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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?

#901

Post by minikomi »

hutzlibu wrote: post #607
minikomi wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think their shorter axe (n12) would be good to take bike camping?

Unless you want to make a fort at night, I really would not bring an axe along. Finding firewood for a campfire is usually not a problem. But a too heavy bike is. I did it bike camping a lot and my advice is, only bring what you absolutely need. Without extra burden, everything is much more enjoyable and you will have more energy to reach the nice spots.

I do a lot of slow bike camping in Japan where the campsite will often provide firewood, but it's too large for the small solo stove I have. I've tried a saw, but what I really want is thinner wood split from the larger pieces, not lateral cuts. The axes being talked about are only about 470g, which doesn't bother me too much shoved in a pannier.

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

#902

Post by wyclif »

kyawzazaw wrote: post #217
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…

You can add this Google Flights Leg Room extension on Chrome to see legroom on each flight too. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/legrooms-for-googl...

It's great that exists (I have long legs), but an extension for...legroom? Why is something that important treated as esoteric and not a native search feature or setting?

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

#903

Post by ldiracdelta »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #372
ethbr0 wrote: post #255

Oxo's old style ice cream spade (apparently discontinued?) https://www.surlatable.com/oxo-ice-cream-spade/PRO-208926.ht... Solves all the problems with an ice cream scoop. Critically, this version had a rounded front. They seem to have moved to a straight front, which I can't imagine being as effective? 40s/50s Gillette Super Speed https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/wiki/Gillette_40s_Style... Shaving was a cheaply…

In my late 20's, I tried to spend a couple of years with those old-school Gillettes. Was not a fan. It did teach me a lot about why contemporary razors work better and are safer, and it felt worth learning that before going back to my Gillette Sensor. Also, nod to the Venus (primarily marketed to women). That razor makes even the Sensor look savage, and gives such great shaves on rounded surfaces.

I love my Merkur safety razor. The gap between blade and the blade holder is great.

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

#904

Post by h4waii »

codingclaws wrote: post #679
MrDresden wrote: post #649

I 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…

What setup do you use for new Android apps? I dabbled in building an Android app months ago and sort of gave up because I couldn't decide on the best "framework".

I recently wrote my first Android (and iOS) app, and decided on React Native. I just wanted to make something quickly, cross platform, and easy to understand -- React Native fit the bill.

No affiliation, but Expo made it very easy and FAST to get up and running for testing and building. Highly recommend it.

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

#905

Post by edmcnulty101 »

papertokyo wrote: post #860
edmcnulty101 wrote: post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe that's the issue. I bought consumer XPS's. One had a fan go out after 1 year. One had a keyboard failure out of the box. My co-worker had hardware issues on theirs. It was too many issues in too short of a span. All consumer grade though. Maybe business is the way to go.

I had an XPS laptop from 2008 which constantly overheated. I ended up having to remove the bottom of the case and put it on a stand to make it usable. One day a bolt of lightning struck the house across the street and it died instantly. Used the insurance money to buy a macbook pro and never looked back.

>> Used the insurance money to buy a macbook pro and never looked back.

And that MacBook will probably outlast 3 Dells.

When my new Dell failed out of the box, I switched to my 6 year old MacBook pro I had waiting in the wings and was able to keep on working. It worked great until the new work MacBook arrived.

When I have to turn my work MacBook in, buying myself another MacBook. And still have the trusty 6+ year old one in the wings.

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

#906

Post by PascLeRasc »

palijer wrote: post #362

https://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,…

I love this site so much. I was amazed the first time I ordered when the parts showed up the next morning. Now I just deal with the shipping cost because it saves me so much time navigating websites to order from them. I wish there was a version for small computer bits, like generic HDMI cables or USB-SATA dongles.

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

#907

Post by mjrbrennan »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #305
wh313 wrote: post #61

My Aeropress coffee maker. It feels more convenient than a french press, and much cheaper than an espresso machine. https://aeropress.com/ Also a bidet. Americans really need to start using it more.

As an espresso snob, I'm going to go with a Breville Double Boiler machine. Many espresso machine snobs used to crap on Breville as being "consumer grade", but they really succeeded with their Double Boiler machines, especially their more recent models that make it easy to descale the boiler at home. The BDB includes features that can cost literally 5X as much on Italian machines (stainless steel boilers, a preheatin…

100% agree, we bought ours a couple of years ago along with a separate grinder and it’s absolutely amazing. We bought the espresso machine for half price which was a steal (approx $950AUD instead of $1800). Literally never buy takeaway coffee anymore, most of the time if we do end up buying coffee out its far inferior to the coffee we make at home with fresh locally roasted beans. Definitely has paid for itself, make 1-2 coffees a day since December 2019 with no issues, and it’s very to clean.

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

#908

Post by themeiguoren »

indrora wrote: post #564

Four 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…

As a backpacker, Nalgenes are vastly overrated for real trekking. They’re rugged for no real reason - you’ll do well swapping your nalgenes for dead simple 1 liter cheap plastic water bottles from the gas station. When they’re empty they weigh nothing and you can crunch them down. And they’re far tougher than one would think - mine are going on years. Weight and volume are the metrics that matter.

Nalgenes are nice for casual around town use though, they’ve got a great aesthetic and the stickers are fun.

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

#909

Post by FreeInFlorida »

KitchenCraft pots and pans https://waterlesscookware.com/

We paid $1,000 (a LOT of money) for our set when we were just married in 1980. Every piece of that set still looks like new, with a mirror finish, and every lid handle and pot handle is still tight like it just came out of the box. They are naturally non-stick, cook everything with only a tiny bit of water, and are indestructible. The ones pictured on the website today look exactly like the ones we have used daily for 40 years, since they cannot be improved upon. Made in Wisconsin since 1906 and every piece is guaranteed forever.

They are only sold direct or at county fairs, home improvement shows and the like, but they are worth the high price since you will NEVER need to replace them.

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

#910

Post by arsenide »

hunter2_ wrote: post #869
pxeger1 wrote: post #868

YouTube's video player (almost the entire rest of the site is beyond crap, don't get me wrong! I'm just talking about the watching experience) (assuming you have an ad-blocker, which you obviously should). Plenty of other video players have some of these features, but YouTube has almost everything. - click to pause - double-click to fullscreen - customisable captions - speed controls - sensible keyboard shortcuts for…

I have a few minor gripes: 1. Click (pause) and double click (full screen) interfere with each other. I don't really want pause to have more of a delay than it already has, but that's the only way to allow a non-pause double click. 2. I'd prefer if spacebar paused unconditionally. When focus is on other controls, it activates those instead, which I understand for a11y, but it's a bit annoying when other players do gr…

On 3: ',' and '.' go backwards/forwards by a single frame when paused.
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