“Lock laces” elastic shoestrings. Gives me a nice fit and I can slip my shoes on and off more easily.
I will definitely second that recommendation. They turn basically every shoe into a slipper.
I was skeptical when I read about them, but gave them a go. Reason being: my feet swell during the day, which means I was constantly loosening my laces throughout the day. Which isn’t ideal.
The Lock Laces help in that they’re always perfect: they flex with my feet and always have just the right tension.
They are popular with a wide range of people. Triathletes like them for fast transitions since you don’t need to retie your shoes. Marathon runners also love them since it means no more laces getting undone. And yes, they’re obviously great for old folks and people with disabilities.
I like them so much, I now put them on every new pair of shoes that I buy.
Bought a Rovyvon keychain flashlight I believe was around $20 that’s amazing. It’s Iike 650 lumens or something and it’s tiny so I just have it on my keychain and turn it on at night if I need it in a jiffy.
I bought a nice pair of fingernail clippers. ~$15 Green Bell from Japan. You hardly have to apply any force to the lever at all, and the nail just slices off neatly and falls inside. Not like my old cheapo pair that went “KACHONK” and endangered anyone in my vicinity of shrapnel injuries.
I have one of those Japanese nail clippers. I’m wondering how they make it cut so softly. Like even if it didn’t eat the nails they wouldn’t launch. Best clippers ever, even if it’s harder to get the edges.
Pretty sure they’re just incredibly sharp. The Japanese like to sharpen things.
I’m betting that it almost all comes down to sharpness and using better metal (harder, keeping it sharp)
Well Wet Bob, you made me laugh.
I don’t know man, the kachonk is a valuable part of the experience for me, great tactile feedback
I guess I can see the appeal of that. But it’s pretty fun feeling like a nail salon samurai, too.
Microwave Splatter cover
VE Monk in-ear headphones. Easily the best audio value in the world. Prepare to have your mind blown by the sound. Look up reviews
They are good but do they still make them find it hard to find them
I got a new pair of VE Monk Plus about 10 months ago, from AliExpress, but I haven’t looked recently.
Not going back to cables. Hated it when I yanked them out accidentally.
These ones were my best buy for an item around 20€:
https://www.amazon.de/Xiaomi-Earbuds-Basic-Freisprechfunktion-Aufbewahrungsbox/dp/B08GSQ7B9Z
Pretty sturdy. Much bass. Very good connectivity and fit.
I concur. VE Monk and it’s successor Monk Plus are the best $5 earphones you’ll ever use. They compete against earphones in the $100-$150 category. Don’t let their appearance fool you, they look like a cheap crappy plastic pair you’d get for free with a discman. But their audio quality I’m phenomenal.
I’ll note here, the VE Monk success has spawned a bunch of competitors in the very-cheap-but-shockingly-good category, notably look at the Faaeal Snow Lotus and Faaeal Iris, I have both and they are great.
like a cheap crappy plastic pair you’d get for free with a discman.
You must be matured around my age talking about discmans like that. Although, The last “discman” i bought was a portable CD player, and wireless earbuds didn’t exist.
This is crazy, according to wiki: “The Sony brand name for Discman changed to CD Walkman, initially for Japanese lineups launched between October 1997 and March 1998,[1] and then entirely in 2000. Discman and CD Walkman players were discontinued at the beginning of the 2010s when they lost popularity with the general public.”
Makes me feel a little old…
Kuhn Rikon Swiss Peelers. They come in 3-packs for like $15. They’re sharp AF, lightweight and easy to use.
Zyliss make amazing peelers too
manual pull string food processor.
I love chopping up food with it. It’s very fun and works perfectly.
immersion blender honorable mention.
Do you mean like…those gyroscopes you’d spin up using twine?
i’m not sure what you mean.
I’m talking about one of these manual food processors:
https://www.amazon.ca/Starfrit-092969-Chopper-Processor-Green/dp/B09VM9C8R4
the one I have is a little more ergonomic with a ring on top.
I have a salad spinner like that; use it all the time.
Nice. I’ve only seen salad spinners with those inconvenient handles on the top that I don’t like to use, so I’m glad to hear they’re using the pull ring finally.
Just be careful when you wash them. Destroyer of fingers and knuckles.
