[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
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Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
Curious to know what thing / product / service improved your 2022?
For me it was an Elgato stream deck. Initially bought it on a whim
(probably more as a gimmick) but now find myself using multiple
times a day in the office (sales) environment.
Author : Dicey84
Score : 371 points
Date : 2023-01-06 09:23 UTC (13 hours ago)
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| Two things: Shaving soap and a Ninja Creami.
|
| So after an abrupt breakup of a long term relationship, I decided
| to evaluate a lot of my habits and methodology for doing things
| and decided I wanted a new routine. I've put on a bit of weight
| over the years, and as most adult males on the wrong side of 30,
| I'd grown facial hair as a way to hide the features of my face
| that I was uncomfortable with. But I want to look in the mirror
| and like what I see, so to facilitate that, I shaved all the hair
| off and invested in a skin care and shaving regimen. I want to be
| more accountable to myself and decided that looking at my chubby
| face every day was a way to get motivated.
|
| So while I now have a 4 part facial care strategy for my skin
| (cleanser, differin, moisturizer, sunblock), I also have a new
| shaving routine. My razor is nothing fancy... I've tried Dollar
| Shave Club and been disappointed because it has TOO many blades
| and gets clogged too easy, but I also really wanted a shaving
| brush.
|
| So I picked up a badger hair brush and a set of Proraso pre-shave
| cream, shaving soap, and balm. I'd never used the product before
| but saw ads in old barber shops I'd go to as a kid. Shaving used
| to always irritate my skin, and I expected it to be doubly so
| because I hadn't set razor to face in forever. To my surprise, I
| had no irritation at all. Completely smooth and not a single nick
| or red bump. I don't think I've ever been more happy with a set
| of products.
|
| At the same time, I was looking to eat healthier. And I love ice
| cream. So why not make a healthier version of ice cream without
| spending a fortune?
|
| High end restaurants usually have one or multiple pacojet systems
| in them. Pacojets are basically glorified ice shavers that shave
| ice down inside of a small container. Restaurants use them by
| freezing ingredients in containers to make ice creams and sauces.
|
| Well, the Ninja people created their own cheaper version in their
| Creami system. I've made chocolate ice cream by throwing some
| sweetener into a bowl with cocoa powder, agar agar, and coconut
| milk. I've made a sorbet by tossing a can of fruit into the
| container with juice or syrup, by tossing banana chunks into
| strawberry or guava nectar, etc. Really, its only limitation is
| that you're limited to the containers you have on hand and the
| ingredients. I even saw a recipe for pumpkin pie ice cream and
| I've made bananas foster sans ice cream and just tossed in some
| heavy cream for a nice treat. It's vastly more convenient than
| having an actual ice cream machine.
| sprice wrote:
| Loop Quiet earplugs for sleeping.
| gamesbrainiac wrote:
| Bought a standing desk for EUR 385. I got hernia in 2022, and
| this really helps me quite a bit.
| KomoD wrote:
| That's not anywhere close to sub $200
| Y_Y wrote:
| Yet
| leandot wrote:
| Battle rope, amazing for working out on the terrace.
| Havoc wrote:
| Sodastream. Has significantly increased the amount of water i
| drink and conversely decreased other crap being drunk
|
| High end ricecooker ended up getting more use than expected.
|
| USB KVM style switch to change mouse/kyb over between work and
| personal device
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| I use a USB switch to swap mouse/keyboard/webcam, but I switch
| my main monitor between two inputs manually because if I use a
| monitor switch, then once I swap it to my work computer,
| Windows detects the monitor is gone and moves all my windows to
| the second monitor (Which is also a different resolution and
| has different scaling, so they also all get resized) which is a
| pain in the ass.
|
| I know you can get so-called "active" switches that tell both
| host computers that there's still a monitor plugged in, but
| they're expensive, especially if you use a monitor higher than
| 1080p. I'm not even sure once exists that will support 1440p @
| 144 hz with GSync.
|
| However, I haven't looked for KVM switches in almost two years.
| Has this situation changed? Is there a KVM switch that will
| tell the host machines that there's still a monitor hooked up
| when I switch it to the other machine that will support my
| resolution and refresh?
| thoughtpalette wrote:
| Also unable to find an HDMI switcher that supports greater
| than 60hz. I have the same issue. Dual 170hz for desktop with
| Digilink base for work laptop. Just manually switching
| monitor inputs in settings.
| DougWebb wrote:
| I had a 4K Dell monitor as my main, a lower res monitor on
| one side, and a 16:10 in portrait mode on the other side, all
| serving two computers. The computer that used DisplayPort for
| the 4K monitor had the issue you mention; when I swapped
| source from one computer to the other my open windows all
| jumped around to the side monitors. Apparently it's the
| DisplayPort driver that's the problem; HDMI, DVI, and VGA
| don't behave this way, but DisplayPort does.
|
| I've replaced the 4K Dell and side monitor with a big curved
| 8K Dell, which has a built-in KVM. My keyboard, mouse,
| headset, external speaker bar, and webcam are all plugged
| into the monitor, and they all swap from one PC to the other
| with a keyboard shortcut that also switches the monitor
| source. It's a lot handier. However, if I manually switch my
| portrait monitor to the PC that uses DisplayPort, my windows
| will still get moved to it when I switch everything else to
| the other PC. So I just don't switch that portrait monitor
| very often anymore. Using the keyboard shortcut has made my
| lazy and I don't bother with the last monitor unless I really
| need it.
| __derek__ wrote:
| I didn't technically buy a Sodastream, but it's been a great
| addition. We used to regularly buy pads of Lacroix from Costco.
| Now it's just the plain fizzy water (with occasional home-made
| flavor experiments).
| bonestamp2 wrote:
| I use these to flavor my sodastream. 1pk per 1L of soda
| water. It's dehydrated (crystalized) real fruit:
| https://www.amzn.com/B008GE87BG/
|
| I also use them in cocktails (about 1/4 packet per cocktail),
| put in first and pour cocktail ingredients over the crystals
| to dissolve (or shake if not using any carbonated
| ingredients).
| albert_e wrote:
| do you mind sharing which KVM worked well for you?
|
| I also keep switching frequently and looking for something
| similar
| Havoc wrote:
| KVM is a bit of a lie since I'm not switching monitor (both
| plugged in & switching via OSD).
|
| But for toggling over usb stuff this works fine and is cheap
|
| https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07S5H6T18
| kenny11 wrote:
| I do the same thing (plug both computers directly into
| different inputs on the monitor but use a USB switch to
| switch the mouse & keyboard). If you install this software
| on both computers, you can eliminate the "switching via
| OSD" step, because it will watch for the USB connect /
| disconnect events and initiate the input switch
| automatically via the DDC connection to the monitors, so it
| gives you true one-touch KVM switching at the cost of a USB
| switch.
|
| This works especially well in cases where an actual KVM
| switch would be expensive or unavailable (in my case, I'm
| switching three 4K HDR DisplayPort monitors, which would
| require a very expensive KVM switch).
|
| https://github.com/haimgel/display-switch
| Havoc wrote:
| That's a neat trick! Didn't know that was possible.
|
| >4K HDR DisplayPort monitors, which would require a very
| expensive KVM switch).
|
| When I was investigating this nothing seemed to support
| both >1080 res and >30hz refresh regardless of price. All
| the ones advertised as 4K have 30hz in the fine print
| which is rather sad on a 144hz screen.
| spacedcowboy wrote:
| I use ATEN. Expensive but excellent. And they do 4K well.
| Topgamer7 wrote:
| Sodastream and a quarter glass of OJ is a great way to save
| orange juice, but still have it taste great :)
| umeshunni wrote:
| I just toss some orange peels in. Tastes like spa water.
| titanomachy wrote:
| Spot the googler in the room
| paulgb wrote:
| I came here to say rice cooker as well. I got a $15 one years
| ago and it's still my most-used appliance. What high end one do
| you have? I've been considering an upgrade given that I use it
| so often.
| Havoc wrote:
| Got a Zojirushi - but only after my cheap no name brand one
| nearly electrocuted me lol.
|
| Bit pricey...250ish...but build quality inspires confidence
| that it'll last
| Cerium wrote:
| The Zojirushi rice cookers are the gold standard.
| jessekv wrote:
| Zojirushi are not usually sub $200, but I am very happy with
| mine. Now I wish I had not put off upgrading so long.
| LandR wrote:
| My setup at home is 3 monitors, and I switch between a
| connected laptop (work), and my home desktop machine.
|
| IT means when I finish work I have to hit the switch to change
| input on each monitor (and with one setup vertically, it can be
| awkward, and one requires going through a menu, which is
| annoying).
|
| I also have to swap the USB dongles for keyboard and mouse from
| the laptop docking station to my desktop.
|
| Would a KVM fix this for me ?
|
| SO I can just hit a single switch and it will swap over the
| keyboard / mouse and my monitors?
|
| I'd love that.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| In conjunction with a KVM for switching the USB between
| devices, you can use this software to automatically swap the
| inputs on the monitor (if your monitors support the command
| protocol, most do but one of mine doesn't support the "change
| input" instruction): https://github.com/haimgel/display-
| switch
|
| Otherwise you'd need a KVM that supports 3 monitors which I'd
| imagine is a compatibility nightmare if they're beyond
| 1080p@60hz
| bpye wrote:
| I saw this a while ago and then promptly forgot about it. I
| should give it another try! I wish I could disable auto
| switching on my cheapo USB 3 switch though, sometimes my
| laptop will update and reboot and steal input from my
| desktop which is irritating.
| Hamuko wrote:
| I have a personal computer, a work computer and a gaming
| computer and I switch between them using an Aten USB switch
| [1] and this software that switches monitor inputs when your
| plug/unplug USB devices [2]. Works quite well and costs less
| than 50EUR.
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.de/dp/B00B1SENTE/
|
| [2] https://github.com/haimgel/display-switch
| bmitc wrote:
| Dell makes monitors with built-in KVM switches. At home, I
| have one single monitor, webcam keyboard, and mouse between
| my work computer and home computer, and I switch between them
| with a software defined keyboard combo. I highly recommend.
| spacedcowboy wrote:
| I too have 3 4k monitors at home (in the "office", which is
| really the shed at the bottom of the garden); all of them are
| linked to a work machine and my own Mac Studio.
|
| It's not one button, it's 3, one per KVM, but yep - I just
| tap the button on each KVM (under the monitors) and the
| desktop changes, the mouse/keyboard work, and the other
| machine is up and running in front of me.
|
| Even the webcam mounted to the monitor switches over -
| because it's not just mouse/keyboard, there's a couple of USB
| ports too.
|
| One thing I'd recommend (because otherwise wiring gets
| unmanageable) is to bunch together the mouse, keyboard, video
| cables using some split-sheathing. I have an 8-way KVM for
| the main monitor (all ports used) and this makes it much
| easier to figure out what's going where.
| farco12 wrote:
| As someone that drastically simplified their desk setup for 3
| computers this year: YES. A KVM would easily solve this.
|
| You would need a triple monitor KVM with at least 2 USB
| inputs. You could also get an Ultrawide monitor to simplify
| further, which is what I have done.
| kbutler wrote:
| I recommend it!
|
| You can get KVMs that switch multiple monitors, but you pay
| more for multiple monitors and for multiple input types (HDMI
| & Display port), so depending on your setup, it may make
| sense to have the some monitors on the switch but manually
| select inputs on others.
|
| KVMs tend to work well, except
|
| - you need to pause for a second when switching to allow the
| USB devices to reconnect, or sometimes things get into a
| weird state, like keyboard thinking a modifier is pressed
|
| - rarely things get confused anyway, and I have to unplug and
| re-plug in devices to one of the computers. Cheaper KVMs and
| smarter mice and keyboards seem more prone to this.
| kalmi10 wrote:
| Displays often support input switching using DDC/CI, so a
| simple script should allow you to switch all the displays
| over.
| william_T wrote:
| Yes. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MMZ1W1Q/ref=ppx_yo_
| dt_b...
| naasking wrote:
| > Sodastream. Has significantly increased the amount of water i
| drink and conversely decreased other crap being drunk
|
| I agree with carbonating your own water, but sodastream is
| expensive compared to a DIY carbonation setup. Get a 5LB CO2
| tank, some carbonation caps on Amazon, and a good gas
| regulator. Total should still be less than $200 USD.
|
| The 5LB tank will last at least 5 times longer than the
| sodastream and total assembled size on my counter is about the
| size of a sodastream setup. Refilling that tank at a food safe
| gas supplier is even cheaper than exchanging a sodastream tank.
| troyvit wrote:
| We grabbed a soda stream at the thrift store. The expense of
| the canisters is bad, but if you go to a welding & gas supply
| store they'll refill the canisters for much less than soda
| stream charges for a fresh one. We also noticed that soda
| stream will happily give you expired canisters.
| naasking wrote:
| > The expense of the canisters is bad, but if you go to a
| welding & gas supply store they'll refill the canisters for
| much less than soda stream charges for a fresh one.
|
| Yes, but it still adds up to more in the end. The cheapest
| within driving distance I've found [1] is half the cost to
| refill the sodamistic 60L bottle from what sodamistic
| charges, and almost half the cost of refilling the 5LB
| tank, but the 5LB tank holds 5x more CO2, so after 2-3
| refills you're already losing money compared to a DIY
| solution when accounting for cost of the whole setup.
|
| [1] https://www.sodamistic.com/CO2.html
| [deleted]
| xeromal wrote:
| I think of a soda stream as an entry level device to get your
| foot in the door. You'd be hard pressed to convince many
| people to drop 200$ on soda water equipment but if you let
| them buy a 50$ soda stream and they love it to death. They
| might upgrade. You can retrofit sodastreams to use those CO2
| tanks too.
| naasking wrote:
| > You'd be hard pressed to convince many people to drop
| 200$ on soda water equipment
|
| Agreed, but I expect the HN audience is already far from
| the norm covered by your "many people".
| xeromal wrote:
| Very fair. haha.
| Havoc wrote:
| I'm aware of the DIY option - perhaps if I end up buying a
| place with a bit bigger kitchen.
|
| For now the fact that I've got a sodastream swap place in
| walking distance makes it an acceptable solution
| kevstev wrote:
| I tried this- someone left a 5lb CO2 tank on my corner and I
| had it refilled- I was excited since I am a home brewer and
| have always been interested in kegging. I got a regulator,
| the cap, and then tried to carbonate a 16oz water bottle. It
| in theory worked, but I could never get the same carbonation
| levels that I could from a soda stream or store bought
| bottle. And doing the shake thing for 30 seconds felt like a
| lot of work for lackluster results compared to the soda
| stream as well.
| mynameisash wrote:
| > I am a home brewer and have always been interested in
| kegging
|
| Once you start kegging your homebrew, you'll wonder why you
| didn't do it sooner.
|
| After primary fermentation, I siphon from my carboy into a
| 5 gal corny keg, then I hook it up to my CO2. Turn the
| pressure up to maybe 20-30 PSI (strictly for carbonating;
| turn it down for serving) for maybe a day or two. If you
| want, you can shake it to dissolve CO2, but I'm lazy and
| just let time do its thing. It's awesome. So much less work
| than bottling.
| kevstev wrote:
| Yeah I am not a huge fan of bottling, but living in the
| city, space is always at a premium. It's more about just
| not having an ugly kegging setup somewhere. I now have a
| basement and am actually just thinking about keeping it
| there if I get one. I have also been hoping to "fall
| into" a corny keg, but the value of those just seems to
| keep going up over time.
| jjice wrote:
| Any good resources to learn how to set this up for a layman
| that enjoys sparkling water?
| naasking wrote:
| This looks like a decent overview:
|
| https://www.madebybarb.com/2016/06/13/diy-home-carbonation/
| buildsjets wrote:
| Plus having bulk CO2 around is handy for welding, aquarium
| keeping, and grow ops.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| I just switched to a monitor that has USB-C output and an USB
| hub.
|
| Working: plug display to work laptop
|
| Not working: plug display to my laptop
|
| A proper USB-C switcher would be nicer, but swapping one cable
| isn't _that_ hard.
| miki_tyler wrote:
| Sodastream is a money making scheme. Canisters are super
| expensive.
|
| After years of paying $30 per exchange, I decided to switch to
| an Sparkel Carbonator machine, which just takes a tablespoon of
| citric acid powder ($5/lb) and a tablespoon of baking soda
| ($1/lb) per bottle. So much cheaper.
| squarefoot wrote:
| What is the purpose of the carbonator machine? I recall
| making sparkling water as a kid by mixing the right amount of
| sodium bicarbonate and tartaric acid (very similar to citric
| acid) and no hardware was needed: one just had to put them in
| water, shake until they went into solution and drink.
| miki_tyler wrote:
| Just making sparkling water. You don't drink the water that
| reacts with the soda/acid though. The CO2 produced is
| pressure injected into a separate bottle.
| ValentineC wrote:
| How long have you had your Sparkel machine and used generics?
|
| I'm very tempted to order the system and use it in a 220V
| country with a stepdown transformer. The specs on the website
| say that it's 110V only -- I assume that's true for the
| actual product?
| Hamuko wrote:
| I got a Sodastream in 2020 and I have to say, for like a 50EUR
| appliance, I use it constantly. Of course, there's ongoing
| costs with the cylinders and flavouring, but definitely been
| worth the money for me.
| dougmwne wrote:
| Airpod Pro 2
|
| They are basically bionic ears. Headphones, headset, earplugs,
| hearing protection, hearing aids, extendable ears, and more. Wish
| they could act as universal translators, but I suppose that's
| still yet to come.
| hbn wrote:
| I finally bought a pair of 1st gen AirPods at the end of 2021,
| and while they have some issues (tap gestures stopped working
| and/or became very unreliable at some point, occasionally in-
| ear detection gets messed up) the convenience of them is hard
| to overstate. No untangling wires or having to be tethered to
| the device. At the gym I can throw my phone on the ground
| nearby and continue to get my music while I do exercises, and
| at home I can pop in a single earbud and have the stereo audio
| converted to mono in a single ear to listen to podcasts while
| playing a video game. And it wasn't until using that that I
| realized how much of an annoyance having my ears tethered to my
| pocket was, and having to constantly keep the mental overhead
| of not snagging the wire on my fingers or a doorhandle or
| something while using wired headphones.
|
| I do wish they'd come down in price more, and ideally in the
| future be more sweat-resistant and most importantly have
| replaceable batteries. I don't really love the idea that
| they're essentially a ~$200 every 2 years subscription at the
| moment, all while creating a craptonne of ewaste.
| nop_slide wrote:
| Going on 5 years with my OG airpods, still work fine.
| hbn wrote:
| I'm hoping I can get a good few years out of mine. Just
| from research it seems people were averaging about 2 years,
| and some even less from sweat/earwax accumulating in ports
| and wrecking them. And I do use mine for working out, and I
| produce a lot of earwax, so I worry mine are gonna be on
| the shorter side of lifespans.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| Just use a toothpick or anything non-metallic and not too
| sharp to scrub out the earwax.
|
| I thought I was going deaf when I couldn't hear my
| airpods even when the volume was cranked up to max. They
| were just covered in a film of wax :D
| bmitc wrote:
| Do they actually provide hearing protection? Hearing protection
| requires a pretty tight seal, which I wasn't aware of any
| headphones providing aside from in-ear monitors.
| Merad wrote:
| As far as I can find Apple does not advertise an official
| Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) for them though there are some
| review sites claiming they have a NRR of about 22-23,
| comparable to basic foam earplugs. I personally wouldn't rely
| on them for anything where you actually _need_ hearing
| protection - shooting, loud machinery, etc.
| bmitc wrote:
| Most foam earplugs have ratings in the 30s, which is a
| fairly significant increase.
|
| https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/hearing-protection-
| us/products/f...
|
| My concern with the Airpods are simultaneously playing
| music through a small speaker, with its own negative affect
| on hearing (long term), while also trying to attenuate
| (poorly) loud noises.
| birdman3131 wrote:
| Not those but I have used these before and they are very good
| at blocking sound passively.
| https://www.directsoundproaudio.com/product-
| page/ex29-plus-e...
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| I used my original AirPods Pro as hearing protection on a
| table saw. It's not a terribly loud saw and I use thin kerf
| blades, but it's quite comfortable. At age 36 I can still
| heard 16-17kHz tones (typically you hear up to 15k by 40), so
| it seems to be working well enough.
|
| For my giant router I use muffs. The AirPods act funny around
| stuff that loud, and it stops feeling comfortable.
| soneil wrote:
| For a fun time, try wearing the airpods underneath ear
| defenders. I swear I can hear my brain.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| Anecdotally yes.
|
| I've used them in situations where the "ambient" music is
| ear-splittingly loud (Apple Watch saying GTFO or you're gonna
| go deaf). Aipods Pro 2 in and I can still hear what people
| are talking, but the loud noises are brought down
| considerably.
|
| AW decibel check goes from 90 -> high 60/low 70 with ANC on.
|
| Not as good as actual proper earplugs, especially the ones
| that look like pine trees, but I carry my Airpods with me
| everywhere - earplugs I don't. The Airpods go to the Airpods
| pocket in my jeans, I do have earplugs in my bag, but it's
| not with me at all times. My pants are =)
| mdavidn wrote:
| I wear AirPod Pros on flights and when walking over a busy
| freeway for lunch. The noise cancellation feature works
| really well. I can continue listening to music or podcasts at
| an indoor volume. The AirPod Pro does form a seal.
|
| My only complaint is that something in the noise cancellation
| mic tends to wear out over time. After about 18-24 months of
| use, I start to hear an unpleasant high-pitch sound whenever
| I touch the mic opening on an earpiece. This could be related
| to dropping them, which is inevitable. I'm on my third set
| now.
| dougmwne wrote:
| That was a manufacturing defect with the first gen. I had a
| pair replaced for free.
| dwardu wrote:
| any noise cancelling makes the london underground noises
| bearable to travel.
| quartesixte wrote:
| Yeah I would not use them as hearing protection against
| industrial level noise.
|
| In my experience, Jackhammers and rivet guns will absolutely
| blast through the foam and the ANC will not be fast enough
| (the noise also too sharp and high frequency).
|
| Everything else works great but people reading this thread:
| wear proper hearing-protection!
| stu2b50 wrote:
| I mean hearing protection isn't a binary thing. I doubt they
| would pass hearing protection certifications for things that
| they're normally used for, like heavy construction or
| whatnot, but it'd be hard to imagine sticking something in
| your ear _wouldn 't_ offer hearing protection, not even
| considering the ANC.
| Gigachad wrote:
| I've used them as hearing protection at music concerts. If
| you put them in transparency mode it keeps everything
| sounding the same but just quieter.
| bmitc wrote:
| While true, I think the marketing should address those. I
| have seen and heard of people using them as ear protection
| for heavy and loud equipment, like lawn mowers and
| motorcycles and stuff, and I'm not sure they apply there.
| Retric wrote:
| You don't need nearly as much hearing protection for lawn
| mowers and motorcycles compared to someone operating a
| jackhammer or similarly loud equipment for hours a day.
| bmitc wrote:
| I don't think that's entirely true. Motorcycle noise on
| highways can be in excess of 100 dB and is broad spectrum
| noise. Most highway motorcycle rides are in the tens of
| minutes to hours range, but the damage can occur in just
| the single digits to teens of minutes.
|
| Beyond a certain point, it doesn't really matter much
| that something is worse for your hearing than something
| that will permanently damage your hearing. Plus, people
| are interacting with lawn equipment, motorcycles, and
| other such things far more frequently than jackhammers.
| Retric wrote:
| Jackhammer's can be 130 decibels it's easily a thousand
| times as loud as motorcycles so we really are talking
| different realms of sound protection being needed.
|
| Also Motorcycle helmets should reduce things. Further it
| varies but motorcycles really shouldn't be 100db,
| California's legal limit is 80db for motorcycles
| manufactured after 1985.
| bmitc wrote:
| It's not the motorcycle itself making noise. It's wind
| noise.
| Retric wrote:
| Source?
|
| At highway speeds motorcycle wind noise is nowhere close
| to 100db. Are you talking about high speed motorcycle
| racing or something?
| dougmwne wrote:
| That is an advertised feature, so I assume that the lawyers
| have looked into those health claims as somewhat defensible.
|
| First, they do seal, so even if it's not as tight as a foam
| earplug, it is something.
|
| Second, there's the ANC which is producing out of phase sound
| and lowering the sound pressure level reaching your ear. I
| have seen commercial hearing protection with ANC, though I'm
| not sure if it's allowed to be advertised as such. The theory
| is sensible at least.
|
| Thirdly, the ANC is allowing you to listen to your audio
| content at lower volumes, especially in a very loud
| environment like an airplane.
|
| Fourthly, there's an advertised hearing protection feature in
| passthrough mode where external noises loud enough to cause
| hearing damage will be automatically reduced.
|
| Fifthly, There are sound pressure measurements being sent to
| the iphone for audio content loudness in real time, and also
| over time notifications you receive if you have been
| listening too loudly.
|
| So all in all, yes in practice, but we're not exactly talking
| OSHA here.
| joeman1000 wrote:
| I really wanted you to get to sixthly, seventhly, eighthly,
| ninethly, tenthly...
| shafyy wrote:
| "Probably the oddest thing in the Universe." [0]
|
| 0: https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Babel_Fish
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| FYI for those of you more concerned with hearing protection: I
| use a product called "Plugfones" which actually create a tight
| seal in your ear canal. I got the blue-tooth version and use it
| on my motorcycle rides to listen to music (on low volume) while
| filtering out the wind noise. They're about $70 for the blue-
| tooth "Liberate 2.0" model. I've owned it for over a year and
| it's worked out great. Durable and no issues with battery life
| so far.
| formerly_proven wrote:
| And you got a great deal on them too at less than 200$!
| imnotreallynew wrote:
| Isn't there an ongoing investigation regarding an influx of
| tinnitus related to the ANC feature?
| [deleted]
| dougmwne wrote:
| I'm not aware of any evidence of that, though for me I rarely
| notice my tinnitus unless I am in a quiet space. It is almost
| never quiet for most people in most cities, so I can
| understand someone noticing it for the first time while using
| ANC.
| snazz wrote:
| I haven't heard that, but I'm curious to learn more since I
| use ANC a lot and would like to protect my hearing! Do you
| think the noice cancellation causes the tinnitus, or do
| people suddenly realize the ringing when the silence makes it
| more noticeable?
| kemayo wrote:
| Not that I could find any news about. Someone did sue Apple
| back in May about hearing damage caused by an amber alert,
| but I can't see any progress on that since then -- and
| "someone has sued" is pretty weak evidence of anything, in
| the US legal system.
|
| [1] https://www.engadget.com/apple-airpods-pro-lawsuit-amber-
| ale...
| jareklupinski wrote:
| anecdotal, but I cannot use ANC while riding the NYC subway
|
| the amount of air pressure I can feel in my ears when a train
| is coming into the station is definitely much larger than
| just letting the silicone tip do the little noice
| attentuation it can
|
| the weird part is that it's not a sound I can hear, I
| normally have an ok range of hearing but this is just
| _pressure_
| FatActor wrote:
| ANC gives me a whopping headache from the pressure, even
| since the early Bose days.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| > _Wish they could act as universal translators, but I suppose
| that 's still yet to come._
|
| Likely would come from Google's or Microsoft's (OpenAI)
| services rather than Apple's, given how terrible Siri is.
| johnmaguire wrote:
| Does anyone know how well these work with an Android phone?
| stu2b50 wrote:
| They function as headphones. The main issue, for worse or
| sometimes for better, is that you need an iPhone to update
| the firmware. Apple's Quick pairing also won't work, but
| Android doesn't really have an equivalent anyway.
| dougmwne wrote:
| You lose enough of the features that I would not use them
| with Android regularly. Most importantly, the only high
| fidelity bluetooth codec they support is AAC, which most
| Android devices do not support, causing you to fall back to
| SBC. You will also not be able to adjust any of the settings.
| kcb wrote:
| My past few Samsung phones have supported AAC.
| dougmwne wrote:
| Yes, there is a licensing cost that only a few
| manufacturers will pay.
| tootie wrote:
| I can't comment on Air Pods since I don't use them, but there
| are other high quality ear buds with ANC that work on any
| device. I'm particular to Bose ANC 700 which are over-ear and
| more comfortable for me, but definitely don't fit snugly
| under a hood. Jabra elites are excellent and similar form
| factor to Air Pods.
| thehours wrote:
| Also surprisingly comfortable to wear while laying on a pillow,
| at least compared to anything I've tried so far. White noise +
| noise cancellation makes for pleasant naps.
| browningstreet wrote:
| i have to use different sized tips and they push out over the
| course of time.. i like them and accept that it's my ears, but
| after the airpods pro i'll go with something with a hook or
| over the ear.
| dougmwne wrote:
| There are 3rd party tips you could try.
| germinalphrase wrote:
| I'm a wrestler and really struggle with getting a secure fit.
| This isn't specific to Airpods, but it does seem worse than
| other buds. I tried foam tips from Comply. They worked
| reasonably well, but their longevity was short and the small
| size means there isn't much physical room for them to
| compress/expand for a good fit. Some attachment issues as
| well (though I've heard they had been sorted out).
|
| More Airpod Pro form factors would be welcome, but the
| functionality is pretty good.
| dougmwne wrote:
| I suppose you mean that you have cauliflower ear? That
| seems like most IEMs would not work for you.
| germinalphrase wrote:
| Very mildly, but yes. Not apparent to others at all.
|
| My experience is that most IEMs actually work quite well
| (Shure, Etymotic). The Airpod pro rubber seems more
| 'slippery' if that makes sense.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| I switched to Comply foam tips and they stay in a lot better.
| Not perfect, but the best fit I've had with in-ear headphones
| ever.
|
| The only ones that stay in better are the OG Airpods with no
| noise cancelling. The shape fits my ear perfectly.
|
| Anything that goes in the ear canal? Always pops out
| eventually.
| gnicholas wrote:
| I find the Pros migrate out no matter what size I use. I was
| hopeful that the new XS size on the v2 Pros would help, but
| it doesn't appear to.
|
| As a result, I use my old Airpods (not sure what gen, but
| pre-Pro) for zoom calls. I don't need ANC under these
| circumstances, and I prefer to not be reaching for my ear
| every couple minutes to push the pod back in.
| wintermutestwin wrote:
| I have small ear canals and tried every possible aftermarket
| ear piece for my airpods pro to no avail. Now I use bone
| conducting earphones. They don't sound nearly as good and
| they don't block outside noise (which is both a negative and
| a positive depending on the situation), but they work well
| for all kinds of activity.
| gnicholas wrote:
| Second this. I upgraded from the first-gen Pros after seeing
| many strong reviews about how much better the noise
| cancellation is. I can tell the noise cancelling is much better
| because previously I couldn't cook with our (very loud) exhaust
| fan on and listen to podcasts. Now it's no problem.
|
| For me, I view the purchase as an investment in my hearing
| health. Instead of having to turn up the volume to account for
| traffic background noise or the like, I can keep the volume low
| and use ANC. While $200 is a lot to drop on a piece of
| electronics with a limited (<3 year) useful life, the calculus
| changes dramatically when viewed through the lens of a medical
| assistive device.
|
| It's also nice that there are more volume/seek controls built
| into the stems, versus the v1.
| fortuna86 wrote:
| Be careful, my ear doctor said these things cause wax build
| up and create problems in the long term, not just hearing.
| gnicholas wrote:
| Interesting. I would believe there is more ear wax when I
| use them a lot. Does that not reverse to ordinary levels
| when they are not used? What problems does this (or other
| non-hearing issues) create?
|
| I agree that we need to be mindful of rapid and dramatic
| changes to how we interface with the world, since our
| bodies may not react well in the long run.
| fortuna86 wrote:
| I think it's more a case of constant ear bud usage
| packing in the wax and concentrating it. It got so bad
| for me, even the water tool they have at my doctor's
| office didn't work to remove it.
| gnicholas wrote:
| Whoa, not good! I assume they found another way to get it
| out? Did they have any tips (aside from not using earbud-
| style headphones) to prevent the issue from recurring?
| dougmwne wrote:
| I just gave a pair to my mom who uses hearing aids. She was
| able to enter her audiogram in them and use them as both
| backup hearing aids when her regular ones are on the charger
| or in for repair and as headphones that match her hearing
| needs. So heck yeah they can be viewed as a medical assistive
| device.
| alenrozac wrote:
| Agreed! Having had Airpods 2 (non-pro) since launch, I only now
| appreciate the ANC feature. My listening volume went from 80%
| to 30%, even 10% at home.
|
| Seriously, if you have headphones in every day mainly to mask
| environment noises, these are a must-have. Best buy in a
| looooong time.
| mindwork wrote:
| There was no problem with my Airpods pro gen 1, but I bought
| new gen 2 version just because I wanted to support Apple for
| making such a great product. I never leave the house without
| them. Got it on sale for thanksgiving holidays
| fsflover wrote:
| Apart from a lot of convenience, Airpods have a serious
| problem, so I am not sure they are worth supporting:
| http://www.ibtimes.com/apple-airpods-repair-recycling-
| imposs....
| theshrike79 wrote:
| All battery powered in-ear headphones have the same
| "problem".
|
| It's nearly impossible to make something that small _and_
| get a 10/10 iFixit score. You can't put any sane screws in
| anything that small, stuff needs to be glued down.
| fsflover wrote:
| There are many alternatives with replaceable batteries.
| None have 10/10, but most are much better than 0/10.
| mattlondon wrote:
| Don't the Google headphones do universal translation in their
| range of headphones? I am sure apple can replicate if it is any
| good.
| germinalphrase wrote:
| Does that mean translating, in real time, the speech of
| someone talking?
| mattlondon wrote:
| Yes
|
| https://www.lifewire.com/google-pixel-buds-
| translate-5185622
| monkpit wrote:
| > the other person in your conversation will speak into
| your phone
|
| Well that sort of ruins it...
| satvikpendem wrote:
| I've used this service when I was in Asia. You don't need
| headphones, you can just use your phone via the Google
| Translate app. Place your phone down within speaking
| distance of both or all participants, then speak. It will
| translate and reply back and then allow the other person
| to speak, repeating the process. It worked extremely well
| even several years ago so I assume it's gotten better
| since then.
| nonanonymo wrote:
| I was in Asia a few months ago and can confirm, it worked
| like a charm. I was able to have a long and enjoyable
| conversation with my cab driver during the full 40-minute
| ride. By the end, I almost forgot we were speaking to
| each other through translations. It's hard to say what
| mistakes it made, but there were never any moments of
| real misunderstanding. It was the first time I'd used it
| at length and I was pretty blown away.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| Nice, where did you go?
| smcameron wrote:
| A pizza peel, a pizza stone, a wire cooling rack, a kitchen
| scale, and some round plastic containers with lids for holding
| doughballs, and watching Vito Iacopelli on youtube. Now I can
| make pizza myself in my own home oven that is better than
| anything I can have delivered, and it's fun.
| krumpet wrote:
| Consider a Baking Steel to take your pizza to the next level.
|
| https://bakingsteel.com/
| etothepii wrote:
| Wife: USB lighter for candles. Mother-in-law: Premium
| subscription for golf empire (golf competitions). Me: Blotting
| paper.
| jessekv wrote:
| Huge fluffy wool slippers that go up past my ankles: $30
|
| I used to feel cold in the winter, no matter how high I set the
| thermostat. Now I feel cozy with the heat barely running. I even
| think they cured my winter gloom. Turns out I was just loosing a
| lot of energy through my feet. "('V`)/
| denimnerd42 wrote:
| shokz headphones for bike riding
| [deleted]
| brailsafe wrote:
| Baratza Encore burr grinder! I might upgrade soon, but it's
| served me incredibly well for a year.
|
| Also got a Craigslist road bike from the 80s for ~$250 cad (less
| than $200 USD). It's needed a few repairs but has absolutely been
| worth it and impactful to the year.
|
| Also a good compact air sleeping pad for backpacking. Haven't
| used it as much as I'd have liked, but its made a few moments
| much more pleasant.
| omershapira wrote:
| * Instant pot with air fryer hat ($150) is now the primary use I
| have for my kitchen. I rarely buy processed food, and I rarely
| use a stove. Microcontrollers on pots, man.
|
| * Decent running shoes ($180). My entire wellbeing is better
| thanks to them.
| hasbot wrote:
| Not 2022, but in 2021 I switched all of my clothing to synthetic
| including socks and underwear. This made living in a high
| humidity area (90+ pretty much every day) soo much more
| comfortable.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| * * *
| Kadin wrote:
| Interesting. I think this shows what a change there's been in
| synthetic materials in the last 20 years.
|
| The standard advice I used to hear was to never wear synthetics
| in hot climates, because they'd be terribly uncomfortable!
| Instead you were advised to wear only natural fibers in the
| heat, particularly cotton and linen, because they were more
| "breathable".
|
| What I also find interesting is that many of the 'new'
| synthetics, including the "Bamboo" derived ones, are basically
| updated versions of Rayon, a fiber that had a terrible
| reputation in the 80s and 90s (and was typically associated
| with very cheap faux-silk clothing that was hard to wash and
| harder to keep unwrinkled). Some of my older family members
| were shocked to find out that the high-tech synthetics were
| made from wood pulp in a manner similar (although obviously
| much improved) to the 'manufactured silk' of the early/mid 20th
| century.
| dkarl wrote:
| The odor problem with synthetic clothing has been solved as
| well. Fifteen years ago, synthetic workout clothes stank
| after you owned them for a couple of months. People shared
| all kinds of tips online for removing the stink or delaying
| its development, and I tried many of them, but nothing really
| worked. Now none of my workout gear stinks after being
| washed. I even own a synthetic shirt that I've worn day after
| day without washing on multiple backpacking trips over years,
| and it doesn't retain any odor after washing.
| number6 wrote:
| I wished for some heliotex shirts for my birthday. My in-laws
| asked if I am sure cause they are 100% Synthetic. Only better
| shirts I have are the UF-Pros which are also 100% synthetic.
|
| High-tech synthetics came a long way and are robust as hell.
| I have little kids and they are little ruffians. None of the
| synthetic shirts ever buckled
| sarahdellysse wrote:
| this is really interesting and something I hadn't thought
| about. Could you provide some examples? I wanna look more into
| this
| bradford wrote:
| ExOfficio men's underwear is my go-to brand.
| emmelaich wrote:
| Google Chromecast with Google TV.
|
| One tiny remote does everything, and damn cheap.
| vaughan wrote:
| Gallon drink bottle with a drinking tube.
| karmakaze wrote:
| I've been thinking about upgrading my computer A/V but haven't
| taken the plunge. Seems like a bit of a potential rabbit hole for
| me.
|
| My item is a 65W GaN (gallium nitride) USB C/A wall charger. It
| can charge pretty much everything I own and is tiny compared to
| the Apple 65W charger. It has 1 Type-C and 2 Type-A but if you
| use more than one then the wattage splits (not 50/50 more goes to
| the C or one of the A ports).
