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Using the internet like it's 1999

joshblais.com

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Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#141

Post by vovanidze »

the nostalgia for 1999 isnt really about missing dial up or basic html, its about mourning the loss of user agency. back then the browser actually worked for you. today the client is basically a hostile enviroment running megabytes of third party js just to track telemetry.

going back to gopher or text-only browsers feels like admitting defeat tbh. we can still build incredibly fast modern apps if we just stop treating the users hardware like an infinite resource for adtech. you dont need massive frameworks and client--side bloat to make something good.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#143

Post by aboardRat4 »

tptacek wrote: post #58

This is going to come off glib, but I don't think you can believe any of this having actually used the Internet of 1999. As is so often the case, there are lots of real annoyances and offenses behind the sentiment, but still, the Internet of 2026 is vastly better than that of 1999. The amount of things you're just one quick search away from right now would break the brains of a 1999 netizen. We were still required to…

>We were still required to buy paper books for all sorts of routine knowledge work tasks.

I download books from libgen and print them out. Printed books will never be replaced.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#144

Post by sardinhada »

im a fan of this philosphy i really am. sadly it is utopia. who is going out of their way to use the internet like this? if youre someone whos totally oblivious to the old internet, you will have to work very hard to use it in an old fashioned way. no one will pursue this. the internet today reminds me of the matrix

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#145

Post by aboardRat4 »

zahirbmirza wrote: post #5

How can we solve this problem, of the current state of the internet, without reverting to the compromises of the past? This has been on my mind for a while. The layer of trash some companies have built over the internet has been ruinous.

>How can we solve this problem, of the current state of the internet, without reverting to the compromises of the past?

We need to be on the offensive, not on the defensive. We need to pro-actively scrape walled gardens and re-publish them without fluff.

We need to consider .onion to be the default domain for our websites.

And we should also not be ashamed of using AI to achieve our goals.

We need to implement modern conveniences in our programs.

We need to be writing bridges between walled gardens and deltachat.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#146

Post by dadrian »

The Internet in 1999 was not good at all. Browsers barely worked, computers crashed constantly, the ability to actually search for useful things was limited, and many things we take for granted as being online (news, people, documentation) were not.

The mid-to-late 2000s are perhaps closer to what the author is looking for.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#147

Post by helij »

vaylian wrote: post #113
dannyw wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Offline mode, and self-hostable apps. I'm very happy with my self-hosted and open source apps; e.g. photo library, media centres, etc; the convenience of cloud, but my cloud that I fully control.

Not to discourage you from these things, but the cloud wasn't a thing in 1999. Storage space was also an issue.

FTP?

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#148

Post by keepamovin »

Probably sounds really weird but I get almost teary eyed when I see those Windows teal-background era graphics and a Netscape browser. Those days! These are the nights that never die. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtF6Jej8yb4) I don't know if you felt it, but I felt it. Back then, in those days. It wasn't just the heat of summer, roaming the beautiful city at night as a teenager: it was the internet. It was amazing.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#149

Post by superkuh »

It's not wrong in the direction but it goes a bit too far. Text-only really limits the capabilities. The difference with the modern web is that it is not hyperlinked web pages between web sites but instead javascript application content silos. HTTP/1.1+HTML 5 is just fine, images and video are just fine. Javascript is not fine. That's where we should draw the line.

And without javascript most of the security/privacy issues that make domains require HTTPS-only to prevent MITM attacks simply disappear. When you aren't automatically executing random programs that random places send you the web can be a lot more fun, silly, and with a lot less fragile continuing maintainence required.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#150

Post by aboardRat4 »

jakedata wrote: post #11

Just go to fark.com, a lingering glimmer of light from before the dead web. They are still aggregating human curated news and hosting reasonably civil discussions. Then buy a Totalfark subscription so they don't need to bend over backwards to show more ads just to keep the lights on. See ya there!

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