I understand from your recent e-mail that you have questions about the AOL« Newsgroups.
The AOL Newsgroup service will be discontinued in February 2005.
For members using AOL over a dial-up connection, you will no longer be able to access AOL Newsgroups.
If you have a separate high-speed connection, you can contact your broadband provider to see if they offer Newsgroups.
Newsgroup services can often be accessed through a third party reader, such as Mozilla Thunderbird
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Alternatively, you can access Newsgroups via Google at
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We apologize for this inconvenience. á If you need assistance through telephone, you may call us at our toll-free number: 1-800-827-6364. Calling early in the day usually reduces the waiting time to speak to a consultant. á Jason BD. AOL Customer Care Consultant
Don't forget - I was an AOLer for many years. Even back then, they hid their newsgroup access (I had to hunt throughout the system to find it). Once I found out about free e-mail (NetZero) and free newsgroup access (news.individual.net), I wondered what I was paying (then) $21.95 a month for.
I had everything for free. For a short while. Once cable hit my neighborhood, I couldn't pay enough.
RichA opined in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
He may apologize but AOL doesnt... they've tried to control everything, content-wise, to their own ends for years..
Now they have a good reason, since they are pushing the "child Friendly" services, and I dont blame them, per se. It's impossible to police Newsgroups.
But remember this, it was Steve Case's ambition to corner the "information market".
That was the motivator for the T/W merger.. and it pleases me no end that the merger, for all practical purposes, failed!
People who waste their hate on Bill Gates should ask themselves "which is more dangerous?"
I hate Gates just as much for allowing a program standard that encourages viruses, spam, trojans, and every other internet horror as I do loser AOLs attempts at censorship.
When you put all things in perspective, "hating" Bill Gates (or even Steve Case for that matter) is pretty small. Look around the globe and then think about what you _really_ hate.
Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC
While I'm in no way encouraging anything, nor am I defending anyone, I think the main reason that "every other internet horror" thrives on Microsoft products is because M$ systems are the standard worldwide. When you have most of the market share, more people are exposed to your product... more people are tempted to crack your product looking for information, or jut to pull a prank. Almost every piece of code has a software flaw, and with the sheer size of the code required for the new Windows operating systems, people are sure to find them.
I don't care much for Gates & Co. more because of his attempts to keep competitors away. Hard to try to make a living sellnig what someone gives away for free, even if it is better. Hard to give it away for free if it's not as compatible, or widespread... and it's hard to give away your core product when the empire's giving away a piece of side code.
Thank you... blaming Microsoft for the terror attacks against its products and users is like blaming The US for the attacks by Terrorists and Al Quaeda Jr against the Iraqi's.
I suppose Bill could hire a cadre of coders to exploit the flaws in Linux and the Open Source apps... but that wouldnt be playing fair, would it?!!!
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Here's another smart guy who doesnt QUITE get the whole picture, either.
I've been quiet on this. But the fact is, windows is a still a toy OS and because of that is especially vunerable to attack. I could go on about the fundamental flaws in the way windows is set up as opposed to a unix OS. But I'll leave it at one, in windows practically everything a user runs has the ability to screw up the machine. This just isn't possible with a unix system. A particular user can screw up his own stuff but can't harm the machine unless superuser status is achieved.
As to a military anology, it's much like having a tank with defective armor. Who do you blame for sending the troops out with defective equipment? Those that made the tanks or the enemy that is attacking the tanks?
that's the only point I want to make on this topic.
I can understand why... because it doesnt hold water when you look at the big picture over the genesis of Windows v Competitors. Because MicroSux addressed the markets' needs and various UNIX vendors DIDNT!!!!
Let's FIRST address Apple dropping the ball when they held an overwhelming market edge on business middle managers' desktops in the early eighties! Many dont know that business Personal computing STARTED with the Apple II
But they made a conscious decision to take the easy way out and aim the MAC towards the "creative non-computer-savvy" end user, (ie Graphics Creation) when they COULD have engaged business partners to graphically integrate with mainframe apps but they forgot EVERYTHING they learned from the Apple II experience and swapped stratagems with IBM and the Intel-based markets by trying to hold all end-user products close to the vest.
Let's talk about Novell, which had the goldmine rights to SVR4 and did nothing with it, in order to concentrate on their supposed "Network OS" which ended up putting them in niche markets.
Let's talk about Sun, which finally went Unix over SunOS but passed up the GOLDEN opportunity to get out of the developer environment onto the office desktop.. again would have required "partners", so.....when I heard Unix wonks wax ecstatic over what their pizza boxes could do, all they could show me was unlimited edit and process windows open at the same time. These guys actually confused multi-tasking with a Practical Business app.
And all i had to do to shut them up was say "Great! Let's take out the Dept Secretary's PC and give her onna these!"
I'm not making excuses for the holes in the Windoze user environment or for Gates' Business strategy... I am simply pointing out two things:
Anyone who thinks Unix or Linux is invulnerable, when integrated at the application level, is smoking something or has their head up their bum.
Short sighted Unix license holders. And Apple, which has the amazing ability to step on their marketing dick and still be a goldmine...by simple creativity; maybe that's a GOOD thing, after all.
- i guess you could say AOL was a good thing too.. but it CERTAINLY grated on one's sensibilities when people would sign up to AOL and claim they "were on the 'net"
Honestly, how much effect (really) does the the leader of North Korea have on me versus direct effects of the programs of Bill Gates? Besides, I can categorize hatreds. Political Hatreds: Communists and leftists. Technological Hatreds: Cell phones, Microsoft, Intel (who I especially hate), Dell and HP.
There is such as thing as anticipating problems, that's how good companies and countries work. But, it depends on your priorities. Microsoft's biggest "debuggers" are the general population. I have a friend whose job it is to re-write code that incompetents have already written. He's not lacking for work.
AOL is is deep trouble. They'll do anything (including pairing up with Rogers in Canada, like Bell Sympatico and Yahoo. Sympatico tried to push me to adopt the Yahoo "premium services" and I almost laughed out loud on the phone at them) to shore up their quickly shrinking market. AOL is a product of the early internet, they aren't needed anymore. When they are gone, their only legacy will be millions upon millions of plastic discs littering landfills and never decomposing.
"RichA" | Honestly, how much effect (really) does the | the leader of North Korea have on me versus | direct effects of the programs of Bill Gates? | Besides, I can categorize hatreds. | Political Hatreds: Communists and leftists. | Technological Hatreds: Cell phones, Microsoft, Intel | (who I especially hate), Dell and HP. | -Rich
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