Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 367 posts

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#341

Post by adewinter »

pessimizer wrote: post #242
koonsolo wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you crazy? I'm from '79, so probably a bit younger than you. We can now buy an Arduino board for the price of a computer game, and make a flying drone. Even with a small camera or some sensors if you want. Or create some small robots with all the motors and sensors that you want, custom 3d printed. My son is now 13 and doing STEM. I only wish I had access to all the things that they can now do for cheap, especial…

> We can now buy an Arduino board for the price of a computer game, and make a flying drone. I'm pretty sure you could do this 20 years ago, there just hadn't been that wave of marketing around microcontrollers as a hobby that happened around the time of Make magazine. $2 for a PIC and $45 for a programmer, maybe? Waiting excitedly for the next issue of Nuts & Volts? Idly flipping through the Jameco and Small Parts c…

No, you definitely could not do it 20 years ago with hobbyist grade parts. The software basically did not exist and whatever tech there was was strictly hidden behind government arms control restrictions (ITAR) because of fears that the tech could be used in ballistic missiles.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#342

Post by saltcured »

Damogran6 wrote: post #296
drewcoo wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Lego-if-I-cation of digital hardware is a relatively recent thing. That happened in the 80s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_Mindstorms

I was unclear, you’re not wrong, but I meant getting a $5 cpu and a $6 WiFi module and a $5 humidity sensor and a $2 power controller and a $10 lipo battery. The components are like Legos.

Those bricks used to be a discrete components, maybe an op-amp, or a 7400 series chip from TI with maybe two or four logic gates, and they were sold in individual units on peg-board racks at your local Radio Shack.

Sure, we didn't have "drones" in the 80s, since the battery tech and digital integration wasn't there yet to make it feasible. There were radio controlled cars with digital PCM signals, servos for steering, and heavy 6 or 7 cell NiCd battery packs. There were also radio controlled aircraft, but they were generally using an internal-combustion engine, unless they were gliders. These ranged from toy to rather extravagant hobby depending on the size and capability. My neighbor would fly his glider, which had a roughly 2-3 foot wingspan, for what seemed like hours on thermals on a slope behind our houses.

Edit to add: I don't remember the details, but I believe that he told us the radio control was the most expensive part and not much different from what people used in the fancier car kits. The rest was cheap and easily replaced, which was necessary to be light but also to be able to repair after inevitable crashes. Think of a vacuum-formed plastic skin filled with expanded foam, a bit like the structure of a surfboard but with much lower strength.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#343

Post by ramraj07 »

throwaway82652 wrote: post #239
ramraj07 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks more like you don’t want to use the word interesting independent of other feelings you may have about the topic. The story of the making of the atomic bomb is one of the most interesting stories of all history in my opinion. The smartest minds ever to live on this planet decided and agreed it was of the greatest urgency to do what they did and no sane person would argue otherwise. The single greatest night of d…

>Looks more like you don’t want to use the word interesting independent of other feelings you may have about the topic. >If you want to understand the world and this topic with more nuance than a teenage hippy sayin “nukes bad Mann” These comments are incredibly and egregiously pointless, wrong, rude, condescending and dismissive, don't do this. I know about the story and a lot of the history of the war and I still d…

Again not sure what exactly are you saying is rude. Just because someone’s offended we need to change the meaning of the word “interesting”?

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#345

Post by mecha_ghidorah »

onion2k wrote: post #66

There's a good Douglas Adams quote that explains this; Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things. Apply thi…

I dunno I'm only just 30 and I am way less excited by tech than I was 10 years ago. Less and less of it is stuff that caters to me... For example I got one of the second generation kindles and it was fantastic, and after that finally died I got a Kindle Voyage because it had the page press pseudo buttons. I'd have preferred actual buttons but better than nothing.

Now I am terrified about what happens when that Kindle Voyage dies the only option I have for one that has page turn buttons now is the Oasis which only has them on one side, which doesn't sound too bad, but because I'm left handed I am more capable of using both hands for stuff than most people so when reading with a kindle I pass it between hands all the time. Sure I could do that with an Oasis, but I'd have to rotate it 180 degrees and wait for the orientation to change instead of just passing it across.

I know this is an incredibly nit picky complaint, but it's an example of a category of tech gadget I feel let down by.

Phones are similar, Samsung's new flagships don't have SD card slots or audio jacks AFAIK, meaning they are following a trend away from the things that made me go with them in the first place.

