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

...

[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. 

[EliraFriesnan]

16 hours ago, Nokiamies said:

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. 

I pay in cash, I make a difference. I read D.Draker also pays in cash. Do you pay in cash?

[Nokiamies]

4 hours ago, EliraFriesnan said:

I pay in cash, I make a difference. I read D.Draker also pays in cash. Do you pay in cash?

I pay with smartphone payment application since it is modern and cash is old...ok that was awful joke. I never used those and never will. Of course I do. Cash does not require server check to function and checking balance is as easy as opening wallet.

Edited Monday at 04:56 AM by Nokiamies

[EliraFriesnan]

On 10/5/2025 at 8:55 PM, Nokiamies said:

Of course I do. Cash does not require server check to function and checking balance is as easy as opening wallet.

Do you have troubles with using cash? Like @VistaLover described about "outlawing" certain Euro bills in EU by the Greek (or other) governments.

https://msfn.org/board/topic/186106-r3dfox-a-modern-firefox-based-web-browser-for-windows-vista-7-and-8/page/16/#findComment-1282311

 

 

 

[EliraFriesnan]

On 10/5/2025 at 6:33 AM, Monroe said:

had to solve a puzzle by moving pieces around, check all the squares with butterflies or whatever.

Why not simply ignore those sites? And if you paid for a service (streaming, for example), bombard their tech support until they remove it.

Demand money back, etc.

[EliraFriesnan]

On 10/5/2025 at 6:33 AM, Monroe said:

how did Amazon get so rubbish?

It always was. An overpriced China rubbish. I can purchase much higher quality stuff near my house with cash, much cheaper, like 3-5 times less.

Bought an AEG fridge for just 700 Swiss Francs (800 Euro) locally, while at Amazon it was like 1700 or more.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

6 hours ago, EliraFriesnan said:

Why not simply ignore those sites? And if you paid for a service (streaming, for example), bombard their tech support until they remove it.

Demand money back, etc.

EXACTLY !!!

And when you call up the tech support, tell them a little White Lie of "my bank account has a million in it and there is none of these puzzles to solve to access that million, so DO NOT tell me that you do it for 'security' or every bank on the planet would be using these puzzles but NONE OF THEM DO, it's only folks like you, never government web sites, never banks, never insurance companies, never pharmacies, never anything that NEEDS TO BE SECURE, it's always always always you RETAIL FOLKS breaking down PRIVACY all in the guise of 'security'."

Edited yesterday at 10:10 AM by NotHereToPlayGames

[Tripredacus]

IMO the internet got 'bad' once 'normal' people found it. But I think that is more nostalgia for the most part. As for when that happened, I'd say (at least in the US) that happened once Classmates came around. Everyone who was in high school or college went onto there to keep touch afterwards. That site got stepped on by Facebook which was originally designed for college students, but became so popular that old people joined it to keep in touch with those who were on it. For the current generation that is moving into the world, Facebook is seen as a site for old people which is a quote I've heard from multiple people of the younger generations, an insight I am afforded since I 'moonlight' at an arcade.

This is only my perspective on things, but normal/old people from 20 years ago were basically computer illiterate, and astonishingly, people of that same stereotype in the current day are still mostly computer illiterate despite having grown up in with computers in a fully connected world. Combine that with the mentality that corporations have of treating adults (employees) like children and you end up with web technologies designed to protect the computer illiterate but in a fashion doesn't feel like the correct way to do it. 

I find it amusing that the link to this article on the Guardian brings me to a page where half of it is covered by a blue privacy/cookie notification.

But overall I think that there are certainly many good points about how the internet has evolved and it is actually better in many ways now than it used to be. It is certainly more useful, something I didn't really grasp because I never had a mobile phone that was new enough to do anything cool until just recently. I think it will get better and we will figure out how to evolve it to deal with the current issues it has. There are more eyes on it now than ever before and that means more ideas of how to do things will occur. But that doesn't mean that there won't be some new dumb trend that everyone adopts that we'll have to deal with. We may end up looking back and laugh about how we were all bent out of shape about captchas and cookie banners in the face of whatever annoying thing we'll be having to deal with.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

Agreed.

