#vintageinternet — Public Fediverse posts

Found in my Calishat Snaps: Buddy Icon Archive. From the site’s short history of AIM buddy icons: “The canvas was so small that every decision became emphatic. Surviving client documentation describes images between 48×48 and 50×50 pixels. A face needed a close crop; text needed blunt contrast; an idea often had to survive in a single glance. Animated GIFs turned that square into a tiny […]

Found in my Calishat Snaps: Buddy Icon Archive. From the site’s short history of AIM buddy icons: “The canvas was so small that every decision became emphatic. Surviving client documentation describes images between 48×48 and 50×50 pixels. A face needed a close crop; text needed blunt contrast; an idea often had to survive in a single glance. Animated GIFs turned that square into a tiny […]

Found in my Calishat Snaps: Buddy Icon Archive. From the site’s short history of AIM buddy icons: “The canvas was so small that every decision became emphatic. Surviving client documentation describes images between 48×48 and 50×50 pixels. A face needed a close crop; text needed blunt contrast; an idea often had to survive in a single glance. Animated GIFs turned that square into a tiny […]

Found in my Calishat Snaps: Buddy Icon Archive. From the site’s short history of AIM buddy icons: “The canvas was so small that every decision became emphatic. Surviving client documentation describes images between 48×48 and 50×50 pixels. A face needed a close crop; text needed blunt contrast; an idea often had to survive in a single glance. Animated GIFs turned that square into a tiny […]

Found in my Calishat Snaps: Buddy Icon Archive. From the site’s short history of AIM buddy icons: “The canvas was so small that every decision became emphatic. Surviving client documentation describes images between 48×48 and 50×50 pixels. A face needed a close crop; text needed blunt contrast; an idea often had to survive in a single glance. Animated GIFs turned that square into a tiny […]

Ars Technica: Remembering the pre-Google web, when search was an experiment. “In the mid-’90s, the web was exploding, but finding anything of actual value on it felt like an elaborate negotiation with whatever proto-search engine happened to be standing closest to the door. Unlike now, when Google is widely seen as both portal and gatekeeper, sites like AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, HotBot, and […]

Ars Technica: Remembering the pre-Google web, when search was an experiment. “In the mid-’90s, the web was exploding, but finding anything of actual value on it felt like an elaborate negotiation with whatever proto-search engine happened to be standing closest to the door. Unlike now, when Google is widely seen as both portal and gatekeeper, sites like AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, HotBot, and […]

Ars Technica: Remembering the pre-Google web, when search was an experiment. “In the mid-’90s, the web was exploding, but finding anything of actual value on it felt like an elaborate negotiation with whatever proto-search engine happened to be standing closest to the door. Unlike now, when Google is widely seen as both portal and gatekeeper, sites like AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, HotBot, and […]

Ars Technica: Remembering the pre-Google web, when search was an experiment. “In the mid-’90s, the web was exploding, but finding anything of actual value on it felt like an elaborate negotiation with whatever proto-search engine happened to be standing closest to the door. Unlike now, when Google is widely seen as both portal and gatekeeper, sites like AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, HotBot, and […]

Ars Technica: Remembering the pre-Google web, when search was an experiment. “In the mid-’90s, the web was exploding, but finding anything of actual value on it felt like an elaborate negotiation with whatever proto-search engine happened to be standing closest to the door. Unlike now, when Google is widely seen as both portal and gatekeeper, sites like AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, HotBot, and […]

Ars Technica: Reddit signals ominous upcoming “changes” for old.reddit.com. “Old.reddit.com’s days appear to be numbered. Reddit has strayed from saying that it will shutter the website, which many long-time Redditors prefer for its layout, navigation, and fewer feed recommendations.”

Ars Technica: Reddit signals ominous upcoming “changes” for old.reddit.com. “Old.reddit.com’s days appear to be numbered. Reddit has strayed from saying that it will shutter the website, which many long-time Redditors prefer for its layout, navigation, and fewer feed recommendations.”

Ars Technica: Reddit signals ominous upcoming “changes” for old.reddit.com. “Old.reddit.com’s days appear to be numbered. Reddit has strayed from saying that it will shutter the website, which many long-time Redditors prefer for its layout, navigation, and fewer feed recommendations.”

