Slashdot Mirror
One Million AOL discs to be returned to AOL
nicedream writes "Two guys from California are trying to give AOL a taste of its own medicine. They're asking people to send them AOL discs, and they're going to drop them off at the company's doorstep once they collect 1 million discs. My favorite quote: "We're going to AOL and say, 'You've got mail"." seems like a better taste would be to dial out and use all 1000 free hours. A million people do *that* and I bet they'd stop filling our mailboxes with the landfill of tomorrow.
I remember this from a year ago....
It seems like if they're going to go through that much effort, they should send them to countries where there is a desperate shortage of drink coasters.
bytesmythe
Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.
-- Scott Meyer
They pay a lot of money to the post office, and this money helps keep the cost of regular mail, that you and I send, cheaper. If AOL stops, and other companies stop, we'll all end up paying more for our mail. So, I say, keep sending the discs!
You've got too much time on your hands.
I'm a signature virus. Please copy me to your signature so I can replicate.
Ooo, that's really going to hurt AOL. I bet these guys get arrested for littering or AOL refuses the package.
Or maybe AOL will rethink its number one marketing ploy (ubiquity) and go to something more subdued. Uh huh.
I called AOL and asked them to take me off their mailing list. They thought it was an odd request, and the agent didn't know what to do at first. After being put on hold for a couple of minutes they got down my information and told me that they'd take me off their list.
To this day I have yet to receive an AOL CD in my mailbox.
I'm sure AOL won't give a damn. They'll just call a waste company and have picked up within an hour. That or have them repackaged and sent out...
Where will I get all my shiny coasters from now?
Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.
Drop off a million discs in a truckload, and they'll just have someone on the maintenance staff cart them off. End of problem. But if you just mail each disc *back* to AOL, then they'll have to continually weed out all of the discs they get, possibly for years.
At least the floppies you could use them for something else.. how about a law that says that they can not use cd-r, only allow them to use cd-rw? Free cd-rw for us all!
Various links for Slashdotites pleasure
Haikus
No More AOL CD's.com
Fun things to do with AOL CD's
1 million disks * 1000 hours each = 1 billion hours free.
Thats about 10 minutes for everybody on earth.
They're just bitter because AOL doesn't mail out CDRWs.
AOL will look at their "mail" and hit the "delete" key. Wouldn't you if someone sent you mail of 1 million scratched and useless cds?
Take a thick black marker, and all along the edges, the inside, and the back of the disk, cover the disk in ink. This will uphold your right to "stay legal" and never copy a copyrighted work. The unexpected and delightful side effect is you cannot use the disk ever again, eiher.
fslg503-985-8686503-985-8686503-985-8686503-985-8
So where do we find an address to send CDs? Nowhere do I see the website listed.
You've got too much time on your hands: you are posting on Slashdot, after all.
Same applies to me...
I don't know if this is still true (the last time I used AOL was about '94), but once you started using the free hours, AOL needed a credit card number. Just in case you, uh, go over the limit. What they didn't tell you is that if you did go over the limit, you wouldn't be notified; they just quietly started billing you. Then it was the devil's own work to try and get them to stop, and especially to get your CC out of their database.
If this is all still the case, using your "free" hours is shooting yourself in the foot.
There's no sig like this sig anywhere near this sig, so this must be the sig.
In the UK you can forward or return to sender for free (AFAIK - please correct me if I'm wrong) simply by writing the correct address on the letter and posting again, stating "forward to:" or "return to sender".
Send em back to AOL!
On the flip side, there are some strange people who collect the various thousands of different AOL discs, like people collect baseball cards or comic books.
l /3 accd753.723,.html
http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/local.pat,loca
especially the ones that come with DVD cases or the CD cases.
helps me store my burned VCDs, downloaded from Kazaa.
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
Why don't articles actually post the URL to the site?!
http://www.nomoreaolcds.com/
A plot for power.
...or was that sugar?
In America, first you get the CDs, then you get the power, then you get the women.
I'll volunteer my companies Pitney Bowes postage meter if those guys want to mail them all back.
Mail all your unwanted AOL CDs to: No More AOL CDs! 1601 Navellier St. El Cerrito CA, 94530 U.S.A.
Just write on unopened package "Refused Return to Sender." Costs AOL 83 cents for everyone that comes back! Add it to the 22 cents it cost them to bulk mail it.
They'll learn.
On their website, they have a (worthless) hit counter..
From the Perl FAQ:
I still don't get locking. I just want to increment the number in the file. How can I do this?
Didn't anyone ever tell you web-page hit counters were useless? They don't count number of hits, they're a waste of time, and they serve only to stroke the writer's vanity. It's better to pick a random number; they're more realistic.
"Truth is not decided by majority vote" consensus gentium -- Norman Geisler
...we didn't know about it until after the event. Now AOL are just going to watch out for these guys. Bit of a catch 22 though, how would they get 1M CDs without going public?
http://www.nomoreaolcds.com/
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
... by cutting down their costs of making the disks?
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." -- Plato (427?-347? BC)
"seems like a better taste would be to dial out and use all 1000 free hours. A million people do *that* and I bet they'd stop filling our mailboxes with the landfill of tomorrow"
Last time I used there free hours I spent 45 minutes on hold trying to cancel the service. And then they called me early on a Saturday Morning a week later asking if I missed AOL and wanted to come back.
My advice, just use the damn disks turned upside down as shiny coasters and ignore AOL, it will eventually go away.
I don't care much for the discs, but I do like those Altoid-style tins they come in lately. Keep 'em coming!
It really bothers me that a quasi government institution advertise for AOL.
It even looks like they are "approved" by USPS, as the boxes are sitting next to posters mentioning ability to check deliviry via Internet.
That being said the box you get from AOL once a month or so is very sturdy and excellent to mail home made CD's to friends and family. Send the CD's back to AOL but keep the box. ;-)
Help fight continental drift.
Or DVD on the better ones. My physics professor got a bunch of these for some reason, so I just scrape off or cover the annoying stickers and have a high quality cd case. I really think they must be getting the cases from the same place as the DVD people. They're even better than music cd style jewel cases since they don't crack as easily, and they're a heck of a lot better than those thin ones.
:-)
If they really want to make a splash, why not collect the cases, devise some easy and cheap way to get the stickers off, and resell them by the crate? Making a profit off of junk mail - now THAT would be a story
"I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
Look, they are asking 1 million people to spend upwards of 40 cents each to send a useless CD to them, then they are going to spend how much to deliver the truckload to AOL?
Think about it, that's at least $400,000 dollars down the drain! Why not ask people to contribute $0.40 towards infrastructure costs in their area for public 802.11b hotspots. Tell them to mark any and all AOL mail "RETURN TO SENDER" and AOL will bear even greater costs, at no cost to the consumer.
Egad, people, use your brains.
Besides, AOL is going down the toilet anyway. Their shiny discs aren't going to be very useful to them after a few years as dialup dwindles, especially since broadband doesn't net them nearly as much profit as dialup once did. They're going to change their business model significantly over the next few years - it'll be interesting.
But seriously, put your effort into providing free net access for everyone.
-Adam
CNN is an AOL time warner company
I'm not about to add insult to my already injury by forking over postage to send this crap to these guys, even if that helped out the USPS (which it may actually not, depending how they manage to get into debt.)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Turn those disks into something useful; Purchase the AOL Construction Kit?
