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ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

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Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whats the best front end program to read those databases, for non-db folks? (windows or linux / CLI or GUI)

SQLite Studio works great http://sqlitestudio.pl/

Yup, I can second that, stable with good feature set.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#232
I still talk to one person regularly on ICQ. I just wish they would add some encryption. :(

--

edit: It says in the article that they do use encryption. However, the official website states something different:

> ICQ does not encrypt your communications. In addition, your communications may be routed through different countries - that is the nature of the Internet. ICQ cannot accept any responsibility for any unauthorized access or loss of Data.

https://privacy.icq.com/legal/privacypolicy/en

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#233
Disclaimer: I have never used ICQ.

Here I'm noticing few comments about how people met their significant others on ICQ. It seems, in those times, ICQ didn't face a "social awkwardness" as is faced by Omegle today.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#234
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…

Thank you ! I was a happy user back then !

Haven't use ICQ in a long time but I still remember my ICQ number :)

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I commented on using Back Orifice but Sub7 was another one we used. If I remember correctly BO didn't have a GUI until they (Cult of the dead Cow) updated it to BO2k so it was easier for us kids to use Sub7.

BO surely did have a GUI! Sub7 was dark and sleek though, while BO had a messy office-like look.

Thanks, it's been so long I probably just forgot what software we were using that was only command line.

I had a folder with a lot of these with virus that I could play with, it was fun, until my sister selected and executed all of them...

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#236
post #208
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…

i loved miranda and the megahal plugin. one of my friends had a really good therapeutic session with the megahal plugin (thinking it was me) after his girlfriend broke up with him. then some other friends discovered that it was a bot and that they could train it..... it didn't went well after that. i still think about recoding megahal in pure JS and use it for the current hip chatbots. thx for miranda (and the megaha…

That's a good story, I didn't get much feedback from users at the time. Nice to hear to what people were doing. And yes, my megahal got 'trained' as well.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think ICQ (along with non-technical IRC) took a gut punch when Microsoft bundled MSN Messenger with Windows XP. Almost over night people were switching to (or adopting) MSNM, often reproducing online the cliques already existing in the local communities.

Are you Canadian by any chance? MSN only ever really seemed to take off in some specific regions, one of which was Canada. After ICQ, almost all my American contacts moved to AIM. Which was honestly pretty awful, since MSNM was much nicer.

In the UK, everyone used MSN too. I ended up having MSN for my school friends, but AIM for all my internet friends from online games/communities. And then there were always a few using Yahoo.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

licq, thanks for that, scary thoughts how much of my life back then passed thru licq. I'm still on ICQ, via pidgin. There's just 'me' these days, but I'm holding the fort. So there :-)

Wish I could get my 5-6 digit icq number back... long since lost to the ether...

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#240
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

163766. Had tons of people asking to buy it. Too bad I can't even log in since it's tied to my email address from 4th or 5th grade. I think the numbers started at 100000. Prior to that, elementary school, I used PowWow and Mplayer to socialize with pretty much only Californians.. since everyone on the internet back then lived in CA. That was a weird time. I of course was 18 for.. oh, 10 years. I believe I've met 2-3…

You can get it back! I was in the same spot. Contact ICQ support and tell them that you no longer have access to that email. You'll confirm your UIN and a few names from your user list. It took about a day to get mine back.

Thanks for this post - I've contacted them and intend to get my old account back too! 48xxxx level.
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