Laser pointer
Its amazing for both tasks related and unrelated to playing with my cat
A cat wrote this comment.
I like to do photography and timelapse videos, so my favorite gadget is a collapsible tripod I can use with my phone. It doubles as a selfie stick and includes a carrying bag and an optional bluetooth remote.
A small dry erase white board for grocery lists on my refrigerator.
BoogieBoards are really nice for this.
They’re electronic whiteboards essentially. No mess and they have a ton of erase cycles.
Milk frother for my morning latte.
Fantastic for protein shakes too
😲 I never thought of using it this “whey”! Protein shakes don’t always mix easily…
I do enjoy a good protein shake in the morning, especially when no one else is around, sets me up for the day
Why are you feeling the need to have your protein shakes in secrecy?
I don’t always, just a preference. If there’s someone who wants to join in thats definitely a bonus and adds to the experience
Just wanted to say thanks. I have a frother for my milk but for some reason I never thought about using it for my protein shakes. Will try it!
Rechargeable is key here. Amazon has the for under $10. There’s no going back.
Moondrop Chu 2 earphones. I use expensive Hifi gear at home, but those are more than good enough on the go while also being cheap enough for me not to have to worry about them getting damaged or stolen.
Don’t forget to use a $100 cable with it!
Or your portable ground
lol didn’t even know that was a thing.
Audiophiles are funny. I have a pair of LCD-Xs and a set of 7HZ Timeless but just end up using AirPods because of the lack of wires and convenience.
Slider style EDC utility knife. Small, lightweight, and because the blades are cheap and easily replaced you can abuse them - cut on concrete, pry stuff, if it breaks the blade, not a big deal.
https://a.co/d/gouJDKV typical example but there’s lots of different ones.
Bonus - these blades are more expensive than most, but still cheap and last a lot longer than standard blades do https://a.co/d/bQj77Qz
I have & like this one https://a.co/d/fC2ISyq - $9.95
I have one of those floating around here too, the thing I didn’t care for with that model was that the blade doesn’t stick out very far. The one-handed action is nice tho. The one I carry every day is this one https://a.co/d/29pk73c but it’s not currently available.
I have this one, it’s probably the most minimal https://a.co/d/1BycXW3
A nice pepper grinder! Makes every meal better
The Unicorn has pepper output like I’ve never seen with any other grinder I’ve used. Got tired of breaking cheap ones every so often and tried spending 20 or 30 bucks once or twice randomly on better ones, but nothing worked half as well as after I found that one.
Nice salt is great too!
For salt I just grabbed a small diner style salt shaker, it’s really cute and makes it easy to control portions
Kosher salt ftw, I have a little dish with a lid, looks great on the counter but is also super functional
I resisted, but now I’m a believer in Maldon salt.
My pepper grinder was $35, got it from a woodworker at a local farmers market, definitely worth it.
A pi zero w. Need a wireless Android Auto adapter? Flash the right image. Need a Klipper controller for a 3D printer, flash the right image. Need to add a wireless thumb drive to any device that you can drop files to over the network? Flash the right image and run a few commands. They are very cheap and insanely versatile. I originally got a handful for $5 each and am still finding uses for them.
How do you hook up to it?
I tried a similar board once (Orange i96 ?) that was cheap and had no video nor ethernet, just wifi and usb and I was never able to hook up to it in any way (ssh or some video over wifi).
https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-imager-imaging-utility/
This tool makes it easy to flash images as well as pre setup WiFi and ssh on the image.
For the Android Auto you only need the image and Balena Etcher.
I’ve got two just lying around. What image can I use for the Android auto adapter?
I’m gonna go buy one for that wireless android auto, I never even considered a dongle let alone a DIY pi dongle! do you have a link for that wireless thimbdrive one too? and/or is there an easy way to browse other interesting images/tasks you can do with the pi zero w?
https://magpi.raspberrypi.com/articles/pi-zero-w-smart-usb-flash-drive
It gives instructions for starting from a desktop OS, I just started with a headless OS to begin with. Then you can skip disabling the desktop and go straight to setting it up.
I use it for sending files to my resin 3D printer that doesn’t have wifi built in. I just power on the printer before I prep files and then I can save them to the printer over the network.
For finding more uses, probably searching Hack-a-Day. That’s probably how I’ve found these over the years.
