AOL Losing Subscribers, Spam Mail to Decrease?

It really wasn't that long ago that people would try to predict, in terms of months, how long it would take AOL to "allegedly" add another million subscribers. They used to push out press releases with glee, stating just how quickly they'd hit the next milestone. I never trusted these numbers because I saw thousands and thousands of these accounts being opened by the same people. Take the free hours and open another one. Now, however, with their latest earnings report, Almost On-Line hid a rather embarrassing number on that topic: last quarter AOL lost subscribers for the first time. This is despite their massive advertising push to get people to sign up for the latest version of their software. Chances are that most of those subscribers switched to a broadband provider, since AOL still doesn't seem to have its broadband act together.[Comment on this Post]

Would . . You . . Like . . To . . Play . . A . . Game?

Pow Pow - Zap! Take that Saddam! A Norwegian member of parliament has apologised for playing war games on his pocket pc computer while colleagues debated the possibility of real war in Iraq. Mr Helleland played the game for about seven minutes in full view of TV cameras which had zoomed on him from behind. Oops.[Comment on this Post]

Don't Believe the Hype

Study after study talk about how much employees surf the web during the day. These studies are always sponsored by a company that sells web monitoring software, and the articles always take it as fact that people surfing at work is a bad thing. Every time one of these studies pops up, I argue that it's the web monitoring that is actually bad for business. There are a few exceptions, but for many professions, letting people take a few minutes off here and there to get stuff done or blow off steam is probably much better for the long term productivity. Here's the first real article I've seen in a major publication agreeing with the standpoint and saying that there are rewards for trusting your employees. As long as they get their work done, who cares if they check sports scores or play a game during the day? The article points out that there's a self-fulfilling prophecy effect - and if you show workers you don't trust them, they're more likely to be untrustworthy (and unhappy).[Comment on this Post]

Pop-Ups and Banner Ads

Since I use Norton Antivirus and Internet Security, I din't see banner ads or experience the pop-up ad onslaught that many people are familar with. But if you cant afford to shell out the $20 or so to buy these softwares, fear not. Father Dan's gotcha covered:

A popup-inhibiting program has to do three things well. First, it has to stop popup ads. That isn't as straightforward as it sounds because Web pages can create other Web pages in many different ways - and some of those ways have nothing to do with popup ads. Second, a good popup killer can't block pages that I want to see. For example, if I click on a link in a Web page that opens a new page, I want to see the new page. I don't want my popup-inhibitor to "protect" me from my own actions. Third, if the popup-inhibitor blocks a popup, I want it to tell me unobtrusively that it's holding something back, and I want an easy way to see what got blocked - just in case I really did win $500,000 in the Kazblukistan Lottery

Most of all, the popup-inhibitor shouldn't crash or freeze my system, even when I bring up Internet Explorer in a strange way, such as clicking on a link from inside a Word document that's attached to an email message. I've had so many problems with buggy popup-inhibitors over the years that I'd completely given up on them. Until now.

My new favorite popup smasher is called EndPopups. It's a tiny program (180 KB) from Jeff Bartolotta in San Francisco, downloads in no time at all, installs like a dream, and works like a champ.

You can tell EndPopups is running because it puts a small vertical green bar in the lower left corner of IE's window. When EndPopups blocks a popup (or what it thinks is a popup), the green bar turns to red. Hover your mouse over the red bar, and you'll see a tooltip that tells you the title of the popup window and its address. Click on the Internet Explorer icon that appears to the right of the bar, and EndPopups dutifully opens the blocked Web page.

If you right-click on the green bar, you can tell EndPopups to stop scanning popups on specific Web sites. That kind of "white list" can be useful if you know that you want to respond to, oh, all the offers to take surveys on www.microsoft.com, for example.

Once you install it, put EndPopups through the barrage of tests created by Sergei Kaul. The tests go through many different ways of creating popups, trying to trick popup-inhibiting programs into showing popups that shouldn't be shown, or blocking popups that should get through. EndPopups only missed one of the tests, and it erred on the side of caution by showing me a page that shouldn't have gone through. [Comment on this Post]

Urban Legends Ahoy

• Time for the annual round-up of Super Bowl legends.


• Does a Russian boy named Sergei need adoptive parents?


• The petition to stop a war between the USA and Iraq is back for an encore.


• Virus on the loose: Sobig.


• Yet another virus on the loose: Lirva.


• Native Americans provide NASA with a cryptic message to take to the moon.


• A 27-year-old pregnant woman named Laci Peterson has been missing from her Modesto, Cal., home since Christmas Eve 2002.


• Can a single dose of Children's Motrin cause serious harm to a child?


