Have you already taken the plunge on Amazon Prime day?

If it’s good enough for @dave, it’s good enough for me. Please don’t tell my wife I bought two.

@dave I had the $20 credit from the Dash Wand so I went with the full Echo for the much better sound without having to hook up yet another speaker. For $74 after taxes I think it’s a win.

@mflassy
Yeah that looked attractive.

@f00l

It would be cheaper (and easier) for me to probably just buy myself a Pi.

@mflassy still in stock at $34+tax https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-128GB-Type-C-SDDDC2-128G-G46/dp/B01EZ0X55C

@Barney

But… You could buy poo dough for less than $3.

Tell me that’s not tempting.

@mflassy I have a poo dog.

@Barney

More Totally realistic even.

@Barney Ditto. I checked with Alexa and she didn’t have anything I was interested in either. Not even fidget spinners.

@heartny

I can probably get you a glow in the dark one for free if you want…

@mflassy Thank you, but I have one that I didn’t get for free. It was cheap, but not free. I just got this nifty metal butterfly spinner that also wasn’t free. I told myself it would be the last one I’d buy and we agreed.

@heartny

LIKE

@PurplePawprints I love purple.

@Barney

@PurplePawprints Woot-off begins today too at 9:00am I think. Woot already has free shipping ALL DAY!

@mfladd One more thing to watch. It’s a good thing I don’t actually have to get any work done and really only have to worry about sleep (and a music lesson for one kid.)

I have now added a huge backpack for the middle schooler and a new leash for Torben to my purchased deals. I need to go to bed before I max out my husband’s card…

@f00l For two years most of the deals have been nothing special. They’ve been widely panned for promoting the hell out of an otherwise shitty sale day. I think the best things they’ve had each time have been their own products like Kindles and Echos. The only deal I’d like to see is on a battery pack/jump starter gizmo for the gf’s car. I have one from RavPower that’s awesome. Charged it when I got it two years ago, used it to start several cars for people and it still has 3/4ths of a charge on it.

@cinoclav Those battery packs are great! There are a couple on there: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s?n=13887280011&n=13887280011&k=jump+start

@f00l I noticed the same thing myself. I’ve also noticed that my spending on meh far outpaces my spending on amazon once coffee was taken out of the picture.

@djslack Any for $15-$20? Woot sold some a couple weeks ago:
https://tools.woot.com/offers/red-fuel-power-8000mah-jump-starter-7?ref=meh_com

@narfcake yes, this one for $20 and a couple less than $30
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01LVTP2GH/

I actually have the one I linked and use it regularly to jump start my lawnmower since i haven’t gotten around to getting a new battery for it yet.

@djslack @narfcake I grabbed this one for the gf for $39. A little more expensive but it peaks at 600A which will work on bigger 6 and 8 cylinder vehicles. The 400A models don’t always put out enough hamsters to crank them.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N3142JE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

@djslack
@cinoclav

Thx re battery links.

@cinoclav Thanks!

@f00l Fossil Q Martin smart watch. $164.99 with 40% off on checkout.

Hanes white athletic socks, 6 pack, $4 after discount on checkout.

Uncle Mikes tactical rifle case, $20 after discount

Amazon Fire tablet, $30

@lichme I have price protection on one of my, but I have never used it. Has it been useful?

@mfladd I’ve only used it once recently for something I bought from Amazon (Hammock), but saw on woot for about $25 less a few days later. Submission process was pretty easy, but it was stuck in “final review” for about a month, and I had to call them to get it processed since it was supposed to be 5 days. I was told check is in the mail.

@Pavlov Yeah, they really went a bit far with the commercial blitz this year.

@OldCatLady

All the nice kindles are all on sale.

But I was very bad over mother’s day even tho I am not a mother.

They put the oasis kindles on sale

And then to match that the prices in the warehouse also went down. I think a few of the warehouse ones were price errors.

Anyway I ordered cheapest oasis in the warehouse. It was a Merlot one. with marketing on the lock screen, wi-fi only.

