Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022 • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022

#761

Post by tbran » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 9:47 PM UTC

hasbot wrote: post #508

holy_diver wrote: post #209

A bidet. We got one with heated water and seats and going to the bathroom feels super luxurious now. Not to mention all the toilet paper we save and increased hygiene.

Reddit loves bidets. Has for years. Based on all the glowing comments, I bought one and installed it. Even after some practice and experimentation, I wasn't clean nor felt clean. Plus, the bidet added numerous crannies for urine spray to accumulate. I went back to wiping and discarded the bidet.

Buy a 60 pack of soft towels [0] and you will be clean and dry. Did this based on a friend's rec and I'm never going back.

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TJ7646Z

Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022

#762

Post by timeon » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 9:47 PM UTC

michaelcampbell wrote: post #195

D13Fd wrote: post #123

Kagi search engine subscription is easily my top choice ( https://kagi.com ). I'm really glad something can finally, truly replace Google search and be just as good or better (neither Bing nor DuckDuckGo were good enough when I tried them). If we're talking physical products, I'd probably go with the Apple Magsafe wallet. It's a little thing but I love not having a separate wallet to keep track of every day.

> DuckDuckGo were good enough when I tried them I'm curious as to where it lacked. DDG works more than well enough for me, but I'm wondering what other people search for where it is not.

Non-English queries have usually poor result.

Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022

#763

Post by jmcomets » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 9:47 PM UTC

For me it was a watch.

I bought a Fitbit Charge 4, originally to track my heart rate/steps since I've never owned one and always relied on my phone for time.

With my phone generally on silent and by not checking it so often, I've found my use of social media/apps has reduced drastically this year. To the point that I recently forgot my phone at home, something that I didn't imagine possible.

Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022

#764

Post by kevstev » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 9:49 PM UTC

fauria wrote: post #323

Arcteryx Delta LT jacket. At first I thought it was an impulsive purchase, but it end up being the most versatile jacket I've had. Whenever I don't know what to wear or carry on a trip, I toss in the Delta LT and it ends up being really useful.

My company gave me one of their jackets a few years back for being involved in some recruiting efforts. I honestly had no idea how expensive they were- I have an LT hood of some sort- their product line is absurdly convoluted, but I later found out it was about $260. I ripped mine in a bike fall a few months ago, but even after finding the price to replace it, was absolutely resolved to get anther. For a jacket that weighed nothing, it kept me plenty warm down to about 30F degrees, kept the rain out, and looked great. Its almost like magic how good these are.

Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022

#765

Post by rocket_surgeron » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 9:49 PM UTC

A huge (A0, 33-1/8 x 46-13/16 in-sized) 12-month calendar with the months laid out in long strips.

I wasn't doing enough. Too much YouTube and reddit, so I stopped and decided to do things.

I used different colored markers for different aspects of my life-- health, work, fitness, recreational travel, home maintenance, etc) and decided I had to do something every week.

The different colors even accounted for down time. Too much color? Draw a nice relaxing blue line for a couple of days and do nothing.

I went from being a hermit to a EMT-qualified volunteer at my local volunteer fire department on his way to Firefighter I training, a spotlight operator at a local community theater, an enthusiastic yogi, and by having the year laid out I can look at weekends with holidays and plan my year's travel months in advance. I make notes on when to plant what and have a pretty front yard.

Digital calendars are nice, but they can't beat having a huge-assed poster right next to the front door with everything laid out in black and white and red and blue and green and yellow and........

If you feel like you're not getting the most out of life, get a huge-assed calendar, start googling local volunteer opportunities, write it down, and then do it.

$30, including markers.

Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022

#766

Post by mynameisash » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 9:50 PM UTC

jk_tech wrote: post #751

Smart Light Bulbs. As much as I dislike the inability to host the bulbs locally, it has done wonders for my sleep. I set them to slowly dim over a 45 minute period at night and slowly turn on over a 45 minute period in the morning. I have consistently gotten 8+ hours of amazing sleep and fall asleep + wake up so much easier now than I ever have before.

