Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
Curious to know what thing / product / service improved your 2022?
For me it was an Elgato stream deck.
Initially bought it on a whim (probably more as a gimmick) but now find myself using multiple times a day in the office (sales) environment.
1,575 comments
[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 452 ms ] threadIn 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.
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.
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.
For regular use it talks to Apple Music and shows me next/prev/play buttons, with the current album cover as the play button.
I can use it to adjust my Philips Hue lights or set Home Assistant variables directly.
For work I have the most used intranet sites as buttons (Jira, Confluence, version control, etc).
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
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.
[1] https://www.nu.nl/economie/6219200/albert-heijn-neemt-afsche...
Or just abandon 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.
Likewise :) If you've got access to a 3D printer, this works well: https://www.printables.com/model/167637-removable-trolley-eu...
> Replacement keys for my butterfly keyboard MacBook. It’s a drop in replacement that delays a new laptop purchase.
Can I ask for more details of this? Was it the Apple replacement, or 3rd-party/DIY?
(living in a small flat, few things improve my quality of life like really good storage solutions; the ikea "norden occasional table" (https://www.ikeaddict.com/ikeapedia/en/Product/40245741/us-e...) might well be one of the best returns on investment in my entire decade living in the place)
We’re talking barely able to move around to normal daily functioning after twenty minutes. (I’ve used it for 8 hours in the past during very stressful periods. At some point I felt my muscles release like a muscle relaxer.)
Hope that helps.
I am not interested in installing bloatware drivers. Embedded IDEs OTOH...
Isn't this cheating?
The problem is that preventing it is difficult to impossible.
You can't calculate recoil server-side because the latency would make it nigh unplayable. But once it's done client-side, it's cheatable.
Logitech is the problem here for even allowing this in the first place. No CRC checks for mouse firmware or anything? It screams poor implementation. I will not be surprised if anti-cheat software starts banning people or companies like Logitech.
Kind of sad to see the number of threads and communities online encouraging this. The point of games is to have fun, when you cheat all that goes out the door.
It's client-side. Spoofing the CRC checks would be almost trivial.
They don't have to.
All they need is a signature of a valid firmware, and then inject code that returns that signature.
The "kids" won't be the ones writing the cheats. That'll be someone who knows how to write code that injects code into another running process, and then they sell the cheat software.
Blizzard tried for YEARS to detect a bot program for World of Warcraft called Glider. Every time they found a way to detect it, the bot engineers found a way to evade the detection. It was constant cat and mouse until Blizz sued the developer and had them shut down.
More back on topic, most of the cheaters are just script kiddies. There are only a couple that actually develop cheats, and they tend to be quite clever.
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.
It was almost a meme on TikTok during the pandemic, (American) people figured out the weirdest ways to keep their Teams bubble green.
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".
The mousepad itself has an eink or similar display to change it over time and have the mouse detect some motion. The "active" part is turned off (to just be a regular display) when there is pressure on the wrist rest.
The mousepad is a USB hub (to get power for itself) that you can also plug the mouse and keyboard into so that its one less cord back to the computer.
[0] https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/c19a56...
this usually keeps the laptop from going to lock screen
bonus: press B to blackout the screenshow to avoid monitor burn-in
If on Windows, I use their "Power Toys" (free, btw), which has a keep awake function. My company user policies do not allow me to manage my energy policy, which is what kept shutting off my screen (and therefore necessitating the complicated password). Power Toys solves this problem.
* "Daros" by Dave Dobson https://www.amazon.com/Daros-Dave-Dobson-ebook/dp/B0946C153P - At the heart of the plot was a powerful artifact with different groups vying to gain access for different reasons. The humor, especially the chapter titles, worked well for me. Features mysterious creature, a sassy AI, a fast paced plot with good amount of action, etc.
* "Dim Stars: A Novel of Outer-Space Shenanigans" by Brian P. Rubin https://www.amazon.com/Dim-Stars-Novel-Outer-Space-Shenaniga... - Fun and filled with humor that had me laughing almost every page, especially enjoyed the slice-of-life feel in 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... - read the first one a few years back, remember enjoying it, need to read the sequels...
* "The Shadows of Dust" by Alec Hutson https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Dust-Alec-Hutson-ebook/dp/B08... - spacy fantasy featuring giant turtles as spaceships, not really sci-fi
See also https://thespsfc.org/2021-results/ Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, found Daros there
(And I no longer inflict my code on this world, only powerpoints!)
https://youtu.be/_B17CElq6Qc
My girlfriend wanted toe spacers and I found the exact same no-name pair on eBay for $4, compared to $10 on Amazon.
- 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.
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!
I have a few specialty items for exercise or dirty yard work, but those are easy to separate from the daily drivers.
