The total eclipse. I was lucky enough to live in the path of last year’s. I now understand why people are willing to travel across the world just to experience something that only lasts a few minutes.
I think being in 100% totality would make all the difference. I was in like 60 or 70 percent totality and while it was neat, and I’m happy I got to experience it, it wasn’t insanely awesome.
Yes, being in totality is a completely different experience. Imagine looking up at the sky into a twilight, where a black hole ringed with ghostly white light hovers eerily where the sun once was. It’s truly otherworldly
Right now in whatever sorting algorithm my view is using, the comment immediately after this says literally just “sonicare toothbrush”
Mechanical keyboards
Every keystroke feels and sounds like heaven!
Next step. Ergo split with non qwerty layout. I put together a Lily58 keyboard and switched to Colemak-DH. Years of discomfort just vanished. The advantages were instant for me. Im a bigger dude and typing on even a full-sized keyboard meant my hands were at a 45 degree angle perpendicular to the keyboard at all times. I had to contort my wrists to type. Then my shoulders were cramped because I had to squeeze them together.
The split instantly relaxed my shoulders. The ability to angle the keyboard meant no more contorting my wrists. Colemak has its own benefits and overall my fingers feel much better.
The only drawback I have is I want a bigger thumb cluster. That’s a personal preference you don’t even realize until you get a split keyboard. Once you start doing motions to eliminate using your pinky as a hold finger even more comfort opens up for you.
The best part is it’s a super portable keyboard by default. So if I want to take it to work I can rubber band both halves together and shove it in my bag. Or better yet print out a foldable case. I got big honking full-sized switches and keys. You can go low profile and make it as discreet as possible.
This but do this as gradual steps, first get a split or a column staggered split keyboard, with regular querty layout and only when you are used to using one especially how the layers work, consider an alternative key layout if needed, frankly just having a split keyboard itself is an improvement in ergonomics, alternative layouts could help buy learning a new one will take time and you’ll have to switch to querty at work anyway, unless you want to carry your custom keyboard everywhere
Did you type home row style?
Yeah that’s how I learned to type all the way back in middle school.
Not to your work neighbours it doesn’t!
Brown caps gang
I didn’t think Portal could possibly live up to the hype and I slept on it for a a decade. It did. Superb game
This was a triumph
I’m making a note here: huge success.
For the good of all of us. Except the ones who are dead.
Induction range top. Quick on, fine degree of control, quick off, little heat radiation. Better than gas. Only adaptation was flat bottom wok which
makes the working world go roundis not quite the same experience.Keeping it clean with minimal effort compared to a gas range was unexpectedly my favorite part
I find it even easier than a glass top electric (what the induction replaced) I think it is because only the area directly below the pan is heated, spills are easier to wipe up and don’t get baked on.
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Absolutely this. An induction range was a game changer in terms of cooking and has paid for itself many times over. I lucked out and found a high end used one for $400 many years ago. When camping I use a portable one, and while not as good as a full range, it is still much better than any propane cooktop I’ve used.
Yea I got a separate plug-in induction wok because I just couldn’t get the flat bottom one to work well.
Instant pot. Mine has a sous-vide mode and I make the best steaks I’ve ever made. Whole shebang was only like 40 bucks and I can cook most things in it.
I know I’m alone in this, but I loved and still love VR since htc vive
There are dozens of us! Dozens!!
I really hope Bigscreen manage to bring the cost down of their small headset because an affordable and comfy one might renew interest. It’s still very much an underexplored medium!
Maybe I’m missing years of video game discourse but I don’t know what you’re talking about being alone on this hill. I’ve been using VR since the Google Cardboard and as long as you temper your expectations it’s been plenty fine since even all the way back then. The experiences on the Vive and Index are a bit clunky but otherwise I have fun with them every time I use them.
I only have a Quest 2 and I still love it. I think we won’t see mass adoption until it’s slimmed down to just glasses.
I don’t think it can ever be that thin. There’s too many constraints: needs to block other light, needs to be at a comfortable focal distance, needs power and a processor, not to mention the input and audio components…
Augmented reality glasses, yeah I can see that.
Coffee. My dad was in the navy in the 70s and you could tell by the tar he drank. Never got into it. Early 20s I got hired as a delivery boy for a coffee shop. A perk was that it came with free coffee drinks. Turns out I didn’t hate coffee, I hated the swill my father brewed. Good coffee was quite good.
I’m not sure where you’re from, but here in the UK almost everybody drinks instant coffee and that’s how I feel about it. It’s horrible, and the only reason people seem to think they like it is because they fill it with milk and sugar.
The US. In my dad’s time it was percolator brewed (the literal worst way to brew) or with low grade, super roasted. I drink medium roast or lighter and drip brew or pour over. Vast vast difference.
I had a very similar experience when it came to beer.
The Persona series has even brought up the idea you’d praise coffee more for its mature flavor than just to wake up. In some places, they drink it at any time of day.
I drink a lot of decaf because I like the flavor. Regular coffee being caffeinated is a nice perk (pun intended) for when I need to wake up.
