Dial-up and other settings

he extras on this site, and the switches for them. Everything here is kept in your own browser, alongside the visitor counter, and nothing is sent anywhere.

pretend dial-up A few seconds of modem-style text and a progress bar, shown the first time you enter the Institute hub and when you follow a link into the tour. Any key or click skips it.
birds On a later visit, after an OK to the extras: leave a desktop page alone for a few seconds and a few faint boids drift by. Any movement sends them off. Never shown on touch screens.
1996 mode Tiled wallpaper and bevelled edges. [playful]
night shift The lights turned down on every page that has the counter. [playful]
boids What typing boids does: calls the birds back, or sends them home.

Getting online once meant a modem dialling a phone number, then the two ends negotiating a connection out loud before the first page arrived. Our version is a fade with some text. No number is dialled and nothing makes a sound; this site does not play sound at all.

If your device asks for reduced motion, the dial-up and the birds stay off whatever these switches say. The switches only matter on this browser.