This is not a conversation about guns. This is a conversation about items that have withstood abuse that are near unbreakable.
Some items I have heard referenced as AK47 of:
Gerber MP600: It’s a multi tool
Old Thinkpad Laptops
Mag lights
Toyota Hilux
A discontinued product from AKG called the K-330. The sound, even though nothing to get excited about, was decent, but the durability of these, in my opinion is legendary. When I was a teenager, I was not careful with them at all, and would often forget them in my sweatpants pockets before throwing them into the washing machine, and that happened hundreds of times and it’s not an exaggeration. The cable was mostly tangle free, while everyone else had to untangle their earbuds (something that most modern earbud cables can’t seem to do as well). These went through abuse more than any other device I’ve ever owned, and they kept working no matter what. Audio quality wise, they are overpriced in my opinion (I think the MSRP was $100, but because not many bought them, I got them on sale as a teen), but the durability is Nokia level in my opinion.
AKG Q701 headphones also. I’ve been using the same pair for well over a decade.
Glad to hear it. How’s the sound of these? I’ve never heard any Quincy Jones signature headphones from AKG.
I’m a bit of an audiophile and the Q701s are the best I’ve listened to. They far out pace anything else under $200 in terms of soundstage and clarity. The bass is a bit low, but this is to be expected from open backs.
That’s awesome. My brother has the AKG K7XX, I’m guessing they sound similar, because I remember being impressed with these. I assume the QJ are just a different tune, and more padding on the headband.
I recently ordered the Sennheiser HD 58X, but I was looking at the AKG options too.
The K7 series is similar but not identical. The sound profile changed slightly when manufacturing was moved from Austria to China.
I love my AKG Q702. I think there are almost identical to the Q701 but with a detachable cable so it can be easily replaced.
I’ve been using them almost everyday since 2020 and barely show any wear.
The only thing that wore out a bit is the elastic on the side but I don’t really notice a difference.
Sony MDR-V6. I’ve had them for 15+ years, only had to change ear pads to velour ones after the first 5 years of use, after that 10+ years, no issues.
Baofeng AR-5RM Handheld Radio. Costs under 30$ and is extremely useful and versatile. Can pick up just about any frequency youd need, VHF, UHF, AM, FM, GMRS, etc. and while not waterproof its built very tough. Could probably use it to beat somebody to death then pick it back up and have a conversation on it.
Mag lights
You mean a fash light?
fasc
The 1997 Toyota Camry.
And the 1992 chev cavalier. Indestructible.
You must live somwhere they don’t salt the roads.
I did when I owned the cavalier. Now I am back in my homeland and my cars fall apart in a few years.
Also, this is an old meme, and a bit outdated for our times, but no one has mentioned it so ill do it. The Nokia 3310. Truly the AK-47 of phones.
The original Japanese Boss HM-2 (1983-1988). Nasty, indestructible, cheap (at the time) and still in use today. There are death metal band out there still using a forty year old pedal.
Just about any Boss pedal
True but I’ve had an HM-2 since '85, so I can attest to the durability of that one.
The Logitech x3d Xtreme or whatever the hell it’s called. it’s a $34 flight stick, best one you can get for cheap, and after having and abusing it for years it only had any issues after a rottweiler puppy chewed the cable. Would recommend.
I’ve been interested in this subject for a while and have a few recommendations.
Stanley Thermos. It could get hit by a fucking train and would still outlive you. Don’t recommend putting cofee/milk products etc in them though because it will make the gasket smell. Excellent water container though.
Double edged straight razor. The handle piece is virtually indestructible. I bought a package of like 500 blades for like 30 dollars and haven’t had to buy new ones for actual years. Fun fact as well, once you learn to use one it’s better for sensitive skin because you’re only dragging one razor across your skin per stroke instead of 5 or 7 or whatever the fuck the “better” ones have. Can confirm the “more blades = better” shit is just pure predatory marketing.
Buck knife. Multi tools are cool but if you tend to use the knife often, invest in a higher quality knife and stones to sharpen it. Sharpening stones (not the crap ceramic stuff they try to sell) will last a lifetime and will also keep all your kitchen knives beautiful for years. While you’re up to it, get a piece of raw leather, like the back of of an old belt, and use it as a strop to polish off the blade when you’re done sharpening, it really does make the cut smoother.
