On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:41:56 +0100, Allus Smith
wrote:

On 20 Apr 22:23, John Larkin wrote:

On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:08:32 +0100, Allus Smith
wrote:

All this talk about soldering irons makes me think how crummy
too much American industrial design is.

Some US industrial design looks great but some looks
downright, well, Russian.

Sure you can see crap-looking design in western Europe too but
there's a lot less of it than in the US.

Take soldering irons for example. An ordinary soldering iron
in the US with unregulated temperature still has great big
mofo screws holding the tip.

By comparison, my 30 year old British-made basic Antex is a
sleek looking baby and those Antexes are not particularly
expensive.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

If you buy cheap, you get cheap.
Get a Metcal. No screw at all.

Don't start me on the looks of cars!

Mini. Citroën. Vauxhall. Volvo. Rolls. Porsche. Fiat.
http://philip.greenspun.com/images/pcd3815/
dublin-deux-chevaux-20.4.jpg

John



Yup, you're right! Which is why I wrote: "you can see crap-looking
design in western Europe too ..... but there's a lot less of it
than in the US".

One distinctive feature of US car design is a look I call: "I've
just rammed a wall"

If you want to stuff a huge V8 with 200 tons of air conditioning and
power-everything under the hood, you need a lot of hood.

But Cadillac and most things Chrysler are admittedly over the top.
They corner the ugly-car-lover market.

John