Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer? • Hacker News Board

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

#481

Post by thiht » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 10:03 AM UTC

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 have a small Stream Deck (6 buttons), and although I don't have a lot of inspiration, I found a few really useful use cases:

- global mute button (plugin Audio Mute). This is amazing and the most useful action I've setup.

- screenshot tool. I'm on a Mac and always forget the combination for opening the capture tool, so a physical button is nice to have

- iTerm button. It just opens a terminal, or make it appear if there's already one open.

- clock, because when using fullscreen mode, macOS doesn't show the clock

- weather, because it's cool

- specific to iTerm: a "split vertically" button, because after years of use, I can't remember how to split iTerm

- specific to Firefox: a macro to write this text "-method:OPTIONS domain:xxx.com" because I'm tired of typing it again and again in the network devtools filters

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

#482

Post by zh3 » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 10:05 AM UTC

joshschreuder wrote: post #274

domrdy wrote: post #229

A Tidbyt: https://tidbyt.com/ It's next to my computer, and I use it for notifications and smaller dashboards: https://github.com/tidbyt/community

Is there anything like this but... not as nice? (and not as expensive) I wouldn't mind having something like this to mess around on but not for $180 USD

That looks like a stock LED panel, pretty cheap on Amazon/ebay and can be driven directly by a Pi (with a bit of wiring) or more simply via a Pimoroni RGB matrix driver. Search for 'HUB75' panel and you'll find plenty of stuff to play with.

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

#483

Post by thetoon » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 10:05 AM UTC

I got an used PCoIP card and compatible thin-client, and now I only move a dual-screen stand with said thin-client wherever I work in the house, while my workstation sits cool in the basement.

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

#484

Post by thiht » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 10:10 AM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #478

A surfmouse. I use a standing desk, and shift my body to control the mouse.

Is this a real thing? I can't tell if it's a satire

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

#485

Post by vladak » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 10:12 AM UTC

3-color light (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5127) and associated circuitry (https://github.com/vladak/workmon/) that reminds me to change the position of the standing desk if too long in the same position (using ultrasonic distance sensor mounted underneath the table) and to take a break if working for too long without a break (using smart plug to which my display is connected) and also to alert me if I have worked for too long in total that day.

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

#486

Post by thiht » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 10:12 AM UTC

CameronNemo wrote: post #151

anotherlab wrote: post #135

UPS that can run my PC, monitors, USB hub for 10-30 minutes. I rarely have power outages, but when I do have one it's a non-event Cheap boom arm for the webcam. Stream Deck makes it was to quickly control audio and lights and aps Tourbox makes it easy to edit video Elgato Keylight Airs for video calls Neumi powered speakers. Corsair K100 keyboard. I love the feel and being able to disabled the capslock key Logitech M…

Can you please reformat this comment it is really hard to read.

This is the dream for people who don't like "wasted screen estate"!

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

#487

Post by canadianfella » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 10:12 AM UTC

Eisenstein wrote: post #419

modeless wrote: post #237

Gaming wireless headphones, not for gaming but for videoconferencing. Bluetooth headphones are universally terrible for videoconferencing because the Bluetooth standard sucks and requires downgrading to telephone audio quality whenever the mic is enabled. Plus terrible latency. Gaming wireless headphones that come with their own dongle completely fix these issues and are perfect for videoconferencing. Someday the Blu…

Don't use magnetic USB adapters. They run a decent risk of frying your device. The USB-C spec was not designed to have the connection broken in that way. You will have no issues 99% of the time, but you will eventually have that time when your device gets fried. It takes a very precise design and a lot of clever engineering to have a high-current power connector with tiny pins be able to break without having the grou…

[dead]

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

#488

Post by gorbachev » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 10:16 AM UTC

Eisenstein wrote: post #419

modeless wrote: post #237

Gaming wireless headphones, not for gaming but for videoconferencing. Bluetooth headphones are universally terrible for videoconferencing because the Bluetooth standard sucks and requires downgrading to telephone audio quality whenever the mic is enabled. Plus terrible latency. Gaming wireless headphones that come with their own dongle completely fix these issues and are perfect for videoconferencing. Someday the Blu…

Don't use magnetic USB adapters. They run a decent risk of frying your device. The USB-C spec was not designed to have the connection broken in that way. You will have no issues 99% of the time, but you will eventually have that time when your device gets fried. It takes a very precise design and a lot of clever engineering to have a high-current power connector with tiny pins be able to break without having the grou…

I stopped using magnetic USB adapters when I noticed some sort of interference from them was causing other USB devices from being properly connected. Windows wouldn't recognize or detect the devices.

It could've also been the USB hub I was using, but the problem disappeared once I changed the USB cable with magnetic adapters to a cable with ordinary connectors.

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

#489

Post by Eric_WVGG » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 10:21 AM UTC

This little SD Card fits flush in the M1 and M2 MacBook Pro slot, provides the user with additional storage (shrug) or constant Time Machine backups (hellll yes). Almost worth giving up that fourth Thunderbolt port for.

https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/21/flush-sd-card-macbook-pro-tra...

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

#490

Post by vestrigi » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 10:21 AM UTC

adrian_b wrote: post #451

After experimenting for many years with many kinds of mice, trackballs, touchpads, trackpoints etc. in the search for the most comfortable graphic pointing device, I have settled to use, instead of a mouse, a small Wacom Intuos graphic tablet (usually with Linux), configured in its "mouse" mode, i.e. with relative coordinates, not with its default absolute coordinates. At least for me, using a stylus has proven to be…

Can you switch to and from the keyboard just as fast or even faster than with a mouse?