It's quite hard nowadays to imagine how small the internet was at one point, both in pixels and in scope.
Inspired by my friend Jim Boulton and his project, I am slowly unarchiving the first popular website I made, fifteen years ago – Commercial Breaks and Beats. It's taking a while, as the HTML doesn't quite work any more, and the database was made in MicroSoft Access 3. It goes without saying that I haven't used a computer that can run MicroSoft Access 3 since... fifteen years ago.
For Jim (and a couple of others of you out there) I'm dedicated to resurrecting this daft site from the digital elephant's graveyard. I won my first award for this – a Yahoo! award for digital excellence.
The internet was a much better place back then. And all the better for Commercial Breaks and Beats. One of my favourite sites at the time and really disappointed when it disappeared. Strangely, I’ve periodically typed the domain name into the omnibar of the browser to see that it was still missing. Until today! What a surprise. A great little site and a reminder of simpler times.
I would like to echo the sentiments of Paul, as I feel the same “I wish you all the luck in the workd with this, I loved this website and was gutted when it was unceremoniously removed by the webhosts. I would love to see it back up and running again.”
I used to visit this site all the time. I look forward to its resurection.
Your website helped me massively in my job at the time. I worked for an online music retailer and we would often receive Emails from the public asking about music from ads prior to making a purchase. I was gutted when the site closed.
Stellar news! This site was a great example of the early internet’s collaborative and community feel, I like to think sites like Discogs were spawned in part by this pioneering work. May the resurrection go well!
I wish you all the luck in the workd with this, I loved this website and was gutted when it was unceremoniously removed by the webshosts. I would love to see it back up and running again.
Like Jo, I too am pleased to hear this site may one day rise from the ashes like the mythical Phoenix…Good Luck
I’m so pleased to read this! I still refer to it now. Good luck!