[HN Gopher] Overkill objects for everyday life
___________________________________________________________________
Overkill objects for everyday life
Author : mrzool
Score : 588 points
Date : 2021-05-30 16:10 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (neil.computer)
(TXT) w3m dump (neil.computer)
| yt-sdb wrote:
| I do this with clothes. You can buy a good pair of hiking shoes
| or a lightweight waterproof jacket for the same price as design-
| oriented goods. Why pay Nike for a logo when I can pay Salomon
| for durability and tread? Same thing with luggage: I buy cycling
| oriented backpacks and duffle bags because they're strong and
| waterproof.
| FpUser wrote:
| >"Dough maker... It was built in Ohio when we used to make things
| in the US"
|
| Whenever I see a chance to buy old industrial grade stuff I use
| it. Nearly everything they used to do lasts forever. If you want
| to find the same quality now it either not available or you pay
| through the nose. Granted for many things we probably do not care
| all that much if they last 3 years or 30.
| cupcake-unicorn wrote:
| Came to the same realization recently when shopping for kitchen
| appliances. I couldn't find any blender that wasn't breaking or
| acting dodgy after a few months. These of course don't come up
| when you search for them as a consumer but there are for sure
| industrial blenders used at bars and such. I realized that going
| forward if I don't want ot have to buy a new one every year or so
| pretty much for anything I'd have to research and go this route.
| The beaker glasses is a good example because you sometimes have
| to get creative to find the industrial version of something.
| sargun wrote:
| One of my first forays into this was a proper blowtorch vs a
| normal kitchen torch.
|
| My recipes requires adjusting, but once I fixed them up, they
| were great.
| klyrs wrote:
| I briefly lived in a studio apartment. The kitchen was spacious
| and had tile flooring, so that's where the bandsaw went. I
| didn't cut food with it, but food packets were fair game.
|
| Though -- I'd argue that using a bandsaw for blisterpacks isn't
| overkill; it's the safest way to get them open.
| GloriousKoji wrote:
| I have a pair of cheap (harbor freight) tin snips I keep in
| the kitchen drawer for opening blister packs.
| s5300 wrote:
| Hand operated can opener is the secret to clamshell plastic
| packaging
| fmajid wrote:
| Offset scissors like the Allex SH-1 are the way to go.
| klyrs wrote:
| That sounds incredibly slow in comparison to a bandsaw
| (also cheap crap from harbor freight -- but I got mine 20
| years ago and it's still ticking along fine)
| s5300 wrote:
| Bandsaws should only be used to make other larger
| bandsaws per @MatthiasWandel
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=MatthiasWandel
| klyrs wrote:
| I'm pretty sure that I established that a bandsaw is a
| kitchen implement (and, it's not even a stretch --
| they're common in butcher shops). Is it Alton Brown who
| says that single-use kitchen appliances are verboten? I
| tend to agree.
|
| You can also use a bandsaw to cut a sliver off a sheet of
| 16ga steel and use that to light a cigarette. It's truly
| all-purpose
| yarcob wrote:
| I'd love a bandsaw in the kitchen to cut frozen food. (so
| I don't need to thaw the whole thing if I need just a
| bit)
| javajosh wrote:
| I mean, I love the idea of finding more uses for tin snips,
| but I use a standard utility knife on a cutting board and
| it works great. The key is to cut all the way around, and
| press hard through the plastic. Don't force yourself to
| lever up the plastic, because that's how you slice open
| your hand.
| el_benhameen wrote:
| Same here! Plus, if you need to solder some plumbing, you
| already have the right tool. A true Alton-esque multitasker.
| kevinmchugh wrote:
| If you're using a real blowtorch, get a searzall to go on it.
| cobalt wrote:
| roofing torch works better and is cheaper :P
| dusted wrote:
| Definitely doing this, if I need something I will look for the
| industrial option first, we don't have a big military industrial
| complex in Denmark, so I can't go milspec. Vacuum cleaners is a
| great place to start,
| yarcob wrote:
| Except that commercial vacuum cleaners are huge, loud and cost
| 3x as much as a good consumer vacuum cleaner.
|
| But the bags are bigger.
| [deleted]
| abeppu wrote:
| > The average consumer wants this stuff. It sells. They want
| pizzaz over functionality and durability.
|
| What is functionality though? What is pizzaz? When are they the
| same and when are they different?
|
| E.g. the famous Emeco 1006 chair, which won a contract to supply
| the US Navy by being thrown out a window and not breaking. It
| became a design classic, and now sells for $600 each. It gained a
| kind of following, which is in part based on this history. But is
| that durability especially functional for your home or restaurant
| environment which isn't on a warship? Do you think you're going
| to use your chair as a hammer some days? Or is fetishizing
| something used by the military and extreme durability its own
| form of pizzaz?
|
| https://www.dwr.com/kitchen-dining-chairs-benches/1006-navy-...
| https://www.emeco.net/variants/emeco-1006-navy-chair-brushed...
| https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/77-steps/
| mcguire wrote:
| I can't speak to the 1006, but my office chair is a mid-century
| Steelcase because I got tired of others breaking or losing
| wheels.
| spitfire wrote:
| It's apparently useful for police departments. Or so says every
| police show ever...
| seoaeu wrote:
| The functionality is making the owner feel superior to consumer
| who buy consumer grade products
| Metacelsus wrote:
| >VWR - This is my kitchen goods store. Usually sells billions of
| dollars of things to labs around the world.
|
| These days they're notorious for shipping backlogs (my lab
| ordered things 5 months ago and still hasn't got them).
| alexander_gold wrote:
| https://cannablazeweed.net
| rsync wrote:
| I appreciate the link and summary for McMaster-Carr[1].
|
| It is so pleasing to use this site and it is simultaneously full
| of utility as they stock a wide array of fixtures and hardware
| that are difficult to search for elsewhere.
|
| If you place an order before noon (typically) the box of goods
| will be in your hands the next day.
|
| The user interface is a wonder. It's too good to be true. In
| fact, using the UI actually _saddens_ me because you know some
| kid who thinks they are a design genius is going to get hired
| there and "improve things". It's almost a physical law.
|
| [1] https://www.mcmaster.com/
| wyager wrote:
| I'm not surprised to see you evangelizing McMaster - mentally,
| I bin you and them in the same category of "no bullshit"
| suppliers. Products for competent people, by competent people,
| when most suppliers seem to be targeting the lowest common
| denominator of consumer.
| [deleted]
| Scoundreller wrote:
| Some electronics vendors have figured it out too. A Parametric
| search first approach means I can find exactly what I need.
|
| Will I ever find the rs-232 transceiver that I need on Amazon?
| Unlikely.
| snth wrote:
| And you can find stuff like "Nuclear Grade Duct Tape":
| https://www.mcmaster.com/fastening-tape/nuclear-grade-duct-t...
| wyager wrote:
| I bought some socks from McMaster and they are pretty nice.
| jrockway wrote:
| McMaster's website loads so quickly I looked into what server
| they're using, because it seems so much better than whatever
| everyone else has.
|
| Apparently it is an ASP.NET app, served by IIS, cached on
| Akamai's CDN. Not quite what you're going to see on your
| average HN blog post.
| CarVac wrote:
| To me, McMaster-Carr is the best website in existence.
|
| The clarity of information presentation is unparalleled.
| Gravityloss wrote:
| A local company, Varusteleka has been extremely successful and
| grown rapidly from selling military surplus equipment bought from
| here and there as well as "tactical" looking stuff made cheaply
| somewhere.
|
| I've bought for example some Swiss army surplus towels for a bike
| trip. They were really good (small, durable, functional,
| beautiful) but a bit too small so you couldn't wrap one around
| yourself.
|
| They probably get the surplus stuff almost for free, from all
| around the world. I think it's great, making something desirable
| out of waste.
|
| Having served, I think a lot of military equipment is really bad,
| especially clothing. It's bought not by the users but by the
| organization.
| cblconfederate wrote:
| They have a fun website buf you can find that stuff on ebay,
| and usually in bulk
| soheil wrote:
| Commercial products are generally better made and more focused.
| It's because the world of business is more logical and people are
| not tempted buy garbage just because they like the actor in a TV
| commercial. It's about the bottom line, if the product sucks in
| any shape or form the business would not be a savvy one if it did
| not buy a better product and would go out of business soon. Not
| the case when you have disposable income and are not responsible
| to your shareholders. You're also in the same club as shoppers as
| Home Shopping Network channel. Products all of a sudden don't
| need to actually be good, they just need to convince enough of
| its targeted consumers that it is, be it because they're old and
| confused and watching TV at 3am or because they saw an ad that
| was pretty convincing.
| elil17 wrote:
| Restaurant supply stores are a great place to get kitchenware.
| Some of it doesn't work in a home kitchen (for instance, you
| probably don't want your smallest Tupperware to be a quart). Some
| of it, though, is perfect. My favorite purchase has been a huge
| cutting board with rubber grip material on one side and rulers
| printed on the other. It's thick plastic so it's never warped
| despite repeatedly putting it in the dishwasher.
|
| If you're lucky enough to live near one that lets consumers buy
| food, too, that's great. 20 pounds of very high quality pasta for
| like $8 or $10.
| yumraj wrote:
| Costco _Business center_ is a good and accessible alternate if
| you have one near to you.
| karaterobot wrote:
| Is that picture the 20-quart Hobart mixer, or just the 12 quart?
| Both are good for making a few hundred cookies at a time, and
| very convenient if you also have a commercial oven.
|
| Now, that's the countertop model, so it only weights 189 pounds,
| and it's a steal at $6000. Sounds expensive, but it'll last
| forever, unlike my shitty Kitchenaid mixer that's only worked
| flawlessly for 30 years, and that I can store in a cupboard and
| put on the counter without a forklift.
|
| My advice: save a few bucks by learning small appliance repair
| and buying a banged up mixer from a defunct restaurant a couple
| towns over! Bring a couple friends and some tie-down straps.
| ListeningPie wrote:
| The recommendation for a commercial panel which avoids built
| smart TV functions is one I'm taking seriously. We have an Apple
| TV connected and use nothing else. Does anyone have experience or
| recommendations?
|
| Here is a link to NEC's commercial displays
| https://www.sharpnecdisplays.us/products/displays#2
| croutonwagon wrote:
| Yeah....BUT those panels are designed for, more or less, static
| images in well lit rooms.
|
| Things like contrast ratio, how well it does dark colors in a
| dark room or fast intesity refreshing (like 60Hz "fast") may be
| questionable. It probably also expects super consistent and
| clean power...some houses dont have that.
|
| Sure you could make it a giant Dakboard with a giant static
| image and not really worry about burn in for years.
|
| Ultimately. I went with a cheap panel from say costco and a
| roku on a separate vlan (so my overkill is a network that can
| do vlan segmentation). Ultimately the roku TV's can scan
| themselves to death and report that they are on a network with
| other roku TV's all they want. Or you could just get a cheap-o
| smart TV and hook up the appleTV (cost came into play for me).
| I do have some LG smart TV's, one died within 3 years
| already...Meanwhile my Samsung 55" Plasma from 2008 had taking
| a direct lightning strike that took out the others and keeps on
| ticking. (and resulted in the TCL roku and LG tvs being
| installed).
|
| So all of that is to say. I just go cheap panel that i dont
| mind replacing. And just keep them isolated entirely.
| an_opabinia wrote:
| I don't know. If you don't connect the TV to the Internet,
| really, what is it going to do.
| swader999 wrote:
| Connect your media pc to it and fully control your tv
| software.
| smbv wrote:
| Perhaps it'll hop onto someone else's WiFi.
|
| https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/amazon-devices-
| will-...
| Sebb767 wrote:
| A nag every 5 minutes to do so, lags and slow startup time
| due to all the stuff running in the background and, to top it
| off, horrible settings menus as the actual picture is not the
| main focus.
| crooked-v wrote:
| My Vizio M55-E0 has a noticeably (much, much) slower UI if
| it's not connected to the internet, though it's probably
| just poor design rather than an intentional thing.
| Definitely never buying another Vizio, though.
| geofft wrote:
| The commercial displays are also awfully expensive.
|
| https://frame.work/blog/in-defense-of-dumb-tvs was posted here
| recently (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26273169) and
| concluded that Sceptre, an inexpensive brand sold at Wal-Mart,
| was worth a shot.
| curtis3389 wrote:
| I bought a Sceptre based on a HN discussion a few months ago.
| Happy with it so far. It's just a regular TV.
| karaterobot wrote:
| I bet we bought the exact same panel, since I bought mine
| based on the same HN discussion. The Sceptre 65" something
| something? Very happy with it so far.
| c0nfused wrote:
| I am planning to replace my existing tv from one of dell's
| conference room line once it finally quits on me.
|
| https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-55-4k-conference-r...
|
| The down ide is that they are up 25% in cost over 2019 but
| crooked-v wrote:
| Overall cost trends for anything electronic are going to be
| pretty weird this year given chip shortages.
| easton wrote:
| Find the hospitality version of whatever you want from CDW
| (Samsung and LG do a lot of them, idk about Sony). They are
| designed for hotels and hospitals, and have the same picture
| quality but no smart stuff.
|
| An example from Samsung:
| https://www.cdw.com/product/samsung-678u-series-55-4k-uhd-le...
| tomcam wrote:
| Well that is a super helpful pro tip! You have just opened up
| a new world for me. Thank you.
| MonaroVXR wrote:
| These are cheaper?
|
| https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-
| category1category73.htm...
| notatoad wrote:
| I love to use professional-grade items where i can, but sometimes
| "overkill" means a worse product. like the professional-grade fan
| - it's not just designed for a high duty cycle, it's also
| probably designed to be operated in an environment where people
| regularly use hearing protection, so quiet operation is not a
| consideration.
| valec wrote:
| Another example is weight. The average consumer Rogue or Titan
| power rack or machine will outlive the one or two people using
| it. It is completely sufficient even for light-commercial use
| while still being light enough to move around with only a
| couple people.
|
| Commercial gym equipment, on the other hand is more expensive,
| much heavier, and doesn't bring many advantages over a high
| quality consumer product. If you're running a gym where
| thousands of people use it every year the extra weight and cost
| makes sense but for a single person it's just a pain.
| Ekaros wrote:
| Also there is question of scale. Like the mixer, the capacity
| is just too big for regular use. It would be massive waste for
| me to make much anything with it. As I don't think it scales to
| small enough amounts.
| yongjik wrote:
| Hmm, there's a lesson hidden somewhere here about junior
| developers itching to implement everything in multi-region
| distributed services, because Google does it that way.
| [deleted]
| dan-robertson wrote:
| Dishwashers are another example. You could buy a commercial one
| but it will come with no roll-out trays (you load up different
| plastic racks for different things and you can load a rack
| while the dishwasher is running) and it's designed for an
| environment with lots of ventilation (you just open it when it
| is done and let the steam get ventilated away) which people are
| unlikely to have in their own kitchens.
|
| Other items tend to be designed for people who can put more
| work in regular cleaning and maintenance. You could buy a
| commercial espresso machine and coffee grinder to make yourself
| coffee every morning but the machine is designed to warm up at
| the start of the day, pull a lot of shots, and get thoroughly
| cleaned later. You will still need to warm it up and make sure
| it is behaving well before your coffee and you'll still need to
| properly clean it afterwards.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| A commercial dishwasher is like an entirely different
| appliance. It is designed to be fast. It achieves this by
| requiring rinsing, being hotter (and staying hot) and more
| aggressive, and by not having a dry cycle (you just open the
| door and let the steam out).
