This was initially written as a reply, so I've expanded this post with more links. This blogpost is meant to point out wifi.ee as one of the places where it all began.
There's a very insightful thread on reddit about the history of the notion of "free Wi-Fi everywhere in Estonia".
As of 2019, free Wi-Fi in Estonia hasn't gone anywhere, and continues to thrive in many places.
But there were free Wi-Fi hotspots ten and even fifteen years ago, too, and even earlier (802.11b). Generally, the newer 802.11g Wi-Fi standard was first adopted in January 2003, which is almost exactly 16 years ago.
The earliest Internet Archive snapshot of wifi.ee, a website that began mapping public Wi-fi hotspots in Estonia, dates back to 7 march 2002. That's 17 years ago; there were only 7 public hotspots in all of Estonia on 14 March 2002.
Just look at this archived photo made in Tartu Lõunakeskus. That's seventeen years ago!
The Reddit thread is insightful, as several posts point out, that this kind of connectivity was almost unheard of elsewhere, and was like science fiction to people visiting the country.
The current 2019 map has 1225 free/public Wi-Fi networks.
Showing posts with label Internet history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet history. Show all posts
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Possible causes for minor reductions in Firefox market share
This was first intended as a reply to the Firefox developer mailing list, but then I decided to post it here first.
Personally, there have so far been two gripes with Firefox that I've taken some issue with:
* One was the disabling of on-demand loading of pinned tabs after session restore (between versions 9–11);
* The other is the current brouhaha over Adobe's Flash crashing the plugin container process, which is really not the fault of Mozilla. (more below)
Sometimes it's not users leaving Firefox, but some of them starting to use Chrome as their very first browser. Well, Chrome coming around is a good thing, because this gives people more choice as to which browser they want to use, as Chrome and Firefox both possess unique and attractive features that meet their users' different needs.
HTML5 video
The current situation with Flash crashing the plugin container in Firefox is coincidentally a good cause for moving to HTML5 audio and HTML5 video, specifically Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora, and WebM, which are free and especially license-free formats.
YouTube's work in converting most of its videos to WebM reduces the immediate requirement and sometimes unpleasant chore of installing Flash on Linux, thereby increasing adoption of Linux, as other sites will hopefully follow suit in adopting free formats.
If we exclude the Summer low and the current Flash issue, then the next reason behind a reduction in Firefox usage could be the choice of format in sites using HTML5 video — most users tend to choose the browser that plays back whatever their favoured media site offers, with variations (mobile/desktop) of Chrome being in a rather advantageous situation right now, as it has built-in support for Flash.
Yet the situation with HTML5 video seems to be split right now along the lines of which HTML5 codecs are supported by which groups of browsers: Safari and IE vs. Opera, Chrome, Firefox and its derivatives.
The choice of YouTube and DailyMotion to offer videos in license-free formats is highly commendable. Now, if YouTube could actually stream high-profile events using HTML5/WebM in addition to Flash...
Desktop to mobile/tablet
Yet another reason in reduction of Firefox market share could just as well be the transition of people's major computing devices from desktops (including notebooks) to hand-helds (smartphones, tablets), nearly all of which currently have WebKit as their main rendering engine (in the form of either Safari or Chrome). I do not know if there has been a separate browser market share comparison for just desktop computers, because I understand that general tallies have usually encompassed both desktop and mobile spaces, with mobile being the separate segment.
Ultimately, as Mozilla and then Firefox were introduced, it was hoped that the browser market would eventually take the shape that it of recent times has started to form (at least worldwide) — in that no one browser would completely rule the market to be in its singularity the one to hold back innovation, and the one to pose itself in unintended consequence a widespread vector for malicious attacks.
So, in conclusion, the situation in my humble and perhaps half-informed opinion, is quite a bit more mixed with regard to what may be the possible causes of Firefox browser market share reduction this Spring and Summer.
Personally, there have so far been two gripes with Firefox that I've taken some issue with:
* One was the disabling of on-demand loading of pinned tabs after session restore (between versions 9–11);
* The other is the current brouhaha over Adobe's Flash crashing the plugin container process, which is really not the fault of Mozilla. (more below)
Sometimes it's not users leaving Firefox, but some of them starting to use Chrome as their very first browser. Well, Chrome coming around is a good thing, because this gives people more choice as to which browser they want to use, as Chrome and Firefox both possess unique and attractive features that meet their users' different needs.
