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Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?

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Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?

#511

Post by yodelinghambone »

dinkleberg wrote: post #509
mleonhard wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a bidet dramatically reduces body odor. It enables naked sleeping. It enhances spontaneous adult activities. Getting used to a bidet takes about 2 days. After that, dry wiping will seem backward, like using leaves or corn cobs. Get a simple manual one. I use a Luxe brand bidet that I bought for $40, six years ago. It still works fine. https://www.amazon.com/Luxe-Bidet-Neo-110-Non-Electric/dp/B0... I use a porta…

Sleeping naked without a bidet is impossible?

No, but some would say it's a bit funky spending 8 hours in a bed with a shitty ass.

Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?

#512

Post by DavideNL »

rozab wrote: post #256
martindbp wrote: post #178

Kindle - had one or another model for many years, but in terms of utility to price ratio, it's still one of the highest. Youtube Premium - I realized I was spending a ton of time on Youtube, both for education, entertainment and podcasts. Removing the annoyance of ads and not being able to just listen to a video while out walking is worth it to me.

For those who don't want to fund youtube, Youtube Vanced is a hacked version of the official client that provides all the features for free (no root required), and there are also various open source clients available.

Related: i really like the "Enhancer for youtube" extension for Firefox, which also removes ads...

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/enhancer-for-...

Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?

#514

Post by JHonaker »

edanm wrote: post #407
eigenvalue wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree on both. If you're going to get a Kindle, I recommend the Oasis--it's so much better than the other ones and worth the money if you read a decent amount. The yellow backlight is much easier on the eyes than the blue one.

Really? I'm surprised that you think the Oasis is worth the higher price considering just how much higher that price is. What other reasons would you recommend it for?

I have had a Paperwhite for years, probably close to 10. I recently upgraded to an Oasis for my 30th birthday. It was an incredible improvement. The noticeably bigger screen is crisp and incredibly responsive. I and my wife had just gotten used to the delay of everything on the PW.

Additionally the brightness is much more fine grained in your control: there a many more brightness settings, and you can adjust it on a scale of harsh blue-white like the PW or a soft orange glow depending if you’re reading in the middle of the day or to try to abate your insomnia like I do.

I liked it so much, and my wife mentioned that she’d like one for Christmas so many times, that I just bought her one.

Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?

#515

Post by omar12 »

An Instapot. You can practically cook anything on it. Being more at home and time being split between working and child care, the Instapot has been a lifesaver.

Toaster/Air Fryer. An all in one that we can fry food without the mess of oil, or toast bread and bagels.

Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?

#516

Post by ornornor »

faebi wrote: post #175

My own car. I had a driving license all my life but never bothered to buy one because public transport in switzerland is cheap and good enough for a single person. The situation changed now: I am not alone anymore and Corona happened. I do not plan to use public transport on regular basis in my life anymore. It is unimaginable to me how we did groceries before. Also we can save some money by buying more in bulk. It's…

FWIW, I also live in CH in a smaller town (not Zürich or Lausanne sized). I don’t own a car. Doing groceries with the bus was a MAJOR pain. And took for ever because I had to wait around for two buses and then climb a significant hill back to my place with all the groceries. So much fun.

I built myself an ebike (just a regular bicycle with a TSDZ2 engine (runs open source software) and a 52V battery. I added Ortlieb paniers so I don’t need a backpack when running errand (well worth it especially in the summer). And I bought a Burley trailer. That trailer can haul around 40kg worth of stuff and with two big crates strapped on it I can do the weekly groceries easily. The ebike takes care of the extra weight and hill climbing.

This setup has saved me SO much money!! Owning a car would cost me over 100.- per month just for parking whether I use it or not. Plus maintenance, gas, insurance, the occasional ticket... the ebike saves me around 200.- or 300.- a month because it also replaces taking the bus. And you can park for free easily and virtually anywhere you’re going, right in front of the door. The bike cost less than 1600.- to build (including the tools and the actual bicycle) and is virtually free to use (a charge is less than 1.- and I can go around 75–100km on a charge, maintenance is not that hard and done by myself for free) The trailer cost me around 230.- And the lock for the bike was less than 100.- (I used to live in North America so I was a bit paranoid about lock quality and locking the bike). The rain gear (overpants and shell) cost around 200.- from Patagonia.

I also occasionally use the trailer to bring back ikea flat pack furniture, it’s fine.

Plus I get free exercise.

And when i absolutely need a car I can use Mobility or a similar service. But I haven’t needed one for over a year so I canceled my membership.

Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?

#517

Post by ornornor »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #311
aeternum wrote: post #140

Free, but a good ad blocker makes a huge difference. Wireless chargers, and favor devices that support it. Being able to simply set down headphones, earbuds, phones, and have them charge without looking for the right cable is great. Robot vacuum. Electric screwdriver, makes repairs and furniture setup much quicker.

Know any effective and simple ad blocker for Safari? Mainly for Mac but wouldn't mind for iOS as well.

For iOS I use nextdns. It’s great and works across all apps, not only safari. The free plan is more than enough for a single user but the paid plan isn’t very expensive either. Nextdns also curbs my “smart” TV’s enthusiasm about data sharing.

Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?

#518

Post by ornornor »

tasnent wrote: post #301
scpedicini wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time YouTube premium comes up, somebody mentions ublock origin failing to realize that a lot of people use devices other than a personal computer to watch videos (chrome cast, smart tv, phone, etc).

You could also set up something like Pi-Hole.

Doesn’t work with the YT ads. Their apps bypass your dns and you can’t tell the ad traffic apart to block it. uBO only works well in the browser.

Pro tip: compare prices for online services across countries. Netflix, YT, etc are 1/10th of the price in places like Argentina, turkey, etc. And the savings are just one vpn connection away to signup (you don’t usually need a vpn afterwards to use it)

Re: Ask HN: What did you purchase that measurably improved your quality of life?

#520

Post by adamredwoods »

nicdc wrote: post #273
samtuke wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for wacom tablets. Been using them for around 10 years instead of mice, for the ergonomic benefit. Portable, and cheap (bamboo series 2nd hand). Last several years each, too. Also native Linux support.

Would be interested to learn more about you're experience. I'm suffering from some RSI, so I'm thinking a pen tablet could help - I've already tried every type of mouse out there. Two questions: 1. How do you scroll ?! 2. What Wacom tablet do you recommend?

FYI-- The Wacom's are highly customizable. Even for the right-mouse-click I prefer hold and tap on the stylus than the default hover-and-tap. I would also get rubber stylus add-ons to make the stylus itself thicker to hold more easily.

Some Wacom's come with a scroll wheel. Some double as touchpad, so it can quickly be used as a touchpad.

I was using the medium, non-pro Wacom's (Bamboo) and these were just as good as the pro versions. Also, it is a great entry point than jumping full-in to the higher-priced models.

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