the tool page

toolshed.down.net

this is necessary

This site is no longer being updated. See here for details. Follow me here (and here) for updates. Thank you for 22 great years.

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Old Front Pages

It turns out that through the years, I've saved various old versions of the front page of this site. It's part-funny, part-awful, and part-nostalgic to look through these. Did we ever think it was OK to use tables that way? Was that really the way the site looked back then?

So take a trip down memory lane here. If you're a newer visitor to The Tool Page, now you can see what the site was like as it grew up. If you've been with us since the mid-90s, some of these may be like familiar pictures of an old friend.

And it must be said that the idea for this page is a complete ripoff of a similar page at Seth Aperl's old Soundgarden site. (Those were the good old days. Thanks, Seth.)

I fixed some links to work within these pages, but not all do. Enjoy...

Old Front Pages: "Undertow" Era

  • MOVING TO TOOLSHED (5/1996)
  • This was to warn people that the site was moving to its current address, toolshed.down.net. I was still in college, and the site was still using that awesome original logo.
  • ÆNIMA SONG TITLES (7/17/1996)
  • From an exciting day, when we learned the song titles on the then-forthcoming album "Ænima." This was the first public place anywhere that had this information, before trade magazines, before MTV -- and remember, there was no official site back then.
  • ÆNIMA RELEASE DATE (Summer 1996)
  • This awesome page was the high-tech front page when we knew the title and release date -- but not the cover -- of the then-forthcoming album "Ænima".
  • RELEASE DATES (Summer 1996)
  • A list of album release dates, to get people stoked about the release of "Ænima", like they needed this list to be excited.
  • RELEASE DATES 2 (Summer 1996)
  • A hilarious foray into tacky marketing speak. The first version was miles better.
  • ÆNIMA VINYL IS OUT (9/17/96)
  • Announcing the release of "Ænima" on vinyl, and finally showcasing the album cover.
  • BOUGHT IT YET? (10/1996)
  • A page exhorting fans to buy the newly-released "Ænima." We were doing promotion online before online promotion even existed.

Old Front Pages: "Ænima" Era

When "Ænima" came out, this site used a frames layout, with the menu running down the left side. Visitors to The Tool Page would see a main start page next to the menu, which was along the lines of these ...



  • APRIL FOOLS BUS CRASH (4/1/1997)
  • A real classic. This is the original front page of the April Fools prank from back in 1997. Check the News archive for the whole story if you don't know it.
  • FRONT PAGE, EARLY 1997 (1997)
  • An example of what the site front looked like back then.
  • LOLLAPALOOZA 97 ANNOUNCEMENT (4/29/1997)
  • The announcement of Tool as part of Lollapalooza 1997's lineup. This is how we really used to get our newspapers online.
  • t.d.n SHIRT FOR SALE (5/13/97)
  • Announcing the availability of t.d.n shirts. All 200 sold out within 24 hours despite the ugliness of this page.
  • NEW ICONS (Late 1997)
  • Introducing some new icons to the site, some of which are still in use today.
  • STAGGERED BOXES (1997)
  • A whimsical stab at a front page layout.
  • STACKED BOXES (Fall 1997)
  • This is typical of how the site looked that summer.
  • NO MORE 14.4 (8/17/1998)
  • As modems gave way to high-speed Internet, the site was redesigned to take advantage of the higher bandwidth. This old menu doesn't look THAT awful by today's standards.
  • A SITE FOR SORE EYES (2/16/1999)
  • After a server crashed, t.d.n was offline for three months in late 1998. When it came back in January 1999, the front looked like this.
  • BEST NON-PORN SITE (3/30/2000)
  • This is typical of how the site looked in 2000.
  • APC ALBUM (5/23/2000)
  • From the day A Perfect Circle's first album came out.
  • SITE AWARD (9/14/2000)
  • This is typical of how the site looked in 2000, posted after the band personally awarded this site.
  • RELEASE DATES, 2000 (11/2/2000)
  • A fancy Flash animation in the t.d.n tradition of hyping an album release date. This announced the impending release of the as-yet-untitled "Lateralus."
  • RELEASE OF SALIVAL (12/12/2000)
  • Front page from the release day of "Salival."
  • RELEASE OF LATERALUS (5/15/2001)
  • Front page from the release day of "Lateralus."

Old Front Pages: "Lateralus" Era

After five years, the site layout changed to have a menu running horizontally across the top, with the main front page beneath. Here are some of those front pages (and the menu itself, complete with that old sound effect, is at the end of this list).



  • SIXTH ANNIVERSARY (8/17/2001)
  • From the sixth birthday of The Tool Page. And no, that's not my hand.
  • 9/11 (9/11/2001)
  • The front of this page on the day of the September 11 attacks.
  • FRONT PAGE, 2001 (12/13/2001)
  • An example of how the page looked in late 2001. Note the American flag, before its meaning changed for so many.
  • FRONT PAGE, 2002 (6/4/2002)
  • An example of how the page looked throughout 2002. Complete with t-d-n parabola!
  • SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY (10/2/2002)
  • Shortly after t.d.n's 7th anniversary.
  • TENTH ANNIVERSARY (8/17/2005)
  • t.d.n commemorates ten years online, subtly.
  • THE FLASH TOP MENU (4/29/06)
  • From 2001 - 2006, the site had this Flash-based menu across the top; this is how it looked the last day it was updated, before we finally said goodbye to frames.
  • RELEASE OF 10,000 DAYS (5/1/2006)
  • Front page from the release day of "10,000 Days", and the day of the new site redesign.


kabir/akhtar | kabir@t.d.n