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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?

#791

Post by seanmcdirmid »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #776
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes, but it is used to describe the book like thing that came before the modern book. We love overloading our Latin words.

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

#793

Post by kqr »

rambambram wrote: post #629
rakwoelq wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always avoid touching that metal door plate, I've gotten 'stainless steel cleaner and polish' on my hands too many times for me to consider using it again.

Now that you mention it, I do the same unknowingly. I always go for the wood above the plate, just because unconsciously I think it's cleaner than the metal plate.

The metal is easier to clean, but the wood (depending on treatment) might be naturally a bit more antiseptic because it dries up quicker.

Unless, maybe, the plate is copper?

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

#794

Post by egypturnash »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #269
quiffledwerg wrote: post #68

The best thing I ever used was iPod shuffle mini. It was the perfect design, nothing could be added nor taken away to make it better. But apple being Apple they redesigned it to be crap then discontinued it. On the topic of designing great things and Apple …. Can I say that I hate Apples “minimalism above all else” approach to design. For example I want computers with lots of ports - what’s the point in buying a mini…

I was skeptical, I liked my ports. Now I plug in all my devices at once, through a dongle. I like that a lot. It works well for how I work: either at my desk, with everything plugged in, or away from my desk with nothing plugged in. They probably should've moved the ports to the power brick. That would've been ideal.

Power brick as cable hub is a really interesting idea. Feels like you'd have to move away from "brick plugs directly into the wall" to make it work though - imagine sitting in a cafe with your power plug six feet away, and wanting to use both that and some other device.

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

#795

Post by fredophile »

raz32dust wrote: post #130

Google flights is fantastic. Don't know if it is "the best-designed thing I've ever used", but it is on top of my mind as I just used it yesterday. Google doesn't get enough credit for the things that they did do well - including Search and Maps. Another is Macbooks - the pre-2015 ones at least. I haven't used the latest M1 ones, which I hear great things about. The Aluminum body, the flawless screen, magsafe, great…

For flights I've never found a site that was better than hipmunk.com. its a shame they shut it down.

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

#796

Post by aozgaa »

dijit wrote: post #538
dheera wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The documentation is shit though, I spent a full hour digging through forum answers trying to increase my swap space. All this bpool zpool crap. And then my system /boot got full of some snapshot (wtf I never asked for this), apt-get failed to live up to its promise of magic, got more hell about a 20% preservation rule (again wtf). Was cutting and pasting some zpool zsysctl zc -a -f -foo -bar and then some sudo zfs d…

Solaris used to come with a user manual, it was easily the best thing about the buying experience because it was so detailed and obviously written for engineers. If you can find one of those manuals on the internet you will be set for life on understanding ZFS and dtrace. There’s also a C, C++ and ASM manual that is bundled too, but you can skip those. If you can’t find any, I’ll send you mine. I know it sounds like…

Is this the document you had in mind?

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E26505_01/pdf/E37384.pdf

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

#797

Post by nullwarp »

jfrd wrote: post #17

The Kershaw Leek pocket knife. Flips open one-handed and makes a satisfying “snick”. I’ve used mine daily for 5 years. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009VC9YK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_...

Kershaw Skyline for me, been my favorite go to knife forever.

Even lost it for a couple of years in the yard until the chickens dug it up one day and I just cleaned it up and it was as good as new.

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

#798

Post by bouncycastle »

estaseuropano wrote: post #692
bouncycastle wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Haha! It's almost the end of 2021 and I haven't noticed any changes! Squatters are still around too, lol

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

#800

Post by bouncycastle »

masklinn wrote: post #641
bouncycastle wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

> Remember to never press the big green button Is that one that automatically opens the door, or one which automatically starts a full wash of the entire toilet cabinet's interior?

Worse. It raises an alarm and automatically sends down a bunch of security guards to check on you, lol

Sometimes the button is red, but it can be any color, sometimes it looks like a flush button.

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