HTML5 video
The current situation with Flash crashing the plugin container in Firefox is coincidentally a good cause for moving to HTML5 audio and HTML5 video, specifically Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora, and WebM, which are free and especially license-free formats.
YouTube's work in converting most of its videos to WebM reduces the immediate requirement and sometimes unpleasant chore of installing Flash on Linux, thereby increasing adoption of Linux, as other sites will hopefully follow suit in adopting free formats.
If we exclude the Summer low and the current Flash issue, then the next reason behind a reduction in Firefox usage could be the choice of format in sites using HTML5 video — most users tend to choose the browser that plays back whatever their favoured media site offers, with variations (mobile/desktop) of Chrome being in a rather advantageous situation right now, as it has built-in support for Flash.
Yet the situation with HTML5 video seems to be split right now along the lines of which HTML5 codecs are supported by which groups of browsers: Safari and IE vs. Opera, Chrome, Firefox and its derivatives.
The choice of YouTube and DailyMotion to offer videos in license-free formats is highly commendable. Now, if YouTube could actually stream high-profile events using HTML5/WebM in addition to Flash...
Desktop to mobile/tablet
Yet another reason in reduction of Firefox market share could just as well be the transition of people's major computing devices from desktops (including notebooks) to hand-helds (smartphones, tablets), nearly all of which currently have WebKit as their main rendering engine (in the form of either Safari or Chrome). I do not know if there has been a separate browser market share comparison for just desktop computers, because I understand that general tallies have usually encompassed both desktop and mobile spaces, with mobile being the separate segment.
Ultimately, as Mozilla and then Firefox were introduced, it was hoped that the browser market would eventually take the shape that it of recent times has started to form (at least worldwide) — in that no one browser would completely rule the market to be in its singularity the one to hold back innovation, and the one to pose itself in unintended consequence a widespread vector for malicious attacks.
So, in conclusion, the situation in my humble and perhaps half-informed opinion, is quite a bit more mixed with regard to what may be the possible causes of Firefox browser market share reduction this Spring and Summer.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
A Slashdotter
This was first meant as a comment to "What Makes a Man?" at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, a blog about fabulous people. The post contains the lyrics of the song, and my comment refers to the song's first verse. The comment eventually became too long, and I moved the inital draft here and then updated it quite a bit.
The first verse of Marc Almond's "What Makes a Man?" reads like the life of a typical Slashdotter :>
/For those not in the know: Slashdot is a technology news aggregation website, where most readers are nerds and geeks, and the site's original or primary readership supports software freedom.
In Slashdot-type news aggregation,
a news story is submitted for review by readers, and then being voted on by other readers for publication on the front page.
Each Slashdot story contains a leader with original text and includes a comments section below it. The lede almost always links to the original news item. Comments can be user-generated or anonymous. Comments are moderated by promoting or demoting them, so that comments that are informative, insightful, funny, or a combination thereof, get full visibility, while bad comments are linked or placed "below the threshold" (requires more clicks to see them). As far as I know, only once has a comment on Slashdot been deleted (see Wikipedia article linked below).
More about Slashdot on Wikipedia.
The first verse of Marc Almond's "What Makes a Man?" reads like the life of a typical Slashdotter :>
/For those not in the know: Slashdot is a technology news aggregation website, where most readers are nerds and geeks, and the site's original or primary readership supports software freedom.
Now, the reason the first verse of "What Makes a Man?" very nearly parallels a slashdotter's lifestyle, is that some of the more obnoxious commenters applied this lifestyle meme to Slashdotters in their attempt to ridicule Slashdotters' use of Linux, a free software computer operating system (free as in freedom; no-cost being a bonus of that).As much has been admitted by Linux Torvalds himself, at the 25th minute of The Origins of Linux video organized by Computer History Museum on 19.09.2001.
