For those who haven't been on the Internet long, there is a long, established tradition of considering users of America On Line (AOL) to be, shall we say, ot-nay oo-tay ight-bray.
AOL became popular by mailing to all and sundry a FREE CD with 60 DAYS of free Internet connection. Or at least, they used to. I still have about ten such CDs in use as coasters.
Anyway, this CD was so easy to use, that anyone with an IQ only slightly inferior to a pithed frog could go on-line. And so many whose IQs were only slightly inferior to that of a pithed frog did. Unfortunately, getting an AOL service cancelled before you started paying for it was something rather harder than escaping from Colditz wearing a bright orange jumpsuit and carrying a grand piano.
This is the result.
Intermittent postings from Canberra, Australia on Software Development, Space, Politics, and Interesting URLs.
And of course, Brains...
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Monday, 30 August 2004
2 comments:
Anonymous commenters - please add a signature (doesn't have to be your real name) on each post of yours. Anne O'Namus, Norm D. Ploom, Angry from Kent, Demosthenes, or even your real initials, it doesn't matter.
Commenters are expected to be polite to each other, but the same standard doesn't apply to comments regarding me.
Australian commenters are very very strongly advised to publish anonymously. Sydney alone has more defamation actions than the entire USA and UK. Nearly double that of the UK in fact.
As Google does not reliably inform me that a comment has been posted, and I have no control over first publication, I assert that all comments are innocently disseminated under the NSW DEFAMATION ACT 2005 - SECT 32 and similar acts.
Oh yea, I remember having that exact experience with AOL, back in the 14.4 kbs days.
ReplyDeleteI also recall how they were forced to squeal like a pig, when a direct connection to the "real" internet became popular. Their original intent was to limit you to "AOL Only" content. They were making money on both users and content providers.
It appears they are running out of newbies to victimize, and it breaks my heart.
14.4? Luxury! 2400 Bd when I first became aware of the phenomenon. Of course the phone lines were only rated to 300, so the World Wide Wait was well-named.
ReplyDelete