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Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

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Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#201

Post by gorbachev »

erikschoster wrote: post #51

Legos; also the ender 3d printer. I had a nostalgic time putting the ender together. Felt like a lego set. That's not saying it was trivial (it challenged me) but that I trusted it every step of the way not because of previous experience, but because of the obvious well-designed aspects of the experience as I was putting it together. For example: I put on a part sloppily, and trying to attach anther part was the firs…

I'm sorry, but 3D printers, while quite an innovation allowing cheap and fast prototyping, are not well designed things. I own three, and talk to friends who collectively probably own close to 100.

They, including models with great reputation (e.g. Prusa printers), break all the time. Also the mere fact that there are thousands of mods for all of them on sites like Thingieverse to make them better is another indication they aren't really all that well designed.

Things like manual leveling, heat creep, bottom layer adhesion issues are common problems across all models.

They're finicky things with PLENTY room for improvement.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#203

Post by theduemmer »

jbay808 wrote: post #99
theduemmer wrote: post #91

McMaster-Carr has the best shopping website I've ever seen. The UI is beautifully intuitive; even if I don't know exactly what I need, odds are I can easily find something that will work and they can have it at my doorstep in under 24 hours, no matter how obscure. Even if I don't plan on buying anything, it can be helpful to click through the site just to see what is available. Because most categories of parts have s…

I'd love it if they added a price filter option! If I want a clear plastic tube I don't always know whether I'll get a cheaper price with acrylic, UV-resistant acrylic, static dissipative acrylic, ultra-strength polycarbonate, high-temperature polycarbonate, etc... It can take a lot of clicking to find the cheapest option!

Unfortunately I don't see them creating a price filter as they are mainly geared at businesses vs. hobbyists or consumers, where "get it here fast" is more important than saving a few dollars. That being said, I find adding all of the prospective parts to the cart works well for me when I want to compare prices

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#204

Post by Terry_Roll »

andersco wrote: post #117

The Technics SL-1200 turntable. The fact that the design has not changed except for minor tweaks since the product was released speaks for itself. I used it both as a DJ many years ago and now kept one of the turntables just for listening. The quality of the turntable is palpable not only in its physical weight but in the utter simplicity of the design. The dotted edges of the rotating plate are both aesthetically pl…

Waiting list for the SL-1200 or SL-1210's in the 90's were well over a year and you couldnt even get B stock (ie returns resold) from Panasonic Technics either.

I will add another one to the list, their SU-A range of amps with the R-core transformer.

When they first came out, I was invited to a blind listening session with Technics somewhere in London and they had some of the SU-A amps up against considerably more expensive amps and you were shocked at the quality, you could point to where the different instruments were being played left and right, you could tell whether they were at the front, middle or back of the sound stage, it was an awesome experience and the low price meant they showed up some serious big names in the hifi world. Magazines were harsh to them imo.

Its just a shame they couldn't replicate the quality in their surround sound amp's but I suspect that is more to do with the encoding used then and now. But the return in audiophile quality is not proportional to expenditure above a certain price, its more exponential.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#205

Post by analog31 »

My double bass, "designed" in the 17th century, gradually evolved over the years, made in Romania in 2010.

Sturmey-Archer AW 3-speed bicycle gear hub. I'm running 2 of them, both 50+ years old, still going strong. Originally designed in 1948.

Pretty much anything made by Mitutoyo, glorious quality and aesthetics.

"Ideal Stripmaster" wire stripper.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#206

Post by Terry_Roll »

mikewarot wrote: post #81

Turbo Pascal 7, then Borland Delphi 5 were the most productive programming environments ever. Very few bugs, wicked fast, and full proper documentation. Nothing since comes even close.

Is that a little dig at Topspeed's/Softvelocity's Clarion? ;-)

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#207

Post by jerkstate »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #177
jerkstate wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thermal regulating shower/bath faucets are relatively common: https://www.deltafaucet.com/design-innovation/innovations/sh... I have one in my master shower and it's fantastic. Of course, the water starts out cold (because the water in the hot water pipes are cold) but once it's up to temperature, it's very consistent, even if you have a toilet flush in your house which would reduce the pressure of cold.

> Of course, the water starts out cold (because the water in the hot water pipes are cold) No, this should be considered a failure condition for a constant temperature shower. I don't care how they do it, just bleed the cold water into a separate pipe off to the side or something. We have sent people into space, I want actual uniform temperature water.

ah, you want this, which also exists: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2013/03/07/hot-water-circul...

the way I do it is just turn the shower on about 30 seconds before I get in, which works the same with half the piping and less energy loss due to circulating hot water (but some water loss)

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#208

Post by zinekeller »

theduemmer wrote: post #91

McMaster-Carr has the best shopping website I've ever seen. The UI is beautifully intuitive; even if I don't know exactly what I need, odds are I can easily find something that will work and they can have it at my doorstep in under 24 hours, no matter how obscure. Even if I don't plan on buying anything, it can be helpful to click through the site just to see what is available. Because most categories of parts have s…

> I hear they aren't very good outside the US though, which is a shame.

I hope that this comment won't be interpreted harshly, but their familiarity with mainly American measurements really handicaps them elsewhere. It's not really their fault, but counterintuitively from where I am it's still miles better than other (domestic or international) suppliers for smaller quantities.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#209

Post by jessriedel »

grech wrote: post #151

This may be a normie response - but Apple Airpods Pro are one of the best products I've used. After years of using several bluetooth headsets that get finicky (with connections that is), having a set that just connects and works every single time is refreshing. They really changed my behavior - I went from not liking phone conversations at all (getting agitated after a few minutes)to comfortably having long phone cal…

Useful observations, but is this really a comment on design? The key feature, a robust connection, is just software/firmware quality.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#210

Post by mortenjorck »

muzani wrote: post #181
ISL wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It's real tempting to answer, "indoor plumbing". It's really nice to flip a lever and get clean, safe water. It's real good not to need to stroll to the outhouse, too.

Coming from a developing country, I was very impressed that you could get drinking water straight from the tap in some countries. My wife, a civil engineer, couldn't believe it either. There's just so much complexity involved in it, including storage, which can have rats and rust. Normally we just filter the stuff between the tap and cup. And as a kid, we had to boil and store it, and just learned to tolerate the met…

> This was when soda peaked.

Somehow I never put the international explosion of Coke and Pepsi in this context. The things late-20th century Americans took for granted!

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