damned cadaver had gotten jammed;
It was stuck inside.

So old Grandpapa's standing there in the hall-
Way at Nine Seventeen Cherry Lane,
And he stands, the old cuss, making faces at us,
Which we try to ignore just the same.
But we still think of him as we, haggard, pale and grim,
Stagger into the cold morning's light;
For at odd times he's ringing the blasted chimes
Every god-damned night!

So at 3:22 AM (ding-dong! ding-dong!)
"Oh ghod, there goes Gramps again." (ding-dong! ding-dong!)
At odd times he's ringing the blasted chimes
Every god-damned night!

- "Grandfather's Clock" by Frank Hayes, to the traditional tune

Faren @ #208, the other day my mother, sister and I were discussing what we'd do with this house when it came time to sell (after Mom's passing, which doesn't look to happen anytime soon, thanks be). I said I'd take my half and move to Prescott.

But if there's no bus service...

Talk of delete/backspace is giving me nasty flashbacks. The HP User Group Emacs (the aptly named HUGE) had, IIRC, five different layers just within emacs swapping the meaning of the two keys over compared with the level below. And we were using xmodmap to do the swap for all X applications, so every layer was wrong in its assumption about the layer below. In addition, although emacs supported X input at that time, it did it by mapping X events into the codes it would have got running as a terminal application with a keyboard of the type it was expecting for the machine it was built on - which didn't work properly if your X display was on a different machine type. Horribleness. But at least I had the source, and could clean some of that up myself, and put in workarounds that worked the way I wanted on the systems I was using for the rest.
(Things have improved a lot since, and at the time Windows was a single user system with no remote GUI capability at all, so this isn't really a "you can see why normal people prefer Windows" story. But occasionally legacy stuff can still bite you in odd ways.)

Rosa @#282: Hey, don't blame me for Ralph's question! ;-)

I learned my lesson dealing with the output of the guys you're describing! And as Mary Dell described much more succinctly, the real problem is not having technical writers at the programmer's shoulder. (Ghod, I ramble when I post late at night!)

Mary Dell @ 281... if I want to be creative, I'll write a story

...while I'll write a blog entry. Documentation isn't an issue for our group because our users are so smart that their very thorough specs actually wind up being the documentation. And if, in the course of the project, I ask them to clarify this or that part of their specs, they'll actually go back and update the specs's copy that is kept in a centralized location. That way, even years later, they can tell what the heck our stuff does, and this in a language that they understand, and they can build on that for the next round of specs.

R.M. Koske @ #275: I think resting breaks things before their time.

Definitely true of human bodies (if you take "resting" to mean "being put on a shelf for a couple of months"). I want to know how bears hibernate without deconditioning to the point of becoming nonambulatory.

#278 - Avram
Oh, yes, that's lovely.

#286, T.W. - Once you get accustomed to the gongs, you almost completely stop hearing them. It's kind of freaky. I once spent a couple of hours reading in the room with a clock that chimed half-hours. I'd lived with that clock since I was six or seven, and it startled me when I realized that I hadn't heard a single chime during my reading. I looked up to confirm that the clock was actually running and discovered that though I could see the pendulum move, I couldn't hear it tick. It's incredibly disorienting to be able to really see your brain filter out the stuff that it's decided is irrelevant.

Lee @#292:

Thanks a lot, now I have an earworm:

My Grandfather's Watch was the best ever made
by the Timex company.

Just like that watch John Cameron Swayze displayed
Last night on the old TV.

Oh it works underwater so perfectly
and it still makes a ticking sound

Which my Grandfather tried only this afternoon
and that's how the old man drowned.

--Allan Sherman

p.s. oh dear, the earworm, like the song, has segued into "Don't Buy the Liverwurst." It's going to be a long day.

#290, Barbara Gordon -

It may sound silly, but I'm wishing I knew a site to point you to, where you could share the details of that knowledge. That's the kind of thing that gets lost as tech changes, and there's a large community of women moving back to cloth pads who would be interested as a practical matter. Plus it is historically interesting.

Jason B., are you a fellow Normanite?

Here's another neglected low-maintenence technology -- slide rules and their ilk. Though in these days of solar power, calculators don't gobble batteries they way they used to. But slide rules are easy to care for and maintain, where a broken calculator is unrepairable trash. You can do an awful lot of math with a slide rule (and the recommended peripheral, a pad of paper and a pencil),or an abacus or addiator. There's one company in Japan (Concise) that still makes slide rules, and lots are available on Ebay. It takes a bit of work to learn to use them effectively, but it reinforces mathematical concepts instead of isolating you from them the way a calculator does -- another deep value right there.

Another note -- we inherited a 1920's cast-iron wall-mounted can opener when my grandmother-in-law died. It's indestructible, handles even heavy olive oil cans, and works better than any electric can openr we've ever owned. Wish they made things to last like that now.

I think the concept of "pre-cycling" could be part of a deep value philosophy. When I buy something, I try to consider how I might reuse the packaging, for example. Like plastic grocery bags -- I either use them to line wastebaskets, or wad them up as packing material, or recycle them back at the store. Never do they just go straight in the trash. I was disturbed a few years ago when yogurt containers went to peel-off foil tops instead of plastic lids -- now the bottoms are useless, and I find I can hardly bring myself to buy pre-flavored yogurt anymore because of the waste. I buy my cat litter in large plastic containers, which I then use as mouse-proof garage storage or patio gardening pots. Empty dog food bags become large garbage bags, and so on.

WRT old-fashioned clocks, especially the striking kind:

My uncle's wife had a good many clocks as gifts over the years from her father, who was a jeweler who liked tinkering with clockwork, and she inherited several more when he died, because her mother was not interested in keeping them going.* Given the difficulty of keeping them all exactly on the correct time all the time, there were a good many days when both noon and midnight--or, to be exact, the period between 11:45 and 12:15, when the clock with the Winchester chimes sounded the quarter-hours--was too noisy to speak, as every clock in the house but their alarm clock gave its all to sound the hour. Saturday midnights were worst; then, on Sunday morning, while coffee was brewing, my uncle and aunt would go through the house, winding and re-setting clocks.

My uncle said his favorite was the 400-day clock, which swung away quietly under its glass bell, losing very little time and chiming so quietly that if you weren't in the same room and listening for it, you wouldn't know it had made any noise.

*It's usually easier to keep old clockwork going than it is to revive old clockwork that's been allowed to stand still for a long time. Just in case any old clockwork, whether in a clock or otherwise, comes your way.

I was disturbed a few years ago when yogurt containers went to peel-off foil tops instead of plastic lids -- now the bottoms are useless, and I find I can hardly bring myself to buy pre-flavored yogurt anymore because of the waste.

Poke a hole in the bottom for drainage and use them to start seeds indoors. I've got a row of about ten on a windowsill and they're doing nicely. This is less effective if you want to eat yogurt every day, but it's a use for at least some of them.

I have a Deep Value dilemma at the moment. In going through a houseful of belongings I've come across lots of things that are perfectly good, but not necessarily for us. In trying to be a good steward, I carefully pack these things up to donate them, only to find that charities don't want them. Goodwill turned down my 3-in-1 printer, despite the fact that we originally got it from a Goodwill store, because "computer things have viruses on them" and just today I was told that Habitat for Humanity isn't taking cast iron tubs for their ReStore because no one ever buys them. Cast iron tub! Hardly used (for at least the past 22 years). What on earth am I supposed to do with it now? Bury it and use it as a koi pond? (Actually, that might work... it would probably freeze in the winter though.)

Do tea ball/infusers count as old tech? They cost about 2-5$US, and pay for themselves almost instantly, as loose tea is so much cheaper than tea bags.

EClaire -- look for a FreeCycling organization in your area. You can list your stuff and the people who want it can contact you directly. http://www.freecycle.org/

fidelio @302:
It's usually easier to keep old clockwork going than it is to revive old clockwork that's been allowed to stand still for a long time. Just in case any old clockwork, whether in a clock or otherwise, comes your way.

OK, I'll go wind the grandmother clock* downstairs. It's rather outcompeted by the church clock half a block away, which chimes the hour and half hour. The grandmother clock does as well, but we let it run down about six months ago.

-----
* It's a mantel clock, but it really did belong to my maternal grandmother.

And another vote for freecycling here: we used it to get rid of any number of things that we had no need for before our move.

I even boxed up all those screws, nails, wall plugs, nuts, bolts, and miscellaneous hardware that I'd collected over the past decade and gave that away. (There was a lot of interest in that one.)

Tom Womack @ 210: "But that fifty-dollar versus fifty-cent thing means they're almost by definition used in niche applications."

How big of a time gap does that money gap translate into? Like, how many years back do you have to go before an ASIC chip with the same capabilities as your modern $50 FPGA also cost fifty dollars? Are we talking a year, or a decade?

At least a decade. You can implement a 40MHz RISC processor with a cache in a Spartan3 FPGA - something like the MIPS R3000 in an original Sony Playstation, which came out in 1994, but without the weird external processors that the Playstation has.

The Spartan3 was released in about 2004, and Xilinx has subsequently focussed on more capable and *much* more expensive chips, with really elaborate high-speed network interfaces since one of their markets is the builders of really big network routers.

