Live data from Hacker News

Goodbye non-KISS appliances

willbush.dev

401–410 of 499 posts

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you go from one extreme (all new things are super exciting and should be desirable by anyone) to another (we are here to reproduce over and over again with no change) like this is a binary option? "Tech" is a means, not an end. What problems are we solving with this tech, and what problems are we creating with the introduction of new technology? These are the only questions that I have when talking about tech…

What would you then say that should be the goal for humans as a collective?

I don't think there should be one. I also think that everyone that has come up with their idea is misguided, and all that tried to implemented one was/is a authoritarian psychopath who should be stripped of any power as soon as their nature got revealed.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#402
post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you’re continuing to look at everything from a perspective of an altruistic product to consumer relationship and not the reality the other commenter is trying to describe. yes it’s an “exciting feature” if your AI fridge can know that you’re pregnant and not recommend recipes that contain certain ingredients. what the other person is alluding to is that the data it has about you specifically will not stay contained b…

I should be able to decide that I don't care about this type of privacy. Sure there are people out there that could be harmed by this. I don't believe in the argument that you can't have a market with both ways, one where you can't opt in and other where you can. I should be able to choose to give my medical data to companies if there are ways to improve my lifestyle and quality from that. And to me that is exciting.…

> I don't believe in the argument that you can't have a market with both ways, one where you can't opt in and other where you can.

the problem is that “the market” doesn’t care what you believe in or what you “opt out” of.

there are devices that have programmed in alternate ways to phone home even if you choose to intentionally not connect it to wifi.

> If things can be automated, they should so we can choose exactly what we want to do with this time.

there’s very likely a CSA in your area that you can pay to deliver you fresh meats, eggs, fruits, and vegetables. some also provide recipes alongside.

it’s a much simpler solution in lieu of shoehorning tech into an appliance that will likely stop receiving bug fixes or security updates in 3-5 years when the company releases a new version.

like most of the tech industry, this is a “solution” looking for a problem.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That really isn't a good assumption. The West is undergoing a bureaucratic collapse where incompetent or out right maliciously corrupt people are subverting regulators. I dont trust regulators and have a five stage reverse under the sink filter. Result? In the last five years in my little section of the midwest: - I've dodged Pb poisoning when my local water authority switched corrosion inhibitors (note, this is afte…

> The West is undergoing a bureaucratic collapse where incompetent or out right maliciously corrupt people are subverting regulators. I don't know where you're getting this from. Generally speaking, regulations and enforcement are tighter than they've ever been. That doesn't mean they're perfect, but you're going to have to show some evidence it's getting worse . I really don't think you want to go back to the 1970's…

I didn't complain that there aren't enough regulations. I mean that the people involved in them are corrupt and incompetent which makes them easy prey to the industries they regulate.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The West is undergoing a bureaucratic collapse where incompetent or out right maliciously corrupt people are subverting regulators. I don't know where you're getting this from. Generally speaking, regulations and enforcement are tighter than they've ever been. That doesn't mean they're perfect, but you're going to have to show some evidence it's getting worse . I really don't think you want to go back to the 1970's…

I didn't complain that there aren't enough regulations. I mean that the people involved in them are corrupt and incompetent which makes them easy prey to the industries they regulate.

That's why I didn't say "regulations", I said "regulations and enforcement".

Corruption has generally gone down significantly over the decades, and knowledge and training have gone up.

I'm not saying there aren't problems, but you're presenting a narrative where bureaucracies are "collapsing", when the reality is that things have actually been improving in general, and quite a great deal.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#405
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP but, regardless of why we exist here, change is not always good. Change simply means that something becomes something else. It isn't inherently good. For example, now I walk with both legs, but if a car hits me, I might stay on a wheelchair for some time, which is change, but not a welcome one. Before you say "this is a strawman argument", think about technologies like "cloud seeding", which are supposed to en…

I would think the main goal of humans should be to understand what is behind all that. Why do we exist. It seems to me the best way to do that is to develop tech, and I would hope quick as otherwise I personally will obviously die before finding out. What do you think the goal is? I just think that at some point we will find out anyway and why not quicker then? Why let 5 or 10 more generations of humans go on if at s…

> I just think that at some point we will find out anyway and why not quicker then?