-Chris
--an unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys--
You crazy Aussies have only sent in 37 CD's!
Ive not seen a CDR from AOL yet.. never will since its cheaper to have them pressed..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I've got mail! Yaaaaaay!
yes, they are annoying but they are not as bad a Microsoft. What I would do is plaster the microsoft campus with AOL discs.
I think this is funny. But on the other hand, AOL in itself isn't bad. Yes they do send out too many free AOL CDs, but that is to get more users. As anyone ever looked at one of those CDs closely? It is both Mac and PC compatible. They are doing there best to get new uses.
On the other hand, I have decided awhile ago to get a new email address because of all the spam that I get. "Unsecured Visa", "Congratulations...", and there are many other subject lines that are inapporaitate. When I check my aol account, its a habit to scan down through the subject lines and then the address of the sender, if I don't reconize the address or the subject is not interesting, it is automatically deleted.
Pet peeve about the picture, AOL has released 8.0, why are they showing 7.0? AOL 8.0 on cd should be on its way to your house.
what about if we just wrote return to sender on each CD we get?
Hell, I'm going to try that with all my junk mail for now on.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
So it doesn't cost money, while AOLs bulk rate goes up.
Evil is making an operating system based on planned obsolescence. I've got a whole file cabinet full of useless floppies and CDs that I actually paid for. They all came with stupid restrictive liceneses and died with the OS they were designed for. If it were not for free software, I would have replaced each and every one of those programs multiple times by now. Instead, I have Debian with free mirrors everywhere so CDs are almost useless.
I encourage AOL to adopt the Debian distribution model for all of their software, but I'm not going to burden their landfill with my CDs. You might go to jail if you tried the same stupid stunt with lead sinkers. AOL's Mozilla project shows that they understand much and keeps them on my good side. No, you two don't get my CDs.
Asside, is the AOL server package in Debian really all you need to be an AOL ISP?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I am a freelance web developer for small businesses. I have had several clients promise me significant amounts of work, but when it comes to a first "official" meeting they consistently "need to reschedule" for a variety of reasons. I consider myself reasonably flexible (especially when chasing big clients) but when they do this on a regular basis, it wastes my time that could be much better spent on legitimate clients. Anyway the point of this is that they are just trying to make a buck, so don't go out of your way to stop them for no good reason.
-----
click here and keep one of my clients happy
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
They are going to use those one thousand free hours from 1 million discs to get themselves 1,000,000,000 free hours of AOL!
Free AOL for them, their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids.
I'm on to you bastards...
Trolling is a art,
AOL CD's used to boot good shooting targets. The problem now is that at 25yds, most of the bullet go through the center hole... just kidding - I still blow them apart. Sad.
AOL takes the disks with a smile. Slaps a new postmark on it... RECYLED!
I agree with the ending comment on the story. "seems like a better taste would be to dial out and use all 1000 free hours. A million people do *that* and I bet they'd stop filling our mailboxes with the landfill of tomorrow."
Can't see it happening though...
What about figuring out the addresses of the AOL executives?
And rather than collecting a million and deliver at once, just produce easily attached labels with those addresses - so that anybody can send them in that way. If you think it is annoying to get one disc a month, I bet they will dislike getting 10-100 per day.
I don't think junk mail is that bad. Telemarketing is bad. Besides aren't the discs the most honest form of advertisement?
AOL is novices, but that is an important niche that should be filled.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
If you're going to send the CD's back, send them back in the mail *postage due*. The post office wins and AOL loses. Everyone's happy.
"The spokesman did say that customers who aren't happy about getting the CDs can send them back so the company can recycle them." So what about all of us lot who arent customers, but are annoyed??? And what stops them from sending the CD on again instead of recycling it which is inefficiant?
gee - there's a lot of room left on a CD after copying on AOL's stuff...
why not ask AOL to distribute Linux and OpenOffice and Mozilla on its CD?
consumers then get free bonus software?
waist to mutch
it suck
no good
send to many bisk.
mey and my friendz dident have stuf too do
sew wee got a milyun cds and dropd tehm at AOLs boor
At least I could get some practical use out of them. A quick reformat and I was set. Ever since they started sending out shiny plastic discs, I have to actually buy a pack of floppys from time to time. (not that use that many). Maybe if they would send the CDs out on CD-RW.........
I LOVE it! I hope they film it - I'd love to see their faces!
Doesn't AOL/Time Warner/Everything else own CNN? Did they have to put that blatant plug in?
today is spelling optional day.
I made a huge tracer gun "remember these things?"
that had a gear that traveled along a rail with
teeth on it, and had a slick incline based release
system. It could fire one AOL cd fast enough to
go through a cardboard box. I got bored with it
and stopped work before I solved the problems
with rapid reloading and charging. It was also
woefully inaccurate much like the original tracer
gun. The ammo was free though.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
I understand that AOL discs are a nuciance, but in reality they're somewhat promoting part of the open source community by using mozilla in their commercial product... in some way that indirectly promotes the practical and profitable uses for open source... a leader for the community... just don't take after their advertising tactics. It's great that the quality of open source products is good for commercial use and now we have the general public using them, how about a campaign that informs them of this?
1,000,000 AOL CD's would be a measely 50,000 feet.
Just think, if they collected 302,860,800,000 AOL CD's they could stack them and it'd touch the moon!
...of geeks. I really wish AOL had put these on CD-Rs or CD-RWs... I think that if you make a buttload of them, it's probably doable. If, everytime you got an AOL disk, you knew you could put another 650 meg on it, would you throw it away? (Maybe). But you'd probably keep them around as spares.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
I didn't mind it too much when they gave out floppies.
At least you could reuse them.
My favorite part of the 1000 free hours campaign was when they were offering 1000 free hours (to be used in one month).
Hmmm... 31 x 24 = 744
Wasn't long before they changed to 1000 free hours (to be used in 45 days).
I guess MA101 isn't required for a Marketing major
I covered 55 aol disks with fondu fuel and burned them into one mass of metal. I know use it as a paperweight.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
So it's been what, a year now that these guys have been at it, and they've managed to collect 64,000 cds. At this rate, they'll be done in around 15 years. Whoopee. I'll be fairly surprised if in the year 2017 A) dial-up still exists, and B) CD-ROMs are still the media of choice for this crap.
They should donate them to chairty and let the country folk use them for skeet practice with shotguns.. I know they make nice self destructing frisbees when you throw them hard enough... I actually have a 6.0 disc right here holding up my coffee cup....
What is stopping them from kindly taking the returned CDs and SENDING THEM BACK OUT? Are they destroying the CDs somehow?
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
I guess they want you to use the remaining time to bath?
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
I must be lucky or something, because I have never, ever, not once, received an AOL CD in the mail. Other people in my apartment building do--I see them set out for return all the time--but I never have.
What they need to do with those million CDs is not to return them in bulk, but return them seriatim.
Back in the floppy era (when diskettes cost a buck apiece), whenever we ran out of good reliable disks, we'd call AOL and ask them to send us a set of install disks. Over the next year they'd send us a good double handful of Officially Blank disks. AOL's diskettes were always top quality!
... heh heh heh.
