Overkill objects for everyday life • Hacker News Board

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#421

Post by megablast » Sun, May 30, 2021, 10:52 PM UTC

bartread wrote: post #360

IgorPartola wrote: post #341

I will postulate an opposing view to TFA: Quality consumer goods are better in two key areas. First, they are replaceable. I don’t want a military grade mixer in my kitchen if getting a broken whisk or motor on it is going to require me hunting all over eBay for the specific part hoping it’s available. I was very excited at one point about the idea of getting a commercial dishwasher that can run a load of dishes in l…

I think one needs to be a bit selective here. About 8 years ago I bought the cheapest catering/professional microwave/combioven I could get my hands on. I did this because I got tired of consumer units with overcomplicated UIs designed (apparently) by unregenerate misanthropes, rotating dishes that are a pain in the ass to clean, overzealous bleeps that go off every 30 - 60 seconds after a cycle is finished, peeling…

> About 8 years ago I bought the cheapest catering/professional microwave/combioven I could get my hands on. I did this because I got tired of consumer units with overcomplicated UIs designed (apparently) by unregenerate misanthropes, rotating dishes that are a pain in the ass to clean, overzealous bleeps that go off every 30 - 60 seconds after a cycle is finished, peeling enamel, corrosion issues, and that are too small on the inside.

See, this is weird. The cheapest microwaves you can get have two dials, one for temp, one for time. Why not buy one of those??

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#422

Post by MonaroVXR » Sun, May 30, 2021, 10:53 PM UTC

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #403

hutrdvnj wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's annoying and will interrupt your work much longer, especially if it's something that could have been easily fixed in e.g. a Thinkpad. Even more so, if it's your own device.

I have to disagree. One of the reasons I've used Macbooks for work for ages now is if something goes wrong, I can just pop over to the apple store and have a replacement within about 30 minutes. Don't even have to restore, can just target boot my backup and be back working immediately, and can save the restore until the evening. I've had one instance where this saved me 5 figures easily (wasn't even the macbook's fau…

That's you, but a lot of people don't live next to the Apple store and with business laptops, people come to you, to replace the device , repair or anything else.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#423

Post by imgabe » Sun, May 30, 2021, 10:54 PM UTC

the-smug-one wrote: post #416

imgabe wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL dishwashers have a compartment you're supposed to add salt to? Is this the rinse-aid thing?

Salt helps against hard water, AFAIK.

Yeah, I grew up in a house with well water and we had a water softener for the whole house. I've just never seen a place to add salt in a dishwasher, unless it's the rinse aid.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#424

Post by zamfi » Sun, May 30, 2021, 10:55 PM UTC

yourapostasy wrote: post #417

Grustaf wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a joke or are you missing the point? The guy doesn't actually think that a fighter jet seat is better than a normal office chair in any practical sense. He just thinks these things are cool. Often, part of the charm is how incredibly impractical they are.

> The guy doesn't actually think that a fighter jet seat is better than a normal office chair in any practical sense. Now that people are discussing it, I do want to find out if there are former air force pilots reading this who can corroborate or refute my hypothesis: I suspect long-duration mission bombers like the US B-52 and B-2 have pilot seats especially tuned for extended operational comfort, even more so than…

I like this line of speculation, though what to make of the fact that the average military pilot and average coder probably differ...substantially...in physique? Not to mention ongoing training active pilots likely engage in that may help with posture.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#425

Post by hn_throwaway_99 » Sun, May 30, 2021, 10:58 PM UTC

Daishiman wrote: post #396

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the same time, there is other stuff that is good quality but that could never be produced today because of liability concerns, but if you're in a home without small children running around you're probably good. I'm the proud owner of a La Peppina espresso machine (image: https://www.home-barista.com/levers/my-first-lever-la-peppin... ). It makes great espresso, but it also keeps a kettle of boiling water suspended…

I'm not really seeing the point here. Lever espresso machines exist and continue to be manufactured. La Pavoni and Olympia continue to make lever espresso machines that work just fine. A lot of the reliability concerns from tools of the past are frankly quite well justified, and to this date we continue to sell and produce tools that are dangerous if not properly operated.

Older machines, like La Peppina and Caravel, are open boiler machines, meaning the boiler is not pressurized. The way the water flows means they have excellent temperature stability for espresso (the boiler is of course at 100C, so the brew temp is right around 95C).

Of course, an open boiler means there are a lot more potential safety issues.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#426

Post by drewzero1 » Sun, May 30, 2021, 11:00 PM UTC

K7PJP wrote: post #355

hutrdvnj wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it less stressful when I know that I could easily swap out a broken RAM module and continue to work, than to wait for the repair of my device.

