5 ms·

Ask HN: Whats the coolest software you've ever seen or used?

8 points by meesterdude 11y ago

galfarragem 11y ago
Sketchup is definitely cool. The most user-friendly (professional capable) software I know. Autocad is also great. An emacs for CAD.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
atmosx 11y ago
Harry's Lap Timer[1]. It's amazing what this program can do, exploiting nearly 100% of the iPhone hardware. I remember that the battery wasn't even charging while I was racing. It was connected to the USB car docker, but it was steady at 75%. [1] http://www.gps-laptimer.de http://www.gps-laptimer.de
LarryMade2 11y ago
FoxBase +/Mac 2.x - it was one of the dBase 3+ clones, this one was geared directly on the Mac. It got way more right than just the databse, well integrated quickdraw libraries and could do graphic forms and such and given the way it was designed you could graphically generate full printed pages as well, and get help using the output from the form builder to help you work out the code. Very fast, easy to program. I think it all was all about 800K app, compiled from C. Even the developers got turned on to the superior Mac version (I have promotional material from the time somewhere talking about how everyone at fox was getting Mac religion. You can get an idea from this article - http://www.foxprohistory.org/interview_fox_to_mac.htm http://www.foxprohistory.org/interview_fox_to_mac.htm ) That changed once Microsoft took Fox software over, started standardizing the FoxPro Line to windows standards (foxels... shudder)
thorin 11y ago
Amiga - Deluxe Paint 2 was incredible when I first saw it, especially the concept of working with HAM although it wasn't so practical to use those images. DP3 was an awesome intro to animation also. Photon paint was pretty cool too, although I seem to remember waiting a long time for effects to render.
patrickfl 11y ago
probably ophtcrack or Kali Linux distro, always amazed when I see nice looking front end software designed to exploit known vulnerabilities.
DrScump 11y ago
Resolve (a Boole and Babbage product), on MVS mainframes. Incredibly powerful for its time.
joeclark77 11y ago
The original Civilization game, pretty much blew my mind.
- galfarragem 11y ago
  I have always prefered Colonization game. The best turn-based game I know.
  - joeclark77 11y ago
    Yes!!! A thousand times yes. They made a new version called Civilization IV: Colonization around 2008, but it wasn't as good. The independence clock ran out too fast for you to really get anything built before the endgame.
krembo 11y ago
Definitely MS Excel. Proof: The enormous number of variations that people are using it except from its original usecase of a calculating spreadsheet
- meesterdude 11y ago
  I'm not sure how much credit MS deserves (genuinely) but it's absolutely up there for me as well, when you consider the impact it's had on business.
joe563323 11y ago
google earth. Around 2005 or 2006 when i saw it for the first time i was blown away.
hemling 11y ago
I always had high respect for google maps.
gatesphere 11y ago
Leo (http://leoeditor.com http://leoeditor.com) pretty much blew my mind when I figured it out. Changed the way I see data. (Full disclosure, I contribute to Leo now.)
dpeck 11y ago
The symbolic calculus capabilities of Maple still blow my mind.
- scotty79 11y ago
  Symbolic calculations are great. I learned about them (I think in highschool) with http://www.chartwellyorke.com/derive.html http://www.chartwellyorke.com/derive.html
bliti 11y ago
I'm constantly amazed by minecraft. Its a world within itself.
kleer001 11y ago
Houdini from SideEffects. Saw it used in school in 1997. Left a job because they wouldn't get a license of it for me in 2007 (after stringing me along for a year). Have been happily using it at work since at different studios around the world.
scotty79 11y ago
SketchUp You can sit down and do 3d without knowing anything about the program. Things like Maya, Blender or 3ds Max require training to achieve almost anything. Fireworks I can only wonder how amazing it could be if it was split out from Macromedia before it was bought by Adobe. IntelliJ Idea Type hints were amazing. For the first time I felt like having actual conversation with the computer about what I want to achieve. Too bad it didn't progress at all since then.
J-dawg 11y ago
The original Elite on the BBC Micro. Coded in assembly by 2 people as a summer project. Used procedural generation to create a universe of thousands of star systems, all fitting into 32kb of memory. It's just incredible what they achieved.
Gustomaximus 11y ago
Google Maps still impresses me in the ability to go look at almost anywhere in the world. Likewise for Wikipedia if that counts as software.
eecks 11y ago
Besides from Excel and Maps which have been mentioned: Facebook because of how it used javascript. Most message boards at the time had page reloads/redirects/wait screens after posting.