Now, whenever we run out of nifty DVD cases
Oh, and the CDs work great to chase away starlings and gophers -- just hang 'em where they'll twirl in the wind. Nice of AOL to print 'em in all those pretty colours.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Here's the flaw with using the 1000 free hours, as suggested in the post: despite notice that a credit card is not needed on the AOL disks themselves, they refuse to let people sign on without a credit card unless they provide checking account information that allows them to pull directly out of your account.
In essence, then, free != anonymous and easy.
I tried AOL for awhile back in 1995. Dropped it in 1996 and went to Earthlink because I realized I didn't need AOL--just access to the Internet. (Been on cable for the last couple of years.)
At last count I had approaching 25 "come back to AOL disks." They do make good coasters, but I don't need 25 coasters...;) I continue to receive them on a regular basis.
I've often wondered how much money AOL spends to send out these disks. Assuming a cost of $1 per disk, including postage (which might be low), AOL could be spending anywhere from $10M a year to $100M a year just sending out these disks and doing nothing else. Remarkable.
I'd love to know the percentage of "hits" AOL gets on a mail-out like this. The company must certainly consider them successful as they've made no effort to cease and desist--just got another one a couple of weeks ago.
Is get the address of the marketing director, and send them all to him / her. I bet THAT would stop it!! :)
No I didnt spell check this post...
I saw an interesting e-mail the other day that proposed a solution to junk snail mail. Lots of companies send you junk mail with a postage-paid reply envelope, right? If you take that envelope and stuff it with unrelated junk mail from a different company, seal it up and send it on it's merry way, the junk mailer pays the postage TWICE (once to you, and again back to them), you force them to sort through their mailbox just like you do, and you help out the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service at the same time.
I'm not giving up the AOL discs I have recieved in the mail.
I have found them instead, to be very usefully in helping me balance the feng shui in my dorm room.
I still haven't found the "any" key.
AOL used to send me floppy disks - I got so many that I hardly ever had to actually buy blank disks.
Unfortunately, the labels were really difficult to get off neatly, so I ended up just sticking address labels over them instead.
Ahhh, good old days. Pity you can't do anything really useful with the CDs. Why don't they put the latest Linux kernel or some GNU programs on them as well, because the discs usually have loads of free space on them. That way, people would keep them around instead of throwing them away - and if they keep them, then there is more chance that they might actually use them...
Always remember any press is a good thing, if they actually manage to do this it will generate loads of press. I'm not seeing how they are sticking it to them.
Because the so-called 'Editors' don't actually do any editing. All they do is pick stories.
/.
What slashdot need is a couple of real editors who regard quality stories, lack of duplication etc as their top priority, and let CmdrTaco, Michael, Timothy et al can get back to what they're good at - the technical side of running
No. If you have the Sugar, then you depose the monarchy, and then you apply for US statehood.
Now, whenever we run out of nifty DVD cases ... heh heh heh.
DVD cases, I get my AOL CD either shrink wrapped, or in a cardboard pouch, not a DVD case.
I just bought a box of 100 CD envelopes (transparent face) for $5, thanks, I'll try and survive without AOL.
You act as if AOL wronged you in some way.
My guess is that you signed up for AOL thinking it would be really fast internet service and have been peeved and embarrased ever since.
Get over it.
"seems like a better taste would be to dial out and use all 1000 free hours. A million people do *that* and I bet they'd stop filling our mailboxes with the landfill of tomorrow."
How about we follow through on that idea? How about Monday October 28th at 8PM we dial in using the free hours and start downloading huge files, for as long as you can stand tying up your phone line. We can continue every night at 8 PM for the next 2 weeks.
Do that for two weeks...what do you think that will do to the already floundering AOL?
I know you must provide a CC # to sign up, we'll just have to ensure that we all cancel service within the first month. Anyone had experience cancelling AOL service? Is it hard?
I'm sure most of us could find an old machine to do this on.
I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people. - Jack Handey
I don't go that far, but I've found it behooves me to keep one of each different edition (they are not all the same binaries, even with the same version number) since you never know when some AOL-using client will need a reinstall and only ONE particular version gets along with their system. Easiest method is just save one of each different-coloured CD.
We always checked the older versions (floppy and early CDROM) for nifty undocumented utilities, sometimes discovering files like findport.com (useful little modem detection program).
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Wouldn't it be more effective to just stamp "return to sender" on the thing right when you get it? No postage fees. Personally, I've always enjoyed using them to play "Hallway Death Frisbee"- it's like dodgeball, but with more chaos and greater injury potential.
Supported by the USPO. My friend just changed his address, and in changing his address the Post Office sends you a "Welcome to your new Address" package thing. Inside of it was an AOL 1000 free hours disk - with "welcome to your new address" or some such slogan printed on it.
Lame. I dont need the post office advertising my new address to companies (dont knwo if it actually does that though)
But what if you changed email addresses or ISPs and the new ISP or email provider would then send you a welcome email, and you would also receive a bunch of other spam emails from spammers saying "Welcome to your new Email account. Get a bigger penis free by clicking here"
I hope AOL eats it.
Now back in the day when they were just sending out the discs*, that was less useful. There's only so much entertainment you can get out of throwing a CD around until it expoldes. However, with the DVD case thrown in, it's well worth the time involved in tearing the plastic off.
* (Yes, that's after the day when they were sending out floppies, I know.)
As a dumpster diver, let me say that when AOL used to send out floppy diskettes, that when they did a software update they just threw the old labeled and unlabeled media out by the thousands. I have boxes and boxes of rescued AOL floppies that I reformat when I need to pass out a small file over old media.
Given that they treated reusable media with such discontempt, it only makes sense that they are already accustomed to disposing large quantities of non-reusable media.
Will this action even be a blip on their radar? Probablly not, unless environmentalists and the media are dragged into the lot.
...to have the individual users return the discs to AOL? AOL can easily ignore the one time dump of a million discs, but if they get'em on a continuing basis, it could be a tad irritating.
I you really wanted to give AOL a taste of their own medicine, you could call them and say "Hey AOL, take me off your mailing list."
Or you could waste countless hours proving how elite you think you are.
Find a new battle losers; AOL never misrepresented that it was the EASIEST, not the most technosavvy.
I think I am going to go to stores that have piles upon piles of AOL cd's and take them all. Then I will send all of them to the people at http://www.nomoreaolcds.com/ . I could probably get about 500 cd's.
I haven't used "regular mail" in about 2 years now. The postal service is a thing of the past.
Meh.
seems like a better taste would be to dial out and use all 1000 free hours. A million people do *that* and I bet they'd stop filling our mailboxes with the landfill of tomorrow
Many years ago before I knew better I used AOL's free hours to get myself started on using the internet. I used the free hours off of one disc and cancelled the account. A month or so later I did the same thing again, I didn't even use all of the free hours before I found a good local ISP and cancelled the account. AOL billed the credit card after the account was cancelled. We called them up and the cancelled the charges and happily billed us again the next month. After much hassle we finally got the situation resolved. If a million people got billed like I did, how much interest would AOL get before they refunded the credit cards?
-Nails-
http://www.nomoreaolcds.com/
Wasn't this a repeat story when Slashdot posted about it a couple years ago?
I think you want performance to price ratio, not price to performance (which would be 0 instead of divide by zero error)
I liked it when they sent me free floppies...those i could use for something more than my can of coke
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
I used to do the coaster thing too. Really handy.
But more recently I have started to treat them as a collection and keep them unopened. If you look, you'll notice a lot of variety and some of them are pretty cool.
