Random thoughts - October 16th 2019: Reminiscing with some old images
As you can probably tell from my last post, ‘Remembering Jason Holden AKA Nucleus’, I’ve been feeling rather nostalgic lately and a few nights ago, I decided to dig out my old backup CDs and DVDs. I’ve spent hours trawling through thousands of old digital and scanned photos, old websites I made, screenshots, chatroom log files, failed projects and numerous other files I’ve collected or made over the years. I’ve uploaded many photos and screenshots to my ‘Old Stuff archive’.
I also have a few IDE hard drives sitting in a box that I haven’t touched in 17 or so years, so tonight I have been on Ebay and ordered myself a SATA/IDE to USB 3.0 adapter, so provided the hard drives work after all this time, I may be able to find some interesting old stuff I’ll no doubt upload on here.
I also tried booting up my Acer Aspire 5536 laptop tonight, hoping to find even more stuff, but the screen went black and the power button did nothing. I ended up having to physically remove the battery to turn the thing off! I’ve left it for now, but am hoping to be able to recover data from its hard drive once I get the SATA/IDE adapter. It may well be the end of my trusty laptop I’ve had since 2009.
Anyway, here’s some files I found while digging through my old backups:
'#lobby people' - Back in 2002ish, I started chatting as 'Hellwrath' on an IRC server/network called bluebox.xodarap.net. The main chat channel was called #lobby and attracted all sorts of odd and interesting people, but was mainly for discussion of a computery and 'hacking' nature. Despite knowing little about programming or hacking, I made quite a few 'friends' and decided to make this image featuring photos of some of #lobby's chatters.
A few people that stand out for me are Jester (was a PHP genius and helped Terminal with maintaining Free2Code.net), Fez (was a Manchester City fan and lived not too far from me), Terminal (IRC oper, genius and admin of Free2Code.net), Accident (used bang.c to DoS my 56k connection, lol), TsTech (was a Freemason, but a funny and very clever guy), Moo (was cool, but often very patronising with me), w8 (we had a pretend E-relationship), Liz, Dairygirl, Elexus (a lovely and pretty girl from Texas), Farley, MavDude and SpeedyG. There was of course also Silver, who I knew IRL.
The Xodarap IRC network would eventually become irc.free2code.net, the chat server for the Free2Code.net. Sadly, both Xodarap.net and Free2Code.net appear to be gone now. I stopped chatting there around 2006/07.
Multi Theft Auto was a program enabling multiplayer in GTA: Vice City. I played this a lot back in the day on the Ankeborg RP server. I however, did very little roleplay and instead opted to murder people with my car. I stopped playing MTA when I started Battlefield 2.
In September of 2002 I met up with Silver (from Xodarap.net) in her hometown, Leicester. Here she is marvelling at my Nokia 7110 flip phone, which was outdated even at the time.
That time my Mum bought me a box (yes, a box) of spicy Space Raiders. I was so excited I took this photo with the traditional northern greeting 'Areet' and sent it to Fez.
That time when my ADSL was upgraded to 2Mb. I was so happy at the time, these days I'm rocking the fibre, of course.
Me and Fez infiltrated an SDbot botNet and deactivated them. I still remember the password - 'bookw0rm'. The guy responsible is in jail now for a really bad crime, so I don't feel bad about it.
I met up with some members of a Manchester alternative group 'Alternative Encounters' in 2002. I kind of wanted to join them, but I guess I wasn't cool enough.
Back when I used to host my website/IRC server on my own PC - check out that uptime! That is on a Windows 2000 PC on BT ADSL. I swear I hit 6 months uptime on my PC once. Amazed it didn't catch fire with all the dust that ended up in it.
Screenshot from my old Compaq Armada linux laptop 'Titan'. I really wanted to be a leet h4x0r.
Database interface for an assignment I did during college. I was actually proud of some of the work I did during my HND course.
Me looking delighted at my new purchase - a Nikon Coolpix 3500 camera. May 2003, Library Theatre Cafe, St Peters Square, Manchester.
Sent some Emails after one-too-many vodkas.
My Red Dwarf collection. I was missing one of the series 4 VHSs. The DVDs were coming out one-by-one.
Sweet & Sour chicken and home-made chips. Yum!
Looking through the SDbot source code to take down an evil botnet.
Deer at Dunham Massey. I loved coming here and drinking at the Axe & Cleaver pub down the road. I'm really proud of taking this photo.
Before I had my own domains I had hellwrath.ubersource.net. This was what my old website/blog looked like. I remember having to pay TsTech every year for the domain.
I was a member of a Battlefield 2 clan called 'Elite Armed Forces' (EAF), this was one of the sig images I used on their forums.
The Free2Code.net website. I one-upped TsTech by donating $111.
My old Zoom 56k modem under a switch and hub. This was before I got BT ADSL.
That one time I tried giving a shit. It wasn't for me. Nokia 6230.
The only photo I ever took in Jilly's Rockworld, Manchester.
The 'cockpit' of my Aprilia RS 50, some time in 1998/99. The restricted 50cc version was dangerously underpowered and slow.
Our dog, Jess, now in doggie Heaven :( <3
Well, that’s all for now, it’s been a nice trip down memory lane, might do another post like this soon, but it’s 5:30 - time for bed! Follow me @ChrisElison on Twitter and Instagram, good night!