There are a couple of math problems which I thought would fit nicely in FPGAs, but the problem turns out to be that an FPGA capable of holding a memory controller and a 64-bit multiplier, on a board which can talk to the outside world, costs a good deal more than the cheapest-available quad-core PC, and that PC has a vastly better memory controller and four incredibly much faster multipliers.

#301 - Janet Brennan Croft -

There's an idea that I've seen a few places in environmental circles that there's no such thing as waste in nature and manufacturing should be the same. Not "we'll recycle your dead washing machine into a new washing machine" but "when your washing machine dies, the broken parts will be recycled and the unbroken parts will be useable for X." I don't recall what the concept is called, and I don't think anyone has really succeeded at it yet, but it sounds like an excellent ideal to strive for.

Janet #301:

I have to say, I find the modern solar powered calculators an example of good, long-lasting technology. You can't repair it yourself if it breaks, but that's not trivial for a sliderule, either. And a calculator is *way* more powerful for a lot of things, and requires a lot less knowledge to use. We have a couple old solar powered calculators from college, which our kids play with. If you can manage not to pour water in the keys or step on them, they last for a long time. (I guess either the keys will wear out, or the solar panels will, eventually.) This doesn't have the feel of disposable stuff to me.

OTOH, I gather that there are some quite sophisticated mechanical calculators out there. They feature prominently in Gibson's _Pattern Recognition_, and I recall going to a museum of mechanical computing devices (the "Arithmeum") in Bonn (I was there for a conference) soon after reading the book, and saw references to some of the mechanical calculators described in the book. If you happen to be there, it's definitely worth seeing....

RMKoske 298,

Yes you do get used to them if you live with the sounds but we only visit a couple times a year. They're on a working farm(pasture range beef) so you do not get the urban background noises either. The silent strike hand still works but you can only set it for 6 hours. Choose your 6 hours wisely.

Enthusiastic third for freecycling. I assure you, people want the strangest stuff, and normal stuff is just a given. A working 3-in-1 printer will be gone in ten minutes if your list is active -- or that's the impression I get from my local freecycle list when others have posted printers and similar.

Today I took old newspapers to the recycling container, and saw a whole whack of *books* in there. Over 20, a real sammelsurium. Some travel guides, recipe books, also some poetry, history and fiction. Fortunately they weren't out of reach. I fished them out, found some I wanted, and stacked the rest on top of the bin. No place to donate the rest came to mind, unfortunately, and I was in a hurry, so that was the best I could do on the spur of the moment. Seems a shame, although when I think realistically, there probably are a lot of books that don't truly deserve immortality. (writing those words feels like heresy!)

On a brighter note, I just found out that freecycle is alive and well in Germany. Thanks for the tip, Fluorosphere.

#312, T.W. -
Ugh, yes, merely visiting a clock with loud chimes is a guarantee of being routinely startled.

Greg London: Re Bridgeport/Vertical End Mills. Fly me out, I can teach you to use it.

Set ups, and all.

In a lot of ways they are very simple. In subtle ways, they aren't Oh, wait, you don't have one. That makes it a little tougher.

Community colleges often have machinging courses.

R.M. Koske: re tuning things out. It's a swell trick. The trouble I have is the sounds which sound like things I need to pay attention to. Mosty I freeze, while I parse it out, but there have been some dramatic moments (the first time the fired a volley at the Renassaince Faire I work, well I was in the path of direct echo. I was flat on the ground, with my sword swung behind my back [so I'd not land on it: ouch] while lots of people looked at me funny).

re yogurt containers. All of ours have lids, and foil/plastic seals beneath.

Ah! Thank you! There is one for our county, so I'll see if I can drum up any interest. This may be a great help.

And if I forgot to say thank you for the link to the garden instructions, thank you for that as well! The instructions will be passed on to the official tiller of land here, and hopefully I'll be able to start transplanting my seeds and seed potatoes soon.

The people who do Jasper (open source reporting tool) seem to be funding the project by selling the manual at $44 a pop.

I have never found a pencil sharpener to match those old double cutter schoolroom varieties.

The solar-powered calculator is a really permanent technology. I hit high school exactly on the cusp of the slide rule to calculator change: the NS and TI scientific calculators came out the year I started. I got the NS, because it was reverse Polish (my father got an HP 35 when they were first available), and I kept it going for well over a decade by opening it up at intervals and soldering a new set of AA Ni-Cads, but eventually I was reduced to a solar powered 4-plus-percent job which I used until it disappeared into the chaos of our house. I'm sure it still works, if I could find it.

Debbie #314:

I found most of what is now my collection of 19th-c. American history texts in a pile next to the dumpster outside my apartment house at the end of a school year. Somebody couldn't be bothered to stand in line at a bookstore or drop them off for the library sale.

Twice a year, the city runs "heavy trash collection" in which you are allowed to put out your old appliances, furniture and the like. With the exception of a broken toilet seat, nothing we've put on the (nonexistent) curb has *ever* lasted long enough to be collected by the city.

Terry@316: Oh, wait, you don't have one. That makes it a little tougher.

You're such a tease.

;)

Greg: You were the one who got me thinking you had a Bridgeport. Honestly, the hardest part about using them is taking backlash into account (no, I lie: that's the trick to using them once you understand the ideas of speed and feed).

They are, all in all, very simple devices, and the algorithms are pretty straightforward (unless you get to some of the odd aluminums, which do that whole, 10.7 grams of powder cause the cannon to go backwards, while the ball stays still, but I digress. I miss the act of machining; the job, not so much).

Terry Karney @ 321... 10.7 grams of powder cause the cannon to go backwards, while the ball stays still

I'd like to see the MythBusters attempt to reproduce that one. Why wouldn't they? They once tried to find out if shoving your finger in a pistol's barrel would make the gun blow up.

David Harmon @ 283: See, that sounds like an argument against volunteer open source contribution in general, since a coder has to do most of that too. Maybe it's that with code changes you can just fix something that bugs you personally, while documentation is generally about other people, or at least the relationship a project has with users?

Mary Dell @ 281: Interesting that tech writing would be a last resort for people with writing skills too. I've heard the same argument about open source in general, in that almost no one codes for fun either. What about the other supposed benefits, like owning something you've made in way that goes beyond a job role, achieving excellence in some small corner of the world, or a chance to practice professional skills while you're still in school?

Rosa @ 289: Sadly, I fear you're closer to the truth. There is clearly a lot of toxic culture, and not a lot of positive role models for projects trying to get out of that.

Thanks all for your answers.

Janet Brennan Croft @ 301: Yay slide rules! I don't actually have one, but I played with my parents' quite a bit when I was a kid. They were strangely uninterested in passing them on. :)

Janet @ #301

I was disturbed a few years ago when yogurt containers went to peel-off foil tops instead of plastic lids -- now the bottoms are useless, and I find I can hardly bring myself to buy pre-flavored yogurt anymore because of the waste.

That was what tipped me over the edge into cultivating my own yogurt. It's not that the yogurt is any better or more nutritious or anything (although I escape all the silly additives) or even that much cheaper (about half the price) but simply that it drove me crazy to go through all those little individual plastic containers, despite their recyclability. Now my yogurt comes in washable, reusable containers (some of which came with the yogurt-making equipment and some of which are recycled from a particular condiment I like that comes in glass jars of exactly the right size to fit in the yogurt-maker).

I guess the "deep value" angle is that I know I don't actually need the commercial yogurt incubator -- any sufficiently insulated container would maintain the original milk temperature long enough for the culture to work (which is how I managed things back in college in the dorms).

Heather Rose Jones (324): My mother used to make yogurt using the pilot light in the oven (iirc). Now she submerges the jar(s) in warm water in an old styrofoam cooler overnight.

Do you find that you have to start over every so often with a fresh batch? My mother says the yogurt flavor gets stronger every time she makes it, so that eventually it's too strong.

Me, I can't stand yogurt. :)

David Harmon @ 283: See, that sounds like an argument against volunteer open source contribution in general, since a coder has to do most of that too. Maybe it's that with code changes you can just fix something that bugs you personally, while documentation is generally about other people, or at least the relationship a project has with users?

You will sometimes get *developers* fixing bugs in the *developer* documentation that way. But that is *not* the end-user documentation. End users are an entirely different animal, and need different documentation, and it's a rare developer who can also write end-user documentation.

My hypothesis about the lack of technical writers in open-source is much along the line of Mary Dell's -- that 1) technical writing isn't, in the main, very fun; and 2) everyone who finds it fun (and a lot of people who don't) are all exceedingly well-employed in industry already, and there aren't enough technical writers to go around even there, as evidenced by the quantity of bad documentation industry produces. On the other hand, I know a *lot* of people who code for fun (and who also, coincidentally, contribute to open-source projects). Writing documentation just isn't viewed as being very sexy (though perhaps it should be) -- you only notice documentation when it sucks. I'm not sure how much of this is inherent and how much is social. But good documentation (and good QA) is a perfect example of deep value. :-)

Ralph Giles #323:

Mary Dell @ 281: Interesting that tech writing would be a last resort for people with writing skills too. I've heard the same argument about open source in general, in that almost no one codes for fun either. What about the other supposed benefits, like owning something you've made in way that goes beyond a job role, achieving excellence in some small corner of the world, or a chance to practice professional skills while you're still in school?

