What has brought you joy?
Companion to the last question :)
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Soundpeats Wireless Airbuds. They are just really good wireless headphones for the price point. Pre tariffs I got them for like $40. I like that I don’t have to stress about losing them.
My Hansker Performance mouse. No wrist pain anymore and I can switch it between desktop and my laptop using the switch on the bottom
Steam Deck, hands down. It rules being able to play PC games in bed with my partner by my side.
Its sooo gooood!
I thought about getting one but took to long to decide and now they are not available anymore :(
I was on the fence when it was first announced (just because i had heard the reports about steam machines back in the day) but when I found out you could open it up and upgrade the storage yourself I decided to bite the bullet.
I have never regretted the purchase. I immediately stopped gaming on my (Linux) desktop and have been gaming on the Steamdeck now (almost) exclusively for the past like 3 years. I’ve upgraded the storage (64GB to 512GB) and replaced the thumbsticks when the old ones fell apart.
Tl;dr: Agree! Steam Deck no regrets!
Noise cancelling headphones are incredible, using them in a noisy airport eliminated 80% of the discomfort of travelling
mine hurt my ears after an hour. it doesn’t happen though when I turn the noise cancelling off.
Some noise canceling is better than others. If you get a chance to try another set, see if it still hurts
i’ve had three pairs, three brand. same effect.
i think the noise cancelling is just too loud on the airplane.
noisy *office
discomfort of *coworkers
(except you Sean, you’re okay)
Yup. Autistic and noise cancelling headphones help me in all kinds of environments I wouldn’t be able to deal with otherwise. Including the airport!
I still need to find some good NC earbuds though. The Bose quiet comfort are fantastic but unfortunately known to stop working repeatedly (I’m about to get my 6th pair replaced through warranty over about 18 months!)
My Fairphone 5, because it has allowed me to break free from Google and other big tech companies by letting me install whatever I want on it.
And my good old Thinkpad.
Nice i have a fairphone 4. Such good phones!
i’m so annoyed cus i have one but aus put a law making sims not work on it anymore :<
Yup I just got the FP6 and I am really happy with it.
Steam Deck OLED has been pretty great. Also the HTC Vive VR headset, back in 2016.
I also bought the Vive back in `16. Can’t believe that was 10 years ago! I moved two years ago though and never set it back up. I figured at the time that Valve would have a new headset that didn’t require base stations soon. Finally coming this year, so if someone wants to buy an OG Vive…
Not a purchase, but Home Assistant is easily the most enjoyable gadget and piece of tech I’ve had in years. It’s ridiculously flexible and can do just about anything you can imagine.
I’ve been able to automate dumb devices (like an old top-of-the-line receiver) and give them smart features rather than spending thousands to replace them. Occupancy detection saves energy by changing thermostat settings when people aren’t home, and lights come on when we’re 60’ from the front door after a walk. Multiple leak detectors and a temperature sensor in the fridge let us know when something’s wrong before damage occurs. We get notifications when the dryer and washer cycles are complete allowing us to complete the laundry in one day instead of two.
The system is configured to change change interior light brightness and hue based on time of day so at 7PM we have bright room lighting and at 2AM it’s very dim. We get immediate notifications of package deliveries with the integrated Frigate NVR and a $15 camera. Firewall settings are dynamically changed so devices that require Internet access only have it when they are actually in use. Integrations exist for VLC, Spotify, Jellyfin, Paperless, Apple, TVs, alarm systems, solar power systems, routers, automobiles, and hundreds of other brands and devices.
Yes, much of the same can be done with connected appliances, lights, and other smart devices using separate apps and control interfaces for everything, but what’s different about Home Assistant is it’s all integrated and all control and storage can be local. We have no cloud or corporate services involved for any of this. Google, Apple, Amazon and Samsung can’t one day decide to pull the plug on things we’ve already paid for.
The big problem with Home Assistant is there are so many uses you can easily end up spending way too much time tinkering and never get anything else done.
How much work was it to set all that up and how much did it cost? I’ve messed around with home assistant, but found the upfront cost (in time and money) a bit high for automating a handful of things.
