I’ve got 3 on my list.
- BT-PAN Access Point - Kinda ridiculous, but I’d like to have one. I’ve also found a few BT-PAN-enabled dial-up modems, but I’d have no way to connect those up. Some of those could even be connected to USB printers for wireless printing. Not particularly useful anymore, I just find those devices interesting.
- Dot matrix printer - This one isn’t even as ridiculous. I really love that sound and how the text they print looks. Sadly, if I am looking for new ones, a basic 9-pin Epson dot matrix is around €200. But the ribbons are cheap as chips. In fact, often even cheaper. Just imagine casually handing out a document printed on dot matrix to someone nowdays.
- Nano pocket drone - Something like FQ777-124. Maybe a toy like that is a bit childish, but it still can be fun. In fact I already tried to order this one. From 4 different sellers, twice on AliExpress, twice on Amazon. I never got it :(
A Flipper Zero. I probably have the components to make something functionally equivalent, but that form factor, all-in-one nature, and simple UI look nice.
I have no need for it, I just want to tinker.
Same. Also a lockpicking learning set. Just seems fun.
A Teletype
I just like the sound and the oldschool vibe of these machines.
But the ‘realistic’ aspect shrinks as they are hard to get.I have a non-functioning ASR-33, and an almost-functioning DECwriter III.
An electric bike.
Always wanted one. Will never, ever happen though. The thousands of dollars they cost will always be better spent on bills/food/meds/doctors appointments.
You can get kits to retro fit a standard push bike. I think you can do that for a few hundred.
every decent conversion kit I’ve seen has been around a grand, and still requires you to buy a decent bike to put it on, plus puts the onus on me to not fuck everything up.
saw a setup with a dewalt drill before
I said I didnt want to pay thousands. :p
Ah fair enough. I had second hand info from my partner who was looking into it. He already had a spare bike to convert and he didn’t think it was too expensive to do - favoured the option over buying an actual E bike that he wasn’t positive he’d use much.
I felt the same, so I built one for around 5-600usd. If you have a bike, you can turn it into an e bike.
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A hidden shelf door, ie “Murphy Door”. No practical purpose for this other than maybe privacy/security for my master bedroom. I just think it’d look cool as hell to have a hidden door.
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Invest in yourself and get your ass online.
There’s no excuse being single unless you’re putting in absolutely no effort that to make yourself attractive in any way possible for a SO.
You can be fugly and with a personality you will still pull.
You can be Brad Pitt with no personality and you will still pull.
Most importantly, shotgun blast your asking out girls and be used to rejection.
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Don’t give up man_in_space. I had only dated 2 people by 31. I didn’t meet my SO until I turned 34.
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This may not apply to you, but I was once in a similar situation. One day I finally realized that a relationship shouldn’t make me happy, it should make me happier.
I think that was quite a turning point and things got better from there for me. I started focusing on myself and finding things I enjoyed. Dates stopped becoming so daunting and I think people noticed that.
Anyway, good luck!
Resilience is sexy and perseverance is key. Go forth and flirt bro.
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“I’m sorry. I am autistic and might’ve misunderstood your signals. But would you possibly like to go out for a coffee some day?”
Then you’ve covered your ass. They know you’re shit at signals and further know to not speak cryptic to you. They also know that you’re interested and have a choice of just saying “No I’m sorry” without being cornered.
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- A bike. My last one was stolen off my apartment balcony
- A kayak. Nowhere to put it though, and the balcony is out of the question thanks to 1.
- The best lock for bike and kayak.
;)
They have folding kayaks if that would suffice. There’s also some types that break into pieces and slide into each other like cups taking a 12 foot kayak down to like 3 feet.
I’d avoid inflatables in most cases though.
Aren’t the folding ones like super expensive?
$500 for an Oru Lake
$280 for a Tucktec 10’
There are other models but those seem to be the most popular.
They can absolutely get crazy expensive and started that way but have come down in price a lot.
That’s unexpected, thx
Same, I’m also currently looking for a kayak and it surprised me as well since when I last looked there wasn’t one under 1k.
Now of course they are limited compared to a normal kayak but for someone in an apartment that has no other options it would at least get them something until their living arangement allowed them to get a proper one.
