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Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

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Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#81

Post by danpalmer »

aag wrote: post #55
ubercow13 wrote: post #38

>Dyson hand dryers are very fast, but as a result, they fling water everywhere Isn't that the whole point of them? Instead of imparting enough heat energy to evaporate all of the water on your hands, they just push it off which is much faster and more energy efficient. How would they work better than regular dryers without doing that?

I have never found a hand dryer that works better than the Dyson ones. They actually dry my hands quickly, and they don't deafen me in the process unlike some of their competitors.

Agreed, but most people don’t use them correctly, they treat them like an awkwardly shaped transitional hand dryer.

When used correctly I find they don’t spray too much water around and dry my hands almost immediately.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#82

Post by lurking_swe »

seszett wrote: post #77
lurking_swe wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ikea is where you shop if you want new furniture but can’t afford real furniture. In this context, “real” means made of real wood. And im not judging, i too was a broke college kid at one point. And many people just don’t have the money. But ikea is ANYTHING but fancy. Its super cheap.

Ikea has every grade of quality from cardboard to solid wood to metal furniture. I will never understand why there are always such comments saying Ikea furniture is bad quality, or in your case not even "real" furniture, come on, it's like you have never even been in an Ikea store.

We can agree to disagree. yes Ikea offers _some_ products that are made of solid wood. But i’d say maybe 75% of their selection is particle board mixed with _some_ wood elements. That was what i saw during my last trip in ikea in 2020, in NY. Their selection of office furniture is similarly sad. Office chairs that might last 10 years with gentle use MAX. A lot of the ikea stuff is what i’d consider “buy it for life if you treat it gently and don’t have kids”.

I think Ikea is wonderful on a budget. But i personally wouldn’t waste my time there, except for rarely used pieces of furniture. im blessed to have more discretionary income these days. The one product i really like from ikea is their PAX closets. I think they are a very good value, despite feeling a bit cheap. I like how customizable it is, and it’s very functional.

—-

For example the Amish make very high quality wood furniture in the U.S., at a fair price. If that’s not your thing, there are companies that focus strictly on buy it for life high quality wood furniture. My dining room table was made by MS&Wood (based somewhere in bosnia i believe…they sell direct and wholesale to furniture companies).

https://www.adakezic.com/images/Zastupstva/mswood/2018_MS&WO...

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#83

Post by lurking_swe »

dingnuts wrote: post #73
lurking_swe wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ikea is where you shop if you want new furniture but can’t afford real furniture. In this context, “real” means made of real wood. And im not judging, i too was a broke college kid at one point. And many people just don’t have the money. But ikea is ANYTHING but fancy. Its super cheap.

Lots of IKEA furniture is real wood, and lots of "expensive" brands are still flat packed particleboard. Ever bought anything from West Elm? I'm curious where people are buying "real" furniture, even even they spend "real" money. I've had the best luck with the Amish and at estate sales, but that's not super repeatable. All the major furniture stores like Ashley or whatever are similar in quality and construction to…

west elm pretends to be high end but it’s not. As you said it’s hit and miss, some gems and a lot of junk. As consumers in 2025 we are awash in a sea of cheap junk. It’s frustrating sometimes.

I personally recommend people go to a real furniture store (a large one), where the salesperson is actually knowledgeable and where they offer many brands. Ask for what you want. Specific materials, finishes, price range, etc. Make a note of the brands and manufacturers. Then dig deeper. Often times these brands are featured in a niche catalog or magazine, where you can find similar brands offering similar products.

There are many high quality buy it for life items to be found! But rarely at the convenience of a button click from westelm’s website.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#84

Post by seanmcdirmid »

lurking_swe wrote: post #83
dingnuts wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of IKEA furniture is real wood, and lots of "expensive" brands are still flat packed particleboard. Ever bought anything from West Elm? I'm curious where people are buying "real" furniture, even even they spend "real" money. I've had the best luck with the Amish and at estate sales, but that's not super repeatable. All the major furniture stores like Ashley or whatever are similar in quality and construction to…

west elm pretends to be high end but it’s not. As you said it’s hit and miss, some gems and a lot of junk. As consumers in 2025 we are awash in a sea of cheap junk. It’s frustrating sometimes. I personally recommend people go to a real furniture store (a large one), where the salesperson is actually knowledgeable and where they offer many brands. Ask for what you want. Specific materials, finishes, price range, etc.…

Real furniture stores lay somewhere between being useful and being like a mattress sales money laundering operation. I just find most of them full of gaudy furniture that I’m not sure anyone would really buy (hence my guess that money laundering is involved).

In the Seattle area, the best I could find is Dania, which is a chain that is basically a higher end IKEA that focuses more on furniture (Scandinavian style).

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#85

Post by danpalmer »

mostly_harmless wrote: post #12
reaperducer wrote: post #6

[flagged]

I don't hate Dyson because it's trendy, I hate Dyson because my $700 vacuum wont pick up cheerios; a common spill with toddlers.

