6 ms·
Ask HN: What are your favorite tiny, single purpose tools?
What are you favorite simple, single purpose tools that do one thing really one? Websites, CLIs, libraries, anything really!
- solardev 2y agoMy air fryer.
- piezoelectric 2y agoFree and open source chicken nuggies
- piezoelectric 2y agoPacstrap, as it saves you so much time during the arch installation, especially when installing the base and kernel
- yareyaredawa 2y agoDefinitely HandBrake, being able to quickly compress a video is so clutch
- jshawl 2y agominisign - https://jedisct1.github.io/minisign/ https://jedisct1.github.io/minisign/ super simple digital signatures!
- andyjohnson0 2y agoPureText. Windows tray utility that removes all text formatting from whatever is in the clipboard. http://stevemiller.net/PureText/ http://stevemiller.net/PureText/
- prashp 2y agofyi you can download windows power toys and assign a keyboard shortcut to "paste as plain text" universally in Windows https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/paste-as-plain-text https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/paste-as...
- andyjohnson0 2y agoThanks, I wasn't aware of that. PureText provides universal paste too with Windows+V. PowerToys is useful but there's a lot of it that I find I either never use or forget about.
- nicbou 2y agoComd + Alt + V does this on MacOS
- BrandoElFollito 2y agoI use ditto as my clipboard manger and have a key combination to "purify" the output
- jf22 2y agoA pineapple de-corer and slicer. An $8 tool significantly improves the ease and efficiency of getting maximum pineapple value.
- mikewarot 2y agoI really like time.gov, if you need to know (within a second or so) what time it is, in the US... they've got you covered.
- gnatman 2y agoSelfControl for MacOS - let's you set a domain blocklist and a time limit. It's pretty tamper proof too, surviving reboots, etc. Really helps me buckle down when I'm resistant to getting work done!
- nbbaier 2y agoI love self control. I really wish there was a better way to automate it, though, so that I didn't have to remember to start it.
- ChildOfChaos 2y agoI use cold turkey to block sites on Mac, it's really good, it's quite powerful with lots of options, many different blocklists and you can have a lot of control over it, i.e block things at certain times, time limit sites, or have to perform an action to gain access (i.e type some words, restart etc)
- nbbaier 2y agoYeah I've been thinking about checking out this as an option too
- al_borland 2y agoI disagree on the tamper proof assessment. I set some limits for myself with it, got bored and wanted to go on a blocked site. It took me all of 90 seconds to guess at what it was doing and manually turn it off by undoing what it did. I won’t tell you what that is, since it’s working for you.
- gnatman 2y agoYes- luckily, in this instance anyway, the things that some HN posters view as "trivial" are to me cumbersome and mysterious!
- constantinum 2y agoHandbrake Copyclip ProtonVPN Pomodoro timer
- MatthiasPortzel 2y agoMaccy.app is a FOSS alternative to CopyClip.
- piezoelectric 2y agoGit, it's saves you so much time
- interbased 2y agoI love git. And as you learn more features, it becomes so powerful.
- textman 2y agohttps://www.timeanddate.com https://www.timeanddate.com just about everything you want to know about sun and moon data for any location. Also a world clock, time zones, timers, calculators, even weather. https://filezilla-project.org/ https://filezilla-project.org/ FileZilla FTP client https://adionsoft.net/fastimageresize/ https://adionsoft.net/fastimageresize/ What the name says and super fast, super small output. supports multiple image formats. https://www.xponentsoftware.com/xml-editor.aspx https://www.xponentsoftware.com/xml-editor.aspx for fast loading huge XML files. editing not very full-featured and search is slow, but xml schema validation is fast. https://afdc.energy.gov/stations#/find/nearest https://afdc.energy.gov/stations#/find/nearest Alternative energy locations with map. USA, Canada. electric/charging type, CNG, LNG, Hydrogen, propane, biodiesel, ethanol. route selection. https://fire.airnow.gov/ https://fire.airnow.gov/ Fire and smoke map. USA, Canada.
- D13Fd 2y agoI use timeanddate.com probably every day, on average, for work. It's so handy, for both the calendars and the date calculators.
- tacostakohashi 2y agoI think it's a bit sad to be using a heavyweight, ad-ridden website for such trivial things that can be done with e.g.: date --date="2 days ago" cal -3 On the other hand, I admire whoever the operator is for creating a business around such a simple thing.
- shpx 2y agoYou can't make a single typo in Bash and also the browser makes aliases for you automatically based on usage, whereas Bash aliases require thought and maintenance. So it's Bash that is slower ("heavyweight") if you count how many neuron firings it takes and how much these gigantic, slow write heads (fingers on a keyboard) have to move through space as part of the system. Computer scientists haven't been able to make a language with any sort of error recovery because "it would be non-deterministic" but Google (guided by capitalism) was able to see that's what people need. Google search is a programming language/shell.
- cheshireoctopus 2y agohttps://grampasweeder.com/ https://grampasweeder.com/ Not necessarily tiny, but awesome single-purpose gardening tool for removing weeds without overworking your back.
- Leftium 2y agoWirecutter did a write-up on a similar stirrup hoe that works "in half the time of pulling weeds by hand:" https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/garden-weeding-tool-stirrup-hoe/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/garden-weeding-to... Both have long handles for use while standing up, but grampa's weeder seems to target one weed at a time while the stirrup hoe is meant to cut several roots in one go. So perhaps use grampa's to dig out dandelions from your lawn, but a stirrup hoe to get all the weeds between the plants you want to keep in a flower bed or garden.
