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Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

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Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#161

Post by clarkdave »

nickjj wrote: post #95

A 2560x1440 monitor running at its 1:1 native resolution. The screen real estate improvement over 1080p is substantial. You get so much more vertical space and you can easily fit 4 side by side code windows at 80 chars. At 24" or 25" the PPI is also quite nice for reading text. I wrote up a very big monitor selection guide at https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to-pick-a-good-monitor-fo... , I try to keep it up to dat…

I've tried a lot of different monitor setups for productivity - ranging from three 24" 4k displays to a single 49" ultrawide, and ultimately have found the best setup for me is dual 27" 4ks, each running at a "scaled" 2560x1440.

MacOS in particular does an excellent job of rendering 2560x1440 to a 4K screen, and the increased DPI over a regular 1440p 27" screen is very noticeable.

Another option if you're not a fan of 27" displays is a pair of 24/25" 4k screens which can be run at a scaled 2304x1296 resolution. This still provides a decent amount of space without text being too tiny. Alas, 4k monitors <27" are increasingly rare these days.

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#162

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

nickjj wrote: post #95

A 2560x1440 monitor running at its 1:1 native resolution. The screen real estate improvement over 1080p is substantial. You get so much more vertical space and you can easily fit 4 side by side code windows at 80 chars. At 24" or 25" the PPI is also quite nice for reading text. I wrote up a very big monitor selection guide at https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to-pick-a-good-monitor-fo... , I try to keep it up to dat…

Yeah...I tried using a 4k display, and I found the pixels too small. And programs ran slower because they had to render so many pixels. And using scaling didn't play well when moving windows between my other two regular monitors.

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#163

Post by buescher »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #25

A good dishwasher. I resisted getting one for years because the one I had growing up was pretty bad. Nothing would dry, items would come out dirty all the time and it was loud and would "chug" for hours. However, a good (not even fancy, just mid-range from a competent manufacturer) modern dishwasher is night and day. Doesn't even need special tablets, it just gets things clean, even on the eco mode, which is the only…

Ditto. I was astounded when I read consumer reports’ test regimen for dishwashers - I recall a test that expected the dishwasher to clean out baked on brownie batter. No dishwasher I used until way too far into adulthood could do that or the equivalent.

The kitchen appliance that surprised me - my current house had a double oven when we moved in. The small top oven is just perfect - it pre heats as fast as a toaster oven and can fit a whole half sheet. It can toast just about anything in toast mode but takes up no counter space. We use it constantly. I would never have just bought one, because I would have focused on the two-oven aspect, which seems like an extravagance that would only come in handy at the holidays.

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#164

Post by [deleted] »

drakonka wrote: post #160

* An ereader (Kindle, now Kobo) * Stadler Form George air washer. Not a full on humidifier, but does help keep humidity up in my dry bedroom. Also judging by the state of the water during my weekly cleaning it really does help to "clean" the air somewhat. * More recently, a high quality drying rack (inspired by the drying rack article linked here a few weeks ago). Helps me keep humidity up in my apartment and prevent…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#165

Post by fanf2 »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #79

A simple Pok3r mechanical keyboard, I think mine has blue Cherry switches. I recently changed to an even cheaper (ca. $40) mechanical tenkeyless. People might flame me for saying this, but it really doesn't matter to which mechanical keyboard you switch when you're used to cheap rubberdome keyboards. Typing is so much better on any of them.

The thing that really impressed me about mechanical keyboards is the QMK firmware and the VIA configuration tool. Superlative examples of open source hardware and software.

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#166

Post by renewiltord »

amelius wrote: post #113
throw0101a wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Doesn't even need special tablets […] A thirty minute video explaining why tablets are bad and that you should simply use powder: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rBO8neWw04 Also, a follow-up video: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll6-eGDpimU

Summary? I can't watch video now.

https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=_rBO8neWw04&t=538

The video pretty much says “use detergent in both pre-wash and wash receptacles”. Using the pods makes this hard. Using powder lets you do this easily yourself.

That’s pretty much it.

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#167

Post by derwiki »

tmikaeld wrote: post #155
logicalmonster wrote: post #125

Open ear headphones that use what they describe as bone conduction technology really added some value to my life. It's tough to go running in normal headphones because you can't hear danger (cars, animals, people, etc) but it's a lot easier to push yourself with some good background music. This gives the best of both worlds.

Which headset is good enough? I backed some kickstarter years ago which failed, so i never tried bone conduction again.

Not GP but I like my Aeropex by Aftershokz

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#168

Post by pull_my_finger »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #145

The Amazon Kindle has completely transformed the way I read for pleasure. It is not as satisfactory for technical books, or anything with a lot of illustrations, but for standard novels it was a real game-changer.

I've heard this a lot, but when you get good at formatting your ebooks it becomes nice for them as well. I generally use a combination of briss[1] and k2pdfopt[2] to crop the margins and sometimes split on columns etc for pdfs and it makes all the difference. Sometimes it can require a fair bit of manual tweaking, but you only have to do it once and it's very much worth it in reading experience.

[1]: https://sourceforge.net/projects/briss/

[2]: https://www.willus.com/k2pdfopt/

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#169

Post by scatters »

tmikaeld wrote: post #155
logicalmonster wrote: post #125

Open ear headphones that use what they describe as bone conduction technology really added some value to my life. It's tough to go running in normal headphones because you can't hear danger (cars, animals, people, etc) but it's a lot easier to push yourself with some good background music. This gives the best of both worlds.

Which headset is good enough? I backed some kickstarter years ago which failed, so i never tried bone conduction again.

Aftershokz Aeropex. It's worth trying them out though; see if a running store near you will let you try them out on their treadmill.
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