[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game ...
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Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than
you expected?
I'm looking for things that help more than expected or in ways you
wouldn't expect. It could be a second monitor, a really good mouse
or even a microplane.
Author : Cr0s
Score : 134 points
Date : 2022-02-06 10:28 UTC (12 hours ago)
| tkuraku wrote:
| A 43" monitor from Dell. https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-
| ultrasharp-43-4k-usb-c-.... It's wide enough that you can
| comfortably have three panes of code side by side and also tall
| enough that you can see a lot all at once. It's 4k, but it's so
| big you don't need much scaling to be comfortable.
| namibj wrote:
| Iiyama also has both a digital signage and a desktop monitor as
| competition, both using MVA panels (the former's is even rated
| at 5000:1 typical static contrast).
|
| They might well be cheaper; I switched to the digital signage
| one as my daily driver because my old 40" 4k's backlight PSU
| has become too weak to be useful and that model of screen got
| EOL'd (the desktop variant I mentioned above was released 2~3
| months after I bought mine).
|
| But unless you can color-calibrate yourself on the source, I'd
| recommend against the digital signage models as they don't
| offer any color profiles/factory calibration.
| type0 wrote:
| In no particular order: Trackball, mechanical keyboard, IPS
| display, SSD, coffee bean grinder, e-ink reader, nifty fifty
| lens, electret XLR mic, DAC for stereo system.
| Bandrsnatch wrote:
| In the early 1990's I worked for a communications company and I
| recall saying that the cell phone was a game changer and that it
| would be used for more things than the current computer which was
| the biggest tech item being purchased at the time. Flash forward
| to 2022 and I am travelling across the world and I noticed that
| everything one needs to do requires a cell phone app from seeing
| a menu (QR codes) making reservations, to ordering tickets,
| ordering an Uber ride, to getting directions, getting on a plane,
| showing your vaccination status, checking your health vitals,
| face timing appointments. EVERYTHING! The cell phone became more
| important and powerful than I ever imagined and the cell phone
| has still not reached full maturity as a communications device.
| sys_64738 wrote:
| Yeah, I remember using the internet back in 1991 for the first
| time and thinking if only I could use this at home or on the
| train. I saw my first mobile phone and pager back in 1994 then
| it kind of made sense. I remember trying to explain it to
| others but nobody grasped the internet existed outside
| academia.
| sofixa wrote:
| * an Onyx Boox Nova Air. It's an Android tablet with an e-ink
| display which i use mainly for reading web articles and RSS
| feeds, although I've tried the note taking ( with stylus and OCR)
| and it's fine, but not really my thing ( I like taking notes with
| my keyboard).
|
| * A small waterproof speaker for the bathroom which i use to
| listen to short podcasts ( like Revolutions by Mike Duncan, in
| the 20-30 minute range) during my morning routine, shaving,
| taking showers, etc
| bikingbismuth wrote:
| Bathroom speaker has been definite life improved for me. Side
| note: I try to find ones that don't have really annoying "my
| battery is low" noises. I had one that played this terrible
| bell sound and it destroyed my morning vibe.
| alanfranz wrote:
| A very large display. I got a 4k 43" display, with a bit of
| retina magnification, and I can sit properly without slumping, my
| back fully straight on my seat.
|
| I don't suffer back pain anymore.
| alias_neo wrote:
| How far are you sitting from that monster? I've never
| understood having large format displays for work (programming
| in my case).
|
| I once (before children) had 3x28" 4K displays but they had to
| wrap pretty tight around my sitting position otherwise I had no
| chance of seeing what's at the far ends.
| alanfranz wrote:
| I think my desk is about 90cm deep, I'd say I stay about
| 100/120cm from my eyes to the display.
|
| Sometimes I just don't place things to the edges or the very
| bottom. A 37" or 40" display would suffice but I didn't find
| any, and 32" is too small imho.
| alias_neo wrote:
| Oh yeah a metre plus is pretty far. I sit about 30-40cm
| from my screen unless I'm sitting back in my chair.
| BiteCode_dev wrote:
| That's why I have high hopes for the Simula One. I always feel
| like I could get a bigger screen. Finally, I may be able to
| nothing but screen.
| bemmu wrote:
| Adjustable stand for your phone (gorilla stand or tripod). Helps
| to position your phone during video chats such that everyone is
| in the picture. When buying make sure it supports both vertical
| and horizontal.
| Turing_Machine wrote:
| The Amazon Kindle has completely transformed the way I read for
| pleasure.
|
| It is not as satisfactory for technical books, or anything with a
| lot of illustrations, but for standard novels it was a real game-
| changer.
| pull_my_finger wrote:
| I've heard this a lot, but when you get good at formatting your
| ebooks it becomes nice for them as well. I generally use a
| combination of briss[1] and k2pdfopt[2] to crop the margins and
| sometimes split on columns etc for pdfs and it makes all the
| difference. Sometimes it can require a fair bit of manual
| tweaking, but you only have to do it once and it's very much
| worth it in reading experience.
|
| [1]: https://sourceforge.net/projects/briss/
|
| [2]: https://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/
| mikewarot wrote:
| Long, LONG ago I got a MicroSolutions 300 Megabyte External Hard
| drive, you could plug it in to a parallel printer port, boot the
| driver disk, and BAM... all of your tools were available.
|
| A decade ago, I got my first SSD drives, those were game
| changers. Boot times dropped like a rock, and performance went
| through the roof.
|
| I got a 32" HDMI monitor just before Covid hit... I'm VERY glad I
| did so. I've been stuck at home with Long Covid for almost 2
| years now, it makes it so much easier to see what's going on. It
| was well worth the money.
|
| As for software, GIT is the best thing since Turbo Pascal. I
| assume you use it already.
|
| Oh, and consider getting a 3d printer of some form, along with a
| CNC router. Those might come in handy for home projects.
| y4mi wrote:
| > _I got my first SSD drives_
|
| And to experience it all over again with proper nvme drives was
| very enjoyable indeed. Cold boots in about 5s now vs 20-60s
| with the old ssds of back then really makes shutting
| down/starting up into a very different experience again
| ldoughty wrote:
| > And to experience it all over again with proper nvme drives
| was very enjoyable indeed.
|
| Second this... Felt exactly the same as getting SSDs for the
| first time.
| BiteCode_dev wrote:
| https://shadow.tech/
|
| I love the laptop factor, but I need a good GPU sometimes. There
| are ways to plug one using USB-C, and I wanted to go for that
| first.
|
| But my little bro, a gamer, told me it was a waste of money. For
| $29 a month, I can get a remote beast of a computer with Windows
| 10 on it and use it as much as I want.
|
| At first, I wasn't convinced. Primo, I'd have to upload all of my
| stuff. Secondo, what about the latency ?
|
| Well, I'm not playing multiplier online games, so it turns out
| the latency is imperceptible for my use cases. It's not your
| typical VNC setup, they optimized their client and protocol and I
| sometimes forget I'm not on a local machine.
|
| Second, OVH is behind the brand, so their uplink is crazy good.
| Which means uploading and downloading things is very fast.
| Sometimes it's even better to stream movies from the shadow and
| watch it remotely than to use my local connection O_o
|
| Eventually I saw the $2000 GPU I wanted to buy, and realize that
| it would take me more than 5 years of shadow usage to reach that
| price. After which my GPU would get old anyway, and I would need
| another one.
|
| Bonus: it takes no space on my desk, doesn't make noise, doesn't
| heat, and I can use it when I travel, so I have the buffed up GPU
| at my disposal at my clients sites, in holidays, anywhere with
| decent wifi.
|
| Because yes, the latency is good enough that I actually don't
| bother to plug my ethernet cable anymore: wifi works fine. Hotel
| wifi sucks though :)
|
| Unlike gaming streaming services, you are not limited to a gaming
| provider, you can reuse your steam account or gog games. You are
| actually not limited to game, you have a full Windows 10 at your
| disposal. You can do video edition, model training or 3D
| rendering. Not crypto mining though, according to the terms of
| use. In fact, nothing that requires background tasks as the
| computer shuts down as soon as no human use it (I assume they
| make money by sharing the hardware).
|
| But if you do want to play, it's nice. I tested Borderlands 2
| with all settings cranked to the max, it works smoothly,
| including a with a controller plugged with BT into the laptop!
|
| It's not without any problem, obviously:
|
| - one or twice a day, the image will glitch, and I will lose
| control for a few seconds. So don't do remote surgery or bank
| your MMR on it.
|
| - the linux client just doesn't work on the lastest Ubuntu. I
| have to reboot every time to my windows session.
|
| - I'm in France, so YMMV, since I have no idea how good the ping
| to their server is from the US. Work fine from Germany.
|
| - if you alt tab for too long the shadow client (from the laptop
| windows, not the shadow windows), it will consider you are not
| using the machine and disconnect (probably part of their business
| model). I lost data this way.
|
| - the GPU you get depends of where you are. Some get a P5000 with
| 16GB GDDR5X, some a GTX 1080 with 8GB GDDR5X and some a RTX4000
| with 8GB GDDR6
|
| - if it gets through, it can act as a VPN. Unfortunately, the
| ports it uses may be blocked.
|
| - their support is google-level terrible. If the answer is in the
| FAQ, you are good to go. If not, you are on your own.
| jlokier wrote:
| I know someone who would love to use this for a game that
| doesn't run on their own devices, but it's US$ 40.60/month in
| the UK ("starting at PS29.99"). That's too much just to play
| one game a few hours a week. (A $2000 GPU is also too much).
|
| Looks like a great service, and if you use it every day
| professionally it seems justifiable. But for gaming from time
| to time, with the machine shut down the rest of the time,
| that's a high price even by cloud GPU server standards.
|
| If it were hourly pro rata, on the other hand, I'm pretty sure
| they'd subscribe today.
| leobg wrote:
| Looks interesting. You think one could play MS Flight Simulator
| on it?
| davidbarker wrote:
| Have you ever tried Paperspace (https://paperspace.com)?
|
| I've spent many hours gaming using their Windows offerings,
| although always strategy games so the latency hasn't been
| noticeable. I'm not sure how well it would work for FPS
| (probably reasonably, to be honest).
|
| They have a large number of general computing/graphics-specific
| machines you can spin up, and you can either pay per hour or
| per month.
|
| I've also started to get into Blender more, so I'll probably
| use one of those machines to render complex scenes instead of
| using my MacBook Pro. Same for machine learning tasks.
| BiteCode_dev wrote:
| I haven't, thanks you for bringing it to my attention.
|
| Is your machine state persistent between connections ?
|
| EDIT: well, I tried to join and the signup ask me for my
| phone number. I already disliked that, but tried anyway.
| Every time I tried to setup a machine, the site answered:
|
| "This machine type has not been approved for this account
| yet. Tell us a bit more about your use case and we will
| prioritize your request. A member of our support team will
| approve your request shortly".
|
| Yeah, my request is that I'm a paying customer, I don't want
| to justify myself for the privilege of paying for their
| service, thank you very much.
|
| So, no, I don't think I will try paperspace.
| davidbarker wrote:
| Sorry to hear about your frustrating experience with them.
| I think they ask about the use case to avoid things like
| crypto mining and such. I've typically just responded with
| "graphics rendering" or "gaming" and I get approved within
| an hour.
|
| To answer your earlier question: yes, the machine state
| persists. I think I pay $5 per machine per 50GB drive space
| per month. So it works out around $5 per month, plus the
| hourly cost of the machine.
|
| I hope you're able to persist and try them out. I've been
| very impressed when I've needed to use it.
| Havoc wrote:
| Small passively cooled home server with loads of RAM and a
| hypervisor on it.
|
| The amount of practical learning that has enabled has been so
| worth it. (Think ansible, gitlab ci/cd etc).
| brtkdotse wrote:
| 1) Got rid of my second monitor and use just one 27" 4K monitor.
| My neck feels better and I'm less scatter brained.
|
| 2) whenever possible, I try to buy used pro/prosumer/premium
| things. They will usually last for years and years, be more
| comfortable/pleasurable in use and will be
| repairable/maintainable when they do break down.
| wil421 wrote:
| I got rid of my 2 4K monitors and got an ultrawide. I'll never
| look back. One 4K monitor was never enough for me. My ultrawide
| is basically 2 1440p monitors stuck to each other.
| nullwarp wrote:
| I just did the same thing, replaced 3 24" 1080p monitors with
| a single 49" ultrawide and it's been a damn game changer.
| Can't believe I waited so long to do it.
| whatch wrote:
| I thought it would be a great idea to have two big monitors but
| I really hated that when I purchased the second one.
|
| And then I just put one of my monitors right in front of me and
| now rarely use the second one. But when I need a second monitor
| I'm really happy I didn't sell it.
|
| So layout makes a really big difference.
| nottorp wrote:
| Yeah. I also have one monitor centered in front of me and the
| second on a side and angled. I actually have to turn my head
| a bit to see the second. Makes it easier to concentrate on
| the first.
| sircastor wrote:
| I have a single 28" 4k monitor and is great. At my work desk I
| had 3 displays and I don't think I appreciated how much trouble
| it was for me. I use multiple desktops to split my focuses, but
| my single monitor helps me have just enough in front of me.
| have_faith wrote:
| > Got rid of my second monitor
|
| Did this also a long time ago. I still have my laptop connected
| which I flip open to use the webcam occasionally but I feel
| much more focused using 1 monitor.
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| Same here.
|
| A decently-sized 4k display allows you to have documents open
| next to your main work app when necessary, but equally lets
| you use the full real-estate when you don't want to.
|
| With two monitors, I just found myself shoving shit on the
| second screen and getting distracted.
| notreallyserio wrote:
| I picked up one of those crazy ultra wide monitors (34" MSI
| optix 21:9 something-or-other) to replace a 27" qnix POS and an
| ancient 17" 4:3 LCD. It's been a game changer for me. I now
| arrange my windows mostly in columns: one 50% wide center
| column for my primary tool (browser, Xcode, vscode, slack
| (ugh)) and two tall single-tab terminals on either side. The
| terminals are more than 80 columns wide so they provide plenty
| of space for everything I need to do. I use Divvy on macOS to
| move and scale the windows from my keyboard but there are a lot
| of other options.
|
| Dual monitors were nice for quite a while but I don't think I
| can go back now that UW is available.
|
| * eta: somehow didn't see wil421's comment before mine.
| mittermayr wrote:
| Herman Miller Aeron (Remastered). It's a hefty price if you look
| at 'regular' chairs, but once you have had one for a while, you
| can't go back to anything else. The amount of time you spend in
| that chair is insane. So, naturally, that, and whatever it takes
| to get good sleep.
|
| Also, a Logitech MX Master 2S, again because I use it all day,
| every day. They tend to become a bit stiffer over time it seems
| like, so I've had to replace them occasionally, but far, far
| better than Apple's approaches to mice or touchpads.
| Cr0s wrote:
| The MX Master is a surprisingly good mouse, specifically the
| side buttons which I honestly did not think I would use at the
| start. Only problem is the thumb button which dies every now
| and then, but it's fixable usually within 10 min.
| 6bb32646d83d wrote:
| For people who want a good chair but don't want to spend that
| much, you can get a WorkPro 9000 or 12000 for under $500 new,
| and they're pretty close in term in comfort
| maccard wrote:
| aerons and steelcase leaps are regularly available second hand
| shipped on ebay. I bought one for me and my partner during
| covid and spent <$800 on both. They dont come with the warranty
| but in 12 years of sitting on one, ive only ever had to replace
| the feet and the armrests in the two ive had.
| john-tells-all wrote:
| Aeron: seconded. When I started WFH I was using a cheap Ikea
| chair, not designed for programmer's hours. My wife insisted I
| get a much better chair. The Aeron was not cheap, especially
| shipped, but the difference is night and day.
|
| Three weeks after I got mine, my wife got one for herself :)
| t-3 wrote:
| Wireless charger - it doesn't really save time, and I still have
| a ton of cables everywhere, but it totally eliminates battery
| anxiety and provides a surprising amount of peace of mind.
| Obviously, you have to have hardware that's capable of charging
| wirelessly, but it's becoming more common these days. Also, you
| never lose your phone anymore.
|
| Ebook readers - I've been using them for years, and recent models
| with flat bezels are very much designed to break, but it makes
| reading electronic documents _so much nicer_ than bright backlit
| screens. I 've resigned myself to buying a new one every year
| until the technology comes out of patent and readers get nice
| unbreakable screens like modern cellphones.
|
| Retractable metal poker - got this off Amazon for my weed
| paraphernalia, listed as a metal toothpick. It's incredibly
| useful and has saved my ass countless times. Need to poke that
| reset button? Scrape some gunk out of a USB port? Clean your
| nails? It's good for everything _except_ picking your teeth,
| which is just unnerving.
|
| Fridge-magnet box opener - not really a game-changer, but very
| convenient!
| solarmist wrote:
| I like the wireless chargers, but until Apple added the MagSafe
| to ensure your alignment was correct I wouldn't have
| recommended them to people.
|
| My wife and I had too many times where we'd put our phones on
| the charger and in the morning realize it hadn't charged.
|
| ...not sure how that leads to never losing your phone though? I
| don't see the connection. How would wireless charging affect
| that? You still have the hardware you connect to.
| t-3 wrote:
| I'm talking about charging pedestals, using _inductive
| charging_.
|
| Edit: Apple apparently does carry inductive chargers, but I
| don't know anything about alignment issues. I use a OnePlus
| phone.
| solarmist wrote:
| Yes. I know what wireless charging is.
|
| We had flat induction chargers because we also used them
| for our Airpods.
|
| And they were finicky if you didn't center them carefully.
| So MagSafe has been a massive aggregation saver.
| Cr0s wrote:
| Any specific ebook readers you would recommend? I have been
| thinking about getting one recently.
| t-3 wrote:
| Right now, Kobo is the best, IMHO. Pocketbook is overpriced
| and underpowered, Onyx Boox run locked-down Android, Amazon
| is full of customer-hostile practices and spyware.
| jonathanstrange wrote:
| A simple Pok3r mechanical keyboard, I think mine has blue Cherry
| switches. I recently changed to an even cheaper (ca. $40)
| mechanical tenkeyless. People might flame me for saying this, but
| it really doesn't matter to which mechanical keyboard you switch
| when you're used to cheap rubberdome keyboards. Typing is so much
| better on any of them.
| fanf2 wrote:
| The thing that really impressed me about mechanical keyboards
| is the QMK firmware and the VIA configuration tool. Superlative
| examples of open source hardware and software.
| cehrlich wrote:
| I agree completely. I bought a Keychron because they're
| reasonably cheap and have ISO layouts available. I hear online
| that the case feels cheap, the keycaps are low quality, etc.
| The only explanation to me is that these things are written by
| people who don't actually use them as the tools that they are.
| I've been typing on mine for about 6 months now and it has been
| great other than the RGB occasionally turning itself back on
| for some reason.
| nicbou wrote:
| The latest iPad Mini.
