Product reviews

This is an incomplete list of products I have bought along with what I thought of the purchase.

I don’t use affiliate links, am not getting paid in any way to write these reviews, am not affiliated with any of the brands or product sellers, etc. These reviews are just my opinion as a consumer.

I don’t use any ratings for the reviews below, for three reasons: (1) in many cases I have not used any other products in the same reference class, so I have nothing else to use for comparison; (2) I often have idiosyncratic preferences so I don’t want my rating to feel like a universal judgment on the product as a whole; (3) sometimes when I buy something I don’t like, it’s mostly my fault because I didn’t do enough research and bought something that I should have known I wouldn’t like, and it feels unfair to frame this as a rating of the product.

(Haven’t thought about this much, so I could be totally wrong, but) I wish more people would write this kind of page: product reviews and ratings on purchasing sites like Amazon and on discussion sites like Reddit seem unreliable because as soon as it becomes common for people to do research on these sites, product sellers will try to game them by inserting fake reviews or paying people to write favorable reviews. Review sites using affiliate links also seem sketchy to me (it seems like any purchase is a good one, so there isn’t much incentive to get people to buy the right things, and there is also an incentive to get people to buy more things in general, whereas it may be more useful to be told something like “instead of buying this class of products, you can actually make this thing yourself or substitute using some other item that you already have”). Even something like Facebook can be a problem (if product companies can pay to have the newsfeed algorithm show positive reviews of itself and negative reviews of competitors). Decentralized product reviews on small personal websites seem much harder to game, and I get to look at the reviewer’s general personality and writing along with the product reviews.

In recent years in the effective altruism community there has been a trend of people writing product recommendation blog posts (see here for a recent example that links out to a bunch of other ones). While these posts are similar to what I’m doing here, I kinda don’t like how these posts are framed as “here’s some things you should buy”. In general I don’t want to be buying more and more things. I also like giving a more representative sample of things I’ve bought, instead of selecting for the things I am most glad I bought (I feel like I learn just as much from mistakes people think they’ve made in buying something as successes).

Feel free to contact me if you have suggestions on ways to make this page more useful for you.

Linode (web hosting)

Started using around November 2014.

I use Linode for hosting this website (and some other websites as well).

If I recall correctly, I chose Linode because Vipul Naik uses it for his websites.

I’ve been happy with Linode; it does everything I need.

Sometime around 2018 or so, Linode switched the dashboard to a “modern web design” one full of JavaScript. I would have preferred to stick with the old dashboard, but since I rarely sign in it’s not too much of a problem.

As of 2022 or so I’ve been planning to switch to Oracle Cloud as Oracle offers a free VPS (so I wouldn’t have to pay $11/month to host several lightweight websites), but it is such a pain that I’ve been delaying the switch (I’m also kind of uncertain whether Oracle will offer the free VPS in the long term, and I don’t want to switch and then have to switch back).

Hover (domain names)

Started using around November 2014.

If I recall correctly, I asked my father for recommendations, and he asked some coworkers, one of whom suggested Hover.

It does everything I need (which isn’t much, since I just manage a handful of websites) and does it without causing me any pain, so I am happy with it.

Nexus 7 tablet (2013 version)

Purchased in late 2014 or early 2015, I believe at some store like Best Buy.

I bought this tablet for college; my plan was to have a desktop computer in my dorm room and to carry around the tablet with me. The hope was that the tablet would be able to do everything I wanted to do in lectures while being lighter to carry than a laptop, and that I could do more “real work” on the desktop in my room. This turned out to be not such a good idea. For some CS courses, having a real programming environment was pretty important, so the tablet was inadequate for lectures. I also frequently went home on the weekends, so not being able to carry the desktop computer home was also annoying (I had a separate computer at home and would sync coursework using GitHub). Also the keyboard I bought for the tablet was pretty crappy and unpleasant to type on. After a few quarters of this setup, I gave up and just bought a laptop (the X220; see below). (I think I wrote about this more at college computer setup.)

