I want the OLD internet back :(

[macbreak]

I want the OLD internet back :( - with all this modern distraction, there's too much to watch and you don't really tend to appreciate anything much; your attention span suffers, and everything piped at you by facebook, Google, YouTube etc is just another tedious chore to get out of the way, without *really* enjoying it. Everyone expects you to want to interact with them ALL THE TIME - I'm as bad, as it's a cultural addiction. WhatsApp, email, Skype, Facebook - LEAVE ME ALONE! :(


I want an internet back where it isn't "recommending" things to me like it thinks it knows me, 24 hours a day. I want to just discover the things that matter and that GENUINELY fascinate me and grab my interest. Web 2.0+ is a swamp of tedium, narcissism and perpetual streams of distracting, superficial GUFF.


Bring back static HTML pages written by REALLY clever people who weren't just angling for "likes" and ad revenue. We need a way to make our minds FORGET all this stuff, and have it not even remember that it is there - we need firewalls and blockers to filter out the 95% of RUBBISH which is hosed into our faces ALL THE TIME.


Arghh... maybe I just need to discipline myself more, and learn self-control.


Time to go back on dialup, maybe? ^_^


My musings for the day. Sorry to have distracted you (isn't *that* ironic!)

[Bucky Ball]

No Script and Adblock Plus keep me fairly free of guff ... unless I go looking for it and get distracted of my own voilition! I do know what you mean, though. It can be a swamp out there, especially of narcissism. People, don't post pics of your lunch! If I cared what it looked like or what you have for lunch, I'd ask you out for lunch and have a look!!! (but I suppose if I was in to catering I'd be interested. I'm not and I'm not.) ;)

[taipan4000]

Like Bucky Ball Adblock Plus helps, so does not using any of Google's products. For searches I use Duck Duck Go. I still use Firefox and I like its new feature where browsing history can be forgotten on the go with press of a button. Getting rid of ALL my cookies when my browser closes also helps to keep the crap away. If you want the old internet, refuse to use 'the book of face', twit!-eh or any of the other 'useful' social apps that rob your privacy.

[Tar_Ni]

I use Adblock Edge with the fanboy's ultimate list in Firefox, which removes all ads, invisible trackers, enhanced tracking and social media buttons. That's a lot less junk on the Internet. I also avoid online services such a Google and Facebook and their awful trackrecords on privacy.

But it's true that services like Youtube and Skype have been taken over by giant corporations, which have enough ressources to push them to us in every possible way. I miss the oldtime's Youtube before Google turned it into a social media website and force me to get a gmail and Google+ account in order to post a comment..

The tech giants (Google, Microsoft, Apple..) want to own the web, their purpose is to draw us and constrain us into their ecosystems. They are becoming internet, there is little space now for alternatives who just can't compete.

[macbreak]

I was more thinking of abandoning ADSL worldwide, and starting to re-manufacture Windows 98 machines... and lowering the CPU speeds to 733MHZ or less... :D :p


Oh, and perhaps obliterating all software and devices since 2003 ... haha

[mooreted]

I run with javascript off and only turn it on for sites where I need it. It makes for a nice, mostly text web experience with no flashing, popping, auto-playing, sound blasting, like me on Facebook junk.

[QIII]

My 1958 Beetle got me around. It had an AM radio that sometimes worked.

My (Mrs QIII's, really!) new car, (which has every imaginable gizmo and pinwheel -- even a camera to show me if I am backing up into someone else's new car!) gets me around. It has a premium sound system and Sirius satellite radio.

I can turn off or ignore everything that either doesn't get me around or let me listen to music. Sure, I have some nostalgia about that old Bug. Maybe my nostalgia is more about the blonde cheerleaders I always had sitting next to me in it. Hmmmm. I dunno.

Whatever. Anyway, I do think I prefer the heated leather seats I have now to the seats in the ol' Bug.

[Bucky Ball]

Ah, the old bug! QIII, I had two or three of them. Great car. Long story about their perfomance in the hot Australian summers, though, which I won't go into. ;)

As taipan4000 mentions, DuckDuckGo. All I use for browsing.

