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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?

#641

Post by Freak_NL »

kome wrote: post #157
avar wrote: post #116

A few things: Everything not being 4:3 screens. I found it better for programming than everything being cinematic screens. Back when monitor manufacturers were racing to make better / higher resolution monitors, instead of just leaving it at 1080p / 4k / whatever the current standard good enough for movies is. The GMail interface before it started auto-converting the textarea to HTML when edited externally. Console g…

> E-Mail before we lost the "text should be text and not goddamn HTML" war. I am still fighting, and the war is not over.

A lot of mail clients actually send both HTML and text (as they should), so if you configure your mail client to prefer text, almost all incoming mail will be presented to you as text. Now configure it to only send out plain text, and you are no longer part of the problem. :)

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

#642

Post by adyus »

figushki wrote: post #583
figushki wrote: post #580

Free time. I used to use it to sleep, read books, listen to music, watch movies, play video games, do laundry, exercise, talk to my family, and cook my own food. I can do some of those things on the commute to and from work with apps, but it's not the same as when I had free time. I think google or facebook bought it and quietly obsoleted it in 2006. I'm still looking for a replacement. Someone suggested Activity Blo…

Someone else suggested Timely and Toggl, but you have to buy a subscription to really get the most out of them. One of the best things about free time was that it was free for the full version.

Time is never free, even when it's free :) There's opportunity costs.

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

#643

Post by hammock »

figushki wrote: post #580

Free time. I used to use it to sleep, read books, listen to music, watch movies, play video games, do laundry, exercise, talk to my family, and cook my own food. I can do some of those things on the commute to and from work with apps, but it's not the same as when I had free time. I think google or facebook bought it and quietly obsoleted it in 2006. I'm still looking for a replacement. Someone suggested Activity Blo…

What is it/what does it do? (One of those names where a Google search doesn't exactly get you what you want)

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

#644

Post by ZenoArrow »

jerf wrote: post #548
ZenoArrow wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "They'd be cutting off massive markets where internet connectivity isn't consistently good (most of the world)." With all due respect, countries without decent Internet infrastructure are unlikely to be places where there are plenty of people with the spare cash to blow on a console. Furthermore, Nintendo has said that the NX is not designed to be a replacement for the Wii U, meaning that Nintendo may still plan to…

"the NX is meant to be 3x more powerful than the PS4. That sort of power only makes sense if it's a streaming platform." You're confusing me. One minute you seem to be discussing streaming from the console, the next streaming to the console. They may coincidentally use the same English word but technically they have nothing to do with each other. Streaming from the console may require a bit of extra oomph, but if you…

> "You're confusing me."

I imagine the NX device to be a low cost set top box style affair. The 3x power I'm referring to is the total processing power of the NX platform, with the vast majority of that processing power living in the cloud. Does that help clear up the confusion?

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

#646

Post by Razengan »

rcarmo wrote: post #200

Graffiti on Palm handhelds. I owned the original PalmPilot and a couple of other models up to the Vx, and can still write Graffiti faster than I can type on a touch screen. Discounting the Newton (which I tested but didn't own), there still isn't anything else that even came close in terms of practical "handwriting", and even though there's an Android keyboard that does Graffiti, ACCESS is sitting on the IP and has d…

The smaller iPad Pro + the Apple Pencil should fit the bill. You could try it out at a store, it's surprisingly good. YouTube demos will give you an idea but they can't do it enough justice.

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

#647

Post by oliv__ »

adyus wrote: post #642
figushki wrote: post #583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone else suggested Timely and Toggl, but you have to buy a subscription to really get the most out of them. One of the best things about free time was that it was free for the full version.

Time is never free, even when it's free :) There's opportunity costs.

Jesus

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

#649

Post by pbreit »

pbreit wrote: post #128

Google Reader

I've moved to Digg Reader which has been a good replacement.

I'm sure by Google standards that reader usage was tiny but I'm guessing the value of the usage was pretty high. I check reader first thing, last thing and several times in between.

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

#650

Post by icebraining »

zevv wrote: post #507

A phone with a proper SSH client and a real keyboard; I have owned and loved (in this order) the Nokia E71 and N900, HTC Desire Z, Motorola Droid 4 and Photon Q. But now I am out of options, as there are no worthy successors to any of these devices. Modern phones and tablets are not about production, but only about consuming. A lot of thought goes into the output devices, but the only input device - the touchscreen -…

Blackberry recently released their first Android phone, and it has a physical keyboard.
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