Relatedly, replacing all of my cotton socks with wool socks.
I work outdoors a lot and have 100% merino wool thermals to wear as a base layer in the winter (or when skiing), beats the pants off of what most of the rest of the crew is wearing.
99.9 percent of the time nobody will notice. You almost have to draw attention to it deliberately before anyone notices. Any nobody ever cares - the sort of person who would you probably wouldn't want to be around anyway.
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.
Especially if you're willing to put effort into your tools: vim's sophistication requires effort to learn, but has advantages. I think the same can be said for fancy small keyboards.
https://www.printables.com/model/146449-bicycle-splash-guard
Works great. I have a segment of unpaved road on my commute. Greatly improves trousers and shoes cleanliness.
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've thought too much about this.
You are clearly pickier about this than I am, hah.
Step 2) Wear socks, when any of them wear out, throw them away. Even a single sock, no need to throw away in pairs
Step 3) When you're low in socks (my limit is 3 full pairs), throw them all away and GOTO 1
I do have a few specialised socks for hiking and winter, but they're the unicorns in the bunch, I just need 1-2 pairs of them.
They have lotion in the fabric. You probably want to wear them more than once, if possible, maybe stretch them to a couple days if you didnt make them gross right away. Once you wash them they turn into regular fuzzy socks.
But on those days that they are fresh, there is nothing like them. I have a stash tucked away for special days, and once they are done, they get added to the normal fuzzy sock rotation. Turns out you can wear black fuzzy socks pretty often.
I have 12 pairs of the same lightweight Darn Tough socks that are perfect for year round use (I don't live in snow). I've had them for ~10 years now and when a given sock gets a hole in the bottom, I put them in a pile and wait until I have 4 then send them back for two new pairs of socks. They were initially expensive, but after each being replaced a couple times, they are dirt cheap (even when factoring in one-way shipping). Thankfully, they have kept the exact same style all these years. Fingers crossed that they stay in business and that 80 year old me will have saved a lot of money by not buying socks.
Around 5 or 7 years ago I found 100% cotton socks on a massive discount, don't remember how many, but I took more than 40 pairs, full backpack I had with me that day. I use them pretty much most of the year, except in summer. Never bought socks since and due to all that "mismatching", I only had to throw a few of them, they were shredded and composted.
Some corporations like H&M accept donations of old clothes for recycling, in return they give you a voucher.
The issue I've mostly had (and found that others have as well), is if you run the battery to 0 using it on wireless mode, it won't even work on wired mode until it's fully recharged. Like you can't use it "offline".
after my son started wearing unmatching socks (and refuses to wear matching socks), I started doing the same and I'm now hooked. Granted these are unmatching socks of the same style (i.e., I have 5 pairs of Nordic socks) and I like just throwing them all in the box after laundry and pulling out 2 at random. Probably not going back to matching socks unless it's required :)
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.
- Ultrasonic cleanser - used for pretty much anything including my invisalign retainers
- Sodastream
- Massage gun
All these things have made my life a lot easier.
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.
You can get Co2 tank and parts from beer supply company.
https://www.morebeer.com/category/co2-tanks-regulators-parts...
plenty YT videos on how to put them together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cb43p5dJBE
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.
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...
Something is different - it's not that one was sold as 'air fryer'.
(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.)
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.
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.
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)
Personally I think I'd rather just replace the oven for one with a fan and grill, reclaim all that countertop, but at this point there is probably just a large cultural factor at play.
It's largely from disappointment - I assumed initially that they were designed to save oil vs. a deep fryer, that they blasted jets or misted oil over the food. That I think would be novel and interesting.
As it is, if you have an oven already, the RoI is too long to do it on a cost basis. Maybe there's an argument of time-saving as they pre-heat a smaller box quicker? Hardly takes long as it is, I think that's a stretch.
If you don't already have an oven, then yes, if the capacity is not a problem then it's a great option, they start cheaper than bigger ovens... Obviously I suppose.
(I suppose I shouldn't have generalised so much above - I was speaking from my experience in the UK. Other than perhaps a tiny studio flat (single room apartment, no separate bedroom) I would think it's pretty much unheard of to rent somewhere without one here; buying it would normally (almost always) be included, but if not there'd be an obvious gap where yours or your newly purchased one would go.)
Anyway, in the very first line of my comment I said it's the marketing that I have a problem with; I have 'tried' the marketing.
Air fryers should really be called individual ovens. They’re basically the same but more efficient
[https://youtu.be/kea9limMp7U]
Do you get bothered by recipes that have you drizzle oil on vegetables and then roast them?
No queen has ever slept in my queen sized bed, nor am I aware of any rectangularly shaped queens. My airpods aren't made of air. When we combine words or even parts of words we don't produce meaning by simply summing the meaning of the parts.
