man who still needs a travel agency these days?

Old chinese people, like my parents!

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f66edc9977.gif

My mom was saying that news about it popped up on Asian social media about the travel agency a couple weeks ago.. The speculation is that the agency hit a credit crunch and was booking other clients travel with other clients credit cards, hence the double or even quadruple charges.

We had something similar happen when a family member was getting married in Vegas. Wedding party and family were booking through some agent someone had used before. One of the groomsmen got suspicious when they kept deferring and delaying when he asked for flight and hotel reso details.

The agent refunded us in full right after we threatened to get the cops involved immediately if we didn't get our money back. Heard she had family loan her money to cover the debts. She shuttered her ,'travel consultancy' work after that.

I only book directly with the airline/hotel/whatever after Expedia fucked up my flights a bunch and then shut down their site for an entire weekend. Any time you introduce any kind of middle man you're adding complexity if you have any problems.

Yeah I learned to always book direct in a close call. The wife and I were flying out to San Francisco, it was a year or two after we were married. I booked my wife with my last name, her new married name.
What we forgot to realize was that her passport was still in her maiden name. When we got to the airport, Air Canada changed it all for us and it was no problem, but they said if we had booked 3rd party we wouldn't have been able to change the details so easily and quickly and would not have been able to board the flight that morning

I've rarely seen a third party airfare cheaper than booking direct and even if so, the price difference isnt enough to give up the headache if shit goes wrong. And the ones that are cheaper are some strange websites I've never heard of.

Nowadays it even applies for hotels too.

Yeah we just booked hotels for spring break travel, and direct booking gave an option of lounge/continental breakfast access vs Expedia that didn't. Difference in price was $5.

Going through a replay of Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries recently.

Solaris is such a shit show lol. I used to play a Uziel with two PPCs and a big engine to run around all the other participants. I learned a dumb hack recently, load up with ALL the machine guns, and since the arena is so small, the machine guns make mince meat of everything.

The billions of machine guns doesn't work as well in Missions as you actually need the 800m+ ranges to get things.

Reminds me of how in MW3 everybody was just running around in Shadow Cats with 9 Small Lasers crammed into their torsos lolol.

I thought MW3 was just missile boats for everyone because you can shove any weapon in any slot.

Pssshh those are all spheroid games. No clan, no fun.

Bunch of freebirths….

Just gauss everything to death. Gauss + ppc combo.

Or srm2 but 8 of them. You’ll one shot all mechs.

buncha dorks in here :lol

Lol, something like a Timber Wolf, with its standard primary loadout of two large energy weapons and double LRM racks, looks so fucking cool.

Whereas a fictional mech with nothing but machine guns would look so stupid. :lol

You guys have seen me rave about shopping on Taobao before, and it's kind of addicting. Not just for watchmaking tools and parts, but basically anything you can think of (and many you didn't). The basic deal is, the more you spend, the better quality you'll get. If something is really cheap, it's probably going to be junk. Sometimes that doesn't matter though. Here are some cool shit I've bought in the last few months

1080P camera for my microscope

https://i.imgur.com/IgSio12.png

Cost: ￥400 RMB ($57 USD)

Includes a Samsung 50 megapixel 1/2.33 sensor that can record video and take photos. I opted for this over a 4K sensor to save some $, as I don't need more than that anyway. It required a 5mm shim to focus correctly on my microscope's third lens (cost: 1RMB, free shipping). Sometimes the auto exposure will glitch out, but just switch to manual and it's fine. Also I don't like that it loses track of the date when unplugged. It should have a battery.

Score: 8/10

Mechanical keyboard with hot swap switches (wired, white LED)

https://i.imgur.com/jcqYtsm.png

Cost ￥129 RMB ($18 USD)

I spilled coffee on my keyboard and needed a replacement, as my backup was kind of broken too. For the price, it's insanely good, but if I was picky I would say it's a bit too loud, the edges too sharp, and the lights too bright even at lowest setting. I could swap these switches out for any Cherry MX compatible without soldering. I might rip some out of the old backup and stick them in here (THAT would require unsoldering)

Score: 8/10

Double sided whetstone with 1000/3000 grit

https://i.imgur.com/YknPImq.png

Cost: ￥19 RMB ($2.70 USD)

I don't know how these compare to Japanese stones that cost hundreds of dollars, but I can say they sharpened all my knives VERY effectively. Maybe they'll wear down faster, but oh well. I'll have to buy new ones for another $2.

I also bought strips of diamond stone to dress my watchmaking tweezers and screwdrivers before each service. Also around $2

Score: 10/10

3.2L 120W ultrasonic cleaner with heating

Cost: ￥201 RMB ($29 USD)

https://i.imgur.com/LNxJeWy.png

You can get ultrasonic cleaners for the same price on Amazon, but I guarantee they won't be as powerful as this. It heats up quickly, although has somewhat of a noisy fan. It's basically a $200 USD cleaner for 200 RMB, an insane deal, if a bit ugly.

