It really isn't. I keep seeing comparisons to the last seasons of Game of Thrones, but while there is a dip in quality this season, it is no where near as bad as what happened to GoT.
I rewatched it in recent weeks and enjoyed all the bits that I enjoyed years ago during the first watch. The stories I found a bit tedious first time (High Sparrow plotline, Arya and faceless men) weren't as miserable; I think I was expecting them to drag on even more. My biggest grievance on the rewatch was just how poorly it's all tied up. I again enjoyed The Long Night through the lens of 'spectacle over military documentary'. The last season just felt like they wrote themselves into a corner and didn't have time and patience to see it through. By that point, actors were ready to move on, etc.
I don't really view this as the show runners fault. GRRM was unable to complete his own work. The show worked best when it drew from the authors own material (GRRM was a screenwriter himself and knew how to write great dialog/scenes).
It's absolutely the producer's fault. They actively choose to release the product they did instead of making more episodes, taking long, bringing other people in to help, etc.
Martin has claimed he flew to HBO to convince them to do 10 seasons of 10 episodes instead of the 8 seasons with just 8 episodes in the final one [1]. It was straight up just D.B. Weiss and David Benioff call how the series ended.
They, like 7kids and 4 adults, I did not bother to count, did attack military base, with actual military trained personnel with military equipment. And they did succeed. This is not bad? They just stroll in upside down and nothing ever attacks them. Where the swarm of bats disappeared? When demogorgons attack to kidnap kids they come from upside down. But in upside down they nowhere to be seen. Military general could disappear from the series and it would have no impact. Maybe they just wanted woman in position of power? Demogorgons attack entire military base personnel and kill dozens of people but then they are killed by hospital patient. When and why she setup that trap exactly? And how she now can speak? How white goo is easy to brake but also solid enough so it does not brake under the pressure of the entire building ? How and why it just appears and solidifies in the exact right moment? And excuse me.... But wormhole? Could not they thing of something else? Oh and Vecna killing a guy. And we did not even see what was in the case. They are under strict quarantine but have personnel smuggler that can just bring them everything they want. It is not bad it is terrible.
They were not even in hurry. If that was important for the viewers it should be even more important to the characters. If this was not important and they do not care then the whole premise of traumatic Vecna memory was useless pile of utter garbage because memory cannot be traumatic and not important. Ever had trauma doing grocerries? Or riding a cab? And then they should not be able to escape. Because he would get them before that.
They just invent stuff that they have no idea how to explain later. Just like Lost.
I’ve never watched Game of Thrones, but I doubt their dialogue is so robotic and frankly just feels incredibly formulaic. It just feels like ST ran out of ideas three years ago and have just been recycling the same scene over and over and over again.
Now if someone could release an optimization like this for the M4 Max I would be so happy. Last time I tried generating a video it was something like an hour for a 480p 5-second clip.
What’s interesting is, like the other products, it was designed and marketed for one purpose but has become very popular for another. (Although in this case it could well just be a fashion, especially given how uniquely identifiable the product is.)
The main aspect of the design for popularity being low price, bought with subpar quality. It will fade soon after recent examination mentioned in sister comments to yours.
It doesn't fit into the list as a revolution (or even 'evolution') as it's just a high-density, compact and cheap battery [1] that turns out to be quite unsafe [2].
My kids would routinely put in too much powder, which would gunk up the dispensing mechanism, requiring my time and effort to clean it out and fix it. Eventually the dispenser broke entirely and had to be replaced. We since switched to pods and haven't had any problems with the dispenser. The pods are worth every extra cent.
I've used a washing machine like this.
For the feature to be useful, it has to be correctly implemented. Unfortunately, all r&d budget apparently, goes into developing vendor's mobile application and wifi connectivity, not on basic mechanics inside.
That’s how my Miele washing machine works and I love it.
You put two large detergent containers in (one for whites and one for colours) and then forget about them. The machine reminds you when you’re running low and allows you to reorder more thru the app.