The tablet itself works well, except that it keeps getting slower and slower as apps get updated (and of course apps like Messenger force you to update in order to continue using them at all, so there is no choice to stick with the old version).

As of December 2020, I still use this tablet for video calls, since my X220 does not have a camera. (Update: with the arrival of my ThinkPad X1 Yoga (see below) I have basically stopped using this tablet.)

Lenovo ThinkPad X220

Purchased on eBay in 2015.

I didn’t do much research for this laptop. I remember asking some friends for recommendations, and two of them suggested the X220.

This laptop is still working fine after five years of use. Overall I am happy with it, though I wish I had done more research when buying it; mine came without a camera, which is finally turning out to be a big problem in the COVID era.

In March 2021 part of the frame (bottom right of the screen near the right hinge) started cracking and small pieces of the black plastic frame came off. The laptop itself still functions fine, but I am afraid now that if I keep opening and closing the lid it will eventually break.

Sony MDR-XB450 (white) headphones

I got these as a hand-me-down from someone after they got new headphones. They worked fine for my use case (listening to music occasionally when I couldn’t use speakers), but I found them uncomfortable to wear for long periods since the earmuff are not large enough to cover my entire ear, so that they would press against them. After a year or two of use, the right earmuff tore at the seams, showing the yellow sponge underneath.

Sennheiser MB 660 headphones

I got these as a gift and started using them because my old Sony headphones were falling apart (the cover on the right earmuff had torn at the seams so that the yellow sponge underneath was showing). I therefore did not do any research prior to getting these, and can’t say whether the quality is worth the price since I did not pay for this product.

I am satisfied with this product. Compared to my old headphones, my entire ear fits under the earmuff (rather than pressing against my ear) so my ears don’t get sore from wearing them for long periods of time. I still prefer listening to things with speakers, but it’s often not possible to do that (e.g. during video calls or in noisy environments).

I’ve never used the active noise canceling or bluetooth features of these headphones, so I can’t comment on how well these work.

MealSquares

Tried in November 2017. I started ordering them myself in 2022 and quite like them.

See here.

Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3/DDR3L 1600 MT/S (PC3-12800) Unbuffered SODIMM 204-Pin Memory - CT2KIT102464BF160B

Purchased via Amazon in January 2020: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007B5S52C/

I knew for a long time that my X220 could be upgraded to 16GB of RAM, but I was too lazy to actually do the research to find the compatible RAM and buy it and look up how to insert it (partly because I was wondering if I should just get a new laptop instead of going through with the memory upgrade). Well, I finally got fed up with the 4GB RAM after five years or so of use, and bought these sticks.

I am very happy with this purchase. Insertion into the X220 was very simple (I just watched a couple of tutorials on YouTube), and the RAM works reliably. I no longer need to worry about my web browsing habit overwhelming the system memory.

Microsoft Pro Intellimouse – Dark Shadow

Purchased via Amazon in August 2020: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RPBXBMV/

I bought this mouse after my old one (a boring default Microsoft mouse) started double clicking. Since my old mouse was so crappy (and I was happy with it), I thought I didn’t need to do much research in order to find a mouse that was significantly better. After looking around a bit, I decided to just go with the InstallGentoo wiki’s recommendation.

This mouse turned out to be too big and heavy for my hand. For the first two weeks or so of using it, my wrist vaguely hurt and I thought of returning it and buying a different mouse. After this initial period though, my hand/wrist got used to it and I no longer experience any pain when using it. The scroll wheel is also kind of too heavy for me. After a month or so of using it, the mouse’s scroll wheel started to not register some scrolls; it would occasionally “skip” a scroll. After a few more months, the scroll skipping problem became worse, and I would also get “double scrolls”, where moving the mouse wheel by one notch would scroll the screen twice.

The mouse also leaves black markings on my mouse pad.

Overall I wish I had done more research to find a better mouse.

