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Ortiz On: The Revival Of The Old Internet

I’ve been noticing a trend and I wanted to bring it to your attention. Lately I’ve been noticing a rise of apps & services that emulates websites and apps that give you the experience of the internet of old. For example I’ve been noticing a rise in the userbase of the website Spacehey, which for those unaware is a social network that emulates the classic Myspace of the early 2000’s. I’ve been on the site for 4 years and when I log in I’m always seeing a new set of their “Cool New People” that they feature on my homepage.

Another example is the recent revival of the news aggregation service Digg. As I’ve been alpha testing it I’ve been seeing a whole lot more users get in on the platform and get involved with other users. There’s a certain air of coziness with these services as it feels like these apps & services aren’t getting decimated from new internet stuff like ragebait content & AI slop, though the Digg revival does have AI summaries for articles that get posted on the service but it’s mainly out of the way from what I’ve experienced.

There’s also some extensions and modded apps that I’ve been using lately that gives you the experience of popular apps & sites that give you the experience of the website’s glory days before everything went to shit. For example I have an extension in my Zen Browser where combined with a user style & Stylus makes my Twitter experience look like how it used to in the early 2000’s. Complete with a timeline overhaul to make it look and function like it was back in the day.

There’s also similar browser plugins & themes I use for Reddit to give it the old style because the current one is utter garbage, ads and all.

The last piece of old internet that’s making a serious return from what I’ve noticed is Geocities, albeit under the new name Neocities since the original name is essentially dead. Neocities is basically the same as the Geocities of old where people create their own websites with the classic HTML & CSS flairs & everything. It’s incredible to see some of the creativity of people on Neocities with the limitations of HTML & CSS.

It’s lovely to reacquaint myself with the internet I grew up on and see that others are as well or are acquainting themselves with it for the first time. Hopefully more and more people catch on to the rise of old internet and that companies will listen and stop making horrid changes to the internet we know and…currently tolerate.

#old internet #Twitter #Reddit #Tumblr #Neocities #Geocities #Digg

makingdonalddrumpfagain

Ortiz On: iOS 26 Beta & Digg Revival Alpha

Ever since the iOS 26 got announced at WWDC earlier this year I wanted to try the developer beta for myself, despite me not being a developer. Only someone that’s always wanting to try out the newest things so that everyone else can have a smooth experience. I happened to have an iPhone SE 2nd Generation lying around and thankfully iOS 26 is able to get that update, so I began the process of getting the developer beta and got it loaded on the device nice and easy with little to no hiccups.

After playing around with it for a bit I did notice & run into some issues. Some major like iOS’ UI full on crashing at times, and others like the image above where after trying to rearrange the icons on my homescreen my dock became forever misaligned. Even after a restart of my device & a reset of my homescreen layout the bug has yet to be fixed. Yes I already submitted multiple bug reports to Apple, they’re probably sick of me at this point, but hopefully it gets patched in a later beta build before the GM, or Golden Master, build is released followed by the version 1 of the stable release going out to the general public.

As far as the new “Liquid Glass” design language goes, I’m kind of a fan. I can see where some may not like it because of how illegible the text can be sometimes and also the look & aesthetic is different for a lot of people. But for myself, this is making me reminisce of a simpler time in the early 2000’s when in my early days of school I would frequent the computer lab to see old see-through iMacs with Mac OS X at the time adopting the Aqua design language.

The look and feel definitely gives me similar vibes and the new bouncy animations just add to the experience. In my honest opinion it brings the old design language to the modern day, while adding some flair to it to make it some semblance of personality. Something that is definitely needed considering Android’s announcement of their Material You Expressive design language, but that’s for another post.

Adding to the nostalgia of it all I recently got a Testflight invitation to alpha test the revival of another early 2000’s internet mainstay Digg. As someone who is a frequent Reddit user looking for a better alternative I was more than happy to get on board but first, a little background:

Digg was a news aggregator that was basically similar to Reddit in where people could submit articles and if they like them they can “digg” them or if they dislike them they can “bury” them. You can submit articles into various communities ranging from Technology to Sports and beyond. It debuted in 2004 and was a mainstay in the indie internet discourse. Even spawning a podcast called Diggnation where hosts Kevin Rose & Alex Albrecht, both people I’m familiar with from their days on TechTV and G4 respectively, would talk about what was trending on the platform at the time of the podcast’s recording. During the time where Digg was owned by BuySellAds and then later Money Group the company was hemorrhaging its user-base because of the decisions of the owners.