But when they sent it to me it was perfect. Not used. I called CS to check: they said it had never been activated before on another account. It was in a plain box, other than that, new.

And And And

It wasn’t wi-fi only. It was wi-fi and 3g. Someone had labeled it wrong when it came back as a return I guess.

For pretty far under $200 I think.

It’s way too much $ for what it is. Even discounted. A used Paperwhite is just fine. For considerably less.

And if you don’t want backlighting, you can get a used kindle keyboard or kindle touch for way under $50 and they have sound. Unfortunately no Bluetooth tho.

That Oasis is one sweet device tho. Even tho I like real books a lot.

The oasis is just a beautiful device to hold in your hand. I as actually use it more for browsing the book store and especially reading user reviews than I do for reading books. But I love the experience of using it. It’sb lovely to hold.

When I get more books, I have to then feel guilty about the shame (lack of self discipline) of not needing books and having way too many books and getting more of them anyway. From wherever. Garage sales. Gifts. HPB. eBay. Bookfinders. Etc.

But with e-books it’s only the $ that cause self-reproach. Not the burden of having to many physical things already.

So it’s far easier for me to persuade myself that is fine to get something I want if it’s an e-book, if is temp at a really low price. Or free. Libraries are good.

No physical space needed.

So perhaps, one could say, I got the Kindle oasis in order to enable and justify my lack of self control or lack of maturity regarding books.

I suppose there are worse addictions to be owned by.

/image books

@f00l @narfcake @PlacidPenguin I love my Paperwhite.

@Barney So do I. @f00l convinced me to try it, and it’s now my go-to.

@OldCatLady It’s my favorite as well. I have two.

@Barney
That Paperwhite cover you have is pretty cool too.

@f00l It is.

@stoopkid Yeah, some pretty shit “deals” as far as I could tell.

@lisaviolet Is it an InstantPot?

@OldCatLady It is. 8 qt. With as hot as it’s been here, I think it would be nice to cook a meal without heating up the house.

My old pressure cooker needs to be on the stove to use. One of the old fashioned kind.

@lisaviolet So did mine. This is a huge change; congratulations! I got rid of a pressure cooker, my crock-pot etc. Once I got the hang of sauteeing stuff in the pot, then adding liquid and setting the timer, life (and dishwashing) became easier. Sweet potatoes take 15 minutes, no fuss. Artichokes are a breeze, hard boiled eggs even simpler- and the shells slip off every time. http://instantpot.com/cooking-time/

@OldCatLady
Their instapot deals were way way better on BF.

They dropped the price way down on the pots and then did the same in the warehouse to match.

I picked up like 4 of them from the warehouse and gave them to relatives and friends who had just moved or whatever

These pots were new and sealed just a corner of the boxes a little bit crushed or something.

Stupid cheap.

I was very popular for a while.

@f00l AMZN is opening 3 ‘fulfillment centers’ in town, and I have hopes that they’ll have an onsite warehouse deals store. They’re staffing up- 4000 jobs opened this week.

@OldCatLady Thanks for the link. I’m looking forward to using it.

@OldCatLady

You mean an amazing outlet store?

We have at least 4 warehouses and at least 2 other amazon local delivery warehouses with 50 miles that I know of.

But I know of no retail outlets of any sort except if you count Whole Foods.

BTW for anyone thinking if applying for a standard (no special tech/mgmt skills) Amazon warehouse job:

One nephew and his gf did this for a few years.

The pay was quite decent for warehouse work and there was quite a lot of 1.5$ overtime. Lots of 60+ hour weeks. More hours/week that than before holidays.

They brought home some decent checks.

But … They track every move an employee makes and they work people so hard that people start to have physical issues. Knee/leg/foot/hip/back. Not from obvious injury or accident. Just constant work with no rest. Most employees don’t last too many years, due to the punishing quality if the work.

And the employee is at their beck and call. They often don’t have nice schedules, I have been told.

My nephew, when he worked for them, was physically exhausted all the time, even tho he was and is in great health and is young and fit and active.

If Amazon could replace their warehouse workers with tech, I’m sure they would.

@lisaviolet @OldCatLady My wife loves the Instant Pot and makes fresh yogurt with it, which I eat daily for breakfast!

She was excited to see the 8 quart on sale but she had just ordered one. She also got another 6 quart for $50 because $50. She tried to canceled the 1st 8 quart and ended up canceling the $50 one instead…whups. I spent 1/2 hour on the phone fixing that mess and canceling the 1st 8 quart. Then the $90 8 quart we ordered second(third) got auto canceled because you can only buy 1 in 7 days. That prompted another call to Amazon at 2 am to get a credit back on the 1st 8 quart that never actually got canceled. Super confusing but in the end I think we will end up with just 2 more Instant Pots, and her original one will be gifted to her mother or our daughter for college.

@tightwad I went around talking to myself about buying another one. Common sense prevailed, but it was close.

@OldCatLady My wife used all 3 of hers at the same time the other night, just to prove she could. She always gets on my case because I have multiple watercraft and can only use 1 at a time…

@sammydog01 and your ears are probably better for it, lol.

@seraphimcaduto Can you recommend a nice speaker with an aux in for my kitchen?

@sammydog01 I’m partial to my JBL flip 3. The review that convinced me was http://www.oluvsgadgets.net/2015/09/review-jbl-flip-3-ue-boom-killer.html?m=1

He hasn’t updated for a long time admittedly. Short of my 5.1 system, it puts out an overall clear sound for the price. Don’t let me convince you; go to the store, listen for a bit and get what sounds the best to you. I just feel nose doesn’t give me bang for the buck.

@seraphimcaduto Thanks.

@seraphimcaduto
Bose is nowhere near audiophile stuff, but they do know noise isolating and noise cancelling.

They are what you want on an airplane.

@f00l I use RHA MA750i earbuds myself, or the Bob Marley ones that meh had awhile ago. I just flew next to a screaming 6 month old and both worked reasonably well. If Bose worked for you then that’s awesome, just their decisions on tweeters for their home systems tend to jade my overall opinion of them.

@seraphimcaduto
I haven’t done listening tests with home systems, but I know they don’t have much reputation to match their pricing.

The home unit Bose sound sales mostly seem to be based on clever “luxury” marketing.

However their around/over the ear design noise-control headphones are another matter. People who fly a lot tell me that’s what you see the most of the frequent flyers using in airports and on board. Bose is supposed to be state of the art there, at least within normal consumer pricing ranges of a few hundred dollars.

I think it’s the “quiet comfort” product line.

I know one person who uses fostex and nice senns at home. But he was the guy who told me that Bose are the best he’s found for flying.

This applies to the full headphones, not the buds.

I think I have access to some rha wired buds. I’ll give them a listen.

@f00l good points. If something works for people, then who am I to question. I tend to prefer a neutral sound signature, while something like klipsch tends to be “bright”. The best thing I’ve heard about their headphones is that they are very comfortable over long listening periods, so I can see why your friend would use them for flying.

@seraphimcaduto
The Bose are so good at noise cancelling and noise isolation that many people just turn that on and then don’t play any sound at all, or something background at very low volume.

Not audiophile even slightly, except in their marketing fantasies.

But they do seem to know how, electronically, to shut out the world.

I wonder if the kind of headsets you see at shooting ranges and on job sites would work as well for cutting out noise.

Howard Leight and similar, I mean.

But if you want a music or audio option at all, no doubt Bose beats something designed for a construction site by a mile, even if no one on head-fi uses them at home.

@f00l If you want to get in on the Amazon lifestyle they have great deals on tablets and eavesdropping devices.

@sammydog01

I have Amazon tablets. Decent media watching devices. Alexa is turned off.

I also have an echo. It’s unplugged. Deciding whether to sell it.