I can't remember the last time I saw new bit of tech or device and thought "wow I want one" really and it makes me really fucking sad. I have a good job now, I can actually afford enthusiast level tech... but now I don't want any of it really and whenever I buy anything I feel like I'm choosing the least bad option instead of buying something exciting

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#347

Post by autoexec »

mecha_ghidorah wrote: post #345
onion2k wrote: post #66

There's a good Douglas Adams quote that explains this; Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things. Apply thi…

I dunno I'm only just 30 and I am way less excited by tech than I was 10 years ago. Less and less of it is stuff that caters to me... For example I got one of the second generation kindles and it was fantastic, and after that finally died I got a Kindle Voyage because it had the page press pseudo buttons. I'd have preferred actual buttons but better than nothing. Now I am terrified about what happens when that Kindle…

> Phones are similar, Samsung's new flagships don't have SD card slots or audio jacks AFAIK, meaning they are following a trend away from the things that made me go with them in the first place.

If I had to get a new phone today I'd be looking at this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Xperia_PRO-I

It has SD card support and a headphone jack. I've got a Samsung device now, but they aren't very trustworthy. My first Samsung phone shipped with a keyboard that was logging what I typed and sending that data to a 3rd party whose privacy policy said it was used for things like market research and to make guesses about my cogitative abilities. My second one was filled with so much spammy garbage (like pre-installed facebook) I had to spend a long time disabling stuff using ADB commands before I was comfortable using it at all. At this point I'm not even mad that Samsung is moving away from features I depend on; I'm ready to move away from Samsung. I can't promise Sony is any better, but I'm willing to follow the features I need to give them a shot at disappointing me.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#348

Post by raxxorraxor »

gilbetron wrote: post #246
pessimizer wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We can now buy an Arduino board for the price of a computer game, and make a flying drone. I'm pretty sure you could do this 20 years ago, there just hadn't been that wave of marketing around microcontrollers as a hobby that happened around the time of Make magazine. $2 for a PIC and $45 for a programmer, maybe? Waiting excitedly for the next issue of Nuts & Volts? Idly flipping through the Jameco and Small Parts c…

No? Not even remotely. Even besides buying the parts (which were more expensive and, literally, exponentially less capable), the knowhow and training needed wasn't something you could find on the Internet. Drones didn't exist then, that was a fantasy in 2002. The Internet of 2002 was far, far different from what we have now.

True, the choices were more limited, but there is still a trend in that direction again. If you associate tech is with Apple devices for example, you are probably not one dabbling in tech, you are the passive passenger. Doesn't have to be the case, but there is a hype is more about consumer solutions instead of tech itself.

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#349

Post by dvh1990 »

ddaalluu2 wrote: post #211
dvh1990 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yes, but flying drones are not exciting when everybody can build/buy one.

So you're not interested in tech but in tech no one else has.

The novelty factor IS important. Back in the 90s/00s techies were relatively rare. Being tech-oriented, generally smart but also socially awkward and introverted is an interesting mix - you derive identity and pride from the things that make you special.

Was this the reason I loved tech? No, that's the reason I DID tech. The reason I loved tech is because I believed that tech will make our lives exponentially better. And up to a certain point, it did...

Re: Ask HN: When did tech stop being cool?

#350

Post by Youden »

I think part of it is that when you were younger, tech was a very new part of most people's everyday life.

You grew up through the introduction of the smartphone, social media and digital cameras, as well as the incredible development of computing power. When you were born, the most advanced piece of electronics in the average household might have been a TV. Now, everyone has a little box with a phone, supercomputer and camera in their pocket. That was a huge and exciting change.

But now, much of that burst of transformation has slowed down and any developments in tech are an incremental improvement as far as everyday life is concerned.

But personally, I love learning about the technology in other industries, particularly manufacturing. Look at the everyday objects around you and the process that was used to make them. The sewing machine that stitched your clothes and the mechanism it uses to do it. The machines that produced the yarn and the machines that turned it into fabric. Look at how metals are extruded into a housing for some electrical device or parts of your house. Look at how CNC machining is used to create high-precision parts or how sheet metal is processed to mass-produce low-cost parts.

There's so much technology around us that has been quietly doing its job for decades and even if the change it induced is taken for granted now, the technology itself is still an impressive achievement.

Post reply on HN