http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=566662

Vote on this poll

Never.
[bar] 9/2%
It had an acoustic coupler.
[bar] 8/2%
Years ago.
[bar] 233/56%
Months ago.
[bar] 53/13%
Weeks ago.
[bar] 19/5%
Days ago.
[bar] 20/5%
Today.
[bar] 15/4%
I'm dialed-in right now.
[bar] 14/3%
I prefer telegraph.
[bar] 7/2%
I prefer carrier pigeon.
[bar] 40/10%
418 total votes
Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by crashtest (Curate) on Aug 10, 2006 at 18:37 UTC

      I think it's time to upgrade RFC for IP via Carrier Pigeons to allow for them carrying SD cards.

      Do any Monks concur?

      emc

      Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

      Vernon Sanders Law
        In the interest of security, I say train the pigeon to peck out the message in morse code, and only to recognizable individuals. Have you ever heard of anyone successfully interrogating a pigeon?
Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by marto (Cardinal) on Aug 10, 2006 at 17:02 UTC
    When I was at a friends checking out car rental prices. I thought it was a lot slower than I remembered. Then I noticed that soulseek was running, I shut it down and the pages loaded marginally faster :) Thank Zod for broadband.

    Martin
      Thank Zod for broadband

      Blaspheming! It was FSM...

        Sacrilicious indeed :)
Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by Smaug (Pilgrim) on Aug 10, 2006 at 17:22 UTC

    Since replacing my OEM copy of XP with linux I can no longer use my Winmodem.....
    As such, I've switched to carrier pigeon to avoid further compatibity issues.

      What is the bandwidth of a pigeon carrying an SD card?

      And is lossage due to falcons a problem?

      emc

      Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

      Vernon Sanders Law

        Pigeons? That's obsolete technology. You can get bandwidth of about 37Mbps via snails, using SNAil-based data transfer Protocol (SNAP). This gives a whole new meaning to the term "snailmail".

        print substr("Just another Perl hacker", 0, -2);
        - apotheon
        CopyWrite Chad Perrin

        How would it grip the card? There's no husk.

      There are two main types of winmodems --

      • The early ones just didn't have flash in the modem itself but had a DPS (digital signal processor), so they'd have to load it into the modem after each reboot. (Lucent LT was one of these, I think, but it's been 7 years since I've done dial-up support) These can be loaded from Linux, and can be very reliable, so long as you have a good driver for it.
      • The modem uses the CPU for the datapump. (I want to say the Rockwall HSF was one) It's obvious as your CPU load goes up when the modem is in use.

      It's much more likely that a modem that has its own DSP can still be used in linux. Take a look at modemsite or linmodems to try to identify your modem and find linux drivers.

      I remember that battle. I thought support for most winmodems under linux was pretty advanced now.

      "One is enough. If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for the myriad instances and applications?"
      - Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by spiritway (Vicar) on Aug 11, 2006 at 00:52 UTC

    Pretty much every time I sent a fax. Also, when I use certain ATM's located in some convenience stores.

      Indeed I do too.

      I also play an old Arcade Golf game which has a dial-up connection to update scores on a server somewhere. :P.
      Nuh, just pulling the chain, dial-up golf is for drunk yobbo's who havn't yet played duke nukem.
Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by Nkuvu (Priest) on Aug 10, 2006 at 18:22 UTC

    I don't currently have a land line in my house. So the last time I used dial-up was at a friend's house... but I don't recall the last time I was over there using their computer.

    Given the choices, however, I'll take carrier pigeon. Just about as fast, the pigeons are friendlier than the modem (even if they do make more of a mess) and you get points at Google.

