Heard someone at the Spokane sale say cash only is a scam...

But the other side said it keeps the tire kickers away and makes the line move faster at the checkout. Which side do you lean on for the smaller estate sales around here?

Found a 1980s ad saying everyone would have a robot butler by 2000

I was digging through some old tech magazines at my uncle's place outside Denver last weekend. He saved a stack of Popular Mechanics from the late 80s. One ad from 1987 showed a family sitting in their living room with a humanoid robot bringing them drinks. The text said something like "The domestic robot will be as common as the microwave by the year 2000." My uncle laughed and pointed at his Alexa sitting on the shelf. We got to talking about how we still can't even get a robot to reliably fold laundry or pick up socks off the floor. The closest thing most people have is a Roomba that gets stuck under the couch. I'm curious what other hilariously wrong predictions people have found from that era?

Replaced a faucet with a cheap $30 one instead of the $120 model. Wish I had just paid more.

Overheard a seasoned binder say he never trims his signatures before sewing

Heard an old timer at the Guild meeting say he never trims his signatures before sewing, and it got me thinking about whether I'm overcomplicating my workflow. Has anyone else tried skipping that step and noticed a difference in how the spine lays?

My $40 password manager subscription finally paid off last month

I've been paying for Bitwarden Premium for like 4 years now (you know, the $10 a year version) and honestly thought it was just for convenience. But last month when I got that weird login alert from my old Yahoo account, the breach report showed me exactly which sites to change - saved me from a headache I didn't even know was coming. Anyone else have a security tool that felt like a waste until it actually did its job?

Bought that Hori steering wheel for $150 and it broke in 3 weeks

Picked up that Hori Racing Wheel Apex for Xbox and PlayStation back in March thinking it would be a good entry level setup. The force feedback went dead after maybe 15 hours of play, and now the thing just rattles like a broken toy. Anyone else get burned by those budget wheels or did I just get a lemon?

Just realized fake rust looks way better than the real stuff I was trying to use

For months I was dead set on using actual rusted metal pieces for a post-apocalyptic short film I'm making in my buddy's garage outside Denver. I kept finding old hubcaps and scrap pipes thinking it'd look authentic on camera. Then last week a prop maker at a local flea market showed me how he makes rust with paint, vinegar, and salt on clean metal. He sprayed it on a piece of conduit in about 20 minutes and it looked exactly like something pulled out of a cornfield. I was wrong about trying to hunt down real rusty junk. Has anyone else switched to forcing rust effects instead of using found objects?

TIL comparing two "creepy security cam" videos side by side shows one was definitely a guy in a costume

I got bored last night and pulled up two of those popular "unexplained figure in parking lot" vids that have been floating around. One from a Walmart in Tucson, one from a gas station in Ohio. Put them on side by side in my editing software. The Tucson one had this weird floaty walk, looked legit at first. But the Ohio one? Dude was clearly stumbling on purpose and you could see the seam on the hood thing near his chin when he turns. Night and day difference once you actually compare. Anyone else ever do this and realize most of these are just people messing around?

Debate: are you team "pull the pin" or "cut the wire" on old cannon plugs?

I spent 6 years wrestling with a broken pin removal tool before a senior tech showed me he just snips the wire and pushes the pin out from the back, and now I'm wondering who else got taught wrong from the start.

My $5 thrift store lamp hack totally backfired

Everyone says to spray paint old lamps, so I grabbed a can of matte black for a brass one. The paint wouldn't stick right and now it's all sticky and peeling after two days. What's a better way to update old light fixtures on a tight budget?