As far as I recall, AOL bought Time Warner because of the Time Warner media properties (music, films, cnn etc). This happened just before the big broadband expansion and movies/tv/music via the Internet was just becoming feasible (and fashionable).
Everyone knows the traditional media companies view on this sort of thing, whereas everyone else agrees that movies/tv/music via the Internet is a Good Thing.
AOL had the "perfect", walled garden interface to present these products, take payments (subscribers already paid by direct debit or credit card - so details on file) and, with broadband, deliver. Despite it being simple to just open Firefox/IE and avoid the AOL interface, how many AOL users do? (My dad has used AOL for 10+ years, and still doesn't - I show him how to whenever I visit, too)
AOL was also an enourmous cash cow; millions in monthly subscriptions received, plus whatever millions they earned in advertising on the AOL Welcome Page.
Seems to me that Time Warner missed a trick on this one.
And "Unweaving the Rainbow". It's a fantastic introduction to lots of aspects of life affected by science (DNA fingerprinting in courts, statistics and probability etc). I agree with your choices, but I think ALL his books are excellent.
So, let me get this straight. There's this thing called Google that will tell me anything I want to know? Well, I'll be.;-)
Actually, I was hoping to receive (and have) comments, anecdotes and suggestions from hotel tech support, sysadmins and others with experience in the field, rather than corporate marketing information. The posted comments have already given me a few pointers to systems that I had not heard of before.
I know that for every crappy experience with a company or system there is a positive counter viewpoint, but as a generator of raw information for me to work with I'd say that AskSlashdot has delivered.
Slashdot Mirror
As far as I recall, AOL bought Time Warner because of the Time Warner media properties (music, films, cnn etc). This happened just before the big broadband expansion and movies/tv/music via the Internet was just becoming feasible (and fashionable).
Everyone knows the traditional media companies view on this sort of thing, whereas everyone else agrees that movies/tv/music via the Internet is a Good Thing.
AOL had the "perfect", walled garden interface to present these products, take payments (subscribers already paid by direct debit or credit card - so details on file) and, with broadband, deliver. Despite it being simple to just open Firefox/IE and avoid the AOL interface, how many AOL users do? (My dad has used AOL for 10+ years, and still doesn't - I show him how to whenever I visit, too)
AOL was also an enourmous cash cow; millions in monthly subscriptions received, plus whatever millions they earned in advertising on the AOL Welcome Page.
Seems to me that Time Warner missed a trick on this one.
And "Unweaving the Rainbow". It's a fantastic introduction to lots of aspects of life affected by science (DNA fingerprinting in courts, statistics and probability etc). I agree with your choices, but I think ALL his books are excellent.
So, let me get this straight. There's this thing called Google that will tell me anything I want to know? Well, I'll be. ;-)
Actually, I was hoping to receive (and have) comments, anecdotes and suggestions from hotel tech support, sysadmins and others with experience in the field, rather than corporate marketing information. The posted comments have already given me a few pointers to systems that I had not heard of before.
I know that for every crappy experience with a company or system there is a positive counter viewpoint, but as a generator of raw information for me to work with I'd say that AskSlashdot has delivered.