|
| It was meant to be a Moleskine replacement. I draw a lot but I
| can't carry all sorts of pencils with me.
|
| I made it a dedicated drawing and reading device. No
| notifications, no emails, etc.
|
| _Holy moly_ is it good. Procreate and Notability are incredible
| apps. Having different pens, layers and an undo button is
| fantastic. It replaced the paper pad next to my computer, as well
| as my Moleskine.
|
| The size is perfect. I carry that thing everywhere. I rarely
| leave the house without it.
|
| The best part is that it asks nothing of me. It never bothers me
| or does things worse than what it replaces.
|
| Oh and fully committing to USB-C. It saves a lot of luggage
| space, and everything is a power bank.
| joisig wrote:
| I use the latest iPad Air similarly. Got it and an Apple Pencil
| as a more-capable replacement for my reMarkable tablet and my
| Kindle, turned off all notifications and did not install any
| distractions. It's a great device. For me the main apps are
| Bear and Concepts.
| nicbou wrote:
| Trying my friend's iPad Air is what sold me. I just went
| "oh".
|
| I tried a Surface, thinking that I could also replace my
| laptop and pack lighter (I travel by motorcycle a lot), but
| it was unusable as a tablet, and... well as annoying as any
| Windows laptop. The Photoshop-like UI and the open-edit-save
| workflow (can't close an app without messing with the file
| dialogs) was so pathetic compared to Procrate and Notability.
| Then it locked itself up for 3 hours to install more Bing
| shortcuts on the task bar. That's when I returned it.
| pmarreck wrote:
| The new amount of control Apple gives you over notifications
| in the latest iOS'es is a game-changer. I literally just
| discovered I could bundle all notifications from certain apps
| and have them notify me at certain times of the day en masse,
| which is AMAZING.
| MaxikCZ wrote:
| can I select different notification sound for each app?
| phildini wrote:
| Hard agree that the current gen of iPads are really incredible,
| and that Procreate especially is maybe the best creative app
| that's ever been made.
|
| They keep adding features under the same price point that make
| giddy with possibility.
| brenainn wrote:
| Probably my split keyboard running QMK. It's a Sofle I built from
| a kit. It forced me to learn to touch type, and after taking some
| time to setup layers I can now reliably type code at 65+ wpm.
| That's a big improvement for me, and more importantly I can now
| type without the interruption of having to look at the keyboard.
| chrisweekly wrote:
| In terms of strictly personal "game-changing" impact, it's my
| ReMarkable2 tablet. Happy to explain why (when I have more time)
| if anyone's curious...
| pksebben wrote:
| I'm curious. I've been wanting better tools for working in the
| sun forever, and I've had my eye on that one.
| christophilus wrote:
| Please do. I've been considering one.
| squaresmile wrote:
| The Logitech G305 mouse for $40 (or any current gen wireless
| gaming mouse). I don't play game competitively but I have always
| felt latency with previous gen wireless mice. The recent wireless
| mice feel like wired to me.
|
| It's quite nice to use a wireless mouse with a large mousepad. A
| large desk is also a must imo.
| gspr wrote:
| Nitrokey [1]. Paired with the right software (pass [2]) it
| finally made password management sustainable and easy for me.
|
| [1] https://www.nitrokey.com/
|
| [2] https://www.passwordstore.org/
| maxwelldone wrote:
| A QMK or a similar programmable keyboard. Often found in
| mechanical ones. I believe QMK supports 32 layers. So far I've
| only needed 4 or 5 but the boost in productivity is night and
| day.
| bikingbismuth wrote:
| Totally agreed. My main keyboard and macropad are both QMK
| programmable.
| maxwelldone wrote:
| It was QMK that actually motivated me to build my own
| macropad (well, it was a rotary controller) which was ton of
| fun even though I was just following simple tutorials. But as
| a software guy, building something physical sourcing all the
| parts myself opened a new realm of pleasure.
| bikingbismuth wrote:
| I totally understand the joy of building something. I made
| a bunch of "sensor turns on an LED" projects, but nothing
| scratched my maker itch like building something I actively
| use everyday.
| awiesenhofer wrote:
| Looks interesting, how do _you_ use it?
| bikingbismuth wrote:
| I use an Ortholinear keyboard and I remapped all the brackets
| to make more sense (to me). I also have few very common
| programming symbols on another layer like ":=", "if __name__
| ...", "try...except".
|
| I have a layer that is my "network numpad". The right side of
| my board (a Levinson) in this mode is:
|
| EF789(Del)
|
| CD456(Macro to type 255)
|
| AB123(Enter)
|
| __0.:
|
| I also have a HID device attack mode layer that has payloads
| for popping shells, adding accounts to windows machine,
| grabbing wifi passwords, etc. This one is just fun stuff from
| my previous life in red team InfoSec.
|
| Some of this is overkill but it shaves a few seconds off my
| day and I had a lot of fun building it.
| maxwelldone wrote:
| How do I use it? Let me give some examples (from my current
| driver - 68% board):
|
| 1. The bottom left key (Cntrl) is L1. I chose it because it's
| easy to just lean on it by the side of my palm as opposed to
| pressing it which is a hard to reach point. It controls
| commonly used hotkeys like window management, media (vol,
| play/pause), clipboard etc.
|
| 2. A layer for symbols & fn keys.
|
| 3. A layer just for VS Code keys. For instance, Ctrl + Page
| Up/Down behaves like mouse scroll (on Mac), so I've dedicated
| layer keys around home row. It's naturally placed near home
| row navigation. I also have some handy macros like that will
| type language specific stuff like "() => {}" and move cursor
| inside parenthesis, etc.
|
| 4. Another layer for pretty much everything else. Like,
| locking & unlocking my Mac (bad practice to have pwd in
| macros, I know), opening "about:logins" in FF, tagging files
| (Ctrl 1,2,3...) etc.
|
| Pro Tip for newbies: 1. Get comfortable flashing new configs
| (which shouldn't be a problem these days)
|
| 2. Don't over optimize layers & macros - go with something
| decent that will solve major pain points.
|
| 3. While using, make a note of things that work, things that
| feel odd and things you never use. Then, make incremental
| modifications. Rinse & repeat.
|
| For people considering Mech boards: It need not cost an arm &
| a leg. The first board I bought was Tada 68 which cost around
| 120 bucks. Getting a board with swappable keys might be
| tricky at this price point - but if you know what sort of key
| you want, this shouldn't be a big problem.
|
| As with SW development, start simple & expand based on
| necessity.
| analog31 wrote:
| 1. Rechargeable everything.
|
| 2. Snow pants that I can pull on over my regular pants to keep
| warm during the winter.
|
| 3. Puncture resistant bike tires.
|
| 4. Carbon fiber bows for stringed instruments.
| parkingrift wrote:
| Air purifiers and air monitors. It is shocking and disgusting how
| much dust and particles these air purifiers suck out of the air.
| The air monitors detect when to open windows for CO2, among other
| things.
|
| My allergies no longer exist.
|
| Edit: A few people have asked for recommendations. I recommend
| the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH for larger spaces and Blueair Blue
| Pure 411 for smaller spaces. For the air monitor I have the
| Qingping.
| jcrben wrote:
| A warning: the cheap air monitors don't monitor particle count,
| just CO2. If you're allergic to pollen you expose yourself to
| it by opening windows. I've had to help a couple friends who
| used this and ended up sneezing and sniffling like crazy.
|
| I have the Dylos monitor which does monitor particle count so
| you can see it drop when your air filter is working
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08F2YM8SM/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_...
| Havoc wrote:
| You really don't need a 270 usd device for particle count.
|
| A PM2.5 particle count sensor is like 25 bucks and
| temp/humidity/pressure another 10, so you can DIY this quite
| cheaply with a raspberry if so inclined.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/WINGONEER%C2%AE-Precision-Quality-
| Det...
|
| https://www.amazon.com/bobotron-Compatible-Temperature-
| Atmos...
| vsgzusnex wrote:
| While air purifiers are a great idea I just want to put a
| warning out there about the current state of air monitors.
|
| The current summary is that most of them are wildly inaccurate
| with false positives and you might just be better off checking
| your outdoor air quality from the EPA using their app.
|
| Would love for someone to provide a better recommendation.
|
| "The Best Home Air Quality Monitor for 2022 | Reviews by
| Wirecutter" https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-
| home-air-qua...
| Havoc wrote:
| >The current summary is that most of them are wildly
| inaccurate with false positives and you might just be better
| off checking your outdoor air quality from the EPA using
| their app.
|
| That's partially missing the point of air monitors. In most
| western countries the risk is less outside smog etc and more
| what you get up to. Fry some bacon and suddenly you're at 20x
| the recommended values.
| Yhippa wrote:
| Did you like the Qingping regular or Lite?
| parkingrift wrote:
| Yes. I prefer the Lite. I don't have any testing data about
| the accuracy, but it seems to react identically to my air
| purifiers. For example, if I light a match or blow out a
| candle my air purifier will turn on and the air monitor will
| go ballistic. Likewise with CO2 if I sleep with the door
| closed it will slowly ramp up overnight.
| incognition wrote:
| Ditto. Coway Airmega 400 for me is slick and has an integrated
| sensor
| megabless123 wrote:
| can you recommend a specific product(s)?
| CharlesW wrote:
| I've been happy with the Wirecutter recommendation:
| https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-air-
| purifier...
| bluedino wrote:
| Would like to hear some as well. Saw some at Home Depot but
| would like to hear some opinions.
| KaoruAoiShiho wrote:
| Yeah please some specific recs. I bought one and it was
| useless, yes I did take the plastic off.
| parkingrift wrote:
| I added a couple recommendations.
| mastermedo wrote:
| Hm, I'm looking to eradicate smells from my house. Do air
| purifiers help getting rid of that old-house smell?
| parkingrift wrote:
| I can't speak to that specifically, but they do help remove
| cooking smells.
| bredren wrote:
| Yes, if they have a charcoal filter. The Coway AP-1512 is a
| favorite to handle both odor and lower particulates.
|
| I have three.
|
| There are a number of past threads where people discuss their
| enthusiasm for this model. Have a search.
| darkteflon wrote:
| Can second that - I have four of them, they run 24/7 on
| medium and pull ~8 watts at the wall each, assuming my
| meter is accurate. Picked them up after the last big
| discussion on air quality here a few months back. They are
| the Wirecutter pick, I believe.
| bredren wrote:
| I keep an agent that monitors amazon pricing on the
| filters, and just buy a bunch when they dip abnormally
| low. Have you found any other ways to minimize cost on
| them? I have only used the ones sold by coway, as my pal
| tried some 3rd party and they were jenky.
| bitshaker wrote:
| As a quick solution, rent a commercial grade ozone generator.
|
| Run it while you're not in the house as in the concentrations
| they can put out it is damaging to lung tissue.
|
| This is how hotels clear out smoke smells in rooms for
| instance.
|
| Once you run it for a few hours, you can open things up and
| air it all out and the smells should mostly be gone unless
| there's an active source of smell.
|
| I did it while restoring an old house previously occupied by
| a smoker and hoarder. Would just run it at night when nobody
| was there and open the house in the morning when ready to get
| back to work on renovations.
|
| It worked wonders.
| adriand wrote:
| Because a knee injury has prevented me from running, which was my
| go-to exercise previously (and because it's too cold and snowy
| right now to cycle), I purchased a kettle bell on a whim. I find
| working out with it is much more enjoyable and challenging than I
| expected. It's super small and compact, so it takes up no space
| in my home, and it is always there in my office waiting for me
| whenever I need to blow off some stress.
| sowbug wrote:
| A large, dark deskpad. It marks the area of my desk where only
| mouse and keyboard are allowed and other detritus is prohibited.
| Trying to use a mouse while subconsciously shoving junk aside can
| be done. But it's like coding while you have to pee: you won't be
| fully in the flow until you fix it (no pun intended).
|
| The dark color was unexpectedly useful because it provides a
| clean and dark but well-lit area for scanning documents with my
| phone, including checks for deposit on a banking app.
| flemhans wrote:
| But are the documents allowed on?
| sowbug wrote:
| :) They get a temporary exemption.
| BerislavLopac wrote:
| Chromecast
| PeterWhittaker wrote:
| There are three, maybe four. The 3, from least to most important,
| are:
|
| 1) My kneeling chair. Between the pandemic and a new job started
| a few months before, I am at my desk more than ever. I wondered
| about the ~acute angle between legs and torso in a regular chair,
| so I borrowed a kneeling chair from a friend. I figured I'd go
| easy on it/me and use it for just 15 minutes at a time at first.
| After a quarter hour or so, I switched back to my chair and was
| immediately all NOPE NOPE NOPE! Bought my own, adjustable one,
| later that day. Amazing. Best $100 ever spent.
|
| 2) My Delonghi bean-to-cup coffee maker. Had been looking for one
| after falling in love with the really high quality ones at
| European hotels, but didn't have a spare EUR7000. Found this
| Magnifica on sale at CostCo 5 years ago. Its nits and nuisances
| are so minor, I accept them happily: Great coffee, every time,
| exactly as I like it (grind and water volume are adjustable).
| Best $1000 ever spent. So good, it was one of only two
| possessions I wrote into my separation agreement. The other
| was....
|
| 3) My Jeep. In 2009 I replaced my car with a old-style CRV and
| loved the extra height and clearance. I started to venture a
| little further afield. I had friends who off-loaded, and it
| intrigued me. Knowing nothing and knowing I wanted to try more
| serious off-roading, in 2014 I made myself the gift of a JKU
| Rubicon. Drove it through a swamp the first night and was hooked.
| It has literally changed my life. I did not know I was handy, or
| could be handy, now I wrench on it myself and like a lot of
| members of my club, I'm learning to weld (though more slowly than
| I would like), and I've gotten pretty good at trail repairs,
| macgyvering things well enough to get someone off the trail,
| whether that means just out of the way, or as far as a trailer,
| or maybe even home.
|
| I also did not expect to be really, really good at it. I've been
| a trail leader with my club for years, am club secretary, and am
| one of the guys who figures out new trails in our area, some of
| them, well, insane (really technical off camber climbs, high
| damage probabilities, etc.).
|
| And the people! Literally all walks of life and all views, and
| all amazing.
|
| King of the Hammers just ended; yesterday was my high holy day.
| My Jeep introduced me to KotH. My Jeep introduced me to some of
| my best friends, people who would drop everything at a moment's
| notice and help (my moving crew was all off-road buddies). My
| Jeep introduced me to going nowhere slowly, to rock crawling, and
| to discovering views otherwise accessible only by strenuous
| multi-day hikes. My Jeep is the reason my post-divorce house has
| an oversized garage stocked with tools. My Jeep is the reason I
| do so much of my own hands-on around the house.
|
| Between the relaxation that comes from really technical rock
| crawling and the confidence that comes from both doing that and
| from cutting holes in to and cutting things off of a very expense
| piece of machinery, and from the camaraderie and friendship and
| love within my off-road family, my Jeep has literally changed my
| life.
|
| Best never ending expenditure ever. Just Empty Every Pocket.
|
| (The fourth? Anti-climactic, but a set of Bose noise cancelling
| headphones. They were my daughter's welcome gift when she started
| a new job, but she already had a set, so she passed them on to
| me. I would never have believed they were anywhere worth the
| price, it all seemed such hype. I was wrong. They are very cool,
| very comfortable, and work very well. Best hand-me-down ever.
| :->)
| finnley wrote:
| Jare wrote:
| Wifi and SSDs
| billfruit wrote:
| Induction stove, now my kitchen is totally free of combustion.
| trinovantes wrote:
| A 3rd monitor lets me see live preview, documentation, and code
| all at once. I'm out of desk space to test the effectiveness of a
| 4th
|
| An nvme drive made everything boot faster
|
| A good chair (either herman miller or steelcase) fixed my back
| pain
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| >A good chair (either herman miller or steelcase) fixed my back
| pain
|
| Mine too! If you're on a budget, there are plenty of
| individuals on Facebook Marketplace and similar that sell used
| Steelcase/Herman Miller chairs for about a third of retail
| price.
|
| The more reputable used dealers will repair them before sale,
| as well.
| paco3346 wrote:
| Also check out the Herman Miller company outlet store-
| https://www.officeoutlet.net
| zoba wrote:
| I have enjoyed my DJI Mini 2 far more than I expected. Drones
| over 250g need registration/certification in many places
| (including the US). The Mini 2 weighs 249g and has a 4k camera.
|
| You do mostly get the same shots in one area so if you don't move
| around much it might get boring quickly. If you take weekend
| trips, or are nomadic, it will be a lot of fun.
| qchris wrote:
| I believe that DJI just opened up their developer API for it,
| so some third-party apps (or maybe your own, if you're
| technically inclined?) will hopefully start offering things
| like waypoint missions as well!
| cracrecry wrote:
| Midi devices. I have lots of the cheap ones for controlling my
| software with hardware wheels:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umO-Bwzl3f0
|
| I also control software like blender using those, even my emacs
| use that. It is always in the same place and once you learn it,
| you are so fast.
|
| I also use sheets of paper and color pens.
| anfractuosity wrote:
| I've played a little with a Behringer X-TOUCH MINI for
| controlling Darktable (I think midi support is now in stable),
| was pretty cool altering the exposure etc. with the wheels.
| awiesenhofer wrote:
| I'm intrigued - how do you control emacs with it?
| laserlight wrote:
| Can you give some pointers? I'm interested in using non-
| traditional input devices but don't know where to start.
| n4bz0r wrote:
| That's MIDI devices as-in devices with MIDI port (like
| synthesizers), right?
|
| The video looks interesting, haven't seen joysticks/controllers
| being used in such a fashion. What kind of devices
| (brands/models) do you use if you don't mind sharing?
| crtasm wrote:
| I see a korg nanokontrol2 in the video clip, not sure about
| the others. midi controllers run over USB nowadays.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| Not exactly the question, but disabling my doorbell and my
| answering machine. Absolutely not joking. My life has improved so
| greatly. I am not a thrall to the interrupting whims of others.
| mastermedo wrote:
| Exactly, I disabled all notifications on my phone except the
| actual phone aspect. The only notification I get is at 10am and
| 6pm to check my mail.
|
| A true life changer.
| sublatio wrote:
| Countertop air frier. It's equally good for cooking and reheating
| food. In my household we use it about twice a day.
| d387afe03f wrote:
| db48x wrote:
| An Intel Optane NVME SSD. <10us latency for both reads and writes
| even at low queue depths. There are newer NVME SSDs with more
| IOPS, but only at high queue depths, and their latency is a lot
| worse. If you put your swap on your Optane drive, you can use
| hundreds of gigs of swap without making your machine
| unresponsive. Makes a great place to put a database too.
|
| Check out this screenshot
| http://db48x.net/temp/Screenshot%20from%202019-12-09%2013-27...
