I bought a piece of 1.5 inch stiff foam to try to fix a sag in a bed. It didn’t work but having that thick piece of solid foam around has been a life saver.
Need something flat to put a laptop on? Throw it on the foam. Going to be doing something that requires you to be on your knees for a while? Get the foam!
It went from stupid purchase to something I’d gladly replace if it broke.
Got a bidet as a joke gift for Christmas a few years ago, it has been an absolute game changer. Hate pooping anywhere but home now, I actually feel clean, and use much less toilet paper.
Bidet crew represent
There are dozens of us!
A significant portion of the world uses water to clean after doing their business! It’s just us westerners that are odd about it.
I’m curious what the history behind it is, because I never feel clean if I only wipe. Like if you handled faeces with your hands (for whatever reason) would you be OK with just wiping it off with a paper towel? I sure wouldn’t!
If it wasnt for China, Westerners would also still scratch their asses with shells and stones.
So middle east gave them bidet and China gave them paper. They are so lucky
Hahaha, I had no clue about the shells. You piqued my interest, so I went down the toilet paper history rabbit hole.
I knew that the Romans used communal sponges, I didn’t know they were called tersorium though. Shockingly they spread disease.
Apparently here in the north, the vikings used animal bones, rags, and oyster shells! I’m not surprised we didn’t use paper though, since we didn’t really get paper until the Christians came and brought paper with them, and even then it was only for the educated Christian elite for hundreds of years, up until around the 1200-1300 or so, a good 700 years after people in China wiped their butts with paper!
Toilet paper started being produced here in Sweden in 1882, and the first factory stayed producing until sometime in the early 2000s.
Until the 1900s common folk often used leaves, grass, or the bottom hem of their skirt to clean themselves.
That last bit sounds really gross by modern standards, but given that skirts came in layers, and were really long, they were already covered with the muck of the outside ground so in the grand scheme of things I don’t think it made a very big difference.
According to the manufacturer, the first toilet paper (in Sweden) without wood chips and splinters was released in 1935.
My bidet butt could never handle scraping with oysters or splinterful toilet paper; I’d just scrape my anus off. I can barely use regular toilet paper as it is. People of old were built different hahahaha.
Hahaha, I had no clue about the shells.
He doesn’t know how to use the three seashells!
Demolition Man is a cool movie
(FYI, “there are dozens of us” is an Arrested Development quote. Your questions are definitely valid, but I’m not sure the poster of the comment actually meant much by it, besides the joke.)
I’m from Italy. It’s full of bidets here.
Va bene! That’s not so much the case here in Sweden.
It kind of boggles the mind though. Setting aside the fact that paper only can’t possibly clean enough, isn’t it also more environmentally friendly to use water? I mean obviously if you pour a bathtub over your butt every time you do your business, then probably not so much, but no one uses that much water.
I use only water from the bidet.
It is not a significant portion. Most countries still use TP
Some cursory googling for this turned up a value by researcher Alex Crumbie, though I didn’t find any papers about it. According to them however 30% of the world uses toilet paper, the majority consumer being China. The remaining 70% of the world finds other solutions.
Given that Muslims wash as a religious requirement and are 1.8 billion…
This joke was old on Reddit and it doesn’t work when there are billions of you
Underrated comment.
Bidet 2024!!!
baby wipes are the next best thing when you need to go on the go!
Just don’t flush them please. Even the “flushable” kind clog pipes.
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Bought a $80 bidet but it won’t fit my apartment toilet
When I worked at a small startup, we were moving to a new office and I was asked to help with the buildout. I engaged with the flooring vendor, and he came by one day to drop off a carpet sample. He put it on my desk where my mouse was. It was a rectangle sample of tight knit office carpet, about 18”x22”. When I got back to my desk, I just put my mouse on top of it and started using it as a mouse pad. That was 15 years and 3 companies ago, and I still use it as my mousepad. It’s perfect for the mouse to glide on, soft enough for my wrist to rest on, absorbent of sweat or drink condensation, and large enough I never hit the edge. I will never not use it. It is my mouse carpet, and I love it.
