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Jury Riggers Unite!
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I vote yes!
I vote yes twice, just in case the server’s in Chicago, Memphis, or New Orleans!
Amen! Those screws with the funky heads that won’t let me open my electric tea kettle or my voltmeter are pure evil! We have the right to screws that can be unscrewed! Where do I sign up for the kludgers’ militia?
Let’s show the builders of non-repairable devices what we can do with zip ties and duct tape!
even you can remove those screws with funky heads! and do so cheaply!
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?category=&q=security+bit
Do you have a downloadable/printable version of this? I can put it up in my workshop (well, actually a corner with a bench).
http://www.ifixit.com/Manifesto <- not only downloadable, but ways to get it free/cheap
Thank You! was hoping there was a way to get a copy of this, now I need to find a place that will print it in a poster size. (FedEx/Kinkos will NOT print anything that remotely looks like it’s copyrighted….. )
Available here: http://www.ifixit.com/Manifesto
You can’t just save the image here and cut the bottom banner off with Paint? If you reduce the color quality, you can clean up the noise easily and make it any size you want. Save as a jpg and then just adjust your printer settings to make a full page of it.
Er…. working for a manufacturer of industrial equipment I’ld like to say no you don’t. Everything we make is EPA controlled, high voltage, explosive or some combination of the above. You want parts, assistance, wiring diagrams from us you had better be licensed and insured.
complete buzzkill.
absolutely
Yes, we do have the right…..
We do NOT have the right to sue the manufacturer for our own stupidity and/or incompetence. If I choose to kill myself while trying to fix something, that is none of your business.
Unfortunately, we do. That’s why the tort system needs to be fixed first.
I meant to say “we shouldnt have the right to sue….”
Should I do something supremely stupid there’s always the Darwin Awards
That’s dedication right there…
Being someone that repairs industrial equipment in a production facility; I must say that you WILL provide whatever it is the customer desires. Lest that tasty new $290,000 machining center we were thinking about buying four more of will suddenly change brand names and it will be your ass explaining why to the director of sales. Don’t treat your customers as incompetent, if they bought something you are unwilling to let them utilize fully, it is your fault that they don’t know how.
Industrial equipment. Do you manufacture anything that would be owned by a non-professional?
It’s obvious that anything that puts the life of the average handyman (someone that has a chance at succesfully repairing something moderately complex) in danger is out of the question. Industrial equipment is for INDUSTRIAL use. buzzkill…
Let’s be honest:
A simple electrical outlet puts a handyman in danger. Odds are he’ll be okay, but it’s still dangerous. “Someone could hurt themselves” as an excuse is shot in the foot the minute we accept that it’s legal to use electricity, drive, climb a ladder, lean out a window….
I guess you’ve never heard of the darwin awards…. *sigh* some day you will be internet savvy.
Umm, Duh?
They’re talking about being able to fix your own blender, dryer, or dishwasher, NOT High voltage industrial equiptment.
Seconded. Even though I *do* have the skill and knowledge to do the same or better, this “disposable society” crap has to end. Why buy a new microwave when it is a $8 part to restore it to good-as-new operating condition?
Because incompetence is American culture. “Why fix it yourself when you can just buy a new one at your own expense?” Welcome to capitalism, my friend…Don’t worry, we’ll do our best to somehow dilute democracy into this so you think you have a choice between monopoly #1 and monopoly #1. Welcome to the USA…
But sadly enough, once you boldly open your unplugged, smoky microwave, and the powerful capacitor inside stops your heart, your relatives will still be quite certain that they have won the lottery.
Yeah, but anything with something called a magnetron in it is just BEGGING to be explored!
But sadly there is no Megatron or Optimus Prime inside
Seriously though the magnetron/klystron assembly on an Air Search radar is HUGE compared to a microwave’s. (Louder too) I repaired those in the military but other than fuse replacement I won’t mess with one these days.
That’s why, if you’re going to screw around with basic electrical systems, you learn what you’re doing first. You see, the human brain is capable of acquiring new information and developing new skills.
You don’t need to wait for your owl from Hogwarts to learn about this stuff. The information is available to anyone.
