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I have fond memories of the transition from local BBSes (my parents were annoyed enough by my constant phoning of the local BBS to download commander keen and t

I have fond memories of the transition from local BBSes (my parents were annoyed enough by my constant phoning of the local BBS to download commander keen and the like), to IP connectivity via Trumpet. The reach of the internet (esp IRC!) was mind-blowing for someone living in a relatively isolated community in Alaska at the time. I feel like I don't fully appreciate the gradual transition from dial-up and Trumpet to LTE and a supercomputer in my pocket :) I wonder what people born today will experience that has as great of an impact.

api 11y ago
I remember the first time I did the email around the world trick. Back then you could telnet to port 25 and type in a smtp header with a source route and send an email that would bounce across a dozen mail servers as it circumnavigated the globe. Fun times.
- jeff_marshall 11y ago
  Yes! I did the telnet thing to mail servers while I was in high school to good effect ;). I would almost certainly cringe if I could see those mails today. Showing the school IT department what could be done with a semicolon in a URL on their servers would have gotten me suspended if it weren't for some understanding teachers. Thank god I only put a fork bomb (cringe of 2016 me is real) in there.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
samstave 11y ago
Heh. "local" -- ~1988 I was calling into BBSs in San Jose from Tahoe... the phone bill got to $926! I was grounded for a month. We wanted to play trade wars and the pit. Super fun. I also used to call up 411 (information, where you would call 411 and say "do you have a number for John Smith in lake tahoe ca?") -- and I would chat up the 411 operators for as long as possible - the contest being to see how long we could keep the op on the phone. Then I tried to make blue boxes.
- coderdude 11y ago
  I racked up a hefty bill one month for my mom back in day connecting to the net at all times of the night. The old Web was such a glorious thing. My favorite activity was to download images and animated GIFs so that I could have them forever. You just never knew if you'd find them again and having access to new content was a novel concept to me. I still have that folder. Backed up over 17 years just because I still can't let go of them. Now I just play survival games and hoard items. I have no fear that I won't be able to find something I saw on the Web. It's harder to lose things forever. Such a different world and one I could not have imagined.
  - peteretep 11y ago
    Upload them to imgur. I'm sure it'll be a trip down memory lane for a lot of us.
    - coderdude 11y ago
      That's a great idea. The backup is on my desktop so I'll have to wait until I can access it. Would love to share it.
- husted 11y ago
  Where I live (lived) there's no such thing as free local calls. Whenever you dialed anything the meter started counting. I became very good at mentally preparing what I wanted to download before dialing :-) That was pre-internet, at least where I lived, and we all used Fidonet[1]. Cant recall my node, it's been too long. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet
  - lucaspiller 11y ago
    I was a bit late to the internet game (I think ~1997), but this was the same in the UK too. Most ISPs had expensive subscriptions which gave you access to a freephone number. In 1998, AOL was £16.95 a month [0]. I can't remember who I started out with, but I switched to FreeServe after they launched. They provided subscription free access to a local rate number (which confusingly doesn't have to be geographically local), and made money by getting a cut of the call rates. I don't think they were the first to do this, but they had a partnership with one of the main computer retailers. They were so successful an investigation was launched by the regulator [1]. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/19980111054950/http://www.aol.co.uk/ https://web.archive.org/web/19980111054950/http://www.aol.co... [1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/255200.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/255200.stm

api 11y ago

I remember the first time I did the email around the world trick. Back then you could telnet to port 25 and type in a smtp header with a source route and send an email that would bounce across a dozen mail servers as it circumnavigated the globe. Fun times.

jeff_marshall 11y ago
Yes! I did the telnet thing to mail servers while I was in high school to good effect ;). I would almost certainly cringe if I could see those mails today. Showing the school IT department what could be done with a semicolon in a URL on their servers would have gotten me suspended if it weren't for some understanding teachers. Thank god I only put a fork bomb (cringe of 2016 me is real) in there.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

samstave 11y ago

Heh. "local" -- ~1988 I was calling into BBSs in San Jose from Tahoe... the phone bill got to $926! I was grounded for a month. We wanted to play trade wars and the pit. Super fun. I also used to call up 411 (information, where you would call 411 and say "do you have a number for John Smith in lake tahoe ca?") -- and I would chat up the 411 operators for as long as possible - the contest being to see how long we could keep the op on the phone. Then I tried to make blue boxes.

coderdude 11y ago
I racked up a hefty bill one month for my mom back in day connecting to the net at all times of the night. The old Web was such a glorious thing. My favorite activity was to download images and animated GIFs so that I could have them forever. You just never knew if you'd find them again and having access to new content was a novel concept to me. I still have that folder. Backed up over 17 years just because I still can't let go of them. Now I just play survival games and hoard items. I have no fear that I won't be able to find something I saw on the Web. It's harder to lose things forever. Such a different world and one I could not have imagined.
- peteretep 11y ago
  Upload them to imgur. I'm sure it'll be a trip down memory lane for a lot of us.
  - coderdude 11y ago
    That's a great idea. The backup is on my desktop so I'll have to wait until I can access it. Would love to share it.
husted 11y ago
Where I live (lived) there's no such thing as free local calls. Whenever you dialed anything the meter started counting. I became very good at mentally preparing what I wanted to download before dialing :-) That was pre-internet, at least where I lived, and we all used Fidonet[1]. Cant recall my node, it's been too long. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet
- lucaspiller 11y ago
  I was a bit late to the internet game (I think ~1997), but this was the same in the UK too. Most ISPs had expensive subscriptions which gave you access to a freephone number. In 1998, AOL was £16.95 a month [0]. I can't remember who I started out with, but I switched to FreeServe after they launched. They provided subscription free access to a local rate number (which confusingly doesn't have to be geographically local), and made money by getting a cut of the call rates. I don't think they were the first to do this, but they had a partnership with one of the main computer retailers. They were so successful an investigation was launched by the regulator [1]. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/19980111054950/http://www.aol.co.uk/ https://web.archive.org/web/19980111054950/http://www.aol.co... [1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/255200.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/255200.stm