7 ms·

Would be interested in also seeing a "things that used to be easy but are now hard list". Feels like basic stuff is harder now: * Privacy online * Google sear

by theden 5y ago

Would be interested in also seeing a "things that used to be easy but are now hard list". Feels like basic stuff is harder now: * Privacy online * Google search for niche or exact matches * Browsing without captchas and blockers, especially if you don't adhere to big tech's rules for the internet * Sending emails without worrying about spam filters being way too aggressive * SEO before it got hacked to hell * Barrier to entry for creatives to build things on the web (for all the flaws flash had, it bridged the gap) * Finding real discussion and information. The growth of bots posting, misinformation, blogspam, and toxic echo chamber partisan discussion online (maybe it was always like this, i.e, eternal September?) * MacBooks being easier to upgrade before when things weren't soldered on * In general anti right to repair hardware * Not having to worry about dongles, i.e. connecting USB devices to your machine * Ransomware wasn't a thing. Nothing like a non-technical user needing to learn BTC or XMR to maybe get their data back * Being able to buy software once vs a subscription, e.g., photoshop * Work was easier to disambiguate from life before chat apps like Slack made employees always reachable * CGNAT not being as common * OAuth is still annoying to implement * Blocking ads was easier * Getting a job was easier for a lot of people prior to whiteboarding, leetcode tests, assignments, multi-day interviews and trials, etc. becoming more common * GDPR making infra+dev work harder because big tech companies don't understand consent and couldn't behave, also leading to performative/annoying cookie banners we see everywhere * Needing an internet connection for software+tools that used to be able to run locally on your OS * Website responsiveness was easier before all the devices and monitors with different viewports * Archival (or scraping) was easier before the majority of human generated content was placed behind login walls (fb) and rendered content needing headless browsers Edit: Call me cynical if you want—yeah some of those programmer things listed are easier now, but improvements on the core regressions I listed would help programmers (and non-programmers!) all across the world and in developing countries more than some niche highly paid SV engineers using terraform to orchestrate infra on GCP.