That’s what a high voltage probe is for…
and microwave caps aren’t the worry at any rate.
You are a drone of a corporate entity, you are not a real engineer of progress…
This creed means nothing to you because you have been brainwashed into being an assembly-drone to serve your owner’s profit. Any job can talk the talk, but only the truly skilled can walk the walk. Between the book and the street, the street is always smarter…Books are references, not databases for “applied experience”.
Experience is earned, not learned.
My dad is an appliance repair tech, and pretty much the only thing I’d ask him to fix instead of asking him to tell me how to fix it is a microwave (only ’cause I’d probably be distracted by the giant magnets. <.<). Actually, both my dads are in repair-work, one working on appliances, and the other works with HVAC.
How come you got two useful dads and I got one useless one?
I laughed so hard it scared the dog…
Only if we want them from you.
If we scavenge them from similar discarded equipment, they’re downright free.
Yeah, right, until you’re outsourced.
Its the principle angela.
no no dont try talking sense to her… She’ll only come up with 50 ways youre wrong and talk down to you about how your inferior knowledge of electrical diagrams means you cant take apart your car or your computer or your bathroom tile floor… Youre just too stupid. Go buy new equipment and pay someone to do it for you. That’s the American way! laziness, stupidity, and the inability to count your own money…these are the qualities that our schools nurture in us and the government expects from us… how dare we let them down!
Yes, yes I am. I’m not arguing most of it. Fix your own stuff all you want. You own it after all. I fix my own electronics but I don’t expect help and I wait until after the warranty expires or *gasp* I will have voided it. Even though I know what I’m doing I’m not a professional and could mess something up and if I do it’s not the manufacturing company’s job to pay for my scew up. Plus being raised by an electrical engineer we have all the tools in the house to do things safely.
And if you’re going to do something large and potentionally dangerous yourself then please leave a note with your lawyer saying just that and don’t expect us to help. The company I worked for was sued because we provided a wiring diagram to someone’s uncle who decided to save $100 by doing something himself even though he had no electrical training and got himself killed. His estate made quite a pretty penny on the grounds that we ‘assisted’ him.
Of course the cynical among you will not doubt point out that our customers aren’t the end users, they’re the trained professionals who install and maintain this equipment and it’s in their best insterest that we only sell to licensed repair people.
I hear similar stories about not providing X because one time we were sued, yet no one can ever site the case.
You’re just running with the wrong crowd or maybe you landed in the wrong America, one in an alternate universe…
OUTSTANDING – A handyman’s Bill of Rights.
I propose adding an earmark to standardize cell phone chargers (incompatible old chargers consuming far too much of the world’s ‘junk drawer’ space).
Then crack a beer and drink to a damn good day’s work!
Already happening… European law means that all chargers and headsets/car-kits need to be interchangeable next year, I believe it is.
For all the pointless bickering our government is doing over pointless crap, I wish any single one of them would introduce that idea here in the US.
I have never had so much envy for anything european until this day.
I say that because I am currently running a 12 year-old cell phone and I have _yet_ to see one I like better. It’s survived wind, rain, inundation, and even been bounced off the highway a few times (I commute by motorcycle).
I have repaired it a few times over the years (minor stuff), but it’s getting harder and harder to find good chargers for it.
I don’t want to have to trade it in for some crappy skin-oil museum touch-screen smartphone! I have the internet where I want it! Best part? This phone won’t receive (or send, but really, even if it could, it wouldn’t) text messages!
I just want a phone that’s a phone and nothing else, and I don’t want to have to replace my perfect-for-me-and-my-lifestyle telephone just because the charger was outdated three months after production.
Well this won’t help you with your old phone, but the European law has had global consequences… most of the new models from European and Asian brands at least (don’t know about Motorola) are now shipping with standard jack-plug sockets for headphones and mini-USB sockets for power/data.
The *next* phone you get should be standardised…
Tell me about it.
I’ve got a Dec 2004 Nokia 1108, and after all the abuse its been through, it still works perfectly. Only the battery is due for a change, but that’s after 6 years.
They where going to do that, but (surprise, surprise) as soon as the government said that the industry started doing it on their own.