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| Lemon squeezer
|
| Fry eggs in butter, add a little heavy cream, add half a lemon
| squeeze and salt
|
| Yum!
| dkarl wrote:
| Citrus squeezers are so much faster and easier that I can't
| believe I used to live without one. I use lemon and lime juice
| so often for cooking (and cocktails) that it makes sense to
| have one, even though it doesn't fully replace my reamer, which
| I still keep in a cabinet somewhere in case I want to juice an
| orange or a grapefruit.
| symlinkk wrote:
| Sounds pretty unhealthy
| danesparza wrote:
| Low carbohydrate, high fat, high protein. And tasty to boot.
| Sounds pretty good to me. I think you've been reading too
| many magazines from the 1980's.
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| Vitamin C!
| atkailash wrote:
| [dead]
| teekert wrote:
| Because you were indoctrinated by the sugar industry ;)
| whalesalad wrote:
| sounds completely awesome to me, healthy fats ftw
| yonaguska wrote:
| Sounds delicious. I'll take butter + heavy cream any day over
| fried vegetable/seed oils, processed foods, or high fructose
| corn syrup concoctions.
| AdrianB1 wrote:
| Not really. But it is not edible for over 70% of the planet's
| population (lactose intolerance).
| cmews wrote:
| Blue light filter mobile screen protector. Improved my sleep a
| lot (average Fitbit sleep score was around a 7 and increased to
| 8).
| davidito wrote:
| This year I purchased bulk latex foam noodles ("LaNoodles") from
| CozyPure, plus two high-quality cotton zippered pillowcases with
| wool batting from another store.
|
| I was already a believer in Talalay latex as a mattress material,
| which is what my current bed is made of.
|
| I stuffed two queen-sized pillows to almost bursting with the
| LaNoodles. One I place in between my thighs, and the other is my
| normal head pillow. They are ridiculously thick but I no longer
| have knee pain or neck pain and sleep much better.
| ghstcode wrote:
| For me:
|
| - Philips OneBlade (use it weekly and have not needed to charge
| in 6 months) $35
|
| - Large desk pad $20
|
| - Shooting hearing protection with white noise (drowns out pretty
| much all other noise while coding) $100
| jrib wrote:
| Can you recommend the specific hearing protection you went
| with?
| AdrianB1 wrote:
| I have both shooting protection and a couple of pairs of
| general aviation headphones with ~25dB passive noise
| reduction. While the shooting protection is more comfortable,
| the GA headphones can also be connected to a source of
| ambiental music while coding, with the downside that they are
| pressing quite hard on the head to make a seal and be
| effective.
| lwerdna wrote:
| What's the make/model of your hearing protection?
| jollyllama wrote:
| OneBlade is pretty great. I bought the base model and use this
| the "YINKE Guide Comb Guards for OneBlade 14-length Precision
| Adjustable Comb 0.4 to 10 MM" accessory.
|
| Desk pads are pretty nice too.
| LarsDu88 wrote:
| Samsung T5 SSD, a short USB c cable, and a sticker pocket to
| attach it to my 2016 MacBook.
|
| Why get gouged by apple on storage when you can just duct tape an
| SSD to your laptop?
| Gigachad wrote:
| If you pick the larger built in storage you end up with faster
| on device storage since they put more physical chips on and it
| acts like a raid 0
| cammikebrown wrote:
| I'm hoping there will eventually be a slim profile Thunderbolt
| 4 flash drive that I can just leave plugged in to my M1 Pro
| MacBook.
| Gigachad wrote:
| It won't be nearly as fast, but you could easily have a slim
| fit storage device in the SD slot. You'd want some microsd to
| sd adapter made specifically for the MacBook.
|
| That would get you a TB of storage.
| JohnBooty wrote:
| Heck yeah. I do this too. I honestly like the slightly nerdy
| frankenstein look. sticker pocket
|
| Can you recommend a sticker pocket? I looked, and I'm not sure
| which ones might be suitable for holding a hard drive to a
| laptop.
|
| What I've always done is: a clear acrylic ~$15 shell for the
| MacBook. Which is something I do anyway. And then I velcro-tape
| the drive to that shell.
| modzu wrote:
| can second, that thing is fast!
| bla3 wrote:
| Do you know the difference between the T5 and the T7? From
| what I can tell, the T7 has faster transfer speeds, but is
| noticeably cheaper online. What's up with that?
| Phreaker00 wrote:
| Stream deck was a surprisingly good buy for me as well, although
| in 2020. Previously I had a keyboard with a lot of macro keys,
| but that died and I didn't want to go without the handy shortcuts
| I've set up. Now I'm using the stream deck for much more than
| what my keyboard offered.
|
| In terms of best buy in 2022 was the Peak Design Capture Camera
| Clip. For a photographer it's amazing to not have the weight of
| the camera around your neck but securely attached to my backpack
| strap. The ease of attaching and removing the camera makes me
| actually use it more on hikes.
| codetrotter wrote:
| > Previously I had a keyboard with a lot of macro keys [...]
| Now I'm using the stream deck for much more than what my
| keyboard offered.
|
| Would like to hear more details about what you and OP and
| others use the stream deck for. I'm trying to understand what
| it can do that a regular keyboard plus macros couldn't.
|
| I guess convenience is also a big part of it.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| * * *
| PebblesHD wrote:
| It's really just a dynamic macro pad in a really polished
| overall product platform. No more guessing what blank button
| does what.
|
| The killer feature for me is that it can also be an output
| device with the right tweaks, so for my use case in
| triggering long running jobs, the icon on the appropriate
| button updates to indicate the job is in progress and then
| again when it completes.
| kderbyma wrote:
| I bought a longboard and it was the most fun I have had doing an
| activity outdoors for years. it was a bit of trick to get used to
| it, but then I used it more than any other type of mode of
| transport. Great for balance, relaxation, and getting some
| exercise.
|
| And carving is so fun!
| Semaphor wrote:
| A refurbished Fujitsu FUTRO S740 (J4105 and 8 GB RAM) and 2 SSDs
| for a super low power home server and mini NAS. All in all less
| than $100
|
| A weighted blanket (11 kg), after i had the chance to test one at
| a friend's. I'll miss it in summer when it'll be hot to use.
|
| A Rosle (German high end kitchenware brand) salad spinner. Pretty
| expensive for 80EUR, but every other is either too small or
| crappy (and we have salad for breakfast almost every day). Ended
| up being worth it.
| hbrn wrote:
| $15 DisplayPort splitter to allow 120Hz on an external monitor
| for both PC and Macbook. Screen refresh rate has a huge effect on
| how enjoyable your experience is, whether it's working or gaming.
| mvanbaak wrote:
| nvidia shield pro
| jjice wrote:
| Might be slightly over, but some cheap loadable dumbbells. I was
| never a weights guy, but these made it so I could get a simple
| workout in at home between meetings. They are annoying to change
| weights on, but everything is just a solid piece of metal, so
| they'll last forever.
|
| I'm by no means a strong guy, but I've significantly increased
| the weight I can lift over the course of the last year. For me,
| it's really awesome. My biceps and triceps have also gotten way
| more defined and it's really cool when people notice. Feels good
| to see a more physically defined body in the mirror.
| WXLCKNO wrote:
| This is a fun one because it can scale below and above 200. If
| you the loadable dumbbells (like Pepin) then yeah it's a bit of
| a pain but at least they can be expanded.
|
| I got the 5 to 90 lbs powerblocks (700 Canadian used..) but
| with the way they are built I'll be able to use them 50 years
| from now. Just a solid long term purchase.
| bonestamp2 wrote:
| Similar story here! I got the PRCTZ brand dumbbell from walmart
| (online). I just got one ($75), and it's adjustable from
| 5-25lbs (they have a heavier version too).
|
| I started playing online video games with a friend and his son,
| and they do one exercise between each game. Pushups, sit ups,
| dumbbells, etc. After a 90 minute gaming session, I've also
| done one circuit of exercises.
| freedomben wrote:
| Space is tight for me, so I bought the "Bowflex SelectTech 552
| Adjustable Dumbbells" on Amazon. They were like $300 for a
| pair, which was more than I wanted to spend, but they are super
| convenient and versatile.
| cscheid wrote:
| Just another upvote for these. They're great if you don't
| have room for a dumbbell rack, and (of course) they're
| lighter than the standard dumbbell set.
| time0ut wrote:
| An AeroPress. $30 for a fast and good enough way to make
| espresso.
| yewenjie wrote:
| Can somebody compare AeroPress with PicoPresso?
| gausswho wrote:
| Bonus: On a fun day with inadequate patience, the Aeropress can
| send coffee all over you and the walls.
| https://drive.google.com/file/d/12a6Md7YkI7-vSf_vOK6JTaVg3-l...
| ... The laughs were worth more than the hassle.
| formvoltron wrote:
| Might want to get your cholesterol checked. That sort of filter
| may allow a bunch of cafestol through.
| time0ut wrote:
| It uses a paper filter. Do you have more information on this?
| _dan wrote:
| Don't Aeropresses still come with paper filters? Mine did..
| masklinn wrote:
| Nit: it makes great coffee (I'm a user myself and as long as
| I'm awake enough not to pour coffee everywhere but the press,
| or hit the press once I've put the coffee in thereby pour
| grounds all over the counter, it's absolutely stellar), but
| it's nothing like an espresso. Espresso doesn't mean "coffee
| which isn't shit" (there are shit espresso), nor does it mean
| "strong coffee".
| [deleted]
| time0ut wrote:
| That is fair. It is cheap and close enough for my taste at
| least.
| masklinn wrote:
| You'll get no objection from me on those grounds, I love my
| 'press and did convert a few colleagues.
| browningstreet wrote:
| I was in Italy this summer and the AirBnB had an ancient
| Mokapot. It made great coffee-like-stuff. Came home and
| bought one... it tastes terrible. Every couple of days I'll
| make a pot hoping to season the device. Sadly, I'm about to
| give up. I might be nomading it soon, so no big purchases,
| but if I was buying a house my first purchase would be a
| proper espresso machine.
| rkachowski wrote:
| i had a similar issue with the italian style mokapot but i
| think i fixed it.
|
| The key issues were
|
| * clean after every use (just with water)
|
| * don't fill too much water, the water will touch the
| coffee for too long and make it sour, aim for just below
| the pressure valve
|
| * don't tamp down the coffee grounds, just fill to the line
|
| * dont have too fine a grind on the coffee
|
| it sounds like a lot but I'm making great coffee now, i
| couldn't figure out the aeropress somehow
| browningstreet wrote:
| Thanks.. I'll see if focusing on these elements makes a
| change. The Illy espresso I have right now is probably
| too fine.
| masklinn wrote:
| Yes if you have espresso grind it's way too fine, Moka
| does have some pressure but it's around 1.5 bars. Moka
| pots are usually used with drip / pourover grinds. Maybe
| a pair of stops below, but not espresso-fine.
|
| With an espresso grind, the moka pot will struggle to
| push water through and you'll have a very bitter coffee
| because it'll be way over-extracted. Is that what you
| experience?
| rsync wrote:
| Maybe it tasted better because _you were in Italy_.
|
| The wines at the tasting in the winery are always
| amazing... and then you get home and open a bottle and
| it's... meh.
| masklinn wrote:
| I've never used a moka pot but I don't think they need
| seasoning. They work off of a pretty simple principle, the
| device ain't going to fix itself out of nowhere. If the
| outcome is bad there are lots of options but the ones I
| would consider are:
|
| - the recipe itself is wrong, however I assume you're using
| the same recipe you got success with in italy, though that
| requires that the devices are the same kind (e.g. stovetop
| v electric) and powered the same way
|
| - the device itself is broken
|
| - the coffee you're using is different enough that the
| recipe doesn't work, or possibly the coffee you get at home
| is completely unsuitable for moka (wrong roasting, wrong
| grind size, ...)
|
| Maybe consider watching James Hoffman's moka series for an
| intro? https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxz0FjZMVOl1Z
| ot3qiJ-w...
| browningstreet wrote:
| I went down the James Hoffman rabbit hole, yes.
|
| I've tried different recipes, different beans, etc. Right
| now I'm on Illy espresso (got some on sale).
|
| I hear your suggestions :-). The beans in Italy were
| basically beans in a tin, open to the air. But it was
| Italian air, Venetian salt seasoned air, and I was on
| vacation. Could've been that.
| masklinn wrote:
| An other possibility is maybe the device is setup
| incorrectly e.g. the filter / gasket is not sitting right
| or something? Though I assume you've taken it apart
| multiple times at this point and would have noticed.
|
| As you've already tried multiple things and covered the
| basics, I would suggest trying to find some sort of
| coffee enthusiast group around, or maybe a bit of a fancy
| / hipster coffee shop, with someone who knows their way
| around a moka pot who could help you diagnose the issue
| (whether it's in the device or its usage).
|
| Seems a shame to have had a good experience, and to have
| bought a moka pot, and to not get joy out of it.
| browningstreet wrote:
| Agreed.. my next gambit is to use the aeropress paper
| filters, which apparently fit. I do have the right flow
| now -- it drips out of the spout without making a mess. I
| made some coffee that basically exploded out of it and
| needed the lid to contain the mess. But I'm past that.
| And if I have the aeropress filters, I'm pretty close to
| getting an aeropress too.
| dehrmann wrote:
| You tried a different grind size, right? And you have a
| quality grinder?
| planede wrote:
| In my personal experience the amount of water poured
| inside the moka pot makes a big difference. The more
| water you pour in, the higher temperature the coffee
| brews.
|
| If you pour the maximum amount of water that fits inside,
| then your coffee will brew close to the boiling point of
| water, which is too hot and makes the coffee bitter.
|
| If you pour less amount of water, then the coffee brews
| at a lower temperature.
|
| The principle is that the coffee is pushed out by both
| the steam and the expanding trapped air inside the moka
| pot. The more expanding trapped air you have there, the
| less pressure you need from steam, so the coffee starts
| brewing earlier.
| petepete wrote:
| I suspect the hardness of the water plays a big part too.
| Coffee away from home always tastes a bit funny to me
| even when I take my own beans.
| yCombLinks wrote:
| Also the water itself may be different. I've brewed beer
| for a long time, and actually prefer the way hard water
| comes tastes in a brew.
| papandada wrote:
| Most likely culprits here for the discrepancy is which
| coffee you're using/freshness thereof, consistency of
| grind, and water quality (and second the JH recommendation)
| sanderjd wrote:
| I like great coffee more than I like espresso. We recently
| added on a milk steamer to our aeropress setup and now I can
| make my favorite drink at home: the humble cafe au lait.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| It sits somewhere between a pour-over and espresso both in
| terms of what it makes and the grain size that suits it well.
| trynewideas wrote:
| No, you can't get 9 bars from an AeroPress, but you can get a
| little closer to the result with a pressure-actuated value
| basket like the Prismo: https://www.beanground.com/fellow-
| prismo-review/
| stu2b50 wrote:
| Kinda, it helps that you can do a proper pre-infusion
| phase, but in the end the bottleneck is human - there's no
| way you can get anywhere close to espresso pressure (not
| just 9 bars, anywhere near 9 bars) with your arm. You need
| mechanical advantage at least.
|
| The Prismo doesn't really increase the pressure in the
| chamber you can have by that much.
| masklinn wrote:
| > but in the end the bottleneck is human - there's no way
| you can get anywhere close to espresso pressure (not just
| 9 bars, anywhere near 9 bars) with your arm.
|
| Not just human either, the aeropress' plastic isn't built
| to withstand high pressures and it's going to buckle, to
| say nothing of whatever you put the press on.
|
| Hoffman measured the prismo at 1.3 bars after adding a
| paper filter to the metal filter.
| pwenzel wrote:
| I put my Aeropress coffee in a cocktail shaker, add ice, oat
| milk, and a tiny bit of maple syrup. Shake and pour. The result
| is awesome and much cheaper than the $7 iced latte you'll get
| at a coffee shop.
|
| I love the Aeropress and have been rocking it since Obama's
| first term.
| mattbee wrote:
| I had several holiday let stays improved by bringing my
| Nanopresso that I got last Christmas - it's PS70 but the
| pressure gets you really good espresso.
| asasidh wrote:
| A 5-55lb adjustable dumbells picked up on Amazon for less than
| $150
| codespin wrote:
| I got adjustable dumbbells last year and it was the most
| impactful change of the year for me. It is amazing how far
| regular exercise goes.
| secretsatan wrote:
| Airtags, saved my forgetful ass a couple of times and it makes
| locating things after parties much easier
| browningstreet wrote:
| I drove around yesterday looking for my wallet/bag after the
| power outage. Visited the hotel I stayed in, my gym, etc. Came
| home and tore the house apart, it was next to my bed. Where I
| never, ever put it. But in the chaos of the storm, I did the
| unprecedented. Ordering.
| throw_pm23 wrote:
| Merino wool T-shirts.
|
| Cost about 30EUR instead of previously used 3EUR cotton T-shirts.
|
| Can wear one for about 3 weeks without washing, with no body
| odor. Much more pleasant to the skin, even for doing sports,
| driving, etc. Also, warm in winter, airy in summer. Plan to
| switch most clothing to merino wool.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| Merino wool everything. Kinda counter to what you might thing,
| merino wool underwear is amazing in the summer too =)
|
| I rotate through 3 merino T-shirts alternating one every day.
| If they start to smell, you can just hang them out for the
| night and they'll be fresh as daisies again.
|
| I think I wash them like once a month or two in a wash that has
| lanolin in it, which replenishes the natural fats in the fiber
| and makes it last longer.
| keep3490 wrote:
| [dead]
| dzhiurgis wrote:
| I love Icebreaker underwear and hoodies (on my 4th over 7 years
| - they don't last that long)
| throw_pm23 wrote:
| My shirts lasted long so far, but indeed have to be careful
| how I wash/hang/dry them, etc. compared to non-wool stuff.
| dzhiurgis wrote:
| Hoodies wear out around cuff or gets some random holes over
| time. Underwear - crotch around thighs as I'm too fat.
|
| Never had too much special care around them tho.
| kemayo wrote:
| I found that Icebreaker's merino underwear is
| _particularly_ fragile. Having tried assorted brands,
| though hardly everything on the market, I 'd recommend
| Wool & Prince's underwear instead, which holds up very
| well.
|
| https://woolandprince.com/collections/underwear
| g8oz wrote:
| Hemp underwear is considerably tougher than the merino
| wool offerings and also has anti-bacterial and anti-odor
| properties.
|
| WAMA is a good brand.
| wintermutestwin wrote:
| I'd love for a Darn Tough like company to offer a lightweight
| Merino blend T-shirt with a lifetime warranty. I know nothing
| about the clothes business and wonder if it could be
| profitable.
| tbran wrote:
| My partner and I have put holes in merino wool after a month of
| use. Merino is NOT abrasion resistant if you're active. We're
| trying out Nuyarn, a merino blend that claims more loft and
| abrasion resistance (should also be lighter weight).
|
| For moisture management/warmth in colder weather, we're also
| checking out mesh baselayers [1] since merino does not dry
| quickly under multiple layers.
|
| [0]: https://nuyarn.co.nz/ [1]:
| https://www.brynjeusa.com/product-category/super-thermo/
| throw_pm23 wrote:
| For the record, I buy from this Romanian maker that also sells
| internationally via Austria (no affiliation):
| https://www.merino-shop.at/en/
| AdrianB1 wrote:
| Just for info, the wool is officially Australian
| (https://merino-shop.ro/ro/content/4-despre-merinito-lana-
| mer...), the seller is Romanian by origin (lives in AT, no
| physical presence in Romania) and there is a claim the
| production is done in Romania, but no information to confirm
| that. This is not bad, I am planning to order some of their
| products and test it in the spring.
| [deleted]
| jdc0589 wrote:
| I really loved mine, but I couldn't justify the cost for how
| long they last. Gonna check out the place you linked though,
| because thats a better price that second-hand icebreaker stuff,
| which is what I had been doing.
|
| the 3 or 4 I have are pretty covered in holes now (no, not
| moths), I just keep them around for base layers during the
| winter.
| J_cst wrote:
| Three _weeks_? OMG that 's a long journey for a t-shirt...
| pcurve wrote:
| it is... white shirt will definitely stain yellow if you go
| just a few days w/o washing.
| michaelcampbell wrote:
| The yellow is generally because of the deodorant you're
| using, not the sweat.
| kemayo wrote:
| Pit stains stem from a chemical reaction with the aluminum
| in antiperspirants. The easiest way to never have to deal
| with them ever again is to switch to using a non-
| antiperspirant deodorant.
| substation13 wrote:
| Hmm I never wear deoderant but some of the white cotton
| t-shirts I use for light exercise have stains.
| kemayo wrote:
| Technically there's some medical conditions that make
| your sweat colored, but I suspect you'd have noticed that
| more generally...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromhidrosis
| NDizzle wrote:
| Is there a single one of those aluminum-free deodorants
| that actually works? I've tried about 4 brands, and scent
| blocking lasts about 4-6 hours. Not good enough.
|
| Good old white-colored old spice (I'm allergic to the
| blue colored ones) last about 30 hours.
| kemayo wrote:
| I've had good results with the Arm & Hammer Essentials
| line: https://www.amazon.com/Arm-Hammer-Essentials-
| Natural-Deodora...
|
| I gather that body odor is closely tied to your own
| personal skin microbiome, which might explain very
| divergent effectiveness of products unfortunately.
| throw_pm23 wrote:
| Haven't noticed this with wool shirts -- none of them are
| white though.
| throw_pm23 wrote:
| They have a very different feel from cotton t-shirts, which I
| would normally change daily.
|
| I was also quite skeptical when I heard, and occasionally ask
| others to make sure I'm not fooling myself w.r. smell. Also,
| if I did heavy sports in them, I may stop, even if it was
| just a week or two. Casual daily wearing could easily go for
| a month.
| nicbou wrote:
| It reduced my hiking and motorcycling pack size by so much.
| Merino wool is a miracle material.
| rcarr wrote:
| 2022:
|
| DevonThink - My digital life has never been so well organised.
|
| Omnifocus - My task management has never been so well organised.
|
| BusyCal - My time management have never been so well organised.
|
| Handheld Scientific BT-500 - Allows me to use my mechanical split
| keyboard wirelessly.
|
| So far in 2023:
|
| Nebo Notes - Allows me to write long form with Apple Pencil on
| iPad and convert it all to text afterwards far better than any
| other app on the App Store I've encountered.
|
| Creative BT-W3 Bluetooth Transmitter - Was getting stuttering
| with Bluetooth headphones on my MacBook that was making them
| virtually unusable. Connected the headphones to this and I now
| have zero issues.
| spaceman_2020 wrote:
| An air fryer.
|
| It's really a badly marketed product. Its real utility isn't that
| it uses less oil, but that it cooks incredibly fast. Essentially
| an oven on steroids.
|
| It's made cooking so much easier. I usually toss some boneless
| chicken in with a light coating of soy sauce and cornflour. While
| the chicken cooks, I prep a basic Asian sauce on the stovetop.
|
| The chicken and the sauce are both done within 10-15 minutes.
| Never have to check on the chicken (unlike a pan) or wait too
| long (unlike an oven). Mix them together and dinner is ready.
| uuddlrlrbaba wrote:
| The "air fryer" marketing is actually quite good. It justified
| a whole new class of countertop appliance, even though many
| already have convection ovens.
|
| And if you've had frozen fried foods like mozz sticks, chicken
| nuggets or eggrolls in an air fryer, it really does live up to
| the name
| 650REDHAIR wrote:
| I use mine daily.
|
| It makes tofu better than any other method and is a staple in
| our household.
|
| My only wish is that the basket style models had more robust
| options. We go through one every ~6 months.
| empressplay wrote:
| Spent $150CAD on a combo Ninja air-fryer / pressure cooker. You
| pressure cook the food then air fry it. Crazy!
| nibbleshifter wrote:
| I have the same thing, makes the greatest roast potatoes.
|
| Wash and cut the potatoes into whatever's the appropriate
| size, put in the frying basket, pressure cook on high with
| the timer set to 2 mins (timer only starts once pressures
| built), release pressure, remove basket and drain + shake
| roughly.
|
| Leave to sit for ~15 minutes on the counter while doing other
| shit, empty and dry the main vessel.
|
| Bit of olive oil (or other fat) and seasoning onto the
| potatoes with shaking to make more surface area by fucking up
| the surface, pop it back in and air fry for 20-25m on 200*C,
| shaking halfway through.
|
| End result? Absolutely perfect roast potatoes. Glassy crunchy
| outsides, fluffy insides, every time.
|
| Also functions as a dehydrator and is super good enough to
| turn harvested mushrooms dry enough to powderise to make
| seasonings.
| Mouthfeel wrote:
| [dead]
| AlchemistCamp wrote:
| What's a "basic Asian sauce"?
|
| I'm not trying to be critical, but am genuinely curious as
| someone who's lived more than half the years since 1997 in
| Taiwan without hearing that term before.
| hammock wrote:
| > oven on steroids
|
| Aka convection oven.
|
| Which is a fancy marketing term for having a fan inside your
| oven
| dgaaaaaaaaaa wrote:
| Also small enough to make preheating near instant.
| teekert wrote:
| Yeah this is it, right? People throw fries in airfyrers that
| just soaked up fat before put in their packaging thinking it's
| healthy, and it just takes 3x the amount of time to "deep fry"
| some french fries.
|
| But that is really not it's strong point indeed! It's not an
| alternative to a deep fryer (but that is primarily the way I
| see it used), it a faster oven.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| I just put fresh cut potatoes in mine, and they're done to a
| crisp in less than 10 minutes. So, it actually takes about
| half the time, when compared to deep frying them. And there's
| no mess or used oil to worry about. And I don't have to air
| out my house afterwards. So many benefits, including health!
| gnicholas wrote:
| > _it just takes 3x the amount of time to "deep fry" some
| french fries_
|
| Perhaps if you have a deep fryer with oil that is already at
| temperature. But if you have to heat the oil it's definitely
| not 3x faster than using an air fryer. Also, no need to clean
| up splatter afterward, or monitor hot oil while it's cooking.
| Or figure out what to do with several cups of oil after
| you've deep fried some french fries.
| Ekaros wrote:
| And it certainly smells lot less than your heated vat of
| oil...
| majikandy wrote:
| No need to pretend it's healthier. Some things will be, some
| things won't be. Definitely doesn't take 3x in a home
| setting. If anything 3x faster start to finish in my
| experience.
| Merad wrote:
| > Its real utility isn't that it uses less oil, but that it
| cooks incredibly fast. > The chicken and the sauce are both
| done within 10-15 minutes.
|
| Normal sized boneless chicken breasts should cook in a pan in
| about 10 minutes or less, and you really don't need to do
| anything other than flip them once. If air fryers are
| convincing people to cook their own fresh food I would say
| that's a good thing, but I'm still struggling to see how
| they're actually better than "traditional" cooking.
| majikandy wrote:
| Air fryer isn't the best choice for Chicken breasts, so your
| point is valid for that cut. It will of course still cook ok.
| But chicken thighs on the other hand, probably better than a
| frying pan as you can get the crispyness all over and juicy
| still in the middle, just like deep frying. The fattier the
| raw product, the more the cooking choice swings to the air
| fryer.
| seized wrote:
| Anyone with an electric oven can be done cooking that chicken
| in the air fryer before the oven is even up to temp. That is
| much better.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| It's a miniature convention oven. There are foods you can
| cook in a pan but also foods you can't and must cook in an
| oven, like pies. It's best useful for individuals that don't
| want to waste the time nor energy heating up their large oven
| just to make an individual portion, at least in my case.
| bitcharmer wrote:
| I wish this was mentioned more often. Air fryers are tiny
| compared to ovens. In my case where I typically cook a meal
| for two days for a family of four an air fryer is utterly
| useless.
| electrondood wrote:
| I poach mine in the microwave with a bit of water, drain,
| then shred with forks and add salsa/tomato sauce/etc.
|
| Dead simple. Super tasty. 10 minutes, easy cleanup.
| Gareth321 wrote:
| After a lot of research I've come to the conclusion people
| who swear by these often eat a lot of ready-made food from
| the freezer. The air fryer cooks it faster and makes them
| think it contains fewer calories (even though most frozen
| ready-made food already contains all the oil it needs to cook
| well).
| satvikpendem wrote:
| Or they're individuals without the need to make large
| portions. For example I make lots of stuff in the air
| fryer, none of which are frozen. It's simply that I don't
| want to wait 30 minutes to heat up my oven when I'm not
| going to be using all of that space and heat.
| brewdad wrote:
| Does your over really take 30 minutes to heat up? Mine
| gets to 350 in about 7-10 minutes. It's a mid-range GE
| model. Nothing fancy. Preheat. Do your chopping, sauce
| prep or whatever. Oven is ready by the time you are
| really ready to put anything in it.
|
| No doubt, an air fryer made my son's college dorm
| experience so much better but I don't see the appeal for
| anyone who isn't single or who has a proper kitchen
| already.
| max937 wrote:
| It's a small convection over marketed as an "Air fryer". It's
| genius marketing!
| spike021 wrote:
| Not everyone has a convection oven.
| Spivak wrote:
| Clearly it's working for them but it also I think loses them
| sales from people who would absolutely buy an oven that
| evenly cooks (if you're an apartment dwelling baker you know
| the pain) and preheats in seconds where "air fryer" sounds
| like it does something totally different.
|
| It's the same thing with instant pot where they probably lose
| out a bit by not marketing themselves as a serious electric
| pressure cooker that can also do other stuff.
| majikandy wrote:
| I wouldn't lose too much sleep for them, I think they are
| doing ok :)
| ilyt wrote:
| They just need to say "it's an air fryer with OVEN
| FUNCTION"
| stronglikedan wrote:
| Well, I fry food, using heat and air, without soaking it in
| oil, so why shouldn't it be called an air fryer? I also have
| a convection toaster oven that cannot do that.
| AuryGlenz wrote:
| Air fryers blow significantly more air than a convection
| oven. Even my Breville toaster oven which is touted as an air
| fryer clearly isn't - I find I need to cook foods somewhere
| between the convect instructions and air fryer instructions.
| MegaDeKay wrote:
| This I did not know. But besides the time, is there
| anything the air fryer does better than a convection
| toaster oven? Does the food taste noticably better?
| Otherwise, an air fryer strikes me as a unitasker that just
| takes up counter space. We get a lot of use out of our
| Cuisinart toaster oven because it can do a lot: bake a loaf
| of bread, roast a tray of vegetables, or broil a piece of
| meat. And, oh yeah, it makes great toast!
| t-writescode wrote:
| They usually have bins, which means you can pull the food
| out and shake it without worrying about burning your
| hands; or, plate it without touching it.
|
| That's the big difference that I've noticed now that I'm
| reading about them.
| shard wrote:
| It's got to be more than that, perhaps the bin shape
| creates a better air-frying environment? Why is there a
| difference in cooking results between the toaster oven
| "air fryer" and the bin type?
| majikandy wrote:
| This. The pull out draw/basket is the true game changer.
| conductr wrote:
| We got a Breville at home recently and I couldn't
| understand what the hype was all about, it did exactly what
| my last countertop oven did even in Airfryer mode.... this
| is making sense now. We were already heavy users of the old
| convection only model, so this didn't seem like much of an
| upgrade. I think the marketing hype is just pushing people
| to realize a countertop oven of any sort is very useful.
| (That said, the Breville is very well made and we'll keep
| it around. It works well, just didn't quite taste much of a
| difference from what we had before - an older Cuisinart
| FWIW).
| LecroJS wrote:
| Any recommendations for one from OP or anyone else with one
| they're pleased by?
| bmitc wrote:
| I recently got a "Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro". I love
| it. It gets a little dirty inside, but it cooks so much
| better than a traditional over, is great for reheating food
| over the microwave, and the air fryer works really well. And
| it is a great example of user interfaces because it has no
| touch screens with dedicated knobs for everything. It is a
| breeze to use and a nice breath of fresh air when it comes to
| having physical knobs, which are additional quite nice knobs.
|
| https://www.breville.com/us/en/products/ovens/bov900.html
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| I'm going to argue the above largely misses the point of
| what makes a good air fryer and what you have linked about
| is actually just a fancy toaster oven.
|
| You did mention it yourself - "It gets a little dirty
| inside".
|
| Compare it to the $30 air fryers that are essentially an
| insulated cooking pot with a detachable heating element.
| They do the same thing but are so trivial to clean since
| they are a cooking pot that fits in the sink.
|
| It's one of those things in life where cheaper is better in
| my opinion and i do not recommend the above product at all.
| bmitc wrote:
| I.e., pros and cons exist for products that do different
| things. I can't reheat items, such as pizza, in just an
| air fryer.
| majikandy wrote:
| You can if you slice it
| stronglikedan wrote:
| I got this one on sale for BF, and it's been absolutely
| amazing. I cook fish to perfect temp using the probe, without
| having to check it at all. And I cook my side dish at the
| same time, and this thing finishes them together with smart
| cook!
|
| https://www.ninjakitchen.com/exclusive-
| offer/DZ550WBKT/Ninja...
| Ekaros wrote:
| If I were buying now and where to splurge I would probably go
| with Phillips XXL. Not necessarily the smart model, but
| bigger size.
| lkois wrote:
| You'll get some proper recommendations, but I'll mention that
| I have a very cheap no brand thing that cost under $50 at a
| grocery store. A skeptical, low investment purchase. It's
| amazing.
|
| No fancy features, the design could clearly be improved, but
| chuck anything in this small chamber, crank up the timer and
| delicious food comes out 10mins later. I've gifted nice
| models to others, without feeling any need to upgrade my own.
| Maybe when it breaks.
|
| I would suggest sticking with a small one though. Quicker to
| heat, better circulation etc
| nerdawson wrote:
| > It's really a badly marketed product.
|
| I think the marketing is really smart.
|
| It's positioned as a new category of product. Oven on steroids
| won't sell because people already own ovens. It has to be a
| distinct appliance otherwise it's competing against a full
| sized oven. That's not the comparison you want a consumer to
| make.
| babypuncher wrote:
| The problem with the marketing is that every ad I've seen for
| it makes it seem only good for making healthier, less tasty
| versions of food I like.
|
| What it's actually good for is cooking some things faster
| than a conventional oven, reheating fried foods.
|
| I have had success making good homemade french fries with my
| air fryer, but I still thoroughly toss them in oil before
| cooking them. The end result is not really much healthier
| than if I deep fry them, but it is a lot easier and less
| messy.
| majikandy wrote:
| Are you sure? Feels like totally less oil than deep fried
| to me, even tossed in oil, it isn't sitting in that oil...
| put too much and that all drips off into the bottom of the
| pan the basket sits over. I agree to makes fantastic chips
| (UK), even with oven chips without adding further oil, much
| better than those oven chips when cooked in an oven.
| jmacd wrote:
| Also, Air _Fryer_.
|
| Fryers have oil, right? Oh, this one doesn't. Air??? Air
| Fryer??
|
| Not an oven. Not a fryer?
|
| I don't own a fryer anyway, they are gross with all that oil.
|
| This fryer uses no oil?????!!!!
|
| My oven doesn't use oil either. But it's not a fryer!
|
| And then it gets bought.
| majikandy wrote:
| And then you try it, still confused how this can fry. And
| after the first couple of cooks, you don't care anymore and
| wouldn't give up this gadget!
|
| For me the USP is the slide in and out basket, ability to
| do a little shake. The convenience of that over a tray in
| the oven and the washing up and the turning and the burning
| one side of the items... is priceless
| izzydata wrote:
| By definition you can't fry something without oil. The food
| would need to have some oils inside of it already or you
| would have to use at least a little bit of oil to fry the
| food. But you could fry something in an oven by putting oil
| on it too. Otherwise you are just baking it.
| tarotuser wrote:
| Exactly. If you ever have opened up an "air fryer", it's
| literally just a circular electric stove element with a
| metal fan above it blowing down.
|
| Any way you look at this device, is substandard, not
| frying, and best saving your money elsewhere.
| seized wrote:
| Strongly disagree. Maybe it's not "frying" in the sense
| of a big bucket of boiling oil, but there is a huge array
| of cooking that is vastly faster with my air fryer.
|
| Roasting veggies, roasted potatoes, frozen foods like
| fries, things like that. I can be done with a batch of
| fries before my oven has even gotten to temperature.
| Massive time savings.
| majikandy wrote:
| Haha. Funny, but doesn't match widespread opinion.
| Personally it is the best money I have ever spent in my
| kitchen. Fantastic results. Food often even better than
| fried, oven baked, pan fried or grilled. I explicitly
| choose my air fryer for certain cooking even though all
| those other options available to me. So the opposite of
| substandard to be honest... there must be a word for
| that?
| nerdawson wrote:
| If it works and is capable of cooking your food better
| and faster than a standard oven, who cares what's inside?
| seydor wrote:
| or just, people love fries
|
| The real driver is the globally increasing number of single-
| person households tho
| gregschlom wrote:
| This is exactly right. An "air fryer" is nothing but a small
| convection oven. Most people already own ovens that can do
| convection cooking. So this very cleverly creates a new
| category of appliances.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > Most people already own ovens that can do convection
| cooking.
|
| [Citation needed]
|
| I can't find any data about penetrations, but IME it is
| very common for people _not_ to have a convection oven.
| scary-size wrote:
| In Germany it is. Everyone I know has one.
| acomjean wrote:
| If you can figure out which symbol it is. (My mom in the
| US bought a german oven, and each nob is a symbol, which
| means something fan, line, squigly line...). Once you
| know it makes sense, and this is a case where the
| internet helps.
|
| (symbols like:) https://www.ebay.com/itm/173568522355
|
| but in the US convections ovens are not that common.
|
| I had in the 90s the faberware "turbo oven". It was too
| big for me but it was a convection oven and quite fast.
| Caterers that did functions at the museum I worked hauled
| them in to heat food.
| guntherhermann wrote:
| I don't know of a single home in the UK that doesn't have
| a convection oven.
|
| Where do you live?
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > Where do you live?
|
| The USA.
| klinquist wrote:
| It's rare for households in the US to have convection
| ovens.
| J_cst wrote:
| Totally correct. The marketing category theory is sound
| nearbuy wrote:
| I would absolutely buy a better, faster, crispier oven for
| $100-$200.
|
| I honestly didn't understand what they were at first and
| didn't bother to find out.
| snapplebobapple wrote:
| I think you and the op are wrong (or maybe right?) for
| different reasons. Positioning it as a new category with less
| oil was right initially to get the thing off the ground but
| now it's maturing into a broader market with an installed
| base and that installed base has produced a ton of content,
| most of which is not for use as a less oil fryer, it's for
| use as a quick oven for when you aren't making enough of a
| dish for a family bigger than 4 people/aren't making
| something that will have leftovers for days.
|
| The next wave of people buying these things are not going to
| be fryer junkies looking to cut oil, it's going to be people
| like me that looked at it and realized instead of waiting
| 20-40 minutes for my oven to heat up I could throw enough
| food in the air fryer to finish a dish in 7-12 minutes, which
| changes the dynamic of how I live my life culinarily for the
| better by a large margin. With the airfryer I can plan meal
| timing way less, have less pressure to be in the kitchen
| earlier, have flexibility to cook something like a roast in
| the oven on lower heat while polishing off fancy veg or
| multiple fancy veg (because the run time to cook is so low)
| in the air fryer, plus I save a lot on cleaning at the end
| because there aren't multiple big dishes to wash.
| hellotomyrars wrote:
| I agree but the next wave as you've described has already
| happened a year or so ago.
|
| The majority of people I know have an air fryer at this
| point and that includes, of all things, a lot of senior
| citizens which is a disproportionate amount of my social
| circle due to my profession.
|
| These things are out there in a big way. Lots of frozen
| products already have air fryer directions on them
| specifically.
|
| I think it's already the open secret that all they really
| are is a small convection oven.
