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Advanced?

Advanced?

Advanced?

(OP)
Every press release I read about some new product or service always describes it as "Advanced". Should this not be (if honest) "Contemporary" or (if trumpets must be blown) "State of the art"? Worse is when the "Advanced" word is used in technical papers to describe what's soon to be commonplace, ignored or history.

Maybe it's just a foible of mine. I have others.

Steve

RE: Advanced?

This is the equivalent of the soap adverts that claims "New & Improved".

I suspect it's just the least amount of hyperbole that some 'marketing' type could get away with and still feel like he/she contributed to the overall project.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Advanced?

If you move your Monopoly piece from GO to Baltic Avenue, you advanced it three spaces. It was not a fortuitous event. It is not revolutionary. It was a simple advancement forward. It advanced past its previous position.

Sometimes an advanced technology is just that - a simple advance ahead of the current state of things. Or a company has created something that is an advancement over a current product model. I wouldn't read more into it than that.

RE: Advanced?

SomptingGuy, I have to agree with you here. "Advanced" is a meaningless marketing term.
"Advanced" is just the opposite of "Retarded", which no one wants to be... (unless we speak about ignition timing)

"Innovative": OK, if it incorporates a new idea.
"Evolutionary": sure, next generation.
And so on...

Benta.

RE: Advanced?

It would be refreshing to see marketing of products that are "classic" designs. Cast iron instead of plastic, overkill instead of engineered to last exactly 1 day past the warranty period. My old hole punch weighs 3x what a new one weighs, has a big cast iron handle, and I can put as much paper as will fit then stomp on the handle to get through it. IF it ever breaks (can't imagine how) I'd buy another one just like it, if I could.

"Advanced" new car? Good for you, but I'll never buy a first model year, new or used.

RE: Advanced?

You mean like the 1949 miter-box I just finished restoring:

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Advanced?

Yep, I bet when that dial points to 45*, it actually cuts 45*, and the thing is heavy enough you don't even need to bolt it down to a bench. The fact that the arm looks like it could also be used as a hydraulic press doesn't hurt either.

RE: Advanced?

Grrr!
I hate it when you guys find stuff as nice as this (the miter box), and I just find junk.
But staying on topic: this ancient miter box is way more advanced than the aluminium crap you find nowadays.

RE: Advanced?

I didn't actually 'find' this miter-box, it was my father's. Now I can't say that he bought it new in 1949, but I can say that he had it as long as I could remember. It's one of a few things that I inherited along the some other small tools, some of them near antiques as well, like a couple of 'rabbit-planes' that could use some modest restoring. BTW, this was not my biggest restoration project so far (since my retirement in January), that would be the 1927 Singer sewing machine that my wife inherited from her family. It was her grandmother's and when she was a teenager, this was the machine she learned to sew on.

The 'before' pictures:





And 'after':





And as a FWIW, here's the 'before' picture of the miter-box:

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Advanced?

Wow John, an excellent job there on both. Where on earth did you get the Singer decals from?

RE: Advanced?

There are several places where you can buy them for the many different styles/themes used by Singer. In this particular case, the theme was what's called 'Filigree'. The set I bought came from a company called Keelersales, and like many small companies selling items like this, they do business via Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Singer-Model-66-or-99-Fili...

Note that there is quite a cottage industry out there selling to people who do restorations like Singer sewing machines. I had no problem whatsoever finding not only the decals, but also the couple of parts that were missing including a new leather belt for the treadle mechanism.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Advanced?

Is that sewing machine the kind that folds down and turns into a table? My grandmother had one just like it.

RE: Advanced?

Yes, this is what it looks like when the sewing head has been stowed away and the top closed-up:

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: Advanced?

I remember learning to use a sewing machine on one exactly like that - even with the same drawers. The problem I always found with them is that you had to spin the top wheel before using the treadle. If you started with the treadle, it almost always went backwards. Replacing the leather loop is always fun.

RE: Advanced?

One thing is evident from those pictures.

I'm certainly glad that sewing has advanced with the level of technology we benefit from today.

RE: Advanced?

Ya know, I've read before that everything that ever was made, is still being made. Mr. Baker's post lends some evidence to that! Very cool

RE: Advanced?

I love the job John did on that treadle sewing machine. I have one just like it (in the unrestored condition) at my off the grid summer place that still gets used for making curtains, etc. occasionally. It came with the place, may have been nearly new when it first arrived.

Where I work we make a lot of "obsolete" parts. Once something is in the catalog it almost never disappears although we did stop making ignition points for model T Fords a couple of years ago. Someone else probably picked up the slack.

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