An obvious one, but Spotify. They've solved so many problems in the music-listening experience, it's amazing.
I remember having to manage so many folders of mp3s, manually syncing them to devices. And paying $.99 a song meant a very limited selection. I often relied on free iTunes playlists to find new music, because I couldn't afford to buy new music at the time.
They've eliminated all of these problems. Pay $10-15 a month, and you can listen to whatever you want, wherever and whenever.
I say this purely from the consumer's perspective, though - I'm not super familiar with what artists' experience is like. On one hand I'm sure Spotify broadens your audience quite a bit, but I wouldn't be surprised if artists run into issues similar to creators on other platforms (e.g. YouTube).
My only frustration with Spotify is songs that I like disappearing from my library because a contract didn’t get renewed. Not Spotify’s fault, but still irritating. For that reason I still have a “offline” iTunes library.
(Well, that and that Spotify funds -and will not stop recommending to me- some podcasts that I find grating. I wish I wasn’t constantly reminded that I’m indirectly funding anti-science nonsense. Were it not that I’m paying for several other people’s Spotify accounts via family sharing I would have switched to Apple Music by now.)
I came here to say this. Spotify is incredible. My only real beef with it is the interface, especially with classical music. I look at my phone to see a list of movement titles, all exactly the same. And with both classical and jazz it’s impossible to see a list of the personnel within the program—if I want to know who’s on drums I need to paste the name of the album into Google or something.
But Spotify changed everything. I recently saw a series on Netflix and liked some of the music used in it, but had no idea what it was. I just entered the name of the show and “soundtrack” into Spotify, and there it was.
The only issue with Spotify is that they are missing quite a few major artists. e.g. Garth Brooks isn’t available on Spotify. One of the best sellers of all time - not on there. Kinda annoying.
Regarding Garth Brooks specifically, the lack of availability of his music on streaming services is entirely his own decision. He owns a streaming service called Ghosttunes that exist /solely/ for hosting and streaming his own music and refuses to make his catalog available on anything else.
Edit: actually looks like he sold it to Amazon a few years ago and it was absorbed into Amazon Music where his catalog is now available. Regardless, Garth owns the rights to all of his music except for his 2014 album "Man Against Machine", so the lack of availability is again entirely his own decision.
> They've solved so many problems in the music-listening experience, it's amazing
And yet each of your comment’s 4 current replies describes a different “only” problem with Spotify that’s solved with folders of mp3s ;)
(Disclaimer: I listen to very little music, so I have no horse in this race except for loathing DRM, and I’m only guessing that the “missing quite a few major artists” problem is solvable by torrenting)
The key here is, how many mp3s are we talking about?
Even though I like music quite a bit, do I want to dedicate multiple terabytes and hours of my time building out and managing a personal catalogue of music I like? Because this is exactly what Spotify gives me for the majority of artists, with 0 effort.
Enterprise-grade home wifi and networking paired with a generous (1gig) ISP connection we don't really need but is never slow.
High-end espresso machine that makes coffee in one button but with all the settings configurable (grind, volume, temperature, etc)
Canon M50 SLR camera permanently mounted for Zoom calls - got the Mk1 open box, looks amazing on calls, wasn't insanely expensive (~$500).
Tesla Model 3P. We just got a flat at home, they came out and swapped the tire for a temp one within 2hrs and then came to the home the next day to repair/replace the flat. Sadly needed replacing but all we paid for the whole experience in the end was the cost of the tire and that was cheaper than local SF places (which are $$). There's so many other great things about Tesla: it's practically maintenance free, the P edition is faster than a Lambo off the line, it's super safe in a crash, carbon neutral when paired with renewable power source, etc. Might be out of scope for this Ask HN but I just feel it's worth every $ I paid for it, and it's apparently only lost about 5% of it's value in 2.5 years which is unheard of in the car industry.
Seeing as a few people are asking for more info on the enterprise home wifi.
Main objective is flawless heavy-usage (Zoom, streaming media) from multiple clients within the home, plus support of lots of clients (we have over 150 assigned IP addresses in the house).