FearlessNebula 5y ago
I would argue getting a job is easier now. Prior to whiteboarding and take home assignments, if you didn’t go to a top tier target school and have excellent 3.5+ GPA it was really difficult to even get your foot in the door for an interview.
- learc83 5y ago
  When was this? Maybe If you’re talking exclusively about FAANG.
  - FearlessNebula 5y ago
    I’m too young to know from my own experience but from what I’ve heard early 2000s.
    - learc83 5y ago
      I was around in the early 2000s, and you certainly didn’t need a 3.5 GPA from a top tier school for anything but a very small handful of companies. In the early 2000s, you could get decent work just knowing HTML.
jbarham 5y ago
Installing Windows without a Microsoft account
- unnouinceput 5y ago
  That's false. You can still install Windows without a Microsoft account. Granted, it's harder now to see "Use local account", but it's still there.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - DrammBA 5y ago
    That's false because it's true? I don't even...
  - samb1729 5y ago
    Your comment highlights exactly how the GP fits the “things that used to be easy but are now hard list”
  - hutzlibu 5y ago
    How about win 11?
    - unnouinceput 5y ago
      Yeah, what about Win 11? https://filestore.community.support.microsoft.com/api/images/04478069-c436-413f-9b1d-eecd685fd09e?upload=true https://filestore.community.support.microsoft.com/api/images...
jeauxlb 5y ago
* email delivery
fay59 5y ago
The Flash authoring tools still exist, they’ve just been renamed Animate, and they export to HTML5.
umvi 5y ago
Logging into an online account on a computer you don't normally use when you don't have your phone. This can range from "had to jump through a bunch of extra hoops" to impossible if you haven't saved backup codes ahead of time (Google). My wife lost her phone when we were on vacation and it was literally impossible for us to login into her Google account in order to use find my Android. We were trying to login on a relative's PC to use find my phone, but it was a catch 22 because we need a phone to login to Google on a relative's PC. I pity the fool who loses their phone in the age of 2FA.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  > I pity the fool who loses their phone in the age of 2FA. This keeps me awake at night. Especially as it is no longer possible to contact humans at a lot of sites to prove who you are. I went to jail for eight years, when I got out I could only access two of the thousands of accounts I had made over the previous 20 years. > My wife lost her phone when we were on vacation and it was literally impossible for us to login into her Google account in order to use find my Android. This is a really frustrating situation.
- toomanydoubts 5y ago
  That's why you always copy the secret recovery codes for the 2FA(which may not be helpful if you left your notebook in your home country during vacantions).
- sofixa 5y ago
  That's why Google often prompt you for backup information - backup phone number, email address, which can be used to recover an account if you've lost your phone.
  - b3morales 5y ago
    There are ways to provide backup factors without tying them to more personal information, however.
    - 5y ago
theshrike79 5y ago
> * Privacy online Privacy is a lost cause, the younger generations don't care. I remember when people were warned about sharing their real information online. over 50% of people I knew were just nicknames on the internet. I had zero clue about their gender, where they lived or what they did for a living. Didn't affect our conversations the least bit. Now everyone is plastering their faces everywhere they go. Every picture they take has their face next to it. Usually along with their name, the location and the exact time they were in there and who they were with.
- ghaff 5y ago
  >over 50% of people I knew were just nicknames on the internet. Depends on the circles. On the other hand, I accessed Usenet from a company computer which had my real name and company email. And the local forum on my BBS, most people used their real names and we even got together in person from time to time.
- yepthatsreality 5y ago
  I’d say the non-technically inclined groups of people do not care. Instead of privacy being dead there will always be a corner of the population that does not care. That is okay, let them be the fuel for the corpo machine.
- Tijdreiziger 5y ago
  Really? On almost all Discord servers I've visited, everyone has a nickname and doesn't share photos of themselves. On Instagram, I've also noticed a lot of young people who share e.g. art have a completely anonymous profile (and I guess probably another, non-anonymous profile for their friends only). Not sure about Snapchat or TikTok, though.
  - theshrike79 5y ago
    The problem with Discord and anonymity is the fact that it's really tedious to have multiple Discord accounts. Let's say you want to keep your work, hobby and private profiles completely separate. You'd need to have one with the official client and the other two with a separate browser each. Also you'd need to be super careful when joining a new server for any category to make doubleplussure you're not joining with the wrong profile.
jagged-chisel 5y ago
I suggest that "barrier to entry" also includes getting started programming in general. Too much to choose from, large leap in skill level required from text in a terminal to graphics on the screen, etc.
- ghaff 5y ago
  I question if that's really true given all the libraries for languages like Python, online tutorials/projects, and various types of low code environments. Sure, you need to figure out what your options are (or have someone show you) but I question whether it's really more difficult to do something than firing up the BASIC interpreter and typing in code from a magazine.
ayushnix 5y ago
CGNAT will be here for the forseeable future and I wouldn't be surprised if ISPs end up deploying some version of CGNAT on IPv6, assuming they're somehow forced to use IPv6 in the future.
- nickysielicki 5y ago
  Why would they want to run CGNAT on ipv6?
  - ayushnix 5y ago
    I can think of couple of reasons for it - they get money for selling static/public IPv4 addresses right now and they wouldn't want this money going away when IPv6 arrives - can't imagine how the world will look like with shitty insecure routers everywhere and everyone having a public IPv6 address, ISPs might provide NAT connections to protect non-tech people If I'm not mistaken, one of the largest ISPs in my country has begun to roll out IPv6 but it was either broken the last time I checked or it had some form of NAT on it.
titzer 5y ago
> Not having to worry about dongles, i.e. connecting USB devices to your machine The dongles. OMG. It's worse than the parallel printer age. I cannot recall another period in history where I needed a dongle so often. USB-C only on Macbooks was such a huge design mistake. Especially in the era of USB-A! Soooooo many things are still USB-A. All for a little more thinness! It's really grating.
- noobermin 5y ago
  USB C and the removal of headphone jacks are an example of how not everything in American society is "market driven" but can easily be imposed on the whole market and consumers by a single big player.
  - evilsetg 5y ago
    How is that? There are still plenty of devices with USB A/Headphone jack available. Apple devices are far from the "whole market".
codeflo 5y ago
I agree with all of those. More things that are harder now: * Finding honest product impressions/reviews. * When looking for a configuration setting or tip to use any piece of software, find a one minute article with clear bullet points instead of an 11 minute YouTube video with a personal backstory and a VPN sponsorship. * Finding a cooking recipe that isn’t padded with SEO nonsense. * When finding an online discussion or blog article in a search result, being able to read it straight in the (mobile) browser without hostile prompts to make an account and/or download an app. * (Europeans only.) Publish a simple website without worrying that the hosting provider you choose doesn’t perfectly conform to privacy laws that even lawyers won’t explain to you and you’re personally liable for ridiculous damages. * Run software developed by hobby programmers on machines you own. * Connect devices like speakers, keyboards and mice to computers. (Edit: You mention that.) And, completely disagreeing with the article on this one point, this is also harder: * Writing cross-platform UIs. As someone with a lot of hate for Java from back in the day, this is painful to write, but: Java Swing might not have produced the nicest GUIs, but the stack was so much simpler than Electron+Node+Express+Webpack+React+TypeScript (substitute Svelte, Vite or whatever you want), it’s not even funny.
- sofixa 5y ago
  > * (Europeans only.) Publish a simple website without worrying that the hosting provider you choose doesn’t perfectly conform to privacy laws that even lawyers won’t explain to you and you’re personally liable for ridiculous damages. I'm sorry but that's just FUD. GDPR fines are only for serious infractions with intent, most violators get off with a warning. Furthermore, access logs are OK because they're a legitimate purpose, as long as there's rotation.
  - codeflo 5y ago
    Yes, I’m specifically in fear, uncertainty and doubt. To be clear, I’m fully onboard with the intent of the GDPR, but I have no idea how to follow it. And “you’ll be okay, the fines are probably small” is exactly the kind if statement that causes anxiety. I’ve recently tried to figure out if it’s okay to use something like Cloudflare Pages to host a blog. That’s not an esoteric question, but I was unable to get an answer. They’re not based in Europe, the log retention policy is a bit unclear, regulators seem to be disagreeing on whether even their CDN is okay (and Pages is built on top of the CDN). And in Germany, the real danger isn’t a regulator fining you, it’s a private lawyer sending you an “Abmahnung”. Which they will do for any trivial infraction, often using automated platforms.
toomanydoubts 5y ago
* Making sure you're not being spied on Not sure if this was ever easier, but to me it seems it got harder. With all the possible attack vectors, ranging from chain of supply attacks hard-coded deep down on the cpus, up to malicious dependencies being replaced everyday on npm, how does anyone trust their machine?
noobermin 5y ago
The worst part is when people somehow think all these things necessarily must follow from the things that are easier rather than suggesting we could have the good things without the worse off things.
- codeflo 5y ago
  The “old web” — the one before the rise of the trillion dollar engagement optimizing platforms — is probably completely foreign and unimaginable to those who haven’t experienced it.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    Well, and before "the masses" really had access to it.
  - grishka 5y ago
    I do wonder what they'll think of it when (if) they get to experience it.
daxfohl 5y ago
> Getting a job Though negotiating is way easier with things like levels.fyi and blind.
- ghaff 5y ago
  The points made upthread would seem to apply to a very narrow slice of jobs. In general, finding info about companies, reaching out to people you have connections with, etc. seems easier than newspaper ads, form letters to HR departments, etc. Though then and now, personal networks are probably still the most effective path for many.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
mwcampbell 5y ago
Our online discourse is already saturated with cynicism and pessimism. Do we need to bring it to this thread as well? Then again, given the contrarian bias of HN comments, I guess it's natural.
raverbashing 5y ago
Makes me wonder how many sites are still useable with Lynx
tryauuum 5y ago
Connecting your laptop to internet via an Ethernet cable