Samsung Galaxy S4 battery

Product link: New OEM Samsung Galaxy S4 ACTIVE i9295 i545 B600BU 2600mAh Original S4 Battery

Purchased via eBay in April 2021.

Since the battery was so cheap, I thought it would be worth trying even though I was somewhat skeptical of the product quality. The seller had 99.4% positive feedback and I couldn’t find anything too bad about buying batteries on eBay online, so I went through with the purchase. It did turn out that the battery was low quality, but having two low quality batteries seems better than having just one…

To copy from my eBay review:

Battery charge does not last long

The battery works as expected, but the charge only lasts about a day if I leave the phone connected to WiFi, which is about the same as the 8 year old battery that came with the phone (which used to hold charge for much longer). It’s not entirely useless, but the “New OEM” part of the product description seems misleading.

HDMI to VGA adaptor

Product link: 1080P HDMI Male to VGA Female Video Cable Cord Converter Adapter For PC Monitor

Purchased from eBay in April 2021.

The item was barely functional. When I plug it in, an image does display on the external monitor but the image quality is extremely bad. I’ve tested the setup using two other HDMI to VGA adapters and everything works, so the problem seems to be with the eBay adapter.

Here are some photos comparing the different adapters. The ones labeled “ebay” are the ones I purchased. Notice how the text is much more crisp on the other two adapters. The resolution on the eBay adapter was also off, and I could not get it to be in the correct resolution even after trying all of the options in the Windows display settings. The other two adapters were automatically in the right resolution, so again I think something is wrong with this eBay adapter.

I was able to get a full refund for the product.

ThinkPad X1 Yoga gen 3

(I should eventually clean this up, but I am feeling lazy so I will probably never get around to it. I think it contains the main points I’d like to bring up.)

Purchased in April 2021 from the Lenovo Outlet (US).

This is where i made the purchase: ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 3 (14") Laptop NOTE: the “Tech Specs” at the top are inaccurate. The actual specs are below in the “Models” section.

I’m not including any Windows vs Linux thoughts here, though I was definitely getting a shock from switching away from Linux as my main OS after 10+ years.

how did i make the choice of which laptop to buy and where? i wanted a high quality/durable laptop. from my reading, it seemed like laptops can be divided roughly into “consumer grade” and “business grade” laptops, with the latter being of much higher build quality. so i decided to focus my attention on business laptops. thinkpads are the most well-known among these (in particular, this means there is the most amount of online discussion and data about them), and i had good experiences with my previous X220, so i decided to focus most of my search on getting a thinkpad (though i did briefly look at things like dell XPS). my other requirement was that i wanted to play some windows-only video games and other windows-only software like supermemo, so i was looking at getting a windows laptop. One option for getting a cheap thinkpad is to buy a used one on eBay. However, I did not want to deal with pirated versions of windows or malware installed by the seller, so if the laptop was a used one, i would have had to buy a legitimate copy of windows, which is $140–$200 depending on the version. (It’s possible that I could have just installed a fresh copy of Windows by downloading official images online, and then using the activation key associated with the motherboard, but I didn’t know how reliable this process was.) Thus, i could get a $400 thinkpad plus spend $140 on a copy of windows 10 for a total of $540 or so.

could i do better? doing more research, i found that lenovo has an official new and refurbished products store called the Outlet, which sells somewhat older versions of products for far cheaper. if i was quick to find a good deal, this meant I could get a better and almost-new laptop for $600–$900, depending on the model and specs. this would also come with a new copy of windows (i tried looking at whether it was possible for the previous owner to do something to the laptop like install malware on it and have it slip by Lenovo’s refurbishing process, but could not find any information, and thought this was unlikely enough that i didn’t worry about it).

after doing some more reading, i concluded the lenovo outlet option seemed like the best combination of cheap + high build quality (in particular, both on reddit and /g/ I saw people speaking positively of the Outlet and didn’t find very many horror stories). so my research shifted to finding a good deal on the outlet. after some looking, i was able to find the x1 yoga gen 3 for $615. after consulting some typical prices for the model (e.g. you can find some price charts on /g/), i concluded this was a good enough deal, so bought it.

