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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.)"
"Who could have foreseen something like this happening," said Elwood Edwards. "Years ago my wife worked at AOL and asked me to record the greetings for the company. Now, as I think about the millions of AOL members who consider me as the 'mailman' of cyberspace, I'm amazed. I'm pleased that I've had a small part in making the computer world smaller and more personable."
Edwards has recently started his own business doing voice-overs for commercial and business broadcasts, radio and television. More information about Elwood Edwards and his voice-over services can be found at his Website:
http://members.aol.com/voicepro.
At $100 for his services, Mr. Edwards received $14 and change per word for "You've Got Mail," "Welcome," "Goodbye," and "File's done." This woman is not only saying "Good morning," "Good afternoon," "Good evening," and "Goodbye," she's also going to address people by NAME. According to the article, she's reading over 10,000 names, including alternate pronunciations. That's at least 10,007 words. $14 x 10,007 is over $100,000 already.
MSN is getting a bargain.
For more information, click here.
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); }
"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
I remember when Microsoft used to pay college professors only $200 to talk about them.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
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