Not a tiny purchase, but I use this 250W corn bulb lamp all the time for lighting up my office room in the winter months: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W5DGBJZ/. Amazing amount of light (35k lumens) and does not overheat.
Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?
191–200 of 428 posts
Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?
#192Mail processor. I spend $20/month, they receive all of my mail, open it, and digitize it. They discard the junk mail if I want. I never have to visit a mailbox again. I can even register it as my address on my driver's license and for my vehicles. EDIT: The service I use is https://www.sbimailservice.com/ .
I've never heard of this kind of service. It sounds like something I want ASAP. Any downsides?
From what I’ve heard the addresses for these services are being tagged as “not a residence” in some database. Then some services aren’t accepting them as a valid address.
Similar to how phone numbers can be tagged VoIP and won’t be accepted for 2-factor authentication.
Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?
#193a weighted blanket. now i sleep like a baby :)
I got my wife one of these and was surprised when she was away how well I slept under it
Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?
#194Silver and Gold ink Markers - When you purchase a device with a wall wart charger, write the device name on it. Labels peel off, the ink tends to stay forever. Now when I move/pull something out of storage/my bag I know exactly what adapter goes to what.
Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?
#195Electric toothbrush, Oral-B Smart Clean 360. My teeth have never been so clean.
Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?
#196PI for a pihole was the best investment.
Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?
#197A Fujitsu S1500 ScanSnap, dual-sided, document scanner (now discontinued, replacement might be the iX1600). Completely changed how I manage my personal documents (e.g. financial, invoices, receipts, product manuals, medical info, business docs, recreation and hobby stuff, etc). Anything remotely important, I scan to PDF, which triggers automatic OCR that is reasonably accurate, then I upload the PDF to Google Drive,…
How does it compare to smarthone camera + one of hundreds of scan+ocr apps like Adobe Scan? For me the smartphone solution is supereasy, basically it takes n seconds to scan a n-page booklet for example.
I love the feel of a physical scanner though, especially the process of aligning the paper. I suppose the difference is like a phone camera vs a DSLR.
Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?
#198A bottle of isopropyl alcohol. I did not own any until I was well into adulthood, and am continually amazed by how well alcohol cleans almost everything. (Barkeeper's Friend and copper scrubbing pads are a close second, for kitchen cleaning duties.)
For woodworking -- a pocket hole jig. Around $50, with only that, a drill, a saw, and (optionally) wood glue, you can make a ton of useful and sturdy stuff, with minimal training. A chisel and mallet are similarly surprisingly useful.
Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?
#199A Fujitsu S1500 ScanSnap, dual-sided, document scanner (now discontinued, replacement might be the iX1600). Completely changed how I manage my personal documents (e.g. financial, invoices, receipts, product manuals, medical info, business docs, recreation and hobby stuff, etc). Anything remotely important, I scan to PDF, which triggers automatic OCR that is reasonably accurate, then I upload the PDF to Google Drive,…
Does anyone have a suggestion for a dual-sided feed scanner like this which can be used to semi-automate document scanning and which is not discontinued? I've been thinking about this for a while but I don't know enough about the market
The Epson FastFoto series is really good and comes with OCR software (but the install procedure can be a pain). (They basically modified their duplex workforce series). The latest (680?) Is also wifi ready. Ignore the misleading "direct to Dropbox/cloud" marketing as it still needs a host computer middle man.
It's super fast for documents and the bonus is that it's great for photos (600dpi dual sided feed scanner).
Epson has a super portable (battery too) workforce that folds up small (Es-300 I think.) Wifi capable but the connection process is a bit cumbersome.
I run a photo/document scanning service between Toronto/Montreal and am currently getting rid of some duplex high speed scanners for cheap if by chance local.
Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?
#200A really nice paper planner that works for the way I think.
For years I was around developers a lot and so they tend to push the mentality that the best tool for organization must be digital. So I tried Trello, google calendar, various habit tracking apps, etc. None of them really had everything I wanted...
Finally I am happy with a paper planner, sticky notes, wet-erase markers that make the laminate cover into a go-anywhere brainstorming tool, pretty pen colors and even stickers as a rewards for hard tasks.
You can get a "masculine" planner like they have at Levenger or Golden Coil, or a more "feminine" planner from Erin Condren, Emily Ley, Plum Paper, Limelife or Northfolk.