[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
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Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
I've abandoned all faith in reviews online. But the HN crew can
give good advice and are extremely unlikely to shill garbage.
Consumer Reports is great for finding which manufacturer/model to
buy. But what product or service did you buy that you found really
useful/entertaining? I'll start: I caved and bought a robovac.
Wow, unlike many techno-gadgets, this one really delivers. Real
utility, not just taking up space. Low maintenance, runs while I
sleep, and the floor is just cleaner.
Author : wyldfire
Score : 342 points
Date : 2021-05-20 11:27 UTC (11 hours ago)
| mkw2k wrote:
| Oculus Quest 2: Virtual Reality has improved my life in almost
| every away and I love this thing. I can't recommend it enough
|
| Asus G14 Zephyrus laptop: picked this up thinking it would be a
| temporary machine i'd use for a few months before building a
| desktop and it's so great i've had zero reason to build a desktop
| because it handles everything I can throw at it. Video editing,
| AAA games on high settings, coding, VR, etc, it's a beast of a
| laptop.
| dantodor wrote:
| M1 Air. By far best machine I had
| adamredwoods wrote:
| SeaEagle 380x inflatable kayak.
| drywater2 wrote:
| I recently bought a Keychron K3 gateron brown keyboard. I'm
| really enjoying it because it's a low profile mechanical
| keyboard. Highly recommend it.
| skrtskrt wrote:
| How is the rigidity/sturdiness? I am looking at the K2
| hotswappable when it is available again, but the price is so
| low on these keyboards, I am a bit suspicious about quality.
|
| My only mech keyboard so far is my DasKeyboard, but I want to
| get something tenkeyless for less reach to the mouse, and hot
| swappable to try different switches
| drywater2 wrote:
| It's pretty sturdy, although the K2 keys seem much more
| solid. I bought this keyboard because of the low key travel
| and tactile feel. Although it's low profile I still needed a
| wrist pad to enjoy it.
|
| About the quality, they seem pretty decent. I haven't had any
| issues with it.
| faitswulff wrote:
| I bought a pack of 52 ring-spun cotton towels from Costco that I
| now use for everything. Automotive oil changes, baby diapers/spit
| up , juice spills, cleaning surfaces.
|
| My enthusiasm for these towels is unparalleled. I'm a parent,
| though, so ymmv.
| [deleted]
| danShumway wrote:
| Twisbi Eco fountain pen: I think this is a bit past the 2 year
| mark, but still to this day a purchase I really enjoy. I found
| that my handwriting improved quite a bit, and I like the
| different inks. It's pretty subjective, but I've found a good
| fountain pen just makes writing a lot more enjoyable.
|
| Timex Vibration Digital Watch: I have time blindness, so having a
| thing on my wrist that beeps every hour is really useful.
| Vibrating alarm means that I know when a timer goes off even if I
| have headphones on or am sleeping. And there's something to be
| said for the simplicity of digital watch interfaces. I don't have
| to worry about charging it, the UX is easy to understand. It
| helps with my time blindness, and that's it -- it doesn't check
| my blood pressure or tell me when I get a text message. It does
| one thing well.
|
| VivoBarefoot Primus Lite (II): barefoot/low-support shoes are not
| for everyone, but they made a drastic difference for me in
| reducing foot pain. I like VivoBarefoot's return policy, and
| their shoes have held up pretty well for me so far.
|
| Tofu Press: If you're using paper towels and plates to press your
| tofu, you might not realize that tofu presses exist or that
| they're actually an improvement and not just a gimmicky
| accessory. They're not a gimmick, they make the prep process a
| lot easier and a lot less messy. You don't need a complicated
| press, mine is 2 plastic boards with 2 screws holding them
| together. I just slip the entire block between them, tighten the
| screws and then leave the whole thing sitting over a bowl. Way
| less work than soaking paper towels.
|
| Domestic rats: I think domestic rats are basically the perfect
| apartment pet. If you want a pet but feel intimidated by a cat or
| dog or don't have the space to take care of them, you should look
| into rats. They're lower maintenance than a cat, but very
| intelligent and affectionate. They love to explore and can be
| taught tricks, they're litterbox trainable, they're extremely
| gentle if you get them from a proper breeder. They're pretty
| messy, but not terrible, and most of their mess gets consolidated
| to the areas where you let them play. They've done wonders for my
| mental health during the pandemic; they're just fascinating,
| amazing animals.
|
| Always buy at least 2, never buy them from a pet store, and keep
| in mind that because they're so intelligent they do need more
| interaction, more space, and a lot more mental stimulation than
| other rodents/pocket-pets. Do research first. Also keep in mind
| that they'll only live 3-4 years (much less if you get them from
| a pet store or breeder that does inbreeding), which can be both a
| positive and a negative.
| conqrr wrote:
| My Ebike bought in April 2020 during the Pandemic. Daily rides
| after work has been helping me detach from work and personal
| life. Seattle has been amazing to ride with beautiful lakes,
| parks and trails everywhere. I didn't own a vehicle before. I'd
| love to keep this as my only vehicle if I can.
| [deleted]
| busterarm wrote:
| Polyend Tracker - I'd used tracker software on and off for over
| 20 years to make music, but the tactile experience and second
| duty as a midi sequencer makes it a total joy.
|
| Mod Duo X - Super versatile and has become an essential part of
| my workflow. I find myself using it more than my AxeFX for guitar
| lately as well.
| mrfusion wrote:
| Super cheap battery powered hot glue gun. It just charges with a
| micro usb.
|
| The kids use it for all kinds of crafts and hot glue seems to be
| a fairly strong but generally removable bond. And no cord seems
| to remove a mental block on using it.
| jedberg wrote:
| Wifi light switches. They have a physical switch so "normies" can
| still turn on the lights, but being able to say "Alexa, all
| lights off" at night makes me feel like a god.
|
| Also, comma 2 from comma.ai. It adds Tesla-like autopilot to my
| Honda Odyssey. Works exactly as advertised. I just got a few
| weeks ago, but it drove my car most of the way between SF and LA
| and back. It's kind of pricey, but a lot cheaper than a Tesla!
| Also, Tesla still doesn't make a minivan (and Honda doesn't make
| an all electric yet!).
|
| And I'm not sure, but I think I first heard about the comma 2
| right here on HN.
| sircastor wrote:
| What kind of light switches? I got some Kasa's because they
| were inexpensive, but I was thinking about switching to Lutrons
| explicitly because they're not Wifi.
| jedberg wrote:
| I got the Feit electric from Costco.
| https://www.feit.com/product/smart-wi-fi-dimmer/
| tinybear1 wrote:
| - A New Model M keyboard from Unicomp. I was initially skeptical
| of spending >$100 on a keyboard but those doubts quickly
| evaporated, typing on this keyboard is true bliss. Every
| keystroke has excellent auditory and tactical feedback.
|
| - Uniball Jetstream: One of the best pens that I have used,
| extremely smooth and smudge resistant.
|
| - A Kindle, renting books through Overdrive saves a physical trip
| to the library and makes reading books so much easier. I also
| downloaded the kindle app on my phone, which syncs the book
| position and helps ease the habit of checking social media in my
| down time.
|
| Personally I find these to be my favorite purchases because they
| improve what I was already doing each day (typing, writing, and
| reading). Mundane workflows like essay writing is far more
| enjoyable when there is a good pen in the drafting stage, and a
| good keyboard to type on.
| tksmith151 wrote:
| On a related note for pens, we recently tested through a series
| of numerous thin-tipped gel pens and found that the Pilot Juice
| Up 0.3 had the smoothest writing and best combination of ink
| visibility and lack of smearing (due to later water damage).
| godfreyantonell wrote:
| Unicomp makes some great keyboards. Think I'll splurge and get
| myself another one.
| mellosouls wrote:
| I've had a Kindle (the proper one I mean, not the "Kindle"
| Fire) since early days and its been genuinely life-
| transforming.
| favadi wrote:
| I still use my Kindle paper white from 2013 daily. The
| battery life is pretty bad now, but otherwise, I'm very happy
| with it and see no reason to update.
| tinybear1 wrote:
| I also have a relatively old kindle(the voyage) replacing
| the battery is easier than newer models due to the lack of
| waterproofing. It only took me a few minutes to do, I
| really recommend it as batteries are cheap and my battery
| life woes are now gone.
| drewzero1 wrote:
| I've been a fountain pen user for years but in the last few
| years have found gel pens to be a good compromise for their
| relative reliability. The Uniball Signo 207/307 gives a clean
| line without much pressure, on par with some of my favorite
| fountain pens, plus I've been impressed with the waterproofness
| of the ink. (My overall favorite has to be the Parker 21, if
| only they didn't crack so easily!)
|
| I'll have had my Kindle for ten years this fall and I still
| don't use it as much as I'd hoped or expected, but it's always
| been extremely handy to read a bunch of books from Project
| Gutenberg on vacation. My favorite part is definitely the
| screen, unlike most others I can read on it for hours without
| getting a headache.
| satyanash wrote:
| > Uniball Signo 207/307
|
| The signos are pretty good pens. I especially love the flow
| as it compares to Fountain, but the stroke width could be a
| bit less.
| drewzero1 wrote:
| They seem to be harder to find, but I much prefer the 0.5mm
| signos over the 0.7mm when I can get them. Anything larger
| than 0.7 just swallows my small handwriting.
| JacobDotVI wrote:
| Roost Laptop stand + bluetooth keyboard and trackpad
|
| Enormous impact on my posture when I'm using my laptop away from
| my desk. The stand collapses into a stick so it's easy to toss in
| my backpack.
|
| https://www.therooststand.com/collections/roost-laptop-stand...
| p00dles wrote:
| Just bought one with your recommendation - thanks!
|
| Those things are going like hotcakes. Looks like they are
| perpetually sold out. Their "Limited Daily Stock" - released
| daily at 9am MTN time - went from 7 to 3 by the time I finished
| my purchase.
| baby wrote:
| Highly recommend the amazon knock off which is half the price
| and... well does the same job. It's crazy how you don't need
| anything fancy for a laptop stand :) been using it for a year
| and I'm happy I didn't go full "let's buy the most expensive
| thing just because".
| tomtheelder wrote:
| Some folks may want to pay more to support a small business
| that is manufacturing in the US (probably less of a sell if
| you're not American). Personally for something relatively low
| cost like this I'd happily pay double just to avoid buying it
| from Amazon. I think suggesting that it's "just because" is a
| very narrow view.
| alexcnwy wrote:
| I did the same a few years ago and it's had a huge impact for
| me too. I use the Microsoft Sculpt ergonomic keyboard and a gel
| mousepad with my magic trackpad and love it.
| lnenad wrote:
| Just FYI you can get the same thing on Aliexpress for $20. I've
| used one for 2 years and it worked out great, still holding
| strong.
| sgallant wrote:
| The Roost Laptop stand is a must have! So portable and
| perfectly designed.
| nkg wrote:
| I got myself a road bike after a long wait because of the bicycle
| shortage, and a fatboy beanbag to enjoy the playoffs as lazily as
| possible.
| ChuckNorris89 wrote:
| Oculus Quest 2 - despite the whole Facebook thing, coupling it
| with awesome games and experiences, it saved me from going mental
| during the autumn-winter-spring lockdown in Europe combined with
| the depressing weather of that time. Worth its weight in gold for
| that.
|
| Roborock Robovac - also worth its weight in gold since the whole
| lockdown WFH turned my apartment into a permanent office,
| kitchen, cinema and gym, the floors would get gross fast, full of
| dust, lint, hair, dead skin flakes, food crumbs and felt nasty
| rolling on it to do exercises in the morning.
|
| Would have loved to get a new laptop/PC to replace my aging
| banger, but not in this market.
| wyldfire wrote:
| I feel like I'd love the Quest 2 for a month or two and then I
| wouldn't use it after the novelty wore off.
|
| Are there any AR/XR applications for Quest? It'd be pretty
| interesting if I got multiple for the fam and we could all be
| in the same environment somehow. Even if I needed room
| reference / locator devices it would probably be worth it.
| ryneandal wrote:
| Oculus provides replacement foam inserts for qualifying SKUs --
| https://support.oculus.com/1504463656600795/?intern_source=b...
| johnboiles wrote:
| +1 to the Quest 2. Despite Facebook, it's an incredible piece
| of hardware. We bought them for everyone in my distributed
| startup and the 8 of us hang out in VR together every week.
|
| Virtual Desktop + Shadow PC on the Quest 2 is incredible. I
| played through Half-Life Alyx rendered on my cloud Shadow PC
| entirely wirelessly. It was a super smooth and responsive
| experience -- I didn't expect it to work at all when I first
| set it up.
| maayank wrote:
| Wow, interesting suggestion with Shadow PC. How does it work
| exactly? Do you install Virtual Desktop on the shadow pc
| instance? Do I need any "interim" physical computer on my
| home network to proxy?
| interestica wrote:
| Where/How do you hang out?
| scrollaway wrote:
| Probably Rec Room (https://recroom.com/) or VR Chat
| (https://hello.vrchat.com/). Both are popular ways to hang
| out in VR.
| baby wrote:
| Got the first quest and it was amazing. Now I'm wondering if I
| should hold out and wait for the quest 3 haha.
| lprubin wrote:
| Getting an Oculus Quest 2 jumpstarted my workout regime after
| my gym closed during lockdown. I look forward to my workout
| time so much now. I got a $15 off brand silicon face cover to
| replace the cloth one to help with the sweat.
| wccrawford wrote:
| I've been considering a Quest 2 for exercise, but thought the
| sweat would be too much.
|
| Any tips on the face cover and games/exercise apps?
| scrollaway wrote:
| You see how everyone's talking about Beat Saber? That's not
| a coincidence :)
|
| Seriously. What a fun game. And it scales really well -- I
| play most maps on Expert+ 120%, breaking into 150% speed.
| Here's a recent example (this one is just Expert though):
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFCxrNS9GgY -- And one on
| Expert+: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdLZ6B2AB1Q
|
| The only criticism I have of Beat Saber fitness-wise is
| that it doesn't train many muscles. It's mostly the
| shoulders, arms and a bit the wrists. Some songs train your
| core but you can't rely on that. It's awesome for rythm and
| reaction speed, however, so it's a good mental training
| too.
|
| The sweat is a problem. The silicone masks are great (I use
| the VRCover ones -- https://vrcover.com/ -- Oculus sent me
| a pair because I had skin problems with the foam one), but
| they do not let my head breathe at all so I sweat even
| more. They're definitely less gross, though.
| aantix wrote:
| What game do you usually workout with?
| dmnd wrote:
| I've played a lot Beat Saber, and ended up getting wrist
| weights. Very recently I've been spending time in Thrill of
| the Fight. I would never have expected myself to like it,
| but it's a fun workout.
| nameless912 wrote:
| I personally started out with Supernatural, which is
| "Designed" for fitness and has classes with real
| instructors, but have since moved over to beat saber.
| They're similar, but whereas Supernatural still "feels"
| like a workout thanks to the coaches and stretching
| routines, beat saber just feels like a game but I still
| break a sweat.
| dataminded wrote:
| Supernatural is my favorite and the one that I use most
| consistently.
| k__ wrote:
| Any Quest game recommendations?
|
| I have one, but I barely use it right now.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| If you like Poker, I'd recommend Pokerstars VR. It's all fake
| money, so generally everyone's there to have a great time and
| it's fun to chat with the other players. I tend to play at
| around 11 PM to 2 AM Pacific Time, so I often find myself
| chatting with Australians, New Zealanders, and Europeans.
| csmiller wrote:
| I enjoyed Pistol Whip a lot, although I have stopped using my
| Oculus over time
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| Pistol Whip and Crisis Vrigade are fun shooters that get you
| moving. Crisis VRigade in particular will have you do LOTS of
| squats, it's also hard as hell (I've played for hours and
| still haven't beaten the first 6 minute level on easy
| difficulty).
|
| For a less physical game, I'm really enjoying Control Tower
| VR. If you remember when early touch screen games started
| coming out, there was a whole genre where you used the touch
| screen to fly planes around and safely land them at an
| airport without crashing into each other. Control Tower VR is
| like that, but in 3D. It isn't super polished, but the
| gameplay loop is fun enough that I don't mind.
|
| If you're tethering to a computer or using something like
| Virtual Desktop, Half Life: Alyx and American Truck Simulator
| are both fun a lot of fun. ATS is great if you just want to
| put on a podcast and zone out, without having to worry about
| crashing your real car when you zone out too much.
|
| Also seconding the recommendations here for Superhot. That's
| the game that convinced me that VR was the real deal.
| nameless912 wrote:
| Population: One is pretty great if you like online
| multiplayer. Superhot is an obvious classic, lots of
| replayability and one of the first things I put people new to
| VR into. I've heard great things about the Walking Dead game
| but haven't played it yet.
| knacky wrote:
| Demeo is a turn based D&D clone that is pretty fun.
| ChuckNorris89 wrote:
| In Death: Unchained is my favorite Quest game so far.
|
| https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/2334376869949242/?l.
| ..
| mherrmann wrote:
| Superhot Red Matter The Room Half Life Alyx if your PC is
| powerful enough Star Wars Tales from the Galaxy's Edge I
| expect you to die
| willismichael wrote:
| Hawthorne Chukka from Soft Star Shoes:
|
| https://www.softstarshoes.com/adult-hawthorne-chukka.html
|
| A few years ago I somebody mentioned Soft Star Shoes on Hacker
| News. Later I bought a pair of these shoes and use them for
| almost everything from daily wear to formal events to hiking.
| resizeitplz wrote:
| Yes, yes and yes! Soft Star shoes are amazing (and one of the
| few 'barefoot' shoemakers that sell north of US size 13)
| efxhoy wrote:
| Speaker components, tools and plywood. I've just finished
| building my first speaker and it sounds FANTASTIC and I designed
| and built it myself. It's been extremely rewarding and I highly
| recommend everyone to make something physical yourselves. So much
| nicer than making anything appear on a screen.
|
| My first box is a ported enclosure tuned to about 45hz with a
| cheap 15" driver and a vintage compression driver on an old cast-
| iron horn. It looks pretty rough, I can just barely move it by
| myself, but it's beautiful.
|
| Building it made me:
|
| * Calculate the enclosure volume and port tuning and selecting
| the appropriate drivers. * Buying amps and crossovers. I got a
| behringer ultradrive and a 4 channel PA amp * Draw a plan *
| Measure and cut the wood with the shitty circular saw I got (took
| me ages, came out not terrible) * Routing the holes for the
| drivers and speakons * Assembling: drilling, fitting, screwing,
| gluing, mounting T-nuts for the drivers * Finishing: Sanding,
| oiling, stuffing * Soldering connectors * Installing drivers *
| Tuning, adjusting crossovers
|
| I started in august and just finished the first box. I have enoug
| materials for a 2*18" subwoofer and a 12" midrange horn to go
| with it. Overall I spent about 2000USD in plywood (18mm baltic
| birch), tools (cheapest I could get), drivers, DSP and amps. I
| hope to have a very nice little rig together by the end of
| summer.
| humanlion87 wrote:
| Adjustable standing desk. Was a complete game changer for me.
| Before getting one I had regular shoulder pain (and had to even
| go to a PT few times). Now that I alternate between standing and
| sitting the shoulder pain is gone. One of the best ROI for a
| ~$450 purchase.
| mtoddsmith wrote:
| I bought my wife a Liv electric mtb (front suspension only since
| it was cheapest). She never rode mtb before this and now 6mo
| later she's an almost daily rider. We live at the base of a large
| mountain range with lots of trails and the electric assist has
| allowed her to gradually build up the endurance to ride the
| mountains. Soon she'll be transitioning to a non-electric full
| suspension and we'll probably sell the electric.
| greyhair wrote:
| Ender 3 Pro. Unmodified other than a BL Touch. Just a bunch of
| fun.
|
| My first Dutch oven. I cook most the meals in our household, like
| 95%. I never have owned a Dutch oven. Misen had a Dutch oven on
| kickstarter and I picked one up. So far, very happy. You have to
| be careful how you heat them, but they cook stews wonderfully,
| and I braised a bunch of meatballs, then filled it with spaghetti
| sauce for dinner one night. In a stainless steel pot, that can be
| a cleanup nightmare. The Dutch oven just wiped out clean after a
| soak.
|
| So, happy with both of those purchases.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| > Ender 3 Pro. Unmodified other than a BL Touch. Just a bunch
| of fun.
|
| I'd recommend an upgrade to a PEI-coated flexsteel bed. So much
| better than the floppy sheet that comes with it. The bottoms of
| your prints are smoother, and large prints come off the bed a
| lot easier.
| dharma1 wrote:
| I concur with the people who have mentioned robovac, instant pot,
| sony xm3/xm4, ooni pizza oven, MacBook m1 - all making my life
| better.
|
| Other things - door frame pull up bar, resistance band. Cheap,
| get a lot of use, don't take much space.
|
| One of those shiatsu machines with infrared - used one almost
| daily for a couple of years. Great for upper back/shoulder muscle
| tension release while sitting on the sofa in the evening.
|
| Sheepskin slippers, merino/cashmere sweaters. Sheep really know
| what's up when it comes to keeping cozy.
|
| 80's Yamaha U3 piano. Just great to sit down with now and then,
| deep immersive sound. As good as it gets with an upright. Doesn't
| really depreciate in value.
|
| Yamaha C40ii classical guitar. Can't really go wrong with these,
| great bang for buck.
|
| Plants - fruit trees and vegetables. You can grow these from
| seeds for free if you want, just need space. Made my life a lot
| better.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| > door frame pull up bar
|
| YouTube is riddled with those falling out of the door frames
| and people face-planting or falling on their back. Are all
| those failures from improper install/usage or what?
| mrfusion wrote:
| 3d printers are getting cheap and it's a really fun hobby and
| just a generally useful item for random repairs and cheap items.
| linsomniac wrote:
| This is what I came here to say. I got one for my son a year
| ago, and I've been surprised at how much use I've gotten out of
| it.
|
| Things I've used it for:
|
| - It's currently germinating seeds for the garden. Some people
| use Instant Pots, but ours doesn't have the Yogurt setting. The
| printer bed is our best way to keep the seeds at 31C for a
| week. - Custom Christmas ornaments for the extended family. -
| Hangers for ethernet cables in the crawl space and drywall
| grommets for passing through walls. - Headphone hangers. Could
| have bought on Amazon, but found a design on Thingiverse that I
| liked and 3 hours later I had it on my desk. - Extension to the
| hopper on my coffee grinder. It would hold around 3/4 of a 12oz
| bag, and I was like: I just want to empty the whole bag into
| the hopper. - Little coasters and trinkets for birthdays and
| Valentines.
|
| Next thing is: My son got a Stirling Engine kit but lost a
| couple of the gaskets. We can model some molds and create
| replacement gaskets, they're fairly specialized, not sure if I
| can just buy them.
|
| Plus, it's been kind of fun modifying the printer. Also kind of
| maddening at times. But it reminds me of the car mod scene when
| I was 18.
|
| I got an Ender 3 Pro, upgraded the motherboard, added a bed
| leveling sensor, added OctoPrint and a camera, upgraded the
| extruder, trying out glass beds...
| typest wrote:
| Any in particular you recommend? I played around with them in
| college, we had to spend months building one. I would love to
| get back into it, preferably without all the hard work of
| building the printer this time :)
| mrfusion wrote:
| I got the ender 5 kit. It took about two hours to put
| together. Just bolting the pieces together really. Not too
| technical.
|
| I've heard the cheaper ender 3 is basically just as good plus
| there are more resources online for any issues.
| sudosteph wrote:
| Cafelat Robot - a manual espresso maker (despite the name
| "robot", it's not electronic at all, it just uses pressure). It
| makes awesome shots, it's super easy to clean, and it's just
| really fun to feel the tactile feedback you can get when you're
| brewing a shot manually, because you can re-adjust your pressure
| on the fly to make the shot come out how you want it.
|
| My husband must have watched every James Hoffman video on youtube
| before picking it out, but it's been an awesome tool for getting
| into the world of espresso. We've probably been using it every
| day for the past 6 months, and it's probably the main reason we
| were able to break our former addiction to sugary, expensive
| espresso drinks. Turns out that well-made espresso is actually
| amazing on it's own, with tons of variance between different
| beans - but a lot of coffee shops ruin it.
|
| It did take a month or two to get consistently good at pouring
| shots (again James Hoffman videos were a huge help), and having a
| good grinder and beans is supposedly another a important factor.
| We used a LIDO hand grinder at first, which was awesome because
| it was relatively cheap, but it takes a bit to grind - so we did
| recently invest in a nice electric grinder. Now that we're able
| to have friends come over again, that makes it a lot easier to
| pour a bunch of shots back to back. If you're just making one at
| a time, a manual grinder is not so bad.
| siver_john wrote:
| I had a similar experience but went with the Flair (cost and
| compactness being major factors), been a lot of fun getting
| into coffee generally over the last year and was something my
| mother and I bonded over when I had a long visit. I was not
| previously a coffee person before this, mostly preferring tea
| but trying to nail that perfect shot of espresso can be the
| most rewarding and frustrating thing on the planet.
| neom wrote:
| Got I hate my Cafelat Robot. I never use it. I feel like you
| really have to be a hobbyist coffee drinker to appreciate this
| thing... Not only did I need to buy a gazillion dollar grinder
| to get it to work, I almost always spill the water trying to
| jigger that pot thing into the bottom of it. Each to their own
| I suppose. :D
| ska wrote:
| To be fair, you need a good grinder to get any espresso to
| work well; can't fight physics.
| pivo wrote:
| > I feel like you really have to be a hobbyist coffee drinker
| to appreciate this thing...
|
| That's the lesson I've learned years of trying to improve my
| brewing skills and watching James Hoffman videos. I just want
| a decent espresso or regular coffee. I do not want another
| hobby, especially one I'd have to do before my morning
| coffee.
|
| It took a long time, any many expensive espresso related
| products, but come to the realization that I can be happy
| with the kind of coffee I can make with a minimum of fuss,
| and that feels good.
| rsj_hn wrote:
| My parents got a Breville Barista express system and are
| happy with it. It makes good, consistent shots. All in one.
| No special plumbing. You just fiddle a bit with the grind
| settings so that your water pressure remains in red band,
| and if that happens you get a consistent shot. $700.
| sudosteph wrote:
| Yeah, the hobby is definitely half the fun for us. We haven't
| had an issue with the water spilling, but maybe we're using a
| different model or something. The good news is that if you
| decide it sell it, the used ones seem to hold their value
| pretty well!
| epmaybe wrote:
| We got a Breville Barista Express when the pandemic started,
| and while the grinder leaves something to be desired, it pours
| consistent shots that still taste great for beginners.
|
| Couple tips to future owners: 1. You can make the grind size
| more fine by taking the bean hopper off, and changing the dials
| on the burr(?) itself. Theres a couple of videos on YouTube
| that explain it better.
|
| 2. Buy a bottomless portafilter. Makes coffee a bit messier if
| things aren't tamped right, but the actual portafilter is way
| easier to clean, and it's a lot easier to troubleshoot shots
| (you can more easily tell if there's channeling or something
| else going on).
|
| 3. Let the machine run once or twice before pulling your shot,
| get everything warm.
| mayormcmatt wrote:
| A bug net backpacking hammock!
|
| I love to backpack, but have never, ever found a good solution
| for comfortable sleep, so I dread the nights. A hammock setup
| changed all that. Sleep better out there than at home, in some
| cases.
|
| The model I have is a Hammock Gear Zippered Bug Net Hammock for
| $129. Basic and functional. I think with all the clips and
| slings, etc. it probably set me back $200 in total. Saved money
| on the underquilt by repurposing an old sleeping bag or using an
| insulated pad inside the hammock, but that can be an extra couple
| hundred depending on the brand and quality.
|
| Anyway, great purchase and I'm oh so happy about it.
| SpaceL10n wrote:
| One of my favorite purchases as well! I bought a two-person
| hammock because I'm a big guy and I can't believe I used to
| sleep on the ground. So snug! The only downside is when I'm
| hiking above treeline, there aren't aren't any places to tie up
| to. Then again, as long as there are trees around you can setup
| camp anytime. With a tent, it's not always possible to find a
| large enough flat spot to place your tent.
| neom wrote:
| OP-Z as well as a few other teenage engineering devices. Never
| ending musical fun. Learning curves such that you'll never get
| bored. Also an OB-4, lots of people say it's an over priced toy,
| it's not.. it. sounds. Incredible. Incredible! I love Teenage
| Engineering.
|
| Also my Wabi bike, if you're into bikes, get a Wabi (trust me).
| It's an extremely well thought about bike, the geometry is
| perfectly between track and road, weight is amazing, just
| generally an absolute pleasure to ride.
| victorthehuman wrote:
| TE hit the nail on the head with their designs, don't quite
| know what's about them that makes them so fun. On the contrary,
| my serious musician friends have little appreciation for their
| products, gave some PO as gifts and they've been gathering dust
| since.
| neom wrote:
| Amusing about your musician friends, I've had similar
| experiences. I think it's one of those things where you give
| it to James Murphy and he loves it and played with it every
| day, you give it to Stephen Hough he'll roll his eyes and
| never touches it.
| glaugh wrote:
| Clavinova digital piano! I hated piano as a kid, largely bc of
| the lesson style (and plan on trying Suzuki method with my kids).
|
| I've played guitar (poorly) for years and I'm shocked with how
| (relatively) easy it is on piano to do fun improvisation or learn
| songs I love (Radiohead's Videotape to start, now trying Piano
| Man)
|
| And digital means I can turn down the volume when kids are
| sleeping, use as a midi controller, etc. I'm not audiophilic
| enough to really care about the tonal difference between it and a
| real piano, I really can't tell
| yboris wrote:
| Try out Pianoteq! Connect your digital piano to a computer
| (even Raspberry Pi) and try it out:
| https://www.modartt.com/pianoteq
|
| This software will make your piano sound like a $20k grand
| piano.
|
| ps - another fun project: adding an LED strip that responds to
| the piano keys - to create a beautiful visual rainbow when you
| play.
| andrewzah wrote:
| There are free vsts you can use instead of pianoteq as well.
|
| On linux I set up my midi controller with Carla to use
| Salamander Piano [0]:
|
| [0]: https://sfzinstruments.github.io/pianos/salamander
| godfreyantonell wrote:
| Does it have weighted keys? Do you have a link to the model you
| purchased?
| amackera wrote:
| - Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro. Yeah it's expensive, but think of
| how much time you spend typing in a day/month/year. I have two of
| these suckers.
|
| - Shure SM7B microphone for professional level audio on zoom
| calls. It makes me sound smarter, and people actually like me
| more when I have good audio quality -\\_(tsu)_/-
|
| - Brompton fold-up bike. I live in an expensive city where space
| is tight. Having a bike that folds up means a) I can bring it
| inside and it won't get stolen, and b) it takes up minimal space
| in my apartment. I LOVE THIS BIKE!
|
| - Xbox Gamepass. Netflix for gaming. Works on PC and Xbox.
| Incredible value.
| saos wrote:
| air fryer...
| phlipski wrote:
| That robovac (bought a roomba 600 series 5 years ago) saved my
| marriage! Single greatest home productivity improvement purchase
| of all time!
| JJseiko wrote:
| Lenovo ThinkPad
| gaws wrote:
| Which model?
| JJseiko wrote:
| T430
| rmk wrote:
| - An M1 Macbook. It's really good. It's a bummer I can't run
| virtualbox on it yet. Otherwise quite satisfactory. - iPad Pro.
| Great for watching television. The sound quality on this is much
| better than the old (2013) iPad I had. - A flat-screen TV. I had
| a CRT television that I ditched over nine years ago and had gone
| without since. I gave in a bought one during the pandemic. It's
| good for the occasional movie and night-time viewing in general
| (you can veg out on the sofa while viewing the program).
| don-code wrote:
| Not counting a home: my favorite purchase has been a good stereo
| for my home office. Nothing that broke the bank, either - I
| picked up an older Technics receiver and a pair of Advent Legacy
| floor-standing speakers for under $200.
|
| Now that I stay in the same room 12-16 hours per day, they've
| been extremely helpful in making things feel less boring and
| monotonous.
| Sindisil wrote:
| Fender Player Series Strat & a little Orange Crush 35rt amp.
|
| Getting back into playing after stepping away back in the late
| 80s has been a primary factor in keeping me sane and alive over
| the last couple years.
| fisherjeff wrote:
| Easy:
|
| * Oxo Compact Cold Brew Maker[0]
|
| * Rad Power RadWagon[1]
|
| [0] https://www.oxo.com/categories/coffee-tea/brew/coffee-
| makers...
|
| [1] https://www.radpowerbikes.com/products/radwagon-electric-
| car...
| contriban wrote:
| $30 for the cold brew machine seem reasonable, but I've been
| pouring coffee in plastic bottles to make my cold brew. $0, I
| don't even filter it as it just deposits at the bottom, but I
| don't know whether the machine is somehow better.
| enobrev wrote:
| I've found using a french-press with luke-warm water for
| about 12 hours works great. Probably not as strong as the
| cold-brew machine, but perfectly fine for my needs in the
| summer time.
| fisherjeff wrote:
| I can safely say that my investment has amortized down to
| something very close to $0...
| oneepic wrote:
| Balisong trainer knife (not sharp) for 20 bucks. It's more like a
| fun toy I play with. I easily have dozens of hours just playing
| with this thing and learning new tricks.
| bitwize wrote:
| My Amiga 500 and my PinePhone. Neither are cutting edge tech. One
| might've been, over 30 freakin' years ago. But both are pieces of
| engineering that encourage exploration and are just what their
| particular niche needs.
| baby wrote:
| Noise cancelling headphones: I didn't know about them, they're a
| game changer in so many situations (office, home when there's
| noise around or construction, airplane). I got the qc35 and it's
| great.
| fa wrote:
| Two Kohler Novita wash toilets (bidets), with heated seats, auto-
| open covers, instant unlimited hot water, and more.
| farrisbris wrote:
| Plants. I didn't have many before covid/wfh, but they really make
| the place more liveable/ejoyable by just being there and this
| became increasingly important as i spent so much more time at
| home
| skoocda wrote:
| Cats. They operate on the same principle.
|
| Unfortunately, you can't have both cats and plants at the same
| time.
| katbyte wrote:
| I do, you need to train them when young to leave them alone,
| and provider grass/entertainment so they have better options.
| gordon_freeman wrote:
| Plants are amazing. I have created a small garden all using
| plants in the pots in my front patio at my apartment and have
| grown veggies such as tomatoes, bell peppers and lime along
| with flowering plants. I also keep a bird feeder and a bird
| bath nearby the bushy plants. Totally worth it as it keeps my
| and my wife's mood cheerful just by looking at bees,
| butterflies and hummingbird coming to flowers and birds coming
| to feeder and bath. It also keeps my engineering mind occupied
| with processes such as watering, fertilizing, weeding and
| pruning etc every few days to see outcome of more flowers and
| more veggies growing from well taken cared plants.
| amerkhalid wrote:
| Recently, I did too. Being trapped at home during Covid, I
| wanted to pick up a new hobby. I was looking at fish tank,
| because while beautiful, they are also very geeky, researching
| plants and fishes. All those gadgets that go in the aquarium to
| maintain equilibrium sounded to me like setting up servers and
| loadbalancers. But margin of error is very small in fish tanks
| and upfront cost is huge.
|
| So we decided to buy one plant per month instead. Plants are
| great, they look nice, can turn any boring room into a cozy
| space, and there is also a lot of geek factor when researching
| plants, maintaining proper watering and feeding routines but
| unlike fish tank, plants can survive when you are on vacation
| or accidentally over-water.
| dividuum wrote:
| Same here. My better half got into it and now it's green
| everywhere with so many different species (some images:
| https://twitter.com/LaurasGarten) including various veggies
| like salad and tomatoes. Add the birds that visit the feeder I
| can see from my work desk and it's perfect. In general hiking
| though nature, which I've never really done before, has
| probably been the best activity I've picked up during covid.
| e15ctr0n wrote:
| I got dwarf tomato plants this year, my very first attempt at
| growing tomatoes or any other vegetables for that matter. I'm
| growing them in containers on my patio. So far, they have
| sprouted two tiny green tomatoes each and, for now, they don't
| need a cage to support the growth.
|
| Bonnie Plants Organic Husky Cherry Tomato Dwarf Indeterminate
| https://bonnieplants.com/product/husky-cherry-red-tomato/
|
| Bonnie Plants Organic Globe Tomato Compact Determinate
| https://bonnieplants.com/product/organic-globe-tomato/
|
| I also got a Serano Hot Pepper plant
| https://bonnieplants.com/product/serrano-hot-pepper/.
|
| All three starter plants were about $4 at my local big box
| store.
|
| Apart from these, I planted some green bean seeds and one of
| them has sprouted.
|
| Last year, I bought a dwarf Meyer lemon tree which has lived up
| to its promise of growing well in a container and providing
| abundant fruit year-round.
|
| I also bought solar-powered garden decor. These stakes look
| pretty during the day but at night they are absolutely magical.
| https://www.target.com/p/gerson-international-43-inch-high-s...
| mattgreenrocks wrote:
| Fractal Audio FM3: endgame for superb guitar amp modeling and
| multi-effects in a single portable unit. Incredible tone and
| feel. I smile everytime I play guitar. Also appreciate it has an
| audio interface built-in so I can easily record with it, or play
| along to backing tracks.
| teddyh wrote:
| Like I wrote here two years ago1, I have a Sage " _The Tea Maker_
| (tm)" (a.k.a. Breville BTM800XL), and it is indeed, as far as I
| can tell, the top of the line in tea makers.
|
| 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21074519
| codezero wrote:
| I'm not into tea, but my wife is and she swears by this kettle.
