Do you *want* a simple life?

[PS_RalphW]

I'd be happy with complex technology if it worked, or you could repair it when it didn't.

I've just bought a new lap top, far more features and processing speed and half the price of the old one.

But thanks to the 'new improved' operating system I am spending several hours getting it to do what my old one did, learning the new interfaces, fixing the new bugs, reinstalling the old software which no longer works as it did, and I have far better things to do with my life.

Even buying it is more complicated now. The sales team refuse to sell it to you until they have spent at least ten minutes trying to sell you other stuff that you don't need, and then their 'new upgraded ' computerised tills were so full of bugs they couldn't print me a receipt.

My family is now debt free, and we are spending freely our savings on future proofing our home, (just installed an old style butler's bell for the front door). I have reduced my work to 4 days a week, but as yet we are not feeling the pinch for money.

Appropriate technology is great. My wife's Brompton is about the limit I can cope with/repair.

[JohnB]

I live in a tiny tin box, apparently designed and built by mindless morons and sold new at an extortionate price. Even at 8 years old when I bought it, it was bloody expensive.

Over the last couple of months the water pump in my pressurised water system has failed. It's in the underfloor water tank that can only be removed by lifting 2.8 tonnes of metal high enough off the ground to crawl underneath.

Then the electric flush in my loo stopped working.

Both of these problems were fixed for me at considerable expense, because they weren't designed for simple plug in replacement, and were over complicated to start with.

A week or so ago the loo flush stopped working again.

Today I was about to wash my hands in the shower room. I could hear water flowing, but none came out of the tap. I removed half the bathroom fittings, and found that a pipe had come off, directing the water into a panelled in void where it could have caused a big damp problem and maybe rotted the floor. I refitted the tap and then cut a big chunk out of the panelling to dry it out. Now I've got to rebuild the panelling, but being fairly intelligent I'll make it removable for servicing.

I've also had plastic tap knobs break, 3 so far so it must be a crap design.

Oh, and the water gauges never work properly, so I've never got any clue how much fresh water I've got, or when my waste tank is nearly full.

When I was without water and a flushing loo, I had a 10 litre translucent plastic container with a tap on it on the kitchen worktop. It was simple, easy to use and I could see exactly when it needed refilling. I could also take the cap off and use it to flush the loo! The only downside was that it took away space on the worktop, rather than having a holder built into the van. Life was so much better, simpler and cheaper.

If I had somewhere to do it I'd buy a van and do my own conversion without all the crap over complicated technology. I'd like a compost loo in it too!

I'd still have my laptop connected to the internet through my mobile phone though

[SunnyJim]

Good related article at club Orlov...

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2008/11/p ... urden.html

Some dodgy financial stuff, but the sentiment and observation on reliance on assets (technology in esscence) is pertinent.

[Rasputin69]

I voted 'no', but like others have noted, would contest the wording of the question slightly. For me, being born in the late eighties and consequently being surrounded by the growth of videogames, mp3s, mobile phones, laptops, facebook, myspace, and general iculture, I have to be honest and say I have and do enjoy(ed) pretty much all of these things myself. However, I think that the emergence of a vast virtual life is a threat which inevitably goes hand-in-hand with Climate Change, resource depletion and economic instability. For example: today's kids and early twenties (i.e. me) can log on to the interent on the bus home, 'talk' to their friends on a social-networking site while listening to pre-produced music which they downloaded (legally or othewrise) earlier on their laptop PC. In theory, that is great. Kids are reaping the benefits of the newest technologies and appear to be having a damn good time doing so.

This, of course, is not the type of teenager or early twenties individual this country needs. I fear that the nuclear family is becoming increasingly polarised as it surrounds itself with more crap. Yes, having thousands of songs in your pocket on a little piece of plastic is amazing, but while teenager x is downloading the new My Chemical Romance album and parent x is catching up on Corrie while doing the ironing and parent y rants at the 'doomsayers' on the news, they are all so completely transfixed by their own virtual lives that they don't spend time to discuss what the news is really getting at. Why is petrol cheaper again now? When will they stop going on about the f****ng credit crunch? When will Gordon Brown pull his finger out? etc etc etc...

Basically, I really worry that people between the ages of, well 0 and 30 primarily are going to have to sort out all of this mess without any of the skills or experience of past generations. It scares me s***less that I am just as susceptible to this as any one else I've talked about. In about seven months, I will finish University and enter the 'real world' knowing that the real world is not black or white, but many hues of grey and will probably cause me a lot more hassle than it does now.

