TechConnectify

TechConnectify OP , vor 3 Tagen

@foo thanks I hate it

TechConnectify , vor 7 Tagen

@bytor

That may not be hard water buildup - if it's truly detergent residue, you may just need to cut down on it a lot. If you're filling the dispenser any more than half-way, that's probably too much unless your water is extremely hard.

I don't notice any residue buildup at all using powder other than limescale on the heating element. Though I do run a cleaning product through about quarterly, I've never noticed reduced effectiveness between treatments.

TechConnectify , vor 7 Tagen

@bytor And for the record, I did talk about water hardness but only in regards to how much detergent you should use. In the second video I talked about the components in detergents, and even cheap powder has softening agents.

And BTW, vinegar works OK but you'll probably have a less fussy and more effective clean with a bottle of dishwasher cleaner. In my experience they're like magic.

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

This is a very Menards thing to do. They're... crafty.

They've got so many weird but well-presented brands that you're not going to know are theirs unless you look closely and find "distributed by Menard inc" on there somewhere. It's almost impressive!

And I mean... so long as it's actually good (we'll see what that apple pie jam is like later) I suppose why not? But it's very weird and very Menards.

(added pictures for reference)

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@Tim_Eagon hey, this run didn't cost me anything cuz I had that sweet sweet Menards money to spend

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@brennen yeah I know! It's almost a weird combination.

I know I bought some flavored coffee of theirs some time ago on a whim. I wasn't expecting it to be very good and truthfully it wasn't very good, and I only noticed on this trip that that was the same brand as this jam.

And then I realized it was the same brand as that soda!

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@scien it's seeming to be that they're using the Marcella brand for small batch unique stuff that they happen to get their hands on.

I'm definitely not going to go so far as to call it artisanal, but they have other brands like Old Mill which are very much just commodity stuff.

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@sandbender could be! Though the bottles are quite different.

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@beeoproblem people compare Menards with Canadian tire a lot so I'm going to assume it's quite similar

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@redrummy I bought two jars in case it's good and doesn't show up again.

And if it's bad... well I'll deal with that later.

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@redrummy it'll be a while, I just opened up an apricot jelly jar and I don't like to have multiples open at the same time

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@BalooUriza @beeoproblem it's much, much, much, much more eclectic than tractor supply.

I would say imagine a cross between harbor freight, home depot, and Walmart (sans produce), then stick a lumber yard in the back and you're there.

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@silvenga @scien I am almost entirely certain this happens. They even have a whole lineup as you enter the store of special deals that changes all the time.

They've got a little bit of Big Lots in them for sure, but how they're using their store brands is an extra layer of complexity, which I would love to get the inside scoop on

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@beeoproblem @BalooUriza ah, well that's how Menards got started! And that's why they have actual lumber yards.

Actually, it's extremely handy because you can drive back there and pick stuff up. Pretty much all bulky building supplies are kept out there (even, for instance, rolls of insulation) so you can just order it in the store, they give you a printout, and you go and get it after you pay at the registers.

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@NAB that's all on the jar, just to the other side. Probably not as complete as you might expect but it's not missing

TechConnectify OP , vor 9 Tagen

@BartV no, the label was just not visible in either picture

https://mas.to/@TechConnectify/112675355624900027

TechConnectify , vor 9 Tagen

@the_other_jon it's been a while since I used it (I don't really do road trips often) but it was fantastic every time I used it.

I just planned the trip using the web UI and then navigated from each suggested charger to the next one, and it nailed the SOCs within a few percent every time

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph @edavies @yngmar Hi. I'm the person who made the video.

I'm just chiming in to say that the fact that the lifespan of 1,000 hours continued to be standard for many decades after the cartel was dissolved should be the big sign that the limited lifespan wasn't that nefarious.

Remember what an incandescent light bulb is. It is far less glass than a jar of jam, a few tiny little support wires, and a little bit of tungsten.

