"Best" Food to Fill Your Tummy from the Taco Bell Menu -- Calories per Dollar

 

"Best" as in highest calories per dollar. I am curious and so I compile the list from the Taco Bell website. Data is retrieved on April 21, 2021 from https://www.tacobell.com/food. I excluded items that vary in calories because of options, 0-calories items, and drinks. Some specific exclusions include "My cravings box" and party packs.

Sauces are on the top of the list. But assuming you are not buying $3 worth of Spicy Ranch Sauce and drink them for 2200 calories and receiving the gift of diarrhea, the best item is the Beef Burrito ($1 for 430 calories) from the value menu. The next two that follow closely are also from the value menu -- Beefy Potato-Rito and Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito. The first non-value menu item at the top of the list is the Hash Brown Toasted Breakfast Burrito ($1.99 for 580 calories for 291.5 calories per dollar.)

For taste, I like the Beef Burrito and the Chicken Chipotle Melt (only $1 for 190 calories because ... chicken).

 

Food Item	Price	Calories	Calories per $
Spicy Ranch	$0.30	220 Cal	733.3
Avocado Ranch Sauce	$0.35	240 Cal	685.7
Creamy Jalapeño Sauce	$0.35	230 Cal	657.1
Chipotle Sauce	$0.35	220 Cal	628.6
Beef Burrito	$1.00	430 Cal	430.0
Beefy Potato-Rito	$1.00	420 Cal	420.0
Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito	$1.00	420 Cal	420.0
Hash Brown Toasted Breakfast Burrito	$1.99	580 Cal	291.5
Drinks Party Pack	$4.00	1120 Cal	280.0
Bean Burrito	$1.29	350 Cal	271.3
Chalupa Cravings Box	$5.00	1340 Cal	268.0
Cheesy Toasted Breakfast Burrito	$1.29	340 Cal	263.6
Cheesy Toasted Breakfast Burrito Potato	$1.29	340 Cal	263.6
Hash Brown Toasted Breakfast Burrito Combo	$4.19	1020 Cal	243.4
Breakfast Crunchwrap	$2.79	670 Cal	240.1
Spicy Potato Soft Taco	$1.00	240 Cal	240.0
Quesalupa Combo	$5.99	1360 Cal	227.0
Breakfast Crunchwrap Combo	$4.99	1110 Cal	222.4
Chips and Nacho Cheese Sauce	$1.00	220 Cal	220.0
Hash Brown Toasted Breakfast Burrito Steak	$2.69	570 Cal	211.9
Nachos Party Pack	$9.99	2050 Cal	205.2
Nachos BellGrande® Combo	$6.69	1350 Cal	201.8
Grande Toasted Breakfast Burrito	$2.79	560 Cal	200.7
Grande Toasted Breakfast Burrito Combo	$4.99	1000 Cal	200.4
Black Bean Quesarito	$3.19	630 Cal	197.5
Beefy 5-Layer Burrito	$2.49	490 Cal	196.8
Quesarito	$3.39	650 Cal	191.7
Chicken Chipotle Melt	$1.00	190 Cal	190.0
Cheesy Roll Up	$1.00	180 Cal	180.0
Cinnabon Delights® 12 Pack	$5.19	930 Cal	179.2
Veggie Nachos Party Pack	$9.99	1770 Cal	177.2
Quesalupa	$3.49	610 Cal	174.8
Cinnamon Twists	$1.00	170 Cal	170.0
Quesalupa Black Bean	$3.49	590 Cal	169.1
3 Soft Tacos Combo	$5.79	970 Cal	167.5
Crunchwrap Supreme® Combo	$6.89	1120 Cal	162.6
Grande Toasted Breakfast Burrito Steak	$3.49	560 Cal	160.5
Chicken Quesadilla Combo	$6.89	1100 Cal	159.7
3 Crunchy Tacos Combo	$5.79	920 Cal	158.9
Nachos BellGrande®	$4.79	740 Cal	154.5
Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes	$1.49	230 Cal	154.4
Burrito Supreme® Combo	$6.49	1000 Cal	154.1
3 Soft Tacos Supreme® Combo	$6.79	1040 Cal	153.2
2 Chicken Chalupas Supreme Combo	$8.39	1240 Cal	147.8
Cheese Quesadilla	$3.19	470 Cal	147.3
3 Crunchy Tacos Supreme® Combo	$6.79	990 Cal	145.8
Guacamole	$0.50	70 Cal	140.0
Crunchwrap Supreme®	$3.79	530 Cal	139.8
Soft Taco	$1.29	180 Cal	139.5
Cheesy Gordita Crunch	$3.59	500 Cal	139.3
Black Bean Crunchwrap Supreme®	$3.79	520 Cal	137.2
Chicken Quesadilla	$3.79	510 Cal	134.6
Crunchy Taco	$1.29	170 Cal	131.8
3 Doritos® Locos Tacos Combo	$6.99	920 Cal	131.6
3 Doritos® Locos Tacos Supreme Combo	$7.59	990 Cal	130.4
Steak Quesadilla	$3.99	520 Cal	130.3
Cinnabon Delights® 2 Pack	$1.29	160 Cal	124.0
Hash Brown	$1.29	160 Cal	124.0
Soft Taco Supreme®	$1.79	210 Cal	117.3
Black Beans and Rice	$1.49	170 Cal	114.1
Chalupa Supreme	$3.19	350 Cal	109.7
Crunchy Taco Supreme®	$1.79	190 Cal	106.1
Burrito Supreme®	$3.69	390 Cal	105.7
Black Bean Chalupa	$3.29	330 Cal	100.3
Nacho Cheese Sauce	$0.65	60 Cal	92.3
Mountain Dew® Kickstart™ Orange Citrus - Small	$1.00	90 Cal	90.0
Reduced Fat Sour Cream	$0.50	45 Cal	90.0
Nacho Cheese Doritos® Locos Tacos	$1.89	170 Cal	89.9
Power Menu Bowl	$5.69	470 Cal	82.6
Red Sauce	$0.25	20 Cal	80.0
Nacho Cheese Doritos® Locos Tacos Supreme®	$2.39	190 Cal	79.5
Power Menu Bowl - Veggie	$5.59	430 Cal	76.9
Black Beans	$1.49	50 Cal	33.6

