Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#261

Post by mettamage » Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 5:04 AM UTC

tenfourwookie wrote: post #100

I buy high mileage Honda minivans for no more than $3000 because they're dependable and cheap at high mileage. I generally get 100,000 miles out of them, so 4 mostly dependable vans and 400,000 miles for about $12,000. You'll lose $12K in depreciation alone just driving a new car off a lot. I've lived in them safely and comfortably for a total of about 3 years, living all over the western US from New Mexico to Montan…

Could you show an example of the minivans that you mean? Or are all Honda minivans the same?

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#262

Post by unixhero » Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 5:09 AM UTC

Robot vacuum: Ecovacs Deebot T9 Plus, paid about USD1300. Not a minor purchase, but if you've got hardfloors and no clutter in the floors: get a robot vacuum!

I for one have been really really happy with the Ecovacs Deebot T9 Plus. It even mops the floors in the same operation and doesn't get easily stuck due ti AI and LIDAR scanning.

So far it has worked for about 50 hours. That is time I have gotten free up to do other things, which is the essence of why I recommend it. Also, my place has never neen this clean consistently over time :)

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#263

Post by josiahpeters » Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 5:24 AM UTC

Arete314159 wrote: post #200

A 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…

Would you mind sharing which brand / model you went with? I spent too much time looking for a more masculine planner last year and finally settled on something that looks like it belongs to a teenager over something that belongs to my wife.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#264

Post by kzisme » Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 5:31 AM UTC

mrfusion wrote: post #233

falcolas wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A creme brulee hand blowtorch. Seconded. It's absurdly nice to have a focused torch when you need one. And most are refillable, making them better than most lighters.

Could you make s’mores with that ?

Yeah without a doubt

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#265

Post by unixhero » Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 5:39 AM UTC

brailsafe wrote: post #222

Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard, Amazon Basics monitor arm, Electric Kettle, insulated coffee tumbler thing, leather jacket, coiled springy keychain to affix my house key to my pants.

What's the discovery with the jeather jacket? Other than being a jacket, an outer layer, what is good about it?

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#266

Post by shezi » Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 5:46 AM UTC

noahjk wrote: post #88

bxparks wrote: post #71

A 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

Panasonic has duplex document scanners in various price ranges, starting from about 300 €, and they are all Linux compatible with one sane SANE driver. They scan super quick and easy and work very reliably.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#267

Post by cbanek » Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 5:55 AM UTC

I don't know if I'd call it cheap, but more a great value. My Aeron chair. Had it for 7 years now, bought it new for about $1000. Best chair ever and has helped with a lot of posture problems.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#268

Post by kamaal » Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 6:11 AM UTC

bxparks wrote: post #117

hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 find the quality of the photos from my phone to be terrible: wrong brightness, wrong color balance, wrong focus, wrong contrast, wrong orientation, motion blur, etc. The quality of the documents from the Fujitsu scanner is top notch. And the feeder is amazingly fast, specs say 20 ppm, which I think means 20 sheets, or 40 pages/minute. I also hate typing long file names on a phone keyboard. But if it works for you,…

Actually the scanning apps like Microsoft Lens are quite good.

During the WFH situation, I've used it extensively to scan kids homework almost on an everyday basis, to send it to teachers.

I've used it for documents too. And it works just fine.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#269

Post by Abishek_Muthian » Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 6:17 AM UTC

TrevorJ wrote: post #175

Opinel #8 pocketknife. Inexpensive. Timeless design that was last tweaked circa 1960's. Entry-level hardtail mountain bike. I understand more of my geographic area than ever before, and am in moderately better shape, to boot. Old comfy secondhand leather chair. Have my personal PC hooked up to a cheap old flatpanel TV. I've had many productive weekend hours working on personal projects in comfort. There's something a…

If you ask me today What's the greatest invention of mankind, I wouldn't say a wheel or toilet U-bend or antibiotics but these Ear Hooks[1] for spectacles which keep my loose spectacles from falling every time I bend down.

A truly tiny purchase of disproportionately high value!

[1] https://imgur.com/gallery/p0zvbQU

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#270

Post by Protostome » Tue, Aug 10, 2021, 6:58 AM UTC

SwiMP3. It's a music player for underwater activities. It enables me to listen to audiobooks and podcasts while I swim, which makes this workout much more enjoyable and fun, as swimming can become boring once you do it every day for an hour.