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Ask HN: What technology made your jaw drop the first time you used it?
51–60 of 65 posts
Re: Ask HN: What technology made your jaw drop the first time you used it?
#52For me it was discovering commandline.
I was so amazed by the power of commandline tools and the things you can do
Re: Ask HN: What technology made your jaw drop the first time you used it?
#53* React. After coming from jQuery, I was floored by the reusability of React.
* 1960s Polaroid cameras. This one is probably quite individual, but I was chuffed the first time I used a classic Polaroid camera (this was only last year). Something about the fact it's 60 year old technology and still quite exciting to witness in person (I can't imagine the reaction of seeing an instant camera in 1965 for the first time).
Re: Ask HN: What technology made your jaw drop the first time you used it?
#54Dating myself here. It was the early 80s and I played with an Texas Instruments Speak and Spell. It was an educational toy that spoke or voiced words then I had to enter in the correct spelling. For me it was magic.
Re: Ask HN: What technology made your jaw drop the first time you used it?
#55The Web - I remember when using a computer changed from a solitary experience to a potentially social one on early web forums and instant messenger.
Napster - just the amount of new and unique music I got to experience (like downloading every smashing pumpkins b side). Whereas before music was so heavily gatekept.
Halo - I remember how radically different the immersive quality of the game was from any FPS perspective game. The approachable mechanics and sandbox feel made it feel like I was exploring a real place.
Minecraft - walking around in odd ways beautiful infinite worlds. In some ways I’ve never felt more scared than survival mode knowing there’s an enderman out there. In some ways it feels like Minecraft gave me a solitary space to “build a cabin” and explore away from the cares of the world
Python - as a C++ developer it was refreshing to find a language that really pushed my productivity and wasn’t lost in all the abstractions of C++
SQL - seeing how you could ask arbitrary questions about normalized data using set operations - all in a language that felt like one big statement, not procedural
Re: Ask HN: What technology made your jaw drop the first time you used it?
#56Apple IIc Plus - with Basic - was my first programming experience. Programming a computer blew me away and it's lost a little mystery since then, but is still quite interesting. No tech I've used since has really recaptured the feeling.
Re: Ask HN: What technology made your jaw drop the first time you used it?
#57Google earth actually is my jaw dropping experience. I can go into places and explore in seconds.
Re: Ask HN: What technology made your jaw drop the first time you used it?
#58Clickhouse. That analytics db is a fucking beast.
Re: Ask HN: What technology made your jaw drop the first time you used it?
#59Parabolic skis. It was like a completely different experience making turns on the snow after a couple of decades of straight boards.
Re: Ask HN: What technology made your jaw drop the first time you used it?
#60Google earth actually is my jaw dropping experience. I can go into places and explore in seconds.
I don’t like it. Some features are neat, but not overwhelming. I was sad, when Picasa went. Panoramio also not working anymore - well im out of the topic.