What was something that you thought was overhyped that actually lived up to the hype?
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The total eclipse. I was lucky enough to live in the path of last year's. I now understand why people are willing to travel across the world just to experience something that only lasts a few minutes.
Would you mind elaborating on your experience? Why was it exciting ? What came through your mind at the time ?
I've seen a solar eclipse but I'm in elementary at the time and didn't care for it. Now I wonder if it must have been kinda terrifying the old human thought their God was mad.
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I didn't see any of the hype for the Barbie movie (apparently they painted streets in London pink?), but I just went in and saw it. Awesome film
Also: A laser tape measure. I always heard about people ranting about them, and often thought "I get it I get it you're a child who likes shiny things", but I finally got one and it is one of my most prized possessions. I can now find out the distance to things like THAT.
Didn't live up the hype: I caved in and got a mechanical keyboard. A nice one. Keychron something such. I now have a heavy clackety-clack keyboard. That's it. The usual plastic 15 quid keyboards I get are only every so slightly less good. Don't buy into this fad. It's for ASMR fanatics and their heavy wallets
Counterpoint on the mechanical keyboard. I type heavily (as in, I hit the keys hard) and my joints are terrible. After a day typing on a shitty membrane keyboard my hands will be aching. A mech lets me find the right switch/dampener combo so that doesn't happen
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Pro tip: crush roasted unsalted peanuts and have real peanut butter. You have no idea what you're missing. The peanut butter sold in most places is hydraulically fractured, then the peanut oil is reserved and replaced with inferior soybean. Crushed (not fractured) peanut butter does not separate, and it is breathtakingly versatile in cooking!
This is commonly available most places afaik, just 100% peanut.
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The band Opeth
wrote last edited by [email protected]I moved past my metal era ages ago and still listen to him. He's always been fantastic. For as much hate the Heritage album got when it came out, it's also one of my favs.
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Planar Magnetic headphones. Can't go back.
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World of Warcraft back in 2007-8
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Induction range top. Quick on, fine degree of control, quick off, little heat radiation. Better than gas. Only adaptation was flat bottom wok which
makes the working world go roundis not quite the same experience.Keeping it clean with minimal effort compared to a gas range was unexpectedly my favorite part
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What's with these? Do they heat up faster? More convection means more heat transfer? I don't get it
wrote last edited by [email protected]Both. The fast-moving air really does have an almost frying effect, and mine takes like a minute or two to get up to temp (and fits a whole pizza).
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World of Warcraft back in 2007-8
Still playing.
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Linux and open source software.
Tested out a dualboot of Linux Mint about 2 years ago on a Windows laptop. Wanted to see how far I could get on 100% open source and free software.
I got far enough that I never looked back.
I’ve tried switching multiple times, but so many programs I use for work are not supported on Linux. I essentially was having to run 2 systems so I relented and tried to de-Microsoft windows.
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World of Warcraft back in 2007-8
Why this time? Stopped playing 2006.
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Why this time? Stopped playing 2006.
That was when I started playing. Hype for the game was super high up to Cataclysm, I think
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Keeping it clean with minimal effort compared to a gas range was unexpectedly my favorite part
I find it even easier than a glass top electric (what the induction replaced) I think it is because only the area directly below the pan is heated, spills are easier to wipe up and don't get baked on.
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Interesting test. I just tried mine with my high fidelity ear plugs and it actually made it clearer when my music is at a lower volume. of course these aren't meant to block out all sounds though.
With regular earplugs, its a little muffled, but I'm honestly quite impressed by how good it still sounds.
For sound reproduction, I prefer my wired Shure SE-315 with sound-isolating ear tips. But Shokz ar much more comfortable for all-day wear.
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I know I'm alone in this, but I loved and still love VR since htc vive
There are dozens of us! Dozens!!
I really hope Bigscreen manage to bring the cost down of their small headset because an affordable and comfy one might renew interest. It's still very much an underexplored medium!
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I know I'm alone in this, but I loved and still love VR since htc vive
Maybe I'm missing years of video game discourse but I don't know what you're talking about being alone on this hill. I've been using VR since the Google Cardboard and as long as you temper your expectations it's been plenty fine since even all the way back then. The experiences on the Vive and Index are a bit clunky but otherwise I have fun with them every time I use them.
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High quality audio equipment.
Yes, it's an area filled with more snake-oil and bullshit than any other technical realm I've experienced, but with some knowledge (unarguably required on the part of the user) you can actually figure stuff out and get some ROCKING audio gear for pennies on the dollar.
Last year I got into electronic fix/build/mashup as a hobby, and a project I had in mind for fun was to turn a $10 Sirius Boombox that needed 8xD batteries and a wired AUX input, into a wireless BT boombox. I did it and it was fun as hellllllll. But it was not for the audio, it was for the learning. I repurposed battery cells and a charging board from a Shark handheld vacuum, and grabbed a BT board out of a scrapped shower speaker - made that work by "bolting it" onto a disposable vape battery/charger which draws from the main battery pak.
Well anyways... getting a taste of that deep, rich, penetrating audio made me realize I'd been sold THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LIE by the speaker business. That moment of looking at my Bose SoundLink and realizing I've been a fool for so long. The stupid Sirius boombox isn't even that good now that I look back, but at the moment it was a HOLY SHIT moment for me. Running up to it thinking my music was distorting... but NO... it was actually musical details I'd never heard, and didn't know existed.
Now I have a soul-destroying audio setup (for a small 1BR apartment) that I shit you not, cost me a total of $23. RXV581 Receiver, YST-SW011 Subwoofer and two Polk MXT11 Monitor tower speakers. People either discarded, sold, or donated. I got the Yamaha Receiver/Sub set because... get this... ONE of the surround sound speakers was dropped and it's case cracked, so they threw it ALL away. The Polks were seen at thrift, first for $70 each, then reduced to $34 after a month... then one day muthafukkaaaaaaa $10 each plus tax.\
So yeah. Good audio. I had NO idea how satisfying it could be. I didn't know what I'd been missing.
I've been a frugal audiophile for my entire life. I learned long ago that you can find gear with excellent specs, without spending thousands.
These days, I'm mostly into guitars, and I've found the same thing to be true - there is no correlation between quality and price. I've seen great guitars that are dirt cheap, and I've seen expensive guitars that are mediocre. I put together an entire home studio, with 2 electrics, an acoustic, a bass, and a keyboard, a new computer, interface, mic, etc., all for less than $1500, and it all sounds amazing.
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Crocs. I had avoided them for years until I went on a kayaking tour on Vancouver Island. Well, while they were ugly AF, they are one of most comfortable shoes I've tried that are just... Easy to slip on and off?
I have a pair that I wear exclusively as house shoes. They are so comfortable. But yeah, I don't want to wear them in public.
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Mechanical keyboards
Every keystroke feels and sounds like heaven!
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Oh, I had the opposite experience. Once I managed the courage to get on every single ride at Six Flags, I barely felt the last one I was on. It was fun, but the thrill of free-falling from 300 feet wasn't budging me by then.
Right, the new ones are so overbuilt it takes a lot of the thrill out of them. Nobody else in my family will go on them, and they always try to talk me out of them, saying I'll have a heart attack. They don't understand that I don't get scared on them, at least not any more.
In the old days, you had those wooden coasters, and while you were standing in line, you'd see it come around the curve, and it would creak and sway, and looked like it was going to come apart any second. THOSE were scary.
