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ICQ will stop working from June 26

icq.com

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Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#471

Post by Karrot_Kream »

ComodoHacker wrote: post #422
lxgr wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Internet being an opt-in thing that you'd consciously connect to at a set our of the day, not something that would reach out to you and notify you about all kinds of things at random times, was definitely a different feeling. Back then, it felt like a parallel world; now it's more like an overlay on this one.

I guess AI is the next thing that's still opt-in now, will be opt-out tomorrow and then no-escape. It would be interesting to read a nostalgic thread from 2070...

That's life isn't it? Mailing addresses, electricity, car-based transportation in the US, technologies and cultural institutions change and create worlds dependent on them to function. There was probably a time when the very idea that you stayed up after the sun set was seen as a silly modern affliction and indeed for most of human prehistory humans did not have access to artificial lighting. Now there are people, like me, who consider themselves as night owls.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#472

Post by omnibrain »

127545907

But it’s gone. I remember all my old passwords from 2000. But I also remember about 10 years ago changing those everywhere to secure passwords. I even distinctly remember doing this for ICQ despite not using it anymore. But it’s not on my password manager.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#473

Post by andrewinardeer »

jmbwell wrote: post #251
lxgr wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have similar sentimental memories of ICQ. One highlight was being able to connect to it from my phone for the first time; first on my first smartphone (Symbian), then from my "non-smart" Sony Ericsson that succeeded it, via some Java Jabber client and a Jabber-to-ICQ bridge! (Unfortunately nobody else that I knew had it on their phones, so I could only reach people in front of their PCs at home.) On the other hand,…

Being reachable only from a PC at home… man. Now that I miss. The whole lifestyle of having a clear distinction between being at the computer and not. Status messages for a time when “away” was a state of being you ever were . Coming back to see whether your crush had messaged you. Simpler times for sure. Before we even had “wi-fi!”

Dad picking up the phone while I was connected to my ISP via the 14.4kb modulater/demodulator and ruining my chat session. What a monster.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#474

Post by throwaway14356 »

101008 wrote: post #290
jmbwell wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being reachable only from a PC at home… man. Now that I miss. The whole lifestyle of having a clear distinction between being at the computer and not. Status messages for a time when “away” was a state of being you ever were . Coming back to see whether your crush had messaged you. Simpler times for sure. Before we even had “wi-fi!”

I started writing an essay about this topic. I am one of those nostalgics by the old internet. I thought it was the aesthetic (geocities, etc), but after giving it a lot of thought, that wasn't. It was that your life (all of us) was "offline by default". We lived offline and then we connect to the internet for a few minutes, hours, whatever. But you lived your life offline. We attended concerts, took photos, recorded…

I've been pondering library box and pirate box kind of setups as well as mesh networks. I've never used any of that but the idea of having a separate network bound to a location seems rather interesting (be it in a kind of pokemon go kind of way)

You get a new flavor of privacy, no moaning about copyright, no nonsensical political correctness, much less need for security, people you can do things with irl and possibly very high bandwidth use or cpu intensive applications. It might even have limited time service like say outside office hours.

We use to have a popular forum around here ran by a pub. It became to much work to maintain and the owner wasn't interested enough. It was suppose to be for regular visitors.

If it was only accessible locally and on its own wifi network you set it up once and it would work just fine. Not having access to the darts competition from home is a feature not a drawback.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#475

Post by andrewinardeer »

nogridbag wrote: post #432
fragmede wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you reminded me that we used to pay for Internet access by the hour. You'd pay $X for one hour of Internet use, so you'd go online, do a thing and then disconnect to save money. local vs remote for email was such a different time. you'd have a fat client on your laptop, and you'd do a bunch of writing offline, before connecting, having the program sync, and then disconnect. how times have changed!

I still feel bad I left my parents' computer online all night to download a .wav (?) audio file of Mario jumping from Nintendo.com. Back then, the closest most kids got to Nintendo was via video game magazines. So going to Nintendo.com for the first time and downloading an audio file was a special moment. The download was taking hours and I have no idea how much it cost my parents. I just remember being so disappoint…

I used internet so much via dialup my ISP emailed me saying I need to go on a business plan. Surprising for a 15 year old.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#477

Post by nogridbag »

jraph wrote: post #456
nogridbag wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still feel bad I left my parents' computer online all night to download a .wav (?) audio file of Mario jumping from Nintendo.com. Back then, the closest most kids got to Nintendo was via video game magazines. So going to Nintendo.com for the first time and downloading an audio file was a special moment. The download was taking hours and I have no idea how much it cost my parents. I just remember being so disappoint…

Wait, it didn't take an entire night to download a 1 sec wav (assuming the worst) file, did it? 1 sec of wav would be 176.4 kB (assuming 44.1 kHz, 16 bits, stereo), or 176.4 * 1024 * 8 bits. That divided by 28800 bits/s (assuming a 28k modem) gives 50.1 seconds. A 96 kHz 32 bit stereo wav would be 768 kB, 4-5 times that so still less than 5 minutes. What am I missing?

This was a very long time ago, so I don't remember all details. But yes the download took hours. This was basically the first website I visited when I got internet access (and I would assume most kids did as well). So this predates 28.8 modems. I believe I had a 14.4 modem, was out in the country, and websites were not stable. This is somewhat of a core memory for me, so I do remember some details clearly.

Simply going to Nintendo.com took a very long time. Lots of us regular users started coming online for the first time and likely overloaded their servers. Navigating to the section of the website where it listed audio files to download was a whole endeavor of itself. It took multiple attempts to download that dang jumping sound. I would leave it running during the day and when I came back later, the download would have randomly timed out. And I think at least once my parents picked up one of phones in the house and messed it up. I believe as a kid I quickly learned that the web was faster at night time when less people were online. So after several failed attempts, I started it at night time and woke up to it completed. Not sure if you were online at that time, but I don't think you can simply reduce this to math equation.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#479

Post by [deleted] »

jraph wrote: post #456
nogridbag wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still feel bad I left my parents' computer online all night to download a .wav (?) audio file of Mario jumping from Nintendo.com. Back then, the closest most kids got to Nintendo was via video game magazines. So going to Nintendo.com for the first time and downloading an audio file was a special moment. The download was taking hours and I have no idea how much it cost my parents. I just remember being so disappoint…

Wait, it didn't take an entire night to download a 1 sec wav (assuming the worst) file, did it? 1 sec of wav would be 176.4 kB (assuming 44.1 kHz, 16 bits, stereo), or 176.4 * 1024 * 8 bits. That divided by 28800 bits/s (assuming a 28k modem) gives 50.1 seconds. A 96 kHz 32 bit stereo wav would be 768 kB, 4-5 times that so still less than 5 minutes. What am I missing?

[deleted]

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#480

Post by skydhash »

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #436
0xedd wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get a dumb phone or a Linux phone. Stop complaining. Be an example.

Or just don't take your phone out? I always read these threads and think that the folks here probably have issues disconnecting and so they're longing for a world where social pressures forced disconnection. I still frequently don't check my socials until after work or after a long social activity. I'm upfront with my contacts about that too, and most of my friends are like me. I only monitor my phone constantly if I…

I use my phone mostly as a PDA. Quick searches, reading Hacker News and RSS, Chatting (very infrequently), calls, and utilities. No socials apps, no games. And I have an ereader and a digital audio player for books and music.
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