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Time's Up For Virgin Connect Webplayer
R forwarded to us e-mail from Virgin Connect, outlining that company's discontinuation of service for all the Virgin Connect Webplayers, effective the 15th of this month. They're offering gift certificates to Virginmega.com as a sort of booby prize to participants in the "charter member program." If you have one of these devices, be advised:"Internet Appliance Network will terminate your charter membership and
shut down the service as of midnight 11/15/00. Effective as of that date,
you are no longer bound by the terms of the Member Agreement. We will
send you a letter via U.S. mail within the next 7-10 business days that
includes instructions for returning your Webplayer and a prepaid UPS
shipping label, so you can return the device free of charge. Your
Webplayer cannot be re-configured to work with another ISP." Actually, since all sorts of things can be reconfigured to work as stand-alone systems, I wonder about that. Anyone had any success converting a Webplayer ala i-opener?
In the UK they tried to become one of the largest ISPs by relying on their brand-name and providing content - they then offered the service free when that was seen to be the thing to do. Not long after they've decided to pull out of the dial-up market and handed all of the dial up customers to NTL (Who were providing the network anyway) and now they concentrate on the portal and content market. IT looks like something similar has happened with their US venture.
Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
404 File Not Found
The requested URL (www.virginmega.com1) is not found.
Try Correct Link well, unless you have virginmega hooked up to your commport ofcourse...
First, check your *link*. For a site that only has ten stories a day on its front page, quality control is horrible!
:)
Second, your choice of links didn't help me figure this one out anyhow, since I hadn't heard of the player. I found some info in the slashdot comments too--looks like a cheap-o Cyrix-based box...
Third, I'm glad it's dead, even though I like Virgin in general. I found Virgin Radio soon after I found RealAudio, and I thought their station was pretty cool. (We USians find those UKians so quaint sometimes!
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I don't know if anyone has succeeded in hacking it yet. But this page has some nice diagrams and discusses some possible ways of doing it.
Sorry forgot to include the address! http://www.larwe.com/techref/webplayer.html
There is more discussion over at www.kenseglerdesigns.com. Down near the bottom is a Virgin Webplayer discussion I can't link to because of /. inserting spaces in long links. And of course lots more info on hacking other Net Appliances www.linux-hacker.net.
I don't see how these loss leaders are going to make it until they begin to at least clear the manufacturing cost of the machine. Netpliance learned the hard way but at least they're still in business, sort of. And since their unit is now sold close to cost the restrictive TOS is a thing of the past. But the WebSurfer people bit the dust, now Virgin is pulling their project...
I think people really do want cheap internet terminals. But these companies are selling to the wrong crowd. Net Terminals should be going up at local businesses in little kiosks. Our public librarys running wasteful NT machines should go back to diskless stations. Our cities could be full of access that offered the same promotional capabilities. From there, you could sell home users a system that was at least used in their community rather than a dead product that's useless without the service.
"I have a cunning plan..."
This was all from this internet appliance bboard and a user "anonyman". I might get around to playing with this. I guess it depends on the term of the agreement and whether or not they *must* return it. Does anyone know the specifics of this deal?
IMHO, it's a hell of a shame to see Virgin Connect die. Virgin have quite a reputation for being good, fun and revolutionary
On past history though, when things go pear shaped for a Virgin business (and that doesn't happen often) then Virgin will be nice and play fair about it... read on...
Virgin is a branding company. They have lots of different businesses: The well known Virgn Megastores (no longer owned by the Virgin group), Virgin Atlantic, the luxury airline showing the others how to fly, Virgin Express in the UK, the cheap and cheerful airline in the UK. Virgin Trains, Virgin Mobile phones, the list goes on.
In the past few months, Mr Branson has come down under to set up Virgin Blue, the low-cost airline that is seriously putting the cat amongst the pigeons for the long standing duopoly that masqueraded as a scheduled air transport industry in Australia.
One of the first Virgin businesses was Virgin Records. After some initial success, the board of directors decided to float the company on the stock market. A bad decision as it happened, things went ugly, and ultimately the company decided to buy-back the shares and de-list.
At the time, the share price had dropped to some 30% of the original issue price. In legal terms, they could have paid the current price, and got out. Richard Branson took a different stance though. At the original float, he went to the street, and met with individual investors queueing to buy shares in the company. When they decided to de-list, he said "Those people put their faith in me, I won't let them down." He bought their shares back at the price they originally paid. A huge cost to the then ailing record company, but a huge boost to his personal reputation, and the Virgin brand.
