That may be true if you're dealing mainly with dowload *time* but
for someone like me who spends anywhere from 30 min. to 4 hours a
day online these days (while I'm trying to develop my web-based
course. . . and escape from reality some), I think the more
important factor is *cost*. Obviously I get my access free via
the colleges teach at, but were I paying you can bet I'd go for
one of the local ISPs (Infinet, I-net2020, Biznet, some others)
or the local Freenet even, because if you spend more than 5 hours
online a month, AOL suddenly turns into an economic black hole.
>
> Also obviously AOL owns 288 modems in every US city, so if
you're on the
> move with a laptop you can have your mail forwarded their from
your 'real'
> email account and use a local number.
>
> As for content, ooodles of magazines from Time (Newt = Man of
the Year !?)
> to Sci. American to Business Week, NY Times, and even america's
best
> newspaper (PLUG), I.B.D., are all available on AOL, usually
with most
> photots, including back issues. Technically the downlaoding of
the
> articles, photos etc actually works. FWIW as a practical
matter I find I
> often use AOL for this feature. (We have an account on
everything at the
> office here to check em out, including all the ISPs in the
area.)
I'd agree with both of thse statements, but I think that in the
next ten years AOL will be obsolete for that kind of service
because it will be far simpler just to http over to
Business.Week.Com and get what you need, etc. Three years ago AOL
was *serious hot shit*; now it's kind of scrambling to keep from
looking like the big Dufus in a world of hip ISPs and in a couple
of years it's probably going to be gasping it's last breath.
I'm still sorry I wasn't smart enough to buy AOL stock 4 or 5
years ago, though. I'd be retiring a rich man now.
>
> However I am very interested in guessing how the whole 'online
wars' will
> turn out.
>
> MSM, now ms-n-bc, Prodidgy, local ISPs versus mega-ISPs, AOLs
vs. ISPs ...
> it's a big question mark area.
>
> Can anyone see into the future ?
Well, no, but just this weekend I found something on the web
called Idea Futures. Basically it's a (mock) futures market for
ideas. Instead of like, say, a corn futures market where you
"gamble" on what the price of corn will be (nice people call it
trading futures, but it's really just wagering), on Idea Futures
you trade on the future of ideas. Ideas like who'll win
elections, will Fermat's theorem be disproven, will cold fusion
be developed, etc.
I haven't played around with it too much, but it seems like a
fascinating idea. You start with $50 of funny money (it's all a
game; no realy $$ involved) and start buying and selling ideas
that are on the market, and you can put your own idea out there
on the market.
One of the most hotly traded ideas on IF is whether a real Ideas
Futures market will come into being soon....Wall Street look out.
Apparently, Sasha (aka Alexander Chislenko) who's a sometime
poster to this list has written an article about IF, but I
haven't read it yet.
If someone expresses interest, I'll dig up the URL. I don't have
it handy right now. Or it should be real easy to find on Lycos.
-- Greg Ritter gritter@vcu.edu ritter@urvax.urich.edu http://www.urich.edu/~ritter