[mrob]

Some more not mentioned in the article:

Filtered milk. Tastes the same as ordinary homogenized milk but double (or better) the shelf life. Very convenient if you only use small quantities at a time, e.g. for adding to tea.

Microfiber cloths. Much better cleaning than traditional cloths. In many cases all you need is water, or use them dry for dusting. Reusable too.

SSDs. In my opinion, the biggest computer upgrade in my lifetime. Access latency goes from obvious to imperceptible. A great many interactive tasks involve waiting for IO, and this is far more pleasant when you don't feel the delay.

Cheap but transparent audio DACs/amplifiers. This is essentially a solved problem at headphone power levels. Most modern designs have zero perceptible noise or distortion.

[dcminter]

> SSDs. In my opinion, the biggest computer upgrade in my lifetime

Good one. I more-or-less stopped caring about disk latency once I gotnmy first SSD - it was truly a marvel.

[Aloisius]

> Filtered milk. Tastes the same as ordinary homogenized milk but double (or better) the shelf life.

I had to look this one up. I don't think I've ever seen filtered milk in the US, but it looks like the ones sold here are specialty high protein/low lactose milks which I can't imagine tastes the same.

They also appear to expire 9-14 days after opening which doesn't seem all that different from other milk with practice?

[tabbytown]

> which I can't imagine tastes the same

Fairlife tastes excellent. I switched for the extra protein as I'm a bodybuilder. I bought the 3.25% fat version at first because I love the silky mouthfeel of a whole milk cappuccino. Then I found the 2% Fairlife satisfies in the same way as 3.25%, with less fat calories, and froths up beautifully in the pitcher.

> They also appear to expire 9-14 days after opening which doesn't seem all that different from other milk with practice?

Anecdotally I think it's better. I've never had to toss one (but they are half gallons) while I find myself tossing sour regular milk frequently.

[mrob]

All the UK supermarkets sell it. Price is about 50% higher, so it's not worth buying if you get through a lot of milk, but I doubt I'm the only one to use milk mostly as a flavoring for tea.

I wouldn't want to drink ordinary milk after it's been open for 14 days.

[steanne]

lactose-free milk does taste different, but i didn't notice a difference between regular lactose-free and protein-fortified lactose-free (aside that it comes in cartons just slightly visually smaller that adds up to a 12oz difference).

[nunez]

It's not popular in the US for mostly societal reasons, I think.

[kemaru]

Microfiber cloths are, on the other hand, a major source of microplastic pollution. They are basically just ready-to-snap-off microplastic particles. They shed a substantial % each washing cycle. Something like 80 % of all microplastic pollution sampled in ocean water is from microfibers.

[mrob]

I'm confident that microfiber cloths are responsible for 0% (rounded to the nearest whole percentage) of oceanic microplastics. But it's possible that all clothing and fabrics combined are responsible for a significant fraction of microplastic pollution. If this is the case, then the government should do its duty in regulating externalities and mandate exhaust filters in washing machines.

[kvdveer]

Do you have a source on that? I'd like to understand the definition of "micofibre" in this context to see of I need to change my purchasing habits.

[kemaru]

The 85 % figure is from Environ. Sci. Technol. 2011, 45, 21, 9175–9179 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es201811s

The 200-500 kiloton/year is from https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c05955

For a deeper dive you can peruse the works that cite these articles, there's lots of research into microplastic population dynamics. Unfortunately most reach similar conclusions.

[pseudalopex]

> The 85 % figure is from Environ. Sci. Technol. 2011, 45, 21, 9175–9179 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es201811s

The abstract said a large proportion of microplastic fibers found in the marine environment may be derived from sewage as a consequence of washing of clothes. Not is derived. And not microfiber solely.

[CGMthrowaway]

IDK about the claim, but here is a good dive into what it is and how it works. https://backreaction.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-is-microfiber...

[FuriouslyAdrift]

Microfibre materials (fabrics, etc) are by definition microplastics. They shed like crazy, too.

[nunez]

SSDs were revolutionary. I remember the first time I upgraded the spinning rust in the (then) old laptop my school gave me to a IDE SSD. It was like getting a new computer! Night and day performance improvement.

The only thing that's come close to the "wow!" factor that SSDs invoked was the Apple M1. Many Windows laptops STILL haven't caught up to its performance, and I don't think ANY have caught up to its iPad-like battery life!

[andix]

The ESL milk with 20 days shelf life? I think it tastes very dull, since it's nearly everywhere and good old milk is hard to get, I just switched mostly to UHT milk, which stays fresh for about a year without cooling. It doesn't taste much worse than the 20 day ESL milk, and the unopened boxes don't take any space in the fridge.

[andix]

Microfiber cloths were a game changer for cleaning. My mum still cleans with cotton clothes. I once helped her cleaning, it was surprisingly hard to get things clean without microfiber cloths.

[CGMthrowaway]

Adding:

Laparoscopy, electric bikes, water bottle tech (steel vs soft plastic), audio & video editing/ CGI /etc (not sure what to call this one)