Kai Tak was the official airport in Hong Kong until 1998. It was built on the Kowloon side, and the start and landing strips were built and then extended onto an artificial peninsula.

Approaching to land in Kai Tak was nicknamed "Kai Tak Heart Attack", as you came so close to the apartment houses in Kowloon that you practically could see into the apartment windows.

• History and more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Tak_Airport
• 12 accidents during the time it was in operation: https://www.baaa-acro.com/city/hong-kong-kai-tak
• A cockpit view of landing on Kai Tak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx3Ccs5tKfw

This is a cross-post from: https://lemmy.world/post/1384725, the original post will be amended and updated over time.

*This list is compiled from different people's suggestions and tips, as well as some asking and searching around. The original post is updated every now and then to remain current, weed out errors or add information. If you have suggestions, updates, comments or additions to this list, you're welcome to comment in https://lemmy.world/post/1384725. *

Worldwide (or available in several countries)

• Too good to go - App-based service that allows restaurants and stores to post unsold surplus food or produce. Very popular, even though the food or produce you get is often random and it can sometimes run out before you manage to pick it up. Currently available in: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and parts of the United States
  [Apps for iOS, Android and Huawei are available from site]
• Phenix - App-based service similar to "Too good to go". Currently available in: France, Réunion island, Guadeloupe islands, Martinique island, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy and Hong-Kong
  [iOS apps are country specific, check the site] - [Android app]

Canada

• Flashfood - App-based service that allows grocery stores to post unsold surplus that can be bought for a fraction of the original price. Also available in some US states.
  [iOS app] - [Android app]

Denmark

• yourLocal - App-based service that allows restaurants and stores to post unsold surplus food or produce.
  [iOS app] - [Android app]

Germany

• Mundraub - An initiative to map out free-to-pick fruits, veg, herbs and nuts. Mainly in Germany.
  [Android app]

Portugal

• Fruta feia - This ("ugly fruits") is a cooperative that collects fruits and vegetables that are too small/large or misshapen, and sells them in really affordable boxes.

Spain

• Gratix - A freecycling app that has karma-based self-moderation. According to some sources, people can also give away food freely(?)
  [iOS App] - [Android app]
• Panduru - This is a food waste reduction initiative, where they take surplus bread from bakeries and turn them into pastries that they sell. Currently available in Asturias. Unsure if it's relevant for thrifty/frugal, let me know.

Sweden

• Karma - App-based service that allows restaurants to offer unsold surplus meals at a discount. Currently only used in the major cities(?)
  [iOS app] - [Android app]
• Matsmart- Online grocery store that collects surplus or unsold food items and resells them cheaper.
  [iOS app] - [Android app]

United States

• Flashfood - App-based service that allows grocery stores to post unsold surplus that can be bought for a fraction of the original price. Also available in Canada.
  [iOS app] - [Android app]
• goMkt - App-based service that allows restaurants to offer unsold surplus meals at a discount.
  [iOS app] - [Android app]
• Hungry harvest - Collects surplus or unsold produce and resells them in affordable boxes, they also make preserved items from some produce. Currently available in: Maryland, Washington, DC, Greater Philadelphia, Southern New Jersey, Northern Delaware, and Raleigh, North Carolina
• Imperfect foods - Online grocery store that collects surplus or unsold food items and resells them cheaper. Also has cheaper produce with quirks or irregular shapes and sizes. Works together with Misfits Market.
• Misfits Market - Online grocery store that collects surplus or unsold food items and resells them cheaper. Currently available in 48 states, except for Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
• Food rescue US - Connects volunteers, food donors, and social service agencies to ensure that surplus food reaches people who need it most. Unsure if it's relevant for thrifty/frugal, let me know.
• Food rescue hero - A network that connects donors who have fresh, highly perishable food that would otherwise be thrown out to the people who need it most. Seems REALLY similar to Food Rescue US, unsure if it's relevant for thrifty/frugal, let me know.

I was reminded of this when I read a “Shower thoughts” post about clocks.

Where I live, there usually is free parking outside of stores and malls, but limited to a short time, such as 15 minutes or a couple of hours. People have parking discs that they rotate to show when they arrived, and put the discs up visible behind their windshields in their cars.

I have an automatic parking timer displayed in my windshield, that shows the time when I parked rounded up to the nearest half/whole hour. It’s a ”set and forget” thing, which auto adjusts to daylight savings. However, it speeds up 1 - 2 minutes a week, which I didn't see as it rounds up the time, but I found out after a few months.

