What is something really stupid you purchased that turned out far better than expected?
What is something really stupid you purchased that turned out far better than expected?
I bought a piece of 1.5 inch stiff foam to try to fix a sag in a bed. It didn't work but having that thick piece of solid foam around has been a life saver.
Need something flat to put a laptop on? Throw it on the foam. Going to be doing something that requires you to be on your knees for a while? Get the foam!
It went from stupid purchase to something I'd gladly replace if it broke.
Got a bidet as a joke gift for Christmas a few years ago, it has been an absolute game changer. Hate pooping anywhere but home now, I actually feel clean, and use much less toilet paper.
When I worked at a small startup, we were moving to a new office and I was asked to help with the buildout. I engaged with the flooring vendor, and he came by one day to drop off a carpet sample. He put it on my desk where my mouse was. It was a rectangle sample of tight knit office carpet, about 18”x22”. When I got back to my desk, I just put my mouse on top of it and started using it as a mouse pad. That was 15 years and 3 companies ago, and I still use it as my mousepad. It’s perfect for the mouse to glide on, soft enough for my wrist to rest on, absorbent of sweat or drink condensation, and large enough I never hit the edge. I will never not use it. It is my mouse carpet, and I love it.
An oversized poncho cape from the local Goodwill. It was woven in different shades of blue and while I'd never wear it outside, I've used it as a wearable blanket at home for a few years now.
I found out it was actually hand made, and costs 300+ USD from the original shop. Bonus points, I feel like a wizard when I wear it
How do you know you're not a wizard when you wear it? Have you tried magic?
I bet its fantastic orb pondering wear.
That sounds like a game changer.
Shadow wizard money gang
I was a Snuggie hater for many years, but I got an off-brand one as a Christmas gift probably 10 years ago and I live in that thing when I'm at home. It's great for when I want to be cozy and play video games but don’t want to put my controller under the blanket.
If you ever break or have surgery on any part of your arm, you'll be very happy to have that cape in the winter. I have a couple from when I broke my wrist and used them again when I had shoulder surgery.
You need to get a matching wizard hat
Here's an odd one my wife and I were just talking about. Some years ago, we were redoing our kitchen and the contractor told us to go buy the kitchen faucet we wanted. We went off, looked at several, and picked the one we thought looked the best with what we were doing.
When the contractor went to install it, he opened the box and a battery pack fell out. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why a faucet would need batteries. It turned out that you can turn it on and off by touching it anywhere (handle, faucet itself, whatever), you just leave the physical handle open and set where you want it, then you can touch on and off. I thought it was the dumbest thing ever and we'd never use it.
Flash Forward to now and it's one of the most used conveniences we've ever bought. All those times your hands are covered in raw meat or other cooking mess? Just touch the faucet with your elbow. Rinsing a bunch of veggies one at a time? Tap on, tap off. It works flawlessly, unlike those touchless ones at the airport: no delay and works every time. We will never have a kitchen sink without it - my wife wants them for the bathroom.
Does it have a timer safety thing? I know my cat would turn the faucet on and let it flood the house lol.
It does! It runs for minutes without retapping, but not like ten minutes. Never really timed it, and only noticed when I was filling the sink up (it's a big sink).
I have a Delta branded one. Yea it goes off after a few minutes.
the wet bandits strike again!
I bought a house with these and didn't realize it had this feature for like a year (batteries had died). Now I love it. I find myself taping every faucet it use and am annoyed when others don't turn on.
I actually bought a handfree soap dispenser to go next to it, which is a great combo. Preparing meat or something, I can clean my hands and tap sink with elbow and not worry about cross contamination of everything.
My wife and I always laugh when we catch ourselves tapping other faucets. The soap dispenser sounds like a good idea.
They make wall plug adapters for them, no more batteries.
This sounds like something I'd like to get for the shower, but with multiple memory settings, that's a much different product.... Unless I ducted two shower knobs.... Oh fuck I feel a project coming on...
We're about to redo our bathrooms and have started looking at things. One thing we saw that sounded cool are these new thermostatic shower controls: you set them to a temperature and it mixes the water to keep it at that temperature regardless of fluctuations in the hot and cold input. Huh, sounds neat. So we looked at one - over $3000 for just the valve. It doesn't sound that neat.
You can buy wall plug adapters for them no more batteries.
I needed a "lap desk" or something to put my laptop on, but I wanted it to be low-profile and I could only find a wooden cutting board. Now wooden cutting boards are the only thing I use as lap desks because most actual lap desks I find are super bulky.
Duuuude. That's a creative idea I might also use if I need a lap desk again. And something easy for if you need to put a laptop on a soft surface, won't be wobbly like the bean bag ones.
I also ended up doing this after my dad suggested it as an idea... and it's actually a really great suggestion, they work fantastically well for this purpose!
The "epicurian" brand is perfect for this, or their knockoffs. Its like 1/4" thick (6mm) composite wood. I have one that even fits in my laptop bag - way better than any designated "lap board" I've ever found.
That's what I ended up using as well. Best ten euro
A 3D-Printer, I thought I just play around with it and get bored, but you discover so many things that you can do!
The handle on the fridge broke? Print new ones. Need a Flowerpot? Just print one. The router needs a wallmount? I have one ready in a few Hours.
Also I can watch it print for hours, very fascinating and calming.
An ebike: I don't even really drive anymore most of the time and it beats the hell out of being stuck in traffic. Getting around is fun again.
I always enjoyed cycling and still ride my MTB, but for getting around town quickly, ebikes are hard to beat.
Same here with the ebike. I live near Seattle and everything I need is within a few minutes of ebike driving
If I can't ebike, then I uber and it saves me a ton
Feel free to check out [email protected]
can we get some more deets on what you use it for in terms of terrain/altitude/distance/weather?
Seriously considering an ebike to replace a 20 minute car commute (12 miles). There are some 750w used bikes on my local craigslist for ~1-2k USD, but there's also a super cool dual-motor bike with rear suspension for $3k. Any advice?
I have an ebike I use as my daily commuter for a distance of 11 km each way (6.8 miles) over decently hilly terrain in a windy city as a large man. It still only takes 25 minutes and I charge my battery once a week? Maybe twice if I'm tired and using more boost.
Are you mechanically inclined at all? I purchased a motor conversion kit and a battery to convert my regular bike to ebike. It wasn't really a difficult process, the hardest part was removing the bottom bracket as it was quite stuck. Took some thinking to get enough leverage without having the tool head chew out the bracket teeth. The rest was relatively plug and play. I was able to get the 500 W motor and 48 V 18 A hour battery for ~$1200 CAD together. I use it to commute to work so I wanted a longer range, if you don't need as much power or as much range you could do it for cheaper.
I went for a mid drive motor which are more efficient but more expensive than hub drive, if you're budget conscious you could do a hub drive. From my understanding the hub drive can be more difficult for maintenance (the wheel is a special version, so you need to buy another wheel that works with the hub drive if any issues occur) but I'm no expert.
All of that is a moot point if you don't already have a bike to use, but you could find a local bike recycle store to get one cheap? Or you could get a new bike and convert that. I had a marin fairfax 2 that I converted over and it works great, haven't had any issues and I've put on a couple thousand kms on it since converting (the display tracks total distance which is handy). I believe the marin was $700ish new from my local store.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B083J95GJP?geniuslink=true&psc=1
https://www.amazon.ca/10AH-Electric-Bicycle-Lithinum-Battery/dp/B09C1RP9KV
You could search for other options if you don't want to support amazon, there are different sites to source the parts from, those were just the first two that I saw.