8 points by meesterdude 11y ago

Sketchup is definitely cool. The most user-friendly (professional capable) software I know. Autocad is also great. An emacs for CAD.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

atmosx 11y ago

Harry's Lap Timer[1]. It's amazing what this program can do, exploiting nearly 100% of the iPhone hardware. I remember that the battery wasn't even charging while I was racing. It was connected to the USB car docker, but it was steady at 75%. [1] http://www.gps-laptimer.de http://www.gps-laptimer.de

LarryMade2 11y ago

FoxBase +/Mac 2.x - it was one of the dBase 3+ clones, this one was geared directly on the Mac. It got way more right than just the databse, well integrated quickdraw libraries and could do graphic forms and such and given the way it was designed you could graphically generate full printed pages as well, and get help using the output from the form builder to help you work out the code. Very fast, easy to program. I think it all was all about 800K app, compiled from C. Even the developers got turned on to the superior Mac version (I have promotional material from the time somewhere talking about how everyone at fox was getting Mac religion. You can get an idea from this article - http://www.foxprohistory.org/interview_fox_to_mac.htm http://www.foxprohistory.org/interview_fox_to_mac.htm ) That changed once Microsoft took Fox software over, started standardizing the FoxPro Line to windows standards (foxels... shudder)

thorin 11y ago

Amiga - Deluxe Paint 2 was incredible when I first saw it, especially the concept of working with HAM although it wasn't so practical to use those images. DP3 was an awesome intro to animation also. Photon paint was pretty cool too, although I seem to remember waiting a long time for effects to render.

patrickfl 11y ago

probably ophtcrack or Kali Linux distro, always amazed when I see nice looking front end software designed to exploit known vulnerabilities.

DrScump 11y ago

Resolve (a Boole and Babbage product), on MVS mainframes. Incredibly powerful for its time.

joeclark77 11y ago

The original Civilization game, pretty much blew my mind.

galfarragem 11y ago
I have always prefered Colonization game. The best turn-based game I know.
- joeclark77 11y ago
  Yes!!! A thousand times yes. They made a new version called Civilization IV: Colonization around 2008, but it wasn't as good. The independence clock ran out too fast for you to really get anything built before the endgame.

krembo 11y ago

Definitely MS Excel. Proof: The enormous number of variations that people are using it except from its original usecase of a calculating spreadsheet

meesterdude 11y ago
I'm not sure how much credit MS deserves (genuinely) but it's absolutely up there for me as well, when you consider the impact it's had on business.

joe563323 11y ago

google earth. Around 2005 or 2006 when i saw it for the first time i was blown away.

hemling 11y ago

I always had high respect for google maps.

gatesphere 11y ago

Leo (http://leoeditor.com http://leoeditor.com) pretty much blew my mind when I figured it out. Changed the way I see data. (Full disclosure, I contribute to Leo now.)

dpeck 11y ago

The symbolic calculus capabilities of Maple still blow my mind.

scotty79 11y ago
Symbolic calculations are great. I learned about them (I think in highschool) with http://www.chartwellyorke.com/derive.html http://www.chartwellyorke.com/derive.html

bliti 11y ago

I'm constantly amazed by minecraft. Its a world within itself.

kleer001 11y ago

Houdini from SideEffects. Saw it used in school in 1997. Left a job because they wouldn't get a license of it for me in 2007 (after stringing me along for a year). Have been happily using it at work since at different studios around the world.

scotty79 11y ago

SketchUp You can sit down and do 3d without knowing anything about the program. Things like Maya, Blender or 3ds Max require training to achieve almost anything. Fireworks I can only wonder how amazing it could be if it was split out from Macromedia before it was bought by Adobe. IntelliJ Idea Type hints were amazing. For the first time I felt like having actual conversation with the computer about what I want to achieve. Too bad it didn't progress at all since then.

J-dawg 11y ago

The original Elite on the BBC Micro. Coded in assembly by 2 people as a summer project. Used procedural generation to create a universe of thousands of star systems, all fitting into 32kb of memory. It's just incredible what they achieved.

Gustomaximus 11y ago

Google Maps still impresses me in the ability to go look at almost anywhere in the world. Likewise for Wikipedia if that counts as software.

eecks 11y ago

Besides from Excel and Maps which have been mentioned: Facebook because of how it used javascript. Most message boards at the time had page reloads/redirects/wait screens after posting.