Sewing Machines & Planned Obsolescence

I've got these two sewing machines, made about 100 years apart. An old treadle machine from around 1920-1930, that I pulled out of the trash on a rainy day, and a new Brother sewing machine from around 2020.

I've always known planned obsolescence was a thing, but I never knew just how insidious it was till I started looking at these two side by side.

I wasn't feeling hopeful at first that I'd actually be able to fix the old one, I found it in the trash at 2 am in a thunderstorm. It was rusty, dusty, soggy, squeaky, missing parts, and 100 years old.

How do you even find specialized parts 100 years later? Well, easily, it turns out. The manufacturers at the time didn't just make parts backwards compatible to be consistent across the years, but also interchangeable across brands! Imagine that today, being able to grab a part from an old iPhone to fix your Android.

Anyway, 6 months into having them both, I can confidently say that my busted up trash machine is far better than my new one, or any consumer-grade sewing machine on the market.

Old Machine Guts

The old machine? Can sew through a pile of leather thicker than my fingers like it's nothing. (it's actually terrifying and I treat it like a power tool - I'll never sew drunk on that thing because I'm genuinely afraid it'd sew through a finger!) At high speeds, it's well balanced and doesn't shake. The parts are all metal, attached by standard flathead screws, designed to be simple and strong, and easily reachable behind large access doors. The tools I need to work on it? A screwdriver and oil. Lost my screwdriver? That's OK, a knife works too.

New Machine Guts

The new machine's skipping stitches now that the plastic parts are starting to wear out. It's always throwing software errors, and it damn near shakes itself apart at top speed. Look at it's innards - I could barely fit a boriscope camera that's about as thick as spaghetti in there let alone my fingers. Very little is attached with standard screws.

And it's infuriating. I'm an engineer - there's no damn reason to make high-wear parts out of plastic. Or put them in places they can't be reached to replace. There's no reason to make your mechanism so unbalanced it's reaching the point of failure before reaching it's own design speed. (Oh yeah there is, it's corporate greed)

100 years, and your standard home sewing machine has gone from a beast of a machine that can be pulled out of the literal waterlogged trash and repaired - to a machine that eats itself if you sew anything but delicate fast-fashion fabrics that are also designed to fall apart in a few years.

Looking for something modern built to the standard that was set 100 years ago? I'd be looking at industrial machines that are going for thousands of dollars... Used on craigslist. I don't even want to know what they'd cost new.

We have the technology and knowledge to manufacture "old" sewing machines still. Hell, even better, sewing machines with the mechanical design quality of the old ones, but with more modern features. It would be so easy - at a technical level to start building things well again. Hell, it's easier to fabricate something sturdy than engineer something to fail at just the right time. (I have half a mind to see if any of my meche friends with machine shops want to help me fabricate an actually good modern machine lol)

We need to push for right-to-repair laws, and legislation against planned obsolescence. Because it's honestly shocking how corporate greed has downright sabotaged good design. They're selling us utter shit, and expecting us to come back for more every financial quarter? I'm over it.

Lissajous curve table

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lokarprincipal

5 years ago

Esse é o meu estado mental.

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lokarprincipal

5 years ago

Legal.

Online class tips for those who hate online classes:

Get blue light blocking glasses if you can. Or sunglasses. They will help eye strain and headaches

Actually listen to lectures and pay attention

Try doing classes when you normally would in person

Textbooks! They are great to help

Take notes during lectures. Treat online lectures like an actual in person class.

Don't sit in bed all day. Be active. It helps you focus when you actually sit down for class.

Listen to the lectures outside if you can!

Start a drinking game with your friends in the class

Get your pets involved!

For people like me who are super anxious and hate talking in class, this is a perfect opportunity to participate and ask question without being in the spotlight

Get cute stationary. You aren't spending on gas and eating out so invest in some cute stationary!

Reach out to your virtual communities for help and interaction, like studyblr

Reward yourself!

Schedule time to sit and focus on school work

Dress up! Be dramatic!

Don't want to sit still? Desk excercises!

Mentors and people in the field!! Find them and email them!

Make bets with yourself

Make your notes into art and hang them around

Have nerdy conversations with the people lucky enough to be stuck with you

Write notes in a foreign language you want to learn

Clean your room so it's suitable for education

Learn that you can cus out your teachers now and they can't hear you

Educational podcasts

See if you can download lectures as mp.3 files so you can listen instead of staring at a screen

It's ok to cry during class

Sit somewhere with a wall that you can blank out at when your eyes get tired

Stretch breaks

Playlists for classes to play when doing work

Naps are valid

Cold, damp rags work wonders for hurting eyes and headaches. Lay back, close your eyes, put the rag over your eyes, and maybe nap

Burn some incense to add liveliness to a boring class

Everyone will love if you send pictures of your pets

Keep snacks and water nearby you during class to avoid getting up and leaving

Print out materials if you can

Get ahead when you can. Do things early. I have a friend who has already finished her classes a month early

CALENDARS

Study break where you don't use electronics or read

Make sure you charge everything over night

Treat it like actual class

Tests are probably open book so organize those notes!!!

Don't want to do work? Just do 10 minutes of it

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lokarprincipal

6 years ago

Muito legal. Bacana mesmo.