Pop sockets.
I saw so many people use them and hated the sight of them. They look weird and make your phone fit awkwardly in your pocket and you can just lean your phone against something heavy if you want to watch a video or whatever.
But I decided to try it and it is single-handedly the thing that allows me to use my Android phone pretty much one-handed. With gesture controls and the ability to shrink the keyboard to one side for one-hand typing, I’m able to use my 6" phone with one hand 90% of the time.
Just get bigger hands, then it’ll still fit in your pocket just fine.
/s …
Pop sockets >>>> every other method of holding your phone (they lꝏk awkward for me)
Needs stronger adhesive tho , bcus mine some times peels off . One time had to superglue one to my case , which I hope don’t havta ever do again !
I always buy cheap ones because they keep coming off
transitioning
High quality audio equipment.
Yes, it’s an area filled with more snake-oil and bullshit than any other technical realm I’ve experienced, but with some knowledge (unarguably required on the part of the user) you can actually figure stuff out and get some ROCKING audio gear for pennies on the dollar.
Last year I got into electronic fix/build/mashup as a hobby, and a project I had in mind for fun was to turn a $10 Sirius Boombox that needed 8xD batteries and a wired AUX input, into a wireless BT boombox. I did it and it was fun as hellllllll. But it was not for the audio, it was for the learning. I repurposed battery cells and a charging board from a Shark handheld vacuum, and grabbed a BT board out of a scrapped shower speaker - made that work by “bolting it” onto a disposable vape battery/charger which draws from the main battery pak.
Well anyways… getting a taste of that deep, rich, penetrating audio made me realize I’d been sold THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LIE by the speaker business. That moment of looking at my Bose SoundLink and realizing I’ve been a fool for so long. The stupid Sirius boombox isn’t even that good now that I look back, but at the moment it was a HOLY SHIT moment for me. Running up to it thinking my music was distorting… but NO… it was actually musical details I’d never heard, and didn’t know existed.
Now I have a soul-destroying audio setup (for a small 1BR apartment) that I shit you not, cost me a total of $23. RXV581 Receiver, YST-SW011 Subwoofer and two Polk MXT11 Monitor tower speakers. People either discarded, sold, or donated. I got the Yamaha Receiver/Sub set because… get this… ONE of the surround sound speakers was dropped and it’s case cracked, so they threw it ALL away. The Polks were seen at thrift, first for $70 each, then reduced to $34 after a month… then one day muthafukkaaaaaaa $10 each plus tax.\
So yeah. Good audio. I had NO idea how satisfying it could be. I didn’t know what I’d been missing.
World of Warcraft back in 2007-8
Still playing.
Lok’tar! I remember not affording a subscription back them, so I would spam PvP at the lv 20 cap every day after school. I had multiple full sets of honor heirlooms on my trial account. Good times :)
I couldn’t pay for sub either, so I made do with private servers 😁
When I moved to Wisconsin back in 2006, House on the Rock was one of the first things I heard about from my neighbors to go see. My wife and I looked at the website and said “we’ll go see it someday.” Well, that day was about a month ago as back then we started having kids and getting used to living in a new place. However, over the past 19 years I’ve had people tell me that “you’ve got to go see it.”
Now… I understand.
Is that place a monument to a man’s ascent to brilliance?
Or his decent into madness.
There was stuff in that museum that I took DAYS to process and I still really am unable to understand what it was I was looking at. It took my family and I FOUR hours to walk through it. It could have been a LOT longer if we actually stopped to study more than what we did.
I’m 55 years old and I’ve seen and done a lot things in my life… None of it prepared me for the sheer onslaught that is House on the Rock. Walking out of it I told my wife that I rather chaffed at the entrance fee when I paid it… Now, I’m not sure if they charged enough.
If you’re ever anywhere close to South Central Wisconsin… Take a day and go see it.
It doesn’t just live up to the hype… It so far exceeds it that trying to explain the place will never do it justice.
It’s so cool to see this pop up here–i went there with my wife several years ago and we were absolutely stunned by it’s magnificence and sheer scale. I plan on going back someday and spending an entire day there knowing what we’re in store for. I had been given a recommendation to check it out by a local who ran a log cabin lodge that was about 1/2 hour or so from the House. That place really blew me away, glad to know other folks are out there appreciating it too!
That carousel was insane, not to mention the amount of animated instruments and nickelodeons scattered about… The living quarters were so cool, if a little impractical. You could have the coolest parties ever in that place…
I just did a search on this place to pull up some pictures. It looks crazy (in a good way).
Air-fryer
bone-conducting headphones
PSX
Firefly
Inis
Innovation
bone-conducting headphones Very curious to try. I bought some surprisingly cheap ones to see if it would be worth spending more on them, but the ones I received said nothing about bone conduction so the ad was a flat out lie.
Air-fryer Yes
Firefly Yes
If you turn them up to high volume, they distort, buzz, and tickle on your skin. So only quiet to mid volume. The sound quality is medium-high(I’m no audiophile). Being able to listen to media and be aware of surroundings is excellent. Previously achievable with in-earbuds, only by doing the one earpiece dangle. Sweat/water resistant. 8hr playtime. Pretty wild.
