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Posted: Yesterday 3:41:33 PM EDT
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Your List: Things that are made better than ever and Things that are Garbage: The Good: * TV's * Some Cars Garbage: * Clothes Washers/Especially Whirlpool and Maytag * Lawnmowers: Total Garbage What's your list? |
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There are exceptions, but in general flashlights are far better than they were in the past, brighter, more efficient, more options, etc. I think mid-tier tool quality (Tekton and the like) is better than it was 40-50 years ago, but that will be more controversial. Clothing and especially shoes and socks are garbage, and I have to put in far too much effort to find quality stuff, only for the brand to enshittify itself a year or two later, so you can't stick with one product anymore and expect consistent quality. |
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Originally Posted By seek2: There are exceptions, but in general flashlights are far better than they were in the past, brighter, more efficient, more options, etc. I think mid-tier tool quality (Tekton and the like) is better than it was 40-50 years ago, but that will be more controversial. Clothing and especially shoes and socks are garbage, and I have to put in far too much effort to find quality stuff, only for the brand to enshittify itself a year or two later, so you can't stick with one product anymore and expect consistent quality. Agree about the Clothes and Shoe situation! |
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Generally, vehicles are way more reliable and efficient for a lot longer than they used to be. Clothes are Generally pretty shitty compared to what they used to be. |
"Freedom is a messy business." - LaRue_Tactical
I am a sack of blood, held together by un-tanned leather. . .
I am a sack of blood, held together by un-tanned leather. . .
Sidewindin Bushwackin Hornswaglin Cracker Croaker
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Originally Posted By tifosi: From a hobby perspective, model kits are light years ahead of where they were 40 years ago. The kits produced now are simply stunning. (but also much more expensive.) (The Testors Glue thread got me thinking about that.) Also the paint, putty, and cement aspect. |
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Better? Flashlights, rechargeable batteries, cars, and package delivery. As a kid, flashlight batteries lasted about two hours—tops—and provided comparatively little light. Rechargeable batts sucked, and were ridiculous in price. People don’t understand how much work older cars took to keep alive for often less than 100K miles…and “Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery” used to be a thing. Worse? Courtesy, societal “trust”, Chinese takeout/delivery, and affordable homes. |
On Wednesdays we wear steel.
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Originally Posted By DFARM: Generally, vehicles are way more reliable and efficient for a lot longer than they used to be. Clothes are Generally pretty shitty compared to what they used to be. At least through the warranty period. My brother has a Ford Ranger that grenaded the tranny at 61k miles. They covered it thankfully. |
As always, have nice day!
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Originally Posted By EvoXGunner: Honestly, all my Ryobi power tools and lawn equipment are awesome. TVs and various electronic devices are junk now. Now that Milwaukee and DeWalt are making sprayers, there is good stuff on the market. Gotta shop around and choose wisely. I have had Samsung TVs that just would not fucking quit. I hate dumping working things to buy the next higher tech, better performing, bigger screen shit. It is one thing Samsung has done right. I still have three Samsung LED TVs that will not give up.  FRT. Gets better every week. I can't keep up. 
