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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?

#741

Post by juris »

Mobile dev here; I had an issue with organizing the vast quantity of mobile devices I have been given for testing.

* Significant QoL gain: take a trip to the dollar store to buy three short CD racks; if you lay them on their sides next to each other, you can mount your laptops and mobile devices vertically!

Much nicer than stacking your devices screen to screen, and you can keep them charged and connect them as-needed.

* Ergo Anti-pattern: I built a 35 inch deep desktop out of 2x4's, perched it on top of ikea motorized risers, all above a "LifeSpan" brand desk treadmill scrounged from Craigslist because I thought Torvalds's setup was cool (circa mid-quarantine).

This year I built a wooden frame with hatch doors above the treadmill and keep my goofy gaming chair forever parked on top of them.

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

#742

Post by piersj225 »

epakai wrote: post #463
ergvgdvgrd wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do this virtually with a piece od software called barrier. https://github.com/debauchee/barrier

It's not clear from the page, but there's an issue somewhere that points out barrier has been abandoned for a fork called input-leap. https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap Also recently learned about waynergy as a upcoming wayland client. Haven't used either yet as barrier still handles my setup.

For anyone curious, I think this is the issue,

https://github.com/input-leap/input-leap/issues/1414

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

#744

Post by hammyhavoc »

joshipras wrote: post #734

I work from home as a Data Scientist and I am a standup comedian on the side. I have a standing desk with dual monitors. KVM Switch has been a game changer for my productivity. When I have some downtime in my job, I can immediately switch to my personal laptop to work on my personal projects and comedy.

You're on the HN stage. I could do with a laugh!

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

#745

Post by sleepybrett »

xupybd wrote: post #156
sleepybrett wrote: post #61

Kinesis Advantage 360 pro. Apple magic trackpad. Savant Elite2 Triple Foot pedal. Left Click, Right Click, ESC.. currently. Still playing with them. IPEVO DO-CAM USB document camera, doubles as my face camera, but I do a lot of 'whiteboard' sketches on paper which I later translate to lucid if it needs to be kept.

I use and Advantage but have not tried the 360. How do you find it? Have you used the older models to give a comparison?

I have two advantage 1s and two advantage twos. All are modified with either the blue-wizard board or the tint (or predecessor) boards as well as other mods (sound dampening, switch swaps). All but the blue-wizard runs QMK. I've been using this line of keyboards for over 20 years at this point.

The 360 is quite nice with a few caveats.

1) the split is excellent, the extra buttons are great.

2) the backlight is kinda pointless, I have it off, why waste the battery. I don't understand why they didn't put it in the non-pro... BOM price i'd guess.

3) I got the palm rests, they are comfortable and kinda a little leatherette material so they won't get gooped up as badly as the old advantage 2 cloth pads.

4) the keycaps that come with it are SHIT. Buy the PBT caps with it, or do like i did and buy them two days after you get your keyboard.. Even the the home row is shit if you are used the adv1/2. I took the homerow off of one of my original advantages and put it on the pro. You might be able to swap all the caps over, but there are a few extra keys on the 360 series that it won't cover, and some of the legends will be wrong.

5) The adjustable tenting is nice but somewhat limited, it has essentially three settings.

6) It certainly sounds better, not the hollow of the adv1/2 (which i stuffed with foam to suppress).

7) You might want to buy from upgrade keyboards unless you are ok with browns. I haven't opened it up to see how hard it would be to do a desolder/switch swap. Brown are ok for me, but I do enjoy my adv2 with silent reds.

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

#746

Post by sleepybrett »

microtonal wrote: post #296
xupybd wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use and Advantage but have not tried the 360. How do you find it? Have you used the older models to give a comparison?

I have several KA2s (office, home office, spare) and the 360 Pro (I first had a non-Pro because I prefer wired, but the firmware still had annoying bugs). + Variable split is very nice. + Higher tenting degrees than the 20 degrees of the KA2. + Great firmware (ZMK) out of the box. + Really good build quality. + User-replaceable battery. - The Gateron Brown switches are mediocre. They are not to spec and the actuation…

Yeah If I buy a second 360pro for the office i'm going to buy it from upgrade keyboards so i can get silent reds or some other switch.

I also replaced the keycaps with the pbt ones, but i also moved a homerow from an adv1 onto my 360pro.

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

#747

Post by yread »

causi wrote: post #569
yread wrote: post #458

A 3D mouse like https://3dconnexion.com/nl/product/spacemouse-wireless/ is really nice if you need it. It's basically a 6 degree of freedom input - you can move in x-y, up and down, tilt it or rotate it. Even for working in 2D it's useful. And it's a bit more ergonomic than a mouse as well. I've also tried this weird mouse replacement: https://www.marzhauser.com/en/products/operating-devices/erg... It's basically the…

Those seem wildly expensive for something you could replicate by adding a force sensor to a trackball mouse.

trackball mouse gets you the x-y. Force sensor could get you the z. You get also the rotation and tilt, see page 4 in the manual

https://3dconnexion.com/manuals/spacemouse-wireless/en/Manua...

But yeah pricing is based on value not cost I guess. People who need it (architects, 3d designers, mechanical engineers) often have high end workstations so price of the mouse is a rounding error (and like 1 hour of their salary?)

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

#748

Post by sleepybrett »

monroewalker wrote: post #255
xupybd wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use and Advantage but have not tried the 360. How do you find it? Have you used the older models to give a comparison?

I also bought the 360 and I love it! Haven't once thought about going back to the Kinesis Advantage I was using before it. I went with the wired / non-pro version since I've had too many bluetooth issues with peripherals to trust that it wasn't going to be an issue. Sure enough, I asked on the subreddit and some others have reported connection issues or flakiness. The only issue I've had with it is that sometimes my…

On occasion I have issues with the left half right half pairing and have to reset it. I have yet to dig into the code to see if I could resolve a bug yet. (left half runs as a 'central' and is paired to the machine, right half pairs to the left half)

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

#750

Post by hammyhavoc »

juris wrote: post #741

Mobile dev here; I had an issue with organizing the vast quantity of mobile devices I have been given for testing. * Significant QoL gain: take a trip to the dollar store to buy three short CD racks; if you lay them on their sides next to each other, you can mount your laptops and mobile devices vertically! Much nicer than stacking your devices screen to screen, and you can keep them charged and connect them as-neede…

I'd love pics of this. Here's to your good health, mate.
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