> See also: https://wiby.me, search engine for such websites.
Thanks for reminding me about this! So much of the older information is lost using modern search engines. Even when I use the date range feature, I don't turn up the pages Wiby does.
I had been using Yandex for searching older content but now I've added Wiby (right click inside its search form) to:
i wonder how many people will actually try to use ctrl-alt-delete to recover. i did just to see if it would do anything, but i don't use windows so I wasn't going be rick rolled by it.
like it would be funny if it launched a full screen window of the start up screen for win98 or something.
For you younger members of the audience, this page is a great demonstration of how animated GIFs were originally used on the web and why a lot of us were so surprised when they made a big comeback in a totally different style in the 21st century.
I'm also amused by the fact that the file format GIF became a name for a snippet of animation, and you usually get a webp when you search for a GIF (for good reasons too, but funny nevertheless).
> and you usually get a webp when you search for a GIF (for good reasons too, but funny nevertheless).
It's really unfortunate because animated webp is a shit format that should never have been created. There is no excuse for it lacking the same intra-frame compression present in the webm format it is based on.
Much better would have been to let the <img> tag and css pictures use (silent) video files and then add the missing features (loop flag, alpha, lossless compresion) to webm.
this is exactly how GIFs should have remained. The new generation calls these "stickers" which are all over Tiktok and Snapchat, and they're all Canva-made identikit garbage.
It's sad to think that GIFs that still remain are movie/TV scenes that are clipped to use as reactions to online comments.
Those under thirty should be aware that this occurred because the owner of the GIF spec (H&R Block) began a legal strategy that caused most of us to move to JPEG.
Laughing hard at the Olean ad. As many won't get that, it's the brand name for Olestra, a fat substitute with similar nutritional qualities but zero calories because humans can't digest it, that was briefly popular in low-calorie foods in the late 90s. But since you can't digest it, it leads to horrible shits and was mostly taken off the market.
Instantly took me back to the late 90s. I remember trying to optimize images for 16k colors, and dealing with all the weird, disparate javascript versions.
If you set your HTTP proxy to "theoldnet.com" with port 1999, and add an exclusion for "web.archive.org", then all your web pages will come from 1999, via the Wayback Machine.
You can pick a different year by changing the port.
Similarly check out https://protoweb.org/about/. They dont have every site, but they also include a fun 'antique' youtube where you get to stream with Real player or windows media player to bring back the 'greatness' of those products.
I never get over the weird feeling seeing something like Windows 95 which was released with such spectacle, Jay Leno and millions of dollars in launch events, requiring the latest available PC equipment to boot the same day, and of course the looming threat of the SPA sending you to PMITA prison if you didn’t pay your $209.95 being reduced to a small square on my mobile phone still running faster through a million layers of framework. Seemed like serious shit at the time.
It's so funny to see the SPA and RIAA being mentioned in the same context as PMITA prison because I just told my friend yesterday that if I ever released the software I actually want to build, that the RIAA and WMG would PMITA in court without so much as spitting on me in disgust before starting.
Not trying to be a hater, but I did recently install a Windows 95 VM on my Mac to relive that old experience… and then the very first error alert sound, that incredibly tinny really loud annoying sound that would always make me jump out of my chair with crappy PC speakers came blasting out of my much much better speakers backed by a subwoofer and I realized there is no nostalgia value to be had here.
I liked what I had at the time when it was all that I had but I would never want to completely relive that experience. If I got sent back in time to the day Windows 95 launched and had to live the rest of my life from that point on, I honestly don’t know if I would want to touch another computer until like early 1999, maybe late 1998 at the earliest, and only for work.
Same. It was around that time I discovered Linux, and then the *BSDs. Before that, getting online required Trumpet Winsock. I did some tech support for an ISP up until 1998, so I had to know the stack, but rarely touched it myself. From the mid-2000s I moved to Apple, but only because I wanted a laptop with a unix command line and working bluetooth and that was _hard_ back then.
Just realised that means I've not owned a Windows machine - and barely touched one professionally or even much in my personal life - in almost 25 years now.
I love the idea and look forward to diving in. There's an anachronism in the first paragraph though... "check out my MySpace page"? MySpace didn't launch until 2003... Honest question, was this created by someone who was not actually on the web in 1999? Or maybe they're just taking artistic license with the "1999" idea?
For what it's worth, MySpace prior to officially being a social media site was created in '96 and officially launched as a internet network drive around 1999 cant remember the exact date, then was later sold to Murdoch and evolved more into a social media site later on but was already unofficially used as one. People shared music, short movies, porn. It didn't scale well as there was no de-duplication, files were stored in an EBCDIC database on a couple HP Surestore's which I and others upgraded a few times from 9TB to 18TB comprised of 4 and 9 GB drives, then eventually 18 GB drives.
