Another problem is sites that don't (or make it hard to)let you download the install package and install it later, for example, you need to install QT on three machines, or you don't trust Apple to leave old versions of QT on their web site. Not to mention the waste of bandwidth.
THEY want to control the install process (for various reasons), which conflicts with ME wanting to control the install process, and not having to rely on them to make what I want available.
You walk into a store wearing a set of cloths, even if you have not purchased any of them in the store they could target advertise you based on the value, brands, style. That could be useful. They could tell me about the best deal on the cheap no-brand stuff I need to buy today rather than the over-priced stuff I'll never touch anyways.
OTOH, I'd rather the store NOT know what I'm carrying in my bag - I don't need some ad telling me about a new 'better than Viagra' drug because I just happen to have my, ahem, friend's stuff along with me.
I don't have much hope of avoiding the second situation, since marketing goof balls are not known for their sensitivity.
Gartner's words sound like PHB (Pointy Haired Boss) fodder to me.
Here's a real predition: Integration of devices will result in the replacment of single-use items such as PC's, TV's, cell phones, PDA's with portable and fixed units that have multiple functions. Consumers will buy "multi-media consoles" capable of several functions, that are more flexible and cheaper than indivdual components. Wireless networking will be the standard communication method between devices given the cost of adding wiring to a house, and the flexibility of putting your console anywhere. As a result, the lines between media types will blur, as 'television' as we think of it now will cease to exist with the advent of services that allow you to watch programming at a press of a button rather than on a schedule. You will read, listen to music, and shop, all from the same console. Integration will make the price of a large console about the same as a current mid-range PC, so consumers will buy several units in a family setting. Portable units will allow you to take your shows/music/information with you, and allow you to still use all the features your big console has while within network service range.
Barriers to adoption of such integrated devices will come mostly from the companies that control the current media types as they will be concerned about losing their current revenue streams. The companies that successfully come up with new payment schemes that are both profitable to the company and palatable to the consumer will end up breaking the barriers until eventually getting to the point where you can subscribe to any service from your integrated console.
In ten years, this is pretty much the way people will be 'renting' movies, either through a computer or a set-top box that acts like a computer.
Movielink.com doesn't have it quite right yet. Neither does shaw.ca (cable provider) which is starting to do the same thing over your digital-cable box. They have problems with limited selection and play time. Can't say anything about the technical side, as there hasn't been anything I've wanted to see to bother trying. Price is not an issue, they are trying to get people to try it by charging only C$2.00, a real deal when rentals are in the C$5.00 range.
What is needed is selection comparible to a video store, with a reasonable view time (at least 48 hours for new releases, and 7 days for old stuff to mimic the video stores). Quality has to at least equal VHS. As long as the price is competitive, going to the video store is going to become a thing of the past for all but the completely unconnected.
...I am able to use my PDA to quickly track down nearby restaurants, movie theatres, and tell me about them. Then I'd use the same PDA to phone a friend and suggest and outing - being able to hit a button and share the pertinent information I just looked up. Oh, and it can't cost more than current nice phones, and that transaction would cost me no more than 50 cents.
I can see adding other funcionality - pictures, music, videos, but I'll jump into the market when I can do the above *easily* with my PDA.
Right now the only thing reasonably integrated is some of the sms stuff - I pay every day to get a weather forecast sent to my phone - and even that is less than perfect right now.
I just can't see this size taking off - it either has to fit in your hand/pocket like current PDA's, or is about the size of a binder you carry under your arm like a note book. Anything in between is too small for serious work, and too big to carry around all the time.
IBM, Dell announcing Linux laptops and then not offering them (or scaling it back?) sounds like a dot-bomb adjustment. Makes sense for them to focus on the big volume money making Windoze set, particularly being a known market, in uncertain times.
If Dell's still offering Linux as a custom install, and Wallmart is advertising Mandrake/Lwindows (desktops) on there front page rather than Windoze systems, not all is lost.
While it's great to solve the puzzles to put the ball in the bucket, start the contraption, turn on the light, etc., I also ended up spending considerable time constructing "Loony Tunes" style contraptions that rolled the ball, triggering the fan that blew the balloon, that triggered the mouse trap that cut the string, that dropped the ball that hit the cat.
Feh. An extra 33% bandwidth. Woopee. Considering all the other factors affecting the performance of a system I really don't care unless performace is 2x of what I got, as the net effect is so diluted by the other componets of a system.