A little nudging goes a long way.
Even without law or policy, pretty much every phone made in the last 6 months to a year has USB Micro as it’s standard charger.
And the reason for that is…?
This is the result of the laws I was talking about!
@PaulH: You’re in luck! you can download various printable copies at ifixit: http://www.ifixit.com/Manifesto
Woo-hoo! Thank you!
It doesn’t make any sense. It argues that repairs are better than recycling, by pointing out that you have to mine new raw materials. How are those 2 related.
And if this site has shown us anything it is that kludges should make the warranty void, because people don’t have a clue
Repairing a Blender by replacing a fuse takes 1 fuse of material. replacing a whole blender takes 1 blender worth of material. So less mining is needed for 1 fuse, than 1 blender. Pretty straight foward.
And yes, the Kludge v. the Repair is pretty obvious line.
Mining a product for recyclable material is a waste. Separating your old blender into plastics and metals then cleaning and melting these into new products is a waste… Replacing the blown fuse is much simpler and less wasteful.
By “mine” they mean the recycling process of extracting raw materials like steel, aluminum, glass, and plastic back out of something as opposed to mining new raw materials from the earth.
There is a lot of people or machine time involved and energy used to seperate the materials and recycle them.
I’m printing this out on sticker paper so that I can stick one to my dad’s lunch box next time I visit him, and another to my computer case.
Any chance at a full size of this, or poster availability?
Don’t mind me, for some reason I couldn’t see any comments.
Right on! I want to send this to all of the major automobile manufacturers. I want a car that I can FIX when it goes wrong!
Buy a Japanese compact then. As a seasoned mechanic of many many years regardless of import or domestic, I can tell you that unlike US cars, Japanese cars are actually designed with serviceability in mind.
Example:
1985 Chevy Celebrity “stater motor replacement tools” (excluding battery clamps):
9/16″ socket
3/8″ socket
1/2″ socket
ratchet
breaker bar/locking pliers
engine hoist
27mm socket and breaker bar for wheel center-nut removal
Wheel chocks
Hydraulic jack and jack-stands
An assistant
Shop rags to clean up oil spillage
Time: 2.5 hours
1988 Subaru Legacy “starter-motor replacement tools” (excluding battery clamps):
Ratchet
12mm socket
14mm socket
Time: 20 minutes
I know this because I’ve done it several times already. American cars stopped being user-serviceable around the late 70′s-early 80′s. Try a Haynes/Chilton’s manual available at stores like “NAPA” or “Checker/Schucks/Kragen” or as Schucks was renamed, “O’Reilly auto parts”. Just make sure you can handle the job before you start it, and can anticipate an unforeseen difficulty.
You’ll never see an American car on safari in Africa, because you REALLY don’t want to be stranded out there. Reliability is life-or-death, so they trust their lives to Toyota.
Well, I refuse to deny the facts of anything, and that’s just how it is. Unfortunately many will deny the facts unless they meet their specific beliefs…..like the typical US-nationalist car-buyer. “Vehicular-nationalism” is it’s own religion, and likewise fraught with suppositions and speculation based upon no proven fact.
I have a brain that allows me the privilege to make an informed decision and change it when better and more-informed sources present themselves, which separates me from conservatives/republicans who will deny the sky is blue because “God” says it isn’t.
But a donkey is always a jackass, and equally stubborn. You can’t fix stupid…
I dream of the day when “common sense” is actually “common”, and not an endangered-species within human-intelligence.
Boob’s Law:
The Sum-total of the intellegence of the planet is a constant, yet the population continues to rise.
Thats a nice quote you’ve got there, I’ll take it.
In response to Alex on November 11, 2010 at 9:16 am:
>> Boob’s Law: The Sum-total of the intellegence of the planet is a constant, yet the population continues to rise.
>>>Thats a nice quote you’ve got there, I’ll take it.
Make sure you fix it first. It’s suffering from too much “intell i gence”
God says the sky isn’t blue?
It’s never an offence to discriminate against the determinedly ignorant.
And that’s a prerequisite for having a religion, trusting the government and being a creationist. Which is why it’s usually the same people who do all three.
