Take your pick. The issue at hand is that large companies are paying large computer manufacturers LARGE sums of money to incorperate advertizing "out of the box" to consumers. Which computer manufacturers are actually going to buy into this, I'm not exactly sure. I'm sure we'll see the usual over-the-counter foolishness from all the big names, compaq, HP, Dell, etc.
Of course, let's examine this hypothetical situation:
Let's pretend Dell and HP sold computers (i know this is way out there). AOL pays HP a few million to include some advertizing and client software into their disk images for Home Personal computers. HP gets loads of money, and sells the computers for even more money.
Now, Dell tells AOL to shove it, and misses out on the huge Ad revenue.
From here, there are two possibilities.
A) HP will use this extra money to drive prices of its units down, doing more business, securing more service contracts, and increases its position over it's competators, prooving the compensated endorsement model, and ensuring that other manufacturers will use it for decades to come.
B) HP will suffer huge amounts of negative press for buddying up with AOL in this way, people will stop buying their computers, this whole thing gets swept in the corner and forgotten about.
(Yes, i know HP makes money on servers and printers as well, the name is just a Placeholder)
Neither of those things require that I personally own and maintain a vehicle, seeing as my building houses something like 72 other students of varying ages and situations.
>>Right. If I tell my mom to "just go to a search engine and find out how to do this and that", she'll go "huh? what?" on me. Furthermore, wouldn't that search engine require at
least some sort of 'net access? Hm...>I think AOL (and CompuServe, which is basically AOL under a different brand) IS usefull for those who are completely new to internet and computers. It has a pretty simple,
consistent interface, which is perfect if you're a newbie.
I agree, and it is only those people who are dependent on that sort of spoon-feeding who will have to endure the advertizements. If they dont spend all that much time on the computer, they dont really need to disable them. If they do, they have the ability to learn how to disable these features.
As for "typing and reading skills", I totally agree with you. Most people, especially the newbies, will click any button you present them, without actually reading what the button
does. Pity. But I don't think you can blame a company for taking advantage of that; they're not in the business for fun or charity, they're in the business to make money. If people are generating revenue by being stupid, then that's their own fault.
Awsome, we're on the same page. Yes, that is exactly how business works, and i don't think you can say it's really a bad thing, since it leads to the widespread use of computer technology, which will in turn help it advance.
>>They shouldn't HAVE to remove ads from something they just paid for - that's the whole point.
Well, here's a little experiment...Let's take away all of the money a computer manufacturer receives for this kind of compensated endorsement..alright, done. Now, let's recalculate the price the manufacturer would have to sell the unit at and still make a profit...ok, done..
hey, whats this? computers are too expensive? Oh well, back to typewriters and television..
That is, of course, an exaggeration. however, the people not "in the know" can get cheap computer hardware through compensated endorsement, since they're getting the hardware at a lower price, they have no right to complain. As for those of us "in the know", we can easily avoid retail computer systems in favor of cheaper, superior home-brew systems.
actually, its called a private settlement. It does certainly -sound- like extortion, but law is a tricky subject anyhow. Basically, since people (in the state of connecticut at least) are breaking the law when they send you SPAM while obscuring the email's origin, you -can- sue them in court for a few thou, but you can also privately contact them (if you use sam spade or something similar to overcome the return-adress obfuscation) and offer them a private settlement of a lower amount to save them (and you) the court fees. Look around on theregister.co.uk for details about people who have done this.
>The attitude that customers are just targets for repeat marketing is something that needs to change. The computer manufacturers are only one aspect of this. I have a Bally's membership, and now I find that they're re-selling my personal information. That's bullshit, I bought a membership to a health club. It's a business transaction, not an invitation for them to strip mine personal data for their further benefit. I pay for the use of the club, they should leave it at that.People should be justifiably angry at all these large companies abusing their relationship with customers. People shouldn't have to build their own PC, car and health club to escape the damn ads.
You've switched again. Ads or spyware, which are we talking about? People don't have to build their own PCs to avoid the ads, just...remove the ads... The people who are truely bothered by the appearance of ads on their computer can surely invest a few minutes disabling them.
