08 Sep 2003 | the poster formerly known as fajalar said...

So you're the one who hasn't been stimulating the economy... ;)

08 Sep 2003 | Brad Hurley said...

Well, actually, these "things that last" just allow me more disposable income for buying stuff that seems to have to be replaced every few years, like computers and software... ;-)

08 Sep 2003 | reginald said...

I bought an Eclipse CD player for my car in 1991 - at the time, it was a few hundred dollars more than a Kenwood or Sony, but it has outlasted any of the CD players my friends have bought.

08 Sep 2003 | Don Schenck said...

My self-winding Timex watch ... it's 34 years old and still going strong.

08 Sep 2003 | brian w said...

Electrolux canister vacuum. My mother had owned it since the 60s but decided to trade up after it needed some repairs about a decade ago. Now we use it every week; it works like a dream. And she's gone through at least three vacuum cleaners since.

08 Sep 2003 | chris rhee said...

Sounds like a commercial. Nevertheless, I'm now an owner of a Braun coffee grinder, Patagonia clothing, a Honda Civic wagon and compact flourescent lightbulbs.

08 Sep 2003 | monkeyinabox said...

I sitll use my same Panasonic CD walkman from 1991. My moutain bike I bought in the same year, still gets lots of use. The last few years I've ridden it more and I can shock the local bike shops with it's "outdated components".

08 Sep 2003 | the poster formerly known as fajalar said...

Yeah, I still have my Cannondale from 1989. The only things changed are tires, one wheel, and all those cool stickers on it.

08 Sep 2003 | Gilbert said...

Just bought a Honda Odyssey. Made my wife promise that we will use that car until the wheels fall off. I'll tell you guys in 16 years if it was worth it :)

08 Sep 2003 | Brad Hurley said...

I'm now an owner of a Braun coffee grinder, Patagonia clothing, a Honda Civic wagon and compact flourescent lightbulbs.

Good, now I can collect my fees from those companies ;-)

Hey Don, I've got a pocket watch that was made in 1910; I picked it up for $30 at a flea market years ago and it keeps perfect time (as long as I remember to wind the sucker!)

09 Sep 2003 | One of several Steves said...

The alarm clock I had used since sixth grade finally crapped out a year or so ago. Most of my kitchen stuff is designed to last pretty much forever, and so far it does. Doubt I'll be replacing the Henkels knives, Calphalon cookware or KitchenAid appliances anytime soon.

Twelve-year-old bike still goes fine, with several upgrades, but I've decided to get a new one anyway. The gearing was fine for the flat land of the Midwest, but it's nearly useless in very hilly California. By the time I would upgrade all the components to get something that climbs without causing me to explode, I was halfway into a new bike.

Same mattress box spring for 10 years. Still feels great.

09 Sep 2003 | martin said...

Still use daily:

Braun electric razor that dates from the mid 1970s; Sanyo calculator that I bought at high school in 1978 (has original battery); 1993 Slingshot mountain bike.

Makes up for numerous electric frypans that die after about six months use, a Mitsubishi 1770H monitor that caught fire after a week and a Denon micro-system that wet its pants after a few months.

09 Sep 2003 | Corey said...

I had a Diamond Back Apex mountain bike that lasted ten years, the frame geometry was so great that nothing really appealed to me until the price to weight ratio dropped so far that temptation took over.

I still ride my 1992 Trek 1400 aluminum road bike. However every time I reach for the shifters on the downtube I realize I could lose my teeth and there's a better way to shift gears than letting go of the bars.

Gotta throw more love Honda's way. Those cars are fairly indestructable.

My PowerMac 8500/180 still burps out MP3 files, runs Linux, and will boot to the original rev of the Be Operating sytem for kicks. And it has onboard analog video and audio connections.

My circa 1994 HP Laserjet 5MP was a wise investment. IMHO nobody makes laser printers like HP.

My four year old black burmese feline from the Humane Society in Hinsdale, IL has required nothing but routine maintenance thus far, is reliable in the majority of the functions he serves: sleeping, nuzzling, the occasional quiet listening to outrage and stressed out kvetching.

09 Sep 2003 | One of several Steves said...

I still ride my 1992 Trek 1400 aluminum road bike. However every time I reach for the shifters on the downtube I realize I could lose my teeth and there's a better way to shift gears than letting go of the bars.

My road bike originally had those. Upgraded a few years ago to STI shifters (the ones integrated in the brake levers). Quite possibly the single greatest invention for bicycles ever. You can get a set for $150 or so (maybe less; haven't priced them individually for a while). If your original shifters were index shifters, they should work just fine. It's so much nicer to shift without throwing your center of gravity way, way off.

09 Sep 2003 | James said...

Swiss army knife, deluxe model. Bougth with my 12th birthday money. Can't recommend it enough.

09 Sep 2003 | andrew said...

Gray t-shirts from Foot Locker. 3 or 4 for 20 bucks and they last forever.

09 Sep 2003 | Adam said...

Great thread! My faves include a metal ruler that lasted longer than the tables I hacked it into as a child, Black Diamond Camalots, *any* bike frame made of chromo-moly steel, and Nalgene water bottles.