The benefits you cite are all real, and valuable, but there are many other ways to attain them, if you like to write. Back in my college days you would either start a zine or write for one your friend was editing, and everyone was doing something for the campus newspaper or interning at a scholarly journal or somesuch. And writing poetry and stories, and scripting movies for friends in the film program, and all that kind of stuff. I don't think open source actually existed back then, of course. We writing geeks did help out our comp sci friends by proofreading papers and abstracts for them. But that they had to feed us in exchange for doing it (they all had stipends and we didn't), because it was dead boring.

The thing is, if you like to write code, and you do it for a living, you'll itch to write a program that's cooler than whatever you work on while you're on the job. And open source can give you that opportunity. But writing the user manual for someone else's open source program will pretty much feel exactly like writing the user manual for someone else's proprietary program. So there's not a lot of reason to do it for free.

Susan: According to the booklet with it, it's a "No. 99 - Lock Stitch, for Family Use." I looked the model up, and the jpg shows a similar machine, except mine doesn't have a treadle. There are three spare needles in the compartment, so I'm probably ok for another decade.

xefer:
Thanks for the list of serial numbers. Mine is 1916 and was manufactured in Scotland, which is neat to know.

Joann, #319: Our local entertainment paper, the Houston Press, runs annual "Best of Houston" awards. The first year I was here, the winner for "best thrift shop" was "Heavy Trash Day in the Heights". (The Heights is an old, heavily-gentrifying neighborhood not too far from where we live.)

For that matter, we got the lovely steel futon frame in our living room (as long as a full-sized sofa, and flattens to queen-size) from the side of the main road thru the Rice University campus; it had clearly been abandoned by a student who was moving out. All we had to do (after getting it home, which required the Big Honkin' Van but was otherwise no challenge) was buy a new pad for it. I've now got Russ watching FreeCycle for another one, with which we'll replace the ugly (and uncomfortable) old sleeper sofa in the den, putting it up on FreeCycle in return.

re #301:
A friend of my husband's collects slide rules, and back in high school got to be very smug during an exam when everyone else's calculator died (it was a very hot day).

Kevin Riggle @326:
But good documentation (and good QA) is a perfect example of deep value.

Thank you; good point. I agree entirely.

But then I would, because I'm a tester.

Random weirdness related to Lee's post at 292. I had never heard that grandfather clock song in my life until yesterday. Then, just a few hours later, an episode of 1-800-Missing featured it. Cue "Twilight Zone" theme song.

joann @319 -- We used to have twice-yearly heavy trash pickups, too. It was fun, because everyone would stroll around and look at other people's stuff. Then too many people started putting their general garbage in there, so there's now a pickup-on-demand service. In practice, you call to say you want something picked up, then you're notified of the date when the truck will come. They bundle pickups in the same neighborhood. Not a bad system, but the flair is gone.

abi @332: Then thank you. No matter how frustrated I get at the test suite or the bugs QA found in my flawless code, I know that the situation would be immeasurably worse without either.

This post struck a nerve with me, since I am 1) moving out of the dorm, and thus need to outfit my first real apartment; and 2) going on a 21-day hiking trip in California this summer, and so needing to think really really hard about the deep value of everything I bring.

I partly justified the purchase of an 85-liter hiking backpack to myself on the grounds that it would make a great go-bag in the off-season. A little too big to bring as a carry-on on a plane, though. And I keep rediscovering that non-cotton fabrics, especially wool, have deep value in the long-wearing, warm-keeping, and not-getting-hypothermia senses.

I'm a little less clear on the deep value of other things. I'm probably going to give away the loft I built (sniff), since it won't fit in the room I'm moving into without blocking sunlight, and it doesn't support as large a mattress as I'd like. But is a futon better than a traditional bed, since I can convert it into a couch if I want to seat more people in my room, say to watch a movie? Do I really want to ask my parents to ship my antique hardwood dresser halfway across the US, and if not how will I store my clothes? What will I do for a desk? Will I have enough bookcases?[1] Trying to judge value on multiple axes simultaneously -- usefulness, durability, weight (since my ideal is that I could move entirely by myself, without a motor vehicle, in a pinch), not to mention affordability on a student budget -- is hard. And It's hard to optimize qualitative rather than quantitative characteristics.

Does Ikea have deep value?[2]

[1] The cooking gear can move into the kitchen -- cast iron, there's deep value right there; also, the skill of cooking -- thus freeing a bookshelf, and where that bookshelf is narrower than the dorm bookshelf I'm giving up, it's also taller. I could also sell some of the textbooks I'm never going to use again.
[2] I'd go there just for the food, really -- Swedish food is among the genres I consider comfort food -- but it would be nice if I could pick up some furniture while I'm at it.

Julie L @131:

I had quite a good experience getting the heels on my Cabelas light hiking books replaced at the local shoe repair shop. (These are not boots designed to have replaceable soles.) I'd worn down the heels considerably, so I took them in and was going to get the whole sole replaced, but the guy said since the forefoot was still okay he could just replace the heel, and he basically cut the old heel off and glued a new one on, as good as new. It's given me another couple years worth of wear out of them, since the uppers are still in decent shape. Probably works better with boots than with other kinds of shoes, though.

As for "shoes is shoes," the friends of mine who do LARPing in the woods say that their LARP groups require modern shoes, because apparently period shoes suck for running around and fighting in. Secondhand, and most of us don't run around in the sticks beating our friends with foam weapons day-to-day, but something to consider. I think a shoe would be have to be made pretty carefully to get the right arch support, ankle support, etc. that properly-fit commercially-made shoes do. Also, I've discovered that I really want heel shock-absorption, because walking on concrete all day is a killer in that way, and I don't know how you'd achieve that in a small-batch shoe. (I was quite disappointed that my new heavy-duty hiking boots, purchased for the aforementioned trip, didn't have that and more easily-replaceable soles, because otherwise they'd be great for everyday wear -- full-grain leather uppers, the works. Lots of deep value. I guess that shock absorption matters less on the trail?)

Not saying good small batch shoes are impossible, though, and if you find a good place, please let me know. :-)

Ralph @#323: Maybe it's that with code changes you can just fix something that bugs you personally,

Well... if you're a programmer, you can often go in and fix a specific problem, or graft in the feature you want. But if the original program isn't very readable, that might involve rewriting most of it, which nearly amounts to "adopting" the thing. If it matters that much to you, fine. If not, there's probably another program to replace it, and goodbye.

The problem for docs is that (1) most writers are not programmers, and (2) for end-user docs, you're concerned not with how it's made, but with how it behaves. Even if you are a programmer, figuring out behavior from source code takes more than just poking through the logic, you need to really "grok" the whole thing. Not to mention you also have to cope with the bugs...,

As an example, consider the GUI newsreader I use, Pan2. My ISP recently reset its newsgroups (restarting the article numbers from 1). Well, that doesn't happen often, but now it has, and I can't see how to make the program recognize tt. No docs, no menu option for that, and no feedback from the program. (I've been editing the newsrc files, but that's already an "old-timer's trick".)

Another day, the same program semi-hung, refusing to run its task queue. When I exited, I got a message on the terminal I'd run it from, something like "Existing Quarks: 1". If I really wanted to dive into the program, I could probably figure out where that idiocy was printed, but not necessarily the conditions that produced it. If I were just a writer, forget it!

And then there's all the messages and behaviors coming from various libraries and slave programs, which represent whole new sets of source code....

Solar-powered calculators can die from one or another cause - I had one do that earlier this year. Just quit working, wouldn't turn on even in bright light. (There may be something broken that can be repaired, but I haven't opened it up yet for an autopsy. It was so much easier to walk into an office-supply place and buy another of the same model.) On the other hand - no batteries required! This one is just about as powerful as, and a lot less expensive than, my ancient HP45 (which has no remaining source for battery packs).

abi @ 332... I'm a tester

"Back off, man! I'm a tester."

Serge @ 338: You sound a bit testy.

Re: sewing machine needles for old machines (Sarah) and other trivia

All current household machine needles should work fine. They'll have a flat side - be sure you get its orientation when replacing them. Check the ones you have to be sure they haven't rusted. Remember red tomato pincushions with an attached strawberry? The strawberry had emery powder inside, so you could poke a needle back and forth and keep it clean.

Cheap needles aren't worth their supposed savings.

Friction heats the needles. Inexpensive ones will warp, or worse, shatter. The bits in the bobbin case can throw off the timing, and that's either about an hour of your time if you haven't done it a lot, or a hefty fee to your local repair shop, and there you are with curtains all over the kitchen table for a week and a half. You can often pick up machine things at yard sales. They're a great place to add to your collection of attachments such as feet*, rufflers, binders and buttonhole makers, but I'd throw away any needles found there. Among professionals, a new project always starts with a new needle.

*yours will take a short shank.

Get someone local to show you how to clean lint out and oil it - a few minutes weekly if you sew a lot, or just before or after more widely spaced stints.

A good brand available most places is Schmetz. The default size is an 80/12 universal. Sharps/denims are extra pointy, good for firmly woven fabrics. If you want to sew on t-shirts or lycra, get a stretch needle. They replaced ball points and were a considerable improvement.

