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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?

#581

Post by yokto »

Jackdanie1s wrote: post #460
yokto wrote: post #251

My ZSA Moonlander keyboard [1]. When I bought it, I was just looking for a sleeker and more ergonomic keyboard with a split design, but the ability to easily reconfigure every key on the layout brought a new meaning to the word "ergonomic" for me. It means that when a particular motion or shortcut that I frequently use is puts too much strain on my hands, I can simply change the layout to make the keys more natural t…

Do you miss the function row?

Just F2, but I had to get used to that already with my previous keyboard (Microsoft Sculpt). But I let all F keys bound to the Layer 2 as per the ZSA defaults.

And Alt + F4 is bound to a double tap of the right red thumb key :D

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

#582

Post by plinkplink »

fortran77 wrote: post #196

I remember when my husband brought a TiVo 1.0 to the house and hooked it up. This was 1999. I didn't understand why I'd need one. Within a few days, I couldn't live without it. I could pause Live TV, and watch shows when I wanted to. I can't imagine any other way. When I see my 88 year old mother watching "live" TV, I get frustrated. The second piece of hardware that was a "game changer" was a Toto Neorest toilet. No…

Toto Neorest... don't those things cost like, $10k?

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

#583

Post by BuckRogers »

t-3 wrote: post #453
Cr0s wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any specific ebook readers you would recommend? I have been thinking about getting one recently.

Right now, Kobo is the best, IMHO. Pocketbook is overpriced and underpowered, Onyx Boox run locked-down Android, Amazon is full of customer-hostile practices and spyware.

You can't sideload on the Onyx? I've been comparing Kobo to Onyx and I saw that Onyx does support the Google Play Store, which is good enough for me. I'm guessing what you're alluding to is no sideloading of apks.

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

#584

Post by t-3 »

BuckRogers wrote: post #583
t-3 wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now, Kobo is the best, IMHO. Pocketbook is overpriced and underpowered, Onyx Boox run locked-down Android, Amazon is full of customer-hostile practices and spyware.

You can't sideload on the Onyx? I've been comparing Kobo to Onyx and I saw that Onyx does support the Google Play Store, which is good enough for me. I'm guessing what you're alluding to is no sideloading of apks.

You can sideload, but the interfaces are weird and it's not anywhere near as open as a normal stock Android, let alone LineageOS or a real Linux like Kobo/Pocketbook (my older Kindle Paperwhite also runs some flavor of *nix IIRC, but not as easily hackable, and no idea about newer versions).

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

#585

Post by chordalkeyboard »

rdtwo wrote: post #290
chordalkeyboard wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have yet to find a French press without plastic components that contact the brew.

They make metal ones

by some strange coincidence I found one the very day I posted the grandparent comment reply.

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

#586

Post by hiptobecubic »

laserlight wrote: post #577
hiptobecubic wrote: post #573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in linux, midi devices can be read just like any other character device. It's not a ton of work to read the midi data and translate it to keypresses or whatever else you want. I used to have a Griffin Powermate and did something similar with it. It was a ton of fun.

Thanks for the suggestion. I looked up some devices, but all of them cater to musicians -- obviously -- and therefore don't have many different types of input. Korg nanokontrol and nanokontrol studio seem to be the best ones in this regard. I wish there was a device made for hackers with small and large knobs and buttons, horizontal and vertical sliders, touch panels, etc. For Mac users, BetterTouchTool [0] allows as…

They cater to musicians because that's what midi was invented for. At the end of the day it's just a protocol and you can interpret it however you like. Any random midi controller will work great.

My relatively cheap keyboard has midi over USB and I was able to dump raw midi into a terminal after five minutes of googling.

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

#587

Post by BuckRogers »

baggsie wrote: post #257

Google Stadia - I got a free controller & chrome-cast in a promotion a while back and sceptically tried it expecting massive latency and poor image quality, but ended up being blown away. Being able to play RDR2 on my MB Air and then switching over to the TV (without any interruption) is something that never gets old. It's such a shame that the product seems to be in its death throes.

It’s Google, least trustworthy steward of all. Expect Microsoft to become the leader there with Xbox Cloud Gaming.

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

#588

Post by alias_neo »

alanfranz wrote: post #575
alias_neo wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah a metre plus is pretty far. I sit about 30-40cm from my screen unless I'm sitting back in my chair.

But the whole point IS sitting back in your chair. Much better posture! Btw I performed some measurements and real distance is more like 90cm.

That makes sense. When I say "sitting back" I mean leaning back, which is closer to the real distance I should be.

I downsized my desk significantly when we had kids so that's the reason for sitting so close. We're currently working on resolving the space situation then maybe I too can switch to a monster sized monitor!

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

#589

Post by bredren »

darkteflon wrote: post #481
bredren wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep an agent that monitors amazon pricing on the filters, and just buy a bunch when they dip abnormally low. Have you found any other ways to minimize cost on them? I have only used the ones sold by coway, as my pal tried some 3rd party and they were jenky.

Depending on where you live, filters are a once/twice a year expense, I believe (I’m only a few months in). Honestly my advice would be: just be diligent about maintaining them. I vacuum out the filter and charcoal screen once every couple of weeks. Takes a few minutes, pretty painless. Amazing how much dust they pick up in normal operation. Incidentally, which agent are you using for Amazon?

Missed this reply--I use camelcamelcamel for Amazon. I'm not sure if they are able to handle the click-to-get-discount check boxes, though. I also don't know how timely they are.

I've considered setting up Huginn to do this, but haven't explored it enough: https://github.com/huginn/huginn

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

#590

Post by nonplus »

darkteflon wrote: post #449
nonplus wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory reply about linear (silent) cherry switches existing but mostly here to say I'm glad you found a keyboard you like. I think that's the takeaway I try to give people on input devices. Just get something you like and don't worry about what everyone else likes.

I’d never admit to it on HN, but my favourite keyboard for non-gaming stuff is Apple’s Magic Keyboard 2, tenkeyless version.

Yeah I've found I care a lot more about the layout than the keys. I've learned I just want ANSI 60. It's minimal enough, the cognitive load is low/all keys that are not first class are one layout/fn press away.
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