How clever of you, to choose the starter on a Subaru Legacy as an example, since one of the idiosyncracies of the Subaru “Boxer” engine, is that the starter is on top of the engine. But some other components are much harder to replace.
I’ve worked on a lot of cars, and none of them are clearly “easier to work on” in ALL aspects.
Speed Racer has never owned an air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle. There’s a car you can work on, bumper to bumper, with a few simple hand tools. Trust me, it’s easier in all aspects.
Non-Sequitur might not have been trying to be clever… my Honda Civic’s starter and alternator were both very easy to reach with only two socket sizes and a screw driver. For my friend to replace the alternator in his Ford Taurus however, he needed to remove the front right wheel assembly, fender and splash guards just to begin removing the alternator.
You’re right, no single car is easier in ALL aspects, but in my experience it seems that imports (I also now own a Subaru
seem better designed for repair than many of the North American brands I’ve looked at.
Friend of mine with a US-brand V6 minivan had to bring it to the dealer because you need to drop the engine to change the back 3 spark plugs.
‘nuf said.
I’d like to point out that most transverse mounted V6 cars need to have the engine removed to have the back plugs replaced.
Just investigate that car you buy. Don’t assume because it’s of a particular origin that it’ll be easy to repair. We had an Acura come into the shop a few years ago that needed a starter. The thing was INSIDE the engine! Well, under the intake, etc, etc. Twelve hours of surgery to swap that joker. I wanted to dig up Soichiro Honda’s corpse and strangle it. >:(
But yes, _generally_ the Asian “econoboxes” are pretty easy to maintain.
Though personally, I found that American cars were equally serviceable on into the late 80s and early 90s. Once cab-forward front-wheel drive became the norm, it was hard to turn wrenches without growing new elbows.
Hmm… Sounds a bit too much like that “Story of Stuff” nonsense.
yeah it does sort of have that ring of “im saving the planet by saving my stuff from being thrown out” but the premise is also true that you save more raw materials by fixing it than you do by recycling it since you will not be able to recycle everything in whatever it is usually so some parts will have to be newly minted if you do buy a replacement. Let’s be honest though the green movement is about your green not green grass and about power in washington (or possibly the UN through treaties like the copenhagen bs).
I heartily agree. Would you buy a new car if you had a flat tire? No, you fix the tire and move on. So why trash an otherwise-good washing-machine for a broken belt, or an otherwise good microwave oven for a bad mixer-diode?
i do to. why get a whole new item after the warenty times out when you can get a replacement part for the broken one
not the one below
^
sorry im a 12 year-old kid who understands most of this. get rid of all my comments
i agree as well. why get a whole new item after the warenty times out when you can get a replacement part for the broken one
but not the 10:37 one
i know its a confusing mess. go by post time for the order
To open without voiding the warranty? Yes. To repair? Not so much. If you break it while “repairing”, you don’t get warranty service on the remains, sorry.
LOVE the idea, but I think the manifesto should have something about “Teach those who do not know.”
hear hear! It would be great to have community classes for those who want to learn how to fix their own things!
I dont agree with the “if you cant fix it you dont own it” part. If I can destroy my foundation of my house but cant fix it I STILL OWN MY HOUSE it just needs a specialist. Sort of like if i cant fix my heart valve on my own i dont own my body because I have to go to a doctor? Me thinks thy doth assume too much good sir.
I think you are missing the philosophy here:
By “Owning it”, you are taking pride in the properly-completed job of repairing your own house, extending how much you really “own” it. It’s YOUR workmanship put into it, so a part of you is in it. You put heart into it.
What would you find harder to lose, a car that you merely drove and all repairs/maintenance was done for you, or one that you have put your own effort into, your own skinned knuckles and sweat? The former is more like driving a company car, so you never really appreciate it. When you take something apart, you are becoming intimately-experienced in how it is made.
Any device means more to me if I have actually worked on it, because a part of me is in it now. It is not about “legal” ownership, it’s about really feeling like it is a part of you because you have invested so much of yourself into it, and take pride that you have brought it back to life. If you worked hard, and did good work, then it’s a matter of pride, because fixing something is to get intimate with it, and that makes a special connection.
