☕ Less Coffee - More Crypto, A Real Rollable Phone, and the Mcdonalds Bot Battle,
Your funhouse dreams made a reality
Hey friends! Hope you’re doing well this week. The great Snowmaggedon has lifted here in Tennessee. We usually only have an ice/snow storm like this every 3-5 years or so. It’s not common at all!
Have any of you had a chance to try the new Coke with Coffee? I have to tell you - SKIP the dark blend version. It’s gross. Go right for the Vanilla version - it’s quite good!
The only place I’ve found it so far is Walmart (yes - I have gone to multiple stores just to look for Coke with Coffee. I have an affinity for trying new and strange drinks) and if you’re interested, you can check here to see if your location has it.
Have y’all been listening to any good music these days? I’ve been getting pumped up these days by some epic Samurai Trap. Have you ever heard it?
It’s so much fun! Here ya go.
Grab that espresso (or Vanilla Coke with Coffee), start trapping Tokyo style, and let’s get started!
Oh. Substack just added these.1
☕Less Coffee, More Crypto
Once upon a time, back in 2017, I started a website focused on Cryptocurrency. To be honest, I didn’t keep it up very long. It was called “Less Coffee, More Crypto.”
Why do I bring this up? Well, with BTC over $50K, ETH hovering around $2K, and hundreds of other cryptos mooning, I think it’s worth talking about the importance of micro-investing in Cryptocurrency.
Yes - It’s highly speculative, and there’s lots of risk - but the same can be said for the stock market, downgrading car insurance, or other things. Side note: I love this video about BTC. It cracks me up.2
I’ve always been of the mind to try and buy a little of this and that across the Crypto Ecosystem. A few eggs in many baskets, so to speak.
A few dollars here and there really do go a long way in the Crypto world.
As opposed to - WhAt If I tAKe OuT a SEcONd MoRTgaGe On My HoME AnD BuY a WHolE BiTCOin. NO! NO! NO! Quite a few lives have been ruined down this road.
Will you be saying “where Lambo?” in 6 months? No.
Is it possible your portfolio could be 100x or more in 5 years? It’s a definite possibility.
Here’s the essence of my Crypto Strategy.
Every time you buy a specialty coffee, a treat, or something else - think to yourself - what if I get the smaller size / that cheaper product and invested the difference into crypto.
This way - you get the best of both worlds. You get what you wanted AND you invest in Crypto.
If you haven’t used any Crypto apps before, I recommend using Coinbase, Gemini, Coinseed, Abra, or Voyager. Coinbase is by far one of the easiest apps to use in my opinion, but apps like Coinseed have cool features like “round up.”
In a nutshell, here are some of the tenents that guide my crypto investing.
Is the coin legitimate? (Good development team, Whitepaper, Roadmap, Legitimate investors.)
Does the coin have a good use case?
How many of the coins can exist ever? If the number is too high, I personally doubt it can skyrocket in value too much.
If you’re interested in chatting more about Crypto, or what coins I’m HODLing - feel free to email me.
Check out this awesome site that visualizes the BTC and ETH blockchains as a Train Station. So cool.
📱A REAL Rollable Phone
It’s finally happened! We have a real look at the first Rollable phone. It’s called the Oppo X 2021, and it looks beautiful.
Just look at this movement. It honestly boggles my mind that this is a real device. We’re so close to the day that a smartphone could replace a tablet AND computer.
Let’s say that a version of this comes out in the next few years that can roll out to a 10 or 12 inch screen. Pair that with a folding keyboard case and you’ve got yourself a Tablet and Laptop.
And once again, ONE DEVICE DOES IT ALL.
Just as the smartphone replaced phones, cameras, voice recorders, MP3 players, radios, and so many other devices - devices like this will replace the current “trinity” of Smartphone/laptop/tablet.
Many people tend to carry around at least two of those 3 devices based on use cases.
Heck - you probably have at least some variation of all 3 of these.3 I do too! It’s the current state of the ecosystem.
