[flog]

DSE was an absolute rip off, but it was pretty much the only game in town.

As a kid it was an amazing place for me to spend an hour on the weekends pottering around all the electronic kitsets and latest computer parts/gadgets.

I would credit DSE with fostering a lot of my love of computers and technology. I am quite sad it no longer exists.

[ravenstine]

That reminds me... on top of the shifts in society because of COVID, it's a shame that there's no place like Dick Smith, Frys, Radio Shack, computer stores, etc., where young geeks can go and meet each other. I was a geek among geeks as a kid, but even then I still liked that I could go to electronics stores, comic shops, hobby stores, and just be around people who were kind of weird like me and also had a love for the sorts of things I was interested in. With most of today's meetups still being "remote", at least where I live, I have to wonder where the hell a young me would be able to go today. I'd just have to network through Discord and hope that my server doesn't suddenly get banned because Dischord Inc. thinks it's a group of "hackers".

Basically, I think there was something to having physical places to go to. It's a culture that seems nearly dead.

[barrysaunders]

Jaycar still does a lot of this! The one in Central Park Sydney still does a lot of workshops, they have a maker hub, sell a lot of the class electronic components and things like that. Nothing like it used to be with Dick Smith and Radio Shack everywhere, but there's still a few places around.

[tim--]

The maker hub is pretty cool! They have a 3D printer service, where for ~$0.40 per gram you can bring your STL file, and they will print it while you watch a movie at the Cinemas next door. I wish there were more places like this in Sydney.

I have floated the idea of starting a hackerspace in Sydney City with a bunch of friends, but it has never really got beyond the talking phase. The cost of renting a small (~90 sqm) workshop/office space in the CBD makes it cost prohibitive without a large amount of members joining. I wonder how many people would be interested in setting up a co-op for this?

[robbiep]

I wonder whether you could approach the startup hub or one of the coworking spaces there and see if they’re keen on putting some space aside for it? Occupancy is waaay down and will probably stay that way for quite a while.

Actually, I could probably have a conversation with the space I’m in - if you wanted to reach out to me?

[akdor1154]

There is one in a cbd library in melb which works ok - maybe that could be an option?

[jimmux]

Is that different to the one at the Docklands library? I've been meaning to check it out since things have opened up again.

[kiwidrew]

I didn't encounter DSE until the mid 2000s when I moved to NZ, but the Jaycar of today stocks way more components than did the DSE of 20 years ago. Jaycar even keeps a stock of 74LS TTL chips behind the counter!

[janstice]

The DSEs of the mid-2000s where not a patch on the DSEs of the 80s & 90s - it was like all the good bits of Jaycar concentrated.

[__d]

Jaycar has taken over the "over-priced retail" segment of the electronics store market that DSE used to hold (and Tandy before that). But most of the old stores are gone as everything has moved online.

[smackeyacky]

I don't know that is entirely true. My local Jaycar (regional Australia) is still a good source for smaller bits and bobs, and I buy a lot of stuff there like circuit board varnish that nobody else would bother to stock. even then I don't mind paying a small premium for a USB cable or whatever because having a jaycar locally is fantastic for what I do.

They still have a decent selection of things like soldering irons and other tools and a little selection of Raspberry Pi and Arduino kits, along with hobby cases, switches, plugs, wire, solder, batteries etc.

[robbiep]

I had no idea they had arduinos etc!

[GekkePrutser]

Indeed, the places that sell 5 cent resistors etc were where I would hang out. But nobody does that anymore. People just buy the cheap crap from Aliexpress :'( And nonbody makes enough money selling individual components.

It's such a stark difference. I remember there being a Radio Shack in mainstream retail centres like Broadway Shopping Centre.

Now if you find a similar shop it'll be in some run-down industrial estate :'(

[stephen_g]

I'd recommend people interested in electronics to go directly to somewhere like Digi-Key online for ordering parts. It's a bit of a learning curve to work out what to filter out, but you get exactly what you want for even cheaper what the retail stores could do, and for most projects it doesn't take much (a few interesting ICs) to put you over the threshold for free shipping for people in the US. The threshold for international free shipping is higher (I think it was $200?) but I have hit it sometimes!

Element-14, RS Online, and Mouser are the other ones to look at, especially here in Australia or other places not in the US, because their shipping is often better internationally. But I find myself having to bear the shipping cost for Digi-Key a fair bit!

[GekkePrutser]

True but ordering is often not a great option. Many times when I was young I'd be working on a project and find I was missing some part. I could just jump on my bike and go buy it right away.

Now it means several days of waiting every time.

[hazza_n_dazza]

Hackerspace

[sundvor]

As a Norwegian expat in Melbourne since early 2000s I'd somewhat equal the DSE experience to Frithjof Arngren in Norway in the late 70s/80s (for any Norwegians lurking around here).

I never got to Arngen's stores, if any, but those printed catalogues were truly amazing experiences of full on geek.

There were a lot of design similarities to Dick Smith ie the prominently featured hand drawn heads.

Today I see he has a website in his name, which is ... unique. I have no better way to describe it.