An oversized poncho cape from the local Goodwill. It was woven in different shades of blue and while I’d never wear it outside, I’ve used it as a wearable blanket at home for a few years now.
I found out it was actually hand made, and costs 300+ USD from the original shop. Bonus points, I feel like a wizard when I wear it
How do you know you’re not a wizard when you wear it? Have you tried magic?
I bet its fantastic orb pondering wear.
That sounds like a game changer.
Shadow wizard money gang
I was a Snuggie hater for many years, but I got an off-brand one as a Christmas gift probably 10 years ago and I live in that thing when I’m at home. It’s great for when I want to be cozy and play video games but don’t want to put my controller under the blanket.
If you ever break or have surgery on any part of your arm, you’ll be very happy to have that cape in the winter. I have a couple from when I broke my wrist and used them again when I had shoulder surgery.
You need to get a matching wizard hat
Here’s an odd one my wife and I were just talking about. Some years ago, we were redoing our kitchen and the contractor told us to go buy the kitchen faucet we wanted. We went off, looked at several, and picked the one we thought looked the best with what we were doing.
When the contractor went to install it, he opened the box and a battery pack fell out. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why a faucet would need batteries. It turned out that you can turn it on and off by touching it anywhere (handle, faucet itself, whatever), you just leave the physical handle open and set where you want it, then you can touch on and off. I thought it was the dumbest thing ever and we’d never use it.
Flash Forward to now and it’s one of the most used conveniences we’ve ever bought. All those times your hands are covered in raw meat or other cooking mess? Just touch the faucet with your elbow. Rinsing a bunch of veggies one at a time? Tap on, tap off. It works flawlessly, unlike those touchless ones at the airport: no delay and works every time. We will never have a kitchen sink without it - my wife wants them for the bathroom.
Does it have a timer safety thing? I know my cat would turn the faucet on and let it flood the house lol.
It does! It runs for minutes without retapping, but not like ten minutes. Never really timed it, and only noticed when I was filling the sink up (it’s a big sink).
I have a Delta branded one. Yea it goes off after a few minutes.
the wet bandits strike again!
I bought a house with these and didn’t realize it had this feature for like a year (batteries had died). Now I love it. I find myself taping every faucet it use and am annoyed when others don’t turn on.
I actually bought a handfree soap dispenser to go next to it, which is a great combo. Preparing meat or something, I can clean my hands and tap sink with elbow and not worry about cross contamination of everything.
My wife and I always laugh when we catch ourselves tapping other faucets. The soap dispenser sounds like a good idea.
They make wall plug adapters for them, no more batteries.
This sounds like something I’d like to get for the shower, but with multiple memory settings, that’s a much different product… Unless I ducted two shower knobs… Oh fuck I feel a project coming on…
We’re about to redo our bathrooms and have started looking at things. One thing we saw that sounded cool are these new thermostatic shower controls: you set them to a temperature and it mixes the water to keep it at that temperature regardless of fluctuations in the hot and cold input. Huh, sounds neat. So we looked at one - over $3000 for just the valve. It doesn’t sound that neat.
Sorry, new?! Unless this is something different from what I’m imagining, thermostatic shower valves have pretty much been the standard in Denmark for all of my life. You can get them for 80 usd (or probably even lower). These are purely mechanical, no need for batteries. I can even find one on US Amazon for around 50 usd (https://www.amazon.com/Bathroom-Thermostatic-Showering-Temperature-Control/dp/B071ZP4ZHN/ref=ex_alt_wg_m?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B071ZP4ZHN&psc=1&pd_rd_w=MLPp3&pf_rd_p=e06954f1-ab26-49e7-940f-21fea3d5decd&pf_rd_r=1YGK573NBS6VC329GYD0&pd_rd_wg=PC4iL&pd_rd_r=4415efd7-7117-45ad-8b60-0a1c86e84ef0&content-id=amzn1.sym.e06954f1-ab26-49e7-940f-21fea3d5decd).
Edit: I realise that this sounded more aggressive than it meant it to. I was simply quite surprised! :)
They’ve been code where I am in the u.s. for 20 years.
