For me, it’s still convinient for asking specific questions. The niche communities were filled with people knowing their stuff so the archives are filled with very reflected opinions and knowledge. For example, if I’m about to, say, buy a cooking knife, I’d google “best cooking knife reddit” and there I have it. Without that I’d be stuck with “top 10 cooking knifes articles” which may be influenced by knife companies wanting to promote their product. Of course I could ask that question here too, but I’d have to wait for an answer and those I would get would only be a fragment of what I’m still be able to find in reddits archives. But for everything else I’m very happy here
I use AliExpress for electrical parts (except anything with memory), 3D printer parts, and small crap I don't mind waiting for, but never anything I would be angry about if it never arrived. Also, nothing I consume or wear or need for safety, and I'm wary of anything that's supposed to be plugged into the wall for long periods of time unattended.
I wouldn't say I've been surprised, but my expectations are low. It's all cheap stuff, but as long as you're not needing the stuff you buy, it's fine. Dollar store quality with the scent of plastic and cigarettes.
That being said, beware of scams. The one that seems acceptable to them is to list one cheap part for the listing, along with variations of the full device. That way it looks like the lowest price in search results, but when you click it, the selected variation is the cheap part. Like, you'll search for "pliers set" and see a listing for $1, compared to others around $15. When you select it, the product page will have a carrying case for $1 and the various pliers for twice as much as the competition. What's better is that the case will be selected automatically, not the thing in the picture you clicked on or the picture you see first in the product pages' gallery.
There are also scam stores that pop up with super low prices compared to others on the site can disappear overnight and the cancellation/refund process is a super pain. Contact customer service once and just submit a claim with your CC company. Their refund process will try to keep telling you to wait for another week, and that includes the reps you get on chat. If you're suspicious and still order, always follow the shipping info. They will estimate a reasonable delivery date, you'll get a shipping notification, but it will sit in limbo. The shipping folks are separate from the scammers, so if you see the package actually move towards a shipping center, you're in the clear. If it says they received shipping information for over a week, you got screwed.
Ignore flash drives/SSDs, batteries, and assume any flashlights are 1/100th the brightness claimed (literally). Oh, and watch shipping costs. Something with free shipping can be 10x the price of the product if you add a second one to your cart.
True. They created their own problem by trying to up each other's lumens claims over and over to the point where decent flashlights are claimed to have 5.6 million lumens and included 25000mAh 18650s.
Most of the $5+ flashlights are probably fine for most people's needs. I have several and they've been fine for me. Different models, similar modes, similar brightness, and all fine for walking the dog or if the power goes out. Now, if I were relying on them for survival, I might think twice. All have held up fine, including the 12 year old one from dealextreme (pre-alibaba). But, since I don't know if people are asking for recommendations where spec accuracy matters, I'm hesitant to recommend them to random people on the internet.
(I had to check, just for fun, and there are 18650 batteries listed as 19900mAh. Pretty impressive, since Panasonic is capped out at 3500-3600.)
The one that seems acceptable to them is to list one cheap part for the listing, along with variations of the full device. That way it looks like the lowest price in search results, but when you click it, the selected variation is the cheap part.
This practice is so widespread on Ali that finding the best price/seller that is likely to get the item to you balance is ridiculously time consuming, a lot of the time the cheap item is something barely related to the item you’re searching for. It also seems to be creeping into Amazon at the moment!
Yeah, it really caught me off guard the first time I used the site. It was during one of those special celebration discount days where they had the audacity to mark items as literally $0.01 when basically nothing was that price.
For 3D printer filament, which is usually bought in 1kg/2.2lb spools, most places list a 2m sample or a 250g spool to game the search. And my other favorite is the whack-a-mole shipping setup where on variation might be free shipping, but choose a different color and the shipping jumps to $300+.
With Amazon, I'm seeing a ton more overpriced items discounted to still higher priced than their competition. If you look at their deals pages, you can find things like portable monitors for $70 (down from $150), but checking that category shows the same monitor (same specs under a different name) for $60.
