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Overkill objects for everyday life

neil.computer

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Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#701

Post by [deleted] »

snth wrote: post #327
kfajdsl wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 like the idea of this, and I'm sure you save a lot of money, but the downside is this: I want to do some one-off job I haven't done before. It'll be difficult, because I will be trying it for the first time. Do I really want to make it even _more_ difficult by cheaping out on tools? I've done this several times, and I've ended up doing several jobs over again with better tools after I've screwed up the first time.…

[deleted]

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#703

Post by bradknowles »

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…

APC makes multiple lines of devices. The lower-end devices are not so great. But the SmartUPS line is solid. No fans or noise of any sort, unless the power is off and you’re draining the battery.

And if you’re draining the battery, then you should pay attention to all that noise and be in the process of shutting everything down safely, so that you can survive whatever caused the power outage in the first place.

The point of a UPS isn’t that you keep running for days regardless of the fact you’ve lost power, it’s that when the power does go out you don’t lose all your work, and you’ve got a few precious minutes to shut everything down safely.

If you don’t use a piece of equipment the way it was designed to be used, then that is all on you, and not the equipment that you are failing to use correctly.

Note that APC is owned by Schneider, a company that specializes in making the really big UPSes of the sort they go into data centers and are used to provide short term power for entire buildings. They know what they’re doing.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#704

Post by ValentineC »

franga2000 wrote: post #684
aeontech wrote: post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don’t have a (preferably bootable) backup that you can use any time your machine explodes / gets dropped / gets soaked in coffee / gets a random hardware failure / gets hit by a ransomware / is stolen - then you have a serious redundancy problem no matter what OS you are running. On any OS you use it’s possible to have both a long-term backup and a bootable drive clone that is synced from your internal drive a…

Of yeah, definitely, and Apple makes it far easier than other OS vendors. But I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of people don't actually do that - even programmers, sysadmins, etc.

> Of yeah, definitely, and Apple makes it far easier than other OS vendors.

Unfortunately, it seems like the Apple Fabric storage system on the M1 laptops broke bootable backups, and it's possible that Apple has no plans to fix this:

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/05/24/apples-moves-poin...

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#705

Post by franga2000 »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #697
franga2000 wrote: post #625

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard the latest Surface lineup and the XPS 13 have trackpads that seriously rival Apple's. Up until a few years ago, however, it was true that nothing came close to Apple. Although personally, the lack of a touchscreen on any of Apple's laptops is much more of a dealbreaker for me and despite working remotely, I really don't use a trackpad for work all that often. I imagine RSI would be unavoidable if you used…

I’ll have to test those out the next time I’m in a store with an electronics department. I don’t have any desire to re-learn Windows as my main OS, but having some hand-on demo would still be more than the approximately zero Windows usage I’ve had in the past 5 years. I never considered the RSI angle about the attraction of touch screens. I still have exactly zero desire to do serious work on a touchscreen where I’d…

Regarding RSI, I was thinking more trackpad vs mouse, not trackpad vs touchscreen - I want a touchscreen (with a stylus) for other reasons like photo editing and taking notes. In theory, a trackpad looks to me like a device perfectly designed to cause RSI, so I always carry a mouse with me, but I know many people use them a lot without any issues.

And yeah, I totally get not wanting to use Windows on a daily basis - win10 is a mess and I really only keep it installed for Adobe software and a few games. But the hardware of "Windows" laptops is quite competitive with Apple's these days.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#706

Post by beachy »

lostlogin wrote: post #357
Arch-TK wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to spend at least £600 to get a decent home espresso set up but it will get you something pretty close to good cafe grade coffee. The reason those big £3000+ machines are impractical for the home is not the cleaning or even the warm-up time (as both of those factors are the same for any espresso machine even the home ones) but rather with the fact that the bar grade espresso machines expect to be plumbed int…

I am a big fan of my first espresso machine - the Rancilio Silvia. It’s got many commercial components in a small form factor. It’s easily repairable too, but probably doesn’t need it. Mine did approximately 15,000 coffees in the 20 years of use it had, and had one service for about $US75. It’s still around as an emergency backup. It’s shown in the wiki. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancilio

Rancilio Silvia also warms up very quickly - faster than boiling a kettle. I've had one for > 20 years, it's had a few repairs but still going strong.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#707

Post by watersb »

ornornor wrote: post #345
na85 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested in a site like that, as I have a similar appreciation for high-quality stuff that's built to last. What kind of dishwasher/fridge/laundry appliances did you end up getting?

For laundry, these are amazing: https://www.vzug.com/ch/en/product/ch-Catalog/287600 Impossible to break, engineered to was several loads every day, etc. But they’re not cheap.

In the US, there's Staber laundry machines.

https://www.staber.com/residential-clothes-washers

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#708

Post by [deleted] »

tristor wrote: post #551
Wistar wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been, over-time, retro-fitting my home with pro/commercial-grade infrastructure items such as: quarter-turn marine-grade ball valves for the water-main; toilets, clothes washer, fridge and dishwasher; recessed sillcock valves; outdoor hose reels and hoses; sprinklers (this is a biggie as so many sprinklers are one-season junk); heavy-duty light switches; ceiling fans (the wonderful Big-Ass fans stuff); locks a…

I’d really appreciate a site like that. Light switches in particular piss me off. Every single switch sold at Lowes or Home Depot are crap and I’ve yet to figure out where to buy something that’s actually decent with proper tactility. What light switches do you use?

[deleted]

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#709

Post by watersb »

exmadscientist wrote: post #575
tristor wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d really appreciate a site like that. Light switches in particular piss me off. Every single switch sold at Lowes or Home Depot are crap and I’ve yet to figure out where to buy something that’s actually decent with proper tactility. What light switches do you use?

For the specific case of light switches, ironically, sometimes all you have to do is not shop at big box stores. If you buy the exact same 5262 receptacle from Home Depot or from Zoro, you'll see they're completely different beasts! This is pretty brazen -- usually HD has the decency to add a suffix to the cheap-out version. Longer form: there are three major manufacturers of switches and receptacles: Hubbell (Bryant…

Thanks!

This YouTube channel has recently done a number of great teardowns of electrical outlets (receptacles).

Go with Commercial grade.

https://youtu.be/cRJLqCnLsDU

I would add, if you can afford it, install AFCI outlets as the first outlet in the circuit, or an AFCI breaker in the circuit panel. These are required for residential (non-commercial) bedrooms for new construction in the latest revision of the NEC fire code recommendations, but they are way more expensive than you'd expect to pay for the he dead-simple outlets.

Re: Overkill objects for everyday life

#710

Post by tristor »

exmadscientist wrote: post #575
tristor wrote: post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d really appreciate a site like that. Light switches in particular piss me off. Every single switch sold at Lowes or Home Depot are crap and I’ve yet to figure out where to buy something that’s actually decent with proper tactility. What light switches do you use?

For the specific case of light switches, ironically, sometimes all you have to do is not shop at big box stores. If you buy the exact same 5262 receptacle from Home Depot or from Zoro, you'll see they're completely different beasts! This is pretty brazen -- usually HD has the decency to add a suffix to the cheap-out version. Longer form: there are three major manufacturers of switches and receptacles: Hubbell (Bryant…

Thank you very much for this comment. I've installed hospital-grade power outlets and been using hospital grade power cords in my home office for some time now. I don't agree that folks won't appreciate it, it makes a big difference in my opinion as to preventing accidental unplugging when moving things, and reduces arcing.

I'm going to go get some catalogs and start shopping, I might just be replacing all the light switches in my house in a few weekends from now :)

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