| kamilszybalski wrote:
| My MacBook m1, a stretchy waist leash thing for running with my
| dog and really good running shoes (Vaporfly next%)
| mhitza wrote:
| Bicycle Neon deck.
|
| I fiddle with playing cards when taking breaks, thinking through
| problems. And no other deck of cards lasted me as long as these
| decks. Maybe it's generally applicable to 2019+ produced Bicycle
| decks.
|
| More in line with the HN crowd; JetBrains IDEs always provide top
| notch experience I'm happy to pay for.
| mattbee wrote:
| Bean to cup espresso machine (Melitta Purista, PS339 fwiw). My
| days of faffing with portafilters are behind me, and it will make
| it extremely strong if you want.
|
| 2002 Toyota Alphard minivan (PS7000, 60k miles) - it does
| everything! Kids, 7 passengers, cargo space, 100V mains sockets,
| yells at me in Japanese. Was pretty cheap through a UK importer,
| though I'm tempted to upgrade by buying direct through a Japanese
| auction site next time.
|
| I don't know why they hardly sell minivans in the UK, 3 friends
| have bought vans after seeing ours!
| remvee wrote:
| A automatic seiko watch. I always thought a watch is stupid
| because I carry a phone with me but I found out leaving my house
| without my phone is much more enjoyable that with a phone. It
| seems obvious now but it still feels like a tiny luxury holiday.
| jifii3 wrote:
| Sodastream
|
| Herman Miller chair
|
| Philips Hue lights
| bluesupergiant wrote:
| I'm a software engineer and have been using cheaper alternatives
| like gimp but my best purchase which also makes me feel like an
| adult is a year of the standard license of the creative suite. As
| a creative developer it is well worth the money and I'm super
| excited to dig into the software I've never used more like
| animate
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| Lifetime Plex Pass + Synology NAS.
|
| I have an unmanageable amount of media with hit or miss metadata
| and multiple devices I'd previously have to manually sync to. Now
| I don't have to worry about it.
|
| Sunday NYT + New Yorker print subscriptions
|
| Very tired of online media. It's nice to sit back and read
| printed media on paper.
|
| I don't buy much.
| imwally wrote:
| AirPods Pro: Noise cancellation in earbuds alone is worth the
| price but with the introduction of spatial audio in Apple Music,
| the price is even more justified. Listen to Radiohead's Live from
| the Basement!
|
| MacBook Air M1: Dumb fast and dead silent. Everything I want from
| a computer.
|
| Fellow Stagg EKG Electric Kettle: Great design and simple
| controls. Slowly weened myself off coffee and started drinking
| Yorkshire Gold tea at home. I use this every day, multiple times
| a day.
| gautamb0 wrote:
| Like the OP, Roomba i8+. Dramatically improved our weekend chores
| routine. The automatic dirt disposal is also very convenient.
|
| I went with Roomba over other brands as it seemed the best
| intersection of quality/reliability, noise and privacy.
| shivam-dev wrote:
| Logitech MX Master, I noticed wrist pain with the prolong use of
| the trackpad on my Mac. Instead of getting a generic mouse, I
| decided to take the leap and get the MX Master 2S. The ergonomics
| alone is worth all the hype and money. The extra buttons,
| excellent tracking is cherry on the top for me.
| enobrev wrote:
| I really like the 2s. Besides just being an all-around
| excellent mouse, the scroll-wheel that just spins forever is
| probably my favorite feature - sometimes to scroll a long page
| - sometimes just as sort of a fidget spinner.
|
| I want the 3 for the USB-C but otherwise my 2s is still in
| excellent condition and I have a hard time justifying replacing
| it just for the USB port.
| sbradford26 wrote:
| I have the MX Master 2S as well. Recently my keyboard started
| getting flaky on me and I got the MX keys to go along with it
| and it is fabulous. I switch in between machines fairly often
| and the buttons to switch between computers are a life saver.
| josho wrote:
| For those like me that love the mac trackpads, but experience
| wrist pain from the bad ergonomics I recommend a gel mouse pad.
|
| The gel elevates the wrist to provide better ergonomics.
| api wrote:
| Older Nissan Leaf. Great deal and never going back to gas. Gas
| cars feel "steampunk" now, and this older wimpy EV out-
| accelerates higher-end ICE cars easily.
| mindcrime wrote:
| You guys will probably laugh at this, and it is really low tech,
| but... maybe my favorite purchase was a pair of hiking boots.
| Specifically these Cabela's 360 Mid boots.
|
| https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/cabelas-360-mid-gore-tex-hik...
|
| So, what's the big deal? Well, the boots themselves aren't
| necessarily all that special in relative terms. They're not cheap
| boots, but they're not expensive ones either. I'd say they're
| pretty average. The difference is between "boots" and "no boots".
| For most of my adult life, I've generally worn sneakers / tennis
| shoes of some sort more or less everywhere (excepting the rare
| occasion when I had to don dress shoes for some weird reason).
| And I finally got tired of my feel getting wet every time it
| rains. Seriously, I hate being outside and find that just running
| the 25 yards from my car to the entrance to a store, when it's
| raining, or FSM forbid, stepping in a 1/4" deep puddle of
| standing water in the parking lot, leaves my feet soaked.
|
| So I bought boots. And I wear them pretty much everywhere now.
| Now my feel don't get soaked from a light drizzle, and they have
| turned out to be a lot more comfortable than I probably expected.
| They're also generally better for doing a lot of outdoor stuff I
| like to do (fishing, etc.) than tennis shoes. Honestly, I should
| have bought a decent pair of boots years ago. Not sure why it
| took me so long to get around to it.
|
| On a more technical note: I've bought a lot of test equipment
| over the last couple of years, as I set out to build the
| electronics lab I always wanted. And by and large I'm happy with
| everything I've bought, but the one thing that stands out as the
| most useful of all has definitely been a proper bench power
| supply. I went with a Rigol DP832A and I've been very pleased
| with it.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Rigol-DP832A-Channels-Programmable-Su...
|
| Really nice aspects of finally having a real power supply:
|
| 1. Instantly dial up any voltage I want (within its range of
| course). And that has been more useful than I probably would have
| expected, because I find myself dial up 3.3V more and more often
| lately, and I never had a quick and easy way to get 3.3V before.
| Maybe there's a 3.3V wall-wart around here somewhere, but I doubt
| it.
|
| 2. Configurable current limiting. You can set a current limit to
| avoid accidentally dumping too much current into something and
| frying it.
|
| 3. Current read-out on the LCD display. Turns out it's also very
| useful to hook something up and empirically observe how much
| current it tries to consume.
|
| The other "tech" item I really like is my Hakko FX951-66
| temperature controlled soldering station. People have been
| telling me to get a proper temperature controlled station for
| years, and I finally understand why. It's a huge improvement over
| those crappy Radio Shack soldering pencil style soldering irons.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/AMERICAN-HAKKO-PRODUCTS-INC-FX-951/dp...
| lazyweb wrote:
| Monthly subscription with Classpass (App). Discovered several new
| workouts I really like, HIIT and spinning classes in particular.
| Did them almost daily before lockdown happened here. Can't wait
| to get back at it.
|
| Their subscription model is really fair as well, at least from
| the customer side. No dark patterns, and automated account
| freezes during the lockdowns so I'm not accidentally paying
| without using any in-app credits.
| Tomte wrote:
| An Instant Pot.
|
| I use the yoghurt program and the manual pressure mode. The other
| programs I don't need and wouldn't miss.
|
| It's a game changer for beans, especially, but there are lots of
| good Indian recipes on the Internet.
| abakker wrote:
| I moved from SF to CO. In the process I bought a JLG drop deck
| trailer to move heavy machines between my SF workshop and my new
| house near boulder.
|
| If you are like me and a. have very heavy tools. (e.g. Lathes,
| Milling machines, etc) b. don't have a forklift
|
| check out drop deck trailers. I didn't know they existed before,
| and can often be rented in addition to bought, and are really a
| game changer. You can roll pallets right on, or winch very heavy
| things onto them without ever needing to pick them up.
| LegitShady wrote:
| Ipad Pro (2018) - bought refurbished from apple, really love the
| hardware, wish it had some form of adblock - I can't watch
| youtube on it because I get an ad every 2 minutes. Lovely with
| procreate or other art apps.
|
| Arturia Microfreak - A small paraphonic digital synth with an
| analog filter and a neat mod matrix that has been endless fun
| playing with. Needs something to add effects, though, like a
| pedal or digitally in your daw.
|
| Bowflex Adjustable Dumbells - with gyms closed and without room
| for a bigger home setup, these have been really great and were
| about as much money as multiple dumbells I would need to replace
| them.
| maccard wrote:
| Moccamaster. Both my partner and I are both working from home
| these days, I'm not returning to an office and she's likely to be
| here 1-2 days a week even in a post-covid world. I used to use a
| chemex, and while I do prefer the coffee from the Chemex, making
| a batch in the Moccamaster is so much more convenient, and makes
| enough for us both for the entire morning.
| linsomniac wrote:
| Many of the Moccamasters can be used with a Chemex. I haven't
| tried it, but I recall seeing different ones listed as working
| with the Chemex. I think this was even on the manufacturer
| pages.
| maccard wrote:
| Mines unfortunately the one with the glass jug and hot plate,
| so no room for a chemex. The thermos one would work though!
| hi41 wrote:
| After retirement, do you consider moving to countries where the
| coat of living is lower such as India, Thailand etc? $500 in
| social security funds can be sufficient in such countries.
| ezekg wrote:
| I moved away from a 2015 MBP and built a dual-boot Ryzentosh
| mini-ITX desktop machine last year. One of my favorite set of
| purchases to date, and one of my most used purchases for work
| (and gaming). It was my first PC build, so it was a fun learning
| experience.
|
| I also bought an Elbit WP PVS-14 for my 30th birthday, and
| that'll go down as one of my favorite single purchases.
| bambax wrote:
| - Arturia Keystep 37, excellent MIDI keyboard with many features
|
| - Bafang 750W motor to transform a regular bike into an electric
| one
|
| - Panasonic Lumix Gx80, small M43 camera with interchangeable
| lenses; super cheap now because it's already 4 years old, and
| still great; the basic lens that usually come with it is crap, go
| for either the Olympus 17mm 2.8 (used only, about $100-150) or
| the 1.8 (around $400 new)
| dragosmocrii wrote:
| A friend converted his 26" bike with the Bafang 1KW motor, and
| that thing is a beast. Definitely not street legal, as it can
| reach speeds of 80km/h, but a lot of fun
| martindbp wrote:
| Remarkable 2, I use it for at least an hour every day, reading,
| taking notes, exploring ideas etc. I had a notebook before but I
| just scribbled in it when I needed to think visually, but it
| wasn't something I'd do very often.
| lgreiv wrote:
| Coming from rather bulky DSLRs (e.g. Canon 7D), the Ricoh GR III
| was a game changer for me. The camera has a superb image quality
| while easily fitting in the front pocket of my pants, which
| allows me to carry it each and every day. That availability
| allowed me to take many shots I would have missed with my bulkier
| cameras as I would have left them at home. The development
| presets it brought luckily meet my taste, which allows me to skip
| development on my computer most of the time (I still shoot RAW
| and jpeg combined for the other times). The designers have put
| much effort in enabling one-handed handling of the camera even in
| manual mode.
|
| Many current generation smartphones come with capable cameras,
| though, and I expect many not to see the benefit in this camera
| for their needs.
| kisna72 wrote:
| I purchased a standing desk (Uplift ~60in * 30in) and couldn't be
| happier with the purchase. Main benefits is that I can actually
| adjust the height of my table to be actually ergonomic. My chair
| + table + monitors are all set right. I stand around 2-3 hours a
| day and that helps a lot.
|
| This was an expensive purchase for me (Esp for a table) but well
| well worth the price.
|
| extremely happy with it.
| gmac wrote:
| CalDigit TS3 Plus for use with a MacBook Pro. Ports for
| everything and completely solid (since Big Sur).
|
| Second-hand Epson projector (EH-TW5910) for movie nights:
| discovered the picture is still great even when projecting from
| quite a long way off-centre, next to the sofa, using horizontal
| keystone correction. From CEX in the UK, who awesomely provide a
| 2yr warranty on second-hand stuff.
|
| Monoprice Select Mini v2 3D printer, mainly for
| designing/downloading and printing new Gravitrax pieces with the
| kids during lockdown.
| mattbk1 wrote:
| An Urban Arrow Family cargo bike. Great for kids, great for
| groceries, saves driving.
| ilamont wrote:
| Line 6 PodGo electric guitar/bass effects processor, purchased
| earlier this year. I have been playing for decades and in the 90s
| got one of the early DOD multieffect stomp boards, but it's
| amazing how much the technology has advanced since then. It's not
| just the ability to change up your sounds or really fine-tune
| what you're looking for ... the integration with other platforms
| is sweet. All kinds of outputs for amps, or USB to go straight to
| my Mac for GarageBand integration.
|
| Zwilling J.A. Henckels electric kettle for tea and coffee. Wide
| lid/spout, one button, very fast. Used similar devices overseas,
| but in the U.S. they haven't been so common except in hotels. We
| got tired of using gas and old fashioned tea kettle every day,
| which takes longer to boil and causes wear to the range, and
| bought it a few months ago and use it several times per day.
|
| We also have a Cuisinart electric kettle at the office, but don't
| like it - too many buttons and settings, and the lid/spout is too
| small.
|
| We got a tiny lightweight fridge for the office that is really
| good for keeping drinks and small things cool. It doesn't make
| any compressor noise ... AFAICT there is no compressor or gas
| inside, and I have no idea how it works. Just a very quiet fan.
| It comes with a car adaptor, too, and reviews showed it is
| popular with people using it for camping trips or long car
| journeys. It's branded "Frigidaire" but the mechanics and finish
| don't match, and we got it at Walmart, not an appliance shop.
|
| Regarding cast iron skillets: Yard sales and antique shops are
| your friend.
| rpcwork wrote:
| Possibly uses
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling
| jkereako wrote:
| A Kamado Joe.
|
| It's easy to expertly cook food on kamado style grills. Because
| of their construction, they have a wide temperature range from
| 150oF to greater than 750o and they sustain heat for a long time.
| I can use this thing as a smoker, a grill and a pizza oven.
| tgv wrote:
| An NAD C368 amplifier, with a Bluesound Node 2i. The amp sounds
| good, and the Node thing can stream almost anything. However,
| before you buy an amp, listen to it, preferably with your own
| speakers, and in your own room. Otherwise, listen to it in the
| store in combination with similar speakers.
|
| A Korg Monologue, an small, simple and versatile analog single
| voice synthesizer. I've grown up with digital synthesis and
| analog emulation, but to have all the knobs in front of you is
| really different, also since you can't just undo.
|
| A Philips automatic espresso machine. It's not high end (at all),
| and looks rather average, but it makes a fine espresso, and is
| easy to clean and maintain.
| pauldelany wrote:
| Backscratcher - I never knew I couldn't go without one until I
| had one. I now have several dotted about the house.
| enobrev wrote:
| Headphones: While Working at My Desk: Bose Noise Cancelling 700.
| Life-changing for me. While Working with Powertools: The ISOTunes
| SafeMax. Absolutely excellent for protecting my ears and they
| sound great when playing music through them.
|
| Slippers: Gecko-Man. The arch-support was very necessary. Turns
| out spending an entire year in regular slippers was bad for my
| feet.
|
| Bread Book: "Flour Water Salt Yeast". I've baked everything in
| this book at least twice and some things tens of times. Almost
| every loaf and pizza pie has been excellent and my sourdough is
| going strong at around 2.5 years old.
|
| Chair: Herman Miller Embody. High Quality, super-comfortable,
| with a 12-Year Warranty - costs about the same as buying a new
| chair every two years.
|
| Mouse: Logitech MX Master 2S. Excellent all-around. The scroll-
| wheel is my favorite part
|
| Keyboard: WASD with the Cherry MX Brown switches. Never a
| problem, always great.
|
| Office Fan: Vornado. Tiny and powerful. A bit loud, but for the
| price, it's excellent. Great as an outdoor fan as well.
| riffraff wrote:
| > Chair: Herman Miller Embody. High Quality, super-comfortable,
| with a 12-Year Warranty - costs about the same as buying a new
| chair every two years.
|
| I really like some of the Herman Miller chairs, and I plan on
| buying one when my current one breaks, but I don't get this:
| why would you need to buy a chair every two years?
|
| My IKEA Markus ($200) is older than that (I think 5 years?) and
| it's still fine.
| enobrev wrote:
| Never tried the IKA Markus, but I've had quite a few office
| chairs quickly go downhill at the 2-3 year mark.
|
| I'm pretty big at 6'6" / 275lbs, and I am legitimately in my
| chair for 50+ hours per week, so that may have something to
| do with it. But this is the first chair I've owned that,
| after 3 years of constant use, is still in excellent
| condition.
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Bread Book...which one? Or is the name of the book "Bread
| Book".
|
| I have been making sourdough for about 2 years as well, but I
| am looking to expend to more baking using my starter.
| [deleted]
| Der_Einzige wrote:
| It's also funny because "the bread book" may refer to "the
| conquest of bread* which is a seminal tome if anarcho-
| colletivism
| samcheng wrote:
| I'd like to recommend "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" as a
| next-level bread book. Full of recipes, techniques, photos,
| and history.
| yawnxyz wrote:
| the book is called "Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast" -- it's my
| first foray into bread-making, and it's very well-written! It
| gets a bit into starters, but you might be too advanced for
| it
| 100011_100001 wrote:
| Reading comprehension failure. I read it as using only four
| ingredients, not as a title. I have "Tartine Bread" that
| I've been using, but like I said I was looking into
| expending my baking abilities. Thanks for the
| recommendation.
| enobrev wrote:
| I should have added quotes for clarity. Just edited my
| comment.
|
| I definitely learned quiet a bit from that book, and
| every recipe is written as if you've never read the
| others, so it's easy to jump around.
|
| I've been baking bread for about 3 years now, and I still
| use that book pretty regularly.
| sumedh wrote:
| > Chair: Herman Miller
|
| Has anyone done a blind test between a genuine Herman Miller
| and a knock off or another similar chair. I suspect people say
| its good just because of the brand name.
| enobrev wrote:
| I've used quite a few office chairs over the years - mostly
| in the $200-$300 range, and before I decided to buy the
| Embody, I went to the Design In Reach store to try it out.
| I'm 6'6", so making sure I could actually fit in the thing
| was essential. I tried out the Embody and the Aaron and a few
| others.
|
| It is legitimately a high-quality chair. I've had mine for
| three years now and it's absolutely solid. By this time with
| other chairs I'm generally starting to shop around again due
| to discomfort, or pieces falling off, or the hydraulics not
| working as well, or squeaks and creaks.
|
| When it arrived there was no need to put it together. It just
| rolled out of the box fully assembled. The arm rests and back
| still adjust as smoothly as the day it arrived. No squeaks or
| creaks. And that warranty is hard to beat.
|
| I'm not one to chase brands, by a long shot. But HM
| absolutely nailed it with this chair (imo).
| theandrewbailey wrote:
| I got one at home about 5 years ago, and have sat in it every
| day. I'm not sure if it's heavenly (or what that would mean
| for a chair), but I've never once felt uncomfortable sitting
| in it. It's firm (but not hard), breathable, and very well
| built. I'm generally not conscious of how much the chair I'm
| sitting in costs, so I'm not sure how other chairs that cost
| this much (or even a third as much) feel. If the bar is
| 'never uncomfortable while sitting in it', then it's
| absolutely worth it.
| TacticalCoder wrote:
| I've got my Aeron since ten years and use it daily. It's
| still like brand new. I don't think I could sit in any knock
| off and not immediately notice the difference. It took 30
| minutes to set up (ten years ago) and I haven't changed
| anything since then. I put my hands behind my head and the
| chair slowly leans back: that's the "easy" trick to configure
| it properly.
|
| The one main complain I see about it is the frame hurting
| people's legs / preventing proper blood flow but I think
| that's people sitting in Aeron chairs not configured
| properly.
|
| I don't just like the "pellicle mesh" (no sweating) and how
| great it feels, I also like that it's ten years old and is
| basically like new despite daily use.
|
| As a funny sidenote: during the first covid lockdown I got
| stuck for three months not at my home and had to use a really
| crappy chair (as in: an old chair, not meant for office work
| at all) and within weeks I developed terrible back pain. It
| was so bad I had someone lend me one of his Aeron.
| akeck wrote:
| Manual focus lens for my camera. It requires a satisfying amount
| of attention to use.
| bionhoward wrote:
| Waterproof notepads from rite-in-the-rain. Take a couple
| mechanical pencils too. No more fiddling with phones, you can
| sketch whatever you want, never runs out of power and it's
| waterproof
|
| Wolverine boots are legit
|
| I love my new ultra wide monitor and the Dell 27 inch that
| rotates to go vertical is awesome too.
|
| Jump rope, kettle bells, adjustable dumbbells, a legit pullup /
| dip tower. Hex bar looks good but too expensive
|
| Also, Amazon basics zero gravity chairs. I use them outside and
| inside. They're steel and sturdy and mesh recliners, good for
| getting sun, reading, coding, etc
|
| If you're walking a dog regularly, a harness and a hands-free
| leash (literally a belt with a carabinier) lets you have 2 hands
| free to write stuff on aforementioned notepads
| richx wrote:
| My Ampler electric bicycle: https://amplerbikes.com/
|
| It's such a great vehicle, I smile every time I can ride it. It
| also helped me to use the car less.
|
| Im also pretty happy with my Plumelabs Flow, a small device that
| constantly measures air pollution. We used it to find a new and
| better home:
|
| https://plumelabs.com/en/flow/
|
| I also replaced my Android HTC U11 with an IPhone XS. I was
| always an Android user, but to be honest, I think IPhones are
| much better.
| mehphp wrote:
| Apple Watch for exercising. Paired with Airpods, it makes
| tracking workouts and listening to podcasts very enjoyable.
| cblconfederate wrote:
| oculus quest 2
|
| which robovac u got ?
| mrfusion wrote:
| Is the Facebook login requirement an issue? Do you worry about
| being dropped for wrongspeak and losing your purchases?
| 0j wrote:
| I have the quest 2 and the only app I bought for it is
| virtual desktop, so I can wirelessly stream VR games from my
| PC. All other purchases are in steam and would not be lost if
| I lose my fb account. That said, fb is evil, but the quest is
| ahead of other headsets far enough that I can ignore it.
|
| I too consider it one of the better purchases. Being able to
| travel in vr using Google earth, vr videos or own panorama
| pictures in these times is amazing.
| mrfusion wrote:
| That seems like a good way to handle the issue.
|
| Btw how do you view panorama photos with it?
| cblconfederate wrote:
| My FB account is fake anyway
| wyldfire wrote:
| I bought a Eufy 30C, recommended by Consumer Reports. Short
| enough to get under some of the furniture, quiet, does a great
| job.
| ornornor wrote:
| > But the HN crew can give good advice and are extremely unlikely
| to shill garbage.
|
| Don't jinx it!
|
| For me it was an ebike.
| otterpro wrote:
| My desktop PC (Ryzen 3700x + RX5700 GPU), which replaces Macbook
| Pro for coding and video editing. It's last gen CPU/GPU, but I'm
| lucky to get it at all at Costco for $1000 during GPU shortage.
| After using the beefier desktop, I cannot go back to using a
| laptop again (with hot 80+'C temp and loud whining fan). I'm not
| a gamer but it can also game and fantastic for video editing.
| Also love the RGB LED lighting in the case.
| mring33621 wrote:
| electric skateboard
| cryptofistMonk wrote:
| Airpods Pro.
|
| Not traditionally an apple guy so didn't expect to like them, but
| the guy talked us into them while we were upgrading my wife's
| phone.
|
| Wow. These things are just way better than any other earbuds and
| so much more convenient and comfortable than headphones. The
| Bluetooth just works even when switching between my Android and
| MacBook. The noise cancelling is great as well, way better than
| my Sennheisers.
| dinkleberg wrote:
| They were such a game changer for me. I used to be a big
| "audiophile" and spent more than I'd care to admit on
| headphones.
|
| AirPod pros sound very good. Not as good as a really good audio
| setup, but good enough for pretty much everyone out there. The
| noise cancelling is really good. And best of all they are so
| comfortable.
|
| Idk if I'm gonna have some weird cancer in 40 years from
| wearing these all the time, but I love them so much.
| throw14082020 wrote:
| Can you elaborate on your previous auditory experiences? I'm
| checking for Steve Jobs/ Apple's reality distortion field.
| I've seen many recommendations from people who have upgraded
| to Apple from bad products (e.g. This iPhone 12 is so much
| better than the Android phone from 2017 which I paid $300
| for), as opposed to a fair competitor. In this case, have you
| used other high-end headphones released recently?
| andrewzah wrote:
| Check out the frequency response curves yourself of the
| airpod pros [0] and say, an open-back sennheiser hd650 pair
| [1]. The airpods have a huge bump at about 1.5kHz to 3.5kHz
| (mids), while the sennheisers are more neutral in low
| frequencies but also have a bump at ~3kHz to ~7kHz.
|
| Nothing will beat open-back headphones on a good system,
| but apple's stuff as of late is plenty good.
|
| [0]: https://reference-audio-
| analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/apple-airp...
|
| [1]: https://reference-audio-
| analyzer.pro/en/report/hp/sennheiser...
| marrone12 wrote:
| Not OP but I have a pair of nice IEMs, open and closed back
| headphones and a headphone amp on my computer.
|
| For serious listening sessions I will still plug my IEMs
| into my phone, but the Airpods Pro are just really
| convenient and sound good enough that at this point, 90% of
| my mobile listening is done through them. The sound
| cancellation is nice and better than my sennheiser momentum
| m2s (audio quality on those is better than the airpod pros
| but they have apt-x which is the difference maker, but does
| not exist on ios yet)
| texasbigdata wrote:
| Same. 90% at ... 5x/10x the cost delta is more than good
| enough to prefer the AirPods.
| dinkleberg wrote:
| I've owned and tried many headphones from different high
| end companies. Sennheiser HD800 were my staple for a while.
| But I've also had grado, Hifiman, and some "boutique"
| options.
|
| Airpod pros don't give you the same experience as a high
| end setup. But you come to realize you're enjoying the
| headphones more than the music itself. Or at least I did.
|
| With the airpod pros the quality and the overall experience
| is good enough that I don't even think about them, just
| whatever music or audio I'm listening to.
| [deleted]
| matwood wrote:
| I was about to write the same thing. I actually didn't like the
| ANC I had tried with various over ear headphones. The APPs
| though are great though.
|
| Second would be the M1 MBA. Much has already been written.
|
| Third, I upgrade my home sound with KEF Q series for the L/C/R.
| Such a huge upgrade from an old set of speakers that were
| damaged from a move and rattled all the time.
| operator-name wrote:
| The thing about the AirPods is that most people don't own a
| good pair of in ear or even over ear headphones.
|
| Apple are a widely known brand and one of the first to release
| a product. In reality there are many other options each with
| different tradeoffs: https://crinacle.com/guide/tws/
|
| Personally I find their battery life borderline, even with
| their rapid charge feature. Most of the time when the battery
| dies I'm in the middle of listening to something, instead of
| patiently waiting for it to charge I just grab some wired
| headphones instead.
| ja27 wrote:
| I use mine a lot but have had to do two rounds of replacements
| due to hardware issues. The battery life is unsurprisingly
| short (right about 4 hours now) which only comes up on looong
| calls without a break.
|
| They'd still be on my maybe top 5 list for recent purchases.
| pronlover723 wrote:
| They didn't work for me. I'm super sensitive to microphonics.
| With the Airpod Pros, every step I took sounded like someone
| banging a drum in my ear. It's not specific to Airpod Pro's,
| most headphones that plug into my ears I have that problem
| (though not all). I wouldn't have even tried the Airpod Pros
| except I figured if anyone was going to get that right it would
| be Apple.
|
| Well, they didn't solve it, I sold them and went back to my
| non-Pro Airpods
| daze42 wrote:
| Came here to say this too. My wife and I both got them and
| we've been 100% satisfied. Fantastic product.
| jonpurdy wrote:
| I used to feel the same way, and still do about how good they
| are relative to my previous choice from 2005-2019 (wired
| Etymotic passive isolating buds). I bought them on day 1.
|
| But I'm on my third pair of replacement buds now and still
| experiencing issues. They no longer have the random squeaking
| issue that the first two pairs had, but still have issues with
| Bluetooth connectivity, failing to connect 10-20% of the time,
| dropping their BT connection during Zoom calls, etc. I'm sure
| some of this had to do with BT itself, but I was hoping that
| I'd see no pairing issues at all due to the W1 chip.
|
| I still use them all the time, and I presume I'd have way fewer
| issues if I used them with a single device. I'd actually buy a
| second pair if I only had a Mac and iPhone, but with work +
| personal Macs, iPhone, iPad, and HTPC Mac Mini I'd still be
| dealing with issues on most of my devices.
| skrtskrt wrote:
| I have had each earbud replaced once under AppleCare. If I
| hadn't gotten AppleCare, I would probably be infuriated that
| I had spent money on them.
| 3pt14159 wrote:
| I am a traditionally an Apple guy. Sure some VMs for linux
| development, but the gear is all Apple stuff.
|
| I had Beats Pro headphones that got damaged after a good amount
| of use so I replaced them with non-Pro Airpods and have hated
| it. I have to constantly worry about them falling out while I'm
| exercising and the case gets all gunky. The handoff between the
| MacBook Pro and iPhone isn't reliable enough for me to trust
| it, so I always have to reconnect it if I'm at a quiet place
| like a co-working space. Also, within the first year one of
| them just randomly died and I had to send the whole thing back
| to Apple. Apple care covered it, but still.
|
| I miss being able to do more with what's on my head. With Beats
| I could easily change the volume, pause, skip, rewind and they
| almost never came off. The only thing that kinda sucked was in
| the summer the skin around them would sweat.
|
| Shrug. At least my MacBook Pro has been great.
| mackatsol wrote:
| I started with the AirPods and upgraded to the Pro's. having
| used both I find the pro models fit and stay in my ears much
| better. You can also set each one to behave differently when
| clicked, which might help with all the play, pause, rewind
| etc. But I've gotten used to using Siri for anything more
| complex than play/pause. The Shortcuts app also makes it
| relatively easy to add custom commands. "Hey Siri, silence"
| will pause, invoke noise cancelling, then play again.
| "Conversation mode" will pause and turn off noise cancelling.
| raunak wrote:
| You may want to check if you are cleaning your ears properly.
| Getting AirPods was a wake up call for me to actually dig
| around my ears for the first time in my life. Went from
| falling out at first touch to staying in no matter what.
| kstrauser wrote:
| Plus, they support "Hey Siri". I use that all the time while
| running with just my AirPods and watch: "Hey Siri, text $friend
| I'll be jogging past your house in 3 minutes" or "Hey Siri,
| remind me about this awesome idea I just had". Being able to do
| that stuff while on the move and without having to look at a
| phone is liberating.
| ryneandal wrote:
| Same here. I bought them and figured I'd use them occasionally,
| but in the past year, they've been used 8-12 hours per day.
|
| From work to chores to workouts, they live in my ears.
| Incredible value for the use I get out of them.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| I was super hesitant to order mine, but for the last year
| they've been in my ears virtually every day. They're excellent.
| The sound quality is good, could be better, but the
| functionality and convenience is what makes them so usable.
| ryeguy_24 wrote:
| - Realforce R2 Mac Keyboard (I first thought a 300 dollar
| keyboard was bonkers, but typing on this keyboard gives me so
| much joy and makes me look forward to sitting down at my desk
| still after a year of use).
|
| - BMW X5 with CarPlay (just a great car and CarPlay makes life so
| easy)
|
| - Therapist (my wife has talked therapy up for a while and I
| finally tried it and I don't want to give it up. It's great to be
| able to talk things through and reflect on myself including my
| goals and my actions. It's making me a stronger person for sure.)
| maccard wrote:
| If you spend any time in a car, having CarPlay (or Android
| Auto) is just _so much better_ than the default experience.
| I've a VW with Android Auto, and it's a complete game changer.
| enobrev wrote:
| Absolutely agreed. Just got the AA Wireless dongle a couple
| weeks ago via an IndiGogo campaign and absolutely love it.
|
| The music is a bit choppy using the dongle, so for long
| trips, I still plug the phone in. But when out running
| errands where I'm in and out of the car often, having Android
| Auto loaded by the time the car turns on with my phone still
| in my pocket is a game-changer.
| lormayna wrote:
| * Bluetooth bone conduction headset: perfect for the daily
| cycling workout
|
| * Belka DX shortwave radio: one of the best shortwave radio on
| the market, with a small and portable form factor
| sebdufbeau wrote:
| I can concur for the bone conduction headphones. Maybe I'm late
| to the party, but it is the most "mind-blowing" piece of tech
| I've tried in a very long time. I was skeptical that it would
| sound good or even work at all, but it does.
|
| I'm using the Aeropex AfterShokz for reference
| (https://us.aftershokz.com/products/aeropex)
| swader999 wrote:
| Theragun pro. It's a percussion massage gun and oh my does it
| make me functional again for all sorts of things.
| ketamine__ wrote:
| Bragi Dash. Although not made anymore they have onboard storage
| so you don't have to run with a phone.
|
| * Not the best product
|
| * Slow transfer speeds (oh well)
|
| * Waterproof
|
| I'm actually loathe to post this. I know some of you might start
| buying what is left of the supply.
| agent86 wrote:
| This is a bit outside the HN box, but I love our Kindling
| Cracker[1].
|
| We made a little outdoor seating area with a fire pit and then
| realized we needed to figure out how we were going to fuel it.
| Plenty of downed trees around us, but we came to realize that
| logs didn't burn well unless they were split. I did not trust
| myself to start swinging an axe around and went looking for
| alternatives. I found this and gave it a shot.
|
| We got the King/XL model which can accept a 9" piece of wood
| which is most of the pieces we would want to use in a fire pit
| anyway. It is an incredibly simple setup, basically a solid cast
| iron rig. You place the log standing vertically in it with the
| end on the wedge. Whack the other side with a hammer until it
| splits.
|
| The thing is actually a bunch of fun to use, and they're not
| kidding when they show kids doing it. My little one loves to
| whack the log with the hammer once I get it started and stable,
| and she is capable of really splitting it on her own power. She
| won't crack a full on log, but anything smaller succumbs to her
| mini-might :-)
|
| [1] https://www.kindlingcracker.com/
| avidal wrote:
| These things are very cool. I buy wood from a local wood yard
| every year or two (I don't use much here in Texas, but we do
| love our firepit and fireplace when it's cool enough), but the
| splits I get are often too large to easily burn. I'll often buy
| a bag of kindling when I pickup fire wood, but the kindling
| doesn't last long.
|
| The main reason I didn't get a kindling cracker is because I
| don't have a stable base to mount it, although I suppose I
| could manufacture one next to the wood rack. I _did_ , however,
| get a hydraulic wood splitter[1] which at least helps split
| some of the really large logs into something more manageable.
| It's pretty simple to use and very effective, even on the very
| knotty and hard oak wood out here.
|
| [1] https://www.harborfreight.com/lawn-garden/outdoor-power-
| tool...
| 3guk wrote:
| My Specialized Diverge Comp Carbon gravel bike I'd say - I only
| purchased it at the start of the year, after riding a MTB for a
| considerable amount of time.
|
| I've already put 1000km of riding into it - it's an absolute
| pleasure to ride and always puts me in a much better mood in the
| days after having ridden it.
| peanut_worm wrote:
| A Sigma 600mm lens. It has made bird photography much, much
| easier.
| tluyben2 wrote:
| Boox Note3 -> it is brilliant. Works so incredibly well and fact
| it runs Android helps enormously.
| kilbuz wrote:
| A small collection of mechanical wristwatches. There is something
| very appealing about rejecting the wearing of a screen on one's
| arm. Not to mention they are beautiful.
|
| For tech, a Nintendo Switch.
| koonsolo wrote:
| A walking pad for under my (ikea adjustable height) desk.
|
| I try to walk a minimum of 30 minutes on it in the afternoon, and
| it surprisingly works really well with reading, typing and mouse
| movements.
|
| High concentration work is harder, but I don't have that anyway
| in the afternoon :D.
| hadem wrote:
| I've been interested in the idea of a treadmill to walk while
| at my standing desk as well. Can you share details on the one
| you have?
| znpy wrote:
| My house.
|
| Mortgage is about 30% less than what I used to pay in rent, and
| I'm actually saving most of those money (actual interest is a
| very small portion of that).
|
| I don't have lousy roommates, but now my SO and me can move in
| together and start our life together.
|
| I pretty much ignored (and sometimes made fun of) people telling
| me not to buy and to invest in the stock market.
|
| Most of them actually own their own house but won't sell it to
| "invest in the stock market".
|
| I don't live in SF tho.
| stakkur wrote:
| (Another) Zojirushi stainless insulated 16oz mug. Keeps warm _all
| day_ (longer if you preheat), spillproof, and nigh
| indestructible. I had my first one for six years but lost it; it
| was still going strong.
| throwaway3neu94 wrote:
| Foot hammock for my desk. $20 well spent. If you don't have one
| you're missing out.
|
| You can find them on Amazon. Doesn't matter which vendor, they're
| all the same. Fits most desks.
| jimbilly22 wrote:
| A boxing heavybag.
|
| The best stress reliever imaginable.
| johnchristopher wrote:
| Not a hardware thing but I bought the witness, the game, and I
| have been using it as a kind of safe place.
| thom wrote:
| Got an Ooni pizza oven. Not quite as useful during lockdown as I
| might have hoped but it's given us something to do in the garden,
| and I can't wait to take it camping and to festivals.
