CERN Launches Line Mode Browser Emulator

itwbennett writes "As part of the project to preserve the world's first website and all of the accompanying technology, CERN last week launched a line mode browser emulator. To make the browser experience authentic, the developers recreated how terminals would draw one character at a time by covering the page in black and then revealing each character by erasing a character-sized rectangle from that cover, one-by-one, line-by-line. They also recreated the sound of typing on older keyboards, specifically an IBM RS/6000 keyboard, by using HTML5 audio elements."

Comments

Looks familiar...

[ak_hepcat]

Almost exactly what browsing with lynx looks like on my CIT-101e VT100 dumb terminal that i still have, and still works.
It's been a workhorse since 1989 or so, and has yet to fail.

Granted, i don't keep it ON all the time.

Now, is CERN going to make an archie/veronica tty client for the web as well?

I might look into it.

[gallondr00nk]

It'll be better than using the beta.

Yes, that was a cheap shot, I admit it.

Re:I might look into it.

[TWX]

Unfortunately I'm finding it difficult to disagree with you.

When there wasn't an unlimited amount of screen or an unlimited amount of graphics capability, interface designers had to be very diligent in how they used what they had. With only eighty columns and twenty-five rows, or if you were lucky, one-hundred-thirty-two columns and forty-four rows, there wasn't a lot of room for waste or poor design.

Modern web designers have embraced the ooh-shiny parts of modern HTML specifications but haven't held on to the basic purpose, to efficiently convey information. Beta is an example, embracing eye-candy at the expense of that which the site's purpose is for, to convey information that's mostly text-based.

I also used to use Lynx/links/elinks as testing for what I wrote. I haven't written HTML in a big way in some time, but I imagine that most pages will fail the text-mode test.

Would you care to rephrase that?

[JazzHarper]

FTFS: "...terminals would draw one character at a time by covering the page in black and then revealing each character by erasing a character-sized rectangle from that cover, one-by-one, line-by-line."

I don't know of any terminals that ever worked that way.

Keyboard sounds

[Guest316]

I've occasionally startled people by identifying their brand and model of computer or terminal over the phone just by the sound of their keyboards. Membrane keyboards have deprived me of this form of amusement though.

Re: Keyboard sounds

[TWX]

Because that's about as funny as helping people install Windows 95 over the phone, and reciting those various feature-splash-screens, roughly as they appeared on the user's screen, from memory...

I'm not proud of this, mind you...

Re: Keyboard sounds

[vlueboy]

Speaking of Windows sounds: Ever hear a person say "h", "t", "t", "p", "colon", "backslash", "backslash", ... ?

Incorrect. Several commercials for large, well known US companies often did that in the late nineties. They knew scant few people were aware of how to visit, so they had to encourage them to go by making it easy. This allowed them to enhance the point of a 30 second commercial, and had the appeal that eventually people would look up a product out of curiosity while never getting the urge to call an 800 number and get trapped by a live salesperson.

Since the potential medium was not as mainstream to trigger as saying "call us now at the number on your screen" and leaving it on would be just as ignored as car commercial / lawyer ad fine print, reading the url was disruptive yet new-fangled enough to stand out. They just follow the queue of the professional 1-800 number ads... and dumbly recite the whole url letter by letter to ensure the viewers could at least tell it was important. It's similar to how on facebook's baby days, ads had improved to say "visit us at facebook.com/somelargecompanyurl." Nowadays they just say follow *us* (no explanation or canonical name) on facebook and don't even list their own megacompany public url.

That's a downside of today's internet: sometimes you dumbly stare at some unknown company with a mystery logo pushing a cryptic ad that just points to a facebook or twitter page, which can then link elsewhere. No NAME, no PHONE*, and some presumed immunity to needing to list a fine print. They pay for cheap print ad space forcing curious eyes to a page that does all the talking in as much space as they want at virtually no additional cost. On their actual page (if they dare drive you to their own servers) they enjoy sneakily unleashing as many ads and affiliate crosslinks as they want... let alone being able to track the visitors the second they land on the page.

* no hope of any interaction with real people should you have some trouble with what just caught your eye for a possible sale... OR RETURN

Re:So you found the god particle

[Anonymous Coward]

Next on the list: Emulate oldest terminal browser, drink single malt, fire paladium at each other w/accelerator for fun cause there is no more science left!? #waste

There's plenty of science left. Please do the following (in this order):

1) Cure my goddamn jock itch.
2) Give the guy in the next cube some kind of space age denture glue so he stops making all those disgusting sounds with his dentures.
3) Make me a pill that will give me the ability to tell that cute girl in accounts that I'm really sorry about what happened after the company barbecue last month.

Get back to work, boys!

Can /. do this?

[morethanapapercert]

Y'know, say for sysadmin appreciation day (July 25th) , or for April 1 instead of some gawd-awful "OMGPonies!" colour scheme?