5 ms·

-Back in the day when file sharing was new, I won two rounds of beer from my friends in university - the first after I tried what I dubbed hardcore backups (Tar

by lb1lf 4y ago

-Back in the day when file sharing was new, I won two rounds of beer from my friends in university - the first after I tried what I dubbed hardcore backups (Tarred, gzipped and pgp'd an archive, slapped an avi header on it, renamed it britney_uncensored_sex_tape[XXX].avi or something similar, then shared it on WinMX assuming that as hard drive space was free and teenage boys were teenage boys, at least some of those who downloaded it would leave it to share even if the file claimed to be corrupt. It worked a charm. Second round? A year later, when the archive was still available from umpteen hosts. For all I know, it still languishes on who knows how many old hard drives...

marginalia_nu 4y ago
Poor guys, still looking for the right codec to play the britney tape they downloaded 28 years ago.
- iso1210 4y ago
  Disturbing, she'd have been 12 at that time.
  - backspace_ 4y ago
    Which brittany are they referring to?
    - idonotknowwhy 4y ago
      Britney Spears
    - picsao 4y ago
  - incel 4y ago
  - marginalia_nu 4y ago
    Hm, I thought she was popular in the mid '90s, but maybe it was more like the '00s?
    - freedomben 4y ago
      No I'm pretty sure you're right on the timing. I was a teenager in the mid to late 90s and britney tapes were extremely common then, to the point that it was often used as a joke (much like in your story!)
      - danachow 4y ago
        WinMX was release 21 years ago, and Britney Spears definitely didn’t break out until around 1999 around the same time as Napster. The difference between 1994 and 1999 is quite a bit in show biz/pop culture and an absolutely huge difference in public uptake of the internet.
        hnbad 4y ago
        That's right, 1999 was the release of her first album (Baby One More Time). I think the reason some feel like it must have been the mid-90s is that she went from that to the first major scandals (marriage, divorce and a shift in her musical style) as well as her first Greatest Hits album by 2004. Her next album after that (along with the head shaving incident and being placed under the custody of her manager-dad) was 2007, so most people's memories of her as a "sexy teen idol" are likely from her 1999-2003 period, which in retrospect probably felt a lot longer, especially with the overlap of other young women pop stars in the same period (e.g. Christina Aguilera started in 1998).
        vanattab 4y ago
        I think she also did some kind of Disney kids singing and talent show before that right?
        hnbad 4y ago
jjice 4y ago
That's a perfect college CS story. Beer and bastardized files - what a combo!
f0e4c2f7 4y ago
Your story reminds me of a Linus quote. "Real men don’t use backups, they post their stuff on a public ftp server and let the rest of the world make copies." -Linus Torvalds
jimmygrapes 4y ago
ah hell, you're the one who made my computer crash trying to open that and make me panic? damn you man
S-E-P 4y ago
You devil! I'm pretty sure I remember running into a file that looked like that and a quick poke around showed it wasn't anything valid. Funny how these things work since I'm pretty sure I remember running into it around 2008 (i'm a few years younger). I think i just deleted it though since I was suspicious of most strange files back then; I was the nerd who didn't have friends so i used to troll forums for anything i could get my hands on.
- bradwood 4y ago
  "running into it"... Yeah. Right. ;)
  - onemiketwelve 4y ago
    Oops my finger slipped on the download button and I accidentally waited 2 days to let it finish. Clumsy me
  - capableweb 4y ago
    Not sure how WinMX works, but back in the old DC++ days, you not only searched for things but could navigate directory structures directly from users connected to the same hub. It was uncommon for me to browse through some of the biggest/interesting users and see what they were sharing. By doing that, I'm sure I stumbled upon my fair share of sketchy stuff unintentionally, so it's not hard to imagine the same for others :)

by lb1lf 4y ago

marginalia_nu 4y ago

Poor guys, still looking for the right codec to play the britney tape they downloaded 28 years ago.

iso1210 4y ago
Disturbing, she'd have been 12 at that time.
- backspace_ 4y ago
  Which brittany are they referring to?
  - idonotknowwhy 4y ago
    Britney Spears
  - picsao 4y ago
- incel 4y ago
- marginalia_nu 4y ago
  Hm, I thought she was popular in the mid '90s, but maybe it was more like the '00s?
  - freedomben 4y ago
    No I'm pretty sure you're right on the timing. I was a teenager in the mid to late 90s and britney tapes were extremely common then, to the point that it was often used as a joke (much like in your story!)
    - danachow 4y ago
      WinMX was release 21 years ago, and Britney Spears definitely didn’t break out until around 1999 around the same time as Napster. The difference between 1994 and 1999 is quite a bit in show biz/pop culture and an absolutely huge difference in public uptake of the internet.
      - hnbad 4y ago
        That's right, 1999 was the release of her first album (Baby One More Time). I think the reason some feel like it must have been the mid-90s is that she went from that to the first major scandals (marriage, divorce and a shift in her musical style) as well as her first Greatest Hits album by 2004. Her next album after that (along with the head shaving incident and being placed under the custody of her manager-dad) was 2007, so most people's memories of her as a "sexy teen idol" are likely from her 1999-2003 period, which in retrospect probably felt a lot longer, especially with the overlap of other young women pop stars in the same period (e.g. Christina Aguilera started in 1998).
        vanattab 4y ago
        I think she also did some kind of Disney kids singing and talent show before that right?
        hnbad 4y ago

jjice 4y ago

That's a perfect college CS story. Beer and bastardized files - what a combo!

f0e4c2f7 4y ago

Your story reminds me of a Linus quote. "Real men don’t use backups, they post their stuff on a public ftp server and let the rest of the world make copies." -Linus Torvalds

jimmygrapes 4y ago

ah hell, you're the one who made my computer crash trying to open that and make me panic? damn you man

S-E-P 4y ago

You devil! I'm pretty sure I remember running into a file that looked like that and a quick poke around showed it wasn't anything valid. Funny how these things work since I'm pretty sure I remember running into it around 2008 (i'm a few years younger). I think i just deleted it though since I was suspicious of most strange files back then; I was the nerd who didn't have friends so i used to troll forums for anything i could get my hands on.

bradwood 4y ago
"running into it"... Yeah. Right. ;)
- onemiketwelve 4y ago
  Oops my finger slipped on the download button and I accidentally waited 2 days to let it finish. Clumsy me
- capableweb 4y ago
  Not sure how WinMX works, but back in the old DC++ days, you not only searched for things but could navigate directory structures directly from users connected to the same hub. It was uncommon for me to browse through some of the biggest/interesting users and see what they were sharing. By doing that, I'm sure I stumbled upon my fair share of sketchy stuff unintentionally, so it's not hard to imagine the same for others :)