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Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

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Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#171

Post by ad404b8a372f2b9 »

Jakobeha wrote: post #128

Material goods: Ear plugs (silicone). Don't waste your money on noise-cancelling headphones, I have $200 ones and they don't compare to simple ear plugs. If you live in a moderately noisy area and you want peace and quiet, get them. They basically just make everything quiet. 24 from CVS = $10. OpenMove by Aftershokz - Bone-conduction headphones. Perfect for running and just good for listening to music. They work, the…

What brand ear plugs do you recommend? I bought some just last week on amazon (some foam ones from Howard Leight) and it was a toss-up which were good and which were bad according to the reviews and descriptions.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#172

Post by fidrelity »

- barefoot shoes (brands: vivobarefoot and mukishoes). I could write a long rave now about barefoot shoes but I'll try to keep it short: No more knee pains after long walks, every time I go out the amount of sensations is pure joy and a powerful mindfulness experience.

- A used Garmin Forerunner 920XT. It's a pretty old model but it still works well for many different sport types. That was great when I did triathlons, then focused on running with the advanced HR and now I mostly use it as an alarm clock that doesn't wake the kids. Battery lasts forever.

- Kindle. I'm a "physical book" person and I'm not a fan of the Amazon lock-in but I got one for my birthday and my reading has exploded. It makes my reading just so much more accessible.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#175

Post by icyfox »

ErgoDox EZ. I got one at the recommendation of a friend who has battled serious carpal tunnel over the last five years. He said this keyboard changed his outlook and made him a solid 2x faster when developing in vim.

Relatively high learning curve when you first get started. You have to get used to a split keyboard and all of the custom modifier keys you have added alongside the bezel.

But once you spend some time with it: it's incredible. You can customize the entire keyboard layout and add multiple layers on top of the default one. Pressing different modifiers can change your whole keyboard layout - I have a separate one for my IDE, browser, etc. After a few weeks, my posture improved and I was much happier with the mechanical keys.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#176

Post by dcolkitt »

gpm wrote: post #114

Pair of 32" 4k screens. As someone who programs a lot, it's worth it (and not that expensive, you don't need high refresh rate or anything). Being able to use spatial memory to navigate between most of the working set of windows, being able to show a lot of text on one screen, etc. Only downside is that it's surprisingly hard to drive two 4k screens, laptops are likely not going to be happy (or have low refresh rates…

Out of curiosity how do you position your screens?

I used to rock dual Thunderbolt displays, but my always felt awkward either turning to the left or turning to the right. Now I now just use monitor, because I like having whatever I'm working on directly in front of me.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#177

Post by coldpie »

A guitar. And then three more guitars. Never having held a guitar in my life before, I picked one up last September as a way to help keep me sane over Minnesota COVID winter, and I've completely fallen in love with playing guitar. I have played literally every day since I purchased my first guitar and I spend most of my workday excited to get home and play more.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#178

Post by SkyPuncher »

japhyr wrote: post #107

I finally got a home espresso machine, after an HN recommendation. We got a Breville Barista Express. We'd been wanting one for years, but everything reliable seemed to be $1k+, and still seemed like more work than I wanted to put into coffee. This one is simple, almost as easy as pour-over, and is simple to clean. We're making better coffee at home than we've ever had in a coffee shop. And I thought it would take a…

I bought an espresso maker (Gaggia Classic Pro) last fall and a new grinder this spring.

Complete splurges/unnecessary purchases, but it's been a great purchase for us. I actually drink less coffee now (because I'm not brewing a full pot) and find the time to make a latte very peaceful and calming.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#179

Post by jonpurdy »

house9-2 wrote: post #26

Tesla Model 3 Long Range Been dreaming of being able to drive without using gasoline for decades, that dream is now a reality. Is it a perfect car - nope, but there really isn’t another car like it right now.

I hired a Tesla Model 3 for a week last summer and it was fantastic. But overkill for our needs: we've achieved that dream with a used Spark EV. Far less range than any Tesla (130 km EPA new rating), but more than adequate for our needs. We charge it once a week at home overnight and go about 30-60 km/week around town. Living in the Bay Area means we've got access to DCFC everywhere we want to go outside of SF as well.

Even inexpensive 1st gen EVs are more than ready for most people to use as a city car or second car, and most people would have no need for a petrol car at all if they had a Tesla or Bolt or any modern long range EV. I can see the lack of maintenance being very disruptive to car dealerships in the long term.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?

#180

Post by syrgian »

gjstein wrote: post #116

Philips Hue lights. I had wanted them for a little while for the novelty of it, but upon buying a couple my wife and I converted nearly all of our small apartment (except the bathrooms) to use their color-changing bulbs. Being able to change the light color and temperature has been surprisingly nice and has made our home much "cozier" under quarantine. We change the lights to dim reds and blues during movie nights or…

I bought a few of them to try them out and I'm disappointed currently. I tried to make them switch temperature automatically through the day, and nothing is working. I've only found people saying that there's no way without custom scripts that attempt to change the temperature continuously, which is very surprising. (I've only done an hour of research and tried around 3 different methods).

Only one of the lights, which uses a dimmer switch, changes automatically, but only if I turn it off and on again.

Other than that, the quality of the light is good.

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