|
| https://ooni.com/
|
| I've really ended up liking my Moonlander keyboard. I wasn't
| initially sold onsplit keyboards at all, and it's taken me a
| while to end up with a layout I'm happy with, but I've just about
| caught up on typing speed and feel far less cramped. Plus it
| plays chiptunes.
|
| https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/
|
| Also I can't necessarily recommend a particular brand, but I
| bought myself a soldering station for the first time ever. Been a
| long time since I was interested in electronics or computer
| hardware in particular, but it's been really satisfying fixing
| various bits of equipment in my house.
| sircastor wrote:
| I got my Ooni (an Uuni 3) a few years ago and I use it almost
| weekly during dry weather. If you like making pizza, this is a
| fantastic investment. I will say though, it take a lot of
| practice to figure out the right temperature and timing for
| baking. Even though it goes up to 915f, doesn't mean you
| _should_ go 915f.
| lbhdc wrote:
| I have been interested in the Moonlander keyboard. What were
| some of the edge cases for you that made it more difficult to
| use than a traditional keyboard, and how long did it take you
| to get up to speed typing?
| askafriend wrote:
| Check out the Dygma Raise. I was considering a Moonlander too
| but I went with the Raise instead because it had a more
| traditional key layout (non-ortholinear) and I really like
| how it has 8 thumb keys - they're insanely useful.
| mod wrote:
| Adam Savage went on and on about his favorite soldering station
| in a YouTube video, so if anyone wants a recommendation, search
| for that.
| amerkhalid wrote:
| I am a little reluctant, but I will add Kindle Oasis.
|
| I upgraded to Oasis from Kindle Paperwhite. But my favorite
| Kindle is Kindle Keyboard 3. It is the easiest to hold among all
| Kindles. As it doesn't have touchscreen, I never worry about
| inadvertently turning the page or activating some menu. Only
| reason I got Paperwhite was because I wanted waterproof and
| builtin light.
|
| PW is really awkward to hold especially when laying down in the
| bed.
|
| Oasis is obviously ridiculously over-priced. But I got it because
| I got tired of PW. I like that Oasis has a large area to rest
| your thumb or fingers on, and also physical buttons definitely
| makes reading experience better. But it is not perfect, metal on
| back is too slippery, I still end up turning pages by accidents
| especially when switching hands. And did I mention it is way too
| expensive.
|
| But it is still one of my favorite items, it is so much easier to
| read on it for extended period of time. I also send blog posts,
| news articles, docs, etc to Kindle via chrome extension and read
| them later when relaxing in the evening.
|
| Also while I enjoy reading on Oasis, I am going back to physical
| books as much as possible. Mostly because I want to gift my books
| to my kids, and I don't know if Kindle would be around in 20
| years or not. So the stuff I read on Kindle is mostly borrowed
| books from Prime library, personal docs, free books, or books
| that I am pretty sure will be useless in a few years like books
| on Kubernetes or other hot technologies.
| Random_Person wrote:
| I love my paperwhite, EXCEPT for the ridiculous place they put
| the power button. It's right where the device rests on my
| finger and I inadvertently turn the unit off quite frequently.
| throwaway6734 wrote:
| I'm with you on the kindle oasis. I was a little hesitant due
| to the price, but my last kindle lasted for years and the build
| quality is so high. I also love the tinted backlight as it
| makes reading in bed so much easier
| bunana wrote:
| Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker. So far I've only had it for ~2
| months, but I really enjoy it. Although rice is a big part of my
| diet, I didn't know a "high-end" rice cooker existed until I
| wanted to upgrade the tiny 3-cup Imusa cooker I've had through
| college. I suppose I'll have to see if the thing stands the test
| of time (the reviews suggest it should!), but for now, the
| consistency and quality it provides has made me really happy.
| 6gvONxR4sf7o wrote:
| I'll second this. I got the zojirushi induction model a few
| years back and it's been pretty fantastic. Almost
| embarrassingly so, since rice is so basic.
| siver_john wrote:
| I would have probably put my Zojirushi but I got it seven years
| ago (and am in awe at that fact now that I've typed it). And
| it's worked more or less flawlessly that whole time, it failing
| only due to user error. Just if you lose the rice cup and are
| an American remember that it is ~3/4 cup of uncooked rice is
| equal to the rice cup.
|
| I've bought loads more Zojirushi things in the meantime and
| have loved every one, but none except the water boiler (a
| recent addition) get near the same amount of use as the rice
| cooker.
| nunez wrote:
| Rice cookers save SO MUCH TIME and produce perfect rice every
| time!
| strictnein wrote:
| Apple Airpod Pros - I hated the idea of Airpods when I first saw
| them, now I carry them with me everywhere. A very significant
| upgrade from the standard Airpods (imo)
|
| Oculus Quest 2 - VR the way it should be: without wires
|
| Xbox Series X - I'm an Xbox guy, so I'm biased, but there is no
| better deal in gaming than Xbox Game Pass/Xbox Live Ultimate.
| adreamingsoul wrote:
| Therapy.
| rubyn00bie wrote:
| Kinesis gaming edge with silver keys. It's helped my wrists more
| than any other keyboard I've tried. I can't believe I waited this
| long to buy something like this (split keyboard).
|
| A Heil PR40 microphone and an "Evo 4" usb-c XLR input. I got my
| microphone used on Craigslist by just waiting for a month or so
| until something I wanted popped up at the right price (~50% of
| retail). It's incredibly useful having a good quality microphone,
| and it seems most people really appreciate the audio quality.
|
| _New_ non-stick pans, and some really good knives (Wusthof) have
| made cooking myself meals a lot _faster_ and therefore more
| pleasant. The non-stick pans making cleaning up things like eggs
| take literally seconds out of my day instead of minutes vigorous
| scrubbing. Knives also help prepare food much faster; truly, it
| 's crazy the quality of life boost from being able to slice
| things faster/easier.
| Nemi wrote:
| Noahlink Wireless Bluetooth Hearing Aid Programmer
|
| I have Oticon Opn1 hearing aids and I always hated that I had to
| go to the Audiologist and have her tweak them, leave for a week
| or two and only then could I come back and have them readjusted.
| I get that sometimes you need to sit with a change for a while to
| get used to it, but sometimes you just know immediately whether
| something is working or not. OR, you just want to A/B test some
| things and the hassle of going back to the audi was too much. I
| realize now that I ended up living with hearing aids that were
| working sub par for many years.
|
| I found that the software for programming the Oticon Opn's (among
| others) is free to use by anyone, however you need a device that
| will connect to them for programming. This is the Noahlink
| device. A couple of hundred bucks on Amazon and a few days of
| reading the documentation and I am off and running! I made
| several changes in quick succession and I can safely say that now
| I have them set to what they should have always been, years
| later. Where before I could only hear maybe 50% of what people
| were saying in a loud environment, I can now hear at least 75%.
| That may not seem like much, but it makes a huge difference! I
| now come home from a social event and I am not completely wiped
| out with exhaustion. One of the best purchases I have made in the
| last 10 years.
| erhserhdfd wrote:
| Gorilla Glue! Jokes about using it as a hair product aside; this
| has saved me thousands of dollars. I recently used it to repair a
| wicker outdoor dining table that was fraying. I recently used it
| to fix the base of an expensive blender that has broken. Its
| about a $7 purchase at your local hardware store, but it will
| easily pay for itself.
| mrfusion wrote:
| Is that just crazy glue? Or it's different?
| ryandvm wrote:
| No, it's not a cyanoacrylate. You have to activate it with
| water and it takes about 24 hours to set.
| loufe wrote:
| Soda water, I am addicted to it. -Got a SodaStream and
| immediately decided I couldn't continue paying that much for
| refills. Bought a 5lb adapter hose on Ebay and a tank. One use
| paid off the CAPEX. Recommend strongly. -Got a Stanley Growler
| for bringing it around. It is indestructible. I bring it into the
| mine every day and it has held up like a serious champ despite
| the abuse. Probably going to buy a second.
|
| Other than that my Ikea standing desk and tall-fit shirts
| probably take the cake for me!
| rickitan wrote:
| Gymnastic rings and kettlebells
| nunez wrote:
| The AirPods Max have been incredible for music and Zoom calls.
|
| The Tesla Model 3 is an amazing car that completely ruins all
| other cars for me. I can't imagine driving anything else right
| now.
|
| The MacBook Air M1 really does live up to the hype. You can do
| all-day Zooms on this thing and still have battery to spare. This
| was impossible on my Intel MacBook Pro. The Air is also insanely
| fast. It's literally the perfect laptop.
|
| I bought this granite-looking coffee tumbler from Starbucks. It
| gets a lot of compliments and is really good at heat retention.
| It's also vacuum-sealed and doesn't leak, ever. It's great.
|
| I also bought a bunch of merino wool shirts from Woolly. They
| were about USD$60 each. I LOVE travelling with these. They don't
| smell, are comfortable in cold and hot weather, and are very easy
| to hand wash.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| > The Tesla Model 3 is an amazing car that completely ruins all
| other cars for me. I can't imagine driving anything else right
| now.
|
| I bought a Model 3 Performance back in November 2019 and I have
| recalibrated what "normal" acceleration feels like.
|
| It's not that I'm flooring it at every red light, but without
| an engine making noise and giving me audible feedback on how
| much fuel I'm using, I do find I give it a little more punch
| than most other drivers.
|
| So then when I sit in my wife's Honda CRV, it feels so slow
| unless I'm giving it a lot of gas.
| cgb223 wrote:
| What do you like about the AirPod Max's that stands out against
| other higher end headphones?
|
| I remember seeing the reviews come out as the UX was kind of
| strange and the audio wasn't as high end as the price.
|
| It was the only time I wasn't totally sold on an Apple product.
|
| Never met someone who has a pair, what do you think?
| rocketpastsix wrote:
| not OP but so far these are the first pair of over the ear
| headphones that dont hurt my ears after extended use. That to
| me is a huge win.
| bmitc wrote:
| Have you ever used Beyerdynamic headphones?
| colinplamondon wrote:
| Cosign on the AirPods Max. I'll easily use them daily for 4
| years, and then someone else will enjoy the hell out of them.
|
| It makes music even more beautiful.
|
| The noise cancelling is absurdly good.
|
| Mic quality is great.
|
| They're incredibly comfortable for long work sessions.
|
| The little buttons and dial are a joy to click and press.
|
| The case everyone made fun of? It's awesome. By being forced to
| put them away, it always shuts off when not in use. The mic
| doesn't drain like every Bose I've ever ad. Fantastic product.
| smoldesu wrote:
| Can I use the included cable to play lossless audio over the
| headset, or will it only receive audio input over Bluetooth?
| neilpanchal wrote:
| I'm in need of an electric car that has no touchscreens or any
| displays whatsoever. Just knobs, buttons, toggles, dials,
| gauges and levers. Why do electric cars have to look like
| something out of fricking Tron?
| speedgoose wrote:
| You can buy an used Mitsubishi i-Miev for almost nothing and
| it fits your criteria.
| gaws wrote:
| > The Tesla Model 3 is an amazing car that completely ruins all
| other cars for me. I can't imagine driving anything else right
| now.
|
| Imagine having the money to buy one of these.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| $40K isn't that expensive for a good portion of HN. You can
| usually get them used for even cheaper, though I'd always be
| weary about buying from a used car dealership, as they're
| often clueless about Teslas and will claim a car has FSD when
| it doesn't. I've also seen them try to sell a used Model 3
| Standard Range (The $40K base model) for $60K, which is more
| than the Performance model.
| ricardobayes wrote:
| Solid picks but I just can't justify 650EUR for headphones that
| are arguably worse than a midrange Sennheiser. If you want to
| enjoy lossless audio just grab a HD58X for 160 bucks (re-run of
| the mighty Sennheiser HD580 from 1995).
| mellosouls wrote:
| Agree - the Max are an embarrassment in terms of pricing,
| whatever their usefulness in plugging the NC/Apple
| integration gap.
| jakeva wrote:
| Expensive? Sure. Apple products come at a premium. But
| embarrassing? I'm not sure what that's even supposed to
| mean.
| [deleted]
| smoldesu wrote:
| Relative to the headphone space, the Airpods Max are a
| comedy routine from a different planet. For nearly 5
| years now, you could buy noise cancelling headphones for
| ~$300, and get a relatively nice package. Certain
| manufacturers like Sennheiser cut corners, and they
| released subpar ANC headsets in the $150 range, but $300
| was the standard for Good Headphones. Then Apple enters
| the arena at the $600 price point. Feature-wise, it's a
| bit on the lacking side: it basically has ANC, Bluetooth,
| Transparency and... that's it. Not even a power button or
| an AUX jack, both of which are pretty big pressure points
| from what I've ascertained from other owners. The
| aluminum enclosure was a catastrophic mistake from an
| aesthetic standpoint, and I can only assume it will look
| like a used Macbook (if not worse) after a few months of
| casual use. So what's the value proposition here? They
| don't sound any better than my wired cans, and they
| certainly don't look or feel any better either. Maybe
| it's the half-second less it takes to auto-switch to my
| nearby devices? I may never know what cost so damn
| much...
|
| So yeah, I think you do have a right to feel a little bit
| embarrassed if you spend $600 on headphones that is
| _literally incompatible_ with analogue mediums.
| askafriend wrote:
| People who buy these don't care about wired usage. You're
| entirely missing the target audience.
|
| 1. They look great.
|
| 2. They sound great (compared to similar wireless
| options).
|
| 3. They're fully integrated with all my other Apple
| devices, switching devices is super easy (I have a mac,
| iphone, and ipad).
|
| 4. The noise canceling is great.
|
| 5. They have features like spatial audio and possibly
| other updates coming down the line.
|
| 6. A power button isn't needed because of how it's
| designed.
|
| 7. The microphones are great - which make this a great
| device for taking calls.
| texasbigdata wrote:
| Come on, there's ways to achieve that connection, even
| multiple, and this is coming from a CIEM user.
|
| This gearslutz level of (forgive me) elitism is a bit
| annoying. People seem to like them for better or worse.
| smoldesu wrote:
| Yep. You're welcome to own anything you want, and form any
| kind of opinion you want on it, but defending Airpods Max is
| like trying to tell Mormons about the glory of God. Having
| tried the Max's for myself, I must have missed what justified
| their price point...
| yabones wrote:
| Thinkpad X280, i7 quad w/ 16G memory and 500G SSD. It was on
| clearance since the model is a couple years old, but holy crap
| this thing is fast. And so much lighter than the last system I
| owned with a fast quad core (4-5 KG). My last computer lasted me
| almost a decade, so with the rate technological progress has
| slowed (barring M1), this system should last me 15 years or so.
|
| Other than that it would have to be my Unicomp model M repro, or
| the plants I've filled my home office with. All together it has
| made the experience of being a technical human so much better.
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e
|
| The price was in the sweet spot that I could indulge it as a gift
| to myself without agonizing over it. It's also their last
| budget/mid-tier tablet model that still uses an AMOLED screen,
| and it's beautiful. Reading comics on its super-vibrant screen
| brings back a joy I haven't felt since childhood. Except for very
| large, coffee-table style books printed on super glossy paper,
| I'd argue that most of the comics I'm reading on the tablet look
| _better_ than they did on their original newsprint. So that 's
| all quite lovely.
| juancn wrote:
| iPad and Apple Pencil. I missed whiteboards badly, this is the
| next best thing. With Zoom or other conferencing software you can
| just draw as on paper, on a whiteboard or on a shared screen.
|
| It has made design/discovery meetings waaay better.
| tartoran wrote:
| Bungee cord rebounder (Trampoline). This is perfect for quick
| cardio while working from home. I've been feeling so much more
| energetic since I've started doing about 10 minutes a day. It
| feels effortless but after 10 minutes of this and getting off the
| trampoline you do feel it.
| knolan wrote:
| My ebike. It's a Specialized Turbo Vado 4.0. It's so much more
| fun than sitting in traffic in my car or the bus.
| dhosek wrote:
| LG 38UC99-W 38-Inch 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD+ IPS Monitor with
| Bluetooth Speakers
| http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01LW54S4U/donhosek
|
| It's amazing how much the extra screen real estate helps.
|
| Other than that, I've bought surprisingly little in the last two
| years other than food, clothing and gifts.
| TacticalCoder wrote:
| Oh yes. That's the screen I'm rocking. It's pure bliss.
|
| For gamers I'm sure there's better but the 38UC99 is quite
| something. Now it's already three years old (or even older?) so
| there's probably better at the same price point now?
| pugworthy wrote:
| Also got an ultra-wide curved. Work bought it. HP brand, 43".
| Not my first choice but it's where I work so that's what we
| get.
|
| I can say unequivocal that when I eventually have to take it
| back to the office, a) my non software developer team members
| will drool, b) I will buy myself something because gaming (and
| everything else) is fantastic on it.
| lhball wrote:
| _$1K_ - Hard pass. I 'll take two crappy IPS 24 inch monitors
| before I drop that kinda cash on a monitor.
|
| Thing is I've seen co-workers with these, and buy call accounts
| they love them, but I've never really been blown away by them.
|
| The 144hz refresh rate is nice, but wasted on someone who just
| writes code all day.
| Hroble wrote:
| There are much cheaper curved widescreen monitors as well, I
| bought a 100hz AOC monitor for 360 dollars or so. That was
| more than worth it.
| speedgoose wrote:
| It looks to be 60Hz. I think 144Hz is nice even if you only
| write code. Everything is more smooth, like scrolling code or
| documents.
| dmd wrote:
| Anything you're gonna interact with more than half your
| waking hours is worth spending lots of money on, to me. Over
| 4 years of daily use a monitor like that is something like 20
| cents an hour. Seems worth it to me.
| oftenwrong wrote:
| I switched from a 38UC99 to a 43" 4K (16:9) display. For me,
| the extra vertical space (35% more) makes it much more useful
| for programming-type work. For example, showing many lines of
| code or logs at once.
| peteretep wrote:
| Air fryer, Fuse Reel, Leatherman
| imjared wrote:
| - a mid-level road bike, Trek Emonda SL6. I'm lucky to live in a
| city that's really fun to bike in (Washington DC) and has a great
| community of athletes. I get out for multiple rides per week and
| am finding myself obsessed with cycling
|
| - regular physical therapy. I've started marathon training again
| and while that in itself beats my body up, I feel like years of
| sitting at the computer building sites and playing games has
| really put my legs at a disadvantage. My PT provides manual
| adjustments, needling, and gives me expert feedback on my regular
| exercises. Going on a regular basis also helps me be mindful of
| how I'm treating my body and helps keep foam rolling, stretching,
| and yoga at the forefront of my mind since I'm regularly paying
| money for a specialist.
| DarkTree wrote:
| I found this reddit thread regarding running injury prevention
| and how foam-rolling and stretching may not be as beneficial as
| might seem interesting [0]. I also enjoy foam-rolling as it
| tends to alleviate soreness the day after a run/workout, but
| after seeing this I'm looking more into the evidence behind it.
|
| [0]
| https://www.reddit.com/r/running/comments/nghttt/the_low_han...
| imjared wrote:
| Thanks for this. I'd agree that foam rolling has never been a
| huge win for me. It's a nice thing to add to my routine and
| it's super easy to do while watching TV, messing around on my
| phone, or having a work conference call with video off.
| gadaprog wrote:
| To be fair, that mentions stretching pre-exercise.
|
| Static stretching (pre-exercise) before exercise has been
| known to be either negligibly beneficial or detrimental in
| many cases for years.
|
| Active stretching (pre-exercise) like doing some unweighted
| squats, leg circles, etc. (or what most humans would call
| "warming up") has been shown to be beneficial in injury
| prevention.
|
| Post-exercising stretching is linked to benefits such as
| injury prevention, increased range of motion, etc.
| RootReducer wrote:
| How did you find a good PT? How does it work with insurance? I
| want to also establish a regular PT routine but I'm unsure how
| to start.
| imjared wrote:
| To be honest, I'm not working with my favorite PT. The
| benefits, in my mind, come from: 1. something is better than
| nothing 2. the sense of mindfulness. it seems that a lot of
| PT is getting the right exercises to do for whatever ails
| you. as a runner, I generally know what I need to work on but
| my PT has helped refine my list of things. By getting a
| shorter, focused list, I can think of my PT almost like a
| coach rather than trying to come up with my own workout
| plans.
|
| In terms of insurance, I have a pretty standard high-
| deductible health plan and an HSA. I pay out of my HSA (and
| more recently out of pocket, since depleting the HSA) up to
| my deductible.
|
| I want to run my marathon in the fall and I think of it so
| far like paying $X to be able to make it to that start line.
| I've told myself that I'm willing to do what it takes in
| terms of finances, training, and general suffering to make
| sure I can toe the start line.
| sedachv wrote:
| > How did you find a good PT?
|
| The poster unfortunately did not. "Needling" aka "dry
| needling" aka "Western acupuncture" is re-branded
| acupuncture. Like acupuncture, it is quackery and an unsafe
| scam. Even the acupuncturists agree: "Dry needling is
| acupuncture and physical therapists are practicing it without
| a license and putting patients at risk"
|
| https://www.healthline.com/health-news/acupuncturists-
| declar...
|
| Mark Crislip had a good podcast that covers acupuncture and
| other medical fraud:
|
| http://quackcast.com/spodcasts/page6.html
|
| If you feel like you need help for "years of sitting at the
| computer" I recommend Jolie Bookspan's books. The best, most
| effective information I have come across so far.
| corysama wrote:
| An OLED TV. I work in computer graphics and the image quality of
| my TV makes me smile every day. HDR is a much bigger deal than
| 4K. The pure blacks of OLEDs make them hard to beat. Not only for
| the global contrast level. The pixel by pixel contrast level and
| absence of light leaking at bright edges greatly improves the
| clarity of the image.
|
| I picked up an LG C9 a while back. There have been two more
| generations since then. Not really big differences between them.
| So, go with what's cheapest (currently them middle gen).
|
| Other OLEDs are just as pretty. But, some other brands have
| obnoxious ads in their UI. And LG has good support for 120Hz and
| other gaming features. So, I'm still happy with my pick.
| Humdeee wrote:
| > some other brands have obnoxious ads in their UI
|
| Can anyone explain this? Are TV manufacturers now dishing out
| ads themselves and not the cable company?
|
| I have a not-so-good dumb TV and have not bought a new one for
| a long time. I'm completely out of the loop here.
| coldpie wrote:
| > Are TV manufacturers now dishing out ads themselves
|
| Yes. They have built-in OSes with Netflix, etc apps. They
| ship ads for the UI to display. It's as ridiculous as it
| sounds. The best solution is to never allow the TV onto the
| Internet and use some external device that doesn't hate you.
| dougmwne wrote:
| I travel and mostly love out of a suitcase all yeah long, so my
| best purchases can be put in a bag.
|
| Oculus Quest 2 - incredible multipurpose entertainment and
| excercise device. Turns any hotel room into a gym, movie theater,
| golf course, table tennis tournament, shooting range and casino.
|
| Blon BL-03 super great IEMs for about $25, competes with ones
| that cost hundreds.
| timdaub wrote:
| I bought a triatlon wetsuit in November of last year so that I
| can swim in a lake nearby. See, for all of winter, public
| swimming pools were closed in Germany because of the pandemic.
|
| In the end I didn't go much because below 10 degrees celsius is
| just insanely painful. I went a few times, but just for the
| challenge.
|
| I've started, however, using it in spring now and I love the
| empowerment it gives me.
|
| I can swim comfortably outside in a beautiful lake and I don't
| have to be upset about closed public pools :)
| pklausler wrote:
| The Henriksen BUD Ten guitar amplifier sounds amazing and is
| surprisingly lightweight.
|
| Quo Vadis blank unlined notebooks continue to be the best in
| class; the reMarkable 2 was a giant disappointment and is already
| in the abandoned tech drawer.
| AngeloAnolin wrote:
| Two things:
|
| * Apple Watch
|
| * Dynamax Running Pad (Light Run Treadmill)
|
| I started to put more emphasis on my personal health as I noticed
| that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a lot of toll on both my
| physical and mental state.
|
| The watch has been quite amazing in tracking my movement, heart
| rate, # of times standing up in a day and overall, has been quite
| influential in motivating me to do more physical related
| activities.
|
| The WalkingPad allowed me to perform a lot of light exercises at
| home and it has been quite a handy companion in my journey to
| become a healthier person overall.
| zigzaggy wrote:
| Yes, the Apple Watch was a fantastic purchase. I started
| noticing how much (or little) I was active some days. I started
| walking regularly the day after I got my watch, and it's been a
| slow build up since then. Obviously it wont' do the work for
| you, but it's a great tool if you're ready to get started.
| hairofadog wrote:
| * Shoes: VivoBarefoot Magna Trail II FG
| (https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/magna-trail-ii-fg-mens). If you
| enjoy barefoot shoes, these things are fantastic.
|
| * For the table saw, this sawdust bag
| (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bosch-Table-Saw-Dust-Collector-S...)
| does a surprisingly good job for $11, and this set of Dado blades
| (https://www.homedepot.com/p/DIABLO-8-in-x-12-Teeth-Stacked-D...)
| has saved me a ton of time with tongue-and-groove work.
| Random_Person wrote:
| Thanks for that bag link! I bought one that doesn't have a
| zipper and I hate it.
| danShumway wrote:
| I'm always very hesitant to recommend "barefoot" shoes since
| everyone's feet are different and I know some people who have
| had horrible experiences with them. They definitely are not a
| magic solution for everyone, and for some people they'll be
| actively harmful.
|
| But for whatever it's worth, switching to VivoBarefoot (Primus
| Lite) resulted in a massive decrease in foot pain for me. My
| shin splints basically vanished. I've had them for maybe a year
| and a half, and I am never going back to traditional shoes.
| elric wrote:
| I think that for _walking_ , you won't find many people who
| experience negative effects. But if you're a runner, and you
| go straight from big cushy shoes to barefoot, you might be in
| for a world of hurt for a while. Easing into it tends to be
| good advice.
|
| I've been a bit disappointed with the newer VivoBarefoot
| models, the toe boxes seem to be getting progressively
| narrower (going for a more mainstream look, I guess?), which
| was one of the main reasons why I switched to them back when
| they were still called Terra Plana.
| Rendello wrote:
| > I know some people who have had horrible experiences with
| them.
|
| I'm getting mine in in a couple days. What issues have you
| seen people have most with them, out of curiosity? (I'm
| assuming the use case was for running and not the hiking
| stuff in one of the sibling threads)
| danShumway wrote:
| If your feet need support, they don't provide support. So
| pretty much what you would expect: ankle pain, shin
| splints, soreness, etc...
|
| My problem was the opposite: I got shin splints even after
| spending a ton of time stretching my legs before and after
| long walks, running. But I started to notice that my feet
| felt a lot better whenever I was barefoot in my house, and
| that I had fewer problems during the summer when I was more
| likely to take long walks in low-support footware like
| sandals or flip-flops. So when I noticed that the support
| was the problem and got rid of the shoes that had thick
| heels and lots of cushioning, that pain went away.
|
| Basically, if normal shoes hurt your feet, there's a
| reasonable chance (but not a guarantee) that barefoot/low-
| support shoes will be a big improvement. If you normally
| prefer lots of support to feel comfortable, there's a
| reasonable chance that these will hurt your feet.
|
| There's also a bit of an adjustment period. You do feel
| more of the ground, and it takes a little while to get used
| to that. If I step on a really sharp rock, it won't
| puncture my foot or anything, but I feel it. Your
| walking/running style ends up changing a bit as well to
| accommodate less cushioning, you spend more time on the
| balls of your feet instead of your heels.
|
| I haven't taken them hiking, but if I was a hiker I
| probably would at least consider wearing them over normal
| boots (or more likely, I'd get an equivalent low-support
| hiking shoe). I like that my feet are more flexible, I like
| that I can feel the texture of the ground, it makes me feel
| more confident and secure when I'm walking over rough
| terrain -- the same way that I feel more confident
| manipulating something with my hands if I'm not wearing
| very thick gloves.
|
| But all of that is just me, your results might vary.
| coldpie wrote:
| I'm on the market for a pair of decent camping/hiking
| shoes/boots. I had been planning on getting some REI pair, but
| you've got me curious about these. It seems odd to me that
| something that claims to be thin and let you feel things would
| be good for hiking. Can you elaborate on that? I think I would
| want protection from rocks and stuff, so it seems bad for that?
| hairofadog wrote:
| Occasionally I'll be walking and step on a single pebble on
| the sidewalk in just the right place and I can feel that for
| sure, but on a trail that's less of a problem because you're
| not pressing that pebble against pavement, and the shoes
| aren't so thin that it's like there's nothing there - they
| definitely provide some protection. For larger rocks, like a
| rock scramble, I find it's nice to be able to feel it a
| little more - I'm not sure if it's true, but it makes me feel
| I have more control and better balance. Thus far the rare
| "single pebble on the sidewalk" has been the only issue.
|
| I'm not exactly a shoe wonk, but I think the idea of barefoot
| shoes is to encourage you to put more force on the ball of
| your foot as opposed to the heel, which I think is meant to
| be better for posture and your knees. All I know is I love
| them, and I think I'd have trouble going back to shoes with
| thick outsoles.
|
| If you're thinking of trying a pair, Vivobarefoot has a
| pretty good return policy (100 days no questions asked) so it
| might be worth giving it a shot. That said, it's definitely
| an acquired taste and I don't think they're better for
| _everyone_. My partner hates minimal shoes and just bought
| for herself a pair of Hokas, which to my eyes have a
| comically large outsole. Ultimately it 's about finding the
| best match for your body.
| Rendello wrote:
| I've been looking into minimalist/barefoot shoes lately and
| one thing that I found interesting is that, even though the
| plains First Nations of old (think Apache) wore thick,
| hard-soled moccasins, the woodland nations always preferred
| the soft, thin-soled pucker style.
|
| The forest floor is littered with sticks, rocks, and other
| things, but clearly there was still some benefit derived
| from wearing what would now be termed "barefoot" shoes in
| the bush.
| flanbiscuit wrote:
| I am genuinely curious about these shoes but cautious as my
| left ankle gives me problems and I find that I'm most
| comfortable when I'm wearing my thick Merrel hiking books.
| I use insoles in all my shoes because of it and I feel like
| it would defeat the purpose if I used insoles in these.
|
| Their Tracker II Fg Mens looks good too
| carpdiem wrote:
| Ankles can be tricky. Most "barefoot" style shoes have
| essentially zero ankle support. What ends up happening
| for most people is that if you ease into them, and use
| them regularly, you end up building up substantially more
| muscle in your foot and lower leg which ends up being the
| "thing that gives you ankle stability".
|
| If you've got really serious ankle problems / past
| injuries / etc, that might not be a plausible approach
| for you. But if it's just a case of your ankle being a
| little unstable every so often, it might be worth trying
| the barefoot shoe approach, and treat it like building up
| new muscles in any other context: start slow and easy and
| try to be consistent about it.
| jorisg wrote:
| I've got the same exact pair - they are awesome, super
| comfortable and flexible.
|
| It's important to note that as for any thin-sole shoe, it
| takes time to get used to what is much more like walking
| barefoot - your foot placement and posture changes, as you
| use the ball of your foot and your calf more. Think of it as
| the difference between running with a heel/neutral strike
| with padded running shoes and a toe-strike when running
| barefoot.
|
| Re. longer hikes and rocks, the sole is well protected and
| quite tough - they are indeed built for hiking; consider
| walking briefer hikes in them for a while so that your foot /
| calf muscles to get used to the difference before taking on
| long and more exhausting hikes that increase the chances of a
| twisted ankle.
| bionhoward wrote:
| Check out wolverine boots, depending on your needs you could
| get a slip on with a composite toe, they're much lighter than
| steel toes and waterproof
| 1shooner wrote:
| I wanted something more minimal than conventional boots but I
| knew I didn't want to go as far as Vivos. I settled on these
| Solomons[0], and they're possibly the most comfortable shoes
| I've ever owned. Not waterproof, no real ankle
| support/bracing, but very light with plenty of shock
| absorption and sole stability. I do have minimalist sandals
| from Xero[1], which are great for camp shoes.
|
| 0. https://www.rei.com/product/122170/salomon-x-ultra-3-low-
| aer...
|
| 1. https://xeroshoes.com/shop/gender/mens/ztrek-men/
| arran-nz wrote:
| I hike regularly with Vivo's - Also the Lems Boulderboot when
| the temperature permits.
|
| Your feet take a beating in the first few weeks but you will
| build a tolerance.
|
| In my opinion, they're fantastic for hiking as you feel the
| ground beneath you. Being more aware of the ground surface
| increases your step precision as well as your balance.
|
| I highly recommend giving a pair a go!
| motohagiography wrote:
| Arturia Minibrute 2 and Drumbrute. AKG studio headphones. Got
| back into music last year leaving it behind as a teenager. For
| having fun, they're the perfect synths.
|
| Yamaha C40 guitar (and weekly zoom lessons from a real master
| musician) was best value for money nylon string guitar around.
|
| Returning to making music during covid was a lifesaver. So glad I
| learned the basics as a kid.
| nfoz wrote:
| I find Arturia's products -- hardware and software -- wonderful
| to use. My Drumbrute Impact is just so fun. I got "Pigments"
| and it is incredibly fun for crafting sounds; just a beautiful
| UX.
| motohagiography wrote:
| They really get it. I think their product people are as good
| or better than Apple. If you are a producer, I get why
| someone would use something with more features and options,
| but for someone who just wants an instrument in front of them
| as a way to be musical and expressive, without trying to
| replicate genres, I could see these becoming classics.
| kaybe wrote:
| - Noise-cancelling headphones (Sony 1000X-M3) are totally saving
| the rest of my productivity in home office. (The bluetooth does
| not work with my current Linux version, but I will not update
| that until my work is done just in case something else stops
| working. It does however work with my 10-year-old Nokia phone.
| But hey, there is an audio cable which also works fine. The next
| time I will probably buy Bose, but only since they are smaller
| and would work better for my head. Long live noise-cancelling
| technology, especially if you live close to a road or have
| neighbours you can hear.)
|
| - A nice shoji paravent to shield me from the room during work.
|
| - A vase and regular flower updates that do wonders for keeping
| the place fresh and me in a mood for tidying and cleaning it up.
| (Single flowers from the flower shop nearby are quite cheap.)
|
| - Some lamps to increase the cozy vibe for the evening (changing
| the light can change the room, and I need about 3 rooms right now
| where I have one).
| [deleted]
| thom wrote:
| Everyone once in a while I'll realise I've still not listened
| to some favourite song on my pair of WH-1000XM3s, and it brings
| me new joy every time.
| zigzaggy wrote:
| I also bought the Sony 1000X-M3 headphones, and they have
| indeed been a game changer. My work puts me in "war room"
| situations several times a year, and having noise-cancelling
| headphones allows me to continue deep work even when there's a
| crowd of people.
| fsloth wrote:
| Can agree the Sony 1000X-M3 is fantastic - the most comfortable
| earphones I've ever had and sound great. And yes, critical part
| of home office with kids and other noises.
| ww520 wrote:
| Second on the Sony 1000X-M3. Bought one on Black Friday couple
| years ago. It's well worth the money.
| jsonne wrote:
| Agreed. My Bose Noise Canceling 700 headphones have possibly
| been my favorite purchase ever in terms of day to day use and
| also quality of life increase. Absolutely essential while
| having a toddler and working on the road.
| dole wrote:
| I bought Bose 700s a few months ago on the whim they might
| help my spouse deal with my terrible snoring without having
| tried any active noise cancellation headphones before.
|
| I've had maybe twice since where she said she could kinda
| hear me a little bit versus her being livid at me for keeping
| her up all night. Really life changing.
| frakkingcylons wrote:
| If anyone else is looking for something to help block noise
| or relax while sleeping, I recommend also taking a look at
| the 2nd gen Bose sleep buds. They're great if you're a side
| sleeper and wouldn't be able to wear headphones to bed.
| They fit quite well in my ears.
|
| Now big caveat: they don't stream audio and they aren't
| noise canceling. They only play looping sounds that you
| download from the Bose sleep app. That said, I've found
| them to be helpful in staying asleep. Pricey also, but if
| it helps you sleep, it's worth trying in my opinion.
| enobrev wrote:
| I also have these headphones.
|
| Along with an 18-month-old who loves to hear how high his
| voice can be, and a cat that can be heard cleaning itself
| from half a block away, and a bad case of misophonia.
|
| These headphones give me peace. Sometimes I'll even turn them
| on with just noise-cancellation and no music, just to
| concentrate.
|
| Once I got the mic working properly on ubuntu, they improved
| my meetings considerably as well.
| tmm wrote:
| Do you use them wired or wireless? I bought every Bluetooth
| dongle Microcenter offered and none of them worked with
| these headphones in Windows or Linux.
|
| I'd love a recommendation for a compatible USB Bluetooth
| dongle.
| Humdeee wrote:
| I actually bought the Sony 1000X-M4 about 2 weeks ago. I love
| them and the noise cancelling is top notch. I figure why not
| since WFH could be much more common in the workplace. Should
| have made this purchase awhile ago.
| burntoutfire wrote:
| I have them as well. Noise-cancelling is amazing, compared to
| another n-c headphones I had (large Jabra ones). However, the
| audio quality on bluetooth when connecting to my 2013
| MacBookPro running Windows 10 is too bad to use it (it's
| totally fine when connecting to my iPhone SE2). Thank god for
| the audio jack, which I use every time I want to listen to
| something from my laptop - but it doesn't carry the
| microphone line, so it's not a solution for calls.
|
| Another issue is microphone audio quality - it's worse than
| on headphones where microphone is on a boom.
|
| Also, the switching between connected devices is a travesty
| (fails a lot of the time), I eventually turned it off
| altogether.
| nscalf wrote:
| These headphones have been an amazing bump to quality of life.
