USB plug -in desk fan that plugs into my laptop that I got on Amazon for $10. Carry it everywhere with me.
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.
I keep an extremely small 64GB USB-A/USB-C flash drive on my Keychain so I can move files between phones, phone to computer, or load movies and TV shows from a computer or phone and plug into a TV to play.
It’s only $10 and sometimes it’s very convenient to always have on hand the ability to move files around without the use of a network or the cloud or whatever. The size of it is extremely small.
Verbatim 64GB Store ‘n’ Go Dual OTG USB 3.2 Gen 1 Flash Drive for USB-C Devices – 2 in 1 Type C Thumb Drive https://a.co/d/40uW3fE
So simple to siphon off stuff from the phone like photos to back up! And load it full with films.
It’s crazy how everything is so locked in.
Why I’m holding onto my note 20 ultra for the foreseeable future as well. Last samsung flagship with an SD card slot. It holds all my pictures, videos, and TV shows and movies on that little card.
This is good.
Also, though it’s more than $10, but my phone battery has gone to shit lately (f u Google for your shit pixels), and my anker mini power bank is carrying me right now: https://a.co/d/5lmsCiI
I have a Pixel 7 Pro and the battery sucks now. I want to wait another year because Verizon contracts are 36 months now. I hope my failing battery lasts that long.
Have the fold.
Stupid expensive phone that lost half its battery life in less than a year.
It’s not rocket surgery, just have an option to limit charging to 85% like Samsung does.
I guess simple math is too hard for Google.
Tip for increasing the life of your next battery:
Li-Po batteries degrade far faster when their charge level is at the levels the manufacturers call 0-15% or 85-100%; the exact minimum and maximum charge levels are a manufacturer decision that trades off total battery capacity when new against battery life. Manufacturers make the decision by thinking about what is most profitable for them, which is the biggest possible advertised (brand new) battery capacity, while dying quite fast (within a couple of years) to sell more, but not so fast consumers can claim it is faulty.
So they will happily make the battery last 1/5th of the life it otherwise would, for +30% brand new battery capacity, even if that 30% will be gone in a year of typical use.
Those decisions are aligned to the manufacturer’s interests, but they are seldom aligned to a consumer’s interest. Most consumers would be better off with 30% less battery capacity, but a phone battery that lasts 5x as long - many people for example charge every day, and only get down to 80% or something anyway.
The way to re-align to your interests are to: stop charging above 85%, and shut down at 15% instead of going down to 0%. You can do this manually, but it is a real pain; you can’t just plug it in, and leave it until it is charged, you’d need to micromanage charging. Some more responsible manufacturers (e.g. some Samsung devices) have features that will do this for you if you set preserve battery mode. Others, including Google, however, really don’t want you to do this, because it hurts their sales. They don’t provide standard APIs available to unrooted devices that would allow apps that do this.
If you are willing to root your device (and ideally install a third party Android distro like LineageOS), you can install ACCA (https://f-droid.org/packages/mattecarra.accapp/) on a rooted device, and set it to stop charging at 85%, and shut down at 15%. This will increase your battery life very significantly, and drastically slow the decline in capacity you’d otherwise see. Unfortunately, many manufacturers hate people taking control of their own devices this way; Google has unfortunately convinced major banks etc… to use their so called “Play Integrity API” to check that your device is “secure” (where secure is defined by Google as including a phone no longer receiving security patches, with known vulnerabilities that let someone trivially install a keylogger over the wifi, but excluding the same phone rooted by the owner, with a highly secure up-to-date LineageOS install, with extra security software like firewalls that stock Android wouldn’t allow, and with ACCA installed; it’s almost like “secure” means toeing the Google line, and the banks have been conned). There are sometimes ways to pass the Play Integrity API checks even when rooted, but Google is constantly battling users to try to break them. But it might be worth it for better security and battery life.
Not a pixel, but I literally just replaced my note 20 ultra battery like 2 hours ago. I have all the equipment and knowhow to rip phones apart that don’t want to let you. I believe most of the pixels aren’t too bad to get into and battery replace if you ever get a wild hair in you to give it a shot. Just fyi, go with an oem battery. Pretty much all aftermarket ones are terrible. Also be careful of the loads of counterfeits and used sold as new batts on eBay.
Did you just get everything from ifixit or what?
No, but it’s a great source to get stuff if they can get the parts, and all their tools should work well. If their batteries aren’t OEM ones, they won’t try to pass them off as such.
I’ve been fixing cell phones since the 90’s, along with a lot of other electronics, so most of my equipment has been a hodge-podge of sources I’ve collected over the past 25 or so years.