Here's a battery from a Canadian company.
https://lunacycle.com/no-drill-battery-mount-kit/
Here's a mounting bracket for the battery if the bracket seems unsteady or the holes don't line up like with mine.
This is what I ended up going with. Let me know if you have any questions, I'd be happy to chat about the process more.
All of this is canadian specific because I reposted the meat of it from an older comment, bug I'm sure you could find local alternatives easily enough.
You don't need much, 500w is enough.
I ride an ENGWE EP-2 Pro, I got it because it was on sale for $700, can fold up into the back of my hatchback, and seemed to have a reasonably well designed battery. It is fun, it looks kinda cool, has lots of features including cruise control, but is by no means the best bike.
It weighs 74 lbs and the range in practice isn't all that great: Part of me wishes I saved up a little more to get a Lectric Xpedition because it has crazy range and more storage. If the battery goes out, this thing is not fun to pedal uphill.
Farthest I've ridden is 12 miles one way, took about 40 minutes. On average I usually ride maybe 1-5 miles a day, not far really but everything is pretty close to me. The only major exception is when I take it joyriding, up to maybe 20 miles. I have only had it for a couple of months so far so I don't know how it'll do in cold weather or snow, but I suspect the thicc tires would do well even without chains.
Speaking of extreme weather, extreme cold and heat are problematic for batteries, so don't expect to go on a big journey in -20 F cold or 110 F heat.
I can tell you that my best advice would be to find your nearest reputable bike shop, get their input based on what they carry, and then do your own research to verify it's a decent brand before you buy. One of the most important and often overlooked things when people buy an ebike is whether they can get it serviced or not.
Another possible consideration if you're handy would be to take a traditional bike you think would be ideal and then use a conversion kit to make it electric. If you are mechanically savvy, you'd get more bang for your buck and would probably do all your own maintenance and repairs anyhow.
My advice is that range/battery life depends greatly on things like rider+cargo weight, terrain hilliness, and which assist setting you're using (or worse, if you're just using the throttle and not pedaling at all). Get more battery than you think you need. (The exception is if the bike you choose is more of an "e-road bike" that would still be pleasant to ride without assist, but most e-bikes are not like that, and you wouldn't want that kind of bike for commuting anyway.)
Otherwise, the 750w bikes are perfectly fine -- you do not need that "super cool dual-motor bike" for commuting.
IMO, the other main factors you should be considering are cargo capacity, drivetrain style and budget.
Regarding cargo: you can carry groceries etc. with a basket and/or rack on a regular-style bike, but if you want to carry a lot of stuff (or kids as passengers) you should look into long-tail cargo bikes or even a box bike (a.k.a. "bakfiets" because they're popular in the Netherlands).
Regarding drivetrain style: there are two main types, rear-drive and mid-drive.
Rear-drive tends to be cheaper but slightly less pleasant to use because it relies on a cadence sensor to activate the assist. In other words, when you start pedaling there's a bit of lag before the assist kicks in, and when it does it's either on (according to the setting you picked) or off. It's not "variable" in terms of responding to how hard you're pushing the pedals, only whether they're turning or not.
In contrast, mid-drive systems can sense the torque being applied to the pedals, and can apply assist more immediately and more smoothly in response to how much effort you're trying to use (at least, that's what they say -- I've never tried one myself). However, they tend to cost more.
Based on my use-case (which involved carrying two small kids to school), I bought a Lectric Xpedition, which AFAIK is the cheapest electric long-tail cargo bike currently available. I've been very happy with it so far and think that bike, and Lectric bikes in general, are a good recommendation for people who want the best value-for-money.
For people with other circumstances, I might make some other recommendations:
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If you're doing a mixed bike+transit commute, taking the bike with you on airplane trips, or otherwise carrying it around a lot, I think going all the way to the smallest/best-folding bike you can reasonably have -- an electric Brompton -- is worth it.
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If you want to carry a lot of cargo, but (unlike me) you also have plenty of money and space to store the thing, a high-end bakfeits with a Bosch mid-drive and Gates carbon belt instead of a chain is what you want. Those things can cost $10K, though!
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If your needs are generic -- you don't specifically need cargo capacity or folding -- and you aren't completely mechanically hopeless, then get a rear-drive bike from a lower-end-but-still-well-known mail-order brand like Rad or Lectric (either new or used via Craigslist).
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If you are mechanically hopeless and/or still clueless about what you want and/or have a higher budget and are willing to pay for good service, find a local e-bike shop and let them sell you one of their bikes that they recommend. It'll cost more than the previous suggestion, but they'll have the best support and will be able to do the maintenance on it for you. (This is apparently a bigger benefit than it seems, because although you can get a regular non-electric bike worked on anywhere, I've heard that lots of bike shop mechanics are unwilling to work on e-bikes they don't sell themselves.)
One last thing: whatever you do, avoid random no-name Chinese bikes from Amazon/Ebay/Aliexpress/whatever. This is one of those cases where you really do want a company with a US presence (it doesn't have to be a "US company," but they need to at least have a US phone number/mailing address) to hold accountable for warranty issues and to have some confidence that they're complying with US safety regulations so the battery doesn't burn your house down or something.
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Bug zapper flyswatter. Like you can buy at Harbor Freight for a few bucks. It might not be a terribly effective solution to the overall fly population, but in terms of grim-bloody-vengeance-per-dollar, it's one of the best investments I've ever made.
Similarly - i love my bug a salt
I use it almost daily. Glad I bought 2, we stay strapped out here.
I bought like 10 of these at Habitat for Humanity and gave them out during a fly outbreak. Some of the neighbors looked at me weird (granted it was the first time I met them) but I'll swear by these things. I hate killing bugs but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
My wife bought me a Beard Bib as a joke gift after I found it online one day. It's basically a smaller version of the bibs you wear when getting your hair cut, but with suction cups attached to the bathroom mirror to hold it horizontal and catch stray hairs when using an electric shaver. It looks ridiculous.
I now use it every time I trim my beard, even if my wife still laughs at me every time she sees me in it. Cleaning up all the stray hairs was always a pain in the ass, but this thing does a surprisingly good job at catching 99% of the hair, and I can just brush it all into the trash when I'm done.
My bathroom has the worst-designed sink ever, with a tap that's too long, a sink basin that's too thin, and a medicine cabinet that means that if I want my beard hairs to fall into the sink while trimming I have to literally have my face pressed up against the mirror which is, of course, not something you can do while trimming a beard. I got one of these things too and it's so good. 10/10, would buy again.
Cmon man, provide a link!
Alternatively, get a mirror that hangs on the back of the door and shave in front of that (if using a buzzer that you don't need to keep rinsing in the sink). It's so much easier to just grab the broom or vacuum cleaner and get it all off the floor in two seconds than chasing stray bits of hair around your faucet handles and random objects on your counter.
Also, if you do have to clean up those bits of hair on your counter, use a piece of TP. Wet it a little so that hair sticks to it better, then either fold each wipe into the middle or start a new piece before doing the next wipe so it doesn't just leave old hairs behind when you're trying to pick up more of them.
Similarly, a nice fog free shower mirror for me. My wife would get so mad about stray hairs (it's easy to miss some when it goes everywhere) Got a waterproof trimmer and started doing it in the shower - cleanup is super easy now!
Yes, same exact scenario here. My wife got me one as agag gift for Christmas, I used it and it makes clean up so much easier. I don't know how much they cost, but I would say it's worth $20!
Just shave in the shower? That's what I do
My wife got me a fitbit. I resisted a little bit because I didn't want to have yet another device to monitor, charge, and maintain etc. I've been really surprised and impressed and how effective it has been in subtly encouraging me to make some small improvements in my habits. Not a bad deal for $100.
