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It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

calpaterson.com

61–70 of 326 posts

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#61
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which is probably only 20% of us here Uh. Shops offering printing-as-a-service are one of the most common things found in every small town, all over the world. They're one of the first entrepreneurialist ventures to be developed in developing countries after electrification (just buy a printer and a computer, and charge $1 to print a page.) Every Internet cafe offers printing. Every parcel shipping store (UPS, FedE…

> Shops offering printing-as-a-service are one of the most common things found in every small town, all over the world. FWIW, I live in the outer suburbs of Melbourne in Australia. By no means a small town. It’s a 20min drive to my closest place that does printing, which is apparently out in an industrial estate. There’s absolutely nothing in the 3-4 most accessible shopping/retail areas. These types of places have b…

I'm in Tasmania's second largest city, Launceston.

The closest printing shop with extended hours, which I need because I'm just a lowly blue collar working who needs to work 12 hour days to make ends meet, is Officeworks, and there's exactly one of those here and it's 8 kilometres from my house and shuts at 7pm.

I'll just use my second hand Brother colour laser, cheers.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#62
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which is probably only 20% of us here Uh. Shops offering printing-as-a-service are one of the most common things found in every small town, all over the world. They're one of the first entrepreneurialist ventures to be developed in developing countries after electrification (just buy a printer and a computer, and charge $1 to print a page.) Every Internet cafe offers printing. Every parcel shipping store (UPS, FedE…

> Shops offering printing-as-a-service are one of the most common things found in every small town, all over the world. FWIW, I live in the outer suburbs of Melbourne in Australia. By no means a small town. It’s a 20min drive to my closest place that does printing, which is apparently out in an industrial estate. There’s absolutely nothing in the 3-4 most accessible shopping/retail areas. These types of places have b…

I too am in Australia, but 15 minute drive into a small town without a print shop. Perhaps Australia is a oddity, and most people/places worldwide do in fact have easy access to a local print shop, but I am guessing the grandparent is seeing things from the perspective of a north American and in my experience it is a relative safe bet that the north American experience does not usually translate to the rest of the world where the majority of people live.

FWIW my 20% number was pulled out of the air and based on very rough knowledge of HNs userbase.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if this is what you mean, but redemption systems are where you are just getting your own money back. Nobody is really paying you. Maybe there are some places that pay for the plastic itself, but I would imagine they are more picky. Or the government is paying them as part of some misguided scheme.

I don't mean redemption systems. Where I live, recycling centers pay for used plastic in bulk. We bag up a variety of plastic and take it to them. They don't pay a lot, but they do pay, and I wonder where they get the money.

It’s fuel. Think of it as oil in a slightly less liquid form.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#64
post #16

Printers. Yeah. Herewith, my standard advice. Buy a Brother monochrome laser with duplex, an ethernet port, and BRScript/3 (their PostScript clone). Even if you're sure you will never need one or more of those features, get them all. Wifi and Bluetooth and NFC are strictly optional, and probably not worthwhile. If you need color printing, send it to a printing company. There might even be a local one. It will be done…

I would nowadays don't buy printer without a WiFi. I am so used to sending things to printer from around the house at this point.

The rest I agree

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#65

A lot of good thoughts in here. The one I personally want everyone to take away is that most plastics are not recycled. Unless it’s glass, fibre, or aluminum, you are lying to yourself if it’s going into the blue bin. Glass-contained milk delivery seems great. Someone needs to start a company. Sure it won’t be sexy or use AI but it’s useful. I have a local co-op that delivers local produce. It’s amazing to see a pile…

> Unless it’s glass, fibre, or aluminum, you are lying to yourself if it’s going into the blue bin.

PET Plastic (#1) is recycled very commonly. Don't lump it in with the other plastics.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#66
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually shifted to using a double edged safety razor when the cost of the disposable blades felt like too much. It isnt quite as easy, and I still cut myself from time to time but I also am still using the variety pack of 100 blades that I bought two years ago for like 10$.

Try disposable blades from Feather, a Japanese razor and blades company. It is sold on Amazon. I settled on their cartridge razor just for convenience. Blades are excellent.

The mix packs of blades works best while you figure out which is best for your skin and hair. I personally find Feather too aggressive, Astra and Dorco Prime Platinums worked best for me. You should know after the first shave whether the blade is okay enough to use for day 2, otherwise toss and move on.

Soaps are also quite variable in lather and feel—affecting the shave. Tallow, glycerine, and oil based soaps all coat differently. Get a good brush and it’s a nice way to get ready in the morning.

For traveling I use a disposable 3 blade and aerosol shaving cream because you’re not supposed to take the safety razor blades through security.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#67
post #16

Printers. Yeah. Herewith, my standard advice. Buy a Brother monochrome laser with duplex, an ethernet port, and BRScript/3 (their PostScript clone). Even if you're sure you will never need one or more of those features, get them all. Wifi and Bluetooth and NFC are strictly optional, and probably not worthwhile. If you need color printing, send it to a printing company. There might even be a local one. It will be done…

> If you need color printing, send it to a printing company. There might even be a local one.

Middle-tier option: Walgreens Photo. Last time I wanted to print an 8x10" it cost $4 and I picked it up an hour later.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Staples-as-a-Service. I would totally buy that service vs overpriced meal boxes or on-demand grocery delivery. An app could be used to coordinate your order/inventory levels, and a reusable cooler could sit on your porch or lobby for exchange and temp storage. Pop a cheap tracker and lock in it if piracy is an issue. There are major efficiencies associated with route delivery vs on-demand ordering- pick&pack in batch…

Nit: Theft may be a more accurate term than piracy. Arrrr, through my spyglass I did sight a hearty meal on thy dock, and being as I am a ravenous, immoral beast I bent my sails against the wind to secure it as my prize. But thwarted I were by a hidden RFID and three days hence arrested by a regiment of dirty british redcoats. But, upon mine hanging, my belly were full and thine empty.

Yar.

Porch pirates are a scourge of the seven streets to be sure... RFID is no match, but GPS + Cell could finally bring justice to these shores.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000235765025.html That plus a little lock system might just do it, but at some point its cheaper just to redeliver stuff than worry about reusable containers being stolen, especially when you have to figure out how to power the damn thing and get a ton of cheap SIMs+plans.

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#69

He mentions "Smart TVs". I always thought you could just buy a SmartTV and not connect the internet and have a dumb TV. Nope. HDMI changed that. I bought a TV a few months ago and it started showing adverts because it was connected to the internet through my ROKU via HDMI. That's right, you can't even have a dumb TV anymore. Someone needs to make an HDMI internet filter, stat. But Adobe? That smells like extortion.

"Someone needs to make an HDMI internet filter, stat."

An HDMI splitter might do the job. I can't imagine that both output ports would support two-way communication with the input: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079LMPSKS/

Re: It looks like a product but is secretly a subscription

#70
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I plugged my flash drive into the printer station and all I got was my financial documents uploaded to a Russian server and 4 viruses written to the boot sector." -- my paranoid assumptions about public print stations with USB ports.

it'd be interesting to see if this flash drive transport for documents evolves into an email address you send via your phone instead (so no hardware on your end needed).

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