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Bill Atkinson doxxed Douglas Adams in 1987

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Re: Bill Atkinson doxxed Douglas Adams in 1987

#41

Post by renhanxue »

spinningarrow wrote: post #19
fsckboy wrote: post #5

pre internet, your name, address, and phone number would published in the widely distributed telephone book. if you were a big celebrity, you could get an "unlisted" number (I think you had to pay for it), but that was relatively rare. you might recall, the opening of the original Terminator film (1984, same time period) hinges on this idea: the robot has a name and a city, he tears that page out of a phone book in a…

Still very much a thing in Norway

Also in Sweden. Most people, almost everyone, have their phone numbers and addresses listed in publicly searchable databases. Everyone's taxable income is public too (accessing it online costs a nominal fee from an aggregator service).

It's fine, it's not really abused that much. You can request a protected identity from the authorities if you really do have stalkers but it's a bureaucratic hassle. Mainly since everything in this society relies on anyone wanting to do business with you to be able to look your existence up using your personal number.

Re: Bill Atkinson doxxed Douglas Adams in 1987

#42

Post by permo-w »

spinningarrow wrote: post #19
fsckboy wrote: post #5

pre internet, your name, address, and phone number would published in the widely distributed telephone book. if you were a big celebrity, you could get an "unlisted" number (I think you had to pay for it), but that was relatively rare. you might recall, the opening of the original Terminator film (1984, same time period) hinges on this idea: the robot has a name and a city, he tears that page out of a phone book in a…

Still very much a thing in Norway

it's a thing in the UK too, just online: 192.com

Re: Bill Atkinson doxxed Douglas Adams in 1987

#43

Post by cgriswald »

donatj wrote: post #17
jockm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone could pay to have an unlisted number, it wasn’t crazy expensive in the US at least

My mom worked in corrections and after an incident with one of her coworkers getting attacked at home, we got an unlisted number. I remember as a teen being very irritated that people could no longer find me in the phone book.

You weren't alone. After my parents divorced I lived with mom and she went back to her maiden name.

Re: Bill Atkinson doxxed Douglas Adams in 1987

#44

Post by justin66 »

fsckboy wrote: post #5

pre internet, your name, address, and phone number would published in the widely distributed telephone book. if you were a big celebrity, you could get an "unlisted" number (I think you had to pay for it), but that was relatively rare. you might recall, the opening of the original Terminator film (1984, same time period) hinges on this idea: the robot has a name and a city, he tears that page out of a phone book in a…

> not for fear of "stalkers", it was for fear of potential "heavy breathing" annoyance calls late at night.

That's a weird distinction you're attempting to make.

Re: Bill Atkinson doxxed Douglas Adams in 1987

#45

Post by jmbwell »

pcl wrote: post #26
nervousvarun wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an old and your comment made me realize "prank calls" basically no longer exist. This was an enormous cultural phenomenon that existed for decades (at least in America) and somewhat quietly has completely died off. For anyone who might know, were prank calls as much of thing in 50s-90s Europe? Asia? Honestly don't know but it was sortof ever-present in the background of American teenage life (it was pretty likely…

I fondly remember conference-calling two Dominos numbers to each other and cracking up as they both said “hello dominos can I take your order” to each other. Ahh college.

I’m not saying who or when or whether this ever actually happened, but there were kids in my hometown who would do this but announce to each location “please hold for a call from the regional manager” or something equally officious, then put them on and say something ridiculous but plausible enough to get them going. Ahh a different time.

Allegedly

Re: Bill Atkinson doxxed Douglas Adams in 1987

#46

Post by Lammy »

nervousvarun wrote: post #14
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

haha was not aware "heavy breathing" calls were a thing

I'm an old and your comment made me realize "prank calls" basically no longer exist. This was an enormous cultural phenomenon that existed for decades (at least in America) and somewhat quietly has completely died off. For anyone who might know, were prank calls as much of thing in 50s-90s Europe? Asia? Honestly don't know but it was sortof ever-present in the background of American teenage life (it was pretty likely…

> "prank calls" basically no longer exist

https://www.tiktok.com/@putagirlon

Re: Bill Atkinson doxxed Douglas Adams in 1987

#47

Post by cool_dude85 »

ricardobeat wrote: post #29
gregmac wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you were a big celebrity, you could get an "unlisted" number (I think you had to pay for it), but that was relatively rare. Anyone could do it. It almost seems like extortion: "pay us $$ or we'll publish your name, address and number in a huge book that we'll deliver to everyone in the city!" I guess you probably agree when you get a phone line hooked up, though.

There was literally no other way to get in contact with anyone, other than ringing their doorbell if you already knew where they lived, or asking around. Getting unlisted was unusual, and for most, would defeat the point of having a phone in the first place. At least where I was from, early 90s, exchanging contacts was not something people did casually either, only for business or love (email/ICQ changed this when th…

My experience was people having little notebooks, made-for-purpose, usually called address books, where you had everyone alphabetical by last name.

Re: Bill Atkinson doxxed Douglas Adams in 1987

#48

Post by RossBencina »

jhbadger wrote: post #4

>I read somewhere that Douglas Adams (writer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) was the first person in Europe to own an Apple II computer. Not the 1977 Apple II, but the 1984 Macintosh. Adams owned a variety of computers from the obscure DEC Rainbow, to the also-obscure Apricot, to the BBC Micro, but as far as I know he never owned an Apple II, but he was a fan of the Macintosh from the first time he saw it an…

"The new improved Monk Plus models were twice as powerful, had an entirely new multi-tasking Negative Capability feature that allowed them to hold up to 16 entirely different and contradictory ideas in memory simultaneously without generating any irritating system errors." -- Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, 1987

The Macintosh Plus was introduced in January 1986.

Re: Bill Atkinson doxxed Douglas Adams in 1987

#49

Post by jetrink »

jhbadger wrote: post #4

>I read somewhere that Douglas Adams (writer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) was the first person in Europe to own an Apple II computer. Not the 1977 Apple II, but the 1984 Macintosh. Adams owned a variety of computers from the obscure DEC Rainbow, to the also-obscure Apricot, to the BBC Micro, but as far as I know he never owned an Apple II, but he was a fan of the Macintosh from the first time he saw it an…

Stephen Fry is one source of the story.

> I like to claim that I bought the second Macintosh computer ever sold in Europe in that January, 30 years ago. My friend and hero Douglas Adams was in the queue ahead of me. For all I know someone somewhere had bought one ten minutes earlier, but these were the first two that the only shop selling them in London had in stock on the 24th January 1984, so I’m sticking to my story.

1. https://www.stephenfry.com/2014/01/mac-at-30/

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