People say Mag light, but I’d personally recommend Olight as well for flashlights. The Olight Baton 4 is a ~600 lumen adjustable brightness flashlight with strobe which will blind you if you aren’t careful and its smaller than a pill bottle and comes with a reversible clip and inset magnet in case you need to stick it somewhere to keep the light steady.
A graphite metal “magic” pencil. Instead of using normal graphite, these metal bodied pencils have end pieces you screw in as a tip, are erasable, and one nib takes forever to run out, something like 5 pencils. They dont draw as dark as a regular pencil due to the hardness but for general usage they are handy.
Mighty plugs ear plugs. Want to know what it’s like to be deaf? Buy these. They aren’t too costly, completely seal the ear, and I only have to get a new package once every few years. They’re so effective I had to purchase an alarm clock built for deaf people which shakes my mattress instead of making a sound because I couldn’t hear any normal alarm clock after I started using these. This combination is unbeatable if you have awful neighbors or live on a busy street with night traffic.
Any self winding watch. Stop fucking around with button cell batteries and evolve. If it’s cheap, that’s probably better, if it gets scratched you don’t have to care. Seiko is a good brand in my experience.
If you’re into camping get a decent mid sized carving hatchet. I have a mid sized Hultafors swedish steel one. People like splitting axes because they do what they’re advertised to do, but theyre huge, heavy, and you cant carve or skin with them. A lighter smaller carving axe will do the same job splitting a log if you baton it with a medium sized stick. If you need something bigger to cut down a tree, go for a curved folding saw to bring with the hatchet. The Silky Saw Big Boy is great for that. Also buy a wool blanket. That shit will keep you warm in -35 C if you use it correctly. Also tents are neat but cumbersome, instead invest in a tarp and learn to make a lean to/other tarp configurations in combination with a ground sheet. If you expect you’ll be facing inclement or extremely wet weather, get an oilskin tarp (or make one yourself its literally just a cotton sheet which you have ran through a few dryer cycles as hot as possible, and then soaked through in a 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits and hung outside until completely dry. Don’t put an open flame near it at any point in that process).
I probably have a bunch more, but can’t think of them off the top of my head.
Instead of a curved folding saw I prefer a rope saw. I’ve always been able to take down limbs and trees faster.
For those that don’t know what that is, imagine a chainsaw chain with handles on either end.
Rope saws are neat as fuck as well.
Do you use one that is actual chain, or braided wire? I’ve used the braided wire saws, and I like how tiny/light they are, but I’ve never used one of the chain style saws to see if the weight/volume increase is worth it.
Mine is the chain style. I cannot compare as I have never used the braided wire and I don’t have to think about weight savings that much. I don’t generally hike far to a camping spot.
Just bought some earplugs. They better be legit! I use silicone earplugs right now and they’re okay but on nights when my husband is really stuffy, he’s like a chainsaw.
The ones I recommended are similar to some other silicone ones, but are a bit softer. As a result I find they seal better in comparison. I had been using silicone ones prior to discovering these and they are definitely my preference.
Thank you! Fingers crossed that they’re even better than the ones I’m currently using. Which are pretty good (Eargasms) but don’t have a super high decibel rating and I definitely have to toss each pair after about a week and a half of wearing them every night, just because they stop being as…sticky? They’re not really sticky but they do adhere when they’re fresh, and not so much after a few days.
I see. Over a long enough time I do find that these ones harden as well at which point I change them, however that’s usually a month or more instead of a couple weeks. I hope they work out well for you should you buy!
As heads up as well, the little pucks they come as are way too big for my ears, but you don’t want them to be too small either.
These are amorphous like a sort of putty, so I usually tear a puck in half, and then another into quarters, and then mash them together such that I have 75% the size of a puck for each ear. This insures they completely seal my ear, but also cant get stuck or anything.
This also has the benefit of not needing to worry about sizing though!
I’m totally fed up with the usual 5-bladed razor crap from Gillette and especially Wilkinson. But I’ve always been to afraid to use an old school double-edged razor because I only, blindly, shave my head with it and maybe my pubes. Seems more risky. Any advice / recommendations?
Its a matter of practice. Just know that as long as you only move the razor in a straight line and dont wobble it side to side, you cant fuck up too bad. You want to learn to hold the razor such that it is always meeting the surface of your skin at a 45 degree angle, use very short strokes, and use your other hand to pull your skin taught.