|
| See where it says "avio 3.53us" and "avq 0.61"? That's 284,000
| IOPS even with nothing queued up. With any other drive you would
| be lucky to get a tenth of that at QD1. Even better, this is a
| mixed read and write workload; most drives are fastest when you
| are only reading or only writing.
| ajolly wrote:
| I second this. Love my optane.
| cehrlich wrote:
| A bunch of 1L glass bottles with wide openings so that they're
| easy to clean in the dishwasher - has reduced the friction to
| getting enough water in, and I can't remember the last time I
| felt that type of tiredness that comes from dehydration.
|
| BenQ ScreenBar Plus - It's just a light that goes on top of your
| monitor, but it makes working much more pleasant. There's
| probably a clone that's cheaper and does the same thing, but I'd
| buy this one again without hesitation.
|
| About $200 worth of home workout stuff (exercise mat, adjustable
| dumbbells, resistance bands, pullup bar) - I had to stop running
| for a while due to some injuries and I hate going to the gym, so
| this has been a game changer in terms of staying fit.
| Cr0s wrote:
| Yeah, home workout equipment can be surprisingly cheap but
| useful, especially if you can't or won't go to the gym. Problem
| is that I tend to just stop using my pullup bar, exercise mat
| etc. sometimes. I don't even realize it's been a few day
| without me touching them
| GordonS wrote:
| I tried a BenQ ScreenBar and a clone, and found the clone
| brighter, while being a _lot_ cheaper. It 's a great device
| that lights the desk area nicely - I'm going to use the se
| forever now!
|
| I'd prefer to buy the BenQ, since AFAIK this whole concept was
| their idea - but the price is just so excessive that I couldn't
| justify it.
| baristavibes wrote:
| Could you please post the name of your clone? I'm interested
| in this if it helps reduce eye strain
| GordonS wrote:
| Sure, it's Quntis:
|
| https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08HMLKS2N
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| If a microplane counts as "hardware", then I can't not bring up
| my whetstone!
|
| Cost all of around $40, is a genuine joy to use, and keeps all of
| my knives sharper-than-sharp.
|
| I started out with a very expensive knife (Wusthof classic 8",
| around US$150 or so at the time) but nothing to sharpen it with,
| and this was a mistake.
|
| If I could do it again I'd recommend young cooks on a budget
| start out with a $20 IKEA knife and a stone to keep it sharp.
| You'll get better long term results than you would with an
| expensive knife on its own any day of the week.
| hellcow wrote:
| America's Test Kitchen recommends the Victorinox knives for
| every skill level and budget, including professional chefs.
| It's just a damn good knife, and it happens to be cheap at
| around $50. Go with this rather than Ikea if it's in the budget
| :)
| rdtwo wrote:
| Fantastic starter knives, otherwise spend 150-200 on a
| Japanese gato/r/chefsknives has good recommendations.
|
| The mass market knife block sets are actually worse than the
| victronix and cost more.
| toiletfuneral wrote:
| more_corn wrote:
| My first Sous Chef gave me his Victorinox from when he went
| to Culinary Institute of America. I still use it even though
| I've since bought a Wusthof. I like how it is thinner, it
| holds an edge well and has good ergonomics.
| diego_moita wrote:
| > start out with a $20 IKEA knife and a stone to keep it sharp.
| You'll get better long term results than you would with an
| expensive knife on its own any day of the week.
|
| This is very, very smart advice.
|
| The only thing I'd add is to learn proper knife techniques: how
| to hold food keeping your fingers away from the blade. Never
| take risks with a well sharped knife.
| more_corn wrote:
| Cut with the claw or you'll be cutting with a claw.
|
| Tuck your fingertips under and rest the flat of the blade
| against your knuckles. It should not be possible to reach the
| tip of a finger with your blade. Check some youtube videos
| and practice. Establishing good knife skills is not only good
| for safety but makes cooking faster and more pleasant.
| Cr0s wrote:
| The claw is such a simple but effective technique that I am
| sometimes surprised it's not more widespread. I can't
| remember the amount of times I saw people using knives
| looking like they are about to cut themselves with the next
| movement of the knife.
| hutzlibu wrote:
| "Never take risks with a well sharped knife."
|
| I developed the habit of cutting myself once, with every new
| knive I buy. (Now I am hesitant to buy a new one)
|
| So far I was quite lucky, but you can easily loose a finger
| or worse, if you do not pay attention.
| swalsh wrote:
| I bought this Global Classic Flexible Boning Knife a few years
| ago, this one knife changed my whole game. I like to buy
| Chicken thighs, take the center bone out, keep the bones for
| some amazing stock and render the skin into schmaltz. It's a
| process that used to take quite a long time, but this knife has
| made it super quick.
| o_o_O_o_O_O wrote:
| Is there a particular whetstone grit you would recommend?
| rdtwo wrote:
| Get a sharpton 1000grit. The cheap king stones are really
| soft and are kind of a pain to learn on.
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| I actually have a cheap King stone (the 1000/6000 combo),
| but parent is right.
|
| 1000 grit gets you more than sharp enough for daily use
| while still being coarse enough to fix up a well-maintained
| knife in about 20-30 strokes per side.
|
| Higher grits make the knives too sharp, to the point where
| they're dangerous to handle, especially if you're cooking
| drunk/tired. (That's not to say I never use it, but it's
| always for fun at that point).
| germinalphrase wrote:
| Adjacent: Microplane (the beans) graters and zesters are a
| revelation after using generic box graters for decades. Worth
| every penny.
| adriand wrote:
| This is exactly what I have. An IKEA knife I've had for the
| past 20 years or so. I've always kept it sharp, but the game
| changer in the past few months was reading advice to sharpen it
| every time I use it. I do that now, just a little bit, and over
| time what you end up with is an insanely sharp knife. I also
| have a sharpening steel, like the kind used in commercial
| kitchens, but I much prefer the stone.
| linsomniac wrote:
| Agreed, I've had both the ceramic and diamond "steels" handy
| for the last decade, and basically every time I use a knife I
| spend 30 seconds running it over one of these, and my kitchen
| experience is better for it. Of course, I'm the only one in
| my household that does this, but I use them frequently enough
| that generally it keeps them pretty good.
|
| Was recently prepping some food at someone else's house, and
| they didn't even have a sharpener. It was a terrible
| experience, even after using the bottom of a coffee cup to
| help the knife out.
| owenversteeg wrote:
| Someone here mentioned a flashlight, so I'll mention what's by
| far the best headlamp I've ever bought, and I've tried a lot -
| the Nitecore NU25. Red LEDs, white LEDs, high-CRI LED, and it
| weighs under an ounce (although the headband adds 0.7 oz or so.)
| bufordtwain wrote:
| Electric guitar - it's been a game changer. Fun and stress relief
| at a low price. I play along to songs on YouTube. This has opened
| up a whole new world of music.
| indiantinker wrote:
| Logitech Keys to Go keyboard is my absolute favourite device to
| type on mobile devices. I thought I won't use it a ,but I find it
| quite handy. Most common occasions are : traveling, siting on a
| park bench, waiting in Metro or Airport.
|
| Most common tasks : Writing long email (i have this bad habit),
| replying/giving feedback on IM apps, Editing blog posts, Quick
| note taking, Transferring notes from pocket diary to digital
| software (Athens in my case)
| anfractuosity wrote:
| I find this type of helping hand (made from flexible air nozzle
| tube) really handy for soldering -
| https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07233QBBS/ .
|
| I imagine there are heavier duty ones though, that use a
| mechanism other than that tubing.
| alexdeloy wrote:
| A set of cheap magsafe style USB connectors for MicroUSB and
| USB-C
|
| I ruined one wireless headset by ripping out the usb socket from
| the PCB after tripping over the charging wire. After getting a
| replacement I put the "magsafe" micro USB connector in and not
| only is it trip safe now, charging is soo much easier since the
| cable can be oriented either way.
|
| After that unexpected success I also outfittet my MX Anywhere and
| my Kindle with them and just throw a few in my laptop bag for use
| on the go or to share with other people.
| drakonka wrote:
| * An ereader (Kindle, now Kobo)
|
| * Stadler Form George air washer. Not a full on humidifier, but
| does help keep humidity up in my dry bedroom. Also judging by the
| state of the water during my weekly cleaning it really does help
| to "clean" the air somewhat.
|
| * More recently, a high quality drying rack (inspired by the
| drying rack article linked here a few weeks ago). Helps me keep
| humidity up in my apartment and prevents me from trying to hang
| partly-moist laundry on my doors. In general makes laundry day a
| lot more tolerable. Didn't realize it'd make such a difference to
| laundry satisfaction.
|
| * A Roomba, currently S9 with the self-empty base that I've had
| for a couple of years.
|
| * A Litter Robot. No more scooping, cats always have a fresh box.
| fbcpck wrote:
| On the topic of drying rack: I bought this ceiling-mounted
| drying rack[1] and it's been fantastic.
|
| I live in an apartment with high ceilings (upwards 3 meters),
| so it worked out really well. It saves up the space a standard
| drying rack would otherwise occupy (both when used _and_ unused
| /folded), and I installed it right above my washing machine so
| I don't need to carry the wet laundry around!
|
| The one from the polish store[1] was the only cheap one I could
| find, all the others were upwards 200EUR[2]
|
| [1]: https://www.suszarki-lazienkowe.pl/pol_m_Suszarki-
| sufitowe-1...
|
| [2]: https://hangbird.net/
| [deleted]
| rdtwo wrote:
| What drying rack? My wife has a 10$ one and I hate that thing
| with a firey passion
| solarmist wrote:
| Links? I use drying racks, but I'm curious what you consider
| high quality? Mine are just target specials I've put lock tight
| on the screwsto keep them from falling apart.
| ywain wrote:
| Is the Litter Robot really good? Most reviews I've seen said
| all those auto-cleaning litter boxes are meh at best, but man
| this is one chore I could really do without.
| packetslave wrote:
| The Litter Robot is (in my experience) the one auto-cleaning
| litter box that 100% lives up to the hype. Totally worth the
| (high) price to never have to scoop cat poop again.
| newcomber wrote:
| The litter robot is great as long as you empty the tray every
| few days. It runs into issues (like many things) if you let
| it go too long.
|
| I've owned two. Once you get past the sticker shock, it's
| quite convenient. I also used regular kitchen trash bags for
| the tray. Was perfectly serviceable.
| Calamitous wrote:
| I'm curious why you switched from kindle to kobo? I've used a
| few kindles over the years, what does the kobo offer that's
| better?
| madvoid wrote:
| Recently switched from a Kindle to a Kobo and here are my
| findings so far:
|
| Kobo Pros:
|
| * Natively handle .epub files
|
| * Overdrive integration for library books
|
| * Dropbox integration so it's quick to transfer files from my
| laptop
|
| * Pocket integration. Being able to read long form web
| articles on an e-ink screen is a game changer for me.
|
| * OS is generally better
|
| * Minor, but I like seeing the book I'm reading on the sleep
| screen
|
| Kobo cons:
|
| * Buttons are slightly worse than the Kindle's
|
| * For the Sage, the battery life is worse than the Kindle.
| I've heard the other models are better though.
| Haegin wrote:
| I'm not the person you asked, but I switched from Kindle to
| Kobo when I realised I could get ebooks from my library on a
| Kobo. Now pretty much everything I read is from the library
| and I've not turned on my Kindle in well over a year.
| tbrock wrote:
| The 3dFX Voodoo2 - amazing leap in 3D gaming
|
| The oculus quest 2 - VR for the masses, so much fun, actually
| works well for the first time without $$$
|
| The Intel Core CPU - multi core computing for the masses, huge
| performance and efficiency gains over prior gen merging pentium M
| tech
|
| Most recently Apple Silicon, specifically the Apple M1 MacBook
| Air:
|
| - it runs dead silent
|
| - it runs cool on my lap
|
| - it has a tiny charger
|
| - but mostly the performance blows away all non plugged in
| laptops besides other m1s and most desktops consuming many more
| watts at much higher temps and noise level
|
| Its amazing how much a difference having full performance while
| on battery makes compared to x86 counterparts. I was a linux on
| thinkpad guy for years but this made me flip back fullstop.
| ecf wrote:
| Recently was given a 16" Intel MBP from 2019 for work after
| using my personal M1 Air for a few months and the damn Intel
| machine becomes warm simply by being on, idling away.
|
| It's kinda ridiculous that we put up with Intel for so long.
| BuckRogers wrote:
| Most of your examples are not actually the big leaps. I had a
| Diamond Monster 3D 4MB and then a Voodoo 2, and the
| revolutionary one was the original.
|
| You mentioned the Pentium M which was the accurate choice.
|
| The M1 has a better argument as being first but I probably
| would've selected the A series chips since the M series is
| really an extension of how great those are.
| als0 wrote:
| I traded my M1 MBA for the new MBP 14 and I'm feeling
| regretful. The weight of the MBA and its 16+ hour battery life,
| just incredible.
| barbazoo wrote:
| ESP8266. I've been tinkering with dev boards to control all kinds
| of dumb devices. It's also ubiquitous among smart devices and can
| easily be flashed and customized. Enabled me to build a nest
| little offline home automation system.
| c54 wrote:
| The new GaN transistor power brick charger thingies. Surprisingly
| small with high power output means no more carrying around a huge
| laptop power brick. Anker sells them on amazon under the "Nano
| II" brand
| solarmist wrote:
| Yes! Being able to have a single small charger that can charge
| everything from my laptop to my headphone in a single device
| has simplified my life immensely.
|
| Similarly switching things to USB-c and having a USB charging
| hub in high traffic areas is huge too.
| owenversteeg wrote:
| I can vouch for this. It's amazing - one of these tiny 30W
| chargers, barely larger than the 5W iPhone cubes, powers all my
| devices. Especially coming from a huge Thinkpad charging brick,
| this thing is magic.
|
| I have a PowerPort Atom 30W (about 1.5 inches on each side, or
| ~35mm.) It plugs into my M1 Air, and my iPhone charges off the
| Air's second USB-C port. Two cables and this tiny charger is
| all I need. There's a newer version, the Nano II, which is
| indeed slightly smaller, but some people claim that it has
| issues with various charging protocols so I don't see a reason
| to upgrade.
|
| My only complaint is that for whatever reason, these don't seem
| to exist with EU plugs. There are GaN EU chargers, but they're
| not nearly as compact, which is disappointing. The US/China
| designs (the plug types are similar) are hyper optimized for
| every cubic millimeter, which is cool, but the EU ones are just
| the US/CN ones bolted onto an EU plug, which obviously wastes
| space.
| kqr wrote:
| An Android phone with a physical keyboard. It's a night and day
| difference for me with fat fingers and who likes to look at the
| text I'm writing, not the keyboard I'm using to write.
|
| RIP BlackBerry Key2.
| zakki wrote:
| What is the keyboard you are using?
| kqr wrote:
| I'm using a Blackberry Key2 phone which has a keyboard built
| in. Sadly, I've just learned they are no longer being made.
| Not sure what I'll do when this one breaks.
| louiswilbrink wrote:
| remarkable 2. I use the chrome extension to send HN articles and
| read it there mostly. It has cut down my article surfing/skimming
| significantly.
|
| As a writing pad, it's a perfect set of functions and is the
| origin device of all my ideas.
| btschaegg wrote:
| If you play an instrument as a hobby:
|
| A proper Konig & Meyer sheet music holder (10068).
|
| It's not foldable, but _very_ stable. If you only ever used
| foldable sheet music holders, you don 't even realize what misery
| you could simply avoid. Beside not dealing with falling sheets
| all the time, you can also properly write on it without
| descending into madness.
|
| If you have to deal with larger pieces, something like the
| Berolina Manufaktur Magic Music Board will also come in handy.
|
| Alongside with that: A magnet ring you can put your pencil into,
| so you can attach it to the underside of your sheet music holder.
| This way, it won't get into the way of flipping pages. Or, if you
| have to deal with the finicky ones, you can increase the
| stability of your sheets with it by fixing them with the pencil
| somewhat.
| grujicd wrote:
| If you play a guitar, get something like Hercules GS414B stand.
| It locks the guitar when you put it, so it's very hard to be
| knocked out by kids or yourself. Then it's safe to keep the
| guitar near the place where you usually sit and then you'll
| play much more often.
| andruby wrote:
| I love my Fully Jarvis standing desk. It has a curved edge so I
| can "stand" into it.
|
| The Capisco Hag chair is even better. Tens of ways to sit/stand
| on it. Which is perfect for me since I can't sit still.
| john-tells-all wrote:
| Seconded on the Jarvis desk. It's quite comfortable, and holds
| two monitors and my notebooks easily. The legs and arms of the
| desk are much heavier/sturdier than I'd expected. The motor
| raising and lowering the desk is strong, smooth, and quiet.
|
| A fine investment!
| rgoulter wrote:
| A keyboard where the keys are symmetrical, and allow greater use
| of the thumb (and allow less usage of the pinky fingers). --
| Maybe it's not for everyone, but I wish I'd gotten a keyboard
| like this years ago.
| Aachen wrote:
| So like enter in place of caps lock? I genuinely have no idea
| what you mean by symmetrical keyboard.
| rgoulter wrote:
| ZSA's moonlander[0] or their planck-ez[1] are a couple of
| examples. Where standard keyboards have staggered rows, the
| planck-ez is "ortholinear", and the moonlander has staggered
| columns. (I have seen designs which are symmetric and retain
| staggered rows, too).
|
| Though I think older keyboards in this category would be like
| the Maltron, Kinesis Advantage. And also recently, there's
| been a surge in custom mechanical keyboard designs, like the
| Sofle keyboard[2].
|
| [0]: https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/
|
| [1]: https://www.zsa.io/planck/
|
| [2]: https://github.com/josefadamcik/SofleKeyboard
| bikingbismuth wrote:
| I "tried out" a Planck on a whim for a month in 2017 and never
| looked back. I currently use a Levinson and it just about
| perfect (I wish I could find a solid aluminum case and then it
| would be perfect).
| cushychicken wrote:
| A floor heating pad. $30 and my feet will never be cold at the
| computer again!
| lostmsu wrote:
| My wife just wears slippers. They work in the entire house.
| tra3 wrote:
| Can you share which one you have?
| cushychicken wrote:
| I legitimately don't remember. Just search "foot heating pad"
| on Amazon.
| dudeinjapan wrote:
| This was gonna be my answer. I got one a few weeks ago after
| using a kotatsu heated table at a traditional hotel in the
| mountains here in Japan.
| qubyte wrote:
| There's life before one has experienced a kotatsu, and life
| after.
| cushychicken wrote:
| #snugLife
| op00to wrote:
| Bidet.
| wly_cdgr wrote:
| Hard to beat this one. Now whenever I use a bathroom that
| doesn't have one I feel like a filthy barbarian
| khaledh wrote:
| The switch from a mechanical HDD to a SDD was the biggest gain in
| performance I've seen from any piece of hardware. I still
| remember the time when HDDs were the norm and the agony of
| waiting on loading/accessing something from disk was real.
