This year we moved new apartment, so I had opportunity to renew most of the staff I was planning, from multi-monitor stand, some powerfull homelab server to robocleaner. From all of this, the cheap trash box I bought with sensors always make me smile whenever I use, I didnt even notice I needed before. Its quite big so enough storage for 1-2 day and when your hands get closer even in dark it opens automatically.
Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?
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Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?
#921) Got rid of my second monitor and use just one 27” 4K monitor. My neck feels better and I’m less scatter brained. 2) whenever possible, I try to buy used pro/prosumer/premium things. They will usually last for years and years, be more comfortable/pleasurable in use and will be repairable/maintainable when they do break down.
I picked up one of those crazy ultra wide monitors (34" MSI optix 21:9 something-or-other) to replace a 27" qnix POS and an ancient 17" 4:3 LCD. It's been a game changer for me. I now arrange my windows mostly in columns: one 50% wide center column for my primary tool (browser, Xcode, vscode, slack (ugh)) and two tall single-tab terminals on either side. The terminals are more than 80 columns wide so they provide plenty of space for everything I need to do. I use Divvy on macOS to move and scale the windows from my keyboard but there are a lot of other options.
Dual monitors were nice for quite a while but I don't think I can go back now that UW is available.
* eta: somehow didn't see wil421's comment before mine.
Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?
#93Switching from a mouse to a multitouch trackpad completely resolved my wrist pain, and I find gestures essential to productivity now. I started off with a Fingerworks trackpad; this is the company Apple bought to bring in multitouch technology. Then when Apple’s trackpads got big enough and supported enough gestures, I switched to those.
I've been eyeing the Apple trackpads for some time now, as the experience of their trackpads are like no other (for laptops at least). How well does the standalone trackpad work with Windows and Linux? Those are my main OSes I switch between, and it's very nice that mouse input is exactly the same for both so muscle memory works perfectly well, would the same be true for using a Apple trackpad?
Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?
#94A decent fabric mousepad. Night and day difference.
There are even large ones wide enough to suit both keyboard and mouse. You don't have pad area anymore, mouse works everywhere. It's also more comfortable for hands when typing. Mine is Asus ROG Sheath, 990mm x 440mm.
Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?
#95A 2560x1440 monitor running at its 1:1 native resolution. The screen real estate improvement over 1080p is substantial. You get so much more vertical space and you can easily fit 4 side by side code windows at 80 chars. At 24" or 25" the PPI is also quite nice for reading text.
I wrote up a very big monitor selection guide at https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to-pick-a-good-monitor-fo..., I try to keep it up to date by supplying alternatives to the ones I've purchased. Some of the monitors I recommended were $330 when I bought them but are now $500-700, although sometimes they come back in stock at $350ish.
I made the switch around 5-6 years ago and still think it was one of the biggest upgrades for general quality of life improvements when using a computer.
The only reason I haven't gone 4k is because using one at 100% scaling at 27" or less isn't really feasible due to how small the text is and using a 36" one to be able to comfortably view it at 100% scaling feels too big for using it in a normal desk environment. Personally I'd rather have the flexibility of 2x 24-25" 2560x1440 monitors, plus 120hz / 144hz 2560x1440 monitors are very abundant if you're into games (although you can make a strong case that 120hz+ is very noticeable and useful for general usage too).
Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?
#96A keyboard where the keys are symmetrical, and allow greater use of the thumb (and allow less usage of the pinky fingers). -- Maybe it's not for everyone, but I wish I'd gotten a keyboard like this years ago.
So like enter in place of caps lock? I genuinely have no idea what you mean by symmetrical keyboard.
ZSA's moonlander[0] or their planck-ez[1] are a couple of examples. Where standard keyboards have staggered rows, the planck-ez is "ortholinear", and the moonlander has staggered columns. (I have seen designs which are symmetric and retain staggered rows, too).
Though I think older keyboards in this category would be like the Maltron, Kinesis Advantage. And also recently, there's been a surge in custom mechanical keyboard designs, like the Sofle keyboard[2].
[0]: https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/
Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?
#97Midi devices. I have lots of the cheap ones for controlling my software with hardware wheels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umO-Bwzl3f0 I also control software like blender using those, even my emacs use that. It is always in the same place and once you learn it, you are so fast. I also use sheets of paper and color pens.
That's MIDI devices as-in devices with MIDI port (like synthesizers), right?
The video looks interesting, haven't seen joysticks/controllers being used in such a fashion. What kind of devices (brands/models) do you use if you don't mind sharing?
Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?
#98Air quality monitor and air purifier. Helps me to have cleaner air at home by e.g., reminding me to open the windows more regularly.
Are the monitor and purifier one device or two separate devices?
Two separate devices. I have the Awair air quality monitor and a Coway air purifier.
Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?
#99* an Onyx Boox Nova Air. It's an Android tablet with an e-ink display which i use mainly for reading web articles and RSS feeds, although I've tried the note taking ( with stylus and OCR) and it's fine, but not really my thing ( I like taking notes with my keyboard). * A small waterproof speaker for the bathroom which i use to listen to short podcasts ( like Revolutions by Mike Duncan, in the 20-30 minute range) duri…
Bathroom speaker has been definite life improved for me. Side note: I try to find ones that don’t have really annoying “my battery is low” noises. I had one that played this terrible bell sound and it destroyed my morning vibe.
Re: Ask HN: Any piece of hardware that was more of game changer than you expected?
#100I finally gave in to reality and got reading glasses for coding. Didn't realize how much I was suffering.
How did you decide which brand to get and at what strength? I wear glasses every day (nearsighted) and have been thinking about getting reading glasses for work but the ones I tried at the grocery store were way too strong.
I somewhat recently upgraded to a larger monitor and have scaled up my fonts but I still feel like I am straining a bit.