Some thoughts after having used the laptop for a couple of months:

• it’s very noticeably faster than my x220; i can browse any website i want with firefox. the only times i need chrome are for some sites (e.g. Messenger group calls) that require it specifically.

• keyboard is not as bad as i was expecting, but of course the X220 keyboard is much better.

• the touch pad makes a clicking sound when i lift my fingers, which is annoying but tolerable.

• there is no way to turn off the keyboard backlight – no setting in the BIOS, nothing in Lenovo Vantage. it keeps coming on after i wake up the computer from sleep or unlock the screen. (update in 2023: this was finally fixed; see below) I must use function+Spacebar three time to toggle it to the “off” state every time. Pretty annoying. 2022-01-13: i finally discovered where the sensor for this is, when the backlight is set to “auto” mode. it’s a little left of the camera. if you look closely, you will see a round spot, a diameter of like 7mm maybe. if i put my finger over it, the backlight comes on, and if i remove my finger (with some light shining directly at it) the backlight will turn off. if the backlight is annoying, one idea is to make sure to sit in a place where there is some minimal amount of light shining on that sensor.

• I like the switch to turn off the webcam.

• the case was unexpectedly silver rather than the usual thinkpad black, but i don’t care much about the color either way. (the color was not listed on the product listing; everything else was as described on the product listing). actually, the silver body + black chiclet keyboard combination causes me to have the Hermann grid illusion which is a bit annoying, but since I don’t look down at the keyboard most of the time it isn’t such a big problem. it’s actually the lower part of the keyboard, since in the bottom two rows, the keys make a plus sign grid, whereas the upper rows are standard qwerty layout so they are staggered. if the left ctrl key had been made smaller or something like that, then the keys in the bottom row would also stagger against the row above it, which would prevent the optical illusion. x1 yoga: the keyboard makes me have that optical illusion where i see dots where the silver lines cross. i think if the body was black i wouldn’t be having this illusion, so in that aspect it’s a bit annoying.

• the lights on the keyboard (e.g. for caps lock and mute) are too bright and white, which annoys me. i prefer the duller red/yellow colors on the X220. i think the lights on the keyboard are too bright/noticeable. i prefer the yellow or red lights on the x220.

• touchscreen works well.

• having the HDMI port on the right side is annoying for me, as it blocks my mousepad from being there. i wish the left side of the laptop was more “full” in terms of ports, to leave the right side bare.

• sometimes, if i unplug and plug back in the HDMI port too much, eventually the external monitor stops working. I then have to restart the computer for the monitor to start working again.

• the X220 only has a VGA port, and the x1 yoga only has an HDMI port, so i had to get an adapter in order to get dual screen working. this turned out to be somewhat annoying, since the display quality depends a lot on the exact adapter used.

• Dual screen support is kind of crappy: if I plug in and out the HDMI port enough times, the computer will eventually give up on dual screen and will just stick to the main laptop screen. Rebooting fixes the problem, so this is probably a software problem.

• thinkpad trackpoint is significantly harder to use than on the X220, to the point that I rarely use the track point and instead use the trackpad when I don’t have access to a mouse (which is the opposite of what I did with the X220, where I even disabled the trackpad because it was so bad). this might be a software problem.

• laptop is quiet; i don’t hear anything unless i am on a video call or playing a game or something (but in those cases I am usually using headphones or there is music playing so the fan noise doesn’t bother me). In contrast, with the x220 i can definitely hear a quiet hum even when the fan is not going.

• the laptop has a bigger screen, but it is still small enough that it fits in the laptop case i got for the X220.

• there is a “pop” noise when i first start playing audio after a break. this is pretty annoying (especially in instant messaging, where audio is not continuously playing). i think i’ve mostly learned to “tune it out” though.