Imagine that, a collection that grows for free and delivered to my mailbox!
If you go to computer stores like CompUSA where they give out free AOL discs, you can ask them for boxes they have in the back (that's hundreds at a time). Ought to get you to a million quicker.
"Time is an illusion.
Lunchtime doubly so."
-Douglas Adams
David Borowitz
According to these guys, a typical CD weighs 2/3 of an ounce.
That means 10^6 CDs weigh nearly 41,6667 pounds.
Extra credit: what's the minimum amount of space they would take up? Remember that they are round so this is harder than just calculating the volume.
I got my self in the habit of ALWAYS sealing and sending back empty envelopes of all the credit company ads that offer "new, exciting credit limits".
;)
They pay the postage that way, plus I waste their time in having them open them empty envelopes
Wanna join me?
I use mine to coat my foil helmet with them. It works even better now. ;)
I once got 18 AOL Discs in one day when I was living in my apartment at college. It wasn't that the postal worker got tired of sticking them in everyone's box and just shoved them in mine... they were all addressed to me. 18 in one Day and then 7 more 3 days later.
My roomates and I were having a halloween party that week so we gave the first 25 people to show a nice new AOL CD in a DVD Case.
How the hell did I get 25 CD's in one week??
Perhaps this is the ultimate play for big-time Karma
Table-ized A.I.
Craig Shergold is seven years old and suffering from terminal cancer. It is his ambition to be included in the Guinness Book of Records for the largest number of AOL CD's ever collected by one person.
Craig would be grateful if you could send all of your AOL CD's to the address below and also send the enclosed pages, including one of your own, to another ten companies.
Obviously, speed is of the essence....
Craig Shergold
c/o Steve Case
22000 AOL Way
Dulles, VA 20166
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
Anyone else find it amusing that this story is on cnn.com , part of the whole Time Warner (AOL) network? This is something I would have expected to see on msnbc.com instead. Oh well I agree with another /. poster here, rather than waste money and send the CD's to some other address it would be better to just write "Return to sender", return them straight to AOL instead and let them pick up the tab.
:cost to mutch :it suck :no good :send to many disk. :Me and my friends took a bisk and lit it on fire and froze it :slamed it angaisnt the boor.
as long as they come in nice tins or other mailable cases. I'm always needing containers to mail CD's to my friends in.
I do security
So what you're saying is, we could stop receiving spam in our mailbox forever if we would just pay more for a stamp?
I'M SOLD!
"And like that
Strip the cases of AOL markings (easy to do, as it's paper inserted behind plastic) and you have a hella sturdy black cd case, sturdier than the ones that come with cd-rs. yippee.
Don't mess with AOL, cuz when you mess with AOL, you mess with Mozilla. Maybe they should put copies of Mozilla on every AOL CD? Who wouldn't appreciate getting Mozilla binaries on CD delivered to their house each month?
...end of transmission...
Does anyone else think it's funny that this article (published by a subsidiary of AOL) doesn't give the URL of the website that they specifically mentioned?
Well, I found it - http://www.nomoreaolcds.com
so there =P
I'll wager AOL gives up the CD campaign before they reach their mark, leaving these guys with a really big pile of CDs, and no campaign to protest.
Don't get me wrong, I do think it's a neat idea, I just think they set their sights a couple orders of magnitude higher than is practical.
Build stuff. Stuff that walks, stuff that rolls, whatever.
Look to the right of the article in the Related box...
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -Homer Simpson
48 hours after the CDs are returned to AOL, they will be recycled.
One Million will receive the pre-owned CD.
And the complaint calls will begin, and somoene at AOL will remember the line from the article that says:
"McKenna and Lieberman scratch the CDs so they can't be sent out again and then they loop them on string"
And AOL sends them out anyway.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
It is illegal to publish plans for making weapons of mass destruction under the US Patriot Act. Please report to your local police station for incarceration.
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
Something tells me this plan will fall through without anything being done...
Not to mention, okay, collect AOL discs, send them back to AOL... hmm now, AOL now has 1 million discs which didn't reach new users. Hmmm... LET'S SEND THOSE PONIES RIGHT BACK UP! THANK YOU GENTS FOR THE SURPLUS!
The entire thing just seems a bit pointless at best, counter productive at worst.
Just my $0.02
I don't know if this is still true (the last time I used AOL was about '94), but once you started using the free hours, AOL needed a credit card number. Just in case you, uh, go over the limit. What they didn't tell you is that if you did go over the limit, you wouldn't be notified; they just quietly started billing you.
Ah, gees, I feel so sorry for you. C'mon! This company is giving you free internet access and now you expect/demand them to send you a curtousy message when you're approaching the magic 1000 hours? I don't see why they are under any obligation to provide this warning service to you. Sure, it would be awfully sweet of them to do so. But, seriously, you should be able to determine after A FEW HOURS if you like the service or not! If you're trying to play some kind of game of getting as close to 1000 hours without going over then I would argue you're really taking advantage of them. Go ahead and do that if you want to 'stick it to the man' but don't be upset when the company doesn't provide warning services to allow you to screw them over more effectively. Gees, how hard is it to write down a log of how many hours on a piece of paper by the computer so you can keep track of this yourself? Accept some responsibility for your actions.
Looking through the comments here I see a lot of "heh-heh, let's stick it to AOL" messages. Why do people hate AOL? Does anyone have a LEGITIMATE REASON for hating them? And I mean something more important than "I don't like getting those disks in the mail". There are lots of evil entities out there in the tech world. Does AOL really deserve to be place side by side with Microsoft et. al in the Technology Hall of Shame? AOL has been responsible for helping millions of people discover the internet.
GMD
watch this
The CD's make decent coasters. If you have some acrylic paint you can paint 'em and they actually look quite cool. Getting a whole crapload of these in a month is annoying though. However, on to use #2
My last AOL CD came with a rather nice thick plastic black case. This case is similar to the ones used with most DVD's. I wish they'd send me more CD's with these cases, as I tend to have a case shortage (buy my CD-R's in 50-packs) quite often. Take off the logo'ed AOL paper and these are great for putting discs in when I lend them to friends etc.
AOL disks. The most useful things that AOL used to send. While I rarely use disks anymore, I used to have a small stack of post-AOL formatted diskettes.
Can anyone tell me where I sign up for more free coasters/cases/disks, I'm running low again?
p.s. AOL CD-holders were also nice for storing disks that you don't want people to pick up, few people open an AOL CD-case.
Wouldn't the unsolicited distribution of millions of plastic disks (CD's) be considered an environmentally toxic "dump"?
I would think the inablity of these disks to biodegrade would be a more substantial hazard than almost any oil spill....
-dano
You can find 'em in the checkout aisles at Home Depot, Lowe's, WalMart, Sam's Club, etc.
I usually grab a bundle and chuck 'em in the trash bin on the way out.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
text you want to be underlined
How can I go about collecting Big Fucking Slashdot Ads so I can return a million of them to the advertisers?
Yah... those altoid can looking tins make great bud stash cans !! |-)
iF yOu WAnT to C YOUr iP agaIn gAThEr tWO MilLIon dOLLArS IN Non - cONsEcuTivE TweNtY's AnD AWaiT FuRThER iNstrUctIoN
Ok, the weirdest "phree-internet-now" incident I've encountered was when AOL shipped their "get online, free hours"-CDs to me who lives in Sweden (SE). As some of you might know; AOL can not be used within this country! This is a useless way to crap up their company budget..
