Today's mobile phone technology troubles 4160

Not at all. Design criteria have changed. It used to be that robustness trumped efficiency; this has now been reversed, and cost trumps them both. Modern equipment can take things right to the edge without giving any indication that you're there. But once you cross the line, failure is abrupt, catastrophic, and without warning.

Another good example of this is live TV broadcasts from overseas. In the old days, a fading signal would result in a snowy picture, but unless things got really bad motion would remain smooth and sound intelligible. Now, when the signal gets weak, the picture pixelates and freezes. As for sound... well, you know how crummy cell phones can sound when the signal comes close to dropping out.

People laugh at old technology for being heavy, clunky, and inefficient. But it was also solid, and easily repairable. In most places today, though, maintainability and repairability have been sacrificed in the name of cost.

Don't blame modern technology. Blame the decisions behind it.

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