The biggest problem I have with ancient machines is that they have a tiny spindle bobbin. Kind of like trying to download a movie to those old 5 1/4" floppies...

Ginger @ 339... I protest. With zest.

I'd add to Carole @ 340
Don't bother with plastic bobbins if you don't have to. You can usually find metal ones that will work and won't break so easily. Most machines use the same kind; recent Singers usually won't.

The less-expensive machines are usually the ones without all the electronics, and they'll do what you need and last for years. Cleaning the lint out isn't as difficult as it sounds, and there's not much under there that will break if you look at it. (It's Victorian high tech: cams and levers and pushrods. Give it a steam engine and belt drive, and you're in business.)

As a reviewer, my recycling problem is galleys. Some years ago, I used to donate them to libraries, but then I was told that was a no-no. Now they sit in cardboard boxes all over the bedroom (along with the "keeper" galleys that also sit in cardboard since I've long run out of shelf space). To give things to recyclers, I guess I should tear off every single cover so someone else wouldn't grab and try to resell them. Argh! Free advance copies are wonderful, but the aftermath not so much so.

And to that comment about thoughts of moving to Prescott till my gripe about buses showed up (I'm a day late in getting back to the thread, rushing, so I forget who wrote it), it would be lovely to have a fellow Fluorospherean here but yes the transit situation is a pain. I didn't know about it when we moved here, just months after the epilepsy-induced car wreck that lost me my license -- which I haven't tried to get back now that the disease is treated, because I *really* don't want to drive my husband's clunky old van.

Faren @ 343... my recycling problem is galleys

When the user manual has a line like this:

The Fractal Sum node is a fractal function that returns values between –1 and 1. It has the
following attributes:

You just know the technical writers weren't worth their pay. You don't even get enough to use Google.

(The manual is for Poser. The assumption is that the people using the program are smart enough to recognise a Phong shader without being told the name.)

this is my sewing machine. Got it for a present recently. Still haven't sewn anything with it. Mostly because I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

That seems to happen to me a lot.

At the library where I work, we've found that the best solution for getting rid of galleys (of the book rather than ship variety) is to have a little bin marked "free books" which we periodically refill with new ones. Some of them disappear surpisingly rapidly, some sit for a while.

We also save some of the better/more popular ones to use as prizes at our teen programs and giveaways at our critic groups.

Wow, nice "home" industrial, Greg -note that they've attached the motor behind, rather than in, the right side of the head.

I don' know nuthin' bout Consews. Most sewing machine shops will teach you basics, assuming they sell parts/servicing. Also check community colleges or free universities.

Getting started sewing, like learning to knead bread, is easiest and quickest shown. Haven't you made great strides on the personal nutrition front in the last several months?

Serge @341: Sir, your name must truly be Shirley, for you jest.

Carol@348: note that they've attached the motor behind, rather than in, the right side of the head.

I don't even know what that means. Is that a good thing? Bad? The manual says something about being able to hook it up to an external motor on a stand, and run a belt up to a pulley somehow. I figured I'd deal with that after I knew some more of the basics.

What I have discovered, upon setting the beastie up, is that it seems to be designed and built only for the heavy duty stuff. The manual says use #69 bonded nylon thread. I couldn't find any at the local, chain fabric store. So I tried some of the heaviest thread they had. It kept breaking in the machine.

Then I found a store that's a bit of a drive away, and bought a spool of the #69, and sewed through a piece of heavy canvas like a knife through hot butter.

Hm, that's an odd metaphor, rather messy visual.

I don't know why, but I just assumed that a heavy duty sewing machine could do light duty sewing too. Apparently not this one. I wanted to do some heavy duty stuff, but I thought I could also do some light duty stuff too. Looks like I need a different machine for that.

Anyway, I need to get back to that big store and buy some different colors of #69 thread and some heavy duty material and find something that I can do as a first, simple project. maybe a canvas tote bag or something. I was hoping to eventually be able to make something like a simple leather fanny pack or a canvas pack for my paintball equipment.

A local friend of mine is a sewing genius, has some amazing machines, one of which can make lace from a downloaded pattern. I should probably bug her for a lesson or two.

Ginger @ 349... Ye pest!

Kevin Riggle @334
Does IKEA have deep value?

That is an interesting question.

On the one hand, flat pack furniture can be shipped more efficiently, which is good. Their products are generally of good quality, and the wooden ones in particular will look good even after a certain amount of abuse. In comparison to the expensive and depressingly ugly used furniture that we got for our first flat, IKEA goods are affordable and attractive.

On the other hand, many of their chipboard or laminate products do not look good after a few years of hard wear. And they encourage a high-turnover approach to interior decoration, with a rapid purchase - use - dispose cycle. Also, they are not a local business for most of us.

We have a lot of IKEA furniture—my bindery is almost entirely from them, and the additions to my workspace the next house will be (hacked) IKEA products. We'll probably fit out the bedrooms with IKEA products in the new house. (We sold our furniture along with our house in Scotland, rather than move it across the North Sea.)

Basically, I think IKEA is like a tool, that you can use wisely or poorly.

Greg: Wow, that's quite some sewing machine! There have been times I've wished for such a heavy-duty one, but with the right needle, thread and tension I've gotten by all right.

Don't know what you're thinking of when you mention "light sewing", but that machine may be able to handle things like twill, denim, fleece, and medium-to-heavy weight cotton OK. You may have to play around with tension and needles on scraps first. Also, putting tissue paper under very lightweight material often helps feed the material through. (But it doesn't sound like you're planning projects with organza right away.) Go for it!

Greg @350:

I bet that sews leather something sweet.

</drool>

Motor on back GOOD.

69 nylon is commonly used for auto upholstery.

First project: how about a circus tent?!

I've heard* you can pick up leather scraps by the boxcarload, cheaply, on ebay. That would be a good investment while you're learning how to use your machine.

* if it was here, sorry for mislaying the attribution.

And you could use the resulting patchwork for the circus tent...

Faren @ #343, that was me. It was mostly a joke, but I really did have the conversation and Prescott really did jump into my head for unknown reasons. I've spent time in Phoenix and Tucson, and I gather they're so built up now I'd probably go mad. I was back in Tucson after a 20-year absence in 1993 and discovered they'd built strip malls and subdivisions all the way to Gates Pass, and that was enough to disenchant me for a long time to come.

Ginger #339: Is that the old or new testament?

Greg London writes in #346:

Still haven't sewn anything with it. Mostly because I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

That seems to happen to me a lot.

Maybe you should seek the services of a life coach.

Greg London @ 346... Still haven't sewn anything with it.

Reminds me of that line spoken by Rutger Hauer near the end of Bladerunner.

"I've sewn things you people wouldn't believe."

Fragano @ 357: Fundamentally, it's not the testament of yesteryear, but instead it's the testudo. And u do test, either slowly like the tortoise of Maryland or roamin' like the legionnaires.

Faren Miller@ 343:

Piers Anthony, in one of his Authors Notes, pointed out that a boxed manuscript fit neatly into the bin of his wood-burning stove. I don't know if your galleys have the same form factor....

Ginger #360:

"and don't name me but I think
They catch his wife with two tests up the beach"

(Derek Walcott)

Dave Bell #345:

The manual is for Poser. The assumption is that the people using the program are smart enough to recognise a Phong shader without being told the name.

Really? I always thought the assumption was that we were smart enough not to read the horrible, horrible manual, and to just go ask someone at Renderosity instead...

But seriously, Poser is the perfect example of a program that inspires many, many people to provide free technical writing services, in the form of tutorials. It's not open source, but it's a creatively inspired program, so it's fun to write about. At least, I think so.

#334 ...Is a futon better than a traditional bed, since I can convert it into a couch if I want to seat more people in my room, say to watch a movie?

In my experience, a futon can only be slept on for about six months before it becomes actively harmful to your back, and meanwhile it does not make a very good couch. A good spring mattress, on the other hand, should last for decades, with proper care (mattress liners are your friend).

I will disagree with Zack. I've slept on a futon for years, my back is as good as it ever was (which is to say, it doesn't exacerbate my Reiter's).

Then again, I can sleep on an army cot, the plain ground,and piles of rocks.

regarding Ikea: I agree with abi. Maia and I have a futon (queen sized, ground score; someone put a pair of them on the side of the road. I had to make two trips). Said futon is in the loft bed we got from Ikea. That bed has moved 250 miles, twice. It's been completely dis(and re)assembled.

We did add a sheet of plywood (and to be fair to Zack, Maia has some egg-crate foam on her side of the bed).

re shoes: I've done some serious sparring (with weighted shinai) in period shoes (Elizabethan). I've done steel work in them too (slow tempo).

The live steel in armor in moccs, well; that wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done.

If the shoes fit well, they fit well. I think (honestly) that some of the reason people have problems with less than modern shoes is they have weak ankles from wearing nothing but modern shoes.

I spend most of my time barefoot. My default shoes are a loose boot (skecher) I'd have no problem fighting in them (or dancing).

I have to agree with Terry in disagreeing with Zack. I vastly prefer futon-sleeping to mattress-sleeping, and so does my back. However, I know people whose backs feel exactly the opposite way about the question.