This one really shocked me, too! I got a Fitbit to monitor my heart rate because of a genetic condition, but fast forward a couple years and I'm running a mile and exercising multiple times a week.
Didn't see that coming, but a nice result!
Tbh, I hate the Fitbit though. I hate that it's owned by Google and they charge me to see my own data. I'd love to switch, but I can't find alternatives that check all the boxes from a Charge 5....
Edit: if you're looking to get a Fitbit and wanna save some money, thrift stores often have electronic sections full of em! My bf got his charge 5 for 50$ from a goodwill. Same one 100$ more in the target across the street.
Albeit a bit more pricey I love the Garmin Forerunner Smartwatches. There is a very wide variety at many different price points, no subscription and access to all data, integrates well with other services. Not sure about the OLED versions but I love the non OLED ones. Touch display, color (although not as vibrant), smartphone connectivity (e.g. notifications) and even payment (credit card on the watch, no phone needed).... with all that the battery still lasts about 2 weeks.
Sorry for shilling. There was a time when I hated Garmin. But their watches have come a long way.
Tbh, I hate the Fitbit though. I hate that it’s owned by Google and they charge me to see my own data. I’d love to switch, but I can’t find alternatives that check all the boxes from a Charge 5…
That's the issue that so far has kept me from buying a smart watch/fitness monitor.
I've had my eye on a PineTime for a while now, but I'm not sure if it's ready for general consumer use or still an early-adopter kind of product. (Although I'm an engineer, I don't necessarily want to buy a project in this particular instance.)
Some insurance providers cover the low end ones, or offer discounts.
Bed sheet suspenders. Dumb problem, stupidly cheap, horribly made, and ABSOLUTELY fixed the friggin sheets being yanked off the corner of the bed twice a night by my tumble-dry-medium sleeper of a spouse.
When they finally broke after almost 2 years I sewed some that'll last 10 years and I don't regret them at all.
Mechanical keyboard. Almost had no money back then, but wanted to treat myself. It costed 100$, and I regretted it the next morning. Felt like shit, but it was so cool to type on.
After 5 years, this metal-frame keyboard managed to survive many outside gigs, long travels, literal war, and it's still with me. And I still love typing on it. Sometimes I code just to type. You can guess why I don't use code completion tools.
I love my mechanical keyboard. I grew up on Apple IIs, so mechanical keyboards are what I learned to type on. If keyboards don't have a big chunky feel and sound, I'm disappointed.
I got into mechs and bought a bunch of them over a few years, my last one being a ducky with silent reds.
3 years ago I bought a microsoft ergo keyboard and have never looked back. So comfortable.
Now, maybe what I should have bought was an ergodox, but I'm too happy to justify spending $150+ to try it out.
I don't really care about the feel of a keyboard, but the fact that you can replace a broken switch is very amazing. Previously my membrane keyboard only last for about 1-2 year before I need to throw it away because some of the key stop registering. Now I can just replace the switch for <$1
Which war?
Scooter. Not an electric one. I had a thought once "hey I did ride one in childhood, maybe it can be a bit of nostalgic fun from time to time". Got myself the cheapest Chinese thing I could find, "no point investing too much into a fad".
Turned out a scooter is absolute peak urban mobility. Short distances become much shorter. Mid-long distances become short. Granted, for a longer trip somehow the time gains diminish, probably because it's not as efficient as a bike. But a scooter isn't a long-hauler. It's there to zip through an empty mall. It's there to be folded up in a second and brought into a bus or a shop without being a hassle. It's like 3-4 kg, not too fast for sidewalks but fast enough for bike roads, extremely easy to stop, doubles as a cart when carrying bags of groceries home.
The chinese one broke after 1 season because I was riding it everywhere. Then I got myself one from a better company, I chose it for small weight and portability. It's technically children's thing but I'm well below weight tolerance and also smol so it's easy to handle. It's already like a 5th year and whenever it's not raining or too cold I ride it for shopping, errands, leisure walks, to work... Almost daily.
Custom-made ear plugs. Even if you only wear ear plugs occasionally (I do when in a noisy hotel, or when a neighbor goes a bit too crazy), they are so worth having.
Basically you go to an audiologist and they put something kinda liquid in each of your ears to take a mold of your ear canals. A couple of weeks later, you have plastic earplugs that have the exact shape of your inner ears.
Upsides: • They work, always. I would typically use wax or silicon disposable ear plugs before that, and sometimes in the middle of the night they might move and let the sound in; those don’t. Also, foam disposable ear plugs don’t stay in my ear, don’t ask me why. • They never hurt. Since disposable ear plugs get shoved into your inner ear until they take the shape, they continuously push against the walls of your ear canals. I would often feel kinda bruised after using them for a long time. • They are crazy comfortable. Put your ear on a pillow, and you barely feel them at all. • But do they block too much sound? That’s up to you. Basically, you choose the level of noise you want to keep out, which I believe is achieved by using different kinds of plastic.
They’re not a trivial purchase (I think mine cost $150), but then you use them for decades, so it’s definitely worth it. It was a stupid purchase in my case, because I bought them on a whim out of anger against my neighbor’s party one night; but they’ve followed me everywhere since!
As for them staying in your ear, do you pull up on your earlobe when inserting normal ear plugs? I discovered this a while ago and it took in-ear stuff from being absolutely unusable to working great.
I did! I noticed it written on a box of disposable earplugs at some point, so I abided. It made things marginally better in my case, but not by much. Either I was doing it wrong, or it’s that ear canal shapes are different enough that different people have to have different solution (why on Earth can some people use foam earplugs all right, and yet they just spring out of my ears?? 😆)
Don't know if I'm losing my mind but I thought the inner ear was beyond the eardrum
Oh you’re probably right; I’m no specialist and I’m referring to the ear canals as “inner ear” in my post and could very well be wrong in doing so.
As a guy that had his inner ear literally scooped out, I can confirm custom ear plugs are a MUST HAVE for anyone. I use mine for swimming and places with a shit ton of dust cuz I can't get water or other stuff in my ears or it makes them really hard for the doc to clean. They also just look really cool and I managed to get a few of my friends to get some as well.
I have a set of these designed for musicians, theres an open channel through them, and you put a special "button" at te outward end, that lowers volume without affecting sound quality. I think the company is called "Etymotic Research"
Oh my, I had no idea this was a thing, but this sounds amazing!
I lose wireless earbuds enough that I don't listen to media on the go, so I'd be scared to buy custom earplugs and lose them too.
i'm currently waiting for a pair of custom molded titanium earplugs with interchangable filters. epoxy ones costs 180, Ti 200 € in central europe.
I just got a pair in Canada they were 300 bucks. My ears are so small nothing else fits. 10 out of 10 would buy again.
I had some but lost them unfortunately after a few recent moves in a few years. They had a good 20 year run at least
Can confirm they're way way better than anything not custom
Monitor mounting arms that connect to the back of the desk. I have 3 times as much room on my desk now. It's amazing how much room monitor stands really take up. It's not just the actual stand but really the surrounding area because you can't really set any large objects in the vicinity. It really is a game changer to gain a lot of desk space.
I got a really girly looking beanie (I'm a guy) at a white elephant gift exchange and it became my favorite beanie. It got stolen and I'm sad that I can't find it again.
I bet it looked amazing on you! I hope you'll find a worthy replacement.
Had a totally custom beanie made at Etsy. See if you can find something similar. They can usually customize it to get a close match to the old one.
Small adhesive rubber bumpers or “feet” that came in a variety of sizes to put on the bottom of things. Was under $5 but has brought me some joy going around my home putting feet on anything that isn’t level or could scratch or makes noise. Something oddly satisfying about it.
