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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?

#511

Post by raihansaputra »

kemayo wrote: post #271
clktmr wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> rendering 2560x1440 to a 4K screen How does this work? Will it just upscale or is e.g. text still rendered at 4K? Rendering not at native resolution results always in blurred edges in my experience.

Very well, in my experience. Apple has been doing what it calls "retina" display for a while now, whereby it keeps the display's actual resolution at a high native level but scales everything it renders so the screen is effectively a lower resolution... but really smooth because of it. Here's an album with a pair of screenshots from my own 4k display: https://imgur.com/a/7AHZZZv -- the scaled one is how I normally us…

It's sharp enough but when compared to a native 1x/2x scaling, it still looks blurry, and it's only seen physically for me. Currently I run my M1 MBA at native 2560*1600 (BetterDummy, non hiDpi), and my 27" 4k at native. Set default zoom on chrome to be 125/150%, and VSCode also at "zoomed". I mostly use Chrome and Electron based apps (Spotify), so the increase in text sharpness is worth it. Native apps (Pritunl, etc) UI becomes too small, but again it's worth it for me.

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

#512

Post by jsrcout »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #58
brtkdotse wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 £…

Bought a new fridge in 2020, relative decent one, around $2200. Works fine but the plastic shelf parts inside are just unbelievably cheap and shitty. And the replacement parts if you would happen to break one are correspondingly expensive. Meh.

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

#513

Post by _carbyau_ »

frogulis wrote: post #59
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-M5…

Wires also double as safety tethers for angry people who like to throw their mouse/keyboard.

Yes, I have intentionally purchased wired stuff for others with this in mind. Yes, they needed to get their shit together and they did.

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

#514

Post by ncmncm »

db48x wrote: post #60

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.

I had an Intel nVME SSD. It failed catastrophically after only a year.

I posted about it, and somebody from Intel said, not surprising, that model was crap. Apparently the only products Intel goes to any effort to make reliable are the ones meant for data centers. So, no more Intel for me.

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

#515

Post by ncmncm »

uniqueuid wrote: post #2

This might not be what you want to hear (i.e. too little tech), but here's a list from Bruce Sterling's talk at Reboot 11 (2009) [1] that stuck with me: * Number one, a bed. You're spending a third of your life in the thing. * Get a chair. I shouldn't have to tell people who work with computers to get a chair. * (things that go on your skin like clothes and cosmetics) * Apart from that, beautiful things, emotional th…

I used to use a chair. Now I use a stool. I get up to walk around more often, now.

In "Pushing Tin", Billy Bob Thornton's character took his folding chair with him wherever he worked. That must have been based on some real character.

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

#517

Post by BiteCode_dev »

leobg wrote: post #411
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #48

https://shadow.tech/ I love the laptop factor, but I need a good GPU sometimes. There are ways to plug one using USB-C, and I wanted to go for that first. But my little bro, a gamer, told me it was a waste of money. For $29 a month, I can get a remote beast of a computer with Windows 10 on it and use it as much as I want. At first, I wasn't convinced. Primo, I'd have to upload all of my stuff. Secondo, what about the…

Looks interesting. You think one could play MS Flight Simulator on it?

I don't have the game to test it, but I don't see why not.

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

#519

Post by phaedrix »

PeterWhittaker wrote: post #183

There are three, maybe four. The 3, from least to most important, are: 1) My kneeling chair. Between the pandemic and a new job started a few months before, I am at my desk more than ever. I wondered about the ~acute angle between legs and torso in a regular chair, so I borrowed a kneeling chair from a friend. I figured I'd go easy on it/me and use it for just 15 minutes at a time at first. After a quarter hour or so…

Which kneeling chair did you end up buying?

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

#520

Post by pj-bs »

ncmncm wrote: post #515
uniqueuid wrote: post #2

This might not be what you want to hear (i.e. too little tech), but here's a list from Bruce Sterling's talk at Reboot 11 (2009) [1] that stuck with me: * Number one, a bed. You're spending a third of your life in the thing. * Get a chair. I shouldn't have to tell people who work with computers to get a chair. * (things that go on your skin like clothes and cosmetics) * Apart from that, beautiful things, emotional th…

I used to use a chair. Now I use a stool. I get up to walk around more often, now. In "Pushing Tin", Billy Bob Thornton's character took his folding chair with him wherever he worked. That must have been based on some real character.

Maybe Glenn Gould, a pianist that used the same chair.

https://youtu.be/5SHtyGc8pfk

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