Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AOL pretends to be the internet

thehistoryoftheweb.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 279 posts

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#251

Post by jimmydddd »

fireshaper wrote: post #212
vxNsr wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an email that is firstname@lastname.tld when I tell it to people, or tech support they always first assume I’m an idiot and really meant to say firstlast@gmail.com The tld isn’t com there’s no g in the entire address, but people have a hard time understanding that such a thing is a real email address. I do happen to have that gmail address also, but my name is uncommon and not the easiest to spell, so as long…

I am starting to move away from gmail to proton and I had someone ask me if proton.me was a personal domain name. I wish! People expect gmail or other common domains and don't know what to do if you give them something other than that.

Agreed. I'm confused why tech geeks would expect normies to understand this stuff. It's like, "I dropped a Ferrari engine into my Toyoto Corolla, and when I brought it to the Toyota dealer, the mechanic was confused--It's so wierd."

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#252

Post by washadjeffmad »

ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #240
washadjeffmad wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't focus too much on the word "internet" - it didn't mean to people what it does today. Imagine if AOL had existed in an "always online" world and built an OS instead of an application. In fact, just imagine a computer that booted directly into AOL, where you could download and manage apps but never delete the "AOL" part. Isn't Apple's iOS just an abstraction of the environment AOL sought to build - a portal they…

No.

, he gasped breathlessly from atop his Peloton, sweat beading beneath his Gucci Bored Ape sweatband as the horror dawned, all too late. Because once seen, there was no unseeing. "No. No. No!"

Could everything he had felt for his iPhone have been a saccharine substitute for what he'd lost along with AOL, his empire built in search of his Rosebud? It had all seemed too familiar, once he stopped to think about it... but how did he miss it, all this time? The differences boiled down to mere organization!

"I was a fool, so blinded by the beauty of my garden that I failed to notice I was a prisoner of it. I wonder if my garden is merely one of many in a larger garden, and that garden, one of..."

"Ding." His buffalo style chicken Hot Pocket was done. After doomscrolling over his cuisine, he felt better - silly, even - for doubting the uniqueness of his iPhone. It had appeared from vacuum, after all, amidst a techless, empty waste of a world, and brought with it an era where even the past was altered in its wake.

An icon of an envelope, not a mailbox, wiggled. "Oh look, I've got mail."

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#253

Post by jacobr1 »

dlkmp wrote: post #184
NikolaNovak wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an it professional. I've used qr codes maybe... 6 times, ever? With probably 50% success rate before I give up. I know for a fact that literally nobody else in my in law family of middle class Canadians has ever used a single one. Anecdata of course, but if we're sharing assumptions... :-)

That sounds almost impossible to me. I feel like half of everything I purchase which has a manual doesn't ship with a physical manual, but instead comes with a printed QR code to "get instructions". If it's a gadget that comes with an App, there will be a QR code linking to that app. I know multiple bars/ restaurants which won't send waiters to your table but expect you to scan the QR code on the table and order with…

But for the qr-code manuals, how often do you refer to them? I see those regularly too, but pretty much never use them.

Similarly for restaurants - in my area, while there temporarily were big a few years ago - I don't really see any place that uses them now. The exception is when I travel to other cities.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#254

Post by passwordoops »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #245
passwordoops wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think anyone working UX should spend 3-6 months minimum in tech support every couple of years. I imagine the value of those learnings would vastly outweigh any useability studies or testing.

Righteous conclusion: make computers harder to scare the normies off.

If it means I get my ports and physical buttons back, I'm all for it!

