31 ms·

Old Internet Files

152 points by fcambus 8y ago

aldoushuxley001 8y ago
I like how basic his website is. Simple and familiar.
- devmunchies 8y ago
  this trend is coming back in the design world as brutalism (in the same vein as brutalist architecture). this site has a lot of examples: http://brutalistwebsites.com http://brutalistwebsites.com (HN is actually one of the examples listed)
  - anyfoo 8y ago
    I don't think that's the same. The website linked by this post has barely, if any, design (in form of CSS or otherwise) at all. It's not "brutalist", it's whatever the default browser layout and settings are. That's how the web and HTML used to work: Focus almost entirely on content, semantic markup, the browser mostly decides how to present that information to you--along with your personal preferences. So "brutalist" design does not apply, because there is no (visual) design involved.
    - devmunchies 8y ago
      > It's not "brutalist", it's whatever the default browser layout and settings are. Exactly. Just like brutalist architecture, an interior might expose a steel frame and the pipes, brutalist websites expose the HTML and base structure. Not all brutalist sites are completely stripped down this much but they have elements and expand on it.
      - speedplane 8y ago
        There are definitely similarities between brutalist architecture and brutalist web design, but it's more of a comparison rather than an over-arching design principal. Brutalist architecture was largely driven by enabling concrete technology. Concrete was previously used as a purely structural element, but as it advanced, architects realized it could be used as an aesthetic. IMHO, I believe that when these architects built these buildings, they were aiming for something more human, like shaped clay, but their efforts simply failed, and they created something entirely different. In fact, there was never any coherent brutalist architecture "movement", most brutalist buildings were deemed so long after they were built, largely because they appeared foreboding, intense, and used large quantities of concrete. (yes, there are plenty of "brutalist" buildings that don't heavily rely on concrete, but there's no question that many of the most famous buildings do so). So I don't think brutalist architectural design necessarily means exposing the "base structure". I would not consider the pompidou center as brutalist. Brutalist web design is also foreboding and intense, but that is really the end of their similarities. Many brutalist web designs intentionally create a disjointed feeling, overlapping text, mismatched fonts, large variations in color and font-size, are intentionally used to create a particular feeling of haphazardness and authenticity. I don't think brutalist architectural design carried that same intent.
- NVRM 8y ago
  I completely agree, but providing a similar interface today, and everyone cry out loud! The key here is long time. This page is ready to be displayed for centuries. What with this dependency bootstrapped/vue/meteor/angular stuffs of today. Those from last years feels already outdated. A webpage should always displays, including when dependencies are missing, javascript disabled. A great help is w3m
- crtasm 8y ago
  Fairly familiar over Tor too, just it's Immunify360 serving a google recaptcha instead of cloudflare (who rarely do now, in my experience).
donalhunt 8y ago
should these be shared with the internet archive? Would be interesting to fill in the gaps for different countries - Ireland still has plenty of people around that probably have relevant files from the late 80s / 90s (if they went searching)...
- NVRM 8y ago
  You can easily submit a link to the archive with a simple url call: https://web.archive.org/save/https://rscott.org/OldInternetFiles/ https://web.archive.org/save/https://rscott.org/OldInternetF... As a bookmarklet: javascript:void(window.open('https://web.archive.org/save/'+location.href)); https://web.archive.org/save/'+location.href));
smhenderson 8y ago
Seeing "domain-contacts.txt" reminded how much simpler the internet used to be. Imagine not being afraid of giving out your contact info to the whole internet! I'm not sure if the people who participated at the time would ever have imagined the need for whois anonymizers and weird tricks to keep your email address from being picked up by robots and spiders.
- FactolSarin 8y ago