Breaking the 120 GB barrier is significant at this point the way HDD capacities have been increasing though.
"Decay" would be more along the lines of X% of links become dead after 3 months. You'd have to collect a bunch of live links from various search terms and check ALL of them 3,6,12 months down the road and see if they're still there. 60% is more a measure of changed/new content in the last three/whatever months. At least the web isn't stagnating.
What about archives? They should not care about being 'fresh' beyond adding stuff to the archive. I want to be able to bookmark something in an archive for future reference and be able to come back to it in three years and still find it there, just like a library.
The argument that web sites should change 60% of their content in order to keep up with the average is like saying we should all be wearing puke-green colored clothes because that's the average color of the universe - the reason has nothing to do with reality. Web content should be as 'fresh' as the information being provided demands of it. Weather forcasts should change daily, stockmarkets - hourly, slow pitch standings - monthly, and so on.
Ads and all are annoying, but required registering for a site has become much more common too. It isn't worth the time to register for something I'm pretty sure I'm never going to come back to.
In general, I'm surfing less because of less good content.
I found that in my area (Calgary, Alberta), the number of outside web-cams actually dropped last year - companies with popular web cams took them away.
I also think that it's getting harder for individuals to put up web cams - or other stuff. If it's good, it gets popular - and your reward is that your ISP cuts you off for excessive bandwidth usage.
Things are getting out of hand when they're packaging extra DVD releases just to fit in all the junk that ended up on the cutting room floor. there's a reason it was cut: it was extraneous and unnecessary While I agree with you that it's gotten out of hand for some movies, LotRs is one where I am actually interested in seeing what was cut. I want to know what they planned originally, what was shot, and then what was cut.
Why? One of the biggest arguments around making a movie(s) out of LotRs is how do you fit it all in, given 3 movies to do it all. I'd also like to see the extra footage, since I then get to see for myself the vision the producers had for a few other aspects of the story.
I'll just buy the 4-DVD set(12 disks for three movies!!), plus a nice boxed set of all three movies in their original theatre release then the time comes.
Don't compare TV to the 'net
on
Browsing Alone
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· Score: 3, Insightful
TV is very differnet from the 'net. Using the 'net is NOT a 'universal experience' like TV was in the single digit channel days.
IMHO, anything that gets people away from TV or other passive medium is a good thing. Sure, people are filtering what they see on the 'net but that's also due to there being *so much* communication to be had.
The 'net has given us a new way of talking to each other, by providing a way to publish one's ideas for next to nothing, and to communicate to anywhere in the world for next to nothing. OF COURSE there are is going to be less 'face time' communication - if only because the 'net allows us to talk more efficiently to each other. No co-ordinating times. No traveling. No cleaning the house to entertain.
Grandma, who gets the digital pictures, might get a few more visits in a 'pre net world, but it would not be enough to develop anymore meaningful relationship. On the 'net Grandma would have a better chance of learning about the kid's day in school, because it's easy to email, or for that matter cc Grandma when you email your friends/family, including Grandma 'in the loop'.
My family is separated by the Atlantic ocean - the 'net has increased communication hugely because it's quick and cheap.
Toys, Shirts, key chains, stuffed animals such as Dust Puppy http://www.userfriendly.org/ are where the money is.
Personally, I think the best comics will stay free, and they'll make their dough on concrete items.
I'm just thinking about myself and my friends, and most of us have bought a shirt or two from their favorite on-line comic. I personally have both User Frendly and GPF wear because the comics are funny enough to follow daily and the shirts are funny enough on their own, and as reference to the comic.
A note to anyone reading this who has a web-comic: I don't care if I'm paying $15 versus $20 bucks for the shirt: take your profit for your creative output on the shirt, please! Just don't mark them up 200 percent, and I'll buy a shirt if I think it's funny enough.
Stupid bidders is not a new phenomina. Last live action I went to to pick up a bicycle, a cheap "Norco" ended up going for about 3/4's of it's retail price. The more expensive (new) "Specialized" bike that I bought went for about the same price as the Norco - about 1/3rd of the new price.
The difference on eBay is you have a huge bidding population, so there are more stupid bidders out there that will pay more than an item is worth.