|
| Time is important in cleaning, and home dishwashers take
| advantage of that by running for several hours at low power,
| it is not like you are going to need these plates immediately
| after you have finished eating.
|
| About commercial espresso machines, another thing to consider
| is that these machines usually require plumbing. There are
| high end home espresso machines that are also built like
| tanks and will serve you better unless you are planning to
| pull hundreds of shots a day. Commercial machines have an
| advantage when it comes to temperature stability because they
| are so big and heavy but smaller machines are still able to
| do an impressive job.
| Arch-TK wrote:
| You need to spend at least PS600 to get a decent home
| espresso set up but it will get you something pretty close to
| good cafe grade coffee.
|
| The reason those big PS3000+ machines are impractical for the
| home is not the cleaning or even the warm-up time (as both of
| those factors are the same for any espresso machine even the
| home ones) but rather with the fact that the bar grade
| espresso machines expect to be plumbed into a reverse osmosis
| filter and take up a shitload of space.
|
| Commercial machines may need a little bit more time to warm
| up but I still let my gaggia warm up for around 15 minutes
| before I use it otherwise I find consistency falls and I just
| get frustration.
|
| Regarding cleaning, the process is the same for home machines
| and just needs to be performed less often (I do this around
| once every week depending on use. I pour 1-4 shots a day
| every day). There are powdered detergents which are used to
| backflush the group head and solenoid valve to clear out
| coffee oils, this process takes about 5 minutes to perform
| and doesn't require much manual effort except for clearing
| out the drip tray and wiping things down a bit.
|
| When it comes to cleaning the boiler, this isn't done by
| disassembling the machine or anything crazy like that. An
| acidic solution of usually some combination of primarily
| citric acid and/or potassium bitartrate is added to the water
| reservoir, the boiler is then flushed to get the solution in
| the boiler, I will then usually leave it in for 15 minutes
| with the boiler turned off to prevent water from boiling (to
| make sure all areas of the boiler are in contact with water
| at all times). Then this gets flushed with clean filtered
| water to get rid of the acid.
|
| This process takes longer but also doesn't require much work.
|
| Anything under PS600 will give you mediocre espresso (due to
| grind inconsistency and temperature stability problems) or
| fauxpresso (any pod machine or bean to cup machine basically
| maxes fauxpresso, there are very expensive commercial grade
| true-espresso bean to cup machines but these, even when
| dialled in correctly, still usually make a mediocre
| espresso).
|
| Any machine (even the fauxpresso ones) will likely require
| almost as much cleaning effort. Any manufacturer which claims
| otherwise (especially for bean-to-cup machines) is just
| trying to reduce the lifetime of your machine so it fails out
| of warranty and you buy another one.
| secabeen wrote:
| You can extend the lifetime of your espresso machine quite
| a lot by using calibrated water.
| ValentineC wrote:
| > _You need to spend at least PS600 to get a decent home
| espresso set up but it will get you something pretty close
| to good cafe grade coffee._
|
| There are also the lever espresso makers like the Flair or
| Cafelat Robot, which are cheaper, more robust (no fancy
| heating elements), but also a bit more troublesome.
| lostlogin wrote:
| I am a big fan of my first espresso machine - the Rancilio
| Silvia. It's got many commercial components in a small form
| factor. It's easily repairable too, but probably doesn't
| need it.
|
| Mine did approximately 15,000 coffees in the 20 years of
| use it had, and had one service for about $US75. It's still
| around as an emergency backup.
|
| It's shown in the wiki.
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancilio
| SyzygistSix wrote:
| A commercial bean grinder is amazing but expensive.
| lostlogin wrote:
| > You could buy a commercial espresso machine and coffee
| grinder to make yourself coffee every morning but the machine
| is designed to warm up at the start of the day, pull a lot of
| shots, and get thoroughly cleaned later.
|
| It is. But with home use you don't pull 300+ shots, it can be
| cleaned less. I have a 20 something year old Cimbali and it's
| just great. It's on a smart plug to turn on early and warm
| up.
|
| It had a load of leaks and I decided to upgrade, but first
| talked to the local agent. He gave 4 washers and said try
| them.
|
| 20 mins later it's completely fixed at a cost of $0. That's
| the only repair it's had in the years I have owned it. I
| thoroughly clean it every few weeks.
| bayindirh wrote:
| > Dishwashers are another example.
|
| Commercial dishwashers, esp. the fast cycle ones beat the
| living light of any mugs/plates/etc. unless they're plain
| white.
|
| They use way more pressure and heat, and resulting clean is
| much more aggressive, shortening life of everything inside
| them. Only plain glass and plain porcelain came out
| relatively unaffected. All decorations doesn't stand a
| chance.
|
| This is why some mugs denote "Safe for _normal_ dishwasher
| use ".
| andai wrote:
| I stayed at an art school that was housed in an old
| military barracks. They had a massive steel dishwasher that
| used hot water and pressurized air to just blast the dirt
| off. It was extremely loud, and only needed about 10
| seconds.
|
| I want one.
| sitharus wrote:
| I wondered why dinnerware said "for domestic use only", but
| I now have an ex-commercial set and it's an entirely
| different kind of china to domestic.
| tialaramex wrote:
| _Maintenance_ is huge.
|
| A lot of products even in the supposedly "disposable"
| everyday category people buy for lower prices have
| maintenance instructions that would significantly increase
| their lifespan if actually followed. Misuse resistance means
| consumer products generally still work if you skip
| maintenance the manufacturer told you was necessary (which
| industrial products might not), but it may shorten the
| product's lifespan, increase operating costs or reduce
| performance.
|
| My friend owns a dishwasher. Recently little specks of dirt
| were left on plates sometimes after the wash completed. Guess
| what, there's no _salt_ in the softener re-charge. So that
| dishwasher is soldiering on with hard water instead of soft,
| and it no longer gets things clean. Fill the salt back up,
| and sure enough the machine 's performance quickly improves.
| I'm sure lots of people are shouting "That's not
| maintenance". Well, it probably depends how you look at the
| problem. From his point of view he purchased "all in one"
| dishwasher tablets which said he didn't need salt. If he'd
| examined them _very carefully_ they admit that actually you
| might still need to add salt periodically, but that wouldn 't
| be very "all in one" so it's not emphasised.
| carlmr wrote:
| TIL I should read the all in one tab packaging and probably
| buy salt.
| imgabe wrote:
| TIL dishwashers have a compartment you're supposed to add
| salt to? Is this the rinse-aid thing?
| the-smug-one wrote:
| Salt helps against hard water, AFAIK.
| imgabe wrote:
| Yeah, I grew up in a house with well water and we had a
| water softener for the whole house. I've just never seen
| a place to add salt in a dishwasher, unless it's the
| rinse aid.
| MonaroVXR wrote:
| Watch this video: Detergent packs are kinda wishy-washy
| (Dishwashers Explained)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBO8neWw04
| MonaroVXR wrote:
| Did you also watch: Detergent packs are kinda wishy-washy
| (Dishwashers Explained)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBO8neWw04
| ornornor wrote:
| That video (and channel) are truly great.
| MonaroVXR wrote:
| This is the same for laptops, but most of the people (I
| assume?) buy Macbooks for programming which is... kinda
| weird, since it's difficult to repair. Than business laptops
| like the Z-book, ThinkPad or insert Dell business laptop eg;
| Latitude 7000 series (Dell XPS isn't a business laptop from
| my perspective.)
| yojo wrote:
| Macs are not generally repairable, but some models are
| incredibly reliable.
|
| I've been using a 2012 MBPr that still works great/is
| pristine, other than losing some rubber feet.
|
| Having a user friendly OS with *nix-ish tooling in a high
| build quality package is (debatably) only available from
| Apple. I will happily upgrade to an M1 MBP once the next
| gen is released.
| kiba wrote:
| 2012 model MBP is the most repairable macbook I owned.
| drstewart wrote:
| > kinda weird, since it's difficult to repair.
|
| Why would I care? If it breaks, I tell my company to pay
| the repair bill or buy me a new one.
| ornornor wrote:
| Because it's wasteful and pollutes.
| franga2000 wrote:
| Because when it breaks, your company won't want to use
| 3rd party repair, so they will send it straight to Apple.
| That means that it will take at least a month to get back
| and all your data getting erased is pretty much a
| guarantee, even if all that was broken was one resistor
| in the power supply circuit.
|
| Even if they buy a new one, how long will it take you to
| set it up from scratch?
|
| Meanwhile, any other vendor will have competent
| technicians available almost anywhere (with a support
| package maybe even 24/7/365), who will be able to at
| worst transplant your storage media into a working
| machine while they refurb your old one. The downtime can
| be shorter than a big Windows update.
| lostlogin wrote:
| Migrating to a new machine is a PITA that inflicts misery
| for quite a long time.
|
| Maybe I'm doing it wrong?
| bfung wrote:
| Yes - have a backup of your dev machine to restore from.
| Apple's TimeMachine is a godsend. I've never had a
| windows backup program work w/o a lot of fuss.
|
| An extra $150 external backup HDD is worth any crash at
| work, get your company to get it for every dev.
| MonaroVXR wrote:
| Activia True image can do the job on Windows. Making a
| whole image on everything in your computer.
| ipqk wrote:
| Migration Assistant on a Mac has pretty painless for me
| for years. If you attach a thunderbolt cable between the
| two computers, it can migrate a 2TB SSD in usually under
| a couple hours.
| hutrdvnj wrote:
| Because it's annoying and will interrupt your work much
| longer, especially if it's something that could have been
| easily fixed in e.g. a Thinkpad. Even more so, if it's
| your own device.
| jasonwatkinspdx wrote:
| I have to disagree. One of the reasons I've used Macbooks
| for work for ages now is if something goes wrong, I can
| just pop over to the apple store and have a replacement
| within about 30 minutes. Don't even have to restore, can
| just target boot my backup and be back working
| immediately, and can save the restore until the evening.
| I've had one instance where this saved me 5 figures
| easily (wasn't even the macbook's fault, I fell on my
| bike going over rail road tracks).
|
| Yeah, you pay a premium in terms of price for that, but
| it's a no brainer imo.
|
| That said, I have a lot of Dell hardware I like too. I
| still use two 2407wfp wide gamut monitors on my gaming PC
| and don't see any reason to change them until there's a
| 4k monitor I really want. They're bulletproof, and I even
| bought them used off Dell's outlet site.
| MonaroVXR wrote:
| That's you, but a lot of people don't live next to the
| Apple store and with business laptops, people come to
| you, to replace the device , repair or anything else.
| renewiltord wrote:
| Repairability is a red herring. As a professional, I care
| about "time in service" and "maintenance cost".
|
| A completely unrepairable tool that is in service a lot
| longer for way less maintenance? I take that any day of the
| week.
|
| And here's the thing, I don't really care that _you_ can
| repair your Dell. I wouldn't be able to do so without
| putting in a lot of time and it would be a little
| stressful. Reducing that time requires a significant
| investment.
| hutrdvnj wrote:
| I find it less stressful when I know that I could easily
| swap out a broken RAM module and continue to work, than
| to wait for the repair of my device.
| K7PJP wrote:
| How does RAM break? How often does it fail?
| hutrdvnj wrote:
| RAM is just an example. In my Thinkpad (T430) I'm able to
| swap out the CPU, mainboard, keyboard or screen if
| necessary, like in an ordinary PC. The question is, how
| likely is it that some component will break. From my
| experience it's not very unlikely over a lifespan of a
| few years. I mean sure you can have luck with all your
| computers and you never have any hardware failures, but I
| wouldn't count on that.
| ValentineC wrote:
| > _This is the same for laptops, but most of the people (I
| assume?) buy Macbooks for programming which is... kinda
| weird, since it 's difficult to repair._
|
| Personally, I don't think I've found anything that beats
| Apple's laptop trackpads, and I think that _my_ UX matters
| more than repairability.
|
| Then again, I'm still using a 2013 MacBook Pro with an
| upgraded NVMe SSD.
| franga2000 wrote:
| Idk, not being able to get it fixed without data loss in
| the case of even a minor hw failure seems like pretty bad
| UX to me...
| kofejnik wrote:
| > it's difficult to repair.
|
| we don't care really, they are still great. Besides, they
| don't break much (typing this on mbp 2015 while waiting for
| m1 16" to happen)
| ta988 wrote:
| I agree, the Z-book are really amazing, but HP still has a
| bad reputation so it is hard to make people realize how far
| they went with this serie (from the old modela to the
| recent ones).
| znpy wrote:
| > Latitude 7000 series (Dell XPS isn't a business laptop
| from my perspective.)
|
| I'm writing from a Dell Latitude 7390.
|
| If this had the trackpoint, ThinkPads would be dead to me.
|
| It's 99% perfect. So much so that I'm thinking of gettin an
| exact replica as a personal laptop.
| jlkuester7 wrote:
| I agree that the Dell XPS line does not reaaly fit the
| "business" look-and-feel like a Latitude or Thinkpad. But
| after several years of doing heavy sofware dev on one, it
| is has earned my respect. It is nice to have a machine with
| a non-brick-like form that still does not compromise in
| performance (and you can bring to a businesses meeting and
| not look too RBG....). IMHO the XPS line is designed to
| compete with MBPs as high-end work-capable machines and it
| does a darn good job of it...
| drewzero1 wrote:
| I had an XPS M1330 about 10 years ago, and if I could
| figure out the apparent thermal issue I might still use
| it sometimes. At the time I found it incredibly portable
| (compared to my iBook and ThinkPad) without being slow,
| and the design was striking yet professional. Dell still
| isn't my favorite brand, but they've come a long way from
| the crappy Dimensions I had in the early 2000s.
| verst wrote:
| Except my $3500 XPS 9500 (64GB RAM 2TB, 8 core CPU,
| Nvidia 1650Ti, 4K Touch Display) that thermal throttles
| so much that a 3 years older MBP gives much much better
| performance and I continued using that machine for work.
| Fortunately by switching teams at work I was then able to
| get a new Mac and I'm thrilled with my M1!
|
| I spoke with a very nice person from Dell via Twitter who
| out of personal interest went above and beyond to help me
| calibrate that XPS, but no luck. Booting Windows is
| enough for fans to reach max speeds and thermal
| throttling to begin.
| robocat wrote:
| My friend had a Toshiba Satellite that was running the
| fans at 100% all the time. The fins on the radiator we're
| blocked with dust. Easy to fix - unscrew the bottom plate
| and unscrew the fan and make the airflow path clean
| again. Low risk fix as they were about to throw it out it
| was so annoying. Sometimes it is unobvious how to remove
| the bottom plate - usually there will be a video on
| YouTube for the model.
|
| Yeah, the Dell is not that problem, but just saying for
| others that other brand/model laptops with the same
| symptom might be easy to fix.
| jlkuester7 wrote:
| Yeah, I will concede that one to you. I have heard that
| the thermal paste on some of those XPS models was
| complete trash. Know some folks that had some luck re-
| applying new paste, but that does not really absolve
| Dell....