You also want to remember that, especially when starting out, you dont have to do a great job on the first or even second pass. Do the best you can, and if there is still hair, just re-apply shaving cream and go over those spots again. Eventually you get good enough you can get everything in a single pass most of the time.
There are some good videos on youtube where people have tutorials on learning to use one. Also because it cuts closer to the skin, you may want to invest in a face moisturizer in addition to an aftershave. Really helps to prevent ingrown hairs and makes your face feel amazing after shaving with one. For pubes/longer hair, I would shave with an electric shaver first to shorten the hairs, and then follow up with the razor.
For those more sensitive areas you want to make sure you’re getting a razor body where the blade doesn’t protrude as far. Henson shavers are incredible quality but I dont remember if they have a razor body suited for body hair.
The idea with these razors is to not apply much pressure, just letting the weight of the razor itself do the pressing. As long as youre doing that, and not holding it at a stupid angle, you should find it quite difficult to hurt yourself shaving your head. Same goes for your pubes, but if you’re going to shave your balls with it you’ll need to take a lot of care.
I’ve been shaving with a DE razor for about 15 years now, and I haven’t found it any easier or harder to cut yourself with them than the modern “Mach 84 Spike TV Edition” cartridge razors.
Just ordered a Henson razor today. Heard good things about it and it was also recommended here. Also I still had a promo code.
It’s like anything, you get used to it after some practice. Definitely not as daunting as you think.
You can either start with one of the milder razors sold by Edwin Jagger, Muhle or Merkur and pair with a moderate blade such as the Gillette Silver Blue OR get a good adjustable razor such as the Merkur Progress or Merkur Future and again pair with a moderate blade. Do not start with Feather blades.
I’ve been shaving my head and my balls with safety razors for like 15 years. Get some nice soap like sandalwood, cedar, lavender, frankincense, sasquatch or whatever name they’re calling it these days and make a lather on your body in the shower. A lather from actual soap is critical to avoiding nicks, cuts, and especially razor burn. Use a new blade and gently drag the razor across your skin. Use short strokes, not long passes. Clean the razor. Add more lather when needed. Don’t press hard or move the razor sideways or diagonally. That’s how you cut yourself. Watch out and take care for any bumps and rounded corners, like warts, the back of your jaw, or any sagittal crest you may have. Hold the razor with one hand and use the other to feel for hair and smoothness. Make a pass with the grain and another against the grain. Reapply lather between passes.
Maybe before you begin, shave a little hair off your arm or leg to test the angle you hold the razor. The sensation of individual hairs being cut will be tactile and satisfying. When it’s right, it’ll feel right.
Get a sharps container for used blades. It’ll take a lifetime to fill. Blades only cost like a dime, so just treat yourself and use a new one every time.
It ain’t too difficult. Just be gentle, take short and slow strokes, feel your way around, and don’t shave dry skin. You may be surprised how easy it is. They’re called safety razors for a reason.
Guess I’m getting a safety razor for Christmas then. It really sounds easy enough. I usually combine showering and shaving so lather really shouldn’t be a problem. Thanks!
You won’t regret it. Safety razors, and if you decide to, straight razors are far superior. I used a safety razor for a few years and then decided to get a Dovo straight razor and I love it.
Wait, you’re saying not to use coffee in a Stanley thermos?? Even if I don’t have milk in it too? What’s it for then, only soup?
Yea or water is what I primarily use it for. You CAN put coffee and such in there however, you will want to take off the gasket and clean the hell out of it. It absorbs smells quite strongly. You could also probably get a different gasket which is not as bad for it. Should the gasket begin to smell, I recommend soaking it over night in vinegar, and then another night in water. This really seems to suck the smell out of it.
In that case, it’s probably any gasket that’s susceptible to this, coffee is really strong-smelling. My Zojirushi thermos is only used for coffee, for this reason…
It can probably affect all gaskets, but depending on the type of rubber some might be better or worse. I haven’t played around enough with testing different ones to know for certain though.
Maybe silicone would be a good material for this?
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have ran
have run
right?!?
While this does appear to be a grammatical error, Wiktionary also lists it as a dialectical, nonstandard past participle of run, so it looks like some people use it depending on where they’re from, including myself it seems.
I suppose I select ran as the past participle because in other cases where I use it in past tense, run does not sound correct to me.
For example where I am from, I would say someone “ran” from the police, instead of that someone “had run” from the police, so I default to this version of the word in these cases.
