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I read all your AOL adventure posts in the voice of LGR.
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Apr 10, 2016 08:02
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Uncle at Nintendo posted:Nope! It had nothing to do with access numbers. You could have been using TCP/IP in a different country; it didn't matter. It was just a weird restriction I guess because maybe it would confuse their billing for the few people who didn't have unlimited. It was an intentional restriction to get people to pay for multiple accounts. My brother and my family shared the account but he lived far away, half of the time I couldn't log in because he was on. After awhile they would give you a message recommending that you make a new account with one of your screen names so both of you can be on together. I remember it got really annoying and was super-easy to sign up, like there would be a big "OK" button in the middle and then at the bottom corner a very small clickable text with like "no thanks". Once you clicked it, everything was automatically processed and billed to the main credit card.
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Apr 10, 2016 08:38
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Well it turns out the recommendation to use Windows 98 was a good one! Though a lot of stuff isn't working, a lot of stuff that wasn't working in XP now is! I will just post some random screen shots of what I find. Also forgive me if this takes a while, the Win98 is running slow as hell.       I can't find anything online with that guy's name indicating he was a movie reviewer. Weird.  Judging by this image, it looks like 2002 is around the time AOL just said "gently caress it" and just left all keywords frozen in time, never to be updated again. Original_Z posted:It was an intentional restriction to get people to pay for multiple accounts. My brother and my family shared the account but he lived far away, half of the time I couldn't log in because he was on. After awhile they would give you a message recommending that you make a new account with one of your screen names so both of you can be on together. I remember it got really annoying and was super-easy to sign up, like there would be a big "OK" button in the middle and then at the bottom corner a very small clickable text with like "no thanks". Once you clicked it, everything was automatically processed and billed to the main credit card. AOL was shady as poo poo. They are the reason that if Amazon accidentally mails you something that you didn't order, they tell you to keep it (law). AOL was sending people huge loving $30 textbooks without anyone asking, and they'd tell you that you are being charged unless you returned it to them. Slimy bastards. Anyway I am going to keep trying different stuff but I think I will be severely limited unless I can figure out how to spoof AOL 3.0 thru 5.0 into thinking they are 6.0. Chumbawumba4ever97 has a new favorite as of 06:01 on Apr 27, 2016 |
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Apr 10, 2016 09:01
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Quake GL 
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Apr 10, 2016 09:04
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Uncle at Nintendo posted:Holy crap, that would be amazing! Though I highly doubt keywords would have been saved (in what format would they be in?) "FDO" maybe (from a quick read of the page)? From reading the page more, it sounds like they might not have archived any of those though. Sounds like they only got the (or some of the) file libraries. Did you see that under http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=AOL#URLs they have some info about the aol:// URLs, and there's a "Sources" subsection under it with links to pages that have lists of links? You obviously already have some of these so not sure if there's anything new to you there. I guess if spoofing the version number was practical those guys might have already figured that out. Uncle at Nintendo posted:Well it turns out the recommendation to use Windows 98 was a good one! Though a lot of stuff isn't working, a lot of stuff that wasn't working in XP now is! Phew, thought I just wasted your time with Windows 98 emulation hell. Thanks to the folks who provided actual useful advice about how to do it  quote:Apparently they paid employees $200 when someone they recommended gets hired. Interesting. What a rip-off!
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Apr 10, 2016 09:15
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I remember AOL used to be notoriously hard to cancel. They had goals for the retention department that were really hard to meet so they'd do almost anything to stop you from canceling your service. Another fun fact: They had AOL in Great Britain but it was still called America Online.
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Apr 10, 2016 09:25
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TOOT BOOT posted:I remember AOL used to be notoriously hard to cancel. They had goals for the retention department that were really hard to meet so they'd do almost anything to stop you from canceling your service. That was literally my opposite experience. They were always cancelling my loving account. And it was over the dumbest poo poo like I made an ascii rear end in a chat room (_Y_) There was one time when I called them to get our account back (pretending to be my dad) and the guy literally said "you've been TOSed 3 times already, that's it. I am not reinstating your account" and I said "what should I do then?" and he said "find another internet provider". I swear to god I am not exaggerating at all. All you had to do was write a couple of foul words in chat rooms and they would have done it for you, toot boot! Buttcoin purse posted:"FDO" maybe (from a quick read of the page)? From reading the page more, it sounds like they might not have archived any of those though. Sounds like they only got the (or some of the) file libraries. Is there a way for me to view any of that stuff though? I will happily download all of it but if the only way it can be viewed is if you have AOL software source code or something, it would be a waste of time. I'd love to know though. Buttcoin purse posted:
Yeah I tried all of them. A majority of them require AOL 3.0 for it to work, unfortunately. 