Imagine replacing a door by yourself by studying how to do it right and then doing it right, saving the money for a pro. The door gains no meaning if a pro hung it for you, but if you did it yourself equally well, that door be a symbol of pride…..because YOU put yourself into making it work? It’s a monument to your ability to solve problems.
Self-reliance is an empowering trait. Prove to yourself that it is not taboo-technology and that you can actually figure it out, and you will find a sense of pride that you could not get anywhere else. The sense of accomplishment is the “ownership” mentioned here.
I must add that this is actually my religion, the same creed I live by. Many toss a vacuum cleaner because of a broken belt, and just 5 minutes of their time could be spent to save the cost of replacing the entire unit. A disposable-society does not work for anyone but the producer of the product disposed-of.
“Re-Using” is 10X more “Green” than “Re-Cycling”, speaking conservatively.
Seriously? Who tosses a vacuum cleaner for a broken belt? They sometimes even sell replacement belts in supermarkets, right next to the bags!
You would be AMAZED. I frequently scavenge the appliance and metal pile at our local landfill, and I’ve gotten all of my yard equipment from there. Lawn mowers with bad plugs or clogged fuel lines, weed trimmers with broken pull-cord springs. I got a 5 year old snow blower than had a broken drive axle ($10 to have it welded at the local muffler shop).
Ironically, I arrived home last night to find my garbage disposal had begun to leak — from the inside, not through the seal between it and the sink. So now I have to consider either replacing it, or TRYING to open the damn thing up in the hopes I can even FIND a replacement for whatever seal in there is failing.
If it helps, just stick some epoxy in there.
In where?
Aaaaand… now I’m seriously thinking about writing my congresscritter.
You need a special tool to get the damn thing apart. It’s like a torx, but a socket instead of a driver. It’s a safe bet that I won’t be able to find a replacement seal either. This ought to be illegal.
Congresscritter. I lolled.
Actually, through the awesome power of property taxes and building permits, you don’t quite “own” your house as much as rent it from the local government.
I believe you misunderstand the meaning of “Own” in this sense. They mean more about feeling like you own it in your heart..that it’s part of you because you care for it and can repair it.
I love this. It’s going up in my workroom. (where many a household appliance has come back from the dead)
Never before have so many words made so much sense! I putting this up in my room!
Edit: “I’m”
DEATH TO BLACK BOXES!
Found out about this bill 2 weeks ago. Having been a mechanic in the past I’ve run into situations where I couldn’t get error codes from a manufacturer or even change spark plugs because it was a Geo only specialty tool to remove them.
Definitely a YES
Um… this really strikes me as being pretty anti-capitalist and I’m not comfortable with that. We’re supposed to just keep fixing up our things all the time instead of buying something new? That sounds like a recipe for economic stagnation to me, and that’s just what socialists want.
Tell me you’r joking, right.
Sorry, I believe you were looking for http://www.artoftrolling.com
HA!
nice Troll. Fixing things has been done for centuries, and it’s never been anti-capitalist. It creates jobs and parts to cost money, you know. Making everything in the world ‘disposable’ is just stupid and wrong.
Wow, thats quite the jump from “I want to have the ability and right to repair something” to “I demand that everyone repair everything”, don’t you think?
Just because some people want to be able to repair things without the current hassles that they currently face makes them socialists? I am sorry but I just can’t buy that argument.
Well, yeah it does. By repairing something you own you’re basically saying that you don’t want to participate in capitalism. When you fix something yourself, you’re turning your back on the trained specialists that are employed explicitly to repair things, factory jobs that exist to make new products and all of the other workers involved in the process from the conception to the creation of merchandise.
It strikes really close to some sort of Soviet-style collectivism where you were expected to make do with things far longer than is reasonable because you had no other choice. I don’t want that future and I’m wary of those who do.
You, sir, are insane.
Let’s not call people names. He’s got better aurtaugraf and grahmer than most.
It’s the economics, history and logic that need a bit more work. And probably turning off a few questionable entertainment sources.
Don’t I know you from the comedy-club circuit?