| dlhavema wrote:
| I cannot agree more. This switch breathed new life into my home
| ( Windows 10 ) computer.
|
| If only i did it with a larger drove though... Im atruggling
| through my system drive on a 90gb ssd...
| stevezsa8 wrote:
| Given how cheap SSDs are now, unless you are living below the
| poverty line, buy a 500GB MX500 for ~60USD. You deserve it :]
| pmarreck wrote:
| this is waaaaaay too small. you can definitely afford
| something larger now
| washadjeffmad wrote:
| Good solid-state storage has been the biggest quality of life
| improvement you can make to a single-disk device for the past
| decade.
|
| I get a chuckle out of colleagues who ask for copious RAM
| today, and while I'll usually show them where they can put
| money to do what they actually need better, this kitchen
| analogy suffices for most of their use cases:
|
| The hard drive, RAM, and CPU are like the fridge, the prep
| table, and the stove. In the days of high storage latency and
| low throughput mechanical storage, it took a few weeks to
| gather ingredients from the fridge and bring them back to your
| prep table, so it made sense to buy the largest prep table you
| could afford to save yourself the trip. However, your stove
| only had one or two burners, so you were still waiting around
| for one thing to finish cooking one thing so you could move on
| to another.
|
| Today, high bandwidth, low latency storage like NVMe means you
| have an always-on instantaneous portal to the ingredients realm
| so there's no real need for the extra-large prep table. It's
| usually better to spend the money on more burners for the stove
| so you can keep it as busy as possible and get the most work
| out.
|
| It's a vast over simplification, but I can't help but sigh when
| someone says they literally cannot do their job without 64GB of
| RAM and then choose a quad-core or some low-power series
| laptop.
| chefkoch wrote:
| I am honestly shocked that someone working in IT would even
| think about working with a laptop with a spinning disk.
|
| This isn't 2010.
| washadjeffmad wrote:
| Some don't have the choice!
|
| https://www.airforcemag.com/fix-my-computer-cry-echos-on-
| soc...
| rdtwo wrote:
| I'll take spinning disk over vdi any day. VDI is the worst
| maccard wrote:
| > I get a chuckle out of colleagues who ask for copious RAM
| today, and while I'll usually show them where they can put
| money to do what they actually need better, this kitchen
| analogy suffices for most of their use cases:
|
| Industry dependent, of course. Desktop processers are getting
| more and more parallel, and more cores requires more ram. I
| have a 32 core Threadripper in my workstation with 128GB RAM,
| and on full compiles I still OOM. My next upgrade to this
| machine will be 192GB.
| shaky-carrousel wrote:
| Can I ask you which motherboard do you have? I'm thinking
| on building a PC, but the last time I did that was twenty
| years ago, so my knowledge is slightly obsolete.
| heywire wrote:
| I do a lot of work with virtual machines at <dayjob>, and don't
| have enough room on the internal ssd to hold them all. I
| usually swap them in and out as I work on different projects,
| but every once in a while I'll boot one direct from an external
| usb3 HDD. I can't believe we used to work that way. I couldn't
| imagine going back. An SSD can breathe new life into a 10+ year
| old system easily, too.
| ColonelPhantom wrote:
| What OS are you running inside the VM's? I was quite late
| with upgrading to an SSD, and Windows 10 was unusably slow,
| while Linux was quite usable. Sure, it still got quite a bit
| faster with an SSD, but it was far from as life-changing as
| it was for Windows.
| myfavoritedog wrote:
| SSDs gave my laptops longer effective life. Turns out that the
| main reason my laptops felt so slow after a few years wasn't
| software bloat. It was cruft in the file system.
| brailsafe wrote:
| Big ass display, Microsoft Surface keyboard, fancy chair,
| silicone based lube
| david_allison wrote:
| Anker PowerCore 26800 (26800mAh) - 3 USB outputs, 2 inputs for
| charging. Removed away all worry about not having phone charging
| capability if you're on the move.
|
| There's likely better options available now with USB-C inputs,
| but the product is still fantastic.
|
| Oral-B Genius 9000 - looked like an overpriced & gimmicky
| toothbrush (with AR + Bluetooth). It is, but the carry-case is
| useful to double as an extra shaver->USB option, it's got a long
| battery life, and it has a good number of modes for brushing.
|
| Oculus Quest 2 - initially I wasn't sure if it'd be a gimmick,
| but it's an effortless & fun way to burn calories
| alias_neo wrote:
| I have a RAVPOWER 26800mAh with USB PD.
|
| It has 2 USB A (Out) and a USB-C (In/Out), I can charge my
| Nintendo Switch, phone, wife's phone, tablet, kid's tablet,
| Earbud case and XPS 13 (@30W) on the go.
|
| I also use it to power my Pinecil when I'm working away from a
| plug socket.
|
| Very handy when we're out and about without the car.
|
| It's also the max size you can carry on a plane for travel
| (100Wh is the max in many places) at 99.3Wh.
| notreallyserio wrote:
| Do you bring your battery with you when you're out and about?
| How do you carry it (if you do)? I have a battery and it is
| pocket sized, but it's not exactly comfortable to carry along
| with my wallet and phone.
| david_allison wrote:
| Depends if I think I might be needing it.
|
| Tote bag/leather satchel for everyday (especially because it
| lets you carry USB & lightning cables); backpack for longer
| trips. It's a big battery and wouldn't be feasible to carry
| in my pocket
| ajolly wrote:
| Drop leg bag
| snowwrestler wrote:
| Switching from a mouse to a multitouch trackpad completely
| resolved my wrist pain, and I find gestures essential to
| productivity now.
|
| I started off with a Fingerworks trackpad; this is the company
| Apple bought to bring in multitouch technology. Then when Apple's
| trackpads got big enough and supported enough gestures, I
| switched to those.
| evan_ wrote:
| Yeah agreed. Just being able to throw your hand at the Trackpad
| and start a cursor move anywhere, rather than carefully grab a
| mouse, is huge.
|
| I use BetterTouchTool to add extra gestures to move windows to
| different places on my monitor. It feels like magic and any
| time someone's watching me they ask how I'm doing that.
| capableweb wrote:
| I've been eyeing the Apple trackpads for some time now, as the
| experience of their trackpads are like no other (for laptops at
| least). How well does the standalone trackpad work with Windows
| and Linux? Those are my main OSes I switch between, and it's
| very nice that mouse input is exactly the same for both so
| muscle memory works perfectly well, would the same be true for
| using a Apple trackpad?
| snowwrestler wrote:
| I've only ever used the Apple trackpad with a Mac.
|
| The Fingerworks trackpad worked great with Windows. Basically
| you map gestures to keyboard shortcuts (it came with a bunch
| out of the box), so anything you can do with key combos, you
| can do with gestures instead: app switching, opening and
| closing things, cut/copy/paste, etc.
| 555h wrote:
| I recently got the Apple Magic Trackpad 2 for use on linux. I
| use it on the left side of my keyboard, so my right hand
| isn't taking all the RSI wear from using a mouse.
|
| Overall, it works very well. It's basically plug-and-play. I
| only use it wired (with the included lightning-to-usbc
| cable), so I can't speak for the bluetooth experience.
|
| I'm using KDE5 on xorg 7.7, and the multi-touch features work
| fine (two- and three-finger click). I haven't tried setting
| up gestures (three-finger swipe, etc) yet, so I'm not sure
| how well those work.
|
| One issue is kinetic scrolling, where the page keeps
| scrolling with inertia after your input (like on a phone, or
| on macs). Without this, two-finger swipe scrolling will just
| emulate sending individual scroll wheel clicks to the app,
| which I find very unsatisfying.
|
| At least on my setup, kinetic scrolling doesn't work by
| default. Maybe more bleeding-edge distros, or Wayland, or GTK
| DEs have better support for this -- not sure. I got firefox
| to support it by starting it with MOZ_USE_XINPUT2=1. Chrome,
| Libreoffice, Konsole, and other apps still use the
| scrollwheel-type behavior. I haven't really spent much time
| looking into kinetic scrolling for them. I think this is
| probably the biggest drawback, but my impression is that it's
| not specific to the Apple Trackpad.
| tucosan wrote:
| I switched back from the Magic Trackpad to an ergonomic mouse,
| because I got pretty bad carpal tunnel syndrome after a few
| months of usage.
| radu_floricica wrote:
| Oura ring. Stopped having to guess how much fuel I got for the
| day. My subjective feeling has a shit correlation with how
| productive I really am, but the stats from the ring are pretty
| spot on. I have chronic insomnia so it might help me more than
| others, but I take quite a lot of decisions based on it. Over 7
| hours measured sleep is a good day, 6-7 is standard, 5-6 means
| modafinil for the day (which turns it into a very productive
| day), under 5 hours I just chill without any expectations. I also
| up or lower my meds based on multi-day trends.
|
| It's coping and not a cure, but it's very high quality coping.
| And I couldn't do it without something to measure sleep - bad
| nights often have me wake up wired, and 9 hours in bed don't mean
| much without knowing how much of that I tossed and turned, which
| I don't always remember.
| fit2rule wrote:
| dustractor wrote:
| About ten years ago, I lived in an area where power outages were
| a common occurrence, sometimes lasting up to a week. Naturally,
| during those times, I found it necessary to own some sort of
| flashlight or headlamp, along with whatever batteries it took.
| Unfortunately, being that this was in rural America, all of the
| available headlamps (coleman/energizer/craft, at walmart, at
| lowes, at DG, etc) are of such low-quality that they basically
| start out being trash. As a rule, they take three AAA's, and
| also, as a rule, they flicker out all the time so you have to
| give a technical-tap every few minutes to jiggle the loose
| connections, and that's when they're actually working. Over the
| course of two years, I went through five headlamps. I had one
| explode on my forehead after only five minutes of use.
|
| It made me very sad, that we as a species appeared to have
| forgotten how to build a simple apparatus consisting of a light-
| bulb, a switch, batteries and wires. So then I got a Fenix. It's
| machined out of a single block of aluminum and it takes 18650
| cells instead of triple A's. I've used it on a regular basis for
| the last decade and it still works every time I need it, the
| whole time I need it. No more technical taps.
| Cr0s wrote:
| Just opened my drawer to check on my flashlights after reading
| this. 3 out of 4 appear to be dead.
| rdtwo wrote:
| Yeah a nice 60-100$ flashlight is a pleasure to use
| btschaegg wrote:
| Ah, yes. I also have a heap of defunct flashlights around. Took
| me a while to find some good ones.
|
| My modern preference: One of the Olight Baton series. I've got
| an old one (I see the new ones even allow recharging batteries
| without removing them). The magnet in the back can be really
| useful if you need an improvised stationary light for working
| in the dark.
|
| Also, if you need a detachable front light for your bike:
| Consider the Busch & Muller Ixon IQ Premium. This is the _only_
| sane detachable front light I was able to find. It provides
| enough light (10 and 80 lux, a rarity nowadays) and runs on
| replaceable batteries with a standard form factor (AA) that can
| be recharged without taking them out.
| deepnotderp wrote:
| The Remarkable tablet
| brysonreece wrote:
| Comma Three by Comma.AI
|
| Reduced my engaged driving time by like 90%. Coming from a
| history of <$1k vehicles, it's amazing IMO that most of my trips
| to and from places now consist of me setting the cruise speed
| (even in midtown) and letting my vehicle worry about stop and go
| traffic. Could not recommend enough.
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| A good dishwasher.
|
| I resisted getting one for years because the one I had growing up
| was pretty bad. Nothing would dry, items would come out dirty all
| the time and it was loud and would "chug" for hours.
|
| However, a good (not even fancy, just mid-range from a competent
| manufacturer) modern dishwasher is night and day. Doesn't even
| need special tablets, it just gets things clean, even on the eco
| mode, which is the only one I use. Its not the quietest on the
| market by a dB or two, but its basically not noticeable.
|
| So much better than having a huge pile of dishes taking up the
| entire draining rack until dry enough to put away, getting
| splashed with more water every time the sink is used (and the
| water is medium-hard so that makes a mess, but the dishwasher has
| a water softener).
| brtkdotse wrote:
| People over here are insane and remodel perfectly fine kitchens
| when moving in to a new apartment, and sell all the appliances
| for a pitence.
|
| I picked up a year old Miele for 100EUR, it's been chugging
| along like a tank.
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| My mum has a Miele washing machine that is almost 30 years
| old. As far as I know, it's never needed a repair.
|
| Which is probably just as well as Mieles can always be
| repaired, but the cost of parts is, let's say, dramatic.
|
| My fridge has a broken egg tray lid and a dent in the door.
| Replacing the former is PS35, a freezer door is almost PS300
| (nearly half the cost of the whole fridge freezer). The
| fridge door is almost PS700, as much as the whole thing!
|
| The egg tray lid is particularly annoying as the plastic part
| is actually not well-designed and clearly has obvious weak
| points where a modest redesign would both make a breakage
| less likely in the first place, and allow the most obvious
| failure mode to be repaired with a small sacrificial part
| (that, moreover can be shared amongst all fridge models, so
| it's not even a major SKU count increase) rather than the
| whole lid.
| drcongo wrote:
| Apparently, eggs stored in the fridge are more likely to
| break yolk when cracked. Chuck your egg tray in the bin.
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| The shelf is mostly used for butter in my fridge,
| actually, but the flappy lid thing is still useful as
| there's not much front lip on that shelf. That said, if I
| couldn't have fixed it with glue and stainless steel
| wire, I'd not be paying PS35 for a new one!
|
| Eggs indeed don't usually go in the fridge: in the UK,
| eggs aren't washed before sale, so the natural protective
| layer is still present. I hear that in the US, eggs must
| be washed, the layer is therefore lost and eggs required
| to be washed, the layer is lost and eggs need to be
| refrigerated.
| rdtwo wrote:
| My old one was great but then it almost flooded the house
| when a valve got stuck and I decided maybe not a good idea to
| buy a used dishwasher
| throw0101a wrote:
| > _Doesn 't even need special tablets_ [...]
|
| A thirty minute video explaining why tablets are bad and that
| you should simply use powder:
|
| * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBO8neWw04
|
| Also, a follow-up video:
|
| * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll6-eGDpimU
| amelius wrote:
| Summary? I can't watch video now.
| yonig wrote:
| TLDW Tablets aren't bad but if you don't fill your prewash
| compartment with detergent you'll get worse cleaning. The
| prewash compartments are meant for loose powder or gel so
| might as well just use that detergent for both compartments
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| What are people washing that it doesn't wash off?! Or
| maybe it's just cheap machines that are that sensitive?
|
| The only time things ever come out dirty for me is when
| the rotor is obstructed and half the dishes don't get any
| water (or detergent) on them, and that's on eco mode.
| YourCupOTea wrote:
| The tablets have nothing fancy in them other than some
| dyes, they are just soap at a mark-up. Even the cheapy
| store brand stuff does just as good of a job.
|
| Additionally, depending on the hardness of your water you
| may need less detergent than the tablets have in them which
| could leave a white residue on your dishes.
|
| Finally, with the powdered detergent you may need to
| sprinkle a little in the door for a pre-rinse which you
| can't due with the pods. Check your washer instructions.
|
| P.S. Never use liquid detergents.
| jerome-jh wrote:
| Since first lockdown in my country, when dishwasher tabs
| went missing in stores, I got used to use 1/2 a tab for
| each wash. Turns out dishes were just as clean as with a
| full tab. To this day I keep using 1/2 tab per wash.
| anon7725 wrote:
| > P.S. Never use liquid detergents.
|
| Why not? I've switched from tablets to liquid detergent
| and it's working out well.
| YourCupOTea wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll6-eGDpimU&t=1584s He
| doesn't like them in the follow-up video. Powders can
| have both enzymes and bleach unlike gels.
| solarmist wrote:
| Also dishwasher design hasn't improved in 100 years, so as
| long as it's working any dishwasher is as good as the
| others.
| renewiltord wrote:
| https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=_rBO8neWw04&t=538
|
| The video pretty much says "use detergent in both pre-wash
| and wash receptacles". Using the pods makes this hard.
| Using powder lets you do this easily yourself.
|
| That's pretty much it.
| amelius wrote:
| Aren't there tablets made of two layers, one which
| dissolves during prewash, and the other mostly during
| wash? I mean the two-colored ones.
| cush wrote:
| No, the dishwasher dispenses the entire tablet during
| main wash only. Which is exactly why if you use tablets
| the pre wash won't have any soap
| raldi wrote:
| The door the tablet's in doesn't open until after the
| prewash.
| henrikeh wrote:
| At least not in the ones tested in the video.
|
| Also, the prewash happens in a cycle, where the soap
| holder isn't opened.
| whoisburbansky wrote:
| He tests those as well, finds that they don't actually do
| a staged release like that.
| koala_man wrote:
| I always ran my dishwasher on the three hour power wash
| program because nothing would get clean otherwise. Then I
| watched this video and started using powder. Now the normal
| program works fine every time.
| aqme28 wrote:
| I only watched the first video, but I really can't see the
| difference between his experiment (with the soap at the
| beginning) and his control. I'm not convinced.
| cush wrote:
| He addresses your concerns in the 2nd video. But aside from
| that, logically, you should be convinced by the fact that
| using tablets results in there being no soap soap in the
| first wash cycle.
| preommr wrote:
| Did you just skip to it or did you watch it with audio and
| pay attention to what he's saying?
|
| Becaue he mentions that the difference might not be super
| obvious but still makes a pretty good case for it.
| aqme28 wrote:
| I watched the whole thing.
|
| If your theory isn't borne out by experiment, you should
| probably revise the theory or the experiment before
| publishing your video.
| nokya wrote:
| Why don't you just come to the point?
| buescher wrote:
| Ditto. I was astounded when I read consumer reports' test
| regimen for dishwashers - I recall a test that expected the
| dishwasher to clean out baked on brownie batter. No dishwasher
| I used until way too far into adulthood could do that or the
| equivalent.
|
| The kitchen appliance that surprised me - my current house had
| a double oven when we moved in. The small top oven is just
| perfect - it pre heats as fast as a toaster oven and can fit a
| whole half sheet. It can toast just about anything in toast
| mode but takes up no counter space. We use it constantly. I
| would never have just bought one, because I would have focused
| on the two-oven aspect, which seems like an extravagance that
| would only come in handy at the holidays.
| BiteCode_dev wrote:
| How long have you had it?