• i have not used the yoga or tablet features (though i’ve used the touchscreen a bit), so can’t comment on those. update(2021-07-31): i finally used the yoga/tablet feature once. it was ok, but my headphone cable slipped into the space between the screen and body, and as i rotated the screen it kind of “crunched” the cable, not to the point of breaking the cable, but at least leaving a visible mark. oops. at least this means the hinges are sturdy, right?

• the pen is a bit hard to take out and i am worried i might break something sometimes.

• things like screen quality and battery life and speakers are so good compared to the X220 that i can’t really have an opinion of them (since any new laptop would be a huge improvement, i can’t say the X1 yoga is actually “good” in any sense).

• i miss having the disk usage light.

• palm rest does not heat up when using the laptop, which is good (the hottest part of the laptop is in the top right part of the keyboard, near the heating vent).

• the left mouse click button on the track pad (not the one at the bottom that’s integrated with the trackpad, but the one above the trackpad that’s meant to be used with the trackpoint) sometimes does not work. or rather, it’s more like it takes a stronger/more firm click in order for it to work and sometimes my clicks are not strong enough.

• i did notice there was a small surface scratch on the back side of the laptop when i first opened it out of the box. i’m hoping this is all that was wrong with the laptop, and is what caused the previous owner to return it.

• fan exhaust is located in the back of the laptop so i don’t feel it at all.

• i like having the camera and the camera shutter. (my X220 did not have a camera). however, on two occasions so far when i’ve opened the camera shield, the camera had a very strong and weird yellow tint.

• i like having so many choices for how to interact with the machine (keyboard, nub, touchpad, touchscreen, mouse)

• when i use the touchpad, there is a slight click sound even when i don’t click

• i think the screen shakes more than the x220 when i jiggle my legs. this is only a problem because of my habit of jiggling legs.

• the printscreen key feels useless, and i prefer having the context menu button instead like the x220.

• i’ve noticed that the ‘U’ key requires the key to be pressed more fully than on other keys. this is somewhat annoying since it’s a pretty common letter and is not on the home row so i don’t naturally press it very hard when typing. Update (2023-02-22): When bending the laptop into tablet mode today (the second time ever that I have done this), I noticed that all the keys went in except for this ‘U’ key. Not sure what’s up with it. When I pressed it while inside a text box, it did not type the U character, so it seems to be successfully deactivated; it’s just that the key won’t go back in. Update (2023-05-15): i get a kind of smudge or something on my screen every day at the same spot. i had noticed this smudge periodically in the past, but only now did i realize it’s roughly the part of the screen that touches against the U key when i close my laptop. i didn’t think of that when i discovered the “U key doesn’t retract” problem back in february. the smudge comes off easily if i wipe it, and there doesn’t seem to be any lasting damage to the screen.

• not sure if this is a software or hardware problem, but there is no stereo mode in the Windows sound settings. This makes it harder to “stream” my audio during e.g. video calls or when I’m trying to record something (some software like OBS Studio are smart enough to be able to record both the desktop audio and the microphone, but even Audacity can’t do both at once).

• The outer rim around the screen is in a glossy black, which reveals fingerprints and other smudges. This is not too big of a problem because most of the time I am focusing on the screen rather than the outer rim.

• on windows there seems to be no way to do a middle click without a mouse. on linux i think clicking the scroll button on the thinkpad worked.

• January 2022: the backspace key started making a very loud clacking sound almost every time it is pressed. there’s a way to avoid the sound by pressing the key in a very particular location, but it’s not the natural location for my fingers. i can’t tell if it’s some hardware problem with the key itself, or if some food particle or such went under there (i am guessing it’s the former). the key works when pressed.

