Interesting Reading on the Internet in Today's World

[Monroe]

I thought this article about the internet past and present was a good read. A warning ahead on 'language' ... maybe not for the 'faint of heart'. Most people might use the word 'crap' in their article. It goes up a notch in this article but it gets to the point. I myself miss the old internet from when a person didn't have to prove they were a human, had to solve a puzzle by moving pieces around, check all the squares with butterflies or whatever.

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/05/way-past-its-prime-how-did-amazon-get-so-rubbish

Cory Doctorow

Sun 5 Oct 2025

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[Nokiamies]

I think I am past point of missing old internet. Just trying cling to past and not saying I am missing old internet wont going to help. There were also evil things there like "Only viewable on internet exploder 4 or worse"

I admit I used to also fall into that. What is typical problem there is that you keep doing things you totally disagree with and keep saying it. Then one day it hit me. What if instead of trying clinging to past memories I bring past to current. Nobody says you must use Spotispy, or any other things.

What if instead of just using what everyone else is using to communicate (whatsapp) or do other stuff you use what you want to use and can be used on systems you have. If you really hate smartphones you don't have to have one, you can get still basic handsets even if live in country where GSM is killed, they are cheap ones usually sold for elderly people. If you hate modern Windows don't use it. Use something like linux mint to do "modern" stuff like filling out tax card, doing banking etc then outside that use whatever system and OS you feel good at. There are many projects that makes them usable. For example Windows 98 can totally be used for tasks with help of Pidgin, Retrozilla 2.3, proper codecs, putty win32 legacy etc.

 

And if you think all your friends will stop talking to you if change way then ask are they really your friends if they will end friendship at that point. Sure there are some limits for what can be considered tolerable. If you would say now I will only communicate with smoke signals then it would be understandable that they are upset. You might think I just lack any friends and I got handful of them only but they are good friends I talk almost daily or hang with whenever just can. Most "friends" I had were just burden to me.

If work requires them then you use during working hours as you should always keep work and personal life separate. I use whatever phone and computer employer tells me to during hours my wage is running and when hours are filled I leave them at the office or if home switch off power until next shift. I do not do any of personal work on company laptop or phone since security and not wanting mix up my personal and work life. If you are being your own employer you should still separate work and personal devices for security reasons as having one of them compromised compromises both.

As for the web, you don't have to make site that forces SSL, bot protection, requires complex CSS and scripting etc. You can make one very basic. Just don't fall into wannabe 90s geocities site trend. You do not want but million animated gifs and annoying embedded midis into your site or write it with Microsoft RuntPage. I hated those site back then and hate whenever I see one of them today. You should prefer minimalism and avoid going over HTML4 strict. Something like Mozilla composer with css disabled is good starting point if you suck at coding or just want streamline doing site and then just do small fixes by hand with text editor.

World is not going to change is nobody does nothing and just sit on their a** and complain. It starts change by making difference yourself.