Jul
20th
2020
Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated? · 8:20pm Jul 20th, 2020
These are the styluses I use and just had to reorder.
This is the stylus which Amazon has been trying to sell me for the last hour.
These are the "anti-germ no-touch tools" which the Recommended Products list would like me to use in place of a stylus, because it'll supposedly protect me from coronavirus by poking at screens, elevator buttons, door levers, and everything else on my behalf.
This is me attempting to explain that I do not have telekinesis, the object has to be put away sometime, and exactly how are they proposing that the "no-touch tool" be manipulated without touching it?
Only without the horn.
Yeah, they shove just about anything you don't really have a need for down your throat these days, don't they?
Uh, don't look further into that wording...
The no-touch tool looks like a symbol for a basic spell in some arcane script. Possibly telekinesis. Maybe that's the idea.
"Now hold the form of the glyph in your mind."
"And then get the box down with the sticky-outty bit?"
"... Technically, yes, but you're skipping about five steps."
5316861
Or like one of these Complete Wastes Of A Perfectly Good Pokeball.
cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/7/77/201Unown.png
...hey, we finally found something they're good for!
We sell a solid metal version of those one-touch keys at work. It is twenty actual United States dollars. Customers have asked me if it's good. I tell them "it'll do roughly what it says it does, but why would you spend twenty bucks on that?"
They have sent us 18 of them in total. There are 13 remaining. Which tells me either five people are incredibly dumb, or some combination of 1 to 4 people ate dumb and one is an unbelievable blithering moron.
5316866
Turns out the real Hidden Power was hygienically poking things all along.
5316882
Checking my view history... this listing is five of them for $24.99, plus local tax. They're made from a zinc alloy, and rather small: the advertising says each takes up less room than a credit card. And scrolling down the page a little shows there are a lot of varieties existing in direct sales competition.
Look.
Seriously.
I could pick up a stick.
...I could also sell sticks as organic versions...
...this is what happens to your brain when you write a Flim & Flam story.
Ya know, sometimes I think Amazon is the Flim & Flam brothers...
I might as well link the actual decent item.
This goes to the styluses. The offering is not perfect. I never use the cords because oh dear gawds why, and the 'free' microfiber cloth is too small to be of any real use. As for the styluses themselves? The side tine breaks off, the silver coloring wears off, and of course they get lost. But I buy them because they don't use a standard rubber tip. It's a metallic weave pattern: something which glides more easy, creates less friction, doesn't scratch the screen, and produces very little smudge.
The tips do wear out, and old styluses will have them tear off to reveal -- rubber underneath. Between normal obsolescence and strays, I generally have to order a new six-pack every year. But they're still the best styluses I've found at that price point, and they do better than many of the ones which sell for $10 each. If you need something which permits smoother movement without breaking the bank on a Gamer Deluxe model (which I'm presuming exists, possibly with branding), they may be worth your while.
#NotSponsored
It sounds like what you really need is a no-touch tool that is moved by careful application of magnetic force, and a control box that provides said magnetic force with previously unheard-of and frankly implausible precision.
That, or simply wash off your hands often. I've heard pleasant things about both soap&water and 70%+ alcohol sanitizers.
5316940
Actually, I was just down to one workable and one about-to-die stylus, so what I really needed was more styluses. But just try telling Amazon that.
(One of the funnier challenges of the pandemic is device cleaning. I've had an easier time renewing masks than in wiping down screens: this is especially fun with my barely-makes-calls phone, which can have liquid leak between actual keys. I'm really not sure about just baking it for half an hour at 170 degrees.)
My First Experience With Amazon
I had a computer from back in the mid 1990s. I wasn't online -I used it to keep databases of RPG info & to play video games.
By 2912, Amazon had put all the local bookstores out of business. The nearest bookstore was 1&1/2 - 2 hours away by bus (2 transfers each way). So, it was either quit reading or go online. I got (a modem or a router or some damn piece of junk) & went online.
The 18 in my screenname comes from the number of times it took me to open an account with Amazon. Why, no, it's not that hard -IF you've ever, at some point in your life, seen anyone do it or have anyone that can advise you on how to do it.
Amazon will let you download a *FREE* app, allowing your computer to act as a Kindle!?
*SOLD*
Go to buy some books. Made the mistake of letting them install 1 click buy. Turns out, this ISN'T optional -it makes you pay after each book. (Thank God, they have since changed this) This ain't the way I buy books. Still, I persevere. After 5 purchases, it decides my card is stolen. Took all the next day to straighten this out.
Go to download my books.
Can't do that -you need the Kindle app.
I've *GOT* the Kindle app
You need the Kindle App
My computer thinks I HAVE the Kindle App
You need the Kindle App
After about 6 months, of screwing around, I *FINALLY* got desperate enough to contact the No Help Desk
Again, it's easier if you have the slightest clue about how to do this
Those of the feminine persuasion probably don't realize how desperate a guy has to be to do this
Found out that the problem was that I hadn't registered my App
This soured me on Amazon & nothing I've experienced since has ever UN soured me.