Items like Xbox have a lot more stupid bidders than say, Cisco Routers, IMHO. I don't think the empty Cisco Router box auction would work. Then again, someone could be desparate for an original box to ship it in...
spent money to buy the rights to show the olympics online,
That is the crux of the problem. The offical site of the Olympics should not be a bought commodity. MSN is just doing what they normally do - providing content type in a manner that induces you to use Windows/IE.
It's all a big money grab bag - the Olymic people are mostly concerned with making money, not with providing a venue to show the best athletes the planet has to offer.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have a problem with an athlete having their own web site documenting their Olymic experience.
From what I've read, it sounds like the group will have the ability to tell all, but what it can *do* about any new infringments is not decided at this point.
What sort of displinary powers do you think you should have?
Stating that mars may be in for a period of global warming based on ONE years data is, well, so much hot air.
If some good data could be presented indicating long term erosion of the polar CO2 caps, I'd say they might be onto something, but this is just irresponsible reporting.
Too much junk certainly could be a problem in geosynch orbit - that's pretty valuable space, and anything up there will be there for a long time if it can't de-orbit it'self.
However, low earth orbit stuff should be fine if it's low enough to be degraded/deorbited by atmospheric drag within a few years.
I would want at least the option of a CD/disk/web storage of the pixs.
I don't see the point of this otherwise as it sits. A disposable camera will give you *way* better quality than the 100dpi that they're talking about here.
Is is a little more instant? I assume you look at your pixs, pick the 24 you want and get them back in less than 10 minutes.
They're targeting young users who prefer to use digital still cameras, of which about half prefer to print their images. Did they bother to ask themselves about reprints, photoediting, archives that you get with a file? They just throwing the other half of their potential market away by not offering a file option.
For me, I'd be more interested in paying for a "disposable" camera that gets me a CD back with all my pictures on it.
The only effective way I can see of getting rid of them is infiltrating their organizations, gathering as much intelligence about them as possible, then assasinating them one by one. No fussy and cumbersome war procedures, no large-scale military operations, no pointless delays with diplomatic BS; just a few elite troops of trained assassins, quiet, accurate and deadly.
I think this is the long war that Bush is talking about. Yeah, there likely will be some overt operations, hopefully something that helps destroy some of the terrorist's resources, but the REAL battle will be spy vs. spy. It will be a long war because infiltration takes time. You need to be trusted enough first to be let in to a terrorist network, then you have to work you way up. You'll have to gain more trust to work your way up the organization - by *being* a terrorist. Think about all that implies in the 'new' war.
One thing is for certain - if the States and the rest of the world are serious about suppressing terrorism (you can't stop it entirely) you will have to pay the price in human lives: On the ground to take out a government that continues to shelter terrorists; as an assasin willing to die to take out an important individual in a terrorist network; as a spy having to kill innocents in order to get high enough in the terrorist chain of command to get the information the assasins and soldiers will need.
This nuke/missle/bomb thing is a bunch of crap - we need information to target them! That particular operation is NOT glamorous, does NOT satisfy people's desire for revenge, and does NOT make for good political browning points as your voter will not know what was done until long after the operations have happened.
Oh, and it doesn't help that the USA is in a terrible state right now for it's overseas intelegence operations. It will improve, but I think it will take ten years at least to get any real indications as to if they will do any of what I'm describing with enough resources to make a difference.
Email almost never gets responded to immediately by me. That creates those expectations discussed. I will not touch IM at work with a ten foot pole. That's what a phone is for IMHO. I despise mass joke forwarding - I get enough crap as it is. I forward about one joke a week to a few targeted friends; they don't need more crap either.
Check email? That's what filters that play sounds are for. Mail meeting my important criteria gets one sound, everything else gets another sound, or no sound if the volume gets too high.
That To line thing is covered in my filters - anything directly To me gets higher priority, anything sent to the company-wide mailing list gets sent to a folder and ignored until I feel like it.
Having several email addresses is ESSENTIAL. You need a trash account that you never check/check rarely and can just blow away when the SPAM gets too high. You need a mailing list account for those companies that you might actually want to hear what's going on. You might have to blow this one away one in a while too. Some of your more annoying friends might get this one... You need a personal address that only goes to people you see in the flesh (my rule).