[buzzingrobot]

The problem isn't the internet. It's just a network. The problem is us. It was inevitable that we -- all of us -- would leverage the internet to serve our own agendas and objectives, whatever they are. It just happens that most people see the net as something that serves up entertaining distractions, just like TV. (TV's on a screen, internet content is on a screen.) All kinds of money in that.

Get an RSS reader, like Liferea or Akregator, and populate it with sources you like. Use Adblock Plus, as mentioned. If Google ads annoy you, use an alternative search engine.

(If you are working with very limited RAM, note that Adblock increases a browser's memory requirement because it rebuilds a page in RAM, filtering out the ads, before the page displays.)

[monkeybrain20122]

Get a text based internet browser like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_%28web_browser%29 :)

I am all for the new internet experience. I am shallow, I like a lot of sound and colour, flashy things that move. :) Not just the intenet, in genereal I am not nostalgic about the old days (i.e anything before 2000) I have broken up with people because I couldn't stand them playing 80's cheesy music day in and out:)

[grahammechanical]

Ah, the cunning plan is working then! My apologies to Bawdric.

The World Wide Web is the opium of the people. No apologies to Karl Marx.

[Bucky Ball]

(If you are working with very limited RAM, note that Adblock increases a browser's memory requirement because it rebuilds a page in RAM, filtering out the ads, before the page displays.)

Interesting. Never knew that. Cheers.




The World Wide Web is the opium of the people. No apologies to Karl Marx.

Something like Huxley's soma perhaps. ;)

[Linuxratty]

I hate everything being aimed for mobile. I go to a page and see this tiny little page with tiny script and HUGE edges of blankness..I have to zoom in to read the bloody thing. I get so sick of this. At least FF saves the zoom in feature to pages I visit so i don't have to zoom in everywhere.
I also use Ad Block,otherwise,the web is just a mass of visual vomit.

[PaulW2U]

Bring back static HTML pages written by REALLY clever people who weren't just angling for "likes" and ad revenue.

I used to have web-site like that. In fact my domain holding page still is. ;)


I was more thinking of abandoning ADSL worldwide, and starting to re-manufacture Windows 98 machines... and lowering the CPU speeds to 733MHZ or less...

Once you got dial-up working on Windows 3.11 you felt you had achieved something. From Windows 95 onwards it all became too easy.

[Tar_Ni]

(If you are working with very limited RAM, note that Adblock increases a browser's memory requirement because it rebuilds a page in RAM, filtering out the ads, before the page displays.)

I am using Adblock Edge on my 1GB of RAM mini acer laptop and I have never experienced any RAM issues. In fact, web pages load faster with much less junk, it allows for an uncluttered experience of the web. The only thing I would say is not to add too many blocking filters. I use fanboy's Ultimate List so I don't have to worry about that. :)

[monkeybrain20122]

I am using Adblock Edge on my 1GB of RAM mini acer laptop and I have never experienced any RAM issues. In fact, web pages load faster with much less junk, it allows for an uncluttered experience of the web. The only thing I would say is not to add too many blocking filters. I use fanboy's Ultimate List so I don't have to worry about that. :)

I don't think 1G is 'very limited RAM'. ;) Also I think Adblock plus with the box 'allowing non intrusive ads' unchecked is essentially the same as Adblock edge.

[Tar_Ni]

I don't think 1G is 'very limited RAM'. ;) Also I think Adblock plus with the box 'allowing non intrusive ads' unchecked is essentially the same as Adblock edge.

Very limited, maybe not but it is 'limited', by today's standard. Now using Lubuntu does help a lot, it is low on ressources. Believe it or not, this laptop came with Windows 7 preinstalled. It was slow and hanged constantly, that's why the pawn shop guy only asked 60$ for it..