And if all you ever want to to is casually hang out on flat water it really doesn’t limit you at all.
I know a guy who has one with stabilising air pockets on the side so it can actually be used along the coast for fishing but that one is super expensive
It would probably/possibly work without them but the issue with folding kayaks on the sea or rivers is more impacts, there’s a lot of rocks in the fun rivers and in the ocean/sea there’s reefs and other abrasives.
Whereas with a rotomolded kayak its durable enough to even be used for rentals in those conditions. You pretty much don’t have to give a shit with a rotomold since they can take a lot of abuse.
Where do you live? I might have a kayak to sell.
So the thief climbed up to your balcony to steal your bike? What floor do you live on?
Yes. It’s the second floor. I was surprised and not sure how they managed to get down with it. It wasn’t a new or expensive bike by any means, actually an old used one I repaired with salvaged parts.
Steamdeck. My laptop is outdated and having hardware issue; I also can’t justify buying a decent PC tower. I have consoles but I miss a lot of the PC only games like the wargame series and HOI4.
I’ve a deck and it’s an amazing bit of kit. Valve hit it out of the park with it. I’ve found very little it can’t run, and the controls are excellent. The fact it has a full Linux desktop available and lets you play around with things is just icing on the cake.
A cnc laser cutter with enough watts so it could cut thin metal but also acrylic and wood and stuff.
I would love to make rc airplanes, and medieval armor, and fun stuff like that
A (mechanical) typewriter. I have a cork board next to my desk and I’ve fancied replacing my handwritten cheat sheets and notes with typewritten ones. There’s just something about typewritten stuff that makes it “official” to me.
A scooter/bike (electric would be fine). Never learned how to ride one, but I’d love to just take it for a ride up/down quiet mountain roads. Sure, I’d need to ride for a long time to reach somewhere quiet, but I feel that it’d be worth it.
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I’ve found myself wanting to get a typewriter for a while, but I wouldn’t be able to justify it because I don’t really have anywhere to put it, nor would I really have any use for it. And an electric bike would perhaps be nice as well, but I already have an acoustic bike that works perfectly well.
Same deal with the typewriter, tbh. It’s always been one of the things that I want to buy if I get to have “a large amount of money.” I used to have a fairly small one way back then, and it’s small and portable enough to be stowed into some corner of my room when not in use, but it’s a bit finicky to use. It’s also one of those cheap ones that came out in the mid-90’s, back when electric typewriters (and computers) started eating away at its niche.
As for the scooter, I think it’d be a lot more useful to me. I can use it for weekly errands (groceries and whatnot). For the leisure rides I really want it for though, I should probably want a beefier one (with more range etc.). Btw, what is an acoustic bike?
Btw, what is an acoustic bike?
It’s a joking term for a non-electric bike.
Ah~ Hahahahaha! Thanks! That one wooshed way over my head. Some of those can be pretty acoustic tho.
One of my favorite things living rural is the peace and quiet everywhere all the time
IKR! If it were only more convenient (getting necessities without having to go very far, or just have them easily delivered), I’d probably love to live in a rural place.
Right now though, I am way too used to living inside of a big city.
A 3D Printer, I think I’d enjoy making small “functional” things.
I like the idea, but I fear that I would quickly run out of things to print that I actually need. After then I’d start looking for applications. And the one thing I don’t need in my life are more small (or large) plastic things.
Me too until I had access to one through work. I’ve found PLA to be quite brittle and not very useful for anything other than items that sit on a shelf
A lot of it is just knowing how to design around the limitations. I 3D print practical parts all the time and usually don’t have any issues with them. If PLA doesn’t work for what you want to print PETG is pretty easy to print as well and is a bit more resilient.
Polymaker pla pro is a great pla. I have printed plenty of functional things with it and they all hold up really well. If you really need something more durable nylon 6 would be a good option to look at.
Fixing and adapting things around the house is what I like most about having a 3d printer.
I’m pretty sure the first printer is now paid for itself by doing that. Just because of things I haven’t had to pay to replace. As of this summer I’m up to 3 printers and I can’t claim I’ve paid for all 3.
