Slashdot Mirror
Mega-ISP Update: Layoffs At AOL, Voices At MSN
rfc1394 writes: "There are two articles, the first article, in today's Washington Post, mentioned that AOL, having successfully digested Time Warner, is producing results of that digestion by additionally extruding almost 1,000 people in layoffs due to an anemic advertising market and a need to meet projected revenue goals of about $40 billion.
A separate Post article mentions how Microsoft's online service MSN is having a woman named Shelley Reynolds create a series of spoken identifiers for its online service similar to AOL's famous 'You've got mail!' and identifies El Edwards as the man who is the voice behind the phrase. The second article also tells about the effect of sound on people with respect to technology, and the payments involved (Edwards reportedly got about $100; Reynolds will receive something under six figures.)"
"You've got pink slip!"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Repeat after me : "Want fries with that?"
Je t'aime Stéphanie
We can send emails with MPEG attachments to the sys admins of the sites brought to their knees by /. links.
"You've been slashdotted."
A man without a God is like a fish without a bicycle.
They also need to come up with some soothing, high positive energy Aquarius phrases for the following:
"This application has performed an illegal operation and will be shutdown"
"Please wait"
"Would you like to reboot now?"
"We are going to MSN today"
"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that".
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Why pay someone 5+ figures for their voice when you can just copy any voice? I guess these Microsoft guys really don't read slashdot enough
3 25 3&mode=thread
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/07/31/133
(Edwards reportedly got about $100; Reynolds will receive something under six figures.)
Ed...
"You've got screwed!"
der dee der.
C:\PROGRAM FILES\Internet Information Server\Media\Sounds\
CodeRed.WAV "You've got worms!"
AOL now realizes it is becoming a monopoly in its own right, so they don't need to advertise anymore, so they don't need a marketing department, so they're laying all those guys off. Makes sense to me.
It is more likely to be the case that they are firing their technical staff. Sales and marketing generate revenue, everyone else is overhead...
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
I'll sign up for the ISP that starts geek voice-overs.
/var/mail/you is empty-- get some friends!"
"Dude,
AOL would offend far fewer people if they just had some honest commercials.
Promote proofreading. Don't mod up sloppy posts.
"Do the voice again! Do the voice again!" - Drunken bar patron badgering El
http://windows.scares.us
"It picks up a certain audio decibel [...]"
What kind of non-sentence is that? Isn't that like saying that a bouler has "a certain mass kilogram"?
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
AOL: "You've got mail!"
MSN/Win9x: "You've got mail! Now go tell your friends to use MSN!.
MSN/WinXP: "You've got mail! Click here to pay $0.35 to read the first 1024 characters..."
Got Rhinos?
"I honestly believe I have enough positive energy ? this is totally an Aquarius-type deal ? if I record these things thinking very positively, I kind of believe metaphysically it cheers people up. They'll get a positive hit," Reynolds says.
I think Ms. Reynolds has taken a few too many positive hits herself.
--
Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
MSN- "You've got mail, are you sure you want to read it?"
USER- *click yes*
MSN- "Are you sure?"
USER- *click yes again*
MSN- "You must reboot"
I love the smell of Karma in the morning
haven't MSN users always been hearing voices?
Emacs: for people who just never know when to
They will probably use a talking paper clip - arghhh.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.