I started with things I already had, an old Raspberry Pi, some smart plugs and bulbs, an alarm system, wifi thermostat and OpenWRT router and initially installed the software just to play around. It didn’t take long before I was able to control everything from a single dashboard instead of multiple web pages and apps. I found that since it connects everything it can change the thermostat and turn on lights when alarm system motion detectors or door sensors are triggered or not triggered for a few hours. Our cell phones are used for presence detection and none of that required additional hardware.
The additions beyond that have been done slowly and the costs have been minimal. At this point I’ve probably I’ve probably spent <$450 over 4 years including $180 for an inexpensive laptop. This is for something that’s in use constantly. I enjoy learning and puzzles so I’d spend an hour or two here and there figuring things out. For me it’s been time well spent.
Individual devices can range from dirt cheap to fairly expensive, but it all adds up over time.
Getting things initially set up is usually easy. Getting things automated correctly to your liking is a rabbit hole that is as deep as you want to dive into it.
What’s really nice about HA is being able to do whatever the fuck you want whenever you want. You can take it in bites buying devices in waves and tweaking automations in waves.
That’s how I’ve done it over the last 4 years or so.
I’m planning to install it on a spare old RPi2. I hope it’ll be powerful enough. I have Broadlink RM pro that I can’t wait to use without the horrible proprietary app for it.
It’s likely going to be struggling with that hardware, but it should give you a look at the UI and some of the features. I’ve spent years running Home Assistant and am still learning new things all the time, which IMO is one of the best things about it.
It had to be normal running it on a RPi2 at one point though, right? I remember it was already around when that pi was still new.
I’m not clear on what things HA can actually do, really… I just saw it as a glorified remote control mostly I guess 😅
For most anything that can be connected to some kind of network (ethernet, wifi, zigbee, IR, z-wave) HA can do just about anything you can imagine. I keep thinking of new stuff that’s not hard to implement, for instance I just set up volume leveling for difference sources on my old IR-only receiver so we don’t get blasted if someone leaves the volume up high.
Since HA can use almost any info from the web you can use it to do things like control a swamp cooler based on outdoor temperature and dew point. Using windows sensors (from an alarm system or zigbee) you can shut off the heat or AC when the windows have been left open for a specific amount of time and turn them back on with the windows are closed. You can send a notification if you leave and forget to set your home alarm.
It looks like your Pi2 might be able to run the software, but that hardware was introduced 11 years ago and it wasn’t a powerful device even then. HA is also depreciating 32bit hardware. If it doesn’t work on that and you don’t want to buy new (or used) hardware, installing a HA VM on another PC might be a good way to start.
My old casio watch works after a decade of use.
My old kindle just got a new battery but its over 14+ years old.
And my CPAP is probably the thing that does the most work for me.
what model Kindle? I’ve always kept a few kindle 4s on hand as backups :D
only thing I don’t love about it is the microusb connector, I’ve dreamed of doing a type c conversion but it’s harrowing taking one apart
I think I either have a 4 or 5. Theres a website that has the batteries. NewPower99.com I got Amazon Kindle D01100 Battery Replacement Kit with Tools. Everything was mostly easy except the glue amazon used was HARD to get off the old battery! It was super stuck. Had to pry off the old battery and that could have gone bad. Risk of Spicy pillows. But it has many weeks worth of battery now.
Its my favorite ATM and its pretty old. I wish I could get another one OR get the screen replaced. I have a couple of spots on mine over the years of usage. I read on it almost every day. Its the only ebook reader that can work with ALL the text from https://wanderinginn.com/ . I bought the ebooks but my eyes hurt reading on the laptop for a long time. Plus I want a break from the same area of the house I work at. The new KOBO cant load more than 10MB of pure text. But the old kindle can!
I cant imagine transferring it to usb c. GL if you do decide to do it! I personally would get a small microusb to usb adapter and call it a day.
I love my Kindle Oasis, because I enjoy having physical page turn buttons. I installed KOReader on it a while back, so it hasn’t received any of the (wildly unpopular) recent updates.
the wristband on my casio (mq24) is constantly breaking after about 2 years of use each; have you replaced the one on yours or is the stock one still good?