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Apr 10, 2016 09:35
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So where was the AOL new user training tutorial that explained how to go onto USENET and post "me too" whenever anyone asked for someone to post something? I somehow missed that session when I was on it.
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Apr 10, 2016 12:50
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Booblord Zagats posted:My brother is a massive sim nerd, he buys just about every HOTAS system as it releases and he claims nothing works as well as his 2002 built CH set up, with a close second being the Thrustmaster Cougar. Apparently CH poo poo just works forever CH also makes controllers for equipment like random agricultural heavy machinery.
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Apr 10, 2016 15:14
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Data Graham posted:I can hardly wait until 3D and interpolating frame rate TVs are relics. thathonkey posted:It's hard to find a tv now that doesnt have any of the following horribly dumb gimmick features I agree on everything except 3D. Passive 3D is fuckin' awesome. It's only a pain in the rear end to get some things working, and most of that is because of differing standards. The 3D optimus android phone is similarly cool, but it's a 2012 phone and is too slow for modern android os. It has two built in cameras and can do 3D stills/video; it has a passive diffraction grid screen that shows 3D content much like a nintendo 3DS. I would buy the poo poo out of a modern android phone that had 3D.
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Apr 10, 2016 16:40
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That phone Amazon made for AT&T had 3D in it and it sold like complete rear end Like it's made by Amazon and you literally can't get it from Amazon anymore. IIRC they dumped them off at like $100 a piece, no contract, just to get rid of them.
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Apr 10, 2016 16:53
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Squish posted:I agree on everything except 3D. Passive 3D is fuckin' awesome. It's only a pain in the rear end to get some things working, and most of that is because of differing standards. The 3D optimus android phone is similarly cool, but it's a 2012 phone and is too slow for modern android os. It has two built in cameras and can do 3D stills/video; it has a passive diffraction grid screen that shows 3D content much like a nintendo 3DS. The Evo 3D I had for Virgin was a beast, I've still got it as a backup phone honestly. It takes amazing pictures in both standard and 3d, and for it's time it was a workhorse. I think I used that thing until late 2014 when I needed to upgrade for better hardware. A sad day.
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Apr 10, 2016 17:32
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drunk asian neighbor posted:That phone Amazon made for AT&T had 3D in it and it sold like complete rear end I don't think that was actually 3D. I think the contents onscreen changed depending on your viewing angle in order to create an illusion of space, but that was about it. They made it into one of the primary selling points and nobody went for it.
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Apr 10, 2016 17:49
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Data Graham posted:So where was the AOL new user training tutorial that explained how to go onto USENET and post "me too" whenever anyone asked for someone to post something? Just run into chatroom: pR0n and enter "!list" to get in the sweet porn mailchain.
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Apr 10, 2016 17:58
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an actual frog has a new favorite as of 16:51 on Jun 27, 2020 |
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Apr 10, 2016 21:55
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Remember when aol got wise to people using cchateooms named "server##" to distribute ripped off software so the ultra espionage software pirates slid under the radar by going to rooms named "cerver##" and "servver##"
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Apr 10, 2016 22:11
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You and your fancy AOL service. Let me tell you something about the Compuserve Information Service. Yes, the term CIS was used differently back then.  Actually, I don't remember much, except the email addresses were based on those 7xxxx,xx user ids. And I don't have any screenshots, either.
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Apr 10, 2016 22:47
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Used Compuserve, AOL, and Prodigy back in the day. I remember AOL being the best of the bunch as far as content. Way too long ago and was too young to remember any specifics from that era though.
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Apr 10, 2016 22:58
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When I was like 10-11 my friends mom used to go onto a Stargate 1 chatroom and me and my buddy used to chat on there. Being that age it was amazing to talk with other people **over the internet**. I've found a working archive of the site. I'm not a fan of the show [not even seen one ep]. Particular highlights were me saying 'americans are fat idiots' and then being told off as 9/11 was happening. I didn't know at the time, whoops! How far i've come.... http://web.archive.org/web/20000511050027/http://www.stargatesg-1.com/index2.cfm I'd love to see a UI snapshot of the chatroom but archive is so tempting but a lot of pages are broken. Why does Archive tempt us like that? Robots.txt or error pages. Gutwrenching!
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Apr 10, 2016 23:26
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i know i went in some AOL chat rooms but i cant remember much about what they were like. i remember a lot about IRC back in the day though especially EFNet
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Apr 10, 2016 23:33
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All I know about AOL chatrooms was that going into one meant you're about to get poo poo tons of spam because your chatroom username is also your email address.
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Apr 10, 2016 23:36
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I remember connecting to pre-Internet Compuserve using a 300 baud modem on a Commodore 64.
