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ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

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Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#241

Post by jandrese »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #120
jandrese wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unix talk is pretty close. Also, BBS chat software would be another good example, although that was somewhat rare since few BBS systems had multiple lines and even on the ones that did you wouldn't just hang out waiting to chat. I missed the low UIN boat on ICQ because I was solidly into FreeBSD back then and the ICQ client was only on Windows. It also looked sketchy as hell with the crudely drawn flower icon and pub…

What about IRC?

I seem IRC as more of a group chat application. You could direct message people on it, but its purpose was closer to a forum than a messaging app.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#242

Post by rsayers »

My # was 522621, I registered in the spring of 1998. My password was hacked well over 10 years ago and I've never been able to recover the account. Not that I would ever need it, but it would be nice to have it back.

IM seems like such an established part of the internet now, it's easy to forget how amazing it seemed when I first saw it. Finally I could chat with my friends without us all having to be on IRC at the same time. It was also much easier to use than IRC, which brought in a lot of other friends I had who were less technically inclined.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#243

Post by brightsize »

ctvo wrote: post #27

7285081 - I still remember it 20 years later. I think I was introduced to ICQ when I started playing Ultima Online. Good times, better internets back then.

1210407 here. The website says that my password cannot be recovered though. :(

>7285081 - I still remember it 20 years later.

There's no reason whatsoever that I should remember my ID. I haven't used the service in at least a decade, probably more. I'm often astonished at how the brain tucks away (apparently) useless information that comes to the surface via a chance stimulus. For me, such bits are sometimes many decades old and AFAIK unreferenced since being acquired. At these times I've thought to myself "there's absolutely zero reason this memory should still be in my head, it's insignificant and useless." I'd think the brain would have better uses for its limited storage, even for coldline data.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#244

Post by [deleted] »

4ad wrote: post #85
hal9000xp wrote: post #74

I'm former ICQ backend developer (2010 - 2014). I started to work at Mail.Ru in 2010, when Mail.Ru bought ICQ from AOL. I was enjoyed working with ICQ backend code-base written by AOL (although to be honest not all code was high quality). Here are some quick facts about ICQ backend infrastructure: 1) ICQ servers has over 2'700'000 lines of code which is written in C and C++; 2) ICQ has its own TCP/IP implementation w…

> ICQ has its own TCP/IP implementation which works in the user space; Mind expanding a little bit why is that?

[deleted]

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#246

Post by jmontano »

mathrawka wrote: post #32
FigBug wrote: post #9

Around 2000 I got annoyed with the ads and crap in ICQ, so I wrote Miranda ICQ, now called Miranda IM ( http://www.miranda-im.org/ ) based on libicq. One of my main inspirations to write the app was I wanted to connect a chatbot to ICQ to harass my friends, but the standard API wouldn't allow sending messages. So I added a plugin API, connected the MegaHAL chatbot and good times ensued. I lost interest in Miranda sho…

Hey! I'm not sure if we ever talked, but I maintained Licq and did the rewrite when the protocol got switched to be like AIM. I also wrote the initial Miranda ICQ plugin for the new protocol as well, I think that was back in 2002. Just thought I'd say hey.

Back in 2004 the only way to connect to my employer's ICQcorp server from Linux was by running miranda under wine!

Thanks for that.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#248

Post by kerneis »

kayamon wrote: post #169
mikey_p wrote: post #64

The craziest thing about all of this, is that my number 7672xxx still works! Every few years I download the client, and my username and password from the late 90s is still valid. This is no small feat in the age of shutdowns and spin-offs. In other news, WebRings still exists as well.

Alas, while researching this[1] article I discovered that there are no active WebRings still in operation. (the few sites that claim to be working webrings are in fact fake) [1] http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/under-construction/

« Le webring de la salade » was still active only a couple years ago, and I personnally know some of its members, so I can probably get you into it if you wish. It's quite a niche webring though, and somewhat broken nowadays ;-)

http://www0.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/j.alglave/salade/

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#249

Post by vmp »

Do we have anyone who works at ICQ here? This post gave me the idea to log back in to my old account from 2002'ish but it says it is "compromised" and won't let me do anything.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#250

Post by mikey_p »

kayamon wrote: post #169
mikey_p wrote: post #64

The craziest thing about all of this, is that my number 7672xxx still works! Every few years I download the client, and my username and password from the late 90s is still valid. This is no small feat in the age of shutdowns and spin-offs. In other news, WebRings still exists as well.

Alas, while researching this[1] article I discovered that there are no active WebRings still in operation. (the few sites that claim to be working webrings are in fact fake) [1] http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/under-construction/

Webring.org is definitely still in operation. Take a look at a site like http://worldlighthouses.yolasite.com and try the Webring navigation at the bottom.
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