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Life Improvements Since the 1990s

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Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#411

Post by jjav »

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.

> An incredible number of people pick ‘91.

Not so incredible I guess. I was 20 in '91 so can relate.

Computers and the internet were seriously exciting at the time, uncommercialized and pure hacker culture of exploration. We were building technology because it was exciting. The concept of building adware or spyware didn't exist. Today a startup going to "make the world a better place" is a sitcom joke, back then it was truly the feeling.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#412

Post by jjav »

bcantrill wrote: post #183
thundergolfer wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going to be another person commenting that they'd seriously consider 1991 (as long as I had the smarts to still go into software). Jump back to 1991 as a 20yr old and head to the recruitment fair stalls of Sun Microsystems / DEC / Apple / Adobe / Microsoft. Google search and showers that stay hot are pretty nice, but the relative difficulty of accessing quality education, jobs, and housing probably turn out to be muc…

You may want to reconsider before you step into the time machine. First of all, 1991 in particular is a tough year -- it was a crushing recession in the US, and young people were having a really hard time finding jobs. So you wouldn't be "heading to the recruitment stalls" for any of those companies except potentially Microsoft. And this is absolutely the "why-are-manhole-covers-round" era of Microsoft, and it's the…

> So you wouldn't be "heading to the recruitment stalls" for any of those companies except potentially Microsoft.

Late '91 I was graduating soon and I did go to the university recruiting stalls of Sun and IBM and Motorola. DEC was a presence but I loved SunOS and didn't like VMS so didn't talk to them. Never considered Microsoft since I hated them so much already back then.

Ended going in a different direction due to a graduate degree scholarship but thinking back maybe should've joined Sun directly back then. I did later end up at Sun a few years later, roughly same timeframe as you.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#414

Post by bawolff »

dalbasal wrote: post #290
majormajor wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're only arguing against the claim about copyright terms by equating two separate definitions of "public domain." public domain is being enriched by that stuff from the early 20th century. The "public feeling" stuff of the 1999 internet wasn't actually in the public domain then either. The public domain has gotten larger as has the private domain . But all that private stuff is now on track to expire one day, whil…

As I said, "defined more broadly," which I'm also arguing is the pertinent way to define public and private domain.

I don't think that's a fair extension. The two concepts are really different, and neither is a more broad version of the other.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#415

Post by bawolff »

ghaff wrote: post #272
Clewza313 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One other big change since the 1990s, though, is that Creative Commons is now a real thing. Many publications/sites including Wikipedia, Stack Overflow and open-access journals release everything as CC by default, and Wikimedia Commons has become a treasure trove of materials that can be freely remixed.

>can be freely remixed The type of CC matters. NC can't be used commercially--whatever that means. ND, rather ironically, essentially forbids derivatives/remixing therefore prohibiting one of the reasons CC was created in the first place.

Note the full quote was:

> Wikimedia Commons has become a treasure trove of materials that can be freely remixed.

And wikimedia commons does not allow ND or NC licenses.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#416

Post by murrayn »

denton-scratch wrote: post #298
frankbreetz wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if permanent war was around in the 60's it was just easier to keep things under wraps because of smart phones. From what I have heard the CIA has been involved in some unsavory activities since before the 60s. I also believe that life lost by war and violence have decreased dramatically since then. It might be an ignorance is bliss thing. But the music was definitely better back then!

Permawar: I don't think lives lost by war and violence have diminished. If our leaders want us to support wars, they need enemies, and we're encouraged to hate them. The number of civilians killed in just Iraq is comparable with the number of combatants+civilians killed in Vietnam. But the Vietnam war lasted about 12 years, then it ended. It was confined to Indochina. The "War On Terror" has killed huge numbers of pe…

> 1991 > Clash, Should I Stay Or Should I Go

?

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#417

Post by icedchai »

jjav wrote: post #411
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.

> An incredible number of people pick ‘91. Not so incredible I guess. I was 20 in '91 so can relate. Computers and the internet were seriously exciting at the time, uncommercialized and pure hacker culture of exploration. We were building technology because it was exciting. The concept of building adware or spyware didn't exist. Today a startup going to "make the world a better place" is a sitcom joke, back then it w…

Yes, I feel the same way. I was only 15 back in 1991, but was involved with BBSes, Usenet, early ISPs, etc. The "early commercial Internet" years (1991 - 1996 or so) were so much fun.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#418

Post by jjav »

nivenkos wrote: post #27
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.

'91 would be better though - better salaries in a lot of jobs, and lower house prices. GPS on the phone is awesome, but I'd still prefer financial security.

> '91 would be better though - better salaries in a lot of jobs

Not in tech though. Engineering jobs paid middle-class level well, but nothing out of the ordinary for white-collar professionals. Starting salaries were in the 30Ks for top offers in rich companies but many people started in the 20Ks. You had to be Sr.Dir/VP level to start getting close to 100K.

The concept of engineers with a few years of experience making more salary than top-level surgeons was inconceivable. So purely on a financial sense, it's much better to be a new grad in software today than in '91.

Still, I'd rather be paid 35K doing ground-breaking UNIX kernel or networking work than be paid 500K building yet another adware/spyware social app.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#419

Post by denton-scratch »

unnouinceput wrote: post #395
denton-scratch wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Non-existent" is a bit hyperbolic. I have no idea how many casualties resulted from the Cold War, I'd guess a few thousand. Even if 20,000 died, which I doubt, that's pretty good going for a war that lasted 30 years.

You seem to forget that Vietnam war was a side effect of the Cold War. USSR and US fought through proxies in Cold War, Vietnam being just one instance. Another one before was Korean War which resulted in splitting that peninsula. I'd say your 20k is a bit low, might want to reconsider it with at least one order of magnitude. Oh, and since we are splitting hair here about numbers, US started a 20 years war as result o…

I think you maybe have misread me! I wasn't "splitting hairs" about numbers; I don't know where you get that from.

I thought my estimates for Cold War casualties were pretty generous - I didn't want low estimates to get in the way of my case. But I think my case stands even if 100,000 died in the Cold War.

If you're going to argue that every mid-20thC "hot" war was just a campaign in the Cold War, well I'm sure the consensus is that the Cold War didn't include open conflicts like Vietnam.

Re: Life Improvements Since the 1990s

#420

Post by icedchai »

BuckRogers wrote: post #268
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'm going 91. I was there. I wasn't 20, but I was closer to 10. And 10 years old in decades past is about equal to 20 years old today, we experienced more. We had more freedom, we made more mistakes. More of us were likely beaten/raped/killed or otherwise died.. but we simply were less childlike, the generations that had analog childhoods. Less coddling. That was more true the further back you go, but there was a ste…

I honestly feel this same way about the past 20 years. You captured it so well.
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