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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?

#261

Post by sarreph »

skrebbel wrote: post #165

Jasc Paint Shop Pro. This tool had the useful half of Illustrator's features and the useful half of Photoshop's, it was blazing fast, and it combined them in a single program so you could mix vector and raster layers. This made it absolutely perfect for web-targeted graphics work. It was the first software I legally bought because it was so good and still affordable (a fraction of the price of Adobe's stuff - somethi…

It sounds to me like you're describing Affinity Designer - you might want to check it out if you haven't already. It's relatively very cheap and one of the few pieces of software that I use daily that I am very happy paying the list price for!

I vaguely remember having Jasc installed as a kid and it was indeed great!

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

#262

Post by function_seven »

guyzmo wrote: post #187
kome wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

So am I... at some point for colleagues that were telling me that my mail looked bad because text (and they weren't using fixed width font), I was sending them text converted to html by a script, so it is contained in a :->

Haha, imposing your plain text will on the HTMLers. I love it.

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

#263

Post by pmontra »

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…

4:3 screens: yes, but on laptops. Given an equally wide laptop 4:3 gives much more space to work on. I wonder if there would be space for large touchpads but the Thinkpad/stick fans won't care. My personal sweetspot on laptops was 16:10.

For standalone monitors, nobody was making screens as wide (in cm) as the ones we have now, at a reasonable price. You could have two 4:3 monitors side by side which is 8:3 or 16:6, worse than 16:9 for the same width.

I add: 15" laptops without numberpads (Macs don't count, I don't like OSX and their keyboards and the buttonless touchpad)

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

#264

Post by anexprogrammer »

gcb0 wrote: post #244
anexprogrammer wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't resist, it applies perfectly: Firefox, the fast, stable, and lightweight alternative to Netscape. I don't know quite where it went off the rails...

meh. incorrect cheap shot. Firefox slogan always was Take Back The Web. and it's still kicking at it. I'm using it on android now, with NoScript and httpsEverywhere just fine.

Wrong. Phoenix was produced as a small, light, extensible replacement for the perceived bloat of Netscape. it started as an experimental project.

See the announcement by Eich & Hyatt announcing Firefox would be the focus, not Communicator: http://www-archive.mozilla.org/roadmap/roadmap-02-Apr-2003.h...

"Firefox is simply smaller, faster, and better -- especially better not because it has every conflicting feature wanted by each segment of the Mozilla community, but because it has a strong "add-on" extension mechanism"

"Take Back the Web" came a year or two later as I recall.

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

#266

Post by nanoverge »

frik wrote: post #142

* IBM ThinkPad T41p/60. Lenovo T410/X210 where still somewhat fine. But these newer ultrabooks nowadays have less powerful specs than 5 year old notebooks. The Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon isn't bad, but a far cry given it's ultrabook less powerful specs than an 5 year old high end notebook. And these shitty keyboard nowadays, give me back the old keyboard layout like grouped F1-F12 key, better placed Home/PgUp/PgDn/End…

The Microsoft IntelliMouse was so good. This was something I realized at the time and hoarded them. I now have a wonderful stash of that mouse.

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

#267

Post by pmontra »

akerro wrote: post #239
Grue3 wrote: post #151

Google Reader. There are no replacements that a) update fast enough, and b) allow search for free. I know, I tried all of them. Firefox had an amazing plugin called "Ubiquity", which was basically like command line for your browser and you could write custom scripts for it. It was seriously better than anything that exists today. They stopped developing it for some reason. Tab Groups is another feature that's now aba…

After removing tab groups I see literally zero reasons why anyone should use firefox. It's slower, more buggy copy of Opera and Chromium ;/

I'm using both Firefox and Opera on mg laptop and they don't feel any different regarding speed or crashes.

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

#268

Post by microtonal »

xvilka wrote: post #167
microtonal wrote: post #15

Turbo Pascal It had an awesome IDE, debugger, and help.

There is an awesome FreePascal [1]. Along with TurboPascal-like console IDE called FPIDE, it has Delphi-like GUI IDE - Lazarus. And it very actively developed, cross-platform and supports modern technologies. [1] http://www.freepascal.org/ [2] http://www.lazarus-ide.org/

I know about FreePascal, I even used it quite a lot in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, the Pascal ship has sailed for me ;).

I could've also mentioned Turbo C(++), which was almost equally nice.

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

#269

Post by Chickenosaurus »

frik wrote: post #238
kome wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and eliminated entire cash notes like the 500 EURO note Good fucking riddance. It just was a gift to criminals.

Explain me more. You fall for the propaganda without background knowledge. The statistics says otherwise. Fake money is mostly smaller notes (like 20, 50, 100 notes). Higher value notes like 1000 francs note won't get eliminated anytime soon. Criminals already use electronic money, real estate, fake companies, etc.

500 € Notes are a gift to criminals because they allow large amounts of money to be smuggled easily - e.g. to a country where no questions are asked when you deposit large amounts of money with your fake company.

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

#270

Post by p4bl0 »

rajeshmr wrote: post #208
Grue3 wrote: post #151

Google Reader. There are no replacements that a) update fast enough, and b) allow search for free. I know, I tried all of them. Firefox had an amazing plugin called "Ubiquity", which was basically like command line for your browser and you could write custom scripts for it. It was seriously better than anything that exists today. They stopped developing it for some reason. Tab Groups is another feature that's now aba…

+1 for Google reader. Never found anything like it.

I use Newsblur now, and it is really good.
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