Think I’m the sort who wishes to manually turn something on each time before it starts listening to me.

Although, in a decade or so, satellites will prob be able to listen to us unless we’re way underground or something.

@OldCatLady Thought the Alexa deals were either a $10 credit on a reorder of an item over $10, or a $10 credit on your first order from the specific Alexa deal page that is over $20.

@cinoclav Also order any Alexa Deal over $20 and get a credit for $10. It looks like everyone.

@cinoclav The sunscreen was a surprise. I was prepared to pay for it, but they applied an ‘Alexa promo’, and it was free.

@mfladd
(I picked up a second set when Woot had it for $10 or so a few months ago.)

@narfcake Is it fun? Will kids 7 and 10 like it?
(kids that appreciate meh and wOOt)

@mfladd My kids like it. I just got the kickstarter of Bears Vs Babies and we love it. That is probably out there by now.

@sammydog01 I am hoping it will make the kids laugh.

@awk My lasership stuff comes from a middle aged woman in a station wagon- she even rings the bell.

@awk

(I blame @Trillian @dave that I haven’t received an “I asked Irk” button …)

@sammydog01 Wow, I’ve never had the same LaserShip person twice. It is usually a trainwreck here.

Their favorite game is to mark the package as delivered 5-10 minutes before 9pm and then throw it (literally) at my door several hours later, sometimes in the early AM.

Once a package was out for delivery FIVE TIMES before I finally got it a week late.

This one dude though… giant guy, clean cut, he rang the doorbell and handed the package to me, and very politely said he wanted to make sure I got it. He smelled nice. His uniform was ironed.

I think about that dude whenever I hear the thud of a thrown package.

@awk I found one way is to look up things you are interested in, such as immersion blenders or camping grills and see what prime deals pop up. Front page is shit.

@narfcake I feel Amazon could be using a lot better algorithms to suggest things to me. My account has history back to 1997.

Once I bought some bearing balls. I opened the ipad app and it was pictures of little metal balls from top to bottom.

Or when it says “buy it again” and it’s a chair or a paper shredder or something that most people buy once.

Or it says “get yourself a little something” from my wishlist and it’s something mundane like a ream of paper. Oooh, what a treat!

I guess it’s not hurting their business…

@hems79

anyone have experience with Rio Creations brand coolers?

Nobody was here to help me, or to restrain me. So I did it. The Rio would be delivered while I am in Phoenix so that was out. The Coleman in red was the cheapest, so I pulled the trigger for $67.

@mfladd At least I have heard of Coleman. But there’s song about Yeti coolers.

@mfladd

All that counts is that the material and thickness are the same as a yeti.

Unless you have lots of local bears. Then you might want an actual yeti.

It’s all about insulation material and thickness.

Love yetis but they are overpriced by about 4 billion %.

@sammydog01 I almost had an Orca on wOOt for $50 (sells for $250). But I had to change my address and POOF it was gone. They had one! But it appears that the person in FL who got it said it was cancelled the next day. There was some conflict over that one.

@f00l Yup. Yuppie Yeti status symbol.

@mfladd
I got an actual yeti on some flash thing somewhere.

My go to is a fake yeti that is just fine.

Unless i meet some bears.

@mfladd Yeti is the most overpriced brand on the market. It’s mind boggling how many suckers buy their shit.

@cinoclav They had Yeti cups as a special on Woot yesterday and sold out- Bubbas are just as good and less than the sale price of the Yetis. And the name is almost as cool.

@cinoclav Yup. But I give them credit for being able to market the brand at those ridiculous prices.

@sammydog01 Five Below is selling unlabeled Yeti mugs. My kids now have their own.

@mfladd

@sammydog01 I think the Bubba’s are actually better since they seal and they’re spill proof.

@f00l Yup. But I found a couple of “decent deals”. But it still does not live up to the hype.

@OldCatLady It’s ok. You just need some soft male porn to make it better.

@mfladd That does help. You know me so well.