I remember getting AOL CDs in my box of apple jacks

    • teft@startrek.website
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      2 years ago

      You could do that with any copy protected floppy. That was the little sliding tab in the corner. Tab open = read-only. Tab closed = read & write.

      • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I remember the AOL disks not having the sliding tab, either it had been pried out or it was just a disk that didn’t have it.

        • teft@startrek.website
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          2 years ago

          Correct. Any disks that the company didn’t want erased, like marketing disks, didn’t have the slide tab. Hence the op mentioning they used tape instead.

  • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 years ago

    Oh man. In 1997 a sweet looking car Called a Plymouth Prowler came out and little tween me made my aim name, email, and eventually ebay name Prowler1234 (numbers changed).

    I never thought about how totally sketch it was to be on aim and in forums with the screen name Prowler. Lol

    It’s still my ebay account name.

    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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      2 years ago

      Calling Seagate to find out the Write Precomp Cylinder for my HD, because autoconfigure didn’t exist and the letters had smudged off.

      • Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I think I still have a couple in my garage with the settings printed on a piece of paper I had taped to them. What a pain. No more cable select for us!

  • MrJameGumb@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    The main thing I remember about AOL way back when is that you only got a certain amount of hours to use it per month and if you went over they started charging extra

      • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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        2 years ago

        And if your local number was busy and you dialed another, it could cost a metric shitload of money, because long-distance was apparently transmitted on the finest golden threads honed by fifth-generation artisans.

        One of the weirdest generational gaps we almost never talk about is how we got to ‘of course you can talk to anyone anytime’ immediately after decades of ‘hey you wanna meet up for a burger?’ costing more than the burger.

  • Shepy@feddit.uk
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    2 years ago

    Hah, half of one of my passwords is the username from my dialup ISP from about 98. Right in the feels.