Do you think things were better before (circa the turn of the millennia)?

[Lord Szechenyi]

29 minutes ago, wall03 said:

well guess what? His strategy worked and Apple is the most valuable company on Earth. Also, every company does flops

 

yes, a completely valid point

Quote

people who did watch out were killed too.

Yes, but not as many

Quote

Microsoft didn't do anything revolutionary, either.

They copied from their rivals.

(Also apparently they were very toxic to their employees, so Apple necessarily isn't the bad one. If you want to know more, read Bitwise by David Auerback)

Apple, on the other hand, helped fix the pirating problem with iTunes. Sorry I might seem to be defending Apple, but they did do a lot of things Microsoft (or other companies) did.

Yes they got a lawsuit by IBM

(they also got a lawsuit from the government but i think that one was really unfair)

The problem with apple is that, they might have fixed itunes, itunes is a program created by them.

whereas you could take winamp and do ANYTHING with it

Therefore, compared to winamp, itunes is shit (except for user interface, winamp has a really bad one)

[Lord Szechenyi]

33 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

We may have different perspectives as I live in the States right now, and I haven't really been out of state all that much. I feel like this is still too broad of a scope, as transportation is a very generic word. When I used it, I was truly being inclusive of all transportation items. While pollution is definitely a concern, even with electric cars, pollution is still an issue as in a lot of areas, electrical energy is generated from burning fossil fuels. So I don't know if we can really include it as part of the discussion - most of our energy generation really is from fossil fuels, at least here in the states. 

 

While you're complaining about seats being awful, I think you're also too focused on one thing. Our engines are more efficient than when cars were first created, while making significantly more power. We have heated seats, air conditioning, heaters, electric starters, safety features, etc. As far as the danger is concerned, that can be applied to many things. Even doing something as simple as boiling water can be used in a hostile fashion. 

OOOOOOOH im really sorry i understood it as public transport, not transportation in general

Well yes planes,cars,boats indeed have better engines, and are (mostly) safer

The only problem i find with them is that they are very ugly (especially cars).

Otherwise yeah, i can't bitch about those except that there are too many cars and like George Carlin "doesn't anyone just take a fucking walk?"

Otherwise back to public transport

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usage#Passenger_modal_share_for_rail

almost 10% of the population uses public transport here.

there is public transprt ONLY in the capital.

the capital is about 20-30% of the population of the country = a shit ton of people use public transport

(but then again this aint japan)

[Lord Szechenyi]

14 minutes ago, foldingNoob said:

I would gladly go backwards in tech if it meant doing it again without the suicide nets around the iphone factory. Oh and we had smart phones in the 90s. They were called PDAs. I'm still rocking my 80's smart watch

speaking of smart phones, i miss pagers.

Last pager service was shutdown last year in japan

[Lord Szechenyi]

14 minutes ago, Wheresmehammer said:

"victimhood" is chosen rather than being respectful.

It's not that chosen, since inherently, power=respect, and nowadays being the "victim" is what gives these people power.

i've met a lot of these "victims" and alone it's fine.

but when you are in a group of, even as low as 4 or 5, it becomes very different.

Like George Carlin said "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

[SolarNova]

'Mixed'

 

its a really broad topic.

 

Tech has advanced, good in some, bad in others. The companies attitudes is the predominant 'bad' part of it.

 

The games have advanced for sure, but again in some cases the attitudes and actions of the companies behind them have somewhat soured.

 

Steam, indie devs , cheap games all great. ..but soured by the increased dominance of MTX's , paid DLC, and gambling mechanics included in AA and AAA full priced titles.

 

I think the biggest 'negative' present since pre 2000 is the mainstreaming of the internet and social media, its turned a lot of the communities that were already in existence pre 2000, into cesspools of trolls mixed with snowflakes and SJWs. Its a real sh*t show now. Even forums today are nothing like back then, heavy moderation and eggshell walking is more than just common, its 'standard'.

 

Prices have gone up, and not just from inflation.

 

I'd have to say the 'good' that has come since 2000, we have paid for with the 'bad'. So 'mixed' is certainly the answer.

[Rocketdog2112]

12 hours ago, Sakuriru said:

 

 

You tell me how good it is. I'll wait.

