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Tech Frustrations Blog

Keep It Real

12/29/2016

5 Comments

 
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I’ve got this “thing” where I don’t like fake stuff.  I prefer diamonds over cubic zirconia (ha!), wrinkles over Botox (I don’t have to look at myself), and butter over margarine.
 
But lately I’m finding more and more exceptions to my rule. Ultra-suede is one of the best inventions ever (especially on dining room chairs), "elastomultister" is now my friend (at least when combined with denim), and I recently learned that the back of my car is nothing more than plastic (in terms of the part that is painted).
 
Our bathroom needs to be updated. Badly. The carpet has become impossible to clean, let alone keep clean. So we’re shopping for tile. If you’ve tackled a home improvement project in the last few years, you’re probably familiar with the Houzz web site. It really is a dream come true for someone like me who is looking for inspiration and needs to see an example of something to avoid a big purchase mistake. You can find pictures of just about everything on the site, and then you can easily organize and store them for future reference. Recently I’ve become very intrigued by the “look” of a wood floor in the bathroom. Apparently this look can be achieved and maintained for a really long time by installing these new wood “look” tiles. Have you seen them? Digital printing enables the creation of tile that is nearly indistinguishable from all kinds of other (real) materials in terms of how it looks.
 
This week’s Tech Frustration is that technology is creating a conflict between what I think I should want and what I'm starting to want. The options (including tile that looks like bricks) are practically endless … and very intriguing.


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5 Comments
Jim Haselmaier link
12/29/2016 02:30:49 pm

It seems this concept can also be applied to the "fake news" phenomenon we're hearing about: The speed and volume of information dissemination can make fake news appear real.

Reply
Bruce Lundeby
12/29/2016 05:20:02 pm

What do we mean be real or even natural?

Trees in a forest do not have limbs of floor boards coated with polyurethane. We may say wood flooring has organic material and It's not a composite. But, actually it is. Remember that we coat it with a finish so it cleans better and does not rot.

Tile may be made from clay, but there's a big difference between what you'll find in the ground and what you put on the floor. There's a great deal of science in the process.

What we really mean is traditional vs new. New materials and new processes. That we work to make them look like traditional materials is what makes them less than real. But, that's not a new idea either. We find ancient copper and brass jewelry fashioned like gold pieces.

It takes us time to embrace new materials, and then use their unique properties. Once we do, they eventually can become traditional.

In our home, we have quartz bonded with resin as kitchen countertops. I would not want to swap for marble or granite. The properties of our countertops match kitchen requirements for being impervious to stains and extremely durable. Natural stone becomes a composite when you treat it with necessary sealer.

In my view all these materials are real and none of them are truly natural.

Reply
Kathy Haselmaier link
12/29/2016 06:41:25 pm

Do you say this stuff to your wife, Bruce? When I ask Jim about stuff like this, he usually responds with something like, "That sounds fine." You always make me think, usually make me smile, and sometimes make me laugh.

Reply
Melissa
1/2/2017 08:59:28 am

When we updated our very ugly bathroom, we put in wood laminate (is that the right word?). We, okay I, thought it matched our 1912 home better than anything else. We've been very pleased with it and I love the look.
When we bought the house, there was ugly carpet (kind of like indoor/outdoor, not shag) in the kitchen and half bath. When the toilet leaked big time it was finally time to replace the carpet, yay. I would have loved a real wood floor in there, but couldn't talk Clif into that. Instead we got fake tile with real grout in between. It looks nice.

Reply
Kathy Calder Haselmaier link
1/3/2017 07:36:49 am

Your floors sound cool. I'd like to see them sometime. One of these days ... Thank you for letting me know that you love your "fake" wood floor :)

Reply



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    Kathy Haselmaier

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