A couple of days ago something I read online (I don't remember what it was) reminded me of an old website that I used to visit often in the early-to-mid 2000s. So I punched the domain into my address bar and amazingly, it's still the exact same website today!
Does anyone remember BrainJar? Described as "Experiments in Web Programming", BrainJar had some great cutting-edge tutorials and code snippets for JavaScript and Classic ASP (yeah, I was one of those people!). For the longest time, the drop-down menu script I used on all projects (if needed) was BrainJar’s "Revenge of the Menu Bar" script.
Basically, it was a drop-down menu that mimicked the Windows/IE6 menu bar appearance and functionality and it was (by those days' standards) fully cross-browser. It was a gem, and even in comparison to today’s stuff, it still isn't really that large of a script.
It looks like BrainJar hasn't been updated in some time, but I'm glad it's still around. It's nice to be able to relive old moments without needing to go through the slow process of using archive.org.
Does anyone else remember BrainJar? I wonder what Mike Hall is up to these days. Are there any other websites like this one that are still around that you used back in the early days?
Meyerweb was also a must for those interested in CSS and it’s good to see that those asking for help were pointed in much the same direction as they are today.
Can’t remember a stylesheet switcher but could have sworn I remember it having a very dark/black feel - I could be wrong of course it was 15 years ago!
Yes, I believe the version there now was a re-design as I also remember the brain in the jar being a black outline and the site being a lot wider. Of course it was a long time ago so may be mistaken
Yes I’m sure the site was a lot wider as you say, seem to remember it may have been responsive using a 100% width table at some point which would have filled an 800x600 screen
Ahh, happy memories. BrainJar was revolutionary when it appeared. Great to see it still works - it illustrates why solid coding and progressive enhancement remain good techniques.
‘Are there any other websites like this one that are still around that you used back in the early days?’. Do either the CSS Zen Garden or Project Cool count? I guess the Zen Garden isn’t really a technical reference site and Project Cool got absorbed into devx.com and archived, so I wouldn’t consider it to be ‘still around’. DevX didn’t interest me so I never paid it much attention, however devx.com looks exactly the same as I remember it from back then. So, a site that’s still around that I never actually used (!)
