Ask Lemmy

Bidet. $30 game changer. Don't ask questions, just hook it up (it's easy), and try it.

You're welcome.

I wasn't disappointed with Infinity War and Endgame

Linux and open source software.

Tested out a dualboot of Linux Mint about 2 years ago on a Windows laptop. Wanted to see how far I could get on 100% open source and free software.

I got far enough that I never looked back.

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 didn't think Portal could possibly live up to the hype and I slept on it for a a decade. It did. Superb game

I know I'm alone in this, but I loved and still love VR since htc vive

Mechanical keyboards

Every keystroke feels and sounds like heaven!

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.

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.

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.

Buckwheat pillow

Bidet

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 round~~ is not quite the same experience.

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.

Naps

An air fryer. Holy cow that thing is versatile and an amazing addition to the kitchen!

The band Opeth

I ended up with an air fryer. It's still just a convection oven, but I use it constantly.

transitioning

Crocs. I had avoided them for years until I went on a kayaking tour on Vancouver Island. Well, while they were ugly AF, they are one of most comfortable shoes I've tried that are just... Easy to slip on and off?

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.

High quality kitchen knives. I'm partial to hand-forged Japanese carbon steel. So sharp. Maintains an edge. Easy to sharpen. Being beautiful is just an added bonus.

World of Warcraft back in 2007-8

House on the Rock

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.

Win7

Air-fryer

bone-conducting headphones

PSX

Firefly

Inis

Innovation

Steam deck

friendslop video games. its fun to get into wacky little low budget games with people you like.