To these commenters — of which some had to have been employees of companies publishing proprietary software — Slashdotters' use of free software (Linux) thus inferred their inability to afford proprietary (non-free) software, which costs money, something a "typical" Slashdotter has little of. In addition to being unable to find a (female) date :>
| : | The Linux operating system is reasonably free to obtain, which is a bonus of its being free as in freedom; notwithstanding the existence of Linux distributions that do cost a lot of money when used in mission-critical scenarios. |
| : | This "typical" Slashdotter meme is certainly true of many of its users and readers, but from the time it was first introduced Slashdot, many of the slashdotters at the time going through such motions early in their life have eventually become reasonably successful in their own right. |
| : | Given Slashdot's large readership, there will always be a demographic matching the description of the song's first verse. |
In Slashdot-type news aggregation,
a news story is submitted for review by readers, and then being voted on by other readers for publication on the front page.
Each Slashdot story contains a leader with original text and includes a comments section below it. The lede almost always links to the original news item. Comments can be user-generated or anonymous. Comments are moderated by promoting or demoting them, so that comments that are informative, insightful, funny, or a combination thereof, get full visibility, while bad comments are linked or placed "below the threshold" (requires more clicks to see them). As far as I know, only once has a comment on Slashdot been deleted (see Wikipedia article linked below).
More about Slashdot on Wikipedia.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Why Iceweasel versions before 2.0 are not Debian-based
One nice day I found a screenshot of Iceweasel that looked like a version prior to Iceweasel 2.0 and added in its description that it was Debian Iceweasel, as browsers named Iceweasel with a lower-case w are usually Debian-based. (As opposed to GNU IceWeasel, which in 2007 was renamed to IceCat to avoid confusion.)
It then turned out for me, this particular screenshot, and other screenshots in the database that it was not so for the reasons that follow.
The uploader of the screenshot had the unintentionally good sense of including the taskbar of the operating environment, which happened to feature a program window with the title of package
Locations for
From a selective search of most GNU mirrors, I found only one mirror still actually hosting some original files:
The relevant binary files there were last modified on 06.09.2006 00:00.
From the Internet Archive I found another mirror which has hosted
(also features a later capture)
The binaries were last modified on 05.09.2006 23:59, so a minute earlier than those at
Note that researching this kind of history through the Internet Archive has three or so limits:
* I tested to see if only an HTTP mirror had an archive page. Although I did not try to see if the WayBack Machine archives FTP pages, too, I didn't find any necessity for it either; Assuming also that the WayBack Machine does not archive FTP folder listings in the first place;
* The Archive has its own exclusion list of servers that it won't crawl (limited in relation to the GNU mirror list);
* Many mirrors had blocked crawling through
Through my searching whether an HTTP mirror has an archive page, then in the process a substantial number of those ftp-as-http mirrors that allowed crawling had their
No other mirror services in the list of GNU mirrors that I searched at contained the original packages of
Left out from the search:
- South America: Brazil /only country in the list;
- Africa: South Africa;
- Asia: Bangladesh, China, Japan, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan;
- Europe: Greece, Portugal, Spain.
(Funny, Israel was in Asia, too :-)
There were two reasons for leaving these countries out of my search: Either a non-sensical URL (which I couldn't recognize as something resembling legitimacy), or the country is not trustworthy enough to visit its websites, no matter how harmless on appearance. The amount of servers not checked was approximately 10-15%, based on guesswork.
A user-published package of 1.5.0.8pre2 available at safeweb.sitesled.com/iceweasel
Now, Debian started including Iceweasel as a rebranded replacement of Mozilla Firefox only since version 2.0, after which GNU slightly renamed their package to IceWeasel (note capitalisation of W), then a year later renamed their package to IceCat to finally avoid confusion with Debian's own package.
In conclusion, all Iceweasel versions prior to 2.0 are Gnuzilla-based.
I had to add to that screenshot file's notes that this was a screenshot of a Gnuzilla-based Iceweasel and not one of a Debian-based Iceweasel. The GNU IceCat Wikipedia page was also of great help in determining the right source.
It then turned out for me, this particular screenshot, and other screenshots in the database that it was not so for the reasons that follow.
