I’m not sure what it is with the Toronto Star these days – it’s as if the comments are becoming more insightful than the actual articles. Case in point, this gem…

With George W. Bush speaking to the city’s “well-heeled” tonight, I hope corporate sponsors will take advantage of this event to boost our culture, economy and national pride. For example, Bata Shoes could get their new lineup some air time. The Bata Shoe Museum could mount an exhibition called “Political Self-Expression with Footwear,” and Payless Shoe Source could offer a “1 for the price of 2″ special, for people who only want to cast a single vote.

Bart Hawkins Kreps, Port Hope

Somehow, hidden away in the depths of the internet, are sites and pages that have been left untouched by time. The Internet has marched on with fervor since the days of text-based Lynx, moving right based gawdy HTML to whatever Web2.0ish entities exist today – and yet, there are still scattered pieces that haven’t seen an update in over a decade. Today, I stumbled upon one such site.

California Digital Inc, purveyor of fine technological goods from…1995. I have a laptop in my room released that very same year, which is what initially led me to the site. As it turns out, my aging Compaq would have cost a fine amount back then – not to mention everything else we happen to use today. So, without further ado, Technological Wonders of 1995!

1. Apparently in 1995, switching CDs out of your optical drive was a bit of a hazardous process. Those afraid of damaging their precious data had the opportunity to pick up this particular device, a Pioneer DRM-604X quad-speed six-disc external minichanger. That’s right – quad speed. Think your newfangled 52x read/write are fast? How about blazing along at 4x speeds? Pioneer even claims that, with the magic of SCSI technology, you can “daisy chain up to seven (7) total for nearly 28 Gigs online.” The thought of 7, stacked and whirring optical towers is enough to arouse a user in a way that only 1995-era technology could. $259.
2. What, you think that pen-based computing is something new? While you were sitting there with your grayscale Palm Pilot, real power users were toting Palmtop Computers. This particular pen-based computing beast from Fujitsu packed a stylish 100Mhz processor and could even be upgraded up the wazoo, with everything from PCMCIA cards to Hard Drives. And when it comes time to transfer data from your precious portable, “stored data can be transfered to other computers by attaching a serial cable”. That’s how you network with style.
3. This particular idea was probably cool in theory, but made a generation worth of internet users’ ears bleed. You see, sometime in the mid-nineties, Canon (yes, that Canon) and Musitek decided there was probably a market for turning ordinary old sheet music into computerized sound. And they totally did it. Using Musitek’s midiscan software, average computer users were given the opportunity to scan their favourite Tchaikovsky symphonies into pure MIDI form. The resulting files could then be embedded into webpages across the internet, laying the groundwork for what is, quite possibly, the worst feature of the Internet in the nineties.
4. This next item requires no explanation. “Create the Barbie look, become the new Barbie fashion designer. There are hundred of Barbie outfits to choose from. You select the fashions, the color the background locations. OK guys, this may not be the ideal program for you space rangers, but if you would like to get your daughter interested in computers, this is the product. Ideally prices at only $15. Do it- become a hero. DOS and Windows compatible.” That’s right everyone - become a hero.
5. This final gem truly takes the cake. During a time in which more and more cities are blanketing their streets with Wireless internet, it’s absolutely crucial that you not be caught without your trusty AT&T WaveLAN. That’s right, folks; for a ridiculously low entry price of $659, you too can give your brick laptop the freedom to roam! Apparently, the WaveLAN uses advanced radio frequency technology (read: tranmissions in the 915Mhz range) to give you a working range of over 800ft to the base anttena! This is the sort of technology that people in 1995 would never be caught without, whether they be attending trade shows, sports events, hospitals, or even police and fire emergencies!

There you have. Technology, circa 1995, in a nutshell. I don’t know about you, but the future seems pretty lame compared to what we already had.

If you don’t already know of Archive.org, I’d suggest you get yourself acquainted. The site essentially serves as the internet’s equivelant of archivial storage, with a goal to catalog most, if not all of the Internet’s vast amounts of information. An impossible goal? Definitely. But it’s still a valiant one nonetheless, and the amount of information the site has gathered over the years is staggering.

Chances are, you’ve already use the Wayback machine in some way or another. As you can imagine, constantly trawling the internet for data reveals a great number of revisions for certain articles, sites or portals. The Wayback machine takes all of these revisions and organizes them neatly, by date, into a virtual timeline allowing users to see exactly how a site may have looked at any given date. In case you’re too young to remember – or in some cases, would rather forget – the Archive has some pretty interesting artifacts from the nineties, and oftentimes with looks we wouldn’t necessarily expect.

But while gathering textual information is all fine and good, what really struck me was the size of their video archive. What many people don’t realise is that, for many older films, and even certain recent releases, the copyright info on particular pieces of media has expired. Without any active copyright license, the film becomes free to share, distribute and watch, without fear of such lovely organizations as the MPAA. A few of the sections more notable selections…

• Attack of the Killer Mushrooms - A masterpiece of Japanese cinema
• The Last Man on Earth – The *original* I am Legend
• Being a Teen in the 1950’s - Awesome and inadvertently funny videos on being a teen in an era past
• Charlie Chaplin – Lots of Charlie. This one in particular is his 23rd film.

And that’s just a small selection of what the site has to offer. Check it out, and tell me if you find anything interesting!

Behold! The Horrible Fanfare lives again, completely retooled, redesigned, and hopefully, reinvigorated for the Summer months. After a few weeks of coding, skinning, testing and frustration, the site has returned in what will hopefully be the last revision for a while. As fun as it is designing something yourself, it’s far too much of a tedious process for me to make a habit of this every few months; this is revision two, and it’s here to stay.

Now that I’ve indulged my inner web designer, I can get back to what really matters – writing. Expect regular updates every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. There may even be the occasional in between post, if I feel so inclined. Oh, and something else, which I’ll be announcing very soon! But what’s important here is that the site is back.

So, for the technologically inclined amongst you, what’s new, you say?

• Sidebar! Easy access to posts, categories, and search.
• Twitter feed integration. For all those thoughts which never quite make it to post form.
• Garamond is gone. But not really. I’ve simply converted the main Garamond-text logo into a transparent PNG, which means that the small percentage of users without the font go unaffected.
• Cross-browser compatibility. Almost. Everything but Internet Explorer 7 and lower renders the site properly. But the good news? IE8 *finally* renders things the way it should. Rejoice, interwebs.
• Fixed layout. That’s right, things don’t move. But it means that there’s always consistency, and less headaches for me.
• Better portfolio. The photo + writing portfolio sections are vastly improved, which makes navigation much, much easier.
• Facebook Connect. You don’t have to sign up to comment. Click the Facebook Connect button below any post, and instantly use your Facebook account to comment. It even diplays your image beside the comment, which is a lovely touch. And no, I won’t flood your wall with a Horrible Fanfare application. Promise.

And that’s it. It may or may not seem like a lot, but it was definitely a lot of fun to put together. Now go explore, squash some bugs, and tell me what you think! The Horrible Fanfare returns to write again!