So, a significant point about the withdrawal of Virgin Connect - I don't expect it to be an ugly grab-the-money-and-run action that one expects from failed start-ups these days.
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
I'd love a chance to tinker with one of these. If anybody has one and is thinking of sending it back, I'll pay $25 in real cash, and pay for shipping.
Not exactly big money, but it's the same ammount Virgin's offering, and it actual currency rather than a gift certificate. If you're going to send it off anyway, why not give it to a good cause (my entertainment). I even promise to post anything interesting I discover.
eanderso at usa dot net
Keeping in mind they didn't properily follow the licensing terms in the GPL, they may have also been in violation of copyright/license terms of the RealPlayer or Sun Java Run-time Eviroment which was also included. Or, possibly, they had a falling out with Prodigy, the PPP dial-up account provider for the units. Anyone know the real reason why these guys end up having to withdraw their GPL violation units from market?
As I recall, Virgin had a stipulation in their Use Agreement whereby the customer, on failing to use the Virgin web service atleast 10 hours a month, would have to return the unit or pay some $500 if in the first year after "purchase" of the player. The customer never actually owned the player, so I suspect failure to return the unit will see a similar charge on one's credit card bill. The old www.virginconnectme.com site is no longer functioning, so I can't find the old info. Any users get the email from Virgin and can answer definitely?
On the other hand, if anyone had a copy of the license/use agreement to post, I'd be interested to know what kind of financial recourse the user has, considering that Virgin breached it's end of the contract.
Just found THIS
Click on "Virgin Webplayer"
And then on " It looks like Linux...invoke the GPL? "
Could it be that it runs linux after all ??
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Why pay for drugs when you can get Linux for free ?
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
With the release from the tos, I suspect that you will see a few of these hacked, but since the supply has dried up, not many.
Anyway, with Webpad gone under (they had all of 300 subscribers at one point), this off the board and i-opener painfully dying, it appears that the demand for the standalone device bundled in to a isp just isn't there. Some of it may be grandma can't deal with the technology, but I suspect that the level of service that these folks offered was just not up to snuff. Hardware was fine, content was awful.
http://www.virginconnect.com/help/faq_ian.html#3 The FAQ states you should return it, but you don't have to, and will NOT be charged if you keep it. OTOH the guys at the linux-hacker site don't seem to be having much luck getting past the bios password. They tried shorting the CMOS jumpers, but the password seems hardcoded, so now it's time for the REAL hackers/crackers to step forward and help out. Digger.
-- Don't you love a world where they give paranoid sociopaths guns, and tell them to shoot traitors and subversives?
Now that people don't have to return them, it should be time for some nice hacks. ;-)
Now I wish I had one to disassemble.
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Anyone got one. I'll pay $125.00 for one of these, 100 bucks for the unit and 25 for shipping. message me
Virgin did what Netconnect didn't do -- they wrote a contract which you have to sign before you can get the unit and start using the service. The contract says that they own the hardware and you just lease it. There are financial penalties (that decrease with duration from the inception of the contract) written in if you don't return the hardware when the agreement terminates.
I don't think that keeping and hacking the Virgin unit is much of an option unless someone is willing to pay the penalty which is on the order of a few hundred bucks.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
I don't suppose anybody out there has one of these and has gotten the letter described in the post? It might provide enough contact information for interested parties to contact Virgin and try to get one before it hits the scrap heap.
CVS is teh suck. Use Vesta instead.
And the email notice that this entire article is about stated pretty clearly that, as of midnight 11/15/00, "you are no longer bound by the terms of the Member Agreement."
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"I personal[ly] think Unix is "superior" because on LSD it tastes like Blue." -- jbarnett
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"I personal[ly] think Unix is "superior" because on LSD it tastes like Blue." -- jbarnett
but has anyone actually written to Virgin Connect and asked them if they would be willing to part with them wholesale??? I wouldn't even know where to begin to ask, but it seems like an idea to try
-Shop smart, Shop S-MART!
There is no spork.
Glad to see folks are interested in hacking the webplayer. It is/was a sleek, super-simple device. Great for grandmas, provided they lived a local call away from the free dialup number. I'm afraid I am committed to sending it back or face financial ramifications although, given the fairly wretched discombobulated service they've provided thus far I wouldn't be surprised if I don't end up having to send it. Fortunately the thing lacked Flash, which meant my 7 year old www.cartoonnetwork.com loving son hated the little beast.