I can't believe those college kids. If they're spending that much time emailing/IMing, they're not getting an education, IMHO. When I was in University, I got pissed off if my phone rang more than once an hour - I had studying to do that required large blocks of uninterupped time. However, I really wish I could've emailed a prof/TA at times - having to go there at their office hours to ask a question was a major pain in the ass. Oh yeah, even If I'd been able to email, it still would have been only for something I was really stuck on.
Advice for those school kids: Spend less time emailing and more time doing useful work. People *will* get use to the fact that you usually only respond to email 1-2 times per day. Sometimes, you'll find that email will help you get that work done, otherwise lay off the email.
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Another problem is sites that don't (or make it hard to)let you download the install package and install it later, for example, you need to install QT on three machines, or you don't trust Apple to leave old versions of QT on their web site. Not to mention the waste of bandwidth.
THEY want to control the install process (for various reasons), which conflicts with ME wanting to control the install process, and not having to rely on them to make what I want available.
With a huge database and some smart programming:
You walk into a store wearing a set of cloths, even if you have not purchased any of them in the store they could target advertise you based on the value, brands, style. That could be useful. They could tell me about the best deal on the cheap no-brand stuff I need to buy today rather than the over-priced stuff I'll never touch anyways.
OTOH, I'd rather the store NOT know what I'm carrying in my bag - I don't need some ad telling me about a new 'better than Viagra' drug because I just happen to have my, ahem, friend's stuff along with me.
I don't have much hope of avoiding the second situation, since marketing goof balls are not known for their sensitivity.
Gartner's words sound like PHB (Pointy Haired Boss) fodder to me.
Here's a real predition: Integration of devices will result in the replacment of single-use items such as PC's, TV's, cell phones, PDA's with portable and fixed units that have multiple functions. Consumers will buy "multi-media consoles" capable of several functions, that are more flexible and cheaper than indivdual components. Wireless networking will be the standard communication method between devices given the cost of adding wiring to a house, and the flexibility of putting your console anywhere. As a result, the lines between media types will blur, as 'television' as we think of it now will cease to exist with the advent of services that allow you to watch programming at a press of a button rather than on a schedule. You will read, listen to music, and shop, all from the same console. Integration will make the price of a large console about the same as a current mid-range PC, so consumers will buy several units in a family setting. Portable units will allow you to take your shows/music/information with you, and allow you to still use all the features your big console has while within network service range.
Barriers to adoption of such integrated devices will come mostly from the companies that control the current media types as they will be concerned about losing their current revenue streams. The companies that successfully come up with new payment schemes that are both profitable to the company and palatable to the consumer will end up breaking the barriers until eventually getting to the point where you can subscribe to any service from your integrated console.
In ten years, this is pretty much the way people will be 'renting' movies, either through a computer or a set-top box that acts like a computer.
Movielink.com doesn't have it quite right yet. Neither does shaw.ca (cable provider) which is starting to do the same thing over your digital-cable box. They have problems with limited selection and play time. Can't say anything about the technical side, as there hasn't been anything I've wanted to see to bother trying. Price is not an issue, they are trying to get people to try it by charging only C$2.00, a real deal when rentals are in the C$5.00 range.
What is needed is selection comparible to a video store, with a reasonable view time (at least 48 hours for new releases, and 7 days for old stuff to mimic the video stores). Quality has to at least equal VHS. As long as the price is competitive, going to the video store is going to become a thing of the past for all but the completely unconnected.
...I am able to use my PDA to quickly track down nearby restaurants, movie theatres, and tell me about them. Then I'd use the same PDA to phone a friend and suggest and outing - being able to hit a button and share the pertinent information I just looked up. Oh, and it can't cost more than current nice phones, and that transaction would cost me no more than 50 cents.
I can see adding other funcionality - pictures, music, videos, but I'll jump into the market when I can do the above *easily* with my PDA.
Right now the only thing reasonably integrated is some of the sms stuff - I pay every day to get a weather forecast sent to my phone - and even that is less than perfect right now.
I just can't see this size taking off - it either has to fit in your hand/pocket like current PDA's, or is about the size of a binder you carry under your arm like a note book. Anything in between is too small for serious work, and too big to carry around all the time.
If Dell's still offering Linux as a custom install, and Wallmart is advertising Mandrake/Lwindows (desktops) on there front page rather than Windoze systems, not all is lost.
While it's great to solve the puzzles to put the ball in the bucket, start the contraption, turn on the light, etc., I also ended up spending considerable time constructing "Loony Tunes" style contraptions that rolled the ball, triggering the fan that blew the balloon, that triggered the mouse trap that cut the string, that dropped the ball that hit the cat.