Huh, interesting. Yes, I see looking just for the valve, there are a lot of inexpensive options. What we saw were ones like this one. I don’t know what the difference is.
Omg! Was it designed to go to space? I’ve got an idea for a T valve with 2 sets of always on knobs. The wife says as long as it looks good I can do it…
I think it’ll cost about 200$ to get good looking materials.
I’m guessing it’s just priced as a luxury item, not related to actual cost. Wealthy people will shell that out without blinking. Then when they sell enough at that price, they’ll start dropping it to get other buyers.
You can buy wall plug adapters for them no more batteries.
I needed a “lap desk” or something to put my laptop on, but I wanted it to be low-profile and I could only find a wooden cutting board. Now wooden cutting boards are the only thing I use as lap desks because most actual lap desks I find are super bulky.
I read that as “fap desk” was intrigued then disappointed.
For fap desk you really want silicone
Just cut a hole in the cutting board
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Duuuude. That’s a creative idea I might also use if I need a lap desk again. And something easy for if you need to put a laptop on a soft surface, won’t be wobbly like the bean bag ones.
I also ended up doing this after my dad suggested it as an idea… and it’s actually a really great suggestion, they work fantastically well for this purpose!
Yeah it’s exactly what I was looking for! The one I’m currently using was actually the only cutting board that was big enough in the store that I was in, so it has goofy cookings decals all over it 😂
It’s a charcuterie board, not a cutting board, its for parties, the illustrations are telling you what kinds of snacks to put out. What a cool idea for a lap desk, it’s so pretty and unique.
Ah that makes sense. I’ve only seen charcuterie boards that have the trays carved into the wood. Either way, it works!
Mine is pretty plain; honestly, I find yours appealing in a sort of artistic way haha
The “epicurian” brand is perfect for this, or their knockoffs. Its like 1/4" thick (6mm) composite wood. I have one that even fits in my laptop bag - way better than any designated “lap board” I’ve ever found.
That’s what I ended up using as well. Best ten euro
A 3D-Printer, I thought I just play around with it and get bored, but you discover so many things that you can do!
The handle on the fridge broke? Print new ones. Need a Flowerpot? Just print one. The router needs a wallmount? I have one ready in a few Hours.
Also I can watch it print for hours, very fascinating and calming.
An ebike: I don’t even really drive anymore most of the time and it beats the hell out of being stuck in traffic. Getting around is fun again.
I always enjoyed cycling and still ride my MTB, but for getting around town quickly, ebikes are hard to beat.
Same here with the ebike. I live near Seattle and everything I need is within a few minutes of ebike driving
If I can’t ebike, then I uber and it saves me a ton
Feel free to check out [email protected]
Thank you for the recommendation!
It’s great that Lemmy is already growing with niche communities
Nice, this is the type of community I’ve been trying to find.
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can we get some more deets on what you use it for in terms of terrain/altitude/distance/weather?
Seriously considering an ebike to replace a 20 minute car commute (12 miles). There are some 750w used bikes on my local craigslist for ~1-2k USD, but there’s also a super cool dual-motor bike with rear suspension for $3k. Any advice?
I have an ebike I use as my daily commuter for a distance of 11 km each way (6.8 miles) over decently hilly terrain in a windy city as a large man. It still only takes 25 minutes and I charge my battery once a week? Maybe twice if I’m tired and using more boost.
Are you mechanically inclined at all? I purchased a motor conversion kit and a battery to convert my regular bike to ebike. It wasn’t really a difficult process, the hardest part was removing the bottom bracket as it was quite stuck. Took some thinking to get enough leverage without having the tool head chew out the bracket teeth. The rest was relatively plug and play. I was able to get the 500 W motor and 48 V 18 A hour battery for ~$1200 CAD together. I use it to commute to work so I wanted a longer range, if you don’t need as much power or as much range you could do it for cheaper.