> I dislike the inability to host the bulbs locally

Only a few years ago, one could program MagicLight bulbs pretty easily. It seems their newer versions use a different protocol that hasn't been reverse-engineered, so you're stuck using their crappy phone app. I would probably consider spending a reasonable amount on bulbs if I could self-host -- mostly because I want arbitrary control/fine-tuning of them.

Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022

#767

Post by trapexit » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 9:50 PM UTC

jonfw wrote: post #155

We set up a motorized curtain in our bedroom. It's been really nice to black everything out at night while sleeping (some of our neighbors leave outdoor lights on) but in the morning, wake up with natural light

Significantly more than $200, but we had motorized external screens & shutters put on the bedroom windows. I flashed Tasmota onto some cheap Sonoff modules to control the motors and integrated via MQTT into Homebridge so we can easily set schedules or ask Siri to put the shades up or down.

We're sleeping so much better with the room mostly blacked out (we also have rear neighbors with bright lights, and cats that roam the neighborhood and set off everyone's motion sensors all night).

Having an exterior covering on the southwest-facing windows has also massively reduced the need for cooling in the summer — our original reason for having the install done.

Our bedroom has ~99% light reduction with the external screens, and our toddler's room upstairs has completely opaque roller shutters and gets DARK, which has made for very easy nap times and great overnight sleep. When we ask Siri to wake the kid up, a scene is executed that rolls up the shutters, turns on the overhead light, and plays a happy song on the HomePod. Always puts him a great mood.

Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022

#768

Post by Mouthfeel » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 9:51 PM UTC

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #154

An air fryer. It’s really a badly marketed product. Its real utility isn’t that it uses less oil, but that it cooks incredibly fast. Essentially an oven on steroids. It’s made cooking so much easier. I usually toss some boneless chicken in with a light coating of soy sauce and cornflour. While the chicken cooks, I prep a basic Asian sauce on the stovetop. The chicken and the sauce are both done within 10-15 minutes.…

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Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022

#769

Post by tootie » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 9:52 PM UTC

MisterPea wrote: post #337

trynewideas wrote: post #294

A one-hour shopping session with a personal stylist, at about $175. I desperately wanted to break out of my t-shirt/blue jeans habit, but parsing clothes sizes, trying things on, and getting opinions is equal parts sorcery and torture for me. (I'd tried Stitch Fix and felt like it wanted to reinforce my habits rather than break me out of them.) After sending her details about my problems and the kinds of styles I adm…

I don't want to belittle your experience as stylists can be helpful for achieving a certain look, but often department stores (especially Nordstrom) have sales associates trained as stylists. They will spend a lot of time helping you with your style for free, albeit you'll probably want to buy from that particular store. Nordstrom clothes are a bit on the pricier end, but ~most~ are often good quality.

I used to work at fairly expensive furniture/houseware retailer. They had a big squad of interior designers who all worked for free. They drove so much additional revenue that we didn't need to charge customers at all.

Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022

#770

Post by gregschlom » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 9:53 PM UTC

nerdawson wrote: post #288

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #154

An air fryer. It’s really a badly marketed product. Its real utility isn’t that it uses less oil, but that it cooks incredibly fast. Essentially an oven on steroids. It’s made cooking so much easier. I usually toss some boneless chicken in with a light coating of soy sauce and cornflour. While the chicken cooks, I prep a basic Asian sauce on the stovetop. The chicken and the sauce are both done within 10-15 minutes.…

> It’s really a badly marketed product. I think the marketing is really smart. It's positioned as a new category of product. Oven on steroids won't sell because people already own ovens. It has to be a distinct appliance otherwise it's competing against a full sized oven. That's not the comparison you want a consumer to make.

This is exactly right. An "air fryer" is nothing but a small convection oven. Most people already own ovens that can do convection cooking. So this very cleverly creates a new category of appliances.