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What was Linux like in the 90s
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
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this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
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My pranks were less destructive ...
/ctcp nick +++ath0+++... it was amazing how often that worked. 🤣PRESS ALT+F4 for ops! 😂
OMG… the showmanship…
Thats a new one on me. What did that do if I may ask? Best I have been able to figure out is that it's probably IRC related but that's it.
Explained nicely here: https://everything2.com/title/%252B%252B%252BATH0
Wow, a post from 2001 that's still online today. You don't see that often any more!
+++ath0is a command that tells a dial up modem to disconnect. I've never seen it used in IRC this way, but my guess is that the modem would see this coming from the computer and disconnect.This was back in the days when everything was unencrypted.
Yes, and encryption had nothing to do with it (though I suppose it would have prevented it in this case).
A properly configured modem would ignore this coming from the Internet side, or escape the characters so that they didn't form that string.
Encryption would prevent it - that's what I meant :)
I think the trick is to convince someone to send that string, so the modem sees it coming from the computer. Similar to tricking someone into pressing Alt+F4, or Ctrl+Alt+Del twice on Windows 9x (instantly reboots without prompting).
encryption would prevent the modem from seeing it when someone sends it, but such a short string will inevitably appear once in a while in ciphertext too. so, it would actually make it disconnect at random times instead :)
(edit: actually at seven bytes i guess it would only occur once in every 72PB on average...)