  I'm now imagining what someone from those days would make of your post about their contact info being picked up by "robots and spiders." :D
  - abritinthebay 8y ago
    Web Spiders have been around since ‘94 and the spider terminology for mapping networks is even older so they’d likely get it.
    - insulanus 8y ago
      Oh geez. Webcrawler, and robots.txt. There was no SEO, just "don't overwhelm my modem / ISDN connection / T1". It's been a while!
      - abritinthebay 8y ago
        A lot more interesting protocols too! I miss gopher & finger
- djsumdog 8y ago
  A lot of registrars get away with selling WHOIS privacy packages, but now thanks to the GDPR, most personally identifying whois data is private by default. I would get contacted occasionally about selling domain names. I did take one company up on their offer for $10k. In retrospect, I do kinda regret selling that name. It was one of the rare six-character long .com domains.
- 8y ago
jen729w 8y ago
SOUP.ORG in the first domain.info file ... anyone know what that was? It now redirects to an actual soup place.
- djsumdog 8y ago
  Check out the guy who still owns milk.com: http://milk.com/value/ http://milk.com/value/ Jesus.com was once owned by a guy who offered "Showers with Jesus" (he had long hair). ... or was it baths with Jesus. It was one of those.
- gazarsgo 8y ago
  http://web.archive.org/web/19980210071108/http://www.soup.org:80/ http://web.archive.org/web/19980210071108/http://www.soup.or... looks like TIAC (The Internet Access Company), an old ISP. Wow, I haven't seen a reference to Erol's in forever...
- kalleboo 8y ago
  I found a couple references, seems like it was some dial-in public-access unix machine at Rutgers? http://utzoo.superglobalmegacorp.com/usenet/news100f1/b123/comp/misc/5915.txt http://utzoo.superglobalmegacorp.com/usenet/news100f1/b123/c... https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/net.news.config/Zmx42UNQ5DQ https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/net.news.config/Zmx4... https://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~cwm/NetStuff/Old-Me-Postings/comp.mail.maps/1987 https://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~cwm/NetStuff/Old-Me-Postings/com...
Ologn 8y ago
Ah, I remember when you could get a full list of com domains from the Internic. Hell, I remember when SRI-NIC.ARPA was a root name server. I forget exactly when they stopped the ability to ftp that. Interesting looking at the COM zone for August 1995 and June 1996. In August 1995, bulletproof.com, foolproof.com, and fool-proof.com were all registered - but not proof.com. Proof.com was registered February 3rd, 1996 (I applied for it the same day but didn't get it, they must have beat me by an hour or two). By June 1996, not only were all the above registered in the proof.com namespace, but also babyproof.com, birdproof.com, crashproof.com, cyberproof.com, digitalproof.com etc. Of course if I knew back in February 1996 how valuable good .com names would be in a few years, I would have registered a bunch more.
- samtc 8y ago
  You can still access com.zone [1], you have to fill a form and have a phone call with verisign and you get access to a good old FTP with a daily dump. Some other TLDs gives access through Centralized Zone Data Service [2]. Some deny access, like ca.zone. But I get what you mean, it was really publicly available. [1] https://www.verisign.com/en_US/channel-resources/domain-registry-products/zone-file/index.xhtml https://www.verisign.com/en_US/channel-resources/domain-regi... [2] https://czds.icann.org/en https://czds.icann.org/en
Diederich 8y ago
Hah, there's my domain, from 1996: REALMS.ORG Admin: Diederich, Dana Dana.Diederich@GOLDINC.COM (601)374-6510 ... I actually started the process of acquiring realms.org in 1994. At the time, you sent an e-mail to 'a guy' in DC. It took some time, but I finally got it registered in 1995. It was, of course, a free service.
kasajian 8y ago
I was surprised to find my name in the "contacts" list. I guess I'm KK35. Is that a WHOIS thing or something?
scruffyherder 8y ago
Don't know why I didn't register until 1997, but I guess by then it'd grown way too big to keep casual copies lying around.
Jaruzel 8y ago
It would be fun to run a mini web crawler against these old domains, and see if any are still hosting circa 1990s content.
cowmix 8y ago
Ah. Hello.com If only I had kept that.

