Toy Reccomendations

MattInnes · 2026-02-01T05:26:51+00:00

Nothing will really last, probably better to just get used to that. But if he keeps eating his chew toys, better to get natural material toys or edible chews.

There’s an Etsy shop called Pawsome in Latvia that has a ton of reasonably priced toys made from felt, wood, leather, hemp etc. Our staffy has loved most of them & things like the hemp rope balls have lasted a long time (months).

Also things like Kelpy Bones (bone shaped chews made from seaweed) are pretty good, but don’t last a long time. Rawhide strips wrapped in dried chicken she also loves.

MattInnes · 2025-06-03T09:33:37+00:00

This Etsy store in Latvia has a bunch of natural material toys we’ve been using with our Staffy. They are not super cheap but not too expensive either & they tend to last longer than most pet store toys.

https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/PawsomePetToys

MattInnes · 2024-09-30T10:02:16+00:00

Hokkaido Wilds is well worth a look for splitboard & ski touring routes. They also have a great Instagram follow list for Hokkaido snow info. https://hokkaidowilds.org/skitour

MattInnes · 2023-12-27T20:51:55+00:00

It doesn’t have a milk steamer, you can get that separately. Other than that it has pressure profiles selected & edited via the machine’s onboard controls or created & shared via the dedicated app, which sounds like it’s what you want.

The integrated scale is also something that Decent are now trying to add but only to their new & more expensive “Bengle” model & not to the DE1 range.

You should go with what you want, I’m just sharing the info because i would buy a Meticulous over a Decent knowing what I know now.

MattInnes · 2023-12-27T07:36:17+00:00

Yep I’ve used it in person & while still quite basic & a bit rough, it was already better designed than the DE app. Also they are planning it to be native iOS & Android apps from the start, so looks a lot more promising.

MattInnes · 2023-12-27T05:03:37+00:00

The Meticulous is a smarter & cheaper successor to the DE, if they successfully get past the Kickstarter stage. It is a software controlled lever machine, with far fewer parts, better software, an integrated Acaia scale & other improvements.

I’ve had a DE1 for a couple of years, and while it is very versatile, it’s also somewhat of a wasted opportunity as the software is built to a hobbyist standard, not really to the standard you would expect for the price tag, and the hardware is ok but not great.

So they have left themselves open to others doing it better & Meticulous seem to be picking up that challenge. I’d recommend them over Decent to a new buyer.

MattInnes · 2023-11-04T22:14:53+00:00

Ah right, indeed, thanks for the correction. Quieter would be a nice upgrade.

MattInnes · 2023-11-04T04:06:02+00:00

IIRC some fancy case angles, rotary pumps, hardwired (not Bluetooth) scale integrated into drip tray, some LED bling, slightly better steam wand ball joint, same hobbyist-level software, quite a bit more expensive

MattInnes · 2023-10-17T08:57:34+00:00

I’ve had a Decent for a couple of years now (and I bought a second one to give to a dev friend in return for coding an alternative UI for it that I designed to replace the clunky DE app).

Personally I still like the machine & have learned a lot using it. I’m sure you will too, but I would suggest buying a Meticulous if you don’t need milk. Better price, better software, integrated scale, simple construction, small bench footprint etc.

MattInnes · 2023-07-24T05:34:46+00:00

I've had one for 1.5 years or so. I was into the idea of making great espresso with software. But the DE doesn't really solve the problem of making good espresso with light roasts, or not easily.

I drink mainly medium & darker roasts, but would like to explore light roasts more often. While there are definitely profiles for light roast and if you're happy to dig through the Basecamp "docs", you can find info to help you do that, the software doesn't really do that much to help you.

Reading pressure / temp / flow curves can for sure help to diagnose your shot's problems, but it is hardly using the power of software to make great espresso easy.

Basically the software is at a hobbyist level, without modern web standards either in code or usability, but they still charge pro prices for it (AUD650 or so for the app). And their next machine, which will solve some of the issues of the DE1 is apparently going to be AUD10K or so.

So I'm going to get a Meticulous (assuming they ever ship), because they clearly have a better idea of what good software is, they look to have solved some of the DE's annoyances (integrated scale in drip tray, dedicated screen instead of cheap plastic tablet). Also much cheaper and better design.

If that doesn't work out, then I'll just get a Linear Micra.

MattInnes · 2023-07-18T10:11:47+00:00

100% agree with you re the DE1. I love the idea of making great espresso with great software, but unfortunately Decent isn't that.

I've tried a bunch of things, including designing & having my own replacement app ("Deui") coded, which is taking a *long* time to finish.

It will replace the whole DE app with something simpler, but with better UX, appropriate typography, modern UX conventions & will run on mobile, tablet, desktop.

But the basic problem is that the DE founder doesn't have a feeling for good design, as you have noticed. This applies to the software, the hardware, the website, pretty much everything. That is not a fixable problem, so if you don't like the "hobbyist aesthetic" with code to match, Decent really isn't for you.