| user3939382 wrote:
| Tangentially related: if you do want an amazing electric
| coffee grinder, feel free to piggy back on my countless hours
| of research and go with this: Baratza Virtuoso+
|
| It is excellent.
| faeyanpiraat wrote:
| I'm suspicious.
| birdyrooster wrote:
| How much static electricity does it generate? That is my
| biggest complaint on burr grinders, they act like Van de
| Graaff generators and then the grounds get stuck all over
| the machine.
| tailspin2019 wrote:
| In my two days of usage so far.... not much. I read about
| other grinders having issues with grounds being stuck in
| the container but this one doesn't appear to have that
| problem.
|
| I _think_ I read that the + model has a redesigned ground
| container to tackle the static issue - had seen some
| mention that static was more of an issue with the older
| "non +" model
| cjonas wrote:
| Add a miniscule amount of water to your beans before
| grinding
| Arch-TK wrote:
| This is the way. The best way is to run the handle of a
| teaspoon under the tap and stir it through the grinds
| before grinding.
|
| It doesn't matter if "burr grinders suffer from static
| build up" when they're categorically far better than
| anything else when it comes to grinding.
| Wistar wrote:
| OMG. I have battled the grinder static thing for...
| years, decades, and did not know this. _Thank you_
| NegativeLatency wrote:
| Depends a lot on the roast for me. Darker ones seem to
| lace less flaky floaty bits after grinding
| yojo wrote:
| I have a Vario, that has struggled with a fine espresso
| grind. The burrs are ceramic but the carriage is plastic
| and it affects the tolerance. I gave up
| repairing/troubleshooting it and bought a beat to hell
| SuperJolly off EBay for $170.
|
| Dropped in a new set of burrs and have an unstoppable
| overkill grinder with a huge motor and all metal parts
| Arch-TK wrote:
| If you want espresso you probably want steel burrs
| mounted in steel with good bearings.
|
| If you are on a budget and don't want to spend PS500
| ($700 + tax and shipping) on a niche then you can usually
| find used smaller commercial machines. Research the burrs
| they use and see if you can find new burrs, this way you
| can spend probably somewhere around $200 on what would
| function like a brand new high quality burr grinder.
| yojo wrote:
| Yes, that's what I did. The Super Jolly I bought is a
| commercial machine (by Mazzer) and I put new OEM steel
| burrs in it.
| lostlogin wrote:
| Thanks.
|
| I'll add a pointer towards Mazzer grinders too.
|
| The key is to buy them when they are described as broken,
| then they are very cheap. As far as I can tell they are
| almost never broken as such. Either something inside needs
| plugging back in, or the on/off switch needs replacing
| (it's got spades on it, so just plug a new one in).
|
| They are nearly entirely metal, with the few plastic
| components readily available.
|
| The are quite easy to sand and repaint too, so you can
| match them to other bits of equipment or decor. The correct
| colour choice is a 1970s orange.
| divbzero wrote:
| In the spirit of OP, the main navbar on Baratza's website
| links to an article titled:
|
| _STOP! Don't Dump It - Fix It!_
|
| https://baratza.com/stop-dont-dump-it-fix-it/
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| Impressive. Next time my Breville strips its gears, I'll
| try to remember to give these guys a try. It probably
| won't be long.
| secabeen wrote:
| And if you want an overkill coffee grinder, get a Kafatek
| Monolith, or a Weber Workshops model.
| rolleiflex wrote:
| This is oversimplifying it a little.
|
| Yes Baratzas are great grinders but they are not one-size-
| fits-all depending on what kind of coffee you make. For
| example Baratza Encore is everyone's darling with good
| reason (I have one and I use it for espresso every day!)
| but it's not a great espresso grinder because fundamentally
| speaking its tiny motor just doesn't have enough torque to
| drive big burrs, so it has small ones. Which means when you
| grind at espresso sizes it's going to lose its tight spread
| and it'll output some grains that are too big for espresso,
| some are too small and some are just right. Since espresso
| is very dense coffee, this is something that is very
| clearly tastable even to a skeptical non-expert like me.
|
| This spread of grain sizes is something to some degree any
| grinder does, but grinders designed for espresso have
| tighter spreads, so they provide much more of the size you
| want (so your water can actually pass through) and much
| less of what you don't want.
|
| Incidentally this is something I like about specialty
| coffee industry compared to other connoisseur stuff like
| wine. Wine experts walk around talking about the earthy
| aromas, if some coffee 'expert' tries to do the same,
| someone in the audience busts out a refractometer and says
| 'aight, let's see'.
|
| It's still a money pit, but it's at least on a much more
| scientifically solid ground.
| na85 wrote:
| Concur. Nice to see my own conclusions validated, I really
| like mine.
| tailspin2019 wrote:
| Just bought one two days ago. Reviews were good, and I'm
| not disappointed.
|
| (Paired with a Moccamaster)
| Wistar wrote:
| Can I ask: What grind do you use for your Moccamaster?
| [deleted]
| BossingAround wrote:
| What's the main difference between Virtuoso+ and Encore?
| From just a quick glance, Virtuoso+ has a number of
| features that aren't very useful (like a timer, or
| LEDs/display) while having seemingly identical burr system?
| ValentineC wrote:
| I believe the Virtuoso also comes with a better M2 burr
| set. The Encore can be upgraded to it.
| NegativeLatency wrote:
| I have one of these, the LED is dumb but the digital
| timer is really nice for repeatability in how much you
| grind.
|
| Wasn't willing to pay even more for one with a scale
| tokamak-teapot wrote:
| I have a Macap M5D. This has a timer with three presets.
| It's perfect and while expensive, even second hand, I
| wouldn't say it's overkill for home use. The timer means
| I don't get the grind wrong. I'm not sure why you
| wouldn't want one. I suppose I'm quite good at
| 'eyeballing' the quantity now, but the timer means
| consistency.
| ValentineC wrote:
| On the other hand: if you drink 1-2 cups of coffee a day,
| and don't mind putting in some elbow grease -- a manual
| grinder like a Comandante or Kinu often produces much
| better grinds for the same price, since money can be
| allocated towards a better burr set instead of a motor.
|
| I've had a few friends whose only experience with a manual
| grinder was a Hario Skerton or its clones, and get turned
| off manual grinding because of how bad the experience is.
| The pricier hand grinders have much better UX.
| throwawayboise wrote:
| Absolutely. Much prefer a small hand-operated device that
| I can easily store in a cupboard to a big heavy device
| with a cord that needs to be near an outlet and takes up
| counter space all the time.
|
| I have come to really, really resist buying plug-in
| kitchen gadgets. I have a few, such as a toaster and a
| kettle, that I actually use. For anything else I've found
| that they just end up living in the back of a base
| cabinet and I forget that I have them.
| ip26 wrote:
| I was ready to go all-in on manual grinders. But their
| supply chain completely evaporated in the pandemic, and I
| could not find one I wanted _anywhere_. For months. That
| ended that.
| tmountain wrote:
| I bought an encore after much research myself and had to
| return it after just a few weeks. It started grinding my
| beans to an ultra fine espresso type consistency no matter
| what setting I used. After much troubleshooting, they sent
| me a new unit (in transit now), but not a great experience
| from the device perspective (customer service was great).
| nextos wrote:
| You are right, but there are some exceptions. For example, I
| own a commercial Miele dishwasher and it's exactly like their
| consumer version but even more robust and simple.
| Furthermore, it's equipped with gigantic blades to destroy
| food leftovers.
|
| Other examples of overkill objects I like are some commercial
| vacuums for clean room environments with spectacularly good
| filtration and seals, therefore no itching if you are
| allergic to dust (e.g. some Nilfisk made in Denmark). Or
| industrial fanless PCs which are sealed and have fantastic
| copper coolers (e.g. Compulab, Tranquil and many others).
| gnarbarian wrote:
| I purchased a 30-in steel barrel fan from home Depot 3 years
| ago and I maintain it is the best fan I've ever owned. I put it
| in a different part of my house entirely pointing out a window
| and I open a window in my bedroom and it sucks that air right
| in.
|
| It's not even That loud though
| tootie wrote:
| I used to love browsing McMaster-Carr but pretty quickly
| realized there is nothing worth buying as a consumer. Anything
| remotely practical for personal use is cheaper on Amazon.
| luma wrote:
| McM pricing heavily depends on how much business you do with
| them, if you're a commercial buyer you'll see much steeper
| discounting applied.
| s5300 wrote:
| McMaster is _pretty_ good as a consumer for fastener
| hardware, a good assortment of various geometries of various
| metals, and mixing supplies in sense of both availability,
| exotics (such as aluminum flake 12.9 screws), and _absolute_
| zero bullshit with regards to knowing what you 're actually
| getting, the fact it's _always_ there, and that it 's same
| day-next morning delivery in most parts of the US.
|
| I've had my fair share of actual 12.9 steel screws from
| Amazon that are actually 12.9 steel, and my fair share of
| 12.9 steel screws that were actually made of cheese.
|
| Plus... this is something maybe only a CAD user can
| understand - McMaster Carr provides an outright sex bible of
| importable 3D CAD objects.
|
| Like, I really thought my CAD instructor in University was
| joking when they said McMaster would be your Bible if you're
| ever designing in CAD for hobby/industry. Then I got a job,
| and holy shit were they right. So I like to think whenever I
| pay slightly more on McMaster for what I could get on Amazon
| or eBay, I'm supporting the bible for all of the goodness
| it's given me for my hobby designing and in making actual
| work less stressful as well.
| [deleted]
| akiselev wrote:
| _> Plus... this is something maybe only a CAD user can
| understand - McMaster Carr provides an outright sex bible
| of importable 3D CAD objects._
|
| Luckily many suppliers are doing this. Misumi for example
| has plugins for CAD packages like Solidworks that even
| generate CAD parts for parts with custom configurations
| (like aluminum extrusion cut to size) so going from
| assembly to BOM to purchase order is a few clicks.
| Grakel wrote:
| Great industrial shelving for the garage, that hard-to-find
| bolt with the specific threads, or rock salt for icy
| driveways. The second time you call them they greet you by
| name. You can say a part number, a quantity, thanks, and hang
| up, and you're getting a box of awesome really soon.
| McMaster-Carr is an amazing company for people who do things.
| macNchz wrote:
| You're totally correct about the noise, however I actually use
| a commercial all-metal box fan to ventilate my apartment and
| it's really awesome.
|
| I only run it at night, and I put it in a window in another
| room, facing out with some material around it to make a snug
| fit. The result is a steady breeze coming in the bedroom
| windows at night and a muted hum from the other room. It makes
| regular plastic box fans look like a joke. It easily moves 10x
| the air on low as a plastic one on high.
|
| This approach greatly reduces the number of nights we need to
| use the AC in early summer/early fall in NYC, when it's warm
| but not so humid as in July and August. I've tried the same
| thing with a plastic fan and it's way less effective...we can
| come home to a hot stuffy apartment on a Sunday night after a
| weekend away and have it totally comfortable inside in a matter
| of minutes.
| phamilton wrote:
| I've got that in our attic with a nice little light switch in
| our bedroom to turn it on. Crack open the window, turn on the
| attic fan and the whole house cools down nicely.
|
| The only problem is that I forget to turn it off in the
| morning. Out if sight out of mind. Switching it to a timer is
| on my list.
| macNchz wrote:
| Yeah I was inspired by an amazingly effective attic fan in
| an airbnb I stayed in a few years ago...definitely will be
| installing one in any future attics I own.
| lostlogin wrote:
| Smart plugs loaded into home assistant are good for this.
|
| Then you can turn the fan off after a period of time, at a
| specific time, at a certain temp etc.
|
| It risks over complicating things though.
| notatoad wrote:
| yeah, i don't mean to say that no commercial-grade products
| are suitable for home use, just that you need to be a lot
| more careful if you're buying products for a use they aren't
| intended for. if you buy a product designed for home use, you
| can be reasonably sure that it will work in a home setting if
| you buy a commercial-grade product, you just need to pay
| close attention to what trade-offs have been made that might
| be a poor fit for home usage.
|
| it's almost always a good idea to buy the professional-grade
| items you've used at work and know are awesome, it's almost
| never a good idea to buy a professional-grade item sight-
| unseen unless you know there's a local used market for it.
| Wistar wrote:
| I have been, over-time, retro-fitting my home with
| pro/commercial-grade infrastructure items such as: quarter-
| turn marine-grade ball valves for the water-main; toilets,
| clothes washer, fridge and dishwasher; recessed sillcock
| valves; outdoor hose reels and hoses; sprinklers (this is a
| biggie as so many sprinklers are one-season junk); heavy-
| duty light switches; ceiling fans (the wonderful Big-Ass
| fans stuff); locks and latches, fencing hardware; outdoor
| lighting, and so on. Stuff that is fairly invisible but
| which offer high utility and, especially, durability and
| trust without being inconvenient or weird.
|
| At one point, years ago, my brother and I considered
| creating a web site that explored these kinds of high-
| integrity options, and acted as a directory and maybe a
| review site as well. A site that evangelizes high-quality,
| well-engineered items that are easily integrated into a
| home and provide much greater longevity without costing a
| fortune. "Overkill" is probably too strong a term for the
| idea.
| ianmcgowan wrote:
| Sounds kind of like what thewirecutter.com used to be, or
| a higher end consumer reports?
|
| Nowadays youtube channels like Project Farm have kind of
| replaced that niche, I could see a channel dedicated to
| hands-on reviews, funded by affiliate links. I'd watch
| long videos on several of the topics you mention above...
| tomcam wrote:
| I would pay for that site. Please feel free to harvest my
| email address in my profile.
| na85 wrote:
| I'd be interested in a site like that, as I have a
| similar appreciation for high-quality stuff that's built
| to last. What kind of dishwasher/fridge/laundry
| appliances did you end up getting?
| ornornor wrote:
| For laundry, these are amazing:
| https://www.vzug.com/ch/en/product/ch-Catalog/287600
|
| Impossible to break, engineered to was several loads
| every day, etc. But they're not cheap.
| Wistar wrote:
| I wasn't focused on the appliances themselves but,
| rather, the water valves, and hoses, used to supply the
| water. The small but really important stuff.
|
| Crummy valves break. Most builders use the cheapest crap
| they can get. They save a couple thousand dollars
| building a house but replacing the $2 crap can sometimes
| cost a fortune. One of the worst offenses I have had to
| deal with is the use of C-PVC pipe which is brittle and
| will eventually crack or burst.
|
| Ideally, the site I thought about would be to educate
| folks about the kinds of things, components, they should
| specify when building or remodeling.
| xen2xen1 wrote:
| I'd love to hear more specifics. Do you have them
| anywhere?
| Wistar wrote:
| No specifics. It was just a thought we had when my
| brother was remodeling his house. The idea went nowhere.
| ElFitz wrote:
| Would definitely be interested
| spockz wrote:
| Awesome idea! How do you distinguish professional vs
| overpriced normal stuff?
|
| For example, Festool, Makita, and DeWalt offer awesome
| products but are very pricy. All the tools from the DIY
| shops are rubbish. Things from Bosch are slightly better.
| But these are all expensive. Meanwhile, the tools from
| Lidl around EUR30-50 price point are quite cool.