I don’t have a Dyson, but my vacuum also struggles with items so big they don’t fit under the roller. I don’t generally find it to be a problem because at that size they’re easy to pick up.

Not defending Dyson, there’s a lot of valid criticism here, but at some size pieces are too big to vacuum, and if that size is Cheerios, maybe that’s not much of a problem?

I’d rather have a vacuum that does well at the small stuff I can’t reasonably pick up.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#86

Post by accrual »

rjsw wrote: post #57
accrual wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Although I guess in fairness Which doesn't know UX exists. What is "Which" in this context? As used here it appears like a proper noun.

It is a proper noun [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Which%3F

Thank you!

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#87

Post by lurking_swe »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #84
lurking_swe wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

west elm pretends to be high end but it’s not. As you said it’s hit and miss, some gems and a lot of junk. As consumers in 2025 we are awash in a sea of cheap junk. It’s frustrating sometimes. I personally recommend people go to a real furniture store (a large one), where the salesperson is actually knowledgeable and where they offer many brands. Ask for what you want. Specific materials, finishes, price range, etc.…

Real furniture stores lay somewhere between being useful and being like a mattress sales money laundering operation. I just find most of them full of gaudy furniture that I’m not sure anyone would really buy (hence my guess that money laundering is involved). In the Seattle area, the best I could find is Dania, which is a chain that is basically a higher end IKEA that focuses more on furniture (Scandinavian style).

I’ll be in seattle in a few months, maybe i’ll swing by Dania for an hour just to see what they have. Thanks for the recommendation!

Some brands that you might like if you are looking for buy it for life. Some sell direct, some only sell via wholesale to other furniture stores. This is a list from a note i created 3 years ago when i was shopping for a new dining table.

* MS&Wood. Bosnian company, 100% wood products. https://www.adakezic.com/images/Zastupstva/mswood/2018_MS&WO...

* Ethnicraft - 100% wood (oak, teak, walnut). made in belgium.

https://ethnicraft.com/us/en/

* Cattelan Italia. Italian company, very high end and also very high quality. Styles are a mix of gaudy and timeless - wood, glass, and metal.

https://www.cattelanitalia.com/en/products/index?c=new

On the lower price range, some good choices might be “Article”, “Blu Dot” and “HAY”.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#88

Post by pedalpete »

I feel this completely ignores the role of brand in the equation.

Dyson's brand is to be technologically forward. It is supposed to look like the future, which is why the angular mix of colors works for the brand.

Bosch, I have no idea what their brand aesthetic is, or what they are trying to say.

This doesn't mean that the Dyson is better than Bosch, or any other competitors, just that brand does come into the equation as well.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#89

Post by rangestransform »

AlexandrB wrote: post #66
wpm wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, the lack of good sense and typical selfishness and shortsightedness of a human being means that when you don't, you get the spate of e-bike battery house/apartment/highrise fires that were hitting NYC. You kinda can't fuck around with li-ion. I don't like that my Bosch e-bike batteries have closed-source schematics, software, and chargers (i mean really, what the fuck am I going to steal Bosch), nor that the s…

This kind of comment is ridiculous in light of the last hundred years of transportation which worked on gasoline , a highly flammable liquid fuel that can even explode under some circumstances. Why do we trust people to handle gasoline safely, but Li-ion batteries are a bridge too far? I'm tired of being treated like an idiot consumer because someone, somewhere, fucked up their Li-ion battery.

We don’t let people fill up their cars inside their residences either. Lithium ion batteries are additionally dangerous because the fires burn hotter, are self oxidizing, and can’t be extinguished with conventional fire extinguishers.

Re: Dyson, techno-centric design and social consumption

#90

Post by echelon »

eddythompson80 wrote: post #79
echelon wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The particulate aerosolization worries me. In the future we're going to regret breathing bad air. It's the accelerant for so many health problems.

> In the future we're going to regret breathing air. It's the accelerant for so many health problems. A non-oxygen dependent energy system for the human cell is the only option moving forward. We need to utilize a clean energy source like sunlight and dump that oxygen dependency once and for all. Cyanobacteria was a crutch dependency that helped bootstrap that whole life thing pretty quickly for the demo. We have a p…

I love the satire. (Did I really write "regret breathing air" before editing or something?)

Oxygen is an amazingly energy rich fuel and is super abundant for us. The oxygenation of earth was one of the key steps, and it might be a "hard step" for other civilizations.

Of course oxidation causes a lot of damage and byproducts, and is one of the causes of our aging and death. But without it, well...

I was primarily referring to particulate matter suspended within the air we breathe. High PPM / particulate measurably reduces lifespan in several population studies, and it also produces noticeable pulmonary and cardiac disease states.

Polluted air is bad.

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