31–40 of 104 posts
Eh. I'd argue while some of the objects have improved - I'm not sure my life has improved because of them.
This is exactly right. So many "improvements" are cool or interesting, but either provide no meaningful improvement to one's life (e.g. streaming vs. VHS) or actually detract from our lives on balance, e.g. smartphones.
International communication! I lived across the atlantic for many years, and was able to call with people important to me every day, for free, even with video. Further, I can have a cultural exchange and shared cultural reference points with billions of people across the planet.
- Neural Machine Translation
- English as the lingua franca
Other food: - Mangoes went from unknown/exotic in the US to being a standard fruit in your produce aisle. - it’s surprising how cars in the 80s didn’t actually have cup holders. I always thought that was just a joke until I bought an 80s car and learned I’d need to buy the cup holders aftermarket - frozen vegetables overtaking canned vegetables - sugar free sodas
- Brussels Sprouts taste much better now: https://www.bhg.com/news/brussels-sprouts-less-bitter/
Some more not mentioned in the article: Filtered milk. Tastes the same as ordinary homogenized milk but double (or better) the shelf life. Very convenient if you only use small quantities at a time, e.g. for adding to tea. Microfiber cloths. Much better cleaning than traditional cloths. In many cases all you need is water, or use them dry for dusting. Reusable too. SSDs. In my opinion, the biggest computer upgrade in…
Microfiber cloths are, on the other hand, a major source of microplastic pollution. They are basically just ready-to-snap-off microplastic particles. They shed a substantial % each washing cycle. Something like 80 % of all microplastic pollution sampled in ocean water is from microfibers.
Some more not mentioned in the article: Filtered milk. Tastes the same as ordinary homogenized milk but double (or better) the shelf life. Very convenient if you only use small quantities at a time, e.g. for adding to tea. Microfiber cloths. Much better cleaning than traditional cloths. In many cases all you need is water, or use them dry for dusting. Reusable too. SSDs. In my opinion, the biggest computer upgrade in…
Microfiber cloths are, on the other hand, a major source of microplastic pollution. They are basically just ready-to-snap-off microplastic particles. They shed a substantial % each washing cycle. Something like 80 % of all microplastic pollution sampled in ocean water is from microfibers.
> I remember my desk used to be crowded with things like dictionaries and pencil sharpeners
I store these things on the shelf near the desk, rather than on the desk itself, but I still use them often enough.
> hotels and restaurants provide Public Internet Access by default
Nevertheless there are commonly problems with them, although what these problems are differs in different places.
> USB cables mean that for connecting or recharging
I think there are many problems with USB, including security issues and many others. I also think that it is better to have addressing by where they are connected to, and for charging to be done independently from data connection (although there are times where you want them together and this is useful, but the way it is done makes it difficult to separate them).
Having only a few different plugs is helpful, but it would be more helpful if these were better plugs rather than the worse ones.
> Software Patents have been expiring (eg. GIF, arithmetic coding, MP3)
I think patents are no good in general, but nevertheless it helps that they have expired.
> everything is available Subtitled, not just TV
This is good. Subtitles and captions are not only useful for hearing impaired but for anyone. Accessibility features in general can be useful for anyone.
> RAM: programmers able to assume users have 4GB RAM rather than 4MB RAM
Having more RAM is helpful. But, it is still a good idea to write programs that do not require so much RAM (or so much disk space), though. Unfortunately, too many modern programs do use more RAM and disk space than they should need to do.
> all cars have electrified Power Windows; I don’t remember the last time I had to physically crank down a car window
I prefer the manual windows; they work even if the car is off or doesn't work.
> LED lights are more energy-efficient, cooler & safer, smaller, turn on faster, last longer, and are brighter than incandescents or fluorescents
I think they are too bright and wrong colour and other problems. I like incandescent for general purpose lighting. (LEDs are still useful for some indicator lights and that stuff, but even then too often they have blue lights when other colours would do better.)
> the European Union & single Euro currency make the EU easier to understand & travel in it much less tricky and expensive
Although it does not affect me, I know some people who have been to Europe and believe that the older way is better.
> Intellectual Property Maximalism rollback: copyright terms have not and probably will not be indefinitely extended again to eternity to protect properties like Mickey Mouse or Sherlock Holmes
It is good that they have done this allowing them to be public domain, although I think it needs to be rollback even more.
> Low-Flow Toilets
I had read a article in 2600 where someone modified a toilet with 6 lpf, but they needed to flush twice to work, so they changed it so that it will be 10 lpf. Making it 10 lpf will save water then, compared to the 12 that was needed before, isn't it?
> most programs have a usable FLOSS equivalent and in some areas FLOSS is taken so for granted
In some cases they didn't but I and others have written some (e.g. Free Hero Mesh, which is a clone of Everett Kaser's MESH:Hero game, and I think it is much better than the original). However, often the FLOSS equivalent still has some problems (often failure to support non-Unicode text properly, but others are common as well); but they also often have many improvements than other programs as well.
> There are not many things in food that have gotten worse, and most have gotten better
Well, also often many items have been discontinued even if they were of a good quality.
Some more not mentioned in the article: Filtered milk. Tastes the same as ordinary homogenized milk but double (or better) the shelf life. Very convenient if you only use small quantities at a time, e.g. for adding to tea. Microfiber cloths. Much better cleaning than traditional cloths. In many cases all you need is water, or use them dry for dusting. Reusable too. SSDs. In my opinion, the biggest computer upgrade in…
Laparoscopy, electric bikes, water bottle tech (steel vs soft plastic), audio & video editing/ CGI /etc (not sure what to call this one)
As someone who loves to cook I think kitchen advances are somewhat overlooked, from pressure cookers to microwaves to air-fryers, IR ovens and all sorts of amazing combos, hand blenders and whatnot Time to make good home food got much shorter and more energy efficient. Edit: showing my age, cos that's 80s, not 90s. In fact I think pressure cookers got popular in the mid 70s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_Tomorrow_(1949_fi...