Retro fugly websites

I guess that HTML and how people can screw up less with it has come a long way. This (1999 - not me on pic, but close :D - edit: from the times when alternately colored visited links were in) was one of the first website I made myself that was of "production" grade. Then probably came the schtroumpf chronicles archives site (circa 2000). I mean, wtf is the difficulty level today? Then, eventually there was the BUGS website, which was originally designed by a designer friend and then butchered by yours truly on bulky and un-simplistic software like Dreamweaver. I tend to code by hand, but moreover, I tend to hate things that require the point-and-click, since I knowlingly go for anything that is hardcore ("I drink motor oil in the morning"). Truthfully, it'd be cool to know how to make Flash animations, but since I was told you can code Flash animation *by hand*, then why the hell not do so?

So, more recently, I discovered PHP and liked modularizing my code with include tags, like for the CTF website (currently unavailable, becoz we got totally Russian-hacked/pwned two weeks ago, w/o a backup system whatsoever - thank Gott it happened right after exams!). Building on my knowledge of include tags, I did the Cool McGill web design... although the design isn't much of a feat, rather just the structure that I injected, which the previous site didn't have.

The other ones I can remember are work site, so I can't show them to you. But the type of websites you write on the corner of your desk seem to have dissapeared for good with the appearance and popularization of blogs. I mean, who the hell makes his own website designs anymore? Some I did on my defunct website were really nerdy (Mario Bros layout) or just very twisted (ha-ha, a TV set as top image, and entries as TV guide descriptions), but what about today? Maybe I've just given up on esthetics in the artistic sense, and find refuge in technical esthetics. I guess it's like with liking buildings, not for their facades, but for how they are built (now I keep thinking of the MIT Simmons Hall).

And so I wonder, ugly houses, nice houses; ugly websites, nice websites: same deal, as our lives go deeper towards virtualization. AJAX: very cool stuff. APIs: finally prefabricated materials. Etc, gotta find some sleep.

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This page contains a single entry by Cedric published on May 22, 2006 4:44 AM.

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