Old Internet Files

152 points by fcambus 8y ago

aldoushuxley001 8y ago

I like how basic his website is. Simple and familiar.

devmunchies 8y ago
this trend is coming back in the design world as brutalism (in the same vein as brutalist architecture). this site has a lot of examples: http://brutalistwebsites.com http://brutalistwebsites.com (HN is actually one of the examples listed)
- anyfoo 8y ago
  I don't think that's the same. The website linked by this post has barely, if any, design (in form of CSS or otherwise) at all. It's not "brutalist", it's whatever the default browser layout and settings are. That's how the web and HTML used to work: Focus almost entirely on content, semantic markup, the browser mostly decides how to present that information to you--along with your personal preferences. So "brutalist" design does not apply, because there is no (visual) design involved.
  - devmunchies 8y ago
    > It's not "brutalist", it's whatever the default browser layout and settings are. Exactly. Just like brutalist architecture, an interior might expose a steel frame and the pipes, brutalist websites expose the HTML and base structure. Not all brutalist sites are completely stripped down this much but they have elements and expand on it.
    - speedplane 8y ago
      There are definitely similarities between brutalist architecture and brutalist web design, but it's more of a comparison rather than an over-arching design principal. Brutalist architecture was largely driven by enabling concrete technology. Concrete was previously used as a purely structural element, but as it advanced, architects realized it could be used as an aesthetic. IMHO, I believe that when these architects built these buildings, they were aiming for something more human, like shaped clay, but their efforts simply failed, and they created something entirely different. In fact, there was never any coherent brutalist architecture "movement", most brutalist buildings were deemed so long after they were built, largely because they appeared foreboding, intense, and used large quantities of concrete. (yes, there are plenty of "brutalist" buildings that don't heavily rely on concrete, but there's no question that many of the most famous buildings do so). So I don't think brutalist architectural design necessarily means exposing the "base structure". I would not consider the pompidou center as brutalist. Brutalist web design is also foreboding and intense, but that is really the end of their similarities. Many brutalist web designs intentionally create a disjointed feeling, overlapping text, mismatched fonts, large variations in color and font-size, are intentionally used to create a particular feeling of haphazardness and authenticity. I don't think brutalist architectural design carried that same intent.
NVRM 8y ago
I completely agree, but providing a similar interface today, and everyone cry out loud! The key here is long time. This page is ready to be displayed for centuries. What with this dependency bootstrapped/vue/meteor/angular stuffs of today. Those from last years feels already outdated. A webpage should always displays, including when dependencies are missing, javascript disabled. A great help is w3m
crtasm 8y ago
Fairly familiar over Tor too, just it's Immunify360 serving a google recaptcha instead of cloudflare (who rarely do now, in my experience).

donalhunt 8y ago

should these be shared with the internet archive? Would be interesting to fill in the gaps for different countries - Ireland still has plenty of people around that probably have relevant files from the late 80s / 90s (if they went searching)...

NVRM 8y ago
You can easily submit a link to the archive with a simple url call: https://web.archive.org/save/https://rscott.org/OldInternetFiles/ https://web.archive.org/save/https://rscott.org/OldInternetF... As a bookmarklet: javascript:void(window.open('https://web.archive.org/save/'+location.href)); https://web.archive.org/save/'+location.href));

smhenderson 8y ago

Seeing "domain-contacts.txt" reminded how much simpler the internet used to be. Imagine not being afraid of giving out your contact info to the whole internet! I'm not sure if the people who participated at the time would ever have imagined the need for whois anonymizers and weird tricks to keep your email address from being picked up by robots and spiders.