This is probably one of those hopeless debates like "New Balance Sneakers, or Birkenstocks?" that is really about what your particular body requires.

Zack 364,

I have to sleep on a futon. My type of arthritis demands zero give or jostle beneath me so the solid unyielding surface of a futon is the only thing that has worked. Even high end brand new spring mattresses causes things to shift out of alignment and I wind up going snap pop crack through the night. We have used the same one for 20 years and annually beat it with my cane, very stress relieving, to even out to fill. Vacuum once a week with the power head takes care of the common allergen issues.

On the matress question. When my Reiter's was near it's worst I took a pass from Walter Reed and went to my uncle's place.

He gave us his bed. It had one of the Swedish Memory Foam mattresses.

Horrid. I was trapped, to roll over (which I had to do, because my body weight hurt joints; all my joints, even things one tends to not think of as joints), I had to climb the mattress.

Oh, and I'm for neither birks, or new balance. The one feels like I'm wearing rocks, and the other as if I am going to fall on my face.

I'm a no-futon person. I spent last night on one, and the mattress it came with was less than six inches thick and givey enough that I could feel the frame of the futon through two blankets beneath me. It depends on the type of futon and the type of mattress, of course. The steel futon my parents got years ago has broken, been repaired as much as possible without welding, and now has no mattress in some places and no frame in others. Futons are sort of like Ducks to me, too in-between to function as either.

If you get a twin bed, you can make it up neatly, put some pillows against the wall, and call it a couch. I've seen it done, and I think I'd rather have a bed than a bed-and-couch; I'm going to be there every night, and how often will I have people over? I've also heard of parties where guests were asked to bring their own seating because the host hadn't enough.

Diatryma 369: I'm a no-futon person. I spent last night on one, and the mattress it came with was less than six inches thick and givey enough that I could feel the frame of the futon through two blankets beneath me. It depends on the type of futon and the type of mattress, of course.

So it wasn't the pea,
It wasn't the pea,
It wasn't the pea at all!

Debbie@353: that machine may be able to handle things like twill, denim, fleece, and medium-to-heavy weight cotton OK. You may have to play around with tension and needles on scraps first

I tried some lightweight cotton. It bunched up when the thread went through it. Maybe that was just because the tension on the thread was too high so it sucked up the thread and cinched the cloth? I should probably just have my sewing friend come over and get some of the basics out of the way.

abi@354: I bet that sews leather something sweet.

I was thinking one of my projects would be a leather holster for my paintball gun, or a leather ammo belt. But I recently switched to a paintball rifle, so I will probably use it to sew together some sort of webgear sling. If I can figure it out.

Carol@355: Motor on back GOOD.

Oh good. I've been known to make some dumb purchase decisions before, not knowing what I'm doing and all.

First project: how about a circus tent?!

Hm. I'd be happy if I could just get a belt to look right. I'm currently at the level of "macaroni art" as far as skill goes.

Bill@358: Maybe you should seek the services of a life coach.

Not knowing what I'm doing isn't a problem. It's a way to remind myself of 'beginners mind'. The time it becomes a problem is when I get too many irons in the fire and can't make any progress in any of them. Which has happened more than once before.

Serge@359: "I've sewn things you people wouldn't believe."

I sewed zigzag seams in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.

And lemme tell ya something, that wasn't easy.

Mattresses are a very personal thing. Each body has its needs but it not something you should ever skimp on. Sleep is too critical so always get the best you can afford.
Our futon was a gift. Queen size. It was custom made, 10 inches thick, no foam layers, 100% cotton throughout, hand sewn with sail cloth cover. After 2 decades it has compressed down to 5 inches but still works perfectly. Lord do I love the fact that it will not trap moisture against your body in hot humid summer.

I used a futon for 18 months while living in an apartment in Japan, mostly because the bedroom was three-tatami size, meaning I couldn't have fit an American-style bed in there for love or money. This was your basic tri-fold cheapo variety, not the kind with a frame (one of those is directly behind me right now, folded into couch form). Maybe it had to do with the tatami matting, but it was pretty comfortable. It might also have had something to do with being 23 years old and resilient.

For the first two weeks or so that I lived in Tucson after moving back from Japan I used the same futon on a cement floor, and it was less comfortable and cold as the dickens (January in southern Arizona is not a warm place).

Janet Brennan Croft, #301, I buy my cat litter in boxes, which usually join the other deconstructed boxes in the city's cardboard recycling dumpster. They do, occasionally, hold paper I've shredded and then I put them in the transfer station's mixed paper/books/newspapers/cardboard dumpster (which gets emptied more often and allows paper). The cat litter, Swheat Scoop, also comes in bigger bags at a slightly better unit price, but even sitting down, I have trouble handling the bags and waste litter.

EClaire, #304, Along with Freecycle is Craigslist. My local Freecycle is run by a crazy woman, so I use Craigslist instead.

Sewing - I loved sewing, but had to give my sewing machine (and thread and feet and bobbins and and and) away some years ago. They take two hands to use and I need one to stabilize myself at the table.

Futons - it depends on the thickness of the futon and how tightly it's filled and what it's filled with as well as your own body situation. I have two futons -- one is the mattress on my bed-with-drawers-underneath and the other is on the couch/bed frame in the workroom that used to be part guestroom. I don't have trouble sleeping on either of them. I do have trouble with the memory foam topper the rheumatologist made me put on the bed futon. Like Terry, I have trouble turning over with it, and it doesn't seem to be making much difference for my bilateral greater trochanter bursitis.

Shoes - I wear slippers most of the time because I have gout and shoes hurt. I have two pairs of shoes (the same style, one white and one black) and one pair of sandals because my feet are too long and narrow and not many shoes are made in my size. I'd like to have red and green and purple shoes.

(You know one of the things I love Preview for? Words I couldn't remember before and wrote around frequently turn up as I read the preview and I can put them in the post. In this one, "both-sided" turned to "bilateral.")

Diatryma: The futon is the pad, not the frame. In the states, for some reason, the standard arrangement is for a wooden frame of some sort (often adjustable to a couchlike seat).

In Japan, the futon is just flat on the floor, and can be folded (they don't roll well) to make more space, when so desired.

Terry Karney @#368:

Oh, and I'm for neither birks, or new balance. The one feels like I'm wearing rocks, and the other as if I am going to fall on my face.

Not so much New Balance as no-balance, hm? I'm sure there are many people for whom neither shoe type is comfortable--but they both have that reputation as magically fixing all foot problems.

Mary, they bought in the Firefly render engine, so maybe they don't have people who understand it. The dynamic hair and cloth sections are even worse.

Thanks, Terry-- I knew that, but wasn't quite up to making the distinction. I had assumed that the plan was a futon and frame, for being made couchlike, but I guess it can be couchlike without the frame. I haven't looked into futon prices more than a glance at Amazon, but it looks like metal ones, like the one my family's destroyed, are cheaper in both senses of the word. My experience with futons is definitely influenced by the reasons they were bought-- not enough money for both couch and bed and wanting both, saving money for broke grad school living, et cetera.

Then again, I sleep on a twenty-dollar bed and mattress from a garage sale.

Dave Bell@377

The Firefly render engine sounds fine. As long as Kaylee comes with it...

Marilee @#374: bed-with-drawers-underneath

IIRC, the term is a "captain's bed".

A trick I got from Grandpa is to put plywood between a mattress and its box spring.

Dave Bell @ 377... Dynamic hair?

Serge @381:
Dynamic hair?

Think Medusa and her fellow Gorgons.

Greg, if you have a fabric store somewhere in your area, ask them about sewing classes. They'lll probably be using home-type machines, but the basics should still apply. (If you're lucky, you'll have an actual sewing-machine store with classes.)

abi... I really need to rest if I find myself thinking, not of the Medusa, but of my own chevelure in the morn. True, there isn't much left of it for it to be very dynamic, but it looks dynamic if you pretend it's freeze-framed.

Linkmeister (#356): Despite my gripes, Prescott is still a beautiful place. We live on the north side (the nice forested hills to the south had a big fire a few years after we moved here, so I'm just as glad to be in a homelike condo unit in a place where the trees and shrubs are surrounded by gravel and stones of various sizes).

From the window by this computer I can see mountains across a broad plain, and closer to home there are currently flowering trees, handsome shrubs (can't bring myself to use the word "bush" these days), and glimpses of wildlife -- including the occasional cotton tail rabbit, covey of quail, and roaming lone coyote. Not all *that* far past the aforementioned shopping center is a lake with a walking trail; just getting driven past it after some trip to the mall, I can see that it's nearly full after years of drought. The antelope herd that used to roam the grasslands near there seems to have moved on, but it sure beats an endless series of parking lots.

So for anyone fortunate enough to still have their pins, this is a pretty good place to live.

Terry at 365: it's been my experience as a martial arts instructor that people who wear shoes all the time tend to develop damaged feet more quickly than people who go barefoot. (This is assuming no major medical foot conditions. IANAD.) I have had my share of foot problems as I get older but my feet are quite serviceable, thank you, and I think it's because at the dojo I'm barefoot and at home the first thing I do is take off my shoes. I get a lot of younger students, children, even, with bad feet and also with no kinesthetic sense in their feet. As a result, they have poor balance, poor leg stance and posture, and their knees can be damaged very easily.