As for Adblock Edge, it is indeed a fork of Adblock Plus 2.1.2, wihtout the sponsored ads withelist. I feel it should be recommended over ADB on Firefox, for a lot of people don't know that the devs behind ADB let quite a few ads go through by default, Google even pay them for that purpose. Besides, it's so easy to add and switch filters in AE by going to 'filter preferences', they are all there, including fanboy's so you don't have to hunt for them.

[monkeybrain20122]

Very limited, maybe not but it is 'limited', by today's standard. Now using Lubuntu does help a lot, it is low on ressources. Believe it or not, this laptop came with Windows 7 preinstalled. It hanged and crashed constantly, that's why the pawn shop guy only asked 60$ for it..
.

I have installed xubuntu on machines with 1 G of ram with Compiz and all the eye candies. Faster than even XP.

[sffvba[e0rt]

Pfft... internet... why back in my day we had to plant trees, so we could chop 'em down and make paper and then get a monk to write on it... then get someone to read it to us...

[DuckHook]

Hah!... We used hammer and chisel. On flat rocks. My cousin did this thing using pigments on the cave wall. Never did figure that guy out.

[mikodo]

I am using Adblock Edge on my 1GB of RAM mini acer laptop and I have never experienced any RAM issues. In fact, web pages load faster with much less junk, it allows for an uncluttered experience of the web. The only thing I would say is not to add too many blocking filters. I use fanboy's Ultimate List so I don't have to worry about that. :)I went to Bluhell Firewall (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bluhell-firewall/), because of Adblock+ with all my other addons, slowing my browsing. There was a significant increase in speed of loading pages using Bluehell, instead of Adblock+. I may try Adblock Edge, to see how it does.

[Tar_Ni]

I went to Bluhell Firewall (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bluhell-firewall/), because of Adblock+ with all my other addons, slowing my browsing. There was a significant increase in speed of loading pages using Bluehell, instead of Adblock+. I may try Adblock Edge, to see how it does.

I've tried BlueHell Firewall a few months ago but it's not as effective. The blocking list just isn't good enough. You can see quite a few ads here and there and popups on heavy-laden websites.

And ABP or ABE are actually more than just adblockers.. With fanboy's Ultimate List I can block ads, invisible trackers, enhanced tracking, social media button. I can add a blocking list for Malware domain (very useful on particularly on Windows) and anti-adblocker notifications. So that saves me the need of installing another extension for more privacy. ABE does it all, and the lists are updated frequently.

[Frogs Hair]

Dial up would display the same distractions only much more slowly . :)

[Bucky Ball]

Pfft... internet... why back in my day we had to plant trees, so we could chop 'em down and make paper and then get a monk to write on it... then get someone to read it to us...

lol.


Hah!... We used hammer and chisel. On flat rocks. My cousin did this thing using pigments on the cave wall. Never did figure that guy out.

... and lol. ;)

[pfeiffep]

I for one don't want to revert to an Apple IIc dialing into bulletin boards;) (yea I know this isn't the internet) or hearing the annoying sound of a modem connecting.
I really like the world wide web (vs wait) and all the advantages it provides over the bare bones internet.
Yes there are plenty distractions just like there are plenty of tv show I don't like - I find it easy to ignore what's not to my liking

[mikodo]

I've tried BlueHell Firewall a few months ago but it's not as effective. The blocking list just isn't good enough. You can see quite a few ads here and there and popups on heavy-laden websites.

And ABP or ABE are actually more than just adblockers.. With fanboy's Ultimate List I can block ads, invisible trackers, enhanced tracking, social media button. I can add a blocking list for Malware domain (very useful on particularly on Windows) and anti-adblocker notifications. So that saves me the need of installing another extension for more privacy. ABE does it all, and the lists are updated frequently.I tried ABE. I want to thank you for suggesting it, and for the added security, that comes with using it like you outline.

As far as comparing my browsing experience with BlueHell, I see no difference in the speed of pages loading. I did go to another IP this week, that provides significantly faster download speeds for me now, and only tried ABE after that, (only coincidentally). So, I guess I am "comparing apples to oranges" here. But, in saying all this I am very happy with ABE.

Thank you, again.