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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?

#311

Post by enobrev »

riffraff wrote: post #291
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.

Never tried the IKA Markus, but I've had quite a few office chairs quickly go downhill at the 2-3 year mark.

I'm pretty big at 6'6" / 275lbs, and I am legitimately in my chair for 50+ hours per week, so that may have something to do with it. But this is the first chair I've owned that, after 3 years of constant use, is still in excellent condition.

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

#313

Post by runjake »

1. MacBook Pro 13" M1. Fast, quiet.

2. Streamlight pocket flashlight. Tiny, USB rechargeable.

3. A decent drill and impact driver. (Dewalt Brushless)

4. A cordless/battery string trimmer. No more messing with gas/oil mixtures or lugging an extension cord around.

5. AirPods

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

#314

Post by TacticalCoder »

sumedh wrote: post #242
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 Has anyone done a blind test between a genuine Herman Miller and a knock off or another similar chair. I suspect people say its good just because of the brand name.

I've got my Aeron since ten years and use it daily. It's still like brand new. I don't think I could sit in any knock off and not immediately notice the difference. It took 30 minutes to set up (ten years ago) and I haven't changed anything since then. I put my hands behind my head and the chair slowly leans back: that's the "easy" trick to configure it properly.

The one main complain I see about it is the frame hurting people's legs / preventing proper blood flow but I think that's people sitting in Aeron chairs not configured properly.

I don't just like the "pellicle mesh" (no sweating) and how great it feels, I also like that it's ten years old and is basically like new despite daily use.

As a funny sidenote: during the first covid lockdown I got stuck for three months not at my home and had to use a really crappy chair (as in: an old chair, not meant for office work at all) and within weeks I developed terrible back pain. It was so bad I had someone lend me one of his Aeron.

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

#315

Post by tyrust »

nfoz wrote: post #219

Light Dims! http://www.lightdims.com/index.php Little sticky cellophane pieces, that you can put on the little LED lights on all modern electronics, so that you can still see them but they're not so bright. Because I hate being surrounded by blinkenlights that are a bit too bright and hurt my eyes in the dark.

Oh wow, this exists? Looks more efficient than my combination of duct tape, paper, and a black maker.

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

#316

Post by greggyb »

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.

How does the ownership structure of your residence affect your ability to clear smoke from a room, or your ability to effectively season a cast iron skillet?

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

#317

Post by madhadron »

fidrelity wrote: post #172

- barefoot shoes (brands: vivobarefoot and mukishoes). I could write a long rave now about barefoot shoes but I'll try to keep it short: No more knee pains after long walks, every time I go out the amount of sensations is pure joy and a powerful mindfulness experience. - A used Garmin Forerunner 920XT. It's a pretty old model but it still works well for many different sport types. That was great when I did triathlons…

For barefoot shoes, my absolute favorite is Tade Evo. I destroy a pair in about a year, but I have happily continued to destroy pairs for quite a few years now. After them, Feelmax. I have not yet been able to destroy my boots from them.

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

#319

Post by linsomniac »

mrfusion wrote: post #68

3d printers are getting cheap and it’s a really fun hobby and just a generally useful item for random repairs and cheap items.

This is what I came here to say. I got one for my son a year ago, and I've been surprised at how much use I've gotten out of it.

Things I've used it for:

- It's currently germinating seeds for the garden. Some people use Instant Pots, but ours doesn't have the Yogurt setting. The printer bed is our best way to keep the seeds at 31C for a week. - Custom Christmas ornaments for the extended family. - Hangers for ethernet cables in the crawl space and drywall grommets for passing through walls. - Headphone hangers. Could have bought on Amazon, but found a design on Thingiverse that I liked and 3 hours later I had it on my desk. - Extension to the hopper on my coffee grinder. It would hold around 3/4 of a 12oz bag, and I was like: I just want to empty the whole bag into the hopper. - Little coasters and trinkets for birthdays and Valentines.

Next thing is: My son got a Stirling Engine kit but lost a couple of the gaskets. We can model some molds and create replacement gaskets, they're fairly specialized, not sure if I can just buy them.

Plus, it's been kind of fun modifying the printer. Also kind of maddening at times. But it reminds me of the car mod scene when I was 18.

I got an Ender 3 Pro, upgraded the motherboard, added a bed leveling sensor, added OctoPrint and a camera, upgraded the extruder, trying out glass beds...

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

#320

Post by [deleted] »

_gy5c wrote: post #244

Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier, based on Wirecutter reviews. Home ventilation isn't as good as the office, this makes a very noticeable difference with dust and cat hair. If needed I move it to the kitchen, it cleans up heavy smoke or odor from burgers/steaks/popcorn in about 45 minutes (for a ~6000 ft^3 volume)

[deleted]
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