I do love my Casio F-91W. A true classic.
Framework laptop - they took the best parts of the MacBook, made it repairable and fully support Linux. Priced fairly, with the option to separately purchase RAM and SSD. And they’ve even provided free replacement parts years after the warranty expired!
I got a hacked SNES mini on eBay that was fully loaded with every ROM from Atari to the 32 bit systems.
I truly love my SNES mini. Mine is still going strong, but the NES mini is starting to have issues.
My 2012 MacBook Pro is still going strong, still my primary home computer, still does everything I need. Maxed out the memory and upgraded to a SSD hard drive years ago and it runs great.
Same! And it still has ports. The dvd drive on mine failed a while ago, but otherwise it’s also going strong.
I have a 2015 model. They had just released the new one with the shitty keyboard and no ports but I managed to get the previous model and went with 512GB SSD. I cost me an arm and leg but holy fuck has it been an excellent computer. I’m not even an Apple user besides that laptop but I gotta give it to them - the hardware and software work flawlessly together.
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Portable battery powered bidet.
Gotta keep shit clean
Wait…
Does it have a water tank attached to it? I presume you fill it up at the sink before travelling down to brown town?
It does have a small water tank, but you hardly notice it. They’re pretty discreet.
Mine does. It’s a little cup that screws on. Some varieties allow you to screw on your average disposable plastic water bottle.
Do you carry around a separate water bottle for your taint cleaner, or do you just refill the one you have?
I have one at home. I couldn’t imagine traveling with one. That’s what wet/baby wipes are for.
I don’t use the water bottle kind. I might switch to one because it’s less unusual to be seen filling up a water bottle in public versus a tank or cup.
Mine is a cup that screws onto the device, and acts as a cover when not in use. It’s relatively compact, about the size of a flashlight. I keep it in my backpack or purse.
About a decade ago I bought my first mechanical keyboard – tenkeyless with cherry mx red switches. The keys still feel like a dream to this day. I like 'em much better than rubber dome switches.
I don’t get mechanical keyboards. Every time I have tried one I find them to have too much key travel and to be way too noisy. I’ve always considered Apple’s keyboard the gold standard. I’m sure there is something to mechanical keyboards as they’re clearly really popular but I guess I’m just ignorant about that.
They do make short travel ones, and there are many different types, even quiet ones with dampers.
If you’re happy with your keyboard then it’s the best keyboard.
It’s true they are noisier. Even the quietest switches (reds) are noisier than rubber domes. That took me a bit to get used to.
As for key travel, 4mm is standard for most keys unless we’re talking about laptop keyboards. The difference is the force required at each point of depression.
I don’t like that big ‘hump’ membrane keys have to get started moving (lower left). My keyboard is linear (lower right) and it just makes more sense to my fingers. I also like that I can actuate keys halfway to bottoming out. Rubber domes usually bottom out right after actuation.
There are actually extremely silent mechanical keyboards now, much quieter than reds/blacks/browns. The silenced Realforce Topre keyboards (if you consider Topre “mechanical”) are much quieter than typical dome keyboards.
For me the best tech purchases aren’t really the ones that bring me joy. They’re the ones that become invisible because they take away points of friction.
So I would say my Brother printer is one. It’s been incredibly reliable for more than a decade now.
Switching over to Ubiquiti Unifi access points for wifi has been worth it too. It’s a pain to run wires for them, but having a solid signal everywhere in the house in all kinds of weather is just amazing. They’ve been running for a decade too, though I did just replace one so I can have a 6GHz connection in one room. Not really sure that particular upgrade was actually worth it, but the system as a whole has been so nice. There’s just never anything to fix about the wifi anymore. (Well, okay, occasionally there’s something to fix with the Internet, but it’s usually just “Comcast is down,” and we have to wait until they fix it, and sometimes also reboot the modem. The wifi itself is pretty bulletproof.)
So yeah. Tech that works reliably and invisibly for years on end is what I find really valuable. Gadgets can certainly be fun, but great tech is just there in the background making things easier.