>>You know, I've built dozens of computers for myself and other people and I still take exception to this - people should be able to buy product A without being subjected to advertising via mail, email, telephone or carrier pidgeon for products B, C, D, ad infinitum.>Sorry, just because some of us enjoy tinkering with the internals of a PC doesn't mean everyone else does or even knows how -- or someone else who does. (Try that argument on a grandmother who buys a PC so she can email her grandkids. It's bullshit.)
This hypothetical grandmother can always buy a computer from a small computer shop, or ask her children which one to buy and from where. Anyone who spends upwards of a thousand dollars without understanding what they're buying dosent have a right to complain about their "out of box experience". Advertizing is the price you pay for mass-produced, dumbed down, corporate technology, and off-the-shelf PCs like the ones that are going to be affected for this will certainly be that.
Furthermore, upon being subjected to this advertizing and deciding that it is undesirable, all you need is a web browser and a search engine to find directions to remove said advertizing. One does not need "computer knowlege" to accomplish this, just the ability to TYPE and READ, without whining about how complicated everything is all the time and paying attention.
>>Holy shit! Hehehe. I was laughing so hard by the time I finished reading that that I almost crapped my pants. God, I love the fucking niavety of college students that think they have it all figured out.
oh, im just enjoying what i can do, while i can do it. You're obviously just jealous that you don't have time to do anything fun. I, on the other hand, have plenty of free time, with which I can do "fun stuff". Since the comments prior to the above (since you obviously didn't read them) had to do with the various advantages that lead ME to retain my oldskool AOL email adress, based on MY situation. There's nothing to "figure out", this is what I -am- doing, how things -do- work, and will continue to do so until my life's situation changes. when it does, i'll change with it, just like every other time.
Don't assume i'm incapable of succeeding where you've obviously already failed. I know plenty of successful married couples that maintain active and interesting social lives
It really is heartbreaking to see all of this hostile outpouring resulting from mid-life crisis.
The advantages of retaining my current email outweigh the disadvantages, was the point i was making. Sure, i COULD compile a huge, 400-500 person email list, track down everyone i know, and let them know my adress has changed, but that kind of mass-spam is a waste of bandwidth. Its just easier to leave it where it is, since it works fine.
You are willfully ignoring the fact that I am not paying for AOL email, my parents are. My parents are pretty set in their ways, and insist on retaining the aol service even though we have upgraded to cable modem. So, why not just keep using the same email adress? Makes pretty good sense to me. The decision is economical, since i don't have to pay any money to access higher-quality service than "free" usually implies.
As for "getting out of college and seeing how the world works", all you are using to base that comment on is the fact that you are incapable of reading the posts you respond to, or perhaps do not have a long enough attention span. I have made a sensible and economical decision about who's email service I use, that allows redundancy in instant messaging and availibility to contacts I have lost touch with. Haven't you ever changed email adresses, and then set the old one to auto-forward to the new one? That would certainly be useful in this case as a transitional step, but it is unavailible and unnessisary given my current arrangement.
I would say that my ability to intelligently analyze my current situation and make reasonable and economical decisions while maximizing productivity and availibility shows much more knowlege of the real world than, say, trolling messageboards with hostile comments to aleviate the boredom of your current situation, probably brought on by your own apathy and inability to balance work and play responsibly.
I'll take your desperate attempt to insult my ability to write as a consession of argument.
Your desktop is being used as a billboard advertisement? Why not turn off the adverts? Look online for instructions, incase you're having trouble finding your right mouse button or your delete key.
The adverts are reasonable, to my mind, since they can be removed, and help drive down the price of the computer through manufacturer compensation.
Imagine getting a free computer, and being FORCED to see the adverts all the time. Would you still complain? even though you're getting a free computer? hmm? no?
Well then, dont complain about having REMOVABLE advertisements that drive the cost of the machine down.
if it bothers you that much, go to a third-party reseller or have a friend build you one.
making things happen? the sky's the limit. bringing the right people together, focusing them in the right direction, and bringing all the tools together to accomplish things none of us by ourselves would be able to do. Throw a lan party. Install a car stereo. Purchase thousands of dollars worth of cheap computer parts and resell them at a profit. Build a server. hack a TiVo. Throw a kegger. Dosent matter. To coordinate, you must communicate. To communicate, you must be availible.
It is regrettible that your time management issues have turned you into a bitter, grumpy troll, but I am thankful that i now have a clearer motivation to balance my hectic work/study schedual with my recreation.