My 99 honda civic had nearly 250,000 miles on it the day that it was stolen. When it was found, the thieves had gutted the dashboard of electronics and had removed wheels and other parts. When it was discovered by the police, they towed it to the city in-pound lot and failed to contact me for a couple days because the license plate had been painted over for some reason.
Unfortunately the lot and towing fees ended up being more than what I paid for the car. I wasnt very well off at the time, so I surrendered it to the city. I assumed it would be scrapped for parts.
6 months later it was served to me in ad for Facebook Marketplace. Some guy had fixed it up and had been driving it regularly for months with no issue.
I still wish that I had bought it from him. I fuckin loved that car. I used it to deliver pizzas for 2 years, so i wasnt even that easy on it. I never had a major engine or transmission issue with it and the minor issues that I had were easy for me to fix myself. I bet it’s still running out there somewhere.
There’s magic in those old 90s Hondas, I’ve seen it. I had a stripped valve cover bolt and couldn’t figure out how I could fix it short of a head replacement. The answer? Plug it with a rubber and metal washer sandwich and a bolt, and tighten the ones next to it a lil more. Never leaked. Thing was a champ
The wrt54g. They don’t make wifi routers like they used to.
I bought one specifically for DD-WRT firmware way back when. I now rock a gigabit mesh system but that wrt lasted almost a decade before tech moved on enough for me to switch.
I ran Tomato on mine. Liked it better than DD-WRT.
Careful now, they are too old to be secure. I’d switch to TL-WDR4300.
That’s what I’m running, though I had issues with it randomly requiring a reset. Installing OpenWrt fixed that problem.
Yup, WDR4300 on OpenWRT is the way to go.
Had that running on my main router until a newer one came along. Now it’s still going strong, but as a wifi repeater.
Akai 4000ds Reel to Reel tape player. So many are still working, built like a tank. They’re super cheap on the used market.
I think every Swedish household i’ve ever been in has owned the same Moccamaster coffee brewer for over 15 years. My parents have had the same one for over 20 years probably, swear those are indestructible.
Starrett tools. All of them. I’ve put them through Hell and back.
Can confirm with the old thinkpads. They’re not great for gaming, but the keyboard, track pack, and eraser head are solid for writing and other office-like work.
I had one that lasted for 12 years. By the end it was more of a media centre connected to my TV, but still.
Hmm, yes, “eraser head”… That’s what I call it too.
I definitely don’t call it the mouse clit. Who would call it that?
Certainly not me.
The old part really does a lot of work here. New ThinkPads are utter trash :-/
I got excited to get one for work (having heard about the old ones) and was sorely disappointed. It thermal throttles if you look at it wrong, it keeps having BIOS issues with Lenovo being no help and the USB-C display connection (To a Lenovo monitor with their inbuilt docking station!) is iffy.
I was just blaming the usb-c connection to my monitor and throttling on a combo of windows and corporate bloatware, I guess I feel a bit better that I’m not the only one.
The connection to my monitor is the most frustrating, sometimes won’t even recognise it, sometimes after blanking the display it’ll come back with the wrong resolution but still display like it was the original, it’s super bizarre. Literally never had an issue with my personal Asus zenbook in either Debian or w11.
I have two new P1 Gen 7’s coming today, i hope they have fixed that
They didn’t. They did kinda change the goalpost though.
Which model did you get? The i7 or the i9? The i7 models have a minimum guaranteed TDP of 28 watts, while the i9 is at least 35. But 35 watts on such a high end CPU is dire. The Gen. 7 also killed their high end GPU options, but maybe that leaves more power headroom for the CPU.
That’s still better than my P1 Gen. 4 which throttles down to 25 watts. 25 watts on an 11th Gen. i9 is AWFUL performance.
i9 with the 4070 GPU
Let me know how the thermals are on that machine. I ended up paying out the ass for a refurbished gen 6 because it comes with the 4090 and a MUCH bigger heatsink. From what I saw initially in the reviews the performance is worse not just because the 100 series has worse IPC, but the machine doesn’t actually boost as much since it’s more thermally limited.
HOWEVER the machine gets a LOT better battery.
My gen 4 would get anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours of battery life unless I’m doing literally nothing on it. This gen 6 gets like 4 hours unless I’m heavily taxing it. But from people online I saw them say 7 hours is easily doable. And having a GPU that doesn’t use 20 watts sitting idle sure helps.