Similarly, the felt version of this. Nice for if you need to move something, ie furniture (we have wood floors).
I did this too, everything had feet by the time I finished. Everything.
Also great for any doors (cupboard or otherwise) that can bang the wall when opening. Especially the ones where the hinge makes it open with some force. Just find the place where it makes contact with the wall (often the handle, but it depends on your setup) and put the bumper on the wall in that spot.
Maybe not stupid, but I purchased a pair of bone conducting headphones just because I thought they would be better for running, and harder for me to lose. I wasn't expecting much, but damn, they have been so much better than I expected. Even though the sound quality isn't quite as good, they work so much better with my sensory processing issues, and I can just leave them on all day without concern. Because I've got curly hair, people don't even know I'm wearing them, and because they don't go in my ear canal, they don't impact my ability to hear/talk/interact with the world around me.
I love my bone conducting headphones. You don't have to take them off to hear anything else. I can hear traffic and feel safer when crossing the street when out for a run
I pretty much live in mine now, even when I'm not running or cycling. I just have low level music playing all day, and I can still interact with the world. And for whatever reason, it's easy to process the music and people talking to me without my brain getting overloaded like it does when I try and do that with regular headphones (even those with sound passthrough)
Uhhh I have sensory issues but am uncomfortable while wearing headphones. What's this? Do what now? What kind of headphones? I NEED ALL THE INFORMATION WITHOUT OPENING A SECOND APP THAT IS FULL OF ADS AND NO USEFUL INFORMATION!
To be clear, these don't reduce my sensory issues. It's more accurate to say that they enable me to wear headphones with background music etc, without adding to my sensory issues
Man i had the opposite experience. Bought some great ones for running and lab work but when i set them at a volume i could hear they were basically just normal headphones and everyone else could hear them too.
Im a skinny dude with no hearing issues, wish they worked better for me.
That makes me wonder if they were sitting properly on your bone. The reading I've been doing (mine are on the way as we speak) says that they should be silent to others at normal volume for yourself.
Or maybe you got ripped off?
Bought mine for work. Need a second pair for around the house. I LOVE them.
I'm looking at getting some at the moment. Do you mind sharing which ones you have? Prices where I'm at seem to be all over the shop.
Are there any that work off of Aux cable only? Couldn't seem to find one that would be good for a desktop setup
Not that I've seen, but aux to bluetooth adaptors are really cheap
There's also USB to Bluetooth adapters if you don't have to go through the analog audio signal.
These look amazing!! I even came across a couple of water proof ones. This will help me big time in my preps for triathlons
@wipeitonthedog @ada any recommendations for waterproof ones? Love swimming as a form of exercise but would love some music to go along with it.
A Raspberry Pi. I bought it out of a whim and now I use it as a portable desktop computer, I can use Alpine Linux with my files and my setup on virtually any system that doesn't whitelist MAC addresses.
Especially handy when your university has contracts with Microsoft so you aren't supposed to use competitive software, I feel like I'm breaking the law.
A while ago someone posted a picture on Reddit of an old cast iron rotary food grater/slicer and asked "what is this thing?". A bunch of people said it was for grating things like cheese or slicing vegetables. Some people posted the original French or Italian names of it, which was difficult to find. Someone said look up "Rotary grater" and they're all over Amazon for dirt cheap. I bought a cheap plastic one for like $20, figuring I'd use it a few times and forget about it.
I use the damn thing multiple times a week for grating blocks of cheese. It can grate a 1 pound block of cheese in like 30 seconds, 2-3 rotations usually gives me more than enough cheese for myself. It's so much easier to use than a box grater, and no possibility of destroying your finger tips or knuckles!
A burr grinder for coffee beans. I thought coffee snobs were full of shit. I was wrong.
Which one did you get? I'm looking for a good one that won't break the bank.
Not op but I have the baratza encore. Not exactly cheap but could be affordable if you save up. They're 150 new on Amazon and go for around 80-100 on ebay here in USA. It's really good too, especially if you stick with coffee only being a casual hobby or even just want your morning coffee to be good and don't wanna futz with anything else.
Also an FYI, if you ever do get around to doing espresso, you'll see a ton of PPL saying you can't use it for espresso. They are honestly just more enthusiastic about coffee than I am, because I used an online deep cleaning video from Baratza to change the gap between the burrs and it does espresso just fine to my tastes. Like it does well enough that I can't justify the expense of a better one yet and I've had it like 3 years already.
Obv there are better ones, and there are cheaper ones, but th Encore will just last you a long time in your coffee journey, and potentially forever if you only ever want it to do non-espresso grind sizes
The Barazza Encore is a good entry level burr grinder, it's what I started with. They'll run you about $125-$150 and won't do espresso, but they're great for any type of coffee brewing method that doesn't require fine grounds.
Amazon has a bunch. If you keep looking, you can find a lot that look almost identical but have wildly varying prices and I couldn't tell the difference between the expensive and cheap ones. Just search manual coffee grinder and go for one of the metal only ones. They look like pepper grinders with a metal crank on the top. I got one of the cheaper ones (around 30 CAD iirc) and have been happy with it.
I got my husband a manual coffee grinder when he got into coffee. I thought it was stupid to spend over 250€ on a stupid coffee grinder for a phase he would drop soon but oh well. I was wrong. Neither did he drop the phase nor was the grinder not worth it. It is a great grinder, I love it myself, and I am enjoying coffee so much more now. The snobs were indeed right all along.
Lol I have one but don't notice the difference. I mostly bought it because my husband tends to overdo things (like more coffee in the grinder, grinding longer). So I got it so he'd only have to press one button and we'd get consistent coffee. What difference do you find with it?
Coffee comes out a little easier to drink while simultaneously more flavorful than my blade/spice grinder. I'd love to give you an answer but i've always been really bad about describing taste. I'll try to remember to ask my wife when she gets home since she's the resident sommelier.
Same! I only tolerated coffee before the pandemic and thought I just didn't really like it, I had a Kuerig, then a Nespresso machine and all were "meh" tasting to me, I drank it for the caffeine, not the taste. While everyone else was making sourdough bread during the pandemic I became a coffee nerd, largely because I could no longer walk to the store and pick up the Nespresso pods. I got store bought whole beans and used a simple $30 electric herb grinder and was like "alright, this is better than the pods". I then dropped about $130 on a Barazza Encore and that was miles better, even with store bought coffee. I switched to fresh roasted delivery coffee and that was even better. Then I dropped $500 on an espresso level grinder and that was even better, but not anywhere close from the cheap blade grinder compared to a burr grinder. I cut myself off there.
Pizza bag. A really good one
Didn't think it would be a big deal but it's a game changer for takeout pizza. Hell, it's usually warmer than deliveries since I don't make any other stops
Massive difference even for a place 8 minutes away, and gets me warm great pizza for the places 20 or so away
Nice! Do you have a link or model?
Sure
First off, there's plenty, but AVOID this type at all costs
https://www.amazon.com/Insulated-Deliveries-Delivery-Personal-Professional/dp/B09H14HJJX/
It's thin and sucks. Look at the sides, and the flap. Thin thin. It's the type of bag DoorDash has and there's a reason pizza shops have way better ones. I have one like it (out of my 2 bags). It's not worth it considering you'll probably have it for years. Don't save $10 just to be disappointed
Something like this, you can see the difference. Much thicker
https://www.amazon.com/DEAYOU-Insulated-Delivery-Professional-Transport/dp/B09FLFL5BT/
I believe this is the one I have, which is like the thicker second link, but it doesn't seem to be available as a single bag purchase
https://incrediblebags.com/products/fabric-12-and-14?variant=31670265577541
An Aeropress Go.