My setup is a server cabinet consisting of Ubiquiti EdgeRouter to handle >1Gbps connection, ISP's preferred modem (so they can't shirk out of full support for the connection which they do if you provide your own equipment), Ubiquiti 24 port POE switch, Ubiquiti Cloud Key Gen2+, Synology NAS, Multicore server running docker containers.
I then have 4 Ubiquiti AP AC PRO wireless access points dotted throughout the home (3 level home) all on wired backhaul to the 24 port switch powered by POE and 2 Ubiquiti 8 port switches at different locations for media center, office etc.
I would imagine the total setup is about $1500 which for a large home we both use to work out of too is very reasonable. It was legitimately tax deductible as well.
My satisfaction with Ubiquiti is declining, in part because of the security issue last year. However there isn't really anything I would replace it with because the main draw of Ubiquiti at this class is that it doesn't have recurring licensing fees like Cisco Meraki does (which are $$$$). I could try to roll my own on some of this but I'm too old/busy to run pfSense and a *-WRT flavor etc. If I was buying a new Ubiquiti setup, which if you rely on home internet I would still advocate for, I would buy a Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro which negates the router, switch and cloud key as separate purchases. It wasn't available when I purchased this setup a few years ago.
ADDED: Some people below said their Ubiquiti equipment was hard to set up, I actually found it super easy and there is a GUI to help you. I'm am/was happy sysop'ing servers over SSH so YMMV. One strong suggestion is to use their dedicated administration device the Cloud Key rather than roll your own on a docker container. The most problems I have in my entire setup are things running in docker so I try to not have them as dependencies but I am running PiHole for DNS which causes problems if it goes down.
Dream Machine running NextDNS and Tailscale on the device itself feels a little bit like living in the future. It finally feels like a culmination of promises and desire, simplified into something that is just non-discrete enough to disappear. There is an ebb and flow to wanting all your components interchangeable, and then longing for an all-in-one. Having your router itself be a Tailscale exit node is slick. When something goes wrong, there are three panes of glass, but only one hardware device to investigate.
The other home networking things I would throw in that people may find useful are: using MoCA to put access points in places that have an existing coax drop but running an ethernet line is impractical, you can have y and forked shaped networks without switches (although not the cheapest solution); and http://getchannels.com + an hdhomerun (tuner -> ethernet) plus a media server, nas, or nvidia shield.
It's interesting how "feeling futuristic" is a single network device that does everything and an over the air tv antenna, but the shit actually "just works" finally.
I bought an ASUS mesh system, I think it’s like the rx-92?, based on suggestions here previously. I love it, the ui is incredible and you can tweak lots of settings. For 2 units I get pretty good coverage in my home with masonry blocks all over the dang place and thick wood everywhere (it’s a 50’s home). I can even use ddns and an OpenVPN connection on it with very little work, and it supports a lot of other things like printer sharing and file serving from a usb drive. It’s about 400 bucks. It’s not “enterprise” but it’s just as good and has none of the cloud bullshit.
It's very easy for a 1gig connection to saturate residential hardware, especially if you have a symmetrical connection which I assume you do if it's fiber. Definitely look into Ubiquti, I posted above a bit more on my setup. I hear the concerns, there are other options but IMHO they have downsides. Going used is an option if you can locate working true enterprise equipment from an office but make sure there isn't a recurring software license on the equipment which many of the vendors implement. I've actually known of offices ripping out their perfectly fine, working equipment because it was cheaper to switch to a different vendor than continue to pay the license fees.
Well, the battery is actually the most problematic part of the environmental footprint. Repairs/maintenance are very minor on a Tesla.
The way we look at it is a family of 3 with a young baby needs a car, we only have one car, and it's the most environmentally friendly one we could get as all cars have some manufacturing overhead. It was also manufactured 60 miles away so the delivery footprint was small too. We're trying our best!
This is probably my fourth full automatic espresso machine, definitely the best I've owned. Amortize the price based on how much coffee you drink (I drink 4 a day) and cost of coffee shop vs machine + beans. Factor in well used machines probably last 3-5 years and then they do need replacing.
