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Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

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Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#261

Post by daxorid »

wegs wrote: post #180
MisterTea wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few friends switch to bidets a while ago and wont look back. Personally I just jump in the shower if it's that bad.

I find bidets as or more useful if it's not that bad. You're often talking about just one or two square of toilet paper (literally, not figuratively). Try cleaning your hands with paper instead of water some day, and see how that works out for you. It's the same thing.

Feces comes in all manner of consistencies and textures. There is a range of consistencies for which bidets are wholly useless. Specifically, sticky ones. For these, you need friction from a solid, high-surface-area object.

I'm sure you've had brown streaks inside the bowl that could not be removed in N flushes, but a simple toilet brush made quick work of the matter.

To use your handwashing analogy, try removing crisco, or some other substance that adheres to your hands with a stream of water. Now try physically wiping it with a paper towel. The towel will win every time.

This is to say nothing of the fact that it's quite nice to leave the bathroom with dry hindquarters rather than a bad case of SA.

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#262

Post by valuearb »

fab1an wrote: post #211
valuearb wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are ok with a MacBook screen nearly as thick and heavy as an iPhone, you can have a better camera. The increasing thinness of modern laptops has come at the expense of improving their cameras.

I'd be good money to get a thicker Macbook Pro with a workable keyboard, that's for sure!

You are in luck, 16 inch MBP has a good keyboard. Butterfly switches are gone.

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#263

Post by plughs »

MisterTea wrote: post #162
post_break wrote: post #147

Also bidets, nintendo switches, instant yeast, powdered milk, etc. I actually snagged some wine yeast on amazon and I'm on my third loaf of bread. Bidet was the best "waste of money" I have spent in a long time. My TP usage has been slashed.

A few friends switch to bidets a while ago and wont look back. Personally I just jump in the shower if it's that bad.

LPT: Bring a little unscented lotion in with you and put it on the TP.

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#265

Post by MrGilbert »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #206
MrGilbert wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a side note: I guess it's still "mobile" in english - "handy" is pretty german. ;) Not sure if it's still valid, but "handy" has a different meaning in slang: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=handy Again, a native speaker might consider different, but as a german the usage of "handy" immediatley caught my eye. :D

OP's usage is correct. Handy means "at hand", or convenient.

I know what "handy" means in English.

So if I ask an American to show me his "Handy", he knows that I want to see his "mobile phone"?

Because that's what "Handy" means in Germany. It's actually "mobile phone", hence the confusion. I learned that "Handy" is almost exclusively used in Germany.

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#266

Post by the_watcher »

DangitBobby wrote: post #215
ivankirigin wrote: post #208

Why shouldn’t the price increase with a supply chain disruption and demand boom? Would you prefer a shortage with no incentive to increase production?

If I used to produce 100 units per month because that's how many I could sell, but now I know I can sell 10000 units per month, that is incentive enough to increase production. Notice here that raising the price is not at all required to increase profits. It's just something companies tend to do because they know they can get away with it in high demand markets. And since raising prices to increase profits is not nec…

> If I used to produce 100 units per month because that's how many I could sell, but now I know I can sell 10000 units per month, that is incentive enough to increase production.

This assumes that you can actually scale production to 10,000 units (a plant that can produce 100 items a month is not necessarily one that can produce 1000), that your typical channels can absorb said production (if they need to hold inventory, they likely cannot), that you have enough packaging supplies for your increased inventory (a real problem being encountered at the moment), the list goes on. Supply chains are not linear. You can have valid issues with price gouging despite this fact, but simply saying "increase production, problem solved" is an extremely uninformed position.

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#268

Post by the_watcher »

losvedir wrote: post #242
DangitBobby wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I used to produce 100 units per month because that's how many I could sell, but now I know I can sell 10000 units per month, that is incentive enough to increase production. Notice here that raising the price is not at all required to increase profits. It's just something companies tend to do because they know they can get away with it in high demand markets. And since raising prices to increase profits is not nec…

> If I used to produce 100 units per month because that's how many I could sell, but now I know I can sell 10000 units per month, that is incentive enough to increase production. For what it's worth, this isn't how "supply and demand" works in economics. The idea is that a given firm is already producing as much as they can at that price. There's not usually a ton of slack just laying around that could respond to a s…

You can have issues with the economics of supply and demand, but as you outline very well, there's not really a button that just scales supply when you need it.

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#269

Post by pmoriarty »

organsnyder wrote: post #128
Xylakant wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in germany, getting kilo-packs of flour is hard. I have access to metro, which is a supermarket/distributor for businesses and they had tons of flour, but only 25kg packs for commercial buyers. It's even marked on the package "Nur zum gewerblichen Gebrauch". So there's flour - it's just not in your distribution chain.

There's been an article floating around that posits that the same thing is happening with toilet paper: plenty of "institutional" product is available (since many businesses are closed), but not "home" product (since people are not only hoarding but also using the restroom at home more).

Why hasn't this institutional supply been redirected to the consumer market?

Same question regarding all the food normally sold to restaurants and companies that are now closed.

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#270

Post by cvwright »

JCharante wrote: post #159

It's been like this for 1.5 months. It's been commonly brought up at universities when some professors require webcams for exams but some students don't already have them. I imagine professional headsets are under similar price constraints because on the BBC I've seen at-home reporters using gaming headsets with RGB LEDs.

Headsets are definitely in short supply. I bought a mid-range Jabra in March for about $150-160. The same model on Amazon is now over $200 and has increased by $10 since the last time I checked just one week ago.
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