Absolutely zero harm is caused by calling something an "air fryer" rather than a "countertop convection oven", especially since "air fryer" more easily conveys the idea that you can cook things like french fries in one reasonably effectively without deep frying in oil.
Apart from being clever marketing, I believe they use the word "fryer" to describe the immersion in a very evenly and highly heated fluid, in this case air. While not very different from a fan-forced oven, the design of a small chamber with a vented basket and high air circulation does create a more uniform thermal environment over the entire surface area of the food, than the usual convection oven with a flat tray.
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.
https://www.mastgeneralstore.com/brand/darn-tough-socks
You can get them 25% off from gobros.com as well!
So all the benefits those posts mentioned about merino t-shirts apply to these socks.
This is not the one I have since I have mostly wooden stuff in my crib, but this one looks nice and long and cheap:
https://www.amazon.com/CubiCubi-Computer-Writing-Storage-She...
Forget standing, get long instead.
Oh, and this. I don't know why it took so long for me to think of this, reusable K-cups:
https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Universal-stainless-Refillab...
And finally, window privacy films:
https://www.amazon.com/Privacy-Frosted-Decorative-Covering-B...
It lets in natural light, no curtains to fiddle with (but you can have curtains too).
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.
I'm still using the old one during the week as it only takes a few minutes to swap.
I might follow you and just get a Dyson branded instead of aftermarket.
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. :D
If you do any work in a noisy industrial or trade setting you owe it to yourself to get these.
I used to buy the 3M connect earmuffs but their connectivity is bad, the ear-cushions break down and the mini-usb charger port snaps off. I had to buy a new set of earmuffs once a year.
It’s crazy: shut the laptop and walk away to listen to a podcast on your phone and they just beep beep beep.
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 think this is a recommendation more for a category than a specific product.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
We updated our air exchanger to fix the problem. Venmar and Vanee are two big brands in america.
You can get it down to 400ppm even with people in the apt.
What sort of levels is it inside? Isn't it inert? (hence the problem of global warming)
At a company I used to work for we started wonder why one meeting room got especially rowdy if we had our 2 hour team meeting there.
Had the building management install a CO2 sensor, it got up to 1500ppm. We were practically drunk in there. Turned out it wasn't meant as a meeting room at all and it had zero ventilation ducts - they were all in the room next door, they had just slapped a wall to split it into two.
It might make you feel different - and maybe not great for being productive, but it would be hard to notice.
Would you care to expand on what this means?
And:
"According to the University of Michigan, blood sugar levels of 300 mg/dL or more can be dangerous. They recommend calling a doctor if you have two readings in a row of 300 or more."[1]
[1]: https://www.healthline.com/health/diabetes/how-to-lower-bloo...
And rice has 10x’s the arsenic of other grains.
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.
Which keyboard tray did you get?
The lowest setting on mine is 26.0", that's still too high? I would imagine a keyboard tray would drop it another 2-3 inches setting your keyboard below 24" from the floor.
Here's what I'm working with: https://ibb.co/MGqcpxc (excuse the mess and wires)
Ergonomics: https://uhs.umich.edu/files/uhs/ergo.pdf
consider upgrading to słonina in '24
I had success last year with braises too, like hong shao rou, but also barbacoa and even Texas chili. Maybe I need to work on my tofu this year.
You're right that boczek has more flavour, esp. the home-made version if you can find it (super difficult, imo). Usually the home-made boczek will be meatier/more smoky/more garlicky than, the store bought-stuff.
Słonina has little flavour, besides slight smokiness + saltiness. Normally it's used to highlight the flavour of the next dish or as a snack served with vodka. Similarly to lard, you'd serve it before the main dish to make the palate more sensitive towards any fat-soluble flavours. I'd say słonina is 90-95% fat plus a barely noticeable amount of meat.
The Siberian one I got though... had waaaaay more garlic and a little bit of pepper. It was lovely, but something I'd eat at the "caviar serving" amounts.
Useless trivia #123: it's likely a coincidence but in Polish "słonina" literally means "elefant meat" ("słoń" /swoń/, comp. the suffix -ina w. "wołowina" for beef, "wieprzowina" for pork).
> Maybe I need to work on my tofu this year
Smoked tofu is sooo good. I have some good kimchi + gochujang I want to cook tonight with pork belly, but now you made me think of replacing the meat with some smoked tofu I bought.
- This post was made by the 110% keyboard gang.
Any recommendations for low alc beers?
I’ve been drinking Guinness and Heineken, plus other ones occasionally. Best cold. Some have been sour and meh, but they are definitely getting better and better. See also low alcohol cocktails. I used to get grape juice made from wine grapes, fabulous.