I can understand that their CDs are not removed from the cover of U.S. computer magazines sold here (to avoid the hassle it produces for the magazine publishers), but the blatant snailmailing of unaccesible stuff to other countries is quite sad..
ps; If moderated at all, please file this post as "funny" and not "informative". Even though I was wrongly targeted for this AOL spam, I thought it was funny as hell at the same time..
A horse can't be sick, you know, even if he wants to.
AOL sends out millions of discs every _Month_, trucking back a mere million discs is nothing but a waste of money. Especially when AOL just says 'Go Away'.
Also take into account that this campaign to raise a million discs to send to AOL has been going on for YEARS. It just proves to AOL that their advertising is more effective than it is annoying.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
I do not use them for coasters, but they make great throwing stars. Get a whole stack of them, burst into the workspace, and start dolling out flung death.
Not recommended in china shops and try not to hit anyone in the face.
Andrew Borntreger
Champion of cinematic disasters
AOL has been responsible for helping millions of people discover the internet.
Just like Microsoft was responsible for helping millions of people discover PCs. In my opinion, AOL's product sucks, and those millions of people are dumber because of it. There are some good things about their service, but overall I think the internet as a community would be better off if AOL was simply an ISP rather than a content/software/advertising provider.
Evil is the money of root.
Use up the 1000 free hours first. You don't really need to use their service, just their access point. Next time I recieve an AOL disk, I'm giving Peng a whirl. Its a free Linux dialer using the AOL service. Not sure how good it is, I don't have an AOL disk handy.
-- 4 8 15 16 23 42
Get the government's attention. In Canada at least, mail to your Member of Parliament (federal representative) is free -- it doesn't require a stamp.
Mail your AOL CDs (and other junk mail) to your MP. If they get enough, maybe they change the law.
Complexity is Easy. Simplicity is Hard.
1,000,000 x 15g = 15,000 Kg
15,000 Kg = ~ 16.5 Tons
CD thickness = ~1mm, width = ~120mm
1 stack = 1Km high.
Stacked 3m high = 334 stacks (one with remainer), ~2m to a side
Assuming I've done my math right, that's not going to fit any mailbox I've ever seen.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
You forgot one:
http://www.mindspring.com/~lindellj/aol/scream/
This is "Bisk Poetry", something inspired several years ago by a semi-literate post to alt.aol-sucks. VERY funny stuff. Just be careful not to hit your head "angaisnt the boor".
Take it to Black Rock Desert for the Burning Man Festival
Burn it
If your children ever found out how lame you are, they'd murder you in your sleep
Hey, you don't need AOL's 1,000 free hours. I pay $35,000 a year for HIGH SPEED internet in my dorm room... then I get an education for free! What a deal!
I always thought it would be cool to wallpaper my room with CDs (shiny side).
The ultimate in geek sheik.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Find a mailing address for AOL and have people mail them to that address instead. Skip the middle-man. Have it on some significant date and make it a national holiday, preferably a Monday. I really hate Mondays.
"But the cars are all flashing me, bright lights are passing me, I feel life passing me by" - Stiff Little Fingers
I am experimenting with using waste CDs as an alternative to the common roofing shingle, and I have a few other ideas too... AOL is my largest contributor of raw materials! I sure would be sad to see those disks disappear altogether!
Fools ignore complexity; pragmatists suffer it; experts avoid it; geniuses remove it. ~A. Perlis
I am surprised that AOL competitors, like Earthlink, have not made fun of AOL disks in ads.
For example, they could have a TV ad where the doorbell rings, and a guy in a bathrobe answers the door to see an AOL salesperson, who hands him an AOL disk.
He says, "Thanks!, I'll put it over with the rest", and then show him place it onto a huge, tall pile of disks in the middle of the living room.
Then the announcer says, "At Earthlink we spend your subsciption fee on better quality internet service, not silver christmas trees for Lance Statton."
Well, you get the idea.
Table-ized A.I.
These guys arn't the first who have come up with the idea. Check out http://www.nomoreaolcds.com. They are doing the same thing. I have even been collecting cds to send to them, have 300 already.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Marketing like this is a desparate attempt by the larger ISPs to keep market share in the industry. AOL, Earthlink, etc. they all do this. Fact of the matter is, most serious geeks would rather have no net access than use AOL and their gated community ultra-gay gui interface. I would rather have NO net access than use AOL.
specifically "detournement"... literally, to turn back. The act itself (depositing a bunch of useless media on the doorstep of AOL) is not necessarily meaningful... it is the fact that it says something about AOL's wasteful marketing tactics to everyone who participates in it or even hears about it. It takes their tactics and turns it against them. It could be coupled with some kind of media campaign to get the word out for maximum effectiveness, although I think their plan to get lots of people to send them disks IS a publicity campaign. It should work because the next time [possibily] millions of people get their next AOL cd they might actually think about it more than just "junk mail... toss it." It kind of forces people to ask "why?" Why does AOL keep sending these out at great expense to themselves? The best culture jams startle people into looking at something they took as mundane into something new. The detournement will work even if they never actually deliver the disks to AOL in the end.
seems like a better taste would be to dial out and use all 1000 free hours.
/dev/null
Make a perl script that takes in the account number from the cd and automatically creates an account on AOL and logs in. Then the script should goto Google, search for the letter 'e' and then wget -r the Internet. You might want to send the output to
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
AOL sends out a lot of their discs in those nice plastic DVD cases (which I usually keep, tossing the CD and inserts).
Warner Bros. DVD come in those cheap cardboard DVD cases.
I'm not keeping the AOL CDs! Use the plastic cases for the movies! I wanna keep those!
</RANT>
Could someone write a script that would log into AOL and use all 1000 hours of each of these disks? Since 1000 hours = 41.67 days you would need more than one computer making simultaneous connections to use all the time in one month. In my house I could dedicate 5 comps to the problem through a broadband router (would this count as a separate connection?) to use up all the time in 8 days 8 hours. If the script were written and posted to a popular website (example) I think that could go a long way to ending the free coaster flood.
The Post Office gives bulk mailers like AOL a discount and then treats the mail the same way first class gets treated. If the USPS quit giving discounts to bulk mailers there would be less mail, fewer employees, fewer shipments, a leaner meaner postal service. The only reason they don't is because the postal worker unions would have a FIT. They need the volume.
One shall speak only if what one has to say is more beautiful than silence
They should have just distributed a few fixed number CDs under GPL - the redistribution channels would taken over from there onwards and the cds would have spread not just all over the USA but even to the rest of the world..
In my opinion, AOL's product sucks, and those millions of people are dumber because of it.
Why should you give a fuck if they are dumber? The dumber they are, the smarter it makes you look. If people want to be dumb, it is their perogative.
seems like a better taste would be to dial out and use all 1000 free hours.
Make a script that create an AOL account with each registration number on the cds. Then have every account generate and forward mail to every other account. Especially emails with large attachments. I sure AOL's systems will feel that.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Does anybody besides me find it odd that this story is being carrried by CNN? Who's going to be there to cover the story when the CDs are delivered? CNN?
Something smells fishy about this...
