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Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

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Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#611

Post by maremp »

hypersoar wrote: post #51

The Wirecutter is a highly flawed review site, but at least it's a real one. There are vanishingly few left for general consumer products. There's WC, Consumer Reports, and what else? They've seem to have all been killed off. When I'm researching some category of product, I feel lucky if I find any professional reviews written by people who have actually touched the thing they're reviewing. I know we've all had the e…

What about Rtings? For tech stuff, I found the reviews to be of good quality and it does not seem like it’s biased or sponsored.

> googling "reviews of X"

DDG produces somewhat better results, or at least does not rank the seo spam, generated garbage up to the first page. Also, I do not have ads following me everywhere for the next week.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#612

Post by simondotau »

baq wrote: post #609
simondotau wrote: post #580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is great in theory, until you realise that unions can and do exploit workers too. Collectives of people (whether corporations, unions, or entire countries) tend towards corruption as they scale. History has shown that large unions are similarly prone to exploitation and corruption.

the choice is between having no negotiating power with HR or having some at the cost of being part of an organization.

If you're part of a union, you don't gain negotiating power, you trade away individual negotiating power for collective negotiating power. Sometimes this is a good trade. It depends on the context, on the industry, on the sort of work you do.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#613

Post by alleskleber »

jve wrote: post #295

Great article. I myself have IKEA air purifier. Has anyone used https://www.mi.com/global/mi-air-purifier-3c ? Can it achieve lower noise per CADR? IKEA one on full speed is pretty loud (I may not know what loud air purifiers are, but I get concert of sounds at home I want to minimize - refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, electric water boiler, air purifier) Does it work via LAN with Home-Assistant? Are they "smart" f…

Mi does some (not so) secret (anymore) authentication trying to force users into buying their genuine replacement filters cartridges.

Recently there was an article on HN on how someone got around this. [1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31540394

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#614

Post by knorker »

Feedback for the author: If you've never heard of "The wirecutter" then it's really hard to understand what you're saying.

Are you "The wirecutter"? It's not part of your domain name, if so.

"Contra", is that the series of games? Did you, Wirecutter, manage to port an old SNES game to the IKEA air purifier (like someone recently ported Doom to an IKEA lightbulb)?

I couldn't understand the title or the first few paragraphs.

I had to skim up and down the post to try to get context, in order to even understand the first paragraph.

I now believe that this is a critique of a review. A review that is not even linked to. If you don't want to link to them in any way (understandable, though I disagree) then at least define your terms.

I didn't get enough sleep last night, so I'm unusually stupid today. But I don't think I'm wrong.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#615

Post by hamburglar »

GavinMcG wrote: post #552
hamburglar wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it certainly calls their objectivity into question, and the objectivity is supposed to be the entire point. The way they described the better (and more expensive) desk before the shakedown made it clear that it was the best one. That they changed it to a runner-up after many attempts to solicit a kickback is a seriously bad look. I don’t trust them at all now.

They didn't change it to a runner up—they changed it to an upgrade pick, that is, still the best, but without enough marginal benefit for the substantial marginal cost. Not sure what pricing was like back then, of course, but at this point Wirecutter's recommendations run about seven hundred dollars, and NextDesk's offerings start at eighteen hundred .

And in the first article, they acknowledged the large price disparity and were very explicit that it was well deserved and worth every penny.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#616

Post by idk1 »

spatley wrote: post #564
idk1 wrote: post #388

Can anyone tell me what 'Contra Wirecutter' means. It's like I've gone mad, everyone seems to know what this term means, both of these words mean nothing to me and I've spoken English my entire life. You're all acting like they're two words that make perfect sense. Haha. It would be really great is someone could explain the two words to me.

Contra wirecutter is clearly invented for this article. But in short I take it to mean that it asserts a point of view that is in disagreement with the point of view asserted on the popular wirecutter.com product review site.

Ah ok, I thought wirecutters we things used for cutting wires.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#617

Post by framapotari »

bradlys wrote: post #451
fartcannon wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pro-union but would be offended if his employees made a union? That's the kinda double speak I'm talking about.

It’s really not. People tend to only form unions when they feel that they’re being unjustly treated and this is one of their last resorts.

This is an extremely American -- and misinformed -- view of unions. Where I'm from unions are the default, not formed as a last resort to unjust treatment but a natural counterbalance to corporate/institutional power.

Someone saying they'd rather not have their workers form a union is not pro-union. That's like saying you support workers sharing information but you would be offended if your workers talked about their salaries because that would infer that they don't trust you to be fair.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#618

Post by bigDinosaur »

simondotau wrote: post #498
danudey wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Apple fanboy, I can easily say that Linus does not hate Apple. Linus DOES hate a lot of what Apple does; cases where they make things more unrepairable for no real reason, or various socio-political causes (like opposing Right to Repair or unions or whatever). Regardless of that though, I would trust a Linus review of a new iPhone or iPad a lot more than I would trust a lot of other sites, because I know he's n…

As an Apple apologist, I also concur with most of the above. Though I do find it amusing that Linus has often commented negatively on companies that don't want their employes to unionise, when Linus does much the same thing. In the case of LMG, Linus employs emotional threats, publicly warning his employees that forming a union would represent a declaration of "personal failure". Don't get me wrong, I agree 100% with…

You also unionise to prevent exploitation, it's not just a reactionary option. Yes, it can get unnecessarily adversarial. We'd be better off if unions were the default but were only adversarial where necessary. I believe countries like Germany do a bit better at this?

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#619

Post by bigDinosaur »

armadsen wrote: post #354
fnimick wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's also vocally anti-union and actively tried to stop his employees from marketing themselves on personal social media (to stop them from building a following and then leaving, I'm guessing), so I refuse to watch any of his content or support his business in any way now.

I know this is completely subjective, and his millions of subscribers tell me my opinion is far from ubiquitous, but he's also just straight up obnoxious to me. One of those people whose voice, demeanor, appearance, everything, just immediately turns me off.

I think he, personally, is largely entertainment. His company does produce some genuinely useful (as in, not total SEO spam) reviews etc. though.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#620

Post by framapotari »

Germanika wrote: post #530
fartcannon wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that would mean you support each woman who wants to have one and you probably shouldn't tell them it offends you if they do. Especially if they depend on you financially and you can break up with them without consequence.

I interpret it closer to being pro-choice while hoping to not personally need an abortion. Unions form when workers feel they aren't being heard and aren't being properly represented. Having a union form at your own company is an indication that you failed your employees in one way or another. You can be pro-union while hoping to personally never need one or have to sit across the table from one.

> Having a union form at your own company is an indication that you failed your employees in one way or another.

This is absolutely untrue. A kind of propaganda talking point that paints unions like some kind of vicious weapon that you want workers to have if they absolutely need to defend themselves against assault, but you'd rather not have the assault take place at all.

Unions give workers concentrated power to balance against the concentrated power of corporations. That's it. They are one side of the scale.

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