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Another Corner of the Internet Has Been Ruined
- eappleby 1mo agoI really liked freeformatter.com . Used it all the time. To those that build, host, and serve single-function websites, that (yes) can be easily replicated with AI, I salute you. Thank you for your service.
- wxw 1mo agoFrom Gemini, > FreeFormatter.com [was] a popular online utility website that provides free formatting, validation, conversion, and minification tools for developers, data professionals, and web administrators working with code and data structures like JSON, XML, HTML, SQL, and Java Makes sense. Great exit letter.
- morkalork 1mo agoThank you, I parsed the url as "free for matter" and was very confused
- hyperhello 1mo agoSo I had to copy-paste my source code into a web site, submit, then copy-paste the text back out into my document? I'm not putting down the work the author did, but that workflow was always going to be completely obsolete at some point.
- reactordev 1mo agofor one-shots and non-developers, it was useful. Simply because you found no utility in it doesn't mean there isn't one.
- hyperhello 1mo agoI didn't say I found no utility, it could have tons of utility, but technology changes over time. Perhaps the gentleman author could have produced a desktop Electron app or something similar running locally.
- nvme0n1p1 1mo agoOr a static HTML file served by (GitHub|Codeberg|Cloudflare|Vercel|Netlify) Pages, and run the formatting logic client-side.
- reactordev 1mo agoIt’s also entirely ok to manage something for a long period of time and reach your end. No shame in walking away.
- Zancarius 1mo agoI think this is something to keep in mind whenever approaching a new project, especially solo. Eventually, the end of the road is unavoidable. I started teaching an (older) adult Sunday school class almost exactly one year ago this coming Sunday. I post the notes on one of my blogs. They're generated as a static site via Astro, and I have a few Markdown helpers for making it easier to link to scripture, etc., and while it's not a lot of work, I know I'll tire of it eventually. Or something else will come up. I doubt I'll be happy whenever it does, but I'm extremely appreciative of your comment for this reason. I hope I'll remember what you've written when that day arrives.
- teddyh 1mo agoLast non-retired archived version: <https://web.archive.org/web/20260722191742/https://www.freeformatter.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20260722191742/https://www.freef...>
- jubilanti 1mo agoThere was someone on HN who shared a collection of dozens of single purpose local/offline web apps for things like file conversions, I think image cropping, and other one-offs like that. Anyone remember? Nice thing about local PWAs is you serve them statically, CDNs make bandwidth cheap, way fewer vulnerabilities for the host, and all the compute cost is paid by the user's browser.
- samschooler 1mo agoCyberChef? https://cyberchef.io/ https://cyberchef.io/
- inigyou 1mo agoNot that one
- oxinai 1mo agoIT-Tools, maybe? https://github.com/CorentinTh/it-tools https://github.com/CorentinTh/it-tools
- 1659447091 1mo ago> There was someone on HN who shared a collection of dozens of single purpose local/offline web apps Maybe this one? Useful patterns for building HTML tools: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46223882 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46223882 The direct link to the collection of HTML tools: https://tools.simonwillison.net https://tools.simonwillison.net
- phillipseamore 1mo agoI see at least one pr. day here (but I only read /newest)
- Tiberium 1mo ago[flagged]
- debo_ 1mo agoCan you not?
- Tiberium 1mo agoNot what? It's incredibly ironic that the creator is complaining about AI yet they used AI just to write a tiny text announcement. Apparently such a tiny snippet didn't deserve human writing.
- rpdillon 1mo ago"It was written with AI!" is boring (and often wrong). It shows up on almost every post, and doesn't require any skill or insight. That's why GP said "Can you please not?" It's just not interesting.
- Tiberium 1mo agoI only post it when I'm sure and I cross verified. And in this case specifically it's not boring, quite the opposite, it just shows that humans can be quite inconsistent. I really hope HN would extend its no LLM rule to articles/text, although this is too hard to enforce. When I look at HN, I want to read human text, I don't mind the use of LLMs for actual code and use it a lot myself. My issue is with people who generate whole articles with LLMs and present them as if they were written by a real human.
- Tiberium 1mo agoTo anyone who's willing to do a short HN test, please see and try https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49212433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49212433 You're in for a nice surprise.
- 1mo ago
- thataccount 1mo agoI suspect it will reincarnate in a different form.
- bluefirebrand 1mo agoWhat a shame. This was a really valuable resource and now it's just gone. Not because the author doesn't want to compete, not because they don't want to do it anymore, but because industry rolled over them This has a very similar feel to me like local stores closing up because Walmart showed up next door, or beloved used bookstores dying because Amazon exists. Everything good in life right now is being churned into productivity and profit by hyper capital. The result is we all live "better" but poorer lives Sorry for the rant. I'm also on the verge of giving up, so this hits me very hard
- pixl97 1mo agoRight, this is why you go to the farrier to get your horse reshod every month.... There are plenty of Amish communities around, maybe you can join one of them to see what life looks like with slow technology progress. See how fulfilled you are there.
- inigyou 1mo agoTechnology progress != Shareholder value extraction
- bluefirebrand 1mo agoSo it has to be one or the other then? Completely eschew technology and return to subsistence living, or aggressive hypercapitalism that is monetizing every single inch of our public lives and commoditizing our very existence? You're incapable of imagining any other options?
- pixl97 1mo agoI can imagine thousands of other options, but game theory tells me which ones are the most likely globally. Aggressive hypercapitalism is a multipolar problem. It will optimize for itself, it will attack and remove groups that stand up to it, it has the ability to capture large amounts of wealth and power, and it will take a massive and organized group of people and organizations to keep it in check. So, please tell me how we stop aggressive hypercapitalism, I'd like to know.