I'm far from a coffee snob, but figured I'd give this $25 piece of plastic a try because a good friend was raving about it. In the year since, it's been my favorite way to make myself a cup of coffee-- the ritual of it helps me structure my Saturday morning, the coffee tastes better than I thought coffee could taste, and I'm more excited to look at the flavors and whatnot from locally ground coffee.
Cheapest and easiest way to get into espresso-adjacent drinks. Is it going to give you that espresso experience? No, but for literally 1% of the cost of an actually decent espresso machine, you can up your coffe game extraordinarily.
Get an Aeropress, a good grinder with fresh beans, and a digital temperature kettle, and you'll be shocked at how good coffee can taste.
My parents got me one to use on motorcycle camping trips a few years ago, and it's so handy. I'm thinking about one of the larger ones to keep at home.
Oh second this, had one, used it for couple of months. Pretty nice overall for cost vs quality.
I always have the opposite problem, I buy something I think is really smart and then never use it
This is the normal pattern. But sometimes we get lucky.
A set of small neodymium magnets. Didn't have a plan, only they looked "super cool and strong wow".
Used for:
- Locating needles in the carpet.
- Fishing keychains out from behind sofas, gap between garden deck and house, and so many other places.
- Makeshift fix for an old cabinet door that tended to glide open.
- Holding nails and screws while fixin' stuff.
- Attaching a soda bottle to the office lamp in a way that is easy to undo while still pissing off HR.
- Slapping it on a screwdriver to make it magnetic.
- Fidget toy.
- Regular ol' fridge magnet.
A cheap usb microscope. I wanted to get into macro photography but my eyesight is pretty terrible even with glasses and struggle to see fine details so struggled to set the mounts up. (Small insects, grains, etc)
Saw a usb microscope for 20€ on Amazon and thought for 20 euro it’s going to be terrible but worth a punt. It’s bloody brilliant. Have used it for a whole variety of things from threading needles to soldering work, repairing stuff with glue and tightening up glasses as well as the macro stuff. Coupled with some ‘helping hands’ it’s a permanent fixture on the pc desk.
Hey you just reminded me I have one of those! Mines basically a tiny webcam on a stick, works great! ... Now where did I put that thing?
Along the same vein, I bought a flexible desk lamp with a built in magnifying glass for this type of stuff - use it almost daily.
VPN. I bought it during the pandemic not for privacy or government spy conspiracy shit, but because it was on "sale" (something like $40 for 38 months or something) and I wanted to try out if skirting geoblock was worth it. It's now probably one of the most-used tech we have in the house. Great for running Max obviously but also for work.
Considering I got 3 years worth at about $1.50 a month, I get more than enough content every month to make the cost worthwhile. I don't use it much for privacy but I use it a lot to access movies and such.
I got a VPN and I find every app I try to use it with doesn't recognize the alternate country I set it to, or detects I'm using one. I thought I'd get a lot more use out of it than I do.
Am I VPN-ing wrong?
A toy accordion I bought at a truck stop 30 years ago. I blew all of my $30 in vacation spending money on it and everyone said I'd regret it. It ended up kind of joke\prop instrument in all my bands and I still have it and it's still fun to play.
An impulse buy of a $20 micro wireless Bluetooth keyboard. Holy shit. Rock-solid design, ludicrously long battery life, excellent signal transmission, a replaceable battery with the option to use AAAs, a usable trackpad with sensitivity settings. I cannot stress enough how impressed I am with this device as an electrical engineer.
Now I can actually get real work/play done when I'm too depressed to get out of bed. It's also really useful for working with a Raspberry Pi. That plus a cheap LCD means I can just use it like an ordinary desktop.
If anyone is interested in this product, ask for a link and I'll post it in the comments.
Its been 22 mins.
Sad to bring you guys the bad news it but it was confirmed that OP was electrified while changing the AAA batteries in his keyboard. Apparently it also has a feature to scale up the voltages of the battery and OP accidentally pressed it.
RIP in piece OP
Am dead. This is son. The will told me to post this link. RIP in spaghetti, never forghetti.
That or he spilled Mtn Dew on his keyboard
Post the link! This isn't Twitter where you get penalized for posting links.
Here's the link. I didn't know you get penalized for links on Twitter. I'm just really hesitant to advertise stuff. I absolutely hate advertising and I didn't want to fill up your feed with random products if no one was interested in the thing. I wanted to wait until there's actual interest.
Had the same reaction to buying a cheap trackpad/keyboard all in one - ended up buying a few more so I could have one in each room... Good for main pc, laptops, phones and tablets, Flawless signal, insane battery, such good tech
I found having a big glass of water next to my alarm, which I can chug as soon as I wake up does wonders for getting out of bed and fighting off the AM blues - hope you're good
Please post the link!
Here's the link.
For people asking for the link, I personally have iClever BK03. Bought it so I can use my phone on the go and don't have to drag a laptop. It's been great. Charged it once so far in past year or so and that was just to make sure. Awesome build quality and great to type on.
Tbh that's probably a better keyboard, but I really was not kidding about the "not getting out of bed" part. I ended up getting this because I can literally lie down in bed and cradle it like a video game controller.
Oh wow, didn't think there'd be that much interest. Here you go: link.
Yeah I have a tiny one with a trackpad for setting up raspberry pis and a bigger fold out one for typing on my phone when I'm traveling, they make everything so much easier
Link? Is it one of the below?
Nope! I haven't tried it, but it would have been too big and expensive to be in the running at the time. Here's my link.
A cheap little green alien soft dog toy. My dog has destroyed every soft toy we've ever given her except that one. The head ripped a little at the seam, but we just re-sewed it. She hasn't made a big hole to pull out the stuffing somehow. And she loves it.
I wanted to get a backup, but the company doesn't make that toy anymore. I got an alternative from them and it got torn apart within a few days. I guess it was too good of a dog toy.
I have a similar thing going on with a Barbapapa soft toy. Though we didn't buy it, my dog found it when out on a walk. Initially I put it on an electric cabinet in case someone came back for it, but a week later he found it again under a bench and I figured we gave it a shot so we brought it home.
Thing is shockingly resilient. It has a few perforations, which I fixed, but all the dog toys we've had break one way or another and are almost impossible to mend. Even ones specifically advertised as sturdy. This one just keeps going. It doesn't have a squeaker either!
My large dogs will tear up even the most 'durable' dog toys in a matter of minutes. Nylon? Kevlar? Doesn't matter. But if I give them toys meant for really small dogs, they don't tear them up at all. Go figure.
A mini keg of a Christmas beer. At the store after drinking a bit, thinking "Oh it's a little cheaper per ounce, lol". My wife rolled her eyes, but she lets me do stupid things. Next day I was thinking "Well that was stupid." But it was a few days before Thanksgiving, and we opened it then, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Draft beer, at home! Fiddling with the stupid pour thing. It was just fun to have something different.
A stupidly cheap (£2?) fleece I bought off a sale rail on a whim, thinking I would never wear it.
I practically lived in that thing, and still use it today.
When Teavana still existed, I bought a teapot and some "teas" (Teavana was mostly herbal tisanes...but still.)
I don't drink coffee, so I imagined the teapot wouldn't ever be used...but somehow it ended up being a big hobby for me. Bonus: fancy teas from online stores are cheap to ship, because they're basically dry and lightweight. Like, if you want to become a food snob about anything? Tea really is the way to go.
