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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

#181

Post by amatecha »

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…

As someone who has been online since 1992, I love the post. I miss the internet of the late 90's every day. We're no longer "one quick search" away from anything now, because web search has been completely poisoned by SEO slop. It was nice while it lasted though. As far as I can tell, all of the advancements we have were possible without completely ruining the web and the global commons we started to have a taste of.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#182

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #172
vovanidze wrote: post #141

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 treati…

"going back to gopher or text-only browsers feels like admitting defeat tbh." Interesting perspective I have been using text-only browsers continually since the mid 90s (no lynx after 1999) As such, I never "went back" to using the text-only browser as I have always used one, but as graphical browsers became worse I used them less The customised text-only browsers I use today are 1.3 and 2.0 MB. I can compile them in…

"(at least one forward proxy now even has its own TCP client)"

Correction: s/TCP/HTTP/

I also use a separate TCP client from the TLS proxy author

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#183

Post by kasey_junk »

tptacek wrote: post #180
butlike wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Reading" the internet then going to buy a book from Borders or Barnes and Noble is a comfy memory to me. I liked the split between 'online' and 'offline' better than this semi-integrated present we live in

Lots of people have pleasant memories of bookstores, and are unhappy that those stores haven't thrived since the Internet, but not needing to schlep down to a store to buy information printed on dead trees is an unalloyed good.

You aren’t invited over for dinner anymore…

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#184

Post by GuB-42 »

It feels like the article is seeing the 1999 internet like the internet of the early 1990s.

1999 was during the dotcom bubble, Internet Explorer 4/5 was the leading browser, Yahoo! the leading search engine, pop-up ads everywhere, it was also the beginning of Flash, for the better and for the worse. Residential broadband existed, but dialup was still the norm.

I don't really miss it, despite growing into it. It was an important transition period, but it was slow, lacking in content, small and yet too big to create a sense of community, and also just as full of ads as it is now. There were good sides compared to now, but I still take today's internet. The early 1990s (before the eternal September) looked nice, but I didn't get to know it.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#185

Post by [deleted] »

dormento wrote: post #160

One thing that i just realized is i don't know exactly when things got bad. I remember the 90s when we had to "go" online, when the digital was apart from the analog and we kept online and offline separate. I remember simpler sites, not as many ads, I remember a time before "feeds". However, for the life of me I can't remember exactly when it started to suck. It might be that I was busy with other things in life, but…

[deleted]

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#186

Post by negura »

Tade0 wrote: post #161
dormento wrote: post #160

One thing that i just realized is i don't know exactly when things got bad. I remember the 90s when we had to "go" online, when the digital was apart from the analog and we kept online and offline separate. I remember simpler sites, not as many ads, I remember a time before "feeds". However, for the life of me I can't remember exactly when it started to suck. It might be that I was busy with other things in life, but…

> However, for the life of me I can't remember exactly when it started to suck. Whatever the date, it's tightly coupled with the explosion of internet-capable mobile devices. My personal pick would be 2012, because that's when the Samsung Galaxy S3 came out and outsold its predecessor more than twofold. Coincidentally that's when the small agency I was working for at the time started offering making pages look on mob…

yeah, a lot of people pinpoint the moment when it started going downhill at around 2010. re: explosion of mobile devices, i'd say the release of apple's iPhone was a key event

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#187

Post by tptacek »

kasey_junk wrote: post #183
tptacek wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people have pleasant memories of bookstores, and are unhappy that those stores haven't thrived since the Internet, but not needing to schlep down to a store to buy information printed on dead trees is an unalloyed good.

You aren’t invited over for dinner anymore…

I like bookstores!

I think I'm mostly thinking about technical books. Like having to go to the store to know how to write a socket program or to do multithreaded C++. Not good!

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#188

Post by kasey_junk »

tptacek wrote: post #187
kasey_junk wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You aren’t invited over for dinner anymore…

I like bookstores! I think I'm mostly thinking about technical books. Like having to go to the store to know how to write a socket program or to do multithreaded C++. Not good!

I’m telling my wife you spit on her livelihood.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#189

Post by tptacek »

kasey_junk wrote: post #188
tptacek wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like bookstores! I think I'm mostly thinking about technical books. Like having to go to the store to know how to write a socket program or to do multithreaded C++. Not good!

I’m telling my wife you spit on her livelihood.

I'm more scared of her than I am of you! I did nothing of the sort!

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#190

Post by nunez »

jjbinx007 wrote: post #100
stra1ghtarrow90 wrote: post #97

part of the problem is that most people don't own a pc or personal laptop - they use their phone and apps. None of my friends (35 years +) use laptops other than for work and openly say how much they have regressed technically. Some of these guys grew up with the internet in the early 00's and would be setting up switches for lan partys, using torrents and usenxt, limewire etc. These days they can barely open up micr…

I always find it strange when people refer to twitter and YouTube etc as apps rather than websites.

Lol try using those sites in your browser. You’ll see why they’re typically called apps real quick.
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