Life Improvements Since the 1990s • Hacker News Board

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#321

Post by pbronez » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #303

dougmwne wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a moment like this recently with, of all things, a snorkeling mask. It was one of those full face masks with a big snorkel sticking out the top like a unicorn's horn that popped on the market a few years ago. It is a marvel. It took all the downsides of the old masks and ingeniously fixed them. Full mouth and nose breathing so you can breathe naturally and comfortably, an airflow pattern that pulls dry air over…

Be careful with those. Diver's Alert Network states that full face snorkeling masks can cause dangerous hypercapnia unless they have tight seals and working one-way valves. https://blog.daneurope.org/en_US/blog/are-full-face-snorkeli...

Interesting, thanks for sharing.

> So how to know a mask is safe? Check whether the mask has a one-way breathing system, verify that one-way valves are in place both in the snorkel as well as in the orinasal mask section, and last but not least check if the orinasal mask makes a good seal on your face. If these checks are positive, then it is a good indication the mask is safe to use.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#322

Post by pessimizer » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 5:39 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #98

namdnay wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I could understand this as a blue collar worker, but you’re saying you’d prefer to be a software engineer in 91 than 2021? Come on, of pretty much all the professions were the ones who have reaped the most benefits of the past 30 years

Arguably in 1991, you're getting in on the ground floor but it's a mixed bag. Your new grad salary is probably going to be around $40K or so in the US. And dot-bomb is 10 years in the future. And that list of companies is sort of a mixed bag. Adobe has mostly done pretty well through the years. Sun Microsystems did have a very good decade through the dot-com years but then didn't. Apple was really struggling at that…

> Your new grad salary is probably going to be around $40K or so in the US.

Of course $40K then is $80K now, and you were working at 9-5 at BigCo, with a pension plan. Interest rates were 3-4x what they are now, the value of the house that you spent a couple of years salary on is probably going to quintuple, and the stock market runup over the next 30 years is going to be unreal.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#323

Post by asdff » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

toss1 wrote: post #258

SavantIdiot wrote: post #241

> airplane flights no longer cost an appreciable fraction of your annual income12 , and people can afford multiple trips a year. I routinely flew in the 80's and 90's: shorter lines, more cabin space, and food every flight (and fewer yokels airing their stinky bare feet). I'd go back to that in a heartbeat.

Yup These times of algorithmic flight loading and canceling/combining 'underbooked' flights really stink. I once ended up flying a Seattle - Boston redeye on a 747 with a total three other passengers, and the flight crew said that they (Braniff Air, bought by Northwest, etc.) were still making money on the flight because the hold was full of US Mail. That was a quality experience we'll likely never see again. (Then a…

I never got why they still have ash trays in the bathrooms of the planes. They have a nonsmoking sticker right above the ash tray with a cigarette logo. If you aren't going to replace the door, why not just put the sticker on top of the little ash tray and cover it up?

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#324

Post by SavantIdiot » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #320

SavantIdiot wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trains are nice too. Cheaper, and you get to move around and mingle at lot easier. Maybe try one of those? Busses are cheap as well, but you can't walk around as much. But I know some people think trains and busses are gross and "lower class", which is why they have so much trouble getting funding. It's a catch-22: people won't use them, so lines don't get funded, so people don't use them. I'm quite fond of Amtrak's…

No one wants to sit in a train for 10 hours on what would have been a two hour flight

What if they can't afford a flight?

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#325

Post by PsylentKnight » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

JackPoach wrote: post #169

laserlight wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can tell whether I am happy or not. What do you mean when you say happiness doesn't exist?

Do you understand the concept of reification? If not, see https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/reification#:~:text=Re... . So if you feel happy (or miserable) it means just that - that you feel happy (or miserable). It doesn't mean that happiness or misery actually exist literally.

So by your logic, everything that doesn't literally exist (laws, businesses, emotions, software, governments, money, etc.) are all things that can't be measured or improved?

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#326

Post by lisper » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

coryrc wrote: post #265

GoatOfAplomb wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started to write this out but realized a more polished explanation might be more useful: "Snorkels constitute respiratory dead space. When the user takes in a fresh breath, some of the previously exhaled air which remains in the snorkel is inhaled again, reducing the amount of fresh air in the inhaled volume, and increasing the risk of a buildup of carbon dioxide in the blood, which can result in hypercapnia. The g…

That's the problem with the old ones, where you breathe in and out the same tube. That's fixed in these full-face masks.

As long as they are working properly. The problem is that the valves can fail (or not be properly designed in the first place), and then they become dangerous.

https://www.ktvu.com/news/recent-snorkel-deaths-prompts-inve...

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#327

Post by pessimizer » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 5:49 PM UTC

d_burfoot wrote: post #304

>having Fansubs available for all anime (no longer do anime clubs watch raw anime and have to debate afterwards what the plot was! Yes, that’s actually how they’d watch anime back in the 1970s–1990s This actually sounds really fun and makes me feel nostalgic for the 90s

In the late-80s/early-90s my supply of animu was supplied by a HS friend from Singapore who still had friends and family there who would tape things off TV for him that would get to me 2nd or 3rd generation. I also generally got what I got.

I'd be so happy when I got my hands on something that VIZ reprinted, like Baoh, Grey, or Outlanders. Then, I'd know what was going on.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#328

Post by toyg » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 5:56 PM UTC

BurningFrog wrote: post #117

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The downside to broadening the talent pool for design/manufacturing is that it means workers now have to be among the best in the world to get business and thus earn a good living. It no longer suffices to be the best in a local region. If each local region needs its own widget factory, then to become a top widgetsmith you only have to compete with the local widgetsmith talent pool. Just as there can be many high sch…

The upside I think of is that this enables more specialization and "division of labor", which is one of the basic drivers of prosperity.

* was one of the basic drivers, when labour was scarce and specialization rare.

We're now headed to a situation where labour is abundant (demographic trends being what they are, globally) and specialization trivially achieved (hello youtube). I'm not so sure it will continue to be an advantageous trait.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#329

Post by seniorThrowaway » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 5:58 PM UTC

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #289

seniorThrowaway wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The lessons from history are often that things can and do get worse, sometimes for generations, before improving again later. The example I like to think about for this is imagine being born in the eastern European bloodlands - Eastern Germany, the Baltics, Poland, Byelorussia or Ukraine around 1895-1900. Things are pretty good up until the Great War starts, which back then you would be old enough to be considered a…

That love and purpose can be found in the bleakest of circumstances is indeed true and amazing. That Belarus recovered is not obvious.

Yeah good point. Although I think it is pretty safe to say they are better then they were in the 1930's and 1940's. Are they better then they were in the 1960's 70's? Not as clear.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#330

Post by leetcrew » Thu, Aug 12, 2021, 6:01 PM UTC

munk-a wrote: post #263

flerchin wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software dev wages are through the roof as a counterargument.

Most aren't - most are quite comfortable but 100k is still above the median for developers.

according to BLS, the median is more like $110k: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...

anyway, the median figure doesn't tell you a whole lot by itself. the median rent in the US for is ~$950 for a 1BR or ~$1250 for a 3BR (suitable for a family with 2-3 children). if you make the median salary, you are probably taking home $6000-6500 a month depending on tax situation. having ~$5000 left over after paying rent sounds more than just "comfortable" to me.

of course, we don't know exactly how well local rents are correlated with dev pay. maybe to be more than "comfortable" you need to pay for private school or pay rent in the best school district. but it would be much more useful to calculate the ratio of rent or home price to pay for each dev and then take the median of that.