The one learning curve I had (as an American) was learning that you DON'T steep the tea longer for stronger tea. You use more tea leaves/more tea bags. Steeping too long turns the tea bitter. (I thought I disliked tea when younger b/c I'd only ever had cheap tea bags left to steep for far too long.) Also, when brewing a green tea, they're really reactive to boiling water, so you REALLY don't want to use boiling water or it'll be a bitter mess. You want to either boil then let it cool, or get a fancy electric kettle where you can set the temperature so it's appropriate for green tea, oolong tea, or black tea.
I got addicted to PG Tips extra strong blend when I was in the UK and now I import it. I feel like such a snob, but I don't care. They wouldn't think I was a snob for drinking it in the UK!
There's a small tea retailer in the UK, What-Cha.com, and the owner does a "mystery tea" option which he uses to get rid of slower-moving teas, or teas he might have had to buy to get a better choice on a tea he wanted to get from a wholesaler. Or sometimes teas he just wants people to try.
"Mystery tea" sounds dodgy, but it did a great deal to expand my horizons, because even these mystery teas were really, really good (far better than ANY grocery store tea in the USA) and opened me to teas I might not have otherwise tried.
I'm TOTALLY a snob importing teas from the UK...but what can you do? America is a coffee-culture country, not a tea-drinking place, and the local stores just have tisanes or crappy bottom-tier tea (basically, tea dust from processing higher grades of tea is packaged into teabags and sold in grocery stores--and people don't know how crap a tier of tea that is!)
Oh boy. Similar story for my wife and me. Now we've got 3 gaiwans, 4 yixing clay pots, and two cast iron pots. And now we do a little tea ceremony everyday. It's a great way to just sit together and chat without other distractions.
I never quite got into the tea ceremony part, I admit. (Maybe because I live alone and don't have anyone to share it with.) My first teapot was glass, and I like viewing the color of the brewing tea. Plus, the gaiwans/yixing are so small...I'd rather brew a big pot and have it last than have to go back to re-steep teas.
I know I'm probably missing out on the experience of the tea changing flavors subtly as it's steeped and re-steeped...I just can't give up my big glass pot, haha.
Bought some stainless steel wire rope over day, like 500' of it for 25 bucks. I've used that shit for everything. Stringing garlic up, strong lights up, garden trellis, hanging anything and everything. Still got a good 100' left 8 years later.
Shower mirror. It has a base that suctions to the wall and a reservoir that you fill with hot water so that it doesn't fog. I had no idea how much better it was than shaving at the sink. If I'm in a hurry I'll sink shave but I love shower shaving and I love that mirror.
Edit: Here's the one I use. No major complaints, just remove the mirror between uses and re-suction every once in a while.
A PVC pipe cap.
I was making a lightsaber for my kid, and bought a length of clear PVC from Home Depot. (I know, they have bad politics, but Lowe's didn't carry clear PVC.) My local store didn't have any clear PVC or clear accessories in stock, so I had to place an order for shipping, so I got a couple things "just in case" for the build. One of those was a pipe cap.
Didn't end up using the pipe cap, because lightsabers don't have that sort of end. It now sits at my desk as a teeny tiny trash can. Bits of thread from sewing, nail clippings, tags I clip off of shirts, a lot of things fit in the teeny tiny trash can. When it's full, I empty it into the trash, but for a rather small pipe cap, it holds quite a bit of small trash.
I bought an Ember mug because I thought it was silly. I ended up really liking the temperature control. I don't rush my coffee/tea. Now every sip is as hot as the first one.
The new Ember costs, I think, half again as much as the first iteration. It's a cute gimmick but I certainly wouldn't pay what they're charging now.
I must drink my morning tea out of a HotJo Travel Mug. This is non-negotiable. I had a beautiful black one which I dropped and smashed and now the only one available is white. Or I can get it with some crappy logo on it from eBay. So I drink out of a white one. It's less enjoyable somehow, but still more enjoyable than not drinking from a HotJo Travel Mug.
(Incidentally, if it looks familiar to you, it was used on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but that's not why it's my mug of choice.)
Wow, those mugs do look pretty nice.
My wife and I each thought these were cool but refused to buy these for ourselves. Instead, we got them for each other for Christmas/Channukah one year. It is the best "stupid" gift I have ever got. I have a little Aeropress set up in my office and it's great. Nothing like coming back to your desk to a hot cup of coffee after you have been away for an extended time. I think they were like $100 when we got them.
I wasn’t familiar with Ember mugs; but I have a USB coffee mug warmer at my desk which does the same thing provided you don’t need mobility, and was like $20 I think. I love that thing.
I got a heating plate for my home office, but none of the mugs I have really seem to work well with it. They all have this lip/concave bottom that means most of it doesn't make contact with the plate. At least I think that's the culprit. It does help a little but not a lot.
I hate cold tea at least if it was meant to be hot.
I have long considered something like this.
I like my mug a lot. It helps a lot with because I refuse to drink my coffee and tea that has gone cold.
Sleephones. I bought them to listen to ASMR before bed thinking they were way overpriced. I've used them every night for the last 6 years
I listen to space docos or podcasts, no matter how busy my thoughts are, the sleep headphones go over the top of them and I am asleep in minutes.
Yeah I have AuDHD and for me it's all about listening to something that occupies the speech centre of my brain so that my thoughts can't spiral
Those thing saved my life (nearly). I had a terrible period of insomnia which started to really impact my ability to operate during the day and after trying pretty much everything I spent the 60 bucks or whatever those thing cost and started listening to audiobook when going to sleep and it cured me.
My first version was wired but seeing how much I used them, I ended up buying a Bluetooth one because waking up with my face tangled in the wire wasn't that great.
I love those things. I'm honestly scared the company would go out of business.
I'm quite satisfied with it, even though it was meant to serve as a toy...
It looks like its made of tums
@RanchOnPancakes lol what a great visual 😅
Interesting, I bought one once and didn't like it. Much rather use a real mechanical keyboard, and they make plenty that are compact.
Even a run of the mill gamerboard with no-name switches is better than pretty much any membrane board, but particularly one that's competing on looks. You can even grab a set of of circular keycaps for $15 or less if you must have the typewriter look.
I do like my Meko Blink
More of a gift I got for Christmas than something I bought, but a rechargeable wand vacuum. Thought it was really stupid, but the dang thing is useful. I've used it for anything ranging from sucking up hair in the bathroom to getting the baseboards around the house so I don't have to get a duster to do it that way. Have even taken it out to the car to remove a lot of the dirt and debris that gets into the driver-side footwell.
Was so versatile, I persuaded my folks to get one as well. They now love it too.
Automatic/electric egg boiler. I use it almost every morning or at least once a week. It was like 10 euros at Lidl.
Out if interest, do you really have eggs for breakfast that often and if so, did you before you purchased it? Or can you do something else with it too?
I did eat eggs before but mostly fried on a pan. Now I usually eat them boiled and then use an egg slicer to slice the egg to thin slices and put them on a sandwich.
Sadly no you can't really use it to make anything else. Just regular chicken eggs. Here is a similar product. (In finnish sorry).
10 lengths of 10 foot 1/2" copper pipe. when I bought it it was cheaper than now by a lot. I ended up never using it for plumbing because we went with a larger diameter and different material. Now I have the coolest patina curtain rods ever.
I'm here in my van on a hot hot day doing 'work' (in this case a little browsing of lemmy).
cooling me down is a "arctic air' USB fan with a little water reservoir providing a misting action. I think I said, "as seen on tv" like six times after buying it because how stupid can you get -- but i needed a fan and this is what the local hardware store had that ran on USB.
Wow. I love it. Fast, quiet, low power, good air, and the misting function is awesome. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat. (assuming it doesn't break within a week).
