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Things that used to be hard and are now easy

jvns.ca

121–130 of 316 posts

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

#121

Personally, I disagree that parsing was hard before and made easy with PEG parsing. For decades it has been easy and common to implement parsers by hand. From what I can tell, universities and textbooks just overcomplicated the process by teaching parser generators. I have done a few studies of various open source ecosystems now and (edited: other than CPython) I haven't seen PEG parsers really used in anything but t…

I recently used lark and liked it. To my surprise.

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

#122
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * (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 an…

Are you located in Germany? If so - welcome to the boat.

From experience I personally would not host on CF pages. But, depending on the content and intended audience CF pages could clearly be argued under legitimate interest. You would/should probably have a TIA in place and state that in the privacy part of the site.

I know people arguing legitimate interest when using Webflow. Also clearly PD being transmitted towards a non EU country there.

As said. Personally I would go with something like uberspace.de as I just like their offering and the fact that I always have a human replying and being helpful when something breaks because I fatfingered it.

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

#123
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…

Makes me wonder how many sites are still useable with Lynx

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

#124

I've only been using desktop Linux for 15 years, but it is vastly easier to use it as a daily driver than it used to be. It still has its problems--just yesterday I sunk an hour into an elusive bug. But when I was doing that, I remembered that such things used to be nearly constant and aren't any longer.

No post body was provided.

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

#125
post #67
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…

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…

"cross platform" isn't well defined these days, since it may or maynot include mobile and/or browser platforms. That said, Qt is much better to use than Swing ever was, and really no more complex until you want to do things you could not do in Swing anyway. Gtkmm too, from my personal (21+ years) experience.

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

#126

The general theme of this list is that technology gives us more and more hoops to jump through, then provides some trampoline to jump through them. We're supposed to be eternally grateful. I'm not. I want to focus on problem-solving, not masterfully using trampolines. > SSL certificates, with Let’s Encrypt Semi-mandatory SSL certificates weren't a thing on the web until fairly recently. Not managing them at all was c…

I've been on teams that haven't used docker for dev envs and teams that do in the last 5~ years. The teams that used docker were significantly more productive since each dev env was a replica and forced the team to maintain a common env. The dev env drift without it is huge and causes so many "it works on my machine". I can see a one man show or maybe two not needing a docker dev env but any sizable team IMO it is absolutely required now. You're absolutely right that it is a hoop to jump through, but its a hoop I find very necessary.

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

#127
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 can't really see this as the negative you imply it to be. This seems like complaining that you might get locked out of your house if you lose your keys. There are certainly better and worse forms of 2FA, but I would like more pervasive (well-implemented) account security, not less.

The main key is the password, and we didn't lose the password. What we lost is the secondary, rarely-used-key that you only need when logging in on a new device or at new location. So if you don't leave home much, it's easy to forget that your online account access is totally screwed without your phone anywhere else. My wife's Google account doesn't require TOTP to login, so she never needs her phone when logging in at home, yet the phone is mandatory when logging in for the first time on a new device or at a new place. This creates catch-22 situations for people unaware of this behavior like it did for us ("we need to login to find the phone but we need the phone to login").

We learned our lesson, but I'm sure there are tons of other people that haven't learned this the hard way yet (but will eventually). I could see this becoming an easy way to sabotage/get revenge on people - steal their phone while they are on a business trip/vacation and then they are locked out of all their online accounts with no way in unless they had the foresight to keep physical copies of backup codes in their wallet/purse.

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

#128
post #88
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…

> Getting a job Though negotiating is way easier with things like levels.fyi and blind.

The points made upthread would seem to apply to a very narrow slice of jobs. In general, finding info about companies, reaching out to people you have connections with, etc. seems easier than newspaper ads, form letters to HR departments, etc. Though then and now, personal networks are probably still the most effective path for many.

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

#129
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * (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…

Agreed. To add to that I would say that publishing a website (if you yourself don't do tracking, advertising, affiliate and all that) is in no way impacted. A simple web site without cookies and not transferring user data elsewhere but the hosting webserver is not impacted at all. At least when hosting with an European host. One needs an imprint and data privacy page. But both is easy (except in specific cases like f…

> One needs an imprint and data privacy page.

Really? I have a small personal website with no tracking; I guess my hosting provider collects server logs, but do I really need a privacy page for that?

An imprint is something I've only seen on German websites (I recall reading somewhere that those are required by law there).

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

#130

The general theme of this list is that technology gives us more and more hoops to jump through, then provides some trampoline to jump through them. We're supposed to be eternally grateful. I'm not. I want to focus on problem-solving, not masterfully using trampolines. > SSL certificates, with Let’s Encrypt Semi-mandatory SSL certificates weren't a thing on the web until fairly recently. Not managing them at all was c…

> But we're talking about what became easier, right? Not about what became more ideologically correct, semantic, etc.

Then think of it this way: it became easier to make the content/UI both good looking and fully accessible (e.g. to screen reader users, for whom layout tables are indeed a hindrance).

I think the same applies to the other hoops to jump through; they're solving a real problem, just perhaps one that doesn't directly affect many of us so we tend to ignore it.

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