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The skills I learned in that job have served me well ever since, allowing me to enjoy time as a TV repair man, designer of custom electronic systems, RF technician, and ultimately becoming my "foot in the door" to computer programming.

Back in "the good old days", even skilled labour was cheap, there was only a very limited range of components, and when your radio, TV, stereo or other bit of electronics broke down -- you got it fixed.

Things are a whole lot different today though aren't they?

If your $299 colour TV or PC monitor breaks down outside the warranty period then you might as well throw it in the trash. The cost of simply getting a quote or estimate for its repair will likely amount to a fair percentage of the replacement cost.

And, even if it is repairable, there's a fairly good chance that the parts will have to be ordered in by the service agent -- since many manufacturers now rely heavily on their own custom chips and other components.

Readers Say (updated irregularly) end of an era... - Robert Repair work... - Edmund disposable culture... - thirdeye Repairs of TVs etc... - Helen Reply... - Edmund Have Your Say

While it might be tempting to moan about the fact that, certainly in the case of electronics, we live in the age of the disposable product, is this really such a bad thing?

Many years ago, when I was servicing those TVs, I was amazed at just how much money some people had poured into keeping their old valve sets alive.

Old electronics were nowhere near as reliable as today's low-component-count, highly integrated designs. It was not uncommon for an average black and white TV to need a service call at least once a year and replacing the horribly expensive picture tube was a job that kept the apprentices in our workshop pretty busy every day.

These days, I doubt that distributors even bother carrying new picture tubes except for warranty repairs.

The advantage of a "disposable" design is that, when your TV, stereo, monitor, or whatever, finally does break down, you get to replace it with one of the latest models with better performance, lower cost and more fashionable appearance.

The downside is that there are more unemployed service technicians and we have a problem with a growing mountain of dead PC boards, injection-molded cabinets and glass tubes with nasty phosphorous in them.

Of course in countries like Germany, the waste problem has been solved by forcing retailers to take the old broken gear off a customer's hands and returning it for recycling. It's strange how, in our supposedly clean and green "100% Pure" country we have no such sensible policy isn't it?

I like the way that a disposable design offers me better value and performance but somehow I still lament the pride that comes with owning a well (and perhaps often) maintained device that has been built to last.

How about you?

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