Egg boiler. On the surface it's just the most gadgety pointless product invented but I literally wore it out because suddenly I could have hard boiled eggs and no risk of setting my apartment on fire because I forgot about the eggs. After I move, it's the first thing I'm getting for my kitchen because low-risk hard boiled eggs are totally worth it.
There's a lot of seemingly 'useless' kitchen gadgets like this: full size food processor, waffle maker, breadmaker, even my ridic large instapot. I don't use them every day or even every week and no, I don't need them for daily life. Yes I can mince fifty thousand vegetables for this really complicated soup by hand or make bread from scratch or do whatever you do to make a pot roast without them--but I won't do those things. I know me pretty well now; if I want to make that soup, make some fresh bread, or do that thirty-step fancy pot roast, I need those tools or I'll default to frozen pizza and maybe have fresh Italian bread if I went to Central Market recently and remembered to grab it from the bakery.
Years ago, I drunk purchased a microwavable sandwich press off Amazon... it was a genuine surprise when it showed up and I considered returning it, but didn't. Brought it to work and now I use it three to five times a week; I genuinely recommend this thing to other people. It's so convenient and works really well.
[Link to the thing: https://a.co/d/41go0hD]
An old Asus Chromebox CN60, I bought it because it was dirt cheap, as should probably be expected EOL ChromeOS device.
It seems like something that would be completely and utterly useless but once I put Linux on it I was able to use it as a handy little Server. I guess I didn't really think that it was stupid, but other people thought that it was stupid that I bought it.
A sleep mask. My sleep is so much better with one on. I still have shit sleep quality, but it isn't as shitty with a sleep mask. If I misplaced the mask, I wrap a black shirt around my eyes, but that doesn't work as well.
I've used night masks before and they work well, but I always would wake up tired because it was too dark to see it getting light out. I ended up going with blackout curtains and an alarm clock that slowly turns the light on over a 30 minute period to mimick the same effect.
Obviously way more of an investment in money, but I find my sleep quality has vastly improved with doing so.
An extra bonus is that blackout curtains can help keep heat out if you live somewhere warm.
I have an amazing sleeping mask that i bought from brookstone some years ago (I was in NY and forgot mine at home so I bought this in line, paying for something else) The fuck thing is not only amazing but is has ben used and washed regularly for over 8 years and it's in perfect condition. The best "overpriced" thing I ever bought
Add Bluetooth and your in heaven. I use towels instead but I've grown so used to the Bluetooth mask I've just purchased multiple....plus I can wash the gross stress sweat smell off them.
ANTAGEN dishbrush. I was at IKEA and saw they had dish brushes for less than a dollar a piece, so I stocked up on a few.
They last forever as far as dish brushes are concerned. It did clean-up for 2 large meals every single day for over a year before it started getting worn out. We'd throw it in the dishwasher at night to clean and sterilize it.
Best comment - even though I like their brush with the suction cup mere 🤗
I've never gotten mine to actually stand on its suction cup but it's lasted me a ridiculously long time.
Dishbrushes are used commonly in Finland. They're awesome. You don't need to touch the dirty dishes and get fingers greasy. And when the brush is worn out, you can still use it to clean bathroom or outside facilities!
This cheap little indoor drone while working from home during COVID to mess around with on breaks and lunch. Turned out to be a ton of fun and in to a full blown FPV drone hobby/obsession.
Turned out to be a ton of fun and in to a full blown FPV drone hobby/obsession.
Where are you now in regards to this? 😅
I have gotten pretty good at it. Mostly in to freestyle and cinematic stuff. Never really got in to the racing aspect of it.
Reusable zip ties.
Tons of mini magnets and metal clothes pins (infinite bag closing clamps for near free).
My victorinox signature with a pocket clip (keysmart nano clip). It's a tiny swiss army knife with a built in pen. Comes in handy almost daily an never leaves my waistband otherwise.
Wireless charger - picked up from Ikea on a whim. Looks decent and appreciate not having to plug in charger each time. Probably better for phone battery too but don't quote me on that. Plus useful in charging my ear pods too(haven't plugged them as far as I remember)
Wireless charging is convenient, but it has the side effect of heat, which is bad for the battery.
The best I did for overnight charging was a very underpowered regular charger, at only 500mA = it charges slowly, which is best, and works well while I sleep anyway.
Batteries doesn't like (excessive)heat, but is that really a problem nowadays for smartphones? I don't feel my battery is bad after some 3-4 years of nightly 65% => 100% charge with a quick charger. Maybe it's more like 52% => 100% now BTW.
I remember when it was a whole science to keep your battery "ok" (no < 15%, no full charge, sometimes drain it, etc etc) and it still was kind of sucky. So interested in what you all think!
Lmao your situation is kind of forced onto me 😅 My Pixel's USB-C port is broken. Using wireless charger from IKEA is the only way to charge my phone at the moment. Still waiting for more powerful charger and port replacement part from AliExpress. 👌
If you have the money, the Pixel Stand is fantastic. My Pixel 3's charge port broke, and at the time the wireless chargers available weren't quite as fast as the Stand, IIRC. I found one on Amazon Warehouse for like $10 more than other wireless chargers.
You can set it up to do stuff, but my favorite feature is that it has my phone act as a photo frame while charging. I selected an album to choose photos from and it shows me pictures of my kid all day, 10/10.
As more stuff supports wireless charging having one around becomes handier. Qi2 is gonna really bring it on.
I'm not sure about the battery but it definitely reduces wear on the port.
My work gave me a mobile charger years ago. I rarely use it but when I've needed it in a pinch, it's great to have.
beware that it wastes quite a lot of electricity, it's like filling a bucket with a shower instead of putting the hose directly in it.
I bought a milk frother recently. I don’t even drink coffee. But I saw that it was a great way to make a protein shake without clumps and easy to clean. It does do that. But it also been great for mixing my pre workout or soap for cleaning. I love it!
Wife makes me London fogs with hers. Great buy for working at home.
MyFitnessPal. I had heard of it, but counting calories is a pain in the ass, no way I'd waste my time with that shit.
Workplace gives it to me for free, so why not take a look? Damn it's so fast and easy and it has made such a huge difference in dirt success. Just wave the camera over barcodes and the rest of the data falls in place. When you actually get enough protein instead of thinking you've got enough protein, then you don't have to feel hungry in a calorie deficit.
It seemed like a frivolous app, but it turned out to be the biggest driving factor for success. The key thing is, I didn't realize how much it appealed to the nerd gamer instincts. The same way out optimize a build/load out for increased performance like in Diablo, that's the same way rewarding feeling you get when you figure out new life hacks to optimize your macros even more to pack even more food into your calorie budget
It's easy enough for food that has bar codes, but I cook most of my meals and it's still a pain to try to input all the correct recipe ingredients, quantities, portion sizes, etc., to get accurate calorie/macro counts. I usually use it for a week or two before giving up, it's just too much extra time (or maybe I'm unconsciously sabotaging myself).
I cook most of my meals too. I just barcode scan the ingredients. For vegetables it's the same as grocery selfcheckout, just type a few letters in the search bar and tap the corresponding listing, like "USDA broccoli" or "USDA red potato".
They have a "create a recipe function" where you just scan in all the ingredients. So like I put in my turkey chili components, it resulted in 3994g of chili, so basically 10 servings of 400g each. Because I put in all the ingredients, it knows the total nutrients, and the amount in each serving. So when it comes to actually eating, I just go into "My Recipes", tap "Turkey chili" 1 serving. I measure 400g into my bowl and I know I've consumed 26g carbs 22g fat and 66g protein, totaling 538 calories.
This is also applicable the first time I cook it, because on subsequent cooking times it's already been entered. Also, it keeps a recent history so you don't need to search frequently for eaten foods, it's already available to tap.
