17 ms·

That was a fun trip down memory lane. I dug up my old personal website, as well as ones developed for friends, family, and professors. It's funny how I was lo

by II2II 6y ago

That was a fun trip down memory lane. I dug up my old personal website, as well as ones developed for friends, family, and professors. It's funny how I was longing for the good old days of the Internet in the early 2000's, at least for the simplicity of design (albeit, not the garishness). Everything was centered upon some form of content: a cookbook, poetry, scientific research. Most of the sites were developed using an HTML pre-processor or on an Apple IIe. As much as I miss those days, I doubt that I would survive in the modern world of web development. Each of those sites were developed because someone had something to say. There was no pretense of building a reputation or making money. On the flip side, there was also no sense of being a voice lost in the wilderness. People you know would still go there and you may even receive a few appreciative notes from those who stumbled across your site. It's so much fun rambling about the "good old days".

Igelau 6y ago
> Most of the sites were developed using an HTML pre-processor or on an Apple IIe. IIe? Sure you don't mean the iMac G3?
- II2II 6y ago
  At one point my .plan file was "To conquer the world with and Apple II and 300 bps modem." So yes, I'm sure. Some more details, for those who are interested: My personal site and a friend's poetry site were created on an Apple IIe. I don't recall how the site was transferred to the server, but I definitely had the capability of doing so directly via modem and a dial-up shell account. The family cookbook was created in HyperCard on a Macintosh SE, and later an SE/30. Some additional code was added to generate HTML files, which were then uploaded to the server via FTP. The academic sites were created using an HTML pre-processor, possibly on an iMac G3 running NetBSD (though I did have several vintage Macs running NetBSD at the time). I made some interesting choices back then, including using a Mac IIci to access the Internet via a cable modem. But the choices were either spend my money on an interesting hobby or spend it save up for a boring new computer. Clearly, I choose the former and eventually ended up with the latter.
- nitrogen 6y ago
  The WWW definitely predates the iMac.
  - mmphosis 6y ago
    1993 NCSA Mosasic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser) 1998 iMac G3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G3
  - Igelau 6y ago
    Of course. I just wasn't aware that there were modems for the IIe.
    - mytechtoday 6y ago
      I was using a modem with the II or IIe in 1983 to dial into a BBS
    - Johnythree 6y ago
      The "Penny Whistle" modem came out in 1976, but hobbyists had been building their own for years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennywhistle_modem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennywhistle_modem People had been connecting mechanical Teletypes via modems since the 1950's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem
- kls 6y ago
  Depends on what period of early internet you are talking about, but non Mac Apple where around and in use during that dawning of the web period. They where a little long in the tooth but certainly where in use. Personally when the internet broke out of the Universities I was using an Amiga, then switched to Mac and finally a Next box when the web took off as at the time Next had the best tooling for web-dev and I was still dabbling in Motorola assembly so wanted to stay on a Motorola based system. IIRC PowerPC based Mac's hit around the time AOL was finally offering Web access thru their service. I never used AOL so don't recall for sure, but it seems right around the same era. The BBS type dial-ins offering web access is what really transitioned the net and specifically the web into what it is today. Before they offered access, you had to get a provider (if there even was one in your area), configure your TCP/PPP settings and connect in, it was not just pop the AOL CD in and put in your credit card number. So those services (Specifically AOL and Compuserve) offering easy access really spring boarded a lot of general non-tech users onto the net and started the next era of the net/web.
  - II2II 6y ago
    The Apple II line was very long in the tooth by the middle of the 1990's, but they were still fairly common in schools simply due to their investment in hardware and educational software. There were also people who clung onto to the Apple II as their only computer into that time period. I doubt that many of those machines were ever taken online, and they would have done through via BBSes or Unix shell accounts if they did. The Internet (and the web specifically) is probably what marked the end of 8-bit computers out side of collectors. That said, the experience was okay if you were fine with text only access. Email and Usenet were text only. Then, as with now, images contributed very little to the content of websites so that wasn't too bad either. JavaScript uptake was slow, possibly because compatibility was terrible, so that didn't present much of a problem. Frames and tables were problematic, since they were used a lot for visual presentation. (If anything, I would say that the modern use of CSS for layout makes things better for text mode browsing.) Of course, web development itself could be done from pretty much any computers since it was then a much simpler markup language and there was a lot less presentation related cruft.

