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Everyday life improvements since the 90s (2022)

gwern.net

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Re: Everyday life improvements since the 90s (2022)

#71

Post by lucasoshiro »

parpfish wrote: post #11

I know that VHS tapes aren’t great, but I’ve found that having a limited supply of physical media actually makes me more likely to watch things. Browsing through a collection at the library or a friends house, it’s shocking how quickly you find that people will converge on “oh, let’s watch this!” rather than endlessly scrolling through thumbnails and previews on Netflix and never committing

I have my watch list for movies, usually recommendations from friends, youtube channels, blogs, news and so on. The recommendation algorithms aren't fair with good movies that receive the same attention as bad movies. And, well, if I watch some sci-fi movies they think that I only like sci-fi and start recommending bad movies, when probably I would be more happy to just watch Shrek.

But something that I miss is just findings something at random. Lots of movies and bands that I like would never be recommended to me by those algorithms.

Re: Everyday life improvements since the 90s (2022)

#72

Post by scubbo »

zzo38computer wrote: post #38

I do not agree with everything, but there are advantages and disadvantages of some of these things. > 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…

Very few of these are "disadvantages of the change". They are, instead, complaints that the improvement is not to-perfection.

Re: Everyday life improvements since the 90s (2022)

#73

Post by Aloisius »

> SAFE McDonald’s coffee which doesn’t explode in one’s lap while trapped in a car & causing disfiguring third-degree burns requiring skin grafts

McDonald's coffee is no more safe today than it was in the 90s. The temperature is the same and the cups are largely the same. What's safer now is that most cars have cupholers, so people aren't holding their coffee cups between their legs to try and get the lid off in order to add cream.

They and other coffee vendors still get sued semi-regularly for burns though.

Re: Everyday life improvements since the 90s (2022)

#74

Post by rdlw »

windowshopping wrote: post #25

I love this article, it really point out a lot of things we take for granted. It's easy to focus on the bad and forget how much things have really improved. The one line about the EU made me laugh though: > EU: the European Union & single Euro currency make the EU easier to understand & travel in it much less tricky and expensive The fact that it just says this in passing from the perspective of a tourist and without…

Well, the page starts with this in the introduction: "So here is a personal list of small ways in which my ordinary everyday daily life has been getting better since the late 1980s/early 1990s"

So on the contrary, it seems to me listing "countless improvements for Europeans" as an everyday life improvement would be an extreme overstatement of the American (?) author's empathy, or perhaps a performative indication that they think about the lives of others even when explicitly trying to focus on themself.

Re: Everyday life improvements since the 90s (2022)

#75

Post by steanne »

Aloisius wrote: post #62
mrob wrote: post #6

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…

> Filtered milk. Tastes the same as ordinary homogenized milk but double (or better) the shelf life. I had to look this one up. I don't think I've ever seen filtered milk in the US, but it looks like the ones sold here are specialty high protein/low lactose milks which I can't imagine tastes the same. They also appear to expire 9-14 days after opening which doesn't seem all that different from other milk with practic…

lactose-free milk does taste different, but i didn't notice a difference between regular lactose-free and protein-fortified lactose-free (aside that it comes in cartons just slightly visually smaller that adds up to a 12oz difference).

Re: Everyday life improvements since the 90s (2022)

#77

Post by pseudalopex »

kemaru wrote: post #60
kvdveer wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a source on that? I'd like to understand the definition of "micofibre" in this context to see of I need to change my purchasing habits.

The 85 % figure is from Environ. Sci. Technol. 2011, 45, 21, 9175–9179 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es201811s The 200-500 kiloton/year is from https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c05955 For a deeper dive you can peruse the works that cite these articles, there's lots of research into microplastic population dynamics. Unfortunately most reach similar conclusions.

> The 85 % figure is from Environ. Sci. Technol. 2011, 45, 21, 9175–9179 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es201811s

The abstract said a large proportion of microplastic fibers found in the marine environment may be derived from sewage as a consequence of washing of clothes. Not is derived. And not microfiber solely.

Re: Everyday life improvements since the 90s (2022)

#79

Post by nunez »

mrob wrote: post #6

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…

SSDs were revolutionary. I remember the first time I upgraded the spinning rust in the (then) old laptop my school gave me to a IDE SSD. It was like getting a new computer! Night and day performance improvement.

The only thing that's come close to the "wow!" factor that SSDs invoked was the Apple M1. Many Windows laptops STILL haven't caught up to its performance, and I don't think ANY have caught up to its iPad-like battery life!

Re: Everyday life improvements since the 90s (2022)

#80

Post by nunez »

Aloisius wrote: post #62
mrob wrote: post #6

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…

> Filtered milk. Tastes the same as ordinary homogenized milk but double (or better) the shelf life. I had to look this one up. I don't think I've ever seen filtered milk in the US, but it looks like the ones sold here are specialty high protein/low lactose milks which I can't imagine tastes the same. They also appear to expire 9-14 days after opening which doesn't seem all that different from other milk with practic…

It's not popular in the US for mostly societal reasons, I think.
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