5316940
it amuses me that you mention 70%+ alcohol sanitizers. after my work had a employee test positive they bought everyone a discount pump bottle of hand sanitizer. (35% alcohol) i spent maybe 20 min trying to explain that at that concentration the best you could hope for was getting the virus drunk. finally i just bought myself my own bottle of 95% rubbing alcohol to keep at my station.
I'll just assume the horn is rage attempting to escape through your forehead.
Those multi-tool styluses always make me worry I'm going to accidentally gouge my screen with the screwdriver tip.
5317044
That's one of the primary reasons I wouldn't use it. Right behind 'I have very little daily need for screwdrivers and the handle is too short to be a good one, you just know the pen part is going to leak, and could that ruler look any more stupid?'
Screwdriver handle length is actually a huge factor. I had to work on my dryer yesterday, and if the tool hadn't been long enough to extend past the venting hose, there would have been no leverage or torque.
Short version: something fell off a shelf and dented the vent hose at the point where it joins with the dryer, creating a huge air gap. Humidity in the room was at about 600%. I had to remove the hose and jam the metal back into shape.
This is just a precursor for Jeff Bezos turning everyone on Earth into Unicorns.
...which I wholeheartedly endorse.
5316986
reminds me of a scene in a book by Christopher Stasheff: someone had invented an alcohol-based biofuel.
a gasoline company made a smear campaign saying people would get drunk on it.
so they invented an additive that would, well, act like an emetic.
BUT this had the unexpected effect of making the biofuel behave like Diesel fuel!
5316908
oh, "organic version" reminds me of someone who recommended using CHOPSTICKS as a stylus!
5317053
A multi-tool is an ingenious-looking device containing mediocre-to-useless versions of several common tools.
Why'd you have to go and remind me of that song? >.<
5317083
And now we have a new OC: Multi-Tool! With the talent to be utterly below average at fixing anything, but in a really compact way!
5316866
Dangit, you beat me to it!
5317094
Your local handy-mare/stallion can fix anything (poorly)! Or at least that’s what their newspaper ad claims (dubiously).
5317094
Apprenticed under that obscene locksmith?
5317053
...but length doesn't affect torque- radius does. Or am I missing the point?
5316983
Strictly speaking, I've never had a "terrible" experience with amazon.
However, I live on a small European island. Import and shipping adds a *minimum* of 50$ to every purchase. Expensive things (like computer peripherals) may cost more in import fees. Sometimes there's even more extra fees that Amazon doesn't handle for you, like that one time i ordered a pocket knife, and once I had in in my hands, I was down 4 times what it was listed for.
5316963
It's not Amazon you've got to convince. It's the bots that Amazon uses.
5317491
I suspect torque was not the issue. Being able to turn the screwdriver in a space too small to fit your hand is why I suspect a longer driver was desirable.
The best thing any supermarket could do at this point concerning touch screens and self-checkouts, for example, is remove the stupid "This is cards only. Continue?" prompt on the screen that you HAVE to touch in order to proceed with the transaction. Touch-free payment options? Not on our watch!
5317094
Jack of all trades, master of none,
Is oft times better than a master of one
Unless it's a Bradley or F-35
5317491
Grip strength and wear on your palms. Trying to loosen a fastened screw with a driver with a narrow handle, or badly designed handle, is painful and ineffective. You don't want one with hard edges. Rounded hexagonal handles are probably the best compromise between comfort and surface area contact on your hand. That, or you can carry a ratcheting wrench and extension kit everywhere, but that's bulky.
about the only tools i've used on a multitool are the knife, and if the model has them, the cutters. mainly on boxes, ****ing clam-shell packages, and zip ties.
5316963
Based on my experience with pocket calculators, letting them get that hot is a REALLY Bad Idea. Tends to fry the electronics.
5316986
I believe that ~75% alcohol is more effective than >90%
5317094
Style’s deadbeat brother!
5317585
Yes. 70-75% alcohol is the sweet spot; it will penetrate the cell structures very well, coagulating proteins and killing the microbes. 90+% alcohol works too quickly, coagulating the surface layer which will then protect the internal parts of the microbes. Now, 90+% alcohol will kill bacteria and viruses and so on, but it will take longer, and isn't quite as reliable.
5317585
5317636
It's still a lot better than 35%; that's 70-proof if I know my math, so a stiff drink but a drink nonetheless.
5317542
?
5317585
If he mixes the two in a ratio of one-third of the 35% mixture to two-thirds of the 95% mix, then he'll end up with a resultant sanitiser at 75% alcohol.
So I guess there's some use to the 35% mix, then...
5317702
I replied to the wrong comment, didn't I?