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Warez: The Infrastructure and Aesthetics of Piracy (2021)

220 points · 120 comments · succinct_ideas

  1. ryandrake · · focus · HN ↗
    I remember warez being the sole driver of my modem upgrade path from 9600 to 14,400 to 28,800, finally to very unstable 33,600 bps, then to trying to convince my parents to order a second phone line for... uh... modem... stuff... And then, suddenly it was off to undergrad where, lo and behold there were these two weird looking "RJ45 jacks" in each dorm room, and I soon realized I'd never have to worry about modem speed again...
    1. havaloc · · focus · HN ↗
      Being of that age, hearing about and then using ethernet in the dorms was sort of like discovering Oz after living in Kansas. I had so many questions! How did they manage all that traffic? It was like having a firehose after using an eye dropper all your life.
      1. leptons · · focus · HN ↗
        I remember going from modem to internet and feeling like it was a "multitasking communication line" compared to the single-point connection the modem was capable of. With the internet I could contact many different servers at the same time. It was like having a thousand modems. My head exploded.
        1. chadgpt5 · · focus · HN ↗
          Sometimes I'm sad I missed the "connect to one thing at a time" era of networking. Email and news over UUCP with delivery measured in days.
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