| My neighbors have a new baby, the other neighbors are
| constantly yelling, and I live across a school that recently
| reopened. Can't recommend these enough. I also used them while
| traveling back in the before times, they're exactly what you'd
| want while traveling on a plane/train.
| brainzap wrote:
| Secondhand iPhone 6s with a battery case, good enough for
| everyday usage.
|
| Xiaomi aqara camera G2, as homekit hub and for the camera.
| tehnub wrote:
| Fender Mustang Micro Headphone Amp.
|
| I can play electric guitar anywhere in my house, any time of day.
| The sound goes straight to my headphones, so I don't need to
| worry about connecting a thick cable to my regular cabinet amp,
| and I don't need to worry about being quiet at night. Another
| perk is that the volume is balanced for my ears--whichever ear is
| closer to the amp starts feeling fatigued when I play with my
| regular amp. I use Beyerdynamic DT 880s to listen, and the sound
| quality IMO is great. All in all, I find myself playing guitar
| much more often than before, and enjoying it even more.
| ashleyn wrote:
| Car with level 2 autonomy, 2018 Volvo S90 with Pilot Assist. You
| still have to pay attention to the road when driving, but long
| highway drives (which I take a LOT of) are a hell of a lot less
| tiring. I've been able to do 6 hours in a single day and it's
| almost like riding a personal train except for when you get to
| jams, local roads, or merges/exits.
| throwaway00127 wrote:
| > I've been able to do 6 hours in a single day
|
| Is... Is that a typo? Six hours of continuous driving in a day
| is a weekly commute for some. 8 to 10 hours a day is fairly
| normal here...
| lnenad wrote:
| I don't understand the situation in which anyone would find
| that acceptable. That is 60 days a year thrown away, and for
| what?
| throwaway00127 wrote:
| The US is a large county, it has states that are larger
| than France.
|
| Driving from San Diego to San Francisco (never leaving the
| state of California) takes about 8 hours, even longer in
| traffic.
|
| Many people have these long commutes due to work.
| dmnd wrote:
| Tern GSD cargo ebike. This thing is the bike version of a
| minivan. Biking the kids to preschool every day is so much more
| healthy and fun than taking the car. We also visit a much bigger
| variety of parks on the weekend now.
| rickitan wrote:
| Gymnastic rings and Kettlebells, having so much fun working out
| with these two tools.
| [deleted]
| japhyr wrote:
| I finally got a home espresso machine, after an HN
| recommendation. We got a Breville Barista Express. We'd been
| wanting one for years, but everything reliable seemed to be $1k+,
| and still seemed like more work than I wanted to put into coffee.
|
| This one is simple, almost as easy as pour-over, and is simple to
| clean. We're making better coffee at home than we've ever had in
| a coffee shop. And I thought it would take a while to dial in,
| but the first shots were great and they've only gotten better.
|
| It's a little spendy, but if you buy espresso-based drinks it
| pays for itself in no time.
|
| https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/espresso/bes870.html
| danecek099 wrote:
| seems like this machine is sold worldwide under different
| branding, but i got the same one for 5+ years and it's purrfect
| anarazel wrote:
| The drip tray is the most annoying about it for me. Lots of
| corners that are hard to clean, and occasionally some of the
| "waste" water from steam or coffee seems to end up besides it.
|
| Still very happy with it.
| TacticalCoder wrote:
| > We got a Breville Barista Express.
|
| Everybody who has one says it's so good. I wanted to buy one
| but then SO wanted a full-auto. So I bought a Delonghi full
| auto: apparently Delonghi's build quality went down a few years
| ago, they're letting the JURA brand the higher end market for
| full auto machines.
|
| I may still buy a Breville Barista Express just for me.
| multiplegeorges wrote:
| I also have a Barista Express. It's really the best value you
| can find in a home espresso machine, IMO.
|
| Really great machine.
| SkyPuncher wrote:
| I bought an espresso maker (Gaggia Classic Pro) last fall and a
| new grinder this spring.
|
| Complete splurges/unnecessary purchases, but it's been a great
| purchase for us. I actually drink less coffee now (because I'm
| not brewing a full pot) and find the time to make a latte very
| peaceful and calming.
| dimgl wrote:
| +1 on this. My wife and I got one and it's absolutely
| fantastic.
| skrtskrt wrote:
| Do you have to let it grind the beans for you or can you supply
| your own grounds?
|
| I have a much cheaper machine ($70) and I always give it pre-
| ground Illy, largely because it doesn't make a decent espresso
| with anything lower quality like Lavazza.
|
| Illy pre-ground is easy to get in bulk via Amazon, but not
| exactly sure how I'd get the unground beans
| wampwampwhat wrote:
| any of the Breville machines will allow you to use pre-ground
| beans. They're all 'semi-auto' machines, where you fill the
| portafilter with grounds and then install it into the group
| head for extraction. Automatic machines like the Delonghis or
| Juras you see in a lot of small offices don't allow for
| precise control over the grind fineness or volume. Though, I
| wouldn't recommend anyone use pre-ground beans if they're
| getting into espresso. The off-gassing accelerates
| exponentially as soon as the whole bean is crushed, and
| within 30 minutes or so of grinding many of the subtle
| aromatics and flavors that make good coffee 'good' have
| disappeared.
| pySSK wrote:
| Cycling: cycling shoes and shorts. I just did not know cycling
| shorts had pads for your crotch and has made riding a lot more
| comfortable. Cycling shoes makes my stroke a lot more efficient.
| Also, a Hypervolt massage gun.
|
| Music: SubPac. Has been a life-saver during COVID to the extent
| that I'm starting to think it's better than live music. I use it
| with Aiaiai TMA2 headphones.
|
| Coffee: finally got an espresso machine. Went with the Lelit Anna
| + a good grinder and a beans subscription.
| sebiw wrote:
| Bose QC35 II noise-cancelling headphones.
|
| Being able to decouple yourself from noise is worth so much more
| than what Bose is asking for these headphones.
| nirav72 wrote:
| Bought a Ender3 3d Printer last year during the lockdown. It cost
| me about $150. Took me about 3 months of learning, lots of
| mistake, trial and error before I was able to get decent and
| useful things to print. But its a great starter printer and
| cheap. So far I got my money's worth simply based on the time my
| son and I have spent together tinkering with it and learning all
| about the 3d printing process. I think once I get to a certain
| point in my new found hobby, I'll invest in something like a
| Prussa. ($800+)
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| The Ender 3 is the perfect entry-level printer. Cheap, but
| upgradeable.
|
| I bought my Ender 3 last October, and since then, I've added:
|
| - BLTouch
|
| - PEI bed
|
| - Filament runout sensor
|
| - Upgraded motherboard with quiet stepper motor drivers
|
| - Dual-gear extruder
| njdullea wrote:
| Eero wifi setup
| ojr wrote:
| Macbook Pro 16in 2019 i9, 1 TB, the M1 has problems with docker,
| arguably, the best development machine on the market, I am just
| grateful I could afford it.
| meristohm wrote:
| Azure Standard (in Dufur, Oregon) "unifine"[0] flour (I buy
| mostly rye, whole wheat, bread flour, AP, corn meal). I think
| these flours taste better than from other processes. I make
| simple sourdough (no waste: feeding over several days to a week
| at 16-19 degrees C, setting aside a cup for the next batch,
| mixing in new flour and less than 1tsp iodized salt for about 8c
| flour, kneading or not much, oiling, baking flat or rounded at
| 325-350 for an hour or so; turns out tough, and I like it that
| way, for toddler face development[1] since we're not gnawing much
| meat), pancakes, cornbread. So far I prefer unifine flours for
| taste and nutrition, since the milling temperature doesn't get as
| high as stoneground. I might be misguided, though; feel free to
| set me straight on this.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unifine_mill
|
| [1] Breath, by James Nestor
| http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1249567607
| giles wrote:
| Onewheel Pint! It was the ultimate quarantine toy. I saw so much
| of my city I hadn't seen before and it did a great job of getting
| me outside in general.
| mlni wrote:
| Same here. It's absolutely amazing for exploring an urban
| environment. Floating around in a large open space like a plaza
| is serene.
|
| It's not too fast and it doesn't go very far, but this hasn't
| been limiting so far. My legs get tired before the battery runs
| out.
| anon776 wrote:
| If you get calf pain, look into the kush foot pads. Worth
| every penny.
| kaybe wrote:
| Anyone else wondering, click here:
|
| https://onewheel.com/products/pint
| mrfusion wrote:
| How far does it go? How is the safety? Is it fun?
| anon776 wrote:
| On a charge, 15 miles but depends on your weight and the
| terrain. My son put 22 miles on one once on a single charge.
|
| Safety wise, yeah wrecks on onewheels can be bad. If you are
| a speed demon you will break something. If you are careful
| you should be fine. A set of fangs on the board and a pair of
| wrist guards are highly recommended. And a helmet at all
| times.
| mring33621 wrote:
| Super fun, but it will dump you at some point. I sold mine
| and bought a better esk8, but will buy again if they ever
| release a new, improved model.
| owenversteeg wrote:
| The safety is what put me off of those. Read a few too many
| stories about permanent, serious injuries to young people
| using them (relatively) safely. It does look like a ton of
| fun though.
| siver_john wrote:
| In the last year: Sennheiser 660s and a Schiit Stack (I wear
| headphones almost constantly while working and this was more than
| worth it).
|
| iMovr sit stand desk, at the start of the pandemic I was using
| the desk built into my apartment wall that was probably fine for
| the occasional use at the family computer when this house was
| built in the 90s but was causing me a lot of pain using day to
| day.
|
| Over Two Years, stupidest thing that has probably brought me the
| most happiness is a yutanpo I bought off of Amazon (also called
| hot water bottle?). There is something so satisfying about
| jumping into a nice pre-warmed and cozy bed at the end of a cold
| winter's day. (Though technically it was a gift so I don't know
| if it counts).
| samsolomon wrote:
| I'm a giant fan of robot vacuums. My Eufy Robovac died last year
| and decided to upgrade to a Roomba i3.
|
| We've got a dog and my girlfriend has very long hair that we
| would have to cut strands out of the rollers every couple of
| runs. The new Roomba models have these rubber rollers doesn't
| catch hair. I'm not entirely what about the design prevents that,
| but it is fantastic!
|
| The i3 is probably $100 more than you'd spend on a Robovac
| though. For us it has been worth every penny.
| dmd wrote:
| Do any robot vacuums work if you have rugs? The rug edge
| presents a 2 cm tall cliff; I don't see how the robot would
| even get onto it.
| skrtskrt wrote:
| Just bought the Roomba i7 and that thing is seriously
| ambitious about the things it will climb over. Even the
| thickest rug would not be a problem
| samsolomon wrote:
| I've owned a couple of Roomba models and the Eufy Robovac I
| mentioned. None had issues climbing onto my rugs--granted I'm
| not sure if they are 2cm tall. I'm sure they won't work on
| any rug that has tassels though.
| jtbayly wrote:
| I've never seen a roller not wrap hair around itself. You sure
| it's picking up the hair? Seems like this would be a big
| feature in and of itself that would be advertised if they
| managed to accomplish what you're saying.
| samsolomon wrote:
| It picks up a ton of hair. I wrote a review about the vacuum
| earlier in the year if you want to see some pictures of the
| brush rollers.
|
| https://productnotes.com/t/irobot-roomba-i3-review/722
|
| Also, it does have a self-emptying dock if you want to spend
| an additional $100. It didn't make sense for my condo though.
|
| EDIT: I ran the Roomba this morning and posted some
| additional pics with what it picked up and how the brush
| rollers look post-vacuum.
| jakogut wrote:
| > The new Roomba models have these rubber rollers doesn't catch
| hair. I'm not entirely what about the design prevents that, but
| it is fantastic!
|
| Ha, I wish that was universally true. My girlfriend's hair is
| long and insanely strong. It wraps around the rollers and cuts
| right through them.
|
| Still love the Roomba, but often need to replace rollers. :)
| TacticalCoder wrote:
| We all have the same problems! Roomba 765 (a bit old and
| noisy, there are quieter models) since two years here: cat
| and SO's long hairs so I regularly need to use scissors to
| "free" the rollers.
|
| Thing with the robovacs here: when you empty their bin and
| see how much dust they catched, you know they're very useful.
| We buy (and I build) furnitures and arrange our home so that
| the Roomba can go underneath them. I wouldn't for example buy
| a sofa under which the Roomba couldn't vaccuum.
| samsolomon wrote:
| What model do you have?
|
| Perhaps I should have clarified that only the newer i3, i7
| and s9 are the models that use the new brushroller design.
| Otherwise you'll still be cutting hair out of the rollers.
| jakogut wrote:
| I have the Amazon special i6+ (which is the same as the
| i7+, but sold by Amazon, similar to Costco's i8+).
|
| Also, one of my favorite things about it is hearing the
| base spinning up like a jet engine to suck all the crap out
| of it, and hearing it go _FOOMP_.
| mehphp wrote:
| I was super skeptical about getting a Roomba, but there was a
| great deal during around the holiday's last year, and we pulled
| the trigger.
|
| I'm still 100% happy with the purchase. Does it vacuum as well
| as a person? No, absolutely not, but what it does do is remove
| 90%+ of the work.
|
| My only suggestion is that you get one that has a self-emptying
| container. We have two kids and a cat, and we still only have
| to change the bag every few WEEKS.
|
| I'm not going to tell you it's perfect. It will occasionally
| get stuck, or you have to clean it out, but boy has it removed
| a lot of work for my wife and I.
| linsomniac wrote:
| I was also skeptical, but my sister in law talked my wife
| into it. I was expecting it to be one more thing around the
| house that I was always having to repair...
|
| They've really dialed that design in. It does require a deep
| cleaning about once a month, but it's quite easy. Takes maybe
| a minute. And whenever we don't pick everything up, the
| Roomba will choke on things like bubble wrap, socks, towels
| (we often keep one on the floor by the door for the dog).
|
| It's been a real workhorse.
| foxbarrington wrote:
| reMarkable 2 e-ink tablet: I was on the fence for a long time on
| this, but I've been using it almost daily for 4 months now, and I
| absolutely love it. The logical part of my brain thinks it's
| quite pricey compared to an ipad or rocket book (what I used
| before), but I love having something that is so close to actual
| pen and paper that never runs out of space and is easy to sync to
| a computer.
| pklausler wrote:
| Mine's already in my dead tech drawer. It's just not the same
| as a fountain pen on good heavyweight paper for writing, and
| its lack of any backlight makes it suboptimal for reading. I so
| badly wanted to love it, too, after waiting nearly a year for
| my preorder to arrive. I'm glad you like yours, though!
| orangegreen wrote:
| Sennheiser HD 600 headphones. So comfortable and sound amazing.
|
| Reebok Classic Nylon. Finally a comfortable every day shoe that
| looks good that I can buy over and over again.
|
| iPhone 12 mini. So tired of ginormous smartphones. I wanted a
| small phone and Apple delivered.
| pablodavila wrote:
| Likewise with my HD58x. I also love small phones and want to
| switch to the 12 mini, but my SE 2020 works perfectly fine so
| it's hard to justify.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| There's this guy on YouTube that does very detailed unbiased
| reviews of stuff (mainly tools) - Project Farm. He picks a few
| items within each category and does a bunch of (rigorous,
| scientific and very thorough) tests to quantify performance and
| test advertising claims. I still don't take his recommendations
| as gospel, but it does give you an idea of how the particular
| item works and behaves and what to look for when in the market
| for something like that. Far better than others that think
| unboxing and commentary equals a valuable review.
| davedx wrote:
| Tesla Model 3 AWD is the best thing I've ever bought.
|
| Good, sharp kitchen knives are very very nice
|
| Brooks running shoes
| jascii wrote:
| For me? An old Sprinter van: Tall enough for a standing desk.
| Work anywhere, sleep anywhere, chill anywhere!
| hawski wrote:
| Sounds romantic (no sarcasm). Is it your home? Where do you
| live?
| jascii wrote:
| No, I still have a home-base in Portland, OR. While my
| company went remote full time, my girlfriend isn't so lucky
| yet. It's still great to spend some time on the coast
| whenever I want though!
| blisterpeanuts wrote:
| iMac 27" Retina, 7 cores, 32 gig ram, 2 TB drive.
|
| This is, bar none, the best computer I have ever owned. Finally,
| a zippy and powerful workstation that is a pleasure to use.
|
| My old Mac Mini served me well for 8 years, but after a couple of
| OS updates, it had become laggy and nearly unusable.
| greenie_beans wrote:
| gravity water filter for camping and backpacking, which has
| proved useful for car trips and local water outages
| mountainriver wrote:
| 1996 Honda CRF dirt bike
| silicon2401 wrote:
| A gravel bike. Being able to get serious but low-impact cardio,
| anywhere from sprints to long rides, is huge. Not only is it good
| for my physical health, it's a great boost to mental health.
| Exploring the areas around me on a bike is much more fun,
| environmentally friendly, and healthy than a car. It's also a
| great way to disconnect and give my eyes a break by spending some
| time looking at things that are far away. $1000 is a good target,
| with a couple hundred extra for pedals, helmet, other gear if you
| need it
| crisnoble wrote:
| If you like exploring, you should check out
| https://wandrer.earth
| mym1990 wrote:
| So interesting that this originated in Atlanta, which is
| where I currently live and grew up, would have never known!
| Matthias247 wrote:
| Gravel bike was my favorite purchase in the last year too.
|
| I was already mountain-biking for the last 15 years. Things got
| more and more gravity oriented, where rides mostly had been one
| long uphill and technical trails down. While this is pretty
| cool it got a bit monotonic over time.
|
| With the Gravel bike I enjoy doing far longer rides and
| checking out places I hadn't been before. 70km flat on an
| enduro mountain-bike are rather cumbersome, but fun on the
| faster gravel bike.
| hairofadog wrote:
| Yes! I can recommend the Salsa Vaya.
| sokoloff wrote:
| Fire TV 4K. It is the overwhelmingly most common source for our
| TV and has a good remote and excellent playback, including H.265.
| I bought it without research as a "why not?" sized purchase and
| it surprised me pleasantly.
| polycaster wrote:
| 1. Aarke Carbonator 3 - replacing my old Soda Stream. Different
| than every other comparable appliance I know it is mostly made
| from solid steel. Looks good and I expect it live for at least
| two decades.
|
| 2. Except that, not much - the virus changed my spending habits.
| I don't know why but spending most of my day physically isolated
| from other people (while at work) tremendously reduced my buying
| reflexes. This tells me something about whom or for what purpose
| I used to buy things. And becoming aware of that I tend to
| believe at least a little of this behavior will stick post-Covid.
| basilpesto wrote:
| - Zwift enabled bike trainer: This has enabled me to keep fit
| during the pandemic and also build up good gym habits. Coupled
| with strava to keep track of workouts its a pretty good exercise
| package. (I got this one: https://www.zwift.com/shop/wahoo-kickr-
| bike-learn)
| werber wrote:
| Service, a Therapist. Great investment
| giantg2 wrote:
| Maybe my FCC license and boafeng. I dont use it much now since it
| was mostly something for me to do on my commute.
|
| Possibly the malts I buy for making my own beer. I would say the
| MM3 grain mill, but that was actually free. I just had to build a
| bracket and hopper for it. That thing flys through malt, which is
| good because I have about 60 lbs to go through.
|
| Possibly the bass guitar and Rocksmith. I don't get much time to
| use it though.
| fortran77 wrote:
| You can now purchase your FCC amateur license? Back in my day,
| I had to go to an FCC field office and take a test. Times have
| changed.
| giantg2 wrote:
| You have to take the test, but the test administrator
| (approved club) charges for it ($15 ish).
| ackbar03 wrote:
| How does the fcc lisence work exactly? Do you get the rights to
| broadcast at a certain spectrum or something? Does it work for
| space communication?
| giantg2 wrote:
| This is for a ham license. You can hit repeaters in space
| (call them OSCARS) or have a satellite that broadcasts images
| using one of the approved methods.
|
| It doesn't allow for certain types of things. Usually you
| would need a different type of license for satellite control
| and communication. That one is usually a frequency allocated
| to you by the FCC/ITU.
| nfoz wrote:
| Light Dims! http://www.lightdims.com/index.php
|
| Little sticky cellophane pieces, that you can put on the little
| LED lights on all modern electronics, so that you can still see
| them but they're not so bright.
|
| Because I hate being surrounded by blinkenlights that are a bit
| too bright and hurt my eyes in the dark.
| mattbk1 wrote:
| I had some old theater gels around and cut them up for this
| purpose.
| djhworld wrote:
| Wow, cool product!
|
| I mostly resort to poorly applied swatches of electrical tape
| (black) all over the place.
|
| My current nemesis is the PS5 in "rest mode", bright
| orange/yellow glowing all the time!
| Humdeee wrote:
| Such a simple solution... I have some aggressive LEDs covered
| in black tape around the home. Especially terrible if you have
| electronics in the bedroom before sleep
| tyrust wrote:
| Oh wow, this exists? Looks more efficient than my combination
| of duct tape, paper, and a black maker.
| Kuinox wrote:
| electrical tape is the way to go.
| lancesells wrote:
| Nice. I had an idea about making the same sort of product but
| with gels to change the color of the LED and dim it as well.
| Haven't gotten around to testing it out but might do it now
| that I see this.
| SECProto wrote:
| You can also use nail polish - will block some of the light
| and change the hue. As many different shades of polish
| available as you can imagine. Some shades block more light
| than others
| matt_morgan wrote:
| Sodastream. We use it all the time. No-waste seltzer and the
| ginger ale mix is really good after you get used to it (one or
| two glasses is all it took us).
|
| East, by Meera Sodha, an extremely good cookbook.
| co001de wrote:
| - Pitbull Skull Shaver.
|
| I can shave my (partially) bald head without help from
| others.(You have to do it once in 3-4 days at least, otherwise
| the shaver doesn't work well with long hair).
| contriban wrote:
| I've never tried those round shavers, but I found that my
| regular 5-blades are faster and shave closer than my old
| electric razor, which often felt like it was pulling my hair.
| The crazy thing is that I last one blade for 4/5 months
| (although probably I could replace it a little earlier
| sometimes). Compared to the 3-blades I almost never cut myself.
| paulgb wrote:
| - Apple Magic Touchpad. I used to use a wired mouse and the
| flexibility of a wireless touchpad (and gesture support) is much
| nicer.
|
| - Dyson V7 Vacuum. Having a wireless vacuum has been great.
|
| - Motobecane Gravel X-PRO HD (gravel bike). I'd never heard of a
| gravel bike until it was recommended to me, but I've gotten a ton
| of use out of it.
| ngmaloney wrote:
| Material Goods:
|
| Shimano Saragosa 6000 Fishing Reel - Last summer I purchased a
| Saragosa 6000 class as my go to saltwater reel. It is a marvel of
| Japanese design and engineering without breaking the bank like a
| Van Staal. It is just a consistent workhorse and the drag
| technology makes it a joy to fish with. Needless to say, I fish
| enough where a reel makes my list of favorite purchases.
|
| Prusa MK3S+ 3d printer - Excellent quality, it just works and was
| really fun to build the kit. I love being able to quickly think
| of and design anything I want in CAD (Onshape) and be able to
| print it the first try. I don't have to tinker around with the
| printer I can focus on building stuff.
| nappy-doo wrote:
| I bought a Prusa MK3s during lockdown (don't think I'll do the
| upgrade to the +, doesn't seem much changed), it is amazing.
| I've never owned a 3D printer before, and it was painless to
| put together, took about 1 hour to tune and fix one assembly
| glitch. It's sitting right next to me printing right now.
|
| The other thing I bought myself was an M1 mac. I just got
| frustrated with cleaning my butterfly keyboard again, and just
| said, "fuck it, I'm buying one". It is an amazing machine.
| Battery for days, nice, light. It's probably my favorite
| computer ever (well, after my first - an Apple //e).
| H12 wrote:
| Active Stool -- Think basically a yoga-ball chair in fuction, but
| a stool in form. They're super convenient for standing desks, and
| I've found that using one instead of a chair has tricked me into
| strengthening my back/core when just when I'm working or playing
| PC games. I've found it to be a healthier, way cheaper, and much
| more space efficient alternative to my last office chair.
|
| M1 Macbook Air -- For my personal software project workflow
| (webdev in iTerm/Vim with Elixir and JS) this thing is
| unbelievably performant for the money/size. Paired with an iPad
| for sidecar, I'm frankly blown away how convenient & portable a
| dual-monitor dev workstation I have now for the what I paid.
| vnorilo wrote:
| Yaxell Gou Santoku knife. It's just beautiful to look at and
| hold, and cuts completely unlike the supermarket knives I've had
| before.
|
| Neumann KH120A speakers for my office. I'm somewhat spoiled by
| 4-5 figure audio pro control rooms, but these do an amazing job
| in a normal room for a very reasonable price.
| gpm wrote:
| Pair of 32" 4k screens.
|
| As someone who programs a lot, it's worth it (and not _that_
| expensive, you don 't need high refresh rate or anything). Being
| able to use spatial memory to navigate between most of the
| working set of windows, being able to show a lot of text on one
| screen, etc.
|
| Only downside is that it's surprisingly hard to drive two 4k
| screens, laptops are likely not going to be happy (or have low
| refresh rates), even my 3700x/2070-super desktop doesn't like
| displaying youtube like videos on both at the same time.
| dcolkitt wrote:
| Out of curiosity how do you position your screens?
|
| I used to rock dual Thunderbolt displays, but my always felt
| awkward either turning to the left or turning to the right. Now
| I now just use monitor, because I like having whatever I'm
| working on directly in front of me.
| mdtusz wrote:
| I've always liked an asymmetric layout when working with two
| monitors such that I have one "main" monitor in front used
| for my main task (e.g. my terminal for work) then a secondary
| to the side that is used for supporting windows - browser,
| music, pdfs, or another terminal depending on the work. It
| helps keep an established hierarchy, and you basically just
| use your neck as a window switcher.
| hawski wrote:
| When I had two identical big monitors with thin bezels I
| placed them side by side vertically. Then I had one
| marvelously big almost square monitor. In Windows it was not
| ideal, but workable. It not always worked as a single
| stretched space for everything, i.e. I had two task bars. If
| I could run Linux then I imagine there would be no problems
| also tiling window manager could be perfect.
| gpm wrote:
| Side by side, long side horizontally. I move my chair and
| keyboard around a bit depending on my mood, but typically one
| is directly in front of me, and the other is to my right.
|
| The one directly in front of me is usually for the "primary
| task", e.g. my editor if I'm programming, usually with
| multiple files displayed side by side. Sometimes also a
| single documentation browser window (other times just more
| editing panes). The one to the right for all the supporting
| stuff, (more) documentation, stack overflow, github,
| terminals running scripts that rebuild stuff whenever it
| changes, etc.
| dcolkitt wrote:
| Thanks! I'm gonna give this a try today.
| sAbakumoff wrote:
| Vibration plate. really cool device for warming up in the morning
| or before any home workout.
| truth_ wrote:
| I bought a very cheap Android tablet (~55 US$). It has 1 GB
| memory.
|
| It has one purpose only- reading books and papers. I have
| installed apps like Lithium for reading EPUB, Ebookdroid for
| reading paper PDFs, Adobe Reader for reading fiction PDFs, a blue
| light filter that supports scheduling, a lightweight, handy file
| manager (Xplore), and a very lightweight browser. I have disabled
| and/or uninstalled all apps that came with the device.
|
| I have very happily dumped my Kindle and will never go back to
| it. I have been using this device for nearly two years. I love it
| and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made.
|
| I read in three languages. Kindles suck at rendering languages
| other than English efficiently. Whenever a file has mathematical
| equations and figures, Kindle messes them up and renders out of
| place ugly equations. Kindle has no color. Difficult to read
| books with pictures.
|
| Android tablet has eliminated all these problems. Only downside
| is its battery life. I charge it once in 3-5 days as I only read
| documents in it- no video or games, or even browser.
|
| After this device retires, I will buy another cheap Android
| tablet for my reading purposes, and will never go back back to
| Kindles.
| meekins wrote:
| reMarkable 2. I was looking for a sketching and note taking tool
| and got a decent eBook reader as a bonus. The UX is very nice and
| distraction-free. It works surprisingly well for drawing as well.
|
| My only complaint is the lack of Linux support for the app that
| allows mirroring the screen to a computer. Would be really cool
| for sketching stuff during online meetings.
| abawany wrote:
| I wasn't expecting to like my reMarkable 2 but I've grown to
| love it. The unassuming ease of use and its desire to just help
| you work or read without getting in your way is indispensable.
| tomtheelder wrote:
| > decent eBook reader
|
| I love my RM2 for sketching and notes, but the eBook experience
| is like comically bad. It doesn't even get tabs right for me
| most of the time.
|
| edit: looks like a recent update might have addressed this.
| time to give it another shot!
| BHSPitMonkey wrote:
| You can mirror to Linux using rmview! I've used this for Zoom
| whiteboarding a few times already, and it works really well. It
| has a configurable "laser pointer" that appears when you hover
| the pen slightly off the screen, and you can rotate the
| mirrored window in any orientation if you prefer to go
| landscape.
|
| https://github.com/bordaigorl/rmview
| slimbods wrote:
| A very basic but effective home gym: A barbell and 140kg of
| bumper plates, Squat/bench stands, bench, slam ball, dumbbells
| and a small range of kettlebells. The whole thing cost about the
| equivalent of a year's gym membership but have lasted two years
| so far and show no sign of wear.
|
| Being able to lift something heavy on a regular basis over the
| last year has been a massive boost for my mental and physical
| health. You don't need expensive gear, some of my best workouts
| are from a metal bar wedged over a loft hatch, you just need to
| have something and use it.
| waihtis wrote:
| Used to be a dream of mine, except now the gym is one of the
| few places to socialize (100% wfh)
| hawski wrote:
| If one wants to go cheaper I recommend the body weight fitness
| subreddit. But I really just followed their wiki and mostly the
| "old" routine.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommend...
|
| and I follow this one, except I do something out of new routine
| instead of L-sits:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommend...
|
| The only thing that is necessary is a bar for pull-ups and
| around an hour of your time two or three times a week.
| minimoose wrote:
| yes - really you could get by on a 25 lb kettle bell - swings &
| get ups are the fastest way to build strength according to
| comrad Pavel Tsatsouline
| jimbob45 wrote:
| FWIW I schedule my showers right after my workouts so that I
| spend less total time devoted to fitness during the week.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| This is a great one. I got mine about 8 years ago (whoa) and
| it's a gift to yourself that keeps on giving. Mine shows no
| wear at all, really. Bearings in the barbell still roll
| smoothly, no rust, no gear getting flimsy.
|
| I'll admit I struggle at times to use it, but it has definitely
| saved more than it cost me now. I sometimes get a gym
| membership when time is limited and there's a good gym near
| where I'm working. Convenience plays a huge role in my ability
| to work out. Having 3 kids at home makes the home gym really
| hard to use!
| bhouston wrote:
| https://prxperformance.com is an awesome solution there, but I
| am biased.
| krat0sprakhar wrote:
| I wish I could do this! But alas, living in an apartment in the
| city this will remain my pipedream.
| minimoose wrote:
| a 25 lb kettle bell will do wonders - but like anything
| powerful caution is advised:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKx8xE8jJZs
| knuthsat wrote:
| I live on the 5th floor and have 160kg of weights + barbell
| on my balcony. Got that during corona when all the gyms
| closed. I do squats, deadlifts and overhead presses.
|
| I mean, I wouldn't do it if the building (and the balcony)
| isn't a modern overbuilt masterpiece.
|
| The only drawback is that I really need to put the weights
| gently otherwise I'm pretty sure neighbors would complain.
| guythedudebro wrote:
| Nonsense, just get rid of your couch / tv area. No
| distractions :)
| ryanchants wrote:
| I rent a garage with a couple of friends and we built a home
| gym in it. A little rough during Chicago winters, but it's
| been nice.
| frockington1 wrote:
| Beretta M9A3, shoots silky smooth
| zigzaggy wrote:
| Hmm... been shopping around for a new firearm. Living on a farm
| means needing tools like this. My old revolver is getting
| pretty worn out.
| mehphp wrote:
| I miss mine. Wish I held on to it.
| mrlinx wrote:
| DJI Mavic mini. Forces me to visit all sorts of places, fun to
| drive and amazing videos as memories.
| WrtCdEvrydy wrote:
| Same here, Skydio 2 (before the recent price hike).
|
| I always liked photography and video but flying photography and
| video also unlock photogrammetry of large spaces and 3d
| scanning.
| lwhi wrote:
| Soda stream machine .. I love fizzy water.
| wetpaws wrote:
| Multiport bluetooth earbuds. Helps me to zone out when I do
| dishes / chores, I can do running, meetings are much more
| comfortable, seamless transition between laptop/phone, etc.
| jonstewart wrote:
| EGO 56V multihead tool (string trimmer, hedge clippers, and pole
| saw), and the EGO 18" chainsaw
|
| I bought a rural property and it is so fantastic having powerful
| electric tools instead of two-cycle engines. Clean, quiet, easy,
| and they still get the job done.
| teawrecks wrote:
| PCPanel. It's a little physical programmable audio output mixer
| for windows. I was tired of having to go to the windows mixer to
| turn down the volume of a game, turn up discord, get
| plexamp/Spotify just right, etc. Now I have a few physical knobs
| in front of me that always control a predictable set of apps.
| It's been great over the last year of digital hangouts with
| people.
| phlipski wrote:
| 2019 Chrysler Pacifica with the advanced driving aids (adaptive
| cruise control and lane keeping assist). I have three kids and
| the minivan is just amazing. I never thought I'd own one, but I'm
| a convert for life. The engine has enough power to be fun, the
| cargo volume to haul things is amazing. The ride is comfortable.
| I splurged on the upgraded alpine sound system - the top end
| Harman Kardon system didn't sound better enough to justify the
| extra cost.
|
| I think I'll upgrade to the AWD model in a few years and that
| will probably be the last ICE car I ever buy.
| house9-2 wrote:
| Tesla Model 3 Long Range
|
| Been dreaming of being able to drive without using gasoline for
| decades, that dream is now a reality.
|
| Is it a perfect car - nope, but there really isn't another car
| like it right now.
| shmoe wrote:
| This is what I came here to post. :) They truly are the
| bleeding edge of the future of cars.
| freshpots wrote:
| Same. It's the best thing I have ever owned, not just in terms
| of cars.
| jonpurdy wrote:
| I hired a Tesla Model 3 for a week last summer and it was
| fantastic. But overkill for our needs: we've achieved that
| dream with a used Spark EV. Far less range than any Tesla (130
| km EPA new rating), but more than adequate for our needs. We
| charge it once a week at home overnight and go about 30-60
| km/week around town. Living in the Bay Area means we've got
| access to DCFC everywhere we want to go outside of SF as well.
|
| Even inexpensive 1st gen EVs are more than ready for most
| people to use as a city car or second car, and most people
| would have no need for a petrol car at all if they had a Tesla
| or Bolt or any modern long range EV. I can see the lack of
| maintenance being very disruptive to car dealerships in the
| long term.
| speedgoose wrote:
| You need to maintain an EV, just a bit less.
| bbasketball wrote:
| A https://newsasfacts.com subscription. I start my day with their
| daily email digest. Only $1.25/m right now.
| Glench wrote:
| I got some Glerup slippers and they are what I've been wanting
| all my life. Extremely warm and comfortable, wool means they
| never stink, and very stylish. I wore them every day throughout
| the winter.
|
| My girlfriend also just got an inflatable stand-up paddle board
| (Roc, ~$400) and it's pretty fun. Don't know that I'd recommend
| this brand in particular but inflatable stand up paddleboards are
| pretty cool for a water conveyance that fits in your car and work
| great on lakes.
| kps wrote:
| I got some Glerups slippers last fall, since my WFH desk is in
| the basement and the floor is cold in winter. They _are_ warm,
| but the sole stitching is already broken at the toes. (They
| also run a little large.)
| tonfreed wrote:
| Line 6 Variax guitar. It's good enough that I haven't even
| thought about buying another guitar since because it's so
| versatile.
| laurieg wrote:
| A Zebra Sarasa Dry pen. The ink always comes out smoothly but it
| is impossible to smudge.
| fogus wrote:
| My first Goban.
|
| https://cf.geekdo-images.com/EKPVOJLYCbMpRvtHBFTepA__imagepa...
| DavideNL wrote:
| " _Go equipment consists of the objects that are necessary in
| order to play the game of Go which originated in China_ "
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_equipment#Board
| edgarvaldes wrote:
| Very nice. Where did you buy it?
| baby wrote:
| This game is so much better than chess in my opinion. Have fun!
|
| Bonus: here's a tutorial to learn the game https://online-
| go.com/learn-to-play-go
| b1gtuna wrote:
| iPad Pro 11 inch - I use it all the time. It's not perfect, but
| whether I like it or not, it gets used the most often.
| mtmail wrote:
| https://www.lupine.de/products/bike-lights which is the most
| luxury brand for bicycle lights. Got a model which is street
| legal but with a push of a (bluetooth) button on the handlebar I
| can ride at pitch dark through a forest. Funny enough at the
| highest setting the forest becomes so light it feels less
| adventurous so opt for the medium setting.
| thorin wrote:
| 1. 2nd hand kayaks, cheap and great fun, good to recycle the used
| plastic!
|
| 2. Road bike, best exercise and stress relief process and I've
| got to know my local area up to a radius of 50 miles
|
| 3. Upcoming - new guitar to go with the bass guitar a few years
| back.
|
| Amazing cost/return on these items!
| kwanbix wrote:
| A BIDET attachment for my toilet.
|
| I bought this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A0RHSJO/
|
| But there are many different models.
| Balgair wrote:
| Plane tickets to see my family for the first time in ~2 years!
|
| Quarantine was not a lot of fun.
| IgorPartola wrote:
| This was three years ago so a bit of a cheat, but I bought a
| motorcycle. It was life changing and I highly recommend it.
|
| I bought a house with a chunk of land attached to it, and one of
| the best things I added to it immediately was a stone fire pit.
| It's been a fantastic way to relax at the end of the day and to
| socialize.
|
| A 3D printer to pass the time during the pandemic.
|
| An air purifier and a humidifier. Air you breathe is important.
| Get it right. Related to this I got a neti pot. Ever get a
| tension headache after mowing the lawn or working with anything
| involving dust? For me rinsing out my sinuses afterwards really
| helps, even with using masks/respirators.
|
| Good face and body lotion with sunscreen. Also good
| shampoo/conditioner. It really does make a difference in how you
| look and feel.
|
| Plants. At least three potted plants per person per household.
|
| A miter saw because wood working is both fun and a great way to
| same some money. Ditto plumbing supplies.
|
| Got my girlfriend a bartending course through Bar Smart. What a
| great program. Combined with Smuggler's Cove, a book on classic
| tiki drinks, it's been a great way to bond over our love of craft
| cocktails.
| tomjen3 wrote:
| The M1 Air. Thing is silent, has excellent performance, battery
| and is the only thing with a real OS that will wake up instantly.
| bluGill wrote:
| Autonomous flowboard. I have a few different standing desks (one
| theirs, one vwindesk), but I don't know if any is enough better
| than the others - just get one I can't stand in one space for
| very long. But I can stand on this thing for a long time, and
| that is the whole point.
|
| Squatypotty. I don't think it cures cancer or any of the other
| supposed benefits I've seen people claim, but it is more
| comfortable. I actually bought it for the kids when they were
| potty training, then 2 weeks later I had to go and realized I was
| willing to wait for the one bathroom with it rather than a closer
| bathroom that was empty.
|
| pinebook pro. Cheap little laptop, but it has become the one I
| use the most. There are things you can't do on a phone even if in
| theory the CPU is more powerful, and portable is useful.
| hawski wrote:
| Which OS do you use with Pinebook Pro?
| Aachen wrote:
| More RAM. I've got 20GB now (4+16) and it's just never an issue
| anymore no matter how much I've got open. Sure, I can fill it up
| if I tried but... if I'm not purposefully trying, it doesn't
| happen. Previously on 8GB I'd have to quit a few applications to
| run a big Factorio map, or my browser might run out if I didn't
| restart for browser updates in a few weeks.
|
| It's one of the few nonessentials I've spent more than a few
| tenners on (I actually initially bought 2x16, but asshole lenovo
| decided it was a good idea to fixate one of the two slots to
| 4GB...). It was fairly cheap, not sure if that's still the case
| or if you need to wait another six years until prices reach 2020
| levels again (iirc in 2013 you needed to wait five more years to
| get the same amount and speed for 2012's prices).
