Hacks that improved my life | Hacker News Reader

Hacks that improved my life

markhayes.ca

57 pointsallsop818430 comments

Curing a headache: iffy.

Measuring fluids with seconds: I, for one, live in a house with water pressure that's not totally consistent from day to day. So much for accuracy.

Coffee: Is this ethical? All for a few more ounces of coffee? Brew your own if you're that desperate...

Some of the others I think are solutions in search of a problem, but I admit that's subjective and won't discuss it here.

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Also, from the HN Guidelines:

    If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous
    adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate
    "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys."

If only it was named "14 Amazing Hacks"...

If the headache is caused by sinus blockage, capsaicin is generally pretty good at getting those flowing. Hangover headaches, I have no idea.

You (or perhaps the article author) have/has been trolled:

"The compound that gives spicy food its kick is called capsaicin and has been used for over 9,000 years in Native American cultures to relieve painful headaches."

"used for over 9,000 years"

"over 9,000"

Neither has been trolled.

Incidentally, I have regretted not asking for an oversized coffee cup just this morning. It would have made it harder not to spill while walking fast. So now there's a second reason to do that! :)

If you can't spare 30 seconds to floss outside of the shower, maybe attack the serious time sinks first before micromanaging less than a minute of your day. By the time you're done reading this comment, I will have wasted more time than you will ever save with any of these tips.

Also, the frying pan trick unnecessarily forces you to wash a pan later. Preheat the oven for a couple of minutes at 350F, leave the pizza right on the rack for 5 minutes, enjoy. Some pizza tastes better the second time this way.

I don't enjoy standing at my sink. I enjoy standing in the shower. I am more likely to achieve compliance with a shower based flossing schedule.

It gives you an excuse to stay in the shower longer, thus increasing the percentage of your bathroom time spent in the shower (which if you ask me, is the best part of your bathroom time).

The coffee one wouldn't really work at Dunkin' Donuts. The steps of making coffee there is: Get the cup size the customer asked for, add cream/milk, add sugar, and then pour the coffee to the top. If you're going to do the whole 'a medium but in a large cup', the person behind the counter is just going to guess when he should stop and depending on the person, you might get more or less. Also if you keep asking them to make it like that, you'll eventually piss everyone off and end up getting a lot less.

If you want to get more for your buck at Dunkin' Donuts, go when they are about to close and ask for donuts and bagels. Most likely, if the people working are even remotely nice, you'll get a ton more than you ordered. The donuts and bagels get thrown away and most decent humans feel bad and try to give away as many as they can.

The machines all have programmed dispensers based on a button push.

Exactly this. All fast food places I've been to simply have pre programmed buttons that dispense the correct amount rather than manually starting and stopping the coffee pouring. I guess this tip depends on the vendor.

Most of these seem really iffy. Brought to you by a guy who also blogs about how to interpret your dreams. Hrm.

These are the same "life hacks" that get regurgitated every few weeks on sites like Reddit.

> The concave shape of the bowl will amplify the sound by about 13 decibels.

Iff you keep your ear on top of the bowl maybe. (Or just buy earphones.) Your guests will rather appreciate external-powered speakers.

"Turn your faucet on full blast with a measuring cup underneath and count how many seconds it takes"

There's nothing more annoying then someone wasting water like that.

There's a measuring cup underneath that catches the water which then goes into a pot to boil. No water wasted.

Has anyone else tried the wine tip? Seems worth potentially losing an inexpensive bottle over to see if it works.

Its called 'hyper decanting' - check out this video on it: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/12/18/hyperdecanti...

They don't tell you that you also get rid of the alcohol. Try blending it for a few minutes.

How does that work?

Alcohol evaporates proportional to surface area. When you blend you drastically increase the surface area.

My parents paid for an aerating device at Costco that does essentially the same thing. At first they were quite happy with it, but stopped using it after a month because they found that it made all red wines taste pretty much the same.

After the first couple I thought these were jokey, a la Viz's "top tips". I read on for the humour and by the end wasn't sure any more. I think it's a mix of mostly gags but with a couple of serious-sounding ones thrown in for contrast.

I hope I won't be the guy drunk enough to try cutting the pizza with scissors at the company christmas party.

Well, here in China, cutting food (specially raw meat) with scissors is actually quite standard in restaurants.

But I guess the pizza part may not be so common. ;)

I also have separate scissors in kitchen to be used for cooking. Cutting chicken for salad, slicing bacon or whatever.

>They’re the best all-around tool on the counter, useful for butterflying or quartering chicken, trimming pie dough, shaping parchment to line cake pans, snipping herbs, or cutting lengths of kitchen twine

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment/overview.asp?docid...

I use kitchen shears (kitchen name for scissors, only used for food stuff and washed like knives) frequently. I haven't tried it for pizza, though!

I like the faucet one. That's clever.

> ditch the measuring cups and try this: Turn your faucet on full blast with a measuring cup underneath

NullPointerException

Also, I didn't know I was supposed to keep the plastic things in my shirts. I thought collars are straightened with starch.

I find it funny that this is on #14 on the homepage :)

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