I went for a mid drive motor which are more efficient but more expensive than hub drive, if you’re budget conscious you could do a hub drive. From my understanding the hub drive can be more difficult for maintenance (the wheel is a special version, so you need to buy another wheel that works with the hub drive if any issues occur) but I’m no expert.
All of that is a moot point if you don’t already have a bike to use, but you could find a local bike recycle store to get one cheap? Or you could get a new bike and convert that. I had a marin fairfax 2 that I converted over and it works great, haven’t had any issues and I’ve put on a couple thousand kms on it since converting (the display tracks total distance which is handy). I believe the marin was $700ish new from my local store.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B083J95GJP?geniuslink=true&psc=1
https://www.amazon.ca/10AH-Electric-Bicycle-Lithinum-Battery/dp/B09C1RP9KV
You could search for other options if you don’t want to support amazon, there are different sites to source the parts from, those were just the first two that I saw.
Here’s a battery from a Canadian company.
https://lunacycle.com/no-drill-battery-mount-kit/
Here’s a mounting bracket for the battery if the bracket seems unsteady or the holes don’t line up like with mine.
This is what I ended up going with. Let me know if you have any questions, I’d be happy to chat about the process more.
All of this is canadian specific because I reposted the meat of it from an older comment, bug I’m sure you could find local alternatives easily enough.
You don’t need much, 500w is enough.
I ride an ENGWE EP-2 Pro, I got it because it was on sale for $700, can fold up into the back of my hatchback, and seemed to have a reasonably well designed battery. It is fun, it looks kinda cool, has lots of features including cruise control, but is by no means the best bike.
It weighs 74 lbs and the range in practice isn’t all that great: Part of me wishes I saved up a little more to get a Lectric Xpedition because it has crazy range and more storage. If the battery goes out, this thing is not fun to pedal uphill.
Farthest I’ve ridden is 12 miles one way, took about 40 minutes. On average I usually ride maybe 1-5 miles a day, not far really but everything is pretty close to me. The only major exception is when I take it joyriding, up to maybe 20 miles. I have only had it for a couple of months so far so I don’t know how it’ll do in cold weather or snow, but I suspect the thicc tires would do well even without chains.
Speaking of extreme weather, extreme cold and heat are problematic for batteries, so don’t expect to go on a big journey in -20 F cold or 110 F heat.
I can tell you that my best advice would be to find your nearest reputable bike shop, get their input based on what they carry, and then do your own research to verify it’s a decent brand before you buy. One of the most important and often overlooked things when people buy an ebike is whether they can get it serviced or not.
Another possible consideration if you’re handy would be to take a traditional bike you think would be ideal and then use a conversion kit to make it electric. If you are mechanically savvy, you’d get more bang for your buck and would probably do all your own maintenance and repairs anyhow.
It weighs 74 lbs and the range in practice isn’t all that great: Part of me wishes I saved up a little more to get a Lectric Xpedition because it has crazy range and more storage. If the battery goes out, this thing is not fun to pedal uphill.
I own an Xpedition and can confirm that it’s a great bike. (I didn’t have the choice to shell out for anything less because my primary use-case was carrying two kids, and when it comes to cargo bikes that one’s literally the cheapest option.) That said, an Xpedition would definitely also suck if you had to pedal it without assist (even on flat ground, frankly), so I’m glad I got the dual-battery version just in case.
My advice is that range/battery life depends greatly on things like rider+cargo weight, terrain hilliness, and which assist setting you’re using (or worse, if you’re just using the throttle and not pedaling at all). Get more battery than you think you need. (The exception is if the bike you choose is more of an “e-road bike” that would still be pleasant to ride without assist, but most e-bikes are not like that, and you wouldn’t want that kind of bike for commuting anyway.)
Otherwise, the 750w bikes are perfectly fine – you do not need that “super cool dual-motor bike” for commuting.
IMO, the other main factors you should be considering are cargo capacity, drivetrain style and budget.
Regarding cargo: you can carry groceries etc. with a basket and/or rack on a regular-style bike, but if you want to carry a lot of stuff (or kids as passengers) you should look into long-tail cargo bikes or even a box bike (a.k.a. “bakfiets” because they’re popular in the Netherlands).