How good was it back then? How about....

Not having to deal with....... your privacy, being tracked every where you go, your information being sold on the dark web, bank accounts getting hacked (your life savings), credit card fraud, skimmers at the gas pump, identify theft, spam out the wazzo, Voter fraud, cars being stolen with a Bluetooth hack, planes falling out of the sky, a whole generation with the attention span and social skills of a grapefruit, terrorist can now more easily communicate and plan, Facebook...  And what's so bad about being able to read a map? Some day, you may wish you had learned.

[trag1c]

Having actually grown up in the 90s 100% yes I would say on the whole we're better off. For me the biggest thing is opportunities presented by technology. Technology has enabled a new maker movement that just about anyone can get into. You no longer need hundreds of thousands of dollars to be able to build and/or launch your own inventions which in it self is uninhibited creativity and imagination. Even if you're not interested in selling your creativity it comes down to you can pursue your creativity with very little standing in the way. 

 

3D printers used to be thousands of dollars even a few years ago, now I was able to purchase one for less than $300 CAD. In the 90s Free or Open source software for artwork or CAD like Blender, KiCAD, Eagle, Fusion360, GIMP either didn't exist or was just beginning to take form. Now with the cheapest of computers you can unleash creativity, ambition and imagination.

 

Access to information has never been better either. For me I taught my self computer programming in C++ when I was 13. I was developing my own hacks for video games by the time I was 14. In highschool we had a rudimentary robotics program that taught me the basics of electronics from there I was able to educate my self further and now I am on the cusp of starting my own business selling my own designs to enable others to follow the same movement I am. I love building and programming my own electronics. Assuming that I could get software to design the circuit boards back in the 90s I would have still needed $50k before a PCB fabricator would even talk to me and now I can get my own designs made for typically $5-10 USD + shipping for 100mmx100mm boards x 5 boards.

 

Had it still been the 90s I wouldn't have been able to do any of this. 

[Lord Vile]

1 hour ago, Lord Szechenyi said:

Anything Mac is from before the millennia, and even then they aren't that revolutionary as Microsoft always had the biggest market share (by a considerable margin).

Yes, it's true that Bill Gates isn't as active as Jobs was, but then again Jobs did a lot of bad things.

He was reported multiple times to be "a dick", stole some ideas here and there, and especially (although here i'm not sure it's specifically him) did bad choices like the Apple Pippin.

Being a dick doesn't really change anything... Bill gates was described as the same. And mistakes happen, the iTunes phone was another.

 

The MacBook debuted in the mid 2000's and the MacBook Air was revolutionary at the time. It's also not just about software hardware wise what ultrabook doesn't copy the design of the MacBook? The iMac made other AIO PCs look pedestrian. Now does this look like it's a unique design or does it look like an iMac ripoff? https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/desktops-and-all-in-ones/new-inspiron-24-5000-all-in-one/spd/inspiron-24-5490-aio/cd549001

The there's still iTunes which changed the shape of the music industry and was the forerunner of digital distribution of media on a large scale. The iPad which is essentially so good it has no competition. 

1 hour ago, Lord Szechenyi said:

In a way, you could say the spanish flu was good as it was natural selection and it killed off all the idiots who didn't watch out.

There was no lockdown in 1910, and there was ABOLUTELY no globalization, which is today a very big factor.

The Spanish flu was 1918-1920... And it was spread globally during the end of WWI when the Americans joined and spread it through Europe then the world.

1 hour ago, Lord Szechenyi said:

As for 9/11, well it's true crisises (or idk how to spell it) have always been a thing, but 9/11 seems to be the final nail in the coffin, the final domino, the icing on the cake that started something, or lit it up.

Yes, since there was tension building up, look at the late 90s films like fight club or office space, and even other things too.

Gasoline was poured in huge quantities, but it wasn't lit.

But 9/11 lit it, and since then huge chaos building up.

Films aren't real life... 9/11 didn't have much of a consequence outside of the war on terror and the overreach of governments in that regard. The largest issue would be social media which has nothing to do with 9/11. It spreads misinformation, encourages people to ostracise anyone with a different opinion and just is a general cancer that profits off of peoples information.