In the case of the battery I just got for my N20 Ultra, there is no source I could come up with that sold in the US and also seemed verifiable or completely trustworthy so I had to take a risk and order through a supplier off ebay. The pictures looked legit and like what I know the oem’s look like, and they had the correct looking adhesive and protective coverings on the batt, plus I messaged the seller back and fourth a couple of times and they stayed on their claim they had new oem batts, even after I’d mentioned I would capacity test the battery and leave them a review.
Now, I still won’t know for sure for a few more days. I’ll drain the batt to phone shut off and then charge to 100% plus 2 more hours a couple times, and then drain to shut off and charge it to 100% + 2 hours one more time while leaving the phone off and using my in line voltage/mah tester. Knock off batteries never get very close to an oem batts capacity.
My wife has a different style by them and it has served her very well for two years.
I remember when an 8gb flash drive was like $20. This is wild.
my first one was 128MB and it was > $100. this was when iomega zip drives were popular.
I remember upping my ram from 2MB to 4MB, while I had a 6GB hard drive.
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’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.
I’ve got two just lying around. What image can I use for the Android auto adapter?
Removed by mod
Don’t hurt me
No more.
DUN DUN DADOODLE DOOT DOOT
dah da do da do da do no more
Thinkpad T440p docking station, I get everything these days is USB C but I love having a docking station thats sturdy and has tons of ports vs a dongle that hangs off the side of my laptop and has maybe six ports.
Mantric Rechargeable Remote Control Knicker Vibrator I got on sale for 50% off. I’m not super into the whole public thing, but I’ve been using it way more than my magic wand, that fucking tip is shaped perfectly. Plus it would make an excellent phaser prop.
Not really what I was looking for but okay…
Thanks for the laugh both of you.
Hey, you opened the door! 🤣
So does this gadget
It at least rings the doorbell
This is exactly what I was looking for. My day just got infinitely better.
Yeah, I can see that, but it’s like $70. Yes, I looked.
Seems some if not all of the big online adult stores run frequent promotions, be that for “get a free X with purchase”, buy one get one or just flat “40% off one item” so wait for the right promotion and jump on it.
Oh I’ll jump on it ;)
I want to see an image of this but I don’t want it in my search history
Is it rumbly or buzzy (Low frequency or high)
Asking for a friend…
Plus it would make an excellent phaser prop.
Set to stun.
Fully functional
Dang it, 4 replies down and I’m horny already
More than the magic wand, you say? That’s quite the endorsement.
I can’t not see this now
Plus it would make an excellent phaser prop
Well, I know what my Halloween costume will be
Managed to pick up an attachable bidet toilet washlet for around $16. Worth every penny.
Bidet master race.
Got myself one with heated seat, heated water (tankless water heater, not a connection to a hot water tap that takes ages to warm up), and even a hot air dryer thing that I only really use in the winter.
Cost a hundred bucks, best hundred bucks I’ve ever spent, I’ll never go back.
Cold water ones are good too, more practical even, but the water gets cold here in the winter, make your brown eye blue lol
Arduino? you can get like 3 or the mini ones for $15 and depending on the amount of effort you are willing to put in it can control almost anything.
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.
Laser pointer
Its amazing for both tasks related and unrelated to playing with my cat
A cat wrote this comment.
The old Pier 1 Imports back scratchers. They use to sell for 75¢.
My dad had a bunch of these when I was a kid. Super durable and great as back scratchers or just a stick to play with. I bought a few after finding them online and love having them.
I got some that were nicely finished bamboo but they didn’t have enough of a sharp edge at the business end to really give a good scratch like the ones from my youth. Fortunately that was easily rectified with a couple seconds on a belt sander.
I’ve 3D printed A LOT of similarly shaped scratchers and give them away randomly to people - they are wonderful to have. I even have some in my car and at my office lol. I slapped my name on them in the Slicer software so people remember where they got it!
It looks like it could even double as a poop knife!
Ha! I have one of these sitting next to me on my desk. It’s multi-function, as it works great for reaching up and opening and closing my curtains too.
DYMO Embossing Label Maker
They’re like $9 on Amazon and I label everything. I have 2 myself, and they’re also my go-to for white-elephant parties.
Once I went on leave and the fella who filled in for me got a few complaints that he was slow. He said it was because I hadn’t labelled my store room properly. I added a few dymo labels around the place. The next time I went on leave he got a few more complaints and gave the same explanation, so I added a few more. After the third time I left the room looking like this picture and he shut up.
I’m not sure if that says LEGO or LEAD
I guess I should rephrase.
I label a lot of boxes and spice containers but nothing unhinged lol
A nice pepper grinder! Makes every meal better
My pepper grinder was $35, got it from a woodworker at a local farmers market, definitely worth it.
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!
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.
The best.
For salt I just grabbed a small diner style salt shaker, it’s really cute and makes it easy to control portions
Microwave Splatter cover