• May 2022: I decided to finally try to fix the backspace key. I followed this video since I couldn’t find a video guide exactly for the X1 Yoga. The first time I tried to get the backspace key out, I managed to get it out but cracked the key near the middle (the crack reaches about half way). When I put the key back in, it no longer clicked loudly, but the key felt “stuck”. So I tried taking out the key again. This time, I broke off a small piece of the plastic (the top right “hook” thing). I very firmly pressed the key back in, and now it seems better than when I started out this whole repaid process. While I was breaking things anyway, I decided to take out the U key as well (the one that is less sensitive than the other keys, so that I have to really press it). I also broke off a piece of the plastic “hook” while trying to take the key out. I tried playing with the “nub” under the key, and realized that the nub itself seems less sensitive (so putting the key in was unlikely to help). Sure enough, I put the key back in and it didn’t fix the sensitivity issue. Overall, this experience made me think even worse of this laptop’s keyboard.

  Update: the problem went away after like two days. (i tried tilting the laptop and pressing the key in different spots/ways, but idk if that did anything, or if the problem just went away on its own.)

  Update (2022-03-08): problem returned after moving the laptop around, this time also affecting the Enter key a bit. The problem hasn’t gone away as of 2022-03-17. the problem seems to have finally gone away on 2022-04-15. Actually never mind, the problem seems to be back on 2022-04-16.

  Update (2022-08-13): a few months ago probably i ended up removing the key caps from the backspace key and the U key. the U key just seems to have a more stubborn “pin” (idk the technical term), so cleaning under the key cap and placing it back didn’t fix anything. the backspace key is better now, though i cracked it in the middle in the process of trying to get it out.

• Update (2023-02-11): I think a recent Lenovo Vantage auto-update finally fixed the keyboard backlight problem; now when i lock my screen and unlock it, the backlight setting does not reset. (it still comes back on after rebooting the computer, but I do this infrequently enough that it won’t be a problem for me). however…. after nearly two years of training my muscle memory to reflexively turn off the keyboard backlight every time i unlock my screen, it will probably take a while before i unlearn this habit.

  Update (2023-02-17): the problem came back after another windows update.

  Update (2023-02-20): i think another lenovo vantage update fixed this again.

  Update (2023-02-27): the problem does seem fixed, but the backlight still comes back after rebooting. actually it seems to not be working again…

• very occasionally, the screen suddenly turns black and stays that way, sometimes for a few minutes, other times for possibly forever until I give up and forcibly shut the laptop off. If a video or something is playing then I can continue to hear sound, so it’s not like the whole computer is frozen. I suspect it’s just the visual display that’s gotten messed up somehow. I can hear the fan going sometimes, so it may be some sort of system update (that automatically ran without me doing anything), which Lenovo Vantage sometimes does. Anyway, this is very annoying when it happens and I am glad I have not been doing anything time-critical or super important at the times when this has happened so far. (it’s maybe happened five times in two years.)

• Early 2023: The “1” key has become kind of hard to press and makes a “crack” sort of noise maybe 95% of the time I press it. pretty annoying, as it’s a pretty common key. I haven’t tried removing the key yet to see if there’s anything underneath. This sort of thing never happened on my X220 keyboard and so I am pretty disappointed.

Update (2023-12-28): I am appreciating the “yoga-ness” of this laptop more and more as time goes on. For example, it’s possible to invert it so that it’s like a laptop, but the screen pointing in the opposite direction. With this posture, the laptop can act as an “external monitor” – I can bring my own external keyboard, and use the laptop as a monitor (set on top of some books, for example). This allows me to separate “keyboard” from “monitor”. Whereas with a normal laptop one would have to also bring an external monitor to do something like this, with the Yoga it’s possible to just keep using the laptop’s screen (or else have the rest of the laptop body be in your way, or have the screen be too far). I remember one time I used a similar configuration to watch some videos from my bed.

Xiaomi Redmi 10

See here for product info.

I bought this phone in 2021. This is my current smartphone as of 2023.