Hey. I saw you helping people out, linking resources to learn a specific languages and such. Do you happen to have anything to help me learn Brazilian Portuguese? I've only studied it for a few months tho, and I'm starting to feel "stuck", and I'm in need of new things. Some good podcasts and such would be really helpful. Thanks!

Yeah of course! Here’s a couple things I found, hopefully they are able to help you get unstuck :)

Langblrs:

@le-raisin

@somedaybrazil

@romance-langs

@ticklemytonguelangblr

@how-to-portuguese

Podcasts:

BrazilianPodClass - Learn Portuguese Podcast

The Learn Portuguese Online Podcast

Practice Portuguese Podcast

Carioca Connection: Brazilian Portuguese Conversation Podcast

Portugueses no Mundo Podcast

Semantica Brazilian Portuguese Podcast

Todo Mundo Podcast

Websites:

Brazilian Portuguese Duolingo course

Busuu Portuguese course

Clozemaster Portuguese exercises

Babadum Portuguese exercises

Really Learn Portuguese

Other resources:

Disney songs in Brazilian Portuguese

Fernando - Fun With Brazilian Portuguese YouTube channel

Street Smart Brazil YouTube channel

My Portuguese Phrasebook

HelloTalk

Italki

Good luck!

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lokarprincipal

1 year ago

Apps i use to learn languages

1. Babbel

This is a language app that also teaches grammar & offers grammar exercises. You can practise the vocab words you learned & it teaches you about the people & culture of your target country.

However, it only offers 14 languages (English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Indonesian) and you need a payed subscription to unlock the courses and can only learn one language at a time.

2. Duolingo

This is a language learning app that offers dozens of languages, even fictional ones from Game of Thrones & Star Trek. You can access all courses without subscription and can learn several languages at a time.

However, it doesn't offer any grammar exercises and you can't revise the vocab you learned.

3. LingoClip

In this app, you can listen to songs in your target language & have to fill in the gaps in the lyrics. You get 3 free songs per day without a subscription.

The languages they offer are English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Polish, Swedish, Finnish, Catalan.

4. Beelinguapp

This app helps you practice reading texts in your target language by showing you the text in your native language & in your target language and reading it to you sentence by sentence.

The languages they offer are English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Hindi, Turkish, Korean, Arabic, and Swedish.

5. LingQ

This app works similarly to Beelinguapp, but you can mark any words you know and don't know and practice the ones you didn't know.

The languages they offer are English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, Swedish, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Greek, Finnish, Norwegian, Czech, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Latin, Romanian, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Belarussian, Catalan, Bulgarian, Persian, Danish, Gujarati, Cantonese, Croatian, Hungarian, Armenian, Indonesian, Icelandic, Malaysian, Slovakian, Serbian, Tagalog, and Taiwanese Mandarin.

6. Quizlet

This is a vocab card app. I really like that it gives you translation suggestions when you type out a vocab word and it recognizes the language automatically. You can also use vocab lists from other users and from specific exercise books or courses, and you can sort your vocab lists into sets and files and share them with others if you'd like. If you subscribe to Quizlet, you can also keep track of your learning.

7. AnkiDroid

This is another vocab card app which i use for learning sign languages. You can put formulas, pictures, videos, and more on the vocab cards and you can synchronise the app with the pc programme.

8. Chatterbug

Chatterbug offers live streams in English, German, French, and Spanish where they explain grammar rules, cultural aspects, idioms, and more. They also offer private language lessons.

9. Slowly

On Slowly you can find penpals around the world that are learning your target language or people from your target language's country that want to learn your native language, so you can help each other.

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lokarprincipal

4 years ago

[unrelated] This is a restaurant in vietnam and its so cool??

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lokarprincipal

6 years ago

Isso sim é que é feminismo.

Go get it girls! 😊

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lokarprincipal

2 years ago

Ela é muito gata.

Isis Valverde atordoa de lingerie - Modelsgram Vídeos

Isis Valverde atordoa de lingerie – Modelsgram Vídeos

Isis Valverde encantou seus fãs e seguidores na tarde desta sexta-feira (16) em uma série de fotos e vídeos postados em sua conta oficial no Instagram. (more…)

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lokarprincipal

1 year ago

Todos bons conselhos.

10 Ways to Simplify Life

1. Don’t try to read other peoples’ minds and don’t expect others to be able to read yours. Communicate if it is important to you.

2. Don’t expect to be friends with everyone. We all are different – and we all like different things. Instead, invest your time in a few good friends. That’s all you really need to feel happy and fulfilled.

3. Create a budget and live within your means. Accruing debt will only cause you to feel stressed.

4. Get rid of the monster of jealousy, and only compare yourself with yourself.

5. Organize your clutter and get rid of some stuff. It will leave you feeling calmer, and will save a lot of time.

6. Stay on the sidelines and don’t get drawn into pointless dramas in other peoples’ lives (unless it’s a crisis – and you know you ought to help).

7. Finish what you’ve started, and then do something else.

8. Treat every person you meet with respect, and err on the side of being patient and kind.

9. Accept there are things that you can’t change or control, and focus on those things that you can change or control.

10. Don’t be too proud to apologise. Admit that you were wrong, say you’re sorry, and move on.

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