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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?

#661

Post by hammock »

SilasX wrote: post #516
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cash was never a good store of value. You could easily lose everything to fire or theft over night. And governments can create inflation to erode the value of cash pretty quickly if they really want to. There is no erosion of the idea of ownership. As someone who is renting in London I can assure you that quarterly inspections and thick, dirty carpets are an effective reminder of the fact that you are either an owner…

Out of curiousity, why don't they allow inflation protected cash? It's certainly physically possible through some kind of bearer bond system.

Buy TIPS and use the bond certificates as cash

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

#662

Post by krakensden »

samstave wrote: post #656
apahwa wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

was there a mac version?

Can I ask a question: is there a way to run a Windows container on Mac just to run such programs? Rather than a full Windows VM on whatever?

Wine

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

#663

Post by tajen »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #312
jmiserez wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tab Groups Still works, I use it on a daily basis. It's just an addon now. It will probably continue to work for a few years, they've been wanting to get rid of it since 2013 ( https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=836758 ) and it's still there. But I'd be glad to hear of any alternatives!

I've seen this plugin but I don't understand the use case. Group of tabs = a browser window. Am I missing out on a productivity boost?

I have a difficulty with separate windows: They all look the same. I'd use a tabgroup for the doc (MDN, StackOverflow), another for the website I'm building (2-3 tabs because you enter data in the first page, view it in the second), and another group for live websites (gmail & co). Total a dozen tabs, well organized in hierarchical manner.

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

#664

Post by fauigerzigerk »

hyperpallium wrote: post #527
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Java is still as free as it was when SUNW was still a ticker symbol. Oracle hasn't done anything to kill OpenJDK and start charging for new versions or anything like that. I feel that this demonization of Oracle and the concomitant sanctification of Google in this fight between two profit driven corporations is somewhat misguided.

A little more nuance: it's not only that Oracle is bad, but that Sun was good. Oracle's business model is about extracting value; whereas Sun was about building platforms (which they did several times). Oracle has a history of squeezing open projects and alienating developers. You're right, they've taken care not to completely chew up the tremendous business value of Java, only test-nibbling at the edges: projects li…

I agree with a lot of what you're saying.

What pisses me off about this whole saga is that now we are left with a legal precedent that broadly validates all copyrights on APIs.

And my feeling is that it may not have come to this if Google hadn't violated not just the law but also the spirit of the social contract around APIs in such a brazen fashion.

Here comes a hugely profitable company with a business model based on advertising and clones a struggling innovator's entire platform for use on the up-and-coming class of devices without paying the creator a single cent.

Google didn't just implement an API to make two different pieces of software compatible so they would work better together. They didn't fight for everyone's freedom to implement APIs either. The only thing they did was fight to keep every last cent of their profits to themselves in the most short sighted, unimaginative and harmful way possible.

I don't have great sympathy for Oracle's business culture. But as I see it, here are two big corporations, each of them ruthlessly pursuing their own self interest, neither of them giving a shit about everyone elses freedoms or any legal precendent they are setting. And neither of them is showing the slightest hint of creativity in their approach.

Freedoms ultimately cannot be based on the benevolence or charity of corporations. Sometimes we share common interests with one or other corporation. And sometimes, as in this case, we don't, and things go to shit without being in anyone's interest at all. Everyone loses, including Google and Oracle. Pure stupidity all the way down.

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

#665

Post by Razengan »

sharjeel wrote: post #652

MS Paint: I've yet to find a photo tool that'll load instantly and let me crop or resize with the most minimal clicks.

Preview.app, the default image editor on Mac OS X, is just as convenient. I think it has fewer clicks; the selection tool is always the default, so you just drag and Cmd+K. Save-on-quit is the default as well so you just close the window.

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

#666

Post by some-guy »

samstave wrote: post #656
apahwa wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

was there a mac version?

Can I ask a question: is there a way to run a Windows container on Mac just to run such programs? Rather than a full Windows VM on whatever?

Wine! For older programs it works especially well. I've had a legal copy of Photoshop 7.0 for Windows since middle school and I have been running it without any problems since then.

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

#667

Post by projectramo »

hammock wrote: post #643
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)

Just to be clear: we all know this is humor and he literally means free time, right?

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

#668

Post by RGamma »

The GoogleCL command line tools I used to upload large YT videos from my RPi overnight. With a change in Google's authentication mechanism they stopped working and were abandoned.

Now that I look for them, apparently there exists a fork. Might test that out.

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