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Preferred pronoun: MARINE
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1. Compared to the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s: cars. Tighter steering No carburetors No boat float Last longer Better mpg Better amenities Better safety (overdone even) AC almost universal 2. Delivery 3. Every option presented or findable via the web. No more catalogs or wasted trips. |
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Flashlights - 10,000% LEDs and LiIon have made HUGE leaps and bounds in just the last two decades. Been a flashlight nut ever since I was a kid. A flashlight is one of the first things I remember buying with my own money. I have the original first LED module released by Surefire (KL1 head for the E1E/E2E). That thing put out 16 lumens ~20 years ago.  , but it pushed the runtime from 45-60 minutes, to 3-4 hours.Got a Lumintop Nano GT for the hell of it, a few years ago. Tiny flashlight with a very slightly bigger head than a typical 1xAAA keychain light. Shorter than my pinky, and it blows away my old 6 D-cell incan Maglite. Brightest flashlight I own is the discontinued Imalent DX80. 32,000 lumens. Darned thing lights up the entire backyard to the treeline ~100yds away without needing to pan it around. It’s so bright, after playing around with it in the boonies, I thought one of the HID High beams in the SUV had burnt out. Nope. It was simply that I’d gotten used to (blinded by) the amount of light the DX80 can put out, that the HID high beams seemed really dim in comparison). It’s been discontinued because it’s been superseded by brighter lights. Imalent’s current brightest is the MS32 200,000 lumen flashlight. What’s crazy is that the DX80 was their flagship brightest light when I got it (2017-2018). As always, the highest brightness modes only run for a short time (75-90 seconds) before they drop the brightness down, because they generate a lot of heat. The DX80 could only blast that 32,000 lumens for about that short period. Likewise, the MS32 can only blast 200,000 lumens for about 75s, BUT, it can blast the 40,000 lumen brightness for 45 minutes and 18,000 lumens for ~1.5 hours (HID high beams are about 4,000-5,000 lumens each, so 8,000-10,000 lumens combined) ***and there are videos of people lighting paper on fire and cooking an egg with the light output of the MS32 Also have the Weltool W4 1.7 million candela LEP (they have an even brighter version). For folks unfamiliar with LEPs, these lights are all throw, no spill (not very practical for lighting anything closer than 200-300yds away). Somewhere deep in GD, a member posted a pic his wife took. He decided to hike up a mountain about 10 miles from his house. When he got to the top of the mountain, he called his wife to come out to the front yard, to see if she could see him point his LEP flashlight in the rough direction of their house in the daytime. She said, “OMG, I see it!” and took a photo. He posted the pic. You can see the bright dot on the mountaintop ~10 miles away. |
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Lots of good ones already listed. Flashlights, lithium ion cordless tools… but here are some that haven’t been brought up yet. Better: Ammunition. Modern metallurgy is crazy. Until very recently you could have an expanding hunting bullet that grouped ok at best, or an expensive mono metal target bullet that’s gonna ice pick through a bad guy. Now you can buy a box of hunting 6.5cm that will shoot groups that would have made handloaders back in the day jealous. Cheap guns. Used to be a $400 rifle was a gamble on whether it would even work, let alone work well. Remember “The List”? Yeah high end ARs and hunting rifles are awesome, but I have a TC Compass I bought at Walmart that shoots as well as a gun I paid ten times as much for. Modern machining would blow the mind of a WWII machinist. Or even a gun builder from the 80s. Knives. Modern metallurgy is crazy. The new crucible steels, particularly Magnacut, have to be experienced before you really understand how much BETTER they are. I love Randall Knives but a $200 magnacut blade would literally carve it like a bar of soap, and I could drop it in the ocean for six months and when I come back it’ll still be sharp and rust free. |
Never Forget Those Who Died.
Never Forget Those Who Killed Them.
Never Forget Those Who Killed Them.
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Originally Posted By Zip196: At least through the warranty period. My brother has a Ford Ranger that grenaded the tranny at 61k miles. They covered it thankfully. Back in the old days, a car was used up by 100k. My two primary vehicles have 200&300k. |
"Freedom is a messy business." - LaRue_Tactical
I am a sack of blood, held together by un-tanned leather. . .
I am a sack of blood, held together by un-tanned leather. . .
