Ctrl-Alt-Upcycle - DTNS 5305 Experiment Week

**Tom Merritt** (0:00)
Hey, everybody, Tom Merritt here. It is Experiment Week on DTNS. This is a yearly tradition where we take the show down during one of the slower times of the year for tech news, and we hand over the feed to folks to try out new podcast ideas. You're going to get to hear the very first episode of what could go on to become the next Tech John or behind the data. We're also running a special promotion for Experiment Week this year. If you're not already a DTNS patron and you'd like to give a little value back for the value you get from us, use the code EXPERIMENT and you'll get 26% off your first pledge, monthly or yearly, that's 26% off for 2026 Just use the code EXPERIMENT at patreon.com/dtns.
Now, on to today's experiment.

**Patrick Norton** (0:54)
What happens when two dads are too damn fed up? Ladies and gentlemen, you get Ctrl-Alt-Upcycle. We're looking at how to upgrade your PC or your laptop, your tech situation, how to get by when prices are a little out of control. I mean, if you haven't noticed, it's ugly out there if you're shopping for a laptop or a desktop or a steam machine.

**Roger Chang** (1:16)
Yeah, and our whole philosophy is you use it up, wear it out, make it do or make do, or you just do without because sometimes you just can't get the bacon.

**Patrick Norton** (1:29)
For those of you who have never heard the common version of that, it's use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. Something that was hammered into my skull through much of my childhood. I thought that went back to the Depression and it might.
But that particular version of that phrase becomes famous during one of the great consumer supply chain challenges of the 20th century, which would be World War II when everything being produced or much of what was being produced when overseas to fight, well, our enemies, the Axis powers as it were, and it was featured in ads encouraging Americans to make things go further. Just because you can buy it doesn't mean you should. Let's keep the consumption down at home so we can take care of the people fighting overseas. Although it is interesting, there's a whole contingent on the Internet, and Roger and I are nothing if not people who make side quests during the middle of every statement, because we've spent our entire lives trying to learn everything, failing miserably, but trying. Half the Internet thinks it goes back to Calvin Coolidge. Can't find an original source on this, but many places on the Internet said Calvin Coolidge in the Depression says eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. In any case, however it started, wherever it came from, it still applies today, especially if you have children.
Go ahead.

**Roger Chang** (2:56)
No, I just, one of those things is so side note, I went to a junior high named after a very famous president. Perhaps you might have heard of him, Patrick, Herbert Hoover. Now, he was well renowned for being the president around the time of the Great Depression, and there were many encampments named after him called Hoovervilles.
And one of the things that I learned from one of my instructors who was a 30 or late 20 something, early something, he was in World War II, is he often included in our social studies class, all the ways you could recycle and stretch out what you had available. One of the things he mentioned was during water shortages, you would stick a brick in the back of the toilet tank to kind of get it high enough to close the flow valve on your toilet.

**Patrick Norton** (3:56)
Thankfully, we now, most of us, at least those of us who spent too much time in California have low flow toilets, which are even better than a brick in the toilet tank. I did point out that we're not currently in a depression or even a recession. I knock on wood as I say that.
But it is incredibly challenging the cost of stuff right now, especially if you have technological needs. It's funny when you think about it, something I was looking at is, are PCs really more expensive? Short-term, absolutely. Compared to the 80s when computers were a luxury item, and I hadn't done a sort of like, adjusted for inflation comparison. But the Apple Macintosh would have cost $2,500 in 1984 Adjusted for inflation, that's $8,200.
The first computer for a ton of Gen Xers, Roger and his peers would have been a Commodore 64 Now, when that first launch, it was like $600. That's $2,000-ish adjusted. It dropped to about $250 in 1984 But that still would be over $800-$900 adjusted for inflation, on what was essentially a glorified gaming machine at the time. Now, the classic, I think of a friend of mine who got a Commodore 64, in no small part by being like, Mom, Dad, I'm going to learn how to program. That's the key to having a successful career in the future. He did not, in fact, go on to program for most of his adult life. Mostly, though, he has tremendous memories of typing in basic programs for basic games on a Commodore 64 But what we're dealing with right now is the short-term, well, short-term, we hope, it's probably going to be a couple of years. Let me pause for a second. Last summer, memory prices were a fraction of what they are today.