I forget that I’m wearing mine half the time, ppl think they are hearing aids…
And the convenience of having them just around your neck otherwise
Bought a pair for my kid too. Nice to be able to talk to him even if he listens to music
I will say they are also excellent for high noise environments, but only with in-ear hearing protection in.
I had the same bait and switch, but it’s how I learned I really like open ear headphones vs the actual bone conduction ones I bought after.
So, I tried wearing earplugs with my Shokz. Disappointingly, the sound became very, very muffled. I don’t think that it’s true bone conduction, because if it was, then earplugs shouldn’t have had a significant impact on the sound. They’re still nice, just… Not as cool.
Firefly is solidly decent. It’s not great, it’s not terrible. It had real potential, and then got cancelled after 12 (?) episodes. Babylon 5 was arguably a better show overall, but I can see why Firefly still has a solid fandom 20 years later.
Interesting test. I just tried mine with my high fidelity ear plugs and it actually made it clearer when my music is at a lower volume. of course these aren’t meant to block out all sounds though.
With regular earplugs, its a little muffled, but I’m honestly quite impressed by how good it still sounds.
For sound reproduction, I prefer my wired Shure SE-315 with sound-isolating ear tips. But Shokz ar much more comfortable for all-day wear.
Inis
Innovation
A man of culture.
Glad to see Innovation getting so much love after being on SUSD. It’s really a great game.
I’ve also enjoyed exploring Mottainai after everything in the rules finally clicked.
Honestly, the bent-spears-on-minis is the only issue across the two games. (c:
I love my Shockz #ad
Pretty much the only headset I’ve been using on the go for the last 3-4 years
Same, I got mine about 6 months ago and they are a huge game changer. Bought them originally to use while riding my escooter so I could still hear traffic, etc. I ride in about an hour each way to work. They’re incredible I can even still hear birds, but can hear my music totally clearly.
Bonus is that I can wear them at work all the time now and still hear when people are trying to get my attention, and I’m not constantly removing them and losing them like I would with my earbuds.
I also love the sound quality, which you’d expect would be awful, but it just sounds like there’s music playing in the room you’re in. Sometimes I forget that the music is just in my ears. Cannot recommend enough honestly.
+1 on the air fryer.
+1 on Kaylee Frye
She lives up to the hype for sure.
PC SSDs when they first came out, I saved $ and splurged for 256 GB over 128 GB. In the first week I was slightly upset I didn’t save more $ and go for a big expensive 512 GB one. Immediately I was telling my other PC gaming friends it’s going to revolutionize PCs in general, and to get one ASAP!
Edit: I can’t remember shit for fuck, but the size I bought was probably quite smaller than 256 GB lol.
I remember going from a 2 minute boot time to under 40s on windows. That was all the convincing I needed
I don’t think there were SSDs that large when they first came out in the late 2000’s. I saved up for an 80GB one back around 2009, and it was an absolute piece of trash. It was fast when it wanted to be, but most of the time it would randomly stutter and just go unresponsive for several seconds causing the rest of the PC to hang up until it decided to start responding again. After fighting with it for too long, I replaced it with a traditional harddrive which at least behaved as it was supposed to.
It was several years later before I tried another SSD, buying a relatively inexpensive 120GB drive that actually did live up to the hype.
Hmmmm, I’m probably misremembering the size now that you mention it. I’m also practically incapable of remembering when something was, but it would have been around the late 2000s - early 2010s. I do remember it held Windows plus 1-2 games, and I juggled around the games I played most from SSD to HDD and back.
This isn’t hyped by normal people I guess but when I was looking for a better pillow, these custom-sized memory foam pillows seemed like a crazy overhype and a grab for money by physiotherapists. $200 and a year later, still the best purchase I have made for my bed.
Also, peanut butter. I hated peanut butter growing up and never understood how people are so obsessed with it. Man did I miss out for years, that shit is so good and so versatile.
Pro tip: crush roasted unsalted peanuts and have real peanut butter. You have no idea what you’re missing. The peanut butter sold in most places is hydraulically fractured, then the peanut oil is reserved and replaced with inferior soybean. Crushed (not fractured) peanut butter does not separate, and it is breathtakingly versatile in cooking!
This is commonly available most places afaik, just 100% peanut.
Yeah but it’s fractured
(I should clarify, not only does fracturing the peanut meal force the oil out, it kind of “cooks” the proteins and transforms them, which is why it continues to separate no matter how much you stir. And then it just doesn’t taste as good. I know I sound like a peanut evangelist, but it’s a different experience when you try fresh crushed)
crush roasted peanuts
fracturing “cooks” the proteins
Sounds like a lot of effort for something that might not make any difference? Only way to find out is to try I guess, but I’m too lazy :) enjoy your superior peanut butter, I think I’m good with the industrial stuff from the supermarket 👍🏻
And if you want a sweetener, use honey.