by theden 5y ago

FearlessNebula 5y ago

I would argue getting a job is easier now. Prior to whiteboarding and take home assignments, if you didn’t go to a top tier target school and have excellent 3.5+ GPA it was really difficult to even get your foot in the door for an interview.

learc83 5y ago
When was this? Maybe If you’re talking exclusively about FAANG.
- FearlessNebula 5y ago
  I’m too young to know from my own experience but from what I’ve heard early 2000s.
  - learc83 5y ago
    I was around in the early 2000s, and you certainly didn’t need a 3.5 GPA from a top tier school for anything but a very small handful of companies. In the early 2000s, you could get decent work just knowing HTML.

jbarham 5y ago

Installing Windows without a Microsoft account

unnouinceput 5y ago
That's false. You can still install Windows without a Microsoft account. Granted, it's harder now to see "Use local account", but it's still there.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- DrammBA 5y ago
  That's false because it's true? I don't even...
- samb1729 5y ago
  Your comment highlights exactly how the GP fits the “things that used to be easy but are now hard list”
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  How about win 11?
  - unnouinceput 5y ago
    Yeah, what about Win 11? https://filestore.community.support.microsoft.com/api/images/04478069-c436-413f-9b1d-eecd685fd09e?upload=true https://filestore.community.support.microsoft.com/api/images...

