Well, Deja already changes messages by automatically colouring the different nestings of messages, by making all links clickable, overriding font selection, stripping headers, etc. Why should inline advertising be any different from these other techniques? It's just like Open Source Software, make the basic product free, but make money on the value-added stuff.
My local Tsutaya http://www.tsutaya.co.jp - the Japanese BlockBuster - rents out CDs and games, including new releases, for under a dollar a time. There's also a branch of a chain speciality used console shop one minute's walk from my flat, and the electrical district has any number of used CD/DVD/LD/VHS.
As for your cheap "freedom" jibe, well, try living in Japan for a bit. Things are different, not necessarily better or worse just because they don't measure up to your particular, simplistic I must say, measure of freedom.
The US, of all the countries I've visited and lived in, is always the one I feel least "free" in.
And as for your opening "creative and intellegent citizenry" - well, try working in a Japanese software development lab without crying at least once a week at how clueless many of your fellow "professionals" are.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, Deja already changes messages by automatically colouring the different nestings of messages, by making all links clickable, overriding font selection, stripping headers, etc. Why should inline advertising be any different from these other techniques? It's just like Open Source Software, make the basic product free, but make money on the value-added stuff.
Well, Outlook users deserve everything they get, IMO, but it's funny how I never saw this story referenced on slashdot.
My local Tsutaya http://www.tsutaya.co.jp - the Japanese BlockBuster - rents out CDs and games, including new releases, for under a dollar a time. There's also a branch of a chain speciality used console shop one minute's walk from my flat, and the electrical district has any number of used CD/DVD/LD/VHS.
As for your cheap "freedom" jibe, well, try living in Japan for a bit. Things are different, not necessarily better or worse just because they don't measure up to your particular, simplistic I must say, measure of freedom.
The US, of all the countries I've visited and lived in, is always the one I feel least "free" in.
And as for your opening "creative and intellegent citizenry" - well, try working in a Japanese software development lab without crying at least once a week at how clueless many of your fellow "professionals" are.