LOL, I bought a generation 1 Roomba when it first came out, and it ignored the beacon gizmo and dived right down the basement stairs. I think it was disgusted with our kitchen floor and wanted to escape.
I hope the tech has improved since then.
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Yep! Does a great job.
If your cat happens to be sitting in front of the beacon, it will still take a dive into the sunroom.
I have the 980, which shows a map of the area vacuumed, and surprisingly, has a map of WiFi coverage, which is handy too.
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I think that my MacBook Pro 13” which I ran for more than 7 years. Absolute bargain.
I only retired it because I needed more RAM.
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[quote=“JohnAtl, post:4, topic:20155, full:true”]
Our Roomba is one of my best tech purchases…
Same here. Roomba 965. I added it to HomeKit, so when if leave home on weekdays in the morning, it does it’s thing.
Mac SE with 20 MB hard drive…freshmen year…1987-88. Absolutely loved that computer. Revolutionary at the time. Biggest regret is I didn’t keep it safe. Post college, parents moved a few times and somewhere in there I lost track of it. Also lost a drum set and baseball card collection along the way, but that Mac I wish I still had.
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Technically it’s my parents best Tech purchase ever… my Commodore 64 in 1982.
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This is what got me hooked on programming - an introduction to assembly language via my C64 and an Action Replay cartridge I must have saved up quite a while for (iirc).
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Same goes for me. I read many times more with my Kindle than I ever did before. It may not be the tech purchase that has brought me the most joy, but it’s certainly one that has impacted my life the most by virtue of the books I’ve read as a result of the purchase.
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I invested lawn-mowing money in Borland C++.
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Still one of the best manuals I’ve ever seen. (The DOS version.)
Okay, let’s go way back then.
My Netronics Elf II was my first computer, and a kit I built. It had TV graphics (the Enterprise shown in the photo), and I taught myself to program machine language for its 1802 processor. I went on to build a 2k memory expander, wrote animations, music and games for it, used it as a phone dialer, etc. It got some love a couple of years ago at a retroTECH exhibit at Georgia Tech where I’m working on my PhD. This purchase influenced the rest of my life.
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Best Mac purchase: Mac mini 2012 2.3 Quad-Core.
Outlasted any other Mac I’ve had. Ran rock solid and reliable machine all the way so far. And basically just great value for money:
Got this for almost 20% off within 6 weeks after it was released. Though it officially uses 1600MHz RAM, it took the 16GB of 1333MHz RAM I already had from my previous 2011 mini and ran great. Though it didn’t officially support 4k resolutions, it worked with 4k display I purchased later. Upgradeable SSD. Could even put a 2nd hard drive in for little money. More powerful than the 2014 successor, which I - even as a perennial “upgrader” person - didn’t upgrade to.
Supported the most recent release of macOS for 8 years (2012 until the release of Big Sur this week)., and should still receive security updates for another two years, to make it 10 years.
Best upgrade: My first SSD drive. I think it was a Intel X-25M.
Took OS performance to a whole new level. Never did a computer upgrade improve performance so amazingly.
Best peripheral: Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M:
Again, bought this shortly after it was released in 2009. Also rock-solid hardware. Amazingly and unexpectedly received a 64bit driver/software update from Fujitsu this year, to make it compatible with Cataline and Big Sur.
Above all, a joy to use. While a scanner is rather a productive tool than a “fun” product, the ease, simplicity and reliability make it a joy to use.
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my Borland C++ came free with my Dell computer back in the 90s
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My Synology NAS. At the time, it was nearly an impulse buy because I wanted something that could house my media library when I got sick of having 100s of DVDs, but I’ve found in addition to handling the media library through Plex, it’s an amazing redundant, scalable backup solution, it runs a surveillance system, it handles pretty much all my files (and all of my wife’s on her computer) so nothing is on the Mac except applications and essential files, and it does it all without any issue at all. It’s on for months at a stretch and it just sits in the basement, doing what it does. I’ve often thought the best technologies are the most transparent, that’s what this thing is. I rarely even think about it, but man life would suck without it. I have already decided that if this thing ever breaks, I need to immediately replace it.
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I took ages to buy a robot vacuum cleaner. Mainly because each time I went to a store I asked the question: Can this replace a traditional vacuum? The answer was always: no.
They need to do more research.
I got a Roborock S5Max recently. He (yes, he!) is called Isaac (after Asimov).
Even the FBH is impressed, though she still calls him “it”. (I will miss her one day! 
)
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iPhone. 2007. The whole internet and a powerful computer in my pocket.
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A 19" CRT monitor (this was back in 1999 or so). This was the display that got me into the multi-monitor game. While that CRT is long gone, I’ve run multiple monitors on all my primary computers since then. It’s been an immense boost for my productivity on many tasks over the years.
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Mine is still rocking solid. I have it paired with a portable turntable for the meantime as my Technics turntable started emitting smoke a few weeks ago 
Before this, I use it as an Airplay receiver connected to an Airport Express.
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I think the Remarkable 2 is my best tech purchase that is non Apple.
I love the fact I can replace all my paper notebooks with this device and the writing on it is marvellous in my opinion.
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My Edifier R1280DB. I have two pairs. Seriously, this thing rocks and it’s so cheap for what they deliver in terms of sounds. They are perfect with my TV and replaced the need to much more expensive soundbars. Granted, it’s 2.0 and it doesn’t accept a subwoofer. But I really don’t miss these fiddly 5.1 systems.
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