- tutorialmanager 2y agoPepper cannon https://mannkitchen.com/products/the-original-pepper-cannon-pepper-mill https://mannkitchen.com/products/the-original-pepper-cannon-...
- nbbaier 2y agoMost expensive pepper grinder I've seen
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- cloudking 2y agoFfmpeg
- SAI_Peregrinus 2y agoSensepeek PCBite probes[1]. Hands-free connections for multimeter, logic analyzer, or oscilloscope makes checking signals in circuits easy. Even with some very small SMD parts. [1] https://sensepeek.com/ https://sensepeek.com/
- ChildOfChaos 2y agoRecently bought a Time Timer. Great little timer and since I run my life by timers/time blocking things I find it really useful, just to set a timer and go and I can easily see it visually which helps keep me focus. Completely analogue so no reaching for my phone.
- rodface 2y agoI did too! I bought the smallest size and at $30 it is pricier than some alternatives but it feels nice to buy a real product instead of a knockoff with a random brand name. If memory serves me correctly, most of them also don't go in the "right direction" in regards to how time moves on the clock.
- ChildOfChaos 2y agoNice, I was exactly the same, I looked at the alternatives and I put of buying it for some time due to cost, in the end just went for it as I realised although expensive for a timer, it wasn't a massive cost. It's been useful so far.
- galfarragem 2y agoFrom the top of my mind (both are free for personal use, AFAIK): - BRU[0]. I have to batch rename dozens of files very often and this works like a charm. Some people will say the UX is clunky but I think it's awesome![1] - PDFill[2]. Simple PDF tools that work. [0] https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/ https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/ [1] https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/#mainscreen https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/#mainscreen [2] https://www.pdfill.com/pdf_tools_free.html https://www.pdfill.com/pdf_tools_free.html
- petabyt 2y agoI have my own ARM reverse engineering tool made with unicorn, capstone, and keystone. https://s1.danielc.dev/re/ https://s1.danielc.dev/re/ and https://s1.danielc.dev/re64 https://s1.danielc.dev/re64 I use it pretty much every day.
- trent1971 2y agoMouse jiggle, for keeping my computer from going to sleep.
- tmaly 2y agoyt-dlp sometimes I need to get a video or audio from various platforms
- rossant 2y agoDynalist. For todo lists, notes, prose, everything really.
- ElevenLathe 2y agoI wrote a small utility named "reminder" that lets me set a reminder, optionally with a message, for any time in the future. When the time comes, I get a phone call (and an SMS if I attached a message).
- nbbaier 2y agoThis is really cool! Is the code open sourced?
- ElevenLathe 2y agoNo, but it's just garbage quality "need a thing now" code anyway, and it uses Twilio so I'm not going to host it for other people for free ($$$$, and a lot of abuse potential). I've been wondering if a more polished/packaged version of this would be something someone might pay for. Out of curiosity: would you pay, say, $10/month for this service?
- nbbaier 2y agoI might!
- ElevenLathe 2y agoAre you a bot?
- thinkingemote 2y ago"Humane" spider catcher e.g. https://www.leevalley.com/en-gb/shop/home/pest-control/insects/56114-long-handled-spider-catcher?item=AT218 https://www.leevalley.com/en-gb/shop/home/pest-control/insec...
- Leftium 2y agoIf I spend money on software, that means they are worth paying for over the free options! - Beyond Compare: https://www.scootersoftware.com/ https://www.scootersoftware.com/ - WizTree: https://diskanalyzer.com/ https://diskanalyzer.com/ - WizFile (can search Google Drive!): https://antibody-software.com/wizfile/ https://antibody-software.com/wizfile/ - Fork: https://git-fork.com/ https://git-fork.com/ - Directory Opus: https://www.gpsoft.com.au/ https://www.gpsoft.com.au/ - https://www.insynchq.com/ https://www.insynchq.com/ (Best solution for not syncing folders like `node_modules` to Dropbox/GoogleDrive)
- rodface 2y agoGreat to see Opus mentioned, it has been my file manager of choice for many years now.
- nicbou 2y agoMonitor Control for MacOS. It lets you control the brightness and volume of external displays. It looks and feels like a native feature. SelfControl for MacOS reliably blocks websites for a custom amount of time. Shazam for finding music you hear. It still feels like magic.
- ivansavz 2y agoThere is nice tool called `aha` that converts ANSI color codes to HTML colors. See https://github.com/theZiz/aha https://github.com/theZiz/aha Example usage: pipe to it any command with color output then send result to an .html file: git diff --color | aha > ~/Deskop/changes.html Very useful in combination with the `--color-words` option for git diff, which highlits only specific words that were changed, which is great when reviewing changes to text files (e.g. blog post written as .md).
- nbbaier 2y agoMight integrate this into my git workflow
- sableye 2y agoI'd be lost if it weren't for `tldr` on my terminal. Also KeePassXC, what a life-changer digital safe.
- jareklupinski 2y agoi installed a "shell gpt" that lets me do things like: sgpt "please show me a javascript function that appends to a list if the arguments are within seventeen days of each other disregarding timezones"
- nbbaier 2y agoI use a similar tool[0] which I really like. Will have to check out sgpt! [0]: https://github.com/ibigio/shell-ai https://github.com/ibigio/shell-ai