On the other hand, foot problems can often be avoided by getting good shoes. By good shoes I mean shoes that support you and fit your feet, and in which you are comfortable. I prefer EasySpirit brand shoes, but not all of them work for me. Reebok Classics fit me perfectly. I haven't worn high heels in 30 years. Dropped heel shoes (Birkenstocks, etc.) make my feet hurt and can exacerbate plantar fasciitis.

Good shoes have deep value.

Faren, #343: "As a reviewer, my recycling problem is galleys. Some years ago, I used to donate them to libraries, but then I was told that was a no-no. Now they sit in cardboard boxes all over the bedroom (along with the "keeper" galleys that also sit in cardboard since I've long run out of shelf space). To give things to recyclers, I guess I should tear off every single cover so someone else wouldn't grab and try to resell them."

I really don't get why publishing people are often so hot to prevent the resale of galleys, a futile task at any rate. The reviewers to whom galleys are mailed are hardly overpaid. Nobody buys a bound galley as a substitute for buying the book. (Okay, I'm sure it happens occasionally, but the actual effect on book sales is microscopic.) In general, I take a very dim view of the practice of mailing people something in the hope that they'll review it, then getting all shirty with them and trying to claim that it's not their property to do with as they like. I think it's legally dubious and morally ridiculous.

Dave Bell @#377: Yeah, I've played around with Firefly and the hair and cloth, but I haven't wanted to put the effort into learning them when I have a better tool for the same stuff. Firefly is really slow. Poser 7 has some cool morph tools, though - not quite up to Zbrush-level, but good for the price. And the Miki figure is pretty nice (she's an add-on, but worth it). My next project will be to make some stuff for her, if I ever finish my current project. I'd like to write more tutorials, but I have stories to work on, and meshes to make, so that's not very high on my list. Once you make the jump to making money from the hobby, it's harder to spend the time to do things for free.

The bad manual problem is, I think, because they're doing stuff on a shoestring--certainly P5 was done with the sword of Damocles hanging over the team. My impression is that the e-frontier buyout really shored up the product a lot, but that doesn't mean they wanted to go all crazy and hire something as luxurious as a tech writer. And now there's been another buyout, so we'll see what happens.

David Harmon, #380, yeah, I know that's the real name, but none of my bedroom furniture is particularly nautical. I've been really pleased with having a drawer I can open while I'm in bed and get things I need from. The other drawers store things/clothes I don't need often.

Lizzy L, #386, my shoes are Easy Spirit AP1. They're not quite narrow enough without thick socks, but they're designed to wear socks with. The sandals I have are from a designer who actually makes a few shoes in size 10AAAA, 7A heel. Unfortunately, the only flats are the sandals, but it does give me sandals.

As someone whose last few years have been plagued with foot pain out of proportion to the extent to which I'm out of shape and overweight, I think I need someone to give me a quick clinic in how to find and buy really good shoes. I have the money, just not the expertise.

Patrick @390: I went to a podiatrist in my teens when I had a lot of foot pain, and he did me a world of good. A doctor can x-ray your foot and see if you've got arthritis, a badly placed nerve cluster, a spur, or something else. That in turn, will point the way to the right shoes or orthodic insert thingies. Otherwise you might just end up spending $150 on a pair of shoes that doesn't fix your particular problem.

If you feel like spending $150, Zappos.com is a good place to buy shoes--free shipping in both directions, so returns are easy, and they carry Clarks & Born etc. There's also a store called The Walking Company (they have a website too) that has several brands, and locations around the country where you can try stuff on. They carry a lot of the nerd brands (speaking as a Clarks devotee).

abi, #352: One very large problem I have with IKEA is that they sell modular stuff, designed to be adapted to your needs -- but by the time your needs have changed and you need more of it, or different pieces, it's gone. That's not "deep value" to me, and it also completely defeats the concept of modularity because you have to decide right now which pieces you might need 2 or 5 or 10 years down the road, and store them against that need. I've been burned 2 or 3 times by this.

On futons: I've slept on some that were quite comfortable, and others that weren't. A wooden frame and a thin pad are (to my body) fungible with sleeping on the floor, and I wake up feeling elderly and needing two Advil in order to move. The steel-framed one in our living room, with a solid 4" pad, is perfectly acceptable; I sometimes sleep out there when I'm sick and don't want my partner breathing my germs all night. IMO they are much more suitable, as convertible sleeping space, than the common alternatives (daybed, sleeper sofa).

Lizzy, #386: I've always gone barefoot, or worn light sandals/slippers, around the house; during warmer weather, I also wear surfer flops for casual wear. About 12 years ago, I suddenly started having trouble with my littlest toes becoming painful while wearing my work shoes (mostly low-heeled pumps or flats, and I hadn't just bought a bunch of new ones either) -- and not recovering quickly even when I got home and kicked the shoes off. At this point, the only closed-toe shoes I have are various forms of sneakers and one or two pairs of loafers. Fortunately, the weather in Houston is clement enough that for all but a couple of months in the year, I don't need to wear anything dressy that isn't open-toed. But I still wonder what caused that change.

I spent some time in the 1990s searching for sneakers that were all black and wouldn't wear out in under a year, and I've been loyal to New Balance ever since I discovered them.

(Katie has a futon, I have a mattress, and while the futon is not impossible for me, I much prefer the mattress.)

Lizzy L. Yeah, barefoot seems to make a big difference. That and, as you say, having good shoes. I find that a show which has enough resilience to let my feet reshape them, with a tolerable ease, will do well.

When I was running a lot (40-60 miles in a week), I discovered Reeboks were no good. I'd kill them in about two-weeks, and after three-four my knees started to complain. When I tried Asics, that problem went away. That was when I really started to pay attention to secondary indicators for shoe wear.

I also found that I could sit sieza a lot more easily when I spent less time in shoes.

Patrick (#387): Thanks for that comment on galleys. (The "no-no" actually came from my columns' editor, not someone in book publishing.) I may offer some of them as give-aways after all.

Terry Karney @ 394... barefoot seems to make a big difference. That and, as you say, having good shoes

Do exercise shoes qualify? They have good soles, don't bind my feet tightly. And they're all I ever shod my feet with, even to work, a decision I made after a trip to the main office in San Francisco wound up involving a lot of walking and my proper shoes caused bloody blisters that made perambulation unpleasant.

Patrick — have you considered orthotics? I got fitted for a pair about a year ago and have been amazed and delighted by the reduction in foot pain since I've been wearing them.

Serge: Sadly, good shoes are something odd. What works for one, doesn't work for all.

If you are comfortable in them, and your hips and joints aren't hurting then you are probadly ok.

Do you have irritating callouses? Are certain types of activity (running, etc.) not comfortable in them?

If the answer is no, then I'd not worry about it For some thing, discomfort in other things (running in dress shoes is never going to be much fun) isn't a big deal, so take that into consideration.

Terry Karney @ 398... No calluses. I don't jog (aside from my memories once in a while), but my workout at the gym involves leg presses, and my hips, knees and ankles have never protested. Walking in those shoes is fine too (although my sister-in-law thinks I'm nuts to walk the many miles from her house in the Oakland Hills all the way down to the Rockridge BART Station).

Having recently spent ten days on vacation in Japan, mostly staying in traditional inns (ryokan/minshuku), I feel compelled to point out that their futons are very different from the dense wooden-framed objects typically sold as "futons" in the US (and probably other elsewheres). At least in their current incarnations, Japanese futons reminded me more of featherbeds: rather floofy objects that resemble an extra-thick comforter (or duvet/doona, depending on regional English dialect). Some places had extra futons to be stacked up, if necessary, but generally I found a single layer to be adequate on a tatami floor. (The tatami mats are about an inch thick. Legendarily, they're dense enough to stop arrows; I'm not sure how the underfoot flexibility of wall-to-wall carpeting would compare.)

Some of the rooms were small enough that there was barely room to lay out two futons side by side, so folding them back into the stoage closet was necessary during the day; the futons were flexible enough that they could be folded either into letterfold thirds or perpendicular fourths, although the closets' size tended to dictate the former. We also saw some households hanging their futons out the window or over the balcony to air out during the day, which would be both difficult and futile with Western-style futons. Also, almost everyone had long poles installed over their balconies for air-drying their laundry, even in the large cities; in one case, I even saw some sort of wall-propped laundry rack extending out the window of a balcony-less apartment. Annoyingly, a lot of "community standards" in the US ban outdoor laundry racks as unsightly objects.

Mary Aileen @ 325 (on home-grown yogurt):

Do you find that you have to start over every so often with a fresh batch? My mother says the yogurt flavor gets stronger every time she makes it, so that eventually it's too strong.

I have to start over again periodically if I let the culture sit in the fridge too long between re-culturing and it picks up "undesirable organisms" (as we say at work). I fudge the sterility/simplicy balance on the simplicity side (i.e., don't heat the milk to scalding and don't scald the containers immediately before filling) so there's an inherent, if small, risk of introducing undesired environmental bugs into the process, at which point I just pick up a fresh culture. If I didn't have the supermarket available as a culture source, I'd have to worry a lot more about contamination issues.