I make a personal rule that I only buy $$ coffee from coffee shops if I'm wanting to sit and work/meet (less likely these days) or if I'm really on the go and need a pick-me-up. Otherwise I make a latte on the machine and bring it with me in a vacuum container when I am out and about.
Games. Minecraft: 1 cent per hour, 10+ years of free content updates. Satisfactory: 1.4 cents per hour. Factorio: 1.8 cents per hour. Elder Scrolls Online: 10 cents per hour. Bannerlord: 8 cents per hour. Shenzhen IO: 15 cents per hour.
All of the major streaming services. I rotate amongst them depending on what I want to watch. Unbelievably cheap relative to the amount I binge.
Cheap newspaper subscriptions. WSJ, Washington Post both had very low cost introductory subscription plans for 6 or 12 months, and I have a couple of local papers too. Sure, there's workarounds via archive or incognito, but at these prices (WP is currently running a $10 / year deal), might as well just pay the small amount.
I used to work as an editor for my city's metro newspaper.
As someone who wants to see local journalism succeed, I would be willing to subscribe at a reasonable rate.
But the only subscription plan they offer is {ridiculously low rate for first 6 months} then {ridiculously high rate after that).
And I know what a hassle it is to cancel. No online option. You have to phone in, endure 20-30 minutes on hold, then resist a retention specialist's multiple efforts to get you to reconsider.
No thanks. I want to support local journalism, but this is not the way.
The FTC recently announced that it's ramping up enforcement of subscription services cancellation rules:
"Marketers should provide cancellation mechanisms that are at least as easy to use as the method the consumer used to buy the product or service in the first place."
I hope that these efforts do make a difference with news subscriptions.
Absolutely true, and this is where i found subscribing to those through Apple’s App Store helps. This way, i am subbed to a bunch of newspapers, and i can always easily cancel them with a single click from a single UI in the “My Subscriptions” section of the app store.
I did that experiment with NYT (note: not a California resident), where i signed up regularly through their website first and tried canceling, and then did the same through App Store.
With the first one (website), i had to call or email them to cancel, no way to do it through a UI. Took me a few days to get it done. With the second one (App Store), all it took was one click from “My Subscriptions” page that has all my subscriptions from App Store.
I use privacy.com for those kinds of services. Always works like a charm. The WSJ ends up chasing you when the card declines (gets turned off), often with continued low monthly plans.
Definitely a concern unless you're in CA. I do wonder if the newspaper industry as a whole would not be better served by allowing CA-style easy cancellation nationwide. Sure, you get more cancels, but you also get more people signing up initially, and a bunch of those probably don't bother cancelling.
- BIFL quality items, like clothing from brands that will happily repair stuff if it breaks or send you replacement items if you can fix it yourself.
- Skilled laborers/consultants of any kind. Plumbers, electricians, financial advisors, lawyers or specialized health personnel like manual therapists.
I will happily spend hours just to do that initial research, to find a brand that is less likely to disappoint or fall short of my expectations.
If I can maintain and service it myself I will gladly pay a premium price. Examples could be a leather belt or shoes, hardwood flooring or anything that can be repaired and serviced like tools and knives.
> - BIFL quality items, like clothing from brands that will happily repair stuff if it breaks or send you replacement items if you can fix it yourself.
Can you list some items?
> - Skilled laborers/consultants of any kind. Plumbers, electricians, financial advisors, lawyers or specialized health personnel like manual therapists.
What's the best way to separate the reasonably priced experts from the overpriced crooks?
There are some things that has tremendous value to me but are offered for free.
A few months ago, I found out about https://endmyopia.org/ and have been following their principles to improve my eyes. I've since learned about how my eyes works and went from -2.75 to -2.25.
If I could have paid a service to heal my eyes naturally without lasik, I would have done it, but the site offered everything for free.
“Nearsightedness Is Not An Illness” - of course it’s an illness, an illness is anything that impairs the normal function of your body. A heart stent is just a little tube, and I don’t see anybody arguing that’s not real medicine.
“…classify bits of clear curved plastic as 'prescriptions'” - just about anything can be prescribed. I’m not sure why lenses aren’t eligible.