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| About 5 years or so. It's probably done well over 1000 cycles
| since then. It's had one breakage, which was a heat pump,
| which was repaired with a part from ebay. Other than that,
| its going strong.
| gmays wrote:
| Some things for me:
|
| - A large water bottle. I don't drink enough water and this has
| been game changing for me. I first got a 1 gallon (which I never
| finished) water bottle but learned that .5 gallon is the right
| size and I always finish it and often refill. I'd say pick one
| that meets your needs, but I've tested a number and can highly
| recommend this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B094X6N4PG/
| It's easy to carry, has a built-in straw and cheap ($20).
|
| - Multiple MacBook chargers. I purchased additional charger for
| my MacBook Pro at different parts of the house where I sit for
| long periods of time. Not having to go get my bag and dig out a
| charger is surprisingly rewarding.
|
| - A second set of AirPods so I have one dedicated for work and
| one for the gym that I keep in my bag, rather than occasionally
| forgetting them. It also helps that I can swamp pairs if I have a
| particularly long day of meetings.
|
| - A robust case for my MacBook Pro. I take my MacBook to and from
| the office, use it all around the house and have small kids. I've
| been through multiple cases, including the sleek expensive ones.
| For me, nothing beats this cheap one I found on Amazon:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083XZ3HP3/
|
| - A rowing machine. The latest Concept 2 is ~$900 which is
| surprisingly cheap for a great workout I can do at how and
| relatively quietly while listening to a podcast or watching a
| game.
|
| - A lapdesk. I use this daily and have multiple around the house
| wherever I end up sitting. They have fancy ones, but I've found
| the simple one is the best: just a piece of wood and a pillow:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K1L3RNK/
| Cr0s wrote:
| A water bottle of the right size I found is much more important
| than it seems. I had pretty much the same experience that you
| mentioned: too big and I don't use it, too small and I can't be
| bothered to refill everytime.
| solarmist wrote:
| Yes, I bought a $2 glass pitcher (~2l) from a discount store
| years ago.
|
| I fill it every morning and love it.
| mastermedo wrote:
| This is some heavy duty stuff you listed here.
|
| On the point about drinking water, I bought a desktop water
| dispenser, much more convenient than having to refill the water
| bottle.
|
| Instead of the rowing machine, I'm considering a barbell with
| weights.
|
| On the multiple equipment point, I fully agree. I got myself
| multiple hubs, one for each desk. No more carrying cables!
| bitwize wrote:
| My Das Keyboard 3. I bought it in 2008. Still using it. So glad
| quality mechanical keyboards made a comeback.
|
| A four-input KVM switch. Lets me switch between my main machine,
| my work computer, and a couple of other things easily.
|
| The VIC-20 my parents bought me when I was 5. No games, just
| BASIC on that rinky-dink thing. But it made me a programmer.
| agumonkey wrote:
| A tiny bluetooth adapter for good old earphones. I know analog +
| wires is often simpler, but tangled broken wires are hell, being
| tethered removes opportunity for simple multitasking.
| threeseed wrote:
| If you are looking for a Bluetooth adapter then would recommend
| Qudelix 5K.
|
| Has the advantage of a built-in parametric EQ which can make a
| big improvement for even the worst tuned headphones.
| taeric wrote:
| I'm rather fond of my RollerMouse. Not sure I can claim it is a
| game changer. But, the stable position of it relative to keyboard
| is quite comforting.
| timpattinson wrote:
| A decent fabric mousepad. Night and day difference.
| grujicd wrote:
| There are even large ones wide enough to suit both keyboard and
| mouse. You don't have pad area anymore, mouse works everywhere.
| It's also more comfortable for hands when typing. Mine is Asus
| ROG Sheath, 990mm x 440mm.
| bikingbismuth wrote:
| A small macropad, in my case a CU7. I've mapped keybindings that
| I commonly forget like mute/unmute for Teams, delete/archive for
| Outlook, and I have a macro for putting in my username and
| username+work email. Makes signing into things a bit faster.
| Retr0id wrote:
| A subwoofer.
|
| No matter how high end your headphones, bookshelf speakers, or
| studio monitors are, they will never be able to punch you in the
| chest in quite the same way as a decently sized dedicated
| subwoofer.
|
| It's a night-and-day difference for listening to music and
| watching movies, or even just listening to human voices in
| youtube videos.
|
| Just, be careful not to bother your neighbours with it.
| mastermedo wrote:
| I can vouch it affects neighbours, I've gotten many complaints
| from neighbours in the apartment below me. Especially when
| watching a movie. Cue a helicopter flying into the scene.
| Cr0s wrote:
| The bothering other people bit is what i feel is mostly
| stopping me from using anything but a headset. I do have
| experience with subwoofers and there is a certain joy when they
| hit you, but the thought of the whole neighbourhood hearing my
| excellent taste in music bothers me somewhat.
| bredren wrote:
| Have you looked into bass shakers? They are popular in home
| theatre enthusiast and driving / flight simulator crowds.
|
| Still niche, but can provide the sensation of heavy bass with
| near silent sound.
|
| I have a project integrating a wireless shaker system into
| the Herman Miller embody.
| Cr0s wrote:
| Damn, I completely forgot about those. Any recommendations?
| bredren wrote:
| I am still at the design stage, but I am looking at
| something like:
|
| - AuraSound AST-2B-4 Pro Bass Shaker Tactile Transducer
|
| - Nobsound Mini Bluetooth 5.0 Power Amplifier
|
| - TalentCell Rechargeable 12V 3000mAh Lithium ion Battery
| Pack
|
| My biggest concerns are custom mounting of the
| transducer(s). Not sure where will give the best effect
| without damaging the chair.
|
| My goal is for it to be wireless, splitting bluetooth
| audio into channels for AirPods Max and this receiver.
|
| Concern there is I don't know what the latency will be
| like, or if I'll need to introduce delay into say the
| headphones channel. I have a few of the Rogue Amoeba
| tools, including Loopback that I'm planning to bring into
| the mix if necessary. Another idea is to separate the amp
| and BT receiver, getting something more professional like
| the Fiio BTR5.
|
| The MVP should probably just be a wired connection to the
| chair, so maybe that can prove the mounting and potential
| first.
|
| That's where I am at. But I have the same concerns as
| you, I don't want loud I have great headphones, just more
| immersion and more bass feel.
| bluedino wrote:
| This goes for your car, too. A small powered subwoofer is such
| a huge improvement.
| pySSK wrote:
| The SubPac for me. Better than a sub, doesn't bother the
| neighbors, and people often use the term gamechanger with it.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Oh yes, I also have a SubPac, which made me fall in love with
| tactile transducers aka. bass shakers.
|
| I ended up attaching bass shakers to my chair too. Custom
| setup with two Reckhorn BS-200i, a cheap TDA7498E amplifier
| from AliExpress (more than powerful enough, and sound quality
| doesn't really matter), and EqualizerAPO for the software
| part. It cost me around $200 and a few hours for the full
| setup.
| cik wrote:
| I've spent a long time engineering, and adapting my workspace.
| It's at the point now that going to an office is a horrible
| experience, compared to my home office. Here's my setup
|
| * Ikea Standing desk (I never sit). I know plenty of people who
| use these for sitting, simply because the height of the desk is
| finally suited to their specific frame.
|
| * As many monitors as will make you happy (to each their own, but
| I'm happy with 2)
|
| * Kinesys Freestyle 2 keyboard (wired, I hate wireless things, I
| never want to think about batteries)
|
| * A laptop stand to lift my laptop - it turns out this made an
| enormous impact to my neck
|
| * Monitor stands - most monitors are stationary, but the wrong
| height, even when compared with arm layout in an ergonomic setup.
|
| * Kensington Expert Mouse
|
| * Wacom One tablet - Now I can draw on digital whiteboards in
| Zoom, or even on shared websites and it's significantly better
| than the mouse experience.
|
| * Sony WX-1000XM3 headphones - I use it for both music and the
| noise cancelling. Just having in on an cancelling noise has been
| an incredible improvement
|
| * Whiteboard - This is by far the most important one in this
| list.
| frogulis wrote:
| > wired, I hate wireless things, I never want to think about
| batteries
|
| It's funny, I feel exactly the same. When friends have asked me
| to explain why, I struggle to justify it. It's just a minor
| feeling of security -- one less thing to maintain.
|
| The only piece of hardware I've considered moving to wireless
| is a headset for gaming with friends, but it hasn't happened
| thus far. Maybe if the End Times come and my ATH-M50x stop
| working.
| roydivision wrote:
| > I struggle to justify it
|
| My keyboard is never further away from my machine than the
| length of the cable, so I see absolutely no reason to
| complicate things by adding batteries to the equation.
| grujicd wrote:
| To be fair, batteries for Logitech wireless keyboard (K270,
| non-fancy one, without backlight) last for years. Same for
| their Marathon mouse. Battery is not the reason to skip these
| devices. Connectivity might be, I had some interference with
| multiple sets nearby. But if you're solo they work very
| reliably.
| grujicd wrote:
| +1 for Ikea standing desk. I'm using it sitting but now I know
| which exact height suits me. Btw. I only recently found out
| that in my case chair's armrests should be above the table.
| When they're below I quickly develop forearm pain from table's
| edge, except if table has round edges. And these are very rare
| around here, edges are usually sharp.
|
| Ikea's other non-standing desks are also often adjustable, but
| with tools. So not good if you want to experiment with height,
| but if you know your preference they have better price/quality
| ratio.
| jlkuester7 wrote:
| > _As many monitors as will make you happy_
|
| I really like this approach! Some people want more, some people
| want less. There is no universal right answer! But monitors are
| so relativity inexpensive (when compared to their potential
| performance/quality-of-life increase) that if you work on a
| computer a significant part of they day, they are a no-brainer
| for optimization!
| amelius wrote:
| > Wacom One tablet - Now I can draw on digital whiteboards in
| Zoom, or even on shared websites and it's significantly better
| than the mouse experience.
|
| Except there's no scroll wheel to zoom in/out. Which makes it
| difficult to use in programs like Inkscape and KiCAD.
|
| Does anybody have a good alternative (external scrollwheel
| perhaps?)
| falcolas wrote:
| The last time I used a Wacom pad, you could use pinch actions
| with your fingers to not only zoom in and out, but rotate and
| scroll. It differentiated between finger and pen actions
| quite cleanly.
| tetha wrote:
| > * Kinesys Freestyle 2 keyboard (wired, I hate wireless
| things, I never want to think about batteries)
|
| I very much second that choice in keyboard, I had the freestyle
| 2, and now I also have the new mechanical version of it. I have
| really long arms, seemingly and most keyboards, even ergonomic
| split ones mean I either have to push my elbows together, or
| angle my wrists weirdly, or sit really far away.
|
| With the Kinesis Freestyle, I can just arrange the halves
| wherever it feels right for them to be. And I tend to move them
| around relative to each other over the day, which apparently is
| a good thing, since it causes me to hold my wrists and elbows
| differently across the day, just like a dynamic sitting or
| standing posture.
| Ingaz wrote:
| There are a lot of devices that supports both wired and
| wireless.
|
| I think it's a correct direction.
|
| I can use my keyboard during Linux installations in wired and
| in wireless mode I can switch between notebook and 2 Android
| devices with shortcut
| atc wrote:
| Rice cooker - so convenient
|
| Ducky One S2 mechanical keyboard - compact but a delight to code
| on
| wly_cdgr wrote:
| +1 for rice cooker. So versatile and so convenient
| gpvos wrote:
| It's a fairly recent buy so I don't know how much impact it'll
| have, but I'm quite happy with my new keyboard without numeric
| keypad (they're also sold as "tenkeyless"). I never use the
| numpad, so this means my mouse is closer to my body and it's all
| more ergonomic.
| unnouinceput wrote:
| My son has one. I hate typing on his keyboard when he needs my
| help, especially when I help him doing his math homework. You
| see I use the numeric keypad a lot on that hence the hate for
| his "tenkeyless" in that case. But he hates my large keyboard
| when he needs my computer, so that balances out, hihi. Each to
| their own I guess
| Cr0s wrote:
| I see a lot of people praising tenkeyless but I use the
| numeric keypad so often I can't bring myself to buy one, even
| if my current keyboard uses more space.
| shafyy wrote:
| Air quality monitor and air purifier. Helps me to have cleaner
| air at home by e.g., reminding me to open the windows more
| regularly.
| grech wrote:
| Are the monitor and purifier one device or two separate
| devices?
| shafyy wrote:
| Two separate devices. I have the Awair air quality monitor
| and a Coway air purifier.
| dividedbyzero wrote:
| - Airpods Pro: Sound really good, walking around freely during
| calls has been great, solid noise cancelling. Most useful and fun
| pair of headphones I've ever owned by a long shot.
|
| - A single 27" 2569x1440 screen on a monitor arm. Had a 34"
| Ultrawide, an Apple Cinema Display and several combinations of
| multiple displays, but that's my sweet spot. Would love to have
| 5k, but these are still too pricey.
|
| - Metabo PowerMaxx BS 10.8v cordless drill. Almost as powerful as
| a big one but so small and light that it's suitable for delicate
| work and cramped corners. I've used it to screw small servos to
| an acrylic robot backplate and drill 12mm holes through 100mm of
| wood.
|
| - Philips Hue: I'd never have thought how much of a difference
| being able to have warm, dim light in the evening and cold,
| bright light in the afternoon makes, but it's huge. Also makes it
| easy to have half a dozen dimmed small lamps instead of a single
| big one. I have LED strips behind my screen that have cured my
| nightly headaches.
|
| - A small Victorinox Alox knife with just a blade and bottle/can
| opener/flat screwdriver. Lives permanently in my coin pocket and
| I wouldn't have believed just how often this comes in handy. It's
| also totally non-threatening, which is a must in an office
| environment.
|
| - A tiny flashlight on my keychain. I use this a lot in the
| darker months, it's so much quicker to get to than fumbling with
| my phone.
|
| - Victorinox Bike Tool: A 6mm or so hex key, a bit adapter that
| goes onto either end of the hex key, a number of metric bits
| (hex, philips, torx) and a pair of plastic tire levers. Snaps
| together into a package so lightweight and small that I actually
| have it with me when I need it and versatile enough to be useful,
| with bits for just the screw heads I actually have on my bike.
|
| - A tarp poncho for summer/fall hiking. Much airier than a rain
| trousers/jacket combo, keeps me dry even in torrential downpours,
| backpack fits underneath, plus it doubles as a simple shelter in
| a pinch with a few tent lines and a hiking pole. Has saved the
| day more than once.
|
| - A proper microphone (Elgato Wave 3), turns out I sounded like
| shit on calls and such but no one had the heart to tell me, but
| finally someone did and I got that microphone, mostly because it
| has an integrated pop filter (that also works). I've compared
| recordings with the old setup and the new microphone and it's
| night and day. I can't quantify it, but I believe not sounding
| awful has made at least some positive difference in how people
| interact with me. These days, audio is often as not the only way
| people get to perceive me.
|
| - A TS80P USB-C soldering iron. I run this off a spare Macbook
| power adapter, so my soldering setup hardly takes up any space
| now. Being able to dial in just the temps I need has made for
| much better and more consistent solder joints, and I haven't even
| started digging into custom firmware.
| hrgiger wrote:
| This year we moved new apartment, so I had opportunity to renew
| most of the staff I was planning, from multi-monitor stand, some
| powerfull homelab server to robocleaner. From all of this, the
| cheap trash box I bought with sensors always make me smile
| whenever I use, I didnt even notice I needed before. Its quite
| big so enough storage for 1-2 day and when your hands get closer
| even in dark it opens automatically.
| logicalmonster wrote:
| Open ear headphones that use what they describe as bone
| conduction technology really added some value to my life. It's
| tough to go running in normal headphones because you can't hear
| danger (cars, animals, people, etc) but it's a lot easier to push
| yourself with some good background music. This gives the best of
| both worlds.
| mateuszf wrote:
| > It's tough to go running in normal headphones because you
| can't hear danger
|
| There are some noise reducing headphones (like Airpods Pro or
| Sony Wh-1000xm*) which have ambient mode - mixing music with
| external noises which also work great for that scenario.
| logicalmonster wrote:
| I have not tried those. Maybe they work great, but I'd find
| it harder to psychologically trust my environment if my ears
| were covered. Having my ears open to the environment means
| that I don't have to merely trust that some kind of noise
| mixing technology works perfectly.
|
| As far as anything like an earbud goes, I don't know if the
| shape of my ears is a bit unusual, but I cannot run with
| anything like an earbud without having the earbud slip out
| frequently. I need something like a headphone to avoid having
| to constantly fidget with my ears.
|
| Just my personal experience.
| tmikaeld wrote:
| Which headset is good enough? I backed some kickstarter years
| ago which failed, so i never tried bone conduction again.
| verst wrote:
| I've run thousands of miles with Aftershokz Trekz Air.
| Battery Life is still great after years.
|
| Just yesterday I ran 21 miles and listened to 3 podcasts
| while doing so. Afterward the headphones still reported a
| battery level of "high".
|
| Sure you don't get amazing music quality, but it's good
| enough for the distraction and I always hear every bicyclist
| approaching me from behind.
| derwiki wrote:
| Not GP but I like my Aeropex by Aftershokz
| scatters wrote:
| Aftershokz Aeropex. It's worth trying them out though; see if
| a running store near you will let you try them out on their
| treadmill.
| leobg wrote:
| Any type of these that's good for listening to audiobooks in
| bed? I find in ear headphones to be easily uncomfortable when
| you're lying on your side.
| effnorwood wrote:
| ZeroGravitas wrote:
| Kinesis Advantage Pro ergonomic keyboard.
|
| Thumb cluster modifier keys.
|
| Staggered Ortholinear keys.
|
| Split, tented, cupped keywells.
|
| Remappable key assignments.
|
| Basically forcing you to touch type properly.
|
| Those are all individually amazing, but together a revolution.
|
| You can do better key remapping with software or qmk style
| firmware these days. There's more choice than ever for hardware
| variations with all or some of these features, but this was my
| entry point and I'll always be grateful.
| fortran77 wrote:
| I remember when my husband brought a TiVo 1.0 to the house and
| hooked it up. This was 1999. I didn't understand why I'd need
| one.
|
| Within a few days, I couldn't live without it. I could pause Live
| TV, and watch shows when I wanted to. I can't imagine any other
| way. When I see my 88 year old mother watching "live" TV, I get
| frustrated.
|
| The second piece of hardware that was a "game changer" was a Toto
| Neorest toilet. No more wiping!
| thewebcount wrote:
| I was going to say this same thing about the TiVo and then
| later AppleTV. I thought the TiVo looked cool, but I was like,
| "eh, I have a VCR. It's good enough." But doing stuff to live
| TV was incredible. And being able to find things by searching
| with an interface instead of looking things up in TV Guide or
| whatever, was also great. Instead of thinking, "I wonder what's
| on at 7:30 tonight?" it became, "I wonder if anyone's showing
| StarGate this week." It was a world of difference.
|
| Downloading commercial-free shows on the original AppleTV was
| also awesome, and then once streaming started, there was no
| going back for me.
| epolanski wrote:
| 12" tablet with a pen like samsung galaxy s7 fe.
|
| I can read programming books in the top half while taking notes
| or running code in a repl in the bottom one.
|
| It's also okay coupled with gitpod or github teams (via
| codespaces) for "entertainment" or light coding.
