5 ms·

That's hilarious! Did they continue to link to your software after that? (I'm curious - what was your software?)

jacquesm 6y ago
Yes, they did, they actually thought it was quite funny. They even cached the actual download once they realized we wouldn't be able to deal with that either. The software was the first version of the public peer-to-peer webcam software I wrote: http://web.archive.org/web/20000510010712/http://www.camarades.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20000510010712/http://www.camarad...
- rattray 6y ago
  Beautiful. The internet was a truly different place back then...
  - jacquesm 6y ago
    With 100K visitors / day or so we were in the top 30 websites world wide in 1998. The really big boosts came from the Space Shuttle webcasts and an Yves St. Laurent fashion show webcast from Paris. Hard to believe now, a typical blog post will already pick up 30K visitors without too much trouble.
    - NetOpWibby 6y ago
      I could listen to stories of the Old Net all day.
      - jacquesm 6y ago
        Enjoy: https://jacquesmattheij.com/story-behind-wwcom-camaradescom/ https://jacquesmattheij.com/story-behind-wwcom-camaradescom/ And apologies for the non-working images.
        gowld 6y ago
        Serves you right for hotlinking ;-)
        jacquesm 6y ago
        Yes, but at least it was my own domain :) I didn't see that consequence coming when camarades.com shut down. I really should dig up those images and repair the blog but the todo list isn't really getting any shorter on this end.
        NetOpWibby 6y ago
        Sweet, looking forward to reading.
- xrisk 6y ago
  How is this on the Wayback machine?!
  - loktarogar 6y ago
    You can click "about this capture" for more information > Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
    - Thorrez 6y ago
      Fun fact: Amazon's home assistant was named after Alexa Internet. Amazon owns Alexa Internet.
      - phpnode 6y ago
        it's not named after it, it's just amazon is so massive they have to reuse brand names. AWS has exhausted not only the supply of IPv4 addresses but also the supply of 3 letter initialisms.
    - renerthr 6y ago
      What's an embargo period?
      - jacquesm 6y ago
        A period during which someone who knows something or has something does not release it to the public.
- aasasd 6y ago
  Your ‘Netscape Now’ pic is whopping 1.9 KB—could probably be optimized quite a lot, if for some weird reason the GIF didn't have jpeg-y artifacts on the background and a ton of blur on the text. Basically, you've brought that DoS on yourselves.
- phinnaeus 6y ago
  Oh my! This is a blast from the past. I was a kid, probably 10 years old or something, and I had a LEGO MovieMaker webcam. I was trying to set it up as a sort of security/monitoring camera for the back door of the small business my parents ran. I remember using this software and supposedly getting it working. I invited my parents to come see what I had done, and somehow typed the website wrong and ended up on a spanish-language porn site. I could not hit the back button fast enough. Possibly one of the most embarrassing memories of my childhood. I have no idea what my parents thought I was up to.
  - jacquesm 6y ago
    Heh. Hilarious story, thank you! Camarades.com had just about everything, from people being born to people dying and everything in between. It was a pretty honest (sometimes brutally honest) slice of life. One of the most popular cams for years was an old person that was extremely ill and that rarely moved but he had pretty big fanclub and he thought it was quite funny that he was more famous on what eventually became his deathbed than he had ever been while he was still active. After he died his family asked to remove all the images and close the account which of course we did. Makes you wonder if all those people wishing him well over the years kept him going a bit longer. What is interesting is that if you did this today I'm pretty sure the jerks would drown out the nice people by a considerable margin, of course there were jerks back then as well, but on the whole the internet seemed to be a much nicer place to hang out than it is today.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - prawn 6y ago
    Not sure if you're aware, but it's interesting that you mention Lego as the person you're responding to once accidentally bought literally tons of bulk Lego and later designed an automated Lego sorting machine. It's a fun read: https://jacquesmattheij.com/sorting-two-metric-tons-of-lego/ https://jacquesmattheij.com/sorting-two-metric-tons-of-lego/
  - alickz 6y ago
- DonHopkins 6y ago
  As pioneer of "<something> On Internet", do you regret not turning out like Russ Hanneman? ;) (OR DID YOU???!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAdXyPYKQo&ab_channel=yate50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAdXyPYKQo&ab_channel=yate5... https://silicon-valley.fandom.com/wiki/Russ_Hanneman https://silicon-valley.fandom.com/wiki/Russ_Hanneman I'm just glad I didn't turn out like Erlich Bachman! (OR DID I???!) https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/4jmlv9/what_kind_of_bong_was_erlich_using_last_night/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/4jmlv9/wh... https://silicon-valley.fandom.com/wiki/Erlich_Bachman https://silicon-valley.fandom.com/wiki/Erlich_Bachman
  - vidarh 6y ago
    I've finally gotten around to watching this series, and it's disturbing how many moments I've watched that were more familiar than they should have been, and too many characters I could instantly put a real name to....