I've never had a problem with the culture changing performance due to aging, per se. But then, since the culture is bacterial, you don't have issues with cell-line aging. (You have to understand that my job involves mammalian cell culture, so my brain tends to go off in odd directions from this topic.) But there's definitely a potential for a shift in the culture balance or the introduction of new organisms, with the likelihood increasing over time, which is most likely what your mother is observing.

Mary Dell: Thanks for your the comments on tech writing and open source. That does help me understand.

My interest is somewhat complicated in that I mostly work on libraries, so while the "end user" is, I believe, still a different documentation audience than the developers, it's difficult to make a library shiny enough for random folks to get excited about. Another lesson about needing to (also) work on an actual application non-developers can use; that "build it and they will come" doesn't work with a technology layer, especially in open source.

David Harmon @ 336: I know tech writers both able and willing to work from source code are rare, but you're right to bring it up in this context. That I work so much with API documentation for libraries probably biases me* there, and I do clarify bad docs by reading the source, or just by experimentation.

The deep value of Linux, and open source software in general, is that you could in theory fix it yourself, or take it to someone who could, if you wanted to. Not that one generally does. I live with bugs and infelicities in the software I use every day too. But it comes, as Madeline F (@ 18) said, with "circuit diagrams and repair manuals". It's not a black box you just have to throw away when you can't use it any more.

Thanks for your comments too.

-----
* But there is the story of a guy I met in Hermosa Beach once. He described is job as "every couple of weeks, they mail me a new VCR, and I mail them back a manual for it." Sounded good like a good setup, if repetitive.

Patrick, if your feet don't hurt when you don't wear shoes, you need to find shoes that fit. A good (expensive) shoe store should help you with that. If your feet hurt when you're barefoot, see the podiatrist who will check your feet.

Something to consider is that all shoes are not the same shape, even when they're the same official size. I can wear some brands of athletic shoes, but others are too narrow, enough so that a minute or two tells me not to buy them.

Buying shoes in the afternoon or evening is something I've seen recommended, because your feet will be larger then than they are in the morning.

Libraries have Deep Value.

This deep value permeates the atmosphere like the fragrance of old books. In time, it seeps into the librarians themselves, through their very pores. Anyone who knows librarians—or is a librarian— knows this.

abi,

this one is for you.

Also available in t shirt form.

;)

Also bear in mind that your feet may not actually be the same size or configuration as each other. In my case, my arches are in significantly different locations and of differing height. Ghu knows why it took me until I was in my late forties to have this fact revealed to me by a Rockport sales guy. Result: I try to have as little to do as possible with shoes that contain aggressive arch support. Other result: my left foot/ankle cramps up about half an hour before my right.

joann is right that a lot of pairs of feet don't quite match. Pay attention to width as well as length, too.

Also, marilee is right that severe pesistent foot pain should be mentioned to your doctor; causes can range from the easily fixed, like shoes that aren't quite right, to the annoying but essentially benign, like a Morton's neuroma*, to the serious and in need of immediate treatment, such as neuropathy.

*We run to these in my family; a too-narrow shoe can significantly exacerbate this problem--and it doesn't have to be significantly too narow, either.

abi: I think (looking at our various library things) that a lot of us here, are librarians. We don't tend to think of it that way, but we are. Some of my various griefs (and simmerings of less than good blood with people I otherwise both like, and love) have to do with grave breaches of trust/faith in regards to books.

Christopher Davis @ 285: Thanks. 'stty dec' doesn't seem to do anything. 'export TERM=mach-color' fixes the delete vs. backspace issue, but messes up cursor positioning and color in curses application on the Linux side. Progress of a sort I guess.

I'm confused why Apple chose TERM=xterm-color when their upper-right key is delete instead of backspace. Is this a keyboard layout with deep value and Linux broke?

Ralph Giles @410: I have better luck with `export TERM=xterm' when I'm using remote Linux machines from my Mac (it's actually in my .bashrc), though (of course) it means I don't get some color, eg. with ls. YMMV.

(Some people get sloppy with grammar or spelling when they're tired. I get sloppy with parentheticals. Sigh. Bed now, more talk in the morning.)

The key to finding good shoes, in my experience, is finding the right shoe shop, with the right kind of shoe salesperson.

For the record, I have rather odd shaped feet, so that it is quite difficult to find well fitting shoes. And I won't wear shoes that aren't well-fitting. I also have little patience for shopping, so I need a store that will quickly get me to the right type of shoe.

I've lost jobs over this issue, with bosses who considered lace-up black leather shoes "unprofessional" for women (called them "sneakers"!), and who demanded a doctor's note if I was to wear them. Of course, I had no doctors note, since I have no foot problems, since I only wear shoes that fit properly. And I won't wear bad fitting shoes to the point where I develop problems enough to get a note for a genuine foot problem. Or ask a doctor to write a note for otherwise healthy feet, since if I have problems in the future, I don't want my insurance company thinking it is a "pre-existing condition."

Good signs:

1. You have to take a number to get helped - they expect you to work with a salesperson to choose the right shoe. The shoes, except for display pieces, are stored in the back, and the salesperson will bring you the shoes to try on. Not a discount store, or a do-it-yourself set up.

2. The store sells only shoes, and perhaps socks. Not a department store. All they care about is quality shoes.

3. The salesperson assumes they will measure your foot, using those heavy metal things with sliding bits. They measure both length and width, and for length they pay attention to the distance from your heel to the widest point on your foot, as well as the total length of your foot. (So the shoe doesn't curve in to the toe too soon.)

4. The salesperson asks you to stand as your foot is measured (because it helps your foot line up more accurately on the measuring gizmo.)

5. The shoes are kept in the back, where the salesperson finds the right size and style for you to try on.

6. The store is set up with displays and lots of comfortable seating - not sofas, but chairs you can get in and out of easily, as you try shoes, then get up to walk around in them. Not rows of shelves.

7. The salesperson brings out at least two sizes of the shoe you want, perhaps as many as six sizes (going up and down in both length and width) plus they may bring shoes that look similar in a different style for you to try, based on their knowledge of how the shoe styles fit different shaped feat.

8. The salesperson will help you into the shoe, lacing it up once it is on your foot, and perhaps changing how it is laced based on how your foot is shaped. (You should see the little stools for the salesperson to sit on, with the angled bit for you to rest your foot on as they adjust the shoe. There should be several of these, set up so that you can clearly see that they are routinely used.)

9. The salesperson will want you to wear both shoes of the pair, and walking around a bit with them on.

10. The salesperson will feel the outside of the shoe, with your foot in it, to feel for toe room and tight spots.

11. The salesperson will ask you questions about how the shoe feels, as you are trying it, and use that information to suggest other options, if needed.

12. Some stiffness in the shoe is okay, and will be broken in. Tight spots are not okay.

13. The salesperson will know about the various adhesive pads that can be put in shoes, and suggest them as needed to help improve the fit. (For example, if you have a wide toe and a narrower heel, a pad at the back of your heel will help improve the fit, and a pad on the tongue of the shoe will help keep your foot from sliding forward.)

14. Laces are your very best friend after the lovely salesperson. They can adjust the fit of a shoe a great deal, allowing snug support without tight spots.

15. Real leather uppers are your next-best friend. It will take the shape of your foot, and with a bit of polish and brushing, it will stay nice for years.

16. When you find the right shoes, take care of them. You want to polish them regularly. First brush the shoe, to remove any dust and dirt, and use a damp cloth to wipe off any dried on salt that doesn't brush off. Then apply paste polish to the leather, working it in very well. Finally, brush again, to bring some shine to the polished leather. Finally, buff with a soft, clean cloth. Working the fat of the polish into the leather on a regular basis will keep the leather from drying out and cracking, help keep your shoes water-resistant, as well as keeping the color even and deep, hiding any scuffs.

(My father used to line up all of our shoes on the weekend, giving them a good polish. We kids never had more than one pair of shoes at a time, and they lasted until we outgrew them. My parents generally had two pairs - one brown, one black. Good shoes deserve good maintenance, and good maintenance will let you enjoy your shoes for a good long time.)

If you find a shoe salesperson that does a good job, get their name, and ask for them when you go back to the store. Odds are, they are on commission, and will go the extra mile for the promise of repeat business. And the right salesperson will change the experience from painful to easy, and is worth going back to.

One more specific point on shoes: width can make a big difference, but a surprising number of salesmen and stores don't pay attention. It may be worth hunting down manufacturers (New Balance is one) that make multiple widths, and stores that stock and know how to sell them...

Persistent foot pain: Check for surface conditions too! It took me far too long to realize that, after getting orthotics for my "duckwalking", my remaining pain was from dry skin!

Due to generally low income and a somewhat scattered disposition, I tend to compromise by buying things that I'll run through from people who've gotten tired of them. I pick up thrift store clothing, sorting out the one or two good items from the dollar sales, and replace my computer every couple of years with whatever is currently about five years old and thus cheap. When I run through stuff, it sometimes winds up back at the thrift store, or garage sale, or curbside with a "FREE" sign. I think of myself as a sort of vulture in the life cycle of mass-produced objects, and take pride in acquiring ones that actually will work better for my purposes than anything new.