[Rocketdog2112]

1 hour ago, wall03 said:

 

-More efficient kitchen appliances (I'm looking at you: fridge!)

 

Yeah.... until the $500 master control board goes out on it (and it's maybe only three years old).

[Rocketdog2112]

1 hour ago, Godlygamer23 said:

As far as the danger is concerned, that can be applied to many things. Even doing something as simple as boiling water can be used in a hostile fashion. 

Boeing 737 Max anyone?....

[Commodus]

37 minutes ago, Rocketdog2112 said:

Boeing 737 Max anyone?....

I don't know why people here are saying "look at the Boeing 737 Max, air travel is less safe!"

 

Do people forget what flights were like in the '90s and earlier? When safety systems weren't nearly as robust, and when airport security was too lax? I'm not a big fan of modern security theater at airports, but things were so loose pre-2001 that I'm surprised bombings didn't happen weekly.

 

The 737 Max flaw was tragic and entirely avoidable. But we're overall in a much better position for flight safety than we were 20 years ago.

[Lord Szechenyi]

6 minutes ago, Commodus said:

I don't know why people here are saying "look at the Boeing 737 Max, air travel is less safe!"

 

Do people forget what flights were like in the '90s and earlier? When safety systems weren't nearly as robust, and when airport security was too lax? I'm not a big fan of modern security theater at airports, but things were so loose pre-2001 that I'm surprised bombings didn't happen weekly.

 

The 737 Max flaw was tragic and entirely avoidable. But we're overall in a much better position for flight safety than we were 20 years ago.

bombing is an exageration, but in the 70s there was a lot of plane hijackings

[Rocketdog2112]

36 minutes ago, Commodus said:

I don't know why people here are saying "look at the Boeing 737 Max, air travel is less safe!"

 

Do people forget what flights were like in the '90s and earlier? When safety systems weren't nearly as robust, and when airport security was too lax? I'm not a big fan of modern security theater at airports, but things were so loose pre-2001 that I'm surprised bombings didn't happen weekly.

 

The 737 Max flaw was tragic and entirely avoidable. But we're overall in a much better position for flight safety than we were 20 years ago.

I'm not saying air travel is less safe, just pointing out how as computers are completely taking over our lives, one small software glitch can end hundreds of lives. I also realize human error stopped the pilots from taking control of the plane.

[Energycore]

40 minutes ago, Commodus said:

"look at the Boeing 737 Max, air travel is less safe!"

In general, you can tell something is extremely safe/stable if every time it goes wrong it makes the news.

 

You know what doesn't make news every time? Automobile crashes, because there's so many of them

[Monkey Dust]

As an old geezer of 41, I probably remember the 90s better than most on here. 

 

The positives;

Terrorism not much of a concern, we had the IRA in the UK, but they were moving towards peace by the mid 90s. The Western world has been on a Terror alert for 19 years now, so an easy win for the 90s there.

No cameras on nights out, you can have more fun when you're not being recorded. Some people took disposable cameras out, but this was frowned on for a proper night out.

Couch multiplayer gaming, N64 the king here.

Tech didn't have to go in the bin just because security updates, or an online service ceased, rendering it useless.

Being able to see the Prodigy live, at their peak.

Cars were simpler, and therefore less likely to go horribly and expensively wrong.

Houses were not crazy expensive.

Without access to so much information and the opinions of everyone from the English-speaking world, I think most people were far less angry and/or anxious. 

 

The negatives;

Many of the cars rusted like bastards (at least in our climate) and would crumple up like a damp cardboard box if you crashed.

The level of car theft was insane. Some cars could be opened by snapping off it's aerial and using that to turn the lock.

No streaming meant huge amounts of space given over to storing  CDs, DVDs, and worst of all VHS tapes. Not to mention the huge cost of buying them in the first place, £9-10 for an album, that's one month of Spotify now. 

No youtube for handy how to videos for everything.

You still needed cash for lots of things.

Sugar free soft drinks tasted disgusting.

No sat nav. I remember driving around London, as a visitor not a native, holding a road atlas in the centre of the steering wheel to navigate by.

Dial up internet was absolute rubbish.

 

Tldr, I voted mixed.