Ok, I can see where you’re coming from, but it’s not like the goal of this manifesto is to make everything last forever. If you read some of the comments here, a lot of people are mentioning blown fuses and belts. THESE are things that should be user serviceable. If a blender of mine has a seized motor or something, then fine, I can deal with buying another one. But if all that stands between me and a smoothie is a blown fuse, then yes, I expect to be able to open the stupid thing with a NORMAL screw driver
Hey guy, all my electronics are from the 70′s. They will last forever. And I keep servicing them, even though it’s not really necessary. I do my BEST to stop capitalism, and I keep convincing people to do the same, day after day, after day. Capitalism is WRONG, and we must all do our best to stop it! I have never been so baffled by someone like you. I am truly SHOCKED by what you have said here. People like you are the reason the certain parts of the world are so horrible. USA is a big one.
Its not like every single job will fail because you fix your own hardware. There are plenty of times i have gone to the store to buy replacement parts and aided the economy. If you don’t like being self reliant then fine, go to the mechanic to fix your car, go to the dresser to fix your tie, and go to McDonalds to fix you a meal. Eventually you can go to a doctor to fix your heart.
its amazing how many people here just don’t get this stuff and take it wayyy to literally..
really people?.. really?
just a word of advice for those who just don’t get this poster.. MOVE ON, THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. i believe walmart was the website you were looking for.
At last people think the same way as me!
I’ve repaired numerous items around the house, cd\dvd\tv\microwave\cooker\washing machine also car+motorbike
I was repairing radios and CB radios when I was in school 30 years ago!
You do have to appreciate the danger in some items. A microwave oven has definite ‘buzz-kill’ potential (no pun intended!) use your common sense. Leave it off for at least half an hour then check the voltage across ‘THE’ capacitor. Appreciate it has over 2500 volts on it, use a good meter! I’ve changed a thermal fuse, Magnetron, and hi-volt diode at different times. Where do you get the bits? there are plenty dumped everywhere!
When needing a motor for my washing machine, a dealer wanted 100 UKpounds for a new one. A visit to the local tip gave me one for free (plus some tea-money for the boys at the tip!)
It’s not just the money saved, there’s also the fact you don’t need to visit the tip to dispose of the old one AND to the shops to buy a new one! then which one to choose in the shop and will it fit where the old one was etc etc etc. Repairing a cable on your vacuum cleaner – less than half an hour, how long to go to the shop and choose a new one?
Give us the information, available spare parts, and let us choose. If we kill ourselves that’s up to us!
I heartily agree, and I passed it on to my dad, who was an electronics technician in the early ’80s and knows his way around a schematic or two. We always laughed at our house at the “No user-serviceable parts inside” warnings on tape decks and VCRs and such.
This is not in the least anti-capitalist. It’s wonderful to be able to buy something new if the old one completely breaks (if the main component of an item, the one that adds the bulk of the cost) dies; but yes, it’s better for the environment, and better for my bank account, for me to fix it if I can.
This is the greatest win in Cheezburger history.
win and epic and all that crap doesn’t even begin to cover this.
this may be the best thing ever. thank you for spreading this message.
I feel so content and relieved inside. like the world may have hope after all. well…. maybe not, but it was nice while that little delusion lasted.
I was raised with the credo, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
The Self-Repair Manifesto makes perfect sense to me.
Governor Moonbeam voiced these ideas – almost word for word – many years ago and the super capitalists almost laughed him out of the state and gave him this moniker. Now he has been elected governor again. Maybe idealism is coming back in style. California leads many trends…
And yes, I know, many parts of California are really scary!
So beautiful it brings tears to my eyes.
And that’s not normal for me.
I live it. I built my house, literally. And all the plumbing – including the septic system, wiring, heating, central A/C. Repair my cars. My loader / backhoe. My electronic equipment. And modify all of the previous. And have even repaired microwave ovens. Heck, when I was in high school, I would repair broken vacuum tube TV sets, and sell them at tag sales.
I laugh at “No user serviceable parts inside” labels!
Our name is Legion…
Great debate, greater poster!
