Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore? • Hacker News Board

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

#801

Post by SixSigma » Sun, May 15, 2016, 5:23 PM UTC

tajen wrote: post #688

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…

Like, you miss when you could configure a Cisco router without using the cloud sysadmin console? I miss when I owned my Mac OS X. I'd use Linux just for the sake of having a non-cloud system. Concerning money, I don't understand why we wouldn't track criminals when using banknotes. There are only 15bn Euro banknotes, all numbered. You could track them easily in Postgres. 90% banknotes change hands only once before go…

I like the idea of perpetual leases for some items E.g. Washing machine, fridge etc.

I would take solid construction and reliability of those over planned obsolescence.

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

#802

Post by [deleted] » Sun, May 15, 2016, 5:29 PM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #79

Chrome, the fast, stable, and lightweight alternative to Firefox. I don't know quite where it went off the rails...

[deleted]

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

#803

Post by SixSigma » Sun, May 15, 2016, 5:32 PM UTC

rcarmo wrote: post #189

PageMaker: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_PageMaker I used it to typeset nearly all of my academic work until I was forced to switch to Word by peer pressure. Adobe made a complete hash of it, and none of those files are readable anymore.

I loved Pagemaker. Much better than Quark.

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

#804

Post by fartface » Sun, May 15, 2016, 5:51 PM UTC

purerandomness wrote: post #371

ChrisDutrow wrote: post #39

Cool Edit 96

Oh my god, yes. It was a fantastic, snappy tool for sound editing. Then Adobe acquired it, rebranded to "Audition", changed all hot keys and UI, killed lots of features, and finally added so much bloat (including a slow-as-hell UI bitmap theme) that it wasn't usable anymore. What does everyone use for sound editing these days?

reaper is popular. it's cheap (or free). i also like tracktion. v4 is free and it's a powerful, simple, single screen daw. there's always audacity too, but it's pretty limited. i've also heard good things about wavosaur (free). dumb name, but simple for quick audio editing.

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

#805

Post by mathgeek » Sun, May 15, 2016, 6:26 PM UTC

davb wrote: post #444

mathgeek wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were still be patches and online services involved. You can also bet that they won't eschew online purchases and digital downloads. I know I won't buy it if I have to go back to physical media.

Oh absolutely, and that's the way it is with the 3DS. But keep in mind that Nintendo home consoles have always been the favoured split-screen multiplayer - they're the consoles you play when your friends come round (and they work equally well for solo gamers). Consequently, forced online patches aren't really as obvious as they are on Xbox or Playstation. On the 3DS, the only forced patches that affect me are OS patc…

> Consequently, forced online patches aren't really as obvious as they are on Xbox or Playstation.

Actually, one of the first Wii U firmware updates bricked a sizable number of consoles that had to be replaced by Nintendo (sizable meaning there were forum threads discussing the issue). My original console went through that process. Haven't had any such issues with the other two consoles this gen, luckily (and yet).

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

#806

Post by mathgeek » Sun, May 15, 2016, 6:28 PM UTC

digi_owl wrote: post #479

mathgeek wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were still be patches and online services involved. You can also bet that they won't eschew online purchases and digital downloads. I know I won't buy it if I have to go back to physical media.

Given the price pr gig of flash chips these days, they can put the base game on ROM and put in a solid space for saves, patches and DLCs alongside.

Care to elaborate on what point you were addressing here? I'm not sure what you were responding to.

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

#807

Post by tkjef » Sun, May 15, 2016, 6:34 PM UTC

Glad to see so many others liked Adobe Fireworks as much as me.

It was my go to for web image editing. As well as prototyping with clickable pdfs.

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

#808

Post by cauthonLuck » Sun, May 15, 2016, 7:30 PM UTC

pentadactyl add-on for firefox. Allows you to browse like you were using vim and allows you to script anything you do on the web. Vimperator isn't nearly as powerful and all the chrome options aren't even worth mentioning.

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

#809

Post by mikegedelman » Sun, May 15, 2016, 7:42 PM UTC

8note wrote: post #722

_jomo wrote: post #471

HTML5 music streaming websites such as Grooveshark or rdio

Google music does it nicely

My "HTML5 Audio" option under settings has been grayed out fo some time...

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

#810

Post by zumu » Sun, May 15, 2016, 7:42 PM UTC

lisper wrote: post #517

OS X Snow Leopard.

I'm still using it on my mac. I don't really do any work it anymore because of software requiring >10.9, but it's still amazing for day to day computing.