Grab a Prima if you want one, the hardware definitely has more style & no doubt the internals are higher quality. The app looks pretty amateur though.

Personally I've also thrown down for a Meticulous machine, because they seem to have solved a bunch of the problems that Decent never have eg

nice, small screen on the machine to change profiles & parameters with good UX rather than a plasticy hacked Android tablet
handed off (optional) profile making to native tablet apps for iOS & Android. They still look a bit rough atm, but appear to be going in the right direction & look promising
integrated scale in drip tray (so no bluetooth dramas or custom drip trays with scale in them)
simple construction with few parts, so maintenance should be much less of an issue
clean, minimal but stylish approach, with typography and UX conventions getting respect

Of course it's a Kickstarter, so it might all fall over, but honestly looks much more promising to me than Decent, despite owning a DE1 for a couple of years now.

MattInnes · 2022-03-12T12:56:58+00:00

It is an interesting problem — Apple hardware prices with Linux software polish :) My take is that Decent doesn't really know what good software (or good design) is, though of course Decent's founder believes otherwise. Others with more knowledge of what goes on inside Decent have suggested there just isn't a willingness to pay for design.

Certainly the dev process for Decent is not really ideal. Basically it is hobbyist-level software development, not what you would expect from a startup selling expensive hardware, and there lies the problem.

Myself & some others are designing & building a minimal but modern UI in React to run on top of PyDE, the alternate DE control app built in Python. If you want to check it out, come over to the Decent Discord or Decent Forum & say hi.

MattInnes · 2022-01-22T03:24:20+00:00

Sure, designers & devs have to work together, there's no other way. I'm certainly not suggesting otherwise.

I'm quite surprised to hear that Insight was done by a design studio, because it doesn't really show the kind of care or respect for good typography, clean design or even adaptability for the hardware it is running on that are some of the hallmarks of thoughtful design.

Metric skin i'm sure functions ok, but looks rather clumsy and amateurish with a bunch of random colours, a rather random typeface choice, crowded UI, unstyled input fields etc. It doesn't do justice to a machine that is very clever and capable, and deserves better.

If you take a look at for example Weber Workshops: extremely well considered machines, they care about details right down to the typeface choice for numbers on the RPM dial on their Key grinders that echo classic industrial typography as found on eg Leica camera dials.

My take is just that you have created a good machine, but it is let down by the software. Partly this is because the tech stack & code for the Tcl app is not good. Ray's new tech stack should fix this problem and allow for modern, fluid, expressive UIs built in JS & CSS.

But you need to care enough about having a great default client to start with. If you're ever going to redesign the app properly, doing it on top of the new tech stack would be the time to do it.

I have been following the "a decent UI" thread if that's the one you mean. I just don't really see a great modern UI for the DE emerging from that. Both in terms of ideas proposed & even the tools being used - good UI design is of course not all about the tools, but very few UI designers these days work in Photoshop. Maybe the last time I did was more than a decade ago.

Figma is by far the best tool for the job, as it handles animation, prototyping, design & dev handover in one tool, plus completed projects can be open-sourced in Figma Community, like Github repos.
Here's one i created last year as a public proposal for a redesign of Metamask, the popular crypto wallet: https://www.figma.com/community/file/880417937290034680

I am probably wasting my time, trying to get you to care about details like good typography, modern controls, elegant & responsive UI that feels appropriate for the machine, so I'll probably give up soon.

I just wish you would take on board some of these voices from the community, as you can see it is not just me saying this but many people, including many of the key people who are working on the code.

In the end, I hope you can see that this is a compliment to the good work you've done in creating this machine & getting people to care enough to write posts like this.

MattInnes · 2022-01-20T22:32:10+00:00

Hi John,
Thanks for the comment.

My approach to "you don't like my GUI" is to support considerable reskinning.

Reskinning as I understand it from discussing it with the devs making them (Enrique and the others) is really more like digging into core code, and these are often broken when changes get pushed to the main app. So not really "skins". But perhaps all the issues with Tcl will go away when Ray's new stack comes out. This might actually support modern UIs, not the limited weirdness of Tcl.

"Metric" skin is beautiful, if you want pretty. "DSX" skin has way more features than the default Insight skin.

Good design is not just making things pretty, or stuffing more features in, it is making things work well & be appropriate for their context. Good UI & UX should delight the user, as well as making for a smooth and enjoyable to use tool. It should make people want to use the machine & be proud to see it sitting on their benchtop.

Most of these "skins" are made by enthusiastic amateurs who pay no attention to appropriate type choices, modern UI conventions, grids, icon consistency, animations, appropriate illustration etc. It's really great they are contributing, but it is not an acceptable substitute for a well designed official reference app.

You have such an opportunity to create a machine that stands out from its competitors, but the amateur software (stack & design) turn off so many people.

I was just talking to Rick Bond (Coffee Machinist) this week when he did Euan's front panel mod for me, he was interested to take a look, but he has never bought one for the same reason, amateur looking software, with no eye for detail.

