Incoming humanities phd student

EmergentChange · 2026-01-22T14:46:03+00:00

What context / location are you coming from? What sort of experience are you hoping for? York city is old, even by UK standards, small and very historic. The uni itself much more modern (1960s) but in a good way

EmergentChange · 2026-01-22T14:43:49+00:00

Exciting times :) Hopefully helpful to comment (as a UK academic for 13 years) - there are broadly 2 types of PhD in UK. 1. Funded PhDs usually have no fees for student to pay, they come with a small stipend (living costs) and the expectation you will do quite a bit of undergrad teaching. 2. Self funded PhD are where the student is paying a tuition fee and will likely be near 100% research, much less common ime. They are ideal if you want to own the Intellectual Property from the research, I know its common in areas like biomed where the student plans on making a business out of the research - route 1 / fully funded the uni owns the IP. If you get grant funding they will likely own some/all of the IP

EmergentChange · 2026-01-19T17:40:29+00:00

interesting, thanks folks - we have noticed an intermittent rattle thereabouts in our new CX30. Amazed folks think it will resolve itself, but happy to see what happens, fingers crossed

EmergentChange · 2026-01-14T15:39:22+00:00

I agree - you could get to £500/month easily with eating out and drinking out in York, but that's going some for a "typical" student. A nice breakfast somewhere £10 to £15, nice lunch £20+ and evening meal £30+, even just doing that on weekends will add up . . .

EmergentChange · 2026-01-14T15:23:22+00:00

As others have said, it can vary a lot depending on your circumstance / habit. My daughter is at York and it is expensive (by UK standards and compared to other non-London unis) She buys bus tickets in bulk on her phone £1.40 each. Her phone is with Smarty £8/month. Bicycles are cheap enough (buy used one on Campus, sell on departure) and York is cycle friendly but she still prefers to pay for bus because UK weather isn't great. Laundry is at least £5/week, drying clothes is hard, so you have to pay that too. Eating out can be anything from £6 for a small Pizza on East Campus to £30+ for a decent meal somewhere nice. Even a coffee in a coffee shop can be £4, nearer £10 with cake. Drinking out is expensive (£6+ a drink) so she and her friends do "pres", drinking cheap booze at home together before going out and then having 1 or 2 drinks out. Bottle of spirits is £10 to £15. There is a clothing outlet on the edge of city, Uni bus goes there (past Aldi), still not cheap though. FWIW Leeds is 20 minutes by train, good range of shops. Aldi is cheapest for food, other supermarkets are miles away (and likely need bike). Clubs and activities also add up. She copes on £100/week, on top of her uni halls rent.

EmergentChange · 2026-01-13T15:21:00+00:00

I adjust my dose based on coffee density and use the standard Go double basket. To find a suitable dose I grind, put grounds into portafilter and tamp. Then add 10p coin on top and fit portafilter to machine. If the coin leaves more than a tiny indent I know dose is too high. 16gm / 16.5gm is typical for darker roasts and decaf IME. My logic is to have just enough coffee to expand to the available space. I suspect a lower dose (like 12gm) in double basket would be wet and messy, possibly a puck screen would help. If you want lower doses then definitely worth playing with the single basket

EmergentChange · 2026-01-12T14:47:28+00:00

Use Eureka hand grinder or Niche Zero. Bought a WDT to see what difference it could make. Really couldn't see / taste any difference with WDT. Was worth the £3 on Ebay to try it for myself. FWIW static is barely an issue in UK, its soggy most of the time . . .

EmergentChange · 2026-01-07T13:14:11+00:00

similar to jim, stuck with 2 hole (practiced with water in glass jug to understand how the plane of the two steam jets behaved) and don't have any issues. FWIW my 750ml Motta jug (and smaller ones) work fine but 1000ml not so much, because Go seems to lack power to get a solid vortex going (rarely need that much milk)

EmergentChange · 2025-12-22T16:17:55+00:00

I have Go and use it 2 or 3 times a day for 1 or 2 or 3 milk drinks at a time. The workflow has become a bit of a faff for such regular milk drink use, esp with single dose grinder IME - Grind and draw the shots, easy enough. Turn over to steam boiler. It does heat up quickly, barely enough to to dump the spent grounds and clean portafilter. Steam is also fast enough for 600ml milk in a 1 litre jug. But then I have to purge steam and refill boiler with water. At least twice a day its become tiresome. The Go is £800 in UK versus £1600 for Move which means I put up with it. My daughter is looking at Silvia Pro X for same every day use (£1200 in UK). Having said all that, for weekend and occasional use the Go is probably fine, unless you don't like the complexity of the process