A load of crap, eh? It's fine to have other interests, but would you trust a multi-million dollar company to choose what computing options are right for you, or someone you can trust to have your personal interests in mind? Careful, the wrong answer will label you a blithering idiot.
I do not own a car, pretty useless to a college student. When I do, however, i plan to spend a great deal of time researching my options, and having long, interesting dialogues with my auto-phile buddies about the things that I learn. Not only will i develop a large knowlege base by participating in some of my freinds' hobbies that I've previously ignored, I will have enabled myself to make COST-EFFICIENT and INTELLIGENT choices about what to buy and who to buy it from. In the process, ill get to know more and more people who will hook me up with cheaper parts and service.
I'm not too busy to make new friends. Are you? that's pretty sad if you are, since networking really makes a difference, especially with large, high maintinance purchases.
Notice that I also referred to people's options of supporting small-business and dealing with computer savvy friends. I know absolutely nothing about cars, but im not going to make uninformed decisions about my purchases. That's just idiotic. A fool and his money are soon parted, as the cliche goes.
The advertisements are only going to be followed/viewed by people who don't know any better.
Maybe you should work towards educating the user base and allowing them to make informed decisions, not bashing two successful businesses that have made great contributions to media and computing.
Yeah, it would be nice to use POP email with my AOL service, and maybe somewhere down the line they'll impliment this.
Even still though, Outlook has a habit of letting arbitrary code run on your computer. I think its a wonderful program, I just don't feel like depending on such a hilariously vunerable client.
Of course, there are plenty of other email clients out there, just none i like as much as outlook.
As for the spam thing..sorry bucko, but you'll find that no matter where you go.
Actually, this is a fun idea i got from The Register:
My state has a law that says that if you intentionally misrepresent the headers/return path/transmission info/etc of a marketing email, you are breaking a fairly serious law. Many people are cornering spammers like this and extorting money, threatening a high-figure lawsuit (that I could easily win anyhow). Some people have been getting 4000-6000 USD PER-SPAMMER confronted in this fashion.
It's called being a college student, and it lends itself to an active and fulfiling social life, i suggest you give it a try.
Of course, i was not merely referring to my IMMEDIATE availibility, but how easy it would be for someone who knew me 8 years ago to track me down again. I am easy to find and easy to communicate with, and through persuit of those principals, my ability to "make things happen" is increased. You obviously narrowed your perception of my statement just to have something to flame about.
A cursory examination of my post would clearly reveal my email adress as "chaoswave2@aol.com". Registration to post on slashdot is, of course, absolutely free. AOL email is fast, reliable (this is over a cable-modem, remember), has NONE of the idiotic security vunerabilities that microsoft Outlook has, allows decent-sized file transfers (although in recent months/years ive been very dissapointed to see the allowable attachment size drop).
I'm being screwed by AOL? Sounds like you're just another brainwashed victim of the popular opinion. Sure, AOL has its problems, and its not the right choice for everyone. Its not even the right choice for most experienced computer users (which i modestly consider myself). Since you've decided to respond with my post with ill-explained and hostile rhetoric, i will explain to you why i use AOL.
1) My parents pay for it
2) It's easily accessable over the web
3) My AIM name as the same as my Email
3a) My email adress clearly implies my AIM name, which is useful for contact purposes
4) In the 8 years i have used it, i have found the quality of service to be more than adaquate in terms of speed of delivery, message handling, and client-software features (although i use the web client, didnt feel like mucking up my protocols with the client install again).
5) since ive had my email adress for 8 years, i'm going to keep it as long as possible for purposes of availibility
So, coward, how exactly am I getting screwed? The low monthly "bring your own ISP" fee (driven another 2-3 bucks cheaper by paying by the 2-year block..today its..what..9 or 10 bucks a month? of course, since we prepaid for several years [several years ago], it still works out to about 4 a month for us) gets my 5-person family seven email adresses, and access to AOL's content (which I personally find useless, nay, moronic, but is good for my 11 year old sister and Mother), while still allowing us to connect to the internet at broadband speeds.
