• AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I remember my friends phone numbers from the 80’s, and I have no idea what their numbers are now. Like I don’t even know a single digit in their new numbers. I’ve never even seen the numbers. We tapped our phones together, and I magically had their contact card.

  • Codex@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Ah, fond memories of tying up the house phone line all weekend for a 48 hour non-stop Starcraft marathon over AOL, getting pings on battle.net that were embarrassing then but are probably considered warcrimes today.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      I played Descent against my friend by dialing into his computer directly. Worked amazingly well considering the specs of the machines. We had a rule that if he got disconnected because his mom picked up the phone we’d have to restart the match.

      (I was already so chronically online by that time my parents had sprung for a second phone line.)

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s amazing any real-time gaming worked with all that latency.

      I routinely played Quake 2 with 200-300ms ping. I had to abandon hitscan weapons entirely, relying on rockets and grenades to do any damage. I never dominated any pub matches, but I usually wasn’t dead last either. Anyway, forcing that much latency on gamers nowadays is disallowed under multiple UN sanctions.

    • M500@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      I remember my friends and I would all be in a waiting room to load a command and conquer map when we played online.

      While waiting for everything to lead there was a progress bar so you could see how far along you and your friends loading bars were.

      One friends dad as in IT and got high speed internet before the rest of us.

      It blew my mind to see his loading bars zoom to complete almost instantly.

    • dohpaz42@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I rang up over a thousand dollars in charges for using a number outside of my local exchange, which was at the time considered long distance (same area code). I had spent a couple days camping out in an IRC channel.

      • Gork@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Ah yes when “local long distance” plans were an unfortunate thing.

  • holycrap@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    I guess it tracks that the type of person who would beat their son over an internet bill would also beat their dog. Some people have no business having kids or pets.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    My favorite Boomer porn stories.

    One kid paid for a copy of Playboy with seventy five pennies he’d saved up.

    Military kids knew when ‘snap’ inspections would be carried out. They’d warn the troops, who would hide their porn and beer in the woods. Then the kids would search out the stashes and abscond.

  • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    I had a -3k rubles bill when they were like 30:$1 for browsing supposedly free services from my mobile carrier. Dad didn’t touch me, but the look in his eyes was more painful than that. It was a great lesson in not trusting random ads and free stuff.

      • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        Maybe? My generation (millenial) had troubles with many kids lacking fathers who ghosted them or disappeared completely and not being educated by a combo of a mother and gramps. I feel lucky I had a complete family and one that was liberal enough to not touch me at all. Many of my friends didn’t have that favor. A soulcrushing amount of them had just a mom, one that was depressed enough to scream at them and beat them when they didn’t toe the line. Today it seems better in general, but less pairs even agree to have a child in this economy.

      • Zammy95@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        That’s gotta be like saying isn’t it rare to not get shot in America.

        (Am American, but have met some pretty cool dudes from Russia before lmao.)

  • MiltownClowns@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    When I was twelve I was able to forward AIM to my SMS. Backs when texts where 11¢ a piece… $350 that month.

    • Bob@feddit.nl
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      9 months ago

      Back when sending a message saying just “ok” really sent a message.

  • BoofStroke@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    Dating when each sms cost $.20 was rough. In the long ago, BBS numbers were all long distance from our house.

        • GoosLife@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Also when you do cap the line, it would make a lot more sense to make the limit dynamic and local.

          As in: “you’re hogging the connection, let’s take a break for now” - and not: “you watched a movie in HD and forgot you weren’t on wifi. The logical thing to do is to cut your entire mobile internet connection for a full month, unless you pay us extortion money”

      • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        International calls are only expensive if you don’t know what you’re doing. Just use WhatsApp or any other VoIP provider. Who are you calling on landlines anyway?

        Hint for those visiting a foreign country: just get a weekly data plan for like $8 and use Google Voice or WhatsApp to call home. Need an unlocked phone for that though.

        • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          That is good advice for visiting most countries, America it’s crazily complex and expensive to get a phone especially if you don’t have an address and American ID. It was cheaper to buy a cheap phone in the UK and connect to someone with decent roaming charges than it was to get a phone in the US

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Oh man. I have a nostalgia for old cellphones like the Nokia or flip phones, but not the cell plans. There was initially no internet, but when it showed up it was super limited data. Limited texts. Limited minutes. But you could get free texts and calls after a certain time of day, like 5 or 6 in the evening. Plans were expensive. If you went over your allotment of texts it was a ridiculous fee like 25¢ or 50¢ a text. Same for call minutes. You were constantly clock and usage watching. I got one bill for almost $500. Ouch.