[−]probably_wrong · 2026-11-15 Sun 15:13 UTC ·
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Those "bathtub toys" built the entire modern infrastructure, parts of which are still chugging along. If anything, I'd put the onus on software developers - like John Carmack said in 2005, "there is something deeply wrong when text editing on a 3.6 ghz processor is anything but instantaneous".
Software in the 80s showed what's possible when you really care about doing it. Software in the last 15 years feels like an exercise on what happens when you don't.
[−]throwaway2037 · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:51 UTC ·
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I remember Windows 98, where it crashed every few hours and took everything with it, but while it worked, it never missed a keystroke or mouse press. I could type ahead and click where I knew the button would appear in 10 seconds and it still wouldn't lose anything. Nowadays you just finish typing out a thought and then realise half of it never turned up, because something else claimed the focus or whatever.
Software in the 80s showed what's possible when you really care about doing it. Software in the last 15 years feels like an exercise on what happens when you don't.