AOL really can't be considered a monopoly even in the ISP department, since it dosent offer cable/dsl/isdn service (although AOL is easily interoperable with such service), plenty of other ISP options exist, and thanks to AOL's exorberant pricing, you can't really call them anticompetative. They even allow you to use AOL at a reduced rate THROUGH another companies ISP (this is what I do)!. That's pretty pro-competative. Now that AOL is allowing third-party Instant messaging clients to interoperate with the AOL messaging network, i think it would be a mistake to compare AOL/TW to the Beast of Redmond.
indefinately must be defined very loosely here. you'd be amazed what the "delete" button can do, when properly applied (this usually involves placing a finger, usually the index, middle, or ring finger over the delete key, and then applying downward pressure until they keyboard registers that the key has been pressed. On some computers, clear instructions will then appear, allowing the user to confirm the "delete" action).
Failing that, theres always deleting registry keys and uninstalling software modules. It would be rather poor of them to not give the modules an uninstall entry, but look at it this way.
If the adverts are too hard to remove and cause too much trouble for the user, less people will buy those computers. The manufacturer will either loose money, or rethink the advertisement paradigm. This isn't like operating systems, where peoples options are severly limited (practically). I would be pleased to see small-business computer vendors benefit from poor marketing desisions on behalf of the big-time players.
You're making a mountain out of a molehill. These irritating advertisements and service offers are only going to apply to people who waste their money on a computer off-the-shelf (or website) by a major manufacturer, like compaq, HP, Dell, what have you. If you're too lazy to build your own computer, get one of your friends to do it, or support small-business, AND you're not smart enough to know how to disable the advertisements and such, then..well..you get what you deserve.
Anyone else seen those free DSL connections that subject you to banner ads? Now, with those, you're getting something in -return- for subjecting yourself to that kind of thing.
Let the marketing monkeys do whatever they like, it only effects the lUsers.
There is no possible way these ads and service announcements will be un-removable (unless they were contained in a persistant-memory module hardwired to replace the data when it's been removed/deactivated...i dont see that happening), and you're not paying any more money to have that crap bundled in. Actually, theoretically, it would -lower- the price of the computer, since the manufacturer is being compensated for the endorsement vector. Maybe its not such a bad thing after all.
"'AOL's actions are unprecidented and completely anti-consumer' said Microsoft Spokesman Vivek Varma."
::falls off chair laughing::
It's sad to see that big business revolves around the "idiot factor", that is, trying to influence the decisions of the idiots that will use whatever the "Out of Box Experience" dictates they should use.
Business is based on efficiency. Since successful business must be efficient, we can use this trend as proof that most computer users are, in fact, idiots. It's a sad thing.
As for the AOL thing, i use AOL myself just because ive had the same email adress since I was in 7th grade (8 years ago). I use AOL merely as an email client, and use my cable service provider for the actual internet connectivity. This makes AOL service MUCH cheaper (especially when you pay for blocks of years, which my parents do). When you remove the ISP factor out of AOL service, its actually quite good, i would just rather chew aluminum than rely on AOL for my actual internet connection.
Individuals incapable of driving and listening for/reacting to emergency vehicle audibles shouldn't be driving in the first place. Oh, sure, plenty of people like that are, but no one is terribly suprised when they crash into something.
Really, a noise is a noise, and the traditional alarm is just as likely to expose people to the "danger" you're mentioning, however, the improved sound gives the listener the ability to move out of the vehicles way WITHOUT looking around to try to visually verify it's location and vector.
Any way you look at it, this sounds like the way to go for emergency vehicles.
With the cellphone thing, that sounds like a great idea, i dont know how many times ive heard my girlfriend's phone ring "somewhere" in my room, initiating a frantic search (for the phone, not my girlfriend;p) that usually results in a missed call.
I disagree entirely. Many of the world's wealthy aristocracy are simply privileged morons, using their inherited wealth to spread their genes as quickly and violently as possible.
Something else you may want to consider, is that no small-payload vehicle costing half a million dollars will ever be widely or even frequently used, thus diminishing the danger of failure, since someone with that much money would be able to hire someone to make sure it's properly maintained.
well, perhaps these "jet engines" could supply voltage to peltier coolers, which have no moving parts and could pump the heat to where it needs to go, perhaps even displacing the heat to somewhere it could be re-used to defray that power-draw of peltier cooling
Slashdot Mirror
Take your pick. The issue at hand is that large companies are paying large computer manufacturers LARGE sums of money to incorperate advertizing "out of the box" to consumers. Which computer manufacturers are actually going to buy into this, I'm not exactly sure. I'm sure we'll see the usual over-the-counter foolishness from all the big names, compaq, HP, Dell, etc.