Luckily Kevin Rose and surprisingly…Reddit’s cofounder Alex Ohanian bought back all of Digg’s assets for an undisclosed amount. But they said they were gonna relaunch the platform and give it the classic feel with some modern touches. This piqued my interest as lately I’ve been looking into “old internet” designs of websites. Even going so far as to install Stylus and user made themes where I can make current sites look like how they looked decades ago just for that sweet hit of nostalgic good times.

So I jumped in and joined their GroundBreakers program and made sure I signed up for the alpha test for both iOS and Android as I currently daily drive a S24. The alpha test was released on iOS Testflight first and I got to installing it right away and getting involved. Posting articles I happened to find, pictures I had taken throughout my days, and walls of text for my ideas on how to improve the platform. A lot of which has been well received. As of the writing of this post I have received 528 diggs and found 78 gems total. These gems are for when you post something or interact with something that ends up going viral on the platform.

There is some AI elements to the platform but so far it’s just been limited to just summarizing articles and videos that are posted to the platform, which I have found helpful.

Overall these two tests have been a pretty decent experience so far, and I look forward to making sure that when both iOS 26 and Digg launch proper, that anyone and everyone will have a smooth experience as possible.

Until I come on the air again…

Miguel O.

#Digg #iOS #iOS26 #early 2000's #nostalgia #tech #ortiz on

Just picked this up at my local GameXchange for a couple of bucks and I'm liking what I'm hearing so far.

#10000 maniacs #mtv unplugged #album #physical media

Ortiz On: Mental Health Days

Growing up as an AuDHD nerdy kid in the 90’s and early 2000’s, mental health wasn’t on the minds of the general public. As a result growing up I had a lot of my feelings invalidated by those I cared about the most and had concerns and frustrations brushed off. Also as a guy I had the usual things said to me… “Man up”, “You’ll get over it”, “It’s no big deal” etc. It was so frustrating. So for most of my life I had to have things bottled up inside of me and was discouraged from releasing it, or taking time to process my feelings and emotions.

It wasn’t until these past couple of years that I finally started to give a shit about my mental health. Going to therapy on a frequent basis.

Side note: shoutout my therapist Cody York. Dude is into D&D and is just as nerdy as I am and I love it. Literally my first email with him was entitled “A rogue calls for aid” as during most D&D campaigns I play my rogue character Antonio Bordeaux. He followed along and we hit it off from there.

Back on topic: I’ve been going to my therapy appointment on a frequent basis. Originally it was on a weekly basis, but this year my insurance changed because of my asinine employer so my appointments were more expensive…so I ended up having to scale back to every 2 weeks.

Even then I was still able to get a lot out of our sessions, and in some cases my therapy appointments would fall on days that I was off, so in essence I took a nice little mental health type day. Usually going home and locking myself in my room for hours on end.

However as I’m writing this, that’s not the case today. I’m still taking a mental health day, but I’m actually enjoying myself at the local Soul Craft Coffee Shop on the campus of the University I go to. Despite it being a smidge chilly, I’m actually feeling relaxed and enjoying myself in the process.

It’s nice to start your day getting a lot of things off your chest, and then going and doing something that gets you out of the house and around actual human beings…touching grass if you will. As someone that’s always been socially isolated throughout his life, being around other people and not having total anxiety over what they think about you is a refreshing feeling.

What I’m trying to get at here is that Mental Health Days are incredibly important to keeping yourself sane and alive, and despite what a lot of corporate suits will have you believe. You should one-hundred-and-ten percent take some PTO and give yourself the mental health day that you deserve. Especially if you were on the cusp of crashing out at work earlier in the week like I was.

Until I come on the air again,

Miguel O.

#mental health #neurodivergent #audhd

Shoutout Nashville Public Library for having this CLASSIC available on Hoopla.

#Anime #GITS #GITS SAC #ghost in the shell #adult swim #public libraries

Live look-in to me putting my setlist together for my radio show Ortiz On The Air tonight on 88.5 WTTU.

#WTTU #music #radio #video games #fighting games

I remembered the login!

Oh wow...I completely forgot I had this account. It's been a minute. Lemme catch up on what's going on around here, especially since early 2000's internetcore seems to be making a serious comeback. SpaceHey invoking old school Myspace vibes, Digg reviving itself, etc. I'm excited to see what's to come.

#myspace #spacehey #digg #2000s #2000s nostalgia #nostalgia

Civic Duty Done Dusted.