It definitely takes a fair bit of time in the first weeks, you're not wrong about that. But it also gets a lot faster and easier after those first few weeks.
Create recipes from things you frequently make. That’s what I do personally.
For people that don't have a work that pays for it, Nutritionix is it completely free? And is the database that MyFitnessPal uses. You get the same tracking, macros, and barcode scanning ability without the silly subscription or paid app.
does your workplace get the data? or the insurance or something?
Nah, they pay for Gympass membership (a service that gives you access to various gym franchises around the country) and the Gympass membership gives me access to a bunch of apps. (The other nice one I get is premium Strava, since I'd been using the free version of that for a long while)
8 years ago, i got an EUC, aka Electric Unicycle, seamed difficult strange, i managed to learn how to ride it, everybody said i looked like an alien..
8 years later i ride a Veteran Sherman S (suspension model) and i freakngly still love to ride it!! Got a couple of friends hooked, now i've got a whole team in Greece! 😉
My wife got 50% off Lasik surgery in the early days of Groupon when they offered crazy deals. I thought it was really unwise to get eye surgery half-off. I'm usually a "you get what you pay for" kind of guy.
Turned out pretty well for her though.
I don't see the problem with that
I see what you did there. Well, I half see it, anyway.
I don't get why you would be hesitant at a discounted lasering... Discounts are not the same thing as a cheaper option that costs as much as the discounted price. Just compare it with anything else you're able to get on a discount. A phone, for example. Would you think that the 500$ won't perform as well if sold for 250$? No, it will perform just the same. But a phone that costs that 250$ from the onset, that is going to usually be worse than the 500$ one bought at half off.
So, a proper lasik surgery costs 1500$ (A price I found with a quick google search). That's a bit steep. But your wife gets lucky and gets the half-off discount. Great, you got 1500$ worth of service for 750$. Now, a lasik surgery that is being offered at the 750$ normally, that would raise a few eyebrows for sure.
Workbenches with butcher block table tops and metal legs for my home office. I was a life long user of cheap metal and glass top desks that you get from Walmart, Staples, etc. These things cost a lot more, but they are worth every penny. And unlike the cheaper stuff, will last years and years unless the house burns down.
Local made products. In my case it's LED lamps. It was started when i read articles on LED and in the end i was searching if there are locally made LED lamps and i found out there are some and they are quiet huge since they are doing contract making road lamps for the government.
So i look for the brand on the popular ecommerce platform and i was surprised that the price is like a quarter of the popular imported brand such as Philips, although the Lumens per Watt is lower (110 Lumens per watt). I was skeptical and hesitated to buy it at first fearing it'll become useless junk. But i took the chance and order it anyway.
I received the product the next day, four 3000K color Lamp. I'm testing it first before permanently installing it and what really surprised me the Lamp does not gets hot, only lukewarm, i guess its because of the board design where the individual LED are not tightly packed.
I gradually replaced all LED lamps at home with locally made ones, they even have 4500K color which i installed for my gf room since shes doing a lot of times doing make up and i think that requires neutral color lighting.
Our house has all gold colored fixtures and normal knobs.
I got really fed up with having to drop everything to open the garage door that I purchased a black lever type knob so now can open the door with my elbow/foot/bags
Doesn’t match anything else in the house right now but it’s my single favorite change I’ve made to our house
Double Edge Razor. I used to shave with an electric shaver but now I can shave faster, better and cheaper. The razor gives a super smooth shave and the soap/aftershave is a kind of wellness routine now that I really enjoy. The blades are extremely cheap so I change them every second shave. There are tons of different types of razors and blades to try out and I really enjoy trying out the shaving soaps and varying them from shave to shave.
I bought a $5 mechanical watch as aliexpress, curious how long it would last. That was 12y ago. All I replaced was the strap by a $1 one, still ok as well.
The $200 watch I bought before that was b0rken in 2 months.
All you need is a Casio.
Nah, no electronics around my wrist. (I don't react to well to them)
honestly I’d say a can cooler, it’s like a yeti cup but it goes around a can. Keeps my drinks so much colder, such a surprise tbh
Like a koozie? I don't think I've ever bought a koozie, we've literally got a dozen in a drawer that we have gotten for free from random events/bag freebies over the years.
Basically a koozie made out of a Yeti bottle. Or a Yeti bottle but instead of putting liquid in it you put the whole can and it keeps your can cold.
I think it's actually like a steel insulated thermos sleeve with the double walls and everything, so a yeti cup for around your cups
I bought a POE switch that seemed really expensive, but I bought it with 6 very inexpensive POE cameras so all in the price was not bad.
When I got the switch i found the build quality was great, it's an industrial format switch so it has DC input for power and wall mount flanges. I might buy a second one if my buddy needs it for his house.
I have an off-brand swiffer handle that I’ve actually packed up and moved several times because it’s the perfect size to unclog my vacuum.
Hand rolls of stretch wrap. Have an artificial Christmas tree you want to make for back in the box? Wrap that thing up. Have a stack of stuff you want to bind together to move more easily? Wrap it.
My tablet for school. I bought it because I was sick of shifting through stacks of handwritten notes while writing papers. Turns out it was the best purchase I made as a student. I haven't bothered to write on paper since, and it's saved me a ton of time and money (otherwise spent on printing supplies). I've started using it for work as well. I don't know if I could function without one now.
Giant roll of wrapping paper. I'm using it for everything. My kid draws on the back, wrapped plates in them when moving, gift wrapping, painting.
My impulse buy of expensive Focal headphones.
Initially regretted it but, after a year of using high-end headphones, you definitely appreciate the great comfort and sound-quality
Not Focal but for years I wanted to splurg on a pair of Sennheiser HD600. When I finally did it I love them. I don't get to use them often but when I do and some song comes on and you hear some tiny detail a song with more clarity than you even thought was in there before its fantastic.
I just pulled the trigger on a pair because it’s prime day and the price was just “right”, hopefully they live up to the expectations.
Oh, definitely not a purchase, but Emacs. My life was a mess because of Twitter and it was anti-Twitter in every way – no characters limit, offline, insanely powerful. While Twitter would prevent me from prioritizing, Org-mode could handle task lists, spreadsheets, text documents, with academic citations support, and could export them to .ics, .odt, .pdf, .md, etc. Ideas are affordances and Emacs has let me focus on these instead of trying to build a picture perfect online profile.
Whereas Twitter isn't meant for most people's use cases so it runs a long-term scam called “optimization for engagement” (which is actually abuse by definition), doing everything it can to prevent its victims from taking hindsight on and conceptualizing what's happening to them, Emacs is letting me channel all of this frustration into reading and writing my master thesis. Which deals with how social media increase social inequalities. Highly recommended.
cheapest tesla I could find
This cheap little indoor drone while working from home during COVID to mess around with on breaks and lunch. Turned out to be a ton of fun and in to a full blown FPV drone hobby/obsession.
Even better 😂
Wireless headphones. The original goal was working out and I didn't want to carry my cellphone on the hand. I never went to work out, but it turns out to be very convenient when my neighbors are being loud, since it has noise cancelling, and also for chores.
Also, some better clothes. For context, I'm FtM. My sister and mother are vain and buy chic clothes like every month, so I always had a surplus of hand-me-downs. I didn't want to buy more clothes because I already have perfectly serviceable unisex clothes on my closet, but when I donated out all my feminine-cut clothes and shoes I found myself lacking clothes so, yeah, I went and bought the stupid clothes. I fucking love them and wear them on every opportunity I get. They make me feel so much better :)
Some people just put their laptop on a table and use the bed when giving oral, but sure, you do you!
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