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Trick: there is almost always a garbage can next to a vending machine, and there are many vending machines in Japan.

Caveat: some of those garbage cans are for can recycling only. But there is often another one for garbage like food wrappers.


National Car is the best in my experience.

National is excellent but you pay a premium. They focus on airports and business travelers, which means their fleet is newer and less beat up (also tend to be driven by individuals rather than families). If you sign up for free Emerald program, theres no waiting. Go to lot, pick any car and drive to gate and check out.

Enterprise owns them but they definitely operate on a different tier of service. If your work has discount codes with them, they're definitely better than all the other rental agencies. (I travel for work and have rented from almost all the major brands)

Problem with Turo is that most credit card damage waivers don't work with Turo.


Purely CLI tools are harder to monetize.

But I’ve seen REPL instances (which are command line in a way but interactive) monetized. The AMPL optimization language is monetized. The very expensive KDb+ language and database is monetized.

Back in the day lots of DOS shareware tools like pkzip, etc were monetized as shareware.


Yes. People associate Chinese manufacturing with low quality products, but I feel those people misunderstand systems. It's not Chinese manufacturing that is low quality. It's really the sites like Temu and Shein that create low quality products -- because of their aggressive pricing, they create a cascade of systemic cost pressures on manufacturers, who have to cut corners.

AMZN on the other hand probably provides more headroom and reduces cost pressure on manufacturers. If you know how to shop on Amazon (avoiding 3P sellers, and only getting 4 star and above products), you generally get high quality products.

I've only rarely gotten anything bad from Amazon (from Chinese manufacturers).

I've bought Chinese products like Anker batteries, Thermopro thermocouples/sensors, Jigoo (weird name I know) dust mite vacuum, Tapo camera, Levoit humidifier, Cosori air fryer, and little clever tools like toothpaste tube squeezers and the like.

They've all exceeded expectations.

(I recently bought a Insta360 Flow Pro 2 gimbal, also a Chinese product, and it's amazing).


> Levoit humidifier

Be careful with that. I liked mine too until it burst into flames one evening.


I’ve had it for years running 24/7 and nothing happened. You might have gotten a dud.


Bursting into flames shouldn't be possible, that's a LOT worse than a "dud". (Assuming parent isn't exaggerating)


Not exaggerating. I had it for a little over a year. I used it in my bedroom. As usual I started it going and then went into my bathroom to brush my teeth before bed. Partly through brushing my teeth I smelled something burning. I came out and saw the humidifier in flames.


It does raise the question of certification and product safety in general, there are so many electrical devices that probably don't meet Western safety standards. A humidifier is basically a heating element in a plastic housing, it should be engineered with safety features (overheating protection etc) so it shouldn't be able to just catch fire, someone clearly didn't do their job properly at some stage. I wonder how product recalls work with that sort of thing.


I don’t think I would make that leap about falling short of Western safety standards.

All electrical products sold in the US are legally required to be NRTL certified (according to US standards). Levoit is ETL certified.

Non certified products are seized by customs or recalled from the market.


It’s very unlikely and I agree, not acceptable, but any household appliance with a heating element has a nonzero fire risk. I read that for UL certified humidifiers the incidence rate is 1 in 100k, similar to fans. The seems worryingly high.


China makes quality things, they just keep it for themselves, and ship their crap to us.


If you are willing to pay (and know where to look), you can get good quality from China just fine.

Most iPhones come from China after all.


That's hilarious. The most popular grocery stores in Shanghai right now are Costco and Sams, with lines everyday out the door, not Chinese grocery stores. Chinese citizens don't want to buy cancerous food products for example.


Then why is lead in everything from China?


Comparative advantage in action!


Problem with Discord is you have to enforce real names otherwise you have to limit it to people you know.

Young people I know (except for gamers) find Discord a bit sus because you don’t have any baseline with regard to name or profile pic. Also who already knows who. Discord doesn’t expose any social network outside of the specific server.

You would think Discord would be the community of choice for Gen Z but in reality it’s limited to gamer and gamer adjacent folks.

Turns out identity and known social network are still things people look for to achieve a base level of trust for real time chat.

Reddit and HN are more topic driven, but chat somehow feels more personal.


Nope it is not. It’s a myth. MSG, like butter, has been maligned over the decades.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-h...


Please don't spread lies about MSG. Its sensitivity is real, not a myth. Not everyone is affected.


Right back at you. Stop spreading lies about MSG, or if you claim they are not lies, show some actual evidence.


Did you even read the link? Read it.

I highly object to your pejorative insinuation.


Oh I read it, but I am not sure if you did. The symptoms are listed. These symptoms are a good indication to avoid it in those that are sensitive to it. For those people, it will add up to be pretty bad for their health if they continue to take it.

If the body is signaling to not do something, then don't do it!!!


Not salt, but Mrs Dash has potassium and can be used as part of the DASH diet.

It tastes pretty good but it does have herbs and spices so it’s not versatile like salt. You can’t add Mrs Dash to everything


> Mrs Dash has potassium

Are you sure? Their Original version does not have any added potassium: https://mrsdash.com/products/original-blend/

None of the other flavors I checked have any either. Do they sell other products that have added potassium?


Here.

https://mrsdash.ca/product/mrs-dash-original-blend/

I just noticed that this is Mrs Dash in Canada (where I’m from). Curious why the US version is different?

Edit: check other flavors on the US site other than original blend, like tomato basil. They all have 10mg potassium.


Thanks for the response. As best as I can tell, the potassium is naturally occurring in the dried garlic, red pepper, and onion. In neither country is there any added potassium. Possibly the formulation is the same and the two countries just have slightly different thresholds for what must be listed.


I switched to MSG and have definitely found it less salty and more delicious.

The sodium level is definitely lower. My blood pressure is still well regulated.

I’ve eaten MSG my entire life with no ill effects.

MSG got a bad rap but it’s really quite safe. It’s found in various forms in things like parmigianno reggiano cheese, seaweed, etc. It can be overused to cover up bad ingredients and make up for poor cooking skills but when used correctly it’s a great flavor enhancer that is better than salt.


MSG is about sensitivity. It is not safe for those sensitive to it. The logic is that glutamate is highly excitatory in the brain, in everyone's brain. Sensitive persons have lost the ability to regulate glutamate too well. Others do fine.


No. Some people are sensitive to it yes. But it is not unsafe. There are no proven long term effects and no treatment is needed.

(Some people are also sensitive to sugar like me — due to gout — but sugar is not unsafe)

Please read the research claims critically instead of posting a knee jerk reaction.


You don't look to know the first thing about excitotoxicity or even about glycotoxicity. If you keep abusing excitotoxins, they have a kindling effect which will cause brain damage and seizures in the long term. With sugar, similarly there is diabetes. Your gout is a hard indication that you have failed to filter your diet.


Partiful works but to me it lacks polish. It feels like MySpace when FB first came out.


I'm curious in what way you think so? It's both attractive and easy to use for me.


There’s no right or wrong answer but as someone who used to work in publishing, the typeface seems contrived to be amateurish. I wonder if it’s supposed to evoke a more “authentic” unpolished feel? (YouTubers actually find too much polish reduces engagement among younger people)

The pictures are also a bit amateurish but this is more a function of the inviter. On other platforms much of the design choices are made for you so there’s a lower bar but for me, partiful seems to want to hit the kind of “having street cred” aesthetic.

This is a typical partiful aesthetic.

https://images.app.goo.gl/ufJafvhXoBtaF6QE8


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