Ask HN: What are some “10x” software product innovations you have experienced? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are some “10x” software product innovations you have experienced?

#731

Post by ArtWomb » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 1:33 PM UTC

First time I imported data and ran a query in Google Cloud BigQuery ML / AutoML was an absolute, 100x eye opener. An honest to God revolution. So fast, precise and automated. Many talk about "democratizing AI" but there it was. And every time I recommend or demo it, it gets the same stunned reaction.

Terrific list and discussion! I especially like the old school visual debugging tools: firebug, wireshark, physx / nsight, etc. Really brings back the memories and really believe in general having a picture of running processes is 10x more helpful than console output alone ;)

Re: Ask HN: What are some “10x” software product innovations you have experienced?

#732

Post by masswerk » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 1:40 PM UTC

Breaking out of the 80 cols × 25 rows box. WIMP interfaces in general.

Re: Ask HN: What are some “10x” software product innovations you have experienced?

#733

Post by conductr » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 2:15 PM UTC

flukus wrote: post #464

Nekhrimah wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a similar vein, Napster was also a game changer for mp3 distribution.

For me napster was a game changer that got me into music period. Before that discovering and learning what music I liked was tedious and low signal/noise along with high cost that I never developed any interest in music until napster existed.

Got me into computers really. I didn’t “get” the internet prior to Napster. It felt like a toy with no real value. But I was a teenager at the time and the access to music was a game changer. I was hoarding so much content I had to learn how to build my own systems and storage solutions. I used to download video content (music videos, live concerts, etc) from IRC too around this time.

Re: Ask HN: What are some “10x” software product innovations you have experienced?

#734

Post by machiaweliczny » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

domano wrote: post #220

omosubi wrote: post #148

A couple i havent seen listed: Tivo - pretty cool when it came out - you didn't have to run to the bathroom/kitchen during commercial breaks and hope you made it back in time. Of course it's obsolete now but a significant improvement over the standard at the time Streaming music services - i spent an embarrassing amount of time as a kid/early teenager collecting cds and ripping them to my hard drive - if only I could…

I have never witnessed somebody tripping over a laptop charging cable - does that happen a lot for others?

My cat often pulls the cable and in panic it could destroy whole laptop (did not happen though).

Re: Ask HN: What are some “10x” software product innovations you have experienced?

#735

Post by bhaak » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 2:25 PM UTC

benibela wrote: post #457

bhaak wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Java saved me from having a C++ career. And that was the 90s C++, not the C++ of today. I dodged a bullet there.

Unfortunately I learned Delphi Afterwards you could not take the other languages seriously Like comparing two strings for equaltiy, strA and strB. In Delphi, you write: strA = strB In Java: strA != null && strA.equals(strB) Delphi just did everything better

Java was designed when C and C++ were still going strong and there was a feeling (or fear, depending on who you asked) that C++ would be as omnipresent as C was.

Java tried very hard to fix the perceived errors of C++ and operator overloading was high on that list.

Nowadays, we are no longer afraid of operator overloading so I kind of wonder why it hasn't found its way into modern Java.

Re: Ask HN: What are some “10x” software product innovations you have experienced?

#736

Post by unionpivo » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 2:30 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #590

wheybags wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a vertical tab extension, and with that I regularly get to > 1k tabs.

Different strokes for different folks but what on earth do you people do on 1000 or even 100 tabs? I have a handful of sites I regularly go to and maybe 50 that I visit more than occasionally. They’re all bookmarked. When I’m done browsing I close the window. What state are you preserving keeping everything open in a tab?

For instance, i go to frontpage of HN and open in new tabs the stories and comments that interest me. Its not uncommon for 15 stories with 15 comments sections (thats 30 tabs already),

Then I sometimes, open links from comments, or Wikipedia etc.

Today i have more than 50 tabs open just starting from HN.

Some stories when i read I close, but sometimes when I think i need to reread or save for later.

After the week i usually have around 150+ tabs that i have left for later, I do the triage and I either save to my notes (like interesting, os dev articles, or rust or postgre optimization tips ...) or close.

And thats just for HN.

Re: Ask HN: What are some “10x” software product innovations you have experienced?

#737

Post by marianov » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 2:32 PM UTC

Aperocky wrote: post #633

marianov wrote: post #416

Wireshark. I've saved countless enterprise problems that nobody could debug by intercepting traffic and guessing, or looking at the raw data nobody knew was there. Python list comprehensions + ipython: it changed how I approach all compley python code. I iterate over the data until I get it right, then use that as the basis of the program/script. Youtube: I can learn anything now. It's the real world The Matrix

Interesting use of wireshark.. I'd assume they'd at least allow you access from at least one end.

last time it was: install tcpdump on java server doing nasty things. save pcap. Analyze with Wireshark, find out the JAVA app was doing insane things against the Oracle DB even after vendo said they had "optimized" database access. Th good thing is the same technique applies to REST apis, sockets, load balancer problems, other databases. You probably can do a better job using each specific stack debug facilities, but a .pcap and wireshark is the swiss army of debugging.

Also: strace for reading what anything in Linux is trying to do when failing.

Re: Ask HN: What are some “10x” software product innovations you have experienced?

#738

Post by gsej » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

git - compared with previous source control systems.

Re: Ask HN: What are some “10x” software product innovations you have experienced?

#739

Post by eyelidlessness » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

rocqua wrote: post #686

eyelidlessness wrote: post #664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve noticed a pattern of what I get downvoted for and it doesn’t reflect well on this community. 1. Asking people to show a little empathy to others (eg use your scroll wheel so people can benefit from reading a thing or clicking it at all) 2. Asking people to show a little empathy to others (eg recognizing that people who have violent ideologies are dangerous and don’t deserve free mandatory amplification from othe…

You jumped to a conclusion about what was said (the informational issue). Then you very combatively and rudely dismissed that idea. It reads like you had a bone to pick with the information density argument, and just wanted to get into a flamewar when you saw someone who perhaps disagreed with you. I expect people weren't downvoting empathy. I think they were down voting a rude attempt at starting an off-topic flame…

I appreciate you telling me your perspective. I honestly didn’t know how else to interpret the comment, and I had no rude or combative intentions. I have no energy or desire for a flame war. I do have a direct communication style that can be offputting to some. Thank you for helping me remember to pay attention to that.

Re: Ask HN: What are some “10x” software product innovations you have experienced?

#740

Post by laurent92 » Wed, Mar 17, 2021, 2:38 PM UTC

crimper wrote: post #275

sfblah wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't like debugging with window.alert()?

this gave me a vivid image of young me flailing around in the dark trying to understand why undefined is not a function

The worst was when I discovered all console.log() crashed because IE6 left “console” as undefined until the developer tools were open.

Fortunately another bad feature of IE was to alert() the errors, so customers were aware of each of them and could easily send us the bug back...

This bank employee used PrintScreen to print the screenshot on paper. He the successfully faxed it to his email, zipped it and uploaded it to our bugtracker. I had the zip of a .tiff of a scan of a printed screen. I still wonder whether he did it because he was upset, or whether it was a usual workflow.