Thursday, December 16, 2004

Another Internet Freebie Weakening

Juno was the first thing that truly caught my affection at the beginning of my entry into the internet world.
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We interrupt this blog to warn you that most of this will be tedious details describing the Juno email program. If too much for you, it is my blog now, isn't it ?
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Back then, not many people even had their own computers. And I then could not justify spending what felt like large sums of money to get an ISP. But Juno (back then) was different. It was not an ISP, and best of all it was free. Juno was an email program. You had your own email address (such as myname@juno.com). The program would flash a banner ad or two, while running (the only real "cost" to you) and you could type away and create your emails. When you were ready to send them, you would hit a button and the program would then dial up, connect to the net, send your messages, pick up any new messages, and then disconnect. You could view any new emails at your leisure off line. It was a pretty slick program for free, and was fairly practical as it did not stay connected for long spans of time. It was text only and virus free. It did not give you internet access to view web sites.

As time marched on, people with the Juno service (by the way at www.juno.com) also could receive ten hours of free internet access (with a banner type ad) with their email service. The maximum server limits for email gradually shrunk all the way down to 2 mb. Still, I guess, free is free (of course they do offer more with a paid service, but my topic today is the free service).

Effective this month, Juno users may only use the Juno email program that runs off line if they pay for the service. They can read their emails now only through web-mail on the net for free, but with only 10 hours a month, that leaves you only 20 minutes a day average to write and read on line email any surfing time is also part of the twenty minutes. Geeze, If I get a long email, or interrupted, it could take me most of that just to read ONE email.

So use of only free Juno services, just isn't what it used to be. Another quality free service is gone, or rather weakened to the point of seeming impotent.

Friday, December 10, 2004

Snow Squall

You've got to love the weather in New England in that if you don't like how it is, it will eventually change. Early morn brought a snow squall. It came down relatively hard for about twenty minutes and then stopped. One highway wound up with hardly anything visible on the surface. Realty was it was glazed with ice, much like a doughnut would be glazed with icing. Cars were found all over to skid right off the highway and the hit the guard rails. Cars were littering the highway every mile or so, parked displaying their dented hoods and bumpers and their broken headlights. The part of the highway near the Massachusetts line reported seven cars that had collided. Wow. They closed the highway temporarily. You've got to love the weather in New England.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Am I Evil? (eBay version)

More specifically, on half.com I attempted to make a purchase. A music CD that had some songs that I enjoyed on it. I ordered the CD. As far as I knew with half.com, you are only supposed to list items that you have and intend to sell, and you are supposed to respond and confirm the order that you as a seller receive rather quickly.

A few days later, I receive a half.com email stating that the transaction is cancelled. I was disappointed as I expected to have the CD in hand by now, so I went ahead and ordered elsewhere (it arrived without a hitch).

I see on my half.com account that my first attempted purchase is listed as an item that needs feedback from me. Since I did not want to say anything bad, I though clicking "neutral" with a comment that transaction was canceled would be the thing to do, since the sale was canceled.

A short while later, I received an email from the original person who listed the CD. She says: "I didn't cancel the transaction..I just didn't confirm it in time, therefore they list it as cancelled. I don't appreciate you leaving neutral feedback for a transaction that didn't even go through. So next time, don't leave feedback unless you actually buy something and pay for it."

Geeze, I thought according to the guidelines of half.com the seller was supposed to reply quickly. The seller admits in the email to not following through in time, but yet makes me out to be the back guy for leaving a neutral feedback rather than none. I thought I was being nice in not leaving negative feedback (she could have flagged "vacation" if she had no intention of getting the email on time) due to the fact that I saw that she stated the item was for sale, and had to wait and go through the ordering process a second time elsewhere.

Any way, I never replied to the email that she sent me as I don't want to start a flame war between the two of us. I guess her view is that since I never received or paid for the product, there should not have been any feedback given. I feel differently, because then a person who chronically never follows through in a timely enough basis would ever be identified for those checking feedback. I'm not by any means inferring that this person chronically never follows through, as I only knew what happened in my own personal transaction.


I did feel a small need to spout out about this whole thing when I received the quoted email, but then after a bit of time calmed down and realize that none of it matters. I'm only writing about this not to whine, but to share some of my life experiences.