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Apr 10, 2016 23:36
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thathonkey posted:i know i went in some AOL chat rooms but i cant remember much about what they were like. i remember a lot about IRC back in the day though especially EFNet Me in college was dc++
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Apr 10, 2016 23:37
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theultimo posted:Me in college was dc++ Some people chatted on the DC server but I never used it for anything except  , since we had a perfectly good campus IRC server. The admin works at id now and takes great joy in the hate he receives whenever he makes a slight change to quake live.
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Apr 10, 2016 23:41
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I remember pops pitting different isps against each other and continually getting free months. If they wouldn't give free months he'd cancel and use some promotion from someone else to get back on. Also AOL fuckin sucked trying to upload stuff to my tripod page
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Apr 10, 2016 23:46
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Squish posted:I agree on everything except 3D. Passive 3D is fuckin' awesome. It's only a pain in the rear end to get some things working, and most of that is because of differing standards. The 3D optimus android phone is similarly cool, but it's a 2012 phone and is too slow for modern android os. It has two built in cameras and can do 3D stills/video; it has a passive diffraction grid screen that shows 3D content much like a nintendo 3DS. 3d is the only feature listed that's actually bad.
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Apr 10, 2016 23:53
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i remember having to schedule like 4 nights worth of my family not having any phone time so i could download a linux distro over our dialup modem and after a few months forced my poor dad's hand into finally paying for a dedicated phone line 
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Apr 10, 2016 23:55
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I really wanted Compuserve when I was a kid, but they didn't have any local numbers where I lived in rural Ohio. I sent them a fax on my 9600 baud fax modem and they told me I could dial their 1-800 watts line for $6/hr. Mom said no. Then in 1995 a bunch of tiny phone companies in Ohio banded together to form bright.net. We started out with the ten hours a month for $10 plan. It was free between midnight and 6am though, so I would be up for hours on Friday and Saturday nights on the web and IRC.
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Apr 10, 2016 23:59
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Old internet could be so un-user friendly and infuriating. New internet is loads more convenient but there are more idiots on it now. I almost can't comprehend pre-cable internet anymore.
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Apr 11, 2016 00:38
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Casimir Radon posted:Old internet could be so un-user friendly and infuriating. New internet is loads more convenient but there are more idiots on it now. I almost can't comprehend pre-cable internet anymore. Old Internet was also a lot more friendly to slow connections for obvious reasons. Modern web sites basically just poo poo if you're anything less than 500 kB/s or so, thanks to massive amounts of useless Javascript bullshit and 5MB images scaled down to 300x200.
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Apr 11, 2016 00:42
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It's easy to forget what it was like using really primitive "search" engines. It was mostly keyword lookup and simple document-to-doucment based linking for a long time. URLs looked nothing like they do today.
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Apr 11, 2016 00:42
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I agree another 3d phone would be sweet. I had the evo 3d and it was so cool to be able to take 3d pictures (even if the resolution wasn't high, I thought the photos were still very impressive), I miss it all the time
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Apr 11, 2016 00:55
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.sit files are compressed archives using StuffIt for what it's worth.
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Apr 11, 2016 01:16
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blugu64 posted:.sit files are compressed archives using StuffIt for what it's worth. Yeah almost definitely Mac related because that was the preferred archive format for Macs back then.
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Apr 11, 2016 01:32
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Uncle at Nintendo posted:Also I found something that was definitely meant for AOL employees only. It popped up when I clicked on something completely unrelated. I put it on pastebin: http://pastebin.com/gi3FgHYD quote:"I can't help it...it's the anime in me."
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Apr 11, 2016 01:53
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Pham Nuwen posted:Old Internet was also a lot more friendly to slow connections for obvious reasons. Modern web sites basically just poo poo if you're anything less than 500 kB/s or so, thanks to massive amounts of useless Javascript bullshit and 5MB images scaled down to 300x200. http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm ?
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Apr 11, 2016 02:09
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it's not just the size of the assets being requested for xfer but also the sheer number of requests (and usually to a large variety of different hosts) that really contributes to the perceived slowness of modern websites on bad connections
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Apr 11, 2016 02:11
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Internet speeds are inconceivably faster than they were in the late 90s/early 2000s yet it seems like websites load at the same speed.
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Apr 11, 2016 02:27
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Cojawfee posted:Internet speeds are inconceivably faster than they were in the late 90s/early 2000s yet it seems like websites load at the same speed. that's because now many "modern" websites are between like 1-5mb of content to download if you're LUCKY. that is if they were taking any care at all to optimize bandwidth where possible.
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Apr 11, 2016 02:29
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I remember logging into the internet from a Macintosh SE, using GEnie, which was GE's online service. hell yeah
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Apr 11, 2016 02:43
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