Thoughts filed in: Nostalgia

The Net, ten years ago

Internet access is available anywhere these days — even on tropical islands in south-east Asia. Several weeks ago, I was on the island of Ko Tao in southern Thailand. Myself and several of my mates were discussing our views on the price of Internet usage. Most of us were in agreement that the standard Ko Tao rate of 2 baht per minute (about AUD$5 per hour) — which was standard across all of the island's many cafés — was exhorbitant, unacceptable and unjustifiable. One bloke, however, had visited the island ten years previously. He thought that the rate was completely fair — as he remembered that ten years earlier, the entire island had boasted only a single place offering access; and that back then, they were charging 60B/min! Nowadays, the standard rate in most parts of Thailand is about ½B/min, or even ¼B/min if you know where to look. This massive price difference got me thinking about what else regarding the 'Net has changed between 1998 and 2008. And the answer is: heck, what hasn't?

One year of Drupal

Last week marked my first Drupalversary: I have been a member of drupal.org for one year! Since starting out as yet another webmaster looking for a site management solution, I have since become an active member of the Drupal community. Now it's time to look back at the past year, to see where Drupal has come, to see what it's done for me (and vice versa), and to predict what I'll be up to Drupal-wise over the course of the next year.