Illegal or immoral things you used to do that technology put a stop to

Svetti Arss

In the early 80's a school friend of mine and his family emigrated to America.

Phone calls back then where mad expensive so I came up with a cunning plan :cool: to allow us to talk on the phone at no expense. It worked like this; At a pre-arranged time he would ask the operator in the states to make a reverse charge call to a local phone box . We would answer and of course accept the charges. This went on for years until the family was deported back to Ireland.

Some time later the pips where added to public phones to alert an operator that they where calling a pay phone and that was the end of it.

Any more examples?

syngindub

tv licence

iamstop

high speed dubbing.

kippy

Hmm. I can think of a huge amount of immorale or illegal things that technology has facilitated.........

cml387

Pretty rough getting deported for aiding the abuse of the phone sytem.

FreudianSlippers

It's only a matter of time before someone mentions porn.

lil_lisa

OisinT wrote: »

It's only a matter of time before someone mentions porn.

Well no, that would be the other way around:

Illegal or immoral things you couldn't do that technology opened up for you

FreudianSlippers

lil_lisa wrote: »

Well no, that would be the other way around:

Illegal or immoral things you couldn't do that technology opened up for you

Yeah, used to steal porn and now it's free for all to enjoy.

Svetti Arss

OisinT wrote: »

Yeah, used to steal porn and now it's free for all to enjoy.

Amen to that..;)

Captain_Generic

Trenchcoat windmills. F*cking CCTV....

Angron

Handballs in football. French handballs in football. Very immoral in my opinion.

JamBur

Nagravision 3 has put an end to free cable TV in Ireland......





for now

Saila

Svetti Arss wrote: »

make a reverse charge call to a local phone box . We would answer and of course accept the charges. This went on for years until the family was deported back to Ireland.

some friend you are

easyeason3

OisinT wrote: »

It's only a matter of time before someone mentions porn.

Ok...

PORN!!!!!!!!

Pete M.

Using the old 5p coins when on a school tour to Germany instead of Deutshmarks in the vending machines.

Man we bought soooo many menthol marlboros.....

tony1kenobi

I was an orderly in a mental hospital and I used to drug and rape one patient,Sarah Connor,until the terminator came from the future and murdered me.The prick.

johnnyskeleton

DNA testing has ruined so many things.

orourkeda

OisinT wrote: »

It's only a matter of time before someone mentions porn.

Digitally raping myself

orourkeda

tony1kenobi wrote: »

I was an orderly in a mental hospital and I used to drug and rape one patient,Sarah Connor,until the terminator came from the future and murdered me.The prick.

Like a bit of an aul rape do we?

tony1kenobi

orourkeda wrote: »

Like a bit of an aul rape do we?

Yea till I got murdered.Did ya miss that part?

aDeener

plagiarising coursework.

fucking turnitin

kjl

this thread sucks!

kjl

this thread sucks.

FreudianSlippers

this thread sucks?

kjl

OisinT wrote: »

this thread sucks?

didn't mean to double post.

wil

Robbing banks.*

So much easier before those buzzer things and the double doors.

Nowadays the bank just robs us, then robs us some more, then alot more

johndaman66

Pete M. wrote: »

Using the old 5p coins when on a school tour to Germany instead of Deutshmarks in the vending machines.

Man we bought soooo many menthol marlboros.....

On this subject I remember a wise old man telling me in a pub once it was possible to fool the early cigarrette machines by drilling a very tiny hole in a coin and tieing a piece of very light string to it...Continuiously dropping coin into machine and with-drawing it. Dunno how true it is, I've learned over the years that a lot of what you hear in the pub is fairytale bullsh!t.

the_syco

The itch...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9B3K5qGqfs

Now a days, you can just play Call of Duty...

Princess Peach

I robbed NTL digital tv for about a year once. Then one day, it just went off....

They must have made some sort of system upgrade and found out.

I had all the channels!

ronnie3585

Svetti Arss wrote: »

Some time later the pips where added to public phones to alert an operator that they where calling a pay phone and that was the end of it.

What are these 'pips' you speak of?