I have no idea if it’s cheaper or not, but anecdotally they feel like they last a long time. Ultimately, I don’t care, because of the convenience and the fact I know the machine is working out the correct dose per wash (the machine has a touchscreen interface that allows you to state what’s in the wash: T-shirts, denim, towels, etc. the level of soiling, etc. Then it works out the temperature, duration, drying time, and correct detergent type and dosage)
Miele has home dishwashers that do this now. But like all things consumer, it's a proprietary system that's designed to keep you locked into a subscription relationship with the company.
I looked at Miele, saw the requirement for using their refill containers (TwinDos†). Noticed an option for using not theirs as a fallback but it all seemed a bit convoluted.
Then I took a look at some high-ish end LG and they had sort of the same principle (EZDispense††), except the dispenser sits like a usual tray that you fill in with regular off-the-shelf liquid stuff, and then you're good for a while. The whole wifi/app stuff is entirely optional, the machine is fully functional through the panel without the app. So I got that one, very happy so far.
I have one of these. The detergent gizmo is a hard plastic shell with an interesting shape, powdered detergent inside, and a plastic film cover that looks like it’s heat-sealed on. It contains no electronics whatsoever. You can refill it, and the only limitation is that it’s kind of awkward to open, fill, and re-seal. The easiest way IMO is to cut a large flap in the hard plastic on the sides, then tape it down after refilling. It works fine.
Also, the Miele powdered detergent, in my personal opinion, sucks. And it leaves some residue behind. Yuck.
True for their dishwashers. But to their credit, Miele's washing machines actually come with two additional cassettes that you can fill with your (liquid) detergent of choice. You don't have to use Miele's proprietary ones.
PowerDisk? As long as you load salt and rinse aid, it works like a charm. As you said, if you want to save a bit of money, you can 3D print a replacement. But they last long enough that I don’t mind the cost.
What do salt and rinse aid have to do with it? Those have been things you load into a reservoir when prompted for years. And for those of us who live in HN’s homeland where the water is very soft, you may get better results by not loading rinse aid (there’s some moderately compelling evidence that rinse aid is rather toxic to digestive tracts, and it doesn’t even have much rinsing benefit if you’re rinsing with soft-enough and low-enough-TDS water), and the salt is also unnecessary with soft water. You do need to poke at the dishwasher settings to make it happy without rinse aid and salt, but this is well documented in the manual.
If you should be using them and aren’t, the detergent in the disks doesn’t work. With them (I live with hard water, though a home filter takes a lot of it out) the disks work quite well in my experience.
I had that on a GE Profile from I think 1999 if I remember right. It was pretty nice. I think it's still a feature on some of them.
That dishwasher was great and lasted over 20 years. The previous owners had definitely abused it and never cleaned it. I repaired it and had about the best dishwasher for a few more years. Eventually the main logic board went out (can't blame it too much, had electrical issues that killed a few things) and a replacement board was going to cost a few hundred dollars in parts even from questionable third party sellers. Seemed to be a good bit to sink on what was a highly abused >20 year old washing machine at the time.
as someone who's gone down the rabbit hole of dishwasher home repair, I've created more problems than I've solved. I agree that maintenance is important, but when you get into replacing the seals and gaskets that can result in water flooding into your kitchen, i decided recently to draw a line. I'm now the proud owner of some fancy leak detection / moisture detection IOS products as a result. (and yes I'm aware there are better, low tech solutions like the "frog" on the market, but I chose to torture myself instead)
Put a drop of food colour on a paper towel. Let dry. Then leave that where drips might happen. The colour will run. I leave it for a few days after every plumbing repair.
Yeesh I'm starting to sound like a Bosch shill but they've had leak detection in all but their bottom rung dishwashers for a few generations. The current ones will actively pump the water out when a leak is detected.
I was almost tempted into buying an all-in-one unit that washes and dries. Only a few brands are releasing these heat-pump based models currently and it doesn't seem quite ready for mainstream release. But the LG model I found did have the ability to preload it with detergent and run up to 60 cycles before filling again. I almost bought it just for that feature. But went with the older more reliable model instead. Maybe in 10 years after this washing machine dies the feature will be more prevalent and reliable.
I think long term, having two "all-in-one" combo washer and driers would make way more sense than separate washing and drying units. But the price for functionality just isn't there yet.
