No JS framework, no NPM, no AJAX, and so on. The web was so simple, and so was life.
The earliest DRM I can remember are those sites that blocked you from selecting text or right-clicking.
Surf the web like it's 1999
111–120 of 177 posts
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#112In 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
GeoCities/Angelfire sites looked like this at least until 2004 when blogs took off. As CMS architecture was a lot more complicated than static HTML/CSS, people stopped customizing their sites and just went with default themes.
That was the magic of early Internet. No themes, no frameworks, just whatever you could do with HTML.
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#1131999? I was ready to get off the web in 1999. How about surfing the web like it's 1994!
I agree, Mosaic was groundbreaking but when Netscape 0.9 launched in the fall of 1994 was like waking up in another century. Or we could go back to 1991 with IRC, Archie+FTP, and Telnet BBS's on Wyse terminals or SparcStations. I'm very nostalgic for that era. IMO Netscape 3.04g was the peak browser experience - and by far peak performance. I remember when a friend who ran a business out of his basement got a T1 inst…
Wyse terminals! I had my first programming courses at university in those. I remember dumping core and somehow sending the core file to a classmate's screen, and they had to stare at the screen beeping for a while.
Now I teach those courses at the same university. Those terminals are long gone. This week we had a coding exam and students were coding with their laptops. They are forbidden from checking the Internet, sharing folders, and using AI assistance, but I'm sure some of them did because it's impossible to watch their every move. The exam would be fairer if we still had the Wyse terminals!
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
For what it's worth, MySpace prior to officially being a social media site was created in '96 and officially launched as a internet network drive around 1999 cant remember the exact date , then was later sold to Murdoch and evolved more into a social media site later on but was already unofficially used as one. People shared music, short movies, porn. It didn't scale well as there was no de-duplication, files were st…
That was XDrive. I don't think the name MySpace came around till the social network in 2003. The sale to Murdoch was 2005.
It was definitely Myspace in 1996+. Perhaps they didn't start marketing the brand until 1999? I had to register about 50 variants of that domain name in 99' for them using the all so much fun email template with Internic. As to what relationships they had with other companies I have no clue. The HP SureStore's left the dataceter in 2002 or 2003. I met their CEO in 1999 when they were going to launch the drive space feature. As a fun side note they were the only customer I was ever allowed to let into the datacenter.
Some of the domain variants were MyLinuxSpace, MyBSDSpace, MyWindowsSpace and so on...
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#115I already surfed the web (and built websites) in all of 1999. Not even misplaced nostalgia would make me want to go back and surf the web like 1999 again. I’ll keep my modern browser, CSS Grid, and 1 Gigabit Fiber Optic line thank you very much.
What makes the nostalgia misplaced?
Nostalgia is for good things. I surfed the web for the entirety of 1999. It wasn't good.
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#116I miss the optimism of that era. I don't miss the weekly family beatings though.
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#117I haven't been able to find the " π " symbol. Has anyone else spotted it?
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#118Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes the nostalgia misplaced?
Nostalgia is for good things. I surfed the web for the entirety of 1999. It wasn't good.
I'm not convinced that it is much better in this decade:
- paywalls & 'login to see more'
- autoplaying videos that follow you whn you're just trying to read an article
- cookie banners
- artificial loading throbbers
- horrible intrusive tracking
- an advertising corporation also has the near-monopoly on browsing
- we have more bandwidth but apparently need 5Mb of javascript just to render text
- mobile first design, meaning much lower information density
- walled gardens like discord, facesbook, twitter, reddit storing content in inaccessible, unarchivable form
There were problems then but there were fewer headaches and fewer exhausting battles just to stay sane.
Re: Surf the web like it's 1999
#120If 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...
Does his proxy send x-forwarded-for header