Of course, let's examine this hypothetical situation:
Let's pretend Dell and HP sold computers (i know this is way out there). AOL pays HP a few million to include some advertizing and client software into their disk images for Home Personal computers. HP gets loads of money, and sells the computers for even more money.
Now, Dell tells AOL to shove it, and misses out on the huge Ad revenue.
From here, there are two possibilities.
A) HP will use this extra money to drive prices of its units down, doing more business, securing more service contracts, and increases its position over it's competators, prooving the compensated endorsement model, and ensuring that other manufacturers will use it for decades to come.
B) HP will suffer huge amounts of negative press for buddying up with AOL in this way, people will stop buying their computers, this whole thing gets swept in the corner and forgotten about.
(Yes, i know HP makes money on servers and printers as well, the name is just a Placeholder)
Neither of those things require that I personally own and maintain a vehicle, seeing as my building houses something like 72 other students of varying ages and situations.
;)
Besides which, the packy's in walking distance
>>Right. If I tell my mom to "just go to a search engine and find out how to do this and that", she'll go "huh? what?" on me. Furthermore, wouldn't that search engine require at
least some sort of 'net access? Hm...>I think AOL (and CompuServe, which is basically AOL under a different brand) IS usefull for those who are completely new to internet and computers. It has a pretty simple,
consistent interface, which is perfect if you're a newbie.
I agree, and it is only those people who are dependent on that sort of spoon-feeding who will have to endure the advertizements. If they dont spend all that much time on the computer, they dont really need to disable them. If they do, they have the ability to learn how to disable these features.
As for "typing and reading skills", I totally agree with you. Most people, especially the newbies, will click any button you present them, without actually reading what the button
does. Pity. But I don't think you can blame a company for taking advantage of that; they're not in the business for fun or charity, they're in the business to make money. If people are generating revenue by being stupid, then that's their own fault.
Awsome, we're on the same page. Yes, that is exactly how business works, and i don't think you can say it's really a bad thing, since it leads to the widespread use of computer technology, which will in turn help it advance.
>>They shouldn't HAVE to remove ads from something they just paid for - that's the whole point.
Well, here's a little experiment...Let's take away all of the money a computer manufacturer receives for this kind of compensated endorsement..alright, done. Now, let's recalculate the price the manufacturer would have to sell the unit at and still make a profit...ok, done..
hey, whats this? computers are too expensive? Oh well, back to typewriters and television..
That is, of course, an exaggeration. however, the people not "in the know" can get cheap computer hardware through compensated endorsement, since they're getting the hardware at a lower price, they have no right to complain. As for those of us "in the know", we can easily avoid retail computer systems in favor of cheaper, superior home-brew systems.
actually, its called a private settlement. It does certainly -sound- like extortion, but law is a tricky subject anyhow. Basically, since people (in the state of connecticut at least) are breaking the law when they send you SPAM while obscuring the email's origin, you -can- sue them in court for a few thou, but you can also privately contact them (if you use sam spade or something similar to overcome the return-adress obfuscation) and offer them a private settlement of a lower amount to save them (and you) the court fees. Look around on theregister.co.uk for details about people who have done this.
(appy-polly-logies for the multipost)
>The attitude that customers are just targets for repeat marketing is something that needs to change. The computer manufacturers are only one aspect of this. I have a Bally's membership, and now I find that they're re-selling my personal information. That's bullshit, I bought a membership to a health club. It's a business transaction, not an invitation for them to strip mine personal data for their further benefit. I pay for the use of the club, they should leave it at that.People should be justifiably angry at all these large companies abusing their relationship with customers. People shouldn't have to build their own PC, car and health club to escape the damn ads.
You've switched again. Ads or spyware, which are we talking about? People don't have to build their own PCs to avoid the ads, just...remove the ads... The people who are truely bothered by the appearance of ads on their computer can surely invest a few minutes disabling them.
>>You know, I've built dozens of computers for myself and other people and I still take exception to this - people should be able to buy product A without being subjected to advertising via mail, email, telephone or carrier pidgeon for products B, C, D, ad infinitum.>Sorry, just because some of us enjoy tinkering with the internals of a PC doesn't mean everyone else does or even knows how -- or someone else who does. (Try that argument on a grandmother who buys a PC so she can email her grandkids. It's bullshit.)
