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Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

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Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#761

Post by e15ctr0n »

farrisbris wrote: post #196

Plants. I didn't have many before covid/wfh, but they really make the place more liveable/ejoyable by just being there and this became increasingly important as i spent so much more time at home

I got dwarf tomato plants this year, my very first attempt at growing tomatoes or any other vegetables for that matter. I'm growing them in containers on my patio. So far, they have sprouted two tiny green tomatoes each and, for now, they don't need a cage to support the growth.

Bonnie Plants Organic Husky Cherry Tomato Dwarf Indeterminate https://bonnieplants.com/product/husky-cherry-red-tomato/

Bonnie Plants Organic Globe Tomato Compact Determinate https://bonnieplants.com/product/organic-globe-tomato/

I also got a Serano Hot Pepper plant https://bonnieplants.com/product/serrano-hot-pepper/.

All three starter plants were about $4 at my local big box store.

Apart from these, I planted some green bean seeds and one of them has sprouted.

Last year, I bought a dwarf Meyer lemon tree which has lived up to its promise of growing well in a container and providing abundant fruit year-round.

I also bought solar-powered garden decor. These stakes look pretty during the day but at night they are absolutely magical. https://www.target.com/p/gerson-international-43-inch-high-s...

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#762

Post by truth_ »

pflock wrote: post #121
kaypro wrote: post #30

Kobo Forma. I'm an avid eBook reader so the little things add up. Going from the Kindle to the Forma was a huge upgrade. Font rendering, warm light, larger form factor, and Pocket integration amongst a host of other little niceties make it pretty much a perfect experience for me. https://us.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-forma

if you have a kindle library is it possible to import to use with Kobo readers? Calibre maybe helps?

Just connect your Kindle with your PC via any ISB cable, and with little moving around you can locate the directory where your downloaded books dwell. Just copy it to your PC, and then tranfer to your Kobo reader.

The files will be in .mobi and .azw3 format.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#763

Post by spike021 »

gaws wrote: post #729
spike021 wrote: post #532

Two trips to Japan. Yeah, they aren't material purchases. But I made amazing memories, got incredible photos to put up in my home, and met several cool new friends (who I had to chat with using Google Translate!) that I've kept in touch with. They were both fantastic opportunities for personal growth and learning.

> Two trips to Japan. What are some good recommendations for a first-time visit to Tokyo?

It honestly really depends what you're into and the kind of person you are.

For me I hit the usual touristy places like Shibuya crossing, Shinjuku Garden, Akihabara, etc.

But I also love baseball, so I went and caught a Yomiuri Giants game at Tokyo Dome. Even if you're not a baseball fan, it is super cool seeing how differently they participate as a crowd of fans at games. I also enjoy just walking around neighborhoods, so I spent time just taking the train to different areas and exploring the lesser-known areas that tourists don't commonly visit. I love car-related stuff, so I rented a car for a few days and went to some popular car-related places.

There are also plenty of food spots you can visit depending on what tastes you have. Cheap or more expensive.

There are fun areas like Odaiba City/Beach (with its own Statue of Liberty statue, smaller scale and a Gundam suit thing near the shopping mall).

If you plan during a specific season, like spring, you can go to find the cherry blossoms. Spring is usually incredibly crowded because of that, but with the right planning you can somewhat beat the crowds to certain popular spots (or find unknown spots that tourists won't visit but still have many blossoms).

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#764

Post by epmaybe »

hawski wrote: post #601

Disclaimer: I'm generally cheap. Pilot G2 pen - I bought it after someone recommended it and it is indeed a pleasure to write with it. Ryzen 5 2400G - it has a good enough GPU to play some nice games with Steam Proton. In future I would like to make a Mini-ITX build for it. Canon EOS M100 with pan cake lens - it's almost as small as a compact, but has big APS-C sensor. I bought a used body. I noticed lately how my ol…

I'll do you one better on the pilot G2, if you take care of your pens: https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/671015/Pilot-G2-Limit...

Feels even more smooth than the plastic ones just because of the weight

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#765

Post by ryanchants »

krat0sprakhar wrote: post #657
slimbods wrote: post #647

A very basic but effective home gym: A barbell and 140kg of bumper plates, Squat/bench stands, bench, slam ball, dumbbells and a small range of kettlebells. The whole thing cost about the equivalent of a year's gym membership but have lasted two years so far and show no sign of wear. Being able to lift something heavy on a regular basis over the last year has been a massive boost for my mental and physical health. Yo…

I wish I could do this! But alas, living in an apartment in the city this will remain my pipedream.

I rent a garage with a couple of friends and we built a home gym in it. A little rough during Chicago winters, but it's been nice.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#766

Post by hawski »

dcolkitt wrote: post #176
gpm wrote: post #114

Pair of 32" 4k screens. As someone who programs a lot, it's worth it (and not that expensive, you don't need high refresh rate or anything). Being able to use spatial memory to navigate between most of the working set of windows, being able to show a lot of text on one screen, etc. Only downside is that it's surprisingly hard to drive two 4k screens, laptops are likely not going to be happy (or have low refresh rates…

Out of curiosity how do you position your screens? I used to rock dual Thunderbolt displays, but my always felt awkward either turning to the left or turning to the right. Now I now just use monitor, because I like having whatever I'm working on directly in front of me.

When I had two identical big monitors with thin bezels I placed them side by side vertically. Then I had one marvelously big almost square monitor. In Windows it was not ideal, but workable. It not always worked as a single stretched space for everything, i.e. I had two task bars. If I could run Linux then I imagine there would be no problems also tiling window manager could be perfect.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#767

Post by 0xffff2 »

baby wrote: post #248

Instant pot. This thing is magical, everything taste so fucking good in it. I bought a crockpot and never used it, but the instant pot was a game changer for me: ramen, couscous, stews, etc. The meat tastes so good when cooked there, vegetables are the same.

Hard disagree. I was recently gifted an instant pot and it's a glorified rice cooker at best. Everything else I've tried in it, from steaming vegetables to various meats have been of significantly inferior quality (if admittedly faster cooking) than their non-instant pot variants.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#768

Post by truth_ »

reacharavindh wrote: post #407
baby wrote: post #233

The ipad pro. It’s just my favorite device, and has been for the last 2-3 years. I draw and take a lot of notes on it, I read a lot of pdfs and epubs, I watch movies and videos, etc. I like that it allows me to focus, as the os is limiting, and I like that it’s so portable that I can easily take it with me anywhere. I can also hold it well when I’m in bed, in the plane, etc.

Do you know of a way to take notes _on_ a ePub book? I’d love to buy a new iPad just for this if there was a way to do it. As far as I have tried, Apple Books, or Kindle don’t allow markup on ePub books.

I use Lithium in Android. Has this feature.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#770

Post by klmadfejno »

sharken wrote: post #701

The Samsung HW-Q950T soundbar with it's 9.1.4 channels of awesome sound. https://www.samsung.com/dk/audio-devices/soundbar/9-1-4-ch-s... It's far from a perfect product, eARC is broken on many TVs, rear speakers sometime turn off on their own. But when it works it sounds fantastic. I should also mention the Avforums where owners discuss this rather complex piece of hardware and how to get the most from it, that has b…

I was looking at that but saw so many reviews stating that the rear speaker connections didn't work well and got scared off. I got a sonos arc and speaker set instead.

My setup runs to a projector with no eARC support. I found this thing which splits a signal directly from source into two paths with eARC support. Haven't tried it yet, but optimistic that it'll work.

https://www.amazon.com/HDFury-HDF0160-Arcana/dp/B08DF7GRCB?r...

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