It is alright and does what I need. A few comments:

• I did not buy a case for this phone. Combined with the fact that the back side of this phone is very smooth (such that if it’s on even a slight incline, the vibrations of the phone will cause the phone to just slide off the surface), the phone has dropped from a desk surface on two occasions, causing the phone screen to crack twice.
• There’s a very annoying “feature” that prevents you from using the touch screen sometimes (it keeps saying “don’t cover the earphone area”), but this can be turned off (it took me a long time to get around to looking this up, but it’s a very quick thing in the settings that can be changed).
• The camera is ok but I definitely notice that people with better phones like iPhones take way better pictures.
• There was an OS upgrade in early 2023 or so that noticeably slowed down all the UI. I.. sadly don’t see a way to avoid this without creating security problems or putting in a lot of work to reinstall some alternative OS.

Kimberly-Clark N95 Pouch Respirator (53358), Made in U.S.A, Universal Size, 50 Respirators/Bag

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NVDFB3R

I bought these after seeing Wei Dai’s post here. They are comfortable and work well in my experience (I have only gotten sick once since using these masks, and it was via someone I interact with regularly unmasked rather than from strangers in areas where I wear the mask).

See here for some more thoughts I wrote on this mask.

l-theanine (multiple products)

I once bought a big powder thing from Nootropic Depot. My reasoning was that with a powder I would be able to use a scale to measure out arbitrary amount, allowing me to see what dose works well for me. It turned out this was a pretty bad idea: when I am feeling anxious, I do not have the capacity to use fine-grained motor skills to measure out a powder, and also taking a white powder in general while feeling anxious tends to make me even more anxious (even when I know it’s safe). I ended up getting Jarrow’s 100mg theanine gummies later on and this turned out to be much better.

Overall though, at the 100–200mg range, l-theanine doesn’t seem to do very much for me (decreases anxiety a little bit, but then it makes me sleepy rather than further reducing anxiety) and I am too scared to increase the dosage.

IKEA MARJUN curtains

IKEA link: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/marjun-room-darkening-curtains-1-pair-gray-70298422/

I bought these after seeing them recommended by the Wirecutter in this article.

They work well enough. My room stays very noticeably darker now than before I installed the curtains (before this, I just had blinds).

They do have a kind of unpleasant off-gassing smell. Several months after installing the curtains, this smell became bad enough that it started to make me feel nauseous. However I was able to wash the curtains in a laundry machine and this seems to have gotten rid of the smell for now.

I do also want to note though that contrary to what the Wirecutter article claims, the Marjun curtains are considered merely “room-darkening” by IKEA, rather than “blackout”. There are other curtains, such as the Majgull, that are considered “blackout”. I did email the author of the Wirecutter article about why they made no mention of this or attempt to compare the various IKEA curtains, but received no response.

If I was buying curtains today, I’m … not sure what I would do. I may actually go to a physical store and smell a bunch of the curtains (if such a thing is even possible), since that turned out to be the main problem with the ones I bought.

Sun Zero SN47074 Bronn Wrap Around Window Curtain Rod, 66-120”, Matte Black

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DSGHB44

Since my room did not come with curtains, I had to buy a curtain rod to attach the curtains reviewed in the previous section. This rod works fine. It is kind of rough though so a bit hard to drag the curtains on. They curve at the ends so it’s possible to wrap the curtains around them, to create an even darker room. The rod twists on the sides and shrinks so the curtains can be detached without unmounting the whole thing, so it is good if you want to wash your curtains frequently.

Coway Airmega AP-1512HH(W) air filter

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01728NLRG

I … don’t actually notice a difference in my general health (e.g. allergies, breathing problem) after having bought this air filter. I bought this mostly as a sort of “well, I have a bunch of health problems that can plausibly be improved by breathing in cleaner air” thinking. It is quiet enough and I have no particular reason to doubt the theory, so I keep it on 24/7.

I keep the ionizer turned off, as I have read that the ozone produced by such devices can irritate some sensitive people (and I am probably such a sensitive person).

When I leave the filter on on the auto setting, I do notice it detecting bad air (e.g. if someone in the house fries food) and increasing its speed as a result.

Microwave cover

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088K15NTZ

Most microwave covers are pretty short and only work well for flat plates. However, I like to eat out of slanted bowls most of the time. The problem with using a short microwave cover on a slanted bowl is that the top of the cover touches your food, which I find a little gross … gross enough that I would prefer making the microwave messy with splattered food. It took quite a bit of searching but I finally found this microwave cover and I am satisfied with it.

