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Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

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Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#391

Post by modeless »

nicolaslem wrote: post #373
modeless wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah I have one of those no name brand USB switching hubs, they are great. Comes with several "illegal" USB-A male to male cables, which I find funny. If your monitor supports it you can also switch inputs from software, and you have a complete KVM setup without the ridiculously expensive KVM box.

Did you know that some monitors have built-in KVM nowadays? I discovered that recently and switched to one. Basically I can connect my laptop with a single USB-C cable for display/charging/peripherals and instantly switch to my desktop PC that is connected via HDMI + USB. The fact that the monitor itself is responsible for display inputs removes all kind of problems that traditional KVM boxes have. In theory the moni…

Cool! I thought my monitor had this but I tried it and it didn't work. Good to know that some of them work.

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#392

Post by wasmitnetzen »

kimburgess wrote: post #206
esafak wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like what?

For my personal setup: Rode NT-USB Mini ( https://rode.com/en/microphones/usb/nt-usb-mini ). It also give me a physical volume control for attached headphones.

I second that device, but it even though it says it has a directional cardioid polar pattern, it is fairly omnidirectional, only use it when you have little background noise next to you (other people, animals, etc).

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#394

Post by lycopodiopsida »

enigma20 wrote: post #320

Portable screen. Didn't know that such exists, till about few weeks ago. Have a small apartment and sometimes have to work at the dining table. Using a big screen is not an option. Portable screen is light, size of the laptop and charges/sends data through one cable. Perfect!

Another possibility: if you own a mac, almost any ipad manufactured in last 6-7 years can act as an external screen.

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#397

Post by kiranthind »

princevegeta89 wrote: post #343

I have an audiophile speaker setup that has a bit of a complicated setup - it either takes an SPDIF or 3.5mm jack, however the SPDIF way was recommended to me to achieve quality and get rid of DC POP. For this reason I bought a 4k HDMI splitter that extracts from a HDMI signal the different video and audio channels if needed. So I connect my MacBook pro to this splitter through hdmi and run another hdmi between this…

Which speakers?

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#398

Post by jonas-w »

dottedmag wrote: post #325
entropicgravity wrote: post #267

Mx Ergo (by Logitech) is far and away the best "mouse" for me and probably for you. It only takes about two hours to transfer your motor skills of regular mouse to the Mx Ergo. Because this "thumb ball" mouse only involves your thumb to work the mouse you won't get the full wrist, shoulder and neck pain that you can get from a normal mouse. If you have any kind of arm pain then check this out.

Have you got the precision of the regular mouse with this trackball? I have tried a number of trackballs, and haven't been able to reach the precision of a regular mouse from any — after a week of usage of each of several trackballs I only got to the convenience/precision of trackpoint or bad touchpad. Moving in straight lines, predictable directions and moving just a few pixels was the biggest issue.

Not OP but using the mx ergo since more than a year. Never really had problems with the precision, the precision in the first week of using the mouse will definitely be different, because your brain needs to adapt. The only time I have problems is, when I haven't cleaned the trackball for some time, then it will get jittery. But the mouse has a precision button next to the trackball where you can move really slow and will definitely have a chance to move just a few pixels.

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#399

Post by cal85 »

haunter wrote: post #378

An Elgato Stream Deck but for general purposes https://www.elgato.com/en/stream-deck-mk2 Basically imagine having 15 physical buttons to use with any kind of actions, shortcuts, macros etc. but you have a visual feedback too. It’s pretty great! I know there are alternatives like the Adafruit RP2040 https://www.adafruit.com/product/5128 but the visual knobs make the Stream Deck much better imo.

I bought one of these a couple of years ago with plans to use it for macros, shortcuts etc, but gave up using it because I found the system for writing your own plugins and generally configuring it was beyond awful, it felt like a designed-by-committee horror show. The complexity to just just set the button image and make it run a bash script when pressed was insane.

But I really wanted it to work, I can think of tons of useful buttons I want to have on my desk. Maybe I will give it another try. Can you tell me, have you got any tips, found any good third party tools for working with it? Maybe I just went down the wrong rabbit holes.

Re: Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?

#400

Post by bdg »

cheriot wrote: post #284
hipplec wrote: post #75

I have a heating pad under my keyboard which keeps my hands warm in the winter. Was like $20 on amazon, and I can't even begin to describe how amazing it is, since I was really tired of always having a mug of hot water / tea / coffee to hold and didn't want to keep the heat on my house super high when I could just wear a sweatshirt and be fine except my fingers.

I have an older laptop and user Docker for Mac daily. My fingers never get cold!

Put a few slices of bacon under the macbook and you even have breakfast.
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