El Horseboxo

When you call a pay phone you hear a series of clicks at the beginning. Or when someone calls from a pay phone.

shebango

Being able to illegally download music from a particular site until a certain 'nanny' provider removed the privilidge.

ddef

ha this reminds me of a line from 'Click' when he's in the future listening to the radio:
"Michael Jackson is the first person to sucessfully clone himself. But today he is suing himself for molesting himself"
ahhh.....
RIP tehee

old_aussie

Make gold cards to pirate Austar and Foxtel (Pay TV) in Australia.

jackiebaron

Svetti Arss wrote: »

In the early 80's a school friend of mine and his family emigrated to America.

Phone calls back then where mad expensive so I came up with a cunning plan :cool: to allow us to talk on the phone at no expense. It worked like this; At a pre-arranged time he would ask the operator in the states to make a reverse charge call to a local phone box . We would answer and of course accept the charges. This went on for years until the family was deported back to Ireland.

Some time later the pips where added to public phones to alert an operator that they where calling a pay phone and that was the end of it.

Any more examples?

Yep used to do the reverse charges thing with a friend in New York using payphones. Also in the days of the old rotary payphones you could make free calls by tapping out the number sequence on the cradle hooks.
The advent of the colour laser printer and Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop/Painshop Pro whatever made it dead easy to save $200+ dollars a month on my train ticket by simply scanning in an old one, dropping down to the pixel level to re-edit the dates and then print it off on card. Barcode scanners put a stop to that. In fact bar-code scanners put a stop to a lot of skullduggery like switching pricetags from a can of beans to a filet mignon:P.

Also when Banklink machines first came in they weren't that efficient. You could have twenty quid in your bank account, go into the bank, fill out a slip to withdraw. Then go out side and withdraw it again from the wall. They didn't update your balance immediately. Similar thing worked in college. You had to buy a little card to insert into a meter that deducted 10p everytime you wanted to print a page from the laser printer...BUT if you hit the print button, sent the job to the printer and then hit the return-card button on the meter it didn't have time to deduct the money and you printed for free.
Weighing your own fruit and veg at the supermarket then printing the ticket and then throwing a few more carrots or apples into the bag was a fave. Now they're weighed at the checkout.
Did the 5p in German vending machines as well. Used to get cigarettes that had change worth MORE than the 5p in the plastic in the cigarettes so in effect you were being PAID to steal.
I heard there was a way of bypassing your electrical meter using a coat hanger but I'd say you'd want to know what you're doing before trying this and you could deffo wind up in big trouble if you made it look like it was tampered with when the man came to read it.
Kicking the plug on the Space Invaders and Defender machines in Barney's arcade on Talbot Street would give you 99 credits for free games.

Of course tags and scanners have saved millions in shoplifting losses. And changes to the law have stopped just as much scamming/skimming as technology has.

There was also a time when corrupt bus conductors would take 20p, pocket it and give you no ticket instead of you paying the 40p and getting a legit ticket. Of course the beloved conductor is a thing of the past now.

AskMyChocolate

Garter belts and suspenders. I thought they only existed in my sick little mind. I used to think I was a complete pervert. With the advent of the internet, it turns out I'm a bit of a prude.

Tar.Aldarion

AskMyChocolate wrote: »

Garter belts and suspenders. I thought they only existed in my sick little mind. I used to think I was a complete pervert. With the advent of the internet, it turns out I'm a bit of a prude.

mm


needs more tentacles

Irish Guitarist

I used to be able to record programmes onto a video tape. Now my DVD recorder has copy control technology to stop me recording certain programmes from Sky +.

mrsdewinter

Thanks, Jackie - that's quite a comprehensive list. I was going to post the "tapping" phone hack thing. Knew a girl who used to ring her sister in Boston for free on the back of it. Of course, when Telecom Eireann rumbled the scam, they never bothered telling anybody... Cue, the arrival of massive telephone bill and huge rows about who the hell wd be foolish enough to be ringing the States on a practically daily basis... Ah, rows with the folks over telephone bills... It's like a different world.

danniemcq

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

mm


needs more tentacles

and crush kittens

stovelid

I used to abuse my mother's phone so badly she got a coin-op one installed.