Once after parking, I took a quick dash into the store, took maybe 5 minutes. When I got back I had received a fine for the equivalent of 80 € for ”parking for 23 hours in a 2 hour spot”. They apparently don’t have to wait five minutes to write out the ticket if the parking timer was so off.

I didn’t contest the ticket, I considered it a learning experience and a reminder to never blindly trust technology.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1339087

Too good to go is a service that started in Denmark in 2015, and has since spread to more countries. Its concept is to reduce food waste from unsold surplus in the stores, and instead help the stores sell the produce to frugal/thrifty people at a heavy discount, pretty much in "surprise" bags.

According to Wikipedia it is available in mainly Europe and North America:

As of July 2023 the company Web site covered Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

I've seen this around in Sweden from the last year, but there are other similar services here as well, so I haven't used Too good to go yet (but I intend to do soon). I've used Matsmart a couple of times which allows me to pick the products I want, and sometimes bought Lidl's discounted fruit-and-veg bags ("Ta vara på") in the store.

I think the concept is really good on a consumer level, even though I can't say for sure just how much impact it has on reducing surplus or if it's just another green washing method for the affiliated companies.

Not my story, but an adorable ex-coworkers adorable daughters. I witnessed it, though.

TL;DR: Take away entertainment, enjoy the store pretty much being down for 10+ minutes during rush hour..

So, she quit her job to open a specialty store with her husband. It goes fairly well, enough to support a family of four. Their two girls are around three and five years old, and they usually attend daycare during the week. The store has a part timer on Saturdays and the store is closed on Sundays so the parents can spend the weekends with their kids.

During the summer, daycare closes for four weeks. Which means that if the store is busy (as it usually is during summer time), both parents have to be in the store during the busiest hours, and the kids are there too during those hours.

Behind the counter is the charging station for phones and the kids play tablet. And if the battery runs out, or the kids misbehave, the tablet is put into the charging station behind the counter. Under the counter they also keep the piece-of-sh-t (POS) enormously slow booting computer that keeps their point-of-sale (POS) terminal connected to the register and inventory system.

The girls played very rowdily in the store one day, and mom confiscated the tablet and put it on the charging station on a high shelf behind the counter. The older girl pushed over a high chair to try to climb and get to the tablet while both parents were busy helping customers, I was in the store as well, waiting for my turn. Mom spotted the girl behind the counter and barked out:
- “You girls know you’re not allowed behind the counter while the register is running!”

Then she took the high chair and put it to the side of the counter, and turned back to help the customers. The younger girl, quick as a squirrel, climbed the high chair, flopped down on the counter and stuck her head down, giggled, then turned off the computer.

The older girl yelled:
- “Mom, the register isn’t running! Can we get the iPad now?”

I think they learned new swear words to add to their vocabulary that afternoon.

Trash to treasure, finding/selling second hand, freecycling, or clever reuse. By being thrifty you are avoiding waste and saving money for the future. This community welcomes ideas, projects and discussion on the topic.

Link done three ways for compatibility:

• Thrifty
• !thrifty@lemmy.world
• !thrifty@lemmy.world

Come here to be inspired or get ideas, join to give us your thoughts or projects for inspiration. I've seeded it with some posts and links so far, and will continue to do so.

This community crosslinks with related communities by topic in the sidebar. If you're interested in having your community with related topics crosslinked, send me a message and we'll have a look.

This is not a carbon copy of r/thrifty, I am not a former mod there either.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.fmhy.ml/post/771016

Not my post, just cross-posted. OP wrote:

I’m concerned

From the article:

A volunteer-made project that fights bots on Reddit is shutting down. BotDefense, a tool that helps fight bots in more than 3,600 subreddits and has nearly 150,000 accounts on its bans list, will be going away.

As for why: The community of users and moderators submitting accounts to us depend on Pushshift, the API, and third-party apps. And we would be deluding ourselves if we believed any assurances from Reddit given the track record of broken promises. Investing further resources into Reddit as a platform presents significant risks, and it’s safer to allocate one’s time, energy, and passions elsewhere.

YouTube Shorts - You're mildly infuriating!

Ever since I was forced to update YouTube on my devices, I got really annoyed with YouTube Shorts. At first, they were easily turned off. Then the option to turn them off disappeared from Settings - General. So I installed apps that allowed to skip out on Shorts. Then just a few days ago I could no longer have Youtube Vanced installed.