Score: 9/10

100x60cm computer desk

https://i.imgur.com/g68fq1H.png

Cost: ￥82 RMB ($11 USD)

This is an example where if you cheap out on something, it will be a piece of junk. The metal legs are thin and sharp, the thing creaks whenever it's touched, the edges of the table surface are so sharp, I have actually skinned my knuckles on them. I doubt this will last long, and when it finally breaks down I'll TRIPLE THE BUDGET and buy a $30 desk instead. It will probably be amazing in comparison.

Score: 1/10

Kitchen Scale

https://i.imgur.com/UqmS32z.png

Cost: ￥59 RMB ($8.50 USD)

I wanted to get a scale that had a large enough surface to put big containers on, a decent capacity, and could measure in the hundredths. This one fits all that (can weigh up to 5KG), has dual battery (a USB chargeable and backup AA's), and backlit display. The only issue I have is the reading is a bit slow to update, so when adding ingredients you have to do it slowly.

Score: 9/10

3rd party Dyson V6 power head

https://i.imgur.com/S6HdUaN.png

Cost: ￥74 RMB ($10 USD)

The head to our V6 was starting to malfunction, I think a combination of worn out bearings, worn out wheels, worn out plastic, all of the above, I don't know. Either way, it made the vacuum unusable. Instead of fucking with it to figure it out, I just grabbed this third party one instead. It actually is even more suitable for our floors than the original and it has a useful LED light on the front, which does a great job of lighting up dirt on the floor since it's at such a sharp angle. Only drawbacks are that it is quite a bit bigger than the original, and louder. I doubt it's very durable either, and might last a couple years instead of 6 or whatever the original did. But if I have to buy 3 of these instead of 1 original, I am probably still saving hundreds of dollars.

Score: 9/10

UV flashlight

https://i.imgur.com/1UBd5AT.png

Cost: ￥36 RMB ($5 USD)

This is one of the favourite things on this list. This thing is incredibly powerful, and runs at a lower wavelength than you typically see in UV flashlights (165nm vs 190). What does this mean? It is further away from the visible spectrum, so doesn't shed as much 'extra' light that is not reactive in the way we need it for as a tool.

Why would I need a UV flashlight? One of the more annoying aspects of watchmaking is the probability of small parts pinging off into space, out of sight. Looking for parts that are less than 1mm wide can be challenging with the naked eye. For metal parts, we can sweep the floor with a magnet. With the gemstones used in watches, that's more challenging. For that, we sweep it with a UV light, and since rubies are reactive to UV light, they will glow like they're on fire. It's pretty amazing to see:


You can also use it to check for molds and fungus, useful if you have pets.

Score: 1000/10

That's it for now.. There's a lot more l could share, mostly stuff that watchmakers would be interested in. Some specialized tools that I might share in my thread. I also got a bright LED light for my workshop, for like $3, quality aluminum baking pan for $2, food dehydrator for drying watch parts was like $8, rotating sink faucet nozzle for $3. A multimeter for $3! I don't know if it's any good, but it does what I need it to.

Pro tip: If you're looking for any of this stuff, instead of asking for a link just use the image search. Extremely useful, and you'll find many of this stuff on AliExpress albeit at a higher price.

Anyway, 68's watch is clean now, time to dry some parts.

^Guangdong hoarding is getting to you :lol

But I do love Taobao for buying stuff that is hard to find locally, or niche, hobby-related tools like some of the items you mentioned.

taobao only ships to asia and doesn't ship to canada right?
that dyson replacement head looks really intriguing

Aliexpress is the worldwide equivalent.

On the dyson replacement head - I bought a similar one on Aliexpress and it doesn't work well on rugs or carpet.

Excuse me sir what did you say

https://p-bandai.com/files/seller-pr...VtFju2RfIS.jpg

Oh I'm definitely a PPC fan, but 16x MGs is just such a big fuck you it's hilarious

i find aliexpress doesn't have the same range and pricing as taobao unfortunately.

can you link me the one you found on ali? i tried searching in the past and couldn't find it. i only have carpet at front entrances so it may be good for me

This is the one I bought, but it's no longer available. You can search for something like "v6 soft roller" (replace v6 with your model) to find similar ones.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006067809124.html

I recently Guangdong hoarded a bunch of camera stuff recently, no thanks to jerk face Badhobz...and you! :lol

See, that looks cool, and they're not all just machine guns!

That’s trash. Battletech > jap robits

What is this? nerdscene.net? Or better yet, linusscene.net?

What's next? A toy convention meeting in a parking lot?

Oh wait...we already do that. :inoutugh: