Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022

Phil Tadros · January 6, 2023

2023-01-06 03:23:15

An air fryer.

It’s really a badly marketed product. Its real utility isn’t that it uses less oil, but that it cooks incredibly fast. Essentially an oven on steroids.

It’s made cooking so much easier. I usually toss some boneless chicken in with a light coating of soy sauce and cornflour. While the chicken cooks, I prep a basic Asian sauce on the stovetop.

The chicken and the sauce are both done within 10-15 minutes. Never have to check on the chicken (unlike a pan) or wait too long (unlike an oven). Mix them together and dinner is ready.

Yeah this is it, right? People throw fries in airfyrers that just soaked up fat before put in their packaging thinking it’s healthy, and it just take 3x the amount of time to “deep fry” some french fries.

But that is really not it’s strong point!

The Carpio 2.0 [0] by DeltaHub. It’s a wrist rest. I would get severe hand pain being at the PC all day, but this little device completely relieved that pain. It took a couple weeks to get used to, and now I use it while working and gaming. One of the best purchases I’ve made in a long time.

[0]: https://us.deltahub.io/products/carpio-2

Airpod Pro 2

They are basically bionic ears. Headphones, headset, earplugs, hearing protection, hearing aids, extendable ears, and more. Wish they could act as universal translators, but I suppose that’s still yet to come.

Agreed! Having had Airpods 2 (non-pro) since launch, I only now appreciate the ANC feature. My listening volume went from 80% to 30%, even 10% at home.

Seriously, if you have headphones in every day mainly to mask environment noises, these are a must-have. Best buy in a looooong time.

Ordering frozen croissants online. Before going to bed you leave one in the oven. Wake up, turn oven on, hit the shower. When you come out, it’s ready to eat = cafe experience at home, coffee and a croissant while checking the news.

Fair question. I live in Japan. Frozen deliveries work reliably, and I don’t think we’d have frozen croissants at the supermarket.

I order from a store that seems to mostly serve cafes based on their order sizes (their other products are things like a 13kg box of butter).

Kagi search engine subscription is easily my top choice (https://kagi.com).

I am actually glad one thing can lastly, actually substitute Google search and be simply pretty much as good or higher (neither Bing nor DuckDuckGo have been ok once I tried them).

If we’re speaking bodily merchandise, I would in all probability go along with the Apple Magsafe pockets. It is somewhat factor however I like not having a separate pockets to maintain observe of daily.

> DuckDuckGo were good enough when I tried them

I’m curious as to where it lacked. DDG works more than well enough for me, but I’m wondering what other people search for where it is not.

Would you say Kagi has escaped the Google SEO deterioration? Google has essentially gotten so bad for me that DuckDuckGo, without noticeable improvement, is now on par with Google.

I’m gonna go against the grain here and list non-technical things!

I bought some new plants for my home, which makes the place feel a lot nicer.

I bought some outdoor-trousers – things that go on top of your jeans – when it is cold they keep me warm, and I can now roll around in the snow without getting wet as a nice bonus. (-10°C here today). That said it was only a couple of weeks ago that I came out of a sauna and rolled around naked in 30cm of snow. Bracing!

Other household things that have made my life nicer have included some decent concrete-bolts screwed into my walls and ceiling. Now I can hang plants, have an indoor hammock, and a hammock-chair too.

Finally I’ve started buying random paintings whenever I go to visit charity/thrift stores. Each time I go I buy a single painting, it must be “amateur”, and it must have an artist signature and date on it. At the moment I’ve got a wall with about eight of these paintings hung on it. All different styles, colours, and levels of “goodness”, but together they all look good, rather than a garish mismash. Kinda fun.

As silly as it sounds, this water warmer for baby bottles: https://a.co/d/hhJzLBn

Nothing’s worse than attempting to combine the right water temperature at 3 AM whereas the infant is screaming, waking up the remainder of the household. (We use pre-boiled water for the infant’s bottles, so it isn’t as simple as adjusting a faucet.) We purchased this after we had our second child and it is made feeding the infant barely much less annoying.

I’m surprised by how many things mentioned here are things that improved my own 2022 (air fryer, Steamdeck, bone-conducting headphones, etc.)

A couple of things that I haven’t yet seen mentioned:

A LifeStraw Home water filter. It removes the slightly metallic taste from my home tap water.

Cable management boxes (multiple brands). These allow me to hide away the unsightly power strips, power bricks, hubs, excess cords, etc, and make my desk/office much more organized.

Space heater, 20 bucks. In the past I chose to heat the bedroom a little on cold days and otherwise suck it up and dress while shivering (no point burning a ton of gas to heat an entire bedroom). Now, I use 1.5 kW for ~3 minutes (0.01 kWh) to have hot air be blown on me while getting dressed in the morning.

Because it changes how warm I feel while going downstairs, I also don’t need downstairs to be as warm to get warmed up again. I’m already warm and can sit in a normal temperature room to work.

—

Air purifier (40 bucks on offer I think). We got it for unrelated reasons, it didn’t help for that. Unexpected uses:

1. Neighbours’ smoke occasionally comes into our apartment somehow and now I can do something about it. Before, I would just suck it up and try to convince myself that the little residue coming through whatever wall isn’t going to impact my health.

2. This winter, people seem to like to heat the house with whatever old painted glued rotting wood they can find (or maybe also dead bodies, it’s hard to tell). I can wait a few hours, but if it doesn’t clear up and I want some fresh air before sleeping then what I do is open the bedroom window wide for a few minutes to replace the air, doors closed, then close window and turn on purifier on high for 30+ minutes, and then go back in there to sleep.

I took this even further, put air purifiers in most rooms and hooked them up to air quality sensors.

Mostly they run on the very quiet setting (or not at all), but they’ll automatically spin up if someone cooks, farts, opens a window or hits a vape pen.

Instant Pot.
Can be used as a rice cooker, slow cooker, pressure cooker (mostly known for this last use)

Though probably not as good for rice specifically as an actual high-end rice cooker,
it greatly increased the range of foods I eat.

Makes it easy to make nice one pot meals overnight for multiple days,
you can make really good broth soups from chickens etc quickly, or slowly if you prefer.

If you like to try tougher cuts of meat, this is also a good reason to get it.
The fact it doesn’t occupy one burner is also helpful.

We set up a motorized curtain in our bedroom. It’s been really nice to black everything out at night while sleeping (some of our neighbors leave outdoor lights on) but in the morning, wake up with natural light

I’ve been looking for something like this. Is it DIY or something off-the-shelf? My spouse requires absolute darkness when sleeping, but I have SAD and require the blinds to be always open in order to… not want to die.

I bought three wireless phone chargers/stands, one for each of the bedside nightstands and one for my desk. Having a phone that’s always charged and not having to fumble with charger cords has been amazing.

Ooooohhh, that’s clever.

I’ve never had a need for such a device, but I worked for a company that wrote Skype for Business plug-ins, many of which revolved around “presence”. You were considered active on your computer[0] when your mouse moved. We had a tool that we used for billing our time which included a graph of your Skype for Business presence state for the day you were entering time for[1].

I noticed, one week, that I was active 24-hours a day for three days in a row. I discovered that I left my mouse plugged in, it had fallen onto the carpet, and the minor vibrations that would occur in the house mixed with difficulty tracking would cause the mouse to move on its own “little enough” for me to not notice but frequently enough that it kept the computer from sleeping and kept my Skype for Business state bright green.

[0] Similar to Teams, today, you could be logged in from multiple devices; unlike Teams, a toast message might not reach your phone (or appear and be dismissed immediately) if you were active on a computer.

[1] This was entirely to assist in accurately filling out time sheets; it was never used to make sure “butts were in chairs”.

It’s way easier than it sounds. Logitech provides a tool that lets you program their gaming mouses. They use Lua. I don’t know Lua but there were plenty of guides for different gaming macros like recoil compensation and the Logitech documentation was decent enough.

Pretty sure that isn’t legal in most countries where HN’ers work from

Which is not to say that it is not done, but personally I have enough options that I would like to see them try to fire me over something like that. If I’m staring off into the distance to think about something or reading source code without pgdn’ing for five minutes, yes it’s not uncommon that my screen turns off while reading something (until I get around to setting the timeout higher at least) but that doesn’t mean I’m not working.

Sodastream. Has significantly increased the amount of water i drink and conversely decreased other crap being drunk

High end ricecooker ended up getting more use than expected.

USB KVM style switch to change mouse/kyb over between work and personal device

– all matching socks. No more time spent pairing.

– clothes drying racks that hook onto radiators. Reduces drying time and clothes crumpling

– wired mechanical keyboard. Wired is simpler than wireless. Quality ones have n-key support

– bicycle fenders

– digital wrist watch so that I check my phone less.

> all matching socks. No more time spent pairing.

I KIND OF do this; I have a couple different brands with slightly different styles, but they’re all black ankle socks so I don’t care if one has a gold toe and one doesn’t. Drives my wife mad, but it doesn’t bother me and I’m either at home or wearing shoes, so…

I bought 3 packs of black wool socks about 10 years ago. I wear them almost exclusively throughout the year (cold feet) except for sports etc.

Just recently I’ve replaced them all with 3 new packs of black wool socks.

My life have never been simpler. See you in 2033 for the update!

This is how I operate with normal socks – I never buy a single pack of socks – I just do a “line change” and replace them all when the old rotation is too far gone to meet my needs.

I have a few specialty items for exercise or dirty yard work, but those are easy to separate from the daily drivers.

If you need to dry stuff really quick, get a little cheap desk fan of the kind sold in warm summers and point that to the wet stuff. I use it to dry out my children’s boots.

A programmable keyboard is even better. Doesn’t even need to be fully programmable via scripts, a simple macro functionality is usually enough.

I mapped arrow keys and Home/End to Fn+WASD/QE and code navigation is so much faster now, especially when I have a hand on the mouse.

I used to have socks with ‘Monday’, ‘Tuesday’, etc. I used to wear them randomly. A lot of people used to notice it and comment why I’m with Friday socks even though it’s only Tuesday:)

Google Assistant. I had a smart clock for years but only now got the full benefit now that I’ve switched to Keep and Calendar for so many things rather than using various notes apps.

My Kobo Libra 2 reader has been great. Although sometimes I wish I’d bought a Kindle or waited for the Scribe, because Kobo books often cost more than Kindle books, and it seems like Kindle has better sideloading support now.

Wall mount hooks. Now that they have nicer looking ones with drywall anchors instead of the old eye hooks, I’ve found lots of uses for them.

> it seems like Kindle has better sideloading support now.

For books? Hasn’t Kindle always had amazing sideloading support? I think even over a decade ago you could just email your pirated books to a kindle.com email address to have them automagically show up on the kindle.

If you control 2-3 computers next to each other, I recommend the Logitech MX Keys and MX Master 3s. I can control multiple computers and switch between them by holding ctrl and bringing my mouse to the edge of a screen. It then jumps to the other computer seamlessly. Now my desk is clutter free of multiple mice and keyboards.

I don’t like being tied to one company’s peripherals. The best solution I’ve found to this is to use a keyboard with firmware that instantly switches between bluetooth and wired (I use an M60 python keyboard). That way I can use a key combination to switch. I also just use two different mice, since they are small.

I’ve tried a few software solutions over the years but they all seem to run into issues eventually.

Big fan of big desks. I just moved down to a 57 inch desk. Fifteen years ago I needed a temporary desk solution and bought the cheapest bare wood door at Home Depot and laid it across two filing cabinets. That turned out to work great for the next fifteen years and I still kind of miss it (but it was time to upgrade the home office decor.)

    > bought the cheapest bare wood door at Home Depot and laid it across two filing cabinets.

I’m surprised how many people don’t build their own desks (especially those of us who work at home). I spent about $1,200 on a pretty minimalist (but very large) desk in my early 20s. I could build my ideal desk for half that price.

Even the “cheapest bare wood door at Home Depot”, switch that out with “cheap (but straight) wood” or layers of thick MDF or other durable surface, add paint, grout, tile adhesive and window molding (or something wood for an edge) and cheap ceramic tiles. Cut the MDF to ensure no tile cuts are needed, sand/spray paint the edges to match the tile and you have a pretty decent looking/functional/durable desk of any desired size.

I did a dining table that way in my 20s. It was a curb rescue that the top was destroyed (someone used it as a work bench) but it had a really nice set of thick oak legs that would clean up. I re-used the top after a lot of sanding but the tiling/painting job was maybe an hour’s worth of work done mostly by brief instructions given to me from an older gentleman at Home Depot (I owned a dull hand saw and plug-in power drill given to me by my grand father). It took a weekend to complete between the various “waiting for things to dry”. I sealed mine, as well. It cost less than $75 about 20 years ago.

Honestly, if I were to do it all over again, I’d skip the $1,200 desk. I’d watch Craigslist for a large hardwood dining room table with the right characteristics[0], preferably with leafs. It’s a huge work area. If pressed against a wall, you could set a number of deep cabinets wall-side, put the monitor in the center of the table and even access cabinets behind (but above) the monitor pretty easily.

[0] You’d want legs that wouldn’t be in the way of your knees while working at it. Ideally, leafs that are attached in some way which could be re-engineered into a printer/computer stand.

Small round wire sieve that fits on top of a mug, < $20 at the supermarket. I’d bought various devices intended as tea strainers before, but they were hard to clean and didn’t let the leaves drain properly. A small thing, but it’s meant a lot less irritation.

Merino wool T-shirts.

Cost about 30€ instead of previously used 3€ cotton T-shirts.

Can wear one for about 3 weeks without washing, with no body odor. Much more pleasant to the skin, even for doing sports, driving, etc. Also, warm in winter, airy in summer. Plan to switch most clothing to merino wool.

Hoodies wear out around cuff or gets some random holes over time. Underwear – crotch around thighs as I’m too fat.

Never had too much special care around them tho.

Aftershokz Aeropex bone-conducting headphones. I could walk, hike, drive listening to music or phone calls while hearing the environment around me and without exposing anyone else to my taste in music 🙂

I’m on my 3rd pair of (After)Shokz. Previous one was an Aeropex, which I still have and use some times but it rattles a bit, especially with lower pitched sounds. I replaced it with the newer OpenRun Pro. Same awesomeness, noticeably better sound quality and more volume.

I use them almost daily for running, cycling, walking and climbing. My only gripe with them is the long neck bad, so I’ve had to stop myself from splurging on a Mini when it came out. 😀

Can confirm. They’re cool. Battery life is decent and yeah, they do exactly what’s claimed here. Don’t expect the most high def sound, but they’re still completely acceptable for a lot of scenarios.

It just depends on your use case. If you want to appreciate music while sitting at your desk, no. But if you need to listen to a podcast or music while trail running, biking, at the gym, or other situations where situational awareness is important, then the degrade in audio quality is worth the trade off.

I think so. I was getting skin irritation if I exercised while wearing earbuds and the AfterShockz eliminate that problem for me. Sound quality is good for podcasts. I don’t listen to much music at all with them.

1. Gymnastic rings – cheap, so simple yet so complicated. Magic ancient alien technology from the future (whatever that means)
2. Anki – free, you remember what you want to remember, but you have to RTFM to use it properly.
3. Wax earplugs – cheap. My sleep quality is at least 2x better since using them.
4. Org-mode – free.

I’ve been tempted to get a set of gymnastic rings for a while. For someone like me who tries not to accumulate too much junk, buying any kind of bulky gym equipment is not an option.

Gymnastic rings seem like the perfect minimalist’s exercise equipment… the only thing is I have no idea where I would hang them.

I finally purchased a rice cooker. I enjoy rice a lot and it’s heathier than pasta, plus it’s kind of set it and forget it and you can prepare other food while it cooks. But the best part is that rice comes out perfect.

CO2 sensors for every room in my apartment. Before monitoring the CO2 levels I did not realize the relation of tiredness, mental fatigue and high CO2 levels.

Which ones did you get? I’ve been thinking along similar lines recently, but they are somewhat expensive and it’s hard to say which ones are even legit.

So far the MH-Z19 modules are on the top of my list for pairing with an ESP or something and logging data to NAS but I’ve yet to order any.

Senseair S8 paired with ESP-32 has served me well over the past 3 years, but they have to be exposed to outside air at least once a week or so. Otherwise they quickly lose their zero point and start reporting thousands of PPM as mere hundreds.

I think other models with auto-recalibration also suffer from this (including MH-Z19). It’s probably not a problem for you, but if you too live in an extremely polluted area and have to keep your windows shut for weeks at a time, it might be.

I got the Netatmo Smart Indoor Air Quality Monitors. They are somewhat expensive, but I got a good deal, 69 EUR a piece. They also monitor temperature, air humidity and noise levels.

My dad had a balanced heat recovery ventilation installed few years ago. I think it might be undersized a bit as it’s somewhat loud when running at 100%. He doesn’t like the noise so he runs it at 40% or so.

After getting meter I found it’s def not enough, especially in rooms with more people doing some activity. He still doesn’t believe my meter is accurate tho.

I have steadily been replacing all of my socks with darn tough socks. They absolutely are tough, but the replacement warranty is super simple, too. I snagged one on a loose trim nail, and got a new pair within a week from the company.

You can get them 25% off from gobros.com as well!

Bluffworks Chinos. I travel a lot for work and these are the first slacks I’ve owned that look professional rather than tactical/adventurous and actually travel well.

On the more technical side of things, an Evoluent vertical mouse. Has made a massive improvement in my hand fatigue/pain.

A keychain that acts as a coin to unlock shopping carts.

A retractable USB-C to C cable for my backpack.

Replacement keys for my butterfly keyboard MacBook. It’s a drop in replacement that delays a new laptop purchase.

Warm wool socks and sweaters

Paperlike screen protector and metal nib for my iPad mini and Apple Pencil

A 3 meter long USB-C to C cable

> A keychain that acts as a coin to unlock shopping carts.

That’s a concern of mine. Once we go all cashless, how will we unlock the shopping carts? Here it’s currently being debated if stores should be allowed to reject cash, I think someone forgot about the carts.

It’s a system that was never introduced in the US, and in fact I’ve never even heard of it until now. So surely one option is to remove the system altogether.

That written, I’m also surprised there’s any serious talk of going cashless there. We have plenty of cash-only businesses here that preclude any serious consideration of the notion.

You apparently have never shopped at Aldi. You need a quarter to get a cart. When you take the cart back and lock it into the carts then you get your quarter back.

There are stores here that hand out coin shaped pieces of plastic that unlock the cart that they give out for free. But if i’m not losing my whole 50 euro cent coin that removes the incentive for returning the cart because i’ve got a unlimited supply of plastic coins so why are we bothering with a lock?

The Zendure Passport III worldwide travel adapters changed my reality in 2022 (~$70). It sounds boring, but man. I’ve had many worldwide plug adapters in my day, and many chargers. But the Zendure has a 65W USB-C fast charger in it, plus 3 more USB-C and a single USB-A. When I travel (and that includes “traveling to the coworking place”), I used to bring:

* A plug adapter

* My big ol’ laptop charger brick and cord

* A medium-sized USB-A charger for phone, headphones, power bank

* A USB-C charger for iPad, Kindle

* A small power strip because I had to plug several things in

Now I just bring the single Passport III adapter. Done. It has a single power outlet pass-through, but I haven’t even needed it because the only thing I ever plug in is chargers.

Stream deck was a surprisingly good buy for me as well, although in 2020. Previously I had a keyboard with a lot of macro keys, but that died and I didn’t want to go without the handy shortcuts I’ve set up. Now I’m using the stream deck for much more than what my keyboard offered.

In terms of best buy in 2022 was the Peak Design Capture Camera Clip. For a photographer it’s amazing to not have the weight of the camera around your neck but securely attached to my backpack strap. The ease of attaching and removing the camera makes me actually use it more on hikes.

> Previously I had a keyboard with a lot of macro keys […] Now I’m using the stream deck for much more than what my keyboard offered.

Would like to hear more details about what you and OP and others use the stream deck for. I’m trying to understand what it can do that a regular keyboard plus macros couldn’t.

I guess convenience is also a big part of it.

It’s really just a dynamic macro pad in a really polished overall product platform. No more guessing what blank button does what.

The killer feature for me is that it can also be an output device with the right tweaks, so for my use case in triggering long running jobs, the icon on the appropriate button updates to indicate the job is in progress and then again when it completes.

I have a bunch under £20…

  - programmable 6-key keyboard
  - 10-pack of reading glasses
  - mini tyre inflator
  - rubber ice cleats
  - low-alcohol beer
  - sukang sawsawan 
  - boczek

– Affinity Photo instead of Photoshop (I’ve been a PS user since 5.5, but they creep me out)

– Capture One for ca 200 usd (same reason as above, but replace PS with Lightroom Classic)

– The Belkin iPhone grip for continuity camera (iPhone is so much better than the potato webcam on my MBA)

Right when I submitted enough wine patches to get Affinity Photo v1 working on linux, they go and release V2 with a couple WinRT lib calls which are basically completely missing from wine 🙁

Replacement battery for the family MBP. Going strong since 2014, and I want to see how far we can use it safely as the family computer without replacement.

I upgraded to the M1 air and it’s the difference between night and day. The air on an M1 can do all my heavy development work no problems and I also don’t have a loud fan anymore.

Ah, but this computer is a general-purpose home device that is mostly used for browsing and watching videos. The dev. stuff doesn’t matter.

(And I no longer inflict my code on this world, only powerpoints!)

I bought a Keychron keyboard as others have mentioned.

On the $300 end though I got a walking treadmill for my standing desk. It is changing my life.

I’m about 2 weeks in and usually avg 5.5 miles a day. Words per minute is still 80 and accuracy hasn’t suffered. Worked my way upto 2.6mph. I had to set the office temperature to 66 degrees F though. Worked up a sweat 🙂

Instant pot (rebuy with air fryer lid). Use this thing for everything. The air fryer lid is amazing. So much better than my stand alone air fryer which I got rid of. Much quieter. Takes up same space as the air fryer that I had before, but with much more functions! I don’t do many fancy recipes in it, but makes cooking rice, chicken, yogurt or anything else simple fast and efficient. I live in the Eurozone so heating up the oven can be expensive. Pressure cooking a chicken in 10 minutes I believe is much more economical.

My AirPods. They work well and allow me to listen to podcasts while grocery shopping and doing mindless tasks. There other headphones out there but for whatever reason these fit best and sound OK.

A 30w phone charger. iPhones charge rather slow. This charger helps get over that. A lot of my daily routine is done through my phone.

It’s very dependant on your ears and the eartip size you use. I personally would not bike with them, because as good as the passthrough audio is, there could be small differences in localizing sound that could really cause trouble on a bike. The passthrough is great, but not life or death situation great.

I can (road) bike with an Airpod fairly securely in. For longer rides where I want to listen to a podcast, a little bit of surgical tape brings even more security.

You may be aware of this, but the recommended way to wear Airpods (especially the 3rd gen non-Pro?) is to twist the stalks towards your face to ‘lock’ them into place better.

(I discovered this when I was about to angrily throw out my new 3rd gen Airpods, as they were fatter than my original gen 1 model, and just wouldn’t stay in place. I’ve never seen anyone else doing this [and I sometimes get comments from people for wearing mine oddly] but it’s a game-changer.)

https://www.reddit.com/r/airpods/comments/qgqo5a/psa_if_the_…

Recently, I got air purifiers. I really like them so far, and I purchased a couple models from Vornado. Their air flow technology pairs really well with the air purifying. Their fans are the only ones I buy.

Logitech unifying wireless mouse and keyboard. Really seamless to use between two computers and my monitor’s built in KVM while only taking up a single USB port. I even alternate between mice for ergonomics.

Window cat bed that attaches to a glass door that gets naturally heated up in the morning by the sun. My cat loves it.

I got a Philips AC2889/10 air purifier because we relocated and I wanted to make sure to reduce mold spores. I discovered as a side effect that it really helps reducing dust as well.

A keypad door lock. Knowing the door is always (automatically) locked, being able to leave the house without a key, and being able to let someone else when I’m not there either with my phone, or by giving them a code.. I’m living in the future.

A keyboard tray, that attached to my desk, I never realized how many of my frustrations were just the slightly awkward ergonomics of my keyboard being a few inches too high

So true. Thanks for reminding me, I really need to get myself a tray. I have the autonomous standing desk and even at its lowest height, the keyboard is still too high. The only way I can get the angle of my arms/hands to feel normal is if I raise my chair really high, but then that comes with its own issues.

Which keyboard tray did you get?

Upgraded to a standing desk last year.
At first I didn’t add my existing keyboard tray since the desk height can be adjusted for correct keyboard ergonomics.
Very soon identified some problems:

1. My display cannot be adjusted high enough (this can be fixed by putting a book under the display).

2. Keyboard and mouse take up valuable space on the desk.

3. (most important) Display is physically closer and occupies more of my field-of-view. After a day of work this made me dizzy.

So now I’m happily using the keyboard tray again.

Wacaco Nanopresso. I’m travelling a lot these days and I need coffee every morning. Many hotels don’t have electric kettles so I also had to buy a tiny water heater to boil water right in its tiny cup.

Saw some people go as far as using a portable coffee grinder but that’s a heavier toy

Weird timing – I saw some on Amazon yesterday (clicked in to see if there was another three things I wanted in order to get 5% off … but it was all bizarre tat, who wades through all that, or finds four useful things anyway, for 5%?) and wondered what on Earth they were for, I didn’t realise this was/could be an issue – certainly not commonplace enough that there was a product for it anyway.

A cheap table-mounted vise with a 360 bearing. The bearing lock failed pretty quickly but I can just as easily clamp it down in any orientation regardless.

It’s been super practical for all kinds of hobby projects.

do you have palm rest? I bought RGB version and became instantly smitten with with it, but I found it a too tall / high to use, and I just couldn’t get used to using with palm rest.

Ergonomic mouse: Logitech Lift – 80 bucks

Use to have cramps and pains in by hand, not nothing. Amazing purchase

Its over 200, but Sony XM4s are great. I use it without ambient mode and noise cancelling, i think its the perfect amount of noise cancellation at least when working from home, and still wanting to be aware of surroundings(family members, dog, etc)

A Stream Deck (and later a Stream Deck +). Useful and fun to code your own plugins too.

I work 100% remote so I also went for another Elgato product – a ring light – so my work video calls look a bit better. If all of your interaction at work is via video it seemed worth doing it well. My desk now looks more like a YouTuber’s but it’s all for coding.

A Sanpao TJ800 mini TV. It’s a really stinking adorable display styled like a retro CRT TV and it has the guts of a cheap Android TV box inside, or you can plug in an HDMI input.

I found the HDMI input on mine didn’t work but I figured out how to put Armbian on the TV box inside and so now I can turn it into a mini retro emulation console!

A $60 shaved ice maker attachment for my wife’s KitchenAid mixer. Now she can make Snoballs any time of year. Seriously, if there’s someone in your house who loves to cook, you need a KitchenAid mixer. It’s a godsend, like Visual Studio Code for the kitchen.

A laptop stander.

Coupled with a keyboard and mouse.

I don’t have space for a discrete monitor so i have to rely on the laptop for it.

Using it makes it upright to eye level, making my neck pain go away

Me too, these make a huge difference in screen ergonomics compared to just using a laptop directly, and most of them fold, so they’re much more portable than an external monitor.

And using the computer like this you also get the benefit of a real keyboard that you chose yourself, and is easy to repair/replace, etc.

Beats Fit Pro. My first and only wireless earbuds and it’s been a game changer.

(I think this is a recommendation more for a category than a specific product.)

I too bought my first pair of wireless earbuds (One Plus) last year. I’m really amazed how well these things work. Fantastic battery life, for such a tiny package. Pretty decent noise reduction. And they always seem to guess right which of the many devices they’re paired with I want them to stream from.

I was, however, disappointed to discover that when in duplex mode, sound quality drops from hifi to first generation gsm quality. As I understand it, Bluetooth still has no better profile for duplex.

For me:

– Philips OneBlade (use it weekly and have not needed to charge in 6 months) $35

– Large desk pad $20

– Shooting hearing protection with white noise (drowns out pretty much all other noise while coding) $100

UFO202 + Grado SR125x (I actually have the more expensive version of the same cans but the above just fits into $200, and in conjunction with an impulse response EQ deliver an incredible level of broad spectrum clarity for a relatively low price)

New battery for our Dyson. Should have bought one way earlier (old one was almost 4 years old). Went with the original one even though that’s more expensive.

I’m still using the old one during the week as it only takes a few minutes to swap.

Meater+ (wireless temperature sensor for roasting/bbq with 50 meter range)

Thermapen (super fast spot temperature sensor)

Both have superior minimalist UX, very thoughtfully designed and really well executed. If you are into cooking, highly recommended.

Blue light filter mobile screen protector. Improved my sleep a lot (average Fitbit sleep score was around a 7 and increased to 8).

Does Kindle Unlimited count? Been a subscriber for a few years and I read about 5 KU titles on average per month. Mostly fantasy and sci-fi.

Based on recent reads (will edit if I remember more):

* “Daros” by Dave Dobson https://www.amazon.com/Daros-Dave-Dobson-ebook/dp/B0946C153P – On the coronary heart of the plot was a strong artifact with totally different teams vying to achieve entry for various causes. The humor, particularly the chapter titles, labored properly for me. Options mysterious creature, a sassy AI, a quick paced plot with good quantity of motion, and so on.

* “Dim Stars: A Novel of Outer-Area Shenanigans” by Brian P. Rubin https://www.amazon.com/Dim-Stars-Novel-Outer-Space-Shenaniga… – Enjoyable and crammed with humor that had me laughing virtually each web page, particularly loved the slice-of-life really feel within the first half of the novel

* “We Are Legion (We Are Bob)” by Dennis Taylor https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse-Book-ebook/d… – learn the primary one a number of years again, bear in mind having fun with it, have to learn the sequels…

* “The Shadows of Mud” by Alec Hutson https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Dust-Alec-Hutson-ebook/dp/B08… – spacy fantasy that includes big turtles as spaceships, probably not sci-fi

See additionally https://thespsfc.org/2021-results/ Self-Revealed Science Fiction Competitors, discovered Daros there

– Air fryer

– Ultrasonic cleanser – used for pretty much anything including my invisalign retainers

– Sodastream

– Massage gun

All these things have made my life a lot easier.

The best investment was a connection hose for the sodastream that lets me use industrial co2 tanks. That 13kg tank has lasted me 1.5 years already and is so much cheaper and hassle free-er than the tiny things that cost 20 euros a pop at the supermarket.

I got an adapter hose from co2 supermarket [0] that fits my local standards.

I also added a standard regulator to my setup because I trust it more than the sodastream, tho the pressure rating of the sodastream should be enough.

Then I got a tank of food-grade co2 from my local supplier. I guess welding grade co2 would be good enough as well, but as the price difference was non-existent it was a no-brainer.

When you get a regulator, make sure you get the highest flow-rate you can find as some of them will be problematic to get enough pressure for your beverage.

Mine does not go nowhere as high as the regular sodastream bottles directly, but the result is that it takes me an extra 10 seconds per bottle to get the same result.

[0] – https://www.co2supermarket.co.uk/adapters-for-co2-regulators…

I’d be interested to know where you get the industrial tank too. I read it needs to be food grade.

I wonder why no one has made an open source Soda stream that connects to the big tanks right out of the box in a thoughtful way. Or better yet, a system for refilling the sodastream tanks from a large canister so that the sodastream can still sit easily in your counter.

Have you handled any of the industrial tanks?

They are absolutely massive. The tank that holds 13kg itself weighs about 30kg. So the amount of force to ‘dent’ that amount of steel would need to be ridiculous.

The weakest part is (by design) the valve. Technically I rent the bottle and buy the gas. Each refill is an exchange of the bottle after which the bottle gets pressure tested, etc.

Asking to a pro if Air fryer worh buing he said: “think about professional kitchen. If you found something in a restaurant then can be helpful even for no pro. But I never ever saw air fryer in a pro kitchen. It s Just a low quality Owen. Just marketing. If you have a good Owen you dont need air fryer”

An air fryer that does a good job can be had for under £100. Show me a pro-level oven in the same price range and I’d buy one of them. As it stands, I use the air fryer.

Because they’re a lot smaller? Anyway your house/flat probably came with an oven, so it’s ‘free’; the ‘under £100’ for a countertop oven/air fryer is additional.

Assuming you only look at electric fan ovens (the vast vast vast majority these days) more money buys you better insulation mainly. A brand too of course (maybe better R&D/thought gone into the controls/ergonomics etc. hand in hand with that) – but not somehow better food.

‘Pro-level’ ones obviously cost more, buying reliability & service primarily. Still not somehow better food, don’t buy a commercial oven for a home kitchen.

I don’t know why are you so against an air fryer. Not all apartments in some countries come with ovens. It’s a great device and many people love it. I get this impression you are just minmaxing it without trying it.

I’ve never rented a place that came with a convection oven. When I recently purchased a home, the oven that was here was also not a convection oven. An air fryer is just a small convection oven that sits on the countertop. But this has real benefits. You get better browning by being close to the element. It is more energy-efficient because it heats far less air. You get the benefits of convection. They also tend to be much easier to clean.

There are costs – you waste counterspace and you need to own another thing. But “just buy a convection oven” isn’t an option for a lot of people.

Interesting, where (country) do you live that that’s the case?

Honestly, if they didn’t put separate fan temperature/time on the back of stuff (increasingly they don’t actually, more and more I’m seeing fan only) I’d honestly never have known anything else existed. I’ve never lived anywhere with one, didn’t see any for sale when I bought one (to replace broken one) a couple of years ago. (UK)

> My selfmade chips are way better from my [tabletop oven] than the [integrated/under-counter/floorstanding] oven

Something is different – it’s not that one was sold as ‘air fryer’.

My air fryer has a spinning thing in the middle, wich turns my chips around, so i would say thats a plus!
But yea, it is basicly a small oven. Maybe it uses less energie.

By virtue if being smaller it does yes – there’s an argument for using as small an oven as possible for sure – but the return on investment of that for having multiple different sized ovens is bound to be longer than the product’s lifetime.

(I broke my oven door, rather than pay £150 plus labour opted to pay £280 for a new oven. That was a Bosch, certainly not the cheapest possible.)

Yes, exactly. Problem being that it does not fry with air, but with the oil that you need to put in it anyway to fry your chips. That’s the thing to be debunked, that air can not fry anything and to fry you need oil or grease.
Seems that almost everybody is blindly believing to the marketing name instead of actually realising that the item is still frying with oil. The oil that they put in it. C’mon.

Just another good way to help relieve chronic pain. Amazon holiday sales and market oversaturation are bringing them down to US $60-70 now. Gave the spouse one for Christmas, she used it on her shoulders (rotator cuff) and back and didn’t turn it off for at least 45 minutes.

I’d also recommend a TENS unit, can also be found for cheap ($20-40). Both can vastly improve pain management without relying as much on medications.

Saved me from having to get massages. I use it for my neck from sitting at the computer all day. It’s also been useful for super random things like punching cushions outside or some random thing. I’ve seen someone use it to help them sift flour easily.

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