Regarding drivetrain style: there are two main types, rear-drive and mid-drive.
Rear-drive tends to be cheaper but slightly less pleasant to use because it relies on a cadence sensor to activate the assist. In other words, when you start pedaling there’s a bit of lag before the assist kicks in, and when it does it’s either on (according to the setting you picked) or off. It’s not “variable” in terms of responding to how hard you’re pushing the pedals, only whether they’re turning or not.
In contrast, mid-drive systems can sense the torque being applied to the pedals, and can apply assist more immediately and more smoothly in response to how much effort you’re trying to use (at least, that’s what they say – I’ve never tried one myself). However, they tend to cost more.
Based on my use-case (which involved carrying two small kids to school), I bought a Lectric Xpedition, which AFAIK is the cheapest electric long-tail cargo bike currently available. I’ve been very happy with it so far and think that bike, and Lectric bikes in general, are a good recommendation for people who want the best value-for-money.
For people with other circumstances, I might make some other recommendations:
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If you’re doing a mixed bike+transit commute, taking the bike with you on airplane trips, or otherwise carrying it around a lot, I think going all the way to the smallest/best-folding bike you can reasonably have – an electric Brompton – is worth it.
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If you want to carry a lot of cargo, but (unlike me) you also have plenty of money and space to store the thing, a high-end bakfeits with a Bosch mid-drive and Gates carbon belt instead of a chain is what you want. Those things can cost $10K, though!
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If your needs are generic – you don’t specifically need cargo capacity or folding – and you aren’t completely mechanically hopeless, then get a rear-drive bike from a lower-end-but-still-well-known mail-order brand like Rad or Lectric (either new or used via Craigslist).
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If you are mechanically hopeless and/or still clueless about what you want and/or have a higher budget and are willing to pay for good service, find a local e-bike shop and let them sell you one of their bikes that they recommend. It’ll cost more than the previous suggestion, but they’ll have the best support and will be able to do the maintenance on it for you. (This is apparently a bigger benefit than it seems, because although you can get a regular non-electric bike worked on anywhere, I’ve heard that lots of bike shop mechanics are unwilling to work on e-bikes they don’t sell themselves.)
One last thing: whatever you do, avoid random no-name Chinese bikes from Amazon/Ebay/Aliexpress/whatever. This is one of those cases where you really do want a company with a US presence (it doesn’t have to be a “US company,” but they need to at least have a US phone number/mailing address) to hold accountable for warranty issues and to have some confidence that they’re complying with US safety regulations so the battery doesn’t burn your house down or something.
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Hell many people can get by with just a cheapo e-scooter.
Privately owned ones are illegal in the UK :( you can only use ones owned by rental services and they’re only in a few cities
You can it them from Halfords so they can’t be that illegal… https://www.halfords.com/scooters/electric-scooters/
I meant illegal on public roads…so effectively illegal if you want to use one as a car alternative for short distances
Bug zapper flyswatter. Like you can buy at Harbor Freight for a few bucks. It might not be a terribly effective solution to the overall fly population, but in terms of grim-bloody-vengeance-per-dollar, it’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made.
My wife bought me a Beard Bib as a joke gift after I found it online one day. It’s basically a smaller version of the bibs you wear when getting your hair cut, but with suction cups attached to the bathroom mirror to hold it horizontal and catch stray hairs when using an electric shaver. It looks ridiculous.
I now use it every time I trim my beard, even if my wife still laughs at me every time she sees me in it. Cleaning up all the stray hairs was always a pain in the ass, but this thing does a surprisingly good job at catching 99% of the hair, and I can just brush it all into the trash when I’m done.
My wife got me a fitbit. I resisted a little bit because I didn’t want to have yet another device to monitor, charge, and maintain etc. I’ve been really surprised and impressed and how effective it has been in subtly encouraging me to make some small improvements in my habits. Not a bad deal for $100.
This one really shocked me, too! I got a Fitbit to monitor my heart rate because of a genetic condition, but fast forward a couple years and I’m running a mile and exercising multiple times a week.