by II2II 6y ago

Igelau 6y ago

> Most of the sites were developed using an HTML pre-processor or on an Apple IIe. IIe? Sure you don't mean the iMac G3?

II2II 6y ago
At one point my .plan file was "To conquer the world with and Apple II and 300 bps modem." So yes, I'm sure. Some more details, for those who are interested: My personal site and a friend's poetry site were created on an Apple IIe. I don't recall how the site was transferred to the server, but I definitely had the capability of doing so directly via modem and a dial-up shell account. The family cookbook was created in HyperCard on a Macintosh SE, and later an SE/30. Some additional code was added to generate HTML files, which were then uploaded to the server via FTP. The academic sites were created using an HTML pre-processor, possibly on an iMac G3 running NetBSD (though I did have several vintage Macs running NetBSD at the time). I made some interesting choices back then, including using a Mac IIci to access the Internet via a cable modem. But the choices were either spend my money on an interesting hobby or spend it save up for a boring new computer. Clearly, I choose the former and eventually ended up with the latter.
nitrogen 6y ago
The WWW definitely predates the iMac.
- mmphosis 6y ago
  1993 NCSA Mosasic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser) 1998 iMac G3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G3
- Igelau 6y ago
  Of course. I just wasn't aware that there were modems for the IIe.
  - mytechtoday 6y ago
    I was using a modem with the II or IIe in 1983 to dial into a BBS
  - Johnythree 6y ago
    The "Penny Whistle" modem came out in 1976, but hobbyists had been building their own for years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennywhistle_modem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennywhistle_modem People had been connecting mechanical Teletypes via modems since the 1950's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem
kls 6y ago
Depends on what period of early internet you are talking about, but non Mac Apple where around and in use during that dawning of the web period. They where a little long in the tooth but certainly where in use. Personally when the internet broke out of the Universities I was using an Amiga, then switched to Mac and finally a Next box when the web took off as at the time Next had the best tooling for web-dev and I was still dabbling in Motorola assembly so wanted to stay on a Motorola based system. IIRC PowerPC based Mac's hit around the time AOL was finally offering Web access thru their service. I never used AOL so don't recall for sure, but it seems right around the same era. The BBS type dial-ins offering web access is what really transitioned the net and specifically the web into what it is today. Before they offered access, you had to get a provider (if there even was one in your area), configure your TCP/PPP settings and connect in, it was not just pop the AOL CD in and put in your credit card number. So those services (Specifically AOL and Compuserve) offering easy access really spring boarded a lot of general non-tech users onto the net and started the next era of the net/web.
- II2II 6y ago
  The Apple II line was very long in the tooth by the middle of the 1990's, but they were still fairly common in schools simply due to their investment in hardware and educational software. There were also people who clung onto to the Apple II as their only computer into that time period. I doubt that many of those machines were ever taken online, and they would have done through via BBSes or Unix shell accounts if they did. The Internet (and the web specifically) is probably what marked the end of 8-bit computers out side of collectors. That said, the experience was okay if you were fine with text only access. Email and Usenet were text only. Then, as with now, images contributed very little to the content of websites so that wasn't too bad either. JavaScript uptake was slow, possibly because compatibility was terrible, so that didn't present much of a problem. Frames and tables were problematic, since they were used a lot for visual presentation. (If anything, I would say that the modern use of CSS for layout makes things better for text mode browsing.) Of course, web development itself could be done from pretty much any computers since it was then a much simpler markup language and there was a lot less presentation related cruft.