Stupid tech purchases

[ihavemyreasons]

I'm a sucker for tech gadgets.
Last year I bought a Nexdock 360 when it was on sale. Its basically a laptop without the cpu, ram, etc that would make it a laptop.
Purpose is it allows you to connect your smartphone or other devices (Pi, Steamdeck, desktop PC) and use its touchscreen, keyboard, and trackpad like you would use a laptop.
Bought on a whim.
Didn't find smartphone as a PC to be a very polished experience. And already had a laptop so just a dumb purchase.. Used it do some of the initial setup when I got my Steamdeck and a keyboard and trackpad/mouse made things easier, but it's just been collecting dust since then. Forgot I had it.
Wife decided she wanted a laptop. Knew how that would go - last hand me down laptop I gave her a few years ago got used twice.
Remembered the Nexdock. She's using with her phone and loves it, so its finally getting some use.

[ihavemyreasons]

Wife came to same conclusion I did about the Nexdock - smartphone as a PC just isn't polished enough to be very useful.
Found her a Surface Pro 6 on Craigslist that wouldn't charge but would boot when plugged in for $100. Some scuffs on the case, but screen like new and in great condition other than the battery issue.
Suspected the battery issue might have been driver related, and sure enough downloading and installing the latest Surface Pro drivers started it charging again and it seems to hold a charge for 5+ hours of use.
Had been reset, but did a full wipe of the hard drive to be safe and then a clean install of Windows 11.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I just spend way too much on an electronic chess board.  After I use it for a while I'll probably just go back to playing on the PC, but I hope I keep using it.

Couldn't resist the technology, it is soo cool, RFID chips in each piece, the board just constantly scans and knows where every piece is and knows when you move them.  LEDs light up the squares for moving the computer or online player moves.  You can dump the board over in the middle of a game and it will light up the squares and the lights won't go out until you have all the pieces back where they were.





I was tempted by the one that has a gantry with a magnet inside that moves the pieces, but those don't have the piece recognition and are noisy and slow. 

Other cool thing about piece recognition is if you see a puzzle or something in a book you can just put the pieces on the board and it knows where they are and you can play out the puzzle against the built in computer.