Dull Men's Club

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An unofficial chapter of the popular Dull Men's Club.

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PriorityMotif@lemmy.world

I replaced a few parts on my computer mouse. They don't make it anymore, but I'm glad the one I have can be used for many more years. (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by ggtdbz@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/dull_mens_club@lemmy.world

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Trying very hard to hold back a torrent of rants about the state of tech. I’m clinging onto an older model of something at a time when they don’t make a good new alternative, you can figure out where the problem is.

So far I’ve changed the switches (the mechanical things inside the mouse that click), the outer shell, the scroll wheel, and the teflon pads at the bottom.

Am quite pleased with how it doesn’t feel like it’s falling apart anymore.

It’s sad that the switches and rubber shell especially feel like they were intentionally built to age very poorly. This was not a cheap mouse, and switches that don’t break in two years are like 2$ more than the ones they used. The rubber coating on the outside peeled and crumbled until I finally replaced the whole outer shell with a solid single piece. And the scroll wheel was beginning to rust.

Overall some of the replacement parts don’t feel quite as rigid. The older rubber part, while crumbling from the outside in, was glued to a sturdier-feeling plastic frame than the replacement, which is just a little creaky.

But hey. I love fixing my stuff and using what I want, marketers and their poor record of product discontinuation be damned. I probably wouldn’t have bought a new one. But I don’t like that I can’t if I needed to. I don’t like that everything is built to be disposable when things as simple as a scroll wheel that doesn’t rust, a shell not made of crumbly rubber, or switches that don’t break after two years have all been the default for 40 years before the current tech dark age.

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[–] Libb@piefed.social 3 points 3 weeks ago

That's great :)

We still have a perfectly working working Microsoft Intellimouse Optical (from 2001 or 2002, I believe it was a model with both USB/PS2). It's used & yellowed but the thing refuses to die which is more than fine with us.

It's a great skill to be able to fix stuff. I only learned it late, into my 40s... I taught myself soldering (to fix simple electronics, my first task was a pressing need to repair my beloved headphones whose jack was not working), and to sew (to mend our clothes, using a thread and needle or even a sewing machine: what an impressive device too!), and to scratch build as many of the stuff we need (to be honest, it is not that much as we try to buy as little stuff as we can and, well, I'm not that good at crafting them either :p).

It's also real sad to see so much device not being designed to last and to be maintained. Note that even old tech needs regular maintenance. The huge difference being that they were designed to be maintained. And when parts have not been available for many years... Looking at my old 1960 typewriter... Here in France, typewriters spare parts (and repair shops) are not that common.

Them not being easy to fix/upgrade is one of the two reasons why I stopped purchasing/using Apple computers a few years ago, after being their customers since the early 80s, switching to device and brands I can easily maintain (and upgrade), using standards components and basic tools.