Didn’t see that coming, but a nice result!
Tbh, I hate the Fitbit though. I hate that it’s owned by Google and they charge me to see my own data. I’d love to switch, but I can’t find alternatives that check all the boxes from a Charge 5…
Edit: if you’re looking to get a Fitbit and wanna save some money, thrift stores often have electronic sections full of em! My bf got his charge 5 for 50$ from a goodwill. Same one 100$ more in the target across the street.
Albeit a bit more pricey I love the Garmin Forerunner Smartwatches. There is a very wide variety at many different price points, no subscription and access to all data, integrates well with other services. Not sure about the OLED versions but I love the non OLED ones. Touch display, color (although not as vibrant), smartphone connectivity (e.g. notifications) and even payment (credit card on the watch, no phone needed)… with all that the battery still lasts about 2 weeks.
Sorry for shilling. There was a time when I hated Garmin. But their watches have come a long way.
I wrote a huge reply about Garmin watches and felt like a shill, too, but it got lost. I will just add on to your reply to say Garmin watches rock. They cost more upfront but it feels like I’m wearing a scientific instrument vs a watch, for all the info it gives. Battery life is amazing, as you said.
Pro tip from a fellow rambler: before submitting a lengthy, in-depth, top-tier comment. Highlight some text. Hit ‘Select All’. Copy. That way your shit isn’t lost & your time isn’t wasted. 🙂
The internet wants your honest, detailed opinions. That’s how we all learn! 😌
Agreed, I should have known better, sound advice!
I used to think Garmin watches were way overpriced but then I got involved in wearable fitness monitor validation studies as part of my graduate degree lab and they were by and far the most reliable and accurate for everything we tested. I went from a Fitbit Versa to a Garmin Instinct and loved it so much that after it broke, I got their Fenix 7X. It’s literally everything you could ever want In a fitness tracking watch with smart features. A full charge lasts me nearly 20 days due to the solar charging.
https://youtube.com/@TheQuantifiedScientist has a lot of detailed videos on smartwatches’ accuracy
I went from a Pebble Time to a Garmin Forerunner. Amazing battery life (2 weeks vs 5 days). But the software on the now defunct Pebble was massively superior. Sleep tracking on the Garmin sucks despite it having many more sensors. The Pebble pretty much always recognized short naps, and was pretty accurate with sleep/wake times.
The Garmin’s UI is also dogcrap. For example, if you get a text, it first pops up with the name of who’s texting you. You have to wait two seconds before the actual text shows up. If someone texts you again, the name pops up. You kinda have to wait for the other person to stop sending texts to be able to read anything.
I wish we could have Pebble’s software in the body of a Forerunner. Sadly Fitbit bought Pebble and subsequently threw it in the trash.
Appreciate the mention, haven’t heard of this brand and definitely going to consider them as soon as this Fitbit goes kaput in probably 6 months or so.
I’m loving that garmin battery life! Charging things is as much of a curse as sleep ☠️
Tbh, I hate the Fitbit though. I hate that it’s owned by Google and they charge me to see my own data. I’d love to switch, but I can’t find alternatives that check all the boxes from a Charge 5…
That’s the issue that so far has kept me from buying a smart watch/fitness monitor.
I’ve had my eye on a PineTime for a while now, but I’m not sure if it’s ready for general consumer use or still an early-adopter kind of product. (Although I’m an engineer, I don’t necessarily want to buy a project in this particular instance.)
I haven’t checked if this works with all the premium features but I know for the sleep tracking ones you can get them by linking your Fitbit account to Google Fit and viewing it in the Google Fit app.
I’ll check that out! They might at the very least have more there.
They also give you a cute “animal” profile for your sleep style when you pay. It was meaningless, but fun. I always got the dolphin during my free trial because I apparently have no idea how to sleep for more than 3 and a half hours.
Oh the animal thing does not cross over. I would totally pay if it was a reasonable price but $9.99 a month is kind of ridiculous
Ya, that effectively nearly doubles the price of the device itself. Not worth it.