Can you give some examples of things you’ve replaced? I’m just curious
Sure.
- Feet for my keyboard
- Some shims for an over door set of hooks that were too wide for all our doors
- A knob for my garage door
- A chock for the same garage door
- The screw rings that hold the shades on a floor lamp
- A cap for some antique bellows that my grandfather made (so it can go in storage and not end up full of rodents)
- All sorts of screws and rods and covers of various sorts.
I’m about to design a new ceiling lamp nut for our kitchen, because the original has gone missing after a light bulb change. I’ll use a spare metal nut then print a cover to go on it so it looks intentional.
That’s amazing, thanks!
I have a CNC router for work, but I do use it for random things around the house occasionally. Building shelves is suddenly a lot easier…
Same, but I would be picky and not want a small one. But still would end up as a decorative object, so…
I want one too but I’m scared I won’t use it. I’m holding off until I meet someone with one and see it in person
somebody said try your local library (this is probably a US thing)
Do it! I recently purchased one and love it. Feel free to ask questions if you have any.
What are everyday uses for a 3D printer?
Great for fixing items around the house. Anything that is plastic or could be replaced with plastic can usually be printed. Also great for hardware and jigs. I’ve had mine for a bit over a month now and have been constantly running it. Check out printables or thingiverse to get an idea of what people are printing. Both are websites people upload models to.
it’s not a priority right now, maybe when I get extra money.
I’m looking forward to it though
Check your library. Mine has one available to use at many of the branches in my area. If I ever come up with something to print instead of buying one I’m going to try that out. Then if I decide to get really into it, I’ll have practical knowledge to know what I’d actually want to buy.
Instead, I’ve just never done any 3D printing, which is also fine.
is this a US thing? I don’t think we have these in our country.
I don’t think it’s necessarily universal in US libraries either. I’m not in a big city, but overall our library system is pretty good. They have a number of branches with “maker labs” so there are things like Cricuts, sewing machines, laser cutters, audio recording/production equipment and 3D printers you can rent. I’d recommend at least checking around.
I thought that, too but I mostly make small non-functional things, which is also nice
I suppose a newer supertelephoto lens for my camera. I don’t use it enough to actively look for it, but if someone got me an RF 100-500 as a present I wouldn’t say no. Or even a EF Tamron 150-600 G2.
A side by side ATV kind of thingy for going out on the trails in our woods.
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A custom gaming pc built by Digital Storm to replace my HP Omen laptop. I’ve done quite a bit of research. I looked at Digital Storm, AVA Direct, Maingear, Falcon Northwest, and System 76. For a while I was eyeing Maingear, then Falcon Northwest, but Digital Storm has most of the options that I’d want.
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An 85 inch 8k tv for enthusiast purposes.
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A three set bookcase for my room so that I can replace my old bookcase and to better store the books that I have and more.
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A Purple queen-sized mattress with an adjustable base to replace my old bed and twin-sized mattress and also my incline pillow.
I’m curious, if you’ve done that much research into gaming PC prebuilts, what’s keeping you from building your own?
I’d rather leave the actual building to the experts.
There are some pros to prebiilts. Having to deal with a single company for warranty instead of one for every component, for example.
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E-bike. I’m faster than most of them on a road bike, and the limited range would drive me nuts, but I would like to have one for running errands
A hardcore ~$10k Xeon workstation with an Nvidia A100 GPU for AI stuff
Yeah one of those little drones is definitely on my list. Also one of those big wide curvy computer monitors. I don’t even know what I’d do with it, I just think they’re neat lol
Edit: Oh yeah, also one of those giant Wacom tablets.
Unless you’re into a wide stroke gestural drawing, large Wacoms may be unnecessary for you. My illustrator wife just sold hers in favor of an iPad with Procreate and Astropad.
Wacom pen displays have great screens and pens, but are unwieldy, loud (fans tend to break, too), finicky and run on weird drivers that may or may not just mess up your day.
Really bad experience for a product costing multiple thousands of dollars.
I have a little 13-inch one, but I literally just want to get a massive one because I think they’re cool. But yeah probably super impractical, I don’t think it’d even fit on my desk lol.
