Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Things that used to be hard and are now easy

jvns.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 316 posts

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#91

Post by ghaff »

theshrike79 wrote: post #55
theden wrote: post #19

Would be interested in also seeing a "things that used to be easy but are now hard list". Feels like basic stuff is harder now: * Privacy online * Google search for niche or exact matches * Browsing without captchas and blockers, especially if you don't adhere to big tech's rules for the internet * Sending emails without worrying about spam filters being way too aggressive * SEO before it got hacked to hell * Barrier…

> * Privacy online Privacy is a lost cause, the younger generations don't care. I remember when people were warned about sharing their real information online. over 50% of people I knew were just nicknames on the internet. I had zero clue about their gender, where they lived or what they did for a living. Didn't affect our conversations the least bit. Now everyone is plastering their faces everywhere they go. Every p…

>over 50% of people I knew were just nicknames on the internet.

Depends on the circles.

On the other hand, I accessed Usenet from a company computer which had my real name and company email. And the local forum on my BBS, most people used their real names and we even got together in person from time to time.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#92

Post by ghaff »

codeflo wrote: post #89
noobermin wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst part is when people somehow think all these things necessarily must follow from the things that are easier rather than suggesting we could have the good things without the worse off things.

The “old web” — the one before the rise of the trillion dollar engagement optimizing platforms — is probably completely foreign and unimaginable to those who haven’t experienced it.

Well, and before "the masses" really had access to it.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#93

Post by is_true »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #17
grishka wrote: post #8

> Building cross-platform GUIs, with Electron How about no. I so want this abomination of a technology uninvented.

I really don’t care at all about the resource usage or speed of Electron apps in 2022. Any semi-modern PC has no problem running Electron apps. Download sizes aren’t an issue with modern internet speeds. It doesn’t make sense to try to optimize for people with the slowest systems when everything is only getting faster.

More resource usage = more energy wasted

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#95

Post by paulnpace »

wackget wrote: post #31

Eh... I'd argue against quite a lot of those being "easier" than doing things manually. Docker is a prime example. It's supposedly easier to spin up a docker container for a basic web server stack, but to be honest I'd rather install PHP/MySQL and an SSL certificate manually, rather than spend time finding a decent container from a trustworthy source, and then spend 20 minutes trying to figure out how and why it's be…

I don't have any issues with containers, but it seems like many newer projects in the last five years or so the developers are nearly exclusively developing for containers.

My current impression is this violates the spirit of POSIX, because figuring out configurations without containers can become a non-trivial effort, especially for those of us who have not yet learned how to configure containers.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#96

Post by paulnpace »

lopis wrote: post #27

I really like that XKCD comic about identifying birds in a photo, so it's unfortunate that it didn't age that well. How could we rewrite that comic to today's tech? I was thinking something like: A: I want to create an app that scans good feedback of our brand online... B: there's a li rary for that, consider it done A: ... and understand if they are actually being sarcastic. B: I'm gonna need 5 years and a lab of ex…

Somewhat relevant:

TornadoGuard https://xkcd.com/937/

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#97

Post by yepthatsreality »

theshrike79 wrote: post #55
theden wrote: post #19

Would be interested in also seeing a "things that used to be easy but are now hard list". Feels like basic stuff is harder now: * Privacy online * Google search for niche or exact matches * Browsing without captchas and blockers, especially if you don't adhere to big tech's rules for the internet * Sending emails without worrying about spam filters being way too aggressive * SEO before it got hacked to hell * Barrier…

> * Privacy online Privacy is a lost cause, the younger generations don't care. I remember when people were warned about sharing their real information online. over 50% of people I knew were just nicknames on the internet. I had zero clue about their gender, where they lived or what they did for a living. Didn't affect our conversations the least bit. Now everyone is plastering their faces everywhere they go. Every p…

I’d say the non-technically inclined groups of people do not care. Instead of privacy being dead there will always be a corner of the population that does not care. That is okay, let them be the fuel for the corpo machine.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#98

Post by ghaff »

umvi wrote: post #54
theden wrote: post #19

Would be interested in also seeing a "things that used to be easy but are now hard list". Feels like basic stuff is harder now: * Privacy online * Google search for niche or exact matches * Browsing without captchas and blockers, especially if you don't adhere to big tech's rules for the internet * Sending emails without worrying about spam filters being way too aggressive * SEO before it got hacked to hell * Barrier…

Logging into an online account on a computer you don't normally use when you don't have your phone. This can range from "had to jump through a bunch of extra hoops" to impossible if you haven't saved backup codes ahead of time (Google). My wife lost her phone when we were on vacation and it was literally impossible for us to login into her Google account in order to use find my Android. We were trying to login on a r…

I try to be disciplined about having critical information printed out, especially when traveling internationally. I expect more so than most people. And I do still carry a separate (small) wallet. But we're pretty much all increasingly dependent on our phones for more and more things.

ADDED: And thank you for mentioning that. I just realized I never transferred my Google authenticator setting to the new phone I got last year.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#99

Post by dmitriid »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #17
grishka wrote: post #8

> Building cross-platform GUIs, with Electron How about no. I so want this abomination of a technology uninvented.

I really don’t care at all about the resource usage or speed of Electron apps in 2022. Any semi-modern PC has no problem running Electron apps. Download sizes aren’t an issue with modern internet speeds. It doesn’t make sense to try to optimize for people with the slowest systems when everything is only getting faster.

Ah yes. Semi-modern PC shouldn't have trouble... Download sizes shouldn't be a problem...

Do you realize that you are essentially running a supercomputer? And that this supercomputer is struglling to display even the simplest things? Slack's CPU usage shoots up to 20% of cpu to display a single animated reaction to a post. Run a few of those "shouldn't have trouble" in parallel, and suddenly a computer that can run a 4k next-gen Unreal shooter at 60fps struggles to even maintain cursor latency.

Re: Things that used to be hard and are now easy

#100

Post by codeflo »

sofixa wrote: post #85
codeflo wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with all of those. More things that are harder now: * Finding honest product impressions/reviews. * When looking for a configuration setting or tip to use any piece of software, find a one minute article with clear bullet points instead of an 11 minute YouTube video with a personal backstory and a VPN sponsorship. * Finding a cooking recipe that isn’t padded with SEO nonsense. * When finding an online discuss…

> * (Europeans only.) Publish a simple website without worrying that the hosting provider you choose doesn’t perfectly conform to privacy laws that even lawyers won’t explain to you and you’re personally liable for ridiculous damages. I'm sorry but that's just FUD. GDPR fines are only for serious infractions with intent, most violators get off with a warning. Furthermore, access logs are OK because they're a legitima…

Yes, I’m specifically in fear, uncertainty and doubt. To be clear, I’m fully onboard with the intent of the GDPR, but I have no idea how to follow it. And “you’ll be okay, the fines are probably small” is exactly the kind if statement that causes anxiety.

I’ve recently tried to figure out if it’s okay to use something like Cloudflare Pages to host a blog. That’s not an esoteric question, but I was unable to get an answer. They’re not based in Europe, the log retention policy is a bit unclear, regulators seem to be disagreeing on whether even their CDN is okay (and Pages is built on top of the CDN). And in Germany, the real danger isn’t a regulator fining you, it’s a private lawyer sending you an “Abmahnung”. Which they will do for any trivial infraction, often using automated platforms.

Post reply on HN