pandamonium54's Profile

I should add:

Sometimes I do buy organic. Frequently this is when there is a sale on the organic product that puts it at or near the price of the regular produce. And even then, the organic produce must seem as fresh or more fresh than the regular produce.

Other things I am willing to pay a premium for (occasionally) include free range chicken. It tastes better than the regular chicken, and for that reason, I am willing to pay a modest premium. I can't say the same of beef/etc. Some of the grass fed stuff does taste noticeably better, but the price premium is atrocious. And when the grass fed beef goes on sale, it frequently has a shelf life of 48hrs or less. For the sake of freshness, I'll take my conventional hormone injected beef over near-expiry grass fed beef.

The Microsoft Natural keyboards tend to be the most ergonomic of those that I have tried. There are a few other keyboards purported to be more ergonomic, but their designs are too radical for my taste. (Imagine keys lining the inside of two hemispheres)

There's no need for a keyboard stand if you have an ergonomic office chair. The chair here couldn't be further from ergonomic. There are zero adjustments: no height, no armrests, no swivel, no tilt, no seat depth variance, no lumbar support, no casters.... It's completely form over function. A proper office chair would allow you to rest your elbows at the level of your desk. For short people with tall desks, a footrest might be needed.

For those who spend the greater part of a workday in an office chair, it is not too hard to justify an expensive model. We already accept that we should buy the best mattress that works with our bodies because we spend ~1/3 of our lives in bed. We should also recognize that we spend another ~1/3 of our lives in office chairs.

When I read "budget", I think "affordable for a recent college grad". Few of the chairs listed here fall into that price territory.

That said, after spending several months two years ago doing exhaustive research on task chairs, I firmly believe that the mantra "we're too poor to buy cheap" is especially fitting for task chairs.

So while I wouldn't use the word "budget" in this post, I would include the Herman Miller Embody, Herman Miller Mirra, Steelcase Think, and maybe the Humanscale Liberty.

In any case, a task chair is a very personal purchase. I can easily spend >8 hrs/day working in my task chair. That nearly edges out my use of my mattress. So for me, it made sense to splurge on a chair and a mattress. We should all evaluate our own situation before buying products that we expect to heavily use.

Water soluble ink would need to be able to withstand condensation and high humidity to be useful. If I had red ink smearing all over toilet paper/paper towels, I'd be pretty upset.

Dishwasher safe beater knife: Victorinox Chef's knife with fibrox handle (~$25)
This one comes up repeatedly as the best value because of its relatively good steel at an affordable price point. I used to use mine as my primary knife but now it does duty as a makeshift butcher knife to go through roasted poultry joints.

If money isn't really an issue, you should decide whether you want german steel or japanese steel. German blades are sharpened at 20 degrees on each side, IIRC. Japanese brands usually go for something around 16 degrees on each side.

I went with Japanese (Shun classic) because the VG10 steel holds the 32 degree point about as long as German steel holds a 40 degree point. More expensive Japanese steel (SG2 I believe) can hold edges even longer. Also, after a 20% BB&B coupon, I got a set of Shun classics for about $200 out the door.

Just to chime in on the MDF talk. MDF is inferior to wood in nearly every aspect except for cost and maybe regularity. And if you have access to a good planer or jointer, regularity is a non-issue.

MDF swells if it absorbs water. There are sealants that you can use to protect it from water, but the sealants will eventually give way. And when MDF absorbs water (I write from experience) the swelling can be extremely pronounced.

Just my $0.02, but if you want a crafting table, it's easier to start with a crafting table. You rescued a woodworking/shop table, but I really question the utility you'll get from trying to use that table in a crafting setting.

This belonged in a garage wood shop. It's hard to judge the condition of the worksurface, but the first picture didn't look bad at all. I suppose that the bench wasn't deep enough, and the drawers needed proper rails, but the top itself looked like it had ample space to accomodate various presses and jigs.

I realize that Microsoft is trying to deliver a cohesive interface across desktop/laptop, tablet, and mobile. To a certain extent, I agree with it. However, I don't think this execution is particularly fitting. The fact remains that on a desktop (and some laptops), you have far more hardware resources on tap that there's no need to reduce to a 16 color tile-space for energy savings. Furthermore, people will have keyboards and mice/trackpad inputs. Tablets and phones are a different beast altogether. In that space, we have limited CPUs and GPUs, are extremely battery conscious, and generally rely on touch inputs.

Were I Microsoft, I would have created an equivalent of a Mac "Dashboard" and put the Metro UI there. Perhaps multiple "Dashboards" to correspond to individual Win8 tablets and phones. But then I would leave the general UI to more of a Win7 feel.

Apple has yet to fully show its hand with respect to a unified interface, but the small changes that it has been pushing in the past (10.6->10.7->10.8) have me thinking that Apple is closer to a good solution than what Microsoft is presenting with Win8.

Before any Microsoft or Apple zealots get on my case: I am a former hardware junkie and ran Microsoft-only from Win 3.11 to 7. In the past three years, I phased out my desktop for a hybrid laptop (Dell Latitude XT2) before switching over to a 15" Macbook Pro running Parallels for the rare instances I needed to run Windows-specific applications. I think that makes me well qualified to cast judgment on both camps. In my opinion, the major PC OEMs simply outspec and outvalue Apple in almost all categories save build quality, displays, and trackpads. Meanwhile Apple's tight control of its hardware and software ecosystem allows it to make software that is highly optimized for (sometimes limited) hardware and provide a generally cohesive user experience. The trade-off is that power users like myself will find themselves frustrated with the inability to tweak to our heart's content. I used to look at computers as a hobby; now I view them as appliances and tools. So while I do get frustrated with Apple's products not letting me get that 10% extra functionality, I have spent zero effort in establishing the first 90% of functionality. The same cannot be said of my experience with Microsoft and Google's products.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say that historical or not, the new owners should be able to do as they see fit to the house.

I have no qualms with using the dollar as a basis of comparison. If the general public truly valued this house, the general public should pool funds and buy it instead of declaring it a historical landmark. Some may argue that it's too difficult to pool funds, or that it's too difficult to organize ownership. If it's too difficult for people who "value" and "treasure" a property to organize, then my perspective is that it is not valued enough or treasured enough to be worthwhile.

While I happen to like this particular house, there are plenty of "historical landmarks" that are eyesores, non-functional, or otherwise inefficient in their current state. I say let the people who have a vested interest in the property do what they can to improve the property. Ostensibly they would improve it such that the rest of society would desire it (and therefore buy a post-renovation/demo property). So if someone were to come and buy the properties later, that purchaser has effectively justified the demolition.

Just my $0.02.

Personally I'd rather have a foot pedal operated faucet....