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Ask HN: Your most useful purchase of under $100 in 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: Your most useful purchase of under $100 in 2018?

#11
post #8

$25 RTL-SDR dongle to sate intellectual curiosity about radio $5 / mo // $ 60 / yr digital ocean droplets for intellectual curiosity about web dev Not exactly within budget but ~$400 gym membership (from Costco.. so, factor in the amortized cost of that, too, I guess) for 24 hr fitness for 2 years - going to the gym has been a HUGE game-changer for me. Never really did it before with any discipline, and already withi…

Can you recommend any specific RTL-SDR dongle?

Re: Ask HN: Your most useful purchase of under $100 in 2018?

#12
I just bought a monthly subscription for a Mac Postgres client called SQL Pro for Postgres. After wrestling with PgAdmin 3 and 4, I threw in the towel and paid for a proper client. It’s 5.99 a month and as much as I hate rent-seeking, it allows me to try the software before paying the 139$ lifetime license.

Re: Ask HN: Your most useful purchase of under $100 in 2018?

#16
post #7

I bought a water flossing machine. I've been flossing for more than a year, but there were always bits of my gums that stayed kind of sensitive. According to my dentist it was "possible to do it right, but hard", which I took to mean I was bad at flossing. Now I floss in the evening after dinner with regular floss and use the water flosser twice a day. Works like a charm, I would have gotten one ages ago if I knew th…

Is it the same as or similar the Waterpik product?

Re: Ask HN: Your most useful purchase of under $100 in 2018?

#18
A minimal laptop bag (Tomtoc). Switching from the big Swissgear backpack forced me to stop lugging multiple devices, dongles, keyboards, etc. Better for my back and better for my focus.

A (under $50 refurb) Apple Magic Keyboard 2. I was always struggling with muscle memory on different keyboard layouts so having something that's 95% identical to my MBP keyboard helped a lot.

Linode $5/month servers. Couldn't be happier with them as a place to park all those little sites for friends and side projects, mostly running Wordpress.

Re: Ask HN: Your most useful purchase of under $100 in 2018?

#19
$85 cordless impact driver (Ryobi) has been my new favorite tool by far. It doesn't do everything a standard drill can do (i.e. drill...) but it is far superior for driving stubborn screws and bolts in and out, especially when they are beginning to strip! It is easier to hold since you do not need to counter the torque continuously like you do with a regular drill.

Plus it makes a fun hammering noise which makes me feel like I am doing something important.

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