Because you and the corporations you support are making the lives of people worse now, and you are trading their wellbeing for your very minimal, personal comfort, and rationalizing it away with Pascal Wager-style of technocracy where "tech" could save you from dying.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#406

If you want to keep it simple, don't even bother with filtered water and just drink out of the tap. It is safe in the developed world. If you are concerned about germs, which can get through the filter anyway, you should boil the water instead.

Haha you've never been to San Francisco. The tap water there is this nasty opaque sludge. It comes out of the faucet looking like bathwater after the bath has been used. Knowing the way things go there, they probably turned their water treatment facilities into Roman style bathhouses that could serve as shelters for the homeless.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#407
post #9

Appliance engineers probably have their equivalent of "Kubernetes and SPA used for no good reason at all and now we can't focus on the actual features"

By now, making UI with (by now not completely) SPA frameworks specifically made for that task is just better developer experience. I won't go back to pretty much html string concation via templates. Why do people keep pretending it's better in any way is lost on me.

If you are concatenating strings of HTML, you are basically asking for an injection attack.

There are lightweight frameworks (like knockout) that keep things simple but keep you safe with bindings, without giving up control to a bigger framework.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#408
post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used both a top loader (currently a speed queen) and a front loader washer each for more than a decade. I have many t-shirts that are 20+ years old. Any wear from the washer seems negligible in comparison to the wear from actually wearing the clothes. There's no discernible difference. But there's a HUGE difference in terms of ability to clean. If I'm out doing yardwork and I have a pair of jeans with deep mud s…

The LG front loaders are very good at cleaning clothing. Wirecutter has done actual tests, and they seem to perform nearly as well as top loaders with agitators, but they don’t damage clothing anywhere near as much. My experience matches — mine cleans even better than the top-loader-with-agitator than I remember as a kid, and it’s much much better than the crappy commercial coin-operated top-loader I used to use. (Th…

I've used the LG frontloaders. They are not effective at removing muddy stains. They simply can't do the job.

Wirecutter doesn't publish their methodology, but every "tester" who has focuses on questionable metrics -- such as testing stain types that don't require agitation to remove.

In my experience most people who are happy with them don't have very dirty clothing to begin with.

Regarding normal water usage: It is not true that washers "gain nothing" by using more water. More water protects clothing under agitation and aids in removing dirt. From the SQ manual:

"Wash delicate items usually washed by hand on this cycle. A full tub of water is recommended (even for small loads) to allow the delicate items to move freely through the water. More water helps reduce fabric wear, wrinkling, and provides for a clean wash."

https://speedqueen.com/au/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2019/0...

This is the precise issue:

1) Regulators required low-water modes

2) Low water modes clean less effectively and are rougher on clothes

3) Front loaders are designed to work with low water loads, but still don't clean well

3) All modern washers are now terrible, except models that intentionally skirt regulations - such as SQ

High-water agitation is the best by far. The only drawback is increased water use - which is insignificant. The entire issue is a result of bad washer regulations.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#409
post #21

An error occurred: API rate limit exceeded for willbush/blog. Sign in to increase the rate limit Unsure if that is a joke or a real error message.

Pretty sure it’s a real error message. I believe it’s a comment system implemented by piggybacking onto GitHub issues, and GH API rate limiting can get aggressive fast.

Think I'm just going to disable it. I haven't had a single person use it outside of me to test it.

Re: Goodbye non-KISS appliances

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not offended by you enjoying a feature, but I see that feature as a net negative. An R&D budget is more or less a zero sum situation. Money spent developing temperature sensors is money not spent on something else. Fridge quality today is lousy enough (and warranties + return policies have all but evaporated) that spending money elsewhere would've been a big win. Even if we're not talking reliability, I had to re…

It isn't zero sum. They could simply add the gizmos and keep the important bits the same as their refined, reliable 20 year old designs. What they're actually doing is actively spending engineering resources to enshittify what was already perfected to boost profit.

For better or for worse, no, they could not have kept the working bits the same. The US EPA has progressively tightened restrictions both on what refrigerants can be used and how much electricity can be used. Instead of focusing on making that reliable, they're focusing on making it cheap so they can add gizmos.

Besides, if you've got to replace a fridge every five years now that's a win for the appliance manufacturers. Although, really, who offers anything more than a 1 year warranty anymore? That should tell you how long these things are expected to last.

Post reply on HN