 

 

   

[Lord Szechenyi]

29 minutes ago, Monkey Dust said:

The positives;

Being able to see the Prodigy live, at their peak.

 

The negatives;

No streaming meant huge amounts of space given over to storing  CDs, DVDs, and worst of all VHS tapes. Not to mention the huge cost of buying them in the first place, £9-10 for an album, that's one month of Spotify now. 

No youtube for handy how to videos for everything.

Sugar free soft drinks tasted disgusting.

No sat nav. I remember driving around London, as a visitor not a native, holding a road atlas in the centre of the steering wheel to navigate by.

Dial up internet was absolute rubbish.

Replace prodigy with Underworld.

Otherwise

No streaming is better, i still buy most of my things physical (except music, which i get for free, i don't pay spotify)

Why would someone use a "how to" video on youtube? like unironically (because howtobasic is quite good and i could understand that one channel)

Sugar free is unnecessary, it also contains aspartame which can give cancer, and even then sugar free is just for those people who are obese (which is a today problem, not before the millennia) and even then, why would you drink those unhealthy beverages?

Driving around in london? just take a bus/metro! (especially if it's london)

yes i agree dial up sucks, but the speed itself wasn't too problematic.

[Commodus]

1 hour ago, Energycore said:

In general, you can tell something is extremely safe/stable if every time it goes wrong it makes the news.

 

You know what doesn't make news every time? Automobile crashes, because there's so many of them

Precisely. People panic over the thought of a self-driving car getting into a crash, but humans crash cars so often that we treat those deaths and injuries like so much background noise. About 38,800 Americans died in car crashes during 2019 alone. If we cut that to a tenth of that number, it'll be a resounding victory for vehicle safety even if the remaining deaths are due to avoidable software bugs.

[Rocketdog2112]

16 minutes ago, Commodus said:

About 38,800 Americans died in car crashes during 2019 alone. If we cut that to a tenth of that number, it'll be a resounding victory for vehicle safety even if the remaining deaths are due to avoidable software bugs.

In the future, could you only image the personal injury and death lawsuits/litigation caused by software bugs and glitches?

[Commodus]

31 minutes ago, Rocketdog2112 said:

In the future, could you only image the personal injury and death lawsuits/litigation caused by software bugs and glitches?

Oh, it's going to be an incredibly thorny legal situation. You can be sure car makers and politicians will dance for a while before they sort out liability. But it'll a 'nice' situation to have if tens of thousands of people live to see another year!

[Lord Szechenyi]

30 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Oh, it's going to be an incredibly thorny legal situation. You can be sure car makers and politicians will dance for a while before they sort out liability. But it'll a 'nice' situation to have if tens of thousands of people live to see another year!

But think about it, lots of people who die from a car crash because they drive irresponsibly, maybe if he survives he  will erroneously think it's the car makers fault for the car to be "junk" after the crash and will file a lawsuit, win the lawsuit, use that money to buy a plane, then also pilot the plane like Harrison ford, and crash it into the empire state building!.

Yes it's far stretched but maybe there is a reason they die, the ones who really shouldn't die are the pedestrians who have no chance of survival

[GDRRiley]

other than car quality going downhill fast and lack of privacy most things are improving.

[Blade of Grass]

We've made significant strives in so many different fields over the past two decades, I think it would hard to say it was better before. With advances in medicine and engineering safety we've been able to continuously improve life expectancy, to the point that Cancer is one of the most likely cause of deaths in the developed world (cardio vascular disease is still leading iirc).

[Letgomyleghoe]

remember when the tv turned off at 12:00 and played the national anthem

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Having lived two decades in each century: it's basically the same. The details change, humanity doesn't.

People overestimate the extent to which the tools and toys we surround ourselves with shape our lives; they did the same in the '90s. However, our fundamental problems and drives are timeless. 

 

When it comes to personal experiences, though, anything may be true: would you rather live in the XX century or the XV century? But would you rather be a XX century slave or a XV century king?

[dizmo]

Haha, well. This was an interesting read.

There were some things that were better, for sure, however as a whole we're definitely better off now than we were then. Anyone saying otherwise is either not taking full advantage of what we have today, or wasn't alive then to really have a proper grasp of what they're saying.