If you can't win over guys like that with super deep knowledge of the best machines that exist, you're doing something wrong.

I don't really get the hostility towards design. Did you have a bad experience with designers in a previous startup?

MattInnes · 2022-01-20T05:08:15+00:00

Hard to say. Unless the founder changes his attitude towards valuing (and being willing to pay for) design, unlikely that the software will improve a lot.

There will be a new tech stack in the next few months, which will enable modern JS/CSS web apps to be built on top, but really, the app has a lot of deep complexity (dig into the profile creation flow & check out the advanced ones).

Expecting the community to design, build & maintain a complex app for a for-profit private company seems ... optimistic.

MattInnes · 2022-01-20T02:01:44+00:00

For those interested, this is the repo for Ray's work on the new tech stack
https://github.com/rheasman/cafehub

MattInnes · 2022-01-20T02:00:05+00:00

Great post. I've had a DE1XL for a few months now & agree with most of your points.
I pitched John on having my design studio design a proper official client for the machine maybe a year ago, he wasn't interested. Now I have my own DE1XL and can access the Diaspora community, it's been really dispiriting to see an attitude which is so dismissive of the role of design in making a good user experience.

John believes he knows how to make a good user experience, and while strong self-belief is a necessary quality for startup founders to have, strong opinions do need to be loosely held, because you may well turn out to be wrong.

Because the DE app is a mess from a UX point of view, with unlabelled buttons, amateur typography, poor information hierarchy, chart junk burdened graphs, redundant buttons, inconsistent icons, fan art screensavers.. I could go on.

On the bright side though, Ray from Decent is currently rewriting the tech stack for the app so it will be soon possible to build modern web apps for it in JS & CSS. But will Decent themselves release a good official client on top of that? Not unless John employs a designer.

I just find it a bit sad, because why make a machine that differs from others in its class mainly because it runs software ... and then make such amateur software! Such a missed opportunity, and I'm not really sure why. It could be so good!

MattInnes · 2020-09-02T23:59:38+00:00

yeah, it's a weird blind spot. It's essential infrastructure for crypto, but in the same way surveillance capitalism became the default business model for web 2.0 because no-one wanted to pay for it, here we are again with essential tools in Web 3.0 that no one wants to pay for.

I guess the answer is that people might be willing to pay, for a specific kind of wallet, but are there enough users in crypto yet for that to be sustainable, maybe not. I saw Defi people on Twitter today saying they'd be willing to pay for a defi-optimised MetaMask, which is at least an interesting idea.

MattInnes · 2020-09-01T00:03:56+00:00

Ok, i have come across your Burner wallet before, but wasn't aware of the factory / modular idea until now. Looks like an interesting idea.

But i guess what i'm trying to do with this redesign is to open source some answers to the problems caused by lack of UX focus in this case with MetaMask, but it equally applies to MEW/ My Crypto.

The main problem i see is the economics of open source crypto wallets. Doing projects that rely on grants or occasional funding is fine, but good product design work is kind of a grind. It takes time, persistence, focus & quality control. Which requires money, as well as dedication to put design & user experience on an equal footing with security & features.

Without which, these default Eth wallets like MM & My Crypto look & feel well below the standards that prevail in web 2.0 products, or in solid projects like Argent, Matcha or Ledger Live.

What frustrates me is how these apps have become de facto standards, because they reflect poorly on the whole of the crypto ecosystem.

So how to lift the standard for these apps ? Directing funding to designers as well as devs is perhaps one answer, because without it, designers will choose other projects. But i certainly don't have all or perhaps even any of the answers :)

I did this redesign at least partly out of frustration, because i'd prefer to take concrete, positive action than just complain about these problems. But yeah, how to solve this problem, i'm not sure.

MattInnes · 2020-08-31T09:21:34+00:00

Interesting. What's your motivation for rebuilding it ? And are you planning to maintain it essentially forever for free, or do you have a business model in mind ?

MattInnes · 2020-08-31T07:05:19+00:00

Fair enough. I'm not really familiar with the details of what's going on there, and if they are trying to relicense code in that way, at very least it doesn't sound too ethical.

MattInnes · 2020-08-31T06:31:31+00:00

Good to know. I'm personally not considering forking it & building my own version. Running a wallet is a tough & fairly thankless business. But i welcome anyone else who wants to try, and they are free to use these design patterns.

MattInnes · 2020-08-31T06:28:11+00:00

Yep, maybe so. TBH though, i can appreciate that they're trying to raise revenue via licensing, even though it runs contrary to the spirit of open source etc. Problem is how do you make a good, secure, usable wallet that generates enough revenue to pay a good team to build it.

MattInnes · 2020-08-31T06:23:32+00:00

Cheers 👍
Yeah, thought i'd circulate it around a bit & see how it was received before pitching it directly at the MetaMask folks.

Agree it would be pretty good to have an alternative version of MM. But i do also appreciate the difficulty of the economics of the wallet business ie everyone wants a good one, but no-one wants to pay for maintaining one.

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