That robovac (bought a roomba 600 series 5 years ago) saved my marriage! Single greatest home productivity improvement purchase of all time!
Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
611–620 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#612Earlier quoted context omitted.
Second cast iron. We use ours daily - and it's a handmedown from my grandmother who also used daily for 20+ years. Once seasoned properly, it is non-stick, cleans easy. We just be sure to put a little oil on it after each use. Really the only skillet you need.
Youll probably want stainless steel or enamled cast iron for anything with fond. Anytime you are cooking something acidic, tomatoes, vinegar, wine. I try not to deglaze meat brownings into sauce in cast iron. A stainless steel dutch oven is a great universal pan as well. For a "first pan" I'd probably suggest tri ply stainless over cast iron. The main thing I like about cast iron more is the pan temperature not dropp…
I put quite a bit of effort into doing things "right" when I tried to board the cast-iron train. Pan was pre-seasoned, but I did one of those elaborate multi-step seasoning rituals online, using the expensive oil they recommended and everything, just in case. Horrible, smoke all over the house, smelled for a couple days. Everything sticks anyway, like I've never seen on any other kind of pan. Suitably-gentle cleaning (according to cast iron fans online) takes forever because there's so much crap on it after every use. Re-seasoned it again after a bit, thinking I'd screwed up. No improvement, everything sticks. My wife refuses to cook with it at all, and I'm pretty sure just seeing it in the drawer annoys her.
Oh, and if a tomato or anything else somewhat-acidic touches it then the entire dish will taste like blood. So that's fun.
It's alright for cooking steak (preheating for a few minutes on high is a must, though, it's gotta be terrifyingly hot or everything will stick, including steak), and if I drown things in scorching-hot oil or fat (say, from bacon) they they don't stick much, but that sure isn't healthy. The pan has zero inherent non-stickness, only what it acquires from whatever lake of oil I put in it.
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#613My M1 Macbook Air is the greatest Mac I ever bought. But I was given a 2011 Mac Mini through my local Buy Nothing group and I decked it out with drives and I am using it as a home server and I have to say it's a great get.
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Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#614Earlier quoted context omitted.
Second cast iron. We use ours daily - and it's a handmedown from my grandmother who also used daily for 20+ years. Once seasoned properly, it is non-stick, cleans easy. We just be sure to put a little oil on it after each use. Really the only skillet you need.
I would like to throw in a strong rec for carbon steel. I was (and to a degree still am) a big cast iron guy, but I find that these days I use my carbon steel pans much, much more frequently. They share many of the benefits of cast iron in terms of durability, oven safety, high temp cooking, natural non-stick, etc. However they can be much, much lighter and their heating properties make them superior for many, and I…
The big win for cast iron is its higher heat capacity. It takes longer to heat up, but once hot, the temperature drops much less when you add cold / room temperature food to fry, resulting in crisper and less soggy output.
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#6151999 GMC Savanna passenger van (seats removed) for use as a farm truck. It’s huge inside and easily holds 4x8 sheets of ply. Here in Seattle it gets wet a lot so I never have to worry about transporting or storing in the rain. Has 8 cylinder engine that will last forever and is easyish to maintain. I get an surprising amount of sheepish interest/envy from dudes who had the same idea but who bought pickups (which seld…
I bought a barely-used (2K miles, 35% off (year on lot)) high-roof Sprinter on a whim back in 2017 (was a PGA tour shuttle, apparently) and took out all 3 benches, for a truly wonderfully capacious, full-enclosed hauling and moving machine.
We've also used it as a great family country-touring machine with all benches in (8 kids), and the kids have taken it around the country a couple of times with friends.
Can't recommend them more. Just a basic V6 diesel, but Mercedes does build solid trucks.
(The only drawback being that the roof a/c gaskets always break on these things at great expense (1600usd), out of warrantee. They even settled a class action suit about that exact problem, but only up to 2015. I suppose we'll have to start another to cover 2016 and up...)
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#616Disclaimer: I'm generally cheap. Pilot G2 pen - I bought it after someone recommended it and it is indeed a pleasure to write with it. Ryzen 5 2400G - it has a good enough GPU to play some nice games with Steam Proton. In future I would like to make a Mini-ITX build for it. Canon EOS M100 with pan cake lens - it's almost as small as a compact, but has big APS-C sensor. I bought a used body. I noticed lately how my ol…
0.32mm Pilot G2s are my favorite. I usually buy the green, black, blue, and red in packs of 10.
They are a pleasure to write with. They are more prone to the bullhead not functioning if dropped but overtime these pens have taught me to take care of my pens. Now I can actually get the pens depleted all way.
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#617Roost Laptop stand + bluetooth keyboard and trackpad Enormous impact on my posture when I'm using my laptop away from my desk. The stand collapses into a stick so it's easy to toss in my backpack. https://www.therooststand.com/collections/roost-laptop-stand...
Highly recommend the amazon knock off which is half the price and… well does the same job. It’s crazy how you don’t need anything fancy for a laptop stand :) been using it for a year and I’m happy I didn’t go full “let’s buy the most expensive thing just because”.
Some folks may want to pay more to support a small business that is manufacturing in the US (probably less of a sell if you're not American). Personally for something relatively low cost like this I'd happily pay double just to avoid buying it from Amazon. I think suggesting that it's "just because" is a very narrow view.
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#618Gymnastic rings and kettlebells
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#619OP-Z as well as a few other teenage engineering devices. Never ending musical fun. Learning curves such that you'll never get bored. Also an OB-4, lots of people say it's an over priced toy, it's not.. it. sounds. Incredible. Incredible! I love Teenage Engineering. Also my Wabi bike, if you're into bikes, get a Wabi (trust me). It's an extremely well thought about bike, the geometry is perfectly between track and roa…
TE hit the nail on the head with their designs, don't quite know what's about them that makes them so fun.
On the contrary, my serious musician friends have little appreciation for their products, gave some PO as gifts and they've been gathering dust since.
Re: Ask HN: Favorite purchases of last two years?
#620I bought a triatlon wetsuit in November of last year so that I can swim in a lake nearby. See, for all of winter, public swimming pools were closed in Germany because of the pandemic.
In the end I didn't go much because below 10 degrees celsius is just insanely painful. I went a few times, but just for the challenge.
I've started, however, using it in spring now and I love the empowerment it gives me.
I can swim comfortably outside in a beautiful lake and I don't have to be upset about closed public pools :)