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
My ebook reader. In the German speaking area, there are even some DRM free ebooks available that I can buy.
Libraries also lend e-books. Having fun isn’t hard when you got a library card 🐜 🐻 🎶
A robot vacuum still brings me joy every day
And my shockz bone conducting headset is great
And replacing windows with cachyos
A Logitech speakers system. Got it about 20y ago when the brand was still awesome (and actually called Logitech). 100% analog and it works to this day. I dread the day it dies.
i bought a new 2.1 system for my pc a few years ago and there isnt much that changed compared to the old ones. so you don’t have to fear as much enshittification as in other Logitech branches
Good to hear. A friend had one with a digital control terminal that failed twice in two years or something. That was almost 15y ago.
- Steam Deck (I spend 90% of my time gaming on my couch than at my desk)
- Minidisc Players (There was some MD hate in the other thread but community-made software has come a long way)
- Kobo (Freeing myself from Amazon’s DRM)
- DAS (Creating my own media collection on Jellyfin)
I have heard of NAS to but What is a DAS?
Direct Attached Storage. It’s kinda like NAS but not in network. One could argue it’s just an external hard drive. If I remember correctly I went with one because it was more affordable. I was on a tight budget at the time.
Appreciate the MD love. Super fun format and slick tech. It’s over 25 years old and still feels like the future.
Macbook Air probably (Apple silicon)
Apart from the repairability it’s just THE perfect laptop
Steam Deck, hands down. It rules being able to play PC games in bed with my partner by my side.
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!
Its sooo gooood!
Noise cancelling headphones are incredible, using them in a noisy airport eliminated 80% of the discomfort of travelling
noisy *office
discomfort of *coworkers
(except you Sean, you’re okay)
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.
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!)
an ereader (a decent, 3rd party software compatible one, not amazons ewaste)
I recently went on a trip to Italy and my e-reader was the unexpected MVP of that trip. Any downtime at the hotel or on the plane instead of staring at a tiny screen I was reading books and felt refreshed instead of drained afterwards, and it took up less space than if I brought just a single book with me. I also didn’t need to charge it once on the entire 10 day trip because eink is so freaking amazing
My Framework 13.
Formerly steam deck, now unseated by my AYN Thor. It can play 70-80% of the games the deck can in a package that fits in your pocket.
My breville coffee maker and bratza burr grinder. It makes the best coffee and doesn’t complain.
Also, my dolphin pool cleaning robot. Vacuuming a pool manually is such a hassle. Outsourcing that to a bot is truly amazing.
Anything that buys me back my time.
I recently got an AYN thor. What sort of things have you been playing on it? I’ve not ventured too far into a gaming library yet and was wondering how others are using it.
Strix Halo laptop.
After a little over a year with a Framework 16, which I had multiple problems with (garbage build quality and tolerances, multiple USB A and C expansion modules all utterly unreliable in any slot), I sold it and instead got an HP ZBook Ultra G1A. Really feeling vindicated getting a laptop with 64gb of 8000mt/s RAM last year given the RAMpocalypse.
Still wasn’t cheap but the thing is insanely powerful for its size, especially the GPU which is crazy good for “integrated”
Number 2 is an electric vehicle.
Number 1 is a non-smart TV
Honorable mention; The Apple Watch SE 2 I bought for my wife so she stops thinking she’s going tachy or having a heart attack 9 times a year. Considering the cost of an average ER trip, and the hit to my sanity when these things only happen at like 3 AM, I’ll gladly upgrade her to the pro version or whatever when the SE kicks the bucket.
I’m in the market for a new TV, what would you recommend for a dumb screen?
I got an Insignia from BestBuy a few years ago. There was a smart version that was 2 inches bigger for 25 dollars less, and I opted out of that. To say the salesman was floored by this decision would be accurate.
The tv’s with really nice screen tech that is dumb usually costs more I find. Every time I go tv shopping I just end up getting angry about it and talk myself out of it again. I like some of the Hisense stuff but Samsung panels are really the best and the price reflects that.
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.
