u/HeDoesLookLikeABitch

I'm trying to dig into a creek bed that is very compacted with sand, clay, and various sized cobbles. I'm wondering if there's any techniques I could try?

It seems to me that there are several examples of hardware technological configurations within high use evergreen markets that remain unchanged. Despite new, better, more efficient technological hardware configurations existing that would move the technology forward and allow for better, more robust use. I've now worked in three different industries that present technology and hardware that is used every single day in these industries that have major problems with flimsy, cumbersome, and frankly outdated engineering, and I just don't understand why so much of our technology has been improved to this point and yet these configurations stay the same. Here are my three examples:

\- the 1/4" audio jack

\- the brass bullet cartridge, gunpowder & primer

\- the camera hot shoe mount

The 1/4" audio jack is large and cumbersome and create size constraints for the chassis of the object in which it is used. I don't understand why this large analog object still needs to be used when conductivity and connectivity technology is so much better now than it was when the audio jack was first created. It's odd to me that audiophiles whether listeners or performers pour money and resources into all sorts of expensive gear only to be limited by a janky clip jack that will eventually fail with use that creates a connection so tenuous and dirty. Obviously we can make it smaller, as we did with the headphone jack. And I would argue that with pin connectors and a little bit of ingenuity, audio configurations could be made much lighter and stronger which would be a major improvement for boom operators or musicians that have to haul their gear.

The brass bullet cartridge seems to be unchanged for at least a century. I understand that despite how ancient this thing is, it solves a lot of problems that aren't readily apparent. The brass doesn't corrode like other materials, it's soft enough to expand and bend when it needs to and yet it's hard enough to withstand punishment. The brass thermal properties draw heat away from the mechanism that fires it. And the recyclability of brass allows for reloading. Working in the industry, I also know that this problem is constantly being worked on. Militaries have experimented with polymer casings, railguns of been in development, and even hydrolysis gas and compressed air and even mechanical impingement devices are constantly being developed and tested. But it seems that those that are working on this problem are a fraction of a minority of a fraction of a minority of developers. Most of the real resources are being spent in reinventing the wheel over and over.

The camera hot shoe is a flimsy weak connection. The camera flash itself is so tall and heavy that the hot shoe mount is not at all equipped to seat a flash for a run and gun professional. It seems to me that this problem could be easily solved especially with the Advent of USB cables and better power delivery systems, in connection with screw mounts and cages. I have broken three flashes on professional shoots just by banging the flash just a little too hard, given how the hot shoe connection is designed. I don't understand why this hardware configuration hasn't changed, especially given the fact that cameras barely have a 5 to 10 year life cycle before they have to be replaced. Most vintage lenses have sat on shelves unused for decades and only recently have been usable again with the Advent of mirrorless cameras specifically the Sony e-mount flange distance. Why is the hot shoe mount seeing no innovation. Why hasn't it gone the way of the dodo for a better more robust smaller simpler better configuration?