On the other hand, the cluttered desktop does involve some nostalgia. The ergonomics of a desk phone were better than any smart phone or Teams app can provide, in terms of quickly making or answering a call. And long into the paperless era, I still keep pencils and scrap paper for quick sketches even though my work computer has a freakishly expensive Microsoft Visio on it and you can get adequate drawing software right in your web browser for nothing.

Simply not being reachable because you weren't near a known phone... that has its upsides and downsides. I'm not entirely sure that being on the "elecronic leash" 24/7 has made life better. Especially as I get older, I kind of miss the slower pace things used to have, where you walked over to someone's desk to ask questions, where "google" took the form of calling people or companies and asking (and they had knowledgeable people answering the phones, etc). The world functioned, and pretty well, back then too.

…not making a dozen phone calls playing Phone Tag, to set up something as simple as a play date

Well this is why hardly anyone was bothering with setting up play dates back in the day† and were letting kids roam. Different culture facilitated by poor connectivity and scarcity of content.

† The title says the 90s but many references in the text go back to 1980s.

Filtered milk. Tastes the same as ordinary homogenized milk but double (or better) the shelf life. Very convenient if you only use small quantities at a time, e.g. for adding to tea.

Microfiber cloths. Much better cleaning than traditional cloths. In many cases all you need is water, or use them dry for dusting. Reusable too.

SSDs. In my opinion, the biggest computer upgrade in my lifetime. Access latency goes from obvious to imperceptible. A great many interactive tasks involve waiting for IO, and this is far more pleasant when you don't feel the delay.

Cheap but transparent audio DACs/amplifiers. This is essentially a solved problem at headphone power levels. Most modern designs have zero perceptible noise or distortion.

This one got much worse: now you have to install an app (fast food) and/or join a data-harvesting "loyalty program" (grocery stores, Target, others) to get what should be the normal menu prices instead of the batshit crazy list prices. This affects most of the same places that had coupons (plus, actually, there are still tons of coupons? I don't really understand this item)

Browsing through a collection at the library or a friends house, it’s shocking how quickly you find that people will converge on “oh, let’s watch this!” rather than endlessly scrolling through thumbnails and previews on Netflix and never committing

- Mangoes went from unknown/exotic in the US to being a standard fruit in your produce aisle.

- it’s surprising how cars in the 80s didn’t actually have cup holders. I always thought that was just a joke until I bought an 80s car and learned I’d need to buy the cup holders aftermarket

- frozen vegetables overtaking canned vegetables

- sugar free sodas

I lived across the atlantic for many years, and was able to call with people important to me every day, for free, even with video.

Further, I can have a cultural exchange and shared cultural reference points with billions of people across the planet.

Edit: showing my age, cos that's 80s, not 90s. In fact I think pressure cookers got popular in the mid 70s.

There are a few downsides to that but it's a hell of a lot more convenient! As a kid in the 70s/80s any battery powered toy spent most of it's life unpowered and useless (except coin-cell powered LCD devices which always seemed to be immortal)

The one line about the EU made me laugh though:

> EU: the European Union & single Euro currency make the EU easier to understand & travel in it much less tricky and expensive

The fact that it just says this in passing from the perspective of a tourist and without any addendum like "And countless other improvements for Europeans brought about by EU regulation" makes me think of that famous New Yorker cover~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_of_the_World_from_9th_Ave...

> I remember my desk used to be crowded with things like dictionaries and pencil sharpeners

I store these things on the shelf near the desk, rather than on the desk itself, but I still use them often enough.

> hotels and restaurants provide Public Internet Access by default

Nevertheless there are commonly problems with them, although what these problems are differs in different places.

> USB cables mean that for connecting or recharging

I think there are many problems with USB, including security issues and many others. I also think that it is better to have addressing by where they are connected to, and for charging to be done independently from data connection (although there are times where you want them together and this is useful, but the way it is done makes it difficult to separate them).

Having only a few different plugs is helpful, but it would be more helpful if these were better plugs rather than the worse ones.