This hypothetical grandmother can always buy a computer from a small computer shop, or ask her children which one to buy and from where. Anyone who spends upwards of a thousand dollars without understanding what they're buying dosent have a right to complain about their "out of box experience". Advertizing is the price you pay for mass-produced, dumbed down, corporate technology, and off-the-shelf PCs like the ones that are going to be affected for this will certainly be that.
Furthermore, upon being subjected to this advertizing and deciding that it is undesirable, all you need is a web browser and a search engine to find directions to remove said advertizing. One does not need "computer knowlege" to accomplish this, just the ability to TYPE and READ, without whining about how complicated everything is all the time and paying attention.
>>Holy shit! Hehehe. I was laughing so hard by the time I finished reading that that I almost crapped my pants. God, I love the fucking niavety of college students that think they have it all figured out.
oh, im just enjoying what i can do, while i can do it. You're obviously just jealous that you don't have time to do anything fun. I, on the other hand, have plenty of free time, with which I can do "fun stuff". Since the comments prior to the above (since you obviously didn't read them) had to do with the various advantages that lead ME to retain my oldskool AOL email adress, based on MY situation. There's nothing to "figure out", this is what I -am- doing, how things -do- work, and will continue to do so until my life's situation changes. when it does, i'll change with it, just like every other time.
Don't assume i'm incapable of succeeding where you've obviously already failed. I know plenty of successful married couples that maintain active and interesting social lives
It really is heartbreaking to see all of this hostile outpouring resulting from mid-life crisis.
The advantages of retaining my current email outweigh the disadvantages, was the point i was making. Sure, i COULD compile a huge, 400-500 person email list, track down everyone i know, and let them know my adress has changed, but that kind of mass-spam is a waste of bandwidth. Its just easier to leave it where it is, since it works fine.
You are willfully ignoring the fact that I am not paying for AOL email, my parents are. My parents are pretty set in their ways, and insist on retaining the aol service even though we have upgraded to cable modem. So, why not just keep using the same email adress? Makes pretty good sense to me. The decision is economical, since i don't have to pay any money to access higher-quality service than "free" usually implies.
As for "getting out of college and seeing how the world works", all you are using to base that comment on is the fact that you are incapable of reading the posts you respond to, or perhaps do not have a long enough attention span. I have made a sensible and economical decision about who's email service I use, that allows redundancy in instant messaging and availibility to contacts I have lost touch with. Haven't you ever changed email adresses, and then set the old one to auto-forward to the new one? That would certainly be useful in this case as a transitional step, but it is unavailible and unnessisary given my current arrangement.
I would say that my ability to intelligently analyze my current situation and make reasonable and economical decisions while maximizing productivity and availibility shows much more knowlege of the real world than, say, trolling messageboards with hostile comments to aleviate the boredom of your current situation, probably brought on by your own apathy and inability to balance work and play responsibly.
I'll take your desperate attempt to insult my ability to write as a consession of argument.
Your desktop is being used as a billboard advertisement? Why not turn off the adverts? Look online for instructions, incase you're having trouble finding your right mouse button or your delete key.
The adverts are reasonable, to my mind, since they can be removed, and help drive down the price of the computer through manufacturer compensation.
Imagine getting a free computer, and being FORCED to see the adverts all the time. Would you still complain? even though you're getting a free computer? hmm? no?
Well then, dont complain about having REMOVABLE advertisements that drive the cost of the machine down.
if it bothers you that much, go to a third-party reseller or have a friend build you one.
making things happen? the sky's the limit. bringing the right people together, focusing them in the right direction, and bringing all the tools together to accomplish things none of us by ourselves would be able to do. Throw a lan party. Install a car stereo. Purchase thousands of dollars worth of cheap computer parts and resell them at a profit. Build a server. hack a TiVo. Throw a kegger. Dosent matter. To coordinate, you must communicate. To communicate, you must be availible.
It is regrettible that your time management issues have turned you into a bitter, grumpy troll, but I am thankful that i now have a clearer motivation to balance my hectic work/study schedual with my recreation.
A load of crap, eh? It's fine to have other interests, but would you trust a multi-million dollar company to choose what computing options are right for you, or someone you can trust to have your personal interests in mind? Careful, the wrong answer will label you a blithering idiot.