| [deleted]
| tschwimmer wrote:
| Agreed 1000x. There is rarely a single best in all categories
| good for something. Instead, you have to pay attention to what
| you're optimizing for. The industrial/commercial cookware he
| lists is definitely durable but also it's huge, may consume a
| ton of energy and will not match the decor of the rest of your
| kitchen.
| 1996 wrote:
| > The industrial/commercial cookware he lists is definitely
| durable
|
| No, it is plain wrong. He recommends borosilicate beakers for
| beer. I think he never worked in a lab: borosilicate beakers
| break. Their thermal expansion tolerance is a non feature for
| cold beer: when did one of your beer mug broke because you
| served yourself boiling beer?
|
| > Does your glassware meet ASTM Specification E960, Type II
| requirements? Is it manufactured from 33 expansion, low
| extractable borosilicate glass conforming to USP Type I and
| ASTM E438, Type I, Class A requirements? I didn't think so.
|
| I call that hacker syndrome, when the typical hacker thinks a
| long line of impressive specs and numbers matter, because he
| has no idea of the customer requirements.
|
| > Used to contain a life raft. Now, my groceries.
|
| How easy it is to clean when there is a spill? How easy it is
| to replace? I have carried BRICKS inside the nylon woven bags
| some supermarket sell for $1.99. Rinced with water, ready in
| 5 minutes.
|
| > For less than $100, I can buy a short USMC Short KA-BAR or
| a real M9 from Ontario for $150. This is the real thing, used
| by the US military.
|
| Show off!!
|
| If you want something to bring in a fight, get a Mark 1
| trench knife: has brass knuckles for punching (and limit the
| risk of dropping your knife), a long thin blade for more
| lethality (easier puncture wound regardless of angle than
| with a wider blade). And in the kitchen it is ideal to break
| walnuts :)
|
| Of course it does not look "nice" - like carrying bricks in a
| nylon supermarket bag. It is about knowing the needs you
| optimize for.
| Grustaf wrote:
| I think you're missing the point. Nobody cares what ASTM
| Specification E960 is, it just sounds cool. Some people
| like industrial/military stuff for its own sake.
| whatshisface wrote:
| The beaker example is the worst one, because the shape of
| the beaker is meant for controlled pouring out one point
| and no spills anywhere else around the perimeter. A
| drinking glass is designed for sipping which is completely
| different. If you tried drinking out of a beaker the
| flanged opening would tend to make the beverage pour down
| either side of your mouth.
| throwawayboise wrote:
| It's also sort of a bad idea to normalize drinking out of
| laboratory glassware. Granted your home is different from
| a real lab, but lab workers have died drinking something
| they thought was water.
|
| In my dad's lab in the 1970s, they used to make coffee in
| a large Erlenmeyer flask and filter it under vaccuum with
| a Buchner funnel. The safety director eventually banned
| it and made them buy a Mr. Coffee.
| hirsin wrote:
| Yup. First thought on the shopping bag was "how heavy is that
| empty?". Designers were not worried about over burdening
| whatever carried it, necessarily.
|
| That mixer likely won't handle a small load (as in, a single
| family sized loaf).
|
| Spot on though about some of the stuff. That knife is nice,
| although being edged on both sides is a liability.
| sp332 wrote:
| The mixer paddle goes all the way to the bottom of the
| bowl, and so does the whisk attachment.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYBxEyzqUY0
| villasv wrote:
| I agree. "Worse" considering the scenarios where your needs are
| not exactly the ones that guided project development.
|
| A simple example would be gloves. What would be the pro version
| of a glove? The ones used in steel mills? If you want a glove
| for riding a bike, you're better of with regular biker gloves.
| If it's a glove for winter, maybe skier gloves and so on.
| Grustaf wrote:
| In the 90's wearing road construction worker gloves while
| skateboarding was the cool thing in Sweden, works pretty
| well. And now I use insulated carpenter gloves while
| bicycling in the mild Danish winters.
| kube-system wrote:
| Work/utility gloves are a good example where the commercial-
| grade options are awesome compared to what is at Home Depot.
|
| For example, Ansell HyFlex gloves are standard issue in
| Amazon warehouses and they're awesome for chores around the
| house too. They fit really well (and come in more sizes),
| they're durable, and they are comfortable to wear for
| extended periods of time.
| criddell wrote:
| https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ansell-Glove-
| HyFlex-11-542-Light...
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| Interesting, had no idea that work gloves not designed
| for use by NASA could cost almost $300/pair. What kind of
| work are these used for? Safecracking?
| sparselogic wrote:
| That's for 12 pairs.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| I see what you mean now -- they certainly don't make that
| obvious.
| rjsw wrote:
| Winter "pro" gloves are not ski gloves, even if they are used
| for skiing. In the French Alps, wearing gloves [1] that
| identify you as not a tourist is quite common.
|
| [1] https://www.deltaplus.eu/en/article-details/-/article-
| detail...
| dougmwne wrote:
| The main reason to wear these is abrasion resistance for
| working with ropes and tools. They are not needed for
| everyday skiing and a goretex glove is going to be a better
| and easier choice. Unless you really need that snowgun
| maintenance crew chic.
| cjonas wrote:
| In the US, a pair of 20 dollar kinco full leather gloves +
| snoseal will immediately give you "local" cred and save you
| from overpriced name brand junk that doesnt hold up.
| rjsw wrote:
| The ones in my link are even cheaper than that, as worn
| by every refuse collector and ski lift operator in
| Chamonix.
| Jabbles wrote:
| Those aren't waterproof - surely that matters?
| dan-robertson wrote:
| When it is below freezing, the snow isn't very wet. You
| could do fine with some thick woolly gloves or mittens in
| those conditions too.
| swader999 wrote:
| Your hands do sweat so they need to breathe a bit. Wind
| proof is more useful for skiing than waterproof.
| notatoad wrote:
| you put sno-seal on them
| adrianmonk wrote:
| Also, that stand mixer isn't going to fit in my kitchen
| cabinet. Compare that to my consumer-grade Sunbeam. It's
| smaller, and the top part (motor, etc.) separates from the
| stand part via a quick-release button, so it fits on a shelf
| which isn't very tall at all.
| dan-robertson wrote:
| And it probably doesn't work so well if you aren't making
| enormous quantities of dough.
| convolvatron wrote:
| eh. the 5 quart hobart is the same capacity as the 5 qt
| plastic gear break the first time you knead machine. and it
| really is a joy to use and break down.
|
| it does stand a bit taller and weight about twice as much.
| cobalt wrote:
| the one you'd want to get is the kitchenaid commercial, which
| is a reasonable size and NSF rated
| pengaru wrote:
| We made the mistake of ordering a Sunbeam set of chef knives
| w/wood storage block off Amazon for the kitchen at my last
| startup.
|
| Every knife was dull and identically serrated like a budget
| steak knife, despite presenting as a comprehensive set of
| chef knives. The whole set was almost completely useless.
|
| Sunbeam is not the reasonable quality brand it once was back
| in the Sears days, stay away.
| adrianmonk wrote:
| Wow, that does sound like a truly terrible set of knives.
|
| The mixer I have is a hand-me-down from probably the 1970s.
| (Model 1-7A, in "beautiful" almond color scheme.) Still
| works perfectly.
| JJMcJ wrote:
| Fans - did some work on a 19 inch rack mountable system. Had
| four I think 12,000 RPM fans.
|
| The fans were about 1 inch on a side but between them they
| sounded like a fully loaded 747 spinning up.
| dsr_ wrote:
| The test units for the first generation of AMD Opteron 1U
| servers we bought were immediately named pratt, whitney,
| rolls and royce.
| jrockway wrote:
| GE feels left out!
| JJMcJ wrote:
| Quite correctly, I would assume.
| crooked-v wrote:
| Another obvious example here given the people on this website
| is servers: if you're going to have a home server, unless you
| can go put it in a soundproofed room in the basement, you're
| going to want to use consumer-grade fans that aren't inherently
| screamingly loud.
| totesraunch wrote:
| Interestingly the Dyson fan is significantly louder than a
| cheap WalMart fan.
|
| https://youtu.be/dS0oFmzU06g
| lucb1e wrote:
| This started off as a fun article about "what's the most overkill
| way I can get this?" and then looking for second-hand fighter jet
| seats just for the shits and giggles.
|
| I like that.
|
| But then it goes south from there, the author seems to believe
| that anything that isn't from the USA military must be crap:
|
| > Made in the USA from military grade [...] preferably a military
| supplier [...] This is the real thing, used by the US military.
| [...]
|
| > _Consumer goods suck. You keep buying them._ [emphasis theirs]
|
| > The average consumer is an idiot, so the bean counters keep
| milking them.
|
| So we're idiots for buying a regular knife instead of some
| military variant that makes you look like, well, someone who
| would carry a gun as well? Or _regular_ napkins rather than some
| special cleanroom rated upgrade? I think I 'm good, thanks.
| renewiltord wrote:
| Military grade end user shit is usually crap. It suffers from
| the same problem that so many IT departments have: the guy
| buying isn't the guy using.
|
| In the market, competition is strong. In the military market,
| your connections are way more valuable.
| goatinaboat wrote:
| "Military grade" means "made by the lowest bidder" in reality
| mahathu wrote:
| Like the $7.63 a piece earplugs by 3M that turned out
| defective: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/jury-finds-3ms-
| earplugs-cau...
| nraynaud wrote:
| French military takes the second lowest as a rule. So much
| better.
| ansgri wrote:
| Very clever, I assume it's far more difficult to game the
| system unless you control two bidders.
| nraynaud wrote:
| No, they just talk to each other and take turns being the
| lowest one.
|
| I mean how many military equipment companies can you
| sustain with a country the size of California? Whatever
| your answer, above a certain pay grade, all employees
| come from a single engineering school anyways.
| systemvoltage wrote:
| Disagree. Picking any other bidder is foolish.
|
| If you've ever looked into military procurement, there are a
| number of MIL standards and a specific list of requirements.
| If the product meets specifications and testing results,
| picking anyone but the lowest bidder accounting for other
| "soft" commercial aspects such as company stability,
| leadership, and book health; would be foolish and
| irresponsible.
|
| I've seen several comments here that "military" grade means
| lowest bidder. That's optimal.
|
| Look at it this way - consumer market is completely
| unregulated, no specifications and lots misleading
| terminology. Any Military would crucify you for fraud.
|
| Is it perfect? No. Is it close to perfection? Yes. Also look
| into medical grade things such as scissors.
| mysterydip wrote:
| Sometimes the lowest bidder is the lowest because they
| purposely underbid knowing they will have cost/schedule
| overruns later and the customer would rather throw good
| money after bad than start the process over with nothing to
| show. I like the second lowest bidder process mentioned
| elsewhere.
| systemvoltage wrote:
| I've worked in procurement and let me tell you - there is
| a lot more than looking at a ranked list of bidders and
| going "oh look, lowest bidder. Job done, let's go with
| these folks." The caricature on HN is so incredibly
| misleading. Supplier selection is quite involved.
|
| The right term is "optimal".
| wyager wrote:
| Being made in the USA is absolutely a pretty good quality
| indicator. It's not the only country that makes good stuff
| (most EU countries + Japan are good as well), but in the
| absence of domain expertise it's a great heuristic.
| neilpanchal wrote:
| Author here. I need to push back on this. This whole post is
| tongue in cheek, totally over-the-top and my way of doing
| things. I thought that was obvious including a lofty claim of
| an average consumer. People seem to be hung up on that. No one
| is calling you an idiot - and no, I have no romance for US
| military. Bought plenty of things from Swedish, Canadian and
| Swiss military and other industries. You're unnecessarily
| painting a character picture that's going with your biases,
| borderline politicizing it with gun ownership - I'd like you to
| think about this and reconsider how you judge people.
|
| For what it's worth - I've also bought overkill items and
| they've turned out to be a disaster. For instance, for the TPI
| fan in the example - I had to get an industrial fan controller
| because it was too damn loud and restaurant grade containers
| that are not BPA-free.
| lucb1e wrote:
| That makes a lot more sense, thanks for commenting!
| Denvercoder9 wrote:
| The irony here is that anyone who has actually served would
| gladly tell you that half the military grade stuff they had to
| deal with is utter junk.
| jedberg wrote:
| It was purchased from the vendor with the lowest bid, so
| that's not entirely surprising.
| tomcooks wrote:
| Depends on which army, decade, and type of object you're
| talking about.
|
| E.g. British wire cutters, German parkas, French boots,
| etc.
| austincheney wrote:
| My assault pack (army backpack) feels like it can survive
| reentry from space. Military gear has gotten so much better
| since I joined the military 24 years ago, but it's so much
| more expensive.
| jlkuester7 wrote:
| After working on a farm, I updated my scale of measurement
| for tough/functional equipment. Used to think mil-surplus was
| the way to go, but quickly learned that what you say is
| absolutely true (at least for US gear). My new gold-standard
| is "farmer-proof". Was struck by the absolute beating that
| farm equipment had to take. Often it was being used in
| unexpexted/improper ways with minimum maintenance by
| operators with little or no training... (These all apply to
| military equipment too, but the farm acquisition process is
| purely utilitarian, as opposed to the nonsense that goes into
| specing and purchasing military gear). Equipment purchased on
| a farm is rarely the best available, but is always optimized
| to get the job done with the maximum possible usible
| lifespan.
| cf100clunk wrote:
| Indeed, this concept that "military grade" quality is
| superior to consumer grade is mythological in many cases. It
| is all about the relative worthiness of the specification(s)
| to which the product is built, meaning that crappy specs
| yield crappy results, whether military or commercial. Also
| the amount of rework sometimes required on "military grade"
| gear to make it actually do its job is seldom publicized
| except in occasional oversight proceedings in some countries.
| So, "military grade" is a mysterious, mythological, misused
| quality.
| systemvoltage wrote:
| Totally disagree. I've bought all kinds of items from
| surplus stores and Swiss military gear. Usually, better by
| a large margin. The only thing it suffers is aesthetics if
| you care about such things.
|
| These are all better in most cases:
|
| Medical grade
|
| Military grade
|
| Industrial grade
|
| Cleanroom grade (for some items)
|
| Marine grade
|
| Try looking into it.
| Grustaf wrote:
| I use a Swiss "weapons bag" made in the 40s out of 8mm
| thick leather for my laptop, I love the aesthetics! Any
| links to places where I can get more Swiss military gear?
| Ekaros wrote:
| Buy expensive knife? Or I could buy 15 cheap ones and just
| replace them as I go... And it's not like those cheap ones can
| be sharpened if needed.
| weasel_words wrote:
| That sounds...really wasteful.
|
| Perhaps a happy medium? Maybe not $1500 Damascus knife, but
| maybe a nice Wusthof so you're not throwing so much out, and
| damaging the environment.
| Ekaros wrote:
| I'm talking about proper brand name construction knifes
| like Mora... Using the wrong tool for wrong job will break
| them, but used properly they aren't easy to break.
| mgarfias wrote:
| I bought my knife from a delta force commando that retired and
| now makes knives. It's beef.
| bluedino wrote:
| I see this all the time. Friend of mine bought a $200 Milwaukee
| drill to put up a couple picture frames.
| defterGoose wrote:
| Yeah, but you have to be careful with literally any product
| available at a big box store. My first foray into the Milwaukee
| brand was their M12 rotary tool and the speed controller broke
| after about 2-3 total hours of use. Meanwhile my Grandpa's
| Dremel from the 70s is still chooching along.