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| The only issue is that people may get misled into buying an
| oven sized air fryer which defeats the whole point since
| their advantage is that they are a much smaller oven.
|
| If they were called 'tiny oven' people probably catch on a
| bit better.
|
| I have an air fryer which is literally a double walled
| cooking pot with a fan forced heater bolted on top. It's
| amazingly fast to cook and trivial to clean since it is
| small and fits in the sink but i fear many people hearing
| how good 'air fryers' are might do something dumb and buy
| an full size fan forced oven that's badged as an 'air
| fryer' which defeats the whole point.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > If they were called 'tiny oven' people probably catch
| on a bit better.
|
| Tiny countertop (often convection) ovens (including, but
| not limited to, ones marketed as "toaster ovens") are
| _very_ common, but a lot of them are under powered for
| their size compared to those markets as "air fryers", as
| well as having other design differences. And they existed
| long before air fryers, which needed to differentiate
| themselves from them.
|
| > The only issue is that people may get misled into
| buying an oven sized air fryer which defeats the whole
| point since their advantage is that they are a much
| smaller oven.
|
| Actually, I think it's probably going to be pretty common
| for people to have multiple convection ovens / air fryers
| and use them for different purposes. The "whole point" of
| an air fryer is _not_ the size: the convection oven +
| cooking basket setup has fairly great utility at all
| sizes. Yes, an oven with a powerful heating element
| relative to size is going to have the added advantage of
| coming up to speed faster, which has some additional
| utility. Yes, the particular design of the cooking pot +
| top fan you describe (or the InstantPot models with air-
| fryer lids that interchangeable with the pressure cooker
| lids) have some unique utility ("pressure cook & crisp"
| for certain recipes). But ones the size of a typical
| microwave (or combined with a microwave, as some are now)
| or a typical full-size range oven _also_ have unique uses
| that smaller ones lack.
| darkerside wrote:
| Technically accurate doesn't mean good marketing, and in
| fact oftentimes quite the opposite
| AmVess wrote:
| The whole point of them is that they cook quickly, and
| without oil. Small units are good for 1-2 people, but it
| won't prepare enough for a family of more than 3, thus
| the existence of larger units.
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| I think there's a point where you need to accept that you
| should use a fan forced oven. Air Fryers are literally a
| small fan forced oven in terms of tech.
|
| The fast heating is due to the size. A fan forced oven is
| the same tech but slower due to being larger. Nothing
| more.
|
| So if you are buying a large air fryer that's essentially
| a fan forced oven i have to ask "why not use the oven?".
| AmVess wrote:
| Oven is still a LOT slower than a large air fryer.
| lief79 wrote:
| Our new oven has an air fryer setting. Haven't messed
| with it yet, but this is encouraging me to.
| sgc wrote:
| I don't know that is true. I have always presumed the air
| circulation in the air fryer is far higher than that in
| my convection oven, since when they are both preheated,
| the cooking times are certainly much lower in the air
| fryer. Not only that, but some ovens have a specific air
| fryer mode now, indicating it is not just a typical
| convection oven. Should every oven maker add an air fryer
| mode to their convection oven, as some have started
| doing? Of course!
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| The tech is pretty hard to argue against. I mean you can
| literally look at what it contains and it's a heating
| element and a fan. Nothing more. You can Google this for
| yourself if you don't believe me but you'll find a lot of
| people patiently explaining this exact same point.
|
| There may be a case that there's better circulation in
| most air fryers vs most fan forced ovens. In fact that's
| true in my case as my large oven and my air fryer have
| fans the same size (so more relative circulation in the
| smaller air fryer).
|
| But they are the same tech. The difference in relative
| fan size probably has some effect but it's not a rule,
| it's really just a case of how big the fan in the device
| is and you may have air fryers with smaller or larger
| relative fan sizes and ovens with smaller or larger
| relative fan sizes.
|
| If you're wondering why ovens now have 'air fryer' mode
| that's because marketing. I suspect it spins the fan a
| little faster.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > If you're wondering why ovens now have 'air fryer' mode
| that's because marketing. I suspect it spins the fan a
| little faster.
|
| From what I can tell (and the detail provided on this is
| sketchy) differences include some or all of (varying
| between models):
|
| 1. Different fan position vs. ovens without air fry mode,
|
| 2. Faster fan speed in air fry mode,
|
| 3. Using "true" or "European" convection (heating unit
| behind the fan) in air fry mode, rather than "American"
| convection (bottom heating unit plus forced circulation
| fan), which may or may not be used in "convection" mode
| in a convection oven with an air fry setting.
|
| I haven't looked, but I wouldn't be surprised if more
| peak output from the heating element was part of air fry
| settings, especially the ones where that is specifically
| marketed as, or has an additional mode for, "no preheat"
| air frying.
| nightski wrote:
| I don't know, I have heard that a lot of the newer ovens
| with an air fryer mode don't work very well at all. I
| wonder what is different.
| birdman3131 wrote:
| Its not even a new product. Convection ovens have been a
| thing for years. But because standard toaster ovens and
| convection ovens look so similar people thought they were the
| same.
| nwienert wrote:
| It's much faster than most convection ovens as they
| existed, and so I think still smart to differentiate.
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| Only due to the small size though. That's literally it.
|
| You know what a larger air fryer is called? It's called
| an oven.
| nwienert wrote:
| The fan is much stronger too, so not literally it.
| Changing two of the most significant parameters gives it
| entirely new utility that ovens didn't and don't capture.
|
| In effect it's closer to a microwave meets an air sous
| vice. Much quicker heat up, much more even heat
| dispersal.
|
| I have a convection oven too that's the same size, we use
| the air fryer 5x more often and it's almost entirely due
| to the fan not the size. Cuts cooking time in half
| comparatively.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > Only due to the small size though.
|
| I think its not technically size at all, but:
|
| (1) Heating output _relative_ to size, and
|
| (2) Fan capacity _relative_ to size, and a less
| contribution from
|
| (3) Arrangement of heating element and fan.
| klinquist wrote:
| >I think its not technically size at all, but:
|
| "It's not due to the size because they didn't shrink
| /all/ the components equally."
|
| :)
| dragonwriter wrote:
| I suspect shrinking all the components equally would
| preserve some of the effect, because my intuition without
| spending too much time is that there are scaling effects
| that would work that way.
|
| But, I'm mostly saying that its not _inherently_ the case
| that a small convection oven would have the advantages of
| an air fryer, and, a major reason for the name "air
| fryer" for the product categoriy is because countertop
| convection ovens _without_ those advantages already
| existed, because they were optimized for other goals, so
| just calling them "countertop convection ovens" would
| have sent the wrong message to buyers familiar with the
| existing category.
| nerdawson wrote:
| That's why marketing works. If they called it a micro-oven,
| it would be too similar in consumers' minds to appliances
| they already own.
| fknorangesite wrote:
| > otherwise it's competing against a full sized oven
|
| Even worse: a full sized oven _that I already own._
| no_wizard wrote:
| Interestingly, the _Wirecutter_ recommends people just get a
| really good high end toaster oven[0] over an air fryer, since
| its just a convection mode cook.
|
| [0]: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-air-fryer-
| to...
| stronglikedan wrote:
| That style of "air fryer" is just a convection toaster oven
| with an air fryer rack. Shameful marketing, if you ask me. A
| real air fryer (the ubiquitous basket style) cannot be
| replaced with another appliance, but replaces many, while
| doing a better, faster job.
| majikandy wrote:
| For example, George Foreman decommissioned. Sausages never
| cooked any other way. Chicken nuggets, love them or hate
| them they cook great in the air fryer. Main convection oven
| only really used in our house to bake bread.
| carlmr wrote:
| If you like baking bread and you have the space, I would
| suggest getting a steam-convection oven, like the one from
| Anova.
|
| You can also steam-slow-cook meat and get juicy tender
| chicken.
| jjice wrote:
| Fast is absolutely it. Quality cooking that's fast and requires
| pretty much no effort. Using my right now as I type this.
|
| It's also fantastic at reheating most things that aren't soup.
| uhtred wrote:
| These do nice job with tofu. Cut into cubes, toss in some oil,
| salt and pepper, and air fry for 15 mins. Tofu comes out like
| that deep fried take out tofu!
| paxys wrote:
| It's the exact opposite. The "air fryer" marketing lets
| companies present it as a healthy alternative to deep frying,
| and people eat that up (heh). If they sold it as what it really
| was - a toaster oven - there would be a lot less enthusiasm and
| demand, and people would definitely not spend multiple hundred
| dollars on one.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| You obviously have not owned an air fryer, if you think it's
| a mere toaster oven. Or you got one of those convection
| toaster ovens with an air fryer rack, which really isn't an
| air fryer, like the basket ones are. I haven't used my stove,
| oven, or microwave since I got one.
| Gigachad wrote:
| I've had one before and I don't really get the hype. It's
| an oven that heats up faster. I see the value in that but
| it doesn't seem useful enough to take up counter space when
| I could just wait a few minutes for the oven.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| It's cut my cooking time down by magnitudes, but even
| more so, my cleaning time. But I suppose it all does
| depend on the use cases. I, for one, plan on never having
| to wait for anything to preheat in my kitchen ever again!
| nsxwolf wrote:
| I wanted an air fryer, so I got the same one my friend has last
| year, one made by PowerXL. Mine produced this horrific chemical
| smell that filled up the whole house and soaked into the food.
| Reddit told me that it just needed to be variously washed or
| run a few times and it would go away, but it never did. I had
| to return it.
|
| I suspect the plastics used were changed, or some
| preconditioning process was skipped to get more units out for a
| Black Friday sale or something. I haven't revisited the product
| category since.
| TYMorningCoffee wrote:
| It's a shame how you and your friend received very different
| products. An additional hypothesis: Could it have been a
| counterfeit?
| testfoobar wrote:
| Does the fan get all oily & grimy? Is it hard to keep clean? I
| like being able to wash greasy kitchen items in lots of hot
| water and detergent. I can't imagine it is possible to immerse
| the business end of an air fryer in water?
| majikandy wrote:
| The fan, not that much. Out of sight out of mind :)
| crispyambulance wrote:
| Not as bad as you might think. Splatter happens when moisture
| comes in contact with hot oil/shortening. In an air fryer you
| don't have much oil and it doesn't as easily splatter. It's
| relatively contained. AFAIK, there's no mist of oil droplets
| like with a frying pan or a fryer.
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| A good air fryer should have a pan/grill that's detachable
| from the fan/heater section. The pan/grill should fit
| entirely in a sink.
|
| If you get an air fryer that's the size of an oven it will be
| as hard to clean as an oven and will take just as long to
| heat and cook as an oven since internally the tech is 100%
| identical to a fan forced oven (a heating element with a
| fan). Don't make the mistake of bigger is better for an air
| fryer.
|
| Air fryers are meant to be small pots that have a fan forced
| oven element bolted to the top that can easily be detached
| for washing in the sink. That's the whole appeal of it. It's
| a teeny tiny oven that heats up extremely quickly for little
| power due to its size. It's easy to clean because the non-
| electronic part fits entirely in the sink. It's only the size
| that gives air fryers an advantage. If you buy an air fryer
| the size of a fan forced oven you have literally just bought
| a less good fan forced oven.
| TurkishPoptart wrote:
| I have the instant pot vortex, which is really cool. The weird
| thing is all the oil and grease that materializes on the bottom
| rack thing. Does anyone else use instant pot vortex?
| sgc wrote:
| We just got that as a backup to our (older, Polish-made
| model) Philips air fryer. The Philips is much better,
| although the instant pot is as serviceable as other brands of
| air fryers we have used. All air fryers get grease build up
| below. If it's the same recipe, you were likely eating that
| before, so I am happy to see it.
| spreiti wrote:
| We got one in 2020 and we use it daily. Chicken, french fries,
| sausages, fish and bread is what we use it for most of the
| time. Some things like spring rolls are better fried with oil
| but overall we love it and it is a real time saver and of
| course less oil is used.
| freediver wrote:
| How do you make bread with it?
| spreiti wrote:
| We don't make bread. We just make bread from the previous
| day hot and crunchy again. It just takes a few minutes. We
| used to do this with the oven but that takes quite some
| time more.
| majikandy wrote:
| Ah yes, croutons are another fantastic thing to use it
| for.
| 650REDHAIR wrote:
| My partner is vegetarian and I've found that tofu and soy
| curls are near life changing good in the air fryer.
|
| Cube the tofu, cook for 75% of the total time, pull out and
| dress in liquid seasoning, return for the last bit and the
| outside gets crisp while the inside remains juicy!
| Alex3917 wrote:
| Have a full recipe? This is interesting.
| uuddlrlrbaba wrote:
| Thank you this is a killer tip I have to try it
|
| Curious -- what do you use as a dressing?
| scotuswroteus wrote:
| I like air fryers but my food doesn't stay warm for as long as
| when I cook it in the microwave, for whatever reason
| Ekaros wrote:
| Maybe it removes more moisture thus the cooked food is dryer
| with less mass.
|
| Haven't noticed that myself. Then again I mostly only cook
| pre-fried or that kind of stuff in my air fryer.
| ufo wrote:
| Exactly! Convection ovens are devices for roasting, not for
| frying.
| J_cst wrote:
| The reason is that it's much smaller in terms of internal
| volume.
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| How does an air fryer compare to a speed oven? I want to
| remodel my kitchen someday with a speed oven (convection
| microwave) over top a steam convection oven (for cooking things
| with steam without pressure). I'm not sure what I would be
| missing without an air fryer (and none of those are less than
| $2-3k, so the price ranges are completely different).
| bobchadwick wrote:
| If you're looking to do speed oven stuff (use the heating
| elements and the microwave to cook the same dish), don't get
| a Bosch. I have the Bosch 800 speed oven and while it's
| convenient to have a single appliance that acts as an oven
| and microwave, you can only use the speed oven for pre-
| programmed dishes, of which I think there are eight seemingly
| random ones.
| brainzap wrote:
| so it is not a meme?
| linuxftw wrote:
| It's mostly a meme. They are good at cooking some things, but
| frying is not one of them. They're basically an expensive
| toaster oven.
|
| *Edit: 'are'
| atkailash wrote:
| [dead]
| J_cst wrote:
| Exactly that. 100% correct
| DamnInteresting wrote:
| I disagree. I cook with a fairly wide range of techniques
| (e.g., sous vide, convection oven, slow cooker, smoker,
| pressure cooker), and my recently acquired air fryer has
| been a pleasant surprise. I was skeptical, but happy to be
| proven wrong. It is fast, versatile, and the results are
| often outstanding. It is great for things like fries,
| reheating frozen food, and fish. It is easily the best
| pizza reheating device I have yet encountered.
| ilyt wrote:
| > It is great for things like fries, reheating frozen
| food, and fish. It is easily the best pizza reheating
| device I have yet encountered.
|
| So the thing toaster oven/convection oven is good at ?
| Aside from big oven heating slowly of course
| xeromal wrote:
| It circulates air a bit harder than a convection oven in
| my experience.
|
| It cooks things way faster.
| sumtechguy wrote:
| I have owned an oven, toaster, toaster oven, air fryer,
| dehydrator, deep fryer, microwave oven. Air fryers use a
| fan to circulate the heat. While a toaster/convection
| oven typically use radiant heat. Upside to air fryer is
| the speed. Downside is it will tend to cause fats to
| render out quickly making the food more on the dry side.
| Some foods/diets are suited to that style of cooking.
|
| Growing up my parents almost exclusively used a pot
| shaped one with the fan/heater in the lid, to make roast
| chickens. The skin usually came out nice and crunchy and
| spicy. It would be tougher to get that same effect in a
| toaster oven or oven. They also tend to heat more evenly
| so for reheating they cook better than a microwave. But
| can not beat a microwave on speed.
|
| Think of each of these as tool to get things done. Each
| one can mostly do what the others can. But some tools are
| better suited to cooking styles than others.
| JohnBooty wrote:
| They're like... plus ultra superior toaster ovens,
| because they circulate the air.
| DamnInteresting wrote:
| Yes, it's essentially a miniature convection oven. It
| cuts down a lot on preheating time. Life is short. It is
| also quite easy to clean.
|
| edit: Also, I should point out that the "basket" form
| factor of the air fryer is helpful. In the convection
| oven things tend to lie flay on a sheet, and cooking is
| less even. Granted, I could put a basket-like container
| in the convection oven, but it would still be much slower
| to heat.
| linuxftw wrote:
| None of this changes the fact they more or less cook the
| same things as toaster ovens.
| Ekaros wrote:
| I hate to call it convection oven. In my mind convection
| oven is just bit better regular oven. Pretty much the
| same, only difference is that it is bit faster and you
| can put more stuff in if needed.
| stu2b50 wrote:
| It's definitely not a toaster oven. The fan is important -
| there's a reason CPU radiators have fans on them, and it's
| not because they don't do anything.
|
| You can argue it's just a convection oven with a faster
| fan, but that doesn't make it a "meme".
|
| They're also, like, very much not expensive at this point.
| It's a very commoditized, competitive market, and you can
| pick them up for <$50.
| pricci wrote:
| It's an oven with a big fan.
| binarypaean wrote:
| An airplane is a car with a big fan.
| browningstreet wrote:
| 100% not a meme
|
| I cube tofu, cover in corn starch, throw in air fryer for 8
| minutes. (chicken wings can be made the same in 20 minutes --
| way better than anything from a restaurant)
|
| when tofu is done, i add a little water, toss in some
| broccoli, close for 3 minutes, done
|
| nuke pre-made rice and i have lunch in no time
|
| i still use oven for longer-cook items like potatoes, sweet
| potatoes, and brussel sprouts, but only if I have a main
| cooking in the air fryer. but the oven gets used a lot less
| these days.
| linuxftw wrote:
| Chopped brussel sprouts are really good in the air fryer if
| you like some of the leaves to crisp up.
| WrtCdEvrydy wrote:
| Wait till you cook some salmon or pick up an inexpensive slow
| cooker (Walmart had a 2 quart one for like $11 over the
| holidays)
| gooseyman wrote:
| The marketing for air fryers is fantastic.
|
| It's a small convection oven, which a lot (definitely not all)
| ovens come with standard today. I bought 2 of the cheapest
| whole kitchen "packages" from HD and both came with a
| convection setting. The electric even called it "Convection/Air
| Fryer."
|
| A friend saw that setting and busted with excitement "Your oven
| has an air fryer!?" Yes my oven has an oven.
|
| Really good marketing.
|
| Never underestimate the power of the oven.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| We bought a nice one and it smelt terrible, like awful melted
| plastic. We didn't even use the thing, we returned it. From
| what I can tell, the insides are covered in some kind of PFAS
| and I do not want to eat something from it. My oven does
| convection just fine.
| gnicholas wrote:
| We had this issue at first also. The company told us to run
| it on the steam setting with a bit of water and some vinegar.
| Did that a couple times and hasn't made a smell since then.
| ianbutler wrote:
| Same here I got one at the beginning of 2022, I cook steak,
| chicken, pork and more in mine. It has made it significantly
| easier to cook lunch and dinner instead of what used to be the
| much easier choice of just ordering out.
| miki_tyler wrote:
| I had multiple air fryer models over the years. The stirring
| functions (a rotating paddle that stirs the food) is an
| ABSOLUTE GAME CHANGER and a must for me.
|
| Unfortunately those equipped with a stirring function come up
| as expensive. I would love to see a < $100 air fryer equipped
| with it.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| But the basket shaking is half the fun of air fryer cooking!
| Sooo satisfying.
| majikandy wrote:
| Agree, and actually less necessary than you think.
| Sometimes you forget and it's usually still fine.
| sinak wrote:
| What exactly does the stirring function allow you to do that
| you couldn't do before?
|
| And which model of stirring air fryer did you end up going
| for?
| miki_tyler wrote:
| I had both a De'Longhi FH1363 MultiFry Extra and a T-fal
| ActiFry.
|
| You can throw in frozen vegetables, meat and seasoning,
| turn the machine on, come back in 25 minutes and your food
| will be cooked uniformly to perfection. E.g., frozen
| brussels sprouts, chopped chicken sausages, a bit of olive
| oil and sambal sauce.
|
| Prep time under 30 seconds.
|
| Bonus points: Both fryers come with dishwasher-safe paddle
| and bowl. You can detach and wash the lid too of the
| De'Longhi one.
| spapas82 wrote:
| I was thinking if buying an air fryer however cleaning seems
| like a nightmare. Can you please share some insights on how
| easy (or hard) it is?
| heyheyhey wrote:
| I put aluminum foil in between the grate and the tray. Makes
| cleaning much easier since you only need to clean the grate,
| which is dishwasher-safe.
|
| Some think it affects the air fryer cooking but I haven't
| noticed a difference.
| bilsbie wrote:
| I just empty the tray and rinse with hot water. Since it
| doesn't touch the food I figure it doesn't have to be too
| sterile.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| Easiest thing ever. Just rinse the basket with hot water and
| a little dish soap, then rinse it again and dry. Nothing
| sticks to the non-stick coating once dish soap hits it. I
| don't even scrub, just rinse. So fast, that I don't even use
| the dishwasher for it.
| anthomtb wrote:
| I have a Ninja Air Fryer and the baskets are dishwasher safe.
| They are also very easy to wash clean clean with a soft
| brush, warm water and soap. Easy cleaning is one of the major
| benefits of an air fryer versus deep/shallow frying via a
| dedicated or appliance or the stovetop.
| reidjs wrote:
| Cleaning mine is extremely easy. It's just a basket with a
| detachable grate.
| sowbug wrote:
| They're all a little different, but this works for me. When
| it beeps to say it's done, in a single arm motion I pull out
| the tray, dump the cooked food onto a platter, and then rinse
| the tray in the sink. The key is to get the tap water on
| there while the oils are still hot.
|
| But temper your expectations. If you need your cooking
| implements to be squeaky clean, an air fryer will be a lot of
| work. If you're satisfied with your regular oven having a few
| bits of carbonized food bits here and there, then you'll also
| be satisfied with a "camp clean" level of air fryer
| cleanliness.
| majikandy wrote:
| Exactly this. It is kind of always a little bit greasy, a
| little bit crispy burnt crumbs inside. Really fatty foods
| like sausages, you dump the waste oil after taking the food
| out, and rinse it a bit. It's hard to describe without
| sounding gross, but strangely seems not that gross when you
| have one.
| tomjen3 wrote:
| I have one: all I do is take the basket out and clean it.
| Both parts of it are non-stick.
| pcurve wrote:
| The tray is usually two piece that separate. They're not hard
| to clean. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/P_nUcqzNi00
|
| Airfryer doesn't get hot enough like pan over direct flame so
| food doesn't seem to get burned / stuck.
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| Buy a small one. Smallest you can for your situation.
|
| That might seem like a weird suggestion but remember the
| entire advantage of an air fryer is that it's a smaller form
| of an oven so it has less to heat and is thus faster for less
| power. Buying a big one makes it all pointless, just use the
| oven.
|
| The small ones fit in a sink. Not much different than
| cleaning pots&pans.
| Ekaros wrote:
| I recommend a basket type and getting the biggest in area
| and power you can find. The surface area is important. More
| even and better you can spread the food better the result.
|
| It works by forcing air from the top to the food, not
| slowly from the back like regular oven. So you get better
| result if food isn't piled up over itself.
| SeanLuke wrote:
| Wasn't purchased in 2022 but I was just now talking to my wife
| about how great a purchase this had proven over the years. A
| Black Condor T&T Pouch. I tossed the map insert in the middle,
| the drawstrings inside, and the Molle attachment loops in the
| back, and it has served as a really fantastic organizer for pens,
| mechanical pencils, knives, erasers, Macbook dongles, precision
| screwdrivers, spudgers, and so on. Tough as nails. $30, available
| in lots of places.
| KomoD wrote:
| A new keyboard, keychron k8 with blue switches, honestly
| surprised how long the battery lasts.
| therealplato wrote:
| capresso infinity burr grinder (for coffee)
| peterhil wrote:
| An Acer video projector I bought for 50EUR. I also got a few
| years old Thinkpad X230 for 100EUR.
| zem wrote:
| this very nice corner shelving unit:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08JC4NKZG/
|
| (living in a small flat, few things improve my quality of life
| like really good storage solutions; the ikea "norden occasional
| table"
| (https://www.ikeaddict.com/ikeapedia/en/Product/40245741/us-e...)
| might well be one of the best returns on investment in my entire
| decade living in the place)
| slicktux wrote:
| French Press
| hiddencost wrote:
| Pegboard. Ikea sells some good ones.
|
| A wall calendar.
|
| Felted house shoes (Kyrgies!!) that I didn't sweat in.
|
| Wooden clothes hangers.
|
| Humidifier.
|
| Small storage containers
|
| Expanded clay pellets for rooting plant cuttings.
| Kadin wrote:
| I paid a guy a bit under $200 to pull Ethernet cables from my
| basement up to the attic of my house.
|
| Now I can keep heat-generating stuff like my storage server and
| the cable modem (surprisingly heat-intensive) in the basement,
| have a WiFi AP in the attic for great coverage in the yard, and I
| can easily drop lines down into rooms on the 2nd floor from above
| by just drilling a small hole in the top of a wall and feeding
| the Cat6 down, or put one into a 1st floor room by going up from
| the basement. Cat6 anywhere I want it, basically.
|
| It's something I've wanted for years and held off doing because I
| knew I was _capable_ of DIYing it, and therefore I hesitated to
| hire it out. This was dumb.
|
| It took him an hour or so using various specialized tools ("fish
| bits", "fish tape", tall ladders, drywall saws, etc.), when it
| would have probably taken me the better part of a weekend and I
| wouldn't have done as clean of a job. He also knew from
| experience where the easiest place would be to get all the way
| from the basement to the attic, given my house's construction
| style.
|
| Definitely worth the two bills, and also now I have a "wiring
| guy" for future projects. I've already called him back to help
| run wiring for PoE outdoor cameras, another thing I've wanted for
| years but haven't bothered to execute on.
| mikewarot wrote:
| I also transitioned to a hardwired connection. It is so nice
| not having to worry if it's the wifi dropping connections, etc.
|
| It also makes it easier to experiment with Linux, etc.
| phren0logy wrote:
| I've been making the same mistake. If anybody knows a good and
| reasonably priced "wiring guy/gal" in the Portland, Oregon area
| I'd be grateful.
| chromakode wrote:
| I recently hired Integration Engineers (ie-pdx.com) for a
| similar job in PDX. They were fantastic to work with.
| mattst88 wrote:
| I used http://freedomcustomcommunicationsllc.com/ when I
| lived in Hillsboro. He ran 4 or 5 ethernet cables for $400
| IIRC about 5 years ago.
| sorum wrote:
| Same here. Once you get used to having Ethernet ports in all
| rooms and wired WiFi access points...there's just no going
| back. If we move to a new house in the future, the CAT6 will be
| pulled into all rooms before the furniture arrives even.
| SheepSlapper wrote:
| I built my house 4 years ago (with liberal use of
| subcontractors), and one of the things I _knew_ I 'd want is
| ethernet everywhere. So I ran the wire, bought a big patch
| panel, and now every room in my house has 2-4 ports for
| whatever I might want.
|
| As a bonus, if I (or the next guy) wanted to have a landline
| phone, it's in the same closet and it can be patched to
| anywhere in the house by swapping a single wire.
|
| Given the opportunity, even after the house is complete, it's a
| very useful thing to do.
| basch wrote:
| Another clean option is MOCA, if your house has existing coax
| runs. It has the nice benefit of not needing to be 1:1. You can
| have 3 MOCA devices on three floors that all communicate
| directly with each other, instead of needing a core switch.
|
| $100 to connect 2 drops. Plug it in and it works. (change the
| admin password tho!) https://www.amazon.com/Hitron-Ethernet-
| existing-Backbone-Str...
| go_prodev wrote:
| Under $200 would be: - a monitor arm to free up desk space - a
| Wacom tablet for virtual whiteboard diagrams - a coffee warmer
| for my desk
| monroewalker wrote:
| +1 for monitor arm. Regret not getting one sooner!
| The_Colonel wrote:
| I regret buying a monitor without a VESA mount :-( (it was
| really cheap and is decent otherwise)
| TaylorGood wrote:
| Theragun + massage table
| ruduhudi wrote:
| Torras Screen Protector for my phone. Saved me a huge ton of
| regret after a blurry night.
| DamnInteresting wrote:
| I'm surprised by how many things mentioned here are things that
| improved my own 2022 (air fryer, Steamdeck, bone-conducting
| headphones, etc.)
|
| A couple of things that I haven't yet seen mentioned:
|
| A LifeStraw Home water filter. It removes the slightly metallic
| taste from my home tap water.
|
| Cable management boxes (multiple brands). These allow me to hide
| away the unsightly power strips, power bricks, hubs, excess
| cords, etc, and make my desk/office much more organized.
| adrianmonk wrote:
| > _Cable management boxes_
|
| For my desk, I got a really long (48 inches, 1.2 meters) power
| strip like you'd use on a workbench, and I screwed it to the
| back side of the desk near the top.
|
| Cables hang down behind the desk so they stay off the floor and
| you don't see them.
|
| It has 16 outlets, so there's one near whatever I want to plug
| in and I always have a free outlet.
| bpye wrote:
| Yep, I attached one of these on the underside of the back of
| my desk. Means I basically have two cables from the wall,
| Ethernet to a switch and power. Works great.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| > A LifeStraw Home water filter
|
| I went a little bananas on filtered water a while back and
| bought a giant Berkey. I love it. My family goes through an
| entire container each day somehow. We use it for cooking as
| well as drinking, but it's still a lot of water. I highly
| recommend it if you ever decide you want an even more thorough,
| longer-lasting, high-capacity filter.
| notafraudster wrote:
| I feel like I've never been able to get a handle on cable
| management despite using velcro cable ties, and baseboard cable
| clips, and other stuff. I just have never found the right
| thing. So I'd love if you linked some of the ones you used
| (granted they're probably all random drop-shipping Amazon
| brands)!
| DamnInteresting wrote:
| There are lots of options, but the ones I finally landed on
| were these:
|
| For my desktop: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09224KKPV
|
| For behind my desk (which doubles as a recording space, so
| the disorganized cables bugged me):
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014BMTQ34
|
| I also used a lot of Velcro cable ties, and this monster of a
| power strip which fits inside the behind-desk box:
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099NB3TTY
| alexpetralia wrote:
| Me too!
| rpastuszak wrote:
| - Affinity Photo instead of Photoshop (I've been a PS user since
| 5.5, but they creep me out)
|
| - Capture One for ca 200 usd (same reason as above, but replace
| PS with Lightroom Classic)
|
| - The Belkin iPhone grip for continuity camera (iPhone is so much
| better than the potato webcam on my MBA)
| Topgamer7 wrote:
| Right when I submitted enough wine patches to get Affinity
| Photo v1 working on linux, they go and release V2 with a couple
| WinRT lib calls which are basically completely missing from
| wine :(
| ckz wrote:
| I'd still be very interested in hearing if v1 is running (or
| what's left to be done, particularly for Designer/Publisher,
| but your progress on Photo is also welcome!). I use Affinity
| consistently for work and would love to split less time
| between systems. Been using v1 for enough years that
| reverting to it wouldn't be an issue.
| cyanbane wrote:
| > - Affinity Photo instead of Photoshop (I've been a PS user
| since 5.5, but they creep me out)
|
| Made this change this year also.
| rpastuszak wrote:
| Good, are you missing any features?
| cyanbane wrote:
| No, but to be fair I am a surface user, there are probably
| some power features in there that are not replicated.
| D13Fd wrote:
| Kagi search engine subscription is easily my top choice
| (https://kagi.com).
|
| I'm really glad something can finally, truly replace Google
| search and be just as good or better (neither Bing nor DuckDuckGo
| were good enough when I tried them).
|
| If we're talking physical products, I'd probably go with the
| Apple Magsafe wallet. It's a little thing but I love not having a
| separate wallet to keep track of every day.
| ElijahLynn wrote:
| Anyone here use Kagi and Neeva for a similar amount of time? If
| so, thoughts on comparison?
| michaelcampbell wrote:
| > DuckDuckGo were good enough when I tried them
|
| I'm curious as to where it lacked. DDG works more than well
| enough for me, but I'm wondering what other people search for
| where it is not.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| I often search for an error message from software, get
| nothing useful from DDG, then add the "!g" and find exactly
| my problem.
| b1476 wrote:
| I love DDG but there's still an awful lot of weird results.
| Just the other day I searched for a clothing brand and the
| first result wasn't their homepage but someones saved wish
| list (something like "?wishlistid=someuid"). It was bizarre.
| I don't know enough about SEO to know if it's down to the
| owners of the site or some weird DDG indexing but I've found
| a lot of weird indexing like this where you'd expect the
| homepage and get a very specific page instead.
| NoboruWataya wrote:
| I think it's hard to describe how one search engine is less
| good than another. It just... is. Quite often there are very
| few or even no relevant results for my query, and as soon as
| I put a "!g" in front of it I quickly find what I'm looking
| for.
|
| Don't get me wrong, DDG works fine for me for 90% of my
| search queries (which are usually quite straightforward). But
| I have noticed a difference in quality vs Google, at the
| margins. I'm considering trying out Kagi.
| artisanscribble wrote:
| totally agree that for ~5-10% of searches DDG is not as
| good as google.
|
| When DDG fails, I just re-run the search with "!g" and it
| goes straight to google and I'm good.
| D13Fd wrote:
| The problem is knowing when it is failing. How can you
| know what you may be missing? How can you know how much
| time you are losing by not getting the best results? Etc.
| sgc wrote:
| Yeah, I used DDG for about a year. It just became such a
| pervasive weight I went back to google. Despite the
| crappy seo it is still less of a pain / faster than ddg -
| but I know google is not surfacing high quality results
| from sites I found through it years ago. At this point,
| the web is far less useful than it was, mainly because
| you can't find the good sites anymore. I am going to give
| kagi a spin, since I really wanted to make something non-
| google work, and google looks like it will never improve.
| This feels exactly like my back and forth with linux as
| my daily driver. It took 15 years, but it eventually
| became the least bad option.
| D13Fd wrote:
| I last tried DDG a couple of years ago, so it may have
| improved. But I gave it a good hard try for several months,
| and I just kept finding instances where I couldn't find
| something that I knew should be out there. Then I switched
| back to Google and it was like a breath of fresh air, I was
| finding things easily again.
|
| But I'd say with Kagi it's almost the opposite - it finds
| things at least as well and there aren't ads to get in the
| way. It feels like old-school Google.
|
| I actually found that I was getting annoyed on my mobile
| devices because they were still searching on Google and I
| need to scroll past ads etc., before I recently switched them
| over.
| timeon wrote:
| Non-English queries have usually poor result.
| srvmshr wrote:
| It really bothers me that Kagi sample search is a canned
| response.
|
| If you would carefully look at "Best headphones" example, the
| reddit result card shows '2 days ago', whereas the link it
| points to is 7 months old.
|
| Similarly the Sennheiser headphones results card shows $379 on
| Amazon, when its actually $400 today.
|
| No offenses to how well it works, but if I had to be sold to
| get a subscription, I would rather like to see a real-time
| example. A canned example FWIW could be a completely scripted
| search result.
| freediver wrote:
| Kagi founder here. I am of the opinion that things are not
| and do not have to be perfect. We do not want to market Kagi
| as a perfect product, without flaws. What you see is what you
| get. We have a lot of work to do. Google, a trillion dollar
| company with nearly 200K most talented employees, still gets
| many things wrong in their results. We are a ten people
| bootstrapped team, and the web is a vast problem, just to
| align expectations.
|
| I am personally not bothered by small errors here and there,
| it is important to get the big picture right - alignment of
| incentives inside the search experience. Overall, I believe
| we also have superior results to Google, please try it for a
| few days and share your thoughts.
|
| Kagi is in some ways broken and flawed and it is what makes
| it feel more humane to use.
|
| If there are things that particulary bother you feel free to
| share them on kagifeedback.org. We are not ignorant of these,
| just limited by our current resources.
| CobaltFire wrote:
| I was a beta user and paid for a while, but my search
| results were too intermixed with my wife's and my child's.
| It's absolutely worth it to me, but paying $30 a month for
| 3 users was a little too much for me to stomach.
|
| To be clear, I pay $20/mo for ProtonMail Visionary so I'm
| not averse to paying! I just can't see the value at $30/mo
| when the other family members don't use it nearly as much
| as I do.
|
| Maybe this is an untenable problem due to your costs and
| you need those low use paying users. I'm not sure.
|
| To clarify: by intermixed I mean our tuning was different
| so it became somewhat interesting, as we all wanted to tune
| the settings differently. It's not a huge thing, but
| between that and feeling bad for having three people using
| one sub...
| freediver wrote:
| Good news, reduced price family plans are coming soon (we
| are aiming January). You'll get three users for $10/mo,
| four for $12/mo as a base membership. A lot of discussion
| about it going on right now in our discord server.
| CobaltFire wrote:
| I'll be signing up the day those are available!
| srvmshr wrote:
| Most of your arguments regarding resources are in general
| valid points, but when you are showcasing 3 results as
| selling points how hard is it to keep them updated. If
| you're not personally bothered by this showcase -- which is
| your product advertisment -- you perhaps should be. Going
| against a trillion dollar company needs a very convincing
| pitch IMO to average user.
|
| > We are a ten people bootstrapped team.
|
| We are a 2-engineer startup. We give business
| analytics/market trends on mined webdata (through our B2B
| dashboards) with a 48 hour live data guarantee. Every time,
| user queries crunch through about 9 million data points for
| every day over last 36 months - in real time. Sorry, but it
| isn't a very good reason to have stale results.
| ZephyrBlu wrote:
| They're not pitching to the average user. Average users
| won't pay for search.
|
| Also kind of a dick move to compare to your startup to
| Kagi to justify it sucking. Analytics is very different
| to search. Your products sound completely different.
| D13Fd wrote:
| You're demanding an awful lot out of a $10/mo product
| here. And I think you're missing the forest for the
| trees. It's still an as-good-or-better search engine than
| Google with no ads and a focus on privacy.
|
| The fact that it lists ballpark prices rather than exact
| prices is really not that important in the grand scheme
| of things.