Between the rollable and foldable smartphones - eventually, I think we’ll see a Westworld Style one device future.
Haven’t seen Westworld yet? Here’s a UI supercut of the device in the show
Before we do move to this one device world - I really want this Project Precog laptop. It is literally a laptop that is nothing but two giant screens.
Read more about the Oppo X 2021 at the link!
🤖Mcdonalds VS Bots
Years ago, the buy button on any website was simply that - a buy button.
Behind that button lay a database that checked availability - then told you if the product was still available.
Now, there’s dozens of bots buying out products as soon as they become available - lurking like spiders in their webs - far faster than you and your human slowness.
Generally speaking, we don’t have to worry about them - unless we’re trying to buy something that’s special or scarce. You might remember that bot I shared a while back to use for trying to get a Nintendo Switch.
Personally, I think it’s ok to use a bot if you’re solely purchasing an item for yourself, but for scalping? Thats a far greyer area.
This week I tried to secure a special Mcdonalds hoodie and vinyl via the limited drop on chkndrop.com which went live at 12 PM ET last Thursday.
For the low price of $5, I think it’s kinda fun to get into a bit of retail hype.
Well, the website went live 3 minutes early and everything was sold out before Noon - because bots were buying everything.
I - along with Twitter got pretty heated haha. Mcdonalds really messed up this special drop. To be fair - who thought Scalpers would be botting their Shopify site to buy $5 hoodies? I certainly didn’t.
Here’s an example. Looks like a reseller community called Soleus got in on the action pretty hard.
And they were using this Checkout Automation tool called Prism AIO which is conveniently “out of stock.”
What’s a person to do? get their own bot just to buy anything limited edition?
Maybe . . . but these kind of bots aren’t cheap. Just take a look at Bot Broker. Prism AIO is going for thousands of dollars per licence.
If you’re into Supreme, Nike, Yeezys, or other exclusive merch - you probably need a bot these days even to buy one pair.
Maybe we need some sort of auction solution, as John Carmack proposes.
If only Mcdonalds had activated some anti bot protection.
Well, at the very least - we can sincerely enjoy Popeye’s fantastic troll of Mcdonalds campaign - which involved buying 50 domains similar to chkndrop AND hiding coupons to free sandwiches.4
🐙The Land of Random
The Randomest links - found just for you
Do the Anime Workout
On this site you can find anime workouts based on your favorite characters, like Alucard, One Punch Man, Kirito, or others.
Gotta Run
Russian Vibes. Peep the tank and drifting car
The $500 Million UX Fail
Have you heard about the horrible Citigroup fail? Where they sent hundreds of millions of dollars by mistake and can’t get it back? That’s no surprise with the wretched UX of how they send money. Check out this designer analysis.
Need More Catz
Need cute pictures of cats in possible infinite supply? Say no more
Miss the Bar Ambience?
Miss the quiet sereness of a late-night restaurant or bar? Create your very own ambient bar experience with this fun soundscape site.
Last Minute Hotel Deals
This site is pretty cool. You can find last-minute deals for very nice hotels - at significantly cheaper prices than booking ahead. Like to roll the dice? give it a try.
NANI?
BattleBots GO!
TikToks You Can’t Miss
Don’t turn around . . .
What a cheeky Hotel Receptionist!
Let’s be honest - there’s probably someone like this on Youtube Kids
Break it down Amish style
Hahaha Geotagged Shopping Carts. Nice
This dog is hilarious
I could watch an entire show of these recipes. Seriously!
Well, that’s all for this week’s issue of The Land of Random - until next week! See you soon!
Yay! More links in the footnotes. like this great synthwave youtube mix
If you liked that video, you’ll think this one is funny too.
Yes. The inferior but useful Amazon fire tablet counts as a tablet. They’re soooo abysmally slow though. All I use mine for is reading manga.
Which in my opinion was a brilliant marketing strategy. Popeyes capitalized on the Mcdonalds hype to springboard their own promotion. Free impressions!