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Back in the days I developed a webmail interface and backend [1] for myself because GMail got unusable on Windows CE devices while they were still on the market

Back in the days I developed a webmail interface and backend [1] for myself because GMail got unusable on Windows CE devices while they were still on the market in Germany. Designing a website with WAP-level of HTML is quite a challenge, but it's possible. And it works so well with 2G slow connections that you start to appreciate it when your "flatrate" is throttled again. If you try to use any website in the new web with 2G slow, you'll realize how broken most concepts are. Even the ordering pages of ISPs to confirm an email address for a new internet connection is built with 20MB of Angular for no reason. It's so absurd that you cannot order an internet connection without an internet connection. How did we collectively get to this point of not giving a damn about anything? There's still such a huge population of the world that hasn't fast access to internet [2] that I don't understand why we keep making things bloated if they're unnecessary by concept - and can even be replaced via pure HTML/CSS most of the time. [1] https://cookie.engineer https://cookie.engineer - source under "webmail" project, built with old, old, PHP in 2005-2007 during the dark ages of web development. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_connection_speeds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Internet_...

mschuster91 5y ago
OT: Didn't we chat a couple days ago on Reddit? The Internet is small... :D
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
rmetzler 5y ago
> How did we collectively get to this point of not giving a damn about anything? - works on my machine - you need to build new features, not refactor / optimize what’s already there - etc
- WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
  I'd build stuff for old machines all day, were I paid for it just as good as I am to work on, as they sometimes say, webfeces.
yourenotsmart 5y ago
> How did we collectively get to this point of not giving a damn about anything? Sites don't target 2G, so your conclusions about what we give damn about are a bit premature. You don't optimize a resource that seems abundant. It may be wrong, but it's economically the only common sense approach a system would take.
- andai 5y ago
  Unfortunately, optimizing for developer convenience seems to have a lot of overlap with optimizing for wasting my time.
  - yourenotsmart 5y ago
    It's less about convenience and more about having an entire generation of developers now who are literally unable of writing an app that doesn't use a heavy framework.
bengale 5y ago
I would guess that a lot of it is profit driven. People without fast access to internet probably don't spend a lot of money, and the vast majority of things built on the internet are to make money.
slim 5y ago
Before 2008 I used to Tweet by sending an sms to a special phone number. When twitter removed the service, their bloated website cost a lot for a tweet. So I made a Wap service using their api and now tweeting cost me a fraction of what the sms cost me. I built it in a few hours, it was very fun to chop every last byte of html exploiting the flexibility of the browsers (who knew you did not need to close html tags?). That service was used by a few friends on feature phones till 2010. I discovered it when a friend complained that the service did not work anymore. I had completely forgot about it.

mschuster91 5y ago

OT: Didn't we chat a couple days ago on Reddit? The Internet is small... :D

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

rmetzler 5y ago

> How did we collectively get to this point of not giving a damn about anything? - works on my machine - you need to build new features, not refactor / optimize what’s already there - etc

WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
I'd build stuff for old machines all day, were I paid for it just as good as I am to work on, as they sometimes say, webfeces.

yourenotsmart 5y ago

> How did we collectively get to this point of not giving a damn about anything? Sites don't target 2G, so your conclusions about what we give damn about are a bit premature. You don't optimize a resource that seems abundant. It may be wrong, but it's economically the only common sense approach a system would take.

andai 5y ago
Unfortunately, optimizing for developer convenience seems to have a lot of overlap with optimizing for wasting my time.
- yourenotsmart 5y ago
  It's less about convenience and more about having an entire generation of developers now who are literally unable of writing an app that doesn't use a heavy framework.

bengale 5y ago

I would guess that a lot of it is profit driven. People without fast access to internet probably don't spend a lot of money, and the vast majority of things built on the internet are to make money.

slim 5y ago

Before 2008 I used to Tweet by sending an sms to a special phone number. When twitter removed the service, their bloated website cost a lot for a tweet. So I made a Wap service using their api and now tweeting cost me a fraction of what the sms cost me. I built it in a few hours, it was very fun to chop every last byte of html exploiting the flexibility of the browsers (who knew you did not need to close html tags?). That service was used by a few friends on feature phones till 2010. I discovered it when a friend complained that the service did not work anymore. I had completely forgot about it.