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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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Jobs.
Some days they seem like a thing of the past that might never come back.
They set us up the boom...
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...
All those graphics that say, "Powered by SomeFrigginTechnology(tm)". Sheesh, that is so 1997.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
Toaplan creates the Zero Wing video game.
Toaplan releases a port for the Sega Genesis console with the addition of an intro scene, which is then translated into english (very poorly) and released in the United States.
Toaplan goes out of business.
Someone from a Zany Video Game Quotes website notices the poor translation, and highlights the game.
Overclocked.org does a humorous voiceover of the Zero Wing intro in a fake Wayne Newton voice.
Dozens of game-related messageboards begin to post quotes from the parody, and images altered to show the phrase.
Most of the threads lose interest and die off quickly as the trend is pronounced dead countless times.
The Flash movie/video is released with images from the threads and music taken from the origional game someone had added the phrase "all your base" to.
AYB explosively expands to the general (non game messageboard-reading) public.
The origional site for the video is shut down within hours due to excessive traffic, and moves to PlanetStarsiege.
Lycos ponders how "All your Base" was transformed from obscurity to a top 50 search practically overnight.
Mainstream media begin to notice the trend, and stories appear in Time Magazine, USA Today, Fox News, The Los Angeles Times, Tech TV, Wired, and many others.
As the 'remix' used in the video goes from 58 hits a day to several thousand per day, mp3.com notices the track has been ripped directly from the video game and pulls the music off their site due to copyright violations. It is later returned unchanged.
The trend continues to grow as it expands into nearly every corner of the web.
Large websites like Angelfire and Hewlett Packard sneak "all your base" references into their designs.
"All Your Base" is pronounced dead several times every day, yet it's 15 minutes of fame continue for some reason...
I suppose that the reason they called it a 'dot com' phenomenon is that it was around then that the internet reached critical mass among users; there were enough to make business viable, and - like spam - inane memes had no problem finding an audience.
/. is no place to talk about the motes in the eyes of others; just consider the linux clusters of natalieportman.cx .
Of course, the internet is perfect for memes like 'all your base' to flourish; it takes no effort to forward an url to everyone you know; I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows at least one individual who regularly sent messages where the To: field was longer than the rest of the message combined. A swift (and usually repeated) larting usually took care of these eventually, but in a lot of cases that just meant that their list was transferred to Bcc: instead.
Two things that I noticed around that time that didn't make the list: The warning about GoodTimes, and the now-legendary one-line email that you had to scroll through eight metres of crap and and a myriad '>>>>>' of variable length in order to read 'Check it out!!!!!!!!!' followed by an asinine url that leaves you wondering why the fuck anyone'd want to send it in the first place, let alone forward it to the universe.
Of course,
What the hell is a 'grit' anyway?
Use in every post, for great justice!
What I say!?!?
Someone set us up the long-running gag!
All our taste are belong to bad.
You are not the customer.
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.
Since nobody here seems to know the original source, I'd better chime in. The prank is from a Jerky Boys CD. Despite their stupid movie, those guys produced two (maybe more) hilarious CD's full of these types of calls. Even though the "why you kick my dog!" routine is funny, it isn't their best material. If you like the skit, I suggest you look into the full CD's. (I have no financial interest here; I'm simply a fan.)
"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." -Voltaire
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.
They forgot one other fad: Mr.T Ate My Balls (and original site). I have to admit, I never got that one.
It's better to burn out than to fade away