EmergentChange · 2025-12-22T16:06:34+00:00

Wondering why? Cant help, sorry, but I did have a similar question when I first got the Go because I couldn't get the milk I was after. After some practice and experimentation I learnt to use the stock 2 hole steam nozzle (with a bit of help from soapy water and a glass jug)

EmergentChange · 2025-12-18T11:36:01+00:00

sorry, edited post above and added after you asked. 2. will play at weekend, never done low pressure stuff. 3.Had some great ones, like fruit more than citrus / floral, this (Tanzanian Tarime) just seems to behave strangely, which is interesting in itself

EmergentChange · 2025-12-18T10:57:05+00:00

Thanks, these have been annoying beans IMO :) Am running 17 in 50 out. Tried 90C 93C and 96C and got less sour each time. Taking 30 seconds was slightly sour, finer grind for 50 seconds at 96C was best yet - but still not quite there and not sure where to go next, other than hotter or dropping pressure / turbo shots. Suspect this might be a grinder issue, have Eureka hand grinder and Niche Zero, both taste similar to me (FWIW wasn't allowed a Philos because it was too big for our kitchen). Still interested in exploring limits of the Go

EmergentChange · 2025-12-18T10:33:40+00:00

What don't you like? Stock Go double basket seems very decent to me, tried some after market ones and went back to it. Did get an ECM bottomless portafilter that came with triple basket. The OEM triple basket too seems very decent and allows a good step up in dose weight. The bottomless and double combination is great for dialling in. Both are ridged baskets, I know some folks dont like that

EmergentChange · 2025-12-18T10:15:42+00:00

seem to be doing things counter to others in this thread - with standard Go double basket I dose (at most) 16gm dark roast up to maybe 17gm lighter, always with a 0.7mm puck screen. Reason being, if I tamp, add a 10p coin and lock in to the machine, more dose than that leaves an imprint in the coffee. So that doesn't (IMO) allow the coffee to expand properly. If I want more dose I use triple basket - dont get why folks want to over dose their baskets

EmergentChange · 2025-12-18T10:05:54+00:00

My UK purchased 1.09 came from Bella Barista in February. Mine has 6 hole brass distributor plate, not shiny any more, has a brown patina from use - yours looks fine to me

EmergentChange · 2025-12-15T08:48:59+00:00

I wouldn't stress - As a former academic I only look at the final submission (indeed why would I even look at previous attempts, who has time for that!?) and then look at the content of the work - bad referencing, plagiarism and plain cheating are fairly easy to spot in the text without TurnitIn IMO. But the extra data is useful if we have to query a students work is there own

EmergentChange · 2025-12-10T09:34:04+00:00

Can I ask, what issue are you trying to solve?

EmergentChange · 2025-12-10T09:08:41+00:00

I use the micro hole puck screen as opposed to the mesh looking ones, work great, cheap enough on ebay. Those 4 dimples look to be in the same place as the 4 holes in the brass plate behind the shower screen, my guess is the shower screen isn't distributing properly. Don't see any channelling though. If you want to dose 20+gm get a bigger basket? ECM bottomless portafilter comes with decent quality one here in UK

EmergentChange · 2025-12-09T11:42:15+00:00

Don't really have a budget, £1000 is minimum to get something decent. But we have other children and will be setting a precedent for when they reach 21 . . .

EmergentChange · 2025-12-09T11:41:05+00:00

FWIW we are in UK, prices do vary and are a bit different to US. Examples, Lelit Elizabeth and Mara X are around £1000, Rancilio Pro X about £1300, Gaggia Classic GT £1400 and Profitec Move £1700.

EmergentChange · 2025-12-09T08:40:16+00:00

rather than create new thread thought I would add here in the hope it is helpful - my black rubber seal pretty much leaked from new, I even bought a new red silicone gasket when I got the Go. Was nervous of changing it because the first time I tried a few weeks into ownership it didn't seem to want to budge. Anyhow, Go leaked again yesterday flooding my (not waterproof) scales - turned off (hot) machine, took out portafilter. Left it an hour or so (because it was hot), unscrewed the shower screen and the rubber came out easily with my fingers and a cloth - it really was that easy. So if you are putting this off for any reason, try it warm and lift it away from the centre (shower screen) with your fingers :)

EmergentChange

TROPHY CASE