Once machines were building them, they cost pennies.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph @edavies @yngmar now, of course we can argue over the profit motive and who was benefitting from what but the simple fact is the incandescent light bulb was a consumable good. It would never be a durable good, even the longest lasting versions darken with age as the filament evaporates.

Ask anybody who takes care of vintage pinball machines ;)

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph @edavies @yngmar I'm not glossing over it, though. The fact of the matter is a light bulb that could last 1,500 hours is going to be noticeably dimmer than one that only lasts a thousand while using the same amount of power

Perhaps you might be rubbed the wrong way by the cartel making a choice for you, and that's something I can understand. But the operating cost of a light bulb exceeded the purchase cost of a light bulb, so a longer lasting but dimmer bulb is just not ideal.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph @edavies @yngmar this remains true today. Or at least, wherever you can still buy general purpose incandescent light bulbs.

In the video I show a 40 w appliance bulb and a 40 watt chandelier bulb. They use identical amounts of power, but the appliance bulb was rated for 2,500 hours rather than a thousand and was much dimmer.

Therefore, if you needed more light, you had to burn more of those bulbs and would spend much more money on electricity.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph @edavies @yngmar and something that's key to remember here is that the light bulb manufacturers, through their relationship with companies that made generators, were very involved in the build out of the electricity grid.

Light bulbs were the main reason people wanted electricity initially, and if they started competing with each other on runtime, people would be using very energy-inefficient bulbs which would make the grid build out harder in addition to costing consumers more money.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph @edavies @yngmar The cartel, while it had some shady practices going on, was trying to get in front of people focusing on the wrong metric and making bad choices.

Because by the time light bulb production was automated and they were cheap enough that the operating cost exceeded the purchase cost, a long-lasting light bulb was literally a bad deal. They only made sense to use where it was hard to change light bulbs, as for general purpose lamps more frequent replacement was better.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph @edavies @yngmar and one last point. While I don't want to toot my own horn, if you don't understand what I'm saying, that video I made explains it very well.

Incandescent light bulb technology always had a trade-off between energy efficiency and lifespan. If you overdrive a tungsten lamp, you can get energy efficiency rivaling LEDs! But it will only last seconds. I demoed that.

1,000 hours was simply a decent sweet spot which the cartel standardized on and enforced.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph @edavies @yngmar and what exactly is the difference between this distinction?

My video was made not because I think the cartel was wholesome and pure, but because using it as an example of planned obsolescence... just doesn't work.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph

Like, I'll be honest and say that what really bothers me about this discussion is that in order for you to view the hourly limit as nefarious, you have to ignore both the engineering reality of tungsten light bulbs and the fact that electricity costs money too, more than purchasing the light bulbs.

As long as the operating cost is greater than the purchase cost, which it was, then that limit was actually in the best interest of consumers.

I don't think it's productive to dwell on it.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph I think, quite understandably, people are very skeptical of corporations making optimization decisions on behalf of other people.

But I don't see any way to describe this as an incorrect decision. Especially since, as you admit, that standard stayed a thing until the next millennium.

I hold both facts in my head that the cartel was a bad organization and that the hourly limit was actually a good thing. I don't think those are incompatible thoughts.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph sorry to infodump, but I want to make one last point.

Have you met the general public? If they are presented with two light bulb options, one of which is longer lasting, they will probably pick it. Big number better.

They are not going to do the research to figure out that a longer lasting light bulb is dimmer, so if you fill your house with those light bulbs, you'll need higher power bulbs to get the same amount of light.

The limit prevented ignorant people from making bad choices.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph and I'll say at one last time:

That is a distinction without a difference!

And I have to be honest with you, if all they wanted was to maximize their profits - why didn't they pick 250 hours?

All I'm saying is that a shady organization did a thing which happened to benefit practically everybody. I don't really care what the motive was, and as I said from the start, the purpose of my video is purely to say incandescent light bulbs are not a good example of planned obsolescence.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph I think it is just as revisionist to tell this story without explaining that there is a lifespan and efficiency trade-off.