Ars Technica: Reddit signals ominous upcoming “changes” for old.reddit.com. “Old.reddit.com’s days appear to be numbered. Reddit has strayed from saying that it will shutter the website, which many long-time Redditors prefer for its layout, navigation, and fewer feed recommendations.”

Ars Technica: Reddit signals ominous upcoming “changes” for old.reddit.com. “Old.reddit.com’s days appear to be numbered. Reddit has strayed from saying that it will shutter the website, which many long-time Redditors prefer for its layout, navigation, and fewer feed recommendations.”

Boing Boing: Type a word, get it back in 50 ASCII art fonts. “Lokesh Dhakar’s ASCII Today renders your text as big block letters made out of slashes, pipes, and underscores — the kind that head old README files and source-code comments. When you type a word at ascii.today, all 50 fonts appear at once in a grid, redrawing character by character.”

Boing Boing: Type a word, get it back in 50 ASCII art fonts. “Lokesh Dhakar’s ASCII Today renders your text as big block letters made out of slashes, pipes, and underscores — the kind that head old README files and source-code comments. When you type a word at ascii.today, all 50 fonts appear at once in a grid, redrawing character by character.”

Boing Boing: Type a word, get it back in 50 ASCII art fonts. “Lokesh Dhakar’s ASCII Today renders your text as big block letters made out of slashes, pipes, and underscores — the kind that head old README files and source-code comments. When you type a word at ascii.today, all 50 fonts appear at once in a grid, redrawing character by character.”

Boing Boing: Type a word, get it back in 50 ASCII art fonts. “Lokesh Dhakar’s ASCII Today renders your text as big block letters made out of slashes, pipes, and underscores — the kind that head old README files and source-code comments. When you type a word at ascii.today, all 50 fonts appear at once in a grid, redrawing character by character.”

Boing Boing: Type a word, get it back in 50 ASCII art fonts. “Lokesh Dhakar’s ASCII Today renders your text as big block letters made out of slashes, pipes, and underscores — the kind that head old README files and source-code comments. When you type a word at ascii.today, all 50 fonts appear at once in a grid, redrawing character by character.”

Spotted in my RSS feeds: GE-97 Terminal. “A browser-based Windows 98 that boots, dials up, and browses what remains of the 1990s web with everything switched back on — built so a modern audience can feel what that screen felt like, not just look at a screenshot of it.” If you spent any time on GeoCities this web design will evoke nostalgia.

Spotted in my RSS feeds: GE-97 Terminal. “A browser-based Windows 98 that boots, dials up, and browses what remains of the 1990s web with everything switched back on — built so a modern audience can feel what that screen felt like, not just look at a screenshot of it.” If you spent any time on GeoCities this web design will evoke nostalgia.

Spotted in my RSS feeds: GE-97 Terminal. “A browser-based Windows 98 that boots, dials up, and browses what remains of the 1990s web with everything switched back on — built so a modern audience can feel what that screen felt like, not just look at a screenshot of it.” If you spent any time on GeoCities this web design will evoke nostalgia.

Spotted in my RSS feeds: GE-97 Terminal. “A browser-based Windows 98 that boots, dials up, and browses what remains of the 1990s web with everything switched back on — built so a modern audience can feel what that screen felt like, not just look at a screenshot of it.” If you spent any time on GeoCities this web design will evoke nostalgia.

Spotted in my RSS feeds: GE-97 Terminal. “A browser-based Windows 98 that boots, dials up, and browses what remains of the 1990s web with everything switched back on — built so a modern audience can feel what that screen felt like, not just look at a screenshot of it.” If you spent any time on GeoCities this web design will evoke nostalgia.

The Reed and Pickup: Putting The Internet Back In Its Place. “The basic idea behind this is that back in the dial-up days, the internet lived wherever the phone line came into the house. Laptops were still massive; we still paid by the minute to access the internet –it was essentially a really long, screechy conversation with a remote server and the whole family would share the one PC. So, […]

The Reed and Pickup: Putting The Internet Back In Its Place. “The basic idea behind this is that back in the dial-up days, the internet lived wherever the phone line came into the house. Laptops were still massive; we still paid by the minute to access the internet –it was essentially a really long, screechy conversation with a remote server and the whole family would share the one PC. So, […]

The Reed and Pickup: Putting The Internet Back In Its Place. “The basic idea behind this is that back in the dial-up days, the internet lived wherever the phone line came into the house. Laptops were still massive; we still paid by the minute to access the internet –it was essentially a really long, screechy conversation with a remote server and the whole family would share the one PC. So, […]

The Reed and Pickup: Putting The Internet Back In Its Place. “The basic idea behind this is that back in the dial-up days, the internet lived wherever the phone line came into the house. Laptops were still massive; we still paid by the minute to access the internet –it was essentially a really long, screechy conversation with a remote server and the whole family would share the one PC. So, […]

The Reed and Pickup: Putting The Internet Back In Its Place. “The basic idea behind this is that back in the dial-up days, the internet lived wherever the phone line came into the house. Laptops were still massive; we still paid by the minute to access the internet –it was essentially a really long, screechy conversation with a remote server and the whole family would share the one PC. So, […]

Tubefilter: ‘The Guild’ was an iconic web series. Nearly 20 years later, Felicia Day is reviving it as a movie.. “19 years ago (has it really been that long?), Felicia Day created and starred in a show that poked fun at the gameplay and interpersonal dynamics of World of Warcraft clans…. Flash forward to 2026, and the same cultural climate that propelled The Guild to the forefront of the […]

Tubefilter: ‘The Guild’ was an iconic web series. Nearly 20 years later, Felicia Day is reviving it as a movie.. “19 years ago (has it really been that long?), Felicia Day created and starred in a show that poked fun at the gameplay and interpersonal dynamics of World of Warcraft clans…. Flash forward to 2026, and the same cultural climate that propelled The Guild to the forefront of the […]

Tubefilter: ‘The Guild’ was an iconic web series. Nearly 20 years later, Felicia Day is reviving it as a movie.. “19 years ago (has it really been that long?), Felicia Day created and starred in a show that poked fun at the gameplay and interpersonal dynamics of World of Warcraft clans…. Flash forward to 2026, and the same cultural climate that propelled The Guild to the forefront of the […]

Tubefilter: ‘The Guild’ was an iconic web series. Nearly 20 years later, Felicia Day is reviving it as a movie.. “19 years ago (has it really been that long?), Felicia Day created and starred in a show that poked fun at the gameplay and interpersonal dynamics of World of Warcraft clans…. Flash forward to 2026, and the same cultural climate that propelled The Guild to the forefront of the […]

Tubefilter: ‘The Guild’ was an iconic web series. Nearly 20 years later, Felicia Day is reviving it as a movie.. “19 years ago (has it really been that long?), Felicia Day created and starred in a show that poked fun at the gameplay and interpersonal dynamics of World of Warcraft clans…. Flash forward to 2026, and the same cultural climate that propelled The Guild to the forefront of the […]

Evert Pot: Burrow, a new Gopher client in the browser. “After building a gopher server and website, I couldn’t quite get enough of the Gopher bug, and decided to build a Gopher client in the browser. To be honest, this is actually more like a HTTP proxy for Gopher, but I might at some point turn this into a standalone client or even port it to some native platforms.” Those of y’all old enough […]

Evert Pot: Burrow, a new Gopher client in the browser. “After building a gopher server and website, I couldn’t quite get enough of the Gopher bug, and decided to build a Gopher client in the browser. To be honest, this is actually more like a HTTP proxy for Gopher, but I might at some point turn this into a standalone client or even port it to some native platforms.” Those of y’all old enough […]

Evert Pot: Burrow, a new Gopher client in the browser. “After building a gopher server and website, I couldn’t quite get enough of the Gopher bug, and decided to build a Gopher client in the browser. To be honest, this is actually more like a HTTP proxy for Gopher, but I might at some point turn this into a standalone client or even port it to some native platforms.” Those of y’all old enough […]

