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Overkill objects for everyday life

neil.computer

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Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#661

Post by tonyarkles »

perl4ever wrote: post #541
jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're spot on. I've dated several chefs, and the reality is that "professional grade" in consumer kitchen devices is basically all a fantasy/farce. Real commercial equipment is generally a huge PITA. It's quite capable stuff, but you don't need those capabilities at home, and everything else about them makes them a net negative, in nearly every case. The other obnoxious thing is most of what's marketed as "professio…

Many years ago, there used to be Sysco stores open to the general public. I was very fond of the commercial potholders from there, but didn't know where to get some of my own since they closed all the stores. Then one day through the magic of the Internet, I found a supplier of almost the same thing, albeit with their own logo on it. (I'm pretty sure I bought them from Wasserstrom, but I just checked and I can't find…

Not sure where you are, but I've been getting ads throughout the pandemic for a Sysco@Home service. Seems that with all of the restaurants shut down, they got back into the business of selling direct to consumers.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like they're selling much equipment-wise in my local store anyway. Just paper towel, plates, masks, and garbage bags.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#662

Post by bayindirh »

theshrike79 wrote: post #607
kovvy wrote: post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Research is also hampered by non-obvious changes in the product. Even when a good, reliable product is released, it can be modified to be cheaper to make/more expensive to maintain with no external indication. This isn't even necessarily about cost-cutting, a component may no longer be available and is swapped for something that claims to be identical but is not as reliable.

Case in point: AvE dissecting a Made in Japan Makita drill, made for the Japanese market: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2EpdRN2h6A This thing is built like a fucking tank, it will never ever ever fail. Compare that to the same model sold outside of Japan, and it's most likely made in Indonesia and the quality is nowhere near.

For some head to head testing, Project Farm has done a similar video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7hd4rKf2us

Except being built like a tank, Japan made one also vibrates less and more comfortable to use.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#663

Post by jerome-jh »

When I looked for respiratory masks on a medical supply site, I realized 70°-90° alcohol, single use gloves, liquid soap, tweezers, etc were much cheaper here than on any other website, and especially Amazon which is filled with crap and scams. I now buy from it about twice a year, both for medical stuff and DIY stuff. Delivery is not free (but still fair) and can take about a week since they serve professionals first.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#664

Post by kube-system »

Grustaf wrote: post #594
kube-system wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Value engineering is not a idea known only to kitchen appliances engineers. This was just the example at hand. Many of the products and services that people buy to support their health, education, security, etc have been made more accessible by value engineering either directly, or in their supply chain.

Sure, but when is having lots of cheap stuff related to standard of living? I still maintain that access to healthy food, good education, healthcare and security are what determines standard of living, not the amount of stuff you have.

The human activities that enable someone to have access to healthy food, good education, healthcare and security make use of value-engineered products.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#665

Post by neop1x »

I bought an industrial microwave without the rotating plate many years ago and it still works perfectly to this day and heats evenly enough. :) I would never buy a cheap, retail microwave. Not always but sometimes "I am not wealthy enough to buy cheap things" holds and sometimes industrial-grade equipment designed to be running almost 24/7 is obviously more durable than a retail imitation.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#666

Post by dchest »

kfajdsl wrote: post #216
bluedino wrote: post #86

I see this all the time. Friend of mine bought a $200 Milwaukee drill to put up a couple picture frames.

My rule of thumb for tools is to always first buy the cheapo Harbor Freight special (I'll get something a little better for precision tools) and if that tool breaks then that means I use the tool enough to justify getting something better. Spoiler alert: most of my tools are the cheapest I could find.

I initially wanted to do the same (needed a drill and a jigsaw for my project, never used them before), but then decided to go with the cheapest Makita which was ~2.5 times more expensive than the cheapest brand, for one reason: safety. For example, the Makita jigsaw had an electric brake (which stops the saw immediately as you release the trigger), while the cheapest tool didn't. Since I didn't have any experience with it, I'd rather not cut my fingers than save some money.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#667

Post by MonaroVXR »

ValentineC wrote: post #253
MonaroVXR wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same for laptops, but most of the people (I assume?) buy Macbooks for programming which is... kinda weird, since it's difficult to repair. Than business laptops like the Z-book, ThinkPad or insert Dell business laptop eg; Latitude 7000 series (Dell XPS isn't a business laptop from my perspective.)

