Websites Way Back
Rob Long ·
Dec 14, 2011 at 9:17pm
Ricochet, as you all have noticed, keeps getting better. Well, I hope you've noticed. We're trying to add some more features, adjust the front page, figure out new ways to keep track of conversations.
It's interesting, though, to see what some other pages looked like when they launched. Mashable has gathered a bunch of them together, but here are some highlights. The NYTimes, for instance, looked like this:
And on-line retail giant Amazon.com looked like this:
What do you think will look different in 15 years? And I wonder what Ricochet will look like, on the eve of the second term of the Chris Christie administration?
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Websites Way Back
In 15 years, websites will be 3d, projected into a small cube of air above the table by a tablet the size of a post-it note. You will be able to grab, pinch, pull, turn, and stretch the site to see different pieces of it or follow links. Either that, or direct retinal projection will create the most realistic virtual reality you can imagine.
May '10
Re: Websites Way Back
My first internet service was Prodigy, a 28.8 dial-up service on an IBM PS2. It had vector graphics that you could watch build layer by layer. My first laptop was a Panasonic no-hard drive machine that you loaded software off 3.5" floppies. I was one of the first techs to take a laptop into a remote production truck because we could actually get out-of-town baseball scores before the team PR people handed out the sheets in the press box. Oh. the wonders!
And by the way this is your future:
Rob Long is holographed into your living room as old episodes of Uncommon Knowledge are painstakingly re-rendered into 3D.
Edited on Dec 14, 2011 at 10:27pmApr '11
Re: Websites Way Back
Well if Mr. Delingpole and Steyn are correct in 15 years there will be no internet and the world will be a bleak futuristic landscape littered with the remnants of our once glorious civilization.
Also I hope both EJ and Mark are wrong...3D is a curse, a vile heretical notion that must be expunged before it seeps into our lives any further than Blockbuster movies...we will know we have reached the end of civilization when the first 3D e-book appears....
I do hope you are right about Christie....what I figure is... Seeing his party, and so many Americans suffering from lack of good choices in candidates, he will step onto the RNC stage and declare himself willing to take up our noble cause. At which point the delegates all cheer in relief and exuberance. They lifting him onto their shoulders and carry him to Washington DC where he will challenge Obama to a manly battle of strength and will from which he will emerge victorious. Following this he will corral the congress together from their dens and force them to balance the budget, and fix the tax code, after which he walks into the sunset.
Oct '10
Re: Websites Way Back
Valiuth:
I do hope you are right about Christie....what I figure is... Seeing his party, and so many Americans suffering from lack of good choices in candidates, he will step onto the RNC stage and declare himself willing to take up our noble cause. At which point the delegates all cheer in relief and exuberance. They lifting him onto their shoulders and carry him to Washington DC where he will challenge Obama to a manly battle of strength and will from which he will emerge victorious. Following this he will corral the congress together from their dens and force them to balance the budget, and fix the tax code, after which he walks into the sunset.
I vote for Mark Wilson's "Minority Report"-like future, with hands swirling above the breakfast nook as we reposition and expand the box scores to a size visible w/o reading glasses. But why-oh-why are so many convinced that it's always that next Republican who will save us? They always seem to fizzle when daylight shines upon them. Think Giuliani and Thompson from the last cycle. I wish it were otherwise, but hope is not a strategy.
Apr '11
Re: Websites Way Back
Well HVT...I always really liked Giuliani and I think he would have made a great candidate against Obama and we know he is an effective administrator...actually I'll admit to liking McCain too. My only regret in supporting him was that he was not a more effective campaigner. My Christie hyperbole not with standing the one thing I can say is I feel confident that Christie would fight and do what is necessary to put the Federal Government back on fiscally stable track. That is what he is doing in NJ. That's why I want him to run. I have little confidence in Gingrich or Romney doing this. Between the two I think Romney looks more competent.
What about the Blade Runner large Urban decay future....that looked neat...I hate the sterile all shiny futures...I want steam and metal future...
May '10
Re: Websites Way Back
Craigslist hasn't changed a bit.
Feb '10
Re: Websites Way Back
Neither has the Drudge Report.
Sometimes the original design just gets it right. And sometimes the fundamentals underneath the design are compelling enough that you don't need a bunch of bells and whistles and paint.
Aug '10
Re: Websites Way Back
I noticed that http://cdn.ricochet.com is a thing, and it loads a bit faster for me. Did y'all rent some Canuckistani server space?
Sadly, I also noticed that I cannot log in as a member via cdn.ricochet.com.
Aug '10
Re: Websites Way Back
Well, they banned prostitute ads. That's a change.
Aug '10
Re: Websites Way Back
Help me Obi-Steyn Kenobi, you're my only hope...
Feb '10
Re: Websites Way Back
That is a static cache of our website, and is not intended for direct consumption. Its primary purpose is to serve images, lessening the load on our main server. It's also a CDN (content distribution network) so it may serve files from a location closer to you.
Of course, you cannot log into a static cache of a website. It would be great, though, if the CDN could automatically distribute even the dynamic parts of our site!
May '10
Re: Websites Way Back
I can remember when Steyn was a member of Ricochet.
Content > presentation.
Steyn and David Limbaugh were favorite contributors of mine, now both generally or entirely absent. And it still takes me multiple attempts to log in half the time (a problem I haven't had with any other online forum).
On the other hand, I appreciate the Member and College feeds, the additional podcasts, and the occasional live chat. And new members equal new content.
Aug '10
Re: Websites Way Back
Lucky young whippersnappers! I used Prodigy on an old Macintosh over a 9600 modem! (1/3 the speed of a 28.8, for the non-techs).
Kids these days, don't know how good they have it, what with their skateboards and rock music and graphics that reliably load every time.
As for old website looks... I know exactly why Amazon's old page looks like that. When I started out coding web pages, we were required to make them compatible with text-only browsers like Lynx. Images were discouraged, and every image used had to include detailed "alt" text describing what it was.
The biggest coding shop debates were whether a new page element warranted the extra few kilobytes' page size. Those debates went away as computers got more powerful and broadband became ubiquitous... only to spring up again now that mobile devices have limited bandwidth and power.