Evert Pot: Burrow, a new Gopher client in the browser. “After building a gopher server and website, I couldn’t quite get enough of the Gopher bug, and decided to build a Gopher client in the browser. To be honest, this is actually more like a HTTP proxy for Gopher, but I might at some point turn this into a standalone client or even port it to some native platforms.” Those of y’all old enough […]

Evert Pot: Burrow, a new Gopher client in the browser. “After building a gopher server and website, I couldn’t quite get enough of the Gopher bug, and decided to build a Gopher client in the browser. To be honest, this is actually more like a HTTP proxy for Gopher, but I might at some point turn this into a standalone client or even port it to some native platforms.” Those of y’all old enough […]

TechCrunch: Digg lays off staff and shuts down app as company retools. “The startup had set out to offer an alternative to existing community forums, where people could post and share links, media, and text, and engage in topical discussions. But while Digg had clever ideas on how to better moderate content and verify that users were who they claimed to be, the company admits it was overwhelmed […]

TechCrunch: Digg lays off staff and shuts down app as company retools. “The startup had set out to offer an alternative to existing community forums, where people could post and share links, media, and text, and engage in topical discussions. But while Digg had clever ideas on how to better moderate content and verify that users were who they claimed to be, the company admits it was overwhelmed […]

TechCrunch: Digg lays off staff and shuts down app as company retools. “The startup had set out to offer an alternative to existing community forums, where people could post and share links, media, and text, and engage in topical discussions. But while Digg had clever ideas on how to better moderate content and verify that users were who they claimed to be, the company admits it was overwhelmed […]

TechCrunch: Digg lays off staff and shuts down app as company retools. “The startup had set out to offer an alternative to existing community forums, where people could post and share links, media, and text, and engage in topical discussions. But while Digg had clever ideas on how to better moderate content and verify that users were who they claimed to be, the company admits it was overwhelmed […]

Spotted on LinkedIn: public.monster. It’s a 1990s-style Web host. From the About page: “Back in the 90s, you could just drop some HTML files in your ~/public_html folder and BAM — your site was live for the whole world to see. No build steps. No frameworks. No deployment pipelines. Just pure, unfiltered creativity. We want that feeling back.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/20/public-monster/

Spotted on LinkedIn: public.monster. It’s a 1990s-style Web host. From the About page: “Back in the 90s, you could just drop some HTML files in your ~/public_html folder and BAM — your site was live for the whole world to see. No build steps. No frameworks. No deployment pipelines. Just pure, unfiltered creativity. We want that feeling back.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/20/public-monster/

Spotted on LinkedIn: public.monster. It’s a 1990s-style Web host. From the About page: “Back in the 90s, you could just drop some HTML files in your ~/public_html folder and BAM — your site was live for the whole world to see. No build steps. No frameworks. No deployment pipelines. Just pure, unfiltered creativity. We want that feeling back.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/20/public-monster/

Spotted on LinkedIn: public.monster. It’s a 1990s-style Web host. From the About page: “Back in the 90s, you could just drop some HTML files in your ~/public_html folder and BAM — your site was live for the whole world to see. No build steps. No frameworks. No deployment pipelines. Just pure, unfiltered creativity. We want that feeling back.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/11/20/public-monster/

Alex Plescan: Just for fun: animating a mosaic of 90s GIFs. “…let’s go behind the scenes of how the GIF mosaic came together. We’ll look at sourcing the GIFs, cleaning them up so they’re safe for public display, and animating them.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/09/17/just-for-fun-animating-a-mosaic-of-90s-gifs-alex-plescan/

Alex Plescan: Just for fun: animating a mosaic of 90s GIFs. “…let’s go behind the scenes of how the GIF mosaic came together. We’ll look at sourcing the GIFs, cleaning them up so they’re safe for public display, and animating them.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/09/17/just-for-fun-animating-a-mosaic-of-90s-gifs-alex-plescan/

Alex Plescan: Just for fun: animating a mosaic of 90s GIFs. “…let’s go behind the scenes of how the GIF mosaic came together. We’ll look at sourcing the GIFs, cleaning them up so they’re safe for public display, and animating them.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/09/17/just-for-fun-animating-a-mosaic-of-90s-gifs-alex-plescan/

