
Mindspring-Earthlink Seek Annulment of Marriage 49
Lately, I've been introduced to FNWire which has some pretty funny pieces on it. This week they are covering the annulment of Mindspring-Earthlink. One of my favorite lines is: "...saying
its hasty union was a "stupid mistake" done only to 'gain some national attention.'"
Re:MindSpring is gone. (Score:1)
I got into the culture because of the "newness" of that corporate culture, as well as the openness and sharing among the employees. Sounds a little idealistic, but that's the way it was back then. The dress code was that basically that you had to wear clothing, and shoes were optional, people brought dogs to work, almost everything was done on the "bare metal" IE: no outsourcing or contract engineers allowed. Tech support and engineering were on speaking terms (somewhat), and almost everything that happened on a day-to-day basis was accomplished by about a hundred people in a location on Peachtree Street.
I think it was the the same corporate culture that spawned mindspring that finally killed its soul. Midtown Atlanta is a very cool place to live and work, and mindspring was among the coolest employers in its beginnings, but new money has changed all of that, just as it changes the people who are making it. I guess the visionaries just got old.
Too bad it's not true (Score:1)
Re:MindSpring is gone. (Score:1)
That's absolutely amazing, considering that Mindspring didn't open its doors until June 1994.
Re:Hmmm.... (Score:1)
I've had the same problem. Earthlink doesn't want people (like me) who 20 bucks a month for unlimited access to use that access in an unlimited fasion. Recently, I recieved an e-mail that I had already used 310 hours in a billing period. After that, I have experianced frequent disconnects (even in the middle of downloads), slow connectivity, and the inability to access many sites. It sure was nice to use the old Mindspring . .
"God is Dead"
--Nietzsche
Nietzsche is Dead"
Re:Too bad it's not true (Score:1)
I agree. I now feel bad that after four years of using Mindspring that I am leaving them. It was so great when I could honestly recommend a company to my friends and family and mean it. That was a very refreshing experience.
I tried to wait it out, but after their merger was finalized and I received the sudden on slot of SPAM and constant connection interruptions, I knew it was over.
I am just waiting for all my referral credits to run out from all the poor slobs that I referred to Mspring.
Re:(dialup dead?! I wish!) (Score:1)
On the other hand, my dialup link frequently goes dead, but I don't think that's what you meant.
Re:Hmmm.... (Score:1)
.sig's are for wimps!
Re:Is this a joke . . . ? (Score:1)
.sig's are for wimps!
Re:Hmmm.... (Score:1)
My first round of bad experiences with Mindspring was when they purchased Pipeline and screwed over that user base. Whatever one thought of their PinkSLIP-based software (which I used a couple of times before realizing they were attempting to pass everything through gopher commands -- this is back just before Mosaic broke wide, you understand, so it wasn't causing the performance hit it did later on) the Pipeline guys ran a good local-to-NYC ISP, and they didn't kick about offering static IP addresses. When Gleick etc. sold out to Mindspring, suddenly tech support calls didn't get returned and my FTP access to my own Web site was blocked for weeks at a time.
So I left for Netcom, not universally known for great customer service (although I got good results from the business-account support staff) but blessed with *many* POPs around the world, which was a priority for me then. Service was quite acceptable until they were purchased by -- you got it -- Mindspring. Once again customer service crashed and burned, staffed as it apparently was by middle-aged women from Georgia whose lack of tech-support knowledge (I spent an entire call explaining to one of them that the Net and the Web were not identical entities) was equalled only by their rudeness. Fortunately some of the Netcom tech-support staff was still available and all too aware of the decline: as one of them said, "If we could buy back the service and run it ourselves we would." By the middle of last year, I was experiencing regular, unscheduled downtime on the Seattle POP, made worse when I'd call the tech-support number and be told that there was no downtime *scheduled* and thus the problem was with my computer. (This was especially intelligent "advice" when the POