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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?

#531

Post by shortrounddev »

zh3 wrote: post #470

A Crystalfont 2x16 LCD with 4 cursor and tick/cross keys which sits just below the middle monitor of my triple-head programming setup. Normally displays date, time, media volume and incoming email/voicemail counts. When a call arrives it shows the Caller ID (and contact name if recognised). The keys are used to adjust media volume and mute/unmute (and in hot weather, the left/right keys adjust the speed of a pair of…

I used to work for a company whose core product took forever to build (in maven) but we had to build it all the time. A coworker hooked up a USB LED traffic light to his macbook and wrote a driver for it that would display yellow when building, green when successfully built, and red when there were errors.

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

#532

Post by elric »

yodsanklai wrote: post #467
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.

When I was a kid, I used the power transformer of my C64 to warm up my feet

I still do that. Only it's not a C64, but rather the power brick to my TB4 dock.

That, and I have a small infrared panel mounted under the desk, which can keep my thighs nice and toasty in winter.

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

#533

Post by shortrounddev »

ornornor wrote: post #308

Dual arm monitors to free up lots of space on my desk and more easily hold displays at eye level so I don’t get pain. A split ortho homebrew keyboard (helix) that I can program with qmk so that I have shift esc enter space and special keys on other layers right where I want them. Or a dedicated Ctrl-a key for tmux. It virtually eliminated my pain. The OLED screens are useless though and I retrospect I should just hav…

I tried getting a couple arms for my desk, but they required 8 inches of clearance behind the desk for the monitors to be at a reasonable distance from my face and my desk is backed up to a wall

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

#534

Post by crimsontech »

shortrounddev wrote: post #521
readingnews wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a big HHKB fan, I actually still have the first model produced with the three cables for sun, mac, PC. If anyone is interested, I would check out not only the new HHBKB, but mechanical keyboards also, the ones you build or have someone build. The amount of programming and customization you can do on them is insane. I moved from HHKB to a 40%, for two reasons: 1) the mouse is incredibly close to the keyboard. It…

I never understood programmers who use stripped-down mechanical keyboard. I use my arrow keys, home, end, and pagedown key all the time; having to use a fn key to access those would really slow me down. Do you just tend to use the mouse more, or are you on some kind of vim-keys-everywhere kind of thing

Mine has arrow keys because it's a JP layout, but I tend to only use them to skip forward or back in video, not when I'm typing. But yeah, I'm a vim-keys-everywhere type I guess, I use the mouse as little as possible.

I use home, end, page up/down etc but I use them without having to move my hands from the home row. This is the major advantage, I can reach every key on the keyboard without moving my hands.

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

#535

Post by CarVac »

twawaaay wrote: post #457

Toslink switch. A kind of device that can switch a path between multiple inputs and multiple outputs. Mine has 4 inputs and 4 outputs and a remote that lets me select current input and output separately with two button presses. My inputs: - laptop with external Behringer audio interface with optical output, - bluetooth receiver/transmitter with optical output - PS4 (through toslink output) My outputs: - DAC (with opt…

I have a similar setup, but with Monoprice coaxial audio cables that seem totally immune to interference, and using mixers so there's no input switching.

I have simultaneous inputs from my old analog consoles hooked up to a CRT, my OLED TV's analog out (meaning that automatically gets audio from whatever HDMI source), my turntable, and my computer.

The only switching I have is for the output: to my home theater speakers (2.1) or to headphones.

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

#536

Post by no_time »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #98
riceart wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s essentially no lag in a dedicated wireless receiver mouse - the additional latency is dwarfed by the baseline latency of the hardware and software. https://www.rtings.com/mouse/tests/control/latency Yes connectivity issues can be a problem in certain environments but luckily this has usually not been a problem with receivers not in close proximity to interference, including USB3. Battery wise I have had cheap…

The problem I have with wireless mice is they always die when I'm in the middle of something important or an fps game. Switched back to wired because of that.

lol I had wired mice die on me mid game as well. While buying items in csgo one of my clicks was 3x more loud than the ones before. The white bit that you push on was no longer sticking out of the switch.

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

#537

Post by shortrounddev »

rgoulter wrote: post #94

I think the most significant keyboard feature is "small spacebar". Most keyboards have a spacebar which is the size of 5 or more keys. It's more convenient if this very wide key gets replaced with Esc, Tab, Space, Backspace, Enter. (Which saves the pinky from having to reach for those keys). For better or worse, keyboards which do follow this "no large spacebar" approach then tend to have other design improvements: e…

I just checked on my own hand; I think I only use my pinky to hit Enter. Other keys:

Esc - Left Middle Finger

Tab - Left Ring Finger

Space - Either thumb, but usually right thumb

Backspace - Right ring finger

Enter - Right Pinky

I do use my left pinky for shift and caps lock though

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

#538

Post by shortrounddev »

cmpalmer52 wrote: post #22

I use a 60% keyboard that doesn’t even have dedicated arrow keys. My caps-lock is configured as the Fn key and, when it’s held down, the JKLI letters are the arrow keys. This (and other macros) are actually really convenient when you get used to them. Unfortunately, it’s hard for me to type on “normal” keyboards because when I end up tiYping thinks like that. My keyboard is a Mistel MD600 split. My favorite unusual a…

I feel like I could never get used to a keyboard like this. I use arrow keys all the goddamned time, along with home, insert, page up/down

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

#539

Post by wahnfrieden »

crimsontech wrote: post #501
atemerev wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tried to use it for 3 months, couldn’t adapt, had to sell it. Also, it has Cherry MX brown switches, which are not my favorite to say the least, with their middle-of-the-ground sort-of bumpiness. I much prefer either fully clicky or fully linear ones.

They do cherry red versions too for linear switches. I used to have awful RSI and switching to the Kinesis Advantage for a year fixed it. I don't use it anymore but I don't use the apple keyboard either which I think caused the RSI in the first place, or maybe it was just how I was banging away on it.

upgrade keyboards (company name) will replace kinesis switches with ultralight ones that can cut fatigue in half. they have several options down to 25g or so activation force

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

#540

Post by wahnfrieden »

lycopodiopsida wrote: post #394
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.

also good with luna display
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