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

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

#411

Post by l0b0 »

ja27 wrote: post #235

Maybe the most impact day-to-day is splurging ($10/mo) on the 2TB iCloud storage plan for the family. It's pretty much replaced Dropbox, One Drive, scp-ing files around, etc. I even use it on Windows. Cheap Panasonic Ergofit earbuds. They fit my ears well and isolate me from a good bit of noise. With a Lightning adapter and some sleep sounds / music, they usually get me through any night noises. My Airpods Pro are mu…

I've been using jottacloud.com for backups for a while now. The amazing thing is that EUR 8/month gets you unlimited storage. I'm currently at 3 TB of raw photos. Supported by rclone, which makes it really easy to set up a cron job.

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

#412

Post by m3Lith »

Jaym3s wrote: post #402
mettamage wrote: post #53

Some that come to mind. __Health__ Melatonin. There is no other way for me to go to bed and this knocks me right out (I use 0.2 - 0.4 milligrams). Sleep mask (no more waking up because a stray light hits my eye) I'd say sleep earplugs but I have a sound in my ear, but otherwise earplugs Mosquito repellent scent (for sleep as well). Silicon earplugs when going out, I never thought I'd get ear/hearing damage because I…

For those, like myself, where Melatonin doesn't work well. Try 'Calm' brand magnesium drink it relaxes me and keeps me asleep, without the need for ear plugs. I've tried the magnesium pills and they don't seam to work, the drink mixture does.

I have written down a recommendation from somewhere to take Zinc, Magnesium and Vitamin B6, 30 minutes before bedtime.

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

#413

Post by m3Lith »

kypro wrote: post #381
mettamage wrote: post #53

Some that come to mind. __Health__ Melatonin. There is no other way for me to go to bed and this knocks me right out (I use 0.2 - 0.4 milligrams). Sleep mask (no more waking up because a stray light hits my eye) I'd say sleep earplugs but I have a sound in my ear, but otherwise earplugs Mosquito repellent scent (for sleep as well). Silicon earplugs when going out, I never thought I'd get ear/hearing damage because I…

If you have trouble sleeping have you tried a weighted blanket? My girlfriend brought one recently and it’s weirdly relaxing having something so heavy resting over your body. I’ve found it helps me with just lying still and I think the weight subconsciously makes my body feel heavier and more tired than I actually am.

What about the warmth? I've thought about getting one of these, but what worries me is that it will be too hot.

My problem is that I can barely fall asleep if it's too hot, but I also need to have some weight on me, so can't sleep with the blanket cover only, either. Summers are a nightmare..

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

#414

Post by leokennis »

hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #86
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,…

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.

Agree here. I have a capable scanner with document feeder, ocr, export to FTP etc.

But I can also just open Prizmo on my iPhone, photograph 15 pages in 45 seconds, export as PDF and be done with it.

In both cases the end result is a readable PDF, which serves its purpose.

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

#415

Post by leokennis »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #110
ozzythecat wrote: post #52

An electric toothbrush and floss. Brushing with a regular toothbrush doesn’t give me the clean/fresh feeling my electric toothbrush does. The model I have was maybe $25 or $30. Using the electric toothbrush and flossing before bed every night, I feel like in my morning my mouth actually still feels fine. Of course I would never start my day without brushing, but my mouth doesn’t feel icky when I wake up in the mornin…

Brushing after breakfast, rather than before, is recommended for maximum cleanness. If you only brush once a day, brush last thing before bed.

It’s the other way around. Food doesn’t make your teeth bad. It’s bacteria in your mouth, eating your food and shitting out enzymes that soften and damage your teeth. So before you eat, make sure those bacteria are wiped away by brushing your teeth.

If you brush immediately after eating, you’re partially brushing their enzyme shit into your teeth…

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

#416

Post by leokennis »

For me it’s three things:

* B2 storage: instead of throwing away anything on my computer because the HDD is filling up and being anxious because I might need it in the future, I just dump it on B2, which stores it forever for cents per month.

* Wireless charging stand: now I can see my phone and notifications while working, and it’s charging, and I never forget where I left it.

* Victorinox Outrider pocket knife: always have a knive, scissors, Phillips screwdriver and bottle opener handy.

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

#417

Post by tmaly »

falcolas wrote: post #164
tmaly wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was able to find it for $19 now. Do you know if you can buy additional plugins for it?

So far as I've found, they only sell the individual tools in the "Elements", "Standard", and "Professional" bundles. The other tools I use in my FX chains are all reaper built-ins and plugins.

What are some of your most used plugins for reaper?

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

#418

Post by smichael »

throwaway134902 wrote: post #57

Bareroot native trees and fabric pots. A watering can. Now I collect seeds and nurse baby trees to plant out. It takes hardly any time from day to day, and I always have something to look forward to. It's the only activity I've found that perfectly embodies the "think global, act local" ethos.

My favourite of all the posts here. I would love to read a how-to for ignorant techies, describing all the details and how it takes hardly any time.

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

#419

Post by abahlo »

strix_varius wrote: post #225
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…

Most developers I know are obsessed with paper planners and carry their preferred model everywhere.

Do you happen to know what models these are?

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

#420

Post by neilsense »

silicon2401 wrote: post #389
neilsense wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, however, disgusting.

I'm the opposite: I think it's disgusting people brush before breakfast, just to dirty their mouth right up again with breakfast and walk around un-brushed afterward

Do you brush your teeth after lunch?
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