It was a drive letter mounted on your Windows machine or a mount point on Linux. I forgot what protocol was used and I never personally used it as I had my own SFTP servers. On Windows people would run an app but I think it was just mounting a SMB drive. I only handled the backend storage, HP-UX servers and DNS for them. Other people managed the Windows servers and their company managed the applications.
Neat. I was 10 back then but I remember having to deal with IPX networking to play Warcraft 1-2 with my dad, and over Mplayer, or some sort of online game service IIRC. Never really thought about how you'd do a mounted network share back then. IPX was a pain but we had no idea what we were doing back then.
edit: Oh duh, battlenet.. sigh, my how blizzard has changed.
It was definitely Myspace in 1996+. Perhaps they didn't start marketing the brand until 1999? I had to register about 50 variants of that domain name in 99' for them using the all so much fun email template with Internic. As to what relationships they had with other companies I have no clue. The HP SureStore's left the dataceter in 2002 or 2003. I met their CEO in 1999 when they were going to launch the drive space feature. As a fun side note they were the only customer I was ever allowed to let into the datacenter.
Some of the domain variants were MyLinuxSpace, MyBSDSpace, MyWindowsSpace and so on...
The founder of MySpace came from XDrive so I assumed XDrive is what is being referred to here. Wikipedia suggests this too, with MySpace starting later as a new company, but it states that the early team were inspired by social features in some other existing software. Maybe that was called MySpace and is what you are talking about. Would love to read more about it
Startups were a little odd back then. Some would be in the process of changes but the employees wouldn't know until they pulled the trigger. I am just guessing but maybe you saw the exit stage of XDrive and I saw the entry of Myspace but there was some hush-hush secret overlap. It certainly wouldn't be the strangest thing I saw back then.
Once you get that html table as layout are not harmful, that you use properly the border enabling attribute, augment the noscript/basic (x)html with <audio> and <video>.
I already surfed the web (and built websites) in all of 1999. Not even misplaced nostalgia would make me want to go back and surf the web like 1999 again. I’ll keep my modern browser, CSS Grid, and 1 Gigabit Fiber Optic line thank you very much.
I have plenty of fond memories of browsing the web in the late 90s as a teenager: things like huddling around the glow of the CRT with a friend playing Yahoo pool, printing out absurdly long gamefaqs for the RPGs of the era, and keeping up with the latest happenings in Ultima Online on UO Stratics.
The technology was not the best, but there were a ton of great things on the web of that era. I don’t yearn for a return to that ecosystem but reserve the right to remain sentimental about it.
That game seems cool, but it's a bit buggy and unfinished. Are there any similar games (as in personal finances simulation) that are more complete and stable? Obviously the game does not need to simulate a Windows XP computer ;)
You mean under 25. Otherwise the would probably remember win 95 onwards. I somehow like it more, but could be nostalgia of a time when anything a display showed was magical. I wanted more but didn’t know what.
I think these UIs leave some work for the imagination, cartoonish in a way. Now they are too business
I agree, Mosaic was groundbreaking but when Netscape 0.9 launched in the fall of 1994 was like waking up in another century.
Or we could go back to 1991 with IRC, Archie+FTP, and Telnet BBS's on Wyse terminals or SparcStations. I'm very nostalgic for that era.
IMO Netscape 3.04g was the peak browser experience - and by far peak performance.
I remember when a friend who ran a business out of his basement got a T1 installed in 1997. Myself and several other friends were there the day Verizon hooked up the local loop. I did the first test on a desktop windows95 machine with Netscape 3. I typed "cnn.com", hit enter and BAM! the entire page loaded and rendered instantly before you could blink an eye. I fell out of my chair. On dialup it would take about almost a minute to download all the images.
Once Netscape 4 hit it was a slow downhill path of bloat. I have not been able to replicate that instant rendering experience since then.
My nostalgia is mostly for the Bitnet chatrooms from the mid-80s. Especially the "hot tub channel". I didn't know it was possible to be that lascivious in plain text!
Wyse terminals! I had my first programming courses at university in those. I remember dumping core and somehow sending the core file to a classmate's screen, and they had to stare at the screen beeping for a while.
Now I teach those courses at the same university. Those terminals are long gone. This week we had a coding exam and students were coding with their laptops. They are forbidden from checking the Internet, sharing folders, and using AI assistance, but I'm sure some of them did because it's impossible to watch their every move. The exam would be fairer if we still had the Wyse terminals!
Gotta find someone with a WinSock disk and a browser for your Windows 3.11 for Workgroups install first. Fortunately I was in college at the time, so there were plenty.
176 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 242 ms ] threadThanks for reminding me about this! So much of the older information is lost using modern search engines. Even when I use the date range feature, I don't turn up the pages Wiby does.
I had been using Yandex for searching older content but now I've added Wiby (right click inside its search form) to:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/contextsearch...
like it would be funny if it launched a full screen window of the start up screen for win98 or something.
