• DWANG05@feddit.online
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    1 hour ago

    To be fair, a lot of adults were doing this too back then. Especially when BonziBuddy was a thing. And thanks to them, is why we openly accept programs with adware today. “hOw eLsE aER tHeY GuN mAkE moNeY FoR It?”.

  • Medic8me@piefed.ca
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    3 hours ago

    I worked as a small town cable TV guy during the Limewire era. The volume of home visits I had to do to explain virus’, download caps and overage charges was insane. We didn’t charge most folks but some kids were racking up thousands of dollars in internet usage to download movies and music. Meanwhile I was using the head terminal to do just the same thing.

  • BurgerBaron@piefed.social
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    7 hours ago

    I wish I got bonzi buddy instead of a virus that copy pasted itself into multiple directories on Win 98se, restoring itself whenever a copy got deleted. That was quite the challenge for 9 year old me to clean the family PC before mom got home from work. Limewire gets all the hate but most of mine came from Real Player! Little me thought Real Player software was legit because of their video codec I always saw anime rips using. No. Nope.

    image

    • imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 hours ago

      Oh yeah, I got that too though DC++ local server. It was “Game_Name trainer.exe” whereas name could be not even from a PC game, but a PS2 exclusive. That shit would generate tons of 1kb exe files of other games in folders like Movies, Music, Downloads and Games, and would slow the fuck down my XP booting speeds if I deleted all of them prior reboot.

      Thankfully didnt stole/removed/encrypted anything off my PC.

  • Pyrixas@piefed.social
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    8 hours ago

    My early mistakes are when I downloaded the Blaster virus, not sure what I was going for when I got it. Then there were the mistakes where I pirated an audiobook on someone else’s network and they actually got a C&D letter over it. And sometimes even now and then, I’ll forget to turn on my ProtonVPN after downloading some things and the site I’ve pirated from, is still sitting idling in my browser with my actual IP exposed and I didn’t close it.

    You just live and learn.

    So I just always find it funny some pirates around some communities, get such an egotistical stroking of themselves when they make bold claims as to not having screwed up. They did, just don’t want to mention it.

    • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 hours ago

      My computer class teacher did the opposite

      He claimed that you can delete all the big exe files, as they are not needed as just take up space

      He’d love demonstrate it on the school computer, but it didn’t boot right now, “for some reason”

      He was not a good CS teacher

      • outerzenith@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 hours ago

        lmfao, I wonder if the school even check the teacher’s background

        I think he meant the installer files, not the actual .exe that launched the game, but who knows

        • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
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          3 hours ago

          yeah, I think he heard the shortcut thing somewhere and completely misunderstood it.

          tbf, this is now 25 years ago, so computers were still quite a novelty in regular schools, let alone have teachers that know about them. I think he was just a math teacher before

    • rozodru@piefed.world
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      3 hours ago

      I remember for my birthday one year I wanted the Sega CD Memory card/cartridge thing. It was literally just a memory card BUT I thought it was some magical tool, officially licensed/made by Sega mind you, where I could then go to blockbuster and rent games and it would then SAVE those games…in their entirety…to the memory cartridge. thus allowing me to have a bunch of games without paying full price for them. This is what I believed the thing did. that was my birthday present. a memory card.

    • Druid@lemmy.zip
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      5 hours ago

      I did that for a friend when he asked me to share my copy of Minecraft with him, holy shit

    • MacAnus@sh.itjust.works
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      7 hours ago

      Thanks for reminding me, I did that on a floppy disk once and was so proud at first…
      Thats how you learn I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • adarza@lemmy.ca
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    14 hours ago

    bonzibuddy would be a welcome change from all this ai bullshit that’s getting thrown at us.

    • dalekcaan@feddit.nl
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      9 hours ago

      Bonzibuddy was classified as malware for collecting user information and using deceptive ads. I never used it myself but I’d bet it’s downright tame compared to the shit considered normal business practice nowadays.

  • pwxd@lemmy.zip
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    14 hours ago

    We all learn from our mistakes, that’s why people who previously pirates make an easy guide