“An unorthodox approach” - not really, most optometrists will happily talk to you about vision therapy if they think you’re overminused. The only thing unorthodox here is how large his claims are. Vision therapists would love to make claims this huge - but they don’t, because almost nobody will see deltas as big as what he’s describing.
He’s also being pretty misleading about how he’s citing those studies on the main page - while the quotes are there, the studies in general don’t support this idea that myopia is entirely lens induced and/or mental in origin.
Actually, the more I read the more crank-like this gets. Myopia being primarily down to the eyeball growing too long is extremely, extremely well supported by research. This guy rejects that on the basis of anecdote.
I think you misread, there is no disputing the fact that eyeball gets longer, I remember him explaining that you have myopia because your eyeball got longer.
I spent 5 minutes on the site and couldn't for the life of me find any free resources to actually change my vision. They have a free 7 day course that tells you about the biology of the eye and how their program works, but nothing actually about anything practical. All I got was funneled into those familiar long-scrolly pushy sales landing pages that somewhere wanted to sell me a paid course.
A good pair of wireless earbuds. I bought a pair of Galaxy Buds+ a few years back on Black Friday sale (think I paid 90 bucks or so), and I've enjoyed them so much, I didn't feel the need to upgrade them for the later models.
I bought my girlfriend a pair of Airpods to upgrade over her cheap Bluetooth earbuds, and it's a massive improvement as well. So I don't recommend any particular brand. Just get a good pair that works well with your phone, has decent battery life (at least eight hours between charges), and provides either ANC or good passive noise cancellation.
It's a real quality of life improvement for me to have these things that can be in my pocket all the time and can pull out any time I need a distraction for whatever I'm doing.
A good microphone on them is also a plus, as it allows people to hear me through my mask.
An "America the Beautiful" annual pass from the parks service. $80 for unlimited day-use to all national land, including National Parks, National Forest, and BLM land.
Most National Parks, definitely Yellowstone/Yosemite. Some of the more rural ones have self registration and the fee is less. And some National Parks don’t have an entrance fee.
I'm... Honestly not sure if you're kidding, so I'm not sure how to respond. I don't think there's a single National Park in in the US that had free entry.
Readit News
I remember having to manage so many folders of mp3s, manually syncing them to devices. And paying $.99 a song meant a very limited selection. I often relied on free iTunes playlists to find new music, because I couldn't afford to buy new music at the time.
They've eliminated all of these problems. Pay $10-15 a month, and you can listen to whatever you want, wherever and whenever.
I say this purely from the consumer's perspective, though - I'm not super familiar with what artists' experience is like. On one hand I'm sure Spotify broadens your audience quite a bit, but I wouldn't be surprised if artists run into issues similar to creators on other platforms (e.g. YouTube).
(Well, that and that Spotify funds -and will not stop recommending to me- some podcasts that I find grating. I wish I wasn’t constantly reminded that I’m indirectly funding anti-science nonsense. Were it not that I’m paying for several other people’s Spotify accounts via family sharing I would have switched to Apple Music by now.)
But Spotify changed everything. I recently saw a series on Netflix and liked some of the music used in it, but had no idea what it was. I just entered the name of the show and “soundtrack” into Spotify, and there it was.
Edit: actually looks like he sold it to Amazon a few years ago and it was absorbed into Amazon Music where his catalog is now available. Regardless, Garth owns the rights to all of his music except for his 2014 album "Man Against Machine", so the lack of availability is again entirely his own decision.
And yet each of your comment’s 4 current replies describes a different “only” problem with Spotify that’s solved with folders of mp3s ;)
(Disclaimer: I listen to very little music, so I have no horse in this race except for loathing DRM, and I’m only guessing that the “missing quite a few major artists” problem is solvable by torrenting)
Even though I like music quite a bit, do I want to dedicate multiple terabytes and hours of my time building out and managing a personal catalogue of music I like? Because this is exactly what Spotify gives me for the majority of artists, with 0 effort.
