[sdiy] Death of DIY?

[greg montalbano]

At 05:46 PM 4/23/02 -0700, you wrote:
>A preference for DIY versus consumer instruments
>doesn't indicate that a person is more imaginative, it
>only indicates where their interests are. This stuff
>is time consuming, and I know musicians who feel that
>time is better spent playing their instruments than
>building them.

Oh, I agree -- but DIY is not ONLY a musician thing.  It's extended
into all aspects of my life;  comes from a genuine desire to know
how things work.

>(Or maybe they just think I'm the
>sucker who will work on their stuff for free? Who
>knows?)

Having been that sucker many times myself, I can only agree.

~GMM

>--- greg montalbano <greg.montalbano at ucop.edu> wrote:
> > Not another universe -- another country, and another
> > culture.
> >
> > Here in the US of A, we're all bred from birth by
> > the corporations
> > to be passive consumers;  if they do their job
> > correctly, then we
> > reach a stage where it wouldn't occur to us to even
> > IMAGINE anything
> > other than what they offer us.... they provide the
> > products, they set
> > the standards & fashions.
> > This is what ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN bought into, when
> > they became
> > essentially a monthly corporate mouthpiece (don't
> > think about anything
> > except the products we offer you).
> > Speaking of rants, I could pursue & detail this line
> > of thought for roughly
> > another twenty pages or so;  but that WOULD be OT.
> > Suffice it to say, in the US we're encouraged NOT to
> > be fascinated by the
> > way things work, or how to fix them ourselves, or
> > how to create new things.
> >
> > (and NO, this is not a "conspiracy theory";  there's
> > no shrouded conspiracy --
> > the corporations are quite up front about how money
> > is their true god, how
> > MUCH of it they want to make, and what our place is
> > in the greater scheme
> > of things.  Nothing hidden about it at all;  it's
> > just sad that there's so
> > little resistance to it, and sad how anyone outside
> > the standard consumer
> > mold is considered a "crank".)
> >
> > ~GMM ,  cranky old fart
> > At 11:25 PM 4/23/02 +0000, jbv.silences wrote:
> > >Mmmmh... I'm not so sure...
> > >
> > >I too started DIYing in the late 70's as I was
> > student (and had to work
> > >at night and on week ends as a taxi driver to
> > afford parts).
> > >
> > >But these days, here in France, there are at least
> > 5 different monthly
> > >mags
> > >about electronics featuring dozens of DIY projects
> > (yes, about 60 to 75%
> > >of them are built around some uC but anyway), when
> > there were only 2
> > >or 3 (and of much lower quality in the early
> > 80's)...
> > >And the DIY fever seems to extend to robotics with
> > 2 new mags...
> > >I guess there must be an audience somewhere...
> > >
> > >On the other hand, I see our young trainees at
> > work, still students, but
> > >spending nights & week ends hacking old PC
> > motherboards to build
> > >their own FTP server and the like...
> > >
> > >Am I living in another universe or what ?
> > >
> > >JB
> >
>
>
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