14 thoughts on “Oh, very good. Very, very good indeed”
Boganboy
‘it is less effort to build such a wondrous machine than to simply paint a doll’s eyebrows in their right places.’
When my microwave wouldn’t work, I decided that it was some internal switch or relay that was buggered. I also decided that trying to find someone to repair it, and paying the costs, wasn’t worth it. I bought a new microwave.
Bloke on M4
I mean, it does cost more to build the machine, but it’s that once built, it does the job for millions. It’s the same thing as Instagram floating when they had less than 20 employees. Build the software, keep it simple and it doesn’t matter if 10 people or 10 million people use it.
To some extent, this is what Elon gets about Twitter. You can run the core code with a relatively small number of people. What’s hard to automate is all the stuff around policing or promoting content. That’s where a lot of the costs were. Human beings have to decide if something is racist, porn etc.
bloke in spain
If it’s a one-day-it-doesn’t-work fault on a M/W it’s often the internal fuse. Just a matter of removing all the case screws & opening it up. With care because there can still be some high voltage lurking around. The amperage of the fuse should be marked on the original. But this is important. Even if a normal fuse of the right value fits, it’ll immediately fail. What’s needed is a “slow-blow” fuse. Can be bought at an electricians supplier or from a company like RS but not B&Q.
One suspects it’s the “slow-blow” property of the fuse that actually fails. One could suspect their inclusion in the circuitry is a part of the planned obsolescence strategy of the manufacturer.
Microwaves do seem to be the topic when talking about technological advances, don’t they?
My last one wasn’t even broken. Still sits in the kitchen cupboard as a spare in case of something. Just got a bit rusty and low power for the cooking instructions the have nowadays.
One day, strolling through Lidl I found a new one “Hadden 20 Litre Microwave with Grill” for about £70 and put it in the basket, simply because I could easily afford to do so and why the phuq not?
No hire purchase like our parents or scrimping and saving for a deposit and then 104 weekly instalments until it’s “Mine”. Nope, just wack it on the credit card and pay the bill off in it’s entirety at the end of the month.
We’re all as rich as Croesus and don’t even recognise it. Fewer diseases and internal parasites as well.
Which is why the NetZero and Climate Cultists cannot be allowed to win. Shouldn’t even be given the time of day.
dearieme
Microwaves, you say? We’ve recently upgraded our 2002 technology to 2012 technology.
Its flight control system has gone from two well-labelled, foolproof analogue knobs to lots of little digital buttons to press; underneath them is tiny explanatory black writing which, in contrast to the stainless steel, is so indistinct that I need a magnifying glass to read it. So we’ve written the key instructions on the stainless with a wax pencil.
We keep the old one in the front porch as a handy storage cabinet for tuck that doesn’t need refrigeration.
I think I’ve used the “Cook by Weight” function twice, both times to defrost chicken before grilling it in a proper cooker. For all the gadgetry microwaved chicken doesn’t taste right.
There are a ton of other functions I’ve never figured out what they’re for or how to use them, special functions for bread mixes or cakes.
Mostly it’s just twist the dial to 3:00 or 4:00 minutes and zap it on full power. That tends to do the job.
jgh
Similarly, my ten-year-old kettle died about a month ago. Being a technical type I went through all the sensible tests – fuse, plus, cable, base, all working, so it was clearly something within the sealed body of the kettle itself. Left for 24 hours in case it’s a slow reset breker. Nope. £20 quid later I had a new kettle and the old one is sitting in the cupboard waiting to go to the tip, along with its predecessor!
That modern economiy has developed to make so many products cheaper to throw away than to repair should be celebrated, not complained about.
Ottokring
My last meecrowavee’s paint started to peel so I went down to Argos ( at Sainsburys) and bought a new one. Instead of millions of settings like the last one, this has two knobs with a clockwork timer.
Boganboy
bloke in spain
April 20, 2023 at 8:57 am
Thanks bis. Regrettably I put my old microwave out for the council clean up. It’s long since vanished.
Chris Miller
For all the gadgetry microwaved chicken doesn’t taste right.
Microwaves won’t crisp the skin or activate the Maillard reaction. You could try a combo microwave with a grill, like JohnG’s.
dearieme
There must be a use for old kettles.
We use an old freezer in the garage as a paint store – it moderates extreme temperatures. The baskets from other old freezers are handy in the garden to keep the bloodymuntjac off the veggies.
jgh
dearieme: I’ll probably end up using it as a garden watering jug.
bloke in spain
You’re fortunate, dearieme. Muntjac eat remarkably well. Try a nylon snare in any gaps in the hedge then dispatch with a hammer.
Chris Miller
Muntjac are, indeed, tasty – though you won’t feed a family of 6 from one haunch. Do they have Muntjac in Spain? – I thought Britain was the only country cursed with them, thanks to the Duke of Bedford. I’ve never been able to explain why an uber-wealthy Victorian landowner would choose Muntjac to populate his deer park – they’re the warthog of the Cervid world.
