The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that nearly every month at community centres around Metro Vancouver, a group of handy local volunteers -- retired tradesmen, passionate amateur tinkerers and students from UBC's faculty of electrical engineering -- spend a few hours helping Vancouverites fix their broken stuff. The Globe's Kelsey Rolfe writes that repair cafes, held by the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation and the City of Vancouver, accept computers, clothing and textiles, bicycles, and small appliances and electronics such as sound systems and CD players. The cafes, which have a 70-per-cent repair success rate, are meant to reduce waste and push back against planned obsolescence. Currently, manufacturers can both refuse to sell replacement parts and specialized tools, and refuse to allow others to make them. They can restrict the information necessary for repair to their own employees or sign agreements with select repair businesses. "Smart" devices with embedded software are often equipped with digital locks that authenticate parts as original, such as printers that do not take third party ink cartridges, or Apple's practice of blocking refurbished parts from working in its cellphones.