There’s 3 things that really stand out for me that I would say made a massive difference to my life:
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Cordless screw driver. Bought the day after building a flat pack bed with a crappy screw.driver that just shredded my hand. Thought it was frivolous at the time, but I’ve used it so much since. It’s light, small enough to fit in my pocket and good for 90% of DIY tasks.
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Tassimo coffee machine. Bought it 9 years ago, use it every day. Nice quick easy coffee. What’s not to like.
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My first DSLR camera. It was a Nikon D50 back in 2005/6 and it sparked my interest in photography to this day. It gave me a hobby I can take lots of places and do it alone or with others. I never loved the D50 camera itself, but I did get some really nice shots with it
- vasectomy
- divorce
- campervan
He bought a campervan, so his wife divorced him, and after getting plastered at a bar, he woke up in the hospital with a small scar on his balls.
Kindle - all the books, all the time.
Sony WH1000-XM3 (I guess newer models are still good) - excellent noise cancelling, perfect for flights
Steam Deck - play almost any games, anywhere, and with a full desktop mode too.
In the past I’d have put the Acer Aspire One, I loved the netbook form factor, now I use either the Vivobook or Steam Deck like that.
The Aeropress is also great for quick, simple coffee.
My daughter got the steam deck and she does use it mobile however it has eclipsed the switch as our go to living room family/party/multiplayer console. Family library sharing works very seamlessly in steam.
I am regularly impressed how well PC titles run on it regardless of if they windows running under proton or Linux optimized.
There are also an impressive number of titles that have native or at minimum controller support to the point the onscreen prompts all show the correct buttons. We have a number of Xbox controllers now for up to 4 player multiplayer.
We regularly hook it up to hotel TVs when traveling as well.
I guess newer models are still good
Nope. The WF1000-XM4 have battery drain issues, and there is at least one explosion recorded…
Edit: To everyone saying they have XM4 or XM5 and see no issues, congratulations you are one of the lucky few. Just google “XM4 battery drain” and you will learn the Sony had to issue so many refunds they introduced new processes…
PS Boycott Sony until they address the issues. It’s not okay for major producer to release a product with such a major flow and then look the other way.
Had the XM-4, battery life was shit and I will now never ever buy another set of headphones without physical buttons. They were truly dreadful when you put them round your neck
Changed for Bose QC45 and will never buy Sony again
haha, I had the Sony XM4’s as well and my favorite day ever of owning them was when I finally got so frustrated I threw them off the mower I was riding on and mowed over them. It felt SOOOOO GOOD. By far the biggest waste of money I have ever spent. Never again Sony anything even remotely related to that. Also never again anything without physical buttons.
Same here, I use them very heavily and I usually charge the headset once or maybe twice a week depending on usage. I haven’t calculated how long they actually last but I absolutely believe the 30 something hours on the box.
I should be clear that I mean the WH-1000XM4.
All true wireless in-ear headphones have an awful battery life of like only 6-8 hours or so.
The one problem I have with the headphones is that moisture from sweat and watering them seems to bring some annoying symptoms.
Haaaa yeah the kindle. Both loved and hated in my case. Love the form factor, allowing me to indulge in new books. Hate it because I don’t get new physical books anymore. Not that I have any room left for books; that’s the reason I bought the kindle in the first place…
I bought a 97 Ford Taurus off a friend for $800 back in 2008. Her dad thought it was on its last legs at 155k miles so he wanted to sell it. I drove it for four years. It was running fine until someone blasted it out in front of my girlfriend’s house and drove off. At the time it had 206k miles. 50k miles for $800 was certainly one of my best purchases.
All my cars have been sub-$5k rust buckets or on their last legs.
$600 - 1993 Honda civic
$1300 - 1994 Volkswagen Golf
$3000 - 2003 Mazda 3
$1000 - 2007 ford escape
$2000 - 2012 Kia Rio
$3000 - 1994 Chevrolet s10
$4000 - 2009 Volkswagen rabbit
$4000 - 2009 Toyota Yaris
Almost all of them sold for what I bought it for. Im mechanically inept so probably could have kept them longer if I was good at that.
Good purchases, some adventures, but cheap cars that work out and are in that sweet spot of not dead but still cheap are great.
A computer — no other item I own has changed the course of my life as much as owning my own computer has.
- Back in 2017 while stationed in AZ I adopted a dog who was the cutest little Blue Heeler, for $5 we have been inseparable since and she is the single greatest thing that’s happened to me.
- Last year in April my Powerstrokes transmission failed and on a whim I bought a 98’ 4 runner with 245k miles. We have now built the hell out of that little rig and have put 15k miles on it in 11 months
- 100 pairs of socks on Amazon. This sounds nuts but, I got 100 pairs of black socks 2 years ago for $60 because I was tired of my socks always missing. I still have 50 socks I haven’t touched.
How was anyone meant to know that? Why use 2 random letters to refer to a state in a foreign country?