Deleted Comment
High-end espresso machine that makes coffee in one button but with all the settings configurable (grind, volume, temperature, etc)
Canon M50 SLR camera permanently mounted for Zoom calls - got the Mk1 open box, looks amazing on calls, wasn't insanely expensive (~$500).
Tesla Model 3P. We just got a flat at home, they came out and swapped the tire for a temp one within 2hrs and then came to the home the next day to repair/replace the flat. Sadly needed replacing but all we paid for the whole experience in the end was the cost of the tire and that was cheaper than local SF places (which are $$). There's so many other great things about Tesla: it's practically maintenance free, the P edition is faster than a Lambo off the line, it's super safe in a crash, carbon neutral when paired with renewable power source, etc. Might be out of scope for this Ask HN but I just feel it's worth every $ I paid for it, and it's apparently only lost about 5% of it's value in 2.5 years which is unheard of in the car industry.
Main objective is flawless heavy-usage (Zoom, streaming media) from multiple clients within the home, plus support of lots of clients (we have over 150 assigned IP addresses in the house).
My setup is a server cabinet consisting of Ubiquiti EdgeRouter to handle >1Gbps connection, ISP's preferred modem (so they can't shirk out of full support for the connection which they do if you provide your own equipment), Ubiquiti 24 port POE switch, Ubiquiti Cloud Key Gen2+, Synology NAS, Multicore server running docker containers.
I then have 4 Ubiquiti AP AC PRO wireless access points dotted throughout the home (3 level home) all on wired backhaul to the 24 port switch powered by POE and 2 Ubiquiti 8 port switches at different locations for media center, office etc.
I would imagine the total setup is about $1500 which for a large home we both use to work out of too is very reasonable. It was legitimately tax deductible as well.
My satisfaction with Ubiquiti is declining, in part because of the security issue last year. However there isn't really anything I would replace it with because the main draw of Ubiquiti at this class is that it doesn't have recurring licensing fees like Cisco Meraki does (which are $$$$). I could try to roll my own on some of this but I'm too old/busy to run pfSense and a *-WRT flavor etc. If I was buying a new Ubiquiti setup, which if you rely on home internet I would still advocate for, I would buy a Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro which negates the router, switch and cloud key as separate purchases. It wasn't available when I purchased this setup a few years ago.
ADDED: Some people below said their Ubiquiti equipment was hard to set up, I actually found it super easy and there is a GUI to help you. I'm am/was happy sysop'ing servers over SSH so YMMV. One strong suggestion is to use their dedicated administration device the Cloud Key rather than roll your own on a docker container. The most problems I have in my entire setup are things running in docker so I try to not have them as dependencies but I am running PiHole for DNS which causes problems if it goes down.
https://github.com/nextdns/nextdns/wiki/UnifiOS
https://github.com/SierraSoftworks/tailscale-udm
https://tailscale.com/kb/1103/exit-nodes/
The other home networking things I would throw in that people may find useful are: using MoCA to put access points in places that have an existing coax drop but running an ethernet line is impractical, you can have y and forked shaped networks without switches (although not the cheapest solution); and http://getchannels.com + an hdhomerun (tuner -> ethernet) plus a media server, nas, or nvidia shield.
It's interesting how "feeling futuristic" is a single network device that does everything and an over the air tv antenna, but the shit actually "just works" finally.
What do you recommend for enterprise grade wifi? My current setup isn't great.
That's if you don't count manufacturing and repairs of course.
The way we look at it is a family of 3 with a young baby needs a car, we only have one car, and it's the most environmentally friendly one we could get as all cars have some manufacturing overhead. It was also manufactured 60 miles away so the delivery footprint was small too. We're trying our best!
This is probably my fourth full automatic espresso machine, definitely the best I've owned. Amortize the price based on how much coffee you drink (I drink 4 a day) and cost of coffee shop vs machine + beans. Factor in well used machines probably last 3-5 years and then they do need replacing.
I make a personal rule that I only buy $$ coffee from coffee shops if I'm wanting to sit and work/meet (less likely these days) or if I'm really on the go and need a pick-me-up. Otherwise I make a latte on the machine and bring it with me in a vacuum container when I am out and about.
