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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

#191

Post by nunez »

datadrivenangel wrote: post #89
chromacity wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dunno. The internet was definitely smaller, but it was also largely uncorrupted, so you could literally just email a random university professor or an industry expert and get answers to dumb questions. And today, if you want to learn something the right way, you probably still should buy a book (or, I guess, pirate an ebook). I don't think you can really learn much from YouTube influencers and the like.

You can still email people! A genuinely interesting email will probably get at least a 20% success rate

There’s luck involved in doing this, as most people have thousands/tens of thousands of unreads in their inbox.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#192

Post by nunez »

Internet user since 1996, so still a bit new to it. I don’t miss the old web that much (the old web was AOL for a lot of people, at least in the US). DEFINITELY don't miss 28.8k and 56k and having to hog up our family's one phone line overnight to download Netscape 7, only for it to be a steaming pile...

I definitely absolutely miss open instant messaging platforms. The days of XMPP and open clients. Trillian and Pidgin specifically.

I loved having a single app for all of my messages across all of the networks I talked to people on. Nowadays everyone is on FB Messenger, Instagram DMs, iMessage, WhatsApp and Google Chat. All of them have separate apps; all of them are loss leaders; all of them are closed.

(I tried Beeper. Loved the idea but didn’t invest time in it since it was always two lawsuits away from me getting “An update on Beeper” email.)

I guess I also miss content existing for content’s sake. Early YouTube, Quora, Reddit, etc. People helping other people...well, usually, anyway. Nowadays everything is growth-maxxed. It's all about engagement. Text-only websites would have never been born in this iteration of the Internet, and that's sad.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#193

Post by dzhiurgis »

nunez wrote: post #192

Internet user since 1996, so still a bit new to it. I don’t miss the old web that much (the old web was AOL for a lot of people, at least in the US). DEFINITELY don't miss 28.8k and 56k and having to hog up our family's one phone line overnight to download Netscape 7, only for it to be a steaming pile... I definitely absolutely miss open instant messaging platforms. The days of XMPP and open clients. Trillian and Pid…

Youtube added Ask AI where it gives you pretty good summary with timestamps. Absolute timesaver to drill down to essence.

They should just summarise and timestamp every video for everyone, but it would tank engagement and ad revenue.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#194

Post by klondike_klive »

slumberlust wrote: post #124
klondike_klive wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just what I've been doing after deleting Instagram from my. phone. I can't trust my evening dopamine-seeking behaviour with the phone app, but there's much much less stickiness in the browser.

Tried greyscale yet?

Yes, it does help. But it's too easily switched off. I basically have to be my own worst enemy I have to order to prevent myself from being my own worst enemy!

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#195

Post by saghm »

NDlurker wrote: post #52
rootusrootus wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still pretty prevalent at that time, definitely, but DSL was definitely a thing by the time 1999 rolled around. I even had pretty fast DSL for the time -- 640 kbps. But otherwise totally agree with the critique. Modern connection speeds have enabled a huge amount of bloat. I grew up when 1200 baud modems were the latest rage, and patience when downloading was a hard requirement.

I lived in rural North Dakota and had dial up until 2005. It really sucked the last couple of years.

I had a friend who had dial-up I think until at least 2007 because his house was apparently right on the border of our town and the next and for whatever reason all of the ISPs other than AOL considered his address outside their coverage. This was in a suburb within 10 miles of Boston.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#196

Post by klondike_klive »

mghackerlady wrote: post #132
klondike_klive wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just what I've been doing after deleting Instagram from my. phone. I can't trust my evening dopamine-seeking behaviour with the phone app, but there's much much less stickiness in the browser.

Have you tried just not using a smartphone? I have a flip phone I take with me and leave my iPhone at home for things that need it. Otherwise, I carry my laptop/tablet everywhere. If I need to check my social media or email I have to sit down and deliberately do that

I've been resisting this for various reasons. Parking apps, maps, camera, podcast app, many many timers, and banking apps are all phone functions I use quite often and I can't see obvious ways around them which don't involve lots of other gubbins which I will inevitably lose or forget.

I could possibly uninstall everything but the absolute necessities on a smartphone for when I need it, and otherwise carry a flip phone. Maybe use the flip phone for tethering so the smartphone doesn't need a Sim card. But it seems that might be introducing lot of extra stress into my life, especially for stressful jobs like parking before a meeting, keeping up to date with clients, etc

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#197

Post by anthk »

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…

You can use Dillo and explore the light web, gopher and gemini with no JS or big plugins at all.

Gopher and Gemini are simple scripts, so is the actions plugin, but I have my own written in 'rc', a shell borrowed from Plan9 and a bit improved (readline keys, history).

For audio/video I just spawn mpv+yt-dlp in the spot.

https://dillo-browser.github.io/

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#198

Post by acdha »

jazzypants wrote: post #154
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…

In 1999, hostile websites would pop up endless new windows full of advertisements that you were powerless to stop unless you simply held down "ALT+F4" or "CTRL+ALT+DEL". Part of Mozilla Firefox's appeal is that it came with a pop-up blocker. [0] Do you know anything about the Browser Wars? People literally had to put up images telling you which browser to use if you wanted to actually experience their website the way…

In 1999, most websites were not hostile because they weren’t chasing diminishing returns from ad-tech companies. Most of the companies I worked with were trying direct revenue models getting people to buy things or subscribe directly, and the ad market paid a lot better for less obtrusive ads - the whole real-time bidding process to run arbitrary JavaScript was yet to come.

Now almost everyone has pressure to find new revenue streams and maximize income while Google and Facebook have sucked up most of the revenue, so you see more and sleazier ads everywhere and sites which rely on you reading or watching are on a much more aggressive treadmill trying to constantly give you new things to see ads on so the experience is more frenetic.

It feels not unlike how in the mid-20th century people left work at work when they went home and only extraordinary circumstances would result in phone calls home, etc. whereas in this century it’s just expected that everyone carries a smartphone and checks email/Slack. More efficient in some ways, for sure, but a lot of stress ground out of people for no extra compensation.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#199

Post by addaon »

nunez wrote: post #190
jjbinx007 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It’s funny, I’ve never installed any of the apps because I figured if, with all their engineering, they can’t even build a usable website, why would I trust their native code?

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#200

Post by folkrav »

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.

My 8yo keeps calling any piece of software he can run an "app", regardless of it being on a computer, a website, or a mobile device. I object to it out of principle, old man yelling at clouds style. But fundamentally, it's just code I interact with to do something, I'm just used to using different terminology for each runtime. The term website came about right before we really had anything interactive on the W3, describing something rather static.

All this to say, we're both right and wrong in feeling this way lol

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