ICQ was the messaging service everyone around me used in the late 00s. The two most popular clients were QIP and Miranda. Then VKontakte introduced instant messaging and ICQ was quickly forgotten. Then, around 5 years later, people started gradually switching to Telegram. Today almost everyone I chat with uses Telegram.
The network effects were very localized, depending on which country you were you would have probably used a different service. ICQ faded out pretty quickly around 2002 where I lived, with MSN, Yahoo, and Google, taking over. I know in the States they also had a lot of AOL and iChat.
Indeed, for the UK at least, the ICQ peak was 98-99 wasn't it?
MSN messenger quickly took over after it was released in '99.
I remember hearing at the time that ICQ remained popular in Russia and other Eastern European countries for much longer than it did in Western Europe though.
A friend of mine got hooked on something really bad. We could all see his health deteriorate month by month. He's probably dead right now. Even his parents don't know where he is. He's son will grow up without a father.
I never met his dealer, but I'm sure the dealer saw the decay and did nothing.
The fact that the dealer saw the decay and did nothing is related to the drug's illegality. If the drug were available in a dispensary where you had to go out in public and get your drug, there would be more opportunities for intervention. We already make it illegal to serve alcohol to someone visibly drunk. You can't apply rules like that when the transactions are occurring in the dark.
Is this a joke? There isn't a gas station in this country that will refuse to sell booze to a homeless broken down and busted up alcoholic that begs for change right in front of the gas station. Except of course, the gas stations that legally aren't allowed to sell booze to anybody in the first place.
Dealers have no morals. Even the law that bartenders aren't allowed to serve drunk people is an absolute farce. Walk into any bar in this country and you'll find drunk people being served alcohol.
I too look forward to the post scarcity society that replicators would enable, but until then we as a species really need to learn to rein it in before we consume ourselves into a corner we can't get out of.
Generally it's out of pocket maximum to a point, like $250k. Then it's normally split, something like 80-20, where you have to cover 20% of the bill. That seems like a lot until you have something like cancer, where you need surgery plus chemo in the same year, which adds up quite fast.
> Generally it's out of pocket maximum to a point, like $250k. Then it's normally split, something like 80-20, where you have to cover 20% of the bill.
Not since the Affordable Care Act of 2010. It got rid of benefit maximums and implemented out of pocket maximum. An out of pocket maximum up to a limit is a contradiction. The situation works exactly opposite, you first pay 100% up to deductible, then you pay a proportion according to your copay, then you pay 0% after the out of pocket maximum.
Annual out of pocket maximums are typically $5k to $10k for individual/family at any half decent employer.
Yes, but it can be tens of thousands in many cases, and it does not cover many things that it should, insurance companies put deliberate effort into screwing people put of their claims.