The uploader of the screenshot had the unintentionally good sense of including the taskbar of the operating environment, which happened to feature a program window with the title of package
iceweasel-1.5.0.4-g1-i386. While this got me to get the version number right, the package name was just enough information to start looking further, results of which only pointed to Gnuzilla servers and mirrors. This put me into some doubt as to whether the browser in the screenshot was Debian Iceweasel, and looking even further, my doubts were confirmed.Locations for
iceweasel-1.5.0.4-g1-i386 available here:From a selective search of most GNU mirrors, I found only one mirror still actually hosting some original files:
ftp://aeneas.mit.edu/pub/gnu/gnuzilla/http://www.ftpdir.hu/aeneas.mit.edu/pub/gnu/gnuzilla/The relevant binary files there were last modified on 06.09.2006 00:00.
From the Internet Archive I found another mirror which has hosted
iceweasel-1.5.0.4-g1-i386:web.archive.org/web/20070507153807/http://ftp.download-by.net/gnu/gnu/gnuzilla/(also features a later capture)
The binaries were last modified on 05.09.2006 23:59, so a minute earlier than those at
aeneas.mit.edu.Note that researching this kind of history through the Internet Archive has three or so limits:
* I tested to see if only an HTTP mirror had an archive page. Although I did not try to see if the WayBack Machine archives FTP pages, too, I didn't find any necessity for it either; Assuming also that the WayBack Machine does not archive FTP folder listings in the first place;
* The Archive has its own exclusion list of servers that it won't crawl (limited in relation to the GNU mirror list);
* Many mirrors had blocked crawling through
robots.txt, as mirrors anyway host large files, which can be taxing to the Internet Archive. It's still useful for the WayBack Machine to archive programs — especially device drivers and obscure program packages, because the Internet Archive can sometimes be the only place where these can be found.Through my searching whether an HTTP mirror has an archive page, then in the process a substantial number of those ftp-as-http mirrors that allowed crawling had their
/gnuzilla folders captured by the Internet Archive. This should serve useful at tracing browser history with a similar method in any possible future research.No other mirror services in the list of GNU mirrors that I searched at contained the original packages of
iceweasel-1.5.0.4-g1-i386.Left out from the search:
- South America: Brazil /only country in the list;
- Africa: South Africa;
- Asia: Bangladesh, China, Japan, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan;
- Europe: Greece, Portugal, Spain.
(Funny, Israel was in Asia, too :-)
There were two reasons for leaving these countries out of my search: Either a non-sensical URL (which I couldn't recognize as something resembling legitimacy), or the country is not trustworthy enough to visit its websites, no matter how harmless on appearance. The amount of servers not checked was approximately 10-15%, based on guesswork.
A user-published package of 1.5.0.8pre2 available at safeweb.sitesled.com/iceweasel
Now, Debian started including Iceweasel as a rebranded replacement of Mozilla Firefox only since version 2.0, after which GNU slightly renamed their package to IceWeasel (note capitalisation of W), then a year later renamed their package to IceCat to finally avoid confusion with Debian's own package.
In conclusion, all Iceweasel versions prior to 2.0 are Gnuzilla-based.
I had to add to that screenshot file's notes that this was a screenshot of a Gnuzilla-based Iceweasel and not one of a Debian-based Iceweasel. The GNU IceCat Wikipedia page was also of great help in determining the right source.
Monday, March 21, 2011
What's left of sidebars for Netscape
Ed Mullen has a great page on Netscape and Mozilla tips and even a page that includes installable links to sidebars that can still be added to SeaMonkey 1.1.xx, a successor to Netscape 7/8 and Mozilla Application Suite.
Unfortunately, some of the sidebars are now outdated, half-work, redirect, cannot be found anymore or are completely offline.
Below is a selection of sidebars I found to be interesting to check them out.
The links to news sites don't work, because they use a redirect via info.netscape.com (which now redirects to netscape.aol.com ).
In terms of context, the "Last updated" text in the sidebar is inaccurate, because it's most likely a script. That sidebar page is now a virtual time capsule of World news.
Speaking of which — OS/2 has officially outlived Windows 9x, because according to screenshots, Mozilla Firefox 3.5.4 works in it. OS/2 can also run OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 and OS/2 now lives on as eComStation, where Firefox 3.6 and 4.0 (beta) can also be run.
eComStation is capable of running OpenOffice.org 3.2, VLC Media Player 1.1.4, and CUPS, a free software printer framework (modern printer support).
