What has brought you joy?
Companion to the last question :)
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Garmin running watch. Never liked running but am a list checker and analyst; seeing my inactivity or progress drive me to be more consistent and active. I’m massively healthier and happier as a result. Also first one lasted 10 years, 1-week battery life. Just bought a replacement last year(face was scuffed up after 10 years but was still running like a champ). No idea why other watches have such crap battery life without offering more features than Garmin but it’s brought me joy, mental and physical health.
nice. Ive thought about getting a smart watch but specifically for blood pressure. But ive seen a lot of reviews saying its not accredited. Which kinda sucks.
Withings is the only one that both has BP monitoring AND a long battery life without sacrificing app security.
I just hate the look of the Withings watches.
Like OP, I love my Garmin. I have one that lasts 30+ days each charge; tracks my sleep, heart rate, steps, and calories; and gives me minimal notification and music control.
If it could reliably monitor BP and last at least 30 days between charges, I might consider an upgrade. Until then, I will wear this thing until it dies.
Gadgetbridge works pretty well with them too if you want to avoid giving Garmin your data.
Is gadget bridge OS? I’m not familiar with what it does/offers, etc.
Data privacy was somewhere Garmin was better than other providers when I looked at it, though that’s relative and also with how fast companies are coming out fascist maybe I’ve missed them losing any privacy advantage?
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…
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.
i’m so annoyed cus i have one but aus put a law making sims not work on it anymore :<
Nice i have a fairphone 4. Such good phones!
Yup I just got the FP6 and I am really happy with it.
Steam Deck, hands down. It rules being able to play PC games in bed with my partner by my side.
Its sooo gooood!
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!
I thought about getting one but took to long to decide and now they are not available anymore :(
Noise cancelling headphones are incredible, using them in a noisy airport eliminated 80% of the discomfort of travelling
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!)
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)
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.
Portable battery powered bidet.
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.
Gotta keep shit clean
As an avid Clone Hero player (Guitar Hero but for PC, essentially) this was such a huge upgrade to me from the Wii guitars I had been using for years.
Oooh nice!
Something I am very curious: how do the guitar controllers compare against each other? I’m saying this as someone who has been buying and reading up on quite a few rhythm game controllers (DDR/ITG, Taiko, more esoteric things) and knew of the whole slew of comparisons/tierlists between controllers… I knew close to nothing about Clone Hero controllers for high-level gameplay so
I’ve only ever used this one and the Wii guitars from World Tour. The CRKD is nicer because:
- support for many more devices without any special adapters (I used it on my Switch at one point)
- reactive LED lights
- quieter strum bar
- overall nicer design without a big wiimote-shaped hole
I play Clone Hero a lot but just casually, so I can’t really speak to anything about latency or stuff like that. I can at least say in all aspects it’s on-par or surpasses the Wii guitars.
- Not a purchased by me, but the mechanical watch my grandfather gave to me some 40+ years ago. It was his watch, and was already used when he gave it to me, but it still works great today.
- A good stack of quality paper (don’t get me started on watercolor paper).
- The humble pencil, B2 or B4. This may sound like a joke but despite its age and it being so low-tech the pencil is still an unrivaled piece of technology that even Apple can only try to mimic with its expensive Apple Pencil.
- My most recent purchase, and a lot more ‘high’ tech than the pencil: a pocket Sony voice recorder, from the 90s. It uses standard AA batteries (that will last for weeks if not months), it needs no monthly subscription, and no online access, it fully respects my privacy, there is no ads in it, it uses MP3 and can record on either its internal memory or use SD cards, and it… works great with Linux. I love it.
Theres a somewhat famous artist that is in my local area. He did a talk about paper (like papyras and all other kinds). It was fascinating! Over 40 people showed up to his talk.
Papers in all its forms is fascinating (and amazing) :)
Even more so when one start realizing how many forms it can take and has taken (animal skin ‘paper’, anyone?). Happy to know people showed up to listen to the talk!
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.
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.
Same! And it still has ports. The dvd drive on mine failed a while ago, but otherwise it’s also going strong.
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.
A few years ago, I used my meager seniority award at work ($100 for ten years! Yay…?) to get a Monoprice Select Mini 3D printer. That set off a journey that has been a lot of fun. I’m using a Sovol SV08 now, but the Mini was a great gateway printer at that time.
my 10 year bonus was 2 extra weeks of PTO. Maybe move to a different company that rewards your loyalty?
My 10 year bonus was a framed certificate congratulating me on lasting 10 years…which they gave me 16 months late. 😂
Noise-Cancelling Headphones…
not to mention any specific ones, just the general concept of it…
Everything sounds better, more immersive…
Also blocks out family arguments to varying degress of success depending on how much you spend on headphones…
Oh yea btw the first time I watched interstellar was on a cheap android phone with LCD 720p display using the phone speakers… 👀
On the other side of it, Bluetooth Speakers
Can sort of change the atmoshere of a room, feel slightly less “depressing”
Oh yea btw the first time I watched interstellar was on a cheap android phone with LCD 720p display using the phone speakers…
Yea I know. I saw Project Hail Mary in an IMAX theater a month ago… so different…
So immersive…
Also so loud…
My favorite thing was that quiet sequence and the light flashing sequence
spoiler
Where the astronaut guy (lol forgot the name already) was like about to die and Rocky went and saved him that sequence…
So epic
That was the first time I’ve been in a movie theater…
Also is this guy British? Lol, do British people talk like that. Its so funny to see them trying to be as insulting as possible while looking “professional” doing it. xD
Samsung QD-OLED
Playstation 5
intel iMac
Garmin 955 Forerunner
Asioma Mx-2 power meter pedalsThis year I’m going to get an Acura Integra A-Spec Tech, reviews on it are stellar. Replacing a 12 year old Civic .
I am on the fence about getting a Switch 2. Never got a Switch because it wasn’t 4K and the games seemed meh.
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.