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
of a girlfriend you once really cared for but now is a very annoying somebody. I get a 'come back to AOL' disc about once a quarter - and I used them for only a couple months in 1993, before I went back to real BBSes - and MUDs, and the beginnings of public Internet, etc. Rather than collect one million and send the truckload to them; one would think a greater form of civil disobedience would be to encourage everyone to not spend their own money - just write 'Return to Sender' on the kit and send it back. That actually costs them; since they have to pay postage both ways. I think if you get another after that you have a right to complain about unsolicted mail.
I think with the interesting people, their lives can't possibly be wrapped up into a nice little package.
Maybe manufactures could come out with a high power cd burner to just simply over write the existing data. That way I could actually reuse the free disks they keep sending me, since they quit sending me floppys =(
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
Let's give AOL 1000 free hours of finding out what to do with their own mailed-back discs...
Some folks have said (jokingly) it's all about getting 1Billion hours of free Internet. You don't really need the physical media, or at least only one copy not 1,000,000. What if everyone who got an AOL CD and was never going to use it, took their login for 1,000 hours free and posted to some website. Then folks could go there and download a new one an have continual free AOL.
A few reasons:
:P
1) I am a computer tech by trade, and I have to clean up after AOL when their crappy software has munged a PC.
2) It takes a everything short of a lawsuit to make them stop billing you.
3) AOL does not introduce people to the Internet, it dumbs down the Internet, thereby hurting the users in the process. 90% of the AOL users I've had to deal with think their Web Browser is the "Internet". And after years of thinking this, it is almost impossible to get them to understand the truth.
4) AOL harbors undesirable individuals much like certain middle eastern nations harbor militant terrorists. What's worse, with all the free 1000 hour disks floating about, individuals who mean ill to the 'Net at large can easily gain free access over and over to do more damage.
5) The service is crap. But since most AOL users have been coddled for so long, they CAN'T learn to use anything else; they are stuck w/ sub par service...
6) If I think of some more reasons (I know there's a few more)... I'll post another response...
Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
The idea is hilarious, I just wish the article listed there website or an address where I could send them my cd's.
In fact their idea gives me the idea of mailing out my creative endevours to all the junk mail offices that send me stuff.
Ave Molech Setting
I looked through those guy's FAQ and I didn't see an explanation how the trucks are supposed to get pass the gates (presuming AOL HQ is fenced)
Also, isn't dumping tons of CDs on the street illegal?
As someone who was there when AOL started connecting to Usenet, allow me to say.
No.
More AOL content = less reason for AOL users to stray out onto the 'net at large...
-ZK-
I imagine they make their money from advertising, not access. This idea could backfire. With my luck, using 1000 hrs w/o paying WOULD make them money. /.'ing their mail might not work. What do you do with the advertising you get in your mail? :{)||
What if when the smoke clears from the annihilation of life as we know it: the half cockroach/half human forms that rise from the ashes decide to use these AOL CD's as the basis for their new form of currency? That is why I am hoarding my precious few -- and will be laughing at you all on my way to the post apocolypic exchange center of the future.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
just write "package refused: return to sender" on every aol cd you get and send it back to them? it's easier, and doesn't cost you any money.
It would cost less if you hand out "return to sender" lables. Put their address on it so that will be the only purpose they are used for, which will also help in case they don't have a return address on the package.
Physically bringing it to their doorstep is just asking for trouble anyway.
TodayTM BillyJoelTM GoogleTMd for StitchTMes due to WindowsTM while RollerbladeTMing with an AppleTM and a PopsicleTM
They make great scarecrows. Tie them to strings and hang them from poles in your garden, the shiny reflectivity scares the birds off.
Too bad they don't scare squirrels, too.
Also too bad they stopped sending floppies, they were even more useful than the CDs!
I keep considering getting the people who live in our subdivision to do the same thing. All these clowns who think it's effective marketing (it ain't) to put a flier and some little rocks (for weight) in a baggy and throw it in my lawn, just ANYWHERE in my lawn, have another thing coming.
I think it would be really cool to have everybody in my subdivision (96 houses) to contribute these offerings, and we can make weekend trips to the "advertisers" and throw them onto their property.
RP
Fill out the form.
Press "Register by mail".
Get a stamp and envelope, and mail it to this address (Also on the form).
MAIL PREFERENCE SERVICE
ATTN: DEPT: 6538045
DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION
P.O. BOX 282
CARMEL NY 10512
Repeat in 5 years.
Works well for me.
The world will not get better through technology. We must seek to be better people.
It helps stave off Microsoft's takeover of the ISP market.
I took 217 of these CDs from a local CompUSA one night to get them out of circulation for one, and also incase i ever know 217 people that would want to come to my house and set cups down. Assuming that my parents havn't thrown them out since the last time I have been home from school, I'm sending them in.
www.nomoreaolcds.com ...surprized that no other karma-whore did that yet.
-D
If these guys succeed, what's stopping AOL from re-packaging each CD and mailing it out again?
1,000,000 CD's is such an abundance that it will really piss off the multinational corporation...but this jackass has a nice, convenient place to store them in the meantime? Does he realize he has to have the million CD's sitting around annoying him, before giving them back to the company who is going to send them back out to us?
Jackass..
Seen at the Seventh Sense Fashion Show in Santa Cruz last year:
http://www.sosaywe.com/cdgirls.htm
not quite true...there's a PO form you can fill out that interdicts specific companies/ppl from sending you mail.
the original purpose was to stop pr0n junkmail to people who don't want it, but the PO itself has verified that this is the correct form to use to reject junkmail. the best part is that once notified, the offender has to pay a bigass fee ($500?) every subsequent time they violate it.
the form num is: 1500 "Application for Listing and/or Prohibitory Order"
http://www.usps.com/forms/_pdf/ps1500.pdf
But AOL -- with 35 million subscribers worldwide -- uses the tactic most frequently. The AOL discs appear in magazines, at the movies, in the mail and at parties, but an AOL spokesman wouldn't say how many discs are sent out every year.
Cool. I can start having AOL disc parties (kinda like Tupperware, 'cept different). I can showcase the different AOL CDs now flouting through the USPS. And tell people how they too can receive 4 discs in one day.
We can have games, like name your favorite AOL customer service rep and pin the tail on Steve Case. And door prizes, we have to have door prizes... maybe AOL CDs from around the world.
And cake, punch, and cookies... emmmm cookies.
I've had no previous problem with using the cds as coasters (condensation only happened on the outside of the ring for me). However, that is not my main usage.
I have, in fact, walked off with hundreds of them carefully swiped into a bag from various movie theatres, pharmacies, and book stores (the place where I usually see them in massive cartons full).
Then I proceed to clear-tape them all together and reflect light into my apartment. My apartment gets light only from a single window and sliding glass door on one short side of the rectangle of the apartment. Since it faces south-east, it works rather well to reflect lots of light in.
I'd actually like to do up the whole patio outside the sliding glass door (I've got about a third of it done) but that would involve swiping more handfuls of cds.
"Would you rather have a playstation addicted dork wearing a star wars t-shirt?"
"But AOL -- with 35 million subscribers worldwide -- uses the tactic most frequently. The AOL discs appear in magazines, at the movies, in the mail and at parties..."
At *PARTIES* ?? Maybe all AOL/Time/Warner employess have to go to company-sponsored parties and get maketed to, like a tupperware party.
I don't think I want to give them my credit card number just so I tie up my home phone line for 1000 hours.
Nope, no thanks.
I know what the Internet is, what the hell is this Interweb business?!
