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Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#601

Post by vitd »

rhizome31 wrote: post #521
lettercarrier wrote: post #489

The Telephone with Dial Tone and associated Busy Signal. A busy signal meant nobody could contact me; Also, by either not answering the phone or by simply taking the receiver off the hook I controlled interruptions. And, nobody became concerned if they did not hear from me in an hour, 1/2 day, day or even week. And I had no concern if I did not hear from others either in that timeframe. So the "tool" to maintain priv…

Maybe it's just me but I feel that it was also much easier to get to actually speak to someone on the phone back then. We usually knew when we could reach someone and call during those timeframes. If we didn't get a reply we knew they were out and call the next day. Nowadays it's much more rare to get an answer when calling a mobile phone. Either the person has left it in the next room or it's out of battery, it's in…

I know for me I stopped answering the phone altogether about a year or two before the do not call list went into effect. About literally 1/10th of the calls I receive to this day are legit calls I want to take.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#603

Post by copperx »

realo wrote: post #343

RPN HP calculators: HP29C (my first one) and HP41C (did university with it). A long time ago, some demon soul from hell decided to kill them product lines. The world never was the same, afterwards.

I still don't understand how "algebraic" input won ... it requires so many more keystrokes. Perhaps it makes sense for students in lower grade levels, but once you get proficient, RPN is a no-brainer.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#607

Post by saganus »

johnx123-up wrote: post #22

1. Delphi and its community 2. OptiPerl http://www.xarka.com/optiperl/features.html Though both are still available, not in use.

I miss Delphi as well even though I never got to use it for anything professional as I was very young at the time.

However I do remember very fondly how I came to know about Delphi 2 (or 3?).

Somehow I met this guy in ICQ and started talking about programming and about these (back then) very popular programs for "hacking" your friends: Back Orifice, Netbus, Sub7, etc. when he then says that he's actually developing his very own trojan tool called "Hacker's Paradise".

Long story short, at some point he sends me the source code and starts to explain to me how it works.

Some time later time he realizes that there's much more future in actually developing a tool for sysadmins so he renames the tool "Master's Paradise"[1] and starts trying to sell it.

Sadly, I never knew or heard from him again, but I love that story because I was around 10 or 12 at the time and it seemed like magic to me be able to open the Delphi editor, drag and drop some buttons and have a fully functional Windows program at my fingertips. Just beautiful.

Also, the fact that I was getting source code from a stranger over the internet for a tool that would do such "magical" things as opening and closing the cd-rom tray of whoever you had the chance to infect, made me feel like part of the super elite hacker world (ha!).

[1]Now classified by antivirus programs not as a virus but as a backdoor tool: https://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/paradise.shtml

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#608

Post by TomDavey »

tech2 wrote: post #512

Directory Opus (prior to DOpus 5 when it all got a bit "special"). Two panes, amazing file recognition, I've missed it ever since.

I must have adopted Directory Opus after version 5, so maybe I don't know what I'm missing. DO is at version 11 now, and I absolutely adore it. It's the first thing I put on a new Windows system.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#609

Post by tushar-r »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #243
BjoernKW wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm not mistaken he's talking about India. It's common advice (for travellers at least) to only drink bottled water in India.

He mentions 2 decades ago it being fine, so I presume not India. The advice to only drink bottled in India was common 20 years ago too.

It still is, We don't drink tap water in Bangalore either. Very very rare to see folks drinking water straight out of the tap - the water supply isn't potable.

Most urban households have some kind of filtration system in place. The water supply infra is quite bad, with frequent contamination due to leakage.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#610

Post by saganus »

ak39 wrote: post #477
yoodenvranx wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Delphi was awesome for rapid GUI development! It was so easy to get reasonable nice programs in a short amount of time. I really really miss it.

Delphi still exists. Shouldn't be on the list anymore than any new JS framework flavour du jour.

Probably more about its dwindling presence, and even when it's still used in some industries it's nowhere near the spotlight levels it had before I think.
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