RF Cafe
126 points by gregsadetsky 4 days ago | 16 comments
sgt 5 hours ago
Love this design. Kind of reminds me of this Norwegian web shop: https://arngren.net/ hasn't changed much since the early 2000s or even late 90s
replyquibono 5 hours ago
I love the information density on that page. Feels like very fresh compared to today's minimal pages.
replythewanderer1983 2 hours ago
Reminds me of the early 90's internet I used to browse. Filled with people obsessed with tech and zero politics. I miss that internet.
replycomboy 5 hours ago
Even though there are so many packed buttons and links it seems to like a vastly superior design compared to modern websites. I don't know if it's me being used to this or if we went wrong somewhere.
replymeowcat 4 hours ago
Funny, I entirely disagree. On one hand, the design itself is heartwarming because it's old internet. Also, once you navigate into the topics, things are neatly organized, and there I agree with you. But the content on the main page itself lacks a common thread, no idea where i'm supposed to read or what belongs together.
replycogman10 3 hours ago
I'd say there is a pretty common thread for it, but man is it a mishmash of interests, which really makes it charming.
replyIt's certainly not focused. Sure this site is about RF, but the owner decided they'd throw in basically all their interests into one website. I mean, it has crossword puzzles and a jokes page :D
This is the site to send someone to who wonders "What was the internet like before Web 2.0".
brcmthrowaway 44 minutes ago
RF always had a reputation of being a black art. There was a brief time in the late 2000s where RFIC design was the top paying field for EE grads.
replyWith the rise of Meta, Google, etc paying CS grads 500k etc, now it's quaint and hilarious, if you check r/chipdesign, the millenial RF practitioners still think you need a MS/PhD minimum to get a grad job.. Fellas, there's not a single Stanford EE grad that still wants to work in your field... and half the RFIC designers went took their MATLAB skills into "Data Science/ML".
It's interesting how simple advertising is as well.
> Please Support My Advertisers!
Some jpegs. No js, no moving shit, just logos, some text, some call to action in a banner format. That's it.
Also:
> A random number generator determines which company's Banner Ad will go in a particular position*. I wrote the code myself and it is very simple and foolproof.
> I do not collect page traffic or link click statistics for advertisements. Your website server statistical analysis is a much better reporter of inbound links from RF Cafe than I or anyone else can provide.
Nice.
> Banner Plan: $400/month
I count 22 advertisers, so there's obviously lots of incentives for advertisers to work with this site. Good for them, and nice to see it can still be lucrative for what I believe to be a single person operation. Quality content still matters.