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by hobbs (Monk) on Aug 10, 2006 at 22:17 UTC
    I chose "today". Not for internet purposes (fortunately) but I've been working on a project using those little payment-processing terminals that use modems to phone home. Outside of that, fortunately I've had decent internet for about five months now. Before that, I _was_ stuck with dialup.
Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by tbone1 (Monsignor) on Aug 11, 2006 at 13:12 UTC
    It was about a year ago. My wife insisted we have broadband before she moved into the house. At least she paid for it, cementing my reputation as her trophy husband. If I tried to use an acoustic coupler, my wife would divorce me ... or am I embarrassingly confused again?

    --
    tbone1, YAPS (Yet Another Perl Schlub)
    And remember, if he succeeds, so what.
    - Chick McGee

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by runrig (Abbot) on Aug 10, 2006 at 23:51 UTC
    We ("the company" but not me personally anymore) still access our legacy customers via cu and do data transfers with uucp. Some (more forward thinking) customers now have internet access via ssh. Or VPN to their network and telnet to the server. And some allow internet access via telnet (no, I won't tell you who those are).
      And some allow internet access via telnet (no, I won't tell you who those are).

      You amuse me. The meme "telnet is insecure" is not inaccurate but it is rather incomplete. Telnet is only insecure if you've got a "man in the middle". If you've got that, "he" already knows who those clients are. :)

      - tye        

        . . . and if you know who those clients are, you know who to target for a "man in the middle" attack. Nice how that works.

        print substr("Just another Perl hacker", 0, -2);
        - apotheon
        CopyWrite Chad Perrin

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by zerogeek (Monk) on Aug 11, 2006 at 13:46 UTC
    I still use one almost every week. When I have to remotely console into one of our routers to do a maintenance that will take down the access trunk (i.e. a reload).

    Amazes me that they still have a use ;)

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by johnnywang (Priest) on Aug 13, 2006 at 02:00 UTC
    About a month ago I was in Shanghai, China, staying in the best known but very old hotel near the bund. I wanted to check my email, so late night I went to the business center to see how to get online (I've got my laptop/wireless, but didn't work there). The lady got the PC ready for me (there were only two PCs there, a good indication the service is not used much), after waiting for my yahoo email to come up, I commented to the lady "this is slooooow!", she said: "oh, it's dial-up". I stood up, apologized, and went to find a internet cafe nearby.
Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by gregor42 (Parson) on Aug 11, 2006 at 12:55 UTC

    Since web browsing from a cell phone/PDA is usually in the range of 9600 - 56k baud, then doesn't that qualify?



    Wait! This isn't a Parachute, this is a Backpack!

      Technically, no — unless it's actually doing modulation/demodulation and dialing an ISP's dialup access server.

      print substr("Just another Perl hacker", 0, -2);
      - apotheon
      CopyWrite Chad Perrin

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by samizdat (Vicar) on Aug 12, 2006 at 15:10 UTC
    My pigeon has the flu today, so I had to wait for the planets to align and drink some Newt's Wort to get my sighkick energy up to speed. For some reason my employer wouldn't accept my authentication, so I had to walk.

    Don Wilde
    "There's more than one level to any answer."
Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by rinceWind (Monsignor) on Aug 12, 2006 at 17:19 UTC

    For my personal projects, I am using 2Mb residential ADSL. For work, I do application support, and am on a callout rota, which needs me to dial in with a company laptop, using a 56K modem. These days, this doesn't happen very often - partly thanks to my perl monitoring scripts which have gotten the application quite stable :).

    I also help non-techie friends with their computer problems, for my sins. Several of these use dial-up.

    --

    Oh Lord, won’t you burn me a Knoppix CD ?
    My friends all rate Windows, I must disagree.
    Your powers of persuasion will set them all free,
    So oh Lord, won’t you burn me a Knoppix CD ?
    (Missquoting Janis Joplin)

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by ww (Archbishop) on Aug 13, 2006 at 02:07 UTC
    Ah... the fortunate who have a choice...
    Dialup sucks, but it's still better than my alternative:
    Smoke signals!
    The usual muck in the local atmosphere really cuts into bandwidth... even when outdoor burning is not banned....and the hawks get most of the pidgeons.
Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by gloryhack (Deacon) on Aug 11, 2006 at 07:44 UTC
    I know I must have a modem around here somewhere, but it'd take a while to find it and even longer to find an ISA slot into which it would fit. It was last used, briefly, in 1999.
Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by zakame (Pilgrim) on Aug 12, 2006 at 09:23 UTC