One thought- when the next Depression gets here, that will change a whole lot of perspective on what’s so great about the current American way of use it-throw it out. It’s no coincidence that my parents’ and their parents’ generations who lived through the “Great Depression” had a different attitude (see “Use it up…” above) about a lot of things. There are lots of folks today who haven’t had to do without, but those who have (and there are more every day) know the wisdom of a waste-not-want-not philosophy.
(BTW I’m an artist and craftsperson who takes a lot of pride in the excellent quality of my work, and understands what it means to”own” it.)
The poster is humorous, but its seriously great.
Amen to that.
The ability to repair empowers you.
Once I broke the heating element of my soldering iron. I too it to the neighbourhood repair guy. He asked me to leave the iron and take it the next day [That too a bit arrogantly]. Whereas I was hoping for a quick 5 minute job.
And when I asked him to just give me the damn part, I can tell you that that was the most wonderful feeling ever. Alright, I’m a virgin.
it would drive costs up by a miniscule amount. This information already exists, they wouldn’t have to write up new docs. Just provide these docs on a website or give them to a central repository who can handle the hosting costs via donations.
There will always be a place in this world for professional repair people, as there will always be people that for some reason or another honestly aren’t capable of fixing a problem on their own.
But those of us that have the knowlege and ability should be allowed to fix our own stuff, dang it!
Plus One!
Its time we reassert our rights and remind the corporations and the governments they own that it is we the people who have rights and we will stand up for them.
I fix my own things. Sometimes I fix my friends things. Toshiba told a friend he’d fried his “logic card” and it would be 650 bucks to fix a laptop worth half that. I replaced the keyboard, that was the only problem, 15 bucks on fleabay…. did Toshiba intentionally try to rip him off? Do mechanics sometimes rip people off? Is that not in fact what proprietary information is designed to do?
If something is truly mine, can’t I do what the bloody hades I want with and to it? If not it seems like its not mine at all.
What is a ‘logic card’ anyway ?
Motherboard. Big circuit board in the computer, where all the components are attached. If THAT thing is broken, stick it in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes (at 200C). It is almost guaranteed to work after that.
This general mode of thinking is terrific,
The majority of electronic (and mechanical?) items that are being built today, to me, aside from the new bells and whistles…INFERIOR IN QUALITY to similar units built 10+ years ago.
Witness for example: the introduction of RoHS; cheaper foreign production costs in order to compete in the domestic market (mostly due to inflation); and the encouragement of the planned-obsolescence cycle.
Give me an easy-to repair 10 year old stereo (with decent quality plastic) and a brand new unit in Wal-Mart that does the same thing, and I’ll take the 10-year old one most every time.
Credit where credit is due? What do you make of the source link below the picture?
That’s ridiculous. Where’s the fun in it when you have the technical data at hand. Opening it up without voiding the warranty kills the suspense, you can always let others fix it anyway. I always repair my own stuff and I’ve never been stopped by warranty or non-availability of replacement parts. The only thing I hate is those cheap insoluble hard-plastics, there’s no way to fix those and make it look good. You’ll always end up recreating it out of a different material.
I thought the poster itself was a troll….
i have this taped on my wall now
You do recognize the name “Adam Smith”, don’t you?
the poster is true-mostly true that is
A manifesto for the kludgers in us all! I’m going to print this and stick it on the wall in my Computer Lab! Repair and/or Reuse. Recycling is good but we want products to last much longer than when its warranty expires.
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(Reads sticker on a 350W power supply…)
“Do not open”
“No serviceable parts inside.”
“For trained service personnel only.”
(Looks up at Self-Service Manifesto poster on wall. Looks back down at power supply. Gets several screwdrivers. Crosses eyes and grins like evil mad scientist)
MMMUUUUUUUUUUHHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!! >;)
Can you tell that I follow that Manifesto in spirit?
New Englanders in the USA have a saying that I also follow which is on my wall: “Use it up, wear it out. Make it do or do without.”
And finally my third handwritten poster on the wall: “Welcome to the Computer Lab. Mistakes made while u wait.” This is in honor of a good old computer teacher whom I was with for a long time before I graduated and then he retired very soon thereafter.