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Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

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Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#691

Post by KineticLensman »

bregma wrote: post #677
jcims wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So happy to see the Fiskars mentioned. Grew up with farmers in the midwest US but love my fancy little splitter hitter from across the pond. I find a subtle lift on the handle right at the end of the stroke, almost like a whipping action, seems to help a little. It may be in my head, but it seems to stick less. Use the full length of the handle, the horn at the end provides a positive grip and you get more speed. On…

> Set your rounds on top of the biggest round you can find when splitting. That's fine advice for someone who wants to burn a campfire for a night. I heat with wood in remote Canada and I estimate I split somewhere between 600 and 800 bucks for a season's supply of firewood. If I had to lift each one of those into the air and balance it (if possible, and it's often not possible) on another piece of wood I'd never get…

I also use a manual hydraulic splitter as I never developed axe skills when young. It works fine for most sections of trunk and gives a nice upper-body workout. If I load it with two sections of trunk the rearmost one significantly reduces the distance I need to move the ram before the section at the front makes contact with the splitter.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#692

Post by estaseuropano »

bouncycastle wrote: post #410
akg_67 wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminded me of my experience at a Japanese Onsen (hot spring) last week. While entering the Onsen, the sliding door is automated and slides to open on it’s own. While exiting, the automated sliding doesn’t work. It has handles with no indication of pull or push or slide. The design of handles suggest most probably pull. I kept trying to pull/push with no movement. Finally, realized I am supposed to use those handl…

Reminds me of this japanese comedy sketch https://youtu.be/ZkQNP2cqG2I Another tricky thing is figuring out how to flush the public toilets. The user interface is non standard on every toilet. The most surprising way I've encountered was to step on a button on the floor. (Remember to never press the big green button)

Friend, you missed the biggest news of 2017:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38660860

Although it probably takes a few years for all toilets to be replaced...

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#693

Post by graycat »

akeck wrote: post #343
japhyr wrote: post #134

If you split your own firewood by hand, a Fiskars splitting axe is insanely better than any standard splitting maul you'd find in a typical hardware store: https://www.fiskars.com/en-us/gardening-and-yard-care/produc... For mechanical pencils, the Rotring 600 is the best thing I've ever written with: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AZWYUA4/

My absolute favorite pencil with which to do math is the Pentel Kerry .7mm. It feels so good.

I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation in applied math with a Pentel 0.5 mm. Soooo, there's also a Pentel 0.7?? GOOD. Thanks!

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#696

Post by mprovost »

thiht wrote: post #656

I love my electric toothbrush. It cost me 20 bucks and it’s amazing. I analyzed it from a UX point of view and couldn’t come up with any designs flaw. - it’s waterproof, so easy to clean - it has a single physical button, nothing else - it has a small flat stand on the back, so I can put it somewhere horizontally and it won’t roll, and the brush won’t touch the surface - the heads can be easily changed, so we share t…

"I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience." - Mitch Hedberg

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#698

Post by riffraff »

csomar wrote: post #530
javajosh wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I returned my airpod pros because I kept losing them and/or their case, and had anxiety until I found them. And I knew it was only a matter of time before I didn't find them again. Also, the audio quality on the other end of my calls was actively bad. I've reverted to wired earbuds with a mic in the cable, and am (very) grateful I was stubborn about keeping the 3.5mm headphone jack on whatever phone I'm…

If you are losing them at home, they can make a small sound through the Find iPhone page in iCloud.

Sadly, you can't setup find my.. for them if you don't have an iPhone, which seems blatantly anticompetitive behavior from Apple.

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#699

Post by thiht »

muzani wrote: post #671
thiht wrote: post #656

I love my electric toothbrush. It cost me 20 bucks and it’s amazing. I analyzed it from a UX point of view and couldn’t come up with any designs flaw. - it’s waterproof, so easy to clean - it has a single physical button, nothing else - it has a small flat stand on the back, so I can put it somewhere horizontally and it won’t roll, and the brush won’t touch the surface - the heads can be easily changed, so we share t…

What's the model?

It's the Oral-B Vitality 170

Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?

#700

Post by scandox »

muzani wrote: post #676
egwor wrote: post #665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy to clean is so important. My parents’ garlic press is far superior to the one we have

I'd love to know where you guys are getting these, because every garlic press I get falls apart.

As far as I can tell the one I have was made in France in the mid 1970s and is irreplaceable.
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