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

Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–428 of 428 posts

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#421

Post by CoryMathews »

ncmncm wrote: post #207

Dextrose. You can't buy it in grocery stores, but it is available online. Don't pay more than $2/lb. It is sold most cheaply labeled "corn sugar", marketed mainly to home beer brewers. There is only one actual supplier in the US, who ships 50 lb bags. Others break it up and sell 10, 5, and 2 lb bags. Some relabel it "dextrose" or "glucose" and jack up the price. I get mine 10 lb at a time from "Homebrew". Regular sug…

Any brewery can get you dextrose much cheaper than $2/lb. I think we are paying around $0.55/pound or something close to that in my area (Texas) for a 50lb bag.

Note this is a shortage currently on dextrose because of all the hard seltzers appearing in the market so quickly and using it all up, so it will probably go up as these keep growing.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#422

Post by sancho_panza »

smsm42 wrote: post #276
gordon_freeman wrote: post #35

Libby - I used to buy so many Kindle books and had an expensive Audible subscription a year ago but all that stopped when I discovered Libby. I can read ebooks and audiobooks right in the app using my local public library card for free and the entire UX of the app is just beyond awesome. I can now read/listen to 5-7 books a month using Libby.

The winning combo for me is Libby + Hoopla + Library Extension for Chrome. Anytime I see something I'm interested in on Amazon, Goodreads, etc. - I immediately see (and can store for later reading/listening) if it's available via my local library. Can't count how many books I got this way, totally free.

This is a cheat code. Well done. Well done.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#423

Post by loco5niner »

sergiomattei wrote: post #407
loco5niner wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While everyone else cringed, and was angry. You may not understand this, but most other people go out to nature to enjoy nature. Blasting music kills the experience. I'm guessing both of you are just kids whose parents missed this particular lesson.

I also go out to nature to enjoy nature. I also enjoy silence outside. You mind hikers with music and I don't. You may not understand this, but there's such a thing as disagreement and preference.

I absolutely understand differing preferences.

The difference is that someone blasting music is IMPOSING their preference on everyone else.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#424

Post by is0tope »

moistly wrote: post #124
is0tope wrote: post #62

Two things: 1. Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 Bluetooth speaker. Compact and very loud, also has good battery life. Handy on hikes and similar. The waterproofing is excellent and I use it in the shower to listen to podcasts, etc. 2. Sony WH1000MX4 Bluetooth headphones. I was skeptical in getting a full set of headphones as I always preferred earphones. These things have amazing sound quality and noise cancelation which m…

> Handy on hikes Are you aware that other hikers hate you for this? I suppose you don’t care.

Given the response, I probably should have clarified that this was meant more for camping not hiking per se. I wouldn't use it walking an actual trail with other hikers as that would be rude (and also what the headphones are for anyway) .

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#425

Post by is0tope »

joshvm wrote: post #102
is0tope wrote: post #62

Two things: 1. Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 Bluetooth speaker. Compact and very loud, also has good battery life. Handy on hikes and similar. The waterproofing is excellent and I use it in the shower to listen to podcasts, etc. 2. Sony WH1000MX4 Bluetooth headphones. I was skeptical in getting a full set of headphones as I always preferred earphones. These things have amazing sound quality and noise cancelation which m…

My big gripe with Sony headphones is the touch interface. It's just not very good, triggers accidentally and is awkward to use intentionally (and gloves are out). I wish I'd bought the equivalent Bose headset (they cost the same) with physical controls. Sound and NC wise they're great though, I've never slept better on a flight.

Yes I agree the touch controls are rubbish, and I ended up turning them off. I see where they were going with it, but it's just too unreliable.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#426

Post by stuartcw »

hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #86
bxparks wrote: post #71

A Fujitsu S1500 ScanSnap, dual-sided, document scanner (now discontinued, replacement might be the iX1600). Completely changed how I manage my personal documents (e.g. financial, invoices, receipts, product manuals, medical info, business docs, recreation and hobby stuff, etc). Anything remotely important, I scan to PDF, which triggers automatic OCR that is reasonably accurate, then I upload the PDF to Google Drive,…

How does it compare to smarthone camera + one of hundreds of scan+ocr apps like Adobe Scan? For me the smartphone solution is supereasy, basically it takes n seconds to scan a n-page booklet for example.

The ScanSnap is a business quality scanner.You can put in a stack of documents into the sheet-feeder and you will get high quality scans out as fast as a printer.The smartphone scanner app are like an emergency workaround in comparison.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#427

Post by silicon2401 »

neilsense wrote: post #420
silicon2401 wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the opposite: I think it's disgusting people brush before breakfast, just to dirty their mouth right up again with breakfast and walk around un-brushed afterward

Do you brush your teeth after lunch?

Yes, why wouldn't I? I brush at least 2-3 a day, with flossing, after every meal. I've never understood people who can't afford 6 minutes a day to properly care for one of the most important parts of our bodies (ie teeth).
Post reply on HN