I remember when "annoying" used to be (depracated) MARQUEE to scroll text.  EVERY web site you went to had these d@mn things.

Way back then, the "not old people" learned how to combat the annoyance.  And it's still us that do that combat nowadays.

ie, I didn't even realize the web site had a "blue privacy/cookie notification".  This is all I've ever needed for those  --  https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/432050-anti-cookies-consent

[Nokiamies]

On 10/7/2025 at 6:18 AM, EliraFriesnan said:

Do you have troubles with using cash? Like @VistaLover described about "outlawing" certain Euro bills in EU by the Greek (or other) governments.

https://msfn.org/board/topic/186106-r3dfox-a-modern-firefox-based-web-browser-for-windows-vista-7-and-8/page/16/#findComment-1282311

Biggest problem I had with cash was with self service stations which unfortunately happens to be popular when you live in middle of nowhere. I prefer to fuel up when on more populated areas but I got thirsty SAAB B201 (8l/100km highway 12l/100km town due automatic) engine on my 900 and when doing very very long trips I do need refuel on self service. I keep debit card with me for that reason. Maybe I am not doing too much buying aside from groceries and other basic necessities and it is not problem to me. Car parts well aside from ignition parts, fresh oil yearly and every 5 year or so new ball joint/cv shaft/etc due roads being in wonderful condition I don't need. Stuff I ever done in car workshop I had one ex saab mechanic taking care of it and he accepts cash. Only thing I order online are spare parts for car, computers etc, since when living in middle of nowhere there are zero stores to get them but for reason I cant explain multiple fashion stores...

Also you cant pay with cash on most of public transport but I rarely use them. Over the years I only had few train trips some of which I did not even pay myself. Trains are very expensive here and unreliable anyway they buy fancy locos then don't maintain them and then you are left stuck in middle of nowhere. Or even worse they catch fire like DM12 been doing quite lot due poor maintenance and design flaws.

I think most are not in lucky situation as I do to avoid those options and it kinda sucks. Bigger the town is less choice you have for anything.

23 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

Agreed.

I remember when "annoying" used to be (depracated) MARQUEE to scroll text.  EVERY web site you went to had these d@mn things.

Way back then, the "not old people" learned how to combat the annoyance.  And it's still us that do that combat nowadays.

How about embedded midis? Or even worse embedded wav file. Those freaked me out when some random midi began blast out out of silence. To add insult to injury some wannabe 90s website guys added those midis to their sites. Also don't get me started on animated GIFS

On 10/7/2025 at 5:33 PM, NotHereToPlayGames said:

ie, I didn't even realize the web site had a "blue privacy/cookie notification".  This is all I've ever needed for those  --  https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/432050-anti-cookies-consent

Funny I never seen them either despite not having that script. Well my browser is hardened to max so that might be why. That is useful script though for those sites that embed them differently. Thanks for linking it.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

2 hours ago, Nokiamies said:

How about embedded midis? Or even worse embedded wav file. Those freaked me out when some random midi began blast out out of silence.

True.  One of the biggest reasons I started using PROXOMITRON way back in the day (though I admittedly rely solely on userscripts/userstyles nowadays).

 

 

2 hours ago, Nokiamies said:

Also don't get me started on animated GIFS

Again, PROXOMITRON to the rescue.  At least for back in the day.

Nowadays, I use this for those stupid animated GIFS  --  https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/animation-policy/ncigbofjfbodhkaffojakplpmnleeoee

 

 

2 hours ago, Nokiamies said:

Funny I never seen them either despite not having that script. Well my browser is hardened to max so that might be why.

There are uBO lists that also block those "cookie notices".  I prefer the userscript route but "tomaytoe, tomahtah".