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#255

Post by albrewer »

jandrese wrote: post #71
cuttysnark wrote: post #28

AOL had a 45 minute idle timeout, meaning you'd be logged out regardless of what was happening on your screen if you weren't moving the mouse or using the keyboard. This was a problem if you wanted to download files and have them in the morning. Making my first "idler" in Visual Basic (which sent a string of whatever song was playing in Winamp to a random AOL chatroom where I was the only person) meant my inactive ti…

That idle timeout was pretty important when AOL cost $1/hour (and it was the cheap service! Prodigy, Compuserve, and especially GEnie were more expensive!). Leaving it connected overnight would get you grounded in a hurry when that AOL bill came in the next month. It was really no wonder that all of those services basically collapsed once dial up ISPs with flat (and low!) monthly fees started appearing. $10 for unlim…

I used NetZero, which was an ad-supported dial-up provider. The only cost was the phone call, which was local, so not very expensive.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#256

Post by squeaky-clean »

dlkmp wrote: post #184
NikolaNovak wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am an it professional. I've used qr codes maybe... 6 times, ever? With probably 50% success rate before I give up. I know for a fact that literally nobody else in my in law family of middle class Canadians has ever used a single one. Anecdata of course, but if we're sharing assumptions... :-)

That sounds almost impossible to me. I feel like half of everything I purchase which has a manual doesn't ship with a physical manual, but instead comes with a printed QR code to "get instructions". If it's a gadget that comes with an App, there will be a QR code linking to that app. I know multiple bars/ restaurants which won't send waiters to your table but expect you to scan the QR code on the table and order with…

The last monitor I bought had a QR code to scan for quick start instructions. The QR code went to the wrong monitor! After that I searched for mention of that in existing reviews and only found one person in Amazon who mentioned it. People didn't really read manuals before and I don't think they're scanning QR code manuals nowadays.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#258

Post by vxNsr »

Arch-TK wrote: post #205
vxNsr wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an email that is firstname@lastname.tld when I tell it to people, or tech support they always first assume I’m an idiot and really meant to say firstlast@gmail.com The tld isn’t com there’s no g in the entire address, but people have a hard time understanding that such a thing is a real email address. I do happen to have that gmail address also, but my name is uncommon and not the easiest to spell, so as long…

My email is first @ la.st (with the TLD being the last three letters of my last name). People really struggle with this. Websites sometimes reject it on principle that the TLD obviously can't exist.

I wanted something like, the ccTLD was available for it, but I couldn’t find a registrar to buy it from, when it finally became available, it appears the country is trying to sell the domain at a premium bec it’s short (3 letters) so I’m sad.

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#259

Post by sumtechguy »

basch wrote: post #176
sumtechguy wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech changes decently quickly so sometimes it is easy to just stick with what you know. Today I was standing in my driveway trying to open the garage door with my phone. After about a min of going thru random menus and whatever I said 'whatever' and just went thru the house and pushed the button. I will figure it out when I am not in a rush. Also you hand me a QR code I am going to be a little annoyed but also gratef…

On iPhones you swipe right from the Lock Screen. Android has a shortcut to double tap the power button. I don’t know if I ever go searching for an app to open a QR code.

Think both of those actions are open camera app?

Re: AOL pretends to be the internet

#260

Post by sixstringtheory »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #252
ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No.

, he gasped breathlessly from atop his Peloton, sweat beading beneath his Gucci Bored Ape sweatband as the horror dawned, all too late. Because once seen, there was no unseeing. "No. No. No!" Could everything he had felt for his iPhone have been a saccharine substitute for what he'd lost along with AOL, his empire built in search of his Rosebud? It had all seemed too familiar, once he stopped to think about it... but…

That was just the perfect reply, haha.

Seriously, they are definitely doing just what you've described, but even more advanced. Not that I think it's intrinsically wrong. It's much more efficient to have protocols for all the modes of interaction that are discovered, e.g. The collection of raw ideas expressible via internet web pages is like a test bed for the possibilities. They eventually graduate into ossified structures under the control of Apple, like Messages reactions, gifs, replies etc. (Even HTML/FTP/etc and browsers are sandboxes with much more restrictions than arbitrary methods of drawing/sculpture/sound/dance and other types of art.)

But with power comes responsibility. I'm not even sure it's possible for a corporation to be accountable to the full extent necessary for such control over so many people's interactions. There're unimaginable quantities personal stuff on their servers and clients.

Post reply on HN