
Hacks that improved my life  - allsop8184
http://markhayes.ca/2012/01/05/14-life-hacks-to-make-life-more-awesome/
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tsm
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"...

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sneak
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"

~~~
cgag
Neither has been trolled.

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lysol
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.

~~~
Evbn
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.

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chatmasta
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).

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lbsnake7
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.

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

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john_i
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.

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

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

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zeteo
> 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.

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supersaiyan
"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.

~~~
allsop8184
There's a measuring cup underneath that catches the water which then goes into
a pot to boil. No water wasted.

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

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

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lacerus
How does that work?

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

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CKKim
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.

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

~~~
tellarin
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. ;)

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aaronblohowiak
>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...](http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment/overview.asp?docid=27679)

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!

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jfb
I like the faucet one. That's clever.

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Evbn
> 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.

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