| pani5ue wrote:
| Guitar tuner
|
| I'm a beginner/intermediate hobby guitarist. Makes the guitar
| sound much better. Makes it easier to keep guitar tuned
| incognition wrote:
| Alternatively tuner app on your cell
| solarmist wrote:
| A reverse osmosis water filter and a cheap glass pitcher.
|
| I've found that I'm pretty sensitive to the taste of water (good
| and bad). I don't mind the water in many places, but it can be
| very hit or miss. Over the years, the amount of water I would
| drink tended to change quite a bit from location to location.
|
| Instead, I use a reverse osmosis water filter to get completely
| neutral water every time I know there isn't anything reducing the
| amount of water I drink.
|
| It's HUGELY affected the amount of water I drink over soda, milk,
| tea, etc.
| mastermedo wrote:
| For me, it was elgato key lights air. I can't tell you much more
| I enjoy spending time in front of my desk, and in my room in
| general. It's basically daylight during nighttime.
| sudosysgen wrote:
| A laptop with an R7 5800 series CPU (or M1 Pro if it works with
| your workflow).
|
| 10+ hours of battery life, absolutely silent outside of load,
| more powerful than my desktop, cheap, and works on any OS.
| tezza wrote:
| * streamdeck (with AutoHotkey) saves more hot loop critical
| tasking than i could have dreamed of
|
| * Microsoft X6 keyboard - the original hot action key
|
| - svn st, svn diff, svn ci -m ""<space><back><back> as an example
| of the very frequent things replaced by a discrete key each
| gottebp wrote:
| A whole house steam humidifier, if you live in cold climates.
| That feeling you have getting off a plane in a tropical zone,
| escaping the winter; you can bring that home. Sinus and allergy
| issues go down, mucus membranes stay healthy, and skin stops
| cracking.
| owenversteeg wrote:
| I totally agree, a humidifier is a game changer in dry
| climates.
|
| I imagine a number of people here will go ahead and buy the
| first thing labeled "humidifier" after reading this comment, so
| I'll be that guy and mention that ultrasonic humidifiers (not
| steam, as you mentioned) are potentially dangerous because they
| aerosolize not just the water, but everything in the water -
| minerals, bacteria etc. The idea is that these tiny particles
| of minerals are absorbed into the alveolar sacs and ducts of
| the lungs, where macrophages ingest these particles and trigger
| an inflammatory response. Enough of this inflammatory response
| causes silicosis and/or cancer, but exactly how much dust is
| needed is under debate. As far as the bacteria go, it's obvious
| why that's undesirable.
|
| In any case, it may be best to avoid ultrasonic humidifiers
| unless you can run them with distilled water. The EPA claims
| that impeller humidifiers also disperse large amounts of
| minerals and bacteria into the air, although I imagine the
| particle size is larger.
|
| The other two types of humidifiers are evaporative (usually use
| a filter) and steam humidifiers, which also have problems - for
| the former, you have to buy filters regularly as well as clean
| them carefully as they are also breeding grounds for bacteria.
| Unfortunately anything warm-ish and wet is a bacterial haven,
| so the EPA recommends that you dry and wipe down your
| humidifier every day, as well as a full scrub down once every 3
| days, regardless of the humidifier type.
| jcrben wrote:
| Humidity kicks dust mites into hyper breeding mode, so not
| great if you have a dust mite allergy. I like to keep my home
| dry.
| nickjj wrote:
| A 2560x1440 monitor running at its 1:1 native resolution. The
| screen real estate improvement over 1080p is substantial. You get
| so much more vertical space and you can easily fit 4 side by side
| code windows at 80 chars. At 24" or 25" the PPI is also quite
| nice for reading text.
|
| I wrote up a very big monitor selection guide at
| https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to-pick-a-good-monitor-fo...,
| I try to keep it up to date by supplying alternatives to the ones
| I've purchased. Some of the monitors I recommended were $330 when
| I bought them but are now $500-700, although sometimes they come
| back in stock at $350ish.
|
| I made the switch around 5-6 years ago and still think it was one
| of the biggest upgrades for general quality of life improvements
| when using a computer.
|
| The only reason I haven't gone 4k is because using one at 100%
| scaling at 27" or less isn't really feasible due to how small the
| text is and using a 36" one to be able to comfortably view it at
| 100% scaling feels too big for using it in a normal desk
| environment. Personally I'd rather have the flexibility of 2x
| 24-25" 2560x1440 monitors, plus 120hz / 144hz 2560x1440 monitors
| are very abundant if you're into games (although you can make a
| strong case that 120hz+ is very noticeable and useful for general
| usage too).
| washadjeffmad wrote:
| I've been looking for a good 4:3 or 3:2 display for several
| years and recently found the following 16:18 announcement from
| LG: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/12/lgs-1618-ultra-
| tall-...
|
| It will probably be obscenely overpriced, but I'll probably get
| a few for work for people who don't like their curved
| ultrawides.
|
| The 39" 4K I've been using since 2014 has spent many a year in
| pillarbox attempting to preserve my neck and eyes, but it's
| still ultimately too large. I'd love to replace it with some
| smaller high res non-widescreen panels.
| Cr0s wrote:
| I read your monitor selection guide and one thing that stood
| out to me was the distance you need to have from you monitor.
| Completely overlooked that one when I made my first upgrade to
| a larger monitor and it definitely lowered my use of that
| monitor. Sometimes i found myself using my second, older
| monitor more since the distance was more comfortable.
| BuckRogers wrote:
| Which sizes were used there? I prefer 24" by a wide margin.
| Whatever resolution I have to accept at that size I will. I
| find myself moving my head around and moving my eyes around
| the screen too much with 27"+.
| Cr0s wrote:
| I cannot remember of the top of my head what the size was,
| but the problem was that it was around an arms length away
| from me and I had to move my head/eyes too much when using
| it. After that, checking how much space i have for my
| desktop became something I was much more conscious about.
| Before that it was just: this new monitor me like, me buy.
| smoldesu wrote:
| Amen to that. I recently bought a cheap Westinghouse display
| off Newegg that was 1440p@144hz, and it makes for an incredible
| primary display. I'm not exactly sold on "retina" pixel
| density, but having the extra screen real-estate is pretty
| lovely for productivity purposes. I'll definitely be
| considering a 4k display over the next few months, if I can get
| the kind of GPU to drive it reliably.
| capableweb wrote:
| You're mentioning "Panel Lotto" in your blog post in relation
| to reviews being for IPS panels but then sending customers TN
| panels instead of IPS panels. I don't think that is what is
| commonly referred to as "Panel Lotto" (I'd call that straight
| up fraud and I'm sure most courts would be on your side).
|
| "Panel Lotto" (as I know it at least) refers to the company's
| policy regarding returning a panel that had dead pixels on
| arrival. Some policies don't allow customers to return those
| displays even if it has a dead pixel, as it wouldn't count as a
| defect. That's why it's a "lotto", it's pure chance if you'll
| receive a perfect display or not, and if you do you have no
| recourse.
|
| I'm not sure how it works out in practice, I've never received
| any display with dead-pixels on arrival.
| nickjj wrote:
| It's called a lotto because what you get could be left to
| chance. This was a pretty common to have happen in the past
| and some tech news sites covered it too. I'm not sure if it's
| still happening a lot nowadays but it was certainly a real
| thing 10 years ago. Current day monitor manufacturers still
| do very questionable things like rating a 4k monitor at 120hz
| in its primary tagline / description / on the box but there's
| fine print that says "only when running at 1080p". It's
| taking advantage of folks who don't know a lot or do a bunch
| of research beforehand in order to sell more units.
|
| To a lesser degree the "lotto" idea happens with CPUs too in
| terms of overclockability potential. Certain serial numbers
| performed better, it became a lotto unless you went out of
| your way to purchase specific ones. This feels a lot less
| wrong than the panel lotto aspect tho.
|
| You are right in that it feels criminal, it's not even the
| same product.
| capableweb wrote:
| I've come across models being swapped out (where only a
| letter is difference but the panel changed) in the wild
| before, or misleading marketing. But since you can overcome
| that by doing research, its no longer a "lotto", like
| overclockability with CPUs or the possibility of getting
| dead-pixel on arrival.
| whalesalad wrote:
| I run an HP Z27 4K display at 2560x1440 and feel it's perfect.
| trabant00 wrote:
| Wait till you get a 32 inch 4k one. I am shocked a lot of IT
| professionals still use 1080p when the above can be found for
| as low as 250 usd with discounts
| yangikan wrote:
| Which ones?
| d3nj4l wrote:
| Here's a 27" 4K at $300:
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PGL2WVS
|
| I have the slightly better version of this. The only major
| difference is the stand AFAIK - but if you have multiple
| monitors you might as well get a good VESA mount to arrange
| them while keeping your desk clear.
| bsenftner wrote:
| I have four 4K screens, and it is heaven. I got spoiled early
| in my career by a Unix system that had a greyscale newspaper
| layout monitor in the early 90's. That monitor could crispy
| display an unfolded two page newspaper layout with space on
| the left and right for tool/editing interfaces. For a while,
| 4K monitors were landing right near US $300, so I got 4 over
| a period of months. Simply being able to array references
| around my work, with space to spare for communication and
| music interfaces. It is lovely to hit stride and before I
| know it the day is over, and a ton of work accomplished.
| miller_joe wrote:
| Do you recall the name of that monitor from the 90s? Sounds
| interesting
| pySSK wrote:
| Just in case you didn't know, you can rotate any monitor
| 90 degrees and get the same layout.
| bsenftner wrote:
| It was a Sony News Workstation, with an IBM branded grey
| scale monitor displaying 16 grey levels at 150 pixels an
| inch. Total display was about 1900x3600, a bit larger
| than an opened two-page newspaper spread. It was a CRT
| monitor, requiring two feet behind the screen for the
| back of the monitor and quite thick cabling. It was a
| Unix workstation, used to author R&D CD ROMs, back when
| the CD ROM itself was R&D.
| clarkdave wrote:
| I've tried a lot of different monitor setups for productivity -
| ranging from three 24" 4k displays to a single 49" ultrawide,
| and ultimately have found the best setup for me is dual 27"
| 4ks, each running at a "scaled" 2560x1440.
|
| MacOS in particular does an excellent job of rendering
| 2560x1440 to a 4K screen, and the increased DPI over a regular
| 1440p 27" screen is very noticeable.
|
| Another option if you're not a fan of 27" displays is a pair of
| 24/25" 4k screens which can be run at a scaled 2304x1296
| resolution. This still provides a decent amount of space
| without text being too tiny. Alas, 4k monitors <27" are
| increasingly rare these days.
| clktmr wrote:
| > rendering 2560x1440 to a 4K screen
|
| How does this work? Will it just upscale or is e.g. text
| still rendered at 4K? Rendering not at native resolution
| results always in blurred edges in my experience.
| kemayo wrote:
| Very well, in my experience. Apple has been doing what it
| calls "retina" display for a while now, whereby it keeps
| the display's actual resolution at a high native level but
| scales everything it renders so the screen is _effectively_
| a lower resolution... but really smooth because of it.
|
| Here's an album with a pair of screenshots from my own 4k
| display: https://imgur.com/a/7AHZZZv -- the scaled one is
| how I normally use it.
| floatingatoll wrote:
| In macOS, the entire display is rendered at 4K no matter
| what you pick from the resolution box. Most apps have
| learned to provide 2x-3x "retina" icons so that their
| bitmap resources look crisp alongside the system UI
| resources at user-selected "resolutions".
|
| The Windows UI scaling slider behaves in exactly the same
| way, though fewer apps include 2x or 3x bitmap resources.
| CharlesW wrote:
| > _In macOS, the entire display is rendered at 4K no
| matter what you pick from the resolution box._
|
| This makes it sound as if macOS upscales a 4K render when
| displaying to (for example) 5K monitors, but on a 5K
| monitor everything is ultimately rendered at a full
| _physical_ resolution of 5120x2880. But in the Displays
| Preference Pane, the _logical_ resolution is set by
| default to 2560x1440 (2:1). One _can_ choose a logical
| resolution of 5120x2880 (1:1), but I can 't imagine
| anyone working like that.
| bobbob1921 wrote:
| On windows , I have used over 25 different monitors over the
| years, I have found these two sizes to be the best:
|
| 32" at 4k (native res, 1:1)
|
| 30" 2560-by-1600 (native res, 1:1) ( few monitors support
| this physically, but two are my goto: old 30" apple studio
| displays , and a 30" old dell monitor. Both can be found on
| eBay at very low cost , but do use 2 to 4x the power draw as
| modern monitors)
| peteri wrote:
| Totally agree with this, I have mine(2x27" 4K) running in the
| same scaled way and I really miss it when I go back to the
| office with a crappy three screen 1080p setup.
| Aeolun wrote:
| Can't get the same monitors for the office?
|
| I always try to get the company to pay for me of course,
| but I have no patience for suboptimal equipment any more,
| so I'll buy it myself if I have to.
| peteri wrote:
| Last time I asked the answer was no (which is annoying)
| but that is because IT don't want to support a special
| setup.
|
| I may try pushing for a monitor refresh again once we go
| back to the office.
| tzs wrote:
| > ranging from three 24" 4k displays
|
| An option that I think might be interesting is 3 displays
| side by side, but with the center display in portrait mode
| rather than landscape mode giving overall an inverted T shape
| to your combined display space.
| daggersandscars wrote:
| When I am using 24" displays, I put one in landscape
| directly in front of me and one in portrait off to one
| side. Upper/lower half of the portrait monitor works well
| for terminals / email / chat. Entire portrait for reading
| documentation. Full-screen landscape for everything else.
|
| I find this works well for the "adjustable height desk"
| systems one puts on top of a regular desk. They usually
| aren't wide enough to have two monitors with one directly
| in front of the user. The portrait monitor, if the cables
| are long enough, stays on the fixed-height desk.
|
| I'm unable to use two monitors side-by-side anymore.
| Working for hours with my head always turned to one side
| gives me headaches.
|
| ---
|
| Edited to add note on desk-placed "adjustable height"
| systems.
| lucumo wrote:
| > MacOS in particular does an excellent job of rendering
| 2560x1440 to a 4K screen, and the increased DPI over a
| regular 1440p 27" screen is very noticeable.
|
| MacOS in particular gets amazingly slow when you don't use a
| 1:1 or 2:1 scaling. I too have have two 27" 4k screens and
| they made the machine unbearably slow. It got so bad that I
| now treat them as 1440p screens and let the screens do the
| scaling. It's not pretty and slightly hazy, but at least the
| machine is usable.
| dijit wrote:
| My Mac is unusably slow sometimes. I think this is the
| reason. I will try using native sizes and see if it
| improves. Thank you for this tip
| runjake wrote:
| I don't notice the slightest decrease in speed or any
| benchmark going from native 1440p to 1440p hidpi at 4K.
|
| If there is a speed decrease, I can't notice it on an M1.
|
| I've seen a lot of people parrot this claim or claim it
| renders awfully but have yet to experience any evidence. On
| the contrary, it's been glorious.
|
| Edit: if you do 1440p scaling on a 4K on macOS make damned
| sure you select "1440p (Hi-DPI)" other you get a pixelated
| mess.
| lucumo wrote:
| Maybe the M1s are better. I have a 2019 MacBook Pro. And
| two external screens, maybe that makes a difference. It
| was especially bad after upgrading to Monterey.
|
| I don't "parrot" the claim. I've experienced the problem.
| It's day and night. After installing Monterey I couldn't
| run MS Teams on the external monitors anymore. It more or
| less locked up and I couldn't move the window back to the
| laptop screen. This was repeatable.
|
| The whole problem went away when I selected 1440p (the
| "low resolution" one). It's fugly, but at least I can
| actually use my other monitors.
| ENGNR wrote:
| Myself and my cofounder can reproduce the exact same
| issue every time with each of our MBP 2019 5500's.
| Another team member with a 5400 running the exact same
| dev environment as me has never had the issue, so there's
| something funky on that model.
|
| It's pretty bad the Apple still denies any issue, not
| being able to use an external monitor at all through
| covid suuuuucked
| secureleaf wrote:
| I also have the 2019 MacBook Pro and it's been a dumpster
| fire. I'm running 3x 4K monitors and it's completely
| unusable with the dedicated GPU (the 5500M).
|
| I spent months trying everything I could think of:
| downgrading to Catalina, turning off
| transparency/shadows, running as few background services
| as possible, and not using scaling at all (which was the
| most effective solution). And this was only with 2x 4K
| monitors; I added a 3rd more recently.
|
| Nothing worked. Thermal throttling and insufficient
| sustained power were two problems I was able to identify
| (the 96W adapter is not sufficient for the system's peak
| power load, so it uses the battery to get over 96W of
| draw).
|
| Eventually, I broke down and bought an eGPU (Blackmagic
| eGPU) which solved the problem. For about ~$700, I'm now
| able to use my machine without a hiccup. Not a great or
| affordable solution, but it has made my $3,100 machine
| usable again.
| runjake wrote:
| I have an i9 2019 MBP 16" at work and also don't notice a
| slow down when I bring it home. Maybe it's a GPU bug?
|
| I'm pretty sure my i9 model has the lower end 5300M.
|
| Another question: what are you using to connect the
| monitor to your laptop? USB-C to DisplayPort, here. I
| formerly used HDMI off of a USB-C hub but it was a
| bummer.
| thebean11 wrote:
| The new MacBook pros can handle it
| ddek wrote:
| Hell, not even the pros.
|
| My work laptop is a 2019 i7 MBP, it struggles with my 4k
| monitor regardless of scaling. I bought the cheapest mac
| mini last year to see what the M1 fuss was about, and it
| has no problem with the 4k screen, even with scaling.
|
| Other OS's? Windows is passable until you start
| transitioning in and out of full screen. Linux...
| runjake wrote:
| I think the parent means the new Apple Silicon-based
| MBPs, not the 2019 models. I may be misreading the way
| you phrased your comment though.
| sangnoir wrote:
| My Windows games run at higher frame rates at 4k under
| Linux (Proton) than on Windows natively. I only had to
| set up the scaling once - just like I had to with Mac OS
| for the same monitor. Linux display issues are greatly
| exaggerated, IMO.
| seanw444 wrote:
| I was gonna say "Linux... what?" I have the least issues
| with any hardware on Linux compared to other systems.
| Monitors are no exception. And if something doesn't work
| out of the box, you have _options_ , rather than just
| being SOL with other systems.
| messe wrote:
| I've a 2019 16" MBP that I use for work, and it handles
| it fine as well; probably due to the discrete GPU kicking
| in once an external monitor is connected. Likewise, my M1
| air sees no issues.
| em3rgent0rdr wrote:
| Yeah...I tried using a 4k display, and I found the pixels _too_
| small. And programs ran slower because they had to render so
| many pixels. And using scaling didn 't play well when moving
| windows between my other two regular monitors.