| kfajdsl wrote:
| My rule of thumb for tools is to always first buy the cheapo
| Harbor Freight special (I'll get something a little better for
| precision tools) and if that tool breaks then that means I use
| the tool enough to justify getting something better.
|
| Spoiler alert: most of my tools are the cheapest I could find.
| snth wrote:
| I like the idea of this, and I'm sure you save a lot of
| money, but the downside is this: I want to do some one-off
| job I haven't done before. It'll be difficult, because I will
| be trying it for the first time. Do I really want to make it
| even _more_ difficult by cheaping out on tools? I've done
| this several times, and I've ended up doing several jobs over
| again with better tools after I've screwed up the first time.
|
| Edit: In other words, cheap tools aren't just less durable,
| they often do a worse job (or at least make it harder to do a
| good job).
| wetpaws wrote:
| You would want to start with cheapest thing cause usually
| you don't know how good things you actually need.
|
| Using cheep tools gives you a freedom to experiment and
| know the limitations of the domain area and then invest in
| things that you exactly need without the risk of overpaying
| or underpaying, all for a minimum investment.
| MonaroVXR wrote:
| That's a good one and this is what I mostly do.
| swader999 wrote:
| One of my buddies is a construction guy. He just buys consumer
| grade with warranty and has two sets of everything. He says pro
| is too expensive given how often they still break and get
| stolen on the job site.
| p_l wrote:
| At the same time I accidentally bought Bosch Professional
| cordless drill long time ago.
|
| It's biggest problem is that sometimes I forget I have it, then
| fix what I was doing in few minutes. Also I sometimes forget to
| charge it, as it holds a charge for years in my practice.
| Animats wrote:
| I have a ruggedized phone with Caterpillar Tractor branding.
| There are other waterproof and rugged phones now, but a few years
| ago, they were the first to have a smartphone with reasonable
| toughness. (Of course, before smartphones, there was Nokia.) I
| have it so that if I get dumped off the horse, I can call for
| help.
| fnord77 wrote:
| one drawback of commercial supply houses is very expensive
| shipping costs. shipping for a small order may be more than what
| you're buying
| blt wrote:
| Unfortunately this style can be a hard sell for the people you
| live with. Some people don't want their home to look like a
| restaurant / workshop / office / warehouse / etc.
| crooked-v wrote:
| To make my own recommendation along these lines, Bluffworks
| pants: https://shop.bluffworks.com/pages/technical-pants I've
| found them excellent for travel because they remain wrinkle-
| resistant and looking like I've just stepped out of an office no
| matter what conditions I put them through, up to and including a
| month backpacking with constant wear on hikes and irregular sink-
| washing.
| stepanhruda wrote:
| Looks cool, but is it in the same category as anything in the
| article? This just seems like a good brand.
| hoelz_ya wrote:
| You know that guy in movies who weirdly knows waaay too much
| about the history of every random piece of military screwdriver
| and seatbelt buckle, and you're always like "that guy doesn't
| actually exist"? Well, you were wrong. This is that guy.
| gnarbarian wrote:
| I purchased a 30-in steel barrel fan from home Depot 3 years ago
| and I maintain it is the best fan I've ever owned
| [deleted]
| jlkuester7 wrote:
| I am a huge fan of highly durable equipment, but one thing to
| watch out for is that comfort/ergonimics are often sacrificed for
| the sake of simplicity and duribility. Ask anyone who has spent
| time in a military vehicle. Those things can take a beating and
| are made to be repaired quickly and sent back out for more. But a
| quite comfortable ride they are not.... Sometimes that no-
| compromise toughness is exactly what you want. In other
| situations there is real value in creature comforts.
|
| For example, I have an old '97 F250 that is as basic of a model
| as you can possibly get. Regular cab, bench seat, manual
| everything from the windows to the transmission. It is a beast
| and will take whatever you give it. It is simple and easy to fix
| when something breaks, but it is also crazy loud, rough, and
| uncomfortable to be in. Perfect for getting work done, but for a
| cross-country trip with my wife and kids I would opt for the
| minivan any day.
| Grustaf wrote:
| For me that's one of the selling points. Modern life is so
| ridiculously over engineered to be comfortable, we can all use
| some rough edges.
| ketzo wrote:
| That's one of those things that sounds super fun when you're
| opting into it on a weekend.
|
| Much less so on a Tuesday night after a stressful day and
| your goddamn window won't close even though it's raining and
| you can't play music because the stereo only takes cassettes
| and you're not gonna listen to that one fucking Hall and
| Oates tape _again_ and there 's no heat and your neck is sore
| because the headrest is made of plastic and....
|
| Creature comforts are most important when you're not thinking
| about them. I don't _ever_ want to get in my car and think,
| "ah, this is what it means to be _human_! this is REAL! "
| Grustaf wrote:
| Well, I lived my entire 20s like that. Moved to Russia,
| lived in a Soviet era dorm, travelled to Vladivostok in a
| 4th class carriage etc. So it's not theoretical...
| [deleted]
| jmercouris wrote:
| For a while... until it isn't. I've been very poor, and
| I've experienced very similar things. Traveling
| everywhere by bike in the freezing cold.
|
| I think there is a romaniticization of suffering. I also
| wanted to show my merit, my worth in some way. I had
| grown up in a very cushy environment, and I was trying to
| prove something.
|
| Going back in time I would advise anyone against your
| belief. Anyone who reads this, please don't make the
| mistake of living a rough life for whatever inane purpose
| you can think of. It will not make you a better person.
| It is as stupid as it sounds.
| jlkuester7 wrote:
| For the most part I totally agree with you. That is why I
| enjoy leaving the comfort if my home to go backpacking in the
| mountains or something. Sometimes challenging yourself can
| make you feel more alive!
|
| It is just that from personal experience, a road trip with
| small children has enough rough edges that road/engine noise
| so loud that the kids can't sleep does not have to be one of
| them...
| jesselawson wrote:
| The way I describe it to people is like this: some folks
| like to feel a nicely sanded handle, and other folks like
| to sand down a handle so that it feels nicely sanded.
| intricatedetail wrote:
| I like how domain name is an overkill.
| fhub wrote:
| The best shade umbrella's have wind tunnel youtube videos -
| https://www.bambrellausa.com/wind-tunnel-test-videos.
| cosmodisk wrote:
| When I was a kid I had a winter tanker helmet form soviet army.
| It was super cool thing and my dad I used to put it on every now
| and then to have some fun. Now at some point I'm hoping to have
| enough money to buy that ejector seat- It'd be an ultimate item
| at home or in a office!
| sfeng wrote:
| Everyone should shop at restaurant supply stores. You can get
| identical metal mixing bowls for a fraction of the price of the
| heavy bowls most people have. Plus they clean easily and stack,
| so you can have a dozen at the ready easily.
| monkpit wrote:
| For certain things this is a good idea, but at some point you
| step into "mall ninja" territory.
| hprotagonist wrote:
| digikey and mcmaster are wonderful things to know about.
|
| at least in 2012 or so, digikey still had call centers in
| minnesota and the upper peninsula, and still taught all their
| call center reps the nato alphabet. There is nothing more crisply
| charming than a call operator who sounds like Bobby's mom from
| Bobby's World reading you back your resistor SKUs in flawless and
| rapid phonetic alphabet.
| mrzool wrote:
| Do you happen to know about a mcmaster equivalent for the EU?
| wyager wrote:
| RS components is good - I used them in HK and I think they
| serve EU as well. Not quite the same but pretty solid.
| thequux wrote:
| RS doesn't deign to even talk to people who don't have VAT
| IDs here :-(
|
| It's a shame; as far as I can tell, the only reasonably-
| priced source for bulk machine screws that I've been able
| to find was Aliexpress/Alibaba (depending on quantities),
| and even that has gone to shit with the new import tax
| rules. (I'm not opposed to paying import taxes. I _am_
| opposed to paying a EUR20 processing fee in addition to
| EUR0.30 tax for EUR1.50 worth of stuff)
| nbernard wrote:
| In France, they have a different website for the general
| public ( https://www.rs-particuliers.com ). Its search
| function is terrible: you basically have to look up the
| RS ID of whatever your are looking for on the pro site
| first. But you even have free shipping when ordering
| during the week-end.
|
| Don't they have similar sites for other EU countries?
| ju-st wrote:
| Thanks to your comment I just found https://www.rsonline-
| privat.de but the site doesn't seem to have free shipping
| during the weekend (at least now 1h before the end of
| Sunday).
| [deleted]
| kmfrk wrote:
| /r/buyitforlife is great for this sort of stuff, if people ever
| need something specific.
| smnrchrds wrote:
| It used to be like that many years ago. Then it got flooded
| with posts like "I found this unused tool in my garage, it has
| been sitting there for 40 years in original packaging, it still
| works". Has it gone back to its root recently?
| erikpukinskis wrote:
| I just subbed recently, and it has seemed more in line with
| the "roots" to me, based on what comes up in my feed.
| defterGoose wrote:
| Yeah, every time ive been there half the posts are someone
| raving about a vacuum flask or how durable cast iron skillets
| are...
| bonestamp2 wrote:
| I use restaurant glassware at home. It's nice, yet minimalistic
| looking (to match any style restaurant/home), relatively cheap,
| very durable:
|
| https://shop.libbey.com/collections/beverageware/products/ba...
| pimlottc wrote:
| +1 for restaurant supply stores. You can find at least one in
| any reasonably sized city and they have just about everything
| you could possibly need, from tableware to cookware to
| appliances to bulk dry goods to cleaning and safety equipment.
| No frills and competitively priced.
| evil-olive wrote:
| I've ordered from [0] several times and can recommend them as
| an online option.
|
| Only major downside is that shipping is expensive (unless you
| join their Amazon Prime equivalent, which is $99/month and
| doesn't really make sense for a household). I think my last
| order was around $30 s&h on a ~$200 order.
|
| My workaround is that I save up a big wishlist and then order
| from them about once a year, and get friends & family to tack
| on any items they want as well.
|
| 0: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/
| ClumsyPilot wrote:
| "I don't think corporations/businesses are to blame... The
| average consumer is extremely ill-informed."
|
| This is very unfair - the average cobsumer is purposefully
| mislead on a daily basis, for example applle forbids apps from
| informing consumer that 30% of their _donation to a charity_ is
| taken.
|
| With industrial goods, there is a whole department who's job is
| proqurement and to know what they are buying. And lets not
| pretent no funny business ever happens there either.
|
| But lastly, some consumer good are better - DSLR's beat any
| industrial cameras, and commercial dishwashers are a toally
| different beast, unsuitable and dangerous to a naive user.
| cblconfederate wrote:
| > from informing consumer that 30% of their donation to a
| charity is taken
|
| For me the biggest concern is that people want this to happen
| and even would go as far as say that people get a perverse
| sense of satisfaction from Apple's unfair behavior. Because it
| validates the widespread pessimism and 'everything is broken'
| mentality that is normalized nowadays
| [deleted]
| tracedddd wrote:
| I agree consumers are misled but Apple is a poor example here.
| I know the App Store fee is a popular topic right now but they
| are one of the few companies making a consumer product that is
| bounds ahead of military or industrial versions.
| [deleted]
| ClumsyPilot wrote:
| They are a perfect example of a company that purposefully
| misleads, and forces other companies they work with to
| mislead, for example on the subject of repairs - to be
| authorised repair shop for apple, you have to lie to a
| customer that recovering their data is impossible, and is my
| view that shoupd be illegal.
|
| They products might be good, but their methods are ruthless -
| they are wanna-be like mexican cartels.
| cblconfederate wrote:
| Does the us army or ISS use apple products?
| Razengan wrote:
| NASA does
| cosmojg wrote:
| Last I checked, NASA issues Blackberries and iPhones:
| https://oig.nasa.gov/audits/reports/FY14/IG-14-015.pdf
|
| On the laptop side, they're using ThinkPads.
| ta988 wrote:
| According to Sam.gov they do.
| whoisburbansky wrote:
| I was surprised that the App Store would take a cut of charity
| donations, so I looked it up and pretty much every forum post I
| found says that you're actually forbidden from collecting
| donations using in app purchases, and have to do so through out
| of band methods to get through App Review? [1]
|
| Kind of difficult to take a cut of payments you explicitly
| don't allow on your platform, isn't it?
|
| https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/136983/would-apple...
| amelius wrote:
| Yeah, that's Apple's excuse as it is very difficult to set up
| out-of-band payment methods on an Apple system.
| realityking wrote:
| Stripe would like to sell you a solution:
| https://stripe.com/docs/terminal/sdk/ios
| Grustaf wrote:
| It's extremely easy. The controversy is about not being
| able to mention it in your app.
| amelius wrote:
| Exactly, that's part of what I mean by "set up".
| Avamander wrote:
| The same applies to Google Play. Can't take donations without
| giving Google a cut.
| brigade wrote:
| https://socialimpact.facebook.com/charitable-giving/live-
| don...
|
| I don't use Facebook so I don't know if that page is
| misleading, but it certainly looks like you can donate money
| (in the legal meaning!) through Facebook's iOS app.
|
| I think most of the recent takes were about Twitter's tip jar
| that would potentially let you send money to nonprofits. But,
| Twitter so far has avoided using the word "donate" and its
| legal implications.
| vdnkh wrote:
| Using a ka-bar for hiking is a terrible idea. At 0.7lbs it weighs
| as much as a quality sleeping bag/tent/pack. Also, you likely
| don't need a knife. Scissors are much more useful, and micro
| scissors weigh less than an ounce.
|
| Ultralight hiking adds an interesting forcing function to gear -
| correctly "built" (as in not overbuilt or under built). Bring the
| gear which matches the need. In essence, the complete opposite
| sentiment of this post.
| swader999 wrote:
| Yeah this is true. With a K-bar though you might leave your axe
| behind depending on your trip.
| vdnkh wrote:
| It's double edged so maybe not. I think if I needed to split
| wood I'd want a hatchet.
|
| With the hiking I like to do, I hike all day, boil water for
| food with a canister stove, and pass out. So I optimize for
| weight - less weight = more miles (and is much more
| comfortable).
| swader999 wrote:
| Yeah I really like that style too. Sometimes we hike to a
| nice spot and just stay there a couple of days. I'll pack
| differently for that. It's so much fun with little kids
| that don't have as much range. You could still baton
| through wood with the k bar but there are better options.
| giantg2 wrote:
| Pretty sure the standard k-bar is only single edge.
| germinalphrase wrote:
| Which is - obviously - very different than backcountry
| winter camping in which you're already pulling a sled
| behind skis. Bring that axe, fresh food and bottle of wine.
| pengaru wrote:
| You seem to be conflating hiking with backpacking.
| drstewart wrote:
| You don't need a knife backpacking either. I did 200 miles on
| the PCT without even bringing a knife.
| pengaru wrote:
| > You don't need a knife backpacking either. I did 200
| miles on the PCT without even bringing a knife.
|
| I don't generally _need_ a knife in my daily life either,
| but I still carry one at all times. In the same sense that
| I often wear a seatbelt, despite hopefully never needing
| one, and having driven many hundreds of thousands of miles
| without one ever proving useful.
|
| It's just when it comes to hiking vs. backpacking, the
| calculus of what to carry changes significantly because
| when backpacking you implicitly are carrying much more junk
| than on a hike.