I've been saving them for years. Someday I'm going to build a solar collector. Honest.
-- http://frobnosticate.com
Why can't they take the CDs, try to put them in a skeet shooter, then launch them and use them as clay pigeons? You get target practice AND you get to take your anger out on an AOL product. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. :)
I am not sure that bringing a pc or the internet to the desktop of every person out there is a good idea. We talk about how it is great to share information and get everyone into the 21st century with email and web sites and online banking and blah blah blah. But really, I know many people who use a computer, and the internet, and I am not so sure they wouldn't be better off without it. They are not only clumsy and clueless, but they don't seem to want to know how to use the computer. It is almost as if just having one is a status symbol. But attach a file in email? Uh huh, riiiiight. Plus, the market of users has caused a flood of poor software out there. This doesn't help matters at all. But it leads me to the age old question: do you dumb down the computer, or educate the user?
Look at the automobile industry. While I admit that most have no clue how to work on one, they usually are reliable enough, and user friendly enough to get people where they need to go. But in order to use a car, they need to pass a test, and get certified. I don't suggest certifying computer users, but I think they should take some responsibility in learning about the computer that is so proudly sitting on that desk in the office or living room.
AOL and Microsoft are the 'bad guys' for 2 reasons: size- which leads to the 2nd: they think they can get away with shodding software and shodding business practices. And as long as they do these things, and we have users who don't give a crap, they will be on my list of 'shitty software to not recommend to the user'. Especially AOL.
my 2 cents.....out
They stuck me in an institution, said it was the only solution, to...protect me from the enemy, myself
...I'd hate to be the guy opening those envelopes thinking it's business time, and finding nothing but their shredded mailer. I think I'll do that from now on!
... but:
:)
Can they make a beowulf cluster out of those million cd's?
And also:
1.-Send a million cd's to people that don't want them.
2.-Very few people will use the service, but it will pay for costs plus a little income.
3.-Profit!
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
I tried to un-install AOL from my dad's computer once, did it without asking him. :-) He went psycho, giving me stuff like 'I need my AOL!!!', 'Where's my AOL???'
See, if people learnt to use REGULAR ISPs, they wouldn't become so dependent on one piece of software. Now he's been assimilated with it for life, like a Borg drone.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
They make great wallpaper... when you put the silkscreen side down. I am wallpapering my studio with them. I still need plenty more, so send me some while you're at it: T. Parker P.O. Box 495 Gulfport, MS 39501-0495 :-)
LOL. Stupid Slashdot kids.
...and AOL is NOTHING LIKE a good ISP!
I can't remember the last time that I received an AOL CD in the post. Mind, I only receive bills and adverts for local Pizza and Chinese restaurants anyway!
I got my latest AOL coaster (CD) yesterday. It acually came in a metal container. Think of the tins that mints (such as penguin mints or Altoids) come in, but CD sized. I'm not an AOL user. Never have been. Why would they use such a wasteful container? It had to cost 3 times what the CD did - probably more.
"that's not encryption - it's a new perl script that I'm working on..." - from some Matrix parody
Frequently the little spindle holder in the middle breaks-
My wife ordered an exercise DVD (which is the killer app for DVD, nevermind crappy behind the scenes footage no one cares about! A la carte exercise selection, instantly fast forward past parts you don't want to do, its great!) and it came with the spindle holder broken.
So- a quick change and now the old AOL dvd box does a great job of protecting DVD's I care about.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
You are all LOSERS whining about a company that has been on the forefront of many battles you believe in. Grow up and Find a new battle.
Get a hold of an AOL Business Reply Mail envelope or postcard. Make photocopies of it. Put 10 lbs of AOL CDs in a box. Tape one of the photocopies to the box. Dump it at your local post office. Rinse and repeat.
"a better taste would be to dial out and use all 1000 free hours".
I heard they get your credit card number and you will have a hard time trying to cancel. By the time you get it done, you had to pay a couple of months. It's a trap.
When AOL realizes that ~ 50% of the cds returned are at least a year or two old they're going to think people actually keep the shit even if they don't plan to use it. Believe me, they'd much rather us throw it in a drawr than in the trash.
OTOH, they may dump even more money into shipping cds and go bankrupt. In which case micros~1 will take over the internet and pretend they co-invented it with Al Gore.
Common sense is not so common.
Reminds me of the time on Seinfeld that Kramer dumped a pile of Pottery Barn catalogs in front of the door to the store so that no one could get in. /., so this had to do.)
(I couldn't think of a Simpsons reference for
-twb
Google located a few droll suggestions for this.
But, does anyone have any *serious* suggestions for economically viable ways to reuse the materials in provided-for-free CDs? They're not yet so ubiquitous as waste-paper or retail shopping bags, but in the places where they are widely distributed, the obvious uses of propping up short furniture legs, mounting on strings to scare birds away from ripe fruit, and amusing children with microwave-oven indoor firework displays must all have been reached long ago.
Just a few thoughts from the top of my head... ;-)
Personally, I prefer to send back the return envelope with a little surprise - a smidgen of dog crap, a dead bug, etc... As far as the AOL CD's go, I used to use the free trial until it ran out, then switch to their competitor's free trail, and then switch back to AOL again - I went for years without paying for service - and they did'nt seem to mind either.
X
Years ago, before CD-ROMS became cheap, AOL would send out floppies with their software. We would take the floppies, format them, and voila... Free floppies.
Then they started the CD's. Those instantly became high-risk frisbees or beer coasters in college.
Now, these jerks are going to push their own agenda, which in turn is going to stop me from getting those neat little tins and all the other goodies AOL sends out at their users expense.
Is nothing sacred?
DISCLAIMER:
I don't believe what I write, and neither should you.
For those that didn't read the article, the 2 guys site is here
Why would you want AOL to stop sending free cds? Free cd cases! Especially the dvd style ones, they are nice :)
when we know we all hate email spam even more? Where can I send my spam printouts for delivery?
This space intentionally left blank.
I must be one of those bums that nobody want's to deal with :)
Can't even get onto the "general consumer" list.
Oh I'm so sad.
I get the aol editions in the mail that come in DVD cases to store my games that come in cheap paper sleeves *cough* UT2K3 *coughs*
Everyone here at Slashdot should call up AOL, and request a free disc... everyday :)
Make up your mind, people. :P
/. effect. :P
Either post a link in the article, thus dooming a poor web server somewhere, or do NOT post the link, leaving us to dig for it, but having a better chance of it actually being UP.
I think they might have left the link off because of the fact that so many web servers have dropped off the net because of the
So you pay all your bills electronically?
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
if you have THAT many of these things obviously you should bundle them in stacks of 100 and let your kids use them as fort making bricks!
people that want to get back at AOL for snail spam (besides possibly wanting to go back to the hobby buffet for something a little more productive) should just put "return to sender", although IANAP (I am not a postman), I think that AOL would have to pay for that and it's a much more costly thing than the 100$ it will cost AOL to have a million CDs hauled from their lawn to the dump.
-pyrrho
I love AOL for keeping the price of first class snail mail low... Thank you for picking up the slack for all of us that quit sending letters by snail mail. Now all I have to worry about is the USPS spending 2 Billion on changing their logo from a "stylized eagle" to a "stylized eagle"...
Oh, yeah, if you give the CD's back, if AOL has any creativity, they'll just mail them out again and cut production costs!
