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Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

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Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#51

Post by btschaegg »

If you play an instrument as a hobby:

A proper König & Meyer sheet music holder (10068).

It's not foldable, but very stable. If you only ever used foldable sheet music holders, you don't even realize what misery you could simply avoid. Beside not dealing with falling sheets all the time, you can also properly write on it without descending into madness.

If you have to deal with larger pieces, something like the Berolina Manufaktur Magic Music Board will also come in handy.

Alongside with that: A magnet ring you can put your pencil into, so you can attach it to the underside of your sheet music holder. This way, it won't get into the way of flipping pages. Or, if you have to deal with the finicky ones, you can increase the stability of your sheets with it by fixing them with the pencil somewhat.

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#53

Post by BiteCode_dev »

alanfranz wrote: post #12

A very large display. I got a 4k 43” display, with a bit of retina magnification, and I can sit properly without slumping, my back fully straight on my seat. I don’t suffer back pain anymore.

That's why I have high hopes for the Simula One. I always feel like I could get a bigger screen. Finally, I may be able to nothing but screen.

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#54

Post by kqr »

zakki wrote: post #41
kqr wrote: post #18

An Android phone with a physical keyboard. It's a night and day difference for me with fat fingers and who likes to look at the text I'm writing, not the keyboard I'm using to write. RIP BlackBerry Key2.

What is the keyboard you are using?

I'm using a Blackberry Key2 phone which has a keyboard built in. Sadly, I've just learned they are no longer being made. Not sure what I'll do when this one breaks.

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#55

Post by adhesive_wombat »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #36
adhesive_wombat wrote: post #25

A good dishwasher. I resisted getting one for years because the one I had growing up was pretty bad. Nothing would dry, items would come out dirty all the time and it was loud and would "chug" for hours. However, a good (not even fancy, just mid-range from a competent manufacturer) modern dishwasher is night and day. Doesn't even need special tablets, it just gets things clean, even on the eco mode, which is the only…

How long have you had it?

About 5 years or so. It's probably done well over 1000 cycles since then. It's had one breakage, which was a heat pump, which was repaired with a part from ebay. Other than that, its going strong.

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#56

Post by awiesenhofer »

maxwelldone wrote: post #49

A QMK or a similar programmable keyboard. Often found in mechanical ones. I believe QMK supports 32 layers. So far I've only needed 4 or 5 but the boost in productivity is night and day.

Looks interesting, how do you use it?

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#58

Post by adhesive_wombat »

brtkdotse wrote: post #47
adhesive_wombat wrote: post #25

A good dishwasher. I resisted getting one for years because the one I had growing up was pretty bad. Nothing would dry, items would come out dirty all the time and it was loud and would "chug" for hours. However, a good (not even fancy, just mid-range from a competent manufacturer) modern dishwasher is night and day. Doesn't even need special tablets, it just gets things clean, even on the eco mode, which is the only…

People over here are insane and remodel perfectly fine kitchens when moving in to a new apartment, and sell all the appliances for a pitence. I picked up a year old Miele for 100€, it’s been chugging along like a tank.

My mum has a Miele washing machine that is almost 30 years old. As far as I know, it's never needed a repair.

Which is probably just as well as Mieles can always be repaired, but the cost of parts is, let's say, dramatic.

My fridge has a broken egg tray lid and a dent in the door. Replacing the former is £35, a freezer door is almost £300 (nearly half the cost of the whole fridge freezer). The fridge door is almost £700, as much as the whole thing!

The egg tray lid is particularly annoying as the plastic part is actually not well-designed and clearly has obvious weak points where a modest redesign would both make a breakage less likely in the first place, and allow the most obvious failure mode to be repaired with a small sacrificial part (that, moreover can be shared amongst all fridge models, so it's not even a major SKU count increase) rather than the whole lid.

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#59

Post by frogulis »

cik wrote: post #29

I've spent a long time engineering, and adapting my workspace. It's at the point now that going to an office is a horrible experience, compared to my home office. Here's my setup * Ikea Standing desk (I never sit). I know plenty of people who use these for sitting, simply because the height of the desk is finally suited to their specific frame. * As many monitors as will make you happy (to each their own, but I'm hap…

> wired, I hate wireless things, I never want to think about batteries

It's funny, I feel exactly the same. When friends have asked me to explain why, I struggle to justify it. It's just a minor feeling of security -- one less thing to maintain.

The only piece of hardware I've considered moving to wireless is a headset for gaming with friends, but it hasn't happened thus far. Maybe if the End Times come and my ATH-M50x stop working.

Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?

#60

Post by db48x »

An Intel Optane NVME SSD. Check out this screenshot http://db48x.net/temp/Screenshot%20from%202019-12-09%2013-27...

See where it says “avio 3.53µs” and “avq 0.61”? That’s 284,000 IOPS even with nothing queued up. With any other drive you would be lucky to get a tenth of that at QD1. Even better, this is a mixed read and write workload; most drives are fastest when you are only reading or only writing.

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