Anything specific you’d like me to test?
The only thing I’m really curious about is how far back the CPU gets throttled with the dGPU active and busy.
On both of my machines when I render a video using my GPU the CPU is still the limiting factor because of the codec I chose. On my 11th gen machine it took like 5 minutes before it was power throttled down to 25 watts. My gen 6 takes longer to power throttle and only goes down to 35 watts, but either power level that sucks. I already know the gen 7 dials back the clock speeds, but I’m mostly curious how far it goes and how quickly?
The easiest way to test this is just open a video game that’s taxing on the CPU and GPU, I don’t think the CPU throttles with light loads like if you opened furmark. Maybe benchmarking software would cause it to throttle.
Which series? T/P or one of the economy options? The T, X, W, and later on P series have been the only models people really like.
We have a few T series at work and they’re not bad. My T14 Gen. 1 doesn’t thermal throttle at all as long as its thermal paste isn’t toast. It will run at basically its full all core boost speeds all day long. The newer 12th Gen. machines dial their clocks back a smidge under full load, but that’s because they have 2x the cores of my measly 10th Gen. machine.
Also I have a T14s AMD and that thing is a BEAST for such a small machine. 35 watts out of an AMD 6 core is no slouch for something that small. And I easily get 7+ hours of battery life out of my abusive use.
How old? I want one, but there are a lot of models
Newest you can afford. T and P models, or X if you can.
The newer ones are actually less well-built.
I have a T14 Gen 3 from work to confirm with. It’s definitely not bad, but not as rugged.
Meanwhile, for personal use, I got a X230, and a W530, and they are much more solid. A lot of people said that T480 is the “last great Thinkpad”, but I don’t have one so I cannot confirm this.
I don’t really disagree, but as time goes by, those old ones show their age more and more. I’m using the same one as you for work, and I got a T580 off eBay for personal (replaces my T430s). I don’t know what I’d get if not for used Thinkpads though. One day maybe I can afford/justify one of those boutique Linux laptops.
Edit: I briefly had a T480 and it had problems with the display… apparently widespread.
It does shows signs of aging, but not as bad as the other laptops of the same era.
I haven’t heard of the T480 display problem until now, but then again, I’ve never had it myself.
I bought a T480 coming on a year ago as my first ThinkPad. I’m pretty happy with it, feels rugged and I’ve now fully conditioned myself to using the TrackPoint. Happy with the weight of it for the screen size, I have the 1080p one and it’s not bad at all.
My work device is a L14 Gen 3 with the Ryzen 5 something and it’s okay. I don’t like the flatter TrackPoint buttons but they’re still more than usable. I actually dropped it from about waist height from my car, and apart from some scuffs on the corners it’s still completely functional.
I do miss the media keys and CPU upgradability of my old Latitude E6420 (had that bad boy up to an i7-2760QM, 16GB DDR3, 512GB SSD) but it was just so bulky in comparison and the screen maxed out at only 1600x900 (which yes, I upgraded on it too).
One more thing for me to go on a tangent about, ThinkPad X240 was a poor choice as a secondary. I thought I wouldn’t care about the weird touchpad but it’s barely usable for me, either as a touchpad or TrackPoint. I’m selling that shit on to get either an X220 or X250 onwards, depending on what comes up.
Oh hey! I used to have a Latitude E6430! I’ve seen my college buddy’s E6420 and they’re not too far apart (we’d get these upcycled laptops when we’re lucky from a local e-waste company).
I can vouch for their ruggedness. Definitely not on par with Thinkpads, but they’re pretty up there.
I didn’t get the chance to upgrade much aside from the RAM and SSD, handed it down to a friend in need while upgrading my arsenal to Thinkpads.
One thing that bothered me is how heavy it is for a 14 inch laptop; that bezel is humongous. Also, it stings then I touch the palmrest wrong while charging.
Yeah the E6430, as far as I understand it, was mainly a chipset upgrade to support Ivy Bridge processors, with some additional niceties like USB 3.0 and minor cosmetic differences.
I also had that sting from it too! Usually when it was on charge, I just always thought it was some kind of static electricity or otherwise some poor grounding.
I bought a T14 Gen 2 on eBay for about $250. It can play some older games like Morrowind, but I mostly use it for book writing, D&D games, video downloading/ripping/burning, browsing, and such.
I put Linux Mint on mine and it runs like a dream.
