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City Of Houston To Offer Free Email To Residents
Don Symes writes: "The City of Houston is getting ready to roll out 'free' email and web-hosted word processing. First to libraries and fire stations(!?), poorer areas, then to those who can afford ISPs."
It would be interesting to compare the cost of Internet Access Technologies' multi-million dollar contract with private ISP access, especially for the dozen other cities considering similar deals.
As a pseudo-resident, I'll say this:
Lee Brown, the mayor of Houston, has his priorities all wrong. He neglects the city and builds the new stadiums (for the "Houston Texans" (I wonder what kind of genius came up with that name), and the Astros) with the name of the energy company, Reliant, tagged onto it. So now the Astrodome is part of "Reliant Park", which consists of the "Reliant Astrodome", "Reliant Astroarena", "Reliant Stadium (a new one)", etc. We're taxed for it.
Also, Houston does nothing for free. If this ever becomes more than a plan, you can rest assured that it will be slow and pathetic. Or, better yet, they'll make you pay -- and it will still be slow and pathetic.
This is what I see in Lee Brown and the management of Houston. They have much bigger fish to fry, imo. Try the roads or the school system, not something to inflate this city's already gigantic ego...
I'll shut up.
Do you like German cars?
The Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, MD, offered low-cost shell accounts ($36.00 per year) for several years (ca. 1996-98) until they were forced by some commercial ISP to stop the "unfair competition".
You're even more right than you know, BFD. Public libraries already provide free access to free email. What they're actually doing is planning to provide word processor and spreadsheet access in addition.
funny munging