Both the LG and GE heat pump all-in-one units come with auto detergent dispensers. For the life of me I can't imagine wanting one more thing to break, especially on an LG product as LG is notoriously poor with parts availability.
My Samsung bespoke combo washer dryer has that feature. It uses less detergent than we are used to so my wife uses pods, but I think this is better un general since the clothes come out clean even if they don’t smell like detergent. So not only do I not need to load detergent, I don’t need to transfer to the dryer. Still have to load sanitizer in unfortunately.
In the few months I’ve had the Samsung All-in-One my experience has been at least a 50% increase in time spent drying compared to an LG stack I had previously. Also, when complete, if you do get to it within 5 to 10 minutes of finishing, it feels damp, but that clears on its own after 15 to 30 minutes or so if it sitting in the dryer with the door automatically opened.
Very pleased with the experience personally. I am very happy to trade not having to transfer the laundry in the middle with it simply being done when I get back to it a few hours later. YMMV.
Samsung has both heat pump (the one talked about above) and vented (similar to normal dryers) versions. LG doesn’t have a vented version yet. Condensers are slower than heat pumps, if you don’t have a vent and/or a 240V outlet, heat pump is the way to go. I personally chose a vented one because it was replacing existing machines. In NYC, heat pumps are more popular since a lot of apartments don’t come with vents or 240V (and definitely in the UK where they put the washer/dryer in the kitchen, you also see these all over Japan, all heat pump versions).
He says that having the ability to tailor the amount of powder for the size of the load is one of the selling points of powder. But I'm guessing most people would much rather waste the few cents of savings in exchange for not needing to think about their dishes even that tiny bit extra.
amount of water used in washing cycle is +/- same, not dependent on size of load. reducing amount of powder will create weaker concentration and reduce cleaning capabilities of machine/detergent.
in reality, reducing amount of powder won't change much most of the time, because majority of cleaning happens due to physical action of (hot) water. there were multiple times when I was forgetting to put detergent and dishes went out clean. it mostly makes difference for some very dry/backed on stuff.
My process is to use cheap Walmart powder for prewash and Kirkland pods in the dispenser. Avoids any over filling issues.
I used to just use the Kirkland pods and they worked fine too. The reason I started using powder in prewash is to get any loose fat dissolved so that it doesn’t clog over a period of time, not sure if that’s a valid concern. And yes, I do run hot water before starting the dishwasher.
My issue is the pods fail to dissolve ~5% of the time and leave a gunk that clogs the dispenser which again requires time and effort to clean. I'm convinced by the video to try powder again but I've had the filming issue with almost every powder I've tried. So, we'll see what happens...
I have a pet theory this is due to a wet pod tray: the pod's film partially melts and sticks to the tray before it's released. I made a habit of wiping the tray dry with a piece of paper before loading the pod and this stopped happening to me.
I (as is common for many middle-class South Africans) have a domestic worker who cleans the house, and in general you just have to accept that domestic workers will tend to use quite a bit more cleaning products than is necessary. At least with tablets, they will always use a set amount.
It's not their money that they're needlessly wasting and the thing not being clean is a more immediately noticeable problem with their work than you finding you're spending a lot more than usual on cleaning products.
It also wouldn't work to try give them a budget on cleaning products as then you're encouraging them to skimp on using enough so they get more money in their pocket.
Although our domestic worker is a lovely person who I help out as much as I can, at the end of the day she has limited skills and education, so can't demand very much of a salary, hence why she and many others in her position is a domestic worker.
When you're the one who does all the cleaning yourself and pay for the products you use, you'll try find the amount to use that definitely gets the job done, but isn't needlessly wasteful.
I also like the convenience of the tablets, you don't have to think about the amount or possibly making a mess or pouring too much powder in, etc.
Interesting enough, where I live we also can have domestic workers without being filthy rich. But we've seen the exactly opposite problem: people trust a single product for everything and will use the least amount of it because "it's good enough". The current person working at our place uses dish detergent to clean the entire house unless we tell her everyday to not do it. The previous one used bleach, and ruined most of our bath and hand towels.
This is ignorant culture war politics and/or anti-Texasism.
I should point out that cold temperatures place a huge demand on the grid because consumers don't want to winterize for the marginal once-a-decade blizzard any more than utilities; around half our homes have relatively inefficient resistance heaters as opposed to furnaces.
We have a lot more growth in the past few years than most other places, both in relative terms, and in absolute (big state + high growth introduces more absolute friction than small state). Demand is forecast to rise over 20% from 2024 levels vs. an American average under 5%: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/images/2025.07.31/main.svg
So no wonder our reserve margins run thinner when we're already having to build at such speed just to keep pace with regular demand.
Texas has been building a ton of wind and solar to supplement generation capacity and is taking some leadership in the next-gen nuclear stuff for a reliable base load, but in the mean time the shortage of CCGTs is going to bite in a state where demand goes up this much, this fast. SB6 passed this summer also should help with reasonable control and oversight.
ERCOT actually does a pretty okay job, all things considered; it's hard to invest heavily in winterization for rare events when you're having to invest heavily in new generation to keep up with steadily increasing baseline load.
> ERCOT actually does a pretty okay job, all things considered; it's hard to invest heavily in winterization for rare events when you're having to invest heavily in new generation to keep up with steadily increasing baseline load.
I'm going to have to strongly disagree here. It's particularly easy when you have to invest heavily in new generation to keep up with steadily increasing baseline load. Retrofitting winterization is more expensive. If you build in support for winterization when you build the capacity in the first place (which is what happens with sane regulatory oversight), it's all quite inexpensive. It'd be one thing if the cold was a once a century surprise, but when you know you're going to have cold events multiple times over the lifetime of your equipment, it's really easy to do this right.
Considering how much the Texas state government has been illegally trampling its own residents’ rights recently, mostly for the sake of private corruption, and backed by incredibly bad faith anti-social rhetoric, perhaps reflexive anti-Texas-elected-officials-ism is a reasonable baseline position.
I don't think their comment was either ignorant or anti-Texan. Essentially all of the conclusions in the FERC report on the February 2021 events were those of regulatory failure. Generating assets did not have winterization plans that state inspectors actually enforced, most of the failed assets failed at temperatures above their design minima, natural gas delivery system were totally deregulated at the state level, ERCOT winter forecast practices were poor, etc.
The large majority of normal people would take the half price electricity than the highly regulated, never-ever-have-an-outage electricity that's way more expensive.
> would you feel common ground with a predatory fish?
The fish needs to eat, I need to eat. The fish has the drive to procreate, so do I, or at least I have a sex drive.
> Or a plant?
We both need sunlight to live, we both require a breathable atmosphere. We both need water.
> An insect colony?
Much of the above applies here as well, in addition to that I can see similarities between a large insect colony and our large cities, how things move, how roads and buildings are adjusted for efficiencies, how bad actors can harm the system.
Yes, I can see common ground between myself and all three of those things you listed.
Not the parent comment but what's your point? You can't use that common ground for anything, let alone communication, can you?. The fish wants to fuck? You want to too, what now? How do you stablish a common ground to understanding based on such things?
Pertinent here is that said fish has done something notable enough to have been discovered from, literally, across the galaxy. Those fish built some sort of civilization such that they're sending our lasers, radio waves, or building Dyson spheres.
And yet, look at how pretty much every human society deals with immigrants/refugees. We most often find the least common ground between races, ethnicities, nationalities, or any other way to create outgroups, and you think humanity will handle an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization well?
> We most often find the least common ground between races, ethnicities, nationalities, or any other way to create outgroups, and you think humanity will handle an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization well?
But we find PLENTY of common grownds when we talk to the smartesr of those groups and races, across milenia and continents via groups, scientific forums, discussion books.
We find very little common grounds when we have forced encounters with the uneducated trouble makers up to no good, in systems designed for high trust abused by said individuals.
> We find very little common grounds when we have forced encounters with the uneducated trouble makers up to no good, in systems designed for high trust abused by said individuals.
I'd bet good money lots of non-Western European civilizations had that same thought after the English, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. rolled up on their shores.
> I'd bet good money lots of non-Western European civilizations had that same thought after the English, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. rolled up on their shores.
