ToneLoc (a war dialer), written in 1991, last version released 1994 before going to prison: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ToneLoc People still have modems???
Fascinating story. Is it true that it got you banned from the Internet? That's cruel.
Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
341–350 of 363 posts
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#342Back in 1997-1998 I wrote a compressor for DOS 16-bit executables called aPACK (and a library, aPLib, with the compression code). I still occasionally get an email from someone trying to get them to work, so they must still be in use :-).
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#343I wrote a data recovery POSIX compliant command line app in C in 2003 that runs under OS X, Windows, and linux. It's still selling well, and has been all these years. Over time it's generated millions in revenue as it's been used by several different competing apps, and I have only recompiled it about twice in the last 15 years, each time only making a (very) minor change. It went a good decade without a recompile an…
This is great, I hope you retained 100% rights and are the one raking in that $? Considering the rise of SSD's, what's your prediction of how quickly your revenue will decline?
oh, and I dont really have any idea how quickly the revenue will decline. I'm surprised it's still making some money now actually. The market may take another decade to completely dry up though. The data recovery stuff does work on digital cameras / SD cards, external hard disks, USB sticks, etc. I'm not sure what people currently buy it for generally.
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#344Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did publish it, but it didn't sell well, because our marketing sucked. I'd give you the source code if you asked for it I think. I don't think it's really worth open sourcing at this point, I doubt there's much interest in it.
Open source is always well received. Also, there are people out there running GNUStep/Darwin!
I have tried open sourcing other stuff, and it's been completely overlooked. I guess you have to promote it somehow. But I've tried putting stuff on GitHub, and I don't think anyone ever looked at it. If it were to have an audience I'd do it.
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#345Earlier quoted context omitted.
Come on... Say all that and not mention the name of the map? Is this 'petrosianshina', the clone of 'Vampirism Fire'? Being russian I can only name this as something with millions of subscribers and is not dota.
It was called Pudge Wars! The DotA 2 version is here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=29683... where you can see its subscriber count (and my name cited as the originator)
Holy shit, Pudge Wars ...
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#346I built a communication layer for a bank in 2000 :P It ran on Solaris (server side), and as an ActiveX dll on win32 :)
A year ago the server side was just ported to 64bit architecture Linux, though basically the protocol remained unchanged, only stronger encryption keys are used
Now they plan to change it to a more modern "online" version (some REST thing instead of the connect-sync-disconnect approach)
:D :D :D
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#3471997 Borland Paradox
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#3481997 Borland Paradox
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#349A friend told me they decommisioned yesterday their last netcool server.
Inside there was still the code that updated priorities and removed old alarms every 293, and 3607 seconds (why 293 and 3607? - because they're primes and very close to 5 minutes and 1 hour).
It has been running 16 years. Not bad for a midnight-fix during an incident ;-)
Re: Ask HN: Oldest code you have written that is still in use?
#350This is hardly old (because I am not that old yet) and not a big deal, but it's an interesting story of how your code can be re-used when you least expect it.
Back in 2005 I was starting my Masters degree in Biomedical Engineering. I was working on a project where we did processing on the raw RF data from a diagnostic ultrasound system. The system manufacturer had just created an "RF module" that gave us access to this data in a raw, proprietary format. We were their beta testers and they provided no SDK. Since most of our research started with analysis in Matlab, I reverse-engineered their proprietary format and wrote some Matlab functions to load the RF data into Matlab data structures. I assumed this whole time that these scripts would only ever be used by me. Before I finished up my Masters, I made sure I documented all of the code that left behind. None of this code was "online" (these were pre-Github days) and it was only stored locally on my machine, available to my lab members. Well, about a year ago (2015), I heard back from a former labmate who is now faculty at another institution. She mentioned in passing that that those scripts are still used today by anyone who interfaces with that system! I had to do a double-take before I believed what she said. I guess the scripts got e-mailed around and have found some use beyond my own. I was both proud and alarmed to hear it!