And I also think it's incredibly unlikely that that was not part of the discussion when the standards were made and enforced.

We had perfected the technology by the time the cartel had been formed. The tungsten filament was the last significant innovation before halogen lamps.

If this cartel just happened to pick the right number by chance, whoopdeydoo.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph and not to put too fine a point on it, but long-life bulbs which are wasteful on energy just to allow people to buy them less frequently (but which end up costing consumers more because the electricity is more expensive than purchasing the light bulb!) are, to me, the same kind of waste that is driving a pickup truck around to commute.

I don't care who tells me that's a dumb idea! It's a dumb idea.

This is, imo, a rare case of true symbiosis between bulb manufacturers and the public.

TechConnectify , vor 21 Tagen

@jwcph so, I don't know what wavelength we are missing here but I'm not going to bother arguing anymore.

Frankly, if there's one thing that I think is revisionist? It's the idea that light bulbs could be a durable good in the first place.

Now, we have the technology to make that the case. In fact, we've had the technology for many decades! Fluorescent and high intensity discharge lamps have been around for a very long time. Yet incandescent bulbs stayed the same because they were optimized.

TechConnectify OP , vor 21 Tagen

I realize the target audience for this joke is a subsection of a subsection of a subsection of a subsection of the population but urinal cake factory popped in my head and it had to get out one way or another

TechConnectify , vor 22 Tagen

@JakeDK91 Hooray! Let me know how that works. I need fallbacks!

TechConnectify OP , vor 22 Tagen

I found a document that explained this meant there was a fault in the pothole protection board.

Not knowing what that was, I then searched for "pothole board sinoboom" and found that there are limit switches which detect that these little side-plates which swing out as the lift goes up have actually deployed. The board wasn't seeing that switch input.

So, I figured out where that switch was and discovered it was sticking. I exercised it a bit and the lift was fixed.

TechConnectify OP , vor 22 Tagen

Troubleshooting is a skill. I don't know how exactly it can be taught, but we should absolutely be teaching it.

I have never used a scissor lift in my life prior to this point but I know enough about machines now to realize something is wrong. And with an error code, the machine will tell you what's wrong.

It's up to you to connect these things together - and that's honestly a guiding light in my work.

TechConnectify OP , vor 22 Tagen

@sean oh god that didn't occur to me yet.

countdown until someone asks.

TechConnectify OP , vor 22 Tagen

@BasiliskXVIII Oh absolutely, and this is why I'm pretty cynical about "smart" tech like that.

I don't necessarily mind there being an app, but it need to be a layer on top of basic functionality. There has to be a fallback scheme which doesn't reduce functionality in any way or else the app is just another step on the path of enshittification.

TechConnectify OP , vor 22 Tagen

@MacSquizzy Yeah, I realized this after mulling this over a bit.

I might actually make a main channel video about this.

TechConnectify OP , vor 23 Tagen

@skaverat This is one of the things that's personally quite baffling to me!

Outside of folks with disabilities, I cannot understand what convenience the pods are actually giving people. The box of powder is trivial to use - just grab it and pour.

I know brains are different and some people will fixate (and stress) over how much to use, but I feel like it can't be such a large percentage of the population as to have effectively nuked the powder market.

TechConnectify OP , vor 23 Tagen

@skaverat It just smells way too much like the detergent manufacturers discovering a way to make more money by A) preventing people from stretching their detergent and B) inventing marketing gimmicks which make people believe their products are magic.

TechConnectify OP , vor 23 Tagen

@skaverat Hmm, that's an interesting angle. I also have had that problem with powder laundry detergent when using an old-fashioned top loader. I did eventually realize it was best to start it filling before loading clothes, but some modern machines don't let you do that anymore.

However, now I've got a front loader with a detergent tray and I've been using powder with zero issues at all. My only issue with powder is that the boxes are impossible to open without making a mess!

TechConnectify OP , vor 23 Tagen

@skaverat Pods are popular but I'd say they only have about 50% penetration.

It's super easy to get pods, liquids, or powders in most stores.