Charged to see your Fitbit data? What does that mean? I have no problem going back years across various devices.
They hide their in depth graphs and readings from you unless you pay for premium. You can get basic data going back years, but if you want to know how long it took you to enter REM sleep for example, your only option is trying to guess using their vague graph charts, or pay premium for the in depth graphs.
Did they change it recently maybe? I got one earlier this year and could see my sleep data before getting premium (just using the free 6 months now).
You get sleep data, but you get more sleep data with premium. If you don’t have premium, it completely hides the area from you where the new charts are and the only way to see them is to dig up your past premium data. But even then you can only see for months that you had access to premium, it doesn’t give you the data if you don’t pay, despite it constantly taking all the same readings as normal.
I suppose it’s not technically true they’re keeping your data from you. What they’re actually doing is refusing to crunch additional numbers for you and show you nice graphs for them if you don’t pay. Normally this wouldn’t bug me, but since it’s already taking all my data and and since I know crunching those numbers doesn’t cost 10$ a month when I already paid 150$ for it to do exactly what they’re trying to charge me more for it to do…well, now I’m just rambling 😄 it bugs me is all, and I’d gladly try another manufacturer if I could find something more competitive.
I’m already on my 4th Fitbit in 6 years from them breaking (one of them the screen separated from the device. Just peeled out), so I don’t exactly have confidence in their build quality anyways.
I see. Well I’ll drop premium when my free trial is over and see if I feel like I’m missing anything.
I really hate subscriptions…
Ever read Ubik?
Give it another 10 years and the refrigerators are gunna have us tapping our phones to get some milk.
Some insurance providers cover the low end ones, or offer discounts.
Mechanical keyboard. Almost had no money back then, but wanted to treat myself. It costed 100$, and I regretted it the next morning. Felt like shit, but it was so cool to type on.
After 5 years, this metal-frame keyboard managed to survive many outside gigs, long travels, literal war, and it’s still with me. And I still love typing on it. Sometimes I code just to type. You can guess why I don’t use code completion tools.
I love my mechanical keyboard. I grew up on Apple IIs, so mechanical keyboards are what I learned to type on. If keyboards don’t have a big chunky feel and sound, I’m disappointed.
I got into mechs and bought a bunch of them over a few years, my last one being a ducky with silent reds.
3 years ago I bought a microsoft ergo keyboard and have never looked back. So comfortable.
Now, maybe what I should have bought was an ergodox, but I’m too happy to justify spending $150+ to try it out.
I don’t really care about the feel of a keyboard, but the fact that you can replace a broken switch is very amazing. Previously my membrane keyboard only last for about 1-2 year before I need to throw it away because some of the key stop registering. Now I can just replace the switch for <$1
Which war?
Bed sheet suspenders. Dumb problem, stupidly cheap, horribly made, and ABSOLUTELY fixed the friggin sheets being yanked off the corner of the bed twice a night by my tumble-dry-medium sleeper of a spouse.
When they finally broke after almost 2 years I sewed some that’ll last 10 years and I don’t regret them at all.
Scooter. Not an electric one. I had a thought once “hey I did ride one in childhood, maybe it can be a bit of nostalgic fun from time to time”. Got myself the cheapest Chinese thing I could find, “no point investing too much into a fad”.
Turned out a scooter is absolute peak urban mobility. Short distances become much shorter. Mid-long distances become short. Granted, for a longer trip somehow the time gains diminish, probably because it’s not as efficient as a bike. But a scooter isn’t a long-hauler. It’s there to zip through an empty mall. It’s there to be folded up in a second and brought into a bus or a shop without being a hassle. It’s like 3-4 kg, not too fast for sidewalks but fast enough for bike roads, extremely easy to stop, doubles as a cart when carrying bags of groceries home.
The chinese one broke after 1 season because I was riding it everywhere. Then I got myself one from a better company, I chose it for small weight and portability. It’s technically children’s thing but I’m well below weight tolerance and also smol so it’s easy to handle. It’s already like a 5th year and whenever it’s not raining or too cold I ride it for shopping, errands, leisure walks, to work… Almost daily.