| srvmshr wrote:
| I never once mentioned the price point.
|
| My critique was about the accuracy of the results, and
| staleness of their showcase. If I would be a paying
| customer - be it $1 or $10/mo - I would expect it to be
| better than something I get for free. I already mentioned
| in another comment that Google shouldn't be a baseline to
| improve on, when so many competing innovative search
| companies such as DDG, Ecosia, You.com exist. Even DDG,
| Ecosia aren't visually that spammy either. For Kagi to
| win, the product strategy should win over by a visible
| margin.
|
| You like it. To each his own.
| sroussey wrote:
| There are startups that index only products and prices, so
| you could use their API. Maybe it's a cost issue though.
| [deleted]
| cheeze wrote:
| It doesn't seem like it works all that well either...
|
| Their example is the headphone search. That Reddit post is a
| few months old, and has _one_ comment on it. The thread asks
| specifically about closed-back headphones under $150.
|
| Something like this would be much better as a result: https:/
| /www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/nq0pt/headphone...
| freediver wrote:
| For sure it can be improved, but at least it points you in
| the right direction (/r/HeadphoneAdvice)
|
| Remember we are comparing this to Google where the entire
| first page for this query is either ads or results full of
| ads and affiliate links.
| srvmshr wrote:
| No offense again to the product. Please take this as
| positive criticism
|
| Please don't compare yourself to Google. Most people on
| HN are well aware that Google search has become a
| terrible baseline. DDG, appending Reddit to query etc.,
| are workarounds discussed a lot of times on the forum.
|
| I have no beef against Kagi. I wish you guys succeed, but
| please have a better product argument. At this point, I
| actually find equally good suggestion on 'headphones'
| from both DDG & Ecosia. If Kagi needs to win over, it
| should be doing better vis-a-vis the upcoming search
| engines, not Google which has been SEO gamed over & over.
| freediver wrote:
| Non taken. I mentioned Google as for most people, 'better
| than Google' is already worth paying for (and for most
| people Google is also still the "king").
|
| We may differ perhaps on what 'winning' means. For us
| having thousands of people pay for Kagi despite such
| strong and free competition is already winning. We do not
| have ambition for global domination, but are creating a
| search experience for people that want an alternative
| that has their best interest in mind. And when we have a
| product glitch, it is not like we are delibarately not
| achieving even higher quality - we are constrained by our
| resources.
|
| Also have in mind that we launched our public beta just 7
| months ago, give us a bit of time (Google has been around
| for 25 years, DDG for 15 years, Ecosia for 14 years) and
| we may reach your standards of quality. Fact that
| generally speaking Kagi already brought more innovation
| to search experience in such short period time than these
| legacy search engines did in decades (by legacy I mostly
| mean using legacy business model - ads) means that we are
| serious about it. Just need a bit of time.
| 70rd wrote:
| Would you say Kagi has escaped the Google SEO deterioration?
| Google has essentially gotten so bad for me that DuckDuckGo,
| without noticeable improvement, is now on par with Google.
| ceh123 wrote:
| Also a subscriber to Kagi.
|
| In my experience it's at least marginally better, but one of
| the really nice features that Kagi has (and probably the main
| reason I subscribe) is you can extremely easily block
| domains. So whenever I hit a SEO garbage site, I just go
| back, block it, and I never worry about it again. In the
| areas you regularly search, this quickly gets you to a result
| page that is substantially higher quality than google.
| petepete wrote:
| Pinterest gone from image results is worth the entry price
| alone.
| user1029384756 wrote:
| Fyi, it's pretty simple to add a custom filter to any
| decent adblocker like uBlock to prevent annoying domains
| from showing up in search results. I haven't seen a
| Pinterest result or Stackoverflow clone in years...
| disqard wrote:
| Seconded!
| DavideNL wrote:
| > " _you can extremely easily block domains_ "
|
| I just use ublacklist [1] for that.
|
| I like Kagi by the way, but my problem with it is:
|
| 1. major: I value privacy. I would not connect my identity
| to a search engine (we've learned from recent news events
| that promises/privacy policies mean nothing.)
|
| 2. minor: The subscription cost is a little too high for my
| usage volume.
|
| [1] https://iorate.github.io/ublacklist/docs
| freediver wrote:
| > I would not connect my identity to a search engine
| (we've learned from recent news events that
| promises/privacy policies mean nothing.)
|
| You do not need to. You can register with an anonymous
| email (like SImpleLogin) and use anonymous payments (like
| PrivacyHQ) if remaining anonymous is imperative to you.
|
| Kagi is 100% privacy respecting though, with the data you
| choose to trust us with (we are in the business of
| search, not the business of monetizing data).
| dns_snek wrote:
| Not GP but do you mean Privacy.com? As far as I'm aware
| it requires truthful personal information to use just
| like any other financial service.
|
| As such, it can still be used to link a person to their
| Kagi account which means it's not private or anonymous in
| any meaningful sense. Additionally the service is only
| available to US citizens. I would strongly urge Kagi to
| consider adding cryptocurrency payments - ideally Monero.
|
| This is coming from a paying Kagi customer. I like to put
| my money where my mouth is but I'm not a fan of the
| current payment options. I understand that Kagi is a
| small company in early stages, but I would expect
| cryptocurrency payments to be available 12 months from
| now.
| rand846633 wrote:
| I think we really will need more details here! Could you
| elaborate a bit? What would I learn if I spent 25 min
| researching kagi?
| D13Fd wrote:
| Sorry, I'm far from an expert here. They started recently and
| just went out of closed beta I believe. I've been using it
| for a few months now.
|
| They have a lot of nice features pulled from Google and DDG:
|
| https://help.kagi.com/kagi/getting-started/index.html
|
| I haven't done any objective tests, so can't really say much
| about search quality except that it definitely works at least
| as well as Google for my searches (usually tech or legal
| stuff), and it doesn't have ads. Whatever I'm looking for is
| usually the top result if my query is good and it's not
| something that's ambiguous.
| TurkishPoptart wrote:
| Has anyone tried YOU.com? It's my new favorite search engine.
| Wiping Google from my searches is great.
| gremlinsinc wrote:
| I keep going back and forth between you and brave. I love the
| concept of brave's goggles but I wish it was more like
| point/click and it could automagically pick the best goggle
| based on keywords etc.
| bcopa wrote:
| 1) Duck down pillows and nice bed sheets!! I sleep so much
| better.
|
| There's ton of options out there but I bought all my bedding
| stuff from Italic.
|
| 2) Merino wool underwear by Smartwool (or Icebreaker). Trust me
| on this one.
| jackschultz wrote:
| Meta comment, but I'm curious about the money range of
| $200-$1000. Many threads like this are for cheaper products
| (granted, upper limit here of $200 is higher than usual), and a
| lot of the answers are repeated. I feel it's hard to justify
| spending larger amounts of money in the range I provided, but in
| the end, there are times when the value absolutely is worth it.
| Finding those times is the difficult part.
| coolspot wrote:
| 32" 4k monitor - $550
|
| Good standing desk - $500
|
| Adjustable dual arm mount for monitors - $100
|
| RTX 3090 to play with Stable Diffusion - $1000
|
| Good reverse osmosis filter - $400
| thekiptxt wrote:
| Ask! For me, I got 2 months of personal training for about that
| much (2 one-hour-sessions per week). I was hesitant because I
| thought personal training was too expensive given that there
| were so many resources online, but I'm VERY happy with the
| purchase.
|
| It forced me into the gym regularly for months, I didn't have
| to think about what I'd be working out, and my trainer kept me
| honest, kickstarting a habit and confidence I've tried
| countless times to develop.
|
| Of course, YMMV and some trainers are terrible, but I would
| have happily spent much more.
| [deleted]
| formvoltron wrote:
| $16 earbuds Tazo - A1s.
| jonfw wrote:
| We set up a motorized curtain in our bedroom. It's been really
| nice to black everything out at night while sleeping (some of our
| neighbors leave outdoor lights on) but in the morning, wake up
| with natural light
| trapexit wrote:
| Significantly more than $200, but we had motorized external
| screens & shutters put on the bedroom windows. I flashed
| Tasmota onto some cheap Sonoff modules to control the motors
| and integrated via MQTT into Homebridge so we can easily set
| schedules or ask Siri to put the shades up or down.
|
| We're sleeping so much better with the room mostly blacked out
| (we also have rear neighbors with bright lights, and cats that
| roam the neighborhood and set off everyone's motion sensors all
| night).
|
| Having an exterior covering on the southwest-facing windows has
| also massively reduced the need for cooling in the summer --
| our original reason for having the install done.
|
| Our bedroom has ~99% light reduction with the external screens,
| and our toddler's room upstairs has completely opaque roller
| shutters and gets DARK, which has made for very easy nap times
| and great overnight sleep. When we ask Siri to wake the kid up,
| a scene is executed that rolls up the shutters, turns on the
| overhead light, and plays a happy song on the HomePod. Always
| puts him a great mood.
| kradroy wrote:
| I've been looking for something like this. Is it DIY or
| something off-the-shelf? My spouse requires absolute darkness
| when sleeping, but I have SAD and require the blinds to be
| always open in order to... not want to die.
| jonfw wrote:
| I use zemi smart curtains, they were a huge pain to assemble
| but work great now. We're just using the remote so I can't
| comment on the smart home features
| mr337 wrote:
| Not the OP but I am really happy with the IKEA Tradfri blinds
| [1].Every night at dark they close all the rooms so I don't
| feel like living in fish bowl. 30 minutes past sunrise they
| all open. Best investment ever.
|
| For the more technical they are Zigbee and heard all of IKEA
| zigbee stuff works without the hub. I personally have had
| issues with HomeAssistant and Tradfri integration so just use
| the IKEA app and the hub with no issues for over 6mo now.
|
| [1] - https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/fyrtur-black-out-roller-
| blind-s...
| tibbon wrote:
| Thank you! I had been looking for something Zigbee that I
| can run with HA that does this and doesn't cost a fortune.
| nyx wrote:
| Directly connecting these blinds to my Home Assistant
| instance via the ZHA integration and a HUSBZB-1
| Zigbee/ZWave stick[0] works pretty well. I've got 8 of them
| around my house, and some automations to open/close with
| the sun, etc.
|
| Only small issues I've identified are that 1) Zigbee
| meshing doesn't seem to behave with these, so you'll have
| to pair the blinds directly to your hub. This is fine, as
| long as your place is small enough for there to be no
| signal quality issues. And 2) if Home Assistant instructs
| the blinds to open to a specific position (i.e. "80%
| closed") rather than fully open or fully closed, it can
| take a really long time for the blinds to update the hub
| with their state. This means they show as "opening" in the
| HA UI even though they're finished moving.
|
| [0] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GJ826F8
| jerkstate wrote:
| I bought Ikea Fyrtur motorized shades on my south facing
| windows. Individually less than $200. These can also be trimmed
| down (if you're brave) to fit smaller windows, and are
| available in a variety of sizes. Being able to connect them to
| home automation to manage heat in south-facing rooms is
| fantastic.
| vanilla_nut wrote:
| For folks who don't have good windows or lighting for this: I
| invested in a "Lighten Up" timer that slowly trickles power to
| a light via a dimmer setup on a schedule. It has made it
| IMMENSELY easier to wake up at a consistent time. And it's very
| gradual. Caveat: spend some time finding a good dimmer bulb! So
| many CFLs and LEDs do weird things on a dimmer. One of them
| flickered like crazy. Another _strobed_. If you have any old
| incandescents around, they work great.
| pedantsamaritan wrote:
| Somewhat similar, I've used a smart light (Philips Hue), Home
| Assistant (with a ConBee II zigbee dongle), and a lighting
| rhythm plugin (https://github.com/claytonjn/hass-
| circadian_lighting) to adjust brightness and color
| temperature. Much more expensive, but I get other benefits,
| like dimming lights nicely in the evening
| theshrike79 wrote:
| Blackout curtains in general make a world of difference in
| sleep quality, especially up north where the sun doesn't like
| to go down in the summer.
|
| The same thing makes all kinds of sunrise/sunset home
| automations completely useless :D
| fishtoaster wrote:
| This was a game-changer for us as well. We are blessed with for
| pretty-tall windows in our bedroom and we realized that we just
| never opened them - too much hassle. Now they're all motorized
| and we can toggle them with a button-press on a remote.
| nicbou wrote:
| A keychain that acts as a coin to unlock shopping carts.
|
| A retractable USB-C to C cable for my backpack.
|
| Replacement keys for my butterfly keyboard MacBook. It's a drop
| in replacement that delays a new laptop purchase.
|
| Warm wool socks and sweaters
|
| Paperlike screen protector and metal nib for my iPad mini and
| Apple Pencil
|
| A 3 meter long USB-C to C cable
| mft_ wrote:
| > A keychain that acts as a coin to unlock shopping carts.
|
| Likewise :) If you've got access to a 3D printer, this works
| well: https://www.printables.com/model/167637-removable-
| trolley-eu...
|
| > Replacement keys for my butterfly keyboard MacBook. It's a
| drop in replacement that delays a new laptop purchase.
|
| Can I ask for more details of this? Was it the Apple
| replacement, or 3rd-party/DIY?
| nicbou wrote:
| Third party from AliExpress. I just replace keys as they fall
| off. The laptop is fine otherwise.
| rxyz wrote:
| My employer actually gives out a keychain like that in their
| welcome packs. I was impressed that they care enough to think
| of it.
| mrweasel wrote:
| > A keychain that acts as a coin to unlock shopping carts.
|
| That's a concern of mine. Once we go all cashless, how will we
| unlock the shopping carts? Here it's currently being debated if
| stores should be allowed to reject cash, I think someone forgot
| about the carts.
| yourusername wrote:
| There are stores here that hand out coin shaped pieces of
| plastic that unlock the cart that they give out for free. But
| if i'm not losing my whole 50 euro cent coin that removes the
| incentive for returning the cart because i've got a unlimited
| supply of plastic coins so why are we bothering with a lock?
| moffkalast wrote:
| That'll be a while, and by that point we'll also have carts
| that beep loudly when removed from the shop area and try to
| drive themselves back autonomously heh.
| dole wrote:
| Most large supermarkets in my city already have
| automatically locking wheels if they're taken out of the
| stores proximity.
| dzhiurgis wrote:
| Pisses me off shops that make trillions can't hire a teenager
| to push them back.
| nicbou wrote:
| Pisses me off more that grown ups can't put their carts
| back.
| inkcapmushroom wrote:
| No shops are making trillions.
| smokel wrote:
| In the Netherlands, the largest supermarket chain simply
| stopped using this system.
|
| [1] https://www.nu.nl/economie/6219200/albert-heijn-neemt-
| afsche...
| bryankaplan wrote:
| It's a system that was never introduced in the US, and in
| fact I've never even heard of it until now. So surely one
| option is to remove the system altogether.
|
| That written, I'm also surprised there's any serious talk of
| going cashless there. We have plenty of cash-only businesses
| here that preclude any serious consideration of the notion.
| taylodl wrote:
| You apparently have never shopped at Aldi. You need a
| quarter to get a cart. When you take the cart back and lock
| it into the carts then you get your quarter back.
| jrm2k6 wrote:
| That's probably why in the US nobody put their cart back.
| They would do it if they had to get their coin back.
| Again, to fight laziness, go for the wallet!
| nicbou wrote:
| Tap your phone to unlock the cart, or get charged directly.
|
| Or just abandon the system altogether.
| dzhiurgis wrote:
| Yes please - also put smartphone holder so I can go thru my
| checklist hands-free (encouraging checklists would probably
| loose money to shops as now they incentivise mindless
| browsing and buying useless crap)
| occz wrote:
| You can just hand out a token to people when they become
| customers/have them buy one for an insignificant amount of
| money and you'll get more or less exactly the same effect.
| ianai wrote:
| Far infrared heating pad.
| sbolt wrote:
| What do you use it for? I've never heard of a far infrared
| variant, what's the benefit of the that?
| ianai wrote:
| I tell people it works like a muscle relaxer (pill).
| Supposedly the heat goes deeper than a standard heating pad.
| I've got a bad back (scoliosis included) and other things. It
| helps heal a blown back and is great pre-yoga or any kind of
| stretching or stress.
|
| We're talking barely able to move around to normal daily
| functioning after twenty minutes. (I've used it for 8 hours
| in the past during very stressful periods. At some point I
| felt my muscles release like a muscle relaxer.)
|
| Hope that helps.
| sbolt wrote:
| Thanks so much for the detail. That sounds amazing. I'm
| surprised this is my first time hearing about the tech, do
| you have a particular pad you like to use or are the
| standard Amazon offerings good?
| iancmceachern wrote:
| Aeroplex Aftershokz bone conductive headphones.
| hughw wrote:
| For $99 at Target we bought a mattress warmer with a timer just
| as the Bomb Cyclone dropped our temps to 10degF. Most effective
| $99 I've ever spent -- our Texas house cannot stay above 60degF
| in that weather.
|
| Someday the same product will be controlled by a Home API and
| your phone and BTLE and cost $99/year for the app, but for now it
| has escaped the relentless march of "progress".
| [deleted]
| stonecharioteer wrote:
| I've bought a bunch of things, each of while is below 200.
|
| 1. Logitech MX Ergo Trackball mouse. I LOVE this thing. 2.
| Aftershokz Aeropex and OpenComm. I'm single sided deaf and these
| are the best I can get for listening to music or taking any
| calls. 3. Powered sunglasses, I can walk around sunny areas
| without squinting. 4. Books: the daily stoic.
| Ghoyome wrote:
| Built a crkbd. Got a sensor watch.
| Fred27 wrote:
| A Stream Deck (and later a Stream Deck +). Useful and fun to code
| your own plugins too.
|
| I work 100% remote so I also went for another Elgato product - a
| ring light - so my work video calls look a bit better. If all of
| your interaction at work is via video it seemed worth doing it
| well. My desk now looks more like a YouTuber's but it's all for
| coding.
| stewx wrote:
| Cheap and awesome stuff:
|
| - Phone mount for my car
|
| - Silicone wall protector for where my fridge door hits the wall
|
| - Misting spray bottle for brushing my child's hair
|
| - Mold/mildew removal gel (lysosome-based)
|
| - Silicone cable holders for the edge of desks, nightstands, etc
| for charging cables
| https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07WQN3134/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_...
| femto113 wrote:
| Do you have a brandname/source for the mold removal gel? Big
| problem in our condo and have tried several things without much
| success.
| Existenceblinks wrote:
| $20 IEM is crazy good. I'm lazy to find out if $100 IEM is
| already above 97th percentile of human ears capability. A lot of
| illusion of _great_ quality above p90.
| dbancajas wrote:
| what is IEM?
| JoeyPriceless wrote:
| In-ear monitor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-
| ear_monitor), basically a fancy word for earbuds.
| atommclain wrote:
| In ear monitor, I believe. The "headphones" that some
| musicians use on stage to hear themselves. I have heard that
| you can get them custom made to fit your own ears for a
| perfect fit.
| xyos wrote:
| In Ear Monitors, basically a earbuds that goes inside you ear
| MoOmer wrote:
| In this context, I'm pretty sure it's In-Ear-Monitors; or,
| the headphones that go in your ear.
|
| I'd also disagree that there's no difference between
| price/quality of monitors!
| Existenceblinks wrote:
| Sure, p10 and p80 is going to be huge different. As I said,
| above p90, it's a lot of illusion and subjective .. more
| like a taste there.
| mackieem wrote:
| In-ear monitors - or - earbuds, which are generally going to
| be wired if using 'IEM' over 'earbuds'.
| javajosh wrote:
| Yeah but the AMQ70 is way better on the z90. If only it
| implemented the UTY23 spec! But that's why they made a EW
| model, I guess.
| Existenceblinks wrote:
| Could you give me a link related to any of these!? Looks like
| a random code!
| pwenzel wrote:
| Solo Stove bonfire pit. It burns so efficiently and is pretty
| much idiot proof. They work great here in Minnesota winters, and
| are nice when you have people over for parties and they throw
| crappy wood in there that would normally smoke a bunch. We've
| also had solo stoves out in the middle of the street for block
| parties. Highly recommend.
| nickip wrote:
| Instant pot (rebuy with air fryer lid). Use this thing for
| everything. The air fryer lid is amazing. So much better than my
| stand alone air fryer which I got rid of. Much quieter. Takes up
| same space as the air fryer that I had before, but with much more
| functions! I don't do many fancy recipes in it, but makes cooking
| rice, chicken, yogurt or anything else simple fast and efficient.
| I live in the Eurozone so heating up the oven can be expensive.
| Pressure cooking a chicken in 10 minutes I believe is much more
| economical.
| lbreakjai wrote:
| If you don't mind me asking, which brand and model did you get?
| aaronbrethorst wrote:
| A pair of heavy dumbbells.
| [deleted]
| jannw wrote:
| I work from home - with a 5 minute screensaver with complicated
| password required by corporate - USB MouseJiggler -
| https://www.amazon.com/Undetectable-Computer-Simulate-Moveme...
| Best - Purchase - Ever - !
| denvermullets wrote:
| my wife took my $5 timex watch and just put her mouse on the
| face of it. kinda blew my mind because her request was very out
| of left field. but it works!
| hawski wrote:
| I must check whether placing a mouse on laptop's screen would
| work. As the screen blanks out would it register as a move
| and the system would not lock itself?
| mdip wrote:
| Ooooohhh, that's _clever_.
|
| I've never had a need for such a device, but I worked for a
| company that wrote Skype for Business plug-ins, many of which
| revolved around "presence". You were considered active on
| your computer[0] when your mouse moved. We had a tool that we
| used for billing our time which included a graph of your
| Skype for Business presence state for the day you were
| entering time for[1].
|
| I noticed, one week, that I was active _24-hours a day_ for
| _three days in a row_. I discovered that I left my mouse
| plugged in, it had fallen onto the carpet, and the minor
| vibrations that would occur in the house mixed with
| difficulty tracking would cause the mouse to move on its own
| "little enough" for me to not notice but frequently enough
| that it kept the computer from sleeping and kept my Skype for
| Business state bright green.
|
| [0] Similar to Teams, today, you could be logged in from
| multiple devices; unlike Teams, a toast message might not
| reach your phone (or appear and be dismissed immediately) if
| you were active on a computer.
|
| [1] This was _entirely_ to assist in accurately filling out
| time sheets; it was _never_ used to make sure "butts were in
| chairs".
| xcubic wrote:
| I'm speechless on how simple this solution is
| [deleted]
| shagie wrote:
| Product idea - active mousepad.
|
| The mousepad itself has an eink or similar display to change
| it over time and have the mouse detect some motion. The
| "active" part is turned off (to just be a regular display)
| when there is pressure on the wrist rest.
|
| The mousepad is a USB hub (to get power for itself) that you
| can also plug the mouse and keyboard into so that its one
| less cord back to the computer.
| voidmain0001 wrote:
| Use an Excel macro[0]. No sketchy USB hardware to buy that's
| really a keystroke logger in disguise. ;-)
|
| [0] https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-
| US/c19a56...
| factsarelolz wrote:
| Until you realize most corps turn off macros or only have
| macros on for a small subset of users.
| SwanandK wrote:
| Open Notepad/editor of your choice Place a 9V battery on the
| spacebar Go about what you want to do
| ianbutler wrote:
| This is my goto for the same reason,
| https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/caffeine-keep-awak...
| coreyp_1 wrote:
| https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/
|
| If on Windows, I use their "Power Toys" (free, btw), which has
| a keep awake function. My company user policies do not allow me
| to manage my energy policy, which is what kept shutting off my
| screen (and therefore necessitating the complicated password).
| Power Toys solves this problem.
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| I was worried that would be detectable so I programmed the
| onboard memory of my Logitech mouse to jiggle itself.
| patates wrote:
| You can also put your mouse on a rough surface like I do.
| Optical mice are natural-born jigglers (my "stuff HN says"
| candidate).
| ebrewste wrote:
| Putting my glasses on my laptop trackpad does the trick, too.
| I guess the metal confuses the trackpad sensor.
| danuker wrote:
| Beautiful! Any tips on where to start learning to hack mice?
| I have a few where I'd love to tune the debounce algorithm
| (switch wear).
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| It's way easier than it sounds. Logitech provides a tool
| that lets you program their gaming mouses. They use Lua. I
| don't know Lua but there were plenty of guides for
| different gaming macros like recoil compensation and the
| Logitech documentation was decent enough.
| bobleeswagger wrote:
| > macros like recoil compensation
|
| Isn't this cheating?
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| Yes. I don't do it. But those examples were helpful since
| I don't know Lua.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| It 100% is.
|
| The problem is that preventing it is difficult to
| impossible.
|
| You can't calculate recoil server-side because the
| latency would make it nigh unplayable. But once it's done
| client-side, it's cheatable.
| bobleeswagger wrote:
| This is making me feel old. Totally agree it is
| difficult, but not impossible.
|
| Logitech is the problem here for even allowing this in
| the first place. No CRC checks for mouse firmware or
| anything? It screams poor implementation. I will not be
| surprised if anti-cheat software starts banning people or
| companies like Logitech.
|
| Kind of sad to see the number of threads and communities
| online encouraging this. The point of games is to have
| fun, when you cheat all that goes out the door.
| Gigachad wrote:
| There are multiple mice vendors that allow this. And you
| can't ban them because the cheater focused ones will just
| set their device ID to match some common device.
| nulld3v wrote:
| The last thing I want is to have to buy a
| "certified/trusted" mouse to play a game.
| WithinReason wrote:
| Is the program uploaded to the mouse, so does it still
| work if you plug it into a different computer that lacks
| the software?
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| Yes.
| danuker wrote:
| Oh. I was thinking you were rewriting the firmware
| against the manufacturer's wishes.
|
| I am not interested in installing bloatware drivers.
| Embedded IDEs OTOH...
| NegativeLatency wrote:
| Got one of these recently, they run qmk so easy to modify
| if that's your thing: https://ploopy.co/
| samwestdev wrote:
| Same except I used to avoid my employer detecting me going AFK
| jannw wrote:
| cough! - well, yes, that too - cough!
| pigtailgirl wrote:
| -- your employer can know this? - why they want to - you are
| paid by the minute? - never heard of a company monitoring
| this --
| JakobH wrote:
| Many employer do it over the teams activity status.
| andrewinardeer wrote:
| Open new email, a weight on the space bar.
| lucb1e wrote:
| Pretty sure that isn't legal in most countries where
| HN'ers work from
|
| Which is not to say that it is not done, but personally I
| have enough options that I would like to see them try to
| fire me over something like that. If I'm staring off into
| the distance to think about something or reading source
| code without pgdn'ing for five minutes, yes it's not
| uncommon that my screen turns off while reading something
| (until I get around to setting the timeout higher at
| least) but that doesn't mean I'm not working.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| It's 100% a US only thing.
|
| It was almost a meme on TikTok during the pandemic,
| (American) people figured out the weirdest ways to keep
| their Teams bubble green.
| stefap2 wrote:
| I used "Don't Sleep" with a good success
| http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Microsoft/DontSleep
| albert_e wrote:
| I open a PowerPoint and put it in screenshow mode.
|
| this usually keeps the laptop from going to lock screen
|
| bonus: press B to blackout the screenshow to avoid monitor
| burn-in
| redditor98654 wrote:
| Does this eventually "wear out" our monitors/displays because
| now they never turn off. I have expensive monitors and I work
| from home and keep my laptop always docked. Never turning off
| the displays makes me wonder if I am rushing them to going bad
| too soon.
| swader999 wrote:
| My cat sleeps on a mat by my workstation. I put the mouse on
| the mat. Its a win for him and me.
| gausswho wrote:
| Proof that avoiding corporate surveillance is a cat and mouse
| game!
| entropicgravity wrote:
| The Sony SRS-12 (or SRS-13) very small bluetooth speaker; $35ish.
|
| Judging by this speaker being sold out in many big box stores
| before Xmas it seems a lot of people has a use for this.
|
| In my case I have a small computer (asus pn51) that runs my dumb
| TV. When everyone else is in bed but I still want to watch
| basketball I turn this speaker on and perch it easily on my
| shoulder. I can hear it just fine but it's inaudible from 3 or
| more feet away. Everyone is happy. Marital bliss for $35 is a
| good deal.
| zulln wrote:
| Why not use headphones?
| asicsp wrote:
| Does Kindle Unlimited count? Been a subscriber for a few years
| and I read about 5 KU titles on average per month. Mostly fantasy
| and sci-fi.
| [deleted]
| mousetree wrote:
| Any good KU sci-fi recommendations?
| asicsp wrote:
| Based on recent reads (will edit if I remember more):
|
| * "Daros" by Dave Dobson https://www.amazon.com/Daros-Dave-
| Dobson-ebook/dp/B0946C153P - At the heart of the plot was a
| powerful artifact with different groups vying to gain access
| for different reasons. The humor, especially the chapter
| titles, worked well for me. Features mysterious creature, a
| sassy AI, a fast paced plot with good amount of action, etc.
|
| * "Dim Stars: A Novel of Outer-Space Shenanigans" by Brian P.
| Rubin https://www.amazon.com/Dim-Stars-Novel-Outer-Space-
| Shenaniga... - Fun and filled with humor that had me laughing
| almost every page, especially enjoyed the slice-of-life feel
| in the first half of the novel
|
| * "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)" by Dennis Taylor
| https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-
| ebook/d... - read the first one a few years back, remember
| enjoying it, need to read the sequels...
|
| * "The Shadows of Dust" by Alec Hutson
| https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Dust-Alec-Hutson-
| ebook/dp/B08... - spacy fantasy featuring giant turtles as
| spaceships, not really sci-fi
|
| See also https://thespsfc.org/2021-results/ Self-Published
| Science Fiction Competition, found Daros there
| semidetached wrote:
| If you liked Dobson's book then I heartily recommend
| Zelazny's "Doorways in the Sand", which I've read half a
| dozen times over the years with equal pleasure.
| Nemi wrote:
| Bose QuietComfort earbuds 2.
|
| I have a pair of QC20 wired earbuds that I have been using since
| forever. I have really bad hearing and ironically, I am very
| sensitive to loud noises (e.g., mowing, flying, road noise on
| road trips). I really like to have the best noise suppressing
| earbuds I can find.
|
| Last year I tried many different wireless ones as my QC20 were
| wearing out. I tried Samsung, Sony, and Bose QC earbuds 1. The
| ANC (Ambient noise cancelling) in the samsung and sony were just
| not to the level of my wired QC20's. The Bose earbuds1 were
| actually better at ANC than my QC20's. I was shocked, BUT I had
| so many problems with 2 different pairs I had to return them. It
| was all software issues as far as I could tell, but they either
| stopped connecting to my devices, or the left bud stopped
| working.
|
| Fast forward to the Bose QC earbuds2 coming out and I gave them a
| try. They are expensive, but the ANC is world class. The fit is
| also WAY better than anything else, including the earbuds 1. The
| nailed it. At $300 I would not hesitate to buy these again if I
| lost them.
| t0mas88 wrote:
| I've had those Bose wired ones for years as well, they were
| great. My attempt of finding good wireless ones ended at the
| Airpods Pro. Much better than any other wireless option at
| their time.
| charlie0 wrote:
| Wool sweatpants. Keeps me perfectly warm.
|
| Bose noise canceling headphones.
| rPlayer6554 wrote:
| A fountain pen! I got a LAMY safari and it's so nice to write
| with. It's expensive for a pen although cheap for a fountain pen
| which can get expensive. I was peckish about buying it for 20
| bucks but now that I use it I'm eying a $200 LAMY 2000.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| Yes! Fellow pen nerd here, love the hobby and writing with a
| ballpoint now seems archaic.
| sandreas wrote:
| I just realized what a huge amount of stuff i bought in 2022 :-)
|
| - G3 Ferrari pizza oven with this tutorial[1] for original
| neapolitan pizza
|
| - INIU BI-B63 25000 mAh Powerbank with 65W to charge my notebook
|
| - TS 100 / Pinecil [2] soldering iron with open firmware [3]
|
| - Baseus quad port 100W USB-C power supply (CCGAN100US)
|
| - $5 Sinilink USB switch with wifi and open firmware [4]
|
| - GL.iNet GL-MT1300 (Beryl) Travel Router with OpenWRT firmware
|
| - Buhnen HB250 hot glue gun
|
| - 10m velcro cable tie
|
| - VAFOTON magnetic usb-c cable (USB-C Magsafe with 100W PD)
|
| - $100 WLToys 959-B 1/18 RC Car with 70km/h / 43mph (aliexress)
|
| - ANBERNIC RG353M retro handheld console (aliexpress)
|
| [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-jPoROGHGE
|
| [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eme_AUayLp8
|
| [3]: https://github.com/Ralim/IronOS
|
| [4]: https://templates.blakadder.com/sinilink_XY-WFUSB.html
| NegativeLatency wrote:
| What do you use #4 for?
| sandreas wrote:
| Edit:
|
| Sinilink USB Switch: Oh sorry, you meant link 4 (the sinilink
| usb switch). This device is cool. It has Wifi and a Physical
| ON/OFF switch... BUT beware: Without tasmota it is total
| trash and the firmware flashing process is very tricky
| (Tasmotizer + 1.27mm pin plugs). Can be used for Power AND
| Data, so I use this for my usb programmer, my soldering fume
| extractor, etc on my desk and on christmas I used it for my
| christmas tree LED, because it also has a cronjob possibily
| via open firmware in Tasmota, so I could turn off the lights
| manually but also it was turned of auto, if I did forget it.
| I also once used it for a little cooling fan, that had only
| be used on sundays for specific reasons :-)
|
| Original:
|
| Baseus 100W Power supply: I have a bunch of devices laying
| around requiring USB-C and USB-A (notebook, cell, powerbank,
| iPod, etc.) and I had one power plug so I was looking for a
| power supply, where I could put every cable I needed in. The
| baseus works pretty flawless with all devices plugged in...
| StevenNunez wrote:
| I need this Magnetic USB-C in my life. I hate that Apple
| removed magsafe!
| sandreas wrote:
| I tend to not link products on hackernews (advertising) - but
| if you ask for it, I'll post the one I bought in germany...
| bitwize wrote:
| A Sanpao TJ800 mini TV. It's a really stinking adorable display
| styled like a retro CRT TV and it has the guts of a cheap Android
| TV box inside, or you can plug in an HDMI input.
|
| I found the HDMI input on mine didn't work but I figured out how
| to put Armbian on the TV box inside and so now I can turn it into
| a mini retro emulation console!
|
| A $60 shaved ice maker attachment for my wife's KitchenAid mixer.
| Now she can make Snoballs any time of year. Seriously, if there's
| someone in your house who loves to cook, you need a KitchenAid
| mixer. It's a godsend, like Visual Studio Code for the kitchen.
| tushar-r wrote:
| Replacement battery for the family MBP. Going strong since 2014,
| and I want to see how far we can use it safely as the family
| computer without replacement.
| dmak wrote:
| I upgraded to the M1 air and it's the difference between night
| and day. The air on an M1 can do all my heavy development work
| no problems and I also don't have a loud fan anymore.
| tushar-r wrote:
| Ah, but this computer is a general-purpose home device that
| is mostly used for browsing and watching videos. The dev.
| stuff doesn't matter.
|
| (And I no longer inflict my code on this world, only
| powerpoints!)
| Finnucane wrote:
| A 3-kilo bag of Taza chocolate baking chips.
| borbulon wrote:
| yes, but what about for tomorrow?
| zcoyle wrote:
| Toe spacers. I went from being in agony every time I stood up to
| being relatively pain free in my toe joints
| OJFord wrote:
| Weird timing - I saw some on Amazon yesterday (clicked in to
| see if there was another three things I wanted in order to get
| 5% off ... but it was all bizarre tat, who wades through all
| that, or finds four useful things anyway, for 5%?) and wondered
| what on Earth they were for, I didn't realise this was/could be
| an issue - certainly not commonplace enough that there was a
| product for it anyway.
| pharmakom wrote:
| Could this be due to a lifetime of shoes that are too narrow?
| pigtailgirl wrote:
| -- scrunch my toes as a stress reflex - doctor recommended
| toe spacers - now I bite my lips hah --
| hrnnnnnn wrote:
| Yes. See this video for a detailed explanation.
|
| https://youtu.be/_B17CElq6Qc
| rml wrote:
| Thanks for this. 40s and starting to have pain in the big
| toe joint. Getting some better shoes and spacers as a
| result. Seriously, thank you!
| mhardcastle wrote:
| For most cheap imports like this, I've found eBay is wonderful.
|
| My girlfriend wanted toe spacers and I found the exact same no-
| name pair on eBay for $4, compared to $10 on Amazon.
| post_break wrote:
| Loseit app, I'm losing weight thanks to it.
|
| Withings scale, connects to wifi, logs my weight with zero work.
|
| Threw out all my socks and bought new.
| mirchiseth wrote:
| Where is the AI that can parse thru 1000+ comments and make a
| summary post of all the products people love on this thread.
| pharmakom wrote:
| - all matching socks. No more time spent pairing.
|
| - clothes drying racks that hook onto radiators. Reduces drying
| time and clothes crumpling
|
| - wired mechanical keyboard. Wired is simpler than wireless.
| Quality ones have n-key support
|
| - bicycle fenders
|
| - digital wrist watch so that I check my phone less.
| jerome-jh wrote:
| I already had fenders, but not this:
|
| https://www.printables.com/model/146449-bicycle-splash-guard
|
| Works great. I have a segment of unpaved road on my commute.
| Greatly improves trousers and shoes cleanliness.
| markfenton wrote:
| A piece of plastic cut to that shape from a flexible chopping
| board or plastic milk jug works well too.
| agilob wrote:
| >- all matching socks. No more time spent pairing.
|
| Around 5 or 7 years ago I found 100% cotton socks on a massive
| discount, don't remember how many, but I took more than 40
| pairs, full backpack I had with me that day. I use them pretty
| much most of the year, except in summer. Never bought socks
| since and due to all that "mismatching", I only had to throw a
| few of them, they were shredded and composted.
| troyvit wrote:
| Oh cool, did you shred/compost yourself or is there a service
| for that? We compost everything we can but I have been
| throwing out clothes that I can't use for rags.
| agilob wrote:
| I saw this practice on instructables. You can simply use
| old non-plastic socks as a protective bag for plants. Fill
| a sock with soil or compost, stick a branch/stem cutting,
| small tree, you know just anything that has fragile roots
| into the sock, stick it in soil. The sock will keep
| moisture a big longer and protect roots from worms eating
| them for a few months. It simply buys plants some time to
| grow. Eventually the sock will decompose. I planted 4
| berries, a few yews and pines this way. I can't tell if
| this actually _helps_ the plants, my sample size is too
| small, but doesn 't seem to harm them.
|
| Some corporations like H&M accept donations of old clothes
| for recycling, in return they give you a voucher.
| cdjk wrote:
| The all matching socks strategy breaks down over time.
