contents/articles/twenty-years.md
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----- id: twenty-years title: "This web site is 20 years old" subtitle: "On March 28th, 2004, H3RALD.com was born" content-type: article timestamp: 1711609200 ----- Exactly twenty years ago today, on March 28th, 2004, I decided to purchase my first Internet domain. The .com bubble had already burst years earlier, and I remember wondering which domain name I should go for. After a few minutes I went for *h3rald.com*, the Internet handle I was using on a few web sites. The origin of the name H3RALD is nothing too glamorous really: when I moved my first steps on the Internet a few years earlier (my parents were kind of against computers and we had our first one in 1998, when I was in high school) I came across the *Hacker Manifesto*, which was signed *The Hobbit*. I remember dreaming about writing something as impactful as that someday, and signing it with an equally cool pseudonym. At the time, I used to purchase the International Herald Tribune every so often from the local newsagent, mainly because it was one of the few foreign newspapers I could get here in Italy, and I wanted to practice my English. Obviously, a handle like *herald* was taken on most web sites, so I decided to add a sparkle of *1337 speak* to it, hence *h3rald*. ### The early years One thing is buying a domain, another thing is actually using it for something useful. For the first year or so, the purpose of *h3rald.com* was uncertain: I started off with a very simple HTML page with some interactive content mainly in the form of Java applets (news tickers and other pointless things like that) with a sprinkle of JavaScript. I barely knew how to program back then, and even though I was studying IT Engineering at the university here in Genoa, that [doesn't mean it was actually useful](/articles/academic), in practice. The first [few versions](/h3rald/) of this web site were various rather poor attempt at finding my nice. At one point I got as bold as trying to establish a web design studio (_H3RALD Labs_) with a very, _very_ basic web sites. I taught myself PHP, I started using early frameworks like Prado, and most importantly I kept learning new things. I was doing all this on a 300MHz Pentium II machine that struggled to run Windows XP. When my parents first bought the thing back in '98 it felt much, much faster... I couldn't believe that after only a few years that thing was obsolete! But that didn't stop me from discovering Linux (mainly Slax and Debian) and configuring it in dual boot (my dad was also using the computer, and I couldn't really mess things up too much). At the time, I was also part of an online community called CyberArmy. The domain shifted a couple of times from [cyberarmy.com](https://www.cyberarmy.com) (still up, but basically dead) to cyberarmy.net (long story...) and vice-versa, and no, it was nothing related to cyber terrorism, it was... well, just a bunch of people organized in groups (_brigades_) that aimed at learning more about the Internet and technology; a community of _hackers_ in the original meaning of the word. In CyberArmy, people originally earned their rank by completing hacking challenges, and then by contributing to brigades. At one time, I became the C/O of the group that was curating the community online magazine, zZine.org (domain is dead now). zZine was the first outlet for my articles, some of which I have re-published here. Back then, I started writing articles about the things I was learning about, like [easy-to-install server packages](/articles/server-packages), or cutting-edge technologies like [BluRay vs HD-DVD](/articles/next-generation-dvds). Lightweight markup languages like markdown didn't exist at the time, so all I wrote all those early articles using [BBCode](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCode). ### A look back at early 2000s technologies and services It is funny to look back and read those early 2000s articles now. Do you remember when [social bookmarking services](/articles/social-bookmarking-services) were a thing? Del.icio.us? Maybe. What about Spurl, Furl, Blinklist... ring a bell? No? It turns out I was very fond of [ma.gnolia](/articles/magnolia) when it came out. ### The browser wars ### CakePHP Browsers - /articles/pre-review-of-ie7 - /articles/from-firefox-to-deer-park - /articles/ie-lovers-guide-to-firefox - /articles/perfect-browser - /articles/firefox-lovers-guide-to-opera (later) - /articles/firefox3-revealed - /articles/google-chrome CakePHP - /articles/cakephp - /articles/cakephp-first-bite (sitepoint) - /articles/40 (book intro) - /articles/42 (book canceled) - /articles/43 (too many cooks) - /articles/too-many-cooks-take-2/ - /articles/too-many-cooks-take-3 - /articles/rails-inspired-php-frameworks/ - /articles/25 (digg effect) Technology & random stuff - /articles/18 (textiling) - /articles/what-is-ajax - /articles/git-for-the-locals - /articles/google-apps-for-your-domain - /articles/tweaking-windows-explorer - /articles/the-internet-philosopher Reviews - - - /articles/39 netvibes - /articles/34/ akelos framework - /articles/38 akelos details - /articles/komodo-edit-review - /articles/textlinkads_sidebar_v01 - /articles/getting-started-with-lithium - /articles/journotwit-review - /articles/wunderlist Personal - - /articles/20 (vittorio cevasco) - /articles/12 (job) - /articles/9 (riddle job) - /articles/36 (world cup) - /articles/incomplete-guide-to-london - /articles/11-07-2009 Ruby - /articles/introducing-redbook - /articles/10-reasons-to-learn-ruby - /articles/hlrb-review - /articles/the-rails-way-review - /articles/the-rails3-way-review Recent articles - /articles/10-reasons-why-i-didnt-update-my-blog - /articles/10-programming-languages - /articles/randal-schwartz - /articles/10-more-programming-languages Nim - /articles/hastyscribe - /articles/hastysite - /articles/litestore - /articles/h3 |