I am now going to go to work so that I can earn a few spondoos towards paying my rent. If it wasn't so ironically humorous, I think I'd be more tempted to top myself and get out while I'm ahead.

Appologies for the length and cynicism of my post. I will try and end positively by saying I am well underway with a novel dealing with all of these and many more topics and this is the only thing currently keeping me sane enough to go to work only to shovel the money back into the preverbial fire of insanity. Thank you.

[adam2]

<snip>
Good things were the guilds...

Not so fast... That seems to be a rather romantic view. The reason the guilds could exist at all was that they were protected by the kings. Anyone trying to moonlight a little without belonging to a proper guild got whipped or branded or dismembered. Or all of it. Trade and craft was heavily regulated. The reason for the kings to stop protecting the guilds was that the merchants delivered more taxes.

Indeed, though has anyone noticed that we seem to be re-creating the guild system ? with stiff punishments for those who transgress or moonlight.

First came the new guild CORGI, only the members of this guild may handle the pipes that convey magic flammable vapours*.
He who is not a member of the CORGI guild, and attempts to handle the magic vapour, shall be punished by a great fire and explosion, or failing that some years in a house of correction.

Then came the part pee guild, only members of this guild shall be permitted to handle the wires and equipment that convey the invisable electric fluid.Any person, not a member of this guild, who attempts to handle the electric fluid, shall be punsihed by a bolt of lightning, or if unavailable be punished by the great god LABC as the god pleaseth.

Then came the revival of an old guild, the authorised slaughter persons guild(cattle and large beasts sub-guild)
He who not being a senior member of such guild, does kill, butcher and eat any large beast, shall be punished by unmentionable disease, or failing that, shall be punished by the great god MAFF as the god pleaseth.

And he, who not being a member of the builders guild, shall build any structure for human habitation, shall be punished by the destruction of the structure,by being made to sleep in a tent, and also suffer the wrath of the god PARKER MORRIS, entirely as the god pleaseth.

Any person who not being a member of the plumbers guild, who does install any pipe for fresh or waste water or any patent flushing closet, shall be ritually drowned, or in time of drought dealt with as the gods please.

* certain foolish persons have claimed that production of the flammable vapours will soon peak and then start to decline.
Any such persons shall be burnt at the stake for heresy, the GUILD has taken advice from other guilds, and is satisfied that supplies are in fact increasing, not depleting.
Provided that all junior guildsmen pay the correct dues, and provided that the guild elders offer the correct prayers, then supplies will increase indefinatly, as has occured in the past.

[kenneal - lagger]

The great god MAFF was deposed and replaced by the Department for the Elimination of Farming and Rural Affairs a few years ago, which is going about it's remit with great gusto.

[skeptik]

First came the new guild CORGI, only the members of this guild may handle the pipes that convey magic flammable vapours*.

Which reminds me of a delicious blast against the banalities of the not-so-simple middle class lifestyle by HMHB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih8nDG4A7sc

CORGI registered friends

In the kingdom of the blind
It’s said the one-eyed man is king
And in the kingdom of the bland
It’s nine o’clock on ITV
I believe I’ve seen holograms
With more substance than you
Automatic doors don’t open for you

C-O-R-G-I (CORGI registered friends)
C-O-R-G-I (CORGI registered friends)
You meet up on a Monday with your
CORGI registered friends

You call Glastonbury “Glasto”
You’d like to go there one day
When they’ve put up the gun towers
To keep the hippies away
December sees Kitzbuehel
Clad in Lowe Alpine
Your children are painfully soulless
Ralph’s in Brize Norton

C-O-R-G-I (CORGI registered friends)
C-O-R-G-I (CORGI registered friends)
You do Del Boy impressions with your
CORGI registered friends

For sale: gym equipment
But now your jeans are too tight
Amanda Burton on autopilot
It’s all you need each night
I wear a tolerance robe
I have the patience of Job
But when I hear your wife’s silly giggling
At Ann Summers parties

C-O-R-G-I (CORGI registered friends)
C-O-R-G-I (CORGI registered friends)
You go to medieval banquets with your
CORGI registered friends

Stick this in your Volvo (glove compartment)
Stick this in your Volvo (glove compartment)
Stick this in your Volvo (glove compartment)
Stick this in your Volvo (glove compartment)

--------------------
Admission. I have frequented Kitzbühel clad in Lowe Alpine and Reusch. Coudn't afford it these days.

[snow hope]

Hey Rasputin, you have wisdom beyond your years. Never give up - it is people like you the world needs, when things go downhill.

[dudley]

Appologies for the length and cynicism of my post. .

You never have to apologize for making cynical posts here. This is PowerSwitch!