Yes, they did, they actually thought it was quite funny. They even cached the actual download once they realized we wouldn't be able to deal with that either. The software was the first version of the public peer-to-peer webcam software I wrote: http://web.archive.org/web/20000510010712/http://www.camarades.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20000510010712/http://www.camarad...

rattray 6y ago
Beautiful. The internet was a truly different place back then...
- jacquesm 6y ago
  With 100K visitors / day or so we were in the top 30 websites world wide in 1998. The really big boosts came from the Space Shuttle webcasts and an Yves St. Laurent fashion show webcast from Paris. Hard to believe now, a typical blog post will already pick up 30K visitors without too much trouble.
  - NetOpWibby 6y ago
    I could listen to stories of the Old Net all day.
    - jacquesm 6y ago
      Enjoy: https://jacquesmattheij.com/story-behind-wwcom-camaradescom/ https://jacquesmattheij.com/story-behind-wwcom-camaradescom/ And apologies for the non-working images.
      - gowld 6y ago
        Serves you right for hotlinking ;-)
        jacquesm 6y ago
        Yes, but at least it was my own domain :) I didn't see that consequence coming when camarades.com shut down. I really should dig up those images and repair the blog but the todo list isn't really getting any shorter on this end.
      - NetOpWibby 6y ago
        Sweet, looking forward to reading.
xrisk 6y ago
How is this on the Wayback machine?!
- loktarogar 6y ago
  You can click "about this capture" for more information > Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
  - Thorrez 6y ago
    Fun fact: Amazon's home assistant was named after Alexa Internet. Amazon owns Alexa Internet.
    - phpnode 6y ago
      it's not named after it, it's just amazon is so massive they have to reuse brand names. AWS has exhausted not only the supply of IPv4 addresses but also the supply of 3 letter initialisms.
  - renerthr 6y ago
    What's an embargo period?
    - jacquesm 6y ago
      A period during which someone who knows something or has something does not release it to the public.
aasasd 6y ago
Your ‘Netscape Now’ pic is whopping 1.9 KB—could probably be optimized quite a lot, if for some weird reason the GIF didn't have jpeg-y artifacts on the background and a ton of blur on the text. Basically, you've brought that DoS on yourselves.
phinnaeus 6y ago
Oh my! This is a blast from the past. I was a kid, probably 10 years old or something, and I had a LEGO MovieMaker webcam. I was trying to set it up as a sort of security/monitoring camera for the back door of the small business my parents ran. I remember using this software and supposedly getting it working. I invited my parents to come see what I had done, and somehow typed the website wrong and ended up on a spanish-language porn site. I could not hit the back button fast enough. Possibly one of the most embarrassing memories of my childhood. I have no idea what my parents thought I was up to.
- jacquesm 6y ago
  Heh. Hilarious story, thank you! Camarades.com had just about everything, from people being born to people dying and everything in between. It was a pretty honest (sometimes brutally honest) slice of life. One of the most popular cams for years was an old person that was extremely ill and that rarely moved but he had pretty big fanclub and he thought it was quite funny that he was more famous on what eventually became his deathbed than he had ever been while he was still active. After he died his family asked to remove all the images and close the account which of course we did. Makes you wonder if all those people wishing him well over the years kept him going a bit longer. What is interesting is that if you did this today I'm pretty sure the jerks would drown out the nice people by a considerable margin, of course there were jerks back then as well, but on the whole the internet seemed to be a much nicer place to hang out than it is today.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- prawn 6y ago
  Not sure if you're aware, but it's interesting that you mention Lego as the person you're responding to once accidentally bought literally tons of bulk Lego and later designed an automated Lego sorting machine. It's a fun read: https://jacquesmattheij.com/sorting-two-metric-tons-of-lego/ https://jacquesmattheij.com/sorting-two-metric-tons-of-lego/
- alickz 6y ago
DonHopkins 6y ago
As pioneer of "<something> On Internet", do you regret not turning out like Russ Hanneman? ;) (OR DID YOU???!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAdXyPYKQo&ab_channel=yate50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAdXyPYKQo&ab_channel=yate5... https://silicon-valley.fandom.com/wiki/Russ_Hanneman https://silicon-valley.fandom.com/wiki/Russ_Hanneman I'm just glad I didn't turn out like Erlich Bachman! (OR DID I???!) https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/4jmlv9/what_kind_of_bong_was_erlich_using_last_night/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SiliconValleyHBO/comments/4jmlv9/wh... https://silicon-valley.fandom.com/wiki/Erlich_Bachman https://silicon-valley.fandom.com/wiki/Erlich_Bachman
- vidarh 6y ago
  I've finally gotten around to watching this series, and it's disturbing how many moments I've watched that were more familiar than they should have been, and too many characters I could instantly put a real name to....