Gizmos

It just occurred to me that sometimes the earlier versions of a device are better in the long term than more recent devices. Older devices are generally simpler, because no one wants to spend loads of money on engineering until they know whether the device is going to be a commercial success or not. Older devices are generally tougher because you can't afford a bunch of premature failures because your device wasn't tough enough. As time goes on, successful products get re-engineered to provide fancy new features, to cut weight and to cut manufacturing cost. Sometimes that means replacing screws with glue or welding. The goal is to cut the cost of product so much so that it becomes disposable. Then people will be expecting them to fail and buy a new one to replace it. If it's only a dollar, who cares? Toss out the old one and buy a new one.

Problem comes up when the device falls out of favor and they quit making them, but you really like yours and want to keep using it. It it's the latest whiz-bang gizmo, you're going to be out of luck. There will be no way to fix it. But if you have one of originals, constructed out of tougher materials and put together with screws, you at least stand a chance of being able to fix it.