Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 260 posts

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#221

Post by giardini »

floxy wrote: post #110
giardini wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd nursed a foot callus for years that hurt badly when I walked barefoot. Weeks ago, sitting on the locker room bench, I hit my limit. In desperation I pulled out my pocket knife to do some field surgery. A few minutes into it I glanced up to see two guys sitting across the room staring at me open-eyed as I dug into my foot with the tip of that pointy knife (8.5" with 3.5" blade)! I just smiled and dug that sucker o…

> staring at me open-eyed They were probably just envious you were rocking a Kershaw Iridium Dessert Warrior. Which also comes in at under $100. And the Iridium family are pretty nice knives. https://www.bladehq.com/item--Kershaw-Iridium-Dessert-Warrio...

I've never spent more than $40 on any knife. The one I spoke of was a cheap S&W from AutoZone (the checkout line "specials" bin) for ~$13 IIRC.

And FWIW I fear if I cut myself with that Kershaw I might grow a pussy.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#222

Post by giardini »

tkocmathla wrote: post #152
giardini wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd nursed a foot callus for years that hurt badly when I walked barefoot. Weeks ago, sitting on the locker room bench, I hit my limit. In desperation I pulled out my pocket knife to do some field surgery. A few minutes into it I glanced up to see two guys sitting across the room staring at me open-eyed as I dug into my foot with the tip of that pointy knife (8.5" with 3.5" blade)! I just smiled and dug that sucker o…

Tangentially, if that callus was a plantar callus (circular with a painful point in the center), you can get sticky pads with salicylic acid from the drugstore that will gradually destroy it. Much safer than digging into your foot with a knife, but I'm glad to hear it worked for you!

Thank you, this is all very useful!

Yes, I didn't know WTF was there but over the years it had grown beyond annoying , becoming so painful I couldn't tolerate it. I thought perhaps something (a splinter, piece of glass or steel, etc.) had become embedded in my foot. I was determined to dig it out. I'm tall and not flexible so I cannot easily see all of the bottom of my foot. But I can reach it.

The callus was surprisingly small (~1/2") and came out in one piece after about 10 minutes of work. Nothing embedded. No bleeding, just a lot of knife-wiggling. The bottom of the foot is really tough!

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#223

Post by giardini »

sejje wrote: post #125
giardini wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd nursed a foot callus for years that hurt badly when I walked barefoot. Weeks ago, sitting on the locker room bench, I hit my limit. In desperation I pulled out my pocket knife to do some field surgery. A few minutes into it I glanced up to see two guys sitting across the room staring at me open-eyed as I dug into my foot with the tip of that pointy knife (8.5" with 3.5" blade)! I just smiled and dug that sucker o…

I use my knife like a fidget toy. Not usually in public, but one time a sales guy came in and it was just me and him. He's basically a friend. I flipped the knife out and his eyes got huge, his arms went out sideways and he got in a football stance. After he calmed down, he told me he was actually attacked with a knife when he was a kid. Not long after, I finally wore out the fastener on that knife (a buck). Luckily…

sejje says >I flipped the knife out and his eyes got huge, his arms went out sideways and he got in a football stance.

That seems unusual: if I feared in that situation I would flee. His would be a gutsy, dangerous but certainly unexpected move!

What did you do in response: say "16 - 32- HIKE"?

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#224

Post by sambapa »

Sleep: - wax earplugs - buckwheat pillow - a pillow that goes between my knees (I'm a side sleeper)

Above combo has made 6 hour sleep feel like 8 hours and 8 hours feel like I can go the rest of my life without sleep in the morning

Fitness: - gymnastic rings: ultraportable and ultrascalable (from arthretic grandma level to olympic athlete level) workout. I have two pairs and I'm thinking about buying another one.

Fun: - someone already mentioned minecraft lol - wireless buds, I have Jlabs go air pop and I sometimes prefer them over my trusty Sennheisers HD 600 - Ibanez rg565 genesis desert yellow (add another 0 to 100 dollars but I bought it in installments so, technically, I paid less than 100 dollars for it per month, worth it, you can shred the absolute fuck out of it)

Health: - good sunglasses (cat 3 or even better cat 4) - omega 3 and vitamin d : important if you live in unhabitable, gray and cold regions of earth (like eastern europe)

Education: - Anki, free for pc and android, cheap for iphones

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#225

Post by bb88 »

wolvoleo wrote: post #138
bb88 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ham radio Amateur Extra. The license after Technician and then General. The RTLSDR is an easy way to see if you'd like radio or not.

Nice! There's not many new hams these days. When I was young it was basically what everyone technical was into.

Thanks, it's an interesting hobby. Technically interesting, but unfortunately I think a lot of the politics of it turn people off.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#226

Post by bb88 »

mikewarot wrote: post #155
bb88 wrote: post #72

$50 RTLSDR Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CD7558GT I got this to play around with what's on the air, and now I'm a full blown extra.

Have you tried using it with GNU Radio? It's pretty cool to build a signal flow graph, then have it just work, with output to your speakers

I've been meaning to come up with my own digital voice signaling system.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#227

Post by sambapa »

sambapa wrote: post #224

Sleep: - wax earplugs - buckwheat pillow - a pillow that goes between my knees (I'm a side sleeper) Above combo has made 6 hour sleep feel like 8 hours and 8 hours feel like I can go the rest of my life without sleep in the morning Fitness: - gymnastic rings: ultraportable and ultrascalable (from arthretic grandma level to olympic athlete level) workout. I have two pairs and I'm thinking about buying another one. Fun…

And a basic cheap sonic toothbrush (sonicare)

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#228

Post by wolvoleo »

bb88 wrote: post #225
wolvoleo wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice! There's not many new hams these days. When I was young it was basically what everyone technical was into.

Thanks, it's an interesting hobby. Technically interesting, but unfortunately I think a lot of the politics of it turn people off.

That happens in every hobby. There's always people declaring themselves king of some hill and making things toxic. I've been in a lot of hobby organisations and it's always the same. In a commercial organisation these people get reported to HR and kicked out but volunteer orgs are much less likely to throw out someone who does a lot of work for free.

I've seen it in ham clubs, makerspaces, etc. It's just what happens. The best thing is having a rock solid code of conduct.

And yeah it's technically interesting though I really miss it being on the bleeding edge. That hasn't been the case for decades. The commercial world can send a gigabit per second to a phone but we're stuck with 9600 baud APRS (or 1200 even sometimes)

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#229

Post by tartoran »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #12

Seki Edge nail clippers. They're just so much sharper and more pleasant to use than your average drug store nail clippers, you can really feel the quality. I can barely stand regular nail clippers now.

Yeah, they're nearly £50, a bit absurd for nail clippers...
Post reply on HN