It's really unfortunate because animated webp is a shit format that should never have been created. There is no excuse for it lacking the same intra-frame compression present in the webm format it is based on.
Much better would have been to let the <img> tag and css pictures use (silent) video files and then add the missing features (loop flag, alpha, lossless compresion) to webm.
It's sad to think that GIFs that still remain are movie/TV scenes that are clipped to use as reactions to online comments.
Those under thirty should be aware that this occurred because the owner of the GIF spec (H&R Block) began a legal strategy that caused most of us to move to JPEG.
once that phrase hit the late night stand up bits, it was pretty much over. it's just sad it had to make to that far.
Instantly took me back to the late 90s. I remember trying to optimize images for 16k colors, and dealing with all the weird, disparate javascript versions.
I optimized for the official 216 color Web Safe Palette (“How many shades of neon green do we really need?”) well into the early 2000s.
You can pick a different year by changing the port.
Edit: It may have been hugged to death...
Not trying to be a hater, but I did recently install a Windows 95 VM on my Mac to relive that old experience… and then the very first error alert sound, that incredibly tinny really loud annoying sound that would always make me jump out of my chair with crappy PC speakers came blasting out of my much much better speakers backed by a subwoofer and I realized there is no nostalgia value to be had here.
I liked what I had at the time when it was all that I had but I would never want to completely relive that experience. If I got sent back in time to the day Windows 95 launched and had to live the rest of my life from that point on, I honestly don’t know if I would want to touch another computer until like early 1999, maybe late 1998 at the earliest, and only for work.
Just realised that means I've not owned a Windows machine - and barely touched one professionally or even much in my personal life - in almost 25 years now.
Might also be good for a young kids pc.
https://theoldnet.com/get?url=www.shadow.net%2F%7Egiorgio%2F...
If I type "http://yahoo.com/" in the address bar, it does not work as expected.
Clicking on the Netscape Navigator logo works, but if I type the same address, "www3.netscape.com" manually into the address bar, it does not work.
The URL in the address bar isn't updated.
Seeing that CRT my first urge was to push the degauss button. Not working either.
https://billsworld.neocities.org/profile/
1% odds anything else.
It's better that way. The feel of 1999 was there in 1998 and yes, the distant future, the year 2000.
edit: Oh duh, battlenet.. sigh, my how blizzard has changed.
Some of the domain variants were MyLinuxSpace, MyBSDSpace, MyWindowsSpace and so on...
Well...
And altavista.com doesn't even load!
- paywalls & 'login to see more'
- autoplaying videos that follow you whn you're just trying to read an article
- cookie banners
- artificial loading throbbers
- horrible intrusive tracking
- an advertising corporation also has the near-monopoly on browsing
- we have more bandwidth but apparently need 5Mb of javascript just to render text
- mobile first design, meaning much lower information density
- walled gardens like discord, facesbook, twitter, reddit storing content in inaccessible, unarchivable form
There were problems then but there were fewer headaches and fewer exhausting battles just to stay sane.
- unchecked astoturfing and referral-laundering "reviews"
- everyone being on walled gardens that restrict what can be hosted (both content and format)
The technology was not the best, but there were a ton of great things on the web of that era. I don’t yearn for a return to that ecosystem but reserve the right to remain sentimental about it.
Taking small sips before you get truly wizened is sometimes harmless, which I think is the case here.
Too big a sip leads to yelling at clouds.
But for those who are under 30s, or may be under 25s. What do you think of it? Ugly? Interesting? Boring? or what? Interested to know.
Or we could go back to 1991 with IRC, Archie+FTP, and Telnet BBS's on Wyse terminals or SparcStations. I'm very nostalgic for that era.
IMO Netscape 3.04g was the peak browser experience - and by far peak performance.
I remember when a friend who ran a business out of his basement got a T1 installed in 1997. Myself and several other friends were there the day Verizon hooked up the local loop. I did the first test on a desktop windows95 machine with Netscape 3. I typed "cnn.com", hit enter and BAM! the entire page loaded and rendered instantly before you could blink an eye. I fell out of my chair. On dialup it would take about almost a minute to download all the images.
Once Netscape 4 hit it was a slow downhill path of bloat. I have not been able to replicate that instant rendering experience since then.
Now I teach those courses at the same university. Those terminals are long gone. This week we had a coding exam and students were coding with their laptops. They are forbidden from checking the Internet, sharing folders, and using AI assistance, but I'm sure some of them did because it's impossible to watch their every move. The exam would be fairer if we still had the Wyse terminals!
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_founded_befor...
https://webamp.org/
It really whips the llama's @$$!
Or from remembering the Angelfire/MySpace DIY aesthetic from before the world became consumption-only and flatly Material.
It was an ultima online and final fantasy 7 cheats webpage haha