How does RAM break? How often does it fail?

The failure mode I've seen most often is that one bit of each byte will fail to store or retrieve correctly. Memtest86 will store an FF and read back an EF, for example. Computers with this problem may boot, but crash often.

The other failure mode I've seen is that a RAM module will fail to be recognized or cause a POST error, and the computer will not boot until it is replaced.

Neither happens often, but I've seen each of these more than I'd like. I could imagine both issues might possibly be less likely with a solid soldered connection vs. a port which can become damaged or dusty, but I don't have enough experience with soldered RAM modules to be able to say anything about its reliability.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#427

Post by alrs » Sun, May 30, 2021, 11:05 PM UTC

drewzero1 wrote: post #369

jlkuester7 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that the Dell XPS line does not reaaly fit the "business" look-and-feel like a Latitude or Thinkpad. But after several years of doing heavy sofware dev on one, it is has earned my respect. It is nice to have a machine with a non-brick-like form that still does not compromise in performance (and you can bring to a businesses meeting and not look too RBG....). IMHO the XPS line is designed to compete with MBPs…

I had an XPS M1330 about 10 years ago, and if I could figure out the apparent thermal issue I might still use it sometimes. At the time I found it incredibly portable (compared to my iBook and ThinkPad) without being slow, and the design was striking yet professional. Dell still isn't my favorite brand, but they've come a long way from the crappy Dimensions I had in the early 2000s.

Dell ca. 2000 had some great stuff. Optiplex desktops were good, Latitude laptops were good. Anything that they sold out of an insert in the Sunday paper was junk.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#428

Post by Grustaf » Sun, May 30, 2021, 11:08 PM UTC

jmercouris wrote: post #414

Grustaf wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I lived my entire 20s like that. Moved to Russia, lived in a Soviet era dorm, travelled to Vladivostok in a 4th class carriage etc. So it’s not theoretical…

For a while... until it isn't. I've been very poor, and I've experienced very similar things. Traveling everywhere by bike in the freezing cold. I think there is a romaniticization of suffering. I also wanted to show my merit, my worth in some way. I had grown up in a very cushy environment, and I was trying to prove something. Going back in time I would advise anyone against your belief. Anyone who reads this, pleas…

Biking everywhere in the rain is what you do if you live in Copenhagen, and it does make you a better person.

It always warms my heart to see my fellow citizens in one of the wealthiest societies in the world, walking and biking to work in the rain and wind that is Danish winter. Or when you go to the beach when the water is 12 degrees and there are already families there, splashing around. That fills me with hope.

Driving a climate controlled car 3 blocks to the shop is not the pinnacle of civilisation.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#429

Post by __d » Sun, May 30, 2021, 11:08 PM UTC

franga2000 wrote: post #361

drstewart wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> kinda weird, since it's difficult to repair. Why would I care? If it breaks, I tell my company to pay the repair bill or buy me a new one.

Because when it breaks, your company won't want to use 3rd party repair, so they will send it straight to Apple. That means that it will take at least a month to get back and all your data getting erased is pretty much a guarantee, even if all that was broken was one resistor in the power supply circuit. Even if they buy a new one, how long will it take you to set it up from scratch? Meanwhile, any other vendor will…

A modern Mac laptop uses a motherboard where everything is soldered on, everything is tiny, and it's basically impossible to repair. Leaving aside whether that's good or bad, it's just a fact that you should know up front.

Consequently, most failures are "repaired" by swapping the motherboard, and so your flash drive contents are gone.

Happily, you are using Time Machine (right?) and so you plug your backup drive into a spare machine, do the restore, and you're back to where you were an hour before the disaster. You do the same again when your newly repaired machine comes back from the store.

Yeah, it sucks more than swapping an SSD. But hey, you knew that before you bought a shiny, thin, light Macbook.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#430

Post by antisceptic » Sun, May 30, 2021, 11:08 PM UTC

IgorPartola wrote: post #341

I will postulate an opposing view to TFA: Quality consumer goods are better in two key areas. First, they are replaceable. I don’t want a military grade mixer in my kitchen if getting a broken whisk or motor on it is going to require me hunting all over eBay for the specific part hoping it’s available. I was very excited at one point about the idea of getting a commercial dishwasher that can run a load of dishes in l…

I don't think the "military" grade stuff is meant to last considerably longer. It's mostly geared at extreme duty cycles. How often will you use a mixer if you're not a baker, once a week? An industrial piece of equipment is intended to be used nearly all the time, and there's impressive engineering that goes into handling that use case.

Which I think was the point of TFA: he wants to show everyone he appreciates overengineered stuff.