Not a hardware thing but I bought the witness, the game, and I have been using it as a kind of safe place.
Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
801–810 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#802Oculus Quest 2 - despite the whole Facebook thing, coupling it with awesome games and experiences, it saved me from going mental during the autumn-winter-spring lockdown in Europe combined with the depressing weather of that time. Worth its weight in gold for that. Roborock Robovac - also worth its weight in gold since the whole lockdown WFH turned my apartment into a permanent office, kitchen, cinema and gym, the fl…
+1 to the Quest 2. Despite Facebook, it's an incredible piece of hardware. We bought them for everyone in my distributed startup and the 8 of us hang out in VR together every week. Virtual Desktop + Shadow PC on the Quest 2 is incredible. I played through Half-Life Alyx rendered on my cloud Shadow PC entirely wirelessly. It was a super smooth and responsive experience -- I didn't expect it to work at all when I first…
Where/How do you hang out?
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#803Lenovo ThinkPad
Which model?
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#804Bamix. The best immersion blender IMO.
I just got a really cheap one, and haven't used it yet. Will it be a bad experience? :D
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#805Instant 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.
My partner got an Instant pot but I don't like the meat that is made in it. Maybe it's overcooked? Tomato-based ground meat (e.g. ground lamb) sauces are tolerable. I generally prefer my meat fried (seared) in a cast iron pan and finished in an oven (if necessary, e.g. a big piece of beef).
Look up/try 'reverse sear': slow/low cook in oven. Finish in cast iron. I don't eat meat but I've had a few friends rave about it.
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#806More RAM. I've got 20GB now (4+16) and it's just never an issue anymore no matter how much I've got open. Sure, I can fill it up if I tried but... if I'm not purposefully trying, it doesn't happen. Previously on 8GB I'd have to quit a few applications to run a big Factorio map, or my browser might run out if I didn't restart for browser updates in a few weeks. It's one of the few nonessentials I've spent more than a…
These days, I'd recommend a 16 gig minimum if you game at all, with 32 gig recommended if you play RAM intense games.
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#807Kobo 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
I have bought hundreds of Kindle books. Is there a (legal) way to read them on Kobo?
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#808A guitar. And then three more guitars. Never having held a guitar in my life before, I picked one up last September as a way to help keep me sane over Minnesota COVID winter, and I've completely fallen in love with playing guitar. I have played literally every day since I purchased my first guitar and I spend most of my workday excited to get home and play more.
Any recommendations for how to learn if you've never touched a guitar before?
After you've learned the basics on how to fret a note and use a pick, I'd highly recommend Rock Smith. It's basically Guitar Hero/Rock Band, except you plug in a real guitar. It gamifies learning guitar, so it doesn't feel like homework. It doesn't just have you play songs, it also has mini-games that get you to practice specific techniques such as sliding, hammer-ons/pull-offs, string skipping, and proper note fretting.
The difficulty adjusts dynamically. When you first start playing, it doesn't make you play all the notes. Over time, as your scores get better, it introduces more notes until eventually you're playing the song as-written.
If you explore this route, then I'd highly recommend the PC version (Distributed on Steam) over the console version, especially if your home theater setup has any sort of audio latency. I bought the console version at first, and my stereo has about 200 ms of latency, which made it incredibly distracting when I'd strum a note, but I wouldn't hear it until 200ms later. My PC, on the other hand, has zero latency, or at least, the latency is noticeable at all.
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#809Three things specifically (though one is a two-parter) 1. Nanch micro screwdriver / bit kit. I had one previous and I rather liked it but I gifted it to my brother who was just starting out with DIY maker stuff, so I replaced my old magnetic kit with one that has the bits lock into place with a collar. I love the quality on it and I'm glad I'll probably never need to buy another one again. 2. Lutron Caseta switches f…
+1 on Lutron Caseta. Another plus with them as that you can get the remote and create a 3-way switch for your lights if you don't have one. I had the living room switch at the front door only. I changed the two gang wall plate at the kitchen to a three gang wall plate and mounted the remote in the wall plate. It is so thin that it can just set against the dry wall and no hole is needed.
I wanted to add 3-way switches to a few poorly-designed circuits in my house. I dislike the design of most smart switches, but this is what I went with after looking at a lot of options.
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#8101. [reMarkable 2 Tablet](https://remarkable.com/store/remarkable-2) - This is a really helpful device for me since I am used to taking down a lot of notes and this makes it easier for me to track my notes in one place and organize them
2. [AirPods Pro](https://www.apple.com/airpods-pro/) - Amazing for their use case