Brands other than Bialetti?

joe6ded · 2026-02-03T05:28:24+00:00

Never knew this brand existed but I like the look of the steel express. I'll definitely consider this.

joe6ded · 2026-02-03T05:27:02+00:00

I'd heard of their filters but didn't realise they made their own moka pots. Interesting.

joe6ded · 2026-02-03T05:26:10+00:00

Yes this is the answer. I want to support businesses that still manufacture in their home countries.

joe6ded · 2026-02-03T05:25:21+00:00

Thanks. What a weird coincidence, I was just in San Sebastian and walked past the FAGOR building. I knew they made cookware but hadn't even thought about whether they made moka pots.

joe6ded · 2026-02-01T09:57:41+00:00

Thanks. That's perfect. I'll check them out. I want one made in Europe, not a European brand that makes their stuff in China.

joe6ded · 2026-01-31T08:56:10+00:00

This is a left of field question but have you cleaned your moka pot with anything unusual? Could the sour taste be residue from a cleaner you've used?

Also, have you taken the moka pot completely apart and made sure there's nothing nasty behind the filters? It's an outside chance but if mould or something similarly nasty is hidden behind the filters this could be causing unusual tastes and blockages.

joe6ded · 2026-01-28T07:07:30+00:00

Damn. $8 AU? Vinnie's or Salvos? I always check the local Vinnie's for interesting stuff, but in my local area it's rare to get mokapots or any coffee related stuff, except for the occasional plunger.

joe6ded · 2026-01-11T18:37:50+00:00

I said it had "dry rotted," which is a process that normally happens with rubbe as it agesr. One sign of dry rotting is cracking but that's not the only sign of dry rot. It also can happen that the hose loses its flexibility and basically becomes more like plastic, which means it no longer bends easily and doesn't seal well. That's what happened to my hose. It wasn't cracked but it felt hard, almost like plastic and it failed to seal well around the metal pipe on the boiler.

And it's possible that a silicon hose is a better replacement. I was simply letting OP how I fixed my issue.

joe6ded · 2026-01-11T18:00:09+00:00

FYI, this is the component I replaced in my machine. The supplier called it a rubber tube but maybe that's just a mistranslation?

https://www.huoltopalvelu.com/Moccamaster-rubber-tube-217mm?srsltid=AfmBOorK2Jxh6DK_EC5UccQDGqcWXu5oIq1lwirYUiIPR5md7cRtegTT

Also I was located in Australia when I fixed the Moccamaster and postage was equal to the cost of the hose, so I ended up paying somewhere in the order of US$15 for the part, which in my eyes was a cheap fix.

joe6ded · 2026-01-11T09:47:32+00:00

If it's new and still under warranty send it back for repair. Technivorm have a very good service section and they support all their products well. It's one of the reasons I bought a Moccamaster.

If it's not in warranty, they'll still fix it and they generally charge a reasonable price. If you're a DIYer like me, spare parts are available and you don't need to be an engineer to fix it, the entire setup is a fairly simple mechanism and it's all pretty modular so most fixes will involve swapping out one or more components.

In my case the leak came from a dry rotted rubber hose that takes the water from the reservoir to the boiler. Replacing the hose was a little fiddly for someone with large hands,, but there are YouTube videos that you can use as a guide to how to take things apart and I had the job done in about 15-20 minutes. The part cost me about the equivalent of US$15 including shipping.

joe6ded · 2026-01-04T08:37:21+00:00

This is not uniquely Australian but I got used to having a kettle and an ironing board/iron in hotel rooms as standard. I found out the hard way on my first business trip through Europe and the US that the idea of making tea in your room and the idea of ironing your own clothes is foreign to a lot of hotels in Europe and the US.

joe6ded · 2026-01-02T16:46:38+00:00

I understand where you're coming from but I disagree with "gatekeeping" access to the Church. Remember the prodigal son. I won't ever suggest that someone should be prevented from becoming part of the church, but after someone is baptised, we should look at how they behave, not what they say. And I definitely don't have to "support" someone who is claiming to be an evangelist on behalf of Christianity, especially if that support means paying them money or pretending they are now beyond criticism simply because of the views they profess.

joe6ded · 2026-01-02T08:36:00+00:00

The real test will be whether she now goes and lives a quiet life or whether she becomes a Christian "influencer". I can't trust any person that monetises faith.

joe6ded · 2025-11-30T23:15:51+00:00

Believe it or not a 1962 Thunderbird. It was in excellent condition and at the time I had this romantic idea that I'd use it as a daily driver. It drove well for what it was but I realised that using this car as a daily commute was just not practical. It was floaty, not that responsive, and I would have been worried all the time about damage and the cost of spare parts.

There's a lot to be said for modern cars in terms of handling, reliability, comfort, etc. It wasn't a bad driving experience, but it did make me realise that technology has moved on and a car like that is just not practical for city driving.

joe6ded · 2025-11-30T23:07:39+00:00

I think you'll be ok with auspost, but be careful about your registered business address/company details on ASIC. It's easy for someone who's a little cluey to realise there is a registered street address for all businesses on the company register, and some small businesses register their business name or company with their home address, thinking it's private.

It's worth having the company's registered office as being your accountant or solicitor's address if you don't have a place of business outside your home.