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Originally Posted By DFARM: Back in the old days, a car was used up by 100k. My two primary vehicles have 200&300k. Originally Posted By DFARM: Originally Posted By Zip196: At least through the warranty period. My brother has a Ford Ranger that grenaded the tranny at 61k miles. They covered it thankfully. Back in the old days, a car was used up by 100k. My two primary vehicles have 200&300k. And even 4-door grocery getters nowadays have faster 0-60, 1/4 mile and handling, yet better mpg and reliability than sports/muscle cars of yesteryear. |
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Originally Posted By Primecube: Your List: Things that are made better than ever and Things that are Garbage: The Good: * TV's * Some Cars Garbage: * Clothes Washers/Especially Whirlpool and Maytag * Lawnmowers: Total Garbage What's your list? TVs are garbage spies. And my Scag is an awesome lawnmower. Good: Flashlights Pocket knives Garbage: Restaurant food Movies |
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Absolute garbage: concrete. I even had a guy come out this year and talk us out of doing work, because it’s so shitty that it’s going to fall apart in 2 years and he can’t warranty it. ETA: airlines. Fees everywhere, no leg room, exit aisle costs more, fewer reliable options. No goddamned peanuts. |
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Better: Pretty much everything electronic. Computers, phones, televisions, gaming consoles, etc. Medical care is awesome (but not the cost). Worse: Anything made by company led by somebody with an MBA. Turning everything into a subscription or disposable purchase enshittifies whatever your company makes. |
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Most everything that relies on precision, rapid prototyping, or electronics have improved greatly. Things that relied upon people checking quality at every stage to make sure every part is within tolerance, then those aren't so good because that's where the counterfeits in China come from with their hijinks making respectable manufacturers paper to be buffoons but that is hopefully fixing itself, sadly by China getting better at counterfeiting and making better copies is all. Anything that can be tangentially targeted for GreenPease/enviro-nazis is going to crash. |
The person who complains most, and is the most critical of others has the most to hide.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
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If you see tvs as better than ever surveillance devices straight out of 1984, yes, OP. If you see corporate audio, video, and content surveillance as horrific, modern tvs are garbage. Consumer grade handguns across the board are getting better for the money all the time. The real price of minimum suitable handguns is falling despite inflation. |
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My new pocket knife is much better than the last ones I bought about 20 years ago. |
“In America, the impossible is what we do best"
"(Paraphrased) The best days are still ahead, I really believe this. [Rush Limbaugh]"
When crazy people have a nuclear weapon bad things happen. - President Donald J. Trump
"(Paraphrased) The best days are still ahead, I really believe this. [Rush Limbaugh]"
When crazy people have a nuclear weapon bad things happen. - President Donald J. Trump
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This might be one of the most optimistic things I've seen in GD. Better: Agree with prior - tho cars generally even to current. Some glaring exceptions - and specific to mfgs and segments as past. Definately hybrids and certainly BEVs. TVs and consumer electronics. No doubt 70s-90s had some audiophile icons, but what can be done for a price now is outrageous Worse: Appliances Certain tradesman skillsets and availability Paint |
Tertium non datur
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I hate modern TVs. TV when I was a kid lasted forever. Integrating accessories involved three plugs. Now my "smart TV" requires fucking with a bunch of settings to "integrate" the Nintendo switch and shit. And then something will break on it within three years anyway. |
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Originally Posted By EvoXGunner: Honestly, all my Ryobi power tools and lawn equipment are awesome. TVs and various electronic devices are junk now. |
I don’t want unity. I want them defeated and subjugated, and I never want them to be a threat to me or my people ever again. - J. Grey
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Started re-furn-ing our MBR and the Amazon put together dressers & night stands are great room expanders. $69 for this piece. Attached File |
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Originally Posted By Primecube: Agree about the Clothes and Shoe situation! Originally Posted By Primecube: Originally Posted By seek2: There are exceptions, but in general flashlights are far better than they were in the past, brighter, more efficient, more options, etc. I think mid-tier tool quality (Tekton and the like) is better than it was 40-50 years ago, but that will be more controversial. Clothing and especially shoes and socks are garbage, and I have to put in far too much effort to find quality stuff, only for the brand to enshittify itself a year or two later, so you can't stick with one product anymore and expect consistent quality. Agree about the Clothes and Shoe situation! Agree to agree! |
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Originally Posted By baogongmeo: I won't speak for clothes in general but Duluth Trading jeans and tee shirts are the best, longest lasting and comfortable that I've ever worn. Duluth pants are too thick and their T-shirts are made with cheap cotton that feels like wearing staticky sandpaper. |
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Battery tech is better than ever. Fridges and freezers kinda peaked in the 90s |
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Originally Posted By baogongmeo: Mine don't feel that way at all. Originally Posted By baogongmeo: Originally Posted By 556Cliff: Duluth pants are too thick and their T-shirts are made with cheap cotton that feels like wearing staticky sandpaper. Mine don't feel that way at all. Consider yourself lucky for now then… It seems like clothing manufacturers have major issues with sourcing quality cotton (or maybe it’s a cost cutting thing). Any time I find a decent shirt from whatever manufacturer, it’s always the case that when I go to buy the same shirt a year later it will be crap. |