I have a Nokia (now Withings) Steel HR watch. Very minimal design as far as smart watches go but is extremely reliable and the battery still lasts a month even after 5 years of ownership and daily use.
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?
#772I have no one thing (these are the things that pop into my mind, all within their own category/niche); * My Hilleberg Akto single person hiking tent scores very highly. It is designed for lightness, durability and simplicity when setting up. It can better be set up/torn down by one person in a storm than most other tents I've owned. * My Leatherman multitool has been with me for years in some fairly bad conditions. I…
I echo your sentiments about a Leatherman.
I carried a cheaper Wingman religiously for five years. I bought it on a whim during a sale at a hardware store thinking I would keep it in the car for emergencies. It quickly became a pocket staple. Over the five years that thing fixed my car on the side of the road, was used at my job every 30 minutes, hammered loose nails, fell off a roof, cut my dinner. You name it.
Another thing to mention is how well the tools that comprise the leatherman itself are integrated into the package. Depending on the loadout/model you choose, you can have an array of quick-access functionality without any fumbling. The hinge mechanism for the exterior tools I have used were always taut and locked strongly, and had very smooth deployment action. I could have my knife tip scraping at something faster than I could pull a phone out of my pocket.
I lost that Wingman but it was quickly replaced by a Wave+. Should you have an eye for tinkering, fixing or tweaking things a leatherman will elevate you at least a few percentage points towards having super powers. I was astounded at how many situations can be handled more effectively if you have a bit of mechanical advantage. And a knife.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#773I think my keyboard [1 - pic][2 - site] is almost perfect. It is not full-sized but I don't have to compromise on features etc., as with a simple Num Lock toggle I can move between having a numpad and having access to arrow keys and the 'home row'.
My singular gripe is the fact that I can't assign macros to any of the numpad keys - "Num 1" and "Num 3" do literally nothing when Num Lock is off which is a bit of a waste. Was hopeful that a firmware update would come along to help with this but AFAIK none has.
[1] https://cdn.coolermaster.com/media/assets/1017/masterkeys-pr...
[2] https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/peripheral/keyboards/ma...
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#774Hacker News.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#775https://www.mcmaster.com/ Fast, snappy, responsive. No banners or cookie prompts, doesn't ask my to sign up for a newsletter or an account to continue and see more selection, it doesn't load in megabytes of JavaScript to show me products. Plus, responsive as all heck, and there isn't any bullshit prompts like "click here to see our selected offerings" or "check out our value products here" Like, from. The short url,…
Love mcmaster.com. I spend plenty of time just browsing.
Might benefit from an image search feature.
Am noob DIYer. I often only have a vague sense of what I'm looking for. Usually by analogy. So I'll spend a lot of time both foraging as well as using any search term I can think of.
eg Most recently, I'm looking for "banker's clips", my SO's term for really long money clip looking things. Like sewing hemming clips, but wider, and with a finished edge (non sharp). Great for securing paper to backing boards. So artists can carry around their work.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#776Earlier quoted context omitted.
They were making something that would be recognizable as a book (or booklet) at least as early as late republic, which ties in to my point that the format has been refined a long time.
I think you mean the codex? It was like a book, except the pages were bound on alernating sides. Not the best design, they improved on it in the middle ages. The codex achieved parity with the scroll in 300 AD, so that the modern book format coming just 200 years later means it wasn't around for that long.
Codex is the latin word for book in general.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#777Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the US this is a fire code issue. Doors need to swing inward to avoid people getting trapped inside from outside obstructions. edit: I seem to be misinformed about firecode. I may also be over extrapolating from what I know about bedroom doors as well. The general idea of obstruction is more valid there. It seems the more common reason bathrooms would not be allowed to swing outward is obstructing the minimum widt…
Huh. In Finland, fire code requires that external doors swing outward. It's intended to make it faster to exit the building since you can just walk forward, and to prevent people getting trapped indoors if a panicked crowd tries to push out through the door.
I believe the post above was only meant to be applied to interior doors. The explanation I've gotten in the past is interior doors open in so they don't block people outside the room, typically in a hallway, from being able to move towards the exit; Exterior doors open out so that the crowd of people rushing towards the exit can leave and you don't have a mass of panicked people stopping those at the front from having room to open the exterior doors.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#778Four things come to mind: * The AK-47. Love or hate guns, the AK was designed with tolerances that encouraged simultaneously good maintenance patterns and using it as a gorram hammer if the need came to it. * Nalgene bottles. Impact resistant, infinitely screen printable, polycarbonate body, cheap and everything you could want. * The venerable aluminum drinks can: The sheer amount of engineering that has gone into ma…
I would add that the Glock 19 might be the perfectly designed handgun. it is intuitive enough for someone who has never used a handgun before to be familiar in 30 seconds with how to clear it, how to load it, and how to shoot it.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#779Earlier quoted context omitted.
I ran into a door today that had a handle on the push side. Not even a crossbar - an aluminum folded-over handle, one on each of the double doors. It is, unmistakably, a pull handle , and it had "PUSH" written above it and even underlined, and still it gave me pause.
There used to be a coffee shop opposite my office that had a pull handle on the push side of the double doors. The right hand side doors were also often locked. I once sat at the nearest table to the doors and watched a dozen people pull then push on the right door, then pull and finally push on the left door, and often end up visibly aggravated by the time they got in and joined the morning queue! The next day my de…
Double doors where one door doesn't actually open are one of the most frustrating designs I commonly encounter.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#780Corded Wahl professional hair clippers. It’s the AK-47 of hair styling products: indestructible, never jams, and incredibly low maintenance. Clean out the detritus and give it a little oil now and then and it will work practically forever.
Oster clippers. If it'll shave a heard of sheep, you will never break it.