| Eventually you need to buy more socks, and the new ones aren't
| as worn as the old ones, so you end up having to match them
| anyway. My solution to this is to buy a large batch of
| identical socks. Then when you need new ones, buy another large
| batch that are slightly different - e.g. grey hiking socks
| instead of black, or wool hiking socks that have a slightly
| different pattern but are still the same style. This reduces
| the matching problem from matching all pairs to matching into a
| couple different sets, which is much easier.
|
| I've thought too much about this.
| sowbug wrote:
| I assume sock manufacturers are doing well post-pandemic. I
| still wore socks during lockdown, but not shoes. Most of my
| socks are ready to be retired.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| Step 1) Buy 10-12 pairs of identical socks.
|
| Step 2) Wear socks, when any of them wear out, throw them
| away. Even a single sock, no need to throw away in pairs
|
| Step 3) When you're low in socks (my limit is 3 full pairs),
| throw them all away and GOTO 1
|
| I do have a few specialised socks for hiking and winter, but
| they're the unicorns in the bunch, I just need 1-2 pairs of
| them.
| basch wrote:
| On the topic of luxury splurges that change lives. And this
| doesn't work in all situations. But, Aloe Socks.
| https://www.earththerapeutics.com/products/aloe-socks-
| single...
|
| They have lotion in the fabric. You probably want to wear
| them more than once, if possible, maybe stretch them to a
| couple days if you didnt make them gross right away. Once you
| wash them they turn into regular fuzzy socks.
|
| But on those days that they are fresh, there is nothing like
| them. I have a stash tucked away for special days, and once
| they are done, they get added to the normal fuzzy sock
| rotation. Turns out you can wear black fuzzy socks pretty
| often.
| ilyt wrote:
| I just buy bulk, discard ones that get holes, and when I'm
| too low throw them away all at once, if I can't buy the same
| fknorangesite wrote:
| > you end up having to match them anyway
|
| You are clearly pickier about this than I am, hah.
| marcrosoft wrote:
| Socks are so cheap I just throw them all out and get a new
| pack or two. It is like $6.99 once a year.
| genezeta wrote:
| I simply stopped pairing socks 30 years ago. I have experienced
| no ill effects wearing unmatched socks.
| Beltalowda wrote:
| I've actually had quite a few people positively comment on my
| unmatched socks, including on dates. I now wear unmatched
| socks on purpose.
| shric wrote:
| I don't mind them visually non-matching, but different
| materials/thickness, etc. is annoying
| trog wrote:
| This. Been doing this for almost two decades.
|
| 99.9 percent of the time nobody will notice. You almost have
| to draw attention to it deliberately before anyone notices.
| Any nobody ever cares - the sort of person who would you
| probably wouldn't want to be around anyway.
| foepys wrote:
| A programmable keyboard is even better. Doesn't even need to be
| fully programmable via scripts, a simple macro functionality is
| usually enough.
|
| I mapped arrow keys and Home/End to Fn+WASD/QE and code
| navigation is so much faster now, especially when I have a hand
| on the mouse.
| rgoulter wrote:
| And a keyboard where your thumbs are able to use 2-3 keys
| each is better, still. :-)
| sva_ wrote:
| Let me introduce you to this crazy little program called
| vim...
| rgoulter wrote:
| They complement one another: using keyboard-driven
| programs, and having a good keyboard.
|
| Especially if you're willing to put effort into your tools:
| vim's sophistication requires effort to learn, but has
| advantages. I think the same can be said for fancy small
| keyboards.
| olau wrote:
| If you need to dry stuff really quick, get a little cheap desk
| fan of the kind sold in warm summers and point that to the wet
| stuff. I use it to dry out my children's boots.
| WithinReason wrote:
| If you put stuff next to your case fan it dries even faster
| lonelygirl15a wrote:
| Shove crinkled-up newspaper into the boots, it will absorb
| moisture and hasten drying (was taught this by an Icelandic
| hiking guide).
| michaelcampbell wrote:
| > all matching socks. No more time spent pairing.
|
| I KIND OF do this; I have a couple different brands with
| slightly different styles, but they're all black ankle socks so
| I don't care if one has a gold toe and one doesn't. Drives my
| wife mad, but it doesn't bother me and I'm either at home or
| wearing shoes, so...
| jspash wrote:
| I bought 3 packs of black wool socks about 10 years ago. I wear
| them almost exclusively throughout the year (cold feet) except
| for sports etc.
|
| Just recently I've replaced them all with 3 new packs of black
| wool socks.
|
| My life have never been simpler. See you in 2033 for the
| update!
| lostapathy wrote:
| This is how I operate with normal socks - I never buy a
| single pack of socks - I just do a "line change" and replace
| them all when the old rotation is too far gone to meet my
| needs.
|
| I have a few specialty items for exercise or dirty yard work,
| but those are easy to separate from the daily drivers.
| linuxftw wrote:
| I call it the 'sock purge.' It was a game changer.
| sneak wrote:
| "sock reboot". I do the same for underwear and t-shirts,
| too.
| basch wrote:
| sockpocalypse
| memcg wrote:
| My sons still wear socks I bought for myself 22 years ago.
| They also wear my 40 year old wedding and funeral dress
| shoes. My feet grew, so I can't wear either.
| ohazi wrote:
| > - all matching socks. No more time spent pairing.
|
| Relatedly, replacing all of my cotton socks with wool socks.
| m348e912 wrote:
| I spent like 200 bucks on several pairs the same color
| smartwool socks and got rid of most of my cotton socks. One
| of the best decisions I have made.
| vonnieda wrote:
| Ditto - worth every penny!
| Arrath wrote:
| +1. Synthetics aint got nothing on pure wool.
|
| I work outdoors a lot and have 100% merino wool thermals
| to wear as a base layer in the winter (or when skiing),
| beats the pants off of what most of the rest of the crew
| is wearing.
| tibbon wrote:
| I made all the clothes hangers in my house match. A simple
| change, but it felt so much better and more organized.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| We standardised all hangers to wooden Ikea ones. You can get
| a fancy plastic top that makes them a bit wider for your
| better clothes.
| clairity wrote:
| yah, i bought 100 flat black hangers a few years ago (~$15 at
| ikea back then) so i could hang all of my casual clothing
| (rather than folding, which is more time-consuming). the flat
| ones allowed me to hang like 50% more stuff in the same
| space. my fancier clothes go on wooden hangers (also ikea) so
| they have more room to breathe.
| klondike_klive wrote:
| I replaced all our hangers over years with wooden ones and
| not getting wire hangers tangled up or small plastic hangers
| messing up the shoulders on my t-shirts is well worth the
| expense. My girlfriend doesn't care, the barbarian, she will
| throw in a plastic or wire hanger from the drycleaners and I
| go full-on Joan Crawford
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOILKHmZBwc
| cosmodisk wrote:
| I used to have socks with 'Monday', 'Tuesday', etc. I used to
| wear them randomly. A lot of people used to notice it and
| comment why I'm with Friday socks even though it's only
| Tuesday:)
| harywilke wrote:
| I have two sets of all matching socks. Winter and summer.
| kevmo314 wrote:
| The Keychron K2 keyboard supports both wired and wireless so
| when it's at my desk it's wired but I can take it on the go and
| pair it with my laptop to use it wireless. It's a good medium
| :)
| spike021 wrote:
| I have the K2 V2 and it's actually really bad when being used
| for both wired and wireless.
|
| The issue I've mostly had (and found that others have as
| well), is if you run the battery to 0 using it on wireless
| mode, it won't even work on wired mode until it's fully
| recharged. Like you can't use it "offline".
| yonaguska wrote:
| Hah, I went for automatic wrist watch, so my phone would
| interrupt me less.
| wintermutestwin wrote:
| >all matching socks.
|
| I have 12 pairs of the same lightweight Darn Tough socks that
| are perfect for year round use (I don't live in snow). I've had
| them for ~10 years now and when a given sock gets a hole in the
| bottom, I put them in a pile and wait until I have 4 then send
| them back for two new pairs of socks. They were initially
| expensive, but after each being replaced a couple times, they
| are dirt cheap (even when factoring in one-way shipping).
| Thankfully, they have kept the exact same style all these
| years. Fingers crossed that they stay in business and that 80
| year old me will have saved a lot of money by not buying socks.
| kornork wrote:
| I tried this. I ended up with 11 pairs of threadbare socks
| and 1 new fluffy pair.
| rgoulter wrote:
| I bought a trackball mouse. (Elecom Huge).
|
| I found that it ultimately ends up saving deskspace (since the
| device doesn't need space to move around). I found the device's
| size to be more comfortable for my hands than the small Logitech
| bluetooth mouse I was using.
| pcurve wrote:
| Do you prefer large trackball over large trackpad? (like ones
| from apple) How is accuracy?
| trynewideas wrote:
| I used an external trackpad for a while before going to a
| vertical mouse, then trackballs. I liked the external
| trackpad better than the fixed position of a laptop but
| that's the best thing I can say about it -- it didn't
| alleviate wrist pain and it didn't add much flexibility to
| how or where I work.
|
| When I absolutely need gestures, the laptop's trackpad is
| still there.
|
| As for accuracy, after using a Logitech trackball for about 6
| months, I'd replaced my gaming mouse with it for FPS games.
| The only thing that had a significant learning curve was
| precise placement of click-and-drag operations, and that was
| mostly training myself to let my thumb off the ball before
| releasing the click.
| rgoulter wrote:
| > Do you prefer large trackball over large trackpad?
|
| I've never used an external trackpad. I have used the
| excellent Macbook trackpads.
|
| I'd think e.g. "hold button + drag" is slightly more
| difficult on a trackpad than a mouse or a trackball.
|
| Rather, I'd say that a trackball feels just as intuitive as a
| mouse does, whereas a trackpad doesn't feel the same as a
| mouse.
|
| > How is accuracy?
|
| As one of the replies to my comment points out, the
| particular model I got isn't very good at small movement.
| (Many people say they swap out the ball bearings & this helps
| a lot).
|
| Practically, I found I was able to play games with it without
| affecting how well I did.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_N_XB5XeDA (I haven't tried
| gaming on a trackpad; my impression is mouse/trackball are
| better suited).
| trynewideas wrote:
| I've got a Logitech Ergo M575, and an Elecom Relacon handheld
| trackball that I toss in my bag for when I'm working from
| outside the house.
|
| I like the Relacon as a travel device vs. a larger trackball or
| small mouse because I can move my arm, hand, and wrist more,
| and more naturally, and still have the same control. I often
| find myself holding it across my chest or waist, and I can even
| type (not quickly, but still) while holding and using it. The
| buttons feel like the shoulder buttons on a Switch joycon, so
| there wasn't that much of a learning curve.
| gh02t wrote:
| Did you do the mod to replace the bearings with ceramic? I
| bought a Huge after seeing praise for it and was kinda
| underwhelmed with the experience out of box on the ruby
| bearings (they were sticky), but after doing the (trivial) mod
| to replace them with ceramics I really fell in love.
| rgoulter wrote:
| I haven't replaced the ruby bearings with the ceramic
| bearings yet.
|
| But, I agree that the out of the box experience, moving only
| a small distance is very 'sticky'. (Whereas, precisely moving
| to something isn't difficult).
| gh02t wrote:
| Do recommend, the ceramic bearings are a couple bucks and
| make it nice and smooth. No idea why Elecom doesn't just
| use those.
| max_hammer wrote:
| I am using Kingston Expert trackball mouse since last year.
| Best purchase of the year
| armandososa wrote:
| I've been using the Logi MX Ergo Trackball for about four years
| now and I couldn't go back for standard mice.
| BirAdam wrote:
| I use an old CST2545W-RC from 2014 and love it. Trackballs are
| seriously underrated devices.
| andrei_says_ wrote:
| Logitech MX vertical mouse. No more arm tension when using a
| mouse.
| justinator wrote:
| https://www.snorerx.com/
|
| Seems to have quieted my snoring/sleep apnea to levels where
| people want to sleep next to me, and I can as well get a good
| night sleep. Sleep Apnea is no joke.
| eps wrote:
| Meater+ (wireless temperature sensor for roasting/bbq with 50
| meter range)
|
| Thermapen (super fast spot temperature sensor)
|
| Both have superior minimalist UX, very thoughtfully designed and
| really well executed. If you are into cooking, highly
| recommended.
| cgsmith wrote:
| I love my Meater+. It definitely changed how I grill or bake
| food.
| pryelluw wrote:
| My AirPods. They work well and allow me to listen to podcasts
| while grocery shopping and doing mindless tasks. There other
| headphones out there but for whatever reason these fit best and
| sound OK.
|
| A 30w phone charger. iPhones charge rather slow. This charger
| helps get over that. A lot of my daily routine is done through my
| phone.
| bilsbie wrote:
| Could you bike with them or can they fall out?
| dougmwne wrote:
| It's very dependant on your ears and the eartip size you use.
| I personally would not bike with them, because as good as the
| passthrough audio is, there could be small differences in
| localizing sound that could really cause trouble on a bike.
| The passthrough is great, but not life or death situation
| great.
|
| Edit: this is for the Pros. The open non-pros seem like they
| would be safe for biking at lower volumes.
| HDThoreaun wrote:
| I use them all of the time during my biking and workouts. I
| even sleep with them quite often. Never fall out somehow.
| mft_ wrote:
| I can (road) bike with an Airpod fairly securely in. For
| longer rides where I want to listen to a podcast, a little
| bit of surgical tape brings even more security.
|
| You may be aware of this, but the recommended way to wear
| Airpods (especially the 3rd gen non-Pro?) is to twist the
| stalks towards your face to 'lock' them into place better.
|
| (I discovered this when I was about to angrily throw out my
| new 3rd gen Airpods, as they were fatter than my original gen
| 1 model, and just wouldn't stay in place. I've never seen
| anyone else doing this [and I sometimes get comments from
| people for wearing mine oddly] but it's a game-changer.)
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/airpods/comments/qgqo5a/psa_if_the_.
| ..
| pryelluw wrote:
| They are pretty snug without hurting. I sometimes even fall
| asleep with them and they stay put most of the time. Mine are
| the regular cheaper air pods. Not the pro or whatever they
| call it.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| A "milk frother" to make matcha lattes at home
| analyte123 wrote:
| High-flow drilled-out showerhead for sure.
| alphabettsy wrote:
| Blackout Curtains
| jonahbenton wrote:
| These made a huge difference for my wife.
| rqtwteye wrote:
| Bread machine.
|
| Making bread with a mixer is fun but takes a lot of time. With
| the bread machine there really is no reason to buy preservative
| and sugar laden bread from the store.
| jonahbenton wrote:
| Are these good these days? I LOVE bread and had bought several
| of first automatic bread makers in the 1990s. I really tried to
| use them but they really didn't produce good bread at all
| reliably. Curious if they work well now. Which one did you get?
| jhinds wrote:
| A small portable scanner. I don't take it anywhere I just got a
| portable one due to it's size so I can stick it in a drawer.
|
| I've been able to save a bunch of space and get rid of 99% of
| documents in my filing cabinet by making a digital copy and
| getting rid of the physical ones. Now when I get an important
| document I scan it save it to a few places and get rid of it.
| robert_tweed wrote:
| Why not just a scanner app for your phone? They work pretty
| well. I have a flatbed scanner that I keep stored away most of
| the time, until I need to scan a bunch of stuff quickly. If I
| need to scan the odd receipt, I use Tiny Scanner.
| jhinds wrote:
| The main reason was I had 2 filing cabinet drawers filled
| with paper and wanted something that could be relatively
| hands off. I was able to do double sided paper and load
| multiple pages at a time (24 pages before it didn't work
| well) so it was easy to burn through the them. I've tried a
| scanner app before for one off things and have had okay
| success with them. I guess now the backlog is burned down I
| can compare the two for things that are just a couple of
| pages.
| [deleted]
| ToxicMegacolon wrote:
| Which one did you get?
| jhinds wrote:
| I ended up getting the Canon imageFORMULA R10 off of amazon
| but there are a few similar options. Does double sided
| scanning and I was able to load 24 pages at a time.
| fauria wrote:
| Arcteryx Delta LT jacket. At first I thought it was an impulsive
| purchase, but it end up being the most versatile jacket I've had.
| Whenever I don't know what to wear or carry on a trip, I toss in
| the Delta LT and it ends up being really useful.
| kevstev wrote:
| My company gave me one of their jackets a few years back for
| being involved in some recruiting efforts. I honestly had no
| idea how expensive they were- I have an LT hood of some sort-
| their product line is absurdly convoluted, but I later found
| out it was about $260. I ripped mine in a bike fall a few
| months ago, but even after finding the price to replace it, was
| absolutely resolved to get anther. For a jacket that weighed
| nothing, it kept me plenty warm down to about 30F degrees, kept
| the rain out, and looked great. Its almost like magic how good
| these are.
| jk_tech wrote:
| Smart Light Bulbs.
|
| As much as I dislike the inability to host the bulbs locally, it
| has done wonders for my sleep. I set them to slowly dim over a 45
| minute period at night and slowly turn on over a 45 minute period
| in the morning. I have consistently gotten 8+ hours of amazing
| sleep and fall asleep + wake up so much easier now than I ever
| have before.
| mynameisash wrote:
| > I dislike the inability to host the bulbs locally
|
| Only a few years ago, one could program MagicLight bulbs pretty
| easily. It seems their newer versions use a different protocol
| that hasn't been reverse-engineered, so you're stuck using
| their crappy phone app. I would probably consider spending a
| reasonable amount on bulbs if I could self-host -- mostly
| because I want arbitrary control/fine-tuning of them.
| chromakode wrote:
| Peak Design mobile case + magnetic desk stand charger + other
| mounts. My phone is now always charged and I can transition from
| desktop to car to tripod to bike seamlessly.
| nickthegreek wrote:
| If you control 2-3 computers next to each other, I recommend the
| Logitech MX Keys and MX Master 3s. I can control multiple
| computers and switch between them by holding ctrl and bringing my
| mouse to the edge of a screen. It then jumps to the other
| computer seamlessly. Now my desk is clutter free of multiple mice
| and keyboards.
| Arrath wrote:
| And here I had brainstormed some geeky-ass eye-tracking
| solution that automatically routes the input to the computer
| connected to the monitor I'm looking at. I'll have to look into
| this (and Barrier as mentioned by another commentor), thank
| you. Looks like magic.
| albert_e wrote:
| did you try this tool "Mouse Without Borders" from Microsoft
| Garage[0]?
|
| seems to work well for my modest needs. you can either make the
| mouse move between screens using Ctrl or another key or make it
| freely roam ...without borders
|
| allows drag and drop of files, shared clipboard etc
|
| [0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-
| us/download/details.aspx?id=354...
| nickthegreek wrote:
| My computers are cross platform. So I needed a solution for
| mac+windows.
| Semaphor wrote:
| I only control one, but the MX Master 3S is an amazing mouse
| either way. I always wanted a high DPI mouse, but with the
| Logitech wheel. This is finally it.
| camelboy wrote:
| Also using the flow function is amazing. You can copy files
| from one computer to the other through the mouse
| jacknews wrote:
| There's also barrier https://github.com/debauchee/barrier/ and
| some others.
| D13Fd wrote:
| I don't like being tied to one company's peripherals. The best
| solution I've found to this is to use a keyboard with firmware
| that instantly switches between bluetooth and wired (I use an
| M60 python keyboard). That way I can use a key combination to
| switch. I also just use two different mice, since they are
| small.
|
| I've tried a few software solutions over the years but they all
| seem to run into issues eventually.
| sngz wrote:
| Ive been using synergy for years without much issues. Ever
| since they changed their pricing model I just never updated
| the version though.
| dmak wrote:
| - Air fryer
|
| - Ultrasonic cleanser - used for pretty much anything including
| my invisalign retainers
|
| - Sodastream
|
| - Massage gun
|
| All these things have made my life a lot easier.
| J_cst wrote:
| It's not possible to fry without oil or another type of grease,
| and that's by definition. Did you notice that to use your air
| fryer you need to use oil anyway? There's a fantastic debunking
| video on YouTube about that. Unfortunately it's in Italian
| only.
|
| [https://youtu.be/kea9limMp7U]
| UncleMeat wrote:
| Thus the term "air fryer." The idea is that you get results
| similar to frying but only via heated air. Does this
| marketing really merit "debunking?"
| J_cst wrote:
| Yes, exactly. Problem being that it does not fry with air,
| but with the oil that you need to put in it anyway to fry
| your chips. That's the thing to be debunked, that air can
| not fry anything and to fry you need oil or grease. Seems
| that almost everybody is blindly believing to the marketing
| name instead of actually realising that the item is still
| frying with oil. The oil that they put in it. C'mon.
| lkois wrote:
| Yea everyone knows how they work, you aren't lifting the
| veil here. But as other comments point out, air fryers
| are actually very similar to ovens. You seem to be
| confused that the word "fryer" means that they need oil.
| Oil is optional, just like in an oven. Would you call
| oven cooked chicken "fried" because it was basted in
| olive oil? The same chicken can be air-fried, basted or
| not. Even then, basted chicken, and basted potato chips,
| use far less oil than an oil fryer. This has some health
| benefit, it's also way more convenient.
|
| Apart from being clever marketing, I believe they use the
| word "fryer" to describe the immersion in a very evenly
| and highly heated fluid, in this case air. While not very
| different from a fan-forced oven, the design of a small
| chamber with a vented basket and high air circulation
| does create a more uniform thermal environment over the
| entire surface area of the food, than the usual
| convection oven with a flat tray.
| UncleMeat wrote:
| I don't understand. Is anybody actually confused by this?
| It is just a word.
|
| Do you get bothered by recipes that have you drizzle oil
| on vegetables and then roast them?
| hooverd wrote:
| It's about being correct.
| UncleMeat wrote:
| Almost none of the terms we use are "correct" in some
| absolute sense.
|
| No queen has ever slept in my queen sized bed, nor am I
| aware of any rectangularly shaped queens. My airpods
| aren't made of air. When we combine words or even parts
| of words we don't produce meaning by simply summing the
| meaning of the parts.
|
| Absolutely zero harm is caused by calling something an
| "air fryer" rather than a "countertop convection oven",
| especially since "air fryer" more easily conveys the idea
| that you can cook things like french fries in one
| reasonably effectively without deep frying in oil.
| hooverd wrote:
| Oh, I agree with you. People just love being technically
| correct (the best kind of correct) on the internet for
| some reason. Is an air fryer actually a convection oven,
| yes, but do I care, no.
| [deleted]
| bilsbie wrote:
| Why massage gun?
| jnsaff2 wrote:
| The best investment was a connection hose for the sodastream
| that lets me use industrial co2 tanks. That 13kg tank has
| lasted me 1.5 years already and is so much cheaper and hassle
| free-er than the tiny things that cost 20 euros a pop at the
| supermarket.
| jnsaff2 wrote:
| I got an adapter hose from co2 supermarket [0] that fits my
| local standards.
|
| I also added a standard regulator to my setup because I trust
| it more than the sodastream, tho the pressure rating of the
| sodastream should be enough.
|
| Then I got a tank of food-grade co2 from my local supplier. I
| guess welding grade co2 would be good enough as well, but as
| the price difference was non-existent it was a no-brainer.
|
| When you get a regulator, make sure you get the highest flow-
| rate you can find as some of them will be problematic to get
| enough pressure for your beverage.
|
| Mine does not go nowhere as high as the regular sodastream
| bottles directly, but the result is that it takes me an extra
| 10 seconds per bottle to get the same result.
|
| [0] - https://www.co2supermarket.co.uk/adapters-for-
| co2-regulators...
| zebnyc wrote:
| Mind sharing the parts involved and how to put this together?
| Wife drinks a lot of sodastream. Thanks
| voisin wrote:
| I'd be interested to know where you get the industrial tank
| too. I read it needs to be food grade.
|
| I wonder why no one has made an open source Soda stream
| that connects to the big tanks right out of the box in a
| thoughtful way. Or better yet, a system for refilling the
| sodastream tanks from a large canister so that the
| sodastream can still sit easily in your counter.
| mikebowman wrote:
| Not OP, but in my experience you can pretty much always
| buy food-grade CO2 tanks from homebrewing shops. They
| usually do refills and exchanges too, as well as selling
| all the hosing and gaskets and clamps and whatnot you'd
| need.
| pcurve wrote:
| Just make sure you're getting Co2 can from beverage
| suppliers (and not industrial places)
|
| You can get Co2 tank and parts from beer supply company.
|
| https://www.morebeer.com/category/co2-tanks-regulators-
| parts...
|
| plenty YT videos on how to put them together.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cb43p5dJBE
| dmak wrote:
| I would love to see that setup! Can you share it please? I
| may want to do that as well
| candiodari wrote:
| I'd never risk that. The pressure that builds up in such a
| tank, and what happens if you were to somehow dent the tank
| should scare the crap out of you.
| jnsaff2 wrote:
| Have you handled any of the industrial tanks?
|
| They are absolutely massive. The tank that holds 13kg
| itself weighs about 30kg. So the amount of force to 'dent'
| that amount of steel would need to be ridiculous.
|
| The weakest part is (by design) the valve. Technically I
| rent the bottle and buy the gas. Each refill is an exchange
| of the bottle after which the bottle gets pressure tested,
| etc.
| fbn79 wrote:
| Asking to a pro if Air fryer worh buing he said: "think about
| professional kitchen. If you found something in a restaurant
| then can be helpful even for no pro. But I never ever saw air
| fryer in a pro kitchen. It s Just a low quality Owen. Just
| marketing. If you have a good Owen you dont need air fryer"
| JakobH wrote:
| My selfmade chips are way better from my air fryer than the
| oven.
| OJFord wrote:
| > My selfmade chips are way better from my [tabletop oven]
| than the [integrated/under-counter/floorstanding] oven
|
| _Something_ is different - it 's not that one was sold as
| 'air fryer'.
| [deleted]
| JakobH wrote:
| My air fryer has a spinning thing in the middle, wich
| turns my chips around, so i would say thats a plus! But
| yea, it is basicly a small oven. Maybe it uses less
| energie.
| OJFord wrote:
| By virtue if being smaller it does yes - there's an
| argument for using as small an oven as possible for sure
| - but the return on investment of that for having
| multiple different sized ovens is bound to be longer than
| the product's lifetime.
|
| (I broke my oven door, rather than pay PS150 plus labour
| opted to pay PS280 for a new oven. That was a Bosch,
| certainly not the cheapest possible.)
| ruste wrote:
| Personally the return on the air fryer for me is a direct
| result of it being smaller. For most things my larger
| kitchen oven needs time to preheat. That's an additional
| step that isn't required when I just want to roast some
| vegetables / meat or heat some frozen potato products
| quickly in the air fryer. This time / extra step is well
| worth cost for me ($20 of fb marketplace).
| mathieuh wrote:
| An air fryer that does a good job can be had for under PS100.
| Show me a pro-level oven in the same price range and I'd buy
| one of them. As it stands, I use the air fryer.
| OJFord wrote:
| Because they're a lot smaller? Anyway your house/flat
| probably _came_ with an oven, so it 's 'free'; the 'under
| PS100' for a countertop oven/air fryer is additional.
|
| Assuming you only look at electric fan ovens (the vast vast
| vast majority these days) more money buys you better
| insulation mainly. A brand too of course (maybe better
| R&D/thought gone into the controls/ergonomics etc. hand in
| hand with that) - but not somehow better food.
|
| 'Pro-level' ones obviously cost more, buying reliability &
| service primarily. Still not somehow better food, don't buy
| a commercial oven for a home kitchen.
| dmak wrote:
| I don't know why are you so against an air fryer. Not all
| apartments in some countries come with ovens. It's a
| great device and many people love it. I get this
| impression you are just minmaxing it without trying it.
| UncleMeat wrote:
| I've never rented a place that came with a convection
| oven. When I recently purchased a home, the oven that was
| here was also not a convection oven. An air fryer is just
| a small convection oven that sits on the countertop. But
| this has real benefits. You get better browning by being
| close to the element. It is more energy-efficient because
| it heats far less air. You get the benefits of
| convection. They also tend to be much easier to clean.
|
| There are costs - you waste counterspace and you need to
| own another thing. But "just buy a convection oven" isn't
| an option for a lot of people.
| OJFord wrote:
| Interesting, where (country) do you live that that's the
| case?
|
| Honestly, if they didn't put separate fan
| temperature/time on the back of stuff (increasingly they
| don't actually, more and more I'm seeing fan only) I'd
| honestly never have known anything else existed. I've
| never lived anywhere with one, didn't see any for sale
| when I bought one (to replace broken one) a couple of
| years ago. (UK)
| UncleMeat wrote:
| US.
| gardenhedge wrote:
| What is good about the massage gun?
| dole wrote:
| Just another good way to help relieve chronic pain. Amazon
| holiday sales and market oversaturation are bringing them
| down to US $60-70 now. Gave the spouse one for Christmas, she
| used it on her shoulders (rotator cuff) and back and didn't
| turn it off for at least 45 minutes.
|
| I'd also recommend a TENS unit, can also be found for cheap
| ($20-40). Both can vastly improve pain management without
| relying as much on medications.
| dmak wrote:
| Saved me from having to get massages. I use it for my neck
| from sitting at the computer all day. It's also been useful
| for super random things like punching cushions outside or
| some random thing. I've seen someone use it to help them sift
| flour easily.
| bilsbie wrote:
| I heard not to use them on your neck.
| projektfu wrote:
| Usually it's actually trapezoideus pain that you feel in
| your neck, so you don't have to pound your neck, just the
| trap muscles.
| snshn wrote:
| An electric insect swatter.
| digitalsanctum wrote:
| Prints of photos I've taken and the materials (I'm a woodworker)
| to frame and hang them in my house. Double whammy in terms of
| pride and great way to keep good memories fresh.
|
| Tools and hardwood which makes it easier to be in the shop (my
| garage) and not in front of a computer. When I'm in there all my
| life's woes fade away and always come out in a better mood than
| when I went in.
| thesnide wrote:
| A laptop stander.
|
| Coupled with a keyboard and mouse.
|
| I don't have space for a discrete monitor so i have to rely on
| the laptop for it.
|
| Using it makes it upright to eye level, making my neck pain go
| away
| jacknews wrote:
| Me too, these make a huge difference in screen ergonomics
| compared to just using a laptop directly, and most of them
| fold, so they're much more portable than an external monitor.
|
| And using the computer like this you also get the benefit of a
| real keyboard that you chose yourself, and is easy to
| repair/replace, etc.
| cgsmith wrote:
| I bought a Keychron keyboard as others have mentioned.
|
| On the $300 end though I got a walking treadmill for my standing
| desk. It is changing my life.
|
| I'm about 2 weeks in and usually avg 5.5 miles a day. Words per
| minute is still 80 and accuracy hasn't suffered. Worked my way
| upto 2.6mph. I had to set the office temperature to 66 degrees F
| though. Worked up a sweat :)
| thekiptxt wrote:
| Is it quiet enough for the office? I have my own office at
| work, but sound travels a bit.
| slippypippy wrote:
| that is really cool. what treadmill did you get?
| cgsmith wrote:
| I got this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SLP2L99
|
| FWIW: They offer a $20 gift card for a review.
| Insanity wrote:
| Something silly off the top of my head... We bought a "dog
| backpack". We have a pretty small dog but love longer walks or
| strolling through smaller shops. With the backpack, he can go
| with us anywhere and it has been a really fun experience.
|
| Also our dog hates walking in rain (he will refuse to move). Now
| he goes in the backpack, we put a scarf / other clothing over it
| and we can go on for a bit until we find shelter.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| We got one of these, ita great for us when we need to bring a
| dog back that got injured on our ride/run
| gadders wrote:
| For a minute I thought you were making your dog carry your
| shopping for you.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| They have those too, working dogs love them
| CosmicShadow wrote:
| We bought a dog stroller, which helps for when he stops wanting
| to walk, or is too bad, but it's a pain to take when he does go
| the whole way (it's a cheap one that has many design flaws). I
| kind of wish I got the backpack, but I think he would have
| hated it and made it unusable.
| kokanee wrote:
| This won't be relevant for most readers, but my answer would have
| to be the $20 Gentle Leader for my dog. She is an incurable
| leash-puller, to the extent that the nerves in her face were
| damaged and her jaw was completely paralyzed for 6 weeks.
| Needless to say, our twice-daily walks were very stressful for me
| for over a year. After acclimating her to the Gentle Leader, the
| problem is entirely solved. The only downside is that passersby
| often mistake it for a muzzle and assume she's dangerous.
| a_t48 wrote:
| The Gentle Leader is great. Growing up my family used it for
| Basset Hounds, which are both stubborn and full of torque.
| donutshop wrote:
| Burr coffee grinder! Enjoying my coffees a lot more
| dmcginty wrote:
| A few of my favorites:
|
| There's a set of string lights in my apartment that were left
| installed when I moved in. They look pretty nice and they provide
| decent illumination in an area that's difficult to light, but I
| virtually never used them because I needed to plug them into an
| outlet in order to turn them on. I finally bought a device that
| goes between the plug and outlet with a cord to a pushbutton
| switch. I now use the lights daily and I have no idea why it took
| me 6 years to fix a problem that could be solved for around $10.
|
| A bluetooth OBD2 monitor for my car. It can read engine codes and
| other diagnostics, and it can clear a lot of check engine
| warnings. It less than a single visit to a mechanic.
|
| This one is way less general, but I finally bought a treadle
| feeder for our chickens. There were several bird flu scares over
| the past year and our old open-tube feeder would attract a ton of
| wild birds (plus the occasional rat). The treadle feeder requires
| the chickens to stand on a treadle which opens a cover over their
| feed, and they learned how to use it pretty quickly. I'm amazed
| at how effective it's been; we're going through significantly
| less chicken feed now because the wild birds were eating nearly
| as much as our chickens were.
| sampo wrote:
| Meater plus, a wireless meat thermometer. We don't even do BBQ,
| just cook in the kitchen. The phone app shows meat internal
| temperature, oven air temperature, tells you how long to cook,
| estimated time remaining, and how long to let your roast, chicken
| or fish rest after taking it out of the oven. The app also keeps
| a log of your past cooks.
|
| If anyone from Meater reads this: Please add a feature to add a
| photos of the food to the cooks log.
| ElijahLynn wrote:
| Thanks, can I just use it to measure the temperature of the
| oven? I don't eat meet but it sure would be nice to know what
| temperature my roasted potatoes cook best at and for how long.
| From my observations using an analog thermometer the set oven
| temperature often is inaccurate.
| chromakode wrote:
| Similarly, I got a Combustion Inc. predictive thermometer:
| https://combustion.inc
|
| Looks similar to the meater, with more sensors. Having insight
| into the true core temperature of meat has been a step change
| in my cooking ability!
| sherlock_h wrote:
| A few pairs of DarnTough socks. Amazing value. Got them for $17 a
| pair here:
|
| https://www.mastgeneralstore.com/brand/darn-tough-socks
| drukenemo wrote:
| Big fan of DarnTough here. So far they have stood by their
| name.
| Loughla wrote:
| I have steadily been replacing all of my socks with darn tough
| socks. They absolutely are tough, but the replacement warranty
| is super simple, too. I snagged one on a loose trim nail, and
| got a new pair within a week from the company.
|
| You can get them 25% off from gobros.com as well!
| derwiki wrote:
| I've been using the same pair for hiking for 14 years and not a
| single hole!
| jancsika wrote:
| Tying into thread above-- they are merino wool.
|
| So all the benefits those posts mentioned about merino t-shirts
| apply to these socks.
| Arainach wrote:
| There's nothing wrong with DarnTough, but for value the Costco
| wool socks at ~17 for 3 pairs are the way to go. In more than a
| decade of use I've probably worn out four pairs.
| jesuscript wrote:
| A solid long desk. I didn't focus much on the standing desk stuff
| too much but instead zero'd in on desk length and depth. I feel
| like 55inch width is bare minimum at this point. If you pick the
| longer desks that have well designed shelves, or even some of the
| L-shaped stuff, you can tuck away laptops/desktops in such a way
| that your main surface work area is huge blank canvas. The space
| and lack of clutter is almost therapeutic.
|
| This is not the one I have since I have mostly wooden stuff in my
| crib, but this one looks nice and long and cheap:
|
| https://www.amazon.com/CubiCubi-Computer-Writing-Storage-She...
|
| Forget standing, get long instead.
|
| Oh, and this. I don't know why it took so long for me to think of
| this, reusable K-cups:
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Universal-stainless-Refillab...
|
| And finally, window privacy films:
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Privacy-Frosted-Decorative-Covering-B...
|
| It lets in natural light, no curtains to fiddle with (but you can
| have curtains too).
| pjmorris wrote:
| Big fan of big desks. I just moved _down_ to a 57 inch desk.
| Fifteen years ago I needed a temporary desk solution and bought
| the cheapest bare wood door at Home Depot and laid it across
| two filing cabinets. That turned out to work great for the next
| fifteen years and I still kind of miss it (but it was time to
| upgrade the home office decor.)
| mdip wrote:
| > bought the cheapest bare wood door at Home Depot and laid
| it across two filing cabinets.
|
| I'm surprised how many people don't build their own desks
| (especially those of us who work at home). I spent about
| $1,200 on a pretty minimalist (but very _large_ ) desk in my
| early 20s. I could build my ideal desk for half that price.
|
| Even the "cheapest bare wood door at Home Depot", switch that
| out with "cheap (but straight) wood" or layers of thick MDF
| or other durable surface, add paint, grout, tile adhesive and
| window molding (or something wood for an edge) and cheap
| ceramic tiles. Cut the MDF to ensure no tile cuts are needed,
| sand/spray paint the edges to match the tile and you have a
| pretty decent looking/functional/durable desk of any desired
| size.
|
| I did a dining table that way in my 20s. It was a curb rescue
| that the top was _destroyed_ (someone used it as a work
| bench) but it had a really nice set of thick oak legs that
| would clean up. I re-used the top after a lot of sanding but
| the tiling /painting job was _maybe_ an hour 's worth of work
| done mostly by brief instructions given to me from an older
| gentleman at Home Depot (I owned a dull hand saw and plug-in
| power drill given to me by my grand father). It took a
| weekend to complete between the various "waiting for things
| to dry". I sealed mine, as well. It cost less than $75 about
| 20 years ago.
|
| Honestly, if I were to do it all over again, I'd skip the
| $1,200 desk. I'd watch Craigslist for a large hardwood dining
| room table with the right characteristics[0], preferably with
| leafs. It's a _huge_ work area. If pressed against a wall,
| you could set a number of deep cabinets wall-side, put the
| monitor in the center of the table and even access cabinets
| behind (but above) the monitor pretty easily.
|
| [0] You'd want legs that wouldn't be in the way of your knees
| while working at it. Ideally, leafs that are attached in some
| way which could be re-engineered into a printer/computer
| stand.
| charlie0 wrote:
| Ikea has solid wood tables tops. Just need to find a pair
| of legs and you've got a solid desk for a few hundred
| dollars.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| On the big desk front, I just found a solid wood dining table
| on Craigslist. 36x72" without plywood or veneers for $60. The
| depth is great for ergonomics and the length with me have some
| reference books and electronics without it seeming cluttered.