jeauxlb 5y ago

* email delivery

fay59 5y ago

The Flash authoring tools still exist, they’ve just been renamed Animate, and they export to HTML5.

umvi 5y ago

Logging into an online account on a computer you don't normally use when you don't have your phone. This can range from "had to jump through a bunch of extra hoops" to impossible if you haven't saved backup codes ahead of time (Google). My wife lost her phone when we were on vacation and it was literally impossible for us to login into her Google account in order to use find my Android. We were trying to login on a relative's PC to use find my phone, but it was a catch 22 because we need a phone to login to Google on a relative's PC. I pity the fool who loses their phone in the age of 2FA.

kingcharles 5y ago
> I pity the fool who loses their phone in the age of 2FA. This keeps me awake at night. Especially as it is no longer possible to contact humans at a lot of sites to prove who you are. I went to jail for eight years, when I got out I could only access two of the thousands of accounts I had made over the previous 20 years. > My wife lost her phone when we were on vacation and it was literally impossible for us to login into her Google account in order to use find my Android. This is a really frustrating situation.
toomanydoubts 5y ago
That's why you always copy the secret recovery codes for the 2FA(which may not be helpful if you left your notebook in your home country during vacantions).
sofixa 5y ago
That's why Google often prompt you for backup information - backup phone number, email address, which can be used to recover an account if you've lost your phone.
- b3morales 5y ago
  There are ways to provide backup factors without tying them to more personal information, however.
  - 5y ago

theshrike79 5y ago

> * Privacy online Privacy is a lost cause, the younger generations don't care. I remember when people were warned about sharing their real information online. over 50% of people I knew were just nicknames on the internet. I had zero clue about their gender, where they lived or what they did for a living. Didn't affect our conversations the least bit. Now everyone is plastering their faces everywhere they go. Every picture they take has their face next to it. Usually along with their name, the location and the exact time they were in there and who they were with.

ghaff 5y ago
>over 50% of people I knew were just nicknames on the internet. Depends on the circles. On the other hand, I accessed Usenet from a company computer which had my real name and company email. And the local forum on my BBS, most people used their real names and we even got together in person from time to time.
yepthatsreality 5y ago
I’d say the non-technically inclined groups of people do not care. Instead of privacy being dead there will always be a corner of the population that does not care. That is okay, let them be the fuel for the corpo machine.
Tijdreiziger 5y ago
Really? On almost all Discord servers I've visited, everyone has a nickname and doesn't share photos of themselves. On Instagram, I've also noticed a lot of young people who share e.g. art have a completely anonymous profile (and I guess probably another, non-anonymous profile for their friends only). Not sure about Snapchat or TikTok, though.
- theshrike79 5y ago
  The problem with Discord and anonymity is the fact that it's really tedious to have multiple Discord accounts. Let's say you want to keep your work, hobby and private profiles completely separate. You'd need to have one with the official client and the other two with a separate browser each. Also you'd need to be super careful when joining a new server for any category to make doubleplussure you're not joining with the wrong profile.

jagged-chisel 5y ago

I suggest that "barrier to entry" also includes getting started programming in general. Too much to choose from, large leap in skill level required from text in a terminal to graphics on the screen, etc.

ghaff 5y ago
I question if that's really true given all the libraries for languages like Python, online tutorials/projects, and various types of low code environments. Sure, you need to figure out what your options are (or have someone show you) but I question whether it's really more difficult to do something than firing up the BASIC interpreter and typing in code from a magazine.

ayushnix 5y ago

CGNAT will be here for the forseeable future and I wouldn't be surprised if ISPs end up deploying some version of CGNAT on IPv6, assuming they're somehow forced to use IPv6 in the future.

nickysielicki 5y ago
Why would they want to run CGNAT on ipv6?
- ayushnix 5y ago
  I can think of couple of reasons for it - they get money for selling static/public IPv4 addresses right now and they wouldn't want this money going away when IPv6 arrives - can't imagine how the world will look like with shitty insecure routers everywhere and everyone having a public IPv6 address, ISPs might provide NAT connections to protect non-tech people If I'm not mistaken, one of the largest ISPs in my country has begun to roll out IPv6 but it was either broken the last time I checked or it had some form of NAT on it.

