Browse the web like its 1999 • Hacker News Board

Re: Browse the web like its 1999

#31

Post by marginalia_nu » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 10:40 AM UTC

shp0ngle wrote: post #14

This just makes me angry. Browsers are now so fast and capable that you can emulate whole OS with another browser in them, which you can then use to browse . So why does half of the websites in 2021 feel so sluggish? GMail, which was famous for loading fast, sometimes takes forever to load. I need to wait minutes when reading news websites while elements randomly jump around the page (seriously, why does pages do tha…

It's basically Parkinson's law. If someone is given NASA's resources to move a piece of paper across the room, they will find a way to use a space shuttle to do it and call you oldfashioned for doing it by hand.

Re: Browse the web like its 1999

#32

Post by laumars » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 10:49 AM UTC

bennyp101 wrote: post #12

themodelplumber wrote: post #5

Did anybody here ever use the ISDN data ports in payphones in Japan? I remember seeing them here and there in 1998 (IIRC). At the time I wondered about popping over to one and getting on the web just to see how it would work. ISDN was serious biz to my mind at that time, compared to rural USA dialup.

I remember a friend having ISDN installed at his house - no matter how much I tried I couldn't convince my parents to pay that much for the internet. I remember reading about T1 lines and being blown away at how fast that was

I worked at a publishing company who had T1 for hosting their online content.

What amazed me was how quickly that went from state of the art to pretty mediocre.

Re: Browse the web like its 1999

#33

Post by michalstanko » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 11:01 AM UTC

ricardobayes wrote: post #27

gpmcadam wrote: post #19

"Sorry, OldWeb.today can not run in this emulator in your current browser. Please try the latest version of Chrome or Firefox to use this emulator. " Wow, it really does feel like using an old browser. (Safari Version 15.2 (17612.3.6.1.6))

Arguably, Safari is the IE of our times. Safari somehow always have rendering issues. I use Firefox as that's closest to standards, I hate bending standard code to fit a garbage browser's special needs.

I wouldn't go as far as calling it an "IE", because those of us who lived through that know it was a completely different experience.

But yes, Safari is slow in implementing new features a bit and it does get annoying from time to time. But it's nowhere near the IE hell from ~2000 - 2008.

Re: Browse the web like its 1999

#34

Post by kragen » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 11:04 AM UTC

shp0ngle wrote: post #14

This just makes me angry. Browsers are now so fast and capable that you can emulate whole OS with another browser in them, which you can then use to browse . So why does half of the websites in 2021 feel so sluggish? GMail, which was famous for loading fast, sometimes takes forever to load. I need to wait minutes when reading news websites while elements randomly jump around the page (seriously, why does pages do tha…

Dan Luu reports that Google penalizes his pages in search rankings because they don't include enough CSS and JS. It's not really half of the websites; it's the half you're being guided to.

Re: Browse the web like its 1999

#35

Post by mattl » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 11:05 AM UTC

123pie123 wrote: post #6

great stuff although altavista.com site doesn't work very well I automatically used that as my first choice of website to use

Try www.altavista.digital.com

Re: Browse the web like its 1999

#36

Post by kragen » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 11:06 AM UTC

lopis wrote: post #10

jankovicsandras wrote: post #8

Opening this without JavaScript (Noscript) gave me a blank grey page. Sorry, but the web had content without JS in 1999.

Are you seriously complaining that this emulator of several operating systems and old browsers doesn't run inside a modern browser without javascript? I really hope you're kidding.

A blank grey page is not a reasonable way to handle JS being disabled.

Re: Browse the web like its 1999

#37

Post by bryans » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 11:12 AM UTC

This brings me so much joy. It's such a perfect emulation that it actually makes me homesick for the late 90s.

Re: Browse the web like its 1999

#38

Post by pacifika » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 11:21 AM UTC

ricardobayes wrote: post #25

pacifika wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lack of care and attention. By developers who are pressured to keep sprint velocity up. By product owners who follow the ideal path. By designers who want sites to work like their mock-ups. By testers who don’t have enough time to test under specified features. By clients who are focused on reporting upwards and tracking business goals. And by prioritising new learning experiences over boring reliable solutions.

What's wrong with wanting a site to look like a mockup?

Typically results in custom controls and working against the browser provided affordances

Re: Browse the web like its 1999

#39

Post by gherkinnn » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 11:22 AM UTC

Wow. My brain filled in the crackling sound those old computers made when under load as I opened IE.

I for one do not look back.

Re: Browse the web like its 1999

#40

Post by whywhywhywhy » Thu, Dec 30, 2021, 11:27 AM UTC

clove wrote: post #29

shp0ngle wrote: post #14

This just makes me angry. Browsers are now so fast and capable that you can emulate whole OS with another browser in them, which you can then use to browse . So why does half of the websites in 2021 feel so sluggish? GMail, which was famous for loading fast, sometimes takes forever to load. I need to wait minutes when reading news websites while elements randomly jump around the page (seriously, why does pages do tha…

Did you try restarting your computer? If that doesn't work, try restarting your router.

That message you get on YouTube when their loading fails so they suggest “restarting your device” always annoys me.