09 Sep 2003 | alisha said...

I still have my first purple patagonia fleece which was my first purchase after to moving to Aspen, Colorado to be a ski bum. Its one of my favorites. My girlfriend bought a russian army watch in Berlin which is 55 years old and rewinds itself by being worn.

09 Sep 2003 | p8 said...

I always try to buy products that last longer or products I know I'll still use in two years.

Some products get better and even look better because of wear: Wooden products like guitars and leather products like jackets/wallets. It also seems if you create an emotional bond with a product you'll keep it for a longer time.

I have seen some experimental products that use these to create environmentally better products A sofa that shows a new pattern because of wear, a leather PDA...
I couldn't find any links to examples.

09 Sep 2003 | Brad Hurley said...

Another thing about Patagonia: while hiking in winter a few years ago, I took a header off a trail and slid on my belly about 50 feet downhill on ice-encrusted snow and rocks, wearing a 10-year-old Patagonia guide jacket. The fall scraped most of the snaps off the coat. I sent it back and Patagonia replaced the snaps for free, and they even found snaps that matched the color of the coat despite the fact that they had long discontinued that model and don't use the color in any of their recent products. They've repaired or replaced several of my clothes over the years; unlike some companies they really mean it when they say their stuff is guaranteed for life.

09 Sep 2003 | Scorched said...

My Arc'teryx Theta AR jacket (tabasco orange) has been the single greatest thing I have ever owned. I've skied in it for the last three years from opening day to closing day. I've ridden in this jacket more than 300 days now, and it's as great as the day I bought it. It feels like going home when I put it on. It's something like love. Only without the harsh breakups.
The only other piece of gear that has given me so much happiness is my Santa Cruz Bullit. It's the most burly bike I could ever hope for. I have thrashed this thing for thousands of hours, logged hundred of thousands of vertical feet on it, and it's still in one piece. I've settled into the fact that it may be with my forever.

11 Sep 2003 | indi said...

I have a circa 1984 Commodore color monitor that takes standard video and audio inputs and was built to hook up to a C64, but I used it with an Atari 800 and later hooked up to a VCR. My wife wanted me to throw it out recently but I talked her out of it by hooking up an unused DVD player to it so our daughter can watch her DVDs in the playroom when her cousins visit. The damn thing still has great color fidelity and decent sound.

13 Sep 2003 | p8 said...

The Eternally Yours Foundation has been active in the field of product lifetime extension since 1996. It wants to find ways to help products age with dignity in cases where this is relevant for the environment. The main reason is that current practice leads to slumbering dissatisfaction with our material world. Many people loathe our 'throw-away society' in which lack of quality is taken for granted. The result is an enormous waste and needless destruction of value.

Paper by Peter-Paul Verbeek: Devices of Engagement.
An eternally yours contributer. Could be boring for some :)

"Devices decrease the effort that is needed to accomplish
things - that is why people use technologies. Devices do so by creating availability. For heating our houses, it is not necessary anymore to gather wood, chop it, et cetera. We simply adjust the thermostat, and heat is at our disposal.
The effort that was needed in a pre-technological situation is now delegated to the machinery of a device, namely, a central heating system, which is only present at the background of our experience. In this way, heat becomes a
commodity, which can be consumed without any involvement with the way in which it came about.
For Borgmann, this disburdening character is the key to the understanding of technology. In relieving peoples efforts to accomplish things, technologies change the nature of peoples involvement with reality. Devices invite an entirely
different way of dealing with themselves than pre-technological things. The effort people had to make to heat their houses created an intense form of engagement with reality: they had to chop wood, fill and clean the hearth, and sit around it together. A hearth was, in Borgmanns terms a focal thing: it was the focus of peoples attention. Heating their houses gave people an engaged way of
interacting with their world. A central heating system takes away this engagement. Rather than engagement, it produces consumption of the commodity heat.

By shaping peoples interactions with reality, according to Borgmann, technologies create a pattern in the way people live their lives. The commanding presence of things is increasingly replaced by the availability of commodities.
The manifold and engaging role things play in peoples everyday lives is reduced to one function, which is made available as commodity. Devices divide things into machineries and commodities. The inseparable connectedness with their context that characterizes things is delegated to their machineries, in order to allow people to enjoy their commodities as unconcernedly as possible. People
increasingly fill their lives with consumption instead of being engaged with reality. In this way, technology patterns peoples lives: it stimulates the replacement of engaged practices with the consumption of commodities. This
pattern of disengagement in peoples everyday lives Borgmann calls the device paradigm. His icon for explaining consumption as the technological way of taking up with reality is the couch potato - a person passively watching
television without being actively engaged with the reality that surrounds him or her.
According to Borgmann, this rise of consumption as a way of living forms the irony of technology. Whereas technology promised to disburden and enrich peoples lives, in fact it takes away peoples engagement with reality. Technologies fulfill their promise of enrichment and disburdenment in such a way, that the disburdenment they offer impedes true enrichment."

31 Jan 2005 | compatelius said...

bocigalingus must be something funny.

01 Feb 2005 | online pharmacy said...

I really appreciate blogs like this one becuase it is insightful and helps me communicate with others.
thanks.also, that guy billyz, I really need to talk to you about that cure you mentioned.