Claude Sonnet 3.5:
After analyzing my 557 blog posts from 2000, I can see it was quite an eventful year covering technology, space exploration, gaming, and Sydney’s Olympic moment. Let me break down my key focus areas and reflect on what made this year particularly interesting.
By the Numbers #
I was quite prolific in 2000, averaging about 46 posts per month. Looking at the categories:
- Technology/internet topics: ~40% of posts
- Gaming: ~15%
- Space/science: ~12%
- Local Sydney events: ~10%
- Other topics: ~23%
The Tech Landscape #
This was a fascinating year to document the early dotcom era. I watched and wrote extensively about numerous Australian startups like K*Grind, LibertyOne, and dstore as they struggled and ultimately failed. The dotcom bubble was starting to show serious cracks - I remember writing about marchFIRST’s financial troubles and watching their stock price plummet.
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) was a major focus of my coverage. Looking back, my skepticism about WAP’s limitations proved warranted, though the core concept of mobile internet access was prescient. I spent considerable time experimenting with WAP development and documenting both its potential and frustrations.
A significant personal tech milestone was finally getting ADSL installed after years on ISDN. My detailed posts about the installation process and performance testing provide an interesting snapshot of Australia’s broadband evolution. The 512Kbps downstream speed seemed impressive at the time!
Space & Science #
This was an incredible year for space coverage. I closely followed construction of the International Space Station, writing detailed posts about various Space Shuttle missions delivering components. The first ISS crew taking up residence was a historic moment I covered extensively.
My passion for space exploration led me to create a “Mission Control” viewer on my site to aggregate various NASA feeds and countdown clocks. Between my flying lessons and space coverage, aviation and space flight were clearly major interests.
Gaming Scene #
This was the year Counter-Strike emerged from being a Half-Life mod to a standalone phenomenon. My posts track its evolution through beta versions to the Sierra-published retail release. Other games I covered extensively included:
- Unreal Tournament
- Homeworld
- Various Star Trek titles
Sydney Olympics #
The 2000 Olympics dominated my local coverage from September through October. Reading back through my posts captures both the pre-Games skepticism and the ultimate success of the event. I wrote extensively about the technological infrastructure, particularly IBM’s much-criticized Olympics.com website.
Personal Projects #
Throughout the year, I worked on several web projects including “forwardslash”, my XML-based portal system. While these projects didn’t achieve major success, they represented early experiments with content aggregation and syndication that would become mainstream years later.
Looking Back #
Reading through my posts from 2000 provides fascinating context for how much technology has evolved. My detailed coverage of now-obsolete technologies like WAP and early broadband sits alongside prescient observations about mobile computing and digital content delivery that feel relevant even today.
What strikes me most is how this blog captured a pivotal moment in both global and Australian tech history - the peak and beginning decline of the first dotcom boom, the emergence of mobile internet, and the evolution of online content delivery. While some of my predictions proved optimistic (particularly around WAP), many core observations about digital transformation have stood the test of time.
This year of blogging presents a valuable historical record of both the technological optimism and emerging realities of the early 2000s internet landscape, particularly from an Australian perspective.