Here's as close as I can find right now, since all the lightning deals are ending for the day. There's a USB laptop docking station that's "discounted" from $139 to $70. There isn't an exact match (there usually is), but similar products go for ~$60-$70 (2 HDMI, 4+ USB3 ports, 100W PD, ethernet). What's funnier is that the specific company's Amazon site has at least 4 identical docks at slightly different prices.
Another thing that I like is considering not what I can do to “change my life in a year” but “what can I do tomorrow to improve my life even a little bit right now?”
Instead of getting caught up on larger things that might take years to achieve, if I consider something I can change right now that will make tomorrow a better day, those changes will add up much more quickly and noticeably.
Even if I can’t think of something, that’s fine. I can accept that, and just move on to the next day. The important thing is to ask myself this every day, so that I can give myself the option of making that change and having that reflection.
Quite simple: When using Linux, I tend to play around, try different stuff, switch distros every couple of month… When using Windows or MACOS, I just use it as is and don’t try to break stuff. And while I could use Linux quite easily without breaking it, my inner child prevents me from using it this way…
Tell me your parents were upset at you when you were eight, for dismantling appliances, without telling me your parents were upset at you when you were eight, for dismantling appliances
Reports are continuing to come in… they are confirming that the United States of America has just been taken over and is now under South African rule. “Control Panel Warfare” is what they are calling it. Rumors that the President has attempted suicide are circulating around the globe. “It’s all done through computers,” someone said. They have taken over with computers.
Everything will change. There will be no more homeless. Effective immediately this is now a police state. We were all in a room when my mom came in and announced this information. I think we were in a conference room at the hospital where she works. As she announced this terrifying news, the tone in the room went from joking to a stomach-turning sour in a matter of seconds. The look on my dads face… he was horrified. No one could believe their ears!
I thought an announcement this shocking would only come from the news that nuclear war has just broken out and we only had a few more moments to live. The news that the U.S. had just been taken over was incredibly shocking, yet at the same time I thought to myself that it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. So I guess I was horrified and not surprised all at the same time.
Totally. A few actually. Some of them I had when I was very young such that the dreams themselves are really the only memories I have of the time. All nightmares. One of my newly born little brother in a pram on top of a hill being let go and me running to try to catch him before he hits a car. It was on a real hill that I occasionally see if I’m around that area again, but was so realistic that it’s my only/best memory of that hill.
Another was basically a zombie apocalypse and me being around while my dad turns (I must have seen some zombie film on TV or something). Another being chased by apes and spiders with the dream ending with me sinking under water and spiders jumping in the water and knowing how to swim downward to get me (eeek).
I got a decent little fanless i5-based computer with 6 ethernet ports to use as a router, and it was cheap and works well running OPNsense. That’s about the only thing I’ve bought on AliExpress.
It’s pretty nice as I do a lot of creative work so if I’m struggling for inspiration I’ll usually take a nap or just go to bed a little early with a notepad nearby.
The crazy part is since I started taking meds for my ADHD it’s basically every night.
Edit: Most of mine are surreal or hyperreal though if that makes sense. By hyperreal I mean that every detail, every sensation, everything is there. Every single tiny sensation, except they are all cranked up to like 11.
For example: There you are standing on the edge of a cliff looking to the vista below. The trees sway with wind and life, flowing like seaweed caught in the current. The winds reach your face as a soft caress, lightly brushing your cheeks and running it’s fingers through your hair. The smells of earth and water fill your lungs with each breath with a slight chill. The sounds of the trees jostling and the wind swishing consume all sound but your breath.
You close your eyes to take it all in.
Your breathing deepening with each breath.
You feel your self slipping backwards away from the cliff but you know the ground will welcome you.
You gently stop on the moss covered ground. It’s like velvet on your skin.
Running your fingers through it you feel every little branch.
You let yourself fall deeper in sleep as the darkness consumes you.
The smells leave your nose, the wind leaves your hair, the velvety moss loses its touch.
You wake in your bed, feeling more rejuvenated then you have in days.
My depression meds give me VIVID dreams, usually nightmares but they don’t scare me anymore? Like they’re clearly nightmares but I don’t wake up with a fast pulse or a sweat just oh hey that happened, anyway! And I definitely remember them much longer than I used to
asklemmy
Newest
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.