Fixfest is a global gathering of repairers, tinkerers, and activists

Posted by robtherobber 1 day ago

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Comments

Comment by MisterTea 1 hour ago

I fix everything I can. This past summer my Pelonis table fan fell and broke its base. I took a piece of water damaged wood shelf (veneered plywood) that I saved and used a jigsaw to cut a new base which I screwed to the bottom of the broken fan base. It works and the wood adds a little weight so its less prone to wobble. Two objects saved from the trash.

Comment by j1elo 20 hours ago

I would enjoy this so much. Always keeping electronic parts around home, "just in case". It feels so profoundly satisfying when you finally get to put some switch or random piece to use for a repair, after having kept it stored for 13 years in a drawer (and through moving houses 3 times!)

Comment by ja27 1 day ago

We did a "restart party" at our hackerspace a few years ago. Definitely could have used a good stock of capacitors. Probably power cords. Not sure what to do with all the very specific USB-C etc. ports that break.

Comment by throwa920189 20 hours ago

I once knew someone who bought a set of various different types of usbc connector, I think from a chinese site. It had enough variety that one worked for his repair (a handheld gaming device).

Comment by jjice 23 hours ago

Everything about fixing something broken is so appealing. Better for the environment, often better for your wallet, and better for the soul.

I think this applies to software too! Writing good software allows it to be maintained well and it being open source helps promote that. Publishing good documentation is another huge win for maintainability.

Comment by lukan 22 hours ago

"and better for the soul"

Well, if it works again ..

https://xkcd.com/1994/

If you have a habit like me of only partly fixing things, because a unforseen problem came up and deciding to get back later on it, you will just pile up electronic garbage and run out of space. (It was really good for my soul getting rid of most of it recently)

Comment by wolvoleo 17 hours ago

It's a learning experience. The more you do it, the more successful outcomes you get.

Comment by bluGill 16 hours ago

That is why I work on broken things - if I can't fix it, it was broken anyway. Working things that could use a tweak scare me as I might make it worse.

Comment by wolvoleo 17 hours ago

And you learn a lot from it. Even if it fails.

Comment by alexbike 21 hours ago

The fact that fixing what you own now requires 'activism' is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

Comment by arikrahman 20 hours ago

Will be marking my calendar!

Comment by adolph 22 hours ago

Something that repair enables is wealth in the sense that David Deutsch uses in "Beginning of Infinity:" the repertoire of physical transformations that they would be capable of causing

Comment by guerython 1 day ago

[flagged]

Comment by dang 1 day ago

We've banned this account. Please stop now.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#generated

Comment by guerython 17 hours ago

[dead]

Comment by dang 1 day ago

[stub for offtopicness]

Comment by daedrdev 1 day ago

Are they nimby?

Comment by xeromal 1 day ago

I read this as fedex. The brain is weird.

Comment by r_lee 1 day ago

I read it as Firefox

Comment by FarmerPotato 1 day ago

funny, I read it as BarCamp

Comment by idontlikenigge 22 hours ago

[flagged]

Comment by larodi 20 hours ago

Given expected further economic struggle ahead of most everyone living in the UK, such gatherings perhaps come being more appropriate than ever. If not late already. The only contradiction is with the otherwise super consumerism-oriented societal tune across most Europe, UK including.