I do not own a car, pretty useless to a college student. When I do, however, i plan to spend a great deal of time researching my options, and having long, interesting dialogues with my auto-phile buddies about the things that I learn. Not only will i develop a large knowlege base by participating in some of my freinds' hobbies that I've previously ignored, I will have enabled myself to make COST-EFFICIENT and INTELLIGENT choices about what to buy and who to buy it from. In the process, ill get to know more and more people who will hook me up with cheaper parts and service.
I'm not too busy to make new friends. Are you? that's pretty sad if you are, since networking really makes a difference, especially with large, high maintinance purchases.
Ah, the trolls are out in force today.
Notice that I also referred to people's options of supporting small-business and dealing with computer savvy friends. I know absolutely nothing about cars, but im not going to make uninformed decisions about my purchases. That's just idiotic. A fool and his money are soon parted, as the cliche goes.
The advertisements are only going to be followed/viewed by people who don't know any better.
Maybe you should work towards educating the user base and allowing them to make informed decisions, not bashing two successful businesses that have made great contributions to media and computing.
Yeah, it would be nice to use POP email with my AOL service, and maybe somewhere down the line they'll impliment this.
Even still though, Outlook has a habit of letting arbitrary code run on your computer. I think its a wonderful program, I just don't feel like depending on such a hilariously vunerable client.
Of course, there are plenty of other email clients out there, just none i like as much as outlook.
As for the spam thing..sorry bucko, but you'll find that no matter where you go.
Actually, this is a fun idea i got from The Register:
My state has a law that says that if you intentionally misrepresent the headers/return path/transmission info/etc of a marketing email, you are breaking a fairly serious law. Many people are cornering spammers like this and extorting money, threatening a high-figure lawsuit (that I could easily win anyhow). Some people have been getting 4000-6000 USD PER-SPAMMER confronted in this fashion.
So kids, turn that spam into college tuition!
It's called being a college student, and it lends itself to an active and fulfiling social life, i suggest you give it a try.
Of course, i was not merely referring to my IMMEDIATE availibility, but how easy it would be for someone who knew me 8 years ago to track me down again. I am easy to find and easy to communicate with, and through persuit of those principals, my ability to "make things happen" is increased. You obviously narrowed your perception of my statement just to have something to flame about.
ah well, trolls will be trolls.
A cursory examination of my post would clearly reveal my email adress as "chaoswave2@aol.com". Registration to post on slashdot is, of course, absolutely free. AOL email is fast, reliable (this is over a cable-modem, remember), has NONE of the idiotic security vunerabilities that microsoft Outlook has, allows decent-sized file transfers (although in recent months/years ive been very dissapointed to see the allowable attachment size drop).
I'm being screwed by AOL? Sounds like you're just another brainwashed victim of the popular opinion. Sure, AOL has its problems, and its not the right choice for everyone. Its not even the right choice for most experienced computer users (which i modestly consider myself). Since you've decided to respond with my post with ill-explained and hostile rhetoric, i will explain to you why i use AOL.
1) My parents pay for it
2) It's easily accessable over the web
3) My AIM name as the same as my Email
3a) My email adress clearly implies my AIM name, which is useful for contact purposes
4) In the 8 years i have used it, i have found the quality of service to be more than adaquate in terms of speed of delivery, message handling, and client-software features (although i use the web client, didnt feel like mucking up my protocols with the client install again).
5) since ive had my email adress for 8 years, i'm going to keep it as long as possible for purposes of availibility
So, coward, how exactly am I getting screwed? The low monthly "bring your own ISP" fee (driven another 2-3 bucks cheaper by paying by the 2-year block..today its..what..9 or 10 bucks a month? of course, since we prepaid for several years [several years ago], it still works out to about 4 a month for us) gets my 5-person family seven email adresses, and access to AOL's content (which I personally find useless, nay, moronic, but is good for my 11 year old sister and Mother), while still allowing us to connect to the internet at broadband speeds.
I stand corrected, thanks for the info.
I am now scared silly.
