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Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

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Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#291

Post by riffraff »

enobrev wrote: post #201

Headphones: While Working at My Desk: Bose Noise Cancelling 700. Life-changing for me. While Working with Powertools: The ISOTunes SafeMax. Absolutely excellent for protecting my ears and they sound great when playing music through them. Slippers: Gecko-Man. The arch-support was very necessary. Turns out spending an entire year in regular slippers was bad for my feet. Bread Book: "Flour Water Salt Yeast". I've baked…

> Chair: Herman Miller Embody. High Quality, super-comfortable, with a 12-Year Warranty - costs about the same as buying a new chair every two years.

I really like some of the Herman Miller chairs, and I plan on buying one when my current one breaks, but I don't get this: why would you need to buy a chair every two years?

My IKEA Markus ($200) is older than that (I think 5 years?) and it's still fine.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#292

Post by rozap »

happynacho wrote: post #182

Will probably get hated on but I bought a dog (yes not adopted, there wasn't this breed available). Made WFH much better. As for material things: * 4K monitor (BenQ PD2700U) makes everything much sharper and my eyes are less tired. *Ergonomic chair (Steelcase Leap) my back definitely appreciates it.

Dog breeders literally invented dogs from wolves. Nothing wrong with supporting good ones.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#293

Post by TacticalCoder »

japhyr wrote: post #107

I finally got a home espresso machine, after an HN recommendation. We got a Breville Barista Express. We'd been wanting one for years, but everything reliable seemed to be $1k+, and still seemed like more work than I wanted to put into coffee. This one is simple, almost as easy as pour-over, and is simple to clean. We're making better coffee at home than we've ever had in a coffee shop. And I thought it would take a…

> We got a Breville Barista Express.

Everybody who has one says it's so good. I wanted to buy one but then SO wanted a full-auto. So I bought a Delonghi full auto: apparently Delonghi's build quality went down a few years ago, they're letting the JURA brand the higher end market for full auto machines.

I may still buy a Breville Barista Express just for me.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#294

Post by res0nat0r »

silicon2401 wrote: post #216
Jakobeha wrote: post #128

Material goods: Ear plugs (silicone). Don't waste your money on noise-cancelling headphones, I have $200 ones and they don't compare to simple ear plugs. If you live in a moderately noisy area and you want peace and quiet, get them. They basically just make everything quiet. 24 from CVS = $10. OpenMove by Aftershokz - Bone-conduction headphones. Perfect for running and just good for listening to music. They work, the…

> cast iron skillet Personally I think these are a waste of money unless you live in a house. Trying to season one of these smoked up our apartment for hours. Apparently we didn't do it right because it's still sticky even with oil, but there's no way we're going through the headache again until we have a house.

Do you not have a standard hood over your stove? Seasoning has never caused issues for me in the 4 or so places I've lived and done this. Usually keeping the oven door shut fixes 98% of the issues, and the fan above on high sucks up anything else.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#295

Post by sedachv »

RootReducer wrote: post #117
imjared wrote: post #101

- a mid-level road bike, Trek Emonda SL6. I'm lucky to live in a city that's really fun to bike in (Washington DC) and has a great community of athletes. I get out for multiple rides per week and am finding myself obsessed with cycling - regular physical therapy. I've started marathon training again and while that in itself beats my body up, I feel like years of sitting at the computer building sites and playing game…

How did you find a good PT? How does it work with insurance? I want to also establish a regular PT routine but I'm unsure how to start.

> How did you find a good PT?

The poster unfortunately did not. "Needling" aka "dry needling" aka "Western acupuncture" is re-branded acupuncture. Like acupuncture, it is quackery and an unsafe scam. Even the acupuncturists agree: "Dry needling is acupuncture and physical therapists are practicing it without a license and putting patients at risk"

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/acupuncturists-declar...

Mark Crislip had a good podcast that covers acupuncture and other medical fraud:

http://quackcast.com/spodcasts/page6.html

If you feel like you need help for "years of sitting at the computer" I recommend Jolie Bookspan's books. The best, most effective information I have come across so far.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#297

Post by owenversteeg »

mrfusion wrote: post #44
giles wrote: post #18

Onewheel Pint! It was the ultimate quarantine toy. I saw so much of my city I hadn't seen before and it did a great job of getting me outside in general.

How far does it go? How is the safety? Is it fun?

The safety is what put me off of those. Read a few too many stories about permanent, serious injuries to young people using them (relatively) safely. It does look like a ton of fun though.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#298

Post by isbjorn16 »

Three things specifically (though one is a two-parter)

1. Nanch micro screwdriver / bit kit. I had one previous and I rather liked it but I gifted it to my brother who was just starting out with DIY maker stuff, so I replaced my old magnetic kit with one that has the bits lock into place with a collar. I love the quality on it and I'm glad I'll probably never need to buy another one again.

2. Lutron Caseta switches for my house. I haven't replaced the lot, but I've replaced the most commonly used ones and it's so nice being able to stagger to bed after a movie and just tell siri to turn all the lights off in the house.

3. The last is a two parter; dewalt makes a little cordless screwdriver (not really a drill). That has a ton of utility, but what I like best is that I can combine it with a cordless drill "cleaning attachment" kit that you can get off amazon (or probably other places). Put the two together and you can save so much time and effort scouring things - you still have to manually do some nooks and crannies, but you can get the vast bulk of it out of the way and let technology work for you. A regular drill would work, but it goes too fast and flings shit everywhere, while the screwdriver has a much lower RPM. This combo is just my favorite.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#299

Post by ultra-jeremyx »

Cold climate mini-split heat pumps * I live in northern New England and used to heat exclusively with wood in the winter time. Very cozy, but hard to maintain a consistent temp throughout the house. The new cold-climate models can operate at 100% capacity down to an ambient temp of -13F outdoors. One in each bedroom, the living area, and home office makes it easy to dial in the optimal temp for the space. No more loading the woodstove overnight when everyone is in a bedroom with the door closed!

For the summer, the heat pumps have replaced our terribly inefficient whole-house central AC. We have a PV solar electric system, so we can use the electricity we produce to run them, and once I started paying attention to energy use in our home it was clear that the old central AC had to go.

The modern mini-splits are pretty much maintenance-free, and are warrantied for 12 years. Best off all? The compressors are very quiet. You can have a normal conversation standing right next to them.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#300

Post by nscalf »

kaybe wrote: post #17

- Noise-cancelling headphones (Sony 1000X-M3) are totally saving the rest of my productivity in home office. (The bluetooth does not work with my current Linux version, but I will not update that until my work is done just in case something else stops working. It does however work with my 10-year-old Nokia phone. But hey, there is an audio cable which also works fine. The next time I will probably buy Bose, but only…

These headphones have been an amazing bump to quality of life. My neighbors have a new baby, the other neighbors are constantly yelling, and I live across a school that recently reopened. Can't recommend these enough. I also used them while traveling back in the before times, they're exactly what you'd want while traveling on a plane/train.
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