For those that say the world was safer back then...it's simply because you've grown up since then, and now recognize more dangers.

 

On 11/25/2020 at 1:16 AM, Lord Szechenyi said:

Well in computing we obviously advanced, but it seems only in raw horsepower.

Optimization has been mostly down since then.

As for Arts/Entertainment, i can't think of anything good* besides the Star Wars Prequels and Trainspotting 2.

And the death of flash is also proving that a lot of what the internet was like disappears with it (although it's more symbolic)

* By anything good i mean VERY good, i will admit there have plenty of decent things but decent ain't very good. 

How so? We can make use of far more cores now than we could then. That's an increase in optimization, not a decrease.

Arts and entertainment are purely a personal thing, so while that might be true for you, it's not really something you can state as fact as everyone has different tastes.

On 11/25/2020 at 11:43 AM, Lord Szechenyi said:

jeez so many things wrong here

so i will take 1999 as a point of reference

Portable phones already existed (cellphones), and that's what i have so no problem here.

My internet speed is 4mbps, which in 2020 sucks, but in 1999 is amazing, so 56k is fine for me, also i would not use win98 since it's crap but either 95 or ms-dos.

You could talk on the internet with anyone (But you had to dial up so in theory here you are right, it's only via a phone or fax)

Why can't i call other cellphones? i'm confused here (is it about the high price for foreign numbers?)

Fuck GPS, "Doesn't anyone just take a fucking walk?" -George Carlin

CRT had lots of advantages

dvd came out in 1996 (97 for US) and by 1999 became somewhat affordable.

But that's the only point where you win since i could not trade my 4k UHD Blu rays for dvds, and back then buying 35mm prints of a movie cost WAY too much.

Oh boy,

Internet was better, Movies were better, Games were better, Music was better. 

People/Society were WAAAAAAAAAY better:

Amazing people who died were alive back then, and most of the young celebrities today should have not even been born.

Heck even computers before Noob-friendly OSes were much better optimized.

(Although you win a point too here since viruses on pc were easier to get then now on win10 with win defender)

Yeah it's true i can't pinpoint something right now.

However you are seriously underestimating the capabilities of the internet back then

Have you ever used 56k internet? Where you have to wait for every image to load on a page? Hell, most pages these days probably wouldn't even load at all. They'd time out. You can call other cell phones, but everyone had a limited number of minutes, and plans often had a very low number of minutes, so people wouldn't talk on their phones for long. A minute, maybe two. People do take walks. The George Carlin comment is from a comedian, and frankly he's missing the point entirely. GPS helps you and lets you know where you're going if you're lost. Not the same thing. CRT has more disadvantages than it does advantages.

 

How on earth do you think the internet was better?

Movies definitely were not better. Special effects were abysmal, acting was mediocre at best. TV shows were largely a joke, especially if you compare them to what we have today. Sure, there are a few stand outs, however these are most definitely not the norm, so it's not what you can base the entire era on. It's simply not accurate.

 

Society was just as fucked up as it is now.

 

I really don't see how you can say people are underestimating the internet when you never used it back then.

On 11/25/2020 at 11:49 AM, Lord Szechenyi said:

One of the main things here i noticed is that for the internet, it became mainstream and that's what ruined it.

I bet your more than a quarter of the internet usage is (excluding google obvs) Youtube Facebook Twitter Instagram Reddit.

The internet is a more powerful tool than it ever has been.

On 11/25/2020 at 1:26 PM, Wheresmehammer said:

Yes it was, quality of life was better, people knew how to interact with others, people actually were more socially able than they are now.

People have become lazy, there is more transparency with everyone being on the internet which brings the problems of being open to everyone's full self which includes their dark side, being manipulated all sorts of things over an internet connection.

 

Gone are the days where you could punch someone in the face for being an actual idiot to make them learn from their mistake of you know, trying to get with your other half... now if you do that you go to court and lose.

 

Victim culture, be a victim and don't take action, just be a tool for others to promote themselves, or the highly narcissistic will self promote with victimhood.

I wouldn't say that definitively, no. My quality of life now is far better than it was back then. Most things are easier, access to knowledge is easier if you choose to take it on, and people are just as sociable, you just have to find the right ones. Sure, perhaps a little harder, but still more than doable.