| Best desk I've had
| ritonlajoie wrote:
| 55inch = 140cm
| uaas wrote:
| Keychron K2 Version 2 mechanical keyboard.
| noisy_boy wrote:
| I also bought a Keychron (Q6) - it is made out of a slab of
| aluminium and I love the heft (2.4kgs); absolutely no shaking.
| cgsmith wrote:
| I got one too and love it. Still can't get VIA to work on
| pop_os though.
| pcurve wrote:
| do you have palm rest? I bought RGB version and became
| instantly smitten with with it, but I found it a too tall /
| high to use, and I just couldn't get used to using with palm
| rest.
| cgsmith wrote:
| I don't have a palm rest. If I didn't have a Garmin watch
| to bump up my wrist height I'd probably get one though as
| it is bulky. I was surprised at how heavy it is.
| noisy_boy wrote:
| No OP but I also use Keychron with Grifiti palm rest;
| aligns almost perfectly with the Keychron and is very
| comfortable. Don't buy the slim one though, I use the 17"
| one (you can search for "Grifiti Fat Wrist Pad 17").
| uaas wrote:
| I felt the same way initially, and wanted the get a palm
| rest right away. I am using it for months now without it. I
| guess I could just got used to it.
| moffkalast wrote:
| Related, the G915 I just got last month though it's not sub 200
| outside sales.
|
| Firmware is a bit eh as is typical for Logitech, but being
| wireless, mechanical, having macro keys and media controls is a
| total win. Also sits very low.
| SteveNuts wrote:
| I bought three wireless phone chargers/stands, one for each of
| the bedside nightstands and one for my desk. Having a phone
| that's always charged and not having to fumble with charger cords
| has been amazing.
| [deleted]
| ezekg wrote:
| The Carpio 2.0 by DeltaHub
| (https://us.deltahub.io/products/carpio-2). It's a wrist rest,
| but not like you probably think. I would get severe hand pain
| being at the PC all day, but this little contraption completely
| relieved that pain. It took a couple weeks to get used to, and
| now I use it while working and gaming. One of the best purchases
| I've made in a long time.
| ElijahLynn wrote:
| Nice, I use IMAK RSI Computer Gloves which have little beads in
| the palms. Now, I don't use them for carpal tunnel or RSI at
| all, but just pure comfort of because the hard surface of a
| desk or sharp edges of a laptop are annoying as heck.
|
| Your Carpio 2.0 suggestion looks like it could be an
| improvement because I don't have to put the gloves on and take
| them off. Because my main complaint with the IMAK gloves is
| that when I'm on a video call and use hand gestures people
| always assume I have some injury or pain and ask me about it,
| and I have to explain that I just don't like hard surfaces,
| sharp edges and shiny palms, so I end up not wearing them as
| frequent as my hands would like to be comforted. Carpio looks
| like a way to solve that!
| i_am_jl wrote:
| Wow, I've been looking for this exact product for _years_.
|
| Thank you!
| ezekg wrote:
| No problem! In the beginning it _will_ feel weird. You may
| want to stop using it because it feels awkward to have
| something under your palm. But stick with it for a week or 2
| and you 'll get used to it.
| gwill wrote:
| does it move around easily? i use a trackball for productivity
| work, but nothing compares to a traditional mouse for gaming.
| ezekg wrote:
| Yes, very easily. No noticeable friction on my desk mat (also
| by DeltaHub). You don't even notice it.
| rompic wrote:
| New battery for our Dyson. Should have bought one way earlier
| (old one was almost 4 years old). Went with the original one even
| though that's more expensive.
|
| I'm still using the old one during the week as it only takes a
| few minutes to swap.
| factsarelolz wrote:
| I've been putting this off for so long I use to be able to
| vacuum my entire house 2,500 sqft ish (minus furniture, etc)
| with battery left over. Now it dies halfway through.
|
| I might follow you and just get a Dyson branded instead of
| aftermarket.
| rompic wrote:
| same here. it stressed me to not be able to vacuum when I had
| time due to the fact that the battery did not last. Now I'm
| on top of things again.
| KingMachiavelli wrote:
| A Moto M2 audio interface. Having a dedicated volume for my
| microphone is very useful and it has independent headphone and
| speaker outputs. I has great out of the box Linux support
|
| Most people who own a dedicated DAC would probably be just fine
| using this IMO.
|
| My automatic cat feeder will likely be the most useful of 2023.
| postsantum wrote:
| Wacaco Nanopresso. I'm travelling a lot these days and I need
| coffee every morning. Many hotels don't have electric kettles so
| I also had to buy a tiny water heater to boil water right in its
| tiny cup.
|
| Saw some people go as far as using a portable coffee grinder but
| that's a heavier toy
| mariusor wrote:
| For people that don't enjoy espressos, the CLEVER Dripper is a
| good option[1]. I think this gadget combined with a cheap burr
| grinder is the best way to get flavourful filter coffee.
|
| [1] https://cleverbrewing.coffee/products/clever-dripper
| paulette449 wrote:
| These are great for super lightweight pourover (0.64 ounces).
| The listing says 1.5 cups per use but I think that's ambitious.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098W5RMF1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
| defulmere wrote:
| I got my first set of noise-cancelling headphones in June 2022.
|
| I work from home in a small open-floorplan house and being able
| to mask the sounds of everything else going on has been a welcome
| change :)
| eiiot wrote:
| I'm a student, so I write a lot, and the rOtring 600 mechanical
| pencil is incredible. I've not used a single genetic #2 pencil
| since I bought it last year, and I don't plan on using one ever
| again. The feel of the pencil is super solid, and rOtring also
| handles small lead sizes much better than any other brand I've
| used (especially .35mm) which means I rarely break my lead.
|
| Other than the pencil, maybe my Peak Design everyday backpack? I
| got the v1 used on eBay for ~$100 and I've used it for maybe two
| years now. It's still a decently student-specific purchase,
| though.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| I use the same bag (also bought 2 years ago) and I'm not a
| student. It's great for transporting things to and from work,
| and I travel with it too. I suspect you'll find it useful for a
| while!
|
| It's so easy to organize for all kinds of trips. I love the
| dividers, and I generally feel way safer keeping electronics in
| that bag over others.
|
| Also, I bought a mechanical pencil (more specifically a lead
| holder, I guess) 20 years ago and I still have it and use it.
| They're such a great investment. Mine isn't rotring-nice, it's
| just a little blue staedtler thing, but it has been a great
| tool. It's essentially this one:
|
| https://www.staedtler.com/us/en/products/technical-drawing-i...
| foruhar wrote:
| I bought a 30x magnifying glass with LED lighting for $16 on
| Amazon. I didn't know I needed it but I now use it daily.
|
| I find the magnifier super handy to grab for reading tiny print
| on things like USB chargers. My reading glasses don't help in
| such cases even if I happen to be wearing them. I have 40x one
| too put it's more like jeweler's loupe with a very short focal
| length so less useful on a day to day basis.
| modeless wrote:
| Is a phone camera's macro mode not good enough for occasional
| use? It's kind of wild that my phone has telephoto and macro
| with more resolving power than my eyes on both ends (and I have
| normal vision).
| twoWhlsGud wrote:
| Sounds useful! In a pinch many cell phones have a macro
| capability that can substitute for a magnifying lens- something
| to keep in mind when you don't have a magnifier.
| krumpet wrote:
| Long johns!
|
| While Seattle doesn't get that cold during the winter, the
| combination of 40 degree weather and moisture sure feels colder
| than it is. And our office is constantly swinging between warm
| and chilly for some odd reason.
|
| Having an affordable base layer is a big win.
| sambapa wrote:
| 1. Gymnastic rings - cheap, so simple yet so complicated. Magic
| ancient alien technology from the future (whatever that means) 2.
| Anki - free, you remember what you want to remember, but you have
| to RTFM to use it properly. 3. Wax earplugs - cheap. My sleep
| quality is at least 2x better since using them. 4. Org-mode -
| free.
| dbancajas wrote:
| What is org-mode?
| cmcconomy wrote:
| EMACS extension that supports scheduling and personal
| organization
| sambapa wrote:
| https://youtu.be/SzA2YODtgK4
| user1029384756 wrote:
| I've been tempted to get a set of gymnastic rings for a while.
| For someone like me who tries not to accumulate too much junk,
| buying any kind of bulky gym equipment is not an option.
|
| Gymnastic rings seem like the perfect minimalist's exercise
| equipment... the only thing is I have no idea where I would
| hang them.
| sambapa wrote:
| Not an ideal setup, but you can hang them from a door frame
| pull-up bar.
| jiocrag wrote:
| places I've hung them:
|
| -strong tree branch -basketball hoop bars -sturdy rafter
| -high pull up bar
| archagon wrote:
| Steam Deck. Fantastic for catching up on your gaming backlog when
| traveling.
|
| Origami pourover brewer. Beautiful, and it's been a lot of fun
| trying to get better at brewing great coffee.
| Hamuko wrote:
| You can get a Steam Deck for under $200?
| archagon wrote:
| Oops, I'm just bad at reading comprehension!
| twoWhlsGud wrote:
| Prescription sunglasses with photochromic lenses. (Under $200 at
| Costco if you can find a sunglass frame there that fits you.)
| Like most people I had written off photochromic lens technology
| decades ago (too slow to respond to light changes). But the
| current generation is much better (they've gone through something
| like eight of them by now) and I do a lot of utility cycling in
| the Pacific Northwest. And that means that you can go through
| everything from bright sunlight (OK maybe not bright by most
| peoples' standards :-) to overcast to darkness in a trip to the
| grocery store. Having a single pair of glasses that can take me
| through all of those conditions is surprisingly liberating.
|
| One limitation to be aware of is that the material in the lenses
| responds to ultraviolet light. Which means that they really only
| work outdoors. So you're still going to need a separate pair of
| sunglasses for driving.
| omar_alt wrote:
| I paid PS200 on an electric desk for working at home which has
| been a great investment.
| mperham wrote:
| A back roller, like this:
|
| https://www.amazon.com/RumbleRoller-Texture-Massage-Self-Myo...
|
| I've had lower back pain for 10 years now. Rolling on top of this
| for a minute once per day was painful at first but after 4-5 days
| it felt fine and I've had no back pain since. I believe it
| realigned my vertebrae. Now I roll once a week or so to keep
| things aligned.
| klondike_klive wrote:
| Do you roll with the roller horizontally aligned or vertically?
| Although I really like the idea of cracking my back into line I
| worry about the shear forces generated on each vertebra while
| rolling with it horizontal. On the lower back, specifically,
| where there aren't ribs to spread the load.
| squarefoot wrote:
| Thanks for the info, I wasn't aware of the Stream Deck. It is
| also supported on Linux by Open Source library and app. Very
| tempting.
|
| https://github.com/timothycrosley/streamdeck-ui/
| daveyjonezz wrote:
| - Proper cycling / mountain biking glasses. The amount of air
| that slips in from the sides with normal glasses can tire your
| eyes on longer rides or at high speeds.
|
| - Safety razor. No longer do I have to buy $30+ cartridge refills
| but rather 100 packs of blades for ~$10
|
| - A pickleball paddle. The game really is addicting and so far
| the community has been welcoming.
| pjmorris wrote:
| Aftershokz Aeropex bone-conducting headphones. I could walk,
| hike, drive listening to music or phone calls while hearing the
| environment around me and without exposing anyone else to my
| taste in music :)
| kmlx wrote:
| don't you achieve basically the same thing with airpods'
| transparency mode?
| yunwal wrote:
| Only issue with AirPods is that they trap sweat in your ear.
| Usually fine for normal workouts but for long distance runs
| they're not usable.
| browningstreet wrote:
| not if you're like me, and airpods don't stay in your ears
| derwiki wrote:
| Biggest surprise benefit to me is that they work well with ear
| plugs, for when I'm woodworking
| StrictDabbler wrote:
| Aftershokz OpenComm should be the default on all job sites.
| True, full ear protection via ear-plugs, hands-free
| communication, no bulk, and the opportunity to listen to your
| music without adding noise to the environment. Oh, and
| magnetic charging.
|
| If you do _any_ work in a noisy industrial or trade setting
| you owe it to yourself to get these.
|
| I used to buy the 3M connect earmuffs but their connectivity
| is bad, the ear-cushions break down and the mini-usb charger
| port snaps off. I had to buy a new set of earmuffs once a
| year.
| gadders wrote:
| I use mine to listen to podcasts when walking the dog or doing
| chores around the house.
| askvictor wrote:
| I got the cheaper truefree F1 - not bone conduction as such,
| but sit outside your ear canal and shoot the sound in. Work
| really well and a lot cheaper, though others can hear your
| music if it's quiet around, so not the best for some
| situations.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Didn't get them this year, but yes those are amazing.
| occz wrote:
| I got a pair as well which I use for exercise, and to listen to
| podcasts when cycling somewhere for transport. A very good buy.
| junon wrote:
| Can confirm. They're cool. Battery life is decent and yeah,
| they do exactly what's claimed here. Don't expect the most high
| def sound, but they're still completely acceptable for a lot of
| scenarios.
| Dicey84 wrote:
| I had a circa 2016 set and they were rubbish.. Worth another
| look?
| _fs wrote:
| It just depends on your use case. If you want to appreciate
| music while sitting at your desk, no. But if you need to
| listen to a podcast or music while trail running, biking,
| at the gym, or other situations where situational awareness
| is important, then the degrade in audio quality is worth
| the trade off.
| abcc8 wrote:
| I think so. I was getting skin irritation if I exercised
| while wearing earbuds and the AfterShockz eliminate that
| problem for me. Sound quality is good for podcasts. I don't
| listen to much music at all with them.
| wl wrote:
| The Aeropex/OpenRun is a massive improvement over my TREKZ
| Titanium from 2016. Still not anywhere near comparable to
| some nice headphones or IEMs.
| stonecharioteer wrote:
| I'm single sided deaf and have exclusively been buying
| Aftershokz products since I lost my left ear in 2019. I own 7
| pairs (because of an Amazon screwup mostly, but hey, free
| headphones). I thoroughly recommend them. I can wear them ALL
| DAY LONG and not feel uncomfortable. This makes calling and
| listening to music much better now.
| cassianoleal wrote:
| I'm on my 3rd pair of (After)Shokz. Previous one was an
| Aeropex, which I still have and use some times but it rattles a
| bit, especially with lower pitched sounds. I replaced it with
| the newer OpenRun Pro. Same awesomeness, noticeably better
| sound quality and more volume.
|
| I use them almost daily for running, cycling, walking and
| climbing. My only gripe with them is the long neck bad, so I've
| had to stop myself from splurging on a Mini when it came out.
| :D
| yunwal wrote:
| This is gonna sound dumb but an ice scoop for my freezer. Always
| just used my hands or cup but it would make it slightly annoying
| to get the right amount of ice. Plus if I'm making cocktails for
| other people it's just so much easier and more hygienic.
| akamaka wrote:
| That is a great idea. I've also always been slightly annoyed
| and picking up ice cubes and having them stick to my fingers,
| but it didn't occur to me to get a scoop that's just right for
| this purpose.
| NDizzle wrote:
| I finally got rid of my Samsung fridge, which had a bottom,
| open ice box. I too recall when we found the perfect scoop.
| They are actually hard to find. I believe this one was intended
| to be a candy scooper, at one of those do-it-yourself frozen
| yogurt places.
|
| I can't recall the name of the store... It's a chain store that
| is overpriced "imported products" found next to an REI or some
| other middle/upper scale strip mall.
| dkarl wrote:
| It wasn't a new purchase so I didn't think of it for this
| thread, but I started leaving a water pitcher beside the sink.
| It's handy for watering plants, carrying water to the dog bowl
| (instead of carrying the dog bowl to the sink), filling the
| coffee maker, adding water to pots on the stove, and filling
| water glasses at the table. It's nothing big, but it's helpful
| in many small ways.
| dublinben wrote:
| I can second the immense utility of an ice cube scoop. A basic
| plastic or metal one is just a few dollars, and will probably
| last forever. No more touching ice cubes with your hands!
| bonestamp2 wrote:
| From working in a restaurant in college, one thing the health
| inspector always checks is that the ice scoop handle is NOT
| touching the ice. Apparently, that is a huge source of bacteria
| being introduced into "food". You might be able to rest it in a
| way where this is possible, or get a little holder for it that
| keeps the handle up and out of the ice (that's what most
| restaurants have).
| nitwit005 wrote:
| Drawing tablet. Surprisingly good for the price.
|
| I did get a stand for it that pushed it over $200, but not
| strictly needed.
| eachro wrote:
| - darn tough socks: these retail for 20ish a pair last I checked
| but they're super high quality
|
| - water boiler: can get a basic one for less than 30 bucks, or go
| with a higher end one for 100+. either way, having hot water
| readily available will change your life
|
| - kettlebell (20lb, 35lb): these go for like 30-40 bucks on
| amazon. there are a lot of compound movements you can do with
| kettlebells that will highlight various muscle imbalances you
| have. super easy to incorporate a few kb exercises into your
| workout routine
| kepano wrote:
| Sleeping mask ~$15
|
| Becoming comfortable sleeping with a sleeping mask + ear plugs
| makes it possible to sleep anywhere.
| codespin wrote:
| which mask?
| bmitc wrote:
| Recently, I got air purifiers. I really like them so far, and I
| purchased a couple models from Vornado. Their air flow technology
| pairs really well with the air purifying. Their fans are the only
| ones I buy.
|
| Logitech unifying wireless mouse and keyboard. Really seamless to
| use between two computers and my monitor's built in KVM while
| only taking up a single USB port. I even alternate between mice
| for ergonomics.
|
| Window cat bed that attaches to a glass door that gets naturally
| heated up in the morning by the sun. My cat loves it.
| _nalply wrote:
| I got a Philips AC2889/10 air purifier because we relocated and
| I wanted to make sure to reduce mold spores. I discovered as a
| side effect that it really helps reducing dust as well.
| dabernathy89 wrote:
| Just ordered a new purifier from Vornado. Our previous one was
| a few years old and not up to the task. Thanks for the
| recommendation!
| thenobsta wrote:
| +1 for Vornado. I just had a blade break on my fan. Called in
| and got a replacement blade in 3 days. Great support. The life
| of my fan is extended.
| bmitc wrote:
| I have one that I've had for nearly 20 years. And for anyone
| wanting a desk fan, their Zippi line is awesome. Their
| technology really does work the way they say it does. For the
| air purifier, we blew out a candle, and I was able to watch
| the smoke make a bee line towards the air purifier due to how
| it circulates the air in the room. I have a crossbeam in my
| living room, and when the air purifier is on high, I can
| actually feel the draft of the air coming across the ceiling
| and hitting the beam and directing downwards.
| wintermutestwin wrote:
| A pair of running shoes that actually fit human toe shape
| (Altra). Years of wearing pointy shoes gave me a Morton's Neuroma
| and severely limited my aerobic activity.
| __derek__ wrote:
| s/human toe shape/my toe shape/
|
| I'm a pointy-toed runner. When Saucony stopped producing my
| favorite zero-drop shoes (the Virrata), I bought a pair of
| Altras but ended up donating them after two short runs because
| it felt like I was wearing clown shoes thanks to that that
| broad toe-box.
|
| That said, I definitely appreciate that the running apparel
| market has expanded to accommodate the broad diversity of human
| shapes and sizes.
| wintermutestwin wrote:
| I can't imagine that anyone's feet fit properly into Sidi
| cycling shoes, which were the cause of my neuroma.
| __derek__ wrote:
| Ah, I assumed you meant other running shoes because you
| mentioned running shoes. I'm not familiar with that brand,
| or with cycling shoes in general.
| dehrmann wrote:
| Why foot-shaped shoes are so rare is beyond me.
| ROTMetro wrote:
| For me it was toe spacers to fix what those pointy toed sports
| shoes had done to my feet.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| Yes! Altras are great, especially when paired with iniji toe
| socks. Once you get used to them traditional shoes are so
| uncomfortable
| orm wrote:
| Instant Pot. Can be used as a rice cooker, slow cooker, pressure
| cooker (mostly known for this last use)
|
| Though probably not as good for rice specifically as an actual
| high-end rice cooker, it greatly increased the range of foods I
| eat.
|
| Makes it easy to make nice one pot meals overnight for multiple
| days, you can make really good broth soups from chickens etc
| quickly, or slowly if you prefer.
|
| If you like to try tougher cuts of meat, this is also a good
| reason to get it. The fact it doesn't occupy one burner is also
| helpful.
| formvoltron wrote:
| Me too. Instant pot for the win. Haven't tried meat in it. It's
| been Indian curries and lentil soups & such. I also bought a 3
| quart version for my motorhome!
| ronnirradd wrote:
| Do you follow any recipes online? Those sound great and I
| would love to expand my instant pot game beyond pressurized
| rice making.
| x0x0 wrote:
| This is a fantastic instant pot recipe -- it's an
| adaptation of a Colombian pressure-cooker stew to an
| instant pot by Kenji Lopez Alt.
|
| Easy, fast, flavorful.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-riGSANPe3g
| otterley wrote:
| Direct link: https://www.seriouseats.com/colombian-
| chicken-stew-with-pota...
| x0x0 wrote:
| Just note that in 3:25 or so in the video, Kenji modifies
| the recipe to reduce cooking time (from 25 to 15
| minutes).
| r2_pilot wrote:
| I've scrabbled together a pot roast recipe I follow loosely
| that gets praised every time I make it. I get a chuck roast
| (or something similar), evenly coat in salt and pepper to
| taste, saute it in the insta pot(about 6-7 minutes each
| side to brown it), deglaze with red wine vinegar, then put
| in half a small package of carrots and little red
| potatoes(onions can be added but nobody likes them here). I
| also add 2-3 pepperoncinis on this bottom layer, then I put
| the roast back in, put the rest of the
| carrots/potatoes/another couple of pepperoncinis on top and
| around. Then I add a cup of water and beef bullion, and set
| the pressure cook feature to around 1 hour 10 minutes or
| so. I use the keep-warm mode and while it's ready to go
| once the main pressure is done, it just gets better over
| time (and you can do it before leaving for work and come
| home to lunch or supper already waiting). I'm really lazy
| when it comes to cooking, but this has been easy, fast and
| delicious (plus leftovers!).
|
| An even easier thing is shredded BBQ chicken. They can even
| be frozen and it's done in an hour. Would write the recipe
| but leaving for lunch now.
| nsxwolf wrote:
| I have a similar pot roast recipe, but I've found it
| comes out better in a slow cooker, or a dutch oven. I've
| never really been all that impressed with the results of
| the Instant Pot. Time savings? Even that depends -
| building and releasing pressure adds 40+ minutes to cook
| time.
| Eumenes wrote:
| Its wonderful for chilis, stews, pot roast, short ribs, etc.
| I've even made whole chickens in it and bone broth.
| dabernathy89 wrote:
| I love our Instant Pot! I keep finding uses for it. The other
| day I'd forgotten to thaw a 4-pack of pre-cooked chicken
| sausages. Threw them into the Instant Pot (steam tray w/ a cup
| of water under them), 5 minutes on low pressure (~10 min
| total), and they were totally warmed through.
| anthomtb wrote:
| InstantPot is fantastic. It is the only way I have made brown
| rice which matches the quality of my local Thai restaurant.
| jonahkagan wrote:
| What's your brown rice approach? I've tried a few diff ones
| I've found online but none have turned out amazing
| anthomtb wrote:
| 1-to-1 ratio of dry rice to water, by volume. I typically
| make 3-4 cups (dry) at one time.
|
| Multigrain setting on the Instant Pot, shortest cook time.
| I believe it is 20 minutes at full pressure. I do not know
| if the multigrain setting is on every Instant Pot.
|
| 20-30 minutes of natural steam release once the pressure
| cooking is complete.
|
| Turns out soft and minimally sticky every time. Perfect for
| my palate. I was eating it with just butter and soy sauce
| for a while.
| peatmoss wrote:
| I do pot-in-pot with 1:1 ratio of water to brown rice. We
| have a number of small stainless steel bowls that we set on
| top of the wire trivet (don't forget a small amount of
| water in the main pot too). I cook for ~15 minutes for most
| brown rice and then let the instant pot sit undisturbed for
| another 10-15 minutes while the pressure naturally
| releases, and the rice has a chance to take up any
| unabsorbed water.
|
| White rice is the same deal, though I usually go a few
| minutes less (~12 minutes). I like to add a very small
| amount of some sort of oil to the inner pot with the rice.
| nucleardog wrote:
| Really easy to make yoghurt with too!
|
| Dump in a gallon of milk, heat it up, let it cool, add a couple
| spoons of a store bought plain yoghurt (if you don't have some
| started saved from the last batch), put the lid back on and hit
| the yoghurt button and come back in like 8-10 hours. If you
| prefer a thicker yoghurt, strain it a bit before storing.
|
| Gallon of yoghurt for the price of a gallon of milk and
| probably like 20 minutes of active work.
| spankalee wrote:
| Mine mostly sits because I find the instructions and UX
| inscrutable. I've made some great ribs, but just as often
| something goes wrong and the device doesn't warm up enough, or
| doesn't form a seal and cooks off the liquid or burns the meat.
|
| You don't get any indication that things are going _right_
| until the timer starts going down, but that 's many minutes
| after you start it. It also comes with two completely
| incompatible rice recipes, one of which doesn't use rice mode,
| and no explanation of why. Just terrible UX.
| tra3 wrote:
| Pressure cooking has been a game changer for me!
|
| The latest revisions of the instantpot do a good job of sous
| vide. I've tried a sous vide roast [0] so far, 24 hours later I
| had the best roast I've ever had. Incredible.
|
| [0]: https://sousvideways.com/sous-vide-chuck-roast/
| gramie wrote:
| I especially like cooking pork via sous vide (in my Instant
| Pot). Pork is really hard to cook in a regular oven/pan
| without making it tough, but a couple of hours sous vide, and
| then quick searing makes it wonderful!
| tra3 wrote:
| I haven't gotten there yet. Do you have any recipes you can
| share?
| armandososa wrote:
| Yes! we got one last year and although we use it mostly just to
| cook beans (this being a mexican household) it has improved our
| lives enormously.
| rbt5009 wrote:
| I just learned that I can make ten potatoes in about twenty
| minutes in my pressure cooker which has been a huge help for
| meal prepping. It's so great for so many things!
| MegaDeKay wrote:
| We got an Instant Pot and our Zoji rice cooker has collected
| dust ever since. It is great for brown basmati rice where the
| Zoji is weak and slow. Try 360g brown basmati rice (we don't
| bother rinsing it), 705g water, a quarter tsp of salt, 1 tsp of
| oil. Cook 23m on high and then let it sit for 10min before
| venting the rest of the pressure off. Remove lid, fluff the
| rice, and wait a minute or two before serving.
|
| The one weakness of the Instant Pot is that most models won't
| go to 15psi and there is the odd recipe where a longer cooking
| time can't compensate. For example, there is a Modernist
| Cuisine recipe for pressure cooked root vegetables that uses a
| bit of baking soda to help bring a caramelized flavor to the
| party. Works great in a 15 psi cooker but is a disaster in an
| instant pot: the veggies just taste like baking soda. I suspect
| that stocks made in the Instant Pot might not be as good as
| well for similar reasons but haven't tried that yet.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| If you're cooking both rice and a meal however, you might
| need that extra rice cooker (and cook the meal in the instant
| pot). You could also stack the portions in the instant pot,
| but that doesn't work for all types of meals.
| trts wrote:
| My Instant Pot-branded Instant Pot is pretty much useless as a
| slow cooker. Unfortunately, I donated mine upon getting the
| Instant Pot before realizing this. Maybe newer models have
| fixed this but the three times I tried, had to end up pressure
| cooking as it never got warm enough, even on high, to slow
| cook.
| garrickvanburen wrote:
| Mine is also an air fryer. :D
| moffkalast wrote:
| A cheap table-mounted vise with a 360 bearing. The bearing lock
| failed pretty quickly but I can just as easily clamp it down in
| any orientation regardless.
|
| It's been super practical for all kinds of hobby projects.
| pkulak wrote:
| I bought a used Dell office PC from FreeGeek for about 100 bucks,
| then installed Proxmox on it with Portainer. Now I've got a place
| to put all my crap that isn't AWS, which is not only easier, but
| faster, and way cheaper.
| tartuffe78 wrote:
| I got a retractable screen door for my bedroom door that goes to
| our back porch. Instead of a swinging screen door it just unhooks
| and rolls up to the side, and can be pulled back out.
|
| It's great for getting a breeze on nice days, without letting
| mosquitos in. There was one on the front door when we bought the
| house, wish I hadn't waited so long as it was super easy to
| install. Will probably get one for the door to the garage as well
| this year.
| cookiengineer wrote:
| Invested in 12V compatible desktop hardware. Solar powered,
| fanless and passively cooled.
|
| Never enjoyed a super quiet work desk so much.
| wildrhythms wrote:
| Can you elaborate? What did you buy?
| hnarayanan wrote:
| Beats Fit Pro. My first and only wireless earbuds and it's been a
| game changer.
|
| (I think this is a recommendation more for a category than a
| specific product.)
| vanviegen wrote:
| I too bought my first pair of wireless earbuds (One Plus) last
| year. I'm really amazed how well these things work. Fantastic
| battery life, for such a tiny package. Pretty decent noise
| reduction. And they always seem to guess right which of the
| many devices they're paired with I want them to stream from.
|
| I was, however, disappointed to discover that when in duplex
| mode, sound quality drops from hifi to first generation gsm
| quality. As I understand it, Bluetooth still has no better
| profile for duplex.
| x0x0 wrote:
| A dog recovery suit. It's a breathable, close-fitting suit that
| you use instead of a cone to prevent biting at healing wounds.
| Available for $25 or so on Chewy.
|
| Buddy had some surgery and would have been in a cone for 2 weeks
| (!!!), an utterly shit experience for both of us. This prevented
| that while making sure he didn't lick or bite at his stitches.
|
| It wouldn't stop a persistent dog like a cone would, but I felt
| like it gave me enough time to observe the behavior had he bit or
| licked and stop it without opening the wound.
|
| It's easily my best purchase of the last 5 years, except perhaps
| for my instant pot, which I use every day to make steel cut oats.
|
| https://www.suitical.com/products/recovery-suit-dog/
| jonahbenton wrote:
| A bit more than $200-
|
| An Oura ring. Some quantitative insight around sleep, heart rate,
| heart rate variation, temperature, etc. SUPER interesting to see
| how things change when sick, drink alcohol, etc. Also- I confess
| to not minding the tone/language the product uses for coaching
| purposes. It is not an asshole.
|
| Relatedly, tracking food/calories/water consumption in the (free-
| no need to pay them) Noom app has been useful quantitative
| insight as well. Rare that the free version of a paid thing has
| any utility whatsoever.
| fullstackchris wrote:
| I just started tracking the same stuff with myfitnesspal, but I
| did see Noom as well. Do you have any experience with both?
| Maybe I'll check out Noom, myfitnesspal sometimes feels overly
| complicated.
| FatActor wrote:
| Winco fish spatula. Super flexy and thin. I can now make eggs the
| way I like them (over easy, zero browning) without destroying the
| egg or chasing it around the skillet like when I use bigger
| spatulae. Plus also much better for fish, oddly enough: the
| flexibility matters a lot.
| toddm wrote:
| Professional bike fit, $175 from a seasoned coach/racer.
| trynewideas wrote:
| A one-hour shopping session with a personal stylist, at about
| $175. I desperately wanted to break out of my t-shirt/blue jeans
| habit, but parsing clothes sizes, trying things on, and getting
| opinions is equal parts sorcery and torture for me. (I'd tried
| Stitch Fix and felt like it wanted to reinforce my habits rather
| than break me out of them.)
|
| After sending her details about my problems and the kinds of
| styles I admired, the stylist experience was very old-school
| retail -- a department store -- but she was unexpectedly
| pragmatic, giving great advice about picking durable clothes and
| materials that specifically fit well on me, with lots of wink-
| and-nudge budget advice (like "This would look great on you for
| $50 less" followed by flashing me a Nordstrom Rack or Poshmark
| listing of it).
|
| Also, finding out that the department store has a complimentary
| tailoring service for hemming and adjusting the waistline on
| pants you buy from there permanently changed my clothes shopping
| process.
| Insanity wrote:
| Never considered that. But now I am curious, how did you pick
| the stylist? Not even sure how I would find one lol
| throwntoday wrote:
| I went to Nordstrom looking for a nice blazer to up my
| wardrobe with a hard limit of $400. I had a couple guys who
| kept bringing me pricey items that didn't match what I asked
| for and half heartedly saying "looks good bro trust me". It
| was annoying, I know they're on commission but at least make
| an effort to sell.
|
| Finally another of the sales guys started chatting with me. I
| explained what I wanted and he went and grabbed exactly that.
| The item was less than my limit and on sale. With the savings
| in mind I asked if he could suggest a couple more items, told
| him the colors I like and general style. He brought a few
| more told me what he honestly thought (if it looked good or
| not) and I knew this was now my personal stylist.
|
| Now whenever I walk in if he's not working I just come back
| another day. This guy is good at his job, and has learned
| what I like. He makes recommendations, I give my feedback
| when I don't like something, and he rolls with it.
|
| So all I can say is create a litmus test, and don't be afraid
| to tell them they have totally missed the mark and you're
| gonna look around on your own. Soon enough someone else will
| walk up and you try again.
| theNJR wrote:
| How did you find your stylist?
| jhatemyjob wrote:
| Could have just gone on a date with a woman lol.
| [deleted]
| satvikpendem wrote:
| I did the same thing several years ago, only in my case I was
| able to follow the guides at /r/malefashionadvice for free,
| highly recommended if you don't want to or can't afford a
| personal stylist right now.
|
| Look at the guides on their sidebar (on old reddit at least)
| and they have everything you need, such as a basic guide, what
| to buy for $X, and so on. Take particular notice at their What
| Are You Wearing Today (WAYWT) threads, while they are sometimes
| ludicrous, they often show the current fashion zeitgeist.
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/malefashionadvice/
| adnanaga wrote:
| What was the service ?
| trynewideas wrote:
| I used FernDate,[1] which is pitched as a dating profile
| consult but lets you select services a-la-carte. You can find
| local stylists and negotiate with them if all you need is a
| consult -- the prices they list on their websites are often
| expecting to do a full wardrobe assessment, outfit curation,
| and co-shopping for a femme client, but (in my limited
| experience) will mark prices down a bit if you're masculine.
|
| 1: https://ferndate.com/services/
|
| (As an aside, if you're in Portland or the PNW, I also
| _highly_ recommend Duchess Clothier as a custom tailor:
| https://www.duchessclothier.com/)
| Arrath wrote:
| I'll also suggest John Helmer Haberdashery in Portland.
|
| https://www.johnhelmer.com/
|
| I'm very happy with the service and the suit I got there.
| beardbound wrote:
| Thanks for that. I'm in the PNW and I've been looking
| around for a good tailor. I was ordering some of my stuff
| pseudo-custom from sonofatilor but it's a bit hamstrung by
| how bad I am at taking my own measurements. Other than that
| the shirts are really nice, but the wool is a bit fragile
| (no afilliation). I also have a bit of an odd shirt size so
| this is helpful
| rebuild143 wrote:
| +1, I'd also love to learn more about your experience,
| especially about how you found your stylist.
| damey wrote:
| +1 would also love to know how you found your stylist
| trynewideas wrote:
| Lots of Googling, then a little calling around. I started
| with one in my neighborhood who also runs a hair salon,
| who was also the only one I found who specifically
| advertised a masculine-specific wardrobe assessment
| service.
|
| When I described my problem, she gave me a shortlist of
| several other stylists who were outside of what I thought
| I was looking for, like FernDate, Duchess, and some local
| vintage-specific pickers who just aren't online.
| kevmo314 wrote:
| > I'd tried Stitch Fix and felt like it wanted to reinforce my
| habits rather than break me out of them.
|
| Wow, same! Who/what service did you use? This was my biggest
| gripe with Stitch Fix, my friends are all surprised I complain
| about it. I wanted an opinionated new style and all I got was
| the same stuff I usually wear, just more expensive.
| trynewideas wrote:
| The "stylist" part of Stitch Fix disappointed me the most. I
| had a different stylist each time even when I didn't request
| a change and none of them seemed to take feedback into
| account in the selections. It made me doubt that the
| "stylist" was anything but a vague algorithm with a
| boilerplate letter generator.
| MisterPea wrote:
| I don't want to belittle your experience as stylists can be
| helpful for achieving a certain look, but often department
| stores (especially Nordstrom) have sales associates trained as
| stylists.
|
| They will spend a lot of time helping you with your style for
| free, albeit you'll probably want to buy from that particular
| store. Nordstrom clothes are a bit on the pricier end, but
| ~most~ are often good quality.
| bradlys wrote:
| Ymmv with that though - I found some were just trying to get
| you to buy anything even if the size was completely wrong
| altogether.
| tootie wrote:
| I used to work at fairly expensive furniture/houseware
| retailer. They had a big squad of interior designers who all
| worked for free. They drove so much additional revenue that
| we didn't need to charge customers at all.
