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Dotcom Era Fads
prostoalex writes "Nostalgic USA Today looks at the fads of the dotcom boom era. The Dancing Baby, HamsterDance, I Kiss you dot org and the phrase 'All your base are belong to us' made the list."
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All your base is a fad? I still use it in daily conversation. It's one of the greatest running jokes ever. The guy who wrote this article obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. Kinda like those people that say MP3s were a fad.
ugh.
We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose. We understand that hearing us say this is important to you...
All Your Base is most definitely post dot.com.
It was early 2001 (sheesh, that long ago?) and it was picked up by the Google Zeitgeist at the time.
Kibology is probably pre-Dot Com as well. Maybe they meant to talk about lavish parties and venture capital being burnt?
At least we never really had a Dotcom era to speak of in New Zealand...
We forgot about nostalgia for a little while...
Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, to live through a boom/bust cycle like that. Kindof a Millenium Burnout Party, I guess.
And that's one fad they forgot: the Millenium.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Aeron Chairs. 'Nuff said.
I wonder if anyone traced back the sources of the most popular slashdotisms, like the "Dear Apple" or "I am sitting here with my freelance gig" trollings or the "In Soviet Russia" jokes? Anyone knows when the first "First post!" post was posted?
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In Soviet Russia... jokes trace back you.
Nah mate, I'm Australian. There's not much we'll take offense at over here :-) You can even look us in the eye and tell us our beer stinks, and we'll just laugh at you. Tell us our politicians are dickheads, and we'll probably even buy you one of those beers! :-)
If, for some reason, you're offended by my looking you in the eye and calling you a 'Paki', then it is your solemn duty to look me in the eye and call me a 'stinking kangaroo f*cker'. In turn, it is my duty to look offended for a couple of seconds, then burst out laughing, and proceed to buy you one of those aforementioned beers.
Closer to home, the term "Paki" here in Australia really doesn't carry any further than a description of one particular group of folks we play 'World Cup' cricket against. (The fact that I refer to 'world cup' and another country in the same sentence should alone prove to you that I'm not an American! Americans don't invite other countries when they hold 'International' sporting competitions!!!).
In any case, in this context, I'm just quoting the sound bite - no offense intended.
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
1991: gopher
1992: Linux, Krol's "Whole Internet Guide"
1993: Apple Newton, Mosaic, Andrea Chen, Doom
1994: Bill Bixby haiku
1995: Yahoo, Greencard spam, Netscape IPO, DejaNews, eBay, Altavista
1996: JenniCam, Palm Pilot, WebTV
1997: dancing baby, Slashdot, 1st weblog
1998: Drudge Report, Google, HampsterDance, iMac, DMCA, PayPal
1999: TiVo, Everquest, Napster, Epinions, Y2K
2000: AOL-TW, bubble pops, ArsDigita University, All Your Base
[Lots more]
I've been a hardcore netizen since 1998, when I used to dial up from my uncle's home to a text-only shell account with a 1,500 bps modem :-) I remember waiting minutes to download a single JPEG file, then transferring it to my local machine using Kermit, and opening it up in Internet Explorer 3.0 on Windows 95, only to realise that it's the wrong one! Those were the days when I learnt to use Pine and Lynx, my favourite mail/www combo.
Those were the days of Internet success stories: ICQ, Napster, Winamp. Remember ShellSock?
In a perfect geek encounter, I met bluesmoon on comp.lang.java. Google didn't even exist back then.
Now, when I look around, I see "techies" with 5-10 years of experience in the software industry and no clue what All Your Base... means :-) Clearly, these guys have been here for the money. I, however, am here because I love it. The Internet is changing lives, and I want to be responsible for some of it. Somebody give me that perfect job! :-D
What about the Big Red Button that doesn't do anything?
Truly a timeless classic.
Many of these great things can be found at:
ebaumsworld and maybe many new fads?:)
The Dot Com days made many changes to the work place which are both positive and negative.
Many of the positives which have been fading, taken away or restricted
Very relaxed dress code (shorts, jeans, sandals, hiking boots/sneakers)
Telecommuting
Flex Time ( work longer on Mon/Tue, take Fri off)
In-house gourmet lunches
Game room and outdoor games
Few of the negatives which are now flourishing
Oursourcing to India
H1-B Visas
Corporate executives throwing their weight around by reducing pay, taking away benefits such as flex time, telecommuting, vacations
One company that epitomizes the positives is Google's Culture. They are one of the few Dot Com type companies still around.
On the dress code, many companies have brought back dress codes especially the legal and finance industry. Where I work at, we are subcontrctors to Boeing on a government contract. Their top manager has a strict dress policy of having to wear a tie, slacks and dress shoes. This means no jeans along with hiking boots/sneakers/tennis shoes. This dress code even applies on trips on weekends and if you come in on a Saturday. Their work hours are strict 8 to 5. Those rules don't apply to us, YET ! There are rumblings in the Boeing group to force us to comply with those rules since they hold the purse strings. I take Thursday and Friday afternoons off just about every week but Monday and Tuesday are long days though. I also wear jeans everyday as well. We are in one of the top outdoor recreational states of Colorado.
Part of the rumblings in Boeing to force us to comply with their rules caused a few problems for me. Back in June/July, I took 4 weeks vacation to do some traveling, go see family and one of the Managers in Boeing told me to cancel my vacation since my focus should be on working instead of taking time off that I have earned and I told him I did not answer to him and he got irate. He told me I will pay for my attitude. The same person got pissed when I happen to be around on Friday all day that they cannot get any work done because of our flex time policy. One of their computers at 4pm went down and the person who can call in left at 11 am. He was demanded that the computer get fixed this instant. He made the comment that we are lazy since we take Friday afternoon off. He fired off some complaints to their top executives.
At Oracle which is in Colorado Springs, they started to restrict people from telecommuting who live within 50 miles of the company building. Last I heard, there is talk to take it away. Those who live in different Mountain towns may have to move if they want to keep their job.
I remember my wife telling me about this new web browser thingy. I looked at it, and there were about 200 sites in all, so I shrugged and went back to reading netnews. She never lets me forget that :-)