• Cautionary tale: Enraged father punishes three-year-old son by smashing its fingers , then commits suicide out of remorse.


• The 2000 e-mailed warning about drug products containing PPA (phenylpropanolamine)is back again.


• The "Bonsai Kitten" hoax (cruel Japanese are shaping kittens in glass jars) is back with a vengeance two years after it started.


• The 2000 "Slavemaster" alert that warned about a killer who stalked women online and had murdered 56 of them has been updated to point it at "Monkeyman935."
• The harrowing tale of Lauren, a college girl driving on a highway in Virginia, and her close brush with a rapist posing as a police officer continues to turn up in inboxes. It's worth pointing out that dialing #77 on a cell phone connects the caller with the state police only in some states -- this doesn't work everywhere.
• Someone has expanded 1999's "knock-out perfume robbery" story about women being accosted in parking lots by thieves masquerading as perfume vendors into a spurious "This could happen to you!" tale.


• Seems like everyone has become the recipient of mysterious e-mails promising untold wealth if only one helps a wealthy foreigner quietly move millions of dollars out of his country. The venerable Nigerian Scam has discovered the goldmine that is the Internet. Beware -- there's still no such thing as "something for nothing," and the contents of your bank account will end up with these wily foreigners if you fall in with this.


• Virus announcement and virus hoax e-mails are afoot! We try to keep current on them and do our best to point readers to authoritative links confirming or debunking them.


• No, Bill Gates is not sharing his fortune with everyone who forwards a specifice-mail on his behalf. This venerable leg-pull is back for yet another romp through everyone's inbox. In another popular version of the same jape, Applebees is said to be handing out gift certificates. They ain't.

[Comment on this Post]

For Sale

I received an email of things for sale, allegedly (HIGHLY doubtful) from real classified ads. A fun read none-the-less:
*FREE YORKSHIRE TERRIER. 8 YEARS OLD. HATEFUL LITTLE DOG. BITES.
*FREE PUPPIES: 1/2 COCKER SPANIEL 1/2 SNEAKY NEIGHBOR'S DOG.
*FREE PUPPIES... PART GERMAN SHEPHERD, PART STUPID DOG.
*GERMAN SHEPHERD 85 lbs. NEUTERED. SPEAKS GERMAN. FREE.
*FOUND DIRTY WHITE DOG. LOOKS LIKE A RAT... BEEN OUT AWHILE... BETTER BE A REWARD.
*1 MAN, 7 WOMAN HOT TUB -- $850/offer
*SNOW BLOWER FOR SALE... ONLY USED ON SNOWY DAYS.
*COWS, CALVES NEVER BRED... ALSO 1 GAY BULL FOR SALE.
*NORDIC TRACK $300 HARDLY USED, CALL CHUBBY.
*HUMMERS - LARGEST SELECTION EVER - "IF IT'S IN STOCK, WE HAVE IT!"
*GEORGIA PEACHES, CALIFORNIA GROWN - 89 cents lb.
*NICE PARACHUTE: NEVER OPENED - USED ONCE.
*EXERCISE EQUIPMENT: QUEEN SIZE MATTRESS & BOX SPRINGS - $175.
*JOINING NUDIST COLONY! MUST SELL WASHER & DRYER $300.
A*LZHEIMER'S CENTER PREPARES FOR AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER.
*OPEN HOUSE: BODY SHAPERS TONING SALON. FREE COFFEE & DONUTS.
*FOR SALE BY OWNER: Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica. 45 volumes. Excellent condition. $1,000.00 or best offer. No longer needed. Got married last month. Wife knows everything.[Comment on this Post]

Micro SWATCH, SWATCH, MicroSWATCH

Anyone over 30 will get the joke. Take look at this - The new Microsoft Watch, and Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT). Still in early Beat but it should be very interesting to watch the evolution of this concept. Unless of course your church tells you that evolution is wrong in which case you won't be allowed to participate. [Comment on this Post]

Pop Quiz: What was the first personal computer?

Be careful before you answer! The question is highly ambiguous. Are you sure you know what first means? How about personal? Even computer is an ambiguous term! The answer will suprise you! [Comment on this Post]

You "Accidentally" Hit My Car After the Sharks Game

Hopefully you call me and we can work this out as intelligent adults. You have my card, you have my insurance. Call my cellphone![Comment on this Post]

I'm On Top

Somewhat of an inside joke. Living in California we are spoiled because of the great weather. Talking to some friends recently we were reminiscing about living in colder climates. Snowy winter and teenage passions led to some outdoor "jigginess" where - and I quote - "You'd be fighting to be on top." Well, being adults with incomes now we could just rent a room, but I think even here the battle for altitude would continue.[Comment on this Post]