All of the major streaming services. I rotate amongst them depending on what I want to watch. Unbelievably cheap relative to the amount I binge.
As someone who wants to see local journalism succeed, I would be willing to subscribe at a reasonable rate.
But the only subscription plan they offer is {ridiculously low rate for first 6 months} then {ridiculously high rate after that).
And I know what a hassle it is to cancel. No online option. You have to phone in, endure 20-30 minutes on hold, then resist a retention specialist's multiple efforts to get you to reconsider.
No thanks. I want to support local journalism, but this is not the way.
The FTC recently announced that it's ramping up enforcement of subscription services cancellation rules:
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/10/ftc-r...
"Marketers should provide cancellation mechanisms that are at least as easy to use as the method the consumer used to buy the product or service in the first place."
I hope that these efforts do make a difference with news subscriptions.
I did that experiment with NYT (note: not a California resident), where i signed up regularly through their website first and tried canceling, and then did the same through App Store.
With the first one (website), i had to call or email them to cancel, no way to do it through a UI. Took me a few days to get it done. With the second one (App Store), all it took was one click from “My Subscriptions” page that has all my subscriptions from App Store.
Deleted Comment
- Last.fm
- Spotify
- Cloud storage
- Figma for teams
- Managed hosting
- Fiber-optic broadband
Physical things:
- Audio gear
- A good bike
- Food and drink
- Anything for my dog
- Computer + phone
- Home gym, paid for itself after two years
- Experiences
- BIFL quality items, like clothing from brands that will happily repair stuff if it breaks or send you replacement items if you can fix it yourself.
- Skilled laborers/consultants of any kind. Plumbers, electricians, financial advisors, lawyers or specialized health personnel like manual therapists.
I will happily spend hours just to do that initial research, to find a brand that is less likely to disappoint or fall short of my expectations.
If I can maintain and service it myself I will gladly pay a premium price. Examples could be a leather belt or shoes, hardwood flooring or anything that can be repaired and serviced like tools and knives.
Can you list some items?
> - Skilled laborers/consultants of any kind. Plumbers, electricians, financial advisors, lawyers or specialized health personnel like manual therapists.
What's the best way to separate the reasonably priced experts from the overpriced crooks?
A few months ago, I found out about https://endmyopia.org/ and have been following their principles to improve my eyes. I've since learned about how my eyes works and went from -2.75 to -2.25.
If I could have paid a service to heal my eyes naturally without lasik, I would have done it, but the site offered everything for free.
“Nearsightedness Is Not An Illness” - of course it’s an illness, an illness is anything that impairs the normal function of your body. A heart stent is just a little tube, and I don’t see anybody arguing that’s not real medicine.
“…classify bits of clear curved plastic as 'prescriptions'” - just about anything can be prescribed. I’m not sure why lenses aren’t eligible.
“An unorthodox approach” - not really, most optometrists will happily talk to you about vision therapy if they think you’re overminused. The only thing unorthodox here is how large his claims are. Vision therapists would love to make claims this huge - but they don’t, because almost nobody will see deltas as big as what he’s describing.
He’s also being pretty misleading about how he’s citing those studies on the main page - while the quotes are there, the studies in general don’t support this idea that myopia is entirely lens induced and/or mental in origin.
Actually, the more I read the more crank-like this gets. Myopia being primarily down to the eyeball growing too long is extremely, extremely well supported by research. This guy rejects that on the basis of anecdote.
Here's a link to a research about the eyeball shortening in adults: http://europepmc.org/article/med/3688185
I think you misread, there is no disputing the fact that eyeball gets longer, I remember him explaining that you have myopia because your eyeball got longer.
I bought my girlfriend a pair of Airpods to upgrade over her cheap Bluetooth earbuds, and it's a massive improvement as well. So I don't recommend any particular brand. Just get a good pair that works well with your phone, has decent battery life (at least eight hours between charges), and provides either ANC or good passive noise cancellation.
It's a real quality of life improvement for me to have these things that can be in my pocket all the time and can pull out any time I need a distraction for whatever I'm doing.
A good microphone on them is also a plus, as it allows people to hear me through my mask.