Planned Obsolescence http://www.fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/history/american/news.php?q=1226107447 1936 Stainless Steel Ford Coupe So much for claims by present day car mfgr that 'stainless steel is too hard to use'. 20111108 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1xt4nEvipg#! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1xt4nEvipg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfzQzGNYaiU The Light Bulb Conspiracy WRH: Is this the reason my hard drive failed after just 7 months? To force me to buy a new drive, and to force me to purchase costly backup systems? Under our current fascist system, can we expect the money-junkies, as they get more desperate for that next "fix", to sell us products with shorter and short lifespans until they are dead coming out of the box (which happened with the first replacement hard drive I bought last weekend)? Side note: I bought some of the new LED nightlight bulbs out of curiosity. They are much more expensive than their tungsten forebears, produce much less light, and even though the LEDs themselves have a life expectancy of decades, there is something within these bulbs that does fail, right about the 1000 limit detailed in this documentary. 20120819 http://whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES/pandigital.jpg Pandigital Tablet suffers multiple failures after just 6 months. Planned Obsolescence is killing this nation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXt9HT50X1c See also: tin whiskers and RoHS. 20130306 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2288221/The-great-printer-rip-It-costs-vintage-champers--devious-new-tricks-mean-constantly-buy-refills.html The great printer rip off: Ink costs more than vintage champers - and devious new tricks mean you constantly have to buy refills The people who make printer cartridges must see us coming and laugh all the way to the bank. As many have discovered to their horror, refills are so exorbitantly expensive that printer ink costs far more drop for drop than fine Champagne, vintage port or Chanel No 5 — a typical family running a busy printer can easily spend £200 a year on ink alone. But that, dear reader, is just the start of it. If you think that you are getting through ink cartridges more quickly than ever, you are probably right. Over the past decade manufacturers have actually reduced the amount of ink inside them. At the same time they are making it as hard as possible for shoppers to buy cheaper second hand, recycled and refilled cartridges. 20130320 from http://whatreallyhappened.com/ http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/11/cease-and-desist-manuals-planned-obsolescence/?mwh=1 The Shady World of Repair Manuals: Copyrighting for Planned Obsolescence Tim Hicks is a 25-year-old Australian with an interesting hobby: He trawls the nooks and crannies of the internet looking for manufacturer service manuals and posts the PDFs online for free. Hicks was frustrated that there wasn’t a single website out there with every laptop service manual. He started the site – aptly named “Tim’s Laptop Service Manuals“ – because he fixes laptops himself. Tim’s site now streams over 50 gigabytes of manuals every day. Or rather … it used to. In a recent strongly worded cease-and-desist letter, Toshiba’s lawyers forced Tim to remove manuals for over 300 Toshiba laptops. Tim’s many fans have expressed surprise at Toshiba’s onslaught – check out some of the Reddit commentary — and I’m outraged, too. Not just because of this specific case, but because of what it means for the lifetime of our devices, the future of repair and e-waste, and the abuse of copyright law as a weapon for planned obsolescence. http://www.tim.id.au/blog/tims-laptop-service-manuals/ http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/12ydou/for_three_years_i_have_run_tims_laptop_manuals/ 20130601 http://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/inkjet-printers-what-a-waste!/ 20140503 http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27253103 Getting in a spin: Why washing machines are no longer built to last 2050304 http://refreshingnews99.blogspot.in/2015/03/france-is-ordering-manufacturers-to.html France is ordering manufacturers to inform consumers how long they can expect their TV, cell phone or other appliance to last — before they buy it A new French government decree that came into effect this week aims at fighting so-called planned obsolescence. That is when companies design strategies to limit the life span of appliances, so that consumers will have to replace them.