Upon further review, I assume this-
is what you meant above-
Or were you coming after me and I didn’t even notice it?
Hell no, I wasn’t coming after you! I LIKE you. A lot.
It’s safe to assume I’m just joking around or talking out my ass.
When I flame someone, it’s not a subtle point that I make. Otherwise, I’m probably just cracking wise. I know this makes it hard for people to take me seriously, ever, but hey, I yam whatta yam.
In any case, I’ll usually pre-amble a serious part of a jolly post with a cryptic indication that I’m being serious: I’ll says “Seriously, …”
Trust me, when I’m really, seriously, lacing into you for something, you’ll know.
I don’t think that will ever happen, though. We’ve always seemed to get along, except when I was being a butt-head and you said
“Lex, you’re being a butt-head!” and I said
“Oh yeah. Sorry!”
As Lexicon points out in his ranting manner, AOL isn’t primarily an ISP. Too many people rant about how its internet service isn’t that great. People don’t order AOL to access the internet; they order it to get the content it provides. It’s an “Online Content Provider” first and foremost. AOL provides content from the chat rooms and gaming areas to the reference sites and specialized information areas. If you just want internet service, don’t use AOL. If you want all the special features it provides in an easy format to understand, use it.
-Psi Cop
Well, there ya go! If you can’t trust a Cop, who can you trust?
I’m flattered. Apperently my comments are to be taken as absolute authority now. Thanks.
By the way, “Psi Cop” is in reference to the Science Fiction show “Babylon 5.” Specifically after the character Alfred Bester, played by Walter Koenig.
-Psi Cop
Regarding AOL and ISP’s. As was said earlier, AOL is an online content provider. As such, they offer content.
IOW, you can hang out on AOL forever, and never even access the “real” internet. AOL has it’s own proprietary software to build “pages” of content (Rainman was the authoring tool, although I did hear they were going to HTML, and might well be doing it now)
The chatrooms are the main draw, and AOL did pioneer that, and did it well. However, when the kiddies found out how to scroll, and boot people, it went to shit.
They would prefer you stayed within their little world.
I worked as “remote staff” as a guide and chatroom host for AOL in the mid-90s. It was a given that if a member asked about stuff on the net, you referred them to the AOL keyword that accessed the same type of shit located on AOL’s servers.
It was funny as hell during our training as to how the context of certain words could warrant a warning or were acceptable.
Their email sucks, they are spam hell, they censor the shit out of Usenet, and I got tired of giving members shit for saying “shit” or “fuck”.
For an admittedly biased negative view of AOL, go to http://www.observers.net
And on top of everything else, they’ve gone back to censoring “breast” again. There was a HUGE outcry about five years ago when AOL banned the word “breast” from the system. Breast cancer survivors, in particular, were outraged. AOL publicly backed down and said the word was permissible again. Now I come to discover they’ve again blocked the character string “breast” from use in chat room names. Assholes.
And yeah, I’ve been on AOL on and off for close to nine years. Know why? I get it free. If I ever had to start paying for it I’d be off it like a damn shot.
AOL is a poster child for anti-capitalism.
By the way, AOL sucks worldwide!
We got it as a cheap “stopgap” when we moved to a new town in Germany, and after we dropped it after a month (for myriad obvious reasons such as throwing us off line every 23 minutes) they kept charging us. So I wrote them an e-mail (you’d think an ISP would be able to deal with one) they wrote back saying that they don’t take e-mail requests! So I called (for about 5x the charge of a local call) them, and after being put on hold for about $10 worth, I finally spoke to a moron who assured me, etc. and we still got charged the next month = more expensive calls.
Moral of the long story:
NEVER GET AOL ANYWHERE! EVER!
Thank you for your attention.