In 1999 websites were a little more modern compared to the early 90s. By 2000 there were many online gaming communities already. The BSOD is so realistic though :D
Surf the web like it's 1999
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Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#72Pretty accurate, except for one major thing: all the pages load instantly. In 1999 you pretty much expected each web page to take at least 10 seconds to load, mostly for the images to gradually...fade...into.....view.
I remember a very specific rastering effect with loading images, probably around 1994-1996? The image would load every nth line and then iteratively nth line + i until i==n. Compared to what I would see later (just loading in every line from top to bottom), you could get a sense of the whole image sooner, just in an increasing fraction of the vertical resolution. I can't recall which image type this was or whether it…
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Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember a very specific rastering effect with loading images, probably around 1994-1996? The image would load every nth line and then iteratively nth line + i until i==n. Compared to what I would see later (just loading in every line from top to bottom), you could get a sense of the whole image sooner, just in an increasing fraction of the vertical resolution. I can't recall which image type this was or whether it…
I think this was progressive JPEGs https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/website/improving-websit...
Nice demo: https://pooyak.com/p/progjpeg/
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#74Sadly nobody says "surf the web" any more
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#75Pretty accurate, except for one major thing: all the pages load instantly. In 1999 you pretty much expected each web page to take at least 10 seconds to load, mostly for the images to gradually...fade...into.....view.
For me, the “https” in the Netscape URL is sort of an anachronism. I mean, yes, technically it was available in Netscape in 1999, but very few sites used it (even among e-commerce sites).
I remember the first ProLiant server we flipped to support SSL had to have an add-in card to accelerate the encryption based on the traffic we handled. It was something like this: https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/c04283920.PDF?jumpid=in_pb-psn...
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#76Related: https://www.my90stv.com/
Watch TV from the 90s.
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#77Pretty accurate, except for one major thing: all the pages load instantly. In 1999 you pretty much expected each web page to take at least 10 seconds to load, mostly for the images to gradually...fade...into.....view.
I'm thought the Netscape logo only animated when the page was loading? I found myself instinctively hitting the stop button to try and make the logo stop looping.
Overall, it's really great though. I love the stuff popping up on Neocities.
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#78If you set your HTTP proxy to "theoldnet.com" with port 1999, and add an exclusion for "web.archive.org", then all your web pages will come from 1999, via the Wayback Machine. You can pick a different year by changing the port. Edit: It may have been hugged to death...
In a few decades or so I could see setting that up for a nursing home so the residents could relive their youth.
Might also be good for a young kids pc.
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#79I love the idea and look forward to diving in. There's an anachronism in the first paragraph though... "check out my MySpace page"? MySpace didn't launch until 2003... Honest question, was this created by someone who was not actually on the web in 1999? Or maybe they're just taking artistic license with the "1999" idea?
Yeah, also everything loads too fast. And maybe too many colors (too high a bit-depth).
By 1999, most would have been on 24-bit color, or "millions of colors" as Apple called it. Most images are still 24-bit today.
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#80The word "blog" seems like a giveaway this isn't from a real archive. I don't remembering hearing it until years later.