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Ask HN: Do you miss 90s simplicity?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you miss 90s simplicity?

#11

Post by Torwald »

A world dominated by effen Windoze? How could I miss that? I sure as heck miss the simplicity of my Amiga, if we are talking the 90s, but that's about it in terms of simplicity.

All other aspects of "90s simplicity" sucked.

Table based web layouts? Without the "complication" of CSS? I sure miss that. Calling the family landline and hoping her "complicated" father doesn't answer the phone? Fuck yeah, I miss that. Having to play cool with the artsy-fartsy kids to get the CD with the new fonts? Sure, I miss that as well. The simplicity of "obtaining" Emacs for the Mac in the 90s! Hell yes! I miss that simplicity. And last but not least, pixel pr0n, animated GIFs. Yeah, I miss the simplicity of the 90s. Fuck Micro$oft, remember that one? Oh do I miss that. And the "web crawlers" don't forget thet simplicity to submit your site to more than 100 search engines!

The AOL CD, simply flip it away! Enviromentalism was still a European thing, or so, thought the European Gen X. Kurt Cobain didn't comit suicide and fuck Atari.

Short answer: "No."

Re: Ask HN: Do you miss 90s simplicity?

#12

Post by woah »

Torwald wrote: post #11

A world dominated by effen Windoze? How could I miss that? I sure as heck miss the simplicity of my Amiga, if we are talking the 90s, but that's about it in terms of simplicity. All other aspects of "90s simplicity" sucked. Table based web layouts? Without the "complication" of CSS? I sure miss that. Calling the family landline and hoping her "complicated" father doesn't answer the phone? Fuck yeah, I miss that. Havi…

My SEO consultancy can handle that. We'll submit your site to hundreds of the top search engines and web directories.

Re: Ask HN: Do you miss 90s simplicity?

#14

Post by njepa »

smacktoward wrote: post #8

Let me answer your question with another question. How old are you? Because I'm in my 40s, which means I was in my 20s during the 1990s. And from my perspective, it was not a notably simpler time back then than it is today. It was not some pastoral idyll, it was just a time a lot like now, except it was a little harder to get a hold of people. But I do notice that when I talk to people in their 20s and 30s, they ofte…

I think that is true in the sense that everyone has their own reality. However I don't think that precludes things getting worse. For anyone who has a utilitarian view of housing, or buildings in general, this is certainly the wrong decade in most places.

Re: Ask HN: Do you miss 90s simplicity?

#15

Post by mindcrime »

[a deleted post said]

I miss the trajectory. Many things were exciting in the '90s, but many things didn't turn out so well.

This is pretty much the same way I feel. I'm not sure exactly when things changed, but there is definitely a sense that we went off the rails somewhere along the way. Some time ago there was excitement, optimism, and a sense of boundless opportunity, associated with the Internet and tech in general. Now... well... there's still some of that, but a lot of it has been replaced by negativity, fear, pessimism, doubt, and suchlike. The overall zeitgeist is definitely less pleasant these days, IMO.

Re: Ask HN: Do you miss 90s simplicity?

#18

Post by [deleted] »

smacktoward wrote: post #8

Let me answer your question with another question. How old are you? Because I'm in my 40s, which means I was in my 20s during the 1990s. And from my perspective, it was not a notably simpler time back then than it is today. It was not some pastoral idyll, it was just a time a lot like now, except it was a little harder to get a hold of people. But I do notice that when I talk to people in their 20s and 30s, they ofte…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Do you miss 90s simplicity?

#19

Post by timClicks »

smacktoward wrote: post #8

Let me answer your question with another question. How old are you? Because I'm in my 40s, which means I was in my 20s during the 1990s. And from my perspective, it was not a notably simpler time back then than it is today. It was not some pastoral idyll, it was just a time a lot like now, except it was a little harder to get a hold of people. But I do notice that when I talk to people in their 20s and 30s, they ofte…

Also the 90s kind of sucked. Otherwise grunge and goth culture would have never taken off.

Was a teenager then, but here are some of the things that I can think of:

- recessions in many countries '91/'92

- Asian financial crisis '97

- higher crime rates

- reunification in Germany (causing massive budgetary/cultural issues)

- nuclear testing in the Pacific (was a big issue here in NZ at the time)

- threat of nuclear material being "lost" from ex-Soviet military

- collapse of Soviet economies, esp. Russia

- WTO riots in Seattle 1999

- large absolute poverty worldwide (see also the Millennium Development Goals)

Re: Ask HN: Do you miss 90s simplicity?

#20

Post by Torwald »

woah wrote: post #12
Torwald wrote: post #11

A world dominated by effen Windoze? How could I miss that? I sure as heck miss the simplicity of my Amiga, if we are talking the 90s, but that's about it in terms of simplicity. All other aspects of "90s simplicity" sucked. Table based web layouts? Without the "complication" of CSS? I sure miss that. Calling the family landline and hoping her "complicated" father doesn't answer the phone? Fuck yeah, I miss that. Havi…

My SEO consultancy can handle that. We'll submit your site to hundreds of the top search engines and web directories.

Cool, but how did you find out my email address?
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