| AQuantized wrote:
| I have a 4k 32" monitor that I use at 1:1. Maybe not for
| everyone, but I find myself unwilling to work on smaller
| screens now. Only problem is it can be find to hard 144hz
| refresh rates in this size/resolution range, but the smoothness
| isn't worth the sacrifice in screen real estate.
| jyxent wrote:
| I'm using a 43" 4K TV as a monitor now, and I really like it.
| It does take some getting use to at first, but with a tiling
| window manager I can split it up how I like and have the
| benefit of being able to use the whole screen at once for games
| and movies. Higher pixel density would be nice, because I still
| need subpixel text rendering to make the text look nice. But
| with 8K TVs coming out and getting cheaper, that would make a
| good combination of workspace size and decent enough pixel
| density.
| geoduck14 wrote:
| >but with a tiling window manager I can split it up how I
| like and have the benefit of being able to use the whole
| screen at once for games and movies
|
| Power Toys?
|
| https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/
| teleforce wrote:
| I've made the switch to the 2560x1440 monitors (27") about the
| same time as you and totally agreed about your observation. For
| TV and video I think Full HD at 1080p is the cut-off but for
| text reading and editing 2560x1440 is really a game changer.
| Everytime you go back to 1080p even for smaller 13" screen it's
| a very annoyingly noticeable with the jagged lines around the
| texts and is a bummer.
| pmarreck wrote:
| 3440x1440 for me. I own 3. Amazing for gaming AND working.
| bergheim wrote:
| > The only reason I haven't gone 4k is because using one at
| 100% scaling at 27" or less isn't really feasible due to how
| small the text is
|
| People keep saying this but I don't.. see.. it. Everything
| scales great on my setup. I could make one letter cover the
| entire screen if I wanted to - the DPI is not really relevant
| in that sense. You still have to set size up to your liking.
| And I do not have great eyesight (contacts/glasses).
|
| Admittedly, DPI does play a part when you have multiple
| monitors with different resolutions. I have solved that by
| wrapping my launcher with a script that detects the screen,
| reads the DPI and scales accordingly. Which, to be fair, is not
| something you should expect people to do :p
|
| My desktop uses an LG-27GL850 and an LG-27GN950. One is 1440p,
| the other is 4k. Both are 144hz. I first bought the 1440p,
| which is great, then I bought the 4k one. I wanted to keep the
| 1440p one for gaming, but as it turns out, I don't game, so I
| regret not getting two 4ks.
|
| I did extensive research before getting these, and after a year
| with them side by side, I can for sure see the difference when
| I read text. The fonts (and everything) just pop more.
|
| I would be completely fine with 1440p, that looks great as
| well, but since I am at my computer for the better part of my
| life, a few extra dollars was (and still is) worth it for me.
|
| PS: 144hz was almost weird at first - the cursor and scrolling
| is so instant. Highly recommended.
| dracodoc wrote:
| A good ink jet for printing photos and greeting cards.
|
| Previously I had bad experience with ink jet being the ink keep
| drying up, and laser is always better for black and white.
| However two use cases really make it worth to remember turn on
| ink jet and clean it regularly: - print photo by yourself, like
| passport photo, photo needed by forms. You may still need to
| adjust color/brightness a little bit, but it's way better than
| CVS. I didn't realize you can print 4x6 with this kind of
| quality. - print greeting cards. with quality paper it's looking
| very good.
|
| I use Cannon MX 922, regular 4x6 photo paper. For greeting card I
| use 44lb Epson Premium Presentation Paper MATTE.
| threeseed wrote:
| a) Satechi Dock5 Station - holds and charges your phone, tablet,
| computer and AirPods. Wake up and everything is charged.
|
| b) Bose Sleepbuds II - comfortable, tiny earbuds that last all
| night and play white noise or repeating melodies.
|
| c) Anker PowerConf - video conferencing speaker which means you
| aren't having to fiddle with headphones and the giant red light
| makes it easy to see when you're muted.
|
| d) Mogics Power Donut - combination travel adapter, power
| extension board, extension cable and USB hub in one tiny device.
| Arkanosis wrote:
| The list could be very long, but here are a few things which I
| have started using lately and which have proved more useful than
| expected:
|
| - A dish draining rack: that's very inexpensive and I'm wasting
| way less time and space than before arranging dishes.
|
| - A vertical desktop file sorter: exactly the same thing, but for
| papers.
|
| - Thin, fingerless gloves I can type with: while this has not
| solved my dry hands problem in winter, it has helped a lot.
|
| - Monitor and speakers stands: that has bought me a lot of desk
| real estate.
|
| - Pan lids: cooking is faster, smells less, and consumes less
| energy; also some food is less dry.
|
| And the thing I've been using for a few years now, but which has
| been waaaay above my expectations:
|
| - A headset with ANC and multipoint Bluetooth: a real life
| changer for work, gaming and phone calls; the most expensive item
| in this list, but definitely worth the price for me.
| Cr0s wrote:
| To comment on the monitor and speaker stands, even just a bit
| more desk space can be surprisingly useful once you have 15+
| things on your desk. Feels like one of those things you don't
| learn to appreciate until you need them.
| odiroot wrote:
| > Monitor and speakers stands: that has bought me a lot of desk
| real estate.
|
| Can you share what speaker stands do you use?
| Arkanosis wrote:
| Gator Frameworks Clamp-On Studio Monitor Stand:
| https://gatorframeworks.com/products/frameworks-clamp-on-
| stu...
|
| I've spent countless hours weighting the pros and cons of
| many stand models, and this one checks all the boxes except
| one (you can only tilt it in one way); no other model I've
| seen comes close. Also, they feel very solid: I use them with
| the 10 kg Edifier R2000DB (awesome bookshelf speakers, BTW)
| and it's not moving at all.
| odiroot wrote:
| Thanks for the link. They're not even that expensive,
| ~90EUR over here.
| hn_go_brrrrr wrote:
| I'd appreciate you sharing your dish drying rack
| recommendation. I've still got the one I bought in college.
| Never occurred to me there might be better versions.
| Arkanosis wrote:
| I haven't spent that much time weighting the options for this
| one, so I don't really feel like I can recommend this model
| over others, but here it is:
| https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B01FWIJ25S
|
| I'd say the right one really depends on your needs. In my
| case space was an issue, so I took a really small one. It's
| OK for 1 / 2 people, but I wish I could put a little more
| cutlery in it.
|
| Anyway, I'd definitely recommend any model over not having
| one.
| Yhippa wrote:
| > - A headset with ANC and multipoint Bluetooth: a real life
| changer for work, gaming and phone calls; the most expensive
| item in this list, but definitely worth the price for me.
|
| Ooh, have a recommendation for this?
| pmarreck wrote:
| 3440x1440 monitor.
|
| I now own 3. :)
| abducer wrote:
| And 18650 powered flashlight, such as one made by Fenix. (Also
| note they make a keychain flashlight which could stand in for the
| device in another toplevel comment.) The 18650 is more your
| standard flashlight though. I used to have a flashlight, who
| doesn't? But now I consistently take one when hiking, looking for
| stuff, etc. The brightness and even cast of the beam, plus the
| long battery life, mean it has a lot of utility for working at
| night or in a poorly lit space. You can use it as a lantern, too,
| just stand it up or hang it. Bonus points for USBC charging.
|
| An insulated mug. I didn't think it would change the way I drink
| tea. Now I can bring it to my desk and take small sips. This
| helps me get back to work and stay focused, and probably reduces
| my overall consumption because I don't feel like I have to chug
| while warm and then go brew more.
| habibur wrote:
| A raspberry pi when the GPIOs are used. So much of your home can
| be automated with such a cheap hardware. Plus the ability to ssh
| in and tune the code anytime.
| derwiki wrote:
| What have you automated with a rpi? In case any of us are
| looking for inspiration
| uniqueuid wrote:
| This might not be what you want to hear (i.e. too little tech),
| but here's a list from Bruce Sterling's talk at Reboot 11 (2009)
| [1] that stuck with me:
|
| * Number one, a bed. You're spending a third of your life in the
| thing.
|
| * Get a chair. I shouldn't have to tell people who work with
| computers to get a chair.
|
| * (things that go on your skin like clothes and cosmetics)
|
| * Apart from that, beautiful things, emotional things, tools.
|
| His (minimalist) message is to get rid of everything else.
|
| [1] https://www.wired.com/2011/02/transcript-of-
| reboot-11-speech...
| huffmsa wrote:
| Impact driver
| [deleted]
| bluedino wrote:
| To add: cordless electric 1/2" impact
| zmower wrote:
| An ISO stick. Looks like a DVD player to the OS but loads ISO
| images off a micro SD card. So I have lots of images in a USB
| stick form factor that are read much faster than a real DVD drive
| does.
| sowbug wrote:
| Not sure if this is what you meant, but Ventoy
| (https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html) turns almost any USB
| drive into one of these.
| libertine wrote:
| I really enjoyed getting a mechanical keyboard (Keychron K2), it
| has a really nice typing experience when compared to membrane
| keyboards. There's something to the tactile + sound feedback that
| triggers some emotional response in us, it just feels good.
|
| It also improved my posture a lot from writing on a laptop (but
| for this objective, any keyboard would do the job ofc).
| kyriakos wrote:
| I started getting pains in my fingers and after some time I
| realised they were caused by the keyboard. I bought a keychron
| and never had a problem with my fingers again. Really good
| devices for the price.
| ssss11 wrote:
| A good coffee machine at home. Unbelievable ROI, one of my
| favourite purchases.
| Arubis wrote:
| Maybe tangential, but would most folks be likely to discern the
| difference vs. a glass French press? Most drip coffeemakers
| I've used are both more expensive and make worse coffee (not to
| mention harder to clean), so I've largely given up on the
| category, but admittedly haven't done proper research in quite
| a while.
| chordalkeyboard wrote:
| I have yet to find a French press without plastic components
| that contact the brew.
| rdtwo wrote:
| They make metal ones
| Saris wrote:
| Usually manual coffee making can be just as good or better
| than a machine, or at least much cheaper for the same
| quality. You can make very very good coffee with a $40 pour-
| over or french press.
|
| French press doesn't really have a machine equivalent that I
| can think of though, it's sort of in its own category of
| coffee.
|
| IMO a good burr grinder is good to have no matter how you
| make your coffee. If you don't already buy whole beans
| they're much fresher, and if you do but use a blade grinder
| the burr grinders do a better more consistent job at it.
| rdtwo wrote:
| It depends on the flavor you like. The espresso flavor is
| much more mellow in my opinion. Drip can be great but you
| need to have a preference for that style
| GuB-42 wrote:
| It looks like you can make the difference since you prefer a
| glass French press. There is no "superior" brewing process,
| and if you like the French press, use the French press.
| Arguably, the pourover method is strictly better than drip
| coffee, in term of quality, but it is more involved, and you
| need to know what you are doing. With drip coffee, you just
| have to press a button, you can even run the machine on a
| timer and have coffee ready when you wake up, which is not a
| negligible advantage.
|
| Personally, I have an espresso machine, which is by far the
| way I prefer coffee, but the machine (+ grinder) is expensive
| and it gives you a new hobby.
|
| Really, it is all up to you, there is no bad answer. The
| French press is a perfectly good brewing method, so is drip,
| and many others: moka pot, Aeropress, etc...
| pksebben wrote:
| I splurged on a moccamaster and it's my favorite thing
| ever. It's practically pour over, but I don't have to do
| any work before I've had a coffee (which is a hard line for
| me)
| kwertyoowiyop wrote:
| I love my AeroPress. Faster, better, and easier than anything
| else!
| drcongo wrote:
| I've been a huge AeroPress fan for years (at least 15 I
| think), but recently moved to a house with a massive kitchen
| and bought a good mid-range espresso machine and I have to
| admit, I'm in love with it. I got this one [0] for reference
| and it's filled with really clever design touches. Only the
| quality of the steam control dial lets it down, in every
| other respect it's superb. The AeroPress has gone in a drawer
| and not been seen since.
|
| Edit: Meant to add, actually the entire flow including
| steaming the milk is faster and less messy than the AeroPress
| too.
|
| [0] https://www.sageappliances.com/uk/en/products/espresso/be
| s87...
| kqr wrote:
| Yup. My wife and I got one when we moved in together before we
| were married. At the time we were very poor students and it was
| not obviously the right call. But we have gotten an insane
| mileage out of that thing from the day we brought it home.
| Easily worth it many times over.
| jasonpeacock wrote:
| Look for a drip machine endorsed by the SCA - Specialty Coffee
| Association.
|
| I've had both of these, they are both great:
|
| https://smile.amazon.com/Bonavita-One-Touch-Featuring-Therma...
|
| https://smile.amazon.com/OXO-Barista-Brain-Coffee-Maker/dp/B...
|
| Combine one of the above with a burr grinder for freshly ground
| coffee, and use filtered water, and you've got the best home
| coffee with least effort.
| BiteCode_dev wrote:
| Brand?
| gehsty wrote:
| I got a sage (breville I'm the US) barista pro and love it,
| no heat up time as it uses a heat pump, great grinder and
| easy to clean. I make at least two coffees a day, every day
| for over a year and it's never missed a beat.
| ssss11 wrote:
| I have a delonghi. Only a few hundred dollars but the support
| service has been fantastic which I didn't really expect
| either.
|
| I've noticed a few responses to my post mentioning drip
| coffee machines - the one I have steams milk, makes lattes
| etc
| germinalphrase wrote:
| I'll just mention that I bought my Moccamaster for about $100
| on eBay. They're out there and available.
| dudeinjapan wrote:
| Bonavita makes some good ones--recommend BV1500TS or BV1900TS.
| Ditch the default stainless steel carafe and upgrade to double-
| walled glass.
| alias_neo wrote:
| My Rancilio Sylvia E has really gotten a workout since
| lockdown.
|
| When it's not making coffee, it doubles as a very therapeutic
| thing to clean and maintain for a couple of hours every couple
| of months.
| jcarpio wrote:
| Some great answers here.
|
| Mine: Air Pods Pro. Takes the edge off of traffic and other city
| noises while walking around. Makes it easier to consume
| audiobooks/podcasts. Plane/bus/train trips++.
|
| Wool pants, shorts (with gussets) and boxer briefs (Wool and
| Prince). Gussets make movement easier (walking) and wool
| pants/shorts go longer between washes. BB can be hand washed in
| sinks while traveling and dry quickly. Bonus, you can wear wool
| wet in a pinch. Magic stuff.
|
| Wool t-shirts from Duckworth.
|
| Tilley Hat for beating the heat (SPF 50) (again, great for
| walking or biking). With straps so it doesn't fly off in the
| wind. Handsome looks, not (that) dorky.
|
| Brompton folding bike. Resisted this for years because I love
| non-folders but this thing feels like a proper bike, better even.
| Get it with a generator hub and lights and the six speed gearing
| (absolutely fine for hills, like in San Francisco).
|
| USB-C 20 watt charger for the iPhone. My goodness this thing
| charges the phone (12 Pro Max) fast. Worth the money.
|
| Thanks for listening.
| elliottkember wrote:
| I love all the wool recommendations. Wool was everywhere where
| I grew up and I've been introducing all my California friends
| to it. I bought a beautiful wool blanket a couple of months ago
| and it's such a treat
| gpvos wrote:
| I still use a mouse pad made of hardwood and a hempen cover, and
| find it by far the most pleasant mouse pad I have ever used, with
| its very slightly rough surface that feels natural to the hand.
| You can even put it slightly over the edge of your desk and it
| won't go floppy. Easily cleaned every few months with some water
| and dish washing soap. In the age of mechanical mice, it also
| kept the mouse ball clean, but it works fine with optical mice
| too. I have two, one at home and one for work, and must have used
| them for more than twenty years now. Very durable, I am sure
| there would be a market for these things, but I have never seen
| anything like it before or since.
|
| I bought it from the now-defunct Hober folk web radio, one of the
| earlier internet radio stations, which only recently finally
| turned off their stream. Here's an archive page describing the
| mouse pad:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20021013110318/http://banqa.uaqa...
| Tryk wrote:
| mouse ball?
| gpvos wrote:
| Yes, it's in the second paragraph of
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_mouse
| Kon5ole wrote:
| Wireless ANC earbuds. (Airpods pro or similar)
|
| Having high quality silence and/or music available in my pocket
| at all times was definitely more of a game changer than I
| expected.
|
| Using a 8K 55" tv as a monitor.
|
| I usually run it scaled, so I have basically the pixel area of a
| 4k screen but with retina resolution. Everything is crisp and
| large enough that even content placed in the corners is easy to
| read. Truly a game changer for work, so much so that I am puzzled
| why there are basically no 8k proper monitors available at
| sensible prices. This TV was manufactured and shipped halfway
| across the world where I bought it brand new for less than 1000
| usd. And its a TV, with a TV OS, remote control, TV tuners and
| whatnot - HDR even. A normal monitor without all the TV stuff and
| sensible inputs (I have to use HDMI 2.1) should be even cheaper.
| mangoTangoBango wrote:
| Which Model TV are you using? All I could find on bestbuy was a
| $1600 8k tv.
| Kon5ole wrote:
| The model name of mine is LG 55NANO956. Sadly it seems to be
| discontinued and all replacements are larger and/or more
| expensive. :(
|
| I can understand that actually, I don't think 8k at 55" makes
| much sense for TV content since you can't see the difference
| between 4k and 8k at normal tv distance when the screen is so
| small.
|
| It makes a ton of sense as a retina-resolution monitor
| though! I half suspect that was the plan for the panel, and
| that some other market factor caused it to end up in a small
| run of surprisingly cheap TV's instead.
| j4yav wrote:
| The Apple Watch surprised me in how much awareness of my health
| it generated - mainly how much and what quality sleep I was
| getting, but also other general signals. It helped me pay more
| attention and make some good health improvements. Presumably any
| other smart watch offers similar benefits.
| pc86 wrote:
| If you want to stay away from the Apple ecosystem, or just
| don't like the aesthetics of the Apple Watch, I've found Whoop
| to be great for tracking sleep quality and activity. There is a
| monthly fee but it's minimal _if_ you 're using the data it
| collects. Not worth it for something passive, or if you're
| sedentary outside of work.
| owenversteeg wrote:
| I was really tempted by Whoop but then I saw this:
| https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2020/05/whoop-3-platform-
| review....
|
| There are also some good points raised in the comments. In
| particular, I like this comment:
|
| > I'm probably biased because I've used Polar for 20 years
| and Whoop for over 4 years now. I like where Polar has got to
| on their new Vantage products in terms of activity load,
| sleep, recovery etc. I started using Whoop because I was
| frustrated with how far behind the curve that Polar were on
| the V800 and I liked what Whoop were trying to do.
|
| > Fast forward 4 years and Polar results correlate the
| closest with how I feel and perform and also with other
| recovery measurements I use e.g. HRV4Training and Elite HRV.
| I find Whoop the least reliable in terms of accuracy of data
| and also correlation with how I actually feel. I like the way
| Whoop presents data but I have little faith in it due to the
| accuracy of the sensor etc. YMMV.