FIDECO SATA/IDE to USB 3.0 Adapter

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077N2KK27

This adapter was able to read all the SATA drives I tested it on as well as one of my two IDE drives (but the second IDE drive wouldn’t show up for some reason, and I am trying to debug this).

This shape of adapter is much better than the “docking/slotting” types in my opinion, because sometimes hard drives will have things like screws or other metal pieces attached to them that are potentially difficult to remove, and so at least a few drives I have had have failed to slot into the dock-style adapters. By minimizing the contact area, smaller adapters like this FIDECO one work on these trickier drives.

Protein bars

I feel pretty confused about what protein bars are good (in the sense of being safe to consume over long periods of time). These days I tend to eat both Costco’s brand of protein bars (chocolate chip cookie dough + chocolate brownie) and Probar meal on-the-go (peanut butter chocolate chip). Neither of these bars causes problems for me after I eat them (in the past, some bars I have tried like Zone Perfect bars have caused hunger attacks shortly after consuming them). They are also tasty enough and filling. The probar ones are a bit too sweet.

Microsoft Comfort Mouse 3000

This is some crappy default mouse that Microsoft made at one point, but I love it. After I stopped using the Microsoft Pro Intellimouse (see above) I switched to this mouse. Some things I like about this mouse:

• It is light and is the right size for my hands, so does not cause my wrists to hurt.
• The scroll wheel has notches but it’s not too heavy so I can scroll quickly if needed.
• The sensor works on my shiny mousepad (many mice fail to work on my shiny mousepad)
• The sensor position is centered with respect to the body of the mouse so I can prevent the mouse sensor from being detected simply by tilting the mouse towards me instead of lifting it.
• The rear of the mouse is round so it is easy to tilt it.

Some things I don’t like about it are:

• It does not have well-defined left and right click buttons, so I very occasionally click both buttons at once.
• One of the pad things underneath keeps coming off once every few months. So far I’ve been able to clean it and stick it back every time, but at some point it may come off for good? I wish they had more securely attached the pads.
• Also because Microsoft seems to have stopped making this mouse model, it’s now sold for $130 on Amazon which is ridiculous. I have seen it sold used at a second hand/thrift store for like $4 once (but the USB part was damaged so it didn’t actually work, and one of the pads underneath was missing). I hope to find more soon so that I can stock up on this mouse (as I’ve learned over the years, there is actually quite a bit of variance in how good a mouse is for e.g. not causing hand pain, and my preferences seem kind of unusual so I can’t just read online reviews and buy one that other people like).

Wahl beard trimmer Model 5537N

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000KG87WW ($16.50 including tax at the time of my purchase in 2023; the Amazon link says Model 5537-420 but the one I got says 5537N)

One of the things that’s hard with my chronic illness is standing in one place for more than a few minutes. This makes certain everyday activities like showering quite difficult. For a few reasons*, I like to shave while showering but because I am showering + shaving at the same time, this means I have to stay standing for quite a while, which has made showering pretty difficult in recent times.

This beard trimmer allows me to decouple showering and shaving, and in fact allows me to shave while seated. It makes shaving so easy that I can do it more often, which makes the average length of my facial hair over time shorter, even though it cuts the hair longer than actual shaving.

The product comes with a matching nose hair trimmer, but I don’t really get long nose hairs (at least as of now), so I have not used it.

*: When I shave at the sink, the water drips down to my clothes/down my neck, which I don’t like. Also, somehow the hot steamy air created from the shower helps to soften my skin or moisten it, which helps the razors be less likely to injure my face while shaving (I don’t fully understand why it works this way, but this has been my experience based on trying it both in the shower and at the sink). I suppose I could invest in shaving cream or something to make the shaving at the sink work more smoothly, but this would not solve the “water drips down my neck” problem.