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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?

#611

Post by forgetsusername »

eddieroger wrote: post #600
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…

I don't get how modern phones not having a busy signal forces you to let people contact you. If I really want to disconnect, I just turn stuff off. The only remaining difference is voicemail, but that's easily ignored. As for the concern, that's not the tool's fault, either, just how we use it. People get worried if you don't call back in a day because they've become accustomed to you doing so. I've got friends who I…

>The tool is still controllable by you - so long as there's a power switch, its in your control.

The point is that the culture has changed.

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

#612

Post by tomkinstinch »

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 -…

Prompt for iOS works very well:

https://panic.com/prompt/

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

#613

Post by lj3 »

ak39 wrote: post #490
hyperpallium wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard the love for foxpro before. I thought microsoft bought it and killed it?

Look at this concept of dynamic forms in FoxPro with full databinding capabilities: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_rCtxf1zBo Always felt FoxPro's concept was light years ahead of XAML's ito clarity of implementation.

Where has this been all my life?

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

#614

Post by joshmarinacci »

iTunes. It's become a mess. In the old days it was so simple to manage an MP3 archive. It would even properly export ID3 tags.

These days what I want is an MP3 archive in the cloud. Hold my mp3s, not your pre-licensed copies with different metadata. Stream my mp3s to any app, with an API. I don't want your mp3 store. I don't want your crappy Spotify clone. I just want my mp3s in the cloud.

I'd pay for this. Anyone else?

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

#615

Post by mancerayder »

otakucode wrote: post #536
frik wrote: post #46

Please read it from a consumer perspective about consumer topics: (of course B2B is very different, where other things matter) * products/software without DRM, always-online, analytics, tracking and spy "features" - bad for consumer personal privacy, and prevents second hand market, products cannot be owned anymore, try buying Windows 10, John Deer tractor, Tesla S without that crap * Cash money: those Davos attendee…

I don't think I would classify the problems with "licensing" of digital property as an erosion of the idea of ownership necessarily, though I can see how you got there. Personally I think that the destruction of consumer protections when it comes to digital property is a temporary situation. EVERY industry has tried this. Out of sheer stupidity, producers think that if they can destroy aftermarket and secondhand mark…

"One day, millions of people will wake up and find themselves locked out of access to a large amount of digital content that they "bought" with the original licensor demanding some additional money to re-unlock access to that material."

Well, we now live in a world of yearly and monthly software subscriptions, so I don't see how the secondary market has any fighting chance even if the license terms we see these days were too onerous for the courts one day as you predict.

Take software that used to be sold in an oversized cardboard box with glossy print (how I miss that smell of a fresh software package), sell it via a created account on a Web site that signs you up to marketing spam, put the word Cloud in the name, make it hella more expensive in a short term contract versus a lump sum yearly payment, maybe throw in an obnoxious tsr that reminds you of updates every two days and pops up ... ta da, Adobe Cloud.

The onerous license terms may change one day, but our wallets will still suffer along with our pride as we pay the Adobes of the world for their killer apps. So, they have to hold up their end of the bargain finally. It'll still be hard or impossible to subvert the loading of the software so you don't need to log in online to use it. I just don't see this secondary market.

BTW, fantastic write-up, thanks! I almost wish I could link to a specific HN comment.

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

#616

Post by MichaelGG »

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'm not sure I'll ever understand how Oracle was able to acquire Sun. For the little money involved it seems even Microsoft should have wanted to own it.

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

#618

Post by exDM69 »

curiousgal wrote: post #226
hollander wrote: post #218

Writing, with a pen. I never do it anymore, but it worked great until I got a PC, a Psion 5, and especially after my first Macbook. Since then I barely write with a pen, and if I do it's cramped.

College student here. I wish I could relate. My CS course exams in which you must write code..with a pen..on paper made me hate writing even more.

Pretty much all CS programs have exams where you must write code with pen and paper. It's a bit of a challenge to try and come up with an alternative way of having individual assessment of coding skill (with no help from the Internet or ways to cheat).

Lots of people complain about it but I never had an issue with it. Two reasons why: 1) typically the amount of code is really small and the exercises are very easy anyway 2) I've been writing (pseudo) code on pen and paper since I was a kid (and I still do!) and I find that to be a valuable tool.

Ditto for whiteboard coding in interviews, as long as we're talking about small toy problems, I have no problems doing it on the board.

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

#619

Post by corecoder »

frik wrote: post #302
Chickenosaurus wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Your rhetoric is off, "smuggle" is the term for illegal stuff. Don't use it for legal stuff. And don't make cash money look like it's bad - that's just the propaganda that started after the Davos conference to bad mouth cash money in the interest of a small elite. We all know better: You transfer legal stuff. Cash money is valid money form, you just carry money around in your wallet. While it's already true, some sta…

I live in Italy. Nobody ever used €500 bills for anything else than crossing the Swiss border with as much cash (cash unknown to tax authorities, of course) as possible. I have never ever seen a €500 bill, and if someone has to give you, say, €1000, it will be 10 * €100 or more likely 20 * €50.

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

#620

Post by throwanem »

purerandomness wrote: post #369
p4bl0 wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No bloated UI? As I remember it 80% of the hype of WinAmp was the numerous UI themes it had.

Ah, not the Winamp that AOL released after they bought Nullsoft. AOL killed it, around the same time as they killed Netscape Navigator.

No, not that Winamp, the pre-AOL one. It got worse after AOL bought Nullsoft, I grant, but it wasn't anything special before; it might've been the best of a bad lot, but nostalgia aside, that doesn't make it good.
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