[JA] $10 Customer
- From: jim.henderson@xxxxxxxx
- To: juno_accmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 14:22:36 -0400
> From: Carolyn Stoffel <carolynstoffel@xxxxxxxx>
> Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 16:19:22 EDT
>JH> I had E-mail in the early 1990s from BBSes, lost it when
>> they went out of business, and regained it when Juno started.
CS> Been there, done that, stuck to BBSs quite a bit longer than
> you did.
Actually, Carolyn, I not only still use a BBS, but operate one, The
Double Helix, 212-956-8076 in New York. It just doesn't handle Internet
E-mail, although Moondog in Brooklyn does. One of my BBS callers still
uses that BBS for E-mail because writing online makes his messages seem
real to him, if not to his correspondents.
>JH >When someone goes over their limit, they simply
>> get disconnected. This suggests to the ignorant
>> masses that Juno has become so unreliable
>> that they have to go to AOL.
CS> I had Prodigy for about a year somewhere around 1991/2.
> One of the reasons I dropped it was that every disconnect
> was my fault - including their overnight maintenance.
> They could have at least given us five minutes warning!
Idiots. As a provider of a certain crude sort of online service myself,
I understand that there are unavoidable interruptions and other
limitations. There's no need to irritate customers further with a smoke
screen. Let them know. Candor and respect can breed trust and
patience.
CS> The difficulty with using the library here is that they had a half
> hour limit and you could only sign up twice in a two hour time
Two periods per day, one hour each, at the Science, Industry and Business
Branch on 34th St that has dozens of Web machines in one large basement
room. That's generally plenty for me, as I use their fast connections
mainly for large downloads to Zip disks which I take home to read offline
at leisure. Some of the smaller branches have half hour periods and no
Zip drive. I used to bring boxes of floppies there.
CS> One difficulty is that you can't save bookmarks
> so you have to type everything in.
Not a big problem for me. Simpler URLs, I memorize, such as
http://www.aaa.org/eyepiece/current/events.html which I check at the end
of every month. More complex ones I carry on a piece of paper. For
ones that I access less often, I generally remember another site that has
a link. Some travelers maintain a Juno personal Web page mostly as a
collection of links, so they can easily reach their favorite sites
wherever they find Web access.
For that matter, one trick I use to save a minute or two of limited Juno
Web time is to click on "Search the Web" under the Web tab. Insert the
whole URL instead of only search terms, and that's the page that comes up
when the connection is made. Open the pages so they go into cache, and
then log off to read them.
CS> ("They" need library versions of browsers that allow
> saving such things to disk and retrieving from disk....)
Many libraries use library versions, but they are crippled rather than
enhanced. They are reluctant to allow reading from floppy. Two years
ago I found a loophole that let me run a floppy copy of Command.com which
in turn allowed me to PKZIP Web pages. Handy for me. Obviously, evil
people could use this feature to insert viruses or otherwise wreak havoc.
That loophole is since closed, and we should expect great caution in
opening other possible loopholes.
CS> Also, even when I've provided my own email address
> for a reply, whoever you're writing may not use it.
Probably you're using the wrong address, namely your Juno address. The
problem with a Juno address is, it provides poor Web access to your mail.
Only Juno's own mail software provides reliable access. For more
versatility, use a forwarding service. Then you can write by Web when
necessary, by way of the forwarding company's Web page. Replies will go
to the free forwarding service, who will forward it to you at Juno or
wherever you say in the future.
I use no forwarding service myself, but that's because I hardly ever use
mail by Web and don't expect to change mail providers.
CS> Not surprisingly, I'm concerned that I'll lose email completely,
> that they won't accomodate those of us with older equipment.
Juno has been good to seven year old hardware. I gave such a machine to
a neighbor last week, an always unemployed actor. He's been working
assiduously at understanding it. Maybe I should warn him of the
possibility of Juno ceasing to support Version 1.49 in the year to come.
Worse than Juno, AOL shows no interest in serving five year old hardware.
Well, perhaps "interest" is too strong a term. Juno no longer provides
version 1.49 for download, nor discusses it in any Web page that I know
of. The company merely has not removed the software that serves it. If
there is a major revision of Juno's central operations, perhaps due to
the NetZero merger, there isn't much reason to hope they will pay
attention to preserving this antique part of the software.
