Thursday 5 March 2015

America Offline

Does anyone here use (perforce) AOL Mail? Have you noticed that if you click on any of the news snippets which their advertisers pay to have put up on the homepage (in particular, Huffington Post), your whole computer slowly grinds to a halt?

If so, do you think there is any connection between that and the constant adverts from AOL offering free computer check-ups which will speed your silly old machine up and stop you from tearing your hair out like the photographic models which advertise it? I wonder what AOL wants so badly from inside your computers, after you have signed an agreement giving them unlimited access to them? Could it be advertising?

Of course, this sort of practice would be illegal were it not for the fact that nothing works until you have lied about reading the terms and conditions and clicked the 'agree' button.

The world of the internet is the only place I can think of where everything comes down to black and white, and the only environment - unlike most wars - where people really can be divided into goodies and baddies.

At the moment, I have a strong feeling that the goodies really do outnumber the baddies in this world, but corporate psychopaths are very clever, so you have to watch out for them without becoming as paranoid as they are.

Criminals - as always - make our lives so difficult, and the ordinary rules of law seldom apply to the internet. Nobody wants a controlled and legislated internet, but it's bound to happen, thanks to the criminals. The trouble is that it might end up with the criminals doing all the controlling and legislating - nice people are not as clever as them.

Oh well, thanks to AOL, Huffington Post have lost me as an advertising target.

12 comments:

  1. I have yet to find anyone who was ever satisfied with AOL.

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  2. I don't click on ads. I just don't. Pity, because many legitimate sites need the ads, but as usual the baddies have spoiled it for everyone else. If you get an ad up that you hven't asked for on your screen, don't even click the close button. Turn the whole computer off. Sometimes they mess your computer up and the close button is just a link to the messing up bit.

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    1. I don't click on ads either - I thought I was clicking on 'news'.

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  3. I wouldn't use AOL for luvnermoney.

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    1. I didn't sign up to it, but my provider did - without asking me. Either I have to change my email, or I have to use it.

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  4. Do you live on the western seaboard Pacific time zone?

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  5. I remember the advent of FM radio. No commercials, just music. For a while that is. Then Sirrius radio, and now I have to listen to advertisements. On the TV, I now have to tape shows so I can click past the commercials. Advertisers are the bad guys; in everyone's pocket. And, my daughter is in marketing. At least I know she won't read this.

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  6. The intricate behaviour of the computer is way beyond my brain power. As long as it is working, reasonably speedy and does as I ask it - then that suits me fine.

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    Replies
    1. Do you ask it to sing songs to people in an almost inaudible way?

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