[HN Gopher] Programming War Stories: macOS Freeware/Shareware (2...
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       Programming War Stories: macOS Freeware/Shareware (2019)
        
       Author : rdpintqogeogsaa
       Score  : 69 points
       Date   : 2021-12-05 10:00 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (aarongiles.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (aarongiles.com)
        
       | vkoskiv wrote:
       | I have JPEGView installed on most of my vintage Mac collection
       | (that can display colors, anyway) I'm pretty sure I wasn't even
       | born when that software was the latest and greatest!
        
       | rurban wrote:
       | But this really is one of the least interesting war stories on
       | his page. Be sure to read his Microsoft story.
        
       | andrelaszlo wrote:
       | I wonder if his girlfriend ever came back from France.
        
         | na85 wrote:
         | I wondered, too, so I went digging and discovered [0] that he
         | took an opportunity to work at CERN and thereafter refers to
         | "we" and the page ends with the birth of their son.
         | 
         | Happy ending :)
         | 
         | [0] https://aarongiles.com/about/
        
       | datavirtue wrote:
       | Love these. I need to write mine up.
        
         | kiawe_fire wrote:
         | Please do! I love reading these, and the fewer stories lost to
         | time, the better.
        
       | 0des wrote:
       | Somewhat in this same vein, it's a shame that clients and
       | networks like Hotline/Curaco/BigRedH went under. I think it would
       | be very popular today. People are still on KDX and preterhuman
       | still has a tracker, but the experience these days is not the
       | same. I still wonder sometimes what hinks is up to these days.
        
         | gregsadetsky wrote:
         | I miss Hotline [0] and spent many years running a small
         | community server & making friends on other servers (some which
         | I found by running nmap on port 5500...!) Thanks for the
         | reminder, and I'm always happy to give it / its developer Adam
         | Hinkley a shout out.
         | 
         | Speaking of which, as someone was asking here in 2013 [1],
         | whatever happened to him?
         | 
         | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotline_Communications
         | 
         | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5690832
        
           | 0des wrote:
           | as far as I can remember, he got in some shit for encrypting
           | source code [0] and then absconding, then 9/11 happened and
           | not sure after that. The most recent things I can find are
           | defunct [1], but there is a LinkedIn listing (that I cant
           | see). Maybe someone with a LinkedIn account can post their
           | findings. [2] The comments in the slashdot thread and the
           | court papers [3] sure are interesting.
           | 
           | [0] - https://www.salon.com/1999/02/25/feature_224/
           | 
           | [1] - https://slashdot.org/story/01/04/09/1639212/adam-
           | hinkleys-ip...
           | 
           | [2] - nope, wrong guy
           | 
           | [3] - http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-
           | bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/...
           | 
           | p.s. Do you think one of us should make another Ask HN post
           | and see if anybody has contact with him? The site is kind of
           | big these days, and I doubt anybody would vote it up unless
           | they recognized the name, but it could be worth a shot. I
           | don't even know what I'd ask or say if we did find him
           | though. Probably thanks for the memories, and wanting to know
           | what he's up to these days.
        
             | jamesfmilne wrote:
             | That LinkedIn profile is almost certainly not the same guy.
        
               | 0des wrote:
               | I don't have LinkedIn, so I just figured I'd throw it out
               | there as it was the #1 search result. He'd be like what,
               | 40 years old these days?
        
             | gregsadetsky wrote:
             | I doubt that LinkedIn profile is the right Adam Hinkley.
             | Apart from living/working in Australia, none of the
             | biographical details really match.
             | 
             | And yeah, I think that it's worth doing another Ask, in
             | case something comes up. Just posted it:
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29478266
        
         | sneak wrote:
         | This makes me miss my earliest internet friends from the EFNet
         | mac underground (#macfiles, #macwarez, #macdev, et c). The
         | internet was a different place then.
         | 
         | (If you were a regular in any of those places, write me - my
         | email's in my profile.)
         | 
         | There were also a number of really cool FirstClass BBSes around
         | in that era, though cracking and configuring FirstClass was a
         | bit of an involved process at the time. (IIRC the Hotline
         | server was free?)
        
           | gregsadetsky wrote:
           | Ah yes FirstClass!! Spent sooooooo much time using it as my
           | local Macintosh User Group was mostly based around it. I even
           | remember meeting with one of their reps (at a conference..?
           | it's been too long ago) and bringing a list of grievances /
           | bugs that we found, mostly on the server side.
           | 
           | And yes, FirstClass had a convoluted-ish serial number /
           | activation? process as far as I remember, while Hotline
           | server was either free or could easily be found around.
        
       | vladstudio wrote:
       | Unrelated, but it makes me will warm and fuzzy inside to see my
       | very old picture used as this website' background [0].
       | 
       | 0: https://vlad.studio/wallpaper/tend_to_zero_hot
        
         | verst wrote:
         | That reminded me that I have a lifetime Premium Subscription to
         | your wallpapers I bought in 2009 (which already is many many
         | years after first discovering your wallpapers). I still love
         | your artwork. Now to figure out which wallpaper to use... :)
        
           | filmgirlcw wrote:
           | Hah, and I checked and I did too, in 2008! Thank you Vlad!
           | 
           | And hi Bernd!
        
           | vladstudio wrote:
           | yeah i am that old :-)
        
             | verst wrote:
             | By the way, just installed your new tab page extension and
             | love it. Seriously! Even left you a review on the Chrome
             | Webstore :)
        
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       (page generated 2021-12-07 23:00 UTC)