Sites like the HamsterDance. The web was so much more chaotic back then.
Ask HN: What Is Your Most Vivid Memory from the Dotcom Boom?
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Re: Ask HN: What Is Your Most Vivid Memory from the Dotcom Boom?
#12I live in Austin. Route 2222 hugs the bluffs west of downtown; it has 2 lanes in each direction with no center (turn) lane. The curves are sharp & unpredictable, especially in wet weather.
I was headed home on a Friday afternoon at the height of the boom. Traffic suddenly slowed to a crawl as we navigated the worst of the curves - mostly to rubberneck at two 20-something tech bros who had just crushed the front of a brand-new red Ferrari into the rock wall. They were unhurt - but definitely missing the Masters-of-the-Universe look.
This was the era of Trilogy in Austin recruiting "only the best". I smiled all the way home.
Re: Ask HN: What Is Your Most Vivid Memory from the Dotcom Boom?
#13Listening to my father and his work friends at Microsoft in the late 90s talking about their upcoming retirements from their investments solely in Cisco and MSFT. It sounded so glorious, yet... my dad is still working.
Surely a later 90's investment in MSFT has done well to date?
Re: Ask HN: What Is Your Most Vivid Memory from the Dotcom Boom?
#14I wanted to buy Redhat shares because, well it was the boom and it was a tech company and it was Linux man, Linux is cool. (I had no idea how to install it though!). I was scared/unsure of how to buy a US stock from the UK so I didn't end up doing it. If I recall correctly they went 6x shortly after the IPO. Damn!
Re: Ask HN: What Is Your Most Vivid Memory from the Dotcom Boom?
#15I wanted to buy Redhat shares because, well it was the boom and it was a tech company and it was Linux man, Linux is cool. (I had no idea how to install it though!). I was scared/unsure of how to buy a US stock from the UK so I didn't end up doing it. If I recall correctly they went 6x shortly after the IPO. Damn!
I got some IPO shares in Redhat due to some bugs I reported. Made a good amount of money enough to jump start me going back to college the next year. Half way through the first year the tech bubble collapsed. Before long employers were going bankrupt or having massive layoffs. I remember some laid off workers were clamoring to get enrolled into college near the cutoff window.
Re: Ask HN: What Is Your Most Vivid Memory from the Dotcom Boom?
#16 Sure there was crazy evaluations, greed, and ridiculous business ideas that would never succeed getting real coverage. But what I remember was the excitement that was around at the the time - that anything was possible. There were entire shows on prime time TV about technology and its effects on society. Sunday mornings had talk shows on the industry and where it was headed. There was this crazy show called The Site which was actually pretty good. Even the the DevNull cartoon thing was a bit off. There was real excitement around and people knew the world would never be the same.
Re: Ask HN: What Is Your Most Vivid Memory from the Dotcom Boom?
#17Being able to order dogfood, delivered, for less than I could buy it for locally.
Re: Ask HN: What Is Your Most Vivid Memory from the Dotcom Boom?
#18Checking fuckedcompany.com multiple times per day, seeing rumors about a third round of layoffs at 60% of staff in two days, and then seeing 16% layoffs right on schedule.
Re: Ask HN: What Is Your Most Vivid Memory from the Dotcom Boom?
#19it's no different than today, tons of jobs, money flowing, watching most people get far richer than me.
Re: Ask HN: What Is Your Most Vivid Memory from the Dotcom Boom?
#20Being 13 year old, knowing to make some HTML then reading stories about how people were making $50 per web page (!!!)
My MBA father told me to try it out, but I couldn't find any buyers and it was a huge pain without CSS and all that.