|
| For me hiking is much closer to a long walk in civilization
| than backpacking; I encounter more people, and carry my
| knife just like I do around town. Hiking is actually
| especially unique since it tends to be done civilization
| adjacent, and for some idiots that's the most accessible
| source of cover for criminal fuckery or desperate homeless
| living.
| justAnIdea wrote:
| > Also, you likely don't need a knife. Scissors are much more
| useful, and micro scissors weigh less than an ounce.
|
| You can only have this opinion if you're going hiking with your
| wife's boyfriend.
| Der_Einzige wrote:
| I thought the ideal camping gear were multitools? e.g. swiss
| army knife or leatherman.
| vdnkh wrote:
| I think the victorinox classic has a blade and scissors and
| weighs 0.7oz
| LanceH wrote:
| Knive does the work of scissors and it can hack, hammer, and
| prepare fish or small game.
| tracedddd wrote:
| I bring a fixed blade knife hiking. Can split wood in a pinch.
| Not nearly as heavy as a ka-bar, though.
|
| Your point still stands, though. I had a military pack and
| couldn't believe how heavy it was even when empty. Ultralight
| hiking gear is pretty amazing and optimized for an entirely
| different goal. That said, I still feel like specialty gear
| like this is a different class than the average consumer
| stuff.. closer to industrial or military in design than Amazon
| junk.
| wyager wrote:
| I use a knife all the time while hiking - good luck cutting a
| salami with scissors. That said, the ka-bar is not worth the
| weight. I really like my benchmade hidden canyon.
| vdnkh wrote:
| Haha salami is what I worry about. But there are knives for
| under an ounce. And at any rate, I don't mind eating the
| salami log straight up
| bitexploder wrote:
| I've always got by with a simple folding spyderco knife.
| Small. Lasts forever. Does 90% of jobs when backpacking or
| around the house, etc. a ka-bar is a fine car camping knife
| though. Meant to take abuse and be a multi purpose heavy duty
| tool. We mostly overland and car camp these days. Different
| tools for different purposes and all that.
| wyager wrote:
| Problem with folding knives for camping is they get gunk in
| them.
|
| Ka-bars are kind of a meme. They are made fairly cheaply.
| You won't find knife enthusiasts (eg USN) recommending ka-
| bars.
| bitexploder wrote:
| Folding knife does get a little messy but I have
| backpacked thousands of miles with the same one and it is
| never a practical issue.
| germinalphrase wrote:
| Dragonfly and you're done for 95 percent of tasks.
| throwawaaarrgh wrote:
| I use a $4 folding "outdoor" pocket knife from Wal-Mart.
| I have used it for cooking, digging holes, cutting
| branches, rope, plastic, fabric, tightening screws,
| fixing zippers, opening cans of food, hammering random
| things... I honestly can't remember the last time I
| sharpened it, it doesn't seem to be dull yet.
| tbran wrote:
| Ultralight hiking tip: You can cut meat and cheese with
| fishing line.
|
| Still like to carry a knife, though!
| swader999 wrote:
| HN suprises me all the time with little gems like this.
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| On the other end of the spectrum. 4k Prosumer Canon cameras
| purposely designed to overheat.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1u-9YqrIJc
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| Like the Hobart mixer from this article, I always find it
| interesting that many of the best "overkill" objects are simply
| ones from the early/mid 20th century before manufacturers figured
| out it makes more economic sense to pump out low quality shit
| that will break just after the warranty expires.
|
| I'm into old school espresso machines, and there is a robust
| market (and some fascinating refurb videos) for older, lever
| espresso machines - the quality and design is just much better
| than any consumer-grade equipment that is sold today.
| Daishiman wrote:
| To be fair... there was _a lot_ of heavy-duty crap back that
| was badly designed, poisonous/polluting or novely. It's just
| that you don't see it now because it's all rusted away or lives
| in junkyards.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| At the same time, there is other stuff that is good quality
| but that could _never_ be produced today because of liability
| concerns, but if you 're in a home without small children
| running around you're probably good.
|
| I'm the proud owner of a La Peppina espresso machine (image:
| https://www.home-barista.com/levers/my-first-lever-la-
| peppin...). It makes great espresso, but it also keeps a
| kettle of boiling water suspended on a relatively small
| pedestal where you push down on the lever next to it. I'm
| glad I own one because something like it will never be
| produced again.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| I'm not seeing the image there.
|
| This?
|
| https://i.pinimg.com/originals/79/82/72/79827236408416d55d8
| f...
| Daishiman wrote:
| I'm not really seeing the point here. Lever espresso
| machines exist and continue to be manufactured. La Pavoni
| and Olympia continue to make lever espresso machines that
| work just fine.
|
| A lot of the reliability concerns from tools of the past
| are frankly quite well justified, and to this date we
| continue to sell and produce tools that are dangerous if
| not properly operated.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| Older machines, like La Peppina and Caravel, are open
| boiler machines, meaning the boiler is not pressurized.
| The way the water flows means they have excellent
| temperature stability for espresso (the boiler is of
| course at 100C, so the brew temp is right around 95C).
|
| Of course, an open boiler means there are a lot more
| potential safety issues.
| bob1029 wrote:
| I've been considering the economics around a startup company
| that exclusively produces home appliances & tools that are
| purely electro-mechanical in design.
|
| I know I am not alone in saying that I would happily pay a 2-3x
| premium for any appliance if it were engineered properly and
| actually _left out_ all the ridiculous technological bullshit
| it never needed in the first place. To this day, no one at Best
| Buy can explain to me how WiFi helps me clean my clothes better
| or faster.
|
| Also consider the current economics around the chip shortage...
| Relays, A/C induction motors, electromagnets, switches and all
| other essential macro-scale components required for building a
| washing machine or clothes dryer can still be built by human
| hands in any factory on earth. Not only are all of these things
| available now, they are arguably the superior engineering
| choice when making something intended to deliver value to the
| end user.
| LanceH wrote:
| Take my idea. Produce the same children's toys which make
| noises and make the same thing with maximum volume a lot
| less. That's it. Your marketing is taken care of right there.
| [deleted]
| dale_glass wrote:
| The technological bullshit often makes the device much
| better.
|
| Let's take an object I'm quite familiar with: an espresso
| machine. Some like the classic Rancilio Silvia are 100%
| electromechanical. It's nice and simple, but there are
| downsides:
|
| * Temperature regulation is very coarse, because it's done
| with thermal relays.
|
| * There's no timing. All manual.
|
| * There's no water sensor.
|
| * There are potential failure modes.
|
| It's a machine that'll be happy to try to keep pumping
| nothing until the pump burns out, and that produces variable
| results depending on the user's timing and precision. Popular
| add-ons include a PID controller to fix the temperature
| regulation, a pressure gauge (analog is fine there, but
| digital could also be used for safety), and a stopwatch.
|
| Once you look into coffee forums frequented by the fans of
| well made coffee, you see that one really sought after thing
| is control and precision. Precisely controlling the grind,
| the amount of coffee, the amount of water, the temperature
| and the timing. Notice something? It's all stuff that
| electronics excel at, and humans suck at. Controlling timing,
| weight and water flow is a perfect task for a machine, which
| it can do with impeccable precision.
|
| And along with that stuff, it can improve safety eg, by
| noticing things like "The heater has been on for a minute yet
| temperature doesn't seem rising -- maybe the sensor is
| broken". Plus quality of life thing like warming up on a
| timer, and automatically turning off afterwards.
|
| The issue isn't with electronics but with electronics being
| applied in the wrong direction.
| Avamander wrote:
| > The issue isn't with electronics but with electronics
| being applied in the wrong direction.
|
| This is also an issue with IoT in general. The internet
| functionality replaces basic functionality instead of being
| built on top. No, I don't want to wash my clothes with an
| app! But I would not mind the fscking machine to shut the
| fuck up at night and remind me in the morning to empty it.
| Not a hard thing to do. Same with e.g. light switches, if
| there's no internet it should still work, some don't,
| awful.
| Grustaf wrote:
| Rancilio makes extremely repairable cafe grade espresso
| machines for consumers!
| whack wrote:
| > _The average consumer is an idiot, so the bean counters keep
| milking them... They want pizzaz over functionality and
| durability. They want shiny stuff in a bigger box... The
| industrial, military and commercial market doesn 't mess around.
| They want to purchase equipment that works reliably and performs
| to a specification. It's professional and their livelihood
| depends on it. It sort of self filters the entire market. Shitty
| things drop off the radar due to poor sales._
|
| This sounds like a cool hobby and conversation starter. But it's
| hard to take the author seriously when he proselytizes on the
| practical virtues of buying ejector seats over retail chairs.
| Industrial goods are often built for very specific use-cases. If
| those use-cases don't align with your own needs, you're just
| paying a lot of money for something you don't need. And often,
| something that fails to deliver on your actual needs.
| t0mas88 wrote:
| I would highly recommend a 787 cockpit seat instead. Much more
| comfortable and adjustable than an ejection seat and also kind
| of futuristic looking from behind.
|
| If you mind the gap between your knees for the controls too
| much, look for an Airbus seat. They also have nice armrests
| because the stick is on the side.
| Wistar wrote:
| A friend of mine is a chief pilot for an (astonishingly)
| wealthy family. One day he toured me through their 2-year-old
| Bombardier Global Express jet. I asked how much one of the
| somewhat flimsy-looking passenger-cabin seats cost and he
| said, "About $40,000."
|
| He pointed out that virtually every single element in the
| $60+ million aircraft is engineered for flight and occupant
| safety, and to be as light as possible.
| rsuttongee wrote:
| Haha, pretty sure the author doesn't expect anyone to take this
| post entirely seriously.
| zamalek wrote:
| I'm considering this very seriously:
|
| > The entire consumer market is rotten. TV? It's going to
| come with smart apps. Get one from NEC that's meant for
| commercial use.
|
| A TV has the potential to be a lifetime purchase, but the
| software on it can render it obsolete. I can always plug my
| streaming device of choice into the back of a "dumb TV."
| Philip-J-Fry wrote:
| Do any commercial TVs have HDR though?
| Qub3d wrote:
| I would really love someone to review a commercial display.
| I effectively only want the panel and some inputs wired to
| it.
| shellfishgene wrote:
| I thought buying a TV was bad, but today I wanted to find a
| good digital picture frame. What a shit show, it seems that
| search term has even more fake review sites and SEO spam
| than other electronics, Amazon is full of Chinese brands
| with random names selling the same few models, and with
| even the apparently good ones it's hard to find out what
| they actually do and what not. And then in the fine print
| you find you they want to sell you a subscription, too, and
| presumably the thing will be worthless if the company
| decides to pull their app or shut down their servers.
|
| I just want a frame that I can send pics to, or that pulls
| from google/dropbox/whatever shares, and maybe turn off
| when it's dark.
| tomcooks wrote:
| Make your own with a raspberry pi,a screen and a couple
| of beers to enhance the tinkering
| shellfishgene wrote:
| If this wasn't for a birthday present next week I would
| have, finding a screen that works and has decent viewing
| angles seems difficult?
| msla wrote:
| A sentence I never thought I'd say: Gee, that ejector seat
| doesn't look very comfortable.
|
| Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it feels fine even if you sit in it long
| periods of time. However, I'm sure that it only comes in one
| size, that size being the right size to pilot a plane with an
| ejector seat. Anyone too big or small wasn't considered in its
| design because they'd never make it into the relevant flight
| program to begin with.
|
| My point is, consumer objects have to be designed a bit more
| inclusively than that, to be able to sell to a wider range of
| buyers. That big Hobart mixer is in the same boat: It's designed
| for people who wouldn't have gotten that bakery job if they
| couldn't work with a large, heavy piece of kitchen equipment.
| p_l wrote:
| Heavily depends on model, and well, its designed to sit in some
| heavy duty clothes.
|
| Some ejection seats are supposed to be sat in, continuously,
| for over 10 hours. While letting you still function.
|
| That said, the cockpits tend to enforce certain posture.
| iab wrote:
| Positively uncomfortable for long periods. Having sat in a
| number of MB seats in aircraft museums for short intervals,
| this is exactly the wrong seat to choose for comfort. They are
| quite adjustable though, interesting provenance:
|
| https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/15/08/beyond-average
| joan_kode wrote:
| Love my infrared thermometer for steeping tea at exact
| temperatures. These things are terrible for medical purposes
| since they only measure surface temperature, but they're perfect
| for diagnosing industrial machinery and tea. Also more versatile
| than those expensive programmable tea-brewing contraptions!
| bob1029 wrote:
| I do this but for everything in my kitchen. I bought a very
| expensive HVAC-grade Fluke IR thermometer which can handle
| temperature ranges from -40C to 550C.
|
| Being able to instantly & remotely measure the temperature of
| anything (with reasonable emissivity characteristics) is like a
| super power. There is nothing in my kitchen or grill area that
| can exceed the range of the IR sensor on this unit. There are
| only a few things that have problems with direct sampling. I
| cook almost exclusively with cast iron, so IR readings are
| always dead accurate.
|
| The unit runs on a single AA battery, has a backlight, and
| somehow still hasn't needed a new battery since I bought it 4
| years ago (used almost every day).
|
| I had to cook in someone else's kitchen not too long ago, and
| found myself going insane at not being able to tell exactly how
| hot the oil was in a pot used for frying.
| fmajid wrote:
| The problem is the emissivity calibration, as different
| materials have different IR characteristics. For food, the best
| by far is the fast contact Thermapen (get the original British
| version rather than the heavily marked-up US licensee's).
| evil-olive wrote:
| As a bonus, those infrared thermometers often have a little
| laser pointer built-in, which means it can double as a cat toy.
|
| Laser pointers marketed as cat toys are often tiny little
| things that require annoying & expensive button-cell batteries.
|
| My infrared thermometer / cat toy has a pistol grip so it's
| easier to hold, and runs off a 9V battery that lasts much
| longer.
| gojofika wrote:
| You might check the link to get unlimited Google Voice Number
| https://bit.ly/34tc4BI
|
| (100% trusted & quality service guaranteed)
| arc-in-space wrote:
| I'm all for this type of thinking, but like the others point out,
| you still need to keep yourself in check and put active effort
| into figuring out when it makes sense. 'Spartan' isn't the only
| relevant quality. The Hobart mixer is cool, but might it consume
| too much energy, or is it too heavy to move around when needed?
| The beakers are sweet, but am I yet wealthy enough to pretend
| money isn't real?
|
| https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2017/12/02/more-dakka/
|
| All things considered, I would love to see more people put
| together their own lists of ways you can do better than the
| consumer default. I'm sure there's plenty of opportunities of
| this kind.
| swader999 wrote:
| For skiing, if you want to do it for life, always buy decent
| boots and ask pros where they get them fitted. Most people ski
| in boots a size or two too big or with poor cuff alignment
| (even people at a high level). It is much harder to improve and
| enjoy your time on snow with these things not addressed.
|
| The consumer approach would dismiss getting a professional
| fitting as overkill and unnecessary but they really limit their
| enjoyment.
| jedberg wrote:
| One thing I've always wished I had space for was using a seat
| from a Mercedes or BMW as my desk chair. I saw someone post about
| it decades ago. You can pick them up from the junkyard for less
| than a fancy desk chair.
