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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?

#761

Post by rsync »

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…

"Everything not being 4:3 screens. I found it better for programming than everything being cinematic screens."

It may interest you to know that there is a new, modern, 1:1 screen for sale from a reputable company, today - the EIZO FlexScan EV2730QFX:

http://www.amazon.com/FlexScan-EV2730QFX-Monitor-1920x1920-E...

Please, please buy one (or three) of these, as I did, and place your dollar votes for screen innovation like this.

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

#762

Post by deathtrader666 »

lucb1e wrote: post #296
iqonik wrote: post #75

Grooveshark

Fellow Grooveshark refugee here. Spotify doesn't quite come close: small library (only 'real' artists, and sometimes not even those), no way to put custom stuff in there and sync it at least with your own devices, Grooveshark not only had customer support but damn good customer service , and then there are broadcasts with the chat feature and song voting... Yeah, all the good bits are gone. I had a paid subscription…

Grooveshark is still functional right?

I just registered on it after reading you.. playing stuff right now!

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

#763

Post by j_s »

nirav72 wrote: post #669

I miss all those old school RTS games like Total Annihilation, Command and Conquer series, Age of Empires etc. No one really makes decent RTS games now. Also miss all the pre-bittorrent P2P clients.

There are several so-called 'spiritual successors' on Steam; just spend some time reading the reviews of the official successors to find the negative reviews suggesting alternatives. One potential qualifier: http://store.steampowered.com/app/335940

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

#764

Post by chrisshroba »

hammock wrote: post #678
projectramo wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Haha I completely missed that. Saw the time tracking apps follow up comment and didn't think twice.

Don't worry, I was uncertain about it too!

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

#765

Post by fuck_google »

haroldweber23 wrote: post #436

Writely. Worked very well to write together. Then Google bought and integrated into its ecology and changed its name to Google Docs. If you do not like the Google monopoly, like me, and do not like their collaboration with the NSA and the US foreign policy, Google Docs is no option. Writely should have stayed independent. Shame on their founders and the VCs.

Google even managed to move Google Docs development backwards by reimplementing the whole thing badly. The UI is much slower now and it's nowhere near feature complete (even compared to Writely) to this day, almost a decade after acquiring Writely. For instance there is no support for numbered headings and table editing sucks. Did I mention that its extremely slow and bloated now?

Google doesn't seem to have any product management (or they really suck at it) and/or they just don't care about Google Docs (and users) at all. Writely/Upstartle had only four employees when acquired by Google, but they still mananaged to create a better and more functional product than Google has managed to do in a decade with practically unlimited resources.

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

#766

Post by qb45 »

bitwize wrote: post #405
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.

You're pretty much the equivalent of the Japanese soldier who got stranded in the Philippines and kept fighting WWII until the 1970s. HTML mail won . If you work in an office they will use either Exchange or Google Apps; Exchange's default configuration is a fuck you to text-based mail clients.   Hope you like all your email looking like this, because the only response you’ll get from your sysadmin should…

> The war is over, friend. Come on home.

Actually, remote Philippines are still fighting. Try sending your patches in HTML to some FOSS project's mailing list :)

I've even been at a place where Exchange/Outlook were used for that.

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

#768

Post by qb45 »

Figs wrote: post #470
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…

I've found that I actually really like using rotated 9:16 portrait mode monitors for writing code in a dual or triple monitor setup. It's very helpful to be able to see 80+ lines at a time.

But 1080x1920 is stupidly narrow. On 1440x1920 (4:3) you could place two windows side by side without much effort. It barely becomes possible at 1200 (16:10), though not with the font size I'd be long-term comfortable with.

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

#769

Post by qb45 »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #181
hoof_marks wrote: post #101

Windows XP and its search feature- Win7 above does not have it. Yahoo Geocities- simply miss it. and also Yahoo in general. My current yahoo mail is chock a block with spam mails. plus their ads. Xerox Ventura desktop publishing software- that was cool when book publishing was required. Motorola T90/91 basic mobile phone. superb and handiest phone used. Current Moto is smart but not unbeatable. Most importantly old B…

What's wrong with your tap water? Don't they have the same safety standards to meet? UK tap water is great (Well, outside of Greater London where it's basically limestone slurry). I've never bought bottled or filtered aside from the brief time I was in London. At least two brands of UK bottled water were bottling northern tap water and selling it. Business idea I wish I had thought of!

> What's wrong with your tap water? Don't they have the same safety standards to meet?

Tap water quality varies from place to place. For example, in SV (at least Sunnyvale, Santa Clara) it stinks so badly that I barely care whether it meets safety standards or not. OTOH, in my home city it's pretty fine and at some other place I lived it was halfway between.

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