But I also grew up with an underlying sense that stuff is transient; at any point it may suffer damage, or have to be jettisoned quickly in a lifestyle change. The best bicycle I ever had was stolen a few weeks after I bought it, and since then I've ridden junk bikes. If I were rich, I'd buy well-made coats but stick to used shirts, and I might go for a top-of-the-line desktop, but I wouldn't care to spring for a pricy laptop -- just based on the likelihood of loss or damage.

And, I'll add, some of my favorite things are diamonds in the rough: I had a pair of winter-lined work boots, fairly well-worn when I found them, that had miraculously been broken in by feet somewhat like mine -- they treated me quite well for three winters, before finally giving up the ghost this February, and they cost $14 at a vintage shop.

Regarding shoes: the most comfortable pair I've had was by Ecco, but it only lasted a year, and those things are expensive. Still, I contemplate buying others -- they were really, really comfortable.

One more comment on foot pain: if you experience sharp pain in the sole of your foot with the first few steps in the morning, but then it gradually feels better--don't ignore it. You may have plantar fasciitis, which is quite easy to treat in its early stages with physical therapy (mainly exercises and stretches, which will also prevent recurrence), but can be a nightmare if left too long, leading to bone spurs and other permanent nastiness.

(Disclosure: I'm a physical therapist assistant. My husband was one of those people who ignored his plantar fasciitis for about a year. No bone spurs, but treatment was longer and more expensive than it had to be.)

A.J. Luxton, how're you doing? Haven't seen you in a while!

#412: I've read that if you have decent leather shoes, they will last much more than twice as long if you have (at least) two pairs and alternate which day you wear them so they can "breathe" properly on the day you aren't wearing them.
(This doesn't apply to children's shoes which will be grown out of whether looked after or not, and it assumes that worn soles and heels are repairable.)

418: Each pair should last at least twice as long, since they would be worn half as much :)

I would hope that my shoes would have enough time to catch their breath while I was sleeping (not wearing my shoes to bed).

abi@4:It's the time it takes to load the recycling onto my bike that bugs me. I think I need removable panniers.

Holy smokes, how on earth have you been managing your grocery/recycling runs until now? Anyway, I have a pair of these, and they're great. They even hook over the side of the shopping cart.

Rikibeth@56:The Diva Cup even says you need the larger size if you're over 30, child or no child, because of natural loss of muscle tone.
I'm here to tell you they're WRONG.

I'm here to second that motion. I'm 30 and can't even wear the smaller size. :( It's a great pity, because I'd love to ditch the pads. I've tried the flannel pads, but they didn't work well for me--I'd set them to soak as I used them, so I ended up having a Bucket O' Yuck in my bathroom one week out of the month. Guests do not appreciate being faced with the Bucket O' Yuck.

rikibeth@74:I know that if my cat threw up on MY wool blanket (not a Hudson Bay, just a common blanket from probably the middle of the last century) in the wintertime, I'd sponge it off as best I could and drape it over the shower curtain rod while it dried, rather than trying to wash the whole thing.

I've got a couple of wool throws, and I've successfully laundered them many times. (My housemate and I each have a boy cat. Even though they're neutered, they still feel the need, the need for pee.) Run 'em through on gentle cycle, COLD WATER for wash and rinse. (It's the heat that makes wool seize up.) I use this stuff*; it's bloody marvelous. Set the spin cycle as high as it'll go, then spread them out to air-dry. It's my opinion that wool is a lot less fragile than people think. Just keep it out of the dryer, and it's all good.

*Check out the rest of that site (rivbike.com) for more deep value and bike awesomeness. *sigh* Ah, if I only had $2500 to spend on a bike...

It's my opinion that wool is a lot less fragile than people think. Just keep it out of the dryer, and it's all good.

With wool, like silk, it's not that you're going to destroy the fabric; it's just that you're going to change it.

Even in cold water, too much agitation can make the wool felt, but a little bit of felting is not a horrible problem. It's a bigger deal with store-bought silk stuff, because often the sizing and stuff that you take out by water washing is part of what makes the item look like it does. This is why I avoid buying anything that's dry clean only--I have better things to do with my time and money.

abi: I have to second the question on panniers. Maia would go nuts without removable ones (me, I have a hard time riding with them, but I can manage a lot of backpack, which Maia says puts her off balance they panniers seem to throw me off).

It's my opinion that wool is a lot less fragile than people think. Just keep it out of the dryer, and it's all good.... and

Even in cold water, too much agitation can make the wool felt.

The spin cycle can be a problem for knitted garments. Even "washable" wool can be stretched considerably. Ask me how I know. :( Now I'm wondering if a little felting/shrinking action would solve the problem....

I've just upgraded our pannier infrastructure from the local bike shop. My haul:

- a rack for the one bike lacking it (the one with the tagalong, which is used to take the 4 year old to school in the mornings. Shopping on the way home will suddenly become possible.). Because the bike is American and the parcel shelf Dutch, some of the mounting was done with zip ties* rather than screws.

- A messenger bag laptop case whose back unzips to reveal rack-mounting hardware. My new work bag.

- 2 very sturdy and beautiful dismountable shopping panniers. They look to be heavier canvas than the ones Nicole linked to. Although they don't hook onto the shopping cart, they don't need to. I can wheel it right to where my bike is parked at the grocery store†.

The old permanently mounted silver panniers will now drop to the bottom of the queue of valued bags. They're pretty shredded after a year's commute, because they tended to brush against the chain a lot. I imagine they'll eventually come to stay one one of the bikes, shabby but indispensable.

-----
* Zip ties are amazing fasteners. I only started using them for bike mountings last year, and am smitten. I know they're not reusable like webbing straps, but they are indestructible and wonderful anyway.

† The bike racks are under the eaves, as I have seen in many countries. But the eaves are designed to shelter the entire bike, and the person loading the panniers as well. Wonderful.

Aw, drat, forgot that I also got panniers for Fiona (4)'s bike. They're pink and purple and floral; she desperately wanted them.

I don't know that we'll leave them on for the first wee while after we take the training wheels off this summer, but pannier-bearing is a necessary skill here. (Sorry, Terry.)

abi: No need to apologise. The fault is mine. I suspect it's two things: Too long not on a bike regularly (so that I feel vulnerable) and too long without them. I tend to like to go quickly, and depend on gyroscopic stability. That's fine (though I have to work more) for going quickly with an off-balancing (to my mind) load.

But it's hell when I'm going slowly.

Thanks for all the shoe advice. I have in fact had plantar fasciitis, and used orthotics for a couple of years while getting over it. And my current shoes are New Balances. But I think I need something better.

On the subject of fountain pens...

I've been cleaning out my desk at work in preparation for moving to temporary quarters, and discovered a fountain pen, sans nib, that I must have brought in years ago and never used, so I borught it home and established that some of the nibs I had stashed away (waiting for me to find the pen they belonged to) fit.

However, the ink cartridges I also had in my desk had dried out. So now I am in need of ink.

The pen brand is Platignum, no model number that I can see. It looks like a relatively cheap pen form (blue plastic). There's an empty refillable cartridge in the pen, so I can go with cartridges or refillables. The cartridges I threw out were Pelikan 4001s in a variety of colors, and I'm assuming they fit in this pen, though I didn't experiment. This is not the only fountain pen I've owned, as I've occasionally dabbled in (very messy) calligraphy.

I don't know much about fountain pens. As a beginner, should I try bottled ink or cartridges? What brand? Would I be likely to find this at an art supply store or an office supply store, or would I be better off ordering online (or is there a good store someone can recommend in NY - Southern Westchester county).

I want to play around with this pen until I get comfortable with it before moving on to a better one.

CarrieS@421, Debbie@423: I forgot to mention that I have a front-loading machine, so there's no agitator to felt things up or stretch things unnecessarily.

Hilary @ 428,

I recently went poking through my fountain and dip pens due to this thread, and came upon the Platinum desk pen I bought in Japan. Worried that I might not be able to get cartridges for it here in the US, I did a little googling. I found that Platinum pens are spottily available here (though not the nicer ones that I would want) and take only their own proprietary cartridges (feh), but the good news is that the cartridges are available here, in black, blue, and red, and they also have a piston converter that is also available in the US. Pendemonium carries all of the colors of cartridge as well as the converter. I haven't ever ordered anything from them, so I don't know if it's a good place to buy from or not, but their prices seem reasonable.

alsafi @ 430

Except my pen is a Platignum, not a Platinum. They seem to be two different companies.

I do have a refillable cartridge, should it come to that and I've also found the booklet that came with the pen, which indicates that the Pelikan 4001 cartridges were the correct ones for this pen. Now I just need to find a source.

Oh--my bad. I thought it was a typo.

That's okay. It confused me too when I started searching on the net.

Pendemonium seems okay. I bought a 4.5 oz Noodler's Violet Vote with a free cheapy Platinum eyedropper pen-- it's a good color and while I'd like the pen better were it better-looking, I can't argue with free. Shipping was prompt and drastically overpacked; I would have preferred corn starch packing peanuts rather than styrofoam.

I've also discovered that my Good New Shoes, which turned out to hurt my knees but be correctable, are wearing out. I bought them in January. Sigh.