Are you tired of the "upgrade treadmill" yet?

Sh1tbag OToole

I have been on t'internet since the 14.4k dial-up days and building / buying a new computer with the latest gimmicks used to be fun and exciting. Now its just a bit of a chore and I wish this ould box would last another couple of years before it chokes on the latest bloat-ridden ad-filled website or programme (called 'app' nowadays) written by some college upstart who doesn't know what assembly language is.

Being on the upgrade treadmill is all the more painful now that I'm ould and groan up and my ma doesn't pay for me to stay on it anymore and I have to pay for the latest SSD and CPU out of my own pocket.

The only good thing is attention has shifted away from the tradishunal "Ye Olde" desktop computing machine which means one I built about 10 years ago is still some bit usable today. Now the tablets, phablets and smarthpones are a different story. Not only will they be too slow and crappie for every day use in two years time, they will probably break before that time as well. Because we are all expected to upgrade before then.

Is it just because I'm getting oulder that I don't want to queue up infront of the shop for the latest slightly faster gimmick? I also don't follow the hype anymore. Something new comes out and I think "Great, the stuff I have in the house is slightly more useless now". If I have to buy new it's more a necessity like renewing the car insurance or the tax. New iPhones and Intel processors are released so consistently that I question whether it is real technological progress or a clever scam designed many decades ago to extract as much money as possible from the general population.

The Big Smoke

I used to be with it, but then they changed what "it" was. Now, what I'm with isn't it, and what's "it" seems weird and scary to me.

19543261

I agree with you on tablets. It's too soon to buy, you're just not getting your money's worth yet.

Other than that, my phone is a secondhand blackberry going nowhere, likewise my desktop and laptop are 5years+ and grand.

The upgrade race is only relevant for those competing, is how I see it.

MadsL

I'm rooting around in your bins picking up the complete useable 'outdated' technology you are throwing away. I almost bought an xbox 360 for $25 the other day but I was too slow.

Mr Benevolent

I don't give a crap. We're on 10mb and it's fine. Don't give a shit about trends. My Android phone is 3 years old, my PC is 4 years old and I just bought a PS3, so no PS4 for us.

Seachmall

I'm on a MacBook I bought in 2007 and have used every day since. In fact I've probably only turned it off about two dozen times since I bought it. Aside from the battery giving up a few months ago it's as good as new. If I replace the battery I imagine I'll get another couple of years out of it.


You don't need to upgrade because the latest tech is out, run your machines into the ground.

The Backwards Man

The 'upgrade treadmill' is a lot like making love to a beautiful woman.

You have to get on it first, before you think about getting off it.

Sh1tbag OToole

19543261 wrote: »

I agree with you on tablets. It's too soon to buy, you're just not getting your money's worth yet.

Other than that, my phone is a secondhand blackberry going nowhere, likewise my desktop and laptop are 5years+ and grand.

The upgrade race is only relevant for those competing, is how I see it.

My last phone I got the best part of 4 years out of, the pile of rubbish I have now will be lucky to see the end of 2014 in one piece and it's also slow. My laptop was made at the very end of 2009 and its getting to the point where I can only watch porn that's pre-transcoded.

Maybe I should look into throwing Android on a VM because my desktop is plenty powerful. This will save me having to buy a tablet or a better phone and still be able to bang on about what an "awsome" and "amazeballs" game candy crush is and therefore seem like less of a grumpy ould man

P_1

Inbuilt obsolesce is pretty irritating with electronics and appliances alright, I know it keeps manufacturers in jobs and all that but what the fook happened to 'build it for life'.

Sh1tbag OToole

P_1 wrote: »

Inbuilt obsolesce is pretty irritating with electronics and appliances alright, I know it keeps manufacturers in jobs and all that but what the fook happened to 'build it for life'.

Keeps the Chinese in jobs.

The decrease in quality of phones anyway coincides nicely with the time "Foxconn" took over from Nokia as the head honcho of mobile phone manufacturing.

Look at even old Ericsson phones from the days when they still made phones alongside a Galaxy S Whatever. Way more solid altogether. Now the design philosophy is "Lets put a big hole in this 1mm thick piece of plastic, save another 50 milligrams per phone, over a million units thats another glass of champagne for the boss"

Mr Benevolent wrote: »

I don't give a crap. We're on 10mb and it's fine. Don't give a **** about trends. My Android phone is 3 years old, my PC is 4 years old and I just bought a PS3, so no PS4 for us.

Funny how things that age seem ancient now. I wonder what life was like in the 50's with regards to this. People back then had to upgrade hardly anything the lucky sods

PingO_O

I have a smartphone now but I think ill downgrade to something simple for the next one. It's just too distracting and I can NEVER get a text message right the first time around, always messing it up with my fat thumbs.

UCDVet

The treadmill has been slowing down since the 80s....

If you buy a high-end desktop today, it'll still be running new games in eight years. Yes, you'll go from the 'highest' settings down to the 'lowest' - but you won't need to change much. And that's only if you are playing new games.

A lot of people have stopped caring about desktops anymore because the one they've got does everything they want.

My current PC is seven years old, and it wasn't top-of-the-line.
My four year old Netbook makes an amazing media center too...and unless I get a bigger TV, it'll keep on working til it breaks.

Sh1tbag OToole

UCDVet wrote: »

The treadmill has been slowing down since the 80s....

How fast was it in the 80's? I remember during the 90's was terrible with desktop PCs. 5 years old was a right pile of scrap.