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| These days, I'd recommend a 16 gig minimum if you game at all,
| with 32 gig recommended if you play RAM intense games.
| cyberbanjo wrote:
| Aeropress, coffee maker.
| hiesenbug wrote:
| This was amazing until my nephew teleported it to another
| dimension
| gmac wrote:
| Is it really better than a small cafetiere/French press?
| cyberbanjo wrote:
| I think what makes it so magical is that it's airtight and so
| the pressure inside goes up when you brew it, also most
| French presses I have used have just a steel mesh instead of
| a coffee filter so you get silt in it.
| Cyril_HN wrote:
| Stove top Bialetti is my sweet spot for coffee (price, taste,
| effort), honestly. But, I've tried Aero Press when friends have
| offered and they're a little better, for sure.
| mrfusion wrote:
| Wow I'm tempted to order one. It almost looks like a gimmic but
| it would be cool to get the counter space back from the coffee
| maker.
|
| How do you heat the water though? Does it taste like cold brew?
| cyberbanjo wrote:
| I heat one cup of water at a time in a small stove pan. It's
| quicker for one cup than drip. It tastes a bit like espresso,
| but not quite as strong. Similar to cold brew in that it
| doesn't taste "acid-y" (like from when you heat the coffee
| pot to long), and is pretty smooth.
| maccard wrote:
| In the UK, electric kettles [0] are in every household, and
| even the puniest of ones boil 4 cups of water in about 3
| minutes.
|
| [0] https://www.dualit.com/products/lite-jug-kettles
| replwoacause wrote:
| It makes a great cup of a coffee with a bit of effort. I've
| had one for 10 years and it gets used often and brought on
| camping trips, but as another posted suggested, if you are
| making more than 1 cup it is best to use something like a
| Chemex. Making multiple cups of coffee with the Aeropress can
| be a little time consuming. Here is a how to video showing it
| being used for camping:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmjPjZZRhNQ
| SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
| I like the Aeropress, but when making coffee for two, I use a
| Chemex jug, and Wilfa Svart grinder. Would recommend, gets used
| most days.
| msftie wrote:
| Me too! Hard to justify using my regular brewing machine
| anymore. Aeropress just makes a higher quality cup. Quantity be
| damned, I'll make multiple cups on the aeropress all day.
| philistine wrote:
| My M1 Macbook Air is the greatest Mac I ever bought. But I was
| given a 2011 Mac Mini through my local Buy Nothing group and I
| decked it out with drives and I am using it as a home server and
| I have to say it's a great get.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| sharken wrote:
| The Samsung HW-Q950T soundbar with it's 9.1.4 channels of awesome
| sound.
|
| https://www.samsung.com/dk/audio-devices/soundbar/9-1-4-ch-s...
|
| It's far from a perfect product, eARC is broken on many TVs, rear
| speakers sometime turn off on their own.
|
| But when it works it sounds fantastic. I should also mention the
| Avforums where owners discuss this rather complex piece of
| hardware and how to get the most from it, that has been a really
| nice experience.
|
| And now the Q950A is almost here :)
| https://www.samsung.com/my/audio-devices/soundbar/q950a-blac...
| klmadfejno wrote:
| I was looking at that but saw so many reviews stating that the
| rear speaker connections didn't work well and got scared off. I
| got a sonos arc and speaker set instead.
|
| My setup runs to a projector with no eARC support. I found this
| thing which splits a signal directly from source into two paths
| with eARC support. Haven't tried it yet, but optimistic that
| it'll work.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/HDFury-HDF0160-Arcana/dp/B08DF7GRCB?r...
| nwsm wrote:
| These systems look great, and I'm casually in the market.
| Wireless aux speakers + bluetooth connection for phones is
| basically what I'm looking for (on top of great sound
| obviously).
|
| Right now I have an older Vizio set which has served me well,
| and I've been checking out Sonos lately.
|
| Would the A be worth the extra $500? I'll use it for TV/movies
| via HDMI Arc, music via bluetooth (yes I know I shouldn't use
| BT), and vinyl via RCA/aux.
|
| edit: It actually looks like there is no RCA/aux. I could use
| optical I guess.
| sharken wrote:
| Actually Bluetooth has been more reliable than Wifi in
| getting sound on all channels.
|
| I'd say it's worth the extra $500, you get two extra rear
| channels, built-in room correction (finally) and a Night Mode
| made for late night movies or listening to music.
|
| And i think a discount should also be possible.
|
| But you can always check out Avforums for more in-depth
| information.
| gjstein wrote:
| Philips Hue lights. I had wanted them for a little while for the
| novelty of it, but upon buying a couple my wife and I converted
| nearly all of our small apartment (except the bathrooms) to use
| their color-changing bulbs. Being able to change the light color
| and temperature has been surprisingly nice and has made our home
| much "cozier" under quarantine. We change the lights to dim reds
| and blues during movie nights or when we exercise or do yoga. It
| was a somewhat expensive shift, though I'd happily do it again.
| Being able to use Siri via our phones to control the lights by
| voice is also convenient as we head off to bed (as the light
| switches are across the room).
|
| [Others have also said AirPods Pro. Spectacular little earbuds.]
| ivank wrote:
| Some people need to beware of the 1000 Hz PWM on the Hue bulbs
| justsomeuser wrote:
| why
| [deleted]
| baby wrote:
| It's nice but it quickly becomes gimmicky I found (besides the
| ability to easily say "hey google turn off the lights")
| oauea wrote:
| I've had smart lights for a few years now, and I'm pretty
| happy with them. I can turn them off remotely, dim them as a
| group and change them to a soft red at night to not blind
| myself.
|
| Of course this quickly escalated to maintaining a full blown
| Home Assistant installation...
| bkjelden wrote:
| Similarly, I've been putting Lutron Caseta smart switches on
| some of my more frequently used light switches, and I use the
| convenience of turning the lights on or off from the couch or
| bed _way_ more than I thought I would.
| sswezey wrote:
| I agree with this. I put Hue light bulbs in almost all of my
| rooms and a strip on my porch. I set them up with HomeKit and
| now I always come home to my lights on and they turn off
| automatically when they leave the house. I use the automatic
| color changing by time of day built-in to HomeKit and it
| definitely helps with warm colors at night but brighter and
| cooler during the day. And everything essentially has a dimmer
| now. And being able to control the lights from my phone or with
| voice commands is super convenient. I've got the full color
| lights, but realistically I really only need the shades of
| white and HomeKit connectivity to use the features that I
| regularly use.
| hawski wrote:
| In shops near me I can buy now pretty cheap led ceiling/wall
| lamps that come with a remote. You can change intensity and
| light temperature, but there are also full RGB models. I like
| it that it's dumb otherwise.
| ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote:
| My roommate changed all our bulbs to Philips Hue. The
| connectivity was really nice at first but they are so dim! It
| completely changed the mood of the flat at night.
|
| I'd advise people to check their current bulbs and make sure
| the lumen rating is the same before replacing them, if I recall
| correctly most connected bulbs are around 1000-1200 lumens, and
| top out at 1600.
| Tijdreiziger wrote:
| Dim? The Hue bulbs I used were a lot brighter than the 'dumb'
| bulbs I replaced. This was a couple of years ago (before they
| had Bluetooth), not sure if they've changed the specs in the
| meantime.
| ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote:
| It depends what you start out with of course, if you had
| low wattage incandescent bulbs for example you can replace
| them just fine with connected ones.
|
| But currently, commercially available dumb bulbs go into
| much higher lumen ranges than connected ones. Ours were in
| the 2600-3000 lumens range before the change if I recall
| correctly.
| Tijdreiziger wrote:
| > Ours were in the 2600-3000 lumens range before the
| change if I recall correctly.
|
| Wow, that's very bright! IIRC ours were standard CFL's
| you'd buy at any store at the time (at least here in the
| Netherlands), but definitely nothing in the range you're
| stating.
| silicon2401 wrote:
| I recommend the Home Depot phillips color-changing lights
| instead. They're way cheaper, only like $20 per bulb. I love
| them because they're way brighter than most light bulbs but
| dimmable, let you choose a traditional color temperature, or
| let you do some fun colors. I don't use home assistants and
| using the Wiz app is fine.
| syrgian wrote:
| I bought a few of them to try them out and I'm disappointed
| currently. I tried to make them switch temperature
| automatically through the day, and nothing is working. I've
| only found people saying that there's no way without custom
| scripts that attempt to change the temperature continuously,
| which is very surprising. (I've only done an hour of research
| and tried around 3 different methods).
|
| Only one of the lights, which uses a dimmer switch, changes
| automatically, but only if I turn it off and on again.
|
| Other than that, the quality of the light is good.
| kjakm wrote:
| The latest version of iOS/HomeKit has 'adaptive lighting'.
| You select that colour option and it will modify the
| temperature automatically throughout the day. You have very
| little manual control over it but sounds like what you might
| be looking for.
| bradstewart wrote:
| Tis true. I use HomeAssistant with the f.lux plugin to do
| this, which wasn't too much work as I already used
| HomeAssistant.
|
| Definitely a lot to set up though.
| rancor wrote:
| I've had my Hue setup change through 4 color schemes based on
| sunrise/sunset and time of day for a good few years now.
|
| I'm not aware of any automagic way to achieve this result.
| You'll need to use all4hue, which is basically a wrapper app
| around the Hue API, to set up rules by hand.
|
| Basically, you'll have a set of rules which update a variable
| based on the time of day. Then use this variable as a
| condition in every rule that turns on a light, and have
| another set of rules triggered by changes to this variable
| when a light is on. Not complicated, just tedious to program
| as you'll need 4 rules per light(group) for each of these
| categories.
|
| But the results work with lights that stay on, lights turned
| on by dimmers, as well as with motion sensors. And most
| importantly, the entire thing runs on the bridge so no
| HomeKit needed. Well worth the effort IMO.
| yboris wrote:
| 55 inch 4K TV to use as my computer screen. I can sit further
| away (I'm pretty sure it's less eye strain for the screen to be
| further away), fit more windows comfortably (great for dev work),
| and when I'm done with work I can sit back further on the couch
| and watch anime and movies with my wife.
|
| Addressable (programmable) LED strip - you can use an Arduino or
| Raspberry Pi to play with it - going to have fun playing with it.
| sevilo wrote:
| Guqin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guqin been a long-time wish
| of mine to learn it, finally took the pandemic as the opportunity
| to do so since I'm staying home so much.
|
| Vessi shoes: https://vessi.com best shoes I've worn, feels likes
| slippers, lightweight and waterproof, perfect for the rainy PNW
| weathers
| sigstoat wrote:
| what (if anything) have you used for pedagogical materials for
| the guqin? and how effective have they been?
|
| i'd like to futz around with an instrument in that family
| someday, but there aren't lessons available anywhere near me.
| sevilo wrote:
| i take lesson once a week from a teacher and the primary
| focus is technique and learning pieces. I'm also in a
| facebook group where there are some music scholars who like
| to study the history, culture and systems related to this
| instrument. After ~8 months of learning I feel more
| comfortable with the basic techniques now so I've ventured
| into reconstructing ancient scores and the group has been
| helpful in helping me understanding certain notations.
| nyhc99 wrote:
| My best purchase was the Onewheel XR. Easy, fun, convenient
| transportation. Electric powered to reduce my carbon footprint,
| as I now get around town without my car unless I'm transporting
| more than I can carry in one hand. One year later and I still
| love it and use it every day for both commuting and recreational
| trail riding.
| myohmy wrote:
| Roomba i7. I had an ant problem that made it so I had to vacuum
| at least once a day. It empties itself and I can run it while I'm
| working, so it gets a lot of use.
|
| Thankfully lots of vacuuming and lots of traps seemed to have
| done the job. I tried a ton of bait and I believe the Raid ant
| traps finished the job.
| flyinglizard wrote:
| Naim Uniti Atom streamer/amp combo. Great sound, good looking,
| good app. Removed a lot of clutter from my living room.
|
| Philips Hue, been using them for more than two years but finally
| bought like 14 of them for all around the house and can't imagine
| living without them.
|
| Biggest impact is an height adjustable desk. Got 4 heavy duty
| legs and rigged an IKEA top plate for a 3m long, 1.2m corner desk
| which has both my workstation and electronics (oscilloscope etc).
| I spend most my day standing and it changed my life.
|
| Fox Flexair shorts. Got them for mountain biking but they were so
| comfortable that I have a few and practically live in them.
| BeniBoy wrote:
| * A Junghans Max Bill watch : its a bit noisy, but everytime I
| look at it it makes me happy. That sweeping hand, the dome
| crystal, the thin case.. Very solid (saphir version) as well,
| bumped it a few time, and nothing.
|
| * A WBS pedal steel, got into it recently, and it's a beautiful
| instrument. A bit finicky to tune, but that might be my novice
| ears and not the instrument itself. Wolfgang seems very nice.
| Lead time is around 8 months.
|
| * A Lewis Leather Jacket. Very heavy (horsehide), but that is
| some incredible craftmanship. Every detail is thought of, it's
| made in England, just be ready to wait a bit for them to make it.
|
| Disposable income from the pandemic, a bit of consumerism ! I
| also Patreon the Aquarium Drunkard music blog, at least once a
| month they make me discover an incredible contemporary artist.
| dimitrios1 wrote:
| Hand woodworking tools. There are so many wonderful facebook
| groups and I get to go antique mall hunting. It's great. If
| there's something. Very satisfying and therapeutic to work. I
| have power tools, but there's something about the serenity of
| being able to hear the birds chirp while I am working on a piece
| of furniture.
| gadders wrote:
| Sleep Headphones. Much more comfortable than the in-ear ones I
| used to use: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleep-Headphones-Bluetooth-
| Ultra-Th...
| blumomo wrote:
| Having sold my MacBook Pro and bought a powerful System 76 Lemur
| Pro laptop [1] with a fully reprogrammable firmware and their
| Pop!_OS [2] replacing my former macOS. Wow! The keyboard
| shortcuts are so consistent, the built in tiling manager so
| efficient. Linux, I'm back!
|
| [1] https://system76.com/laptops/lemur
|
| [2] https://pop.system76.com/
| herio wrote:
| Olympus BH-2 microscope for taking pictures of silicon dies.
| Really fascinating hobby I've just gotten into.
|
| Proper setup for audio/video: Sony a6000, Yamaha MG10X, Rode
| NT-1A, etc. etc.
|
| Mini revamp of the kitchen to add more storage cabinets.
| fshee wrote:
| I've purchased three Helix PCBs from Little Keyboards. Incredibly
| friendly people, easy to get ahold of whether is on Discord or
| through email. No issue with putting the keyboards together that
| wasn't user error. QMK has been a joy to use.
|
| Keyboard for home, work, girlfriend's place. Colemak support
| everywhere.
|
| https://www.littlekeyboards.com/collections/helix-pcb-kits
| deegles wrote:
| Good sleep supplements. My daily stack:
|
| - 300mcg (0.3mg) extended release Melatonin
|
| - 200mg Magnesium Glycinate
|
| - 150mg L-Theanine
|
| - 5g Glycine in herbal tea
| zfaizal wrote:
| - Squat Rack
|
| Ass to grass.
|
| - Samsung S6 Lite to digitize note taking.
|
| Never thought I'd use so many colors and actually refer to the
| notes I've taken. For all you die-hard paper and pen fans out
| there I was one too, but it really is a game-changer!
|
| - Sony WM1000xm3 headphones to easily enter flow state.
|
| Before it would take me at least 30 minutes to get in the zone,
| now it's a matter of a few songs.
|
| - Oura Ring to be more mindful of rest.
|
| Observing my sleep score every morning made it easier to
| prioritize it.
| wonderwonder wrote:
| 10 foot charging cables for my phone and devices and a Roomba
| vacuum cleaner. Cables let me plug in where ever as I am
| generally within 8 feet of a plug and the roomba does a pretty
| good job of keeping the house clean of hair from the dog.
| gordon_freeman wrote:
| It's got to be my Apple Watch (S5). Since I bought it the
| gamification of closing the rings and monthly challenges has
| definitely improved my physical health. It also keeps sending
| those nudges during the day to stand or to go out and finish the
| rings etc. Which I feel are helpful in reminding me not to keep
| sitting for longer and move around. I definitely would like folks
| to try an Apple Watch to track and improve their fitness.
| isbjorn16 wrote:
| Three things specifically (though one is a two-parter)
|
| 1. Nanch micro screwdriver / bit kit. I had one previous and I
| rather liked it but I gifted it to my brother who was just
| starting out with DIY maker stuff, so I replaced my old magnetic
| kit with one that has the bits lock into place with a collar. I
| love the quality on it and I'm glad I'll probably never need to
| buy another one again.
|
| 2. Lutron Caseta switches for my house. I haven't replaced the
| lot, but I've replaced the most commonly used ones and it's so
| nice being able to stagger to bed after a movie and just tell
| siri to turn all the lights off in the house.
|
| 3. The last is a two parter; dewalt makes a little cordless
| screwdriver (not really a drill). That has a ton of utility, but
| what I like best is that I can combine it with a cordless drill
| "cleaning attachment" kit that you can get off amazon (or
| probably other places). Put the two together and you can save so
| much time and effort scouring things - you still have to manually
| do some nooks and crannies, but you can get the vast bulk of it
| out of the way and let technology work for you. A regular drill
| would work, but it goes too fast and flings shit everywhere,
| while the screwdriver has a much lower RPM. This combo is just my
| favorite.
| graton wrote:
| +1 on Lutron Caseta. Another plus with them as that you can get
| the remote and create a 3-way switch for your lights if you
| don't have one. I had the living room switch at the front door
| only. I changed the two gang wall plate at the kitchen to a
| three gang wall plate and mounted the remote in the wall plate.
| It is so thin that it can just set against the dry wall and no
| hole is needed.
| alanbernstein wrote:
| I wanted to add 3-way switches to a few poorly-designed
| circuits in my house. I dislike the design of most smart
| switches, but this is what I went with after looking at a lot
| of options.
| Finnucane wrote:
| banjo, 12" tubaphone-type, made by Ken LeVan in Shunk, PA.
|
| Fender Stratocaster, purchased on a bit of a whim, just before
| the pandemic shutdowns. So I've had some time to practice.
| kaypro wrote:
| Kobo Forma. I'm an avid eBook reader so the little things add up.
| Going from the Kindle to the Forma was a huge upgrade. Font
| rendering, warm light, larger form factor, and Pocket integration
| amongst a host of other little niceties make it pretty much a
| perfect experience for me.
|
| https://us.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-forma
| iyn wrote:
| +1, really good reader. I recommend installing KOReader, which
| is an alternative firmware with more customization options:
| https://koreader.rocks/
| cbHXBY1D wrote:
| I like Plato, too. Plus it's written in Rust!
|
| https://github.com/baskerville/plato
| owenversteeg wrote:
| Has anyone here tried both the Kobo Forma and the Kindle Oasis?
| The Forma is tempting, but apparently the lighting is more even
| on the Kindle, the fonts are better, and I think I'd even
| prefer the smaller size (more portable, fits in a jacket
| pocket.)
| kaypro wrote:
| At the end of the day they're both good e-readers but for me
| the larger size Forma was actually the big reason I switched.
| Portability isn't a factor for me but if it was I'd go for
| their smaller Libra model. I find the Forma lighting
| considerably better and more even and the font rendering
| better as well. I'm also not a big fan of the Oasis cold
| metallic feel... much prefer the Formo plastic / rubbery
| feel. I think for most it's a preference thing.
| akudha wrote:
| I have bought hundreds of Kindle books. Is there a (legal) way
| to read them on Kobo?
| zaptheimpaler wrote:
| You can download the books on your PC and DeDRM them using
| Calibre. Not sure if its legal, but as far as im concerned i
| paid for those books and i should be able to read them
| wherever i like.
| BozeWolf wrote:
| I love my kobo libra! I didnt buy a forma, which i regret,
| because that would have been even better. Was sceptical at
| first, because I thought kindle's OS was better. Turns out:
| kobo's OS is great!
|
| Two other things i bought last year, use daily and really like:
|
| - This santoku knife https://www.meesterslijpers.nl/takamura-
| vg-10-santoku
|
| - Airpod pro's
| wyldfire wrote:
| Can the kobo's be rooted easily/at all? If not, can you
| sideload apps or books?
| ornornor wrote:
| What you're looking for is Calibre ebook. And for the kobo
| there is a plug-in that makes any ebook a kobo ebook so you
| get niceties on all sideloaded ebooks that only books from
| the kobo store get.
| BozeWolf wrote:
| You can put epubs and pdfs on it using usb, but i never
| tried that. I just buy a ebook on my ipad (in kobo's store,
| or bol.com) and then its available after syncing.
| pflock wrote:
| if you have a kindle library is it possible to import to use
| with Kobo readers? Calibre maybe helps?
| kaypro wrote:
| I've haven't tried it myself but I believe you can using
| Calibre or other DRM stripping tools.
| criddell wrote:
| There is a DeDRM plugin for Calibre but it doesn't work
| very well on Amazon's KFX format. People get around that by
| getting Amazon to deliver the book in an older format but
| then you lose the typography improvements that come with
| KFX.
|
| It feels like this is the beginning of the end for ebook
| DRM stripping.
| truth_ wrote:
| Just connect your Kindle with your PC via any ISB cable, and
| with little moving around you can locate the directory where
| your downloaded books dwell. Just copy it to your PC, and
| then tranfer to your Kobo reader.
|
| The files will be in .mobi and .azw3 format.
| fred92 wrote:
| Finally caved and bought myself a light down jacket
| (https://www.rei.com/product/154226/rei-co-op-650-down-jacket...)
| initially for hiking but as it turns out there is a reason you
| see so many people wearing these in the bay area. It is perfect
| for cool/windy bay-area/SF evenings. Have been wearing it almost
| every day for the past year.
|
| Also a robot vacuum. I didn't think it would work for me but I
| started forming a habit where I tidy and then turn it on whenever
| I am leaving my apartment and the cleanliness/effort ratio is of
| the charts.
|
| And this beautifully drawn book: https://www.amazon.com/Best-
| Coast-Illustrated-Adventures-His... Spent so many blissful hours
| daydreaming/researching about road-trips.
| oezi wrote:
| I can second the down jacket (without arms). I bought one 10
| years ago in Ireland and my kids refer to it as my Lord Sir
| jacket even though it is really a jacket for farmers working in
| a light drizzle. Definitely +1
| arawde wrote:
| I started a job recently where I'm working for a company in a
| time zone 3 hours ahead of me. I bought some of the Hue bulbs and
| replaced my alarm with a gentle synthetic sunrise. My sleep
| habits have gotten much better since
| monkin wrote:
| iPad Pro 12.9" 2020 model, and moving completely to #iPadOnly
| way. Do not own any other device, and ditched my MBP after buying
| iPad. Do not miss anything as a designer/developer and I'm happy
| as hell now. :-)
| parf02 wrote:
| can you talk about the developer experience on iPad Pro?
| monkin wrote:
| I'm enjoying it.
|
| As a VIM user I use Blink Shell connected to EC2 instance
| running Ubuntu. If you're used to macOS/Linux environments
| you'll not miss anything, and with Mosh support you will be
| always connected. Users that don't use VIM or want to use
| different approach also have an option to do so with code-
| server, Coder or by using native editors(Textastic,
| Pythonista or play.js).
|
| In addition to Blink Shell I also use Inspect Browser, Rest,
| Jayson, TLS Inspector, and native GitHub client.
|
| I recommend this podcast:
| https://www.workbeyondmac.com/1637893/8226779-luis-
| alcaraz-a... to learn more about developing on iPad. :-)
| hasbot wrote:
| I bought a Wahoo Kicked Core two years ago. I only use it in the
| winter as riding outdoors is far superior. I Zwift pretty much
| every night.
| pixiemaster wrote:
| Karcher FC7 hardfloor electric brush: rotating brushes with
| water, combining swiping, vacuum, brushing and hardwood polish in
| one go, perfect for picking up after the 2yr old whole avoiding
| sucking up Legos into the void, and polishing our wood floor.
| fidrelity wrote:
| - barefoot shoes (brands: vivobarefoot and mukishoes). I could
| write a long rave now about barefoot shoes but I'll try to keep
| it short: No more knee pains after long walks, every time I go
| out the amount of sensations is pure joy and a powerful
| mindfulness experience.
|
| - A used Garmin Forerunner 920XT. It's a pretty old model but it
| still works well for many different sport types. That was great
| when I did triathlons, then focused on running with the advanced
| HR and now I mostly use it as an alarm clock that doesn't wake
| the kids. Battery lasts forever.
|
| - Kindle. I'm a "physical book" person and I'm not a fan of the
| Amazon lock-in but I got one for my birthday and my reading has
| exploded. It makes my reading just so much more accessible.
| madhadron wrote:
| For barefoot shoes, my absolute favorite is Tade Evo. I destroy
| a pair in about a year, but I have happily continued to destroy
| pairs for quite a few years now. After them, Feelmax. I have
| not yet been able to destroy my boots from them.
| Random_Person wrote:
| My girlfriend got me a refurb Paperwhite last fall and I didn't
| put it down for about 4 months. It's been great for my reading
| habits!
| baby wrote:
| The ipad pro. It's just my favorite device, and has been for the
| last 2-3 years. I draw and take a lot of notes on it, I read a
| lot of pdfs and epubs, I watch movies and videos, etc. I like
| that it allows me to focus, as the os is limiting, and I like
| that it's so portable that I can easily take it with me anywhere.
| I can also hold it well when I'm in bed, in the plane, etc.
| madhadron wrote:
| Seconded. I got one of these and was surprised at how much I
| love it. The input latency is unnoticeable. I intentionally
| don't connect my email, calendar, or anything interruptible to
| it and it is a wonderful notepad, reader, etc.
| satysin wrote:
| Not connecting email, calendar, social media, or anything
| else that produces notifications is _the_ best thing I ever
| did with a tablet.
|
| Email, social media, etc. is a productivity black hole due to
| notifications. At first I tried disabling notifications but
| it isn't enough. I had to remove the accounts as I just can't
| be trusted to not check manually.
|
| I used to _hate_ my iPad because I never got anything done on
| it but since removing all that crap it is a fantastic device
| for when you want to focus on one task and not be distracted.
| reacharavindh wrote:
| Do you know of a way to take notes _on_ a ePub book? I'd love
| to buy a new iPad just for this if there was a way to do it. As
| far as I have tried, Apple Books, or Kindle don't allow markup
| on ePub books.
| truth_ wrote:
| I use Lithium in Android. Has this feature.
| gibsonf1 wrote:
| Nespresso Vertuo!
| zigzaggy wrote:
| My old roommate swears by his Nespresso. I need to check these
| out!
| ultra-jeremyx wrote:
| Cold climate mini-split heat pumps * I live in northern New
| England and used to heat exclusively with wood in the winter
| time. Very cozy, but hard to maintain a consistent temp
| throughout the house. The new cold-climate models can operate at
| 100% capacity down to an ambient temp of -13F outdoors. One in
| each bedroom, the living area, and home office makes it easy to
| dial in the optimal temp for the space. No more loading the
| woodstove overnight when everyone is in a bedroom with the door
| closed!
|
| For the summer, the heat pumps have replaced our terribly
| inefficient whole-house central AC. We have a PV solar electric
| system, so we can use the electricity we produce to run them, and
| once I started paying attention to energy use in our home it was
| clear that the old central AC had to go.
|
| The modern mini-splits are pretty much maintenance-free, and are
| warrantied for 12 years. Best off all? The compressors are very
| quiet. You can have a normal conversation standing right next to
| them.
| elric wrote:
| What do you use for heating water? I'm tempted to switch to
| mini-split heat pumps for heating, but I'd also like to have
| hot water. My house is very small and there's basically no room
| a big hot water tank.
| throwaway00127 wrote:
| Whole-house centralized variable speed heat-pump with zones is
| actually the most efficient way to heat/cool your home. Also
| better at circulating air, filtering, dehumidifying, etc.
|
| HVAC companies push multiple mini-splits these days because
| they're faster to install, and have better margins, even though
| they're technically not the best solution versus centralized
| air.
| Glench wrote:
| Ooh which mini-split heat pumps did you end up getting?
| leadbase0 wrote:
| Can't stress this enough, especially the hyper heat models:
| caulked compressors (very high pressure) with phase control
| injector, not only it runs at very low temps but the
| performance and COP is linear down to -15C.
|
| Insulation matters more with heat pumps, especially ceiling for
| cold starts (for descending heat build up from the top) as low
| temp air heating is not as radiative as IR from traditional
| heating appliances, or the conventional oil radiators that move
| air passively.
|
| CO2 heat pumps are less impacted due to the much higher air
| temperature but they are very uncommon for split system
| (dangerous), and usually used for water heating in AIO unit in
| a basement.
|
| Had a house electrical failure recently with solar, ran one 18k
| BTU unit for 60m2 on a tiny 5hp Diesel generator sipping
| 0.4L/hr. (2-4L for Diesel burner in comparison)
|
| These models need proper installation as they use a synthetic
| proprietary lubricant compared to the commonly used mineral
| oil, moisture or contamination during tubing installation is a
| big deal for twin rotary compressors which may reduce service
| life.
| wccrawford wrote:
| A word of warning, though: Get someone to install them that is
| used to installing minisplits.
|
| We didn't know the AC company we chose didn't normally do them.
| They told us about it, sold us on it, and then royally screwed
| up the installation. We had them fix it a few times, then they
| had to basically replace all the inside heads. And even after
| that, they _still_ aren 't right. Some of it is simple
| incompetence, but some of it had to do with knowing how to
| install a minisplit in particular.
|
| We're now paying another company to completely replace it, just
| 2-3 years later. The manufacturer's warranty is gone (Don't buy
| Lennox! 2 year warranty and garbage hardware!) and the free
| (warranty) labor from the AC company isn't worth the time and
| hassle.
| yojo wrote:
| I researched the heck out of this before getting one for a
| rental. Mitsubishi is the way to go if money is no object and
| you want the most reliable/lowest hassle system.
|
| If you want to save a little money, Daikin is almost as good
| and a little cheaper. Below that you're rolling the dice on
| service calls.
| wccrawford wrote:
| Glad to hear you say that. We're getting Mitsubishi this
| time. It's actually going to replace our downstairs AC
| _and_ the minisplit.
| Wistar wrote:
| Plus, the mini-split recessed in-ceiling cassettes from
| Mitsubishi are wondrous. No goofy unit hanging on the wall.
| benwilson-512 wrote:
| I recently installed two MrCool DIY minisplits which worked
| out great. They come with pre-charged quick connect coolant
| lines so you can install them without the need for flushing
| coolant or soldering the lines.
|
| If you're comfortable putting a hole in your house for the
| line and running power, it can really save a lot of money.
| reedjosh wrote:
| I installed my own import brand dual minisplit vacuum pump
| and all. Sounds like you just got a terrible HVAC co the
| first go round.
| ultra-jeremyx wrote:
| We went the Mitsubishi units (I see these and Fuji
| everywhere) and a certified installer. They add two years to
| the warranty if you have one of their certified installers do
| the work. I have high confidence in Mitsubishi being around
| to honor the warranty.
| wccrawford wrote:
| We're getting Mitsubishi this time, so I'm glad to hear
| that.
| awillen wrote:
| Same here - Mitsubishi Diamond installer for mini splits
| that do heat and A/C. Almost two years in and still working
| perfectly. I believe I have a ten year warranty against
| most issues.
| PenguinCoder wrote:
| So the heat pumps can also do cooling during the summer? What
| was the ballpark range for three of those, installed?
| gilbetron wrote:
| Not the OP, but we had 5 installed last May for $15k US, and
| they are awesome. Also a big chunk of our cost was due to the
| fact that two of them required a lot of exterior piping work
| because they were on the opposite side of the house from the
| base unit.
|
| Work fantastic in the summer, quiet, work really fast, and
| pull humidity out as well. In the winter they are great
| because they allow each room to be its own temp, key for
| pandemic months where my wife, son, and I all like specific
| temps.
| ultra-jeremyx wrote:
| We had three 6k BTU units, one 12k BTU unit, and one 18k
| BTU unit and the total cost was ~$18k. We got $1,600 in
| rebates from the utility for the energy efficiency program.
|
| I am very impressed with how little electricity they use!
| coldpie wrote:
| > So the heat pumps can also do cooling during the summer?
|
| Here's a pair of really great videos about heat pumps and
| what they can (and could, in the future) do:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J52mDjZzto
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zrx-b2sLUs
| ryukafalz wrote:
| This is more a subscription than a purchase, but: signed up for
| my city's bikeshare program. I hadn't ridden a bike in years and
| had never commuted with one, so it's taking some time to get used
| to it, but one of the roads in my city has been shut down to cars
| since the beginning of the pandemic which has been a perfect
| place to practice.
|
| Once all this is over and things start to open up more, I fully
| intend to start getting around the city by bike if I can't get
| there quickly by public transit. If I can find safe enough routes
| to take, that is.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| My Oculus Quest _and_ prescription lenses for it. I wish I had
| gotten the lenses sooner, not having to wear glasses is a total
| game changer (plus my glasses rubbed up against and damaged the
| Quest 's lenses). The Quest really felt like a magical piece of
| technology, and it's really sad to see what FB is doing to the
| platform. I'm not sure what I'll do in the future.
|
| Kindle: E-ink is a total gamechanger for reading. I like the
| Goodreads integration too.
|
| A spare key + spare gate opener: I've been going on a lot of bike
| rides and the inconvenience of juggling keys was really annoying.
| I finally bit the bullet and had a new key made. Plus with a tiny
| little gate opener (https://www.amazon.com/Keychain-Remote-
| Garage-Opener-Firefly...) I don't have to stop and squeeze
| through the pedestrian gate at my complex. Massive quality of
| life improvement for about $20
|
| CZ 75 SP-01: It's really fun to put holes in paper from 10-20
| meters away, but my arms aren't long enough to reach that far.
| The folks at Ceska Zbrojovka have a perfect solution to that
| problem.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| Oh yeah, I got prescription lenses for my Valve Index and it
| was an absolute game changer.
|
| Extremely cheap, too. You can get the lenses for as little as
| $7 + shipping from Zenni Optical, though I opted for ones with
| an oleophobic coating to prevent fingerprints when I'm taking
| them in and pulling them out for when other people use my
| headset. Then, just a 3D printed lens adapter (Basically free
| if you already have a 3D printer, or about $4 + shipping if you
| use a 3D printing service).
| theSealedTanker wrote:
| old thinkpad as a plex server (mostly for watching animes). Love
| it
| hawski wrote:
| Which Thinkpad? I want to find a use for my old Thinkpad T42p,
| however its disk does not work or it's the IDE controller or
| the plug. I still wonder what to do with it.
| turtlebits wrote:
| Dyson Fan/Heater/Purifier. Bought this on a whim refurbished when
| we had wildfires last year.
|
| So much better than a space heater - has a real thermostat
| instead of the low/high + knob. Don't have to worry about burn
| hazard or damaging my hardwood floors (causing gaps). Also able
| to get rid of my box fan + filter.
