The K-Cup Coffee Pod Problem • Hacker News Board

Re: The K-Cup Coffee Pod Problem

#41

Post by bri3d » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 2:25 AM UTC

coding4all wrote: post #36

cowsandmilk wrote: post #8

"It’s digital rights management, the coffee equivalent of Steve Jobs’ attempt to fill iPods only with music sold through iTunes." What?? Not really. Keurig machines refuse to use anything other than a Keurig-brand K-Cup. The iPod always played non-DRMed music. It just wouldn't play music with DRM from other stores. Any store willing to sell music without DRM is/was perfectly compatible with the iPod.

Until iTunes deleted music not bought on the iTunes store... \ source: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/04/apple-dele...

It's worth noting that the music that was deleted was "protected" by a reverse-engineered version of Apple's DRM, and the "deletion" was Apple dropping support for old, broken versions of FairPlay. iPods always played everyone's DRM free music and never tried not to, as far as I know.

Re: The K-Cup Coffee Pod Problem

#42

Post by paulannesley » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 2:43 AM UTC

jmgrosen wrote: post #19

brandon272 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't Keurig sue them for selling that?

IANAL, but I would think the Sega v. Accolade case [0] would make this legal (unless the DMCA applies, but I don't think it would here, due to the more physical nature of the product). [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Enterprises_Ltd._v._Accol... .

HN breaks that link — the trailing period is part of the URL. The path is “/wiki/Sega_Enterprises_Ltd._v._Accolade,_Inc.”

Re: The K-Cup Coffee Pod Problem

#43

Post by cornstalks » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 2:48 AM UTC

jmgrosen wrote: post #19

brandon272 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't Keurig sue them for selling that?

IANAL, but I would think the Sega v. Accolade case [0] would make this legal (unless the DMCA applies, but I don't think it would here, due to the more physical nature of the product). [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Enterprises_Ltd._v._Accol... .

FYI, that's a 404 link to Wikipedia. You're missing a period at the end:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Enterprises_Ltd._v._Accolade,_Inc.

Perhaps it's just HN screwing up the autolinking

Re: The K-Cup Coffee Pod Problem

#44

Post by bri3d » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 3:17 AM UTC

armc wrote: post #9

Nespresso coffee pods are recyclable. Our Magnapower eddy sorter has separated aluminum from plastic after crushing the pods. Video here: https://vimeo.com/118085045 I don't think K-Kups would present much a problem either, but I haven't had the chance to try shredding and sorting them yet.

This is actually really cool!

Do many/most/any municipal recycling facilities have ECS sorters? Should I tell people to throw K-cups in the recycling? I'm assuming the coffee grounds need to be removed first?

Re: The K-Cup Coffee Pod Problem

#45

Post by pmelendez » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 4:09 AM UTC

cowsandmilk wrote: post #8

"It’s digital rights management, the coffee equivalent of Steve Jobs’ attempt to fill iPods only with music sold through iTunes." What?? Not really. Keurig machines refuse to use anything other than a Keurig-brand K-Cup. The iPod always played non-DRMed music. It just wouldn't play music with DRM from other stores. Any store willing to sell music without DRM is/was perfectly compatible with the iPod.

>What?? Not really. Keurig machines refuse to use anything other than a Keurig-brand K-Cup.

That's not true.. there are several no Keurig-brand K-cups that are compatible with Keurig machines.

Re: The K-Cup Coffee Pod Problem

#46

Post by rrggrr » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 4:46 AM UTC

bri3d wrote: post #44

armc wrote: post #9

Nespresso coffee pods are recyclable. Our Magnapower eddy sorter has separated aluminum from plastic after crushing the pods. Video here: https://vimeo.com/118085045 I don't think K-Kups would present much a problem either, but I haven't had the chance to try shredding and sorting them yet.

This is actually really cool! Do many/most/any municipal recycling facilities have ECS sorters? Should I tell people to throw K-cups in the recycling? I'm assuming the coffee grounds need to be removed first?

Most have them. I dont see the harm in putting them in the recycling bin though thats not to say they wont end up in the landfill fraction for various reasons.

Re: The K-Cup Coffee Pod Problem

#47

Post by bhayden » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:16 AM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #33

I don't understand why people still use K-Cups at home. It literally takes two minutes to make a great cup of coffee with an Aeropress, one that's cheaper, tastes better, and produces far less waste.

It's boring, if you have kids it's hard to stand still and do nothing for two minutes you're trying to get them out the door, it requires several minutes of waiting for your hot water kettle, it's yet another thing to clean which people don't like, some people like variety every day and wouldn't go through beans quick enough before they went bad. There are tons of reasons (though personally I'd use an aeropress if I drank coffee at home too)

Re: The K-Cup Coffee Pod Problem

#48

Post by nemesisrobot » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 7:15 AM UTC

I recently switched over to making cold brew coffee at home. It's incredibly easy to make a week's worth at time, tastes great, and just as convenient as instant coffee.

Re: The K-Cup Coffee Pod Problem

#49

Post by Kalium » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 7:52 AM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #33

I don't understand why people still use K-Cups at home. It literally takes two minutes to make a great cup of coffee with an Aeropress, one that's cheaper, tastes better, and produces far less waste.

It gets you a decent cup of coffee on-demand with no cleanup and obviates concerns about how freshly roasted or freshly ground your beans are. You can zombie through using a capsule.

Re: The K-Cup Coffee Pod Problem

#50

Post by jon-wood » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 8:20 AM UTC

karlshea wrote: post #35

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? The materials it is built from are FDA approved for food preparation up to 100 C. And what it produces is very far from espresso. Unless you call your americano an espresso.

If you brew upside down and don't use a lot of water, you do end up with something pretty close to espresso (including crema).

What do you mean by brewing upside down? I stopped using my Aeropress and went back to a proper machine because I missed the crema, so I'd love to know how you got one.