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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

#41

Post by 01nate »

One minor 'gripe' for lack of a better term, is that I feel like a push to go backwards in technology is a bit misguided. I feel like a lot if people see ads and trackers, then look to older protocols like Gopher/Gemini/IRC (or at least 'inspired' by older stuff like Gemini).

The issue isn't javascript, it's ads/trackers/algos/slop. I feel like tracker/ad/algorithm free static site on the status quo of http, or something newer like IPFS, is worlds better than trying to use arbitrary restrictions on something like a Gemini capsule.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#42

Post by rootusrootus »

vunderba wrote: post #4

If it were 1999, most people would still be browsing the web on their US Robotics 56k modem (at best). This page is about 1 MB of assets (500kb gzip compressed if your browser supported it) , so it would have taken at least a minute just to finish loading.

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.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#43

Post by zabzonk »

abraxas wrote: post #24
hdgvhicv wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That applies to aol, msn, compuserve etc, not to Facebook which you only ever accessed via http from a browser.

Yeah, those didn't count either. AOL and compuserve were not even available outside the USA in the late nineties. With AOL I'm quite sure nobody considered them to be a part of the web. Their pages didn't have URLs early on but AOL "keywords" instead. Compuserve also weren't using http I believe. It was some kind of commercial WAN that was pitched as a competitor to the internet, no?

> AOL and compuserve were not even available outside the USA in the late nineties

yes, they were, in the UK at least. speaking as a compuserve user.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#44

Post by krapp »

t-3 wrote: post #32
icedchai wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my first cable modem in 1998! All sites were still built for dialup, so everything was incredibly fast.

Some sites were fast. Some sites had pictures and it took long enough to load that I would sometimes make a sandwich while waiting.

I literally remember watching images load line by line.

I know nostalgia for the old days is de rigueur especially on HN but I definitely do not want to go back to that.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#45

Post by [deleted] »

thot_experiment wrote: post #12

I don't know if I'm crazy but I think social media is pretty okay at the like, core building and enhancing social networks thing. Instagram is probably my most used one these days and I love seeing my friend's stories and I don't think I've parsed more than a handful of ads in the last 2 or 3 years that I've been an active user, probably a few tens of hours wasted with dumb reels, not a bad cost at all imo. I have pr…

[deleted]

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#46

Post by zugi »

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!

Fark is farking great! Though its old-school HTML doesn't flow so well on mobile.

Can we get the best of 1999 with the best of 2026? Probably not...

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#47

Post by vunderba »

joshuablais wrote: post #8
vunderba wrote: post #4

If it were 1999, most people would still be browsing the web on their US Robotics 56k modem (at best). This page is about 1 MB of assets (500kb gzip compressed if your browser supported it) , so it would have taken at least a minute just to finish loading.

and 1MB is "small" for the modern web!

No shade! I went and checked out of curiosity, since it looks like we’re both using Astro as a static site generator.

Most of my articles are pretty media rich and weigh in between 1-2 megs. I do try to be pretty conscientious about asset compression (mozjpeg, h264 for video, etc.). I'd love to switch over to AV1 but I've heard compatibility on older devices is spotty.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#48

Post by acheron »

icedchai wrote: post #22
vunderba wrote: post #4

If it were 1999, most people would still be browsing the web on their US Robotics 56k modem (at best). This page is about 1 MB of assets (500kb gzip compressed if your browser supported it) , so it would have taken at least a minute just to finish loading.

I got my first cable modem in 1998! All sites were still built for dialup, so everything was incredibly fast.

Same! I got called “LPB” in Quake 2 a lot.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#49

Post by rglover »

zugi wrote: post #46
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!

Fark is farking great! Though its old-school HTML doesn't flow so well on mobile. Can we get the best of 1999 with the best of 2026? Probably not...

Just a stylesheet away.

Re: Using the internet like it's 1999

#50

Post by jghn »

icedchai wrote: post #22
vunderba wrote: post #4

If it were 1999, most people would still be browsing the web on their US Robotics 56k modem (at best). This page is about 1 MB of assets (500kb gzip compressed if your browser supported it) , so it would have taken at least a minute just to finish loading.

I got my first cable modem in 1998! All sites were still built for dialup, so everything was incredibly fast.

This comment reminded me of the early days of Ultima Online. I was on a high speed campus connection with a ping time of ~5ms to my server. Given most players were on a 28.8/56k modem with ping times ~300ms, it was an amazing speed difference. I could walk, not run, faster than other people riding horses at full speed.

Needless to say, I got accused of cheating quite a bit.

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