Jeremy Garcia, Bryan Lunduke, Jono Bacon, and Stuart Langridge present Bad Voltage, in which we discuss technology, social media, milkshakes, history, and argue violently about:
Is putting together technical solutions to social problems a good idea? Can we enforce or
encourage good social rules through technical means? (3.30)
Blender review by the whole team (18.34)
We speak to Emma Marshall from System76, who manufacture and sell laptops, desktops and servers with
Ubuntu (29.34)
The "reverso" debate: Bryan and Stuart debate whether desktops should be simple or complicated, but (and this is the key point) argue for the position opposite to what they actually believe (40.16) Vote now for who you think did the best job!
I’m with Stuart here. A food processor is a great machine. We have the old Vita-mix.
Talk about ugly. @jeremy mentioned not knowing what the tamper is for. With these machines, at least the old ones, things could stick to the sides and then the blades would spin on nothing. So the tamper would be used to push things back down into the blades. Edit: You may notice there is a plastic sleeve on top of the dome. That prevents the tamper from going into the blades. Guess what happens when you (I) forget to put that sleeve in?
But, we find a food processor to be much more useful. Can you make mayonnaise in a blender, yes, but it’s much easier in a food processor. Same with almond butter and grating vegetables. These could be done in a vitamix, but not as well.
However, a blender would be more practical for drinks and other uses. Just need the proper tool for the job. But, I would give up the blender before giving up the food processor.
A powerful blender would fare better with an ipod than a food processor, even if it might upset our resident Apple fan-boy. (Ahem, Pharaoh @jonobacon)
Another edit: I do not like the Vitamix company. They figured out that the machines they made will never wear out. For a while they tried to tempt us with new machines by offering us money for the old one. But, since ours still worked fine, why should we fork out more money? So, they went on a different tack. These machines need gaskets, especially the dome gasket, for it wears out often. Their solution? Stop making gaskets for the older machines. Thankfully, I can make my own.
I just finished listening to this podcast, and felt extremely motivated to comment on how much I loved the mock debate in the end. This great discourse between Bryan and Stuart makes the presidential debates look like child play. Crazy movies references and general absurdity made for a morning full of laughs. There is definitely some great chemistry between these two presenters. This debate shows just how fun such technological discussions can be.
Great show guys, I’ve just started listening this is my 3rd or 4th show. I have to say, of every podcast I listen to Bad Voltage truly makes me laugh like no other. I think you guys all have great chemistry together. Keep up the great work!
To clarify, I understand what the tamper is supposed to be used for. What I don’t understand is why they didn’t design the blender so it’s not needed; as the Blendtec has done.
The blender segment made me feel like on a home shopping channel, it was great since I don’t have cable TV anymore. To give you an example, here is a blender review in the country I’m living in.
Now question here: is a blender the American equivalent of food processor as @sil is saying during the show, or is it a different machine?
Damn I didn’t know it was possible to do that, I always use electric whips to make mayonnaise (and my grandma used to use manual whips because she’s awesome). But wait a minute. I thought English-speaking people were eating disgusting mayonnaise-like sweet sauce out of tubes bought in supermarkets. Could I have been lied to for so many years?!
P.S.: A last thing about System76. I really like this brand and what they’re trying to achieve; I tried to buy a laptop from them before, but it’s just impossible given the place where I live (Taiwan, it would have just cost me double because of shipping costs). I found Emma Marshall was a bit reluctant on providing information… I mean at the end, when you gave her the opportunity to tell where to go to get more info, she kept it to the bare minimum (“our social networks”) and you had to ask for more info (“Twitter, Facebook, G+? — Yes.”). That was a bit weird in my humble opinion.
I found it interesting that Emma said that you can install any Linux distro on System 76 machines but there appears to be a unique System 76 driver that is only in an Ubuntu PPA. So it isn’t clear how compatible it would be. That said I think it is fantastic what System 76 are setting out to do. Also, do System 76 own one or more social networks? It sounded that way.
Reverso debate went far better than I was expecting. Jono debating that Ubuntu sucks for the next one maybe?
I’ve used that PPA in Mint, Kubuntu, and elementary. Also the driver is in the Arch AUR. And I’ve installed distros and never used the system76 driver and have had no problems.
The same principles apply to tech as do government in a way. Many places have an increase in crime despite much legislation. I have always said that the human heart cannot be legislated.
I make mayonnaise in a mortar, the pestle really brings out the tastes of the herbs, the mass of the pestle cuts way back on elbow-grease in my mayonnaise.
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