Great fun building stuff here.
Feh. An extra 33% bandwidth. Woopee. Considering all the other factors affecting the performance of a system I really don't care unless performace is 2x of what I got, as the net effect is so diluted by the other componets of a system.
Breaking the 120 GB barrier is significant at this point the way HDD capacities have been increasing though.
Well I know it points south. Um, which direction is it pointing anyways, by some more useful reference I wonder?
"Decay" would be more along the lines of X% of links become dead after 3 months. You'd have to collect a bunch of live links from various search terms and check ALL of them 3,6,12 months down the road and see if they're still there. 60% is more a measure of changed/new content in the last three/whatever months. At least the web isn't stagnating.
What about archives? They should not care about being 'fresh' beyond adding stuff to the archive. I want to be able to bookmark something in an archive for future reference and be able to come back to it in three years and still find it there, just like a library.
The argument that web sites should change 60% of their content in order to keep up with the average is like saying we should all be wearing puke-green colored clothes because that's the average color of the universe - the reason has nothing to do with reality. Web content should be as 'fresh' as the information being provided demands of it. Weather forcasts should change daily, stockmarkets - hourly, slow pitch standings - monthly, and so on.
Ads and all are annoying, but required registering for a site has become much more common too. It isn't worth the time to register for something I'm pretty sure I'm never going to come back to.
In general, I'm surfing less because of less good content.
I found that in my area (Calgary, Alberta), the number of outside web-cams actually dropped last year - companies with popular web cams took them away.
I also think that it's getting harder for individuals to put up web cams - or other stuff. If it's good, it gets popular - and your reward is that your ISP cuts you off for excessive bandwidth usage.
While I agree with you that it's gotten out of hand for some movies, LotRs is one where I am actually interested in seeing what was cut. I want to know what they planned originally, what was shot, and then what was cut.
Why? One of the biggest arguments around making a movie(s) out of LotRs is how do you fit it all in, given 3 movies to do it all. I'd also like to see the extra footage, since I then get to see for myself the vision the producers had for a few other aspects of the story.
I'll just buy the 4-DVD set(12 disks for three movies!!), plus a nice boxed set of all three movies in their original theatre release then the time comes.
TV is very differnet from the 'net. Using the 'net is NOT a 'universal experience' like TV was in the single digit channel days.
IMHO, anything that gets people away from TV or other passive medium is a good thing. Sure, people are filtering what they see on the 'net but that's also due to there being *so much* communication to be had.
The 'net has given us a new way of talking to each other, by providing a way to publish one's ideas for next to nothing, and to communicate to anywhere in the world for next to nothing. OF COURSE there are is going to be less 'face time' communication - if only because the 'net allows us to talk more efficiently to each other. No co-ordinating times. No traveling. No cleaning the house to entertain.
Grandma, who gets the digital pictures, might get a few more visits in a 'pre net world, but it would not be enough to develop anymore meaningful relationship. On the 'net Grandma would have a better chance of learning about the kid's day in school, because it's easy to email, or for that matter cc Grandma when you email your friends/family, including Grandma 'in the loop'.
My family is separated by the Atlantic ocean - the 'net has increased communication hugely because it's quick and cheap.
Try that with TV.
Personally, I think the best comics will stay free, and they'll make their dough on concrete items.
I'm just thinking about myself and my friends, and most of us have bought a shirt or two from their favorite on-line comic. I personally have both User Frendly and GPF wear because the comics are funny enough to follow daily and the shirts are funny enough on their own, and as reference to the comic.
A note to anyone reading this who has a web-comic: I don't care if I'm paying $15 versus $20 bucks for the shirt: take your profit for your creative output on the shirt, please! Just don't mark them up 200 percent, and I'll buy a shirt if I think it's funny enough.
The difference on eBay is you have a huge bidding population, so there are more stupid bidders out there that will pay more than an item is worth.
Items like Xbox have a lot more stupid bidders than say, Cisco Routers, IMHO. I don't think the empty Cisco Router box auction would work. Then again, someone could be desparate for an original box to ship it in...
That is the crux of the problem. The offical site of the Olympics should not be a bought commodity. MSN is just doing what they normally do - providing content type in a manner that induces you to use Windows/IE.
