Ask Lemmy

A goddamn dishwasher. I used to wash a lot of dishes by hand growing up so it took until my 30's before i realized that dishwashers are a wonderful invention.

Internal SSD with the operating system on it. No other upgrade I've made to my PC has ever been so substantial.

I don't think I could ever go back to a single monitor setup. Screen real estate is ALWAYS at a premium. I feel so constrained when forced to use just one.

Wireless noise cancelling headphones and earbuds.

I was reluctant to pay $400 for a gimmick but holy shit, once I did they became my most treasured possessions. Then I got buds for $400.

If we are talking cost per hour of use, they might be the most cost-effective tech I own

Lighting system as a wake up tool.

Have now been using a light or lighting system as a morning wake up for over 15 years. It’s life changing.

Lights start off dim and red/orange, and brighten very slowly to warm white. Works every time.

I wake up without the jolt of an alarm at home.

In fact - automated lighting in general - just so good.

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.

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

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.

Electric blanket!

It's not high tech, but it's so good.

Linux?

A 1000€ ebike. Best choice ever. Always on time, unaffected by traffic and never get tickets since I don't have a registration table :)

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.

My e-book reader (Tolino).

As I got older and had problems with my eyes, this was a game changer. I had basically stopped reading books and now I do it daily. I can choose the font and letter size, background color, and backlighting based on what works best for my eyes that day and the light where I am.

Being able to hold a very light device with a big screen when I would have to balance a heavy weight as a paper book is also great, and I take the reader with me everywhere, whereas a big book would stay at home most of the time.

The reader has a bigger screen than my phone and the battery lasts longer.

The reader works flawlessly with my library, so I don't have to buy books, which keeps costs down, and I don't have to leave the house to get a new book.

Calibre helps us share books in our family, which is one reason we've stayed away from Amazon's Kindle, so we've all gone to ".epub".

Going from Sega Megadrive to PlayStation back in the nineties. True 3d graphics on a home console blew my little teenage mind. Lara Croft. Wipeout. Metal Gear Solid! Good times.

Bicycle technology. Suddenly I could travel three times the speed of walking for the same effort.

Semi professional wifi(networking) at home (TP link omada or ubiquiti) and just buying excessive amounts of access points in my home.

Fuck you, low wifi signal. Fuck you, crashed router.

Affordable solar panels and batteries. With this we were able to life off-grid surrounded by nature.

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.

My Ampler E-Bike I bought 2 years ago. More than 5000 km later I still love it to bits.

The original GameBoy in like 1992, I was 6 and it was everything. Then Pokemon came out and hell yeah

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.

Not sure if that counts as technology, but simple LED lights over my kitchen counter (mounted under the upper cabinets) were a pretty inexpensive purchase that made my life significantly better. I don't understand now how I was ever able to cook with just the ceiling lights on, it's absolutely terrible.

A kitchen sink. Did an impromptu kitchen reno due to a gas leak and being without one is such a huge downgrade in quality of life. I was washing dishes in the bathtub nightly and it was absolutely miserable. I don't think I've ever been more appreciative of the technology of modern plumbing than the day I was able to rerun lines to the sink area and get it all going.

When I got my first HD tv. I had previously been playing oblivion on Xbox 360 on an crt tv and when I setup the HD I was absolutely blown away by the clarity. I remember my stupid fucking ex-wife trying to tell me there was no difference between the two.

Beetlecrab Audio Tempera is the most inspiring electronic musical instrument I own. I got it in April, and I'm still finding new ways to use it. It does so much.

Oxi One really is the hardware sequencer to rule them all. Though I'm sure you could get by with a Hapax or Deluge if you don't mind spending twice as much.

Not a purchase, but Csound has always been an invaluable companion to my music making process. It's also entirely free and open-source.

Mac book Pro, I got the M3. Massive improvement from all the previous laptops I've had. Don't have to put up with Microsoft bs, don't have to tinker with it as I would with a Linux OS. Hardware is great, build quality is great. Can do everything I need for university on it, can play all the games I want to on it.

Personally I'm well past the mega corporations own the world and know everything about me doomer stage of my life and am okay with selling my soul to apple for a good laptop.

Dehumidifier - 5 years and counting drying laundry indoors overnight with no risk of rain or wind!

My NAS, having access to all my files anywhere at any time is great

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.