Given the number of posters expressing interest in getting a WebPlayer for hacking up, a few of us have started the Virgin WebPlayer Co-Op to collect our bargaining power for bulk rates. If you're interested, please read the page for info and signup. I'm hoping we can get the price down between $25 to $50 per unit. And spread the word! Shouldn't be that difficult with enough people interested.
The bigger question becomes:
1) the box was LEASED...so did the GPL apply?
2) Given *I* have no GPLed code in the linux kernel/on the web player the only people who have any kind of legal right are the authors. I am just 'a possessor' of the box...my standing for asking for code is weak.
3) An attempt to get the GPL invoked here has failed. (see the http://www.kenseglerdesigns.com elsewhere for the BBS system)
Note how IAN (the people providing the content) weren't paying the weather content provider. (the weather link went down the 6th)
If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!
Virgin won't be charging people who don't return their Webplayers, so anyone who wants to keep theirs can. Sounds good to me.
m l
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/14605.ht
I have one of these things. And, it's really funny too because I already packed mine up and was planning on sending it back to them - then I got the email telling me that they were being discontinued. So, lucky for me now I don't have to pay shipping back to them! Actually I'm hoping they'll let us keep the damn thing and just forget about it. Is it really worth spending the time on? I took mine apart soon after I got it. It has an M-Systems Disk On Chip 2000 64Mb flash memory card with embedded Linux. I have found a site from an EE where he talks about hacking it - check it out here. It's got an open IDE connector but the question was always the BIOS. Nobody has ever successfully removed the DiskOnChip and gotten the iBrow (aka "Webplayer") to boot. Apparently the BIOS has a password that noone has been able to hack yet. The message boards over on the Linux-hacker site have a section dedicated to the Virgin Webplayer. But, as far as I know the project has advanced very far. When I took it apart, the only thing I reall wanted out of it was the Samsung flat panel LCD screen. Oh well.. we'll see what happens
Dear Internet Appliance Network employee,
On behalf of the Virgin WebPlayer Co-Op, I would like to inquire about purchasing a quantity of your soon to be defunct and inanimate WebPlayer units. Unfortunately, neither I nor Virgin MegaStore can locate anyone employed by your company. My deepest sympathies regarding your recent failed venture, but perhaps some of the loss can be mitigated by selling returned units to the appliance hacking communitity. Please contact me at schlachAThotmailDOTcom if you can provide any information regarding your company's present contact information. Thanks, and best luck in future endeavors.
moderator: if you could mod this up so that a crusing IAN employee might actually see it, it would be most appreciated.
I meant to say the project of hacking the Virgin Webplayer over on Linux-hacker message boards has NOT advanced very far.
Lies! All lies! =)
We are really doing this. Check out the Virgin WebPlayer Co-Op Homepage. And it is impossible to contact anyone at IAN.
Now, I'm not saying I wouldn't step over my own mother for karma, I'm just saying that's not why I asked for moderation in this case. =)
It's always the same with Branson propaganda... "He's such a nice guy", "Did you hear about the time he...". I was at a restaraunt launch once where he had part ownership, and if you were to meet him in person, or read some of the unauthorised bios out there you'd have a different opinion of him. At the restaraunt, he arrived with what can only be described as a posse of friends, yes-men and assorted beauties. They sat down, and ate. Half way through the meal, literally, he stood up and announced to the entire restaraunt (like we cared) that he was leaving. He wasn't the main guest or anything. All of his friends also stood up, many of them halfway through their main courses, and left with him en masse. It was spooky.
More recntly, with the lottery application, he was caught telling a whole lot of porkies to the press, the lottery commission, etc. Don't believe the hype. This man is a phenomenon, but he has more half-truths and propaganda written about him than anyone else in the country.
Ben^3 (aka an unhappy Virgin Trains commuter)The Slashdot Paradox: "100% Overrated"
I have 3 webplayers, anyone who makes a way to bypass both the setup and bios, and makes the unit into something that functions again. I have played around a little in the setup when i first got it, there were settings for ppp in there if one were to get access... Anyway, to claim your prize email: m_firmature@hotmail.com, good luck.
i am a new member to this site. i really don't know how to use a computer, i would like some help? but i know i like starsky and hutch!how about those asses that walked down that hall the other day day wendsday i think, georgious i, think.
Iwant to know more about how to use this site.
Alright, I want to get video inputs onto my samsung webplayer screen, now what? anyone know the wiring code? if i can't do that it would make a PHAT computer for the bathroom, or finally, can i just use the screen for my in car computer?, how do i connect a standard VGa cable to this? ANYONE? ok thank you matt@zim.com