titzer 5y ago

> Not having to worry about dongles, i.e. connecting USB devices to your machine The dongles. OMG. It's worse than the parallel printer age. I cannot recall another period in history where I needed a dongle so often. USB-C only on Macbooks was such a huge design mistake. Especially in the era of USB-A! Soooooo many things are still USB-A. All for a little more thinness! It's really grating.

noobermin 5y ago
USB C and the removal of headphone jacks are an example of how not everything in American society is "market driven" but can easily be imposed on the whole market and consumers by a single big player.
- evilsetg 5y ago
  How is that? There are still plenty of devices with USB A/Headphone jack available. Apple devices are far from the "whole market".

codeflo 5y ago

I agree with all of those. More things that are harder now: * Finding honest product impressions/reviews. * When looking for a configuration setting or tip to use any piece of software, find a one minute article with clear bullet points instead of an 11 minute YouTube video with a personal backstory and a VPN sponsorship. * Finding a cooking recipe that isn’t padded with SEO nonsense. * When finding an online discussion or blog article in a search result, being able to read it straight in the (mobile) browser without hostile prompts to make an account and/or download an app. * (Europeans only.) Publish a simple website without worrying that the hosting provider you choose doesn’t perfectly conform to privacy laws that even lawyers won’t explain to you and you’re personally liable for ridiculous damages. * Run software developed by hobby programmers on machines you own. * Connect devices like speakers, keyboards and mice to computers. (Edit: You mention that.) And, completely disagreeing with the article on this one point, this is also harder: * Writing cross-platform UIs. As someone with a lot of hate for Java from back in the day, this is painful to write, but: Java Swing might not have produced the nicest GUIs, but the stack was so much simpler than Electron+Node+Express+Webpack+React+TypeScript (substitute Svelte, Vite or whatever you want), it’s not even funny.

sofixa 5y ago
> * (Europeans only.) Publish a simple website without worrying that the hosting provider you choose doesn’t perfectly conform to privacy laws that even lawyers won’t explain to you and you’re personally liable for ridiculous damages. I'm sorry but that's just FUD. GDPR fines are only for serious infractions with intent, most violators get off with a warning. Furthermore, access logs are OK because they're a legitimate purpose, as long as there's rotation.
- codeflo 5y ago
  Yes, I’m specifically in fear, uncertainty and doubt. To be clear, I’m fully onboard with the intent of the GDPR, but I have no idea how to follow it. And “you’ll be okay, the fines are probably small” is exactly the kind if statement that causes anxiety. I’ve recently tried to figure out if it’s okay to use something like Cloudflare Pages to host a blog. That’s not an esoteric question, but I was unable to get an answer. They’re not based in Europe, the log retention policy is a bit unclear, regulators seem to be disagreeing on whether even their CDN is okay (and Pages is built on top of the CDN). And in Germany, the real danger isn’t a regulator fining you, it’s a private lawyer sending you an “Abmahnung”. Which they will do for any trivial infraction, often using automated platforms.

toomanydoubts 5y ago

* Making sure you're not being spied on Not sure if this was ever easier, but to me it seems it got harder. With all the possible attack vectors, ranging from chain of supply attacks hard-coded deep down on the cpus, up to malicious dependencies being replaced everyday on npm, how does anyone trust their machine?

noobermin 5y ago

The worst part is when people somehow think all these things necessarily must follow from the things that are easier rather than suggesting we could have the good things without the worse off things.

codeflo 5y ago
The “old web” — the one before the rise of the trillion dollar engagement optimizing platforms — is probably completely foreign and unimaginable to those who haven’t experienced it.
- ghaff 5y ago
  Well, and before "the masses" really had access to it.
- grishka 5y ago
  I do wonder what they'll think of it when (if) they get to experience it.

daxfohl 5y ago

> Getting a job Though negotiating is way easier with things like levels.fyi and blind.

ghaff 5y ago
The points made upthread would seem to apply to a very narrow slice of jobs. In general, finding info about companies, reaching out to people you have connections with, etc. seems easier than newspaper ads, form letters to HR departments, etc. Though then and now, personal networks are probably still the most effective path for many.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

mwcampbell 5y ago

Our online discourse is already saturated with cynicism and pessimism. Do we need to bring it to this thread as well? Then again, given the contrarian bias of HN comments, I guess it's natural.

raverbashing 5y ago

Makes me wonder how many sites are still useable with Lynx

tryauuum 5y ago

Connecting your laptop to internet via an Ethernet cable