While Windows 9x only supports Mozilla Firefox 2.0, OpenOffice.org 2.4, and has ageing support for printers (I admit as much that some printers useless with CUPS are supported in Windows 9x)...
Unfortunately, some of the sidebars are now outdated, half-work, redirect, cannot be found anymore or are completely offline.
Below is a selection of sidebars I found to be interesting to check them out.
Sidebars that still work:
- The Google sidebar works! Yay!
- The Real.com Guide sidebar only offers search for audio, video, and radio stations (no actual Guide to speak of).
...That are outdated:
The CNN Expanded Sidebar is still live, but stopped having updates since two years ago on March 2, 2009: The Dow Jones index dropped below 7000 on that day, because AIG had a record loss, tech gadgets had become a luxury, and "Twilight" stars were huge.The links to news sites don't work, because they use a redirect via info.netscape.com (which now redirects to netscape.aol.com ).
In terms of context, the "Last updated" text in the sidebar is inaccurate, because it's most likely a script. That sidebar page is now a virtual time capsule of World news.
Netscape Sidebars
...that redirect:
- Netscape WebCenter Travel (webcenter.travel.netscape.com) — Ah, well, this at least redirects to travel.aol.com, but that's it. At least it's topical.
- Netscape Celebrities (celebrities.netscape.com) — redirects within the sidebar to netscape.aol.com.
- Netscape TV Listings (tv.netscape.com) — redirects in-sidebar to netscape.aol.com.
...that don't work anymore:
(in descending order of importance)- Netscape Time Zone Converter (cgi.netscape.com) — "Not found" — Ed Mullen's screenshot of it is now a historical artifact;
- Netscape Netbusiness — because netbusiness.netscape.com is completely offline (no 404 page, even);
- Netscape Netbusiness Industry Headlines (netbusiness.netscape.com) — domain is offline;
- Netscape Netbusiness Search (netbusiness.netscape.com) — offline;
- Netscape DevEdge (developer.netscape.com): "This tab is not available right now." — Taken offline since about 11.10.2004 and then moved to devedge-temp.mozilla.org/index_en.html
- Netscape Home Improvement (homeimprovement.netscape.com) — "Not Found";
- Netscape Home Improvement House and Home (homeimprovement.netscape.com) — "Not Found";
- Netscape Lifestyles Pet tools (lifestyles.netscape.com) — "Not Found".
- American Greetings (lifestyles.netscape.com) — "Not Found"
Speaking of which — OS/2 has officially outlived Windows 9x, because according to screenshots, Mozilla Firefox 3.5.4 works in it. OS/2 can also run OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 and OS/2 now lives on as eComStation, where Firefox 3.6 and 4.0 (beta) can also be run.
eComStation is capable of running OpenOffice.org 3.2, VLC Media Player 1.1.4, and CUPS, a free software printer framework (modern printer support).
While Windows 9x only supports Mozilla Firefox 2.0, OpenOffice.org 2.4, and has ageing support for printers (I admit as much that some printers useless with CUPS are supported in Windows 9x)...
Sunday, January 4, 2009
BTC Keyboard driver and Netropa Internet Keyboard
This is basically a review of a software app
If anyone has a desire to download a keyboard driver (with an accompanying app) for a BTC keyboard (the model I encountered was a PS/2 model 5107), please be advised that the accompanying Netropa Internet Keyboard application also includes the Internet Receiver news ticker. Because of its annoying nature, I suggest that experimenting advanced users don't include that one when installing the app.
If, for some reason, Netropa Internet Keyboard or the Internet Ticker (which is still functional) cannot be uninstalled (by way of only having a limited user account), then just press the
The Channel Guide page for the Netropa Internet Receiver does not work.
Netropa Internet Keyboard itself modifies keyboard buttons' functions — F-buttons for web browsers and Print Screen, Scroll Lock and Pause|Break buttons.
The functionality that reorders F-buttons' usual intended functions affects browsers of the time when Netropa Internet Keyboard was released (typically in Internet Explorer). The reordered F-buttons target certain websites — some of which are offline and outdated. The functions can be re-set to a different website or portal from a selection of some preconfigured websites.
