John Large – Technology & life Blog

http://twitter.com/jodsclass

Its now day 19 of my ‘year without spending’ and I will admit it’s getting tougher. It’s quite boring not spending money on going to the Cinema, or going to buy a new gadget or gizmo to keep me entertained. I really need some DVDr’s for the business and for personal use. I may get Vicki to get them for the office and ‘borrow’ a couple to do my data backups. That one has been really hard, the whole not buying DVD media. I burn a lot of stuff from website and server backups, to backups of photos and documents from our array of computers. Tough.

Another thing that I’m finding tough is the feeling poor side of things. In truth i’ve probably got more free cash in the bank than at any time over the past few years, but because I’m not spending it, it feels like I’m being deprived. I guess thats the consumer mindset, and it’s what the marketing types in ‘the city’ have become so good at.

I’m also really feeling the pinch of not having a car. We had a terrific, economical, VW Polo. We owned it from new with 0 miles on the clock, however in our quest to be more frugal it had got to the point where we only used the car for the very rare journey, so we let it go. We are saving for a new car which we hope to buy in the next few months, but the whole not having a car does make you feel a tad trapped. I would love to drive into Manchester and go to the science museum, or for a walk down Castlefield. I would love to jump in and head over to Skipton for a day in the market town and some nice walks in the dales. I really do miss having the car, and I can’t wait to get our new one.

Well today brings much of the same, got quite a lot of things to get done. Unfortunately we both rediscovered Twitter and have since become addicted. I use the twitterific app on the iPhone and Vicki normally has her laptop glued to her in the evening. I’m following some of my favourite people including Robert Llewellyn, Jonathan Ross & Rik Mayall. Russell brand also started following me last night so there goes the neighbourhood

Right I’ll leave it there for today, going for a family cooked meal tonight and then the quiz which should be fun. It will be another day of not spending, and to be honest, after 3 weeks of this I’m quite used to the kind of day that brings.

Remote Control Woes

Well today it happened. The crap consumer stuff I buy finally decided it was time I owned a new DVD player for the office. This really is the most stupid device I’ve ever come across. It was a cheap £10 DVD player from Asda that I bought a few years ago for the sole use of watching DVD’s in the office. It has been used for around 30 DVD’s in that time, as I often watch movies on the big HDTV in the living room. So today I come to watch the last few episodes of Red Dwarf series 6, and god damn, the remote control has died.

Now you would think that this would be no more than a pain in the arse for me, I’d simply have to get out of my comfortable leather seat and control the DVD from the unit, but you would be wrong. This ingenious piece of consumer electronics has 3 buttons on the front, Play, Open and standby!!!!! By pressing play at the main menu of a DVD you can get the DVD to play, but you can’t skip forwards or backwards. This means I have watched the episode Psirens at least 4 times today as I’ve tried to watch the disk in various sittings!!! This is shocking. At first I thought it was the battery, and being a shoddy piece of consumer crap, this remote has tiny flat button batteries like in a watch. After searching high and low I found a working button battery, and tried it in the remote, but the damn remote seems to be faulty. This essentially renders this DVD player useless. I’m determined not to throw the unit away, and I’m currently drafting an email to Asda requesting a replacement remote control.

This whole debacle got me really angry though. Why is it seen as normal to throw stuff away because of the tiniest fault? I have a friend who is a product designer, and I once asked him why for instance my grans washing machine was still fine after 20 years, and why people go through the new ones in a matter of years. He told me that product designers are now asked and encouraged to design products with weak points, or developing flaws, to ensure that nothing lasts and that we keep on buying. He said, for instance, that a washing machine made of strong metal will have various plastic components, such as the high stress latch, which will be a designed weak point. The thought of this has always made me so cross. If I pay for a quality item, I want a quality item, and I will replace it when I’m good and ready.

This DVD remote is another example of how badly things are produced. For one thing, sourcing the CR2025 batteries is neither easy or cheap, so by placing these batteries in this remote, the manufacturer is basically selling a disposable product. The mentality behind this is that the DVD player is so cheap to begin with, why bother maintaining and caring for the product. Just bin the thing, get back to Asda and buy another one. I will not buy another and I will source a replacement remote. I may even disassemble the remote and try a home made fix. I certainly won’t be replacing the unit.

Right rant over. I’ll go back to watching these Red Dwarf epiosdes on the PC. Just to let you know, i got through another day without spending, no replacement batteries or DVD player, which has made me feel cross due to the fact that its broken, but happy with the fact that I’ve not already sought a cheap replacement. More news on the DVD debacle in the coming days, especially if Asda reply.

I feel a thousand times better than I did a few days ago, thank god. I’ve not been that ill for a long time, and to be told by the doctors that its a viral illness which cannot be treated is not the best news. I’d be the first person to pop a pill or drink some medicine to make me feel human again, and the fact that the only treatment was to wait and let the virus run it’s course was in itself a bitter pill to swallow.

Enough about that, I’m feeling better and you will be glad to hear I’m still not spending. As stated at the beginning of this experiment, I’m allowed to spend on food & drink, shelter and bills. I wish there was a way that I didn’t have to pay bills, as they see to be coming in thick and fast at the moment. The winter fuel bills are in, and they are phenomenal. I had no idea gas & electricity could cost so much, they certainly never have in the years I’ve been paying them.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Vicki & I moved into a much larger 3 bedroom Victorian house this year. It is at least twice the size of the largest of our previous homes, and is somewhat of a beast to heat. The funny thing is, we have a spare room upstairs set out as a guest room, then a spare spare room which we use for storage. Downstairs we have the office which is huge, and the living room which is massive. So we now have all this space we don’t use, which we paid a premium for, and to compound the problem, we have to heat the damn thing. We have come to the conclusion that the house is too big for the two of us, and intend to move to a smaller place in the summer. This will not only save us a fortune on bills, but will be a lot cheaper to aquire in the first place, which will be a double saving.

So to offset some of these huge bills, we have decided to barter skills and labour for meals. Now I never take money from family for doing odd jobs or favours, however I’ve asked that anyone who needs my assistance (people always ask me to do stuff for them, from DIY to PC repairs and everything in between) repay me with a home cooked meal and some good company. This is a great deal, and I love bartering skills with friends and family.

I always use this bartering when possible. For example when we moved house last time, I traded friends time and muscle and in return I built a website for a friends company. With regards family, I’m dog sitting this weekend, which means I get to use my Grans house whilst looking after the dog and even get a home cooked hot pot thrown into the mix. If you haven’t used bartering yet, give it a try. Perhaps trade a skill you have with a friend with a skill you need. We don’t need to monetise everything!

I’d love to say the not spending is getting to me, and making me angry and full of angst but it really isnt. the only thing I do miss is popping into town for a browse, but staying away from the town is the best way of avoiding temptation. I’m still trying to source a camera to do the year without spending podcast for the site, but it’s prooving harder than I thought. I need a minidv camera on loan from anyone, if anyone has one they don’t use please do let me know.

Well I can’t beleive I’m now two weeks in. Just 50 weeks to go

Hi Guys. Just a super quick post to let you know why i didn’t post yesterday or today. I’ve been struck down with round two of this illness and the cold seems to have developed into a chesty cough and sinus pain. I’ll spare you the details but safe to say I’m not in the frame of mind for sitting in front of the computer and typing an entry. Hopefully all we be well tomorrow and normal service can resume.