6 Apr
2000
6 Apr
'00
11 p.m.
Hello CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com
On 06-Apr-00, you wrote:
different
> Package a)
a sole device USD 499,
> Package b) the device and a 24 Month contract USD 99 + 24 x 20
Or the common package C) box is part of the
service and "rented". Cable
boxes especially encoded ones are that case here (usa).
Yeah, but there are many places in the US where it is essentially illegal
to hook your own cable descrambler to the cable line, not too much than the old Bell System limits on third-party
equipment hooked to phone
lines.
There are some attractions to cheap and uniform guaranteed service for
all, but I don't think I want Internet access to become the monopoly
that phone service used to be or cable service is today. It's bad enough
with some ISP's threatening that they only support Microsoft Windows
and that if you've got trouble accessing their service from any other
OS you're out of luck.
Actually DSL from some companies is already worse than that - you have
to have a PCI-bus PC-clone running Windows to use their service,
because the only interface device that will work requires that
hardware configuration and the only drivers available are for
MS-Windows.
This is proof that Microsluff does control the market in their favor . . .
.
When I lived in Vermillion, SD the University of SD was the ISP of choice --
free to students and employees. I tried to get my Amiga up on the system,
but they used a proprietary script that required their software to access.
OF course that required either a Wintel box or a Mac.
The service was worth everything I paid for it -- which was ZERO.
And their so-called help desk had NO CLUE of what I was talking about. All
they understood was the software package supplied to them.
Gary Hildebrand
amiga lover forever