Life Improvements Since the 1990s • Hacker News Board

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#81

Post by dalbasal » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 1:31 PM UTC

This reminds me of a golden age blog post, when lists turned out to be an understudied literary device. I'm a fan of "dumps." Some interestingly debatable ones here:

"Intellectual Property Maximalism rollback: copyright terms have not and probably will not be indefinitely extended again to eternity to protect Mickey Mouse, and in 2019, for the first time since 1998, works entered the public domain"

I think the easy indicator may be the wrong one here. Defined more broadly, the public domain is not being enriched. For example, the web was a lot smaller in 1999, but it was a much more public domain. Today's web and post web internet is more centralised, controlled and therefore private property. Google could crawl pages, links, forums, because they were public, and use that access to create a search engine. Content, connections and signal are, today, proprietary. You can't order the world's information if that information is facebook's, only facebook can.

Or patents, more stuff of the last generation is patented than the previous'. Does that mean we invented more or we patented more? What happens to stuff that doesn't get patented? It's public.

Old copyright expiry deadlines might be a symbolic lead indicator, but they're determining the location of a fence post in county scale land dispute. A tiny, legible, part of the whole. In real terms, Disney's copyright portfolio is worth more, not less.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#82

Post by lotsofpulp » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 1:31 PM UTC

wyldfire wrote: post #42

> Car Theft is rarer, and in particular, we no longer have to worry about our car windows being smashed to steal our car radios > Remember when physically detaching your car radio to avoid leaving it in the car was considered a 100% normal thing to do? Why is it rarer, I wonder? I do recall having a detachable faceplate on my car radio. I sold that car in ~2010 or so but stopped bothering with the detaching long befo…

> Why is it rarer, I wonder? I do recall having a detachable faceplate on my car radio. I sold that car in ~2010 or so but stopped bothering with the detaching long before then.

I imagine the value of a stolen car radio has plummeted since the combo of smartphone + CarPlay/android auto/3.5mm aux jack/Bluetooth is ubiquitous in any car made in the past 10 to 15 years.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#83

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 1:32 PM UTC

nivenkos wrote: post #41

BrianOnHN wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely depends on race. As a white guy '91 would have been easy sailing.

Indeed, now white men are discriminated against in a lot of Tech companies under the guise of fighting "white privilege" and promoting diversity (note this does not include class or background) - meanwhile class differences (inheritance, home ownership, etc.) are more important than ever.

You sound like one of those politicians clamoring on about how oppressed Christians are while being part of the 88% of congress that identifies as Christian.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#84

Post by light_hue_1 » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 1:33 PM UTC

whitepaint wrote: post #51

moron4hire wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a white guy in 2021 is easy sailing.

https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/

Oh my! Poor white people.

White people live on average 77 years white black people live 72 years on average. The HORROR! The white man's burden to have more money and live longer! Truly the catastrophe of the 21st century.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#85

Post by nemo44x » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 1:33 PM UTC

bob1029 wrote: post #28

dminvs wrote: post #12

> stoves You'll pry my gas range from my cold, dead hands

What property of the gas range do you most enjoy? I have recently swapped gas for induction and it dropped my meal prep time by 20~30% because I'm not standing around waiting for pans to get hot anymore. If I was big into wok cooking, I'd probably keep the gas range. 99% of the time I just want to get a pan to 500F or boil a pot of water ASAP.

Get better pans, then heating up isn't an issue.

I think it's nice to have an induction burner but I prefer gas for many reasons. One is the visual feedback from the flame. Another is that a flame is a 3D surface to cook on so I can tilt the pan to get certain sides hot when needed.

Induction is good at boiling water though.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#86

Post by lotsofpulp » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 1:33 PM UTC

jasode wrote: post #67

iambateman wrote: post #14

I often ask people: “if you could be 20-years old in 1991 or 2021, which would you pick?” An incredible number of people pick ‘91. Some people even ask to go back to the seventies. This article explains why I would much rather be young now rather than before.

>I often ask people: “if you could be 20-years old in 1991 or 2021, which would you pick?” An incredible number of people pick ‘91. Some people even ask to go back to the seventies. There's a podcast by Jason Feifer (was called Pessimists Archive) where the repeated theme across many episodes is the recurring fallacy of the "good ole days" : https://www.jasonfeifer.com/build-for-tomorrow/ E.g. you ask today's generat…

A 3rd option is society (or parts of society) can go through rough patches where 30 years before year X was better than year X + 30. Trajectories for different populations within the society can differ themselves and so individuals will have varying answers.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#87

Post by ghaff » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 1:34 PM UTC

dalbasal wrote: post #81

This reminds me of a golden age blog post, when lists turned out to be an understudied literary device. I'm a fan of "dumps." Some interestingly debatable ones here: " Intellectual Property Maximalism rollback: copyright terms have not and probably will not be indefinitely extended again to eternity to protect Mickey Mouse, and in 2019, for the first time since 1998, works entered the public domain " I think the easy…

>What happens to stuff that doesn't get patented? It's public.

Or it's kept as a trade secret.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#88

Post by cmrdporcupine » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 1:34 PM UTC

rthomas6 wrote: post #62

The big changes, I think, are smartphones and widespread LGBT acceptance. Everything else just seems like incremental improvements to existing technology.

Smoking in bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and other places where you wouldn't even think about it now. Coming home after a night out stinking like stale cigarette smoke was the norm, even if you didn't smoke (which you may as well have).

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#89

Post by hncurious » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 1:34 PM UTC

light_hue_1 wrote: post #72

nivenkos wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, now white men are discriminated against in a lot of Tech companies under the guise of fighting "white privilege" and promoting diversity (note this does not include class or background) - meanwhile class differences (inheritance, home ownership, etc.) are more important than ever.

> Indeed, now white men are discriminated against in a lot of Tech companies under the guise of fighting "white privilege" and promoting diversity Tech is 2% black, but white people are being discriminated against? You mean by being promoted, having huge salaries, and getting all of jobs? oh my! The historically disadvantaged white american community should really organize together. Maybe under a white flag. I know.…

You're clearly not familiar with hiring in tech. It's 2% because the available pool is tiny. It's not for lack of trying to hire non-white, non-asians in tech. Tech minorities are in fact prioritized in hiring AND there are countless programs to increase the pool. Aimed at girls and tech minorities, not white and asian boys.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#90

Post by throwaway0a5e » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 1:36 PM UTC

gbrown wrote: post #52

aaron695 wrote: post #19

Time between 1990 to now is not linear. The web kicked off in the late 90's, picked up the 2000's but not real fast, and now is really flying and one assumes it will continue to accelerate. Power tools are amazing. And that's the internet pushing them. I can see reviews with each new advancement anywhere in the world. They can see R&D around the world. Each company has to keep up and so do the counterfeiters. I'll or…

What major power tool innovations have happened since 1990? Battery tech is the only big one I can think of.

Substantial cost decreases as east Asian manufacturing matured. I'm not sure if that counts as an innovation.