> Software Patents have been expiring (eg. GIF, arithmetic coding, MP3)

I think patents are no good in general, but nevertheless it helps that they have expired.

> everything is available Subtitled, not just TV

This is good. Subtitles and captions are not only useful for hearing impaired but for anyone. Accessibility features in general can be useful for anyone.

> RAM: programmers able to assume users have 4GB RAM rather than 4MB RAM

Having more RAM is helpful. But, it is still a good idea to write programs that do not require so much RAM (or so much disk space), though. Unfortunately, too many modern programs do use more RAM and disk space than they should need to do.

> all cars have electrified Power Windows; I don’t remember the last time I had to physically crank down a car window

I prefer the manual windows; they work even if the car is off or doesn't work.

> LED lights are more energy-efficient, cooler & safer, smaller, turn on faster, last longer, and are brighter than incandescents or fluorescents

I think they are too bright and wrong colour and other problems. I like incandescent for general purpose lighting. (LEDs are still useful for some indicator lights and that stuff, but even then too often they have blue lights when other colours would do better.)

> the European Union & single Euro currency make the EU easier to understand & travel in it much less tricky and expensive

Although it does not affect me, I know some people who have been to Europe and believe that the older way is better.

> Intellectual Property Maximalism rollback: copyright terms have not and probably will not be indefinitely extended again to eternity to protect properties like Mickey Mouse or Sherlock Holmes

It is good that they have done this allowing them to be public domain, although I think it needs to be rollback even more.

> Low-Flow Toilets

I had read a article in 2600 where someone modified a toilet with 6 lpf, but they needed to flush twice to work, so they changed it so that it will be 10 lpf. Making it 10 lpf will save water then, compared to the 12 that was needed before, isn't it?

> most programs have a usable FLOSS equivalent and in some areas FLOSS is taken so for granted

In some cases they didn't but I and others have written some (e.g. Free Hero Mesh, which is a clone of Everett Kaser's MESH:Hero game, and I think it is much better than the original). However, often the FLOSS equivalent still has some problems (often failure to support non-Unicode text properly, but others are common as well); but they also often have many improvements than other programs as well.

> There are not many things in food that have gotten worse, and most have gotten better

Well, also often many items have been discontinued even if they were of a good quality.

But know what? Probably I'm happier living in 2020s. Technology allows me to watch more 80s movies that I would do if I lived in the 80s; it allows me to know more 80 bands than most of people who I know that actually lived in the 80s; I'm not restricted to watch only 80s movies or listen to 80s music, I have available everything from the 90s, 70s, 60s, 50s and so on; using a mechanical typewriter is fun but it might be a nightmare needing to use it. And so on.

In fact, I love the past because the present allows me.

Induction Stoves. We've switched to an induction stove and love it. We cook a lot and I'm fairly sensitive to gas. The air quality in the house is so much better after doing a lot of cooking, but also the second order effects. No more face and arms feeling singed after looking over 3 flame burners. No more sauces getting singed on the side of pots or pots being burned on the sides due to gas. No more concern over draping clothing or hair singing. Fast heating times and a cooktop that doesn't stay hot for too long after you remove the pot.

More stuff I'd like to see on the list:

Digital Photography and Videography. Now a single person or a few people can do what used to take an entire staff to do. Short films and CGI are viable with just a few people. A photographer can take pictures of events that used to take studios with photo lighting to handle.

Disagreements with the list:

Ubiquitous HVAC use is more of a curse than a blessing. Ubiquitous HVAC has led to badly ventilated, badly designed apartments/houses that need constant HVAC usage to even be moderately livable. Central HVACs also often cannot deal with hot/cold areas in the house. Awareness is growing over the need for clean indoor air and that people enjoy air CFMs higher than most guidelines purport. Along with growing use of mini-split HVACs, ERVs and HRVs, this is a great direction. But too many cheap homes throughout the world are designed only around blind central or single unit HVAC use and that is just bad IMO.

Ordering a mattress online is great, though.