AOL really can't be considered a monopoly even in the ISP department, since it dosent offer cable/dsl/isdn service (although AOL is easily interoperable with such service), plenty of other ISP options exist, and thanks to AOL's exorberant pricing, you can't really call them anticompetative. They even allow you to use AOL at a reduced rate THROUGH another companies ISP (this is what I do)!. That's pretty pro-competative. Now that AOL is allowing third-party Instant messaging clients to interoperate with the AOL messaging network, i think it would be a mistake to compare AOL/TW to the Beast of Redmond.
indefinately must be defined very loosely here. you'd be amazed what the "delete" button can do, when properly applied (this usually involves placing a finger, usually the index, middle, or ring finger over the delete key, and then applying downward pressure until they keyboard registers that the key has been pressed. On some computers, clear instructions will then appear, allowing the user to confirm the "delete" action).
Failing that, theres always deleting registry keys and uninstalling software modules. It would be rather poor of them to not give the modules an uninstall entry, but look at it this way.
If the adverts are too hard to remove and cause too much trouble for the user, less people will buy those computers. The manufacturer will either loose money, or rethink the advertisement paradigm. This isn't like operating systems, where peoples options are severly limited (practically). I would be pleased to see small-business computer vendors benefit from poor marketing desisions on behalf of the big-time players.
You're making a mountain out of a molehill. These irritating advertisements and service offers are only going to apply to people who waste their money on a computer off-the-shelf (or website) by a major manufacturer, like compaq, HP, Dell, what have you. If you're too lazy to build your own computer, get one of your friends to do it, or support small-business, AND you're not smart enough to know how to disable the advertisements and such, then..well..you get what you deserve.
Anyone else seen those free DSL connections that subject you to banner ads? Now, with those, you're getting something in -return- for subjecting yourself to that kind of thing.
Let the marketing monkeys do whatever they like, it only effects the lUsers.
There is no possible way these ads and service announcements will be un-removable (unless they were contained in a persistant-memory module hardwired to replace the data when it's been removed/deactivated...i dont see that happening), and you're not paying any more money to have that crap bundled in. Actually, theoretically, it would -lower- the price of the computer, since the manufacturer is being compensated for the endorsement vector. Maybe its not such a bad thing after all.
Battle? What battle? When AOL/TW and Microsoft start offering their own BROADBAND internet connections, then be afraid..be very afraid...
They're still fighting over outdated service paradigms.
From the article:
"'AOL's actions are unprecidented and completely anti-consumer' said Microsoft Spokesman Vivek Varma."
::falls off chair laughing::
It's sad to see that big business revolves around the "idiot factor", that is, trying to influence the decisions of the idiots that will use whatever the "Out of Box Experience" dictates they should use.
Business is based on efficiency. Since successful business must be efficient, we can use this trend as proof that most computer users are, in fact, idiots. It's a sad thing.
As for the AOL thing, i use AOL myself just because ive had the same email adress since I was in 7th grade (8 years ago). I use AOL merely as an email client, and use my cable service provider for the actual internet connectivity. This makes AOL service MUCH cheaper (especially when you pay for blocks of years, which my parents do). When you remove the ISP factor out of AOL service, its actually quite good, i would just rather chew aluminum than rely on AOL for my actual internet connection.
Individuals incapable of driving and listening for/reacting to emergency vehicle audibles shouldn't be driving in the first place. Oh, sure, plenty of people like that are, but no one is terribly suprised when they crash into something.
;p) that usually results in a missed call.
Really, a noise is a noise, and the traditional alarm is just as likely to expose people to the "danger" you're mentioning, however, the improved sound gives the listener the ability to move out of the vehicles way WITHOUT looking around to try to visually verify it's location and vector.
Any way you look at it, this sounds like the way to go for emergency vehicles.
With the cellphone thing, that sounds like a great idea, i dont know how many times ive heard my girlfriend's phone ring "somewhere" in my room, initiating a frantic search (for the phone, not my girlfriend
I disagree entirely. Many of the world's wealthy aristocracy are simply privileged morons, using their inherited wealth to spread their genes as quickly and violently as possible.
Something else you may want to consider, is that no small-payload vehicle costing half a million dollars will ever be widely or even frequently used, thus diminishing the danger of failure, since someone with that much money would be able to hire someone to make sure it's properly maintained.
well, perhaps these "jet engines" could supply voltage to peltier coolers, which have no moving parts and could pump the heat to where it needs to go, perhaps even displacing the heat to somewhere it could be re-used to defray that power-draw of peltier cooling