SFML (2D game framework)
Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?
601–610 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?
#602Bic Cristal Ballpoint pen. Blue.
Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?
#603The Jonas peeler for peeling fruit and veg
https://www.amazon.com/Linden-Sweden-Jonas-Peeler-Original/d...
Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?
#604SIG 550 assault rifle. I don't particularly like weapons, but this gun can take an incredible amount of abuse and is still accurate and reliable. I feel that the designers really found the sweet spot between complexity and simplicity here. Same for the Kawasaki KLR 650 motorcycle. A superb bike, virtually indestructible, and in the unlikely case that something breaks, it's possible to fix it on your own. EDIT: Sublim…
Loved my early 2000s KLR 650. I'm hardly a mechanic, but I did my own top end and bottom end work on it (full engine teardowns), and it always started back up.
Motorcycles require quite a bit more maintenance than cars, and having one where I was comfortable fixing every part on it was awesome.
Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?
#605Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can still buy those. They are the cheapest ones in the supermarket. At least where I live.
You can also buy commercial grade all stainless models that have single timer nob and one or two power option buttons. Amana makes the RCS10DSE.
Oh, nice. That way you get 1000W units. Not worth the additional $200 for me personally, but good to know – thanks.
Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?
#606Hewlett-Packard products before they started making PC's.
Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?
#607U.S. Constitution Eiffel Tower Bosendorfer 214CS piano 1986 Fender Performer guitar 1959 Fender Stratocaster Yamaha YBL 321 trombone Yamaha Q series alto sax Any Zojirushi rice cooker Vitamix Sony SRF-M37w radio Golden Gate Bridge (walk it) Any Porsche 911 Toyota Sienna minivan Any MacBook Air Duluth Trading Longtail T shirts web2py C89 Visual Basic 3.0 Turbo Pascal 3.0 Visual Pascal Vim Eggs, bananas, bell peppers,…
Knowing Wright foundation tech, I can't upvote this.
Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?
#608The ancient microwave in my first apartment. It had two knobs: one for time, one for power. It's immediately obvious how to cook something for how long, how to add more time, etc. All other microwaves that I've used I had to have someone explain to me what buttons to press in what order to do even the simplest things. And I've never seen anyone use all of those fancy buttons.
Completely agree! The funny thing is the first thing I thought of was an old microwave I owned with a similar setup mainly because the microwave I own, today, is so awful [0]. I have a GE combination convection oven/microwave and it was clearly designed by someone who had their first experience with LSD that day. Every function requires a different, magic, set of key combinations to make it work. Want to set a timer?…
$500 for a microwave??? What does it do, fly?
I have an old microwave with two buttons and it works great. Kids can use it too.
Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?
#609#1 The Nokia N9 (specifically the alarm clock) When trying to find a clone for Android, I found this guy's blog post which explains why it's perfect: http://www.nition.co/2014/08/the-nokia-n9-alarm-clock/ The swipe interface of the operating system is also the best I've ever used. If I play around with the N9 for a few minutes now; then go back to android, it feels clunky an inefficient again. #2 The Nintendo Gamecub…
I've been using an Android alarm clock program that is unfortunately called Alarm Clock Xtreme for nearly a decade. It works pretty great. It's not quite as slick as the N9 alarm clock that blog post describes, but it's pretty close. If you're still trying to hunt down an alarm clock, give it a shot.
I'm quite a big fan of it ACX myself and use it as my daily alarm clock. However, my one gripe with it is that with the major update (ages ago now), they removed the option to set an alarm with no snooze option.
Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?
#610It took me about a second to think of Dixon Ticonderoga pencils. These are the perfect nexus of good and cheap. These things have the critical features one looks for in a writing instrument, my favorite of which is that I can put it in my electric pencil sharpener and the lead never snaps just prior to the point at which it becomes sharp. And these guys finally figured out something useful to do with that pink, rubbe…
I've never seen someone that excited about pencils. Might this be satire? ;)
Drafting, sketching, doodling can make one excited about paper marking tools.