| nickfromseattle wrote:
| I travel a bit, and my home office is the thing I miss the most.
|
| Treadmill desk from imovr.com with dual monitors.
|
| I lost a ton of weight walking 4 - 6 miles per work day.
|
| Sometimes after work, I would bump the speed and watch a movie,
| getting another 3-4 miles in.
| SAI_Peregrinus wrote:
| Knipex Pliers-Wrench set. Basically replaces all other adjustable
| wrenches and most fixed wrenches.
| [deleted]
| warp wrote:
| * The Moonlander keyboard (https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/)
|
| It's not without issues, but the firmware and configurability is
| so much better than what I was used to from Kinesis. It has made
| me excited to tailor my keyboard layout to how I'm actually using
| it day-to-day.
| mrgalaxy wrote:
| Thanks just got one! Been looking for a good ergo keyboard
| recently and this checks all the boxes.
| spike021 wrote:
| Two trips to Japan.
|
| Yeah, they aren't material purchases. But I made amazing
| memories, got incredible photos to put up in my home, and met
| several cool new friends (who I had to chat with using Google
| Translate!) that I've kept in touch with.
|
| They were both fantastic opportunities for personal growth and
| learning.
| gaws wrote:
| > Two trips to Japan.
|
| What are some good recommendations for a first-time visit to
| Tokyo?
| 1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote:
| "If you have to ask, then you're ngmi" there.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27225319
| gaws wrote:
| I'll be fine. Don't you have some certs to research?
| [deleted]
| spike021 wrote:
| It honestly really depends what you're into and the kind of
| person you are.
|
| For me I hit the usual touristy places like Shibuya crossing,
| Shinjuku Garden, Akihabara, etc.
|
| But I also love baseball, so I went and caught a Yomiuri
| Giants game at Tokyo Dome. Even if you're not a baseball fan,
| it is super cool seeing how differently they participate as a
| crowd of fans at games. I also enjoy just walking around
| neighborhoods, so I spent time just taking the train to
| different areas and exploring the lesser-known areas that
| tourists don't commonly visit. I love car-related stuff, so I
| rented a car for a few days and went to some popular car-
| related places.
|
| There are also plenty of food spots you can visit depending
| on what tastes you have. Cheap or more expensive.
|
| There are fun areas like Odaiba City/Beach (with its own
| Statue of Liberty statue, smaller scale and a Gundam suit
| thing near the shopping mall).
|
| If you plan during a specific season, like spring, you can go
| to find the cherry blossoms. Spring is usually incredibly
| crowded because of that, but with the right planning you can
| somewhat beat the crowds to certain popular spots (or find
| unknown spots that tourists won't visit but still have many
| blossoms).
| skrtskrt wrote:
| A massage gun.
|
| I got something called the LifePro Sonic Pro X or something like
| that, but it looks like the same gun is sold under different
| brands.
|
| I have back issues (muscular, not skeletal thank god) and
| combined with a sitting-heavy job I can get really tight and
| wound up in a way that fucks up my posture, my walking gait, and
| my ability to get a good workout in at the end of the day.
|
| The massage gun reallly lets you loosen up and focus on areas
| that are tough to stretch, and it's a lot gentler and less
| stressful than stretching. It has made a huge difference for me,
| all over my body.
|
| I massage gun while docker builds or CI tests are running, when
| my mic and camera are off during a meeting, etc. Great stuff.
| LanceH wrote:
| I bought the hypervolt hyperice. I was somewhat skeptical about
| massage guns in general until I started using it and it is
| amazing. It can really dig into hip flexors, legs muscles and
| the lower back where the old-style massagers are much more
| surface level.
|
| I also got a tv with bluetooth so I can watch action movies
| full volume on the headset while people in the house sleep. It
| also makes up for the terrible acoustics in my bedroom which
| seems to dampen all sound (great for sleeping, bad for tv).
| michalf6 wrote:
| BMW K1200S, it's absurd you can buy something that fast with so
| little money
| ww520 wrote:
| Since the gym closed down during the lockdown, I bought a pedal
| assisted ebike to go around. It really helps on those hills and
| the extra push going through those tough spots.
|
| TOTO bidet. The bidet from Costco failed after 3 years. TOTO is
| another class.
| willmhorne wrote:
| Surly Bridge Club. Go anywhere, do anything bike.
| real-dino wrote:
| Yamaha Reface CP: I can't believe how pleasurable this whole
| package is to play. Synth snobs look down, there are more
| versatile alternatives, and it as it looks like a toy, but the
| keys are amazing, the sound is amazing, and it runs off batteries
| through built in speakers. No setup required. It's one of the
| first bits of music tech I got that actually helps write music.
| Looking at a Little Martin next as if the gear snobs were wrong
| about 88 key hammer action, maybe they are wrong about solid top
| jumbo acoustic guitars.
|
| M1 MacBook Air: The hype is real. I've only managed to get this
| thing hot to the touch once, battery life for days, and living
| off grid, my 12V battery never runs dry. My work Intel MacBook,
| the most expensive one they do on the other hand, crashes
| constantly, drains over 90W of juice, and does so even more when
| connected to an external display.
|
| Dr Bronner's Magic Soap: Dissolve the liquid in a foaming hand
| dispenser, or use the bar soap and it lasts for months!
| wiredfool wrote:
| Tech: Dell U3219Q -- 4k 32" display, USB C power delivery,
| builtin KVM switch to go between HDMI/USB3 and USB C, running it
| at a 1x resolution for a 3800x2000 logical display. It's pricey,
| but I can do one monitor on this and be happy.
|
| Not Tech: Rene Herse Rat Trap Pass/Nachez Pass super supple wide
| tires for my tandem. Boosted the average speed by ~1+mph (~16mph
| to 17+ mph) (with the same stoker) over 2-3 hr rides, and more
| comfortable, especially for the stoker.
| dagw wrote:
| a 21:9 ultrawide monitor. Never going back to a 'normal' monitor
| again.
| thrower123 wrote:
| A John Deere 2025r compact tractor. Four-wheel drive, with a
| diesel engine. I have a bucket and a set of pallet forks for the
| front-end loader, along with the front-mounted snow blower, a
| five foot rear grader blade, and a Tractor Supply three-point
| carry-all frame that I built into a dump body. I have about five
| acres of land, and it's almost the perfect swiss army knife piece
| of equipment for that size of property.
|
| The build quality is good. Maintenance is easy, with all of the
| grease points easily accessible. I really like the John Deere
| quick connect system for the loader implements, compared to the
| skidsteer-style, and the loader is also really easy to take on
| and off when I'm switching to the snow blower. It has a
| hydrostatic transmission exactly like that on their lawn
| tractors, so it is dead simple to drive. The hydraulics are
| smooth, and it has a float setting that is really handy when
| plowing snow or back-dragging dirt to level areas out with the
| bucket.
|
| I've done a lot of work with it, moving dirt, moving rocks,
| pulling stumps, clearing snow, twitching logs, and just picking
| things up an moving them around, that would have taken so much
| longer and been more difficult without it.
| fsloth wrote:
| Kettlebells and specific simple work program (The book "Simple
| and Sinister" by Pave Tsatsouline). I've never been much to
| exercise. No nonsense - only TWO different movements. I'm 40 and
| getting visible muscles first time in my life.
| Cyril_HN wrote:
| Yeah. 100 kettle bell swings and 10 get-ups, in 20 minutes,
| sounds pretty brutal.
| fsloth wrote:
| I would rather call it effective than brutal. The intent is
| not to kill oneself with the exercise, but to do "just
| enough" and let the body tell you how much further you can
| go. Kettlebells are quite nice in that way - they strain you
| enough, and if it get's too heavy you quite quickly realize a
| lesser weight is the better option.
| 0xB31B1B wrote:
| Peloton Bike. I bought it for my wife and thought, I've never
| been an indoor spinner person. I thoughth I would hate it, and
| now I ride it 240 minutes/week. I've lost 25 lbs in 4 months, I
| sleep like a baby and I have more energy and focus when I'm
| awake. The threshold energy needed to hop on the bike is much
| lower than the threshold energy needed to go to the gym so I just
| do it way more frequently. Strong endorse.
| throwpsa465 wrote:
| Be careful. I think Peleton recalled ALL of their bikes due to
| them being dangerous. Maybe you are eligible for recall. One
| child died. There's a video on youtube of a child getting
| trapped under a peloton and it keeps on running. He escapes due
| to luck. Google 'peloton recall, 'peloton dangerous etc.
|
| Just FYI.
| grzm wrote:
| Peloton treadmills, not bikes. As discussed on HN:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26846641
| bouk wrote:
| That's for the treadmill, not the bike
| joshgel wrote:
| Agree. We got ours in Jan 2020 because we had a new baby and it
| was hard to make it to the gym regularly.
|
| I played college sports and work out regularly over the past 15
| years since then. I'm pretty self-motivated to stay fit. I
| didn't expect to really enjoy the "class" part of Peloton, but
| I really find it moderately more motivating than just doing
| things myself. I end up working out harder, longer and more
| frequently. Recommend.
| ridgeguy wrote:
| Apple AirPods Max headphones. It's been a long time since I was
| so pleased with a hardware purchase.
| thallavajhula wrote:
| 1. [reMarkable 2
| Tablet](https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2) - This is a
| really helpful device for me since I am used to taking down a lot
| of notes and this makes it easier for me to track my notes in one
| place and organize them 2. [AirPods
| Pro](https://www.apple.com/airpods-pro/) - Amazing for their use
| case
| tomcam wrote:
| 1999 GMC Savanna passenger van (seats removed) for use as a farm
| truck. It's huge inside and easily holds 4x8 sheets of ply. Here
| in Seattle it gets wet a lot so I never have to worry about
| transporting or storing in the rain. Has 8 cylinder engine that
| will last forever and is easyish to maintain. I get an surprising
| amount of sheepish interest/envy from dudes who had the same idea
| but who bought pickups (which seldom even have full size beds
| anymore) because the pickups look better.
|
| Shark brand vacuum cleaner. Kind of self cleaning, and mandatory
| because my wife has thick hair. I have spent thousands on vacuums
| but this is the only one that lasts an entire floor of the house
| without stopping to cut out the hair, which I hate doing. Then a
| second shark vacuum cleaner at the office, which is large and 2
| floors. I also like the shark because no bags. I am much more
| likely to do spot cleanups when I won't waste time going to the
| other side of another floor.
|
| Rolling wire laundry basket from the Container Store that we use
| for indoor trash cans. They look great and rolling them where
| needed is a huge plus. Bought a bunch of those for house and
| office.
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| First the white collar hipsters jacked up the prices of station
| wagons.
|
| Then the white collar hipsters jacked up the prices of small
| trucks.
|
| Then the white collar hipsters jacked up the prices of fullsize
| trucks.
|
| In what universe is it sane to tell HN how great vans are?
| Der_Einzige wrote:
| Blue collar bros in red state america drove the price of
| trucks up - not white collar engineers on HN.
| csteubs wrote:
| I think the overlap may be surprising. The CTO of the last
| startup I worked for (well-known e-commerce shaving co.)
| had a massive lifted F-250 and I've seen a fair share of
| tech-truck-bro types.
|
| I get what you mean, though.
| tomcam wrote:
| Used pickup prices have been bonkers for a couple of years
| now.
| drewzero1 wrote:
| Quick, somebody jack up the price of four-door sedans so I
| can sell mine!
| tomcam wrote:
| I'll get my top people on it right away
| dleslie wrote:
| Oh no, I need a new van. Keep it down, we don't need prices
| to soar.
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| INB4 someone tries to tell you the inflated purchase price
| is irrelevant because you make it back in inflated resale
| value.
| wampwampwhat wrote:
| I see someone has tried to buy a used Tacoma in the last
| decade.
| throwaway0a5e wrote:
| I used to flip cheap (like buy non-running for $500 or
| less, do work, sell for $1k-2k) cars of all types. I was
| space and time limited to I made money on throughput so I
| sold stuff below market to make it go quick. You'd think
| Tacomas and similar would be great because if you can get
| in for cheap you can sell for $$$, right? Wrong. I
| eventually stopped buying Tacomas/4Runners because the
| prospective owners were entitled jerks. No, having a ton
| of door dings and a roof that's beat to crap from hauling
| stuff on it does not entitle you to a discount on a
| vehicle in a price segment where price is determined by
| raw functionality. No I will not accept partial payment
| in weed regardless of what the street value is because
| I'm not a street pharmacist. The screening mechanism I
| wound up using was if someone called about a Taco/4Runner
| and they weren't having a tough time speaking in English
| I didn't want to deal with them and I'd tell them it was
| sold. Even then it was still a massive waste of my time
| because I'd have to answer 50 calls from non-serious
| buyers in order to get someone who was likely to show up
| and do the deal without making a problem out of
| themselves so I stopped buying those vehicles. Contrast
| with selling random commuter shitboxes where if you price
| it below market someone who is hard up for transportation
| will show up, pay asking price and both parties can walk
| away highly satisfied with the deal. Like FFS I'm
| successfully dealing with the stereotypical "problem
| customer" demographics and yet Toyota people manage to
| find a way to make problems out of themselves.
| tomcam wrote:
| Did not know about that particular market dynamic. Used
| Toyotas are definitely at a premium, that's for sure.
| Your screening process was ingenious.
| ilamont wrote:
| There's a good podcast series based on this side business
| you have going.
|
| I'm serious.
| tomcam wrote:
| Actual minivans are cheap in the used market right now.
| They seem to be out of fashion. If I didn't already have a
| Toyota sienna I would be buying one used.
| cpr wrote:
| I bought a barely-used (2K miles, 35% off (year on lot)) high-
| roof Sprinter on a whim back in 2017 (was a PGA tour shuttle,
| apparently) and took out all 3 benches, for a truly wonderfully
| capacious, full-enclosed hauling and moving machine.
|
| We've also used it as a great family country-touring machine
| with all benches in (8 kids), and the kids have taken it around
| the country a couple of times with friends.
|
| Can't recommend them more. Just a basic V6 diesel, but Mercedes
| does build solid trucks.
|
| (The only drawback being that the roof a/c gaskets always break
| on these things at great expense (1600usd), out of warrantee.
| They even settled a class action suit about that exact problem,
| but only up to 2015. I suppose we'll have to start another to
| cover 2016 and up...)
| busterarm wrote:
| It's weird to me how Sprinters are everywhere but replacement
| parts are so damn expensive and hard to come by.
|
| If I get a Mercedes truck though it's going to be a Unimog.
| tomcam wrote:
| The Unimog is so gloriously impractical you'd swear it was
| an American vehicle.
| second--shift wrote:
| I always say "the best compact pickup truck these days is a
| Grand Caravan"
| tomcam wrote:
| You have fine taste, my friend. I felt a little bit like an
| idiot making this choice, but once I came out of the closet
| the number of people who thought it was a good idea was
| downright gratifying.
| busterarm wrote:
| That's what we replaced the GMC Safari with but it really
| didn't hold up the same and the '12 Grand Caravan fell apart
| in just a few years.
| second--shift wrote:
| the GMC Safari is a real body-on-frame truck, with a van
| body. I have seen Astrovans with half a million miles on
| them, going strong.
|
| I agree that the Grand Caravan is a bit flimsier, but mine
| has been in the family since it was new and well-
| maintained. Still strong 12 years later
| busterarm wrote:
| Former '99 GMC Safari owner here.
|
| Watch out for (common) front axle failures & other wheel
| problems. Replacements are near-unobtainium now and after two
| times having to do so in short succession we finally put ours
| in the junkyard.
|
| Miss the hell out of that van though. Drove it fully loaded
| across the country 10 different ways a couple dozen times. Ran
| that thing to dust.
| tomcam wrote:
| Man, thanks for the warning. Bought off the city at auction
| with 100,000 miles. Hoping it will give me another few
| thousand; I only need it maybe 100 miles/week.
| busterarm wrote:
| Great choice though. My thought processes for lumber
| hauling are a lot like yours. If it weren't for towing
| capacity I'd totally be looking at the longest Ford Transit
| I could find if I were buying new.
| ed_balls wrote:
| That's the reason why so few people buy pickups in Europe. Vans
| are better in many ways (you can transport 9 people; get more
| cargo, especially when you remove seats; better weather
| resistance, you can use it a storage when you live in a flat,
| better for transporting a dog)
|
| "VW Transporter is not sold in the US market because it is
| classed as a light truck, accruing the 25% chicken tax on
| importation." - US is missing out on these.
| csteubs wrote:
| Ditto on the large vehicle purchase. I've been spending more
| time out in the wilderness and my 2WD Volvo sedan wasn't
| cutting it on dirt roads and with little-to-no suspension, so I
| bought a 2005 Yukon from a good friend. He bought it from the
| original owner last year for $1100, used his employee discount
| at CarMax to fix a bunch of small issues, and I picked it up
| for $2000. It's a beast of a truck, has tons of options even
| with its age, and the V8 Vortec engines in these cars are known
| for their longevity. The Volvo has become the long-distance
| runner while the Yukon is more of a utility truck. With the
| used car market looking like it is, I could probably unload it
| for $5k-$6k. Right now it's basically a mini-shop/storage
| shed/camp site on wheels.
| tomcam wrote:
| Nice set up you have going. Don't think I wasn't looking at
| the Yukons myself!
| Random_Person wrote:
| Chromebook C423NA - for writing. I intentionally bought the
| lowest end model I could find at Walmart. I wanted it for a
| single task - writing - and it's perfect for that. It is terrible
| at most everything else.
|
| Softball glove - my kid has been playing softball and asked me to
| help work on some of their skills. I'm not into baseball/softball
| AT ALL, but I've very much enjoyed my time outside passing the
| ball. It's a very relaxing activity.
|
| EXIT games - a series of tabletop "escape rooms" that kept me and
| the kids occupied many days over the past year indoors.
|
| Biscuit Joiner - I've long wanted this "luxury" tool for helping
| keep things aligned when gluing planks for panels... it has
| become one of my favorite assembly tools in conjunction with
| pocket holes to make butt join assembly as easy as Lego.
| stakkur wrote:
| I'm at a similar decision point. What software are you using to
| write on the Chromebook?
| Random_Person wrote:
| Just Google Docs. I made a template for novel writing and
| copy it when I start something new.
| werber wrote:
| 2nd on the EXIT games
| omarhaneef wrote:
| Scanning these recommendations, the plurality -- perhaps even the
| majority -- are ergonomic. You would think everyone is constantly
| in pain: keyboards, desks, monitors, chairs, shoes, that relieve
| pain.
|
| Even the air filters, robot vacuums, and noise reduction devices
| reduce some kind of pain.
|
| The only non-pain recommendation that comes close is coffee and
| the apple M1.
|
| One strange thing is the contrary recommendations: there are
| recommendations for barefoot shoes as well as arch support
| slippers. Not sure if this means that different feet need
| different things, or if one side of the debate was marketed to.
| hawski wrote:
| From what I remember reading the difference in contusions is
| visible between barefoot running and proper shoes. I don't
| remember which had which, but it was like one prevents Achilles
| tendon from injury and the other from ankle injury. It would
| depend on the person what would be better. As they say - choose
| your poison.
| Rendello wrote:
| I recently took up running, unfortunately all I have for
| footwear is an old pair of Vans, just about the worst thing to
| run in. All the disadvantages of both minimalist and maximalist
| shoes, wrapped up in a flat, hard sole with holes in both
| heels.
|
| After some online research, I have a pair of minimalist
| (barefoot) running sandals coming in the mail. I'll have to let
| you know if it was worth it or if I was just punked by the
| marketers ;)
| couchdb_ouchdb wrote:
| The Apple M1 is also an ergonomic choice for me, as the new
| keyboards are much easier on the hands.
| bredren wrote:
| XDR Pro monitor with the stand - Quite an investment but for
| staring at 12+ hours a day coding / design, its simple and works
| very well.
|
| 6' x 6' x 8' Herman Miller A02 cubicle, walls only - Gave up my
| office as a baby room. Re-factored / reorganized / cleared out
| basement contents three times to carve out space in a corner.
| Threw down a cheap rug for an amazing reclamation of space.
|
| Herman Miller Embody - Bought just prior to pandemic. Great
| chair. Used the warranty once due to some unwanted creaking.
| Service call quality was excellent.
|
| Generic "foldable phone tablet mount holder" - Attached to
| bedside table, holds the Kindle Oasis to read falling asleep.
| Last thing I do many nights is swing this out of way.
|
| Generic selfie light rings - Combined with USB battery packs,
| extremely useful to light work projects or special video
| conferencing events.
|
| FLEXI New Classic Retractable Leash 16ft - Use this to walk my
| cat every day. Not perfect but very good.
| eknkc wrote:
| Robot Vacuum (Roborock S6): I always thought they were some
| gimmick. No. Should have bought one much earlier.
|
| M1 MBA: I ditched Apple hardware a year ago after their pretty
| crappy macbook pro lines. This thing is great and the hype is
| real.
|
| OneWheel: Always wanted to try. It is extremely fun but I'm too
| old to recover broken bones fast so I got rid of it.
| hasbot wrote:
| Try an electric unicycle; similar but so much safer. I bought a
| Kingsong 18xl two years ago with no experience riding one.
| Taught myself to ride it in about 3 hours across about 8
| sessions. No crashes! Took a few more hours to get really
| comfortable traveling at 20mph. Still no crashes.
| michaelmior wrote:
| Raspberry Pi for me. Took me a long time to finally decide to get
| one, but I bought a house about a year and a half ago and I've
| been having a lot of fun messing around with home automation
| stuff via Home Assistant.
|
| I got a Eufy RoboVac myself and it's not as great as I thought it
| would be. Although that's partially because of the layout of my
| home that I haven't found a good spot to put it that it can clean
| well without me moving a lot of stuff out of the way.
| fartcannon wrote:
| Robovacs with lidar are the real MVP. The ones that bounce are
| fine, but the lidar machine cleans efficiently, and it's
| magnificent.
| michaelmior wrote:
| I believe mine has LIDAR although it doesn't make it any
| easier for it to squeeze around furniture.
| minimoose wrote:
| the maschine mk3 has helped with my video game addiction.
|
| downside is now i want a polyend tracker >.>
| canadianfella wrote:
| 85" Sony TV
| icyfox wrote:
| ErgoDox EZ. I got one at the recommendation of a friend who has
| battled serious carpal tunnel over the last five years. He said
| this keyboard changed his outlook and made him a solid 2x faster
| when developing in vim.
|
| Relatively high learning curve when you first get started. You
| have to get used to a split keyboard and all of the custom
| modifier keys you have added alongside the bezel.
|
| But once you spend some time with it: it's incredible. You can
| customize the entire keyboard layout and add multiple layers on
| top of the default one. Pressing different modifiers can change
| your whole keyboard layout - I have a separate one for my IDE,
| browser, etc. After a few weeks, my posture improved and I was
| much happier with the mechanical keys.
| linsomniac wrote:
| I'd agree with that, but my Ez predates the time period of this
| question. :-)
|
| I was a fairly good touch-typist before the Ez, but it did take
| me about 3-5 days of feeling like I was learning to type all
| over again. Some of that was the thumb clusters, some of that
| was getting rid of some bad habits. I used to type the "b" key
| with the wrong hand, which isn't a good option on a split
| keyboard. I also used to always look at the numbers when I
| typed them, and I got blank keycaps on the Ez to break myself
| of the habit. Oh, and I used to always press shift with my
| right pinky only, and I wanted to break myself of that.
|
| I also switched to i3wm tiling window manager at the same time,
| so I customized the keymap for that.
|
| Love the Ez. Though, I did go through quite a phase of "Surely
| the perfect keyswitch is on the other side of this fence... I'd
| tried Gaetron Brown, Cherry Blue, Cherry Brown, Kailh Box
| White. At the office, the blues were just too loud, but I loved
| the feel. The Cherry Browns were fine. The Kailh I currently
| have in around 1/3 of the switches in my home keyboard, where
| I'm not as noise constrained, and they feel fine, and they're
| probably quiet enough for the office. They feel good, but I
| honestly have a hard time telling which has it and which has
| the Cherry Brown.
|
| If at all possible, don't go down the "which switch is right
| for me" rabbit hole...
| djohnston wrote:
| Ergodox keyboard. It really helped with RSI issues I was facing.
| synthc wrote:
| My mountainbike (cube reaction pro)
| therealplato wrote:
| Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier, based on Wirecutter reviews.
| Home ventilation isn't as good as the office, this makes a very
| noticeable difference with dust and cat hair. If needed I move it
| to the kitchen, it cleans up heavy smoke or odor from
| burgers/steaks/popcorn in about 45 minutes (for a ~6000 ft^3
| volume)
| [deleted]
| p0d wrote:
| This drill. Got it at Christmas, used it lots and still haven't
| charged the battery.
|
| https://www.screwfix.com/p/milwaukee-m18-cblpd-402c-18v-4-0a...
| abakker wrote:
| m18 tools I own:
|
| 1/2 impact wrench, impact driver 1/4" hex, 7-1/4 circular saw,
| 5" throat portaband, 4-1/2" angle grinder, Oscillator, jigsaw,
| Weedwacker/pole chainsaw, small vacuum, 1-9/16 SDS drill.
|
| I also have an m12 screwdriver and m12 3/8 ratchet.
|
| Milwaukee is really killing it in this market. There are so
| many tools for the same batteries, and in almost all cases they
| are not just good cordless tools, but good in general.
|
| Most impressive to me is their electric pole chainsaw. it has a
| 10" bar and with a bit of skill you can actually get it to
| plunge tip first. It wouldn't be my first choice for felling
| due to it's form factor, but I cut probably 50-60 3-6" dead
| branches on half an 8 amp battery a few days ago.
|
| Side note: I really wish milwaukee made an adaptor from M18
| batteries to USB-C 80W for a MacBook pro.
| bluGill wrote:
| I'm on the deWalt 20/60 volt system, but everything you said
| applies to either, with trivial details as the difference.
|
| When buying battery operated tools you need to decide in
| advance are you buying a single tool, or a battery system. If
| just a tool any mid-range drill/impact works (face it, that
| is what everyone is buying who isn't buying a system). If
| there is any chance you will buy any other tool it is either
| DeWalt flexvolt or Milwaukee m18 because both have a large
| catalog of tools that fit your one battery which is
| convenient because it means you will always have a battery
| charge to finish the task.
| hairofadog wrote:
| Can confirm, it's great. The 12 volt is pretty great too.
| enobrev wrote:
| Sometimes you can find the M18 Drill and Impact driver together
| on sale. The two of those and an extra battery are probably the
| most used tools in my house.
| polytely wrote:
| Open back headphones, Hifiman HE400i (2020). It's really cool to
| discover more details in my favourite songs. I think I paid
| ~EUR200 for it. My previous headphones were the Audio-Technica
| ATH-M40x ~EUR100, and you can definitely hear the difference in
| quality, but I think it is probably past the point of diminishing
| returns.
|
| Synthesizer: Sequential Prophet REV 2 (8 voice). I have it for
| 1.5 years now and I still feel like there is a lot left to
| explore for me in the synth, cool sounds to discover/create, I
| think I'm gonna buy the expansion board (+8 voices) as a birthday
| gift to myself
| anon776 wrote:
| Onewheel XR. Thought they were dumb when I first saw them. But
| they are super fun and anytime I can go out and ride it makes me
| smile. I have ridden 300 miles already. In snow, dirt, sand and
| streets.
| replwoacause wrote:
| - Apple Macbook Air M1.
|
| - LIFX Color for putting my lights on a schedule and being able
| to set the mood.(https://www.lifx.com/collections/lamps-and-
| pendants/products...)
| lend000 wrote:
| Under-desk treadmill. Very relevant for HN. Support your vascular
| system, hips, and your back. Sitting or even standing still all
| day at the computer is extremely unhealthy. I now walk while
| working (and while I'm typing this) 1-2 hours/day, taking 10-40
| min walks every time I've been sitting for an hour. Does not
| affect productivity at all once you get used to walking at a slow
| speed, and may even enhance it.
|
| Cheap ones on Amazon (~$300) work fine, but you may have a little
| maintenance every month or so. If you lubricate it occasionally
| and never put weight on the back roller, you shouldn't have
| problems.
|
| Disclaimer: not a substitute for exercise. Exercises slightly
| different muscles and not as well as real walking.
| codezero wrote:
| AfterShokz Aeropex bone conducting headphones.
|
| I'm not an audiophile but not having my ears obstructed while
| hearing music/podcasts/meetings is a game changer.
|
| Definitely not for everyone but I bet most folks who are curious
| about them probably would like them more than they expect, and
| worst case you can just return them right?
| jader201 wrote:
| Just wanted to say: this is a great thread, and a great place to
| hear about products from people that I feel can be trusted,
| unlike almost any other source.
|
| Would love it if there was a more persistent channel for
| something like this here, but also fear that would end up being
| gamed and abused.
| infinite_beam wrote:
| Bamix. The best immersion blender IMO.
| in9 wrote:
| I just got a really cheap one, and haven't used it yet. Will it
| be a bad experience? :D
| jf22 wrote:
| A large rubber mallet and a giant wrench.
|
| As a homeowner so many things have to be convinced to move with
| physical force.
| giantg2 wrote:
| The rubber mallet makes a great paperweight at work. When
| people ask what it's for just say "PRD issue whack-a-mole".
| TacticalCoder wrote:
| Unlikely to get upvoted here but a used Porsche Panamera with an
| extended bumper-to-bumper manufacturer warranty. As Doug Demuro
| says it's cheap, really cheap.
|
| There's not a single brand new car costing, say, 75 K EUR or less
| that I'd have rather than that because the quality simply ain't
| there.
|
| The ride comfort, soundsystem, sound insulation, interior
| quality, how it drives superbly (and can yet be used for some
| spirited drive if you fancy that), etc.
|
| Best car I ever had. Next one is going to be another used
| Panamera, probably the plug-in hybrid. I tried the Porsche Taycan
| (their 100% EV) and it's amazing but I'll wait a bit until you
| can find used ones at bargain prices.
|
| I'm a big fan of Tesla but, to me, the build quality simply ain't
| anywhere close: as in... It's not even remotely comparable. They
| are worlds apart. And as I don't rice at the greenlight, I don't
| care about the 0-60 perfs.
|
| There's nothing better to cruise at 110 mph on the autobahn or to
| go pick up the kid at school.
|
| It's high-end luxury with quality materials for less than the
| price of a new Camry.
|
| https://youtu.be/EAezax2ugQU
|
| By very far my favorite purchase of the last two years+.
| [deleted]
| josefresco wrote:
| You paid less than $30K? I've owned used-luxury cars before and
| everything's wonderful until you have to get it repaired. I
| guess with a warranty it might make sense, but what's that
| payment?
| tmaly wrote:
| maintenance on a used Porsche can easily cost more than the
| car over its lifetime. I remember going in for an oil change
| and finding out I needed new breaks. That was a mortgage
| payment.
| thekevan wrote:
| The video he linked was from 2020 and reviewed a 2012
| Panamera. The title of it is "Here's Why a Used Porsche
| Panamera Is a Sub-$30,000 Bargain" and he says that it's
| cheaper than a Camry within the first 60 seconds.
| josefresco wrote:
| my bad, I didn't realize OP was _actually_ Doug Demuro.
| coolspot wrote:
| Interesting you say that. Used Panameras in my area are more
| expensive than Cayennes.
| gabagool wrote:
| Is there any way to figure out what the maintenance costs of a
| car is? For example, for an 8-year-old Porsche Panamera?
| Otherwise, I've always just come across anecdata on message
| boards.
| lastofthemojito wrote:
| Edmunds has a "Cost to Own" calculator here:
| https://www.edmunds.com/tco.html
|
| Sadly it does not go back 8 years. You could check the
| numbers on a 6-year-old Panamera vs a new Camry though:
| https://www.edmunds.com/porsche/panamera/2015/cost-to-
| own/?s... https://www.edmunds.com/toyota/camry/2021/cost-to-
| own/?style...
| mring33621 wrote:
| I had a Porsche Cayenne S for a while. It was a great SUV. Fun
| to drive and could actually get 31 MPG on long highway trips.
| gadders wrote:
| I bought a second hand Tuareg which is pretty similar under
| the covers. Nicest car I've ever owned and it makes me happy
| to be in it.
| rixrax wrote:
| Similar story here! Got a used 1987MB R107 560 SL. Paid
| slightly under $20k with less than 80k miles on it with only
| one previous owner. It's mechanically in excellent condition
| with not so great interior. But hey, it's totally fun to cruise
| around top down, and can be serviced in a variety of places at
| somewhat reasonable rates. And when you pull up to Alice's
| Restaurant (well haven't since last spring...) on Skyline blvd,
| it gets almost more attention than those Lambos and Teslas that
| 'everyone' is taking there! See son, that is class! ;)
|
| Anyways - your mileage may vary, but I've been totally happy
| with this purchase. And driving and tinkering with it has
| offered great distractions from the otherwise gloomy year.
| minimoose wrote:
| no way this is cheaper than a used prius
| cowgoesmoo wrote:
| new Camrys cost 75k in Europe?
| pedalpete wrote:
| Similar, I got 2014 BMW 535i Touring. With everyone buying EVs
| and nobody wanting wagons, it was a steal. I haven't had many
| cars in my life, but this thing is just astounding, and I'm
| always afraid when I take it in that BMW is going to try to
| upsell me on something or tell me something is broken, but
| everytime I go in they just say "oh my god! we never see these.
| You're cars in perfect shape!".
| coldpie wrote:
| A guitar. And then three more guitars. Never having held a guitar
| in my life before, I picked one up last September as a way to
| help keep me sane over Minnesota COVID winter, and I've
| completely fallen in love with playing guitar. I have played
| literally every day since I purchased my first guitar and I spend
| most of my workday excited to get home and play more.
| captaindiego wrote:
| Any recommendations for how to learn if you've never touched a
| guitar before?
| coldpie wrote:
| JustinGuitar.com! Really excellent beginner course, took me
| about six months to go through. I'm now moving into the
| intermediate stuff, and also branching out on my own into
| learning classical guitar.
|
| The main key of course is to play and practice a lot. Like
| any other skill, you really have to put the hours in.
| truth_ wrote:
| Does anybody know something similar for piano?
|
| I only know about Bill Hilton in YouTube. Are there anybody
| better?
|
| What would be JustinGuitar.com but for piano?
| bkeyes wrote:
| Check out JustinGuitar.com - tons of free lessons, songs, etc
| from beginner to advanced and lots of extra, extremely good
| paid content as well.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| After you've learned the basics on how to fret a note and use
| a pick, I'd highly recommend Rock Smith. It's basically
| Guitar Hero/Rock Band, except you plug in a real guitar. It
| gamifies learning guitar, so it doesn't feel like homework.
| It doesn't just have you play songs, it also has mini-games
| that get you to practice specific techniques such as sliding,
| hammer-ons/pull-offs, string skipping, and proper note
| fretting.
|
| The difficulty adjusts dynamically. When you first start
| playing, it doesn't make you play all the notes. Over time,
| as your scores get better, it introduces more notes until
| eventually you're playing the song as-written.
|
| If you explore this route, then I'd _highly_ recommend the PC
| version (Distributed on Steam) over the console version,
| especially if your home theater setup has any sort of audio
| latency. I bought the console version at first, and my stereo
| has about 200 ms of latency, which made it _incredibly_
| distracting when I 'd strum a note, but I wouldn't hear it
| until 200ms later. My PC, on the other hand, has zero
| latency, or at least, the latency is noticeable at all.
| hawski wrote:
| Disclaimer: I'm generally cheap.
|
| Pilot G2 pen - I bought it after someone recommended it and it is
| indeed a pleasure to write with it.
|
| Ryzen 5 2400G - it has a good enough GPU to play some nice games
| with Steam Proton. In future I would like to make a Mini-ITX
| build for it.
|
| Canon EOS M100 with pan cake lens - it's almost as small as a
| compact, but has big APS-C sensor. I bought a used body. I
| noticed lately how my old photos are so much better then later
| ones. The difference between a compact and a first gen Pixel is
| noticeable. With this it's even further. But with pandemics there
| was no much use of it lately.
| iscrewyou wrote:
| 0.32mm Pilot G2s are my favorite. I usually buy the green,
| black, blue, and red in packs of 10.
|
| They are a pleasure to write with. They are more prone to the
| bullhead not functioning if dropped but overtime these pens
| have taught me to take care of my pens. Now I can actually get
| the pens depleted all way.
| adamredwoods wrote:
| Nice.
|
| Years ago I bought an old Sony Rx-100 Gen 1 because I wanted a
| good camera that I didn't mind if it got stolen or broken, and
| it was a great purchase. The Rx-100 had a nice large 1-inch
| cmos that could pick up great dynamic variations.
|
| I'm ready to move up now, was looking at the Sony a6000 but I
| will look at this one, too.
| hawski wrote:
| I can add that I'm not much of a photographer, but it started
| to interest me with possibilities. It has very nice interface
| with a touchscreen - it is very intuitive (i.e. touch to
| focus on specific part, pinch to zoom in the gallery). But I
| think that most things can still be done via buttons. One
| thing that I don't like in the UI/UX department is that after
| I've done an update of the firmware I no longer see names of
| various modes. At least you can see the name of the current
| mode when you turn it on. But after a while you get used to
| it.
|
| I plan to buy a telephoto lens to it some day, but I'm good
| as it is.
|
| I liked this review of the body+lens combo I have:
| https://www.dpreview.com/opinion/0877988578/traveling-
| light-...
| epmaybe wrote:
| I'll do you one better on the pilot G2, if you take care of
| your pens:
| https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/671015/Pilot-G2-Limit...
|
| Feels even more smooth than the plastic ones just because of
| the weight
| 5tefan wrote:
| Several things. Daily use.