$G
-- $G
This poor guy has been collecting disks since 1996. I think it's a more worthy cause!
I think I keep my aol cds, I have a nice set of coasters thanks to them (5 aol 2 ms 5 bad burned cds and 15 dell/hp "free" sorftware, from no name software companys)
I thought they were paper! You saved my chemistry grade! Thanks (karma whore).
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Hey fuckwad, my great-grandparents died at Belsen so why don't you stop offending the memory of millions of murdered people and pay attention to your fucking routers.
Moron.
When I first heard, they were well above 10000, but at the rate things are going it could take a few years - and with the trouble that America Online is reportedly in, they regretfully may not get the opportunity to bring in the sheaves, as it were.
This sig no verb.
I submitted this story about 3 months ago before CNN got ahold of it! :-P
Go to hell, spammer Erik Krout.
The mod for the parent is wrong. you don't save anything by sending crap. at the very last, somebody has to pay it. so, "interesting" doesn't seem a good mod for the parent.
Unix makes easy tasks hard and hard tasks possible. Windows makes easy tasks easy and hard tasks $29.95.
A day after our first baby was born, we received a baby-package from the hospital -- Aside from the obligatory baby wipes, diaper samples, bottles, etc, the package also contained an AOL CD. Riiiiiight.
I've always told people to simply email all their mp3's back to the RIAA since they believe we shouldn't own them.
If AOL really wanted to have people waiting in eager anticipation of the mailman's arrival then they'd use CDRW media instead of stamped disks.
This way, we'd all be getting something for our efforts -- even if we didn't want to join AOL.
That's why I used to like it when they sent floppy disks instead of CDs.
My P.O. Box still gets junk mail addressed to chrrent resident... :-(
wonder if these two guys left their addresses. they could very well end up getting them back from AOL.
If you cut those in half (made two semi-circles) you could use them instead of shingles for your house.
Plus, it sure would keep the sun from heating up your house in the summer.
Perhaps a better way to sabotage AOL and send them a message is have a "dial-in hour" where everyone sets their computers to dial in and try to get an acct. It has a few effects. They pay for the 800 phone call, and it clogs up their phone lines.
There must be some good humanitarian use for the disks. Like glueing them into flooring or something.
Put the AOL CDs in the business reply envelopes the junk mailers send you.
Instead of sending it to these two guys, why don't we just mail them to the homes of AOL executives by the thousands?
AOL will just mail them out again.
Here's a picture of their current heap from a couple of months ago, approximately 60,000 or so. As you would know if you read the article, they scratch them and then place them on strings for storage.
Also, they've done their own calculations on exactly how much space and weight these will take up (even how many trucks they'll need when they cart them cross country to AOL HQ.)
And finally, moderators, please do your duty and mod down all the retards (who obviously didn't read the article) who keep posting "Won't they just send the CDs back out?"
Are just some of the great substances that you can add to their reply envelopes.
Make sure that you put the required form back in the envelope along with one of the above mentioned substances - so they can whip the form out of the envelope for maximum effect.
Glitter generally just sticks to everything (not just 4 yr olds) and also should screw up automated letter openers.
Inidigo is a nice strong blue powder dye, perfectly harmless but again makes a mess.
And well chilli powder should keep the office smelling like a taco hell.
Has anyone else gotten an AOL cd with their peanuts on an airplane? I swear that is a moment I will never forget. I had to try really hard not to crack up laughing. I looked around and no one else seemed to see the humor in it...
Mail the discs back to AOL, ship them postage due and C.O.D., then either AOL will have to pay the post office again, OR the post office will refuse to ever take their CDs in mass mailing shipments...
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
We're lucky that we don't get AOL marketing like this due to CD-use being illegal up North (I think it's because the silver coating freezes in the computers causing poisonous vapours?) but we occasionally still get the AOL floppies but not very often as it probably costs a lot of postage to deliver the 82 disks by sled to all 40,000 habitants, eh?
What if, instead of returning them (or at least instead of scratching them), they got the ID or whatever off the disks, dump them into a database and establish a "free ISP" pool?
"How about Monday October 28th at 8PM"
Time zones.
From the project's inception on 8/1/01 to the last update on 10/15/02, they collected 64,346 CDs. At that rate of 4,438 CDs per month, they'll finish collecting 1,000,000 sometime in May of 2020.
I'll check back around then for the Slashback.
. . . that's right, CDs make great and colorful coasters so take them to your favorite bar but be sure to a double handful at home for your next wedding reception.
Those who would surrender freedom for security soon have neither.
When I was in the cd industry we sold our printed metalized rejects for .10 cents each.
Im sure the prices are way lower now, but not much work goes into calling the reclaim guy and having him pick up a ton or 2 of cd's.
Easy money for them.
there is only one way for him to stop putting such mail ... such as the coupon newspapers and pizza offers - get a P.O. Box.
Nah, my PO Box gets it too. I asked the postmaster if they could not do that, and he said "if they pay to put it in your box, it goes in your box". Luckily, my PO branch has a large garbage can in the lobby. Wonder if they recycle?
I remember from a couple of years ago the flood of CompuServe cd's here in the Netherlands. With every computer-related magazine there was one, and with a subscription you had twelve after a year.
:)
Unfortunately (for them), they had a freepost mailbox, so there came initiatives to send the cd's in nice larger-than-envelope boxes by *registered* mail tot their freepost mailbox, one cd at a time. That way it costed them 8.50 guilders (4 euro/$) per sent-back cd. Since then I've never seen a CompuServe (or other spam) cd with a magazine
Doesn't America have something like registered mail or freepost mailboxes?
I love these metal tins - I've gone on expeditions acquiring them from people and put all my cds in them. They are, as AOL indoubitably discovered, great at preventing cd damage. I was sick of having jewel cases in my bookbag getting cracked after an hour. The only trick, so far, has been that they open up after a couple dents, so use a rubber band with them. I hope AOL continues to squander their money making my life better through tins, CNN fighting Fox News, and widespread AIM (since they can't do so through content or service).
http://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
Well, I assure you that the USPS is not the only postal service in the world that have special conditions for presorted mail. My brother worked at CityMail (page in Swedish), who only do presorted mail.
Admittedly, using them for your mailing won't help you reach US voters...
-They encourage parents to give up responsibility for their children's safety into the hands of parental controls in software.
-They encourage parents to give up responsibility for helping their children with their education since "homework help is just a breeze on AOL"
-Their business model depends on people no realising that they are out of free hours and are going to be charged unless they perform some frustrating and time-hungry tasks to cancel the service. Essentially, they depend on the users thinking they know the whole story when really, they don't until they are forced to pay more.
-They give a misconception of 'the internet' to new users. Some people think that surfing aol:// addresses means they are on the internet.
-They are an ecological menace. Most of the CDs they send out are trashed. Also, consider the waste put out to make the components of the CDs and electricity expended to make something which just fills our landfills faster.
-They reward ignorance. They make it acceptable for you to know nothing about computers and be happy with it even though you are using them as an integral part of your life. (Please no automobile analogies.)
-The stifle choice. Supposedly part of the big news for AOL 8 is that you can now choose between 8 welcome screens and change the colours of your AOL interface ... oooooh ....
Destiny is a good thing to accept when it's going your way. When it isn't,
don't call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck.
-- Joseph Heller, "God Knows"
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...