> This is the same for laptops, but most of the people (I assume?) buy Macbooks for programming which is... kinda weird, since it's difficult to repair. Personally, I don't think I've found anything that beats Apple's laptop trackpads, and I think that my UX matters more than repairability. Then again, I'm still using a 2013 MacBook Pro with an upgraded NVMe SSD.

You're totally right.

I am using my unibody ASUS from 2013 with upgraded SATA SSD.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#668

Post by aflag »

MonaroVXR wrote: post #473
aflag wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I've been buying thinkpads throughout most of my career. However, my latest laptop is a XPS 13. I really enjoy it, I use it to develop and it works very well both in docked mode as well as on the go. It's lightweight and super powerful yet quiet. Meanwhile, my business laptop, the one the company provides me, has been macbooks for the most part, recently I've got a dell latitude. The latitude is one of t…

There are differences between Laptop lines from the same manufacturer. (0) I especially mentioned Latitude 7000 series. Anything else may be worse. (0) Same goes for ThinkPads, not every ThinkPad is equal, even if it's the same one.

My work laptop is a dell 7420, my personal one is a dell xps 13. I can't come up with one thing that's better in the latitude laptop. Maybe it has a usb port? But that's irrelevant while docking and on the go, everything is either bluetooth or usb-c these days.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#669

Post by rsync »

wyager wrote: post #45
rsync wrote: post #3

I appreciate the link and summary for McMaster-Carr[1]. It is so pleasing to use this site and it is simultaneously full of utility as they stock a wide array of fixtures and hardware that are difficult to search for elsewhere. If you place an order before noon (typically) the box of goods will be in your hands the next day. The user interface is a wonder. It's too good to be true. In fact, using the UI actually sadd…

I’m not surprised to see you evangelizing McMaster - mentally, I bin you and them in the same category of “no bullshit” suppliers. Products for competent people, by competent people, when most suppliers seem to be targeting the lowest common denominator of consumer.

That's a very nice compliment. Thanks!

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#670

Post by neonological »

kube-system wrote: post #545
neonological wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So, the end result of having a soldered fuse was exactly the same as a socketed one: it was successfully repaired. I don’t see the justification for the extra BOM item. You joking? You realize houses and cars have socketed fuses that can be replaced almost turnkey. This is a simple solution to build into the product a UI that let's the user know a socket was blown and allow the user to replace a fuse like replacing…

My above point is was that cost is an example of an engineering tradeoff, not that it is the only engineering tradeoff. Phone batteries are designed to be replaceable. They’re internal because of design considerations, not cost. In fact, nearly all cell phone batteries are secured with removable adhesive because they’re specifically intended to be replaceable. Homes have circuit breakers (fuses haven’t been mainstrea…

Your logic doesn't make sense for why socketed fuses even exist. So why do cars have socketed fuses then? Do cars have unexpected loads? Not nearly as much as houses. Cars have socketed fuses same as houses because fuses are designed to fail and be replaced. This is the logical intention of fuses.

Making something that is designed to fail and be replaced (fuses) inaccessible is a contradictory design philosophy... Unless this design philosophy is INTENDED to make the product fail. You place a component designed to fail inside a vac and make it inaccessible then that means you are designing the vac to fail.

Phone batteries are not designed to be replaceable this is a lie or pure stupidity. You realize that glue or adhesive is not designed to be removed right? It's designed to be permanent. Screws and socketed components are designed to be removed.

Additionally the iPhone isn't even designed to be opened. It's extremely hard to open that device and it's completely obvious the reason is because that device is designed to both fail in a certain time frame and only be serviceable by apple technicians. Here's how easy it is to "replace" a battery you claim was glued into the phone as a design decision to be "replaceable": https://youtu.be/gkCyl7kRGns

>My above point is was that cost is an example of an engineering tradeoff, not that it is the only engineering tradeoff

Who in the universe isn't aware that tradeoffs outside of cost don't exist? Kind of useless if the point is to obvious. How about you address my point in the fact that deliberate decisions were made to make products fail and that these failures are not design tradeoffs.

A thinner phone for an irreplaceable battery in the iPhone is not actually a tradeoff. In fact if you look inside the phone they very much could've screwed the battery in without increasing the thickness of the phone.

You realize that Steve Jobs once said the iPod was designed to only last a year?

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