|
| Good coffee Commandante grinder Melitta style set
|
| Kingston Slimblade Realforce Keyboard 100% 1440p screen with
| power supply
|
| Kobo Aura One
| yamrzou wrote:
| I bought a FlexiSpot standing desk a few months ago since I'm
| increasingly working from home:
| https://www.amazon.co.uk/FLEXISPOT-Standing-Height-Adjustabl...
|
| I'm enjoying it so far. I recommend it.
| baby wrote:
| Instant pot. This thing is magical, everything taste so fucking
| good in it. I bought a crockpot and never used it, but the
| instant pot was a game changer for me: ramen, couscous, stews,
| etc. The meat tastes so good when cooked there, vegetables are
| the same.
| gmac wrote:
| Yes! It's also brilliant for stocks. You can make a deep rich
| chicken stock or beef bone broth in 2 - 3 hours instead of all
| day, and using lots less energy.
| barrkel wrote:
| My partner got an Instant pot but I don't like the meat that is
| made in it. Maybe it's overcooked? Tomato-based ground meat
| (e.g. ground lamb) sauces are tolerable.
|
| I generally prefer my meat fried (seared) in a cast iron pan
| and finished in an oven (if necessary, e.g. a big piece of
| beef).
| interestica wrote:
| Look up/try 'reverse sear': slow/low cook in oven. Finish in
| cast iron. I don't eat meat but I've had a few friends rave
| about it.
| aantix wrote:
| Try an air-fryer.
|
| Steaks or hamburgers are surprisingly amazing.
| benp84 wrote:
| Yes! I couldn't get into the instant pot either but the air
| fryer changed my life. I eat so much meat and vegetables
| now.
|
| If it had been called a "high-speed toaster oven" or maybe
| a "digital grill" I probably would have bought one sooner.
| itomato wrote:
| Pork shoulder, garlic, cumin, onion, thyme, oregano, olive
| oil, 1C water, salt, pepper.
|
| Close the lid, seal the vent.
|
| Press meat. Wait for the beep.
| ska wrote:
| The thing about pressure cookers is that they are basically a
| time saving device; what you get out of them is similar [1]
| result to what a long, slow cook in the oven would have been.
| They cook at higher heat without boiling.
|
| You aren't going to roast in them, or anything like it. But a
| stew that would have taken 3+ hours can be done in less than
| 1. Typically you should be using different cuts of meat for
| these applications.
|
| [1] the big caveat is you don't lose moisture, so liquid
| amounts all need to be adjusted
| 0xffff2 wrote:
| Hard disagree. I was recently gifted an instant pot and it's a
| glorified rice cooker at best. Everything else I've tried in
| it, from steaming vegetables to various meats have been of
| significantly inferior quality (if admittedly faster cooking)
| than their non-instant pot variants.
| omoikane wrote:
| Hand-crank flashlights, which were put to good use during the
| multiple power outages we had last year.
| hawski wrote:
| Sounds useful even without outages. How much one has to turn to
| make it work for an hour? Or is it in minutes?
| omoikane wrote:
| For these ones: https://www.amazon.com/ThorFire-Rechargeable-
| Collapsible-Fla...
|
| I can crank for a few seconds and it will last a few minutes.
| They become gradually dim after that, and I never measured
| how long it took for them to go completely dark.
| [deleted]
| m4tthumphrey wrote:
| Peloton bike+ - I got suckered into the hype but 84 rides in 9
| weeks and it truly does live up to it
|
| Garmin Fenix 5 - Ok this was actually 4 years ago but still it
| was first to mind
|
| Hive heating - Again, 6 years ago, but my partner and I use this
| all the time through the colder months. Being able to control the
| heating from your phone when you're an hour away from home is
| delightful
| raldi wrote:
| Walkman-style over-ear headphones, except of course wireless with
| Bluetooth and USB-C. Clamshells are too big, and in-ear are
| always uncomfortable and precarious for me.
| tsjq wrote:
| Atomberg Efficio Low wattage BLDC ceiling fans
| boomka wrote:
| Bone conducting headphones for running: Titanium AfterShockz.
| Love them, and not just because they don't block ambient sounds,
| but also the sound is almost unaffected by the wind, whereas all
| the other headphones would get completely drowned out by the wind
| whistling.
|
| Vaccum: Henry. Don't know if you can buy it outside UK, but it is
| the perfect vacuum. I tried robotic one a few years back (Eufy)
| but my floor is full of obstacles like stools, shoes, backpacks,
| etc, so the poor thing would get stuck all the time.
|
| Home computer: Airtop from CompuLab. I am very annoyed by fan
| noise so quiet or silent computer has always been a must for me.
| Airtop is by far the best one I could find or build. Expensive
| though...
| SaintGhurka wrote:
| Aerogarden. I've always got a fresh supply of basil and chives
| and dill now.
| jerome-jh wrote:
| Bought two used Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 shortly before lockdown
| (by chance) and built most of the projects from
| http://www.nxtprograms.com/index2.html with the kids. These
| projects are VERY high quality and fun for kids.
|
| Unfortunately the programming interface for NXT 2.0 is crap and I
| must admit the NXT bricks saw little use since then.
|
| I also have two Beyerdynamic headphones: one DT 770 Pro 80 Ohms
| and one DT 990 32 ohms. I use them mainly for meetings (WFH).
| There are very comfortable and some day I wear them for almost 8
| hours. They sound different from each other but both are very
| clear. The DT 990 is "open" which means I can still hear what is
| going on in the house, for the days kids are at home too.
| cdubzzz wrote:
| Garmin Forerunner 245[0]
|
| Got it as a birthday gift about a year ago and I have since
| finally moved on from struggling to get past 5Ks to running
| multiple 10Ks and now training for a half marathon. It has also
| helped me be more health conscious generally and I've lost 25lbs
| to get from high overweight to the top of end of normal (BMI-
| wise).
|
| The Garmin ecosystem for workout planning/recording/stats/etc. is
| surprisingly nice and even though this watch is marketed to
| runners the weight training features are solid and useful as
| well.
|
| [0] https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/628939/pn/010-02120-00
| Humdeee wrote:
| I bought the 235 a few years ago. Also an avid runner and great
| for hiking. Also used for cycling and swimming too!
| victorthehuman wrote:
| Same here, it really put a spotlight on my mediocre
| endurance/general fitness level despite my best efforts to get
| out everyday for a bike ride.
| ldrndll wrote:
| Just wanted to say well done on losing all that weight!
| rakamotog wrote:
| Like OP, Mi Robot Vacuum - My first vacuum cleaner and its
| something I have recommended to 10+ folks.
|
| An Apartment - A house that is my own, not my parent's place, but
| mine.
|
| A good chair to work from home - Steelcase Series
| gaws wrote:
| > An Apartment - A house that is my own, not my parent's place,
| but mine.
|
| Are you renting or owning?
| lbotos wrote:
| Anova Sous Vide. Cooking perfect Chicken or pork chops every
| single time is an absolute joy. I don't eat as many steaks but
| also cooks them just the same.
|
| It's one of my go-to kitchen gadgets, and I cook most of my meals
| with it.
| dharmon wrote:
| My PSA for sous vide cooking: chicken breasts can actually be
| tasty! 153F is the perfect temp for me. Too much lower and its
| got that raw chicken texture to it, Too much higher and it gets
| stringy and dry.
|
| Pork tenderloin gets the award for thing most-improved by sous
| vide. Cook it medium rare at 135F (I sprinkle with a little
| salt first). Then pat it dry, put a bit more coarse salt on the
| outside and sear it hard and quick.
| wyldfire wrote:
| Why sous vide? Does the food taste better or prepare faster or
| ...?
| enobrev wrote:
| Definitely not faster, but as the other commenter said, it's
| far more precise. The result is exactly as you set it every
| time with no variation. It's also far more forgiving, which
| tends toward the lesser variation. It definitely takes
| longer, but there's far less pressure when it comes to
| planning and timing.
|
| A thawed steak is done after about an hour, or frozen after
| about 80 minutes. But if I leave it in for another hour or
| two, there's no difference in quality - it's still perfect,
| with a minute to finish on a hot cast iron.
|
| So if I'm cooking for a crowd or busy working on sides (or
| just plain busy or lazy) I can still get an absolutely
| perfect steak (or whatever) every time at exactly the time I
| need it.
|
| I've also found it to be excellent for long-cooking like a
| Brisket or Pork Shoulder, where I'll cook it in the water
| bath for about 24-32 hours, and then smoke it low and slow on
| the grill for 3-4 hours.
| lbotos wrote:
| This is my standard routine:
|
| - Grab my chicken cuts, and season them.
|
| - Throw in a 2 days worth of meals of chicken into the sous
| vide and set the temp.
|
| - let it cook for 45 min. (No need to monitor, it's a water
| bath -- nothing to flip or think about.)
|
| - Even if it goes slightly over ( I once had it go for 90 min
| as I got trapped in a meeting) your meat stays at the perfect
| doneness. - I take out a meal's worth of chicken and Sear it
| in a pan for 5 or so minutes.
|
| THE SECRET: Take the rest of the chicken and immediately ice
| it and get it in the fridge. Now, for the rest of those
| pieces, I take them out at meal time, and sear to heat and I
| get perfect chicken that you'd not even realize are
| leftovers.
|
| Works same for pork and steak too, just cook that slightly
| less.
| josho wrote:
| Another name for the gadgets is 'precision cooker'. You have
| perfect control over the temperature of the meat. So, you'll
| end up with perfectly tender meat, every time.
|
| I don't use my sous vide often, but when I do the results are
| fantastic. I'm a bit of a BBQ purist, and will even confess
| that everything comes out better when I use the precision
| cooker then brown the meat on the grill.
| sokoloff wrote:
| Came here to say this as well. The original touch screens are
| garbage in the presence of high humidity, making me slightly
| hate Anova for such a terrible design decision ( _of course_
| they will be exposed to high humidity!), but I still suffer
| through using it, basically keeping the temp locked on 130degF
| (because changing the temp is too risky to get it stuck with
| the flaky touchscreen).
|
| Cooking with it though is great.
| hirundo wrote:
| I have the Anova and it's a pain due to very flaky bluetooth
| support. As in, I have umpteen working bluetooth gadgets in the
| house that all work, but I couldn't get the Anova to work after
| two replacements.
|
| If I didn't pay so much extra for the bluetooth it wouldn't
| bother me, since it works fine without it. But I prefer the
| Instant Pot sous vide, my daily driver, which doesn't attempt
| bluetooth.
| lbotos wrote:
| ah, I explicitly bought the anova because you don't need
| bluetooth to use it unlike the joule. I treat it like a
| toaster: plug it in, turn it on, cook. Never once tried the
| smart features cause I expect it to stink as you've seen.
| enobrev wrote:
| After the first week or so I ended up ignoring the bluetooth,
| and liked cooking so much more without trying to connect to
| the thing. I got the newer version with Wifi which connects
| well every time, but I don't care about the connection at
| all, and so don't bother.
|
| As for cooking, I absolutely love it. Even for things I can
| cook fine in a pan, I much prefer the low-stress of making a
| steak in the bath and then taking it out and finishing it in
| the pan whenever I'm ready.
|
| On lazy/busy days, we'll fire up the sous vide a little after
| lunch time, and throw in something frozen, knowing that all
| we have to do for dinner is figure out a side.
| calebm wrote:
| One concern I've had with Sous Vide is the concern of plastic
| leaching while cooking or marinading. I haven't researched it
| though - just an outstanding concern.
| lbotos wrote:
| It is a fear of mine, and I've seen reusable silicone bags
| that some people have used, but haven't gotten any yet.
| kodon wrote:
| A pullup bar (door frame) and resistance bands. Exercising at
| home has kicked me off into being healthier.
| jlund-molfese wrote:
| If you're worried about damaging your door frame, you can get a
| "power tower" for about $100. For some reason they seem to be
| mostly marketed toward women, but they're a great portable
| fitness solution.
|
| This is the one I bought on Amazon:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TLLS4BV?psc=1
| mtmail wrote:
| Same. My favorite is the simple jumping rope. Never used one at
| the gym and simply forgot how much fun it is. (Can't use it in
| the living room though).
| dqv wrote:
| You can jump rope without the rope. I do this because I don't
| have much space in my garage for a rope to sling around, so I
| just pretend to hold the handles and skip rope that way.
| lucky_cloud wrote:
| Not as fun though. Using the rope adds challenge and
| builds/reinforces coordination among all four (usually)
| limbs
| Nimitz14 wrote:
| Jumping rope also works out the arms a little which you're
| not gonna get.
| dqv wrote:
| I get a pretty good burn by rotating my arms like I'm
| skipping a real rope. It's good enough for post work out
| cardio.
| elliekelly wrote:
| Could you do pull-ups before you bought the bar? I'm always so
| tempted to get one because I _so_ badly want to be able to do a
| pull-up. I'd be so pumped if I could just do one. But I have no
| upper body strength to speak of and getting to a pull-up seems
| nearly impossible so I never pull the trigger on buying the
| bar.
| ggregoire wrote:
| You could do Australian pull-ups (i.e. horizontal pull-ups)
| to start building your back, you just need two chairs:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbBDBkkuNac
|
| Or with a broom put down between two chairs to build your
| hands grip: https://homegym-
| exercises.com/inverted_row_between_two_chair...
| skrtskrt wrote:
| Look up "greasing the groove" for pullups. As others have
| said, an absolute beginner would start with negative reps -
| jump up to the top of the pull up, then let yourself down
| slowly.
| fn1 wrote:
| Just a small tipp: Doing a pullup mostly depends on the
| latissimus dorsi muscle. It's about keeping a steady, stable
| body while pulling. Pull with your back, not only with your
| arms.
| 9-65263652 wrote:
| There's lots of ways to get past the hurdle of the first
| pull-up! Don't psych yourself out, pull the trigger.
| Jemaclus wrote:
| There are some training plans out there to get you from
| "couch to pullup". The trick, essentially, is to start from
| the top and lower yourself down as slowly as you can. After a
| while, you start to use resistance bands to reduce the weight
| you need to lift, and then you start doing assisted pullups.
| Over time, you drop the resistance until you can do a pullup!
| It does take some time (~6 week for me to my first good-form
| pullup).
|
| I'm insanely jealous of the American Ninja Warriors who can
| do 30 pullups at once. I just don't see how that's possible.
| But maybe someday I'll get there...
| mellavora wrote:
| Another tip for getting started. Start horizontal, with your
| feet supported on a box. You are really doing a 'row', not a
| chin-up, but since part of your body is supported, the weight
| is less. * | |
| ()-----------|-------/ /---\
|
| This technique lets you develop power at the low end/start of
| the pull, which is where you need it most.
|
| The other tips (hang from the bar and slowly lower yourself)
| are also very good.
| hawski wrote:
| Bonus is that you can do this with a table - with body
| under the table.
| dqv wrote:
| Negatives can help get you there if you really want to pull
| the trigger. Just be careful - door frame pull up bars can
| ruin your door molding.
| dehrmann wrote:
| When I started with my trainer 5+ years ago, one of my goals
| was being able to do a pullup. We never really focused on
| them specifically, I got up to 6, or so. The two things that
| really got me there, and they go together, were _learning to
| activate my lats_ (pullups are as much a back exercise as an
| arm one), and deadlifts. They definitely don 't work the lats
| directly, but you'll engage them when your form is good,
| training that activation under heavy load.
|
| Problem is if you're thinking about a pullup bar, you
| probably don't have the equipment for deadlifts. Band
| deadlits can work, though.
|
| You can also try a lat pushdown with a band to train lat
| activation. With pullups, it's easy to turn it into an arm
| exercise. It's harder to skip this with a lat pushdown.
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| Buy the bar!
|
| You can start by just hanging there or trying to do a pullup.
| Over time you'll get it!
|
| Pushups also help to strengthen your back muscles, which
| helps with pullups.
| RootReducer wrote:
| It took me a solid 6 months from "never worked out a day in
| my life" to "can do a pullup".
|
| I started just hanging from the bar, then moved to using a
| stool to get above the bar and lowering myself as slowly as
| possible.
|
| Eventually, with practice, I could start holding myself in
| place with arms bent, then finally start moving upward.
|
| It was a journey, but I'm glad I did it!
| lancesells wrote:
| Congrats! I've got a very strange pull-up anecdote. During
| quarantine last year I started working on the roof of my
| building. That meant climbing up a vertical fire escape
| ladder daily with 25+ lbs of clay and all types of gear.
| Months into going up and down the ladder 10-20 times a day
| I realized I could do more pull-ups than I could ever have
| done previously.
|
| I'm still working on my roof and love it. Since last summer
| I made a pulley system to get my work up and down when it's
| too heavy or too big to fit on my back.
| montecarl wrote:
| I had the exact same experience. Hanging, then slowly
| lowering, then eventually being able to do one! Then worked
| up to 3x sets of 5, then an unrelated injury has prevented
| me from working out. I really enjoyed doing pull ups and
| the strength I gained. I'd highly recommend getting a pull
| up bar and following the reddit body weight fitness
| recommended routine[1].
|
| [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/
| dageshi wrote:
| Futon, for sleeping on. Used to wake up in the middle of the
| night with agonising cramp in my back, it reduced it by maybe
| 95%. Granted a new good bed might have achieved the same but I
| don't think I'd ever go back to a bed at this point.
| codemac wrote:
| What futon?
|
| I found the same effect just by giving up spring beds. I now
| sleep on latex, but did the foam thing for a while (T&N used to
| have an 8" bed I loved).
| dageshi wrote:
| https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00QJ26FRK/ref=ppx_yo_dt.
| ..
|
| Honestly, mostly I was just so fed up with my bed at the time
| I actually started sleeping on the floor with a duvet for
| padding. I chose that one because it would arrive the
| quickest at the time.
|
| I got the idea from travelling, in Japan and staying with a
| friend in Thailand who just had this rubber/latex pad on the
| floor. Slept really well so I decided to give it a try at
| home.
| paxys wrote:
| $600 espresso maker. Used it every day during quarantine. It has
| already paid for itself and more, and now the average coffee shop
| latte tastes terrible to me.
| jmcralves wrote:
| Surfskate!
| ro-ka wrote:
| Same for me. :D
| supernikita wrote:
| electrical piano with headphones: nobody can hear me, the quality
| of a simple roland is stunning, connects me to the time when I
| had more time and could play music, and finally, I thoroughly
| enjoy rather stupid and repetitive finger drills which put me in
| a trance far away.
| princevegeta89 wrote:
| Hardware: I bought a pair of Kef LS50 bookshelf studio monitors
| for my desk. I can't live without these.
|
| Beyerdynamic DT 770 pro 250 ohm. Another legendary pair of
| headphones which I use everyday.
|
| Also bought a Samsung 32 inch 4K monitor that made a huge
| difference in my life in terms of productivity
| gaws wrote:
| > Also bought a Samsung 32 inch 4K monitor that made a huge
| difference in my life in terms of productivity
|
| How?
| princevegeta89 wrote:
| By being able to fit 6 windows on the same screen! When I am
| coding, I have multiple IDE panes, terminal and the browser
| all on the same workspace. Helped a lot
| gaws wrote:
| Are you using a window manager to fit six windows on one
| monitor?
| runjake wrote:
| 1. MacBook Pro 13" M1. Fast, quiet.
|
| 2. Streamlight pocket flashlight. Tiny, USB rechargeable.
|
| 3. A decent drill and impact driver. (Dewalt Brushless)
|
| 4. A cordless/battery string trimmer. No more messing with
| gas/oil mixtures or lugging an extension cord around.
|
| 5. AirPods
| skeeterbug wrote:
| I purchased a battery powered hedge trimmer and edger. Things
| work great! Still on a gas powered trimmer though, is your 18v?
| axegon_ wrote:
| Strictly material: after a decade and a half of laptops only, a
| workstation takes the win by a very long shot. And with 2x
| 14-core xeons and 64 GB memory I feel like a new man. GPU is a
| bit on the low side but now is not the time for GPU's so I'll
| stick to this one until there's some sanity with the GPU prices.
|
| Otherwise dog.
| lovetocode wrote:
| Tesla Model Y and Surface Laptop 4. I love the screen on the
| surface laptop and as a developer I feel way more productive.
| Tesla is just cool
| namelosw wrote:
| I've been improving my desk accessories since the COVID breakout.
|
| Aeron Chair + IKEA IDASEN electric standing desk. With perfect
| height combination finally, I don't feel shoulder pain when
| typing. Unlike most standing desks, IDASEN is not wobbly at all.
|
| A double-decker book stand. I sometimes get distracted when I use
| the computer so I started to spend more time on paper-based
| workflow. I have serious back pain when I am writing, and taking
| notes from textbooks is not pleasant because books are not only
| too far but tend to close themselves from time to time. The
| double-decker book stands[0] solved both problems perfectly.
|
| Mac Pro. I used to have a PC and Macbook Pro and switch back and
| forth because I want Windows to play video games and macOS for
| the rest of the tasks. It was a mess. I also tried Hackintosh it
| was not good. With Mac Pro, I can reboot to Bootcamp pretty fast.
| TBH it's not a good deal but it did reduce the hassle so there's
| no regret. M1 is good and all but there's no Bootcamp and the GPU
| is not as powerful.
|
| What didn't meet the expectation are the monitor mounts. Not only
| they didn't add any value for me, but also the maximum height is
| too low for me. Eventually, I go back to the old solution: Just
| put several thick textbooks under the monitors. (my personal
| choice: CLRS + CSAPP + HTDP + Computer Networking + Algorithms
| 4th :))
|
| [0] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nice-Bookstand-Desktop-Cookbook-
| Adj... (I couldn't find a purchasable link but the picture shows
| the idea, and there should be plenty of similar products on the
| market)
| Ologn wrote:
| For me the Aeron chair. When you're working from home for a
| year, shelling out a few hundred dollars for a nice chair is
| worth it. I bought mine from a chair repair shop which usually
| deals with commercial clients, it is a refurbished chair with
| some gratis extras added by the owner after we agreed on a
| price ($450). I like that I bought it from a chair repair shop
| because I can always go back there if there is a problem but I
| have not had a problem.
| hawski wrote:
| I have a small standing desk that is really a bar table and a
| monitor mount is a space saver.
| dehrmann wrote:
| In April, 2020, I got an Aeron chair, Uplift standing desk,
| 30"+ monitor, and after wrist fatigue, the same MS Sculpt
| ergonomic keyboard and Evoluent mouse I have at work. I
| essentially recreated my work setup at home. I thought I might
| have overdone it, but a year later, zero regrets.
| ornornor wrote:
| > Just put several thick textbooks under the monitors. (my
| personal choice: CLRS + CSAPP + HTDP + Computer Networking +
| Algorithms 4th :))
|
| It always makes me chuckle inside when a company is too cheap
| to buy people proper stands for monitors and instead you see
| people use textbooks from the office reference library... and
| when you add up the cost of the actual books, it costs an order
| of magnitude more than the actual made for the purpose stand
| would cost. Computer networking and algorithms 4th alone
| already bring you in the 200$ territory if I'm not mistaken.
|
| Not a dog at you in particular, just an observation.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| > Aeron Chair + IKEA IDASEN electric standing desk.
|
| A good chair is a must-have for any office worker or PC gamer.
|
| And as a gamer, I tell fellow gamers to avoid "gaming" chairs
| and instead opt for a high-end office chair. Personally, I'm
| not a fan of the Aeron, but I have a nice Steelcase Think.
|
| Last year around this time, I also upgraded from a 9 year old
| $200 Ikea Fredrik desk to an electric Fully Jarvis.
| hateful wrote:
| Been looking for a new chair for a while - and I really like
| that Aeron allows you to NOT get the fully adjustable arm
| rests. All I did all day on my current chair (Arozzi) is
| accidentally move them when I get up from the chair - to the
| point where I took the arm apart and put a bolt in it.
|
| The anxiety of this image: https://www.btod.com/blog/wp-
| content/uploads/2019/02/steelca...
| slashdot2008 wrote:
| ski-doo summit X 850: it is the freedom machine. A challenging
| new hobby that provides access to amazing remote places and an
| escape from busy corporately owned commerical ski areas. there is
| nobody around to tell you what to do or not do and where to go or
| not. plus it is your personal ski lift for powder skiing. Riding
| side-by-side with a friend hammering up a bowl is the most
| exciting thing I've done in years.
| iansowinski wrote:
| - Braun BC02BW alarm clock - I started to sleep more regularly
| since I use it (there is no snooze option).
|
| - Trek FX 2 + lights + Thule pannier - Not so fast as I expected,
| but perfect for city commuting.
| kaybe wrote:
| > Braun BC02BW
|
| I _love_ this one, have been using it for a long time. I hope
| they never discontinue making them.
| debarshri wrote:
| This cast iron skillet from a dutch brand called Valhalla Outdoor
| was life changing for me [1]. I got it for 50 euro, use it almost
| every day to grill something.
|
| [1] https://www.valhaloutdoor.com/product/vh30h-skillet-
| met-2-ha...
| nlh wrote:
| Electronics:
|
| We moved into a free-standing house (in SF) from an apartment and
| for the first time in my adult life, security became something I
| had to think about.
|
| I bought 3x Arlo cameras -- a doorbell cam and 2x 4K cams to
| cover our patio & driveway, and I have to say, it's one of the
| best hardware purchases I've ever made. I never thought myself to
| be a "worried about home security" guy, but it's REALLY been
| great to have these.
|
| First, I get to watch the raccoons come by at night and wander
| through our yard, which is funny and fascinating :)
|
| Second, I get instant notifications when a delivery person is
| approaching so I can go greet them and they don't even have to
| ring the doorbell, and
|
| Third, it provides actual security. A homeless dude parked
| himself in front our garage a few weeks ago and settled in with
| his crack pipe (Welcome to SF everyone!), and I quickly and
| politely got on the remote audio (from overseas!), said "Please
| leave the area" in my most authoritative and polite voice, and he
| got up, waved in the universal "sorry, didn't think anyone would
| notice" way, and all was fine.
|
| Non-electronics:
|
| I've rediscovered my love for numismatics lately and I just
| bought an 1883 Morgan dollar, toned in proof 63 and man oh man
| does that bring me joy.
|
| If you're a coin nerd, you know what that all means. If not, it's
| a gorgeous colorful piece of handheld art in form of a silver
| dollar that the US mint produced in 1883 specifically for
| collectors, and it's stunningly beautiful (and was entirely out
| of reach for me when I was a 10 y/o and first got into coins).
| alexfromapex wrote:
| I bought an Epson EX9220 projector that I love
| happynacho wrote:
| Will probably get hated on but I bought a dog (yes not adopted,
| there wasn't this breed available).
|
| Made WFH much better.
|
| As for material things: * 4K monitor (BenQ PD2700U) makes
| everything much sharper and my eyes are less tired.
|
| *Ergonomic chair (Steelcase Leap) my back definitely appreciates
| it.
| Wistar wrote:
| BIG fan of the PD2700U. I also have their SW2700PT. Just great
| monitors.
| trutannus wrote:
| You gave a dog a home. That's an overall net good. It's not
| like all breeders are puppy mills. Sometimes specific breeds
| have specific temperaments, and that's a reason to specifically
| look for one.
| rozap wrote:
| Dog breeders literally invented dogs from wolves. Nothing wrong
| with supporting good ones.
| kleer001 wrote:
| Sure...
|
| But today's dog breeders are as far from their ancestors in
| terms of complexity as a modern rifle is from a atlatl.
| CountDrewku wrote:
| Nah you're gonna be supporting a creature for 10 years plus,
| get what you want. It's no one else's business. Adopted dogs
| aren't automatically more deserving of a home than pure bred
| bought dogs. I've done both and each has pros/cons.
|
| You don't know what you're getting if you get an adopted dog a
| lot of the time. It can be unpredictable. It still costs a
| decent amount of money to adopt from a good shelter.
|
| Whereas, if you buy a breed you generally know what its
| personality is going to be and what health problems it'll
| encounter. You just have to make sure it's from a legit
| breeder.
| woudsma wrote:
| I bought a Pioneer DJM-750MK2 (a 4-channel mixer). I'm super
| happy with it.
|
| Also bought a second 27-inch monitor to have a 3-monitor setup
| (macbook + 2x 27' monitors), which is fantastic, especially when
| using Ableton Live on two screens.
|
| COVID made me spend less in general, so I invested in music. Made
| lockdown more bearable. Quality music gear usually doesn't lose
| it's value.
|
| Other recent purchases I'm very happy with: - Roland TR-8S -
| Ableton Push 2 - Tascam 16x8 multitrack interface - Jomox
| T-Resonator MK2 and Jomox M-Resonator - Quality cables - New
| earpads for my AIAIAI TMA-2 headphone
|
| Music and programming is a good lockdown strategy for me.
| dionidium wrote:
| _XM /Satellite radio._ For all the talk about Netflix and Hulu
| and the like, I actually sit down to watch something on those
| services maybe once a week. But I listen to satellite radio every
| time I'm in the car. It's especially good for sports. No fumbling
| with streaming services. Just tune straight to the hometown game
| on the dial, even though I no longer live in my hometown. It's a
| bit strange to me that one never hears anything about satellite
| radio, anymore. It's a great service. The content options are
| good. And it just works.
|
| _SNOO Smart Sleeper._ It 's a $1400 smart bassinet and I was for
| obvious reasons dead-set against it -- after all, parents have
| been getting their newborns to sleep without a "smart sleeper"
| for hundreds of thousands of years, right? -- but after a few
| weeks of sleep deprivation I would have emptied my bank account
| for a good night's sleep. Our once-recalcitrant infant son fell
| asleep within seconds of first being placed in the SNOO. It
| really, really works. He's 4 months old now and mostly sleeps
| through the night.
| Groxx wrote:
| I've been super happy so far with the Drop Pandas (bluetooth
| headset). It's the first bluetooth headset I found that solidly
| beats my old $150 pair of wired headphones in audio quality in
| every way, after trying ~8 of the "best" options (my reviews are
| on amazon!). <$500 for something I'll spend _thousands_ of hours
| using in their first year is cheap, the mic is good enough to use
| for calls, and "good" headphones tend to last a decade or more.
| If you're less picky about audio, the main Sony and Bose headsets
| are also excellent, other brands are broadly not worth the money
| (endless frustrations / flaky connections / terrible mic and
| noise canceling).
|
| Also: a 100% latex mattress. They're relatively pricey for a
| mattress, but it has already out-lasted every other mattress I've
| used, and still feels like new - no sag whatsoever. Expected
| lifespan is 2x or more compared to springs, and it has
| _absolutely_ been worth the money already.
| tldrthelaw wrote:
| Newspapers.com subscription. Great for research on my house, my
| property, my family.
| apexalpha wrote:
| A new LG OLED TV. I usually don't buy into hypes, but I got a
| great second hand deal on a 55" OLED and it has BLOWN me away.
| It's picture quality is insane. If I could only watch 4K Planet
| Earth on it and nothing else it would still have been worth it.
|
| I also bought a $200 robovac by Xiaomi, which is really
| convenient, especially if you have pets.
|
| Based on experience I will probably also splurge on a new MacBook
| is they release the rumored one with ports again.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| OLED is expensive, but it's definitely worth it for movie
| watching.
|
| I upgraded from a 10 year old 42" 1080p LCD to a 65" 4K OLED
| and it's so damn nice. Darker scenes in TV/moves are so much
| clearer without a backlight shining through everything and
| washing everything out.
| lastofthemojito wrote:
| For me, the Leica Q camera. I've fallen in and out of love with
| photography over the years and it (along with a toddler who makes
| for a great subject) has certainly rekindled things for me.
|
| I took a (film) photography course as a teen that initially
| sparked this interest, and received a secondhand Canon AE-1 film
| SLR camera as a gift from a relative. I had fun experimenting
| with this for a while, but when I went to college, I guess it
| didn't make the cut of things to bring with me.
|
| While I was in college, I was somewhat aware that digital
| photography was emerging, but it was expensive and I was broke,
| so the photo thing was just shelved for a while. A couple years
| out of college, digital camera prices had come down and I had a
| good job so I treated myself to a Canon Rebel XT digital SLR.
| Having infinite film was amazing for experimentation and I got
| really into nature photography for a while.
|
| Then, like everyone else, the camera that was always in my pocket
| (attached to my smartphone) improved to the point that I didn't
| find myself reaching for a dedicated camera very often. I got a
| Sony and then a Fuji mirrorless camera with the goal of getting
| something smaller than the SLR that would still produce
| noticeably better photos than the smartphone. They did, but I
| still didn't find myself using them often, and I sold them off.
|
| Then, I guess it was 2016, I read Craig Mod's review of the Leica
| Q camera[0]. I become borderline obsessed. His description of
| "delight" in using the camera's controls nailed something that I
| hadn't previously known I was missing from the mirrorless models
| I'd tried. I wanted the Leica Q, but at a price of over $4,000,
| that was just a non-starter. I'd check in on prices of new and
| used Q's periodically, but couldn't justify it for a long time.
| Finally in 2019, two things happened: Leica introduced a
| refreshed Q2, and my first child was born. This dropped the price
| of used Q models and increased my willingness to treat myself to
| one nice thing while the rest of my life seemed to revolve around
| keeping a tiny human alive. I snagged a used Leica Q for $2,200,
| telling myself, "well, if I don't love it, I can probably resell
| it for about the same".
|
| I think that was the last time I thought about selling it. The
| camera, as described by Craig Mod, is a delight. Making wonderful
| photos of my child is too. Maybe there's a psychological aspect
| here too as the camera was a big gift to myself at a difficult
| time.
|
| I wouldn't recommend that most people buy a Leica Q (or Q2).
| They're ridiculously expensive and you can't even change the lens
| on it. But for a handful of folks like me, who enjoy doing
| mostly-manual photography with great controls and image quality,
| it just might be worth it.
|
| [0] https://craigmod.com/essays/leica_q/
| wdfx wrote:
| Third person here to mention guitars... Takamine TB-10
| jimnotgym wrote:
| I'll join in then
|
| 1) Fender Squire Classic Vibe 60s Stratocaster. I am amazed how
| good this range is now. Better than my old Mexican from the
| 90s. 2) Cheap 335 copy secondhand. I have never had a semi-
| acoustic and it added a new source for inspiration.
| Jakobeha wrote:
| Material goods:
|
| Ear plugs (silicone). Don't waste your money on noise-cancelling
| headphones, I have $200 ones and they don't compare to simple ear
| plugs. If you live in a moderately noisy area and you want peace
| and quiet, get them. They basically just make everything quiet.
| 24 from CVS = $10.
|
| OpenMove by Aftershokz - Bone-conduction headphones. Perfect for
| running and just good for listening to music. They work, they're
| way easier to wear and more comfortable than earpods, I haven't
| had any issues since I got them about 8-months ago. Plus, you can
| wear them with earplugs for music + noise cancellation. $99
|
| Cast iron skillet. This is more of a personal preference. I hate
| getting new kitchenware and then worrying about breaking it or
| getting it all stained. But these are super easy to clean and
| AFAIK practically never wear out. Also very cheap (iirc $15).
|
| Software:
|
| JetBrains tools. Basically the only software I can imagine
| spending $250 a year on, and it actually being worth it.
|
| Patreon and Github sponsors. Not much (I think $15 a month
| total). It's sad how few sponsors a lot of these projects have.
| I'm not rich, but I can afford donating $5/month here and there.
| I really think the world would be a better place if more people
| donate to open source and content creators they like.
| codezero wrote:
| Fun fact, you can put bone conducting headphones on your mouth
| and hear through your teeth :)
| alanbernstein wrote:
| I used to think noise-cancelling headphones were a gimmick. I'm
| also pretty indifferent to audio quality, so I never expected
| to buy expensive headphones. But I had an opportunity to try
| out one of the best options available right now, and the noise
| cancelling performance blew me away.
|
| With the closed-back cups sealing over my ears, and the noise
| cancelling active, I can only _just_ hear normal-volume
| conversation next to me. When also playing music, I can 't hear
| any normal sounds around my house. With white noise and
| earplugs as well, I literally can't hear a baby screaming.
| dehrmann wrote:
| 5 years ago, I got a pair of Sennheiser over-the-ear noise-
| cancelling headphones for long flights after realizing how
| loud I had the volume turned up on earbuds. I'm happy enough
| with them, but they're too plasticy for the price and rather
| bulky for traveling (so I'm considering Airpods Pro), but on
| a flight, noise canceling is absolutely not a gimmick.
| loufe wrote:
| I wouldn't give up on Sennheiser without looking at their
| new offerings just quite yet. I just bought a noise
| cancelling over the ear pair from them (after returning my
| XM4s) and their build quality is excellent - metal,
| leather, high quality plastic.
| luizfelberti wrote:
| Just an FYI here for those unaware, but Sennheiser
| recently sold off their consumer headphone division [0],
| so the future of Senn's great headphones is very much a
| mystery at the moment
|
| [0] https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/7/22424367/sonova-
| buys-sennh...
| dehrmann wrote:
| The model I have is the PXC 450. It does look like recent
| ones have gotten better.
| Jakobeha wrote:
| I had AKG headphones. I noticed a difference when noise
| cancellation was on, but there was a weird humming sound and
| they didn't work very well for me. Also, they're very bulky
| and you can't wear them while sleeping.
|
| > With white noise and earplugs as well, I literally can't
| hear a baby screaming.
|
| That's one benefit of headphones: if the earplugs aren't
| enough, you can do earplugs + headphones for ultimate noise-
| cancellation.
| MediumD wrote:
| Which headphone did you try? That sounds amazing
| rootusrootus wrote:
| Can't speak for OP, but I recently bought a pair of Sony
| WH-1000XM4 headphones and I'm pretty impressed. They don't
| make me feel the pressure in my ear like some do, and the
| noise suppression is just about magic. My wife has to text
| me from downstairs to tell me my kids are fighting even
| when it's just outside the door to my office, because I
| can't hear them at all (and I don't turn up the volume on
| my music). Just turning them on without any music makes it
| hard to understand someone talking in the same room.