FactolSarin 8y ago
I'm now imagining what someone from those days would make of your post about their contact info being picked up by "robots and spiders." :D
- abritinthebay 8y ago
  Web Spiders have been around since ‘94 and the spider terminology for mapping networks is even older so they’d likely get it.
  - insulanus 8y ago
    Oh geez. Webcrawler, and robots.txt. There was no SEO, just "don't overwhelm my modem / ISDN connection / T1". It's been a while!
    - abritinthebay 8y ago
      A lot more interesting protocols too! I miss gopher & finger
djsumdog 8y ago
A lot of registrars get away with selling WHOIS privacy packages, but now thanks to the GDPR, most personally identifying whois data is private by default. I would get contacted occasionally about selling domain names. I did take one company up on their offer for $10k. In retrospect, I do kinda regret selling that name. It was one of the rare six-character long .com domains.
8y ago

jen729w 8y ago

SOUP.ORG in the first domain.info file ... anyone know what that was? It now redirects to an actual soup place.

djsumdog 8y ago
Check out the guy who still owns milk.com: http://milk.com/value/ http://milk.com/value/ Jesus.com was once owned by a guy who offered "Showers with Jesus" (he had long hair). ... or was it baths with Jesus. It was one of those.
gazarsgo 8y ago
http://web.archive.org/web/19980210071108/http://www.soup.org:80/ http://web.archive.org/web/19980210071108/http://www.soup.or... looks like TIAC (The Internet Access Company), an old ISP. Wow, I haven't seen a reference to Erol's in forever...
kalleboo 8y ago
I found a couple references, seems like it was some dial-in public-access unix machine at Rutgers? http://utzoo.superglobalmegacorp.com/usenet/news100f1/b123/comp/misc/5915.txt http://utzoo.superglobalmegacorp.com/usenet/news100f1/b123/c... https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/net.news.config/Zmx42UNQ5DQ https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/net.news.config/Zmx4... https://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~cwm/NetStuff/Old-Me-Postings/comp.mail.maps/1987 https://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~cwm/NetStuff/Old-Me-Postings/com...

Ologn 8y ago

Ah, I remember when you could get a full list of com domains from the Internic. Hell, I remember when SRI-NIC.ARPA was a root name server. I forget exactly when they stopped the ability to ftp that. Interesting looking at the COM zone for August 1995 and June 1996. In August 1995, bulletproof.com, foolproof.com, and fool-proof.com were all registered - but not proof.com. Proof.com was registered February 3rd, 1996 (I applied for it the same day but didn't get it, they must have beat me by an hour or two). By June 1996, not only were all the above registered in the proof.com namespace, but also babyproof.com, birdproof.com, crashproof.com, cyberproof.com, digitalproof.com etc. Of course if I knew back in February 1996 how valuable good .com names would be in a few years, I would have registered a bunch more.

samtc 8y ago
You can still access com.zone [1], you have to fill a form and have a phone call with verisign and you get access to a good old FTP with a daily dump. Some other TLDs gives access through Centralized Zone Data Service [2]. Some deny access, like ca.zone. But I get what you mean, it was really publicly available. [1] https://www.verisign.com/en_US/channel-resources/domain-registry-products/zone-file/index.xhtml https://www.verisign.com/en_US/channel-resources/domain-regi... [2] https://czds.icann.org/en https://czds.icann.org/en

Diederich 8y ago

Hah, there's my domain, from 1996: REALMS.ORG Admin: Diederich, Dana Dana.Diederich@GOLDINC.COM (601)374-6510 ... I actually started the process of acquiring realms.org in 1994. At the time, you sent an e-mail to 'a guy' in DC. It took some time, but I finally got it registered in 1995. It was, of course, a free service.

kasajian 8y ago

I was surprised to find my name in the "contacts" list. I guess I'm KK35. Is that a WHOIS thing or something?

scruffyherder 8y ago

Don't know why I didn't register until 1997, but I guess by then it'd grown way too big to keep casual copies lying around.

Jaruzel 8y ago

It would be fun to run a mini web crawler against these old domains, and see if any are still hosting circa 1990s content.

cowmix 8y ago

Ah. Hello.com If only I had kept that.