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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.
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
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!
1 million disks * 1000 hours each = 1 billion hours free.
Thats about 10 minutes for everybody on earth.
I think the least AOL could do is publish their software on CD-RWs.
Ceci n'est pas une
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
Turn those disks into something useful; Purchase the AOL Construction Kit?
-Chris
--an unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys--
Or put the url in an anchor () tag?
All things in moderation; including moderation
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,
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.........
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
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....
They're going public? In this market? That's crazy! ;-)
Anybody know what their ticker symbol is going to be?
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?
Irony or Insanity: a guy who's sick of getting AOL CDs says, "send me a million of them!"
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Better yet, mail them 10,000,000 high quality glossy photos of the goatse.cx guy. Disguise the letters as techsupport questions, or thank you notes (i.e. "How do I scan this photo here")
The turnover rates for whoever checks the mail will skyrocket.
in a related story, all your base are still belong to us.
Absolutely! It's better we just spend some time talking about it on /.
BTW, this guy got tired of getting AOL CDs in the mail. What will getting a million of them do to him?
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Better than that - "cannot deliver - recipient deceased".
A friend of mine in college wrote that on a letter he got from a pseudo-ex-girlfriend (pseudo because she was never actually dating him - just playing mind games).
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!
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
"Postal have gone up more rapidly since AOL started sending these disks out than any other period in time?"
The scientific process in action, folks.
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
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!
How can I go about collecting Big Fucking Slashdot Ads so I can return a million of them to the advertisers?
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!
im sure that works, but then they will resort to putting them in the bottom of your kids happy meal. look mommy/daddy i got a different colored flying saucer this time. its has the AOL 137.0 eninge this week.
When all else fails, piss on it. At least you will feel better in some kind of way.
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
" "a lot" is two words. you wouldn't say "alittle", would you?"
Loosen up on the language corrections- go on live alittle !
graspee
Let's give AOL 1000 free hours of finding out what to do with their own mailed-back discs...
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.
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.
Woah! Isn't there a bigger danger that people just throw them in the trash?
I do this all the time. I give them a note to please recycle it due to the fact my apartment complex does not have a recycling system. I used to fill the envelope with cheese that is just starting to mold, but due to Sept. 11th I decided to stop. In a few years I'll start doing that again. Chase Bank was the worst. They sent me a new thing every week for like a year. I even started putting rocks in it to increase the weight (and hopefully the cost to them). I was thinking glueing the envelope to a brick, but never tried it.
Seen at the Seventh Sense Fashion Show in Santa Cruz last year:
http://www.sosaywe.com/cdgirls.htm
"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.
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. :)
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 :-)
...and AOL is NOTHING LIKE a good ISP!
The funny thing is that business reply mail costs them more money than you putting a stamp on it
Well, of course it does... if I put the stamp on it, it costs the company NOTHING !!!
Maybe he works for the RIAA?
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
when we know we all hate email spam even more? Where can I send my spam printouts for delivery?
This space intentionally left blank.
Everyone here at Slashdot should call up AOL, and request a free disc... everyday :)
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
Because you can put your weed in it.
Cool! Amazing Toys.
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...