Comment by leonroy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by leonroy | Hacker News Reader

* Blendtec Blender - blew my first pay cheque on one nearly 10 years ago and it still looks and works good as new. Absolutely superb design and construction.

* AGA Oven - I don't own one, but my parents do and growing up this thing was just incredible. Still looks and works like new. I honestly have never used an oven which looks and cooks so damn good.

* Apple (Unibody) Macbook Pro - Despite my present feelings towards Apple right now cough Mac Pro cough. I can't really say enough good things about the unibody Macbooks - no other laptop surpasses it and it's been nearly 8 years since Apple's unibody construction was introduced.

* Devialet Phantom speaker - it's an engineering marvel - nothing like it.

* HP Proliant Servers - despite HP's awful website and support policies their Proliant range are the most well designed, well thought out servers I've ever used.

* And this garlic press - can't recommend it enough :) http://www.kuhnrikonshop.com/product/epicurean-garlic-press

> HP Proliant Servers - despite HP's awful website and support policies their Proliant range are the most well designed, well thought out servers I've ever used.

Their ProCurve networking equipment is also excellent. They also have a lifetime warranty [0] (first owner) meaning if the switch ever breaks, they'll replace it. I've read online this even applies to 15 year old switches.

They changed the warranty somewhat after people started buying broken switches on eBay and RMA'ing them to HP for replacement. [1]

I've had personal experience with a dead HP ProCurve switch in a previous position. They sent us an advance replacement with next day shipping. I don't particularly like what they're doing to ProLiant line (e.g. firmware updates now require a paid support subscription, or a torrent), but I still recommend ProCurve switches to everyone looking for a good L2/L3 managed switch.

Also they're damn cheap these days. I was looking recently and you can pick up a managed 24 port GigE HP (1910-24G or 2910al-24G) for under $100 USD on eBay. My 1910-24G idles at 12W.

The 2910al will even accept 10Gbit expansion cards (on the back) so you can have up to 4 10GBit ports per switch.

[0] https://community.hpe.com/t5/Networking/Lifetime-Warranty-2-...

[1] http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1483888

I have to argue with the last one, I think this garlic press https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/oxo-good-grip... is superior. When you're done with this one, you rotate the handle all the way around and the rubber cleaner on the back cleans the press.

I've used both, and mine is easier to clean.

You've hit on something though - it's amazing how many people out there suffer with badly designed kitchen utensils. it's like a blindspot where you don't realise that you could buy a much better vegetable peeler / potato masher / garlic press that would literally make your life easier every day, for the price of a cinema ticket.

The IKEA 365 garlic press is simple, sturdy, clever and only seven bucks: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20152158/?query=I...

The receptacle swings open, making cleaning trivial.

the problem with that one is that the garlic also gets up around the plunger, and you have to clean that out too. more moving parts = more to clean

You want this, no moving parts: https://www.amazon.com/Joseph-20037-Crusher-Dishwasher-Stain...

(Explained here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13693661)

I worked as an assistant mechanic for a few years, and it was a running joke that if something took me more than 15 minutes, the head mechanic probably had a tool to do it in 1.

It's incredible how much a good tool helps, and it really goes to show the difference between a rookie and a master even when they are both doing the exact same job by reading the steps from a sheet that tells you what to do.

I'd reach for a socket, he'd grab my arm and hand me a ratcheting wrench knowing I'd need it before we even cracked open the hood.

I'd try to unscrew a stuck phillips head screw from a rotor, he'd stop me and hand me a tool which you put in the screw and hit with a hammer and it gets it unstuck.

I'd start trying to pry an exhaust off, he'd hand me a blowtorch, tell me to heat it for like 15 seconds, then hit it with a hammer and watch it fall to the ground.

I'm on my second OXO garlic press because the hinge on the first one cracked. They did replace it for me for free, but I was surprised that it broke at all. It does not feel like a cheap tool and I'm not sure I could break the hinge on it again if someone challenged me to.

Ditch the garlic press and get a rocker [1], it's so much better. Instead of putting individual cloves in the compartment and pressing together, you just press the rocker onto every clove until you've collected everything. And instead of having to dig the remaining unpressed stuff out of the compartment, you just scrape them directly into the bin. Much easier to clean, too.

There are cheaper versions on Amazon, but I believe Joseph Joseph is the original design.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Joseph-20037-Crusher-Dishwasher-Stain...

  > HP Proliant Servers

gods I miss the old DL380 G3 we had in 2009. Its internal USB port and rocketship of parts let me use it to replace a server closet with a bunch of VM & got me familiar with Xen & VMware ESXi

I used 380 G6 and G7s. Loved them too.

I love the odometer on the blendtec. I think we are something like 1600 blends and it still powers through anything we throw at it. It's been about 5 or 6 years. It better not die the day after the 10 year warranty runs out!

The only complaint would be sometimes we wish it had the integrated stir stick that the Vitamix comes with. If there's not enough liquid in your smoothy it tends to not blend through everything without a bit of shaking the carafe.

I run a g6 dl160 (SmartOS) and g6 dl180 (Freenas) at my house. Both from eBay for a total of $800.

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