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Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#511

Post by digi_owl »

superdude wrote: post #481
digi_owl wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, i recall when Apple started shipping everything with 16:9. You could tell when a web dev was using Mac, as invariably the site layout would produce a scroll bar at the bottom of the screen on 4:3 screens.

Actually, Apple has only used 16:10 screens for their laptops (11" Air is an exception) while almost everyone else uses 16:9. The iPad has a 4:3 screen while so many other Android tablets have used 16:9 (thankfully there are more choices now).

16:9, 16:10, potato, potato. Point was that said web devs could not be assed to consider that there was a world outside of Apple.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#513

Post by rlonstein »

Alcarinquo wrote: post #205

Good old PalmOS handhelds, such as Palm Treo 650 or Palm Centro. I still use Centro these days, but there is nothing on the market to replace it with.

Similarly, the Vizor Handspring. I always popped Pimlico's Datebook onto it for better calendaring. My modern android smartphone is more capable and more fun to tinker with but is a worse phone than my old Nokia soapbar and a worse PDA than the Palm and Handspring.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#514

Post by SilasX »

akerro wrote: post #239
Grue3 wrote: post #151

Google Reader. There are no replacements that a) update fast enough, and b) allow search for free. I know, I tried all of them. Firefox had an amazing plugin called "Ubiquity", which was basically like command line for your browser and you could write custom scripts for it. It was seriously better than anything that exists today. They stopped developing it for some reason. Tab Groups is another feature that's now aba…

After removing tab groups I see literally zero reasons why anyone should use firefox. It's slower, more buggy copy of Opera and Chromium ;/

For me, a) pentadactyl is better than Vimium, b) FF seems faster (I know, subjective), and c) Mozilla is much less likely to have been centrally logging something about me without my explicit permission.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#515

Post by Styx- »

bitwize wrote: post #405
kome wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> E-Mail before we lost the "text should be text and not goddamn HTML" war. I am still fighting, and the war is not over.

You're pretty much the equivalent of the Japanese soldier who got stranded in the Philippines and kept fighting WWII until the 1970s. HTML mail won . If you work in an office they will use either Exchange or Google Apps; Exchange's default configuration is a fuck you to text-based mail clients.   Hope you like all your email looking like this, because the only response you’ll get from your sysadmin should…

Thanks for the laugh, that was well done.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#516

Post by SilasX »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #92
frik wrote: post #46

Please read it from a consumer perspective about consumer topics: (of course B2B is very different, where other things matter) * products/software without DRM, always-online, analytics, tracking and spy "features" - bad for consumer personal privacy, and prevents second hand market, products cannot be owned anymore, try buying Windows 10, John Deer tractor, Tesla S without that crap * Cash money: those Davos attendee…

Cash was never a good store of value. You could easily lose everything to fire or theft over night. And governments can create inflation to erode the value of cash pretty quickly if they really want to. There is no erosion of the idea of ownership. As someone who is renting in London I can assure you that quarterly inspections and thick, dirty carpets are an effective reminder of the fact that you are either an owner…

Out of curiousity, why don't they allow inflation protected cash? It's certainly physically possible through some kind of bearer bond system.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#518

Post by Yhippa »

skrebbel wrote: post #165

Jasc Paint Shop Pro. This tool had the useful half of Illustrator's features and the useful half of Photoshop's, it was blazing fast, and it combined them in a single program so you could mix vector and raster layers. This made it absolutely perfect for web-targeted graphics work. It was the first software I legally bought because it was so good and still affordable (a fraction of the price of Adobe's stuff - somethi…

Used this in the 90's as my go-to image editor. PSP could open any image format you threw at it.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#519

Post by Yhippa »

_jomo wrote: post #417
Grue3 wrote: post #151

Google Reader. There are no replacements that a) update fast enough, and b) allow search for free. I know, I tried all of them. Firefox had an amazing plugin called "Ubiquity", which was basically like command line for your browser and you could write custom scripts for it. It was seriously better than anything that exists today. They stopped developing it for some reason. Tab Groups is another feature that's now aba…

How was Google Reader different than other feed readers such as the one built into Thunderbird? I didn't use it so I can't compare, but Thunderbird works well for me here. Side note: I also use it to subscribe to YouTube channels without a Google account.

The way they implemented social worked well for me. It was like a mini-HN with my friends.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best tool you used to use that doesn't exist anymore?

#520

Post by SeanBoocock »

arturhoo wrote: post #394
Grue3 wrote: post #151

Google Reader. There are no replacements that a) update fast enough, and b) allow search for free. I know, I tried all of them. Firefox had an amazing plugin called "Ubiquity", which was basically like command line for your browser and you could write custom scripts for it. It was seriously better than anything that exists today. They stopped developing it for some reason. Tab Groups is another feature that's now aba…

Give AOL Reader a try (I know) http://reader.aol.com/

AOL Reader was what I settled on as well after Google Reader shutdown. I was never a power user so AOL Reader feels like a perfect replacement for Google Reader's feature set. It can be a bit flaky at times with managing read state, though that seems to be a UI issue that resets itself fairly quickly.
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