A portable power supply.

Enjoy the looks of envy when the people fighting over an outlet notice you’re plugged into your tiny, little power supply.

my lg g2, best phone i had. still using it as a daily driver after more than a decade

recently a used panasonic cf-rz6, extremely lightweight/tiny machine and runs linux perfectly

steamdeck and the skin and cover I bought. ironically the official dock is one of the worst.

Recently, I’d say it’s the new¹ desktop/monitor I got. Needed a monitor upgraded and new HDMI ti make it all work. I was a little bummed about the monitor upgrade since the old TV I was using works perfectly fine, but the new monitor at least takes up less bulk and weighs less, so I’m not as worried about a collapsing desk.

Definitely an upgrade from the ~$400USD budget computer I got around 2021. Don’t remember what graphics card, but as a software guy and not a hardware guy, I see 2021 release year and the ability to run Yooka-Laylee without lag and I am happy.

Don’t have access to it right now, so I cannot say anything more specs wise. Either way, I like it well enough.

¹ new as in from a pawn shop. Got lucky.

Late to the party, but my Sonos home theater system has been an absolute joy.

Not a purchase, but Home Assistant is easily the most enjoyable gadget and piece of tech I’ve had in years. It’s ridiculously flexible and can do just about anything you can imagine.

I’ve been able to automate dumb devices (like an old top-of-the-line receiver) and give them smart features rather than spending thousands to replace them. Occupancy detection saves energy by changing thermostat settings when people aren’t home, and lights come on when we’re 60’ from the front door after a walk. Multiple leak detectors and a temperature sensor in the fridge let us know when something’s wrong before damage occurs. We get notifications when the dryer and washer cycles are complete allowing us to complete the laundry in one day instead of two.

The system is configured to change change interior light brightness and hue based on time of day so at 7PM we have bright room lighting and at 2AM it’s very dim. We get immediate notifications of package deliveries. Firewall settings are dynamically changed so devices that require Internet access only have it when they are actually in use. Integrations exist for VLC, Spotify, Jellyfin, Paperless, Apple, TVs, alarm systems, solar power systems, routers, automobiles, and hundreds of other brands and devices.

Yes, much of the same can be done with connected appliances, lights, and other smart devices, but what’s different about Home Assistant is all control and storage can be local. We have no cloud or corporate services involved for any of this. Google, Apple, Amazon and Samsung can’t one day decide to pull the plug on things we’ve already paid for.

The big problem with Home Assistant is there are so many uses you can easily end up spending way too much time tinkering and never get anything else done.

Comma 3x it’s a module that adds sensors and compute to turn your car into a level 2 self driving vehicle.

Glinet travel router. I always have both wifi and hardline with me wherever I go, whether or not I have either.

Sabrent thunderbolt dock. It has NVME drives inside of it so I can have my laptop be mobile then come home and have all my games ready to go.

Dockcase dongle. Most dongles suck, this does 100 watt pass through charging, gigabit, 4k 120hz and 20gb transfers on the ports.

Steam Deck, hands down. It rules being able to play PC games in bed with my partner by my side.

Noise cancelling headphones are incredible, using them in a noisy airport eliminated 80% of the discomfort of travelling

Yamaha Reface CS. A remake of 70s analog synthesizer. Even if I don’t make music professionaly, I enjoy playing melodies I’ve learned, fooling around with sound, and every time I catch a sight of it, it sparks joy in me. I own it for more than 2 years.

Also it’s fairly cheap for synthesizer, 370 euro, but definitely it’s not a toy, but rather a full blown instrument.

I have a set of Logitech 2.1 thx computer speakers that are probably close to 20 years old. Never faltered, unbelievable sound quality and has survived 5 or so moves.

This led me to my other joy, a legit home theater setup. I spent too much but I do not regret it. I’m sad because my current space doesn’t allow for the full size towers and massive sub, but hopefully I can get them out of storage early next year. I miss having the full blown atmos setup.

My Fairphone 5, because it has allowed me to break free from Google and other big tech companies by letting me install whatever I want on it.

And my good old Thinkpad.

Steam Deck OLED has been pretty great. Also the HTC Vive VR headset, back in 2016.

Framework laptop - they took the best parts of the MacBook, made it repairable and fully support Linux. Priced fairly, with the option to separately purchase RAM and SSD. And they’ve even provided free replacement parts years after the warranty expired!

My old casio watch works after a decade of use.

My old kindle just got a new battery but its over 14+ years old.

And my CPAP is probably the thing that does the most work for me.