ClutchIt

johndaman66 wrote: »

On this subject I remember a wise old man telling me in a pub once it was possible to fool the early cigarrette machines by drilling a very tiny hole in a coin and tieing a piece of very light string to it...Continuiously dropping coin into machine and with-drawing it. Dunno how true it is, I've learned over the years that a lot of what you hear in the pub is fairytale bullsh!t.

I was more gullible than you and actually tried this. It was bullsh!t. I was too young to realise people in pubs talk a lot of nonsense. When you tried to pull it back out the coin would get caught on something and it was impossible to withdraw it again.

AnonoBoy

jackiebaron wrote: »

Also when Banklink machines first came in they weren't that efficient. You could have twenty quid in your bank account, go into the bank, fill out a slip to withdraw. Then go out side and withdraw it again from the wall. They didn't update your balance immediately.

You can still do that. If you're BOI then use an AIB ATM and it will let you take out more than you have. Paid for manys the night out in college did that trick!

Weighing your own fruit and veg at the supermarket then printing the ticket and then throwing a few more carrots or apples into the bag was a fave. Now they're weighed at the checkout.

Lots of places still get you to weigh it yourself. Shopping around is a thieving bast*rd's best friend.

stovelid wrote: »

I used to abuse my mother's phone so badly she got a coin-op one installed.

Phone rape?

sbsquarepants

When the self scan checkouts appeared in tesco, i learned quite by accident that when scanning beer, there are dedicated 6 pack barcodes and then there are the ones from trays which scan as 6 individuals. I made off with about 500 cans of beer over the next few months, but they're bang wide to it now!:mad:

Also when intel pentium chips came out first, a friend used to work repairing boards for intel, for some reason they didn't reuse the chip it was supposed to be destroyed. Cue him robbing them and me selling them on, made money like drug dealers for a couple of months till they changed the design making them too big to rob. Easy money!!

MarkD.

Driving about 5 or 10mph over the speed limit, not going so fast that you were not in control but now on most roads speed camera vans are there.

Also now if your tax was out for a little while, say a month due to being short a few pound you used get away with it, now number plate recognision systems in Garda cars will nab you straight away. Its a tough world!

stovelid

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Phone rape?

The slot was murder.

Sausage grinder comes to mind.

cocoshovel

Does anybody remember when you used to get a mouldy bag of tayto's or something wrong with a bought food item and you used to write a complaint to the company, then they would send out an apology card and a box of roses or something. Im pretty sure we did that more than a few times, I doubt it would work anymore.

Mmmm so many roses.

Orando Broom

tony1kenobi wrote: »

I was an orderly in a mental hospital and I used to drug and rape one patient,Sarah Connor,until the terminator came from the future and murdered me.The prick.

Did you not just lick her like a fat lad tackling a 99?

stupidusername

cocoshovel wrote: »

Does anybody remember when you used to get a mouldy bag of tayto's or something wrong with a bought food item and you used to write a complaint to the company, then they would send out an apology card and a box of roses or something. Im pretty sure we did that more than a few times, I doubt it would work anymore.

Mmmm so many roses.

ya i remember once my mam had a bit of nut in her dairy milk, i wrote to cadbury saying she was allergic to them and they're not meant to be in them, and they sent back a package full of chocolate. \o/

Ya, I'm pretty sure I'm responsible for them writing 'may contain nut traces' on just about everything nowadays :cool:

superelliptic

tony1kenobi wrote: »

I was an orderly in a mental hospital and I used to drug and rape one patient,Sarah Connor,until the terminator came from the future and murdered me.The prick.

Svetti Arss

cocoshovel wrote: »

Does anybody remember when you used to get a mouldy bag of tayto's or something wrong with a bought food item and you used to write a complaint to the company, then they would send out an apology card and a box of roses or something. Im pretty sure we did that more than a few times, I doubt it would work anymore.

Mmmm so many roses.

Or throw a wasp in a jar of Fruitfield Old Time Coarse Irish Marmalade and wait for the rep to call and be left with 1/2 a van load of jam. Those reps where a powerful lot. My mother used to clean the house from top to bottom when one was on the way.

Nowadays you just bring it back you where you bought it or return it using "freepost":( and get your money back or a scabby voucher. Probably saved a lot of wasp lives i suppose.