A vertical mouse for roughly 20 bucks. I had developed a strange tremor in my hand, so I decided to change the way I hold my mouse. Found the vertical mouse, which immediately made the tremor disappear. The mouse is bulky and ugly, but it took about two minutes to get used to and seems to be much more ergonomic.
It is a bit more expensive although still under $100 - I've used the 3M joystick mouse for the last decade with much success for hand pain. Worth a try if you ever in the market again. It holds the weight of your hand and takes all strain (at least for me) out of the wrist.
A 90$ HP 22" monitor to use side-by-side with my 15" laptop display. The quality is a bit lower than the laptop display but having more space and a bigger display is such a blessing for my eyes and my productivity.
I bought a water flossing machine. I've been flossing for more than a year, but there were always bits of my gums that stayed kind of sensitive. According to my dentist it was "possible to do it right, but hard", which I took to mean I was bad at flossing. Now I floss in the evening after dinner with regular floss and use the water flosser twice a day. Works like a charm, I would have gotten one ages ago if I knew they existed and worked this well.
$25 RTL-SDR dongle to sate intellectual curiosity about radio
$5 / mo // $ 60 / yr digital ocean droplets for intellectual curiosity about web dev
Not exactly within budget but ~$400 gym membership (from Costco.. so, factor in the amortized cost of that, too, I guess) for 24 hr fitness for 2 years - going to the gym has been a HUGE game-changer for me. Never really did it before with any discipline, and already within 3 months there have been great dividends for me. I'm much stronger than I was just 3 months ago. Much less anxious and stuff too.
The DO droplets are such a great investment. Using them to learn and develop is such an easy thing to do and they can be used for almost anything. This last weekend I set up NodeJS and Postgres just to tinker with and it has been a blast to learn something new. At $5 a month, it is hard to pass up.
I bought the one that RTL-SDR.com sells with the dipole antenna kit (see: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/buy-rtl-sdr-dvb-t-dongles/). They make a good point about avoiding counterfeit dongles, plus I'd like to support them for making a useful centralized resource.
I just bought a monthly subscription for a Mac Postgres client called SQL Pro for Postgres. After wrestling with PgAdmin 3 and 4, I threw in the towel and paid for a proper client. It’s 5.99 a month and as much as I hate rent-seeking, it allows me to try the software before paying the 139$ lifetime license.
Did you try Postico? I think it has a free / demo option. I bought a license a while ago. I like it -- curious if SQL Pro offers something it doesn't but I'm generally happy with it. There is also a github repo with feature requests as issues. I'd lover for Postico to show JSONB fields more nicely but not really a huge issue.
The new kindle paperwhite 2018, it was 85€ instead of 130€ around black friday. Now I can read all my tech and programming books I buy from bundles or get on PacktPub.
A minimal laptop bag (Tomtoc). Switching from the big Swissgear backpack forced me to stop lugging multiple devices, dongles, keyboards, etc. Better for my back and better for my focus.
A (under $50 refurb) Apple Magic Keyboard 2. I was always struggling with muscle memory on different keyboard layouts so having something that's 95% identical to my MBP keyboard helped a lot.
Linode $5/month servers. Couldn't be happier with them as a place to park all those little sites for friends and side projects, mostly running Wordpress.
Oh another - a Radtech "ScreenSavrz" - a screen-sized microfiber cloth that goes between my MacBook Pro's screen and keyboard when it goes in the bag. It looks ridiculous but it keeps those little key rub prints off the screen which I can't stop noticing whenever they're on the screen.
Oh another - a $100 iTunes gift card for $75 then splurged on a few pricier paid iPad apps, subscriptions, and IAPs that I wouldn't normally buy.
$85 cordless impact driver (Ryobi) has been my new favorite tool by far. It doesn't do everything a standard drill can do (i.e. drill...) but it is far superior for driving stubborn screws and bolts in and out, especially when they are beginning to strip! It is easier to hold since you do not need to counter the torque continuously like you do with a regular drill.
Plus it makes a fun hammering noise which makes me feel like I am doing something important.
If you are primarily driving screws into dense material, such as framing lumber, without first drilling a pilot hole, than an impact driver is indispensable. It will save much frustration, screws and bits.
It's dramatically reduced the number of times I eat out for convenience rather than enjoyment. It's larger than I need but perfect for bulk cooking/meal prep.
I've been eyeing 7 cubic feet (IIRC) chest freezers, a number of which are around the $250 mark.
I have a friend who's big-time into growing and harvesting locally, including as a part-time job. The trouble is to keep up with the influx; I'm thinking of freezing some of it for the colder, lower harvest months.
P.S. Through them, I've discovered this significantly suburban county is teaming with... I don't know, sort of a sub-culture of like-minded folks. It's been a rather interesting year.
$20 foam roller. As someone who lifts weights, runs long distance, but also sits at a desk for 8+ hours a day, my body gets so incredibly tight by the end of the day. As soon as I get home I spend 20-30 minutes working on mobility from my neck down to my ankles. The foam roller helps a lot with that. It's painful but I feel so much better after.
Most recently, a blender bottle for any beverage requiring mixing, such as a protein drink. $10 to $20. I got one with a ball that gets dropped in the bottle.
It wasn't in 2018, but a couple or three years ago, I bought a brand new unlocked Android smartphone for well under $100, and it did everything I formerly used my Nexus for.
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[ 39.0 ms ] story [ 661 ms ] threadhttp://mycroft.ai
$5 / mo // $ 60 / yr digital ocean droplets for intellectual curiosity about web dev
Not exactly within budget but ~$400 gym membership (from Costco.. so, factor in the amortized cost of that, too, I guess) for 24 hr fitness for 2 years - going to the gym has been a HUGE game-changer for me. Never really did it before with any discipline, and already within 3 months there have been great dividends for me. I'm much stronger than I was just 3 months ago. Much less anxious and stuff too.
A (under $50 refurb) Apple Magic Keyboard 2. I was always struggling with muscle memory on different keyboard layouts so having something that's 95% identical to my MBP keyboard helped a lot.
Linode $5/month servers. Couldn't be happier with them as a place to park all those little sites for friends and side projects, mostly running Wordpress.
Oh another - a $100 iTunes gift card for $75 then splurged on a few pricier paid iPad apps, subscriptions, and IAPs that I wouldn't normally buy.
Plus it makes a fun hammering noise which makes me feel like I am doing something important.
https://www.bulbhead.com/products/red-copper-flipwich
It's dramatically reduced the number of times I eat out for convenience rather than enjoyment. It's larger than I need but perfect for bulk cooking/meal prep.
I have a friend who's big-time into growing and harvesting locally, including as a part-time job. The trouble is to keep up with the influx; I'm thinking of freezing some of it for the colder, lower harvest months.
P.S. Through them, I've discovered this significantly suburban county is teaming with... I don't know, sort of a sub-culture of like-minded folks. It's been a rather interesting year.
Where do you find your recipes?
What are some of your favorite to make?
Eventually you'll need to fine tune the program according to your needs. Becoming A Supple Leopard is basically the encyclopedia for mobility programs/exercises: https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Supple-Leopard-2nd-Performan...
I think my purchase would be a $20 yellow led light that does not have blue light. I use it for reading before bed.
It allows you to flash firmware with your own keymaps to your hhkb.
It's a great buy if you already have an hhkb.