 

Finding how contacts are linked via degrees of separations in LinkedIn

In the old days LinkedIn would tell you how someone is linked to you. That information is useful when you are trying to connect to a 2+ degree user and want an intro from your mutual contact.

Unfortunately, I can't find that information anymore. (As of 20200830) Is there a solution to this problem? From what I have googled, the answer is yes. What is the solution? Money -- that feature is now a paid feature.

From a Pulse post via LinkedIn on the hidding 2nd degree connections:

A few weeks ago LinkedIn changed their design. Things changed. Some good... some not that great. There's a few, but one of them that strikes me most is the fact that about 60% of your second degree connections are "hidden" in the free version of LinkedIn.

 

How to Fix the Issue with No Sound in VirtualBox with Lubuntu

 

I managed to fix my "no sound with my Lubuntu install inside VirtualBox" issue, which I will explain below. If your settings differ from mine, my solution might still work for you so give it a try anyway. I am using VirtualBox Version 6.0.8 r130520 (yes, I use a rather old version for stability), Lubuntu 19.1 Eoan, and Guest Additions 6.0.8. If you ever wonder how to check your Ubuntu/Lubuntu version, Guest Addition versions, etc., here's how: 

$ uname -a

Linux my-pc 5.3.0-23-generic #25-Ubuntu SMP Tue Nov 12 09:22:33 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lsb_release -a

Description:    Ubuntu 19.10

Codename:       eoan

$ ls /opt

net.downloadhelper.coapp  VBoxGuestAdditions-6.0.8

Your first step should be to make sure you installed the Guest Additions. For me, that didn't resolve my issue. The additional step I take is to change the audio card of my virtual machine from ICH AC97 to Intel HD. For me, that resolves the sound issue. 

Another additional wrinkle here is that I did have to reboot the machine with both audio output and input (if you are recording) enabled in the VirtualBox settings. I assume the cause is that if Lubuntu detects the audio output/input disabled, it doesn't load some audio drivers.

Good luck with your sound issue!

Playing Amazon's Version of PUBG Mobile gets Banned?

So it seems players are getting banned according to a handful of recent Amazon comments? So what to do? How to solve the problem? Honestly, this post goes pretty much exactly as my last post. So the tl;dr version is to go to the official site at Pubgmobile.com and get that version instead. For more details on how to do this, see that last post.