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| > (especially Nordstrom)
|
| I might be missing the point but aren't you talking upwards
| of $200+ per outfit (shirt, pants) when shopping at stores
| like this?
| pesfandiar wrote:
| Would an associate on commission give you good advice on
| budget though?
| TheFreim wrote:
| I have no experience here, but I'd guess they would. It
| would be better to guarantee a sale than alienate a
| customer who would consider returning of the experience
| went well.
| nixgeek wrote:
| A lot of current season clothing will have MAP (minimum
| advertised pricing) agreements in play meaning you're
| probably paying list almost anywhere which is an
| authorized retailer.
|
| Now, what you can do is figure out what brands suit you
| and fit well, what sizes are good, then shop past seasons
| in Nordstrom Rack or elsewhere. Popular sizes and
| colorways may sell out quickly so it's a more frustrating
| experience, but you can see items marked down 55-75% too!
| trynewideas wrote:
| We went to a Nordstrom, actually, and worked with their
| designated stylist who did quite a bit of the picking. The
| value for the hired stylist was _not_ working for Nordstrom,
| which meant being able to say "that looks good, here's
| something that will look as good and cost half as much, and
| also here's why that looks good on you and where you can find
| it elsewhere".
|
| EDIT: I really also want to stress that the stylist was
| just... _nice_. Completely non-judgmental about me waffling
| over things, offering lots of advice beyond just the clothing
| -- how different postures affect fits, being able to explain
| to me why layering was sometimes uncomfortable and how to
| alleviate it, how to better adjust my fit when my body 's
| size changes, even a gym recommendation. The in-shop stylist
| was also very nice, but the hired stylist _got me through the
| door_ to the shop, and for _me_ at least, that was worth the
| $175.
| nixgeek wrote:
| Interesting, I have a preferred stylist at Nordstrom in
| Seattle and there's never been even a suggestion she would
| charge $175 (or anything) for services. Definitely possible
| to not take along your "hired help" and be successful!
|
| I spend 60-90 minutes with her a handful of times a year
| and it's been awesome - something I wish I'd started doing
| a decade ago in fact.
|
| I also never felt entirely happy with Stitch Fix, or
| shopping the racks myself in stores. It was harder for me
| to find items which work well together and which fit well.
|
| Nordstrom also tailors almost everything I buy in at least
| a minor way -- length of arms, waist size, length of leg.
| Really does make a difference.
| TurkishPoptart wrote:
| Serious question: Do you tip them? Is there an
| expectation to?
| nixgeek wrote:
| No, I've never tipped them. Once asked if that was
| expected and she said no.
|
| I believe Men's and Women's is 8-10% commission rate, but
| believe Kid's is higher. Shopping in Men's a single
| jacket from Armani runs about $1500-1800, formal trousers
| in the $350-500 range, decent jeans or shirts seem to be
| in the $150-250 range, tees they carry from e.g. Robert
| Barakett around $70.
|
| It adds up and I feel like it's hard to get out of there
| with a few new outfits for under $2000. It's worth using
| their loyalty program [1] and worth considering their
| store card, although "Icon" status means spending >$15k
| per year on their store card.
|
| If you end up liking Zegna then you're up into the
| stratosphere at $3500-5500/ea for many of their items.
|
| I guess it's possible tips are appreciated if you're
| going to visit, take an hour of their time and emerge
| with one $70 tee at the end? That's not been my shopping
| experience, I don't wear Zegna, but I usually buy a few
| pairs of Paige jeans and some Bugatchi shirts, perhaps a
| new merino wool pullover, probably some shoes. By the
| time I'm ready to spend 90 minutes in Nordstrom shopping
| and getting the tailor to measure for alterations, I'm
| usually looking for enough new stuff that the stylist
| will make $200-500 in commission.
|
| [1] https://www.nordstrom.com/browse/nordy-club/manage-
| card/icon...
|
| Edit: Oh, and worth knowing is Nordstrom does sales at
| the start of the AW season [2] for incoming items. It's a
| quirk, and it's worth timing some of your shopping to
| coincide because it'll save you 15-30% off a lot of
| items!
|
| [2] https://www.nordstrom.com/browse/anniversary-
| sale/details
| andix wrote:
| Usually they work for commission, at least where I shop.
| They either go to the cash register with you or put
| stickers with their personal number on the price tag.
|
| Which means they will give you the clothes with the
| highest commission, and are going to tell you that those
| look best on you.
| trynewideas wrote:
| I get it, and I've been back to that Nordstrom without
| the hired stylist and gotten advice from the in-shop
| stylist. I expanded my answer a bit, but I never would've
| gone _into_ the Nordstrom to shop if it hadn 't been for
| the hired stylist. I didn't know what I didn't know.
|
| Maybe $175 wasn't a good objective value for that, but
| for me, it worked.
| andix wrote:
| > I didn't know what I didn't know.
|
| I think that's a good point, some things are extremely
| obvious for some people and they don't need any
| consulting on that subject. Good for them, but it may not
| be obvious for other people. That's normal and that's
| fine.
|
| It is completely normal to hire a trainer for learning a
| new sport, why shouldn't you do that for other skills. If
| you're bad at picking clothes, you can easily spend way
| more than $175 on stuff that isn't comfortable and you
| will never wear.
|
| And if you look at people on the street, at least one
| third seems to be bad at shopping clothes ;)
| abnercoimbre wrote:
| You got a lot of _personal_ value precisely because of
|
| > I didn't know what I didn't know.
|
| so it was money well spent.
| kepler1 wrote:
| Is there not a simple "look book" that exists and gives you
| examples of where you can find / buy the kinds of clothes that
| you see and like? (hopefully for less than premium prices)
|
| I find it odd / annoying that all the clothing is made in low
| cost countries, but we need funnelers of information or access
| or recommendations who tack on a surcharge at every step until
| you're paying $50 for a simple t-shirt.
|
| I equally find it very strange that, for companies making and
| selling clothing, I can only imagine it costs very little much
| more to make good-looking clothing and copy the latest styles.
| Why does cheap clothing always seem to be so unstylish?
|
| Example: someone manufacturing a tie (if people wear those any
| more even), the material and labor scarcely costs more if it's
| ugly versus nice. Why are ugly ties still made?
|
| Puzzled.
| robotnikman wrote:
| Just looked up stitch fix to see what that was since I never
| heard of it. First results include news stories of the CEO
| stepping down and laying off 20% of its workforce in the last
| 24 hours. Ouch.
| sngz wrote:
| its not personalized. Funny story. My wife tried it out one
| time, and we went to meet up with a friend who we haven't
| seen in 5 years who just came back from working in Japan. The
| friend and my wife have vastly different body types, hair
| colors, height and style. Guess who ended up matching exactly
| in clothing for the night?
| schneems wrote:
| It's not personalized at all when I tried it about a year or
| so back.
|
| I signed on and in my intake explicitly said I wanted new
| shorts and I live in Texas so don't need jackets.
|
| They sent me a jacket and some shoes and shirts and no
| shorts.
|
| If you're looking to build out a whole new closet it might be
| okay if you just want whatever the current style is but if
| you want something specific it didn't look like a good
| product.
| sylens wrote:
| It was much better before they laid off the bulk of their
| stylists in 2020
| ptmcc wrote:
| Same experience.
|
| I put two notes in my profile, 1) that I have very fair
| skin so whites and off-whites are not a good look on me. 2)
| no polos, ever.
|
| My first box arrived with a white polo and a cream beanie.
|
| Could not cancel faster.
| PheonixPharts wrote:
| Which is hilarious since they were well known for having an
| insanely huge data science team supposedly working on
| really tough problems in personalization. They had a
| constant stream of (interesting) blog posts but I was
| always curious how much of that work really touched the
| product. AI/ML was supposed to be their big market edge.
|
| Not too surprised that didn't work out given my experience
| with every other company that had built out massive teams
| of largely inexperienced DS people.
| simonhamp wrote:
| My wife is a stylist and does an online-only version of this
| (and other related services) over at https://estilistas.co.uk/
| (hope no one minds the plug!)
|
| I'm always surprised how often her clients come back multiple
| times per year. She's had quite a few from the US and Canada
| too. She caters for men & women
| snmx999 wrote:
| CO2 sensors for every room in my apartment. Before monitoring the
| CO2 levels I did not realize the relation of tiredness, mental
| fatigue and high CO2 levels.
| kcb wrote:
| I recently bought one expecting to see something interesting
| and it mostly just stays stable all day, even with the door
| closed. Maybe my house has good ventilation.
| codemac wrote:
| In my case I have exceptionally drafty windows. The rooms
| with new windows all have CO2 elevate almost linearly with
| time human is in room.
| xcubic wrote:
| How did it actually improve things?
| snmx999 wrote:
| I know now when I have to open the window and let the air in,
| and consequently I feel less tired and have more energy.
| gardenhedge wrote:
| Did your home have poor ventilation? I don't know if I need
| to worry about this as each of my rooms has (modern I
| think) vents.
| preinheimer wrote:
| I thought our ventalation was fine. Then we got at CO2
| sensor for covid related reasons. When we replaced our 30
| year old windows the numbers went through the roof.
|
| We updated our air exchanger to fix the problem. Venmar
| and Vanee are two big brands in america.
| snmx999 wrote:
| I live in Germany, and here the houses generally don't
| have machine ventilation so one has to air manually and
| regularly. As an example: earlier today I closed the door
| to my office (ca. 18 m2 / 194 sqft). The window was
| closed. After 2 hours the CO2 levels rose from 935 ppm to
| 1966 ppm. Letting air in for 20 minutes reduced the CO2
| levels to 869 ppm.
| dzhiurgis wrote:
| My dad had a balanced heat recovery ventilation installed
| few years ago. I think it might be undersized a bit as
| it's somewhat loud when running at 100%. He doesn't like
| the noise so he runs it at 40% or so.
|
| After getting meter I found it's def not enough,
| especially in rooms with more people doing some activity.
| He still doesn't believe my meter is accurate tho.
| formvoltron wrote:
| CO2 in atmosphere: 0.04%.
|
| What sort of levels is it inside? Isn't it inert? (hence the
| problem of global warming)
| AdrianB1 wrote:
| In a room with poor ventilation it can go to several percent.
| moffkalast wrote:
| Which ones did you get? I've been thinking along similar lines
| recently, but they are somewhat expensive and it's hard to say
| which ones are even legit.
|
| So far the MH-Z19 modules are on the top of my list for pairing
| with an ESP or something and logging data to NAS but I've yet
| to order any.
| bartwe wrote:
| Airthings, expensive but just does the job perfectly.
| 5e92cb50239222b wrote:
| Senseair S8 paired with ESP-32 has served me well over the
| past 3 years, but they have to be exposed to outside air at
| least once a week or so. Otherwise they quickly lose their
| zero point and start reporting thousands of PPM as mere
| hundreds.
|
| I think other models with auto-recalibration also suffer from
| this (including MH-Z19). It's probably not a problem for you,
| but if you too live in an extremely polluted area and have to
| keep your windows shut for weeks at a time, it might be.
| snmx999 wrote:
| I got the Netatmo Smart Indoor Air Quality Monitors. They are
| somewhat expensive, but I got a good deal, 69 EUR a piece.
| They also monitor temperature, air humidity and noise levels.
| dzhiurgis wrote:
| I'm quite happy with Qingping Lite. Doubles as a clock, PM10,
| charges via USB-C.
| jimbobthemighty wrote:
| A Bamix immersion blender; powerful enough to blend frozen fruit
| in my morning smoothies and safe for a deep pot of soup that
| needs blending. Also makes top notch Hummus.
| mdaniel wrote:
| I only recently learned it's painless(?) to make oat milk with
| one of those; I got one of these (https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-
| Milker-Kitchen-Wooden-mortar/dp...) but realistically I think
| any deep container and then straining out the oat pulp with a
| normal sieve would be just as effective. I haven't tried it
| with alternative milks (soy, rice, almond) because I'm happy
| enough with oat milk and it is _incredibly_ inexpensive
| petepete wrote:
| I got a Bamix for Christmas last year, I used it nearly every
| day.
|
| The main things I use it for are frothing milk for lattes,
| making peanut and cashewnut butter and making soups of all
| kinds.
| thot_experiment wrote:
| UFO202 + Grado SR125x (I actually have the more expensive version
| of the same cans but the above just fits into $200, and in
| conjunction with an impulse response EQ deliver an incredible
| level of broad spectrum clarity for a relatively low price)
| devKnight wrote:
| Ergonomic mouse: Logitech Lift - 80 bucks
|
| Use to have cramps and pains in by hand, not nothing. Amazing
| purchase
|
| Its over 200, but Sony XM4s are great. I use it without ambient
| mode and noise cancelling, i think its the perfect amount of
| noise cancellation at least when working from home, and still
| wanting to be aware of surroundings(family members, dog, etc)
| cgsmith wrote:
| I switched to the Logitech M570 and can't go back. It works
| wonders.
| argentinian wrote:
| After trying vertical mouses, I'll never go back to regular
| ones. Regular ones cause pain in my wrist after using them for
| some time, while with vertical ones there's no wrist pain.
| holy_diver wrote:
| A bidet. We got one with heated water and seats and going to the
| bathroom feels super luxurious now. Not to mention all the toilet
| paper we save and increased hygiene.
| amyamyamy2 wrote:
| On days I don't work from home, I try to always use the
| bathroom at the office instead of at home because the bidet
| makes it so much nicer. It's a small thing but it makes me feel
| like royalty.
| bonestamp2 wrote:
| I've always wondered what people do with their wet butt after
| using the bidet... dry with a towel, smaller amount of toilet
| paper... what's the norm?
| koheripbal wrote:
| A little paper.
| WXLCKNO wrote:
| My model has a built in dryer. When I have time I let it dry
| for a minute before wiping while I mess around on my phone.
|
| Otherwise just a bit of extra paper on a first wipe is
| enough.
| SlackingOff123 wrote:
| In Italy, where bidets are really common, there's a
| designated towel for your butt.
| misterprime wrote:
| Does each person in the home get a monogrammed towel? I
| would be very uncomfortable sharing a butt towel, even with
| my spouse.
| barbazoo wrote:
| > smaller amount of toilet paper.
|
| this
| kepler1 wrote:
| Problem here is getting electrical to your toilet location? I
| was thinking about that too, but I didn't feel like making the
| leap to hiring an electrician to install / create a new outlet
| there.
| Natsu wrote:
| I use something called a Tushy. It's purely mechanical.
| Downside is it's not heated, but that's proven fine for me.
| Took me about 15 minutes to install and I'm no plumber. No
| leaks, though I did have to check for them during install and
| tighten things a bit to get it right.
| kepler1 wrote:
| Oh, interesting, but too bad -- the heated water makes such
| a nice difference (hah).
| nawitus wrote:
| You can buy a faucet that has a bidet connected to the
| mixer.
| tibbon wrote:
| 140 year old victorian home. I managed to run a new 12 gauge
| circuit to my second floor bathroom myself to get an outlet
| in the right place. Took me a few hours to puzzle through how
| to get the line up there without breaking open a wall, but I
| managed it in the end.
|
| Its going to be a _little_ tricky to get lines to the other
| bathrooms, but I'll figure it out when the time comes.
| GLGirty wrote:
| Search for 'Brondell swash nonelectric', available at costco
| and jeffazon. I have this and the electric version, and I
| find the non-electric is good enough and a fraction of the
| price.
| hdesh wrote:
| Once you bidet you never go back to paper. I even carry a
| portable one when I travel.
| stu2b50 wrote:
| What portable bidet do you use? I've found the ones I tried
| super weak.
| [deleted]
| Nemi wrote:
| Second this. I bought one and when we travel I wonder how
| anyone can live without it. Using a toilet without a bidet just
| seems uncivilized now.
| dabernathy89 wrote:
| which one did you get?
| Someone1234 wrote:
| What's your budget?
|
| If you want heated anything or a blower, you'll first need to
| consider how you'll get power to your toilet's location. If,
| however, a cold water bidet is fine then just grab a cheap
| LUXE.
|
| A TOTO WASHLET is still the gold standard though. That's what
| I own, and it has been great. Only thing I wish was slightly
| better was the blow-dryer. The pre-rinse/pre-mist is legit
| good in terms of keeping the toilet cleaner for longer.
|
| PS - Quick note about mechanical bidets like the LUXE, it has
| no sensors/safety features. So if a child goes in, turns it
| on, and runs away it WILL flood your home. TOTO and similar
| quality bidets automatically turn off the water when weight
| isn't detected on the seat.
| dabernathy89 wrote:
| Ah, I hadn't even thought about power. I'll probably need
| to go on the cheaper end.
| 650REDHAIR wrote:
| It's not a big deal. I have a flush plug, braided cable
| extension that neatly runs from near the outlet under the
| sink and out of the way.
|
| It's not perfect, but for >$20 it's a quick fix that
| didn't require an electrician. Heated water is 100000%
| worth it!
| hasbot wrote:
| Reddit _loves_ bidets. Has for years. Based on all the glowing
| comments, I bought one and installed it. Even after some
| practice and experimentation, I wasn 't clean nor felt clean.
| Plus, the bidet added numerous crannies for urine spray to
| accumulate. I went back to wiping and discarded the bidet.
| WXLCKNO wrote:
| I got an expensive one (~usd 1000) with a remote, heated
| water and seat, dryer, moving nozzle, etc.
|
| There's just no comparison with just wiping. I let it spray,
| wipe, spray quickly again and wipe clean. Takes thirty
| seconds.
|
| The real protip, which feels weirdly inappropriate for HN, is
| shaving down there.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _I got an expensive one (~usd 1000)_
|
| I've seen clamp-on versions in big stacks at Walmart for
| $25.
|
| I've always wondered how they would stack up, but been too
| chicken to try.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| > The real protip, which feels weirdly inappropriate for
| HN, is shaving down there.
|
| I've heard very much the opposite.
|
| Or at least, shaving down there makes it amazing for a day
| or two, but then the hairs start growing back and it's
| stubbly at first, which makes it INSANELY itchy.
| timeon wrote:
| Can waxing fix this?
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| > I've heard very much the opposite.
|
| What's the famous story about the guy who Nair'd this
| region as a joke/prank and he didn't realize the side
| effect of: the hair down there acts as a buffer for the
| scent so flatulence comes out much much worse?
| Gigachad wrote:
| My experience is that this happens the first few times
| and it gets less bad on regrowth each time.
|
| I did an experiment when I started shaving my legs where
| I only shaved one for a while and then later shaved both,
| only the one that hadn't been shaved multiple times was
| painful when the hair regrew.
| uuddlrlrbaba wrote:
| using an electric trimmer on the shortest setting will
| avoid itching and general skin irritation
| ValentineC wrote:
| > _Even after some practice and experimentation, I wasn 't
| clean nor felt clean. Plus, the bidet added numerous crannies
| for urine spray to accumulate. I went back to wiping and
| discarded the bidet._
|
| Serious question: why not both?
| Retric wrote:
| There's a wide range of how effective they are. Some people
| are happy with cheap toilet seat attachments but there's a
| reason people spend significantly more on expensive toilets.
| fluidcruft wrote:
| One thing is I find that it's really water pressure
| dependent. At least with the class of no-frills, not-
| expensive toilet attachment ones I buy.
|
| I moved recently and at the new house water pressure overall
| is noticably lower and it's far more difficult and slightly
| frustrating. If I hadn't learned/trained/experinced on higher
| water pressure I probably would agree with your assessment.
| weaksauce wrote:
| yeah if you accidentally put the dial a bit too high it
| will hurt on one that will clean properly.
| tbran wrote:
| Buy a 60 pack of soft towels [0] and you will be clean and
| dry. Did this based on a friend's rec and I'm never going
| back.
|
| [0]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TJ7646Z
| hokumguru wrote:
| Sorry, am I understanding correctly? As in a substitute for
| toilet paper? Do you have a bin of poopy towels that you
| have to wash each week?
| loeg wrote:
| You can spend a lot more than $200 on a fancy bidet toilet and
| IMO it was worth it.
| cheeze wrote:
| When I bought my house, the first two purchases were a super
| fancy bidet (Toto Ultramax II with an S550E+), and a fancy
| dishwasher.
|
| Best purchases ever.
| loeg wrote:
| Yeah, we got a Toto as well (Neorest 700H) :-).
| Beaver117 wrote:
| Absolutely. Splurge on a TOTO, $400+ may seem ridiculous but I
| can't go back to normal toilets now, its that good.
| Andrex wrote:
| > I can't go back to normal toilets now, its that good.
|
| Getting nature's call outside the house must be hell...
| tibbon wrote:
| Same. I want to put them on all of mine. Having a warmed seat
| is so nice in the winter!
| umrashrf wrote:
| I still like to use paper to dry after the bidet.
| stronglikedan wrote:
| I do too, but only because the warm air dryer gives my tushy
| a rash!
| jimhefferon wrote:
| Yes. Not to overshare but I find that failure to actively dry
| changes the biome back there; in short it can get itchy. Just
| pulling up and heading off is not enough (use a small towel).
| That said though, it is great.
| karaterobot wrote:
| I guess I'm a bit late for this thread, but this just occurred to
| me because I had to pick up a package: I got a little sign with
| the UPS, Fedex, and Amazon logos on it that says "deliver
| packages here". I put it on my porch, so that the guy drops the
| package where I can see it through the window. I think it cost
| $10.
|
| Before buying that sign, here are places where I've found
| packages:
|
| * My yard, helpfully hidden behind a flowerpot to fool thieves
| (and me)
|
| * My neighbor's yard for some reason
|
| * The sidewalk in front of my house
|
| * Right in front of my outward-opening door, so that the package
| blocked the door from opening.
|
| Ever since getting the sign (~6 months) all my packages have been
| dropped in exactly the right spot. I think the logos are
| important, because it draws the guy's attention.
| csixty4 wrote:
| A sleep blindfold with Bluetooth headphones built in. It helps me
| stay asleep until the alarm goes off, and listening to ambient
| music helps silence the thoughts that used to keep me up all
| night.
| implements wrote:
| An electric under-blanket - you can lower bedroom temperatures
| (saving money at current European gas prices) and be quickly cosy
| in bed. Pair with a plug timer and wake up cosy, too.
| petrolejboj wrote:
| Retroid Pocket 2+
| samsolomon wrote:
| This is a weird one--Fiskars 4-Claw Weeder
|
| https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fiskars-34-in-Aluminum-Handle-an...
|
| Our dogs are frequently out in the yard, so other than spring
| pre-emergent I try to avoid herbicides. I bought it after a hand
| weeder broke pulling up crabgrass.
|
| This thing has oddly been one of the most satisfying purchases
| I've made in years. You put it in the ground, step on it and the
| thing easily pulls out weeds and only in the spot you put it.
| Then you get to shoot them off the claw. I have a bucket I try
| and shoot them into. It's oddly therapeutic.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| These are great, and I use mine, but I discovered that much
| cheaper and more robust options exist which work as well. I
| actually found an all-metal option at around $40 CAD that my
| sister-in-law has was quite a bit nicer to use. So anyone
| interested in this, definitely look around!
| dcchambers wrote:
| I refuse to use herbicides for a variety of reasons (pets,
| kids, and our property backs up to a creek and I try my best
| not to contaminate) but I despise pulling weeds the old
| fashioned way. Can't believe I've never seen this before.
| Definitely getting one - thank you!
| jftuga wrote:
| This works great for me! I use it to rip out dallisgrass weeds,
| which can not be pulled out by hand and they are very hard to
| kill with chemicals (at least without also killing your grass
| as well). After using this, those weeds never come back as this
| device completely removes the entire root. Highly recommend.
| Totally agree about it being therapeutic!
| pchristensen wrote:
| These are so satisfying!
| anigbrowl wrote:
| Jetbrains IDE
|
| M5stack's line of ESP32 ucontrollers/peripherals
|
| Stupid cheap mass storage
| jimhefferon wrote:
| What mass storage?
| fortran77 wrote:
| NanoVNA
|
| OWON scopemeter
|
| FlipperZero
| tibbon wrote:
| I've been carrying around my FlipperZero, but aside from
| playing with some NFC cloning haven't found much _real_ use for
| it. What are some of the more fun things you 've done?
| anthomtb wrote:
| I purchased a $100 Insignia TV off Amazon and a stand for my
| trainer bike setup. Cycling workouts are far less tedious with
| YouTube or Netflix in front of you.
| tristor wrote:
| Bluffworks Chinos. I travel a lot for work and these are the
| first slacks I've owned that look professional rather than
| tactical/adventurous and actually travel well.
|
| On the more technical side of things, an Evoluent vertical mouse.
| Has made a massive improvement in my hand fatigue/pain.
| mdaniel wrote:
| I absolutely _love_ my Bluffworks jeans and I 'm sad they
| stopped selling them, but Ministry of Supply does sell them
| (although they're currently marked "final sale" so I'm guessing
| the end is near):
| https://www.ministryofsupply.com/products/mens-chroma-denim-...
|
| Here's another shout-out for the dress shirts made by both
| companies, if one has need of dress shirts
| thiht wrote:
| A new Kindle. I had an old model without screen light and really
| love the new one I bought. I love reading in my bed with the
| lights off.
| twerkmonsta wrote:
| ONO Roller
|
| An elegant little fidget/stress tool that is silent so perfect
| for use during meetings.
|
| https://onoroller.com/
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| It seems like there's been an explosion of fidget toys since
| the Fidget Cube and spinners gained popularity in 2016 and
| 2017.
| sowbug wrote:
| I gave up on flaky WiFi mesh networking and connected the APs to
| my home's inactive cable wiring using MoCA adapters. Local
| bandwidth increased 4x, and I was able to achieve solid coverage
| throughout the house.
|
| I also replaced a rock, a brick, and a rubber wedge with magnetic
| door holders, each about $5. Now when we're bringing in the
| groceries, we can keep the door open without the rock, and it's
| easy to close when we're done.
| supernova87a wrote:
| I helped my building build a simple PoE + wifi access points
| network and I was surprised at how cheap (~$150) it was and how
| effective. Makes me think that all the name-brand-Eero-style
| wifi extender stuff is pointless if you can take just a few
| more steps to install this kind of thing (which is not hard,
| but of course depends on your walls/configuration).
| ajyey wrote:
| Which mesh routing system did u have that was flaky? I just
| closed on a home and have been thinking about going mesh.
| Ideally would like most stuff hardwired but I'm being lazy
| rockostrich wrote:
| If the house already has coax ran but no ethernet then MoCA
| adapters really are the way to go. For some reason that's how
| my 2021 new construction house was built and now I have wired
| connections in all of the rooms that I care about.
| liquidwax wrote:
| Don't know how big of a home you have but I've been pitched
| mesh wifi but I realized I didn't really need it (~3k sqft
| home). My ~$150 Netgear router works perfectly fine. My
| recommendation is to see if a regular router works for you
| before you invest in mesh.
| sowbug wrote:
| Google WiFi (not the Nest ones with the built-in
| microphones). They're fine for most cases, but every so often
| I'd discover that one had gotten voted off the island,
| causing the remaining two in the mesh to deliver a weak
| signal to some of the house.
|
| Another problem with mesh networks in general is that they're
| very sensitive to placement, because they need to be able to
| see each other (in an RF sense, not visually) to form the
| backhaul. It adds an additional constraint on your physical
| topology beyond the regular one of wanting to use the laptop
| on the couch and in the kitchen. So you end up moving the
| mesh nodes to corners of the room where you didn't really
| want them to be, aesthetically. At a certain point you ask
| yourself whether it would have been easier to run the damn
| cable through the ceiling than to play musical chairs every
| few weeks.
| panphora wrote:
| I don't know which one OP uses, but I've heard great things
| about the NETGEAR Orbi Quad-Band WiFi 6E
| philjohn wrote:
| Honestly, I've tried a few myself, and none of them were that
| great. The Orbi was pretty fast, but the satellite needed
| rebooting every couple of weeks.
|
| I ended up going for in-ceiling AP's, having the house wired
| for Ethernet, and powering them with PoE. Now the network is
| faultless.
| lkois wrote:
| Ethernet over power is another good option. After messing
| about with bad wifi in a townhouse for a few years, EOP has
| been going strong for over a decade
| trafficante wrote:
| It's definitely superior to something like a wireless
| backhaul but, if you have the capability, I'd recommend
| coax any day vs powerline.
|
| Speeds are much faster and (more importantly) far more
| stable.
| karmakaze wrote:
| Me too. I was doing a bit of RTS gaming and flaky wifi is
| terrible. I got a $199 a Base/Satellite Netgear mesh starter
| kit (Mk62 I think) on some kind of discount. It's also not the
| latest/top model. I later added a 3rd satellite and it's great.
| The satellites even have an Ethernet port so that you're only
| using the base-satellite backhaul channel and not the normal
| wifi client ones.
| rockostrich wrote:
| How did you spend less than $200 on APs and MoCA adapters? Each
| MoCA adapter is like $50 and you need at least 2 of them to be
| useful. It seems like cheaper APs can run ~$30 but only support
| 2.4Ghz/300 Mbps.
|
| I just invested in 4 MoCA adapters and a Ubiquiti UDM/2 small
| APs (tall & skinny row home with 3 floors but now I get 500
| Mbps everywhere in the house including the roof) but it ran way
| over $200.
| easton wrote:
| Most of the mesh APs I've seen on the market also have
| Ethernet ports so you don't have to just extend the wireless
| signal around the house. So if OP already had the APs (which
| it sounds like they did), they just needed to get the MoCA
| adapters.
| sowbug wrote:
| Yup, that's what happened. They are $50 each on Amazon US.
| I think they even included short Ethernet cables, so I
| didn't even have to root around in the garage to find
| extras.
|
| FWIW, I got only the 1Gbps speed, rather than 2.5Gbps,
| because my fiber internet tops out at around 900Mbps and
| I'm the only one in my family who does anything substantial
| the local network. For once in my life, I might have enough
| bandwidth at home.
| MegaDeKay wrote:
| Can I ask what adapters you are using that cost you around
| $50? Here in Canada I am having trouble finding MoCA adapters
| that don't cost double that.
| sowbug wrote:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MQG6T61/ are $99.99
| for a two-pack.
| amalcon wrote:
| A Japanese-style _ryoba_ hand saw. I 'm a hobbyist woodworker,
| and I didn't believe the hype until I tried one myself. I just
| have a $30-ish one, and it's like night and day compared to any
| other hand saw I've used. Having ripping teeth on one side, and
| crosscut teeth on the other, alone is worth it. Then, you get
| into how much less force they require and how rarely they bind.
| IYasha wrote:
| Most of products I buy are used ones, so almost everything falls
| in under $200 :)
| AdrianB1 wrote:
| A coffee maker and a pair of motorcycle jeans. The coffee maker
| is extremely easy to use (with capsules and a single button),
| while the jeans is something I was considering for 15 years, I
| always thought they are too expensive but then I bought it and
| found it extremely versatile, comfortable and safe.
| BbzzbB wrote:
| A wheatbuck pillow.
|
| Like 50 bucks, keeps it's shape, keeps it's chills (regular
| pillows come stoves to me), keeps my head straight without
| folding a pillow in 4, keeps some support of my head why I tuck
| my arm under so I don't put much pressure on my shoulder.
|
| Been travelling for 3 months and carrying it, makes every bed a
| good bed.
| atomicnumber6 wrote:
| - Weighted Blanket
|
| - Kindle
| hnburnsy wrote:
| USB rechargeable arc candle lighter $12
| nfriend wrote:
| As silly as it sounds, this water warmer for baby bottles:
| https://a.co/d/hhJzLBn
|
| Nothing's worse than trying to mix the perfect water temperature
| at 3 AM while the baby is screaming, waking up the rest of the
| family. (We use pre-boiled water for the baby's bottles, so it's
| not as easy as adjusting a tap.) We bought this after we had our
| second baby and it's made feeding the baby slightly less
| stressful.
| ElijahLynn wrote:
| I got excited by this idea because I would like to use it for
| shaving gel...
| AyyWS wrote:
| My wife and I used various warmers and threw them all out for
| microwaving water. 8oz is 30 seconds. 6oz is 22 seconds. It's
| easy, fast and reliable every time.
| yonaguska wrote:
| I'm a big proponent of co-sleeping and breastfeeding. Of
| course, I'm the father, so it's less of an inconvenience for
| me. But much easier for mom to roll to her side and feed when
| the baby wakes up. We still use the bottle warmer when I'm the
| one caring for the baby and need to warm up some milk though.
| nmfisher wrote:
| Or you could do what we did, which is give the baby cold milk
| straight from the fridge. He didn't seem to mind, and now won't
| drink it any other way!
| nfriend wrote:
| True, that's the ideal scenario! We've tried room temperature
| milk in the past, but our baby refuses it :(
| aspyct wrote:
| To be fair, I wouldn't drink room temperature milk... Hot
| or cold, but definitely not in-between :D
| thatnerdyguy wrote:
| Exactly what we did with all 3 of our kids. Made a few
| bottles up ahead of time. The last time we were at the
| pediatrician with our youngest (who is now 7) and told that
| to the nurse she was a bit aghast :)
| unit_circle wrote:
| My wife and I have been using an electric kettle that can be
| set low (105degF) to heat bottles. It's not perfect, but it's
| good enough and nice not to have an extra appliance on the
| counter.
|
| We use this OXO kettle:
|
| https://www.oxo.com/categories/coffee-tea/brew/tea/adjustabl...
|
| I did some research and testing when buying it when our last
| kettle died... It's thermometer is accurate, it's 1500w and I
| like the interface.
|
| Hopefully this is useful to some apartment dwellers out there
| mertd wrote:
| We have the same one and used for the same purpose. The only
| complaint is I wish the temperature setting wasn't a rotary
| dial. Going back and forth between lukewarm (100) and coffee
| brewing temp (195) requires a lot of rotations which could be
| a few button taps.
| mattlondon wrote:
| We have a machine that just auto boils and doses the formula
| water at the right temperature. You can go from zero to a
| bottle ready to feed in under a minute. I am sure you can get
| an equivalent where you are.
|
| https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Tommee-Tippee-Perfect-Machine-Bla...
|
| Highly recommended.
| codemac wrote:
| We went with the baby brezza formula pro which mixes, warms
| water, and dispenses into the bottle all in one click. Worth
| the $, every time we travel we hate ourselves for not bringing
| it.
| User23 wrote:
| A water safe bathtub pillow.
| scottmcdot wrote:
| Stainless Steel Toothpaste Tube Squeezer. My plastic one broke
| and this looks nicer as well as more durable.
|
| Perma image: https://imgur.com/a/qVNMcQs
|
| eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/125026463849
| NoboruWataya wrote:
| A rice cooker. I was sceptical for a long time, because we can
| just cook rice in a normal pot? But the result tastes a lot nicer
| and feels surprisingly more convenient, and keeping rice warm for
| longer periods is also handy. As a result we eat a lot more rice
| (and are less tempted to just order in when we're feeling lazy).
|
| Also, a Hario V60 + Fellow Stagg EKG Kettle, really upped my
| coffee game. Though if you include the Timemore C2 grinder it
| probably comes to just over $200.
| pertymcpert wrote:
| It's one of those things that people from cultures that don't
| eat rice don't understand until they get one. There's a reason
| why every asian household has one.
| Ekaros wrote:
| Washing the rice is slightly annoying, but process otherwise
| couldn't be simpler. Get the measuring cup full of rice add
| water, maybe some bouillon and press button. Some bit later
| rice kept at temperature.
| joemountain wrote:
| +1 for rice cooker.
|
| I was anti-extra-appliance for a long time and firmly in the
| just-cook-rice-on-the-stove, but not anymore. We use the $20
| simple cooker to make rice, farro, sorghum, wheat berries, and
| all sorts of other grains which we can then simply add to
| almost anything to make a heartier meal.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| +1 for rice cooker.
|
| Definitely get the ones that have thermos-like insulation and
| can keep the rice warm for a long time.
|
| The really cheap ones have a "keep warm" feature that just
| burns the rice on the bottom.
| thefz wrote:
| I finally purchased a rice cooker. I enjoy rice a lot and it's
| heathier than pasta, plus it's kind of set it and forget it and
| you can prepare other food while it cooks. But the best part is
| that rice comes out perfect.
| warinukraine wrote:
| > it's heathier than pasta
|
| Would you care to expand on what this means?
| quadrature wrote:
| Also curious about this, rice (atleast white rice) has a
| higher glycemic index than pasta.
| thefz wrote:
| Apologies, I should have specified brown rice. Pretty high
| on the scale but not as high as pasta.
| warinukraine wrote:
| I'm convinced that saying "is healthier" on the basis of
| a one-dimensional score, is pretty much meaningless.
| meztez wrote:
| A commercial food scale from Kilotech; quicker, more robust,
| always on, stainless, larger scale area and clear display.
| tibbon wrote:
| A really nice car phone mount with Qi/wireless charging was great
| for me. I've _hated_ most of them I 've used, finding them flimsy
| or just awkward. With this, I just throw my phone on there and
| go.
|
| https://www.proclipusa.com/
| replwoacause wrote:
| A bidet
| iancmceachern wrote:
| A good fountain pen
| angry_moose wrote:
| Heated Mattress Pad. It's like an electric blanket built into
| your bed, with dual temperature zones and an on/off timer.
|
| As someone in a northern climate with a less-than-ideally
| insulated house its a life changer.
| dkarl wrote:
| This was a game-changer for me and my wife. Previous, I'd be
| laying naked on top of the covers, too hot to sleep, while she
| was under a thick comforter in pajamas asking me to turn the
| heat up another two degrees. Now she'll let me keep the house
| cool enough that I can even get under a sheet.
| bemmu wrote:
| Ordering frozen croissants online. Before going to bed you leave
| one in the oven. Wake up, turn oven on, hit the shower. When you
| come out, it's ready to eat = cafe experience at home, coffee and
| a croissant while checking the news.
| sva_ wrote:
| What a coincidence, just had one of those. Don't want to be a
| shill, but no need to order online. 4 for $5 at Trader Joe's.
| sigio wrote:
| Same, but with an air-fryer it's just 10 minutes from frozen to
| done, so I usually pick them from the fridge, put them in the
| airfryer, boil some tea-water, and then have tea and croisants
| for breakfast in 10 minutes.
| dougmwne wrote:
| Just tried these for the first time from TJ's and you are
| absolutely right!
| hstan4 wrote:
| TJ's are better than most cafes in the US for nearly $1 each,
| too good.
| TheRealNGenius wrote:
| [dead]
| Cerium wrote:
| This one is a big win. I (occasionally) buy Costco croissants
| and reheat them in the air fryer. It takes like 3 minutes on
| the 320 degree setting for a perfect experience.
| elil17 wrote:
| Costco will generally sell you the unbaked bakery items.
| TurkishPoptart wrote:
| Do you use the "air fry" setting or a reheat setting?
| Cerium wrote:
| I use a button with the icon of a bread on it. I guess it
| is air fry since my air fryer seems to only have one mode
| with fan and heat both on. That defaults to 320f, 8
| minutes, which is far too long in my experience.
| Temperature is about right, you want it as hot as you can
| go without burning.
| Kiro wrote:
| Curious why and how this is something that needs to be done
| online. Frozen food sounds like a bad thing to order online.
| bemmu wrote:
| Fair question. I live in Japan. Frozen deliveries work
| reliably, and I don't think we'd have frozen croissants at
| the supermarket.
|
| I order from a store that seems to mostly serve cafes based
| on their order sizes (their other products are things like a
| 13kg box of butter).
| askvictor wrote:
| Are these already baked then frozen, or raw pastry? I used to
| work in a cafe where we'd bake croissants from frozen (raw
| pastry) and they were pretty great.
| henryaj wrote:
| Raw pastry
| dabernathy89 wrote:
| Best croissants I've ever had in the States were from frozen
| (albeit from a local bakery, not from the grocery store).
| kristaps wrote:
| If your oven has an electronic timer, it should have a function
| to finish at time x, so you could even wake up to done ones.
| Great, for coming home from work to perfectly slow-cooked ribs,
| for example.
| tootie wrote:
| We buy these via local grocery delivery (FreshDirect) and they
| are parbaked. Straight from freezer to over and they come out
| very good.
| cmcconomy wrote:
| Now: put one in a waffle iron and sprinkle with brown sugar
| before dropping the lid, for a killer Croffle
| myth_drannon wrote:
| Costco has tasty and cheap frozen croissants
| saboot wrote:
| Are these the ones they bake? If so, would I ask them or are
| they in the frozen section
| camelboy wrote:
| they are in the frozen section. They usually come in box
| with 30 pieces.
| bichiliad wrote:
| There's always a lot, but a few things really helped me this past
| year (all less than $200):
|
| - I got one of those Stagg kettles[0]. I make a lot of pour-
| overs, and a nice kettle neck gave me a lot more control than I
| expected. Coffee tastes the same, but making it is more fun.