Custom-made ear plugs. Even if you only wear ear plugs occasionally (I do when in a noisy hotel, or when a neighbor goes a bit too crazy), they are so worth having.
Basically you go to an audiologist and they put something kinda liquid in each of your ears to take a mold of your ear canals. A couple of weeks later, you have plastic earplugs that have the exact shape of your inner ears.
Upsides: • They work, always. I would typically use wax or silicon disposable ear plugs before that, and sometimes in the middle of the night they might move and let the sound in; those don’t. Also, foam disposable ear plugs don’t stay in my ear, don’t ask me why. • They never hurt. Since disposable ear plugs get shoved into your inner ear until they take the shape, they continuously push against the walls of your ear canals. I would often feel kinda bruised after using them for a long time. • They are crazy comfortable. Put your ear on a pillow, and you barely feel them at all. • But do they block too much sound? That’s up to you. Basically, you choose the level of noise you want to keep out, which I believe is achieved by using different kinds of plastic.
They’re not a trivial purchase (I think mine cost $150), but then you use them for decades, so it’s definitely worth it. It was a stupid purchase in my case, because I bought them on a whim out of anger against my neighbor’s party one night; but they’ve followed me everywhere since!
As for them staying in your ear, do you pull up on your earlobe when inserting normal ear plugs? I discovered this a while ago and it took in-ear stuff from being absolutely unusable to working great.
I did! I noticed it written on a box of disposable earplugs at some point, so I abided. It made things marginally better in my case, but not by much. Either I was doing it wrong, or it’s that ear canal shapes are different enough that different people have to have different solution (why on Earth can some people use foam earplugs all right, and yet they just spring out of my ears?? 😆)
I have small ear canals and can’t use most ear plugs and ear buds because they just push out of my ears, and if they do manage to stay I can feel it constantly pushing outwards on my ear and it starts to hurt pretty quickly. No one else in my house has this problem. I would absolutely say ear canals are different enough that there cannot be a catch-all solution so they just have to go with average range. I’m sure if I got custom plugs it would be different, but anything off the shelf is not going to work for my baby ears.
Hah well, yeah, for sure for you the custom ones would make even more sense than for me, if you use earplugs enough.
Not for plugs, but check out bone conduction headphones for a listening alternative to over ear headphones. They just cut your ear canal out of the equation entirely.
Interesting, i thought i had small ear canals until i learned about the ear pulling trick and now i can even wear bog-standard earbuds without issue.
Don’t know if I’m losing my mind but I thought the inner ear was beyond the eardrum
Oh you’re probably right; I’m no specialist and I’m referring to the ear canals as “inner ear” in my post and could very well be wrong in doing so.
This post has me very intrigued
You can buy a DIY kit for ~$20. Mine work great, though I’ve never gotten professional ones so I can’t compare.
Radian on Amazon, they work like two-part epoxy. You can also make custom fit earbud covers to have noise cancelling earbuds that are super comfortable. If you get the Radian kit, put a water bottle cap sized spacer between your teeth while they cure. They will seal better.
I use IEM’s constantly and usually use a silicone tip, but honestly it’s time to get molded. You just have to be disciplined enough not to lose them.
I have a set of these designed for musicians, theres an open channel through them, and you put a special “button” at te outward end, that lowers volume without affecting sound quality. I think the company is called “Etymotic Research”
As a guy that had his inner ear literally scooped out, I can confirm custom ear plugs are a MUST HAVE for anyone. I use mine for swimming and places with a shit ton of dust cuz I can’t get water or other stuff in my ears or it makes them really hard for the doc to clean. They also just look really cool and I managed to get a few of my friends to get some as well.
i’m currently waiting for a pair of custom molded titanium earplugs with interchangable filters. epoxy ones costs 180, Ti 200 € in central europe.
I just got a pair in Canada they were 300 bucks. My ears are so small nothing else fits. 10 out of 10 would buy again.
I had some but lost them unfortunately after a few recent moves in a few years. They had a good 20 year run at least
Can confirm they’re way way better than anything not custom
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