• 4dpuzzle@beehaw.org
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        11 months ago

        Awful as it sounds, it was still data you could hear and decode using handwritten software. Protocols from those days were ones you could interact directly with - using software like telnet.

      • chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 months ago

        As a person who had to troubleshoot connections, I even have that first major repeat tone memorized. If it didn’t come through, I knew something was up.

    • Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org
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      11 months ago

      People who only ever know the internet through smartphones will NEVER understand our pain.

      They accept the modern ultra-cluttered short attention span theater moneygrab marketplace as ‘the norm’ and it fucking makes me ill.

      • moody@lemmings.world
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        11 months ago

        Nowadays people watch 1080p Youtube videos on their phones. Back in my day, videos were download-only, and you might spend a few hours to get a 120p TV rip a couple minutes long, like the classic video of the beached whale being blown up by dynamite.

        • Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          There’s a school of thought that youtube style content isn’t good from a business perspective, that all of those downloads cost more than they can make.

          Mainly it’s because American bandwidth is way too expensive due to years of infrastructure and greed.

          I’d love to go back to the days where you download the videos and audio you want in the background and watch it later.

          It would save the platforms so much money and make competition viable.

          But people are WAAAAAY too immediate gratification oriented, they want their endless stream of 30 second fluff clips in full HD.

      • Chris Remington@beehaw.org
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        11 months ago

        They accept the modern ultra-cluttered short attention span theater moneygrab marketplace as ‘the norm’

        So true!

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
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      11 months ago

      Yeah… No. I’d much rather have the faster speeds, higher bandwidth and features that are common today than what was typical back then. The only things that were actually better was the limited number of ads (if any were on the page at all) and the variety being so that you could add “.com” to any random word or phrase and find a cool site way more than a domain name placeholder or porn.

    • Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org
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      11 months ago

      Just because we’re old don’t mean we’re wrong.

      I remember the first ever popup I got and how it made me fear for the future of the web.

      My friends roflcopter’d and said ‘it’s only a popup’

      Now look the fuck where we are now…

      • SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        The pop ups were terrible. The pop unders were somehow worse. Nothing like closing your browser window and then seeing an ad for a porn or gambling site.

        On the other hand YOU’RE OUR 10000th VISITOR! CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE IPOD!!

        • Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          audio ads sampled at max volume that multiplied every time you tried to close them…

          They are the reason people started making products like ublock, and why for most of the 90s I browsed the web with javascript off unless I trusted the site or needed the service for the moment.

          Now nothing renders if you do and you need 3 extensions just to not constantly be mobbed by ads

        • Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          Also on a side note:

          A friend of mine’s dad legit did win a million dollars in one of those popups. It was really early in the advertising days and I guess they were trying something.

          Anyway he paid off all his kids’ houses and bought a nice fishing truck.

          I doubt it will ever happen again but I was personal witness for it happening at least once.

          That said, even after watching that I have never, and will never willingly click any popup.

          • SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            I worked very, very briefly as CTO for one of the biggest companies in that space. I’m talking like about a month or two. The scam was getting users to register and click through affiliate links which could be monetized to offset the costs of the free iPod.

            Shortly after I left, the company was literally sued out of existence for false marketing around their prizes. I was just happy the checks cleared. I ended up making about $30k for a total of a few hours of work, and dodged a massive karmic hit.

      • OpenStars@startrek.website
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        11 months ago

        It’s like someone stealing your wallet, then digging into it, removing precisely $1, then putting it back. T-t-the fact that they only took a dollar isn’t the point!:-P And if they can - and will - do that then what will they graduate to doing later, when they aren’t just playing around and decide that they want more?

        Some people just do not want to see the larger picture, and may punch you in the face if you try to explain it to them, citing how “pretentious”/“condescending” you are being, or like you are “bragging”. If they do not want to learn… do not want to “know” things well then, most often it seems they do not want YOU to know things either:-(.

        But just because we’re nerds don’t mean we’re wrong. :-)

        • Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org
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          11 months ago

          I would argue that the fact we are nerds means we will more often than not be right, but be unable to say it in an ego soothing way to the gorillas in suits that actually hold the budget decisions.