 

If you're a good person with solid morals and you're sure of yourself, then complete open transparency isn't an issue.

 

Yeah, it's a real shame that people that commit violent acts have to pay for them. Real shame

If you can't figure out how to solve it with your head, instead of your fists, maybe you shouldn't try at all.
And if she's open to the advances, then she wasn't the one.

On 11/25/2020 at 1:33 PM, Lord Vile said:

Mixed, privacy disappearing with the advent of Facebook and google owning most of the advertising space on the internet. Obviously things progress but most every day tech hasn't advanced in design or functionality since Steve Jobs passed. Everything seems to be pretty much them same since 2010 with the only exceptions being gimmicky devices like the Galaxy fold that reduce functionality in an attempt to desperately shout "look at me" rather than bringing something useful to the table. News sources are hard to trust because they're more interested in their agenda than facts and most people are becoming increasingly more tribal in every regard from politics to brands they like. On top of this the "inclusively" brigade try to undermine society as a whole and are trying to erase the past because it's "problematic". Then you have the racist dickheads from BLM trying to start a race war. Life in the 21st century is just peachy.

Haha, it doesn't have much to do with Steve Jobs. It has more to do with company greed. If you delay advancements, then you can profit more off of the product longer, by giving little improvements over a longer stretch of time. There have always been people trying to start race wars.

 

The news is probably the hugest failing though. I wouldn't even really say there's a true, solid news source to turn too, they're all biased, it's just to what degree.

Journalism will probably be dead by 2100.

On 11/25/2020 at 2:40 PM, Lord Szechenyi said:

i was born in the early 2000s thats true

however i experienced most things from the 90s (being poor i guess?)

hell i mostly grew up with stuff of the 80s.

My first pc was a commodore Amiga, and i still maintain it as the greatest pc ever made

90s music videos sucked, only nowadays its way worse.

a bit like how AIDS is worse than cancer

Oh child. If you weren't around then how on earth are you acting like you have any idea of what it was like?

Experiencing things from the 90's is nothing like actually living in them.

Stay in your lane.

On 11/25/2020 at 3:31 PM, Wheresmehammer said:

Back when kids who bullied you would put out a cigarette on you, spit on you, punch you and all sorts.

Annnnnd they still do today.

On 11/25/2020 at 3:52 PM, WereCatf said:

Absolutely massive mehhh. I can't think of literally a single thing that was better even 5 years ago, let alone 20. Definitely wouldn't wanna go back in time, even if I was paid a billion euros for it.

Really? A billion Euros and you wouldn't go back? I sure as fuck would. You'd only have a dozen or so countries you could go to, but a billion Euros can buy an awful lot, and really, you don't need tech. There were just as many things to enjoy without it, and honestly people were probably better off for it.

On 11/25/2020 at 4:19 PM, SolarNova said:

I think the biggest 'negative' present since pre 2000 is the mainstreaming of the internet and social media, its turned a lot of the communities that were already in existence pre 2000, into cesspools of trolls mixed with snowflakes and SJWs. Its a real sh*t show now. Even forums today are nothing like back then, heavy moderation and eggshell walking is more than just common, its 'standard'.

 

Prices have gone up, and not just from inflation.

 

I'd have to say the 'good' that has come since 2000, we have paid for with the 'bad'. So 'mixed' is certainly the answer.

- removed by moderator -

On 11/25/2020 at 4:29 PM, Rocketdog2112 said:

How good was it back then? How about....

Not having to deal with....... your privacy, being tracked every where you go, your information being sold on the dark web, bank accounts getting hacked (your life savings), credit card fraud, skimmers at the gas pump, identify theft, spam out the wazzo, Voter fraud, cars being stolen with a Bluetooth hack, planes falling out of the sky, a whole generation with the attention span and social skills of a grapefruit, terrorist can now more easily communicate and plan, Facebook...  And what's so bad about being able to read a map? Some day, you may wish you had learned.

You can avoid most privacy issues if you choose to. No one makes you get a smartphone, for example. That's a personal choice.

Credit card fraud has always existed, as has identity theft.