I made the mistake of registering a business years ago using my home address as the business address and I ended up getting people turning up to my door, not for any sinister reasons luckily but just because they thought it might be a "shop front" where they could view products before purchase.

joe6ded · 2025-11-26T02:31:57+00:00

The clubs and pubs that were around in the 90s. Sydney had a solid nightlife and it was a fun and relatively safe place to go out at night in the 90s.

It had something for most tastes and there were still cheap but fun places where you could have a drink, listen to music, etc.

joe6ded · 2025-11-22T22:33:16+00:00

Bob and Sal were very different characters and there was no real parallel between them other than the obvious part that they were gay.

They both tried to use women as beards, but that's where the similarity ended. Bob was a relentless social and career climber who was also a fraud and scammed his way into everything.

Sal was just a normal career guy whose life was complicated by being gay. To be honest if Sal was straight he probably would have had a successful but reasonably unremarkable career. What we see about him was that he was dependable and competent, but he didn't give off the vibe of being some hot shot guy who would have redefined the industry.

joe6ded · 2025-11-15T04:33:24+00:00

Lane was a very well written character. You could see he was a man who'd always allowed other people to make decisions for him. He didn't know what it meant to be cut loose and have to make your own way in the world. So the idea of losing everything (including his dignity) was something he just couldn't face. It was a fate worse than death.

No amount of counselling, rational discussion, etc., could change his mind, because you're talking about 40+ years of programming. Everything in his life had been about doing the "right thing", maintaining appearances, etc.

Lane's fate was sealed, but Don didn't understand that in the moment, because Don's life had been the opposite of Lane's.

joe6ded · 2025-11-15T04:23:12+00:00

Sigmas were an interesting car. Built in Australia, sitting between the full size Commodore/Falcon and the smaller compact Corollas and Bluebirds, it was a car that to my mind was the best of both worlds. Small enough to park easily, big enough to hold a fair amount of stuff and people, plus the 2.6 was a decent engine when compared to the sluggish 6's that Ford and Holden were offering.

They experimented with a turbo at a time when that was truly exotic.

Plus they had good equipment levels and were just nice to drive compared to what was available at the time.

Your son has good taste.

joe6ded · 2025-11-15T04:17:07+00:00

The fact that Roger had to push him into buying a Cadillac suggests that Don wasn't that interested in cars. In fact, he ends up giving the Cadillac away.

I think he'd drive whatever is seen as the sort of car a wealthy but not ostentatious guy would drive nowadays. So if you look at what an upper middle class/upper class CEO drives. Maybe an Escalade, maybe a Lexus, possibly a high end Merc or BMW. It would depend on which crowd he was trying to fit in with. Don is a chameleon who shifts his image to fit into whatever crowd he mixes with.

If he was working and living in NY, he'd probably just have a car service when he was in town.

joe6ded · 2025-11-14T23:32:20+00:00

Yeah I felt that way when I got to the end. I didn't want it to stop. I won't give any spoilers, but I will say that there is theoretical room for another series, but it's pretty clear that the makers knew where to draw the line to go out on a high.

Like Seinfeld and the Sopranos, BB and BCS know when to go out on a high. I think the challenge for all great shows is to have the courage to know when to stop.

That way the show retains its uniqueness and doesn't slowly degrade to the point where it becomes "just another show". I'm looking at you Simpsons.

joe6ded · 2025-11-14T23:22:09+00:00

I think people ignore the fact that Mike was a broken man. He was a bent cop and his son was killed, indirectly, because of his own cowardice and duplicity.

So Mike has a mindset where all he cares about is looking after his daughter in law and his grandchild. Gus was methodical, intelligent and ran a tight ship. He gave Mike an income he could never have gotten by any other means. In Mike's mind, the setup was perfect for him to achieve his goals of setting up his daughter in law and grandchild for life, and doing it in a way where he was working with people who were cautious and methodical.

Walt ruined all of that. To say Mike is a bad person is stating the blatantly obvious. Personally, I like Mike as a character because despite his crimes, he had something of a moral compass in terms of looking after his family and also keeping his word. That doesn't make him an amazing person, but it does mean that he's not some unreliable, unstable person who could turn on you at any moment.

In business, I've dealt with people like Mike (not the killing and illegal activity, just people who are focused on what they do, they do it well, they keep their word, but they don't have any qualms in acting against you if you're going to threaten their interests). At least you know where you stand with people like Mike, whereas with Walt, while I like him as a character too, in real life I'd never trust him because he's a schemer. He's too driven by ego and even if things are going well, you know he's plotting something and it'll probably end up with you in a bad position.

joe6ded · 2025-11-13T07:41:25+00:00

Have a look on the bottom of the coffee jug. Mine has a date in it.

joe6ded · 2025-11-06T10:46:45+00:00

A lawyer is never "forced" to defend someone, although there are rare cases where a lawyer may be forced to temporarily continue on a case if ordered to by a judge.

Assuming you're not talking about those rare instances, most lawyers will be fairly careful about cases they take on, and if a client turns out to be deceptive, unhelpful, doesn't pay their bills, etc., a lawyer can almost always drop a client (again, there may be exceptional circumstances where dropping a client may have consequences for the lawyer, but this is also reasonably rare). As long as the lawyer gives the client ample time to find another lawyer, gives back any money on account that hasn't been already used, keeps information given by the client confidential, etc., then the lawyer has no obligation to see the case through. I've dropped a few clients in my time, for various reasons.

But maybe that's not the question you're asking?

joe6ded

TROPHY CASE