We put a range of machines through their paces looking for easy-to-use bits of kit that produced consistently good coffee.
The yard also contains a range of machines used in the deconstruction business, including a shear, a baler, and two overhead cranes, which work through the piles of metal with the stately rhythm of large browsing ruminants.
For example, the Nordic KYC Utility, a creation of five major Scandinavian banks, uses a range of machine learning techniques, together with traditional detection tools, to ensure that banks fulfil their "know your customer" anti-money laundering obligations.
Under the hood, it's an excellent OS: it feels fast in use and it's forgiving of older hardware – I've installed it on a range of machines, some quite elderly, and in most cases it's been an improvement.
Ball feels that computers that pre-date the Apple era aren't widely considered to be design pieces, and his nostalgia for this earlier, more "naive" aesthetic led him to seek out and photograph a range of machines that date from the latter half of the 20th century, representing them as if they were new and desirable products.
In 2008 he founded Heartland Robotics to produce a range of machines that would serve as the equivalent of the PC in robotics.Mr Brooks's lips are sealed about what these machines will be like, although his views about the future of robotics provides a clue.
The firm makes analog circuits for a range of machines and Wall Street thinks profit in the second quarter fell by more than half to 20 cents a share from 44 cents last year.
Another Japanese company, Cyberdyne, has developed its hybrid assistive limb or Hal system, a range of machines designed for rescue recovery or "back load reduction" in the work place.