Spam? I get way, way less telemarketer calls now then I did back then. If you're talking about email spam, refer to the initial point.

Planes are safer now than they've ever been. Plane crashes happen. We hear about them more now simply because the world is more connected.

It's not hard to read a map. It's not like it's a complex skill.

On 11/25/2020 at 4:40 PM, trag1c said:

Having actually grown up in the 90s 100% yes I would say on the whole we're better off. For me the biggest thing is opportunities presented by technology. Technology has enabled a new maker movement that just about anyone can get into. You no longer need hundreds of thousands of dollars to be able to build and/or launch your own inventions which in it self is uninhibited creativity and imagination. Even if you're not interested in selling your creativity it comes down to you can pursue your creativity with very little standing in the way. 

 

3D printers used to be thousands of dollars even a few years ago, now I was able to purchase one for less than $300 CAD. In the 90s Free or Open source software for artwork or CAD like Blender, KiCAD, Eagle, Fusion360, GIMP either didn't exist or was just beginning to take form. Now with the cheapest of computers you can unleash creativity, ambition and imagination.

 

Access to information has never been better either. For me I taught my self computer programming in C++ when I was 13. I was developing my own hacks for video games by the time I was 14. In highschool we had a rudimentary robotics program that taught me the basics of electronics from there I was able to educate my self further and now I am on the cusp of starting my own business selling my own designs to enable others to follow the same movement I am. I love building and programming my own electronics. Assuming that I could get software to design the circuit boards back in the 90s I would have still needed $50k before a PCB fabricator would even talk to me and now I can get my own designs made for typically $5-10 USD + shipping for 100mmx100mm boards x 5 boards.

 

Had it still been the 90s I wouldn't have been able to do any of this. 

Agreed, however it's also a double edged sword. It's now easier than ever to produce junk that no one needs, and it's killing the planet in more ways than one.

The adage "they don't make things like they used to" is very, very true. However it also comes down to people being cheap. You can buy quality. Most don't.

21 hours ago, Monkey Dust said:

As an old geezer of 41, I probably remember the 90s better than most on here. 

 

The positives;

Terrorism not much of a concern, we had the IRA in the UK, but they were moving towards peace by the mid 90s. The Western world has been on a Terror alert for 19 years now, so an easy win for the 90s there.

No cameras on nights out, you can have more fun when you're not being recorded. Some people took disposable cameras out, but this was frowned on for a proper night out.

Couch multiplayer gaming, N64 the king here.

Tech didn't have to go in the bin just because security updates, or an online service ceased, rendering it useless.

Being able to see the Prodigy live, at their peak.

Cars were simpler, and therefore less likely to go horribly and expensively wrong.

Houses were not crazy expensive.

Without access to so much information and the opinions of everyone from the English-speaking world, I think most people were far less angry and/or anxious. 

 

The negatives;

Many of the cars rusted like bastards (at least in our climate) and would crumple up like a damp cardboard box if you crashed.

The level of car theft was insane. Some cars could be opened by snapping off it's aerial and using that to turn the lock.

No streaming meant huge amounts of space given over to storing  CDs, DVDs, and worst of all VHS tapes. Not to mention the huge cost of buying them in the first place, £9-10 for an album, that's one month of Spotify now. 

No youtube for handy how to videos for everything.

You still needed cash for lots of things.

Sugar free soft drinks tasted disgusting.

No sat nav. I remember driving around London, as a visitor not a native, holding a road atlas in the centre of the steering wheel to navigate by.

Dial up internet was absolute rubbish.

 

Tldr, I voted mixed.

Haha, if you're doing things you're worried about being recorded, then you probably shouldn't be doing them anyway. Maybe be a better person

While the security updates comment is true, it has two sides. There were no game updates. The game was shit, it stayed that way.

Cars were simpler, however they were also many many times less safe. I'd take a more complicated, safer car over one that's not any day of the week.

19 hours ago, Commodus said:

Oh, it's going to be an incredibly thorny legal situation. You can be sure car makers and politicians will dance for a while before they sort out liability. But it'll a 'nice' situation to have if tens of thousands of people live to see another year!

Well, the shitty ones will. Volvo has already said they take full liability for anything their autonomous cars do.