I'm so old I remember when the internet didn't have commercials.

@bob

I loved ICQ!! Anyone ever use "The Palace"? That was a fun place to go. It used avatars of your choosing/making and took place in various "palaces" built by the users. Then the 12-year-old boys took over and it became a swamp of sexual harrassment.

@chuff @johnnyvibrant @IanDSmith @kibcol1049

@bob @chuff @johnnyvibrant @IanDSmith @kibcol1049
Yeah, for a while at work I'd convinced all the CC folk to use Meebo, because it incorporated AIM, but with better controls of persistent rooms.

@John_Loader @BackFromTheDud @stuartl @geospacedman

@bob @chuff @johnnyvibrant @IanDSmith @kibcol1049 That was initiated during the heyday of the Trillian product, right?

@trouble @geospacedman @kibcol1049 Wasn't there a time when the internet was a line printer? Before my time, but I recall whispers from the founding folks.

@AncTreat5358 @chuff @johnnyvibrant @IanDSmith @kibcol1049

I think it was, id forgotten the program name, lol

@BackFromTheDud @stuartl @geospacedman @kibcol1049

Oooh! Morse code!

I see we've skipped over the two-tin-cans-and-a-piece-of-string phase of the internet.

@TheLancashireman You could afford STRING? LUXURY!! @stuartl @geospacedman @kibcol1049

@macacator @UpLateGeek @kibcol1049

It's a bad move to be connected during your fucking time. You never know who might be watching or listening in.

@BackFromTheDud @stuartl @geospacedman @kibcol1049

Well, I say "string" but it was just bits of dead grass twisted together.

@TheLancashireman Our dead grass was confiscated by the landlord. @stuartl @geospacedman @kibcol1049

@TheLancashireman @BackFromTheDud @stuartl @geospacedman String you say? Luxury! We had it hard, we had to weave nasal snot into a fibre!

@TheLancashireman @UpLateGeek @kibcol1049 exactly

@AncTreat5358 @geospacedman @kibcol1049 I think you mean teletypes (i.e /dev/tty), but yes. I am not that old. I have never used punch card or tape either.

@trouble @geospacedman @kibcol1049 I think you’re right.

Even though we both weren’t of that earlier time, we can appreciate the pioneer spirit that carried us to now.

@John_Loader @BackFromTheDud @stuartl @geospacedman @kibcol1049
In my day we dreamt of having one rock.
If we were lucky dad would come home at the end of a week of triple shifts & hand us the dust left over from the tiny bit of gravel his boss would give him at the start of the week.

@Soldusty And if you say that to Gen Alphas, they won't believe yer! @John_Loader @stuartl @geospacedman @kibcol1049

@trouble @AncTreat5358 @geospacedman @kibcol1049

I have both programmed with punchcards, and maintained supercomputers with tape. I may be an Elder. ‍️🥳. Why I remember when we telnet into each others bbs, and we liked it!

I had a friend in college who carried around punch cards until his appt at the lab to run them.

@kibcol1049 Or commerce.