I'd like to see a $30 pen tablet, similar to the Boogie board but better designed and with the ability to export documents. Then I could put one every place I have scraps of paper for notes or notebooks and be able to collect everything I write into a digital form (ideally automatically and wirelessly). A $500 pen tablet just does not work for this, it would cost too much to have 10 tablets around the house. Basically a Boogie board plus an ESP32 and a little storage with some well written software. Even $50 would be acceptable, $100 might be too much.
Ask HN: What tool would you buy to make your life easier?
31–38 of 38 posts
Re: Ask HN: What tool would you buy to make your life easier?
#32Re: Ask HN: What tool would you buy to make your life easier?
#33A terminal based IDE that has quick startup time, vim's keybindings and plugin ecosystem, and just works out of the box without me spending hours on configuration. I'm currently using LunarVim, which is poorly documented, painful to install, update and configure, and with lots of tiny issues that I've spent hours trying to fix. But, it's still the best thing out there! I would pay a ton of money to whoever can solve…
Why do you use LunarVim instead of NeoVim?
Re: Ask HN: What tool would you buy to make your life easier?
#34I'd like to see a $30 pen tablet, similar to the Boogie board but better designed and with the ability to export documents. Then I could put one every place I have scraps of paper for notes or notebooks and be able to collect everything I write into a digital form (ideally automatically and wirelessly). A $500 pen tablet just does not work for this, it would cost too much to have 10 tablets around the house. Basicall…
Like this? https://uk.livescribe.com/
Re: Ask HN: What tool would you buy to make your life easier?
#35A terminal based IDE that has quick startup time, vim's keybindings and plugin ecosystem, and just works out of the box without me spending hours on configuration. I'm currently using LunarVim, which is poorly documented, painful to install, update and configure, and with lots of tiny issues that I've spent hours trying to fix. But, it's still the best thing out there! I would pay a ton of money to whoever can solve…
Why do you use LunarVim instead of NeoVim?
Pre-baked configuration that makes a lot of sense e.g. LSP, telescope (finding files) and many others.
Not like I could not do it myself but we're likely looking at a full busy weekend project, if not several of them even.
Re: Ask HN: What tool would you buy to make your life easier?
#36I'd like to see a $30 pen tablet, similar to the Boogie board but better designed and with the ability to export documents. Then I could put one every place I have scraps of paper for notes or notebooks and be able to collect everything I write into a digital form (ideally automatically and wirelessly). A $500 pen tablet just does not work for this, it would cost too much to have 10 tablets around the house. Basicall…
Fun unrelated fact: boogie board is an Australian slang term for what you might call a body board, used for faux-surfing. I was very confused by your comment for a while.
Re: Ask HN: What tool would you buy to make your life easier?
#37A dump truck or a semi with a low boy.
Re: Ask HN: What tool would you buy to make your life easier?
#38I'd like to see a $30 pen tablet, similar to the Boogie board but better designed and with the ability to export documents. Then I could put one every place I have scraps of paper for notes or notebooks and be able to collect everything I write into a digital form (ideally automatically and wirelessly). A $500 pen tablet just does not work for this, it would cost too much to have 10 tablets around the house. Basicall…
Like this? https://uk.livescribe.com/
A digital pen would be great also, if it didn't need special paper and worked well. The idea is to replace pen and paper with a device which is essentially an infinite supply of pen+paper. Having to buy special paper is limiting. I'm often trying to capture fleeting ideas so a solution needs to be handy everywhere which either means many cheap tablets or an expensive digital pen that works on just about any surface. Nothing digital I've seen or tried so far works well for this purpose.