this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 142 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Headphones. I don't wanna listen to your tik toks on a bus.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I would add that a pair of good ones is a world of difference for everything you might use them for - music, gaming, movies. Now good != expensive, good headphones can be had for under 50 bucks, great headphones for around 100-200, anything beyond that you are venturing into audiophile waters with very diminishing returns.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (6 children)
[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago

I wish you a merry diarrhea 😊

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[–] [email protected] 95 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Since we're on Lemmy, USB jump drive so they can reinstall a new distro of Linux every ~3 months

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been telling myself to stop distrohopping for 7 years.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I'm addicted to optimizing my OS

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[–] [email protected] 91 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Keyboard. It’s got hotkeys for the most used characters. It’s so much faster than manually drawing each character in Paint.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wow, my MS paint workflow is feeling attacked right now.

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[–] [email protected] 85 points 1 year ago (7 children)

A good chair. I know it's not technically a gadget but if you're spending half of your day on the computer you should spend on a good chair with proper lumbar support. Your back will thank you.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago (15 children)

Just don't fall for those "gamer" chairs. They're designed to look pretty, not to be comfortable.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (1 children)

External hard drive big enough to hold more than the entire memory of the computer. Keep everything you find valuable at least, or better yet back up the entire computer on there and update it regularly. Leave it unplugged from the computer between updates.

In other words, an offline backup of everything on your main computer.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Follow the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies, 2 different mediums (second HDD + thumb drive, DVD-R, tape if you’re nerdy, etc) and 1 offsite (cloud, VPN tunnel to someone else’s NAS, etc)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"if it doesn't exist in 3 places, it doesn't exist at all" is an adage I do my best to abide by. I lost a 500mb hard drive in the 90s (oh no...all my funny Sound Recorder clips and funny pics!!) and have been paranoid ever since.

Digital storage is just too cheap nowadays to risk it. Cloud storage, too

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (11 children)

What are you all backing up? My SSD is just my OS, some programs and Steam, a fresh install without a backup has me back up and running in about 2 hours.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Oh goodness… 60,000+ pictures I’ve taken with my camera, my collection of flac files, movies, shows, photoshopped images, screenshots, and random files that might stop existing on the internet!

When I was younger, heaps of hentai. Many heaps.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (4 children)

A mouse. Just any mouse. There are so many trackpad warriors out there (primarily Apple users) that complain they're being handicapped but they don't just go for the easy solution.

I've even seen some idiots stubbornly trying to do CAD work with a trackpad, and struggling in the process.

Get a fucking mouse.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I put my pet mouse on my trackpad. It freed up my right hand for typing, but now my cursor keeps wandering.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A good mouse and keyboard are probably a good start.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (7 children)

A mouse with programmable keys on the side. It's so convenient combining control keys with mouse movements in one hand.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I have a mouse with 6 buttons on the side and it's great for gaming. When I used to play fortnite I had all the building mapped there so I could do all my building with my right thumb and it wouldnt distract my left hand from movement controls

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Get a multi port USB charger. I have some from Anker that have 2 usb-c ports and 2 usb-a ports. Can charge everything from my laptop to all my gadgets.

You can't have enough usb chargers.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One of my best purchases is the Anker 543 charger:

  • 2x USB-C and 2x USB-A ports delivering up to 45W.
  • Plugs into socket with an AC cable instead of built-in prongs. Lets you plug it into tight areas where a wall wart won't fit.
  • AC cable is a removable figure 8 attachment, so if it breaks you can replace it cheaply without buying a new charger. You can also buy an extra long AC cable to get power further away.
  • Power supply is compatible with 240v and 110v AC. If you're traveling, just buy that country's AC cord for $5 instead of all those shitty attachments that travel adapters come with.
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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago

Monitor arms and/or a standing desk. Monitor arms free up so much space on your desk and having a standing desk is just good for physical health especially if you work from home.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (4 children)

While I guess not technically a gadget, a nice footrest is surprisingly comfortable when sitting at the computer a while

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A small screen (3-4") phone
Best way to kick the habit of spending every free minute looking at the screen, but still perfectly functional for a wide variety of tasks, unlike a dumbphone.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (6 children)

what are some modern examples of these? most phones that are still updated are phablets

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

It's a hardware authentication key. Kinda like a USB flash drive.

You know how some services offer multifactor authentication (MFA), also referred to as two factor authentication (2FA)?

There are typically two types offered: time-based one-time passwords (TOTPs) where you have 30-60 seconds to type in a 6-digit code, and SMS-based where they text you a 4-6 digit code (that also expires within a set time frame).

With a Yubikey, you gotta plug in the Yubikey into your computer or phone. Or, there are some models that use near field communication (NFC) and you just need to bring it near the device you're tryna authenticate.

So rather than typing in those codes you get either from SMS or your authenticator app, you use the Yubikey as your authentication method.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (6 children)

if you draw or photoshop, a wacom screen is a life changer. not an ipad pro or surface, a 20"+ wacom cintiq on a solid desk is still light years beyond anything else out there. also, if you edit video, a usb shuttle wheel with mapable hot buttons makes cutting much faster than click and drag. really good speakers are important. lastly, get the best chair (with a headrest!) you can afford.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (6 children)

If you are a pc enthusiast I'm going to say you need a sensor panel. I built one myself, 7" lcd display and driver board costs less then 30€ and the result is incredible. I always look at it for any sort of reason it has temperatures, FPS, cpu/gpu/ram usage, network bandwidth.. I always know what's going on!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used rainmeter to do the same thing on my 2nd monitor for free if anyone is looking for a software solution to this :)

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

One of these, the world's most sophisticated form of protection.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Electrical tape is classier.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

they sell little plastic laptop camera sliders online for nearly nothing that are more convenient and visually modest

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Refrigerator

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used a Kinesis Freestyle 2 split keyboard for my software dev work, and it eliminated the ulnar neuropathy I was experiencing in about a month.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Nas systems like Synology, u can store photos, files, or anything without public cloud services.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Appropriate game controllers for what you play. Gamepads, arcade sticks, racing wheels and flight sticks all have their uses. Mouse and keyboard isn't always the best control scheme and it's annoying to see steam reviews where people complain about that.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As somebody that doesn't play a lot of racing games or flight sims or anything, a basic gamepad will go a long way. A lot of games that feel bad on keyboard were simply made primarily for console. Dark Souls was an infamous example of this, but this can apply to a surprising amount of things - I find it's hard to reach for numbers in MMOs, and macro keyboards/mice are too busy, but FFXIV actually handles incredibly well on a controller because it was designed with the PS4 in mind. Even with recent games, Armored Core 6, Resident Evil remakes, Elden Ring, Jedi Survivor, I'm sure these all play fine on keyboard and mouse but they're much more comfortable on a gamepad.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Anything you interact with on a daily basis. Keyboard, mouse, desk, monitor... If you're going to be spending a couple hours a day at it why not treat yourself?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Large desk mat comfy chair good keyboard wrist rest decent 1440 monitor

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (8 children)

A 4k monitor. It's like making your desk 4 times bigger.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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