Ask Lemmy

Surprised nobody has mentioned a computer yet, so mine is going from a $200 dell optiplex I saved up for to a ~$3,000 gaming rig my parents convinced the government to buy me.
The government had a $5,000 thing to parents with autistic children (diagnosed before the age of 10) and they could spend it on stuff that would help the child. They had to fight tooth and nail to convince them that it would let me play games with my friends (a total lie, I only played Minecraft and terraria then). They surprised me with it on my birthday I think 5 years ago and it was AMAZING.

I've spent nearly every dollar I've earned in the past 5 years improving my setup and game library.

Oh. And a high quality Bluetooth mouse. I used a Glorious Model O (for Minecraft 1.8 pvp) since it came out and used it till the battery only lasts a day or two, also I wanted more buttons. Only 6 months ago have I switched to a g502x and I went like 3 weeks without charging it. Its amazing.

A small vacuum and mop Roomba clone. Having two dogs leaving fur everywhere made vacuuming every day a necessary chore but now I only need to empty out their base every day and they take care of keeping the floors clean. I don't have them connected to my Wi-Fi though so hopefully that helps mitigate any hacking attempts.

A kneepad for my NC Miata. Kept digging my knee into the center console. A pad was the best upgrade I've made to that car.

On a tangent, is it just me, or has there been a notable uptick in this type of question? Feels a lot like astroturfing, but so far as I can see there's been no malicious intent

Several things:

1. Bidet. ‘Nuff said.
2. automatic litter box. Took a lot of training for our one dumb cat but since then … life changing.
3. ebike. So many times I used to drive because I was feeling lazy or woke up just a smidge late… now I can just dial up the assist a notch and it’s no problem.

Agree with:

Dishwasher (really just toss dishes in as you use them, close and run at night, put 'em away in morning, it's magic. I didn't have one till I was almost 50)

Electric bike (I hate biking but this is like a dream of a bike)

Roomba (wood floors no grit)

And the mesh wifi system that lets me easily see and address the rare hiccups it has.

RAM update. Doubling your RAM on most low/medium -end consumer PCs will noticeably improve responsiveness and multitasking.

Bone conduction headphones for biking. Being able to listen to my tunes while I'm riding around is amazing.

noise canceling bluetooth headphones (Sony XM3s, in my case). They are always near me. Thousands of hours and I haven't even changed the earpads yet. I don't know how I lived without them.

Smart lights. What a world of difference coming home to my lights being on either from them automatically triggering, or me turning them on remotely. Or, being able to take a shower knowing my lights will be able to turn themselves off on whatever timer I set. It's been an excellent expereince

Higher quality electric coffee grinders. I have been using pretty nice hand grinders for years ($100 to $200 range) and while they were good, the consistency and general quality of life improvement gotten from these nicer electric grinders has made a significant improvement in both the coffee quality and my time/life quality related to making coffee daily.

Automatic litter box! They're so pricey, I always wasn't in a place to do it, but I finally bit the bullet. I don't think I can go back. It's so easy, and my cat wasn't scared at all. I also feel better knowing she always has clean litter. When she comes to bed I can just run the box from my app.

Bonus: it rotates sideways so my cat can keep her head. 👍🏾

I bought a 2080ti for $1200 right before covid and everyone gave me shit about how I was wasting my money because the 3000 series had a lower MSRP which then ballooned to $2000+.

So while everyone else was struggling to get a graphics card due to supply chain issues and prohibitive costs, I was gaming in 4k resolution throughout the pandemic. To say that this was clutch during a time I couldn’t really do much outside of the house with other people would be a massive understatement.

I usually would not have spent that much on a card, but I won a hackathon cash prize right before so had some money burning a hole in my pocket. The card is still going strong and is still my daily driver, so I can’t say it’s been a bad purchase at all.

a 3d printer, I've picked up my now favourite hobby when I got it: gun smithing

Does corrective eye surgery count? Because it fundamentally changed my daily quality of life

An immersion blender, it was $30 but it made my soups seem gourmet and let me recycle my gallons of lard into the best soap I have ever used.

Aside from that, I replaced two of my mismatched odd shaped PC monitors with 27" 4k monitors and the difference is amazing. The monitors were so cheap too only $110 each. Together with my super fancy main screens it really cleaned up the desktop.

Motion sensor and smart light switch. There are two rooms in my house with multiple entryways and awful light switch options, so without these I’d just stumble in the dark.

We also have it for our carport and it’s so pleasant for the light to automagically happen and then go off without needing to remember to change anything.

(And all of this done through local mesh and Apple HomeKit. We do not use proprietary services that can be shut down on us.)

My first very small mp3 player, something from sony. It was amazing.

My first digital camera, just being able to see your picture after shooting them. being able to delete photos was revolutionary.

My first wifi access point, having Internet at home without cable.

My first phone that could load msn messager. Also pretty cool.

I bought a new microwave in 2007 to replace the 1989 model I had since college. It could boil water in under 10 minutes. It had sensor cooking and preset modes. It was life changing.