- ashu1461 1mo agoThough I empathise with the OP, I feel that SaaS tools now need to add much more value in order to be sellable or appeal to the audience. The factors that used to influence the build vs. buy decision are now changing. Earlier, even small tools like Canny (which shows your product roadmap to your customers), link-in-bio tools, or even Calendly used to sell well. I foresee that changing.
- criddell 1mo agoIs it the same as the proverbial buggy whip manufacturers of 100 years ago complaining about how their business is yet another ruined by cars?
- morkalork 1mo agoIn your example, humans are the horses
- palmotea 1mo ago> In your example, humans are the horses And, frankly, fuck 'em if they can't keep up. It's truly the best and most ethical outcome for everyone if the people the economy no longer needs to the way of work horses. Maybe there's a business opportunity in organ harvesting. Sam Altman should fund some startups. If you want a future, get on board with it.
- sdrawkcabsti 1mo agoThis is what everyone says until hardship befalls them and they are forced to see reality in every facet. After which they have a drastic change of heart. I think adults all go through this at some point. For about 3 or 4 decades I felt this way. I have found many of us "futurists" to just be exceedingly naive in that we do not see the whole picture; rather--we cherry-pick what we think the world is (or should be) and impose that view onto everyone. Then we meet someone who does see the whole picture and feel attacked. Even more so if what they are saying sounds perfectly sound in logic. The thing that people hate most is being told things that make sense that force them to abandon their way of thinking. The go-to is to find other naive people who think the same thing and form a negative consensus to combat what we already knew as true. Strength in numbers. If 90% of the people said the sky is green, it would be green no question about it. If the current events of the world don't prove that, I don't know what does.
- throwatdem12311 1mo agoFrom the sounds of it - Devutils on MacOS is an excellent offline (native app) slop-free alternative and the license is worth it for the extra functions and supporting the developer. Boop is free, open source and also great. Not sure what to suggest for Linux or Windows. I think I remember seeing something similar on Flathub for Linux but the name eludes me atm.
- wat10000 1mo agoGotta love the complaining about cookie banners while also showing a cookie banner.
- zb3 1mo agoMeanwhile AI has created 10x as many corners, some even open source and without the expectation of being for-profit.
- add-sub-mul-div 1mo agoPeople who believe AI will remain user friendly and affordable forever are like people who believed streaming would remain cheap and friendly to password sharing forever.
- zb3 1mo agoI didn't say that about AI, AI will likely get more expensive and it has already worsened affordability of consumer electronics in general.. However, in this particular case, AI has certainly helped us get much more tools, including those without the expectation of profit.
- Gud 1mo agoLLMs are only useful if they are affordable. I’m paying OpenAI pennies on the dollar for the value I receive.
- Tiberium 1mo agoI don't know if this website specifically did it, but a lot of other similar websites provide such services in a very bad way, for example base64encode.org and base64decode.org send your data to the server instead of using JS, and no one knows what they do with it. I do understand that some still prefer browsers with JS disabled, but a website could probably detect this and default to in-browser processing, while reserving server-side to those edge cases.
- hskimse 1mo agoThat's surprising. Isn't that a quite famous service? Is there a service implemented using only clientside js without sending?
- PUSH_AX 1mo agofamous? not sure about that, but they have the best SEO so it's always the goto.
- hskimse 1mo agoThere is sort of a file sharing community in Korea, and it is customary to encode links in base64 there. I'm not really sure why they do that. It's not even a tech-related community. Anyway, they tell you to use base64encode.org.
- hskimse 1mo agoRather than saying LLM directly replaced it... isn't it because people can now use LLM to obtain tools like converters they previously couldn't find (due to the hassle), or create them themselves through code generation?
- jareklupinski 1mo agoSure enough, even after the demise of the internet, the humble cookie consent banner still asks to share our personal information.
- joe-dakroub 1mo agoAnother great resource gone. I often use tools like this for quick conversions or cleanups. Always admired sites like this and wondered how people paid for and maintained them for so long. Continues the sad trend of sites and people going offline.
- pfdietz 1mo agoI could be sad this was gone if I had any idea what it was.
- L-patpat 1mo agoOh wow, my little online tool only just launched...
- aleksejs 1mo agoI'm not sure I understand the intended message here. The author seems to describe their own project as "cover[ed] ... with invasive advertising" while saying that new technology accomplishes the same outcomes "faster, cheaper, and [with less maintenance burden]". So what exactly has been ruined?
- D13Fd 1mo agoExactly. And having AI to work out the 2am dependency issues actually makes maintenance a lot easier. This seems like an odd message.
- nvme0n1p1 1mo agoWhat kind of urgent dependency updates could happen at 2am for a json formatter anyway?
- brycewray 1mo agoOn that particular point, I wondered whether there was supposed to have been a "not" before "cover"; otherwise, it definitely doesn't seem to follow.
- 12ex1-2hBa 1mo agoWhy the free advertising for AI? There are thousands of code formatters starting with GNU indent, linters etc.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- pshirshov 1mo agoIn this particular case - good riddance. Such tools should not require a round-trip to an ad-infested website on the other side of the world. The crucial issue is that in the process you have to trust the owner (and perhaps ad network owners) with your data. Even if you want a round trip, you could have a static page somewhere on GitHub. The fact that the models made this business model obsolete is not necessarily a bad thing.
- sceptic123 1mo agoI liked Boop's[1] strapline for this: > Stop pasting company secrets into random websites. [1]<https://boop.okat.best/ https://boop.okat.best/>