I've since learned do deal with this annoyance, but do I really have to mark "Not Interested" from channels I don't subscribe to or "Hide" from my subscribed channels? On my Linux- and Windows PC's I have regular blockers. But I mainly watch content on devices hooked up as small entertainment screens in the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms. And those are iOS or Android.

All I want are steady streams of content from my favourite relaxing subjects and channels. Without shorts or AI-derived "Hey, this video from a channel featuring a redneck with 15 AR-15's shooting coyotes in the desert might be your thing!" inserted into my playlists or streams. But the AI-derived autoplay content is beside the point.

YouTube Shorts - You're mildly infuriating!

I love savoury, thin, crispy waffles.

The roe used here was rainbow trout roe. Home grown chives and lettuce. Finely diced red onion. Regular sour cream.

Swedish thin waffles (with halloumi) contents:

• Grated halloumi
• Rice flour
• Potato flour
• Egg
• Milk
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Olive oil

Short grained polished rice, lightly pickled cucumbers, pickled red onions, gari, tartar of raw salmon, raw salmon, pickled mushrooms, mango, spring onion, homemade furikake, more seaweed, sauces and then a ~~ramen broth~~ Miso soup.

We all seem to have these kinds of users in our workplaces. Together with the dozens of brilliant minds who reply-all to 500+ e-mail recipients with "I think you sent this to the wrong person, I am not in the group you mention!" and then further dozens of brilliant minds reply-all with "DON'T REPLY TO ALL, YOU'RE CAUSING SPAM!"...

Obviously the PLEASE READ THIS EMAIL ENTIRELY BEFORE SENDING ME YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD was added/clarified to the screenshot, but the rest fits way too well with reality, even though this text probably is from at least 15 years ago.

Below follows an OCR version of the text:

To: ~~Redacted users of the~~ College Community

From: ~~redacted e-mail~~

Re: Warning about Phishing Scams

We want to remind all users that we will never request your username and password via email. Please never give out your username and password. Malicious users will use this information to hijack your email account and use it to send spam. If you are ever unsure. feel free to forward the email to ~~redacted e-mail~~ and we will let you know what to do. If you do fall victim to such a scam. don't despair. all you need to do is follow these instructions to reset your ~~redacted~~ Password and regain control of your account. Following is an example of a recent Phishing Scam that was received by one of our users.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x -

"Dear E-mail User.

It has come to our notice that most of our email accounts have been opened with unprotected browsers and PC and most Users no longer use their email accounts. This has created room for spams. bulk and unsolicitated emails. Our Help Desk want to deactivate all accounts which are believed to have been invaded by unapproved users.

To confirm that you are actually the original owner of this account. you are to send the following information to us.

Full Name:

E-mail ID:

E-mail Password:

DOB or Phone Number:

You are to click reply on your email, fill in the information and then click send. It will be automatically deliver to our helpdesk. Failure to do this within the next 72 hours. we will deactivate your account to avoid unauthorised usage.

Regards.

Abuse/Help Desk”

x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x -

Thank you for your attention to this important matter,

~~redacted signature of help desk admin~~

------------------------- NEW MAIL: ---------------------------

To: ~~All users of the College Community~~

From: ~~redacted e-mail~~

Re: Phishing Scam

Earlier today I sent out a warning message about phishing with a sample phishing email. In the last five minutes I have already received the username and password of 5 ~~redacted~~ College Employees and 10 Students. Please note that the intended point of this message is that we will NEVER ask you for your username and password and that you should NEVER give it out.

I am sorry for the confusion.

If you need further clarification. please contact ~~redacted helpdesk number~~.

~~redacted signature of help desk admin~~

---- CLARIFYING TEXT IN BOLD ADDED TO SCREENSHOT ------

PLEASE READ THIS EMAIL ENTIRELY BEFORE SENDING ME YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD

------------------------- NEW MAIL: ------------------------------

To: ~~All users of the College Community~~

From: ~~redacted e-mail~~

Re: NEVER Give out your username and password

I have received 3 more student usernames and passwords today. Please STOP sending me your usernames and passwords. The intent of this message is to NEVER give up your username or password to ANYONE EVER. If you are still confused, I urge you to call the JET office immediately before sending out your username and password again. If you have given your username and password to anyone since your last password reset, please follow these (linked) instructions to reset your password immediately.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

~~redacted signature of help desk admin~~