    I'm on dialup, ever since I got my PC way back in 2003. Nevertheless, a laggy, low-bandwidth connection has never really obstructed me to participate in free software projects. ;)

    FWIW, I connect via a Conexant HSF modem using the Linuxant drivers, which uses Perl for managing the DCP (digital call progress) process for the winmodem. So I truly owe Perl a lot for getting me on the Internet. :D

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by Tomte (Priest) on Aug 14, 2006 at 14:11 UTC

    Never.

    Unfortunatly, the ISDN-connection at home doesn't feel any better - waiting for dsl or some other feasible means of broadband connection: 3years and counting...

    regards,
    tomte


    An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.
    -- Albert Camus

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by rir (Vicar) on Aug 11, 2006 at 23:33 UTC
    O, the rustic pleasure of a Telebit Trailblazer dialing into Uunet.

    Be well,
    rir

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by Polonius (Friar) on Aug 13, 2006 at 08:48 UTC
Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by Anonymous Monk on Aug 13, 2006 at 13:02 UTC
    Now, and now, and now, and tomorrow, and now :)
Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by DrHyde (Prior) on Aug 14, 2006 at 11:23 UTC
    Believe it or not, the last time I used a modem I really did use an acoustic coupler! It was in a holiday cottage in deepest darkest rural Cornwall, where the only phone was an old rotary job wired into the wall, so I couldn't just unplug it and plug in my laptop.

    update: that was in 2001 IIRC

    PPP setup and ssh key exchange takes a loooooooooooooooooong time at 300bps.

    Since then I've done dialup on a mobile phone (9600bps) and using a 3G data card (300+ Kbps) but seeing that those are entirely digital there's no modem involved.

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by herby1620 (Monk) on Aug 16, 2006 at 22:05 UTC
    Dial-up usage...

    Well, today. I STILL receive my mail via UUCP for an entire domain. Then I filter out all the garbage stuff (don't ask!). One of these days I'll get around to setting up my own server for mail, but for now this "works".

    The next questions:

    When did you first "dial-in"?

    When did you first use "electronic mail"? (on what computer?).

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by tweetiepooh (Hermit) on Aug 17, 2006 at 10:39 UTC
    We must not however forget the fastest creature on the earth, quite capable of carrying vast quantities of data and with it's own built in security system.

    I refer of course to the Toddler. As any parent knows these innocent looking creatures are capable of incredible feats of speed as in "I just turned my back for a moment ..."

    They can also carry a sizeable number of DVDs or flash cards though these need to be chew/suck proofed to ensure that data is not corrupted en-route.

    Security wise they are equiped with a distinctive siren type device should someone try to remove the data from them without following the correct procedure. This may prove problematic and a further issue would be the tendancy to simply dump data at any time something interferes.

    A further advantage is that should they get into a situation where progress in blocked then observers are much more inclinded to remove the obstacle or assist the carrier than they would with a snail or even a pigeon. Also they are less likely to get eaten. (Pigeon breast with peas and a cream sauce -- mmm)

Re: The last time I used a dial-up modem was...
by Anonymous Monk on Aug 17, 2006 at 02:28 UTC
    About 1999, I converted to cable modem at that time. Life hasn't been the same since. I do dial up on the road occasionally and at my parents if there are suppport issues. Glen Austin
Need multiple options for this poll!
by Anonymous Monk on Aug 11, 2006 at 19:35 UTC
    Which option do I vote for if I dialed in today via accoustic coupler, I'm current dialed in right now, and I've now gotten to the point where I'm pretty sure I'd prefer either telegraph or carrier pigeons to dialup?

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