It's all a big money grab bag - the Olymic people are mostly concerned with making money, not with providing a venue to show the best athletes the planet has to offer.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have a problem with an athlete having their own web site documenting their Olymic experience.
What sort of displinary powers do you think you should have?
Stating that mars may be in for a period of global warming based on ONE years data is, well, so much hot air.
If some good data could be presented indicating long term erosion of the polar CO2 caps, I'd say they might be onto something, but this is just irresponsible reporting.
Iron Chef. William Shatner. Americaniz'd.
About the only way I'm going to watch this is if the beef 'o the day is Shatner's thigh and the chefs have to turn it into Donairs.
I can see it now - 'tweens' can moon each other over the phone by sending a picture of their bare ass.
Too much junk certainly could be a problem in geosynch orbit - that's pretty valuable space, and anything up there will be there for a long time if it can't de-orbit it'self.
However, low earth orbit stuff should be fine if it's low enough to be degraded/deorbited by atmospheric drag within a few years.
I would want at least the option of a CD/disk/web storage of the pixs.
I don't see the point of this otherwise as it sits. A disposable camera will give you *way* better quality than the 100dpi that they're talking about here.
Is is a little more instant? I assume you look at your pixs, pick the 24 you want and get them back in less than 10 minutes.
They're targeting young users who prefer to use digital still cameras, of which about half prefer to print their images. Did they bother to ask themselves about reprints, photoediting, archives that you get with a file? They just throwing the other half of their potential market away by not offering a file option.
For me, I'd be more interested in paying for a "disposable" camera that gets me a CD back with all my pictures on it.
I think this is the long war that Bush is talking about. Yeah, there likely will be some overt operations, hopefully something that helps destroy some of the terrorist's resources, but the REAL battle will be spy vs. spy. It will be a long war because infiltration takes time. You need to be trusted enough first to be let in to a terrorist network, then you have to work you way up. You'll have to gain more trust to work your way up the organization - by *being* a terrorist. Think about all that implies in the 'new' war.
One thing is for certain - if the States and the rest of the world are serious about suppressing terrorism (you can't stop it entirely) you will have to pay the price in human lives: On the ground to take out a government that continues to shelter terrorists; as an assasin willing to die to take out an important individual in a terrorist network; as a spy having to kill innocents in order to get high enough in the terrorist chain of command to get the information the assasins and soldiers will need.
This nuke/missle/bomb thing is a bunch of crap - we need information to target them! That particular operation is NOT glamorous, does NOT satisfy people's desire for revenge, and does NOT make for good political browning points as your voter will not know what was done until long after the operations have happened.
Oh, and it doesn't help that the USA is in a terrible state right now for it's overseas intelegence operations. It will improve, but I think it will take ten years at least to get any real indications as to if they will do any of what I'm describing with enough resources to make a difference.
Email almost never gets responded to immediately by me. That creates those expectations discussed. I will not touch IM at work with a ten foot pole. That's what a phone is for IMHO. I despise mass joke forwarding - I get enough crap as it is. I forward about one joke a week to a few targeted friends; they don't need more crap either.
Check email? That's what filters that play sounds are for. Mail meeting my important criteria gets one sound, everything else gets another sound, or no sound if the volume gets too high.
That To line thing is covered in my filters - anything directly To me gets higher priority, anything sent to the company-wide mailing list gets sent to a folder and ignored until I feel like it.
Having several email addresses is ESSENTIAL. You need a trash account that you never check/check rarely and can just blow away when the SPAM gets too high. You need a mailing list account for those companies that you might actually want to hear what's going on. You might have to blow this one away one in a while too. Some of your more annoying friends might get this one... You need a personal address that only goes to people you see in the flesh (my rule).
I can't believe those college kids. If they're spending that much time emailing/IMing, they're not getting an education, IMHO. When I was in University, I got pissed off if my phone rang more than once an hour - I had studying to do that required large blocks of uninterupped time. However, I really wish I could've emailed a prof/TA at times - having to go there at their office hours to ask a question was a major pain in the ass. Oh yeah, even If I'd been able to email, it still would have been only for something I was really stuck on.
Advice for those school kids: Spend less time emailing and more time doing useful work. People *will* get use to the fact that you usually only respond to email 1-2 times per day. Sometimes, you'll find that email will help you get that work done, otherwise lay off the email.