Geeks Are Sexy: From 300 bps to 56K: The Glorious Noise of Getting Online. “Remember when the internet screamed at you before letting you online? Youtuber Retrocet has preserved the full symphony of dial-up modems in a compilation that takes us on a journey from the snail-paced 300 bps connections to the lightning-fast (at the time) 56K. Each shriek, screech, and static hiss is historically […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/09/01/from-300-bps-to-56k-the-glorious-noise-of-getting-online-geeks-are-sexy/

Geeks Are Sexy: From 300 bps to 56K: The Glorious Noise of Getting Online. “Remember when the internet screamed at you before letting you online? Youtuber Retrocet has preserved the full symphony of dial-up modems in a compilation that takes us on a journey from the snail-paced 300 bps connections to the lightning-fast (at the time) 56K. Each shriek, screech, and static hiss is historically […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/09/01/from-300-bps-to-56k-the-glorious-noise-of-getting-online-geeks-are-sexy/

Tom’s Hardware: AOL will end dial-up internet service in September, 34 years after its debut — AOL Shield Browser and AOL Dialer software will be shuttered on the same day. “AOL, now a Yahoo! property, will end its dial-up internet service, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)-based internet connectivity service, on September 30, 2025. Its dial-up service has been publicly available […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/11/toms-hardware-aol-will-end-dial-up-internet-service-in-september-34-years-after-its-debut-aol-shield-browser-and-aol-dialer-software-will-be-shuttered-on-the-same-day/

Tom’s Hardware: AOL will end dial-up internet service in September, 34 years after its debut — AOL Shield Browser and AOL Dialer software will be shuttered on the same day. “AOL, now a Yahoo! property, will end its dial-up internet service, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)-based internet connectivity service, on September 30, 2025. Its dial-up service has been publicly available […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/11/toms-hardware-aol-will-end-dial-up-internet-service-in-september-34-years-after-its-debut-aol-shield-browser-and-aol-dialer-software-will-be-shuttered-on-the-same-day/

Spotted on Reddit: MP3.com Archive Search. “There are a few different archives of the audio files from MP3.com but I don’t think any of them are as complete as this one. Artist and song links go to mp3-2003.computer-legacy.com which hosts a copy of the skeleton (some song pages seem to be missing). This website and the skeleton it is based on do not include any audio, instead I embedded the […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/08/spotted-on-reddit-mp3-com-archive-search/

Spotted on Reddit: MP3.com Archive Search. “There are a few different archives of the audio files from MP3.com but I don’t think any of them are as complete as this one. Artist and song links go to mp3-2003.computer-legacy.com which hosts a copy of the skeleton (some song pages seem to be missing). This website and the skeleton it is based on do not include any audio, instead I embedded the […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/08/spotted-on-reddit-mp3-com-archive-search/

Boing Boing: Wondering how to waste time online like a champion? Try the Bored Button. “The Bored Button is a fun way to explore the internet randomly. The bored button will take you to an entertaining website, many of which remind me of the earlier days of the web in their simplicity. I’ve spent way too long clicking away at the bored button, getting distracted by the novelty sites it takes […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/16/boing-boing-wondering-how-to-waste-time-online-like-a-champion-try-the-bored-button/

Boing Boing: Wondering how to waste time online like a champion? Try the Bored Button. “The Bored Button is a fun way to explore the internet randomly. The bored button will take you to an entertaining website, many of which remind me of the earlier days of the web in their simplicity. I’ve spent way too long clicking away at the bored button, getting distracted by the novelty sites it takes […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/16/boing-boing-wondering-how-to-waste-time-online-like-a-champion-try-the-bored-button/

Boing Boing: Wondering how to waste time online like a champion? Try the Bored Button. “The Bored Button is a fun way to explore the internet randomly. The bored button will take you to an entertaining website, many of which remind me of the earlier days of the web in their simplicity. I’ve spent way too long clicking away at the bored button, getting distracted by the novelty sites it takes […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/16/boing-boing-wondering-how-to-waste-time-online-like-a-champion-try-the-bored-button/