‘it is less effort to build such a wondrous machine than to simply paint a doll’s eyebrows in their right places.’
When my microwave wouldn’t work, I decided that it was some internal switch or relay that was buggered. I also decided that trying to find someone to repair it, and paying the costs, wasn’t worth it. I bought a new microwave.
I mean, it does cost more to build the machine, but it’s that once built, it does the job for millions. It’s the same thing as Instagram floating when they had less than 20 employees. Build the software, keep it simple and it doesn’t matter if 10 people or 10 million people use it.
To some extent, this is what Elon gets about Twitter. You can run the core code with a relatively small number of people. What’s hard to automate is all the stuff around policing or promoting content. That’s where a lot of the costs were. Human beings have to decide if something is racist, porn etc.
If it’s a one-day-it-doesn’t-work fault on a M/W it’s often the internal fuse. Just a matter of removing all the case screws & opening it up. With care because there can still be some high voltage lurking around. The amperage of the fuse should be marked on the original. But this is important. Even if a normal fuse of the right value fits, it’ll immediately fail. What’s needed is a “slow-blow” fuse. Can be bought at an electricians supplier or from a company like RS but not B&Q.
One suspects it’s the “slow-blow” property of the fuse that actually fails. One could suspect their inclusion in the circuitry is a part of the planned obsolescence strategy of the manufacturer.
Microwaves do seem to be the topic when talking about technological advances, don’t they?
My last one wasn’t even broken. Still sits in the kitchen cupboard as a spare in case of something. Just got a bit rusty and low power for the cooking instructions the have nowadays.
One day, strolling through Lidl I found a new one “Hadden 20 Litre Microwave with Grill” for about £70 and put it in the basket, simply because I could easily afford to do so and why the phuq not?
No hire purchase like our parents or scrimping and saving for a deposit and then 104 weekly instalments until it’s “Mine”. Nope, just wack it on the credit card and pay the bill off in it’s entirety at the end of the month.
We’re all as rich as Croesus and don’t even recognise it. Fewer diseases and internal parasites as well.
Which is why the NetZero and Climate Cultists cannot be allowed to win. Shouldn’t even be given the time of day.
Microwaves, you say? We’ve recently upgraded our 2002 technology to 2012 technology.
Its flight control system has gone from two well-labelled, foolproof analogue knobs to lots of little digital buttons to press; underneath them is tiny explanatory black writing which, in contrast to the stainless steel, is so indistinct that I need a magnifying glass to read it. So we’ve written the key instructions on the stainless with a wax pencil.
We keep the old one in the front porch as a handy storage cabinet for tuck that doesn’t need refrigeration.
I think I’ve used the “Cook by Weight” function twice, both times to defrost chicken before grilling it in a proper cooker. For all the gadgetry microwaved chicken doesn’t taste right.
There are a ton of other functions I’ve never figured out what they’re for or how to use them, special functions for bread mixes or cakes.
Mostly it’s just twist the dial to 3:00 or 4:00 minutes and zap it on full power. That tends to do the job.
Similarly, my ten-year-old kettle died about a month ago. Being a technical type I went through all the sensible tests – fuse, plus, cable, base, all working, so it was clearly something within the sealed body of the kettle itself. Left for 24 hours in case it’s a slow reset breker. Nope. £20 quid later I had a new kettle and the old one is sitting in the cupboard waiting to go to the tip, along with its predecessor!
That modern economiy has developed to make so many products cheaper to throw away than to repair should be celebrated, not complained about.
My last meecrowavee’s paint started to peel so I went down to Argos ( at Sainsburys) and bought a new one. Instead of millions of settings like the last one, this has two knobs with a clockwork timer.
bloke in spain
April 20, 2023 at 8:57 am
Thanks bis. Regrettably I put my old microwave out for the council clean up. It’s long since vanished.
For all the gadgetry microwaved chicken doesn’t taste right.
Microwaves won’t crisp the skin or activate the Maillard reaction. You could try a combo microwave with a grill, like JohnG’s.
There must be a use for old kettles.
We use an old freezer in the garage as a paint store – it moderates extreme temperatures. The baskets from other old freezers are handy in the garden to keep the bloodymuntjac off the veggies.
dearieme: I’ll probably end up using it as a garden watering jug.
You’re fortunate, dearieme. Muntjac eat remarkably well. Try a nylon snare in any gaps in the hedge then dispatch with a hammer.
Muntjac are, indeed, tasty – though you won’t feed a family of 6 from one haunch. Do they have Muntjac in Spain? – I thought Britain was the only country cursed with them, thanks to the Duke of Bedford. I’ve never been able to explain why an uber-wealthy Victorian landowner would choose Muntjac to populate his deer park – they’re the warthog of the Cervid world.