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Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

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Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#751

Post by toyg »

skwee357 wrote: post #609
toyg wrote: post #513

People will love you much more if you use a real microphone. I have a travel-sized one from RØDE; the difference it made, in how people perceive my voice, is massive - I sound like a professional speaker rather than a geek in the basement. This brought significant reputational advantages. I also have an UPS under the desk, keeping up the wifi hub in all circumstances; it has a couple of USB charging ports on the fron…

Hey! Which mic you have from RODE?

The NT-USB. Came with a pop filter and stand. Bought it ages ago and still going, with the only problem being the USB socket at the bottom got a bit loose - my kids abused it when I wasn't there.

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#752

Post by entropicgravity »

zoenolan wrote: post #371
entropicgravity wrote: post #267

Mx Ergo (by Logitech) is far and away the best "mouse" for me and probably for you. It only takes about two hours to transfer your motor skills of regular mouse to the Mx Ergo. Because this "thumb ball" mouse only involves your thumb to work the mouse you won't get the full wrist, shoulder and neck pain that you can get from a normal mouse. If you have any kind of arm pain then check this out.

Love mine. Expensive but nice. The downside is the button switches failed for me after about 15 months. I'm Currently waiting for some time to replace the left and right buttons https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29448776

I had this problem as well and, as I recall, I fixed it by blowing high pressure air under the button. A 'can of air' under pressure will do.

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#753

Post by mmzeeman »

Karawebnetwork wrote: post #660
mmzeeman wrote: post #294

Some fountain pens and a notebook. This allows me to quickly write down notes before jumping into my editor. This makes a big difference.

If I may piggyback on this, I would recommend the "Uni Jetstream 4&1 4 Color 0.5 mm Ballpoint Multi Pen + 0.5 mm Pencil". It costs only $10 and is available everywhere. It's one of those pens that has 4 buttons to change colors but this one also has a 0.5 mm pencil built in and a tiny eraser in the cap. Having the option to add color to my notes easily made them a lot easier to read, especially for code.

Currently I use two Jinhao X159s, which cost about $3 on aliexpress. Pretty decent writers. Cheap does not necessarily mean bad.

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#754

Post by kjs3 »

mnw21cam wrote: post #547
kjs3 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That actually works, at least in Windows. I haven't tried it on Linux or BSD.

It not only works on Linux, but you can choose between having all keyboards work together (default) or sending different keyboards' inputs to different consumers. For instance, you can have two monitors, two keyboards, and two mice, then run two X servers and have two people sitting at one computer both doing meaningful work.

Hehe...you could do the 2 user/1 machine trick on DEC Microvax IIs back in the day before it got cheaper to buy a NCD xterminal than the extra DEC kit to make it work. I recall it was a supported configuration you could order from DEC, but someone had to hack up our local fork of 4.2/4.3 BSD to make it work.

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#755

Post by shae »

brokenmachine wrote: post #29
shae wrote: post #3

I use a board with 32 RGB LEDs to show process status: https://github.com/shapr/bloohm If you ever have multiple hour long builds and/or test suites running, this is is a big help.

Cool idea. > time $* && fin || die I don't know zsh, but this doesn't look escaped properly to me? Bash has so many footguns. What does the bloom filter do? Is it sort of like a hash to try to make each process show up on a different LED on the display?

Also bonus feature is the LEDs that light up for the same command in the same directory are also the same LEDs.

That means I can tell exactly which processes are in which status.

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#756

Post by j45 »

swah wrote: post #509
j45 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine died in 6 months of light use, looking for a better one. They work well on the floor too if you have a basement.

Good idea - although you can always put more socks, a boot, etc. Thats why the hands are so hard, because you need mobility for working. You know who won't complain when winter arrives? ChatGPT...

Yeah I’ve thought about how the desk gets cold - maybe putting foam under the legs to reduce cold transfers into the frame and table top might help.

Alternatively maybe there’s a way to mount a desk warmer under the desk instead of top.

There are some pretty dedicated foot warmers out there too. Depending on the climate zone one is in, all socks and shoes get cold eventually.

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#757

Post by illwrks »

romanhn wrote: post #38

After working for almost 3 years with a barebones work-from-home setup (standup desk + laptop), I finally invested recently in some equipment to improve upon my crappy laptop camera and a room with little natural light. The difference in my video call quality is night and day. This is what I got: - A key light (Godox ES45) to throw a bunch of bright, natural white light at my face. Attached to the desk and positioned…

If you can, sit at a south facing window for natural light, you can also buy a flexible wire rimmed light diffuser used for photography. If you can get the right diffuser for your window frame it should flex into the frame and stay in place (unless the window is open and it cat he's the wind!)

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#758

Post by spiffytech »

Eisenstein wrote: post #419
modeless wrote: post #237

Gaming wireless headphones, not for gaming but for videoconferencing. Bluetooth headphones are universally terrible for videoconferencing because the Bluetooth standard sucks and requires downgrading to telephone audio quality whenever the mic is enabled. Plus terrible latency. Gaming wireless headphones that come with their own dongle completely fix these issues and are perfect for videoconferencing. Someday the Blu…

Don't use magnetic USB adapters. They run a decent risk of frying your device. The USB-C spec was not designed to have the connection broken in that way. You will have no issues 99% of the time, but you will eventually have that time when your device gets fried. It takes a very precise design and a lot of clever engineering to have a high-current power connector with tiny pins be able to break without having the grou…

I fried a hub, a wall charger, and the USB ports on my monitor before I identified my magnetic USB-C connector as the problem.

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#759

Post by thealienthing »

hipplec wrote: post #75

I have a heating pad under my keyboard which keeps my hands warm in the winter. Was like $20 on amazon, and I can't even begin to describe how amazing it is, since I was really tired of always having a mug of hot water / tea / coffee to hold and didn't want to keep the heat on my house super high when I could just wear a sweatshirt and be fine except my fingers.

I do this but for my feet. They’re always wrapped up nice and toasty under my desk because I have poor circulation in my hands and feet. It’s very nice ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#760

Post by is_true »

proactivesvcs wrote: post #701
is_true wrote: post #590

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most people used mousepads so the mouse could work properly

I find that they're more comfortable than a table surface for my wrist and lower thumb, and depending on the table mean that the mouse doesn't make that horrible sandpapery noise if it's running on grain, imperfections or uh, a few months' lunch ;-)

Me too. But most people I know used mousepads so the mouse could work properly, not for their confort
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