|
| That said, I like wearing a mechanical watch, and I'm not a
| huge fan of wearing a smartwatch, so I'd much rather wear
| something like the Whoop than a Polar Vantage watch or an
| Apple Watch. So if someone here wants to defend the Whoop and
| convince me the data is decent enough, I'd love that :)
| CodeGlitch wrote:
| I have a Garmin and feel the same, definitely more aware of my
| health.
|
| Battery lasts about 2 weeks which is impressive.
| nullwarp wrote:
| Yessss I have a Garmin Instinct and I love it, easily my
| favorite Smart watch. It's got just enough smart stuff that
| I'd use without a bunch of extras I'd never use.
|
| And I charge it once a week if I'm biking a lot and using the
| GPS.
| tra3 wrote:
| Can you share which garmin you have? Battery life is By far
| my biggest issue with the Apple Watch. Once it discharges I
| forget to use it.
| CodeGlitch wrote:
| https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/707174/pn/010-02427-10
| 121789 wrote:
| I have the forerunner 245 music. It lasts days (at the
| worst) and can sync offline spotify playlists
| tra3 wrote:
| Thanks!
|
| Does it include body battery too? Do you find it useful?
| dividedbyzero wrote:
| When do you charge yours? Is the battery life good enough for
| using it day and night?
| notreallyserio wrote:
| Not OP: I charge mine while I'm in the shower and eating
| breakfast. That gets me through the day with about 50-60% to
| spare. I do wear mine overnight.
|
| I have a relatively new series 7. It remains to be seen how
| it performs as the battery cycles hundreds of times.
|
| edit: Fixed percent remaining. It was much better than I'd
| remembered.
| j4yav wrote:
| I have to charge daily (but I wear it the rest of the day,
| including when sleeping). I usually do it in the morning
| after my workout as I start work.
| dkobia wrote:
| Second this. I was highly skeptical of the watch until I
| received it as a gift for Christmas. It has made me more
| acutely aware of how sedentary I've been during a typical work
| day. Closing the rings is now an obsession and I'm better for
| it.
| tzs wrote:
| Mine too. I currently have a streak of 1004 consecutive days
| of closing all three rings going on.
|
| > Closing the rings is now an obsession and I'm better for it
|
| So far I've not become obsessed about it. It is more that
| I've changed my habits so that I'm more active.
|
| There have been a few times where before the watch I might
| have skipped my morning walk due to something like waking up
| with a sore ankle, without even checking to see if it was a
| "you slept on it wrong and the soreness will go away when you
| move it a little" kind of soreness or a "OK you actually did
| hurt it yesterday and should just stay off you feet all day"
| kind of soreness. Now I check, and so far it has always been
| the former.
|
| I'm thinking of intentionally taking a day off and missing
| closing all the rings just to keep from accidentally becoming
| obsessed over the length of the streak.
| d3nj4l wrote:
| Congrats on the streak!
| kemayo wrote:
| I'm on day 1,805 of my streak. I find that this is _well_
| past the level where people just make fun of you if you
| tell them about it. ;-)
| palmeida wrote:
| Recommendations for apps to track sleep ? Preferably without
| subscription but just a one time payment. Petty Apple does not
| provide a sleep tracking app.
| GrantZvolsky wrote:
| Opening my ThinkPad e590 all the way and using a pair of push up
| bars[1] as a stand. The result is an ergonomic workspace wherever
| I go thanks to the top of the screen being slightly above my eye
| level (it wouldn't work with a smaller laptop).
|
| [1]: https://www.alza.cz/sport/sharp-shaper-spiral-push-up-
| bar-d5...
| yokto wrote:
| My ZSA Moonlander keyboard [1].
|
| When I bought it, I was just looking for a sleeker and more
| ergonomic keyboard with a split design, but the ability to easily
| reconfigure every key on the layout brought a new meaning to the
| word "ergonomic" for me.
|
| It means that when a particular motion or shortcut that I
| frequently use is puts too much strain on my hands, I can simply
| change the layout to make the keys more natural too use. And it's
| just an overall incredibly well made product.
|
| [1] https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/
| Jackdanie1s wrote:
| Do you miss the function row?
| whichfawkes wrote:
| I love my Ergodox EZ.
|
| I'd recommend a split keyboard to anybody who has their fingers
| on keys for more than a couple hours a day. My shoulders and
| upper back feel so much better, and I swear I even look better
| because my posture has improved. Much less tendon pain as well.
|
| Furthermore, I'd recommend the EZ or the Moonlander to anybody
| who can spend the money. I'm sure you get a large part of the
| benefit from a cheaper split board, but the thumb clusters and
| custom keybinds are really really nice.
| [deleted]
| solarmist wrote:
| This seems like a low-profile version of the ultimate hacking
| keyboard.
|
| https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/
|
| I'd be interested to see a comparison between the UHK,
| Moonlander, and Dygma Rise. They all seem to be converging on
| the same design principles.
|
| I agree, though; having a good split keyboard has been a
| requirement for me since I first got the original MSFT natural
| keyboard.
| Jackdanie1s wrote:
| Didn't look low profile to me
| solarmist wrote:
| Ah, maybe not. I think the angle combined with the ramp
| made it look slimmer than the UHK to me.
| sambeau wrote:
| These super-cheap headband/earphones
|
| https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09NPL7V7R/
|
| The sound quality is surprisingly OK, they are more than good
| enough for Audible & podcasts, and you can comfortably lie on
| your side.
|
| I bought them on a whim after considering options that cost 10x
| the price.
|
| I've tried listening to speakers (can't hear when lying on my
| side), my phone (falls between pillows, gets tangled in my
| limbs), regular headphones (can't lie on my side, wake up with
| them being squashed beneath me). These stay put, are comfortable
| and actually work.
|
| I won't wear them in public (for, hopefully, obvious reasons) but
| in the privacy of my own bedroom they've been a game-changer.
|
| Did I mention they were only PS17?
| tmaly wrote:
| A Blue Yeti microphone on a Rode shock mount arm paired with Bose
| speakers.
|
| This has made meetings from home amazing. No headphones or mic
| issues.
| knolan wrote:
| My Specialized Turbo Vado e-bike. I can get to work comfortably
| and get some exercise and not be constrained by the limited bus
| schedule or be stuck in car traffic burning expensive fuel and
| generating pollution.
|
| Also our Urban Arrow cargo bike. We can get our kids the 3km to
| school in a few minutes while everyone else looks for a footpath
| to obstruct in their SUVs.
| mehphp wrote:
| A self-emptying Roomba. It's unreal how much time this has saved
| our family. Well worth the money, and it's been going strong for
| years now.
| yardie wrote:
| I feel like you have to design your lifestyle with a Roomba in
| mind. For example, we have a hard floors in a single story
| flat. Perfect for a Roomba. But we also have a few area rugs
| with tassels on the ends. It would get snagged on the tassels
| so I would have to run around and collect the rugs before
| running the Roomba. Now I don't even bother; it just sits there
| charging because I can't trust it to run unsupervised.
| jitl wrote:
| Why not mark the region with tassels as a no-go zone?
|
| I got a Ecovacs N8 w/ docking station (~$500 on sale) [1] and
| trust it to stay away from small/thin no-go zones quite
| precisely
|
| [1]: https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B08S7ND492?context=s
| earc...
| jitl wrote:
| This area is advancing at an incredible pace (in China).
| Roborock and ECOVACS (Xiaomi) advertise bots with computer
| vision cameras that can recognize and steer around obstacles
| like cables, shoes, books. These products typically come to
| China 6 months to a year before they have a US/western release.
| I am excited for docking stations that fill and drain ionized
| water and clean the bot's mopping pads like the Ecovacs X1 Omni
| [1], released in Sept 2021 in China and announced for US
| release in March.
|
| And these features trickle down into low-end models quite
| quickly! 3-4 years ago a bot with LIDAR mapping, no-go zones,
| self-empty and 2-in-1 mopping were all quite expensive. Now you
| can get a good bot with those features for $500-ish from the
| midrange lines of these vendors. Watching the market feels a
| little like PC graphics in the early 2010s when vendors would
| release something twice as good every year for half the price.
|
| Although, a Chinese friend of mine recommended I wait for a
| later high-end model, which supposedly allows the docking
| station to connect directly to water/sewage lines and avoid
| dealing with bags & refills (other than air filters) entirely.
|
| [1] https://youtu.be/CQYUIVURDhk
| kyriakos wrote:
| Xiaomi roborock. Amazing how much dust it collects and how easily
| it works unattended.
| odiroot wrote:
| Amazon Kindle (only bought two devices over 10+ years of usage),
| even the cheapest version. I find myself reading much more, I
| love having dictionaries and Wikipedia built-in. Travelling is so
| much easier than even with a paperback novel.
|
| Bluetooth keyboard and wireless mouse. I have (maybe
| unreasonable) dislike for cables on my desk. Currently my
| Thinkpad is raised on a mount, with just one USB-C cable coming
| out. It hides nicely under the mount's arm.
| bredren wrote:
| It is a bit of a combo, but the Blackmagic eGPU was way
| underrated and slept on.
|
| I use the standard Blackmagic eGPU. But the Pro, Vega 56, (which
| was removed from sale) still offers the greatest __Apple
| supported__ graphics performance available for non-pro macs.
| IIRC, the most beefcake macbook pros don't beat performance on
| that Apple-supported eGPU that only runs with Intel machines.
|
| There were many voices saying the dollars per performance weren't
| there, but they did not take into account the silent design and
| excellent stability of those products. Nor that there would be
| such a long wait for any officially supported alternative to get
| graphics to the Mini.
|
| I started with a 4k but then went up to the XDR Pro Display on
| the 2018 Mac Mini. It remains a monster setup in a small, near-
| silent footprint.
| heavyset_go wrote:
| A vertical mouse did amazing things for my wrist.
| rdtwo wrote:
| 10$ vertical mouse was a life and wrist saver
| baggsie wrote:
| Google Stadia - I got a free controller & chrome-cast in a
| promotion a while back and sceptically tried it expecting massive
| latency and poor image quality, but ended up being blown away.
| Being able to play RDR2 on my MB Air and then switching over to
| the TV (without any interruption) is something that never gets
| old. It's such a shame that the product seems to be in its death
| throes.
| MarkusWandel wrote:
| Years ago of course, but the original Core 2 Duo CPU (a Desktop
| E6300 in my case). Fast, power efficient and came with a nearly
| silent CPU cooler. Being able to assemble a (then) fast deskside
| machine that you could hardly hear was radical.
|
| Even earlier, the Canon EOS 300D "Digital Rebel" SLR. Single-
| handedly restored the joy in photography after a detour through
| early, limited digital cameras.
| fersarr wrote:
| - a wrist support brace: no more wrist pain when using a
| keyboard/mouse
| needSomeCoffee wrote:
| Makita Brushless 5amp drill combo set. I have used a wide variety
| of battery powered drills and drivers for decades. If you do a
| lot of home projects building things, you will use these tools
| often. Never was dissatisfied with other brands (Ryobi, Bosch),
| but decided to treat myself one year as I believe Makita
| Brushless is top of the line today and I wanted more powerful
| batteries. Best decision ever. So much power, the 5 amp batteries
| last so long. I have driven 1/2 x 6 inch lag bolts into fence
| posts with the driver and it did not complain. Just an amazing
| upgrade (notably because of the 5 amp batteries). If you are
| starting out building a tool set, splurge and get these. Just
| remember to store them in your house not the garage as heat/cold
| cycles can really reduce the batteries cycle count. Only negative
| is that the driver is so powerful one must be careful when
| driving smaller screws. Also, spend the extra money to get a good
| set of bits. I went with Makita for this as well, and the bits
| are very, very good relative to the many, many others I have used
| (Dewalt, Milwaukie, etc.) Links (I bought the drill/driver set at
| a good price thru Amazon with the smaller/lighter drill which
| proved a very good decision for me):
| https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/XT269T
| https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/E-01644
| ed_balls wrote:
| headphones with noise cancellation (Bose).
|
| Remarkable 2. For reading and drawing stuff e.g. new kitchen
| arrangement.
| asciimov wrote:
| A tiling window manager. I settled on dwm. It helps me utilize
| more of my monitor. Gone are the days of overlaying windows,
| everything is front and center, and on it's own virtual desktop.
|
| A non-mechanical keyboard. I moved off of cherry style switches,
| and went with a topre clone. For me, the cherry mechanism makes
| too much noise when keys return back up. For me it was high
| pitched noise. A much more thocky keyboard actually keeps me from
| having noise induced headaches on heavy typing days.
|
| Blue light reduction apps on phones, tablets, and monitor and
| blue light reduction coating on glasses. This removed a ton of
| eyestrain. Yes, my phone and iPad now have a reddish brown hue to
| them, but most of the time, I don't care. I hardly notice it
| anymore unless I use my partners device.
|
| A color accurate monitor (with a good reader/blue light reduction
| mode). Having a monitor that wasn't close to having correct
| colors, even across the panel was maddening. Old LCD monitors are
| the worst. I don't need color correctness all the time, so the
| monitor needs a good mode to turn down the blueness. Having a
| setting in the monitor makes it a breeze to switch back and forth
| as needed.
| nonplus wrote:
| Obligatory reply about linear (silent) cherry switches existing
| but mostly here to say I'm glad you found a keyboard you like.
| I think that's the takeaway I try to give people on input
| devices. Just get something you like and don't worry about what
| everyone else likes.
| darkteflon wrote:
| I'd never admit to it on HN, but my favourite keyboard for
| non-gaming stuff is Apple's Magic Keyboard 2, tenkeyless
| version.
| phlipski wrote:
| Radar cruise control is pretty awesome. It certainly reduces my
| stress levels when driving!
| esun wrote:
| I finally gave in to reality and got reading glasses for coding.
| Didn't realize how much I was suffering.
| zeke wrote:
| I got a prescription for monitor distance, about 30in or 70cm,
| and ordered the glasses from Zenni. It makes my computer time
| much better.
| notreallyserio wrote:
| How did you decide which brand to get and at what strength? I
| wear glasses every day (nearsighted) and have been thinking
| about getting reading glasses for work but the ones I tried at
| the grocery store were way too strong.
|
| I somewhat recently upgraded to a larger monitor and have
| scaled up my fonts but I still feel like I am straining a bit.
| falcolas wrote:
| I recommend a sub 1.0 strength. It will let you read a screen
| comfortably. They're effectively a consumable for me, so I
| have pairs scattered throughout my house.
| nicoburns wrote:
| Go to an optician/optometrist to get your required strength
| measured. The brand is likely not too important.
| rr808 wrote:
| Ethernet cabling in the house, esp to desk and TV. Nice to avoid
| all wifi problems .
| teleforce wrote:
| For me it is the Nintendo Wii Balance board [1]. It is still
| running strong even after more than 13 years of usage. I hope
| Nintendo will introduce a new balance board for the Switch
| console and together with the new Ring Fit it will be a blast for
| indoor fitness and exercise.
|
| [1] Wii Balance Board:
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Balance_Board
| jerome-jh wrote:
| Turns out last week I played Wii with my kids. We had great fun
| with Boom Blox. The combination of a pointing device and a
| motion sensor is what enables the Jenga-like mini-games.
| Something impossible on a Switch.
|
| Then I showed my kids the balance board, which is basically
| older then them and sat unused for a decade. Not a huge
| success. Personally I never got used to that gameplay. I think
| it is just dull, maybe because it remains completely static
| after all.
| entropicgravity wrote:
| The Logitech MX Ergo "thumb ball" mouse. A normal mouse requires
| your entire arm to move to make the mouse operate properly. You
| might notice that the repetitive motion can cause muscle pain all
| the way from your shoulder blade, through your neck, down your
| arm to your wrist. A thumb ball requires just your thumb to move
| and makes life a lot easier on your arm. It takes two to three
| hours to transfer your motor memory skills from the standard
| mouse to the thumb ball and after that you're away to the races.
| Jackdanie1s wrote:
| I use this but I still try to swap periodically with a normal
| mouse to give your thumb a rest.
| ExtraE wrote:
| My cheap mandolin. Makes cutting things thin while cooking fast
| and fun, and isn't dangerous if your fingers are connected to
| your brain.
| bloopernova wrote:
| Related: cut gloves. Everyone should have a pair!
| JoelMcCracken wrote:
| I bought a greyscale eink tablet that I use as a monitor. It is
| fantastic. I find myself much more able to concentrate while
| using it.
| smoyer wrote:
| I spent more than I should have for a pair of ErgoDox Infinity
| keyboards ... they've made a tremendous difference in the health
| of my hands, wrists and elbows!
| [deleted]
| christophilus wrote:
| 80% mechanical keyboard (Vermillo). Fountain pen. 5k monitor.
| hestefisk wrote:
| 1) A coffee grinder and espresso machine. Keeps me going. Wasn't
| expensive ($200 all up) 2) A good chair with proper back support
| 3) Two screens, 27" each. Nothing fancy but makes me quite
| productive
| bsenftner wrote:
| Make your own giant, the entire wall, whiteboard for practically
| nothing. Go to your local lumber, home building supply store and
| purchase "laminated particle board, shower wall panels". Last
| time I did this, they were about US $23 for a 6'x9' panel. Two of
| these completely cover an ordinary single bed sized room from
| wall to wall. I just drill the thing right into the wall, and
| grab white-board markers. I showed the building maintenance
| manager this trick at an animation studio I worked, and in a week
| the entire studio's walls, every wall, became a whiteboard.
| Scribbling ideas, any idea, on one's wall is liberating.
| dlhavema wrote:
| Thats cool, white board paint is crazy expensive still
| Cr0s wrote:
| This is actually genius. How often do you use it?
| edude03 wrote:
| A Mac Pro (2019) - I was/am using the 2019 Macbook Pro, but under
| heavy load (compiling rust/flutter mostly) the machine would get
| slower and slower as it became more and more heat saturated, and
| worse, when driving an external monitor the GPU would get hot as
| well and the whole UI becomes slow.
|
| The mac pro is ~2.5x as fast in compilation but more importantly
| it doesn't lose responsiveness when the CPU is fully loaded, so I
| can still browse the web while waiting :D
|
| EDIT: I said 2016 MacBook but it's the 2019 16" (2.3
| GHz/8Core/i9) and to be clear, I know the 8-core Mac Pro on
| paper, has faster clocks, but it's surprising how much of a
| difference the thermal headroom makes to responsiveness and
| productivity
| throwawaynay wrote:
| sounds kind of insane that a 2-3k$ laptop can't compile stuff
| and allow you to browse the web at the same time lol
| jeromegv wrote:
| That's a 6 year old laptop. Highly dependant on what you
| compile as well.
| edude03 wrote:
| Sorry, I said 2016, but I meant 2019. I was (in my head to
| be fair) comparing an 8 core Mac Pro 2019 to a 8 core 2019
| MacBook. I did later upgrade to 16 cores though
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