panda-rouge.com since 2001 without interruption live on the web
Remember the old buzzing 36k
modem ?
This website, under different forms and servers, has
been talking about Land Rover since internet became
available to the main public at the beginning of this
century.
The intention was never, is still not, to generate
traffic but simply to create a pleasant place, try new
things, have an excuse to escape the boring world and,
when needed, to use new development tools.
Thank you for visiting us !
The origins
Slow start
This website was initially created in the 2000 as to understand how internet was working.
20 kilos heavy beige monitors.
No ADSL: slow connections through expensive pay phone fixed lines. Old modem buzzing.
No wifi: Ugly RJ11, then later RJ45, cables crawling inside/outside houses to reach a modem somewhere...
You have to understand that it was not quite clear in the 2000 how you could even have a local file on your local computer and, by some magical mean, connect to the world, have it published online, made available to the world. The idea was also to understand the process of creating a website from a blank page: HTML, FTP, upload, links, etc. How was that even possible ?
In a more sophisticated version, it became later a fun way of creating, drawing, photoshoping, writing and even create simple interactive content using the back-then groundbreaking Adobe FLASH, allowing in an accessible way to create animations and button-action nice looking content. Since then, FLASH has vanished and is even not recognised by modern browsers...
Today, staying away from too easy websites online creators, making people think they are creating while they actually are only using, we use a BOOTSTRAP infrastructure and freeware HTML editors, freeware FTP uploader, freeware painting software... to keep basic HTML editing and local ownership of the code, while being able to benefit from an attractive and adaptative framing that adjust itself to the several screens that exist today (laptops but also smartphones). A convenient mid-way !
The intention
Simply have fun !
The intent today is not much to inform anybody about Classic Land Rovers, since so much information is available on the internet, answering virtually any questions in the world. In addition, major browsers today don't favor personnal creativity but commercial activities, which make the search of old fashioned private website almost impossible to find, lost in an ocean of commercial and pay-to-top-rank websites.If you add to this the fact that most of people don't even go through the internet itself but through dedicated apps, selecting for them what they must see and know... small websites have almost no opportunity to surface anymore. AI new tools will probably make this fact even more true, relegating websites to acting as the role of a database, anonymous source for AI agents sucking their substance, without naming their source... means that even if your website is actually treating a specific question, where (for once) traditional search engines would have taken you out of the crowd, the AI engines will rephrase, mix-up and use your knowledge and work as if it were theirs.
Finally, it seems like people don't read anymore. They watch videos. Static websites, packed with information, nice pictures, are considered today as absolutely useless simply because they don't generate traffic, hence money !
So why keep doing a website ?
Hope: is that a reason ?
-Events: the main idea of revamping the original website was to offer to the real life people a landing page where they can learn about the car, using the QR code displayed on the car, would it be in the streets or during classic cars events.
-Creativity: creating is a need, a passion, an outlet that certain persons will have to bear with, whatever the world goes with. A website gives an infinite excuse to waste hours on drawing sketches, writing long texts, take useless pictures, because there is (still) a tiny chance that just one person, someday, somewhere, might find it and appreciate the content.
We all sing much better when we think someone is listening...
