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Comment by dplgk | Hacker News Reader

Super nastolgic here. I learned programming via VB3 Writing apps to mess with AOL. First using "send keys", then switching to WinAPI. Made animated intros with Warezed version of 3d studio max. So many memories and hours spent! Friends made too but they all drifted away. Recently got nastolgic just seeing my buddy list when I logged into my AOL account from the 90s (after AOL shutdown was announced). Pretty much owe my career to the scene. Stay l33t!

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Making punters in VB3 got me started. I wonder if there is an equivalent avenue for kids to be subversive these days? Every generation says it but the frontiers are gone.

Really there's nothing to be proud of about writing programs to kick people off a system - that's called being an asshole - or distributing warez, that's called stealing. I'd hope people learning about technology today can do it without needing to do those 'subversive' things...

It's not about learning about technology. It provided a creative and social outlet for an ostracized, emotionally neglected kid to create. I look at my own 10yo daughter today and her life is planned out for her. Kids don't ride bikes after school, climb trees, or do other activities where they're in charge. Instead they go to whatever extracurricular activities their parents signed them up for. In her case that's choir, piano, and tennis. There is a lack of self-directed outlets where they can explore their boundaries until later in life.

Her life is planned out by whom, though - she's your daughter, if you think she wants to be out riding her bike, why are you signing her up for and sending her to extracurricular activities? And there are plenty of self-directed outlets on the Internet that aren't illegal.

I can see I'm getting downvoted here, and I may have been a bit harsh, but it still seems like people are saying the equivalent of 'I got started in my career by breaking into abandoned buildings, impersonating security guards to get access to people's private offices, and stealing office supplies when I was younger' but the end result still doesn't justify the initial actions or crimes.

Square alert!

Started programming for AOL as well via VB3 as well. Credit a server with getting it: VBRUN300.dll ftw.

Definitely catalyzed my interest in engineering.

Super nostaglic here as well. My first experience with programming was writing a mass mailer in WhaleScript. Taking the free trial CDs from the magazine racks and then using a cardgen to defeat Mod10 verification. $70 phone bills that my parents asked about. Good times.

311.dll

vbwfind.dll, vbmsg.vbx

dos32.bas

aol.bas

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