|
| - Not Boring's "Habits" app is fantastic[1]. I've been trying to
| nail down a meditation practice, and this finally did the trick
| for me. It helps me stay on task without making me feel guilty
| for it. I've been meditating consistently every day for a few
| months now.
|
| - I got a copy of "Salt Fat Acid Heat" and read the whole
| thing[2]. It's made me a lot more competent at cooking than I
| was, and now other cookbooks make more sense and are less
| daunting.
|
| [0]:https://fellowproducts.com/products/stagg-ekg-electric-
| pour-... [1]:https://www.andy.works/product/habits
| [2]:https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/
| Semaphor wrote:
| > Salt Fat Acid Heat
|
| Heh. Wanted that for Christmas a few years ago, somehow my mom
| got confused and got me the not exactly similarly named "the
| science of cooking", which ended up being in the same ballpark,
| and helped improve my cooking anyway :)
| Neff wrote:
| In a similar vein - Ratio by Michael Ruhlman does a great job
| of breaking down the _whys_ of recipes so you can start
| exploring and making things your own.
|
| https://smile.amazon.com/Ratio-Simple-Behind-Everyday-
| Cookin...
| torstenvl wrote:
| I bought my first robot vacuum and it's pretty great (eufy 11S
| for $110).
|
| It is as dumb as these things come. It has no navigation other
| than IR on the front to not bump into things. It doesn't connect
| to wifi. I'm not concerned about it sharing data because it has
| no way to do so.
|
| I turn it on once or twice a week as I'm about to leave for work.
| When I come home my floors are in decent shape. It saves me about
| an hour a week on sweeping.
|
| Minimum wage here is $12/hour so even if that's what I made, it
| would pay for itself in less than ten weeks.
| justinsaccount wrote:
| We have that one and accidentally programmed it to run first
| thing in the morning. Turns out that works pretty well. Acts as
| a bit of an alarm.. runs from like 7:30 to 8:30 or so. Manages
| to completely fill itself up with pet hair every other day.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| I thought about getting a robot vacuum, but I have long-haired
| cats which are prone to coughing up hairballs, and I don't want
| my cleaner to smear one of those all around the room.
| tootie wrote:
| Higher-end models can handle not only pet hair, but they are
| much pricier.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| Fancier models use a camera to detect all kinds of shit
| (literally) so they can avoid it.
|
| Not counting the hairball issue, a robot vacuum is perfect
| for a home with hairy pets, cuts down on the amount of random
| pet hair everywhere quite a bit. Just have it run every
| weekday on a timer so you don't forget.
|
| Psychologically it's easier to just run through the house and
| throw stuff out of the robot's way than it is to chase it
| down and poke it to stop running - and then YOU have to
| vacuum manually =)
| winrid wrote:
| A vacuum canister for oil changes. Just sucks the oil out of the
| dipstick tube. Great for environment and my back. Best $50 spent
| this year.
| h4waii wrote:
| Make sure to drain out the oil pan drain plug every once in a
| while to get the small shavings which should be stuck to the
| plug -- it's magnetic to hold on to them.
| winrid wrote:
| If you have that many shavings, motor is toast anyway.
|
| Not every car has a magnetic drain plug. Most cars I've owned
| didn't.
|
| Also, there's a reason you have an oil filter. The shavings
| don't go into the motor. Oil pump, maybe, but that's a given.
| scott-smith_us wrote:
| Sodastream. I was tilting back five or six cans of diet soda
| every day. The cost and caffeine were getting to be a problem.
| throwaway743 wrote:
| Logitech Master MX 3. Perfect for anyone with bigger hands that
| ache after a while of mild mouse usage. Also, long/free and side
| scroll features are super nice.
| plutoplanet wrote:
| This HOCl generator has been amazing for removing household odors
| and reducing cleaning supply usage. Lots of applications. Great
| hack for natural cleaning supplies.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0B26KK4K2
| hiidrew wrote:
| electric toothbrush is so worth it, and made me realize how much
| pressure I was putting on my teeth when brushing.
|
| and a tushy bidet is one of the greatest sub-$100 purchases you
| can make. easy set-up and nice to be clean down there.
| tibbon wrote:
| Having a UMIK-1 measurement microphone for use with REW (or
| similar) has been really great for my year. I'm building a
| recording studio at home, and having the quick ability to capture
| and measure data about my room over time has been fantastic. I've
| also used it to measure the volume of some things, and profile
| why a few of the rooms in my house were too echoey which led to
| remediation techniques.
|
| https://www.minidsp.com/products/acoustic-measurement/umik-1
|
| I also got a FLIR infrared camera, which was a little bit more
| than $200 - but there are cheaper models that would have done the
| trick just as well realistically. My home was built 140 years
| ago, and some ability to inspect heat-creating things through
| walls has been useful.
|
| Another really useful one in this price range was a Logitech MX
| ERGO trackball. I like how it requires less space and solid
| surface than any mouse. I also like the angle it puts my hand at.
| Multiple device support is good.
| stevekemp wrote:
| I'm gonna go against the grain here and list non-technical
| things!
|
| I bought some new plants for my home, which makes the place feel
| a lot nicer.
|
| I bought some outdoor-trousers - things that go on top of your
| jeans - when it is cold they keep me warm, and I can now roll
| around in the snow without getting wet as a nice bonus. (-10degC
| here today). That said it was only a couple of weeks ago that I
| came out of a sauna and rolled around naked in 30cm of snow.
| Bracing!
|
| Other household things that have made my life nicer have included
| some decent concrete-bolts screwed into my walls and ceiling. Now
| I can hang plants, have an indoor hammock, and a hammock-chair
| too.
|
| Finally I've started buying random paintings whenever I go to
| visit charity/thrift stores. Each time I go I buy a single
| painting, it must be "amateur", and it must have an artist
| signature and date on it. At the moment I've got a wall with
| about eight of these paintings hung on it. All different styles,
| colours, and levels of "goodness", but together they all look
| good, rather than a garish mismash. Kinda fun.
| victor106 wrote:
| > outdoor-trousers - things that go on top of your jeans
|
| Which ones?
| bmelton wrote:
| By 'outdoor trousers' I assume you mean what
| hikers/backpackers/winter-folk would refer to as a 'hard
| shell?'
|
| Just came back from an exceptionally cold vacation to Iceland
| and realized that despite years of backpacking and hiking in
| temperate weather, I knew not nearly enough about layering for
| truly cold weather.
| AuryGlenz wrote:
| There are also "snow pants."
| dublinben wrote:
| It sounds like these were also insulated, so they might have
| been more like a soft-shell snow pant.
| jerkstate wrote:
| > I bought some new plants for my home, which makes the place
| feel a lot nicer.
|
| I second this. My wife went through a health scare (she's fine
| now) early in 2022, during which she was a little depressed.
| one of her outlets was to go to home goods or lowes and buy
| house plants - one or two at a time, every week or two. those
| stores have pretty generous return policies if you kill the
| plant - homegoods 30 days, lowes - a full year!
|
| I think we have about 25 houseplants now including a couple of
| large ficus and fan palm trees, she waters them all at once on
| the weekend and it doesn't take much time at all, maybe 15 to
| 30 minutes per week; there are some annual maintenance tasks as
| well like re-potting but the return on time investment is
| really fantastic. Guests always comment how lovely it is in our
| living room surrounded by plants, and she has a new hobby of
| propagating the houseplants and giving new plants as gifts. All
| in all, I'm sure it's more than $200 in total, but if you find
| good deals, $200 can probably buy between 5 to 15 very nice
| houseplants.
| lawlorino wrote:
| Hi from another Brit living in Helsinki! In the same spirit as
| your trousers (toppahousut?) this year I bought myself a pair
| of Icebug boots for handling the icy footpaths after last
| winter's horror show. Best purchase I've made this year I
| think.
| Rumel57 wrote:
| Kindle Paperwhite. I increased my reading so much with it.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| This was my 2020 buy that was a game changer. I really, really
| love the e-reader experience. Being able to dim it down at
| night and read myself to sleep is very pleasant.
| littledev wrote:
| The Zendure Passport III worldwide travel adapters changed my
| reality in 2022 (~$70). It sounds boring, but man. I've had many
| worldwide plug adapters in my day, and many chargers. But the
| Zendure has a 65W USB-C fast charger in it, plus 3 more USB-C and
| a single USB-A. When I travel (and that includes "traveling to
| the coworking place"), I used to bring:
|
| * A plug adapter
|
| * My big ol' laptop charger brick and cord
|
| * A medium-sized USB-A charger for phone, headphones, power bank
|
| * A USB-C charger for iPad, Kindle
|
| * A small power strip because I had to plug several things in
|
| Now I just bring the single Passport III adapter. Done. It has a
| single power outlet pass-through, but I haven't even needed it
| because the only thing I ever plug in is chargers.
| iLoveOncall wrote:
| This couldn't read more like a paid ad.
| advisedwang wrote:
| This is a thread of product recommendations, a list of
| features and why you like a product is definitely
| appropriate.
| iddan wrote:
| For us in FlyCode it's Stigg (https://stigg.io). Really
| streamlined the way we manage subscriptions and define pay
| blocks. Saved us about two weeks of development work (and we are
| still pretty small!)
| gennarro wrote:
| Not the first to say this but: Sodastream. I wanted glass bottles
| so I didn't think a sodastream was possible for me but it turns
| out there is a glass bottle Sodastream and Lu can get it on sale
| for a bit above $100. I have bottles and haven't spent a penny on
| Perrier since buying it. Plus I can take advantage of my fancy
| home water filter.
|
| Reference: https://helpatmyhome.com/which-sodastream-and-soda-
| makers-ha...
| koheripbal wrote:
| There are DiY videos for going the cheaper route and just
| buying a large CO2 canister that will last you a couple years
| and hook it up to the same device after buying a couple valves.
| It's on my project list after I finish my kitchen reno.
| birdman3131 wrote:
| Its easy to use dry ice to refill a soda stream as well.
| tootie wrote:
| I've seen these, but have no idea how to acquire dry ice.
| weaksauce wrote:
| Not sure where you are but most big grocery stores will
| have them at the front or the meat department in a
| special bin. just ask for how much you want and they dish
| it out. i know ralphs/kroger/staterbrothers should have
| them.
| [deleted]
| hcs wrote:
| Small round wire sieve that fits on top of a mug, < $20 at the
| supermarket. I'd bought various devices intended as tea strainers
| before, but they were hard to clean and didn't let the leaves
| drain properly. A small thing, but it's meant a lot less
| irritation.
| x0x0 wrote:
| I've used one of these daily for 5+ years. You, or others, may
| like it too :) It's a metal basket perfectly sized to fit in a
| medium-sized mug, to make loose-leaf tea one cup at a time.
|
| https://www.harney.com/products/brew-in-mug-extra-fine-tea-i...
| hcs wrote:
| Yeah I have one like that (Oxo brand), the sieve seems to
| work better for me.
| going_ham wrote:
| Getting split keyboards. They are the best. The only regret: I
| didn't buy it sooner.
| 100k wrote:
| I also upgraded to a split keyboard and I love it. I really
| liked the Microsoft Natural keyboard, but slamming my mouse
| into the number pad was driving me crazy, so I decided to get a
| split keyboard without one. I have the Kinesis Freestyle Pro.
| As a bonus the mechanical keys are nice to type on! My only
| complaint is it takes a moment to get it dialed in for
| placement if it's been moved.
| max_hammer wrote:
| Which split keyboard ? I was also looking for one, all pre-
| build starts from #350
| stonecharioteer wrote:
| The lily58 is easy to build and will cost you less than 200.
| Xcelerate wrote:
| - $15 heat gun for lighting charcoal. Cheaper and faster than the
| alternatives, no unsavory extra flavors
|
| - Small Korin Konro. To go with the charcoal. Use this all the
| time for grilling small amounts of meat.
|
| - Pasta noodle drying rack to use for hanging kitchen wash
| clothes and dish rags
| throw1234651234 wrote:
| A solid computer chair mat that doesn't bunch up or shed. $15
| wireless phone charger.
|
| I don't buy anything, but these basics helped. Things over that
| amount that I think would be meaningful - good vacuum, good
| screen, good chair. Renting dumpster to throw away junk.
| Nemi wrote:
| I am not trying to derail the conversation, but I just have to
| comment on the product you listed.
|
| I am clearly not the target market (I think?), but that marketing
| video on their home page "describing" what this is, has to be one
| of the worst marketing videos I have ever seen. I watched it and
| still have no idea what it does. I am guessing it allows you to
| switch the app that you are streaming? I give up...
|
| https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck-mk2
|
| EDIT: I am getting downvoted but I am going to leave this up. I
| am really not trying to be overly negative, but I feel like this
| is a missed opportunity for a company that has clearly created
| something creative that appeals to a certain market niche.
|
| I know that sometimes it is hard for someone that is passionate
| about their product and wants to create good marketing material,
| but has a hard time describing things to those "outside" their
| circle. Hopefully they see this feedback and can use it to
| further expand their product's reach.
| thiht wrote:
| It's basically physical buttons you can customize. I use mine
| with a few useful shortcuts:
|
| - a global mute button
|
| - a screenshot button
|
| - a button to show/hide my terminal
|
| - and a few others depending on the focused app
| flappyeagle wrote:
| It allows you to program macros for streaming. Things like
| reconfigure your screen share, change the audio input levels
| and source, anything that you can imagine a television producer
| might want to do for their broadcast.
|
| It presents an array of hardware buttons with small displays in
| them to let you do all of that easily in a live broadcast
| environment.
| dvirsky wrote:
| Waterpik water flosser! I can't believe I didn't get something
| like that earlier. It's so effective and useful. Best purchase of
| the year for sure.
| jmcomets wrote:
| For me it was a watch.
|
| I bought a Fitbit Charge 4, originally to track my heart
| rate/steps since I've never owned one and always relied on my
| phone for time.
|
| With my phone generally on silent and by not checking it so
| often, I've found my use of social media/apps has reduced
| drastically this year. To the point that I recently forgot my
| phone at home, something that I didn't imagine possible.
| megamark16 wrote:
| I didn't buy this, I inherited it from my dad, but now that I
| have one, if it broke I would immediately go replace it, and
| that's a nice DeWALT cordless drill combo, with two batteries and
| a charging station. In the past I have always had cheaper
| cordless drills, because spending $150+ on a cordless drill
| seemed kinda silly, but I use this thing all the time,
| everywhere, for all sorts of stuff.
| pcurve wrote:
| +1 for the cordless drill. I don't use it every month. But when
| I need it, oh I need it.
|
| Reciprocating saw is also useful to have it lying around,
| especially if you live in a single family home.
| theshrike79 wrote:
| I always have two drills: One for making holes, one for
| screwing stuff to said hole.
|
| Saves _so_ much time if you need to do more than a single hole
| + screw.
| klinquist wrote:
| I use the Dewalt impact driver for the latter.
| nucleardog wrote:
| Would definitely recommend for anyone that does more than the
| bare minimum. Or anyone that only does the bare minimum but has
| some cash to spare.
|
| The gap in reliability, quality and functionality between the
| little Ikea drill or $50 Black and Decker and even a low end
| Dewalt is _huge_. The gap between that and a $300+ drill is
| _mostly_ in longevity and its ability to stand up to sustained
| abuse.
|
| Keep an eye out around father's day. There's pretty
| consistently sales on tools, or at least some sort of deal. I
| picked up tools up on fathers day a while back and it was was
| on sale _and_ included two extra free batteries. The batteries
| charge quickly enough that I've never been able to run them
| down before the other could charge.
|
| I fought with cheap power tools for years before I finally bit
| the bullet and I regret not doing it sooner.
| tibbon wrote:
| When I bought my house I went deep into battery powered tools
| (Ryobi, but I think its all similar). I have 2-3 drills and 2
| impact drivers. It is really nice to not need to change bits
| often, and with my ADHD having a few sitting around in the room
| where I'm actively doing heavier work is nice too. Lots of
| batteries, handful of other tools from them.
|
| Having multiple of some seemed very silly, but it really is so
| useful!
| pcthrowaway wrote:
| ChatGPT
| voyager1 wrote:
| - standing desk; standing burns twice more calories than sitting;
| I went with Ikea's Trotten model for 220EUR (its cheaper but
| requires a lot of manual hand rotation to change the height and
| it forced me to stand up longer; it was hard for me to stand and
| work and because I don't have a simple button to lower the desk,
| it forced me stand up longer)
|
| - tennis ball to massage my back by leaning with it on the wall
|
| - laptop stand, external keyboard and external trackpad; for
| better posture during standing and sitting; trackpad is more
| comfortable for me than mouse)
|
| - vitamin D supplements for the winter
|
| - smartwatch or smart band to keep basic track of sleep and
| fitness; I went with Xiaomi Mi Band 6
|
| - smart weight to keep track of my weight and set goals; I went
| with Mi Body Composition Scale
| vegasje wrote:
| I had been using a laptop stand for a long time, but just
| upgraded this week to a laptop desk mount.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BDQQVN2?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_prod...
|
| This has been a total game changer for me, as I could never
| find a stand that would get the laptop up as high as I wanted.
| My posture has never been better!
| fakeTitsLookSad wrote:
| I bought a used sim racing wheel + pedals for 100EUR. Very much
| worth it, I havent had that much fun gaming in years.
| mattrighetti wrote:
| I finally taught myself touch-typing and a month later I bought a
| Corne split keyboard that I built myself. Game changer
| nicolaslem wrote:
| I did the same in 2022 and I managed to rewire my brain to
| switch from AZERTY to QWERTY. I used typingclub.com and
| practiced 20 minutes each day for a couple of months. Enough to
| get the good habits in muscle memory.
| c0wb0yc0d3r wrote:
| What process did you go through to teach yourself?
| mattrighetti wrote:
| I used [0] every night for 1 hour, it's a website that's
| going to build your muscle memory by small steps. If you
| commit to it you'll get pretty good in a month, for a friend
| of mine it took even less than that!
|
| [0]: https://keybr.com/
| argentinian wrote:
| I used the same, that site is all that's needed to learn.
| flyingfences wrote:
| For me, what worked was switching to a new layout (QWERTY ->
| Colemak) which made looking down entirely useless. Tape a
| printout of the new layout to the _top_ of your monitor for
| the first few days until you 've got it, no matter how slowly
| you're typing, then go cold turkey. Some time later I went
| back to QWERTY in the office and was able to pick up touch-
| typing that layout without much thought or trouble; now I can
| jump back and forth between the two. Colemak feels a lot more
| ergonomic, too, as an added benefit.
| aloukissas wrote:
| Logitech Lift mouse ($57.47 shipped). Tossed the highly non-
| ergonomic Magic Mouse that was starting to give me hand/wrist
| pain. Having also used the MX Master 3 before, I even prefer the
| (cheaper) Lift. 200% recommend.
| samwillis wrote:
| The Magic Mouse is the most F-ing stupid design, it makes me
| embarrassed for the Apple designers, and I'm a fully paid up
| Apple user.
|
| I have a MX Master 3 is by far the best mouse I've used,
| proudly sits on my desk covered with Apple products...
| sngz wrote:
| did you have to install the software to use the mx master 3?
| i've been reading a lot of negative reviews about the
| software eating up a ton of resources, but without the
| software things like horizontal scrolling doesnt work etc.
| samwillis wrote:
| I did, and I haven't noticed any issues with resource
| usage.
|
| I only really use it for CAD, most of the time I use the
| touchpad on my MacBook as I prefer the ergonomics of the
| keyboard+touchpad even when plugged into multiple screens.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| Magic Mouse wasn't designed to feel good, it was designed to
| _look_ good. It 's a fashion accessory disguised as a
| peripheral.
| eternityforest wrote:
| Google Assistant. I had a smart clock for years but only now got
| the full benefit now that I've switched to Keep and Calendar for
| so many things rather than using various notes apps.
|
| My Kobo Libra 2 reader has been great. Although sometimes I wish
| I'd bought a Kindle or waited for the Scribe, because Kobo books
| often cost more than Kindle books, and it seems like Kindle has
| better sideloading support now.
|
| Wall mount hooks. Now that they have nicer looking ones with
| drywall anchors instead of the old eye hooks, I've found lots of
| uses for them.
| lfodofod wrote:
| > it seems like Kindle has better sideloading support now.
|
| For books? Hasn't Kindle always had _amazing_ sideloading
| support? I think even over a decade ago you could just email
| your pirated books to a kindle.com email address to have them
| automagically show up on the kindle.
| johnmaguire wrote:
| The email method still works for epub, although mobi/azw
| can't be emailed anymore.
| pph wrote:
| Getting the files on it is ok, but library management sucks
| because Kindle doesn't show the folders.
|
| Caveat: My experience is from an older model, so that might
| have improved.
| owlglass wrote:
| Second this. The Kindle is also much faster for me when
| clicking on footnote links (on sideloaded books).
| askvictor wrote:
| Kobo is great as you can connect it to your local library and
| borrow books from there.
| argentinian wrote:
| A buckwheat pillow. Not perfect and not for everybody, but I
| prefer it over other pillow types I tried.
|
| It goes well with a High Density Foam Mattress. I never wake up
| with low back aches since I started using a mattress of this
| material.
| ed_at_work wrote:
| A pair of Sennheiser Hd58x's from Drop. I never want to use ear
| buds again. Really loving the 'open back' experience, makes me
| feel less claustrophobic and the sound quality is amazing. Really
| enjoying just sitting around listening to music again.
| lucb1e wrote:
| Space heater, 20 bucks. In the past I chose to heat the bedroom a
| little on cold days and otherwise suck it up and dress while
| shivering (no point burning a ton of gas to heat an entire
| bedroom). Now, I use 1.5 kW for ~3 minutes (0.01 kWh) to have hot
| air be blown on me while getting dressed in the morning.
|
| Because it changes how warm I feel while going downstairs, I also
| don't need downstairs to be as warm to get warmed up again. I'm
| already warm and can sit in a normal temperature room to work.
|
| ---
|
| Air purifier (40 bucks on offer I think). We got it for unrelated
| reasons, it didn't help for that. Unexpected uses:
|
| 1. Neighbours' smoke occasionally comes into our apartment
| somehow and now I can do something about it. Before, I would just
| suck it up and try to convince myself that the little residue
| coming through whatever wall isn't going to impact my health.
|
| 2. This winter, people seem to like to heat the house with
| whatever old painted glued rotting wood they can find (or maybe
| also dead bodies, it's hard to tell). I can wait a few hours, but
| if it doesn't clear up and I want some fresh air before sleeping
| then what I do is open the bedroom window wide for a few minutes
| to replace the air, doors closed, then close window and turn on
| purifier on high for 30+ minutes, and then go back in there to
| sleep.
| lfodofod wrote:
| I took this even further, put air purifiers in most rooms and
| hooked them up to air quality sensors.
|
| Mostly they run on the very quiet setting (or not at all), but
| they'll automatically spin up if someone cooks, farts, opens a
| window or hits a vape pen.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| Also add a CO2 sensor (not CO, carbon monoxide, but carbon
| dioxide). It is staggering how much CO2 is emitted when
| sitting in a room working and which literally makes your mind
| react slower and make you more dumb, essentially.
| jiaaro wrote:
| Agreed, I use the cheapest monitor on this page (currently
| $69 USD) - a little awkward to change the settings, but
| runs on USB power, monitors CO2 and temperature, and beeps
| when you exceed a (configurable) threshold so you know to
| open a window. I keep it next to my desk
|
| https://www.co2meter.com/collections/desktop
| fellowniusmonk wrote:
| What sensors do you use? I have a bunch of air filters but
| just leave them running all the time.
| lfodofod wrote:
| I use airgradient sensors.
|
| On the other hand, instead of DIY you could just buy air
| purifier units with integrated air quality sensors. A
| friend of mine uses these, they appear to work very well
| https://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/AC2936_33/2000i-series-air-
| pur...
| Spivak wrote:
| Also don't stress yourself out about air purifier
| quality. The only thing that matters is the disposable
| filter and the difference between cheap and expensive is
| how fast they can move air through it. They all reach the
| same destination.
|
| Buying a purifier that can fit standard sized "box"
| filters will save you $$ in the long run.
| lfodofod wrote:
| There are aesthetic concerns, it's harder to have a bunch
| of air purifiers spread around your home if they're ugly
| as sin.
|
| Having one very powerful air purifier hidden away in
| another room is not as good as having a bunch of smaller
| ones spread around.
| skhameneh wrote:
| Not exactly, price increases with some certifications and
| branding. In the high end of purifiers, they can handle
| much smaller particulates and gasses (e.g. carbon matter
| measured by dozens of lbs with replacement filters
| costing hundreds). The most effective filters for general
| use will have higher CFM. CFM also decreases with smaller
| particulate filtering. Unless you're spending ~$1k+, most
| activated be carbon seems to wear out faster than it's
| worth considering.
|
| Overall, yes, a cheap box filter (placed specifically in
| the bedroom, if limited to one room) is often the most
| effective.
| [deleted]
| lfodofod wrote:
| > Unless you're spending ~$1k+
|
| Speaking of expensive air purifiers, you can often find
| excellent deals on used IQair units. I got 4 GC Multigas
| units from a local museum for 100 euros each.
|
| I have an alert set up on the local craigslist equivalent
| and constantly get emails.
| ornornor wrote:
| Aren't the filters super expensive though? I see the ones
| for the health pro listed at 115.- each.
| 411111111111111 wrote:
| I got a Philips air purifier with such a sensor, it's a
| different one though (it's oval and just white at the
| sides).
|
| I would not recommend it purely because they decided to
| use an extremely poor touch interface for control which
| quiet often doesn't register when I try to manually
| adjust something like shutting the unit down temporarily
| or resetting an error code
| lfodofod wrote:
| Honestly, that still sounds like a minor inconvenience
| compared to DIY. Those things seem pretty set-and-forget
| beyond filter replacements.
| aabceh wrote:
| Air purifiers create ozone which is dangerous.
| skhameneh wrote:
| This only applies, in general, to purifiers with ionizers
| that release positive ions.
| lfodofod wrote:
| How does that work? Does the electric motor of the fan put
| out meaningful amounts of ozone?
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| You are confusing purifiers with ionizers.
| Rebelgecko wrote:
| Mine has an ozone button, are you saying even if that's
| turned off it's still making ozone?
| jenscow wrote:
| > automatically spin up if someone cooks, farts, opens a
| window or hits a vape pen.
|
| I guess it will be on all the time for me.
| dajonker wrote:
| Your math is off by a lot. 1.5 kW for 3 minutes is 0.075 kWh.
| satvikpendem wrote:
| When I used to mine cryptocurrency, I ran the miners as my
| space heater too. Now with gaming PCs and GPUs pulling up to
| 1.5 kW as well, I just use my computer, running GPU tasks,
| plying games, etc, when I need some warmth. It works well and
| at least the miner and computer were doing useful work rather
| than simply shedding heat.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| > Space heater, 20 bucks.
|
| Which probably produced just as much heat as a $200 space
| heater. Technology Connections did a great video on that.
| https://youtu.be/V-jmSjy2ArM
|
| I used to occasionally run a space heater under my desk on low
| because my legs and feet would get cold. It felt nice and cozy,
| but eventually I just got used to putting on socks and pants.
| angry_moose wrote:
| I posted this separately, but look into a heated mattress pad
| too. Its life changing for cold climates. Direct heat into your
| covers makes it so much cozier.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| Heh, I'm the opposite. I want a mattress _cooler_.
|
| I stay up later than my wife and like to go to lay in a cool
| bed. She likes it warm. So we compromised and got a mattress
| warmer for her, and I have the heat set to drop by several
| degrees at like 11 PM.
|
| But then she gets up at like 7 AM (6 AM on workdays), and
| she'd be freezing, so I have the heat set to turn back up at
| 6 AM, which means if I wake up, I find myself roasting and
| can't get back to sleep.
| orzig wrote:
| A keyboard tray, that attached to my desk, I never realized how
| many of my frustrations were just the slightly awkward ergonomics
| of my keyboard being a few inches too high
| moffkalast wrote:
| I've had a tray for years but I've only ever used it to store
| the keyboard when not in use. Typing this from the tray now and
| it sure feels interesting.
| xwowsersx wrote:
| So true. Thanks for reminding me, I really need to get myself a
| tray. I have the autonomous standing desk and even at its
| lowest height, the keyboard is still too high. The only way I
| can get the angle of my arms/hands to feel normal is if I raise
| my chair really high, but then that comes with its own issues.
|
| Which keyboard tray did you get?
| factsarelolz wrote:
| I have an autonomous standing desk (only company I could find
| march of 2020 that sold solid 71" long desks that are over
| 30" wide/deep).
|
| The lowest setting on mine is 26.0", that's still too high? I
| would imagine a keyboard tray would drop it another 2-3
| inches setting your keyboard below 24" from the floor.
| xwowsersx wrote:
| Also, the lowest setting on my desk is 29.5"
| https://ibb.co/DWtpKRd
| factsarelolz wrote:
| Sent an email to the one listed in your profile.
| xwowsersx wrote:
| I believe we have the same desk. It's the 70.5" x 30" XL
| classic. I just measured the height from the floor to the
| surface of the desk and it's 29". Maybe I'm doing something
| wrong. If I raise my chair up higher so that my arms aren't
| angled up, my feet are no longer flat on the floor and
| they're dangling which is uncomfortable. Part of the
| problem might be my Kinesis keyboard which is raised up a
| bit. I have the adjustable stands on them and just lowered
| them which seems to help a bit. The other issue is that
| when I raise the seat up enough to have my arms at the
| right angle, my monitor is then too low even at its
| highest. I might be able to solve that my putting some
| books underneath it.
|
| Here's what I'm working with: https://ibb.co/MGqcpxc
| (excuse the mess and wires)
| [deleted]
| silverlake wrote:
| I'm surprised keyboard trays aren't more popular. I use a
| tenkeyless keyboard to bring the mouse closer, prevents awkward
| bending at the elbow. However, most trays require a long track
| attached under the desk. But most desks have support beams that
| get in the way.
|
| Ergonomics: https://uhs.umich.edu/files/uhs/ergo.pdf
| Foxcoditrad54 wrote:
| Upgraded to a standing desk last year. At first I didn't add my
| existing keyboard tray since the desk height can be adjusted
| for correct keyboard ergonomics. Very soon identified some
| problems:
|
| 1. My display cannot be adjusted high enough (this can be fixed
| by putting a book under the display).
|
| 2. Keyboard and mouse take up valuable space on the desk.
|
| 3. (most important) Display is physically closer and occupies
| more of my field-of-view. After a day of work this made me
| dizzy.
|
| So now I'm happily using the keyboard tray again.
| dabernathy89 wrote:
| - Waterpik - i have 2 implants (molars) and i'm disgusted at how
| long I went without the waterpik. It gets stuff out that brushing
| & floss just can't.
|
| - Baratza Virtuoso (bought used). Our Encore was starting to be
| inconsistent after a few years, and the Virtuoso was a noticeable
| upgrade.
| senthilnayagam wrote:
| I bought 3 things with total under 100$. been working from home
| for last 2 years, due to space constrains adding big office style
| furniture is not feasible . back pain is starting for me, a small
| adjustable table which I can work while sitting in sofa, a small
| laptop stand which I can keep on my bed, and a good natural latex
| pillow if I am lying on stomach and having my elbow on it.
| [deleted]
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| I have a bunch under PS20... - programmable 6-key
| keyboard - 10-pack of reading glasses - mini tyre
| inflator - rubber ice cleats - low-alcohol beer
| - sukang sawsawan - boczek
| rpastuszak wrote:
| > - boczek
|
| consider upgrading to slonina in '24
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| I tried salo recently and liked it, but it didn't have as
| much flavor as boczek. How does slonina compare to either of
| those?
|
| I had success last year with braises too, like hong shao rou,
| but also barbacoa and even Texas chili. Maybe I need to work
| on my tofu this year.
| rpastuszak wrote:
| I've never had salo, but tried several types of slonina
| (Romanian, Polish, and a weird Siberian brand I found at a
| Slavic store in... Porto). Looking at the wiki page for
| salo, it's very close to the PL/RO snack.
|
| You're right that boczek has more flavour, esp. the home-
| made version if you can find it (super difficult, imo).
| Usually the home-made boczek will be meatier/more
| smoky/more garlicky than, the store bought-stuff.
|
| Slonina has little flavour, besides slight smokiness +
| saltiness. Normally it's used to highlight the flavour of
| the next dish or as a snack served with vodka. Similarly to
| lard, you'd serve it before the main dish to make the
| palate more sensitive towards any fat-soluble flavours. I'd
| say slonina is 90-95% fat plus a barely noticeable amount
| of meat.
|
| The Siberian one I got though... had waaaaay more garlic
| and a little bit of pepper. It was lovely, but something
| I'd eat at the "caviar serving" amounts.
|
| Useless trivia #123: it's likely a coincidence but in
| Polish "slonina" literally means "elefant meat" ("slon"
| /swon/, comp. the suffix -ina w. "wolowina" for beef,
| "wieprzowina" for pork).
|
| > Maybe I need to work on my tofu this year
|
| Smoked tofu is sooo good. I have some good kimchi +
| gochujang I want to cook tonight with pork belly, but now
| you made me think of replacing the meat with some smoked
| tofu I bought.
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| Have you tried frozen tofu? Frozen then thawed, I mean.
| The ice crystals displace little holes and make the tofu
| spongy. Fry that!
| Snackchez wrote:
| What do you eat with your sukang sawsawan?
|
| Any recommendations for low alc beers?
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| Usually goes on my weak but improving attempts to replicate
| my #1 favorite BBQ, _inihaw_ , but any kind of basic grilled
| meat over rice is a candidate.
|
| I've been drinking Guinness and Heineken, plus other ones
| occasionally. Best cold. Some have been sour and meh, but
| they are definitely getting better and better. See also low
| alcohol cocktails. I used to get grape juice made from wine
| grapes, fabulous.
| djray wrote:
| Can I ask which programmable keyboard you went for?
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| Ecarke Black OSU Keypad 6
| moffkalast wrote:
| Imagine having to buy an extra module to have programmable
| macro keys.
|
| - This post was made by the 110% keyboard gang.
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| Wanted to be able to mash a -\\_(tsu)_/- key.
| atchoo wrote:
| 1zpresso K-Max manual coffee grinder.
|
| Excellent build quality and grind for the money. A joy to use
| every morning and I expect it will last a long time. Their large
| range of models is confusing and takes some time to understand
| but with enough youtube reviews, you can decode it. Might be a
| bit over $200 in the US but I think I bought it at a discount to
| roughly be at $200 after currency conversion.
|
| https://sigmacoffee.co.uk/products/1zpresso-k-max
| PheonixPharts wrote:
| I'll second this.
|
| A common error people who love coffee frequently make is
| underestimating the value of a good grinder.
|
| My first grinder was a regular bean chopper, and when I
| upgraded to a capresso I thought I was finally at a better
| place for fresh ground (at the time I though $100 for a grinder
| was insane).
|
| I finally started looking for real high-end grinders (> $1k)
| because my espresso was still not up to snuff and all my
| barista friends kept telling me that the quality of my grinder
| was what was holding me back.
|
| Funny thing was, even though I was willing to spend $2k on a
| grinder, supply chain issues had other plans.
|
| Got the 1zpresso K-ultra and _wow_ , each shot of espresso I
| pull now is a work of art.
|
| Even if you're not an espresso person it will make any way you
| serve the coffee taste notably better.
|
| Being manual is not even a big deal as it takes very little
| effort to grind coffee every morning. It's instantly replaced
| my capresso for not only espresso but pour over as well. I also
| have no plans to upgrade to a more expensive home option now.
| charlie0 wrote:
| Just need to throw in single origin recently roasted beans, and
| you'll never go back to Starbucks again.
| rocket_surgeron wrote:
| A huge (A0, 33-1/8 x 46-13/16 in-sized) 12-month calendar with
| the months laid out in long strips.
|
| I wasn't doing enough. Too much YouTube and reddit, so I stopped
| and decided to do things.
|
| I used different colored markers for different aspects of my
| life-- health, work, fitness, recreational travel, home
| maintenance, etc) and decided I had to do something every week.
|
| The different colors even accounted for down time. Too much
| color? Draw a nice relaxing blue line for a couple of days and do
| nothing.
|
| I went from being a hermit to a EMT-qualified volunteer at my
| local volunteer fire department on his way to Firefighter I
| training, a spotlight operator at a local community theater, an
| enthusiastic yogi, and by having the year laid out I can look at
| weekends with holidays and plan my year's travel months in
| advance. I make notes on when to plant what and have a pretty
| front yard.
|
| Digital calendars are nice, but they can't beat having a huge-
| assed poster right next to the front door with everything laid
| out in black and white and red and blue and green and yellow
| and........
|
| If you feel like you're not getting the most out of life, get a
| huge-assed calendar, start googling local volunteer
| opportunities, write it down, and then do it.
|
| $30, including markers.
| mempko wrote:
| PineTime. Best 30 bucks. I missed notifications, but then got
| PineTime. Keeps me from missing important messages. Easy to use.
| Also hackable!
| mondocat wrote:
| A keypad door lock. Knowing the door is always (automatically)
| locked, being able to leave the house without a key, and being
| able to let someone else when I'm not there either with my phone,
| or by giving them a code.. I'm living in the future.
| bilsbie wrote:
| I loved mine but it started eating batteries after a few
| months. I guess I should try other models.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| I have a kwikset that I change with LSD rechargable AA
| batteries every 6 months (they last longer, but I don't want
| to be locked out).
| derwiki wrote:
| We've got a Yale that goes year+ on a set of batteries
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| Do you live somewhere very cold? If so, use lithium
| batteries. They're significantly more tolerant of low
| temperatures. Going from akalines to lithiums made a huge
| difference for us.
| notacoward wrote:
| ThermoPro meat thermometer - not instant read, the kind with wire
| leads that actually go in the oven. I'm not even into high-end
| grilling or smoking or anything. It's just really nice to get a
| pre-seasoned slab of beef or pork (the teriyaki skirt steak at
| Trader Joe's is a family favorite) and have it come out _just
| right_ every time. As a bonus, this one has a remote so I can
| hang out upstairs and even wear headphones instead of having to
| ensure that I can hear the beeps from the kitchen.
| Ekaros wrote:
| Not last year, as I haven't bought anything cheap but: Rice
| cooker was nice unitasker. For making rice. I could use electric
| pressure cooker, but rice cooker makes it simple enough and I can
| make almost small enough amount at one time. Or not too much
| waste.
|
| Small handheld electric screwdriver from Lidl was reasonable
| purchase for cost. Not too much use, but was semi-useful during a
| move.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| If you eat a lot of rice, a rice cooker is a must. My wife and
| I used to eat rice meals once or twice every week, and the dead
| simplicity of pouring in the rice, adding the water, and
| pushing a button and having perfect rice 15 minutes later is
| just such a time and effort saver.
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