|
| You screw it to a piece of plywood and get a car battery to power
| it, and you've got a 26 way adjustable seat with lumbar support,
| seat heaters and seat coolers, and all the other fancy features
| of a car seat. And it's usually made of super durable easy to
| clean materials. You get a swingarm to hold your keyboard and
| monitor and you're all set with the ultimate chair.
|
| But it takes a ton of space.
| snth wrote:
| I really like the sentiment, if not some of the specific examples
| given. An example of my own: I went through several grocery-
| store-bought hair clippers before getting some "pro" clippers:
| Oster Classic 76. They work better, they are more repairable and
| serviceable, and they've lasted me for years.
| IgorPartola wrote:
| I will postulate an opposing view to TFA:
|
| Quality consumer goods are better in two key areas. First, they
| are replaceable. I don't want a military grade mixer in my
| kitchen if getting a broken whisk or motor on it is going to
| require me hunting all over eBay for the specific part hoping
| it's available. I was very excited at one point about the idea of
| getting a commercial dishwasher that can run a load of dishes in
| like 90 seconds. Problem with those is that you can't go to
| Lowe's and get a replacement part when it acts up. You have to
| call a restaurant equipment servicing company and pay them what a
| restaurant with a broken dishwasher would pay. Or more because
| you aren't a frequent customer. Sure, maybe it'll break less but
| here's the thing: my modern LG dishwasher will be more convenient
| to use and if I get 10 years out of it rather than 20 I still
| spent only $1000 on the top of the line one rather than the $4k
| on a 10 year old used commercial unit that I will struggle with
| the entire time.
|
| Second, consumer goods are replaceable. I am used to my Kershaw
| knife. I broke it yesterday. I can get it serviced by the
| manufacturer or get a brand new one, or both. If I buy some
| special forces surplus knife and chip the blade I am either done
| with that knife or I'm taking it to a specialist or I'm buying a
| new one. Knowing that I can replace an item I'm used to when a
| one-for-one replacement is a comfort. Obviously that doesn't work
| for everything but it works for items that are made by high
| quality manufacturers.
|
| Bonus: a military grade mixer is going to suck to make high end
| pastries because it's geared towards making mashed potatoes for
| the troops. I feel like the author is romanticizing ma class of
| products that in reality aren't all that amazing except in a
| couple of key areas that to most consumers aren't as big of a
| deal. So while it's possible that, as the author states, the
| average consumer is an idiot, I don't see much evidence that the
| author is much ahead of the pack here.
| bayindirh wrote:
| Moreover, consumer items beyond a price point are both very
| well made and backed by long term warranties anyway.
|
| Paying a bit more for a better item which can be repaired or
| serviced for a very long time makes it cheaper in the long run
| in my experience, because you buy it once and for life.
|
| I love "overkill items for everyday life" point of view, but it
| comes with trade-offs for noise, ergonomics, size,
| replaceability and such. You can get a very good blade from
| Victorinox or Leatherman. If you fancy good steel, you can get
| a high end, forged German steel Victorinox chef knife and use
| something frighteningly sharp and handsome at the same time.
|
| If you want a good heater, you can pay twice the price and can
| get a Fakir Hobby premium space heater and can use for 30+
| years (we have two).
|
| The list can go on.
| megameter wrote:
| The best consumer goods are generally the ones where the
| design has persisted unmodified for decades. It works,
| everyone uses it, nobody's improved on it, serviceability is
| reasonable relative to the essential complexity, and it
| hasn't been cost-reduced into garbage. "New model" always
| comes with the worry: _What did they fuck up this time?_
|
| Anything "professional", "military", etc. comes with the
| potential downside of it being someone's job to maintain and
| service it. Qualitative differences usually come with trade-
| offs - and if it's not your job, it might not be better to
| try.
| Grustaf wrote:
| Is this a joke or are you missing the point? The guy doesn't
| actually think that a fighter jet seat is better than a normal
| office chair in any practical sense. He just thinks these
| things are cool. Often, part of the charm is how incredibly
| impractical they are.
| yourapostasy wrote:
| _> The guy doesn 't actually think that a fighter jet seat is
| better than a normal office chair in any practical sense._
|
| Now that people are discussing it, I do want to find out if
| there are former air force pilots reading this who can
| corroborate or refute my hypothesis: I suspect long-duration
| mission bombers like the US B-52 and B-2 have pilot seats
| especially tuned for extended operational comfort, even more
| so than commercial airliners (passenger or cargo), and it
| would be interesting to test my hypothesis that those would
| make excellent office chairs for coders. Someone makes these
| from old pilot seats [1], but I'm specifically interested in
| pilot seats from airframes that routinely perform round-trip
| trans-Pacific routes.
|
| I personally wouldn't routinely use such a seat for more than
| say 10-12 hours at a time, but if it is proven to still be
| comfortable after someone uses it for that long, naps for a
| couple hours in it, and uses it for another long session,
| then it is likely going to feel very comfortable to me. And
| maybe the safety harness will help me maintain my posture
| instead of having to remind myself every half hour to check
| it.
| zamfi wrote:
| I like this line of speculation, though what to make of the
| fact that the average military pilot and average coder
| probably differ...substantially...in physique? Not to
| mention ongoing training active pilots likely engage in
| that may help with posture.
| bartread wrote:
| I think one needs to be a bit selective here.
|
| About 8 years ago I bought the cheapest catering/professional
| microwave/combioven I could get my hands on. I did this because
| I got tired of consumer units with overcomplicated UIs designed
| (apparently) by unregenerate misanthropes, rotating dishes that
| are a pain in the ass to clean, overzealous bleeps that go off
| every 30 - 60 seconds after a cycle is finished, peeling
| enamel, corrosion issues, and that are too small on the inside.
|
| Consumer grade microwave ovens all, as far as I can tell,
| universally suck in one way or another that my commercial grade
| microwave doesn't. The thing is bomb proof. The only thing
| that's gone wrong in 8 years is the internal bulb. Everything
| else is rock solid.
|
| This is, however, a rather different proposition to buying a
| food mixer that was manufactured in 1948. I _can_ get spares
| for my microwave or, at this point, buy a new one and recycle
| the old without feeling I haven 't got my money's worth. I'm
| going to struggle with the 1948 mixer and, like you, I don't
| want that.
|
| Others have highlighted that commercial grade dishwashers and
| fans are also probably bad ideas. I've run into similar issues
| with UPSs: none of these things seem designed to run in an
| environment where fan noise is going to cause a serious problem
| (nobody seems to sell a completely silent UPS - it's really
| daft).
|
| Likewise, if you buy a rackmount server instead of a desktop
| computer you may be surprised to find that the fan noise is
| _extraordinary_.
|
| Honestly, the main thing is to do your research before making a
| purchase so that you buy something that's really going to suit
| your requirements, whether that's a consumer grade or
| "professional grade" piece of equipment.
| atoav wrote:
| Film equipment is just like that. People ask where the
| autofocus is on that 50k$ Arri-Zeiss combination and you
| point at your focus puller loafing around with a coffee in
| her hand.
|
| Just made for a different kind of gig than your usual
| consumer grade camera
| megablast wrote:
| > About 8 years ago I bought the cheapest
| catering/professional microwave/combioven I could get my
| hands on. I did this because I got tired of consumer units
| with overcomplicated UIs designed (apparently) by
| unregenerate misanthropes, rotating dishes that are a pain in
| the ass to clean, overzealous bleeps that go off every 30 -
| 60 seconds after a cycle is finished, peeling enamel,
| corrosion issues, and that are too small on the inside.
|
| See, this is weird. The cheapest microwaves you can get have
| two dials, one for temp, one for time. Why not buy one of
| those??
| [deleted]
| BurningFrog wrote:
| Often the hobbyist and professional tool is just as good,
| except that the pro tool will last 10x longer.
| neilpanchal wrote:
| I kinda disagree. These aren't very good examples. Also the
| dough mixer is for restaurants, not military use. :-) Although
| I want one now.
|
| Here is a kitchen scale I bought. Made in Switzerland, no less.
| It's bloody beautiful: https://neil.computer/notes/mettler-
| toledo-ml3002e-teardown/
|
| Does that mean all consumer grade stuff is bad? No. Leatherman
| tools and 3M consumer grade stuff is usually great. Nalgene
| bottles. Does that mean all pro quality stuff is great? No.
| I've bought restaurant quality containers, made in California,
| no less, but are not BPA-free.
|
| My philosophy is quite tangential to the points you're making:
|
| - Search for stuff in auxiliary / parallel industries.
|
| - Used surplus stuff is usually below consumer grade prices
| _even if it was slightly worse_ , 9/10 times its is 10x the
| quality, performance and durability of consumer grade crap on
| Amazon.
|
| - Some cheap crap is actually good. Victorinox $30 knife is
| _excellent_ value and used by professional chefs.
|
| There are atleast 100 more examples I can write about that were
| a net positive buys. Just last week I bought U-Line tape
| dispenser. Same price as consumer grade ones, so why not?
|
| - Orthogonal search usually yields frugal jackpots. No one
| would ever find any use for the life raft bag in the marine
| parts store.
|
| Average consumers want stuff that is objectively worse for
| them. Touchscreens were an excellent idea for a phone, now they
| want it everywhere in their cars. Overall, with the throw-away
| culture consumers are addicted to, it's hard to not blame them.
| Have you ever dealt with customer service? You might be
| surprised. _We are soooo addicted to wasteful culture_. You're
| just promoting this and doubling down on it.
|
| Let's see in last 20 years: Quality went downhill, durability
| is an after thought, repairability is non existent and
| consumers want bigger box - literally larger than the item
| because they choose it based on how good the box looks. If it
| were any other reason, it's a waste of packaging and businesses
| know this.
|
| Anyways, I fancy things that are engineered with deliberation
| and specification. Tested and qualified against requirements.
| Usually military or medical grade goods are designed and
| engineered in such a way.
| jasonwatkinspdx wrote:
| You're spot on. I've dated several chefs, and the reality is
| that "professional grade" in consumer kitchen devices is
| basically all a fantasy/farce. Real commercial equipment is
| generally a huge PITA. It's quite capable stuff, but you don't
| need those capabilities at home, and everything else about them
| makes them a net negative, in nearly every case.
|
| The other obnoxious thing is most of what's marketed as
| "professional grade" to consumers is junk that no commercial
| kitchen would use. It's just marketing.
|
| You can get some interesting specific stuff on say
| webrestaraunt store, but you gotta be mindful of the above
| aspects imo.
| jiofih wrote:
| > "professional grade" in consumer kitchen devices is
| basically all a fantasy/farce
|
| That is not what the article is about though. He buys actual
| commercial / industrial stuff that is indeed more rugged.
| jasonwatkinspdx wrote:
| I understand that, I was talking about a parallel aspect.
| stakkur wrote:
| A note about the 'Ka-Bar' knife, since I've both been in the
| Marine Corps and am into knives: the military doesn't use it. In
| the real world, if you want a knife in the service, you typically
| buy it yourself.
|
| Does the USMC still use 'bayonets'? Yes, in certain circumstances
| they're issued--but it's not common, and it's not the Ka-Bar,
| it's another brand (I forget which one).
|
| TL;DR: Ka-Bar 'USMC knives' are a marketing gimmick.
| tomcam wrote:
| Please tell me you have a blog, and if so, its URL.
| JoeyBananas wrote:
| A brand new Leatherman multitool costs less than 100$. For that
| price you get a knife, a serrated blade, a pair of pliers/wire
| cutters and some other stuff that absolutely comes in handy in
| the real world. It's not as good for fixing to the end of a
| rifle and stabbing someone, but for every other real world
| situation it's better.
| jeffreyrogers wrote:
| I think this is due to the reliability of rifles now though?
| Ekaros wrote:
| Trench warfare and massed charges really aren't much of a
| thing any more. And if you really end up in close quarter
| combat it's much better to retreat and do something else.
| JoeyBananas wrote:
| As a weapon, the bayonett is absolutely not obsolete. It
| may be the only weapon available to a soldier after they
| run out of ammo. There are infinitely many conceivable
| situations where retreat is not an option.
| cmckn wrote:
| I have to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbhcRKsRwFM
| aledalgrande wrote:
| Love how extra the choices are XD All OP/level 99 items!
| arpa wrote:
| "Military grade" has very different connotations if you have been
| in the service. So yeah, great conversation starter, interesting
| worldview; can't say I share it though.
| dkdbejwi383 wrote:
| Military grade = the cheapest product that meets the spec.
| user3939382 wrote:
| Just to offer a counterexample, I have a Cammenga 3H compass
| that I use for camping. The thing is a beast, one of the
| coolest things I own.
| SavantIdiot wrote:
| Are you teasing us: do you actually use a compass camping?
| I've never met someone (who wasn't a Boy Scout) that camps
| so hard they need a compass! (Said in a joking yet
| genuinely curious voice.)
| seoaeu wrote:
| If you are going into the wilderness, you should really
| check a map beforehand. At very least, figure out which
| cardinal direction you can go to get back to
| civilization. Even just knowing "walk west and eventually
| you'll hit a highway" greatly improves your odds if you
| get very lost.
| SavantIdiot wrote:
| Funny you mention that. Last year in Oregon a man stepped
| off the trail near a place called the Gorge while hiking
| too close to sunset, its is a huge wilderness north of
| the 26. People kept saying: dude, if you just went south
| you'd hit the freeway, but apparently he tried that and
| there were unscalable hills/cliff faces/vegetation for
| dozens of miles that when he followed them for a place to
| descend got him even more lost! Beyond me why someone
| would go off trail, or even start hike that late in the
| day!
| seoaeu wrote:
| Yeah... in hindsight checking for impassible cliffs would
| have been a smart move too
| cecilpl2 wrote:
| Anyone who does any backcountry camping should have a map
| and compass and know how to use them.
| DrPhish wrote:
| and the first thing to know when bringing a map and
| compass into the backcountry is that if you didn't use
| them (properly!) to get in, it'll be hard-to-impossible
| to use them to get you back out. There's more to it than
| you think!
|
| Orienteering is a deep enough subject to be a tool, hobby
| and sport. Recommended skill, just for the entertainment
| value
| aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA wrote:
| Try to aim for a spot somewhat left or right of your
| destination, so that when you arrive you know which side
| to begin your search.
| [deleted]
| enchiridion wrote:
| That's always the line. The left out part is how rigorous the
| spec is.
| killjoywashere wrote:
| Problem with the spec is often that the military "needs a
| car". But the specification process forces them to design
| all the parameters, and they end up with a very rigorous
| spec for "Toyota Camry, no A/C, coyote brown, steel wheels"
| which adds up to 800 pages and a product that even Toyota
| can't produce for less than $250k/unit. Meanwhile, by the
| time they've written the spec, the CyberTruck has been
| designed, marketed, produced, and iterated, and exceeds the
| spec in every meaningful dimension. The military has
| required an entirely US-based supply chain that will
| sustain their vehicle for the next 30 years, but accepts
| that it's entirely reasonable, in that circumstance, that
| each washer (Type 304 stainless, O.D. +/- 0.00001 inch) is
| $47.82/unit.
| orangefox wrote:
| The cybertruck won't meet milspec because it runs solely
| on battery power. A military vehicle needs to be able to
| run in expeditionary environments with the ability to
| store and carry extra fuel for long range operations and
| refuel quickly. Neither one of those requirements can be
| met by a battery vehicle.
| Nition wrote:
| It's just a couple of made-up examples to illustrate a
| possible scenario; I'm sure the military didn't really
| ask for a Toyota Camry either.
|
| This does bring up a different issue though, which is
| that any time someone uses a hypothetical example to
| illustrate a point on the Internet, responses end up
| picking apart the example instead of the point itself.
| ianmcgowan wrote:
| That's a really interesting point that explains the $600
| hammer urban myths - the military has a ton of
| constraints in their specs that are defendable, but
| result in much higher costs than equivalent consumer
| spec.
| zokier wrote:
| Well, at least there is a spec, unlike many consumer goods
| that are just cheapest product no spec.
| mcguire wrote:
| This is my periodic comment reminding everyone who has to
| support more than one computer to not buy the consumer
| versions from Dell, HP, whatever. They're built from
| whatever was in the parts bin today. No two of them will
| be the same.
| cosmojg wrote:
| On the bright side, there's a spec.
| mnd999 wrote:
| Sure, but the spec usually says things like "Can be dropped
| 6ft onto concrete".
| Symbiote wrote:
| Just buy a toy tested according to European Union
| standards, and labelled with the "CE" mark.
|
| > Drop the toy, or the relevant toy component, five times
| through a height of (850 +- 50) mm on to a 4 mm thick steel
| plate with a 2 mm thick coating of Shore A hardness (75 +-
| 5) as measured according to EN ISO 868 or ISO 7619-2 and
| which is placed on a non-flexible horizontal surface.
|
| > Prior to release, orientate the toy in a position that
| allows the most onerous impact onto the coated surface of
| the steel plate.
|
| (850mm is 23/4 ft.)
|
| More seriously, I think some of these regulations do
| prevent the lowest-quality stuff you might find in the USA
| being legally sold in the EU.
|
| https://law.resource.org/pub/eu/toys/en.71.1.2014.html#s8.5
| Grustaf wrote:
| I don't know about the US army, but in Sweden military grade
| means "extremely basic, works forever and can be operated by
| an idiot".
| iratewizard wrote:
| Trijicon scopes were top dog for a very long time and to this
| day are still fantastic hardware. They're just one of many
| examples where the supplier cares about the product and it's
| reflected in the quality.
| spaetzleesser wrote:
| From my experience "military grade" means grossly overpriced
| and based on a spec that's often detached from reality.
| ok123456 wrote:
| "Military grade" means it will break.
| dehrmann wrote:
| > I want a Martin Baker ejection seat as a chair in my living
| room
|
| I get the draw, but comfort in these seats is mixed. You should
| be able to sit in them for a few hours, but remember that the
| foam is dense enough to handle 7Gs.
| LanceH wrote:
| I heard someone make the comfort argument, saying a toilet seat
| would be ideal.
| SavantIdiot wrote:
| I could get behind some of these. Like that Hobart mixer.
| Granted, I don't use a mixer 24/7 in a bakery, but my first
| Kitchen Aid overheated and broke after ~5 years.
|
| I'd prefer if commodity things, like computer mice, were made to
| last, and not $5 pieces of cheap plastic that end up in
| landfills. But I'm the person who complains about the tons of
| cheap plastic trash sold in 0.99 stores while able to afford $500
| mixers.
|
| I wish there was a happy medium, where society didn't demand
| China produce plastic stuff that turns into trash within a month,
| destroying the environment exponentially.
| joezydeco wrote:
| Commercial kitchen equipment isn't always set up for 120V
| single phase operation.
|
| If you really want to rewire your house to mix 20 gallons of
| dough at a time...go for it I suppose. But do the homework
| first.
| NegativeLatency wrote:
| Sure some of it is but certainly not all of it. Also there
| are reasonably sized mixers like GP said
| joezydeco wrote:
| Oh, sorry. The point of the article was 'overkill'. It's
| really 'just heavier duty'.
| bob1029 wrote:
| > If you really want to rewire your house to mix 20 gallons
| of dough at a time...go for it I suppose. But do the homework
| first.
|
| You could get a 3 phase commercial standby genset installed
| and have the remote annunciator for it mounted next to
| whatever monster 3 phase stand mixer in your kitchen. All in
| all this would run you ~50K USD.
|
| Every day people spend far more money on way stupider
| bullshit than what I just proposed.
| dredmorbius wrote:
| NB: KitchenAid _is_ Hobart.
|
| I immediately recognised the design from the pictured mixer.
| Turns out they are the same company, different branding. Now
| owned by Whirlpool.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KitchenAid
|
| TIL, FWIW.
| scrooched_moose wrote:
| At least things things like Kitchenaid mixers are easily
| fixable if you still have it. Ours recently died after about 8
| years, and it was a pretty quick turn around from model number
| > spec sheet > motor number > $80 replacement. The actual swap
| took less than 15 minutes with nothing more than a phillips
| screwdriver.
|
| I did the same with our microwave when the door close sensors
| failed. The internet has made fixing things infinitely easier,
| as spec sheets and part suppliers are available to everyone.
| Cyril_HN wrote:
| Yeah, Kitchen Aid is all hand made still AFAIK. So, it should
| be easy to fix, too.
| [deleted]
| floil wrote:
| Both the KitchenAid and the Hobart use a planetary action which
| is not the best for kneading bread. A better idea is to find a
| small spiral mixer where the bowl rotates and the mixer blade
| spins in place. I have a Haussler Alpha and it's great for
| tough doughs, and seems appropriately overbuilt.
| Grustaf wrote:
| Many people have been known to use these Electrolux mixers for
| decades, I have one that's 30 years old, working perfectly.
|
| https://www.electrolux.dk/kitchen/small-kitchen-appliances/k...
| neonological wrote:
| Consumer grade products are deliberately designed to fail.
|
| This is why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5v8D-alAKE&t=833s
|
| If you're older, like really old, you can actually remember a
| time where products were of a much much higher durability before
| the industry figured out that low durability products were more
| profitable.
|
| So in actuality some of the suggestions on that site aren't
| necessarily overkill as industrial products aren't deliberately
| engineered to fail.
| kube-system wrote:
| "Engineered to fail" and "planned obsolescence" are both
| pejorative rephrasings of "consumers prioritize price"
|
| Engineering is an exercise in prioritization. If 90% of
| consumers buy the cheapest blender on the shelf, the blender
| made with the cheapest materials wins. Hobart still exists, and
| still makes good blenders. Consumers just started buying new
| designs that were more cost efficient.
|
| If you look at the prices of mid twentieth century appliances
| in some old periodicals, and adjust for inflation, they're
| about the price of commercial appliances today.
|
| Before value-engineering, people didn't have a kitchen full of
| appliances, they went without.
|
| Value engineering is often criticized, but the plain truth is
| that it is primarily responsible for the high standards of
| living we enjoy today.
| neonological wrote:
| Did you watch the video? It's not just about cheap materials.
| It's literal design decisions made for the express reason so
| that the product will fail.
|
| The iphone not having a replaceable battery is a design
| decision, it doesn't make the phone cheaper.
|
| You are taking two independent phenomenons and trying to
| group them together as if they are the same phenomenon. Yes
| making a product cheaper has the side effect of reducing its'
| lifetime but the video and what I'm talking about is DIRECT
| engineering decisions for the purpose of shortening lifetimes
| NOT making things cheaper.
|
| You obviously didn't watch the video.
| convolvatron wrote:
| the shop vac pro i bought had a one-time current fuse
| soldered down (not replacable with a holder). over time all
| of these machines get a little friction in the fan assembly
| and blow this fuse.
|
| yes, you could argue that making this fuse replaceable would
| add $0.05, but we all know that its not because 99% of the
| purchasers wont crack it open, figure out whats going on, and
| short the fuse.
|
| you can argue that by keeping the volume up shop vac can
| lower prices. but i dont think you can argue that efficiency
| has been gained.
| yarcob wrote:
| If that fuse blows, does swapping it help? Wouldn't the
| blown fuse typically mean the fan bearings are broken and a
| new fuse would just blow soon again?
| convolvatron wrote:
| i my case I shorted it and have been using the vacuum for
| another 10 years. there was dust in the fan bearings, but
| i sluiced it out with mineral oil.
| kube-system wrote:
| The 1% of people who try to fix their shop vac are probably
| the same 1% who are comfortable using a soldering iron.
| Reducing part count is value engineering 101.
|
| The number of consumers who buy a shop vac based on whether
| it has a socketed fuse is negligible. It's simply a feature
| with zero commercial value. It's all cost with zero
| benefit.
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| > _It's all cost with zero benefit._
|
| Only because a good chunk of the true costs are
| externalized. If the vendor would have to pay for
| disposal of their product, suddenly that socketed fuse
| would become a cost-cutting measure.
| neonological wrote:
| The cost is negligible, mere cents. A decision such as
| this is indeed done to deliberately shorten the life
| span.
| Grustaf wrote:
| > "Engineered to fail" and "planned obsolescence" are both
| pejorative rephrasings of "consumers prioritize price"
|
| Yes, and prioritizing price is short term and stupid.
| Prioritize total cost instead and buy high quality items,
| it's much cheaper in the long run.
|
| Also, high standard of living is not about having your
| kitchen "full of appliances", it's about health, education
| and security.
| gregmac wrote:
| The ironic part of that is that often people will end up
| spending _more_ on crappy stuff, as they end up buying
| several {thing} over the time period one more expensive one
| would have lasted. This is also an example of why it 's
| expensive to be poor.
|
| I did this with office chairs. I was buying a new mediocre
| chair every few years before finally buying a Herman Miller
| several years ago. It was expensive compared to anything else
| I'd owned, but (1) it's an order-of-magnitude better chair,
| and (2) I had probably spent about the same money on several
| crappier chairs over the prior decade. I am still sitting in
| this chair now, and it's still just as good as the day I
| bought it.
| kube-system wrote:
| It depends on duty cycle.
|
| If you're often using a computer chair (as many of us _do_
| use in a commercial setting), you probably legitimately
| need a chair with a high duty cycle.
|
| Meanwhile, I have a $7 toaster that's 10 years old. I don't
| make toast very often. Even if my toaster fails today, a
| low-end commercial toaster wouldn't pay itself off over my
| lifetime.
|
| Poor people also have alternatives. Much of the world
| doesn't worry about the repair bills for their clothes
| dryer or their dishwasher, because they hang their clothes
| on a line and wash their dishes in a basin.
| teddyh wrote:
| A.k.a. "Vimes' Boots"
| Sebb767 wrote:
| > "Engineered to fail" and "planned obsolescence" are both
| pejorative rephrasings of "consumers prioritize price"
|
| No. Of course, a part of potential lifetime loss is due to
| price. Manufacturing a case in plastic instead of carbon
| fiber is simply far cheaper and most consumer will go for
| that. However, we see cheaped out components even in high-
| priced or prosumer gear, while the existence of this market
| already pretty much proves that price is _not_ everything to
| every consumer. Additionally, there are many examples of
| behaviors that save no money or are actually more expensive,
| but help the bottom line by forcing people to buy new (see
| the Phoebus cartell [0] or the slowing down of older iPhones
| by Apple).
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebus_cartel
| kube-system wrote:
| Yes, true planned obsolescence has happened. But it's a lot
| less common than people think, and often prohibited by law.
|
| Even the "slowing down of old iPhones" is an example of
| that. This was a bug fix for crashing due to current demand
| that exceeded the battery's capability.
| Jiro wrote:
| Something "engineered to fail" may be cheaper because
| materials that don't last so long are cheaper.
|
| But it's also possible that the material isn't cheaper at
| all, but the manufaturer gains because if the part wears out
| sooner they can sell a replacement sooner. That isn't a case
| of "consumers prioritize price".
|
| For instance, manufacturers have tried to sell printers which
| refuse to print when there is still quite a bit of ink left
| in the cartridge. Printers which refuse to let you use all
| the ink are engineered to fail, but they aren't cheaper than
| printers that do let you use all the ink. The manufacturer is
| relying on the fact that obtaining good information is
| costly; testing printers to rigorously prove this takes
| resources, and even when it gets discovered, many consumers
| won't know that the printer is doing this, so they won't use
| that information in comparing otherwise similar-looking
| printers.
| Arubis wrote:
| Non-professional customers know this, to an approximation. And
| marketers know that those customers know that. Hence the both the
| "prosumer" market and the conflation of premium and luxury
| product lines: "We Are Professional Grade" for expensive trucks,
| "AirPods Pro" for a luxury product, the upcoming "Nintendo Switch
| Pro", etc.
| ftio wrote:
| As an espresso enthusiast with a rather robust prosumer setup, I
| considered 'overkill' commercial options, which are widely
| available and roughly the same price (sometimes less, with work).
|
| The overkill options...well, they're not made for home, which
| actually makes them worse for home use cases. Sure, a La Marzocco
| Linea can pull a thousand shots a day with extreme consistency
| and temperature stability.
|
| My Lelit Bianca can't keep up on volume, but it is smaller,
| reaches operating temperature more quickly, and is temp stable
| for the number of shots I pull even with a dozen people over for
| a party. It uses a standard electrical plug, it has a consumer-
| grade warranty, and it's relatively easy to maintain for a
| regular Joe like me.
|
| So sure, a commercial version of a thing might be more robust,
| longer-lasting, etc., but what tradeoffs are you making to
| achieve those characteristics?
| defterGoose wrote:
| | regular Joe
|
| I see what you did there...
| Yajirobe wrote:
| > The average consumer is an idiot
|
| Excuse me?
| hyko wrote:
| Buying an ejector seat for your living room is quite eccentric,
| but I wouldn't really consider it _overkill_. It doesn't even
| have arms.
| swader999 wrote:
| For my office at the company I work at it would be perfect.
| tailspin2019 wrote:
| Is your "office" an F-16 by any chance?
| swader999 wrote:
| No it is not. But sometimes I do wish to leave very
| quickly.
| swader999 wrote:
| I went pro with my chainsaw and never regretted it.
| birdyrooster wrote:
| If this guy doesn't have sticky-surface mats entering his house I
| will be upset.
| nullc wrote:
| We've used borosilicate lab glass (mostly beakers) at home for
| over a decade. We're pretty happy with them.
| SkyMarshal wrote:
| Fyi, I have an industrial fan in my home similar to the one
| listed at the end of the article [1]. Beware, they're loud as
| hell and not really suited for indoors use. It sits dormant now.
|
| I replaced it with a smaller Vornado [2]. Powerful, nearly silent
| (can't hear the motor, only the blades), with a durable sealed-
| bearing motor. Much better.
|
| [1]:https://king-electric.com/products/high-velocity-air-
| circula...
|
| [2]:https://www.vornado.com/shop/circulators-fans/293-heavy-
| duty...
| m463 wrote:
| I like vornado - with caveats.
|
| If it's cold my HVAC would cycle and would get temperature
| swings. I installed a vornado space heater and it worked
| wonderfully. It had a continuous air flow and would keep the
| temperature in the room very stable.
|
| And then it wore out and I got a new model with electronic
| controls, which didn't work so well. The original had
| mechanical controls and were set and forget. I believe the
| electronic model would reset after a power failure, and would
| have a timer that would turn it off after using it for a while,
| both non-features.
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