Anyhow, my original plan was to replace the official version of PUBG Mobile with the Amazon version now that the Season 14 Livik update is available in the Amazon Appstore. In particular, I wanted to see if my account is preserved, and if real money purchases work in Amazon's version.

Fortunately, half way into the Amazon download, I looked over the Amazon reviews and found that multiple people are mentioning about getting banned after updating and playing. Thank you to the sacrifices of these reviewers, I stop the download and just reinstall the official PUBG website version.

So, FYI, after uninstalling and reinstalling the official PUBG Mobile app, my progress is preserved. I can also get back my control layout via the cloud. However, I do have to go through and redo all my other settings like graphics options for example. Again, I play as a guest on my phone.

I did not verify that if you play the updated Amazon version you would indeed get banned -- yeah, I am not going to risk it. I can easily envision this happening though because Amazon definitely injects code into a lot of its apps so that you can make in-app purchases using Amazon coins and its payment system, and perhaps the code injection incorrectly gets flagged as a hack. If this is the case, I hope Amazon can sort it out with Tencent and have the bans reversed. To be fair, it is also possible that all the recent commenters commenting about bans are indeed cheaters, and that the new version of the game simply have improved on cheat detection.

Now, if you haven't gotten banned and purchasing is important to you, then good luck continue using the Amazon version of PUBG. Even so, you might want to wait a few weeks and let the issue (hopefully) sort out between Amazon and Tencent. If you don't do any purchases, and I do not, then I would strongly recommend that you switch over and install the official version via the official website's APK file instead.

Or, if you are like me and actually have a Chinese phone with the Chinese App Store, you can also download the Chinese version of PUBG Mobile to get around the issue. The Chinese version is treated as a different game by the phone, and so you can have both versions installed. I myself have started playing on the Chinese version on occasion. The downside of this approach is you would either need to know Chinese, or know the layouts of all the options really well so you can do without Chinese.

There are slight variations between the two versions of the game, and some menu items are moved. Nonetheless, those who played the non-Chinese version a lot should be able to get by.

Amazon's PUBG Mobile won't Update, How to Solve This?

I have been playing PUBG Mobile using Amazon Appstore's version, because I have a China Xiaomi phone with no Google Appstore. People with Amazon Android tablets like Kindle Fires also tends to use Amazon's version of the game. 

As of today, July 14, 2020, season 14 has arrived but an update has yet to arrive at the Amazon Appstore. People on the Amazon PUBG Mobile page are complaining that the game can't be updated or won't update on their kindle fire / android devices. I've only started playing this since May, but some of the reviews suggest that the Amazon Appstore's update lags the Google Appstore update all the time.

How to resolve the won't update issue

I got tired of waiting and solved the problem by updating using the APK file from the official PUBG Mobile page directly. The official site is at Pubgmobile.com, and it has the option of downloading the APK file directly.

 
So, I downloaded the APK file, and ran the apk file on my android phone to install. The game works after the install is complete and I can play with friends again. Note the APK file is just around 600MB, but when you install the file it's going to download a lot more things. If you are not familar with installing from APK file, you can usually find the APK file via some sort of file explorer program, and just click on it. It might just work if you click the apk file via your browser after you have downloaded it. You might have to allow your phone to "install from unknown source," but I trust the APK file since it's from the official PUBG page. You should install using APK files from sources that you trust.

Notes about the old Season 13 version running during season 14

• Arena in the old version (season 13) still works. So if you want to just wait on Amazon, there's that.
• Classic mode in the old version doesn't seem to work. I tried a few times, waited for over 4 minutes, and still can't connect. Some people in the Amazon PUBG mobile page commented that it does work but takes a really long time.

Notes about the Season 14 installed via APK

• I can't purchase anything. I get a message saying I can't purchase from my region. This doesn't matter to me since I've never purchased anything. But if you want to buy the season pass and whatnot, just know that installing this version won't let you do so. (See image below.)
• I do not link the game on my phone with any accounts -- i.e., I play as "guest". I can confirm, at least for this version, my character is preserved. My character and progress is still there after the update.
• The amazon app page now shows PUBG mobile as "Not from Amazon". (See image below.)
   

Here's the purchase error.

Here's the Amazon appstore page showing PUBG mobile as "Not from Amazon". If you tap on "Open", it will open the non-Amazon version of the game. However, running some of the other apps you get from Amazon, you don't need the Appstore running for the game to run.

Anyhow, happy gaming!