To disable, take the cursor down to the Special sub-menu, then click Disable. The normal button behaviour will then return.
The reordered F-buttons don't work in Mozilla Firefox.
As it is, the intended target audience is probably a home user (who might wish to have quick access to certain websites), although advanced users are usually those who install drivers to devices.
Computer manufacturers or re-sellers might install accompanying applications in a new computer as part of one or many kickback agreements to lower the selling price of a new product.
Community
• iVillage /still operates, finally bought by NBC Universal, Inc. in 2006.
• GeoCities /acquired by Yahoo!, operating at geocities.yahoo.com
Finance
• Datek Online submenu /Datek Online Holdings Corporation merged with TD Ameritrade in 2002
Games
• heat.net /totally defunct
Greetings
• eGreetings.com /bought by American Greetings
Reference
• MySimon /acquired by c|net in January 2000 during the height of the dot-com boom.
• exp.com /defunct? Domain owned by EXP Systems
• ExpertCentral /www.expertcentral.com now redirects to allexperts.com
Shopping
• Productopia /product review site launched in late July, 1999.
On Google, Productopia's top search result is www.consumersearch.com
• Guild.com now redirects to www.guildsourcebooks.com /still in shopping
• Shopping.com /acquired by eBay
I will update and reformat the article later on.
If anyone has a desire to download a keyboard driver (with an accompanying app) for a BTC keyboard (the model I encountered was a PS/2 model 5107), please be advised that the accompanying Netropa Internet Keyboard application also includes the Internet Receiver news ticker. Because of its annoying nature, I suggest that experimenting advanced users don't include that one when installing the app.
If, for some reason, Netropa Internet Keyboard or the Internet Ticker (which is still functional) cannot be uninstalled (by way of only having a limited user account), then just press the
Print Scrn to turn it off.The Channel Guide page for the Netropa Internet Receiver does not work.
Netropa Internet Keyboard itself modifies keyboard buttons' functions — F-buttons for web browsers and Print Screen, Scroll Lock and Pause|Break buttons.
The functionality that reorders F-buttons' usual intended functions affects browsers of the time when Netropa Internet Keyboard was released (typically in Internet Explorer). The reordered F-buttons target certain websites — some of which are offline and outdated. The functions can be re-set to a different website or portal from a selection of some preconfigured websites.
Changing or disabling the functions
The functions can be reordered or completely turned off for each button by pressing a function button for longer than a second, after which a menu appears and retargets the mouse cursor it. You can choose from a number of preconfigured websites.To disable, take the cursor down to the Special sub-menu, then click Disable. The normal button behaviour will then return.
The reordered F-buttons don't work in Mozilla Firefox.
Conclusion
All in all, the additional functionality that captures/steals F-buttons' usual intended functions in a web browser is still annoying, as some of the normal functionality is also stolen. Neither is there a separate driver installed for the keyboard.As it is, the intended target audience is probably a home user (who might wish to have quick access to certain websites), although advanced users are usually those who install drivers to devices.
Computer manufacturers or re-sellers might install accompanying applications in a new computer as part of one or many kickback agreements to lower the selling price of a new product.
Non-exhaustive list of some of the online stuff that isn't there or just online anymore:
Community
• iVillage /still operates, finally bought by NBC Universal, Inc. in 2006.
• GeoCities /acquired by Yahoo!, operating at geocities.yahoo.com
Finance
• Datek Online submenu /Datek Online Holdings Corporation merged with TD Ameritrade in 2002
Games
• heat.net /totally defunct
Greetings
• eGreetings.com /bought by American Greetings
Reference
• MySimon /acquired by c|net in January 2000 during the height of the dot-com boom.
• exp.com /defunct? Domain owned by EXP Systems
• ExpertCentral /www.expertcentral.com now redirects to allexperts.com
Shopping
• Productopia /product review site launched in late July, 1999.
On Google, Productopia's top search result is www.consumersearch.com
• Guild.com now redirects to www.guildsourcebooks.com /still in shopping
• Shopping.com /acquired by eBay
I will update and reformat the article later on.
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