On the other hand, five year old hardware grows ever stronger. Last
month on curbstones in Manhattan I found two 486-66 machines which had
been burdened with bungled upgrades to Windows 98. I intend to wipe
them, slide in appropriate amounts of memory and old 28.8 modems, and
install Windows 95 on them. They will make workable, if slow, Juno 4
machines to give away or sell cheap. Of course the company also no
longer wants us to use their Version 4 either, but I hope passive support
will continue until that hardware is close to ten years old.
CS> She sent them a series of questions to which they
> auto-responded with a list of responses she could download.
NetZero's auto-respond robots are about equally stupid as Juno's. Tell
her to ask other users, for example in the mailing list.
CS> What time zone do they use - GMT, MST (we never do
> Daylight), or California time where they're located?
Probably PDT. Even Juno uses California time, though their headquarters
are half a mile from me on this small island off the coast of New Jersey.
CS> Surely you have a freeweb - government funded - in your area.
> I know they've been discussed on the list in the past.
Possibly. I don't know of one, perhaps because they have no budget for
advertising. There hasn't been much interest since Juno and NetZero
started providing free Web service. Time for revival, I guess.
CS> Arizona's is available via Arizona State University. It was
> email only when I signed up and I never figured out how to use it.
That's part of the problem. Universities often use software designed by
"Computer Science" departments for people who are familiar with Unix
command lines. Poor immigrants often have enough trouble just learning
to use a keyboard. Juno, on the other hand, is well designed for the
ignorant, though more sophisticated users sometimes complain of primitive
features.
CS> You know, I think you should send the message I've quoted
> from to the powers-that-be, though they probably won't listen.
> Aren't you close enough to deliver it in person?
Perhaps, but to whom? Last year I took a short walk to Juno's
headquarters building a couple times to see whether they had installation
CDs to distribute. The glass door from the elevator hall was always
locked; no receptionist was visible at the desk. Probably they see
nobody except by appointment, and are uninterested in making appointments
with users bearing free advice.
I can't blame them for protecting themselves from us. Many participants
in our little mailing lists are eager to advise them to abolish time
limits, allow DUN and POP3 or other things of little relevance to the
company's thus far unsuccessful pursuit of profit.
My free advice is this: They should tell free riders, when we are cut
off, that we have gone over the limits of free service and that we can be
liberated from those limits by paying $10 per month which would get us
the priority of a paid customer. I wouldn't pay much attention to such a
notice myself, being willing to wait for morning or whenever Web can be
had for free, but many Juno users have come to depend on Web to be there
when they want. Those Juno Web users who hate to be cut off would then
no longer be left to assume that Juno is broken and that they must give
up Juno and pay AOL or some other expensive provider. Why shoo away a
free rider who can be turned into a paid one?
Like other outsiders offering free advice, I claim this is in the
interest of the company turning a profit, and like the others I am
ignored because I have no qualifications to compel attention. Being
right isn't enough to make my voice heard over the crowd of my fellow
free advisers, all claiming to be right.
Posting on a public mailing list, I implicitly give permission to
redistribute my words in whole or nondistortive part. In this case I'll
add, please do send my words, to "the powers-that-be" or to anywhere you
think they will do some good.
> Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 01:19:01 -0400
> Subject: [JA] Re: $10 Internet "PhoneCard"
RSG> Now, this business model might show some promise...
> for 10 bucks, prepaid, get 600 minutes local dialup, or
> 200 on their nationwide 800-
RSG> http://www.slingshot.com/product.asp#whatisit
Yes, Slingshot CDs can be bought at many Staples branches.
I know a fellow who mentioned being satisfied with that service
a few months ago. He hasn't mentioned it since, but I'll ask.
On the other hand, Juno's $5 monthly service charges only half a buck per
overtime hour, rather than a whole dollar.
- Jim on a $24 dollar island surrounded by rivers.
To unsubscribe, send a message to listar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with
"unsubscribe juno_accmail" in the body or subject.
OR visit http://freelists.dhs.org
~*~
Other related posts:
