What are you eating?

[Luke]

Oh boy. I wouldn't say the leftovers were better than the dinner, but it is close.

Made a sandwich with leftover prime rib, on sauerkraut rye bread with a heap of horseradish. I'm a meat purist, but see nothing wrong with using condiments on a beef sandwich. To each their own, but I'll never understand people who put steak sauce or ketchup on a steak. S&P is all it needs. Maybe a pat of butter if it's a cheap steak (I'm looking at you NY Strip and T-Bone).

[AppleQueso]

Just spitballing.

"Smart Fridge".

Touch panel monitor on front of fridge showing you what is currently in the fridge without having to open it.

Display screen to remind you that you are "Low on milk".

Wi-fi enabled to look up recipes, displayed right on the fridge.

"There's an app for that" - mobile reminders of what you need to pick up at the grocery store.

"What's for dinner?" voice programming. "Monday. Lasagne, garlic bread and green beans"

A freezer with a flash frozen option.

Faux interchangeable paneling to match any cabinet.

NO water or ice dispenser.

One of the many reasons I love just looking around at big hardware stores like Lowe's. All the crazy expensive appliances that I know i'll never own.

I mean they had a washing machine with a touchscreen and usb port.

[Nintendork666]

Turkey n' taters.

[Luke]

I mean they had a washing machine with a touchscreen and usb port.

Washing machines should have an empty/full gauge where you can just dump a whole container of washing soap in one go.

We're not too far from simply dumping the laundry in a machine and saying "Wash. Cool".

That said P&G has a solid hold on detergents and may not want that. Greedy bastards.


Back on topic, Sunday is my guilty pleasure food day. Tonight I'm chubbing it up with corn dogs, mac and cheese, and steamed broccoli.

[BoringSupreez]

Back on topic, Sunday is my guilty pleasure food day. Tonight I'm chubbing it up with corn dogs, mac and cheese, and steamed broccoli.

Sunday's my day of excess as well - but it usually consists of store-brand french fries or potato chips with greasy sandwiches and maybe a beer. When you haven't had it in a while, cheap processed food tastes seriously awesome.

[Luke]

Sunday's my day of excess as well - but it usually consists of store-brand french fries or potato chips with greasy sandwiches and maybe a beer. When you haven't had it in a while, cheap processed food tastes seriously awesome.

I call it "Football Food". But when Baseball comes around, it's "Baseball Food". I make excuses to pig out.

Beside "Texas Crispers" I'm not a fan of frozen fries as they don't taste like potatoes. But I'm going to eat a tofu corndog so what do I know?

[Hobie-wan]

We're not too far from simply dumping the laundry in a machine and saying "Wash. Cool".

We're already at the point where appliances don't last for shit anymore because of all the complicated electronics. Dumb old mechanical ones lasted forever. Sure they were a little less efficient, but they required less components to make, less maintenance, and lasted decades. All of that uses resources too. My parents have already had many repair calls on their fridge and chest freezer that they've had 4 or 5 years. JMustang has had nothing but problems with his new washer too.

[elmagicochrisg]

Sure they were a little less efficient, but they required less components to make, less maintenance, and lasted decades.

Up until 3 years ago I still used the Moulinex my mother bought to make my baby food. Had to throw it away. Not because the motor stopped working, but because after 32 years the plastic around the blades was completely worn away and the motor had no more grip on the blades. Otherwise it was in perfect shape...

Two years ago I found one for €3 on a flea market just like the one I had. Still works like a charm... ^^

Try doing that with a modern food processor... lol

[Ivo]

We're already at the point where appliances don't last for shit anymore because of all the complicated electronics. Dumb old mechanical ones lasted forever. Sure they were a little less efficient, but they required less components to make, less maintenance, and lasted decades. All of that uses resources too. My parents have already had many repair calls on their fridge and chest freezer that they've had 4 or 5 years. JMustang has had nothing but problems with his new washer too.

I think this is an unfair assessment of the situation. It is indeed true that modern stuff doesn't last long, but I don't think it is necessarily because of the electronics. It is because they are explicitly built cheap (in more than one sense).

If you compare the prices of an old appliance with a new one, adjusted for inflation, you will tend to see that the new ones are both better (in practically everything except durability) AND less expensive. Part of that is technological developments, but a part is also that appliances are made for the masses of a consumer sociecty - planned obsolescence also comes into it, I think.

Back in the day, how many people had an (expensive) appliance? They were luxury items, and they better last for what people paid (or at least it should be possible to repair it and so on). Nowadays basically everyone in a developed country has a set, and if something malfunctions it is often cheaper to buy a new one than to track down the necessary parts etc.

I reckon even today you can buy a very expensive, "upper class" appliance that is built to last and it will. But most of the "regular" ones are built to be cheap.

Ivo.

[Hobie-wan]

If you compare the prices of an old appliance with a new one, adjusted for inflation, you will tend to see that the new ones are both better (in practically everything except durability) AND less expensive.

I think taking durability into consideration, the older ones still win. My grandparents had an old International Harvester (the tractor people) refrigerator in her garage when I was little that had been made in the 50s I believe. It had a latch closing mechanism and a lot of the handle was busted off, but it still worked great otherwise. When we sold our old house around 1990, we put in a new fridge and the old one (itself over 20 years old at that point) went into her garage to swap out, but only because the old handle was so messed up. Now that fridge is still ticking away in the garage there and I'm pretty sure it has never needed a repair of any kind.

As I noted, the fridge my parents have now that is 4 or 5 years old, it has had on different occasions, the ice maker, outside display, and some major portion of the cooling system replaced. Last time I visited, the display was messed up again but they were just living with it.