| ak217 wrote:
| What's the magnitude of improvement over the standard
| option (bose quietcomfort)?
| jason_slack wrote:
| I have these same ones and AirPod Max as well. Both
| really amazing for focus, deep thought and traveling.
| reasonabl_human wrote:
| Which do you prefer? I've been rocking the Bose QC35 II's
| for years but am wondering if in-ear solutions can
| compete now for commuting on foot (metro, buses, etc.)
| rootusrootus wrote:
| > traveling
|
| For sure, that moment when you power them up on the
| airplane it's heavenly.
| bredren wrote:
| AirPod Max noise cancellation is pretty stellar.
| alanbernstein wrote:
| XM3, my understanding is that the noise cancelling
| performance is similar to the XM4.
| 101008 wrote:
| I never heard of bone-conduction headphones. They seem very
| interesting and I'd love to try them. Are they OK for calls, or
| only music? And also - is there any health issue I should be
| aware?
| wusher wrote:
| They are better for calls than music. I didn't find any
| health risks when i looked into them. Anecdotally my ears
| feel better since switching to them
| notdang wrote:
| How do they work for audiobooks/podcasts in noisy
| environments? (traffic mostly)
| ryukafalz wrote:
| Not always great. A good rule of thumb: could you easily
| hear someone talking next to you at a normal speaking
| volume? If so, you'll be able to hear with the headphones
| just fine. If not, you probably won't.
| bredren wrote:
| How are they for tinnitus, I wonder. Tinnitus doesn't really
| like closed back headphones, or generally pressure on your
| drums.
| jl2718 wrote:
| Got massively worse after a few days of use for me. I also
| used them with earplugs because I didn't understand
| tinnitus.
| bredren wrote:
| What do you do to listen to music? I try to use some
| Edifier desktop speakers during the day for most things,
| but seem to be okay with some airpod pro use. I kind of
| need that for walking the cat and sometimes to distract
| myself doing chores.
|
| I sometimes allow APM's but I have to keep the volume
| really low and the duration short. I probably shouldn't
| use them at all but I miss the richness of music too
| much.
| burntoutfire wrote:
| Why was the earplugs + bone-conducing headphones bad for
| tinnitus? Sounds like a good combination on paper - block
| out external noises with the plugs and play white noise
| on headphones to cover tinnitus. I currently use noise-
| cancelling phones for that, but of course the earplugs
| will do better for noise cancelling.
| rcoder wrote:
| Just in case the word "conduction" triggered the question
| about health risk: in this case it just means the sound is
| transferred by direct contact of the resonator on the speaker
| with your cheekbone (well, as direct as going through the
| skin can be). There's no electrical signal going into your
| body, just vibration moving through your skull directly to
| the inner ear, rather than via air into the air canal.
|
| Music is actually pretty unsatisfying at any volume above
| background levels in an otherwise-quiet room, since any
| significant bass through the conduction 'phones actually
| makes them jump out of contact with your head, resulting in a
| buzz you can feel + hear. Calls, podcasts, YT videos, etc.
| all work great.
| 101008 wrote:
| Yes, I understood that is through direct contact. My
| question is: doesn't the vibration affect your bones?
| _fs wrote:
| Bone conduction headphones are kind of like the opposite of
| noise cancelling. I like them primarily for sport use.
| Whether trail running, MTB, or in the gym, bone conduction
| headphones do not block outside noise. So wearing them I am
| more aware of my environment, which is important if people
| are coming up behind me on a trail.
| [deleted]
| anarazel wrote:
| That kind of headphones really was a significant upgrade for
| me. Being able to listen to something while still having
| environmental awareness is awesome.
|
| I do wish the max volume for the aftershokz where higher, and
| they didn't have the play/pause button trigger a redial when
| double pushed. I've accidentally done that multiple times
| (Including scaring my parents with a middle of the night call,
| due to 9 hours time difference.)
| Jakobeha wrote:
| Silicone earplugs will increase the volume of the Aftershokz.
| anarazel wrote:
| But remove the advantage of having situational awareness :)
| shireboy wrote:
| Second cast iron. We use ours daily - and it's a handmedown
| from my grandmother who also used daily for 20+ years. Once
| seasoned properly, it is non-stick, cleans easy. We just be
| sure to put a little oil on it after each use. Really the only
| skillet you need.
| jtdev wrote:
| I received a Griswold cast iron skillet from my grandmother,
| who received it from her mother (my great grandmother) many
| years ago. True heirloom, I cook with it nearly every day and
| it still looks and performs beautifully.
| basch wrote:
| Youll probably want stainless steel or enamled cast iron for
| anything with fond.
|
| Anytime you are cooking something acidic, tomatoes, vinegar,
| wine. I try not to deglaze meat brownings into sauce in cast
| iron.
|
| A stainless steel dutch oven is a great universal pan as
| well. For a "first pan" I'd probably suggest tri ply
| stainless over cast iron. The main thing I like about cast
| iron more is the pan temperature not dropping when I put
| something on it, so its great for reverse searing baked
| steaks inside the house. Most other things I find
| functionally equivalent in stainless and cast iron, including
| browning meat before I cube it or break it apart. (brown cuts
| of meat and ground meat whole!)
|
| https://www.target.com/s/tri+ply+clad?Nao=0
|
| https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=tri%20ply%20clad
| moshmosh wrote:
| I put quite a bit of effort into doing things "right" when
| I tried to board the cast-iron train. Pan was pre-seasoned,
| but I did one of those elaborate multi-step seasoning
| rituals online, using the expensive oil they recommended
| and everything, just in case. Horrible, smoke all over the
| house, smelled for a couple days. Everything sticks anyway,
| like I've never seen on any other kind of pan. Suitably-
| gentle cleaning (according to cast iron fans online) takes
| forever because there's _so much_ crap on it after every
| use. Re-seasoned it again after a bit, thinking I 'd
| screwed up. No improvement, _everything_ sticks. My wife
| refuses to cook with it at all, and I 'm pretty sure just
| seeing it in the drawer annoys her.
|
| Oh, and if a tomato or anything else somewhat-acidic
| touches it then the entire dish will taste like blood. So
| that's fun.
|
| It's alright for cooking steak (preheating for a few
| minutes on high is a _must_ , though, it's gotta be
| terrifyingly hot or _everything_ will stick, including
| steak), and if I drown things in scorching-hot oil or fat
| (say, from bacon) they they don 't stick much, but _that_
| sure isn 't healthy. The pan has _zero_ inherent non-
| stickness, only what it acquires from whatever lake of oil
| I put in it.
| AuryGlenz wrote:
| They never get as non-stick as a Teflon coating, but over
| time they're usable for pretty much everything.
|
| Screw babying it. Get a chain mail cleaner for it (and
| you definitely can use soap), use the pan often and
| especially when you're doing something oily, and soon
| enough you'll use it a lot.
| rstupek wrote:
| Professional cooks swear by carbon steel pans and they're
| surprisingly not that expensive.
| AdamN wrote:
| Yeah I bought one during lockdown and it's great and
| lower-stick than stainless steel. Better in every way
| basically.
| ska wrote:
| Professional cooks use a ton of stuff, and not all of it
| would be what they choose at home.
|
| Carbon steel is great, requires a little upkeep, but part
| of what makes it great is how it works with a really high
| heat source; the stoves in a restaurant behave very
| differently than your home one.
|
| An extreme case of this is woks. There is very little you
| can do at home to reproduce the effect of an 80k BTU
| burner and a carbon steel wok.
| ska wrote:
| > Anytime you are cooking something acidic, tomatoes,
| vinegar, wine. I try not to deglaze meat brownings into
| sauce in cast iron.
|
| I wouldn't simmer an acidic sauce in cast iron for hours,
| but this is poor advice. Deglazing will not damage the
| seasoning on cast iron pan once it is properly seasoned
| (and maintaining that is easy, contrary to lots of what you
| hear).
|
| Unlike to your experience, I don't find them functionally
| equivalent for a number of things, which is why I have both
| (and enamel cast, much better than almost all clad steel
| dutch ovens that aren't really expensive, as most of them
| don't clad far up the sides)
| basch wrote:
| I've had one dish, with multiple deglazings, that tasted
| funny after. Ill admit it may have been in my head, or
| the pan was light on seasoning. Tasted almost like the
| metallic taste of Hoegaarden.
|
| I have both, and I use 5-ply fully clad more than I use
| cast iron. My 9 qt is bottom clad only, but the lack of
| clad up the sides hasnt been an issue. The bottom surface
| is hot which is what needs to be hot on the stove. The
| sides arent getting hot spots in the oven, during brazing
| and stews.
|
| https://www.calphalon.com/cookware/cookware-by-product-
| type/...
| garrickvanburen wrote:
| Slightly off-topic, I'm very interested in your "metallic
| taste of hoegaarden" description.
|
| Metallic taste/smell in beer is a pretty significant
| fault traced to untreated wwater, old equipment, or
| lipids in the malt.
|
| There's lots of stuff in Hoegaarden (and witbiers in
| general) that can be unexpected or off balance (e.g.
| coriander, lactic acid, orange zest).
|
| Metallic, at Hoegaardens scale, would be quite unexpected
| soperj wrote:
| I'd second this. I've never tasted anything metallic in a
| Hoegaarden
| ska wrote:
| Sounds more like dirty lines...
| basch wrote:
| out of a bottle
| ska wrote:
| huh. well then I'm also in the camp of never having
| experienced it. It wasn't skunked?
| basch wrote:
| It's a very faint aftertaste, and its all Hoegaarden. One
| of the flavors leaves a "just had metal in my mouth" sort
| of feel after drinking it.
| basch wrote:
| It has to be one of the ingredients. Maybe only cilantro
| people can taste it? It's a beer I like that leaves a
| strange taste in my mouth afterwards.
| ska wrote:
| YMMV obviously. I've got a 12" cast skillet that has had
| literally many hundreds of deglazings done in it, never
| once an issue. I suspect mostly when people have a taste
| issue in a cast iron pan it's because they've read
| nonsense about never using soap on it or whatever, and
| haven't cleaned it properly.
|
| I did once ruin a seasoning making a tomato sauce, which
| was a way to learn about acidic interactions - but that
| was over hours.
|
| FWIW I had a 5 qt like that calphon but found I was
| always using my enamel cast one instead, so gave it away.
|
| One thing I really like about the cast iron skillit is
| you can treat it roughly and use it anywhere. Mines been
| in fire pits, on bbq, stovetop, oven, even a bread oven.
| Handles temperature changes without issues (unlike enamel
| and some clad) is unbeatable to sear things. Doesn't care
| what tools you use in it. Nonstick property is pretty
| good (better than steel pan, worse than teflon) and will
| still be pretty good in 20 years.
| basch wrote:
| It could have been over a long period of time, more than
| an hour. Im not trying to spread misinformation, ive just
| "ruined" (I still ate it) a dish before, or imagined it.
| ska wrote:
| I'm not discounting your experience, I was pushing back
| on the idea that you shouldn't deglaze in a cast iron
| pan.
|
| Deglazing itself is a very fast process, usually seconds.
| If you are doing something over an hour, it's likely
| simmering. If you did that in a sauce that was still
| acidic (rather than had some acid thrown in to deglaze or
| whatever) then I could see that being a problem.
| basch wrote:
| I gotcha. Honestly, I mostly like deglazing in stainless
| steel because I can see what I'm doing. I can tell I've
| scraped the brown off. And I prefer deglazing in
| stainless to enameled, because it feels like less effort.
|
| I'm not super careful about not using acidic things in
| cast iron, and I do deglaze in it on occasion, it's just
| a little harder imho. I can see how my original comment
| reads.
| tekchip wrote:
| I'm going to second this. I don't understand why people
| keep buying cast iron when steel has the same core
| traits(durability primarily) but so many more upsides.
| Thinner, lighter, heats faster. Steel is where it's at IMO.
| Enameled for anything acidic otherwise your seasoning is
| gone.
| fancifalmanima wrote:
| I have a cast iron skillet and a stainless steel skillet,
| and I almost always use the stainless. The cast iron
| almost always only comes out when I need a second
| skillet.
|
| When I'm searing something, I even prefer that it sticks
| slightly more to the stainless as it typically releases
| when it's done anyways -- and my anecdotal experience is
| that I get a better sear from the surface of the meat
| sticking to the skillet more firmly.
| basch wrote:
| Agreed on the stick, I prefer it.
|
| Cast iron gives additional radiant heat because it's
| black, so if I am cooking steak in the oven I pretend
| like it gives me more uniform temperature increase than
| depending on conductive and convective heat. If I am
| browning meat and not baking it after, Ill use steel.
|
| I like cast iron for potatoes too. Hashes. Not sure why.
| Holds temp better?
| basch wrote:
| >otherwise your seasoning is gone.
|
| And iron leached into whatever your eating. I know thats
| considered in the myth category, but I have at least one
| dish Ive prepared that ended up tasting pretty metallicy.
| Could be expectations manifesting reality.
|
| I think people get turned off to steel when they put a
| new pan on the stove, dont let it heat up, bake something
| to it, and its an arm and a leg to clean the first time.
| Unlike nonstick, it has a bit of a learning curve. Cast
| iron doesnt show stains the same way, and you can use a
| chain mail scrubber. Scratching steel does slightly
| change its nonstick properties, so dont use steel wool.
| Erwin wrote:
| Staub iron cookware has an enamel, so it does not require
| seasoning nor does it have issues with tomatoes or other
| acidic things. I use their cocotte, since I often put things
| in the oven but it's also good for e.g. steaks at max
| temperature.
| ska wrote:
| Enamel cast iron e.g. Staub/Le Creuset or their more
| reasonably priced alternative is great ... but it does not
| function the same as raw cast iron.
| Kototama wrote:
| You don't get damages on the enamel when cooking a steak?
| mynameisash wrote:
| I bought a cheapy Lodge skillet -- 12", I think? -- a while
| back because I succumbed to the cast iron craze and really
| wanted to try cooking on induction. I figured I'd just
| upgrade to a bigger skillet when necessary.
|
| It's now like 7 years later and my skillet shows no signs of
| giving up, and I don't think buying yet another kitchen
| device would make my wife happy. Should have gone with a
| bigger skillet to begin with.
|
| Also, induction cooktops are _amazing_.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Also got a Lodge (two now, as you say, needed a bigger one
| as well). Took an angle grinder to it with an abrasive pad
| wheel installed. Smoothed it right up.
| jeffwass wrote:
| Why did you need to grind the Lodge?
| AuryGlenz wrote:
| I did the same thing to mine. They have a rough surface
| when you buy them unlike old cast iron pans, apparently -
| though I don't know if they're smooth from use or came
| that way.
| mod wrote:
| In the glory days, cast iron pans were milled perfectly
| smooth on the cooking surface.
|
| Lodge casts their pans without surfacing, so you have a
| porous surface. I have a lodge and it's okay, but I
| prefer my antique Wagner when I can. It sticks less and
| it also has been in my family a really long time.
| jfengel wrote:
| 7 years? It's still brand new!
|
| Just wait until your kids get their hands on it. Mine is
| literally inherited from somebody's grandmother and it's
| awesome. Though sadly, its sibling died doing what it loved
| -- making bacon.
| vnorilo wrote:
| Same here. In addition I like the fact that if some of the
| materials get absorped in the food for some reason, it's just
| .. iron.
|
| Contrast with fraying teflon (which you should immediately
| discard, of course) that we ought not ingest.
| tomtheelder wrote:
| I would like to throw in a strong rec for carbon steel.
|
| I was (and to a degree still am) a big cast iron guy, but I
| find that these days I use my carbon steel pans much, much
| more frequently. They share many of the benefits of cast iron
| in terms of durability, oven safety, high temp cooking,
| natural non-stick, etc. However they can be much, much
| lighter and their heating properties make them superior for
| many, and I would argue most (but not all!), applications.
|
| These days if someone said they needed 1 quiver killer pan, I
| would unquestionably recommend a carbon steel skillet over a
| cast iron one.
|
| If you're someone who likes using cast iron, I think you are
| doing yourself a major disservice by not trying carbon steel.
| pjlegato wrote:
| The big win for cast iron is its higher heat capacity. It
| takes longer to heat up, but once hot, the temperature
| drops much less when you add cold / room temperature food
| to fry, resulting in crisper and less soggy output.
| tomtheelder wrote:
| Heat capacity is not a straight win, it's a double edged
| sword. Like you said temp drops less when food goes in,
| and that can be great in certain applications. However,
| you also lose a lot in the way of temperature control.
| The slow rate at which it heats up and cools down means
| finer temperature adjustments are much harder to do.
|
| In my experience the searing/frying performance of carbon
| steel is not an issue for the overwhelming majority of
| things I cook, ergo I don't really care that cast iron
| has a higher capacity. The tighter temperature control,
| on the other hand, is always nice.
|
| I still use my cast irons sometimes for things where that
| heat capacity is really nice (searing a huge steak or
| something like that), but I use carbon steel much more
| frequently.
| jamcohen wrote:
| It also depends on your stove. Mine's electric and
| alternates the heating element on and off to try to
| maintain the desired temp. The heat capacity helps to
| smooth out temperature fluctuations but if I had a nice
| gas stove I'd probably switch to carbon steel.
| lmilcin wrote:
| I bought a set of carbon steel pans and my cast iron ones
| fell into complete disuse.
|
| Especially carbon steel crepes pans
| (https://www.debuyer.com/en/poele-a-crepes-
| mineral-b-1472.htm...) are completely unbeatable. I have
| two of them and I can feed a small crowd of family and
| friends faster than they can eat. Nothing sticks if you
| take proper care.
|
| The best thing, they are dirt cheap.
| aceazzameen wrote:
| Same here. After getting rid of our scratched teflon
| pans, we bought large and small de Buyer carbon steel
| pans. We have 2 cast iron pans also, but barely use them
| anymore. The lighter carbon steel ones are much more
| versatile.
|
| We do, however, still use our cast iron griddle for
| making bacon in the oven. Comes out perfect every time.
|
| For anyone reading who is new to carbon steel, the trick
| to non-stick cooking is making sure the pan gets hot. And
| if something does stick? It pretty much wipes right off
| while the pan is still hot.
| lmilcin wrote:
| Another trick is to use sharp metal utensils. If you use
| wood it will just smear stuff on the pan, not helping at
| all.
|
| By complete accident my spatula is also from DeBuyer
| (https://www.debuyer.com/en/flexible-turner-slotted-
| fkofficiu...). It is very sharp and it easily scrapes
| anything that dares to stick (due to my mistake of not
| getting it hot enough), without smearing it.
| mhb wrote:
| This sounds good, but I think I need to recalibrate my
| cheapness scale. $75 for an 8" fry pan isn't what I'd
| call cheap.
| owenfi wrote:
| Maybe this one? https://debuyer-usa.com/collections/blue-
| steel/products/blue...
| mhb wrote:
| Aha. Thanks.
| penguin_booze wrote:
| I'm a recent member of the carbon steel club, and I like it
| so far. I'm really loving the carmelization on my cheese
| omlette!
| bredren wrote:
| We have a couple cast irons. When I was first introduced to
| them I was pretty turned off by the idea of not doing the
| same soap and water scrub process I do with everything else.
|
| But handling them now is just part of the ritual.
|
| The biggest change I've had since starting using them a
| couple years ago is moving from the ball scrubby disposable
| two a Chainmaile ringlet style scrubby.
|
| Using the chain mail has a different feel it slides easier
| and it washes clean much easier.
|
| I recommend checking out the chain mail style scrubbers for
| cast-iron.
| ska wrote:
| > I was pretty turned off by the idea of not doing the same
| soap and water scrub process I do with everything else.
|
| You can mostly do the same soap and water scrub as
| everything else. Assuming you use a reasonably modern dish
| soap an not something harsh, if you don't leave it soaking
| in the soapy water it will be fine.
| Spivak wrote:
| Yep the "don't use soap on cast iron" is a holdover from
| older soaps that had lye in them that could strip the
| seasoning (hence why you can use lye to reseason your
| pan).
|
| If your seasoning is perfect (it isn't) you could in
| theory leave it to soak too since it would be completely
| encased in the polymerized fat.
| ska wrote:
| Yeah, the "don't soak it rule" isn't because it will
| explode if it's underwater for long, just that there are
| inevitably gaps and it doesn't do you any good. Just get
| it in there, have a good scrub, and rinse off.
| silicon2401 wrote:
| > cast iron skillet
|
| Personally I think these are a waste of money unless you live
| in a house. Trying to season one of these smoked up our
| apartment for hours. Apparently we didn't do it right because
| it's still sticky even with oil, but there's no way we're going
| through the headache again until we have a house.
| greggyb wrote:
| How does the ownership structure of your residence affect
| your ability to clear smoke from a room, or your ability to
| effectively season a cast iron skillet?
| [deleted]
| ricardobayes wrote:
| If they do this again they might risk someone calling the
| super or the landlord. I have heard it's pretty easy to get
| evicted in the US, even using a loud blender can get you in
| trouble.
| neonological wrote:
| No it's not. It's not that easy. It's actually hard and
| annoying to evict someone. You can stay in an apartment
| for months in California while paying no rent.
| ricardobayes wrote:
| Three days of non-payment does it in Iowa. Not suggesting
| it's right, but that's how it is.
| stevewodil wrote:
| Depends on the state
| silicon2401 wrote:
| The apartments that my friends and I live in have small
| windows and only on one side, and one door. Not to mention
| that venting smoke out into a hallway can just trigger
| hallway smoke alarms.That's not really a scenario where I
| want to deal with a lot of smoke.
|
| In houses (notice I never said anything about ownership,
| don't know why you brought that up), you can open up
| windows on all sides and generally have at least two doors,
| which allows for much better ventilation than what's
| possible in the apartments that I've been in recently.
| stormcode wrote:
| Some apartments you can't open the front door or the smoke
| will set off the whole building. You also have a harder
| time turning off fire alarms since the building doesn't
| want people disabling them as they are all entwined.
| skrtskrt wrote:
| I am about to move into a new-construction apartment in
| California which means no gas stove.
|
| Ditched my cast iron in anticipation because the one I have
| has a rough bottom that would definitely scratch up the glass
| cook top of the electric stove.
|
| Since I ditched the cast iron, honestly haven't seen much of
| a difference in how well I can cook things using a regular
| nonstick pan - my main use is cooking/frying up chicken
| thighs so the skin is nice and crispy.
|
| Buying the cast iron did give me the original inspiration to
| start making these recipes though.
| meristohm wrote:
| We use a couple cast-iron skillets on our glass-topped
| electric-coil stove (likely from the 90s?). One skillet has
| a bump on the bottom that I haven't filed off yet. The
| glass surface seems fine, but if you're renting it makes
| sense to be cautious.
| bluGill wrote:
| Really the only advantage of cast iron is it is cheap,
| lasts forever, and you can bake with them. Other than that
| any pan works about the same. Your choices are about a
| compromise of weight, how long it lasts, and price. I do
| once make in my cast iron once in a while, but other than
| that any pan I have works. I keep the cast iron on the
| stove though because it is my favorite.
|
| Regular non-stick works just as well for about 3 years or
| so (very much depends on how much you use it, and how
| careful you are), then the non-stick wears out and they
| stick worse than anything else.
|
| I have stainless pans that work just as well as cast iron,
| but they cost more. They end up spending most of the time
| hidden away but I do use them and won't get rid of them.
| meristohm wrote:
| Yeah---I bake sourdough and cornbread in our skillets,
| sometimes one upside down over the other for steaming.
| basch wrote:
| I cant recommend this enough for great heat in small
| spaces. Extremely portable as well.
|
| https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/tillreda-portable-induction-
| coo...
| atatatat wrote:
| > would definitely scratch up the glass cook top of the
| electric stove.
|
| I'm imagining the size of your phone case right now.
| salamandersauce wrote:
| You can get enameled ones you don't need to season. Le
| Creuset makes expensive examples. I love mine. I like that
| works well in both the oven and stove.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I'm guessing it is a vent hood over the stove you are missing
| in the apartment? That allows us to season our cast iron
| skillets without any headache.
|
| Picked up a chainmail-like "dish rag" (it is truly just a
| swatch made up of links of metal) that beautifully cleans the
| skillet after meals but preserves the _seasoning_.
|
| Yeah, iron skillet is our go-to now.
| sokoloff wrote:
| I love my cast iron skillet for some things (and have a
| house), but I can't see how having a house made the seasoning
| process any different than if I'd done it it my old
| apartment. It smoked the same and the kitchen exhaust fan did
| an OK-not-great job of pulling it outside, just like it would
| have in my old apartment kitchen which also had a range vent
| that went outside (and frankly worked better than my house
| one which is downdraft due to fancy-kitchen design
| shenanigans).
| silicon2401 wrote:
| > my old apartment kitchen which also had a range vent that
| went outside
|
| Not everyone lives in an apartment with a range vent that
| goes outside. I've personally never seen that in my life.
| sokoloff wrote:
| Not everyone's house does either, though (making it not a
| house vs apartment thing).
| gknoy wrote:
| I think the main difference might be that in your house, if
| you season a pan and end up with lots of lasting smoke
| everywhere, or even an errant fire alarm, you own it so you
| can elect to not care. In an apartment, neighbors might
| complain.
| katbyte wrote:
| Live in an apartment and it's not been a problem, if it was
| still sticky you probably used too much oil. And once
| seasoned you can just quickly wash with soap, dry, very
| lightly coat and with oil and toss on the burner till it
| starts to smoke.
| tastyfreeze wrote:
| Animal fats are better than vegetable oils. Vegetable oils
| polymerize into a sticky substance. You don't really need to
| season a cast iron pan. Just keep it oiled, use a metal
| spatula, and wash after use(deglaze if needed). The metal
| spatula helps keep the cook surface smooth.
| dmt0 wrote:
| Flax seed oil works great for seasoning.
| http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-
| te...
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > Personally I think these are a waste of money unless you
| live in a house
|
| They're not, and if seasoning is a concern, you can get
| preseasoned; you should almost never need to reseason with
| proper care.
| res0nat0r wrote:
| Do you not have a standard hood over your stove? Seasoning
| has never caused issues for me in the 4 or so places I've
| lived and done this. Usually keeping the oven door shut fixes
| 98% of the issues, and the fan above on high sucks up
| anything else.
| tomlagier wrote:
| You can just use it like a normal, heavy duty pan. The
| difference in use and flavor between seasoned and unseasoned
| is pretty minor, IMO.
|
| The real advantage is that they're so cheap relative to their
| utility. They heat evenly and stand up to incredible abuse at
| a fraction of the cost of a normal pan.
| basch wrote:
| Heating evenly is a benefit of aluminum not iron.
|
| Clad steel is a nice middle ground, either with aluminum or
| copper. More even heat distribution, long lasting without
| the care regimen of cast iron. They arent expensive either.
| tomlagier wrote:
| Huh, TIL. I had assumed the thickness of the iron would
| have lead to better heating, but it looks like both
| aluminum and steel heat much more evenly.
|
| I still argue that the care regimen is overblown, you can
| scrub with soap and a sponge and as long as you're not
| just grinding at the surface it will be fine. You can
| soak it, it's fine. We treat our cast iron like any other
| pan and it's really not a big deal - we just add
| appropriate oil if we took off too much of the bonded oil
| the last time we cooked.
| johnvaluk wrote:
| Note that seasoning cast iron has nothing to do with
| flavor. It refers to the coating that develops after
| seasons of use. The primary benefit is that it prevents
| rust. A very nice side effect is that food tends to stick
| to it less. Seasoning is best accomplished in a controlled
| environment, but it's also fine to just start using it
| (with oil) and lightly clean without soap after use.
| Eventually, it might start to develop a useful coating in
| key areas.
| ayyy wrote:
| I steam clean it (hot water + hot pan + stiff brush),
| then back on the stove to dry off and apply a light layer
| of avocado oil.
|
| Leave it shiny on your stove and ready for next use.
|
| The important thing with cast iron is to clean it
| _immediately_ , before you've started eating. But this is
| actually pretty easy because steam cleaning is so
| effective and cast iron is really durable.
|
| It takes about 30 seconds to clean it and rub with oil.
| basch wrote:
| Or let it cool down, and use chain mail.
|
| For seasoning to form the oil needs to turn into plastic.
| A wet layer of oil that isnt heated wont do that.
| gordon_freeman wrote:
| Totally agree. They are not easy to clean and need to season
| properly with a bit of oil and mine always smells of cooking
| oil that is stuck on it and never comes off how much I wash
| it.
|
| Edit: The cooking oil we mostly use is Ghee (clarified
| butter) to cook vegetarian dishes on our cast iron skillet.
| tastyfreeze wrote:
| Baking soda will remove the polymerized oil. What type of
| oil you use is important. Animal fats don't polymerize like
| most vegetable oils do. If your pan smells like the last
| thing you cooked wash it, dry it with heat, and wipe a thin
| layer of oil to store it.
|
| A metal spatula is necessary as well. Plastic and rubber
| aren't stiff enough to scrape the cook surface smooth.
| batch12 wrote:
| I also use salt as an abrasive for stubborn bits.
| jkereako wrote:
| I used cast iron in my apartment for five years. My range was
| even electric.
|
| The cast iron community of the internet overthinks its care
| and usage. To season, just use it. To use it, don't restrict
| yourself (some recommend against tomato sauce because of the
| acidity, for. example). To clean it, get yourself as scrubber
| [1] to remove the high spots and wipe the remaining residue
| with a paper towel. Done.
|
| It's a hearty hunk of metal that's been in kitchens for
| generations. It can withstand a lot.
|
| [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Cleaner-Stainless-Chainmail-
| Scrubber-...
| kstrauser wrote:
| This is so true. I guarantee my ancestors out in the woods
| of Pennsylvania didn't spend any time deliberately
| seasoning their skillets. They were tools to be used, not
| decorations to be delicately and painstakingly maintained.
| mindcrime wrote:
| So much this. Forget all the weird voodoo rituals and what-
| not. Clean the skillet, and fry a pound of bacon (or two)
| in it. Now it's seasoned. It isn't much more complicated
| than that.
| hateful wrote:
| > Patreon and Github sponsors.
|
| This was a big one for me. I donate ~2 to not just projects I
| happen to like, but to ones that I've used and have given me a
| good return on investment.
|
| Honorable mentions: Vuejs, Bootstrap Vue
| fho wrote:
| I got some bone conducting ear phones lately and really hate
| them ... both the 30EUR and the 120EUR versions I tried.
|
| Super cheap sound ... basically no bass response.
|
| My brain got used to it thou and I still use them daily,
| listing to (mostly speech) podcasts on the (bike) commute.
| soledades wrote:
| FWIW noise-cancelling headphones and earplugs are not mutually
| exclusive, and are actually a pretty good combo for living next
| to a train track.
| ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote:
| What brand ear plugs do you recommend? I bought some just last
| week on amazon (some foam ones from Howard Leight) and it was a
| toss-up which were good and which were bad according to the
| reviews and descriptions.
| wolfpack_mick wrote:
| If you've got some money, get custom molded earplugs made for
| sleeping. Places selling hearing aids sell them. They spray
| some foam in your ear to take the print, and you get the
| custom plugs in the mail a few weeks later. EUR140 is a lot
| for earplugs but it's amazing that they just slot into place
| in your ear, they're easy to pull out, and they're so small
| you don't feel them wether you're lying on them or wear
| headphones over them.
| texasbigdata wrote:
| Plus you can adjust the sound absorption in some models and
| get specific decibel reduction out of the gate and overall
| it will be higher than foam.
|
| Expensive but also helpful for in person concerts.
| nojito wrote:
| I love the Etymotic Research ER20
|
| I also think they make the best earbuds on the market as
| well.
| ricardobayes wrote:
| How easy are they to put in? Also are you meant to clean
| them from time to time?
| dsr_ wrote:
| As easy as any other ear plug; yes, you can and should
| clean them with a mild soap and water every so often.
|
| The amazing thing about them is that they let you go to a
| live concert and hear all the music properly, without
| pain.
| akamaka wrote:
| I've been extremely satisfied with Happy Ears. They are tiny
| and unobtrusive, and very comfortable.
| dugditches wrote:
| Earplugs are fussy things. But usually as long as they're not
| 'corks'(the old yellow foam cylinders)you should be fine.
|
| Least with Howard Light it's Greens<Pinks<Oranges. Greens
| should be more than enough and are 'softer' if you've got a
| smaller ear canal. All of them work well.
|
| You have to ensure you're putting them in correctly. Read the
| box. Roll the plug in your fingers, reach your other arm over
| you head to grab the top of the opposite ear, gently pull on
| the top of your ear, and insert the plug. You should feel &
| hear it expand forming a seal.
|
| You can reuse foam ones a couple of times(can even get them
| corded), but be very, very wary of infections. And always put
| the same earplug back in the same ear(thus you don't spread
| anything).
| ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote:
| Thank you!
| Jakobeha wrote:
| I just get basic CSV silicone earplugs. Nothing special, but
| they work surprisingly well and only cost $10.
|
| Foam earplugs are supposed to me more effective, but
| apparently harder to wear and sometimes less comfortable.
| patrickdward wrote:
| Check out the wax ones by Ohropax
| ChrisKingWebDev wrote:
| I've tried just about every musician earplug on the market,
| including custom molded electric ones. For any amount of
| money, the best results I've had were with
| https://www.earasers.net/products/earasers. If I were to re-
| purchase these, I would consider the EU rated ones, which
| have a few extra DBs of protection.
|
| If you aren't singing or don't need to hear your own voice as
| well, you can also get away with cheaper percussion earplugs
| like these:
| https://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/vater-earplugs
|
| I would say these are both good enough for the casual
| musicians / audience members. I would only upgrade back to
| electric ones if I were buying actual in ear monitors, but I
| doubt any of my bands will get to that point.
| andrewzah wrote:
| I recommend etymotic research ones. They cut frequencies more
| uniformly. The typical foam ones are slightly better at noise
| reduction, but they make everything sound incredibly muffled.
| I haven't had issues with any particular brand of foam ones
| though, if just cutting out noise is your goal.
|
| The best would be custom molded earplugs, but those are
| fairly expensive.
| technofiend wrote:
| I'm glad you recommended them because if you hadn't, I
| would have. Like you said they're particularly useful for
| preserving your hearing at live music venues without
| muddling the audio. As someone who _didn 't_ have hearing
| protection and attended some really loud venues, the
| hearing damage I have is a real pain the backside. There's
| a deep notch in the middle of my hearing range so going to
| a pub means I hear shuffling of feet and clinking of
| glasses better than I hear people talking to me even though
| they're closer and louder. Similarly cranking up the audio
| on a conference line means getting a painful spike of noise
| from join/leave beeps when the levels are right to hear
| speakers clearly.
|
| Can't recommend that people wear hearing protection enough
| in general and at least for me etymotic make for a pleasant
| experience.
| koolba wrote:
| > I hate getting new kitchenware and then worrying about
| breaking it or getting it all stained.
|
| Cast iron is awesome but I now have the reverse problem,
| constant fear I'm going to crack my counter top.
| [deleted]
| mattpratt wrote:
| Aftershokz have transformed my relationship with cycling. I've
| always been hesitant to cycle with in ear headphones for safety
| reasons.
|
| Aftershokz are perfect.
| andrewzah wrote:
| I agree. Aftershokz changed my running completely. I pair
| them with my garmin fenix and no longer have to deal with
| wires or being isolated from my environment.
| jfengel wrote:
| You really liked the OpenMove for running? I've been struggling
| to find really stable BlueTooth phones. (I liked the Pixel-
| branded wired phones, actually, but for stupid reasons they no
| longer seem to work with my phone.)
|
| I run a whole bunch, so it matters a lot. My favorite thus far
| have been surprisingly cheap ($20) "retro" JLab phones that
| look like the kind I used to run with before everybody switched
| to earbuds. Build quality is mediocre but I just want to be
| able to hear stuff.
|
| I'd be willing to spend $79 on the OpenMove (that's what I see
| on their web site), but it's a very different approach so it's
| good to know that it works for you.
| patrickdward wrote:
| For sleeping or other extended use at home, wax earplugs like
| those from Ohropax work well and are more comfortable than
| other materials.
| arbuge wrote:
| I did ear plugs for a long time but really disliked the
| discomfort (to me at least) of inserting them in my ears. I
| found hearing protectors, typically made for industrial
| purposes, to be much more comfortable and effective.
|
| Just do a search for "noise reduction earmuff" for this option.
| They're obviously not a good solution for sleeping but work
| well for working.
| codemac wrote:
| There are also my favorite, which go over the ear canal
| rather than inside: Mack's Pillow Soft Silicone Earplugs
| pllbnk wrote:
| I think some people have narrow or more sensitive ear canal.
| Give a try to kids' ear plugs and also see instructions how
| to insert them correctly (effortlessly by pulling the ear
| up). I had a issue with foam ear plugs due to the pressure,
| but kids' foam ear plugs are perfect for me, even for side
| sleeping.
| User23 wrote:
| A pleasant property of the cast iron skillet is that I can
| preheat it to an exact temperature in the oven. To make popcorn
| I drop some ghee in it and put it in and set the preheat to
| 450. The second the oven comes to temperature I pull it out,
| put it on medium high add the corn and cover and shake
| occasionally. Usually have from zero to at most five unpopped
| kernels this way.
|
| The preheat in the oven trick is good for steaks too.
| ketamine__ wrote:
| Ear plugs are really important for being a nomad and traveling.
| You never know how noisy a place might be and the noise level
| could actually change during your stay. I typically bring 30.
| But more is always better.
| smusamashah wrote:
| Remarkable 2. It does what it says and does it well.
| danecek099 wrote:
| +1
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