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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?

#381

Post by bionhoward »

Waterproof notepads from rite-in-the-rain. Take a couple mechanical pencils too. No more fiddling with phones, you can sketch whatever you want, never runs out of power and it's waterproof

Wolverine boots are legit

I love my new ultra wide monitor and the Dell 27 inch that rotates to go vertical is awesome too.

Jump rope, kettle bells, adjustable dumbbells, a legit pullup / dip tower. Hex bar looks good but too expensive

Also, Amazon basics zero gravity chairs. I use them outside and inside. They're steel and sturdy and mesh recliners, good for getting sun, reading, coding, etc

If you're walking a dog regularly, a harness and a hands-free leash (literally a belt with a carabinier) lets you have 2 hands free to write stuff on aforementioned notepads

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

#382

Post by coldpie »

captaindiego wrote: post #328
coldpie wrote: post #177

A guitar. And then three more guitars. Never having held a guitar in my life before, I picked one up last September as a way to help keep me sane over Minnesota COVID winter, and I've completely fallen in love with playing guitar. I have played literally every day since I purchased my first guitar and I spend most of my workday excited to get home and play more.

Any recommendations for how to learn if you've never touched a guitar before?

JustinGuitar.com! Really excellent beginner course, took me about six months to go through. I'm now moving into the intermediate stuff, and also branching out on my own into learning classical guitar.

The main key of course is to play and practice a lot. Like any other skill, you really have to put the hours in.

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

#383

Post by SECProto »

lancesells wrote: post #373
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.

Nice. I had an idea about making the same sort of product but with gels to change the color of the LED and dim it as well. Haven't gotten around to testing it out but might do it now that I see this.

You can also use nail polish - will block some of the light and change the hue. As many different shades of polish available as you can imagine. Some shades block more light than others

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

#384

Post by ryneandal »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #48

Oculus Quest 2 - despite the whole Facebook thing, coupling it with awesome games and experiences, it saved me from going mental during the autumn-winter-spring lockdown in Europe combined with the depressing weather of that time. Worth its weight in gold for that. Roborock Robovac - also worth its weight in gold since the whole lockdown WFH turned my apartment into a permanent office, kitchen, cinema and gym, the fl…

Oculus provides replacement foam inserts for qualifying SKUs -- https://support.oculus.com/1504463656600795/?intern_source=b...

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

#385

Post by thom »

Got an Ooni pizza oven. Not quite as useful during lockdown as I might have hoped but it's given us something to do in the garden, and I can't wait to take it camping and to festivals.

https://ooni.com/

I've really ended up liking my Moonlander keyboard. I wasn't initially sold onsplit keyboards at all, and it's taken me a while to end up with a layout I'm happy with, but I've just about caught up on typing speed and feel far less cramped. Plus it plays chiptunes.

https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/

Also I can't necessarily recommend a particular brand, but I bought myself a soldering station for the first time ever. Been a long time since I was interested in electronics or computer hardware in particular, but it's been really satisfying fixing various bits of equipment in my house.

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

#386

Post by speedgoose »

neilpanchal wrote: post #353
nunez wrote: post #282

The AirPods Max have been incredible for music and Zoom calls. The Tesla Model 3 is an amazing car that completely ruins all other cars for me. I can't imagine driving anything else right now. The MacBook Air M1 really does live up to the hype. You can do all-day Zooms on this thing and still have battery to spare. This was impossible on my Intel MacBook Pro. The Air is also insanely fast. It's literally the perfect…

I’m in need of an electric car that has no touchscreens or any displays whatsoever. Just knobs, buttons, toggles, dials, gauges and levers. Why do electric cars have to look like something out of fricking Tron?

You can buy an used Mitsubishi i-Miev for almost nothing and it fits your criteria.

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

#387

Post by mym1990 »

crisnoble wrote: post #150
silicon2401 wrote: post #112

A gravel bike. Being able to get serious but low-impact cardio, anywhere from sprints to long rides, is huge. Not only is it good for my physical health, it's a great boost to mental health. Exploring the areas around me on a bike is much more fun, environmentally friendly, and healthy than a car. It's also a great way to disconnect and give my eyes a break by spending some time looking at things that are far away. $…

If you like exploring, you should check out https://wandrer.earth

So interesting that this originated in Atlanta, which is where I currently live and grew up, would have never known!

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

#388

Post by rubyn00bie »

Kinesis gaming edge with silver keys. It's helped my wrists more than any other keyboard I've tried. I can't believe I waited this long to buy something like this (split keyboard).

A Heil PR40 microphone and an "Evo 4" usb-c XLR input. I got my microphone used on Craigslist by just waiting for a month or so until something I wanted popped up at the right price (~50% of retail). It's incredibly useful having a good quality microphone, and it seems most people really appreciate the audio quality.

New non-stick pans, and some really good knives (Wusthof) have made cooking myself meals a lot faster and therefore more pleasant. The non-stick pans making cleaning up things like eggs take literally seconds out of my day instead of minutes vigorous scrubbing. Knives also help prepare food much faster; truly, it's crazy the quality of life boost from being able to slice things faster/easier.

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

#389

Post by TacticalCoder »

jakogut wrote: post #263
samsolomon wrote: post #19

I'm a giant fan of robot vacuums. My Eufy Robovac died last year and decided to upgrade to a Roomba i3. We've got a dog and my girlfriend has very long hair that we would have to cut strands out of the rollers every couple of runs. The new Roomba models have these rubber rollers doesn't catch hair. I'm not entirely what about the design prevents that, but it is fantastic! The i3 is probably $100 more than you'd spend…

> The new Roomba models have these rubber rollers doesn't catch hair. I'm not entirely what about the design prevents that, but it is fantastic! Ha, I wish that was universally true. My girlfriend's hair is long and insanely strong. It wraps around the rollers and cuts right through them. Still love the Roomba, but often need to replace rollers. :)

We all have the same problems! Roomba 765 (a bit old and noisy, there are quieter models) since two years here: cat and SO's long hairs so I regularly need to use scissors to "free" the rollers.

Thing with the robovacs here: when you empty their bin and see how much dust they catched, you know they're very useful. We buy (and I build) furnitures and arrange our home so that the Roomba can go underneath them. I wouldn't for example buy a sofa under which the Roomba couldn't vaccuum.

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

#390

Post by sswezey »

gjstein wrote: post #116

Philips Hue lights. I had wanted them for a little while for the novelty of it, but upon buying a couple my wife and I converted nearly all of our small apartment (except the bathrooms) to use their color-changing bulbs. Being able to change the light color and temperature has been surprisingly nice and has made our home much "cozier" under quarantine. We change the lights to dim reds and blues during movie nights or…

I agree with this. I put Hue light bulbs in almost all of my rooms and a strip on my porch. I set them up with HomeKit and now I always come home to my lights on and they turn off automatically when they leave the house. I use the automatic color changing by time of day built-in to HomeKit and it definitely helps with warm colors at night but brighter and cooler during the day. And everything essentially has a dimmer now. And being able to control the lights from my phone or with voice commands is super convenient. I've got the full color lights, but realistically I really only need the shades of white and HomeKit connectivity to use the features that I regularly use.
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