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Everything's broken and nobody's upset

hanselman.com

401–410 of 418 posts

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because smartphones are now less about "phone" and more about "communicator". A phone that can only make calls is rightly seen as a huge anachronism. I daresay that I use my smart"phone" more for the applications I can run on it than making calls nowadays.

But that's the point - people complain that things are getting too complex, that they don't work all the time, and that they wish companies would focus on getting the basics right. But then they go out and but the latest products because the brilliant new features instead.

You're missing the point entirely.

You don't need to abandon a decade's worth of advances to ask that, for example, the Google IME team all get on the same page (Chinese, English, Korean and Japanese IMEs all work slightly differently and appear different) before implementing say... face unlock.

I'm a big fan of single-purpose tools, but if you tried to have EVERYTHING in your life a single purpose tool, you'd need a shopping trolly to carry it all around with you.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#402
post #302
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dishwasher also cleans beautifully with no rinsing (thought I usually rinse the big particles). Now drying is another thing all together. I usually have to hand dry dishes (especially plastic) when I take them out before putting them away.

We get around that by opening the dishwasher a few inches as soon as it's finished its cycle. That way the steam escapes, and the heat in the unit finishes drying the dishes. Most of the water you see on the contents is steam that has re-condensed onto everything. Hope this helps. IIRC I saw an article on Popular Mechanics about this a few years ago and tried it and it works.

I do this too. I kinda always thought it's just part of how you operate a dishwasher :) First time I opened it right after its cycle, a huge cloud escapes, so it figures that otherwise it would condense, no?

Another tip then, I don't just open it a few inches but all the way and pull out both racks. That way all the steam escapes within a few seconds and you can close up the dishwasher again. You do need a bit of ventilation but I just open my balcony door. And then, there's a few cups or glasses that have concave bottoms so they gather a bit of water. If you blow hard on them while everything is still hot, the drops will fly somewhere (it's just water), and those glasses will become fully dry thanks to the last bits of heat.

Another tip. If you wrap it up real good so no soap can get to it, you can easily cook a piece of salmon in your dishwasher. It's not a great way (cooks too hot, for too long), but it does work and that's awesome.

Another tip. If you got a compartment for a "shining agent", you can put a mix of white vinegar and ethanol in it. It works. Both of the substances easily evaporate in the heat so you won't get a vinegar smell or anything (unless you use balsamic--good luck with that). An expensive commercial shining agent might work even better, I never tried them.

Yet another tip. Maybe you have a built-in water-softener whose ion-exchanger needs recharging by pouring dishwasher salt into another compartment. The only difference between table salt and this stuff is that the granules are big so it dissolves slower. So, buy big granules table salt instead (the stuff used in table salt grinders), which is much cheaper.

Another other tip. You'll probably still do some cleaning by hand, when you need a specific utensil or something. If you use a plastic dishwasher brush, you can put that one in the dishwasher as well to clean it. I'm unsure why, but I find brushes to last a lot longer when I occasionally clean them in the dishwasher.

If you can trust your dishwasher to not leave weird residue on your stuff, you can also use this method to clean plastic hair-combs every once in a while.

A dishwasher really is a magical device. You can even put some lines of source code in the cutlery rack, and they'll come out with less bugs. True fact.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly some of these are life choices, and important ones which almost certainly make sense to you, but one thing; No dishwasher? I don't really understand this. My dishwasher has a single wheel and a switch. The switch is "heated dry" [ON|OFF] and the wheel sets to one of three positions ("light wash", "normal wash", "medium wash"). If you're only washing dishes for one then I guess this makes sense, but I fail to…

We have a new kitchenaid dishwasher with a fairly simple control panel (8 buttons). We already had to have the mainboard replaced by the manufacturer. Unless your dishwasher is really old, even if it appears simple, it almost certainly is not.

I really don't get what all my buttons are for. Well I know what they do, after reading the manual, just not why I'd want to use them, different varieties of partial dishwashing? I'm a single person household and I have no problem waiting 2-3 days until I have enough for the full program. So I only ever press the same two ("full program", "ON"). And it really should be just one: ON.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't find anything to back up the claim that the appliances have to use 10% less energy and water each year. Do you have any documentation to back that up? You'd think this would show up in product reviews after a while? Doesn't you dishwasher have any adjustment to set the temperature or length of the cycle? What model do you have? My appliances are all "A" rated (EU energy label), but to get that rating for t…

YEah, that is not a supportable claim. Probably the appliance dealer was speaking colloquially. In any case the federal standard changes pretty regularly, resulting in an erratic dropping of electric consumption requirements. There are plenty of buttons on the washer (which is a user-interface nightmare of its own). Two help a little: 'Heavy Duty' and 'Extra Rinse'. Selecting both leaves the clothes smelling slightly…

Are we hackers? There must be a way to do a firmware upgrade. Jailbreak your washer! ;-)

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#405
post #73

My sentiments exactly. I got so tired of being upset with the horrendous human design in modern technology that I took action. What I've done: - Buy 2 $350 laptops every year. Move all data. Give away old ones. - All contacts in one .txt document. - Memorize most frequently used contacts. - No smart phone. - No tablet. - No Kindle. - No palm pilot. - No Facebook. - New car ('12 Hyandai) with minimal technology. - Was…

what leaps out at me from that list is that you have systematically ruled out every good way to read ebooks. as a heavy fiction reader, my smartphone and later my kindle have added value to my life that far outweighs any design flaws they might have had.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#406
post #35

The blurb on the sidebar proclaims Scott's MS experience. It's surprising to see someone with a Microsoft background making this complaint. MS spends more effort than any software company on testing, not only in just plain hiring lots of testers, but also on formal methods. They have some of the top formal methods people in the world doing research for them, and armies of people trying to put that research into pract…

I think I read this from HN but I use this as the best example of mission critical software, the Space Shuttle at NASA. The most important things the shuttle group does -- carefully planning the software in advance, writing no code until the design is complete, making no changes without supporting blueprints, keeping a completely accurate record of the code -- are not expensive. The process isn't even rocket science.…

This process results in low bug counts. But, even then, NASA still programs the software to accept patches as they fly.

I don't know how applicable the NASA way is to commercial firms. They have different goals. National Mission Success vs. shareholder returns. The commercial firms are still making money and happy shareholders with a lot of bugs. While a single unit conversion bug on the Mars Climate Orbiter resulted in the loss of a multi-billion dollar spacecraft.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#407
post #73

My sentiments exactly. I got so tired of being upset with the horrendous human design in modern technology that I took action. What I've done: - Buy 2 $350 laptops every year. Move all data. Give away old ones. - All contacts in one .txt document. - Memorize most frequently used contacts. - No smart phone. - No tablet. - No Kindle. - No palm pilot. - No Facebook. - New car ('12 Hyandai) with minimal technology. - Was…

Funny enough in countries like Turkey there are plenty of washing machines, dish washers with literally one or two buttons that costs only 200$ Somehow I can't find this kind of machines in places like UK or Netherlands.

Dishwashers aren't that expensive in NL: http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/cat/900/vaatwassers.html?orde... (and since tweakers.net pricewatch mainly covers computer hardware, I expect there's better deals out there, too).

I forget how much mine cost, but I don't think it was more than $300.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear about your experience. Kinda like a dumb tech support q.: you're cleaning out the lint filter before each use, right? :) Second: are you sure it's your dryer? Maybe the washer isn't spinning them as dry as they need to be. Try using a washer cycle that spins harder/longer. Did you replace only the dryer w/o replacing the washer.

Everybody askes that. Yes, I know how to operator a dryer too. And mine leaves the clothes wet too. After a diligent effort to make the damn things work, they still suck.

I had this problem. Then we cleaned out ducts from the dryer to the exhaust vent on the outside of the house.

The duct was jammed full of lint. So, no air was flowing out. The dryer had a safety interlock that disabled the heater. This is why the clothes took so long to dry. It is also why we didn't start a fire and burn down the house.

Now we clean the ducts every 18 months and the dryer works great.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly some of these are life choices, and important ones which almost certainly make sense to you, but one thing; No dishwasher? I don't really understand this. My dishwasher has a single wheel and a switch. The switch is "heated dry" [ON|OFF] and the wheel sets to one of three positions ("light wash", "normal wash", "medium wash"). If you're only washing dishes for one then I guess this makes sense, but I fail to…

My latest dishwasher is 'energy star'. What that means is, every year they have to use 10% less energy and water. After the last 10 years, the dishwasher uses almost no enery nor water. And it doesn't get the dishes clean. And there's no way to override it. My water comes from a well. Its plentiful and free. Its pointless to save a gallon, and make me hand-wash half the dishes.

You don't appear to be right about your facts on Energy Star, good sir:

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_produc...

It seems to me, you just bought a crappy appliance. Go buy a better one. That will solve your problem; inaccurate ranting about energy efficiency efforts will not.

Re: Everything's broken and nobody's upset

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's the point - people complain that things are getting too complex, that they don't work all the time, and that they wish companies would focus on getting the basics right. But then they go out and but the latest products because the brilliant new features instead.

You're missing the point entirely. You don't need to abandon a decade's worth of advances to ask that, for example, the Google IME team all get on the same page (Chinese, English, Korean and Japanese IMEs all work slightly differently and appear different) before implementing say... face unlock. I'm a big fan of single-purpose tools, but if you tried to have EVERYTHING in your life a single purpose tool, you'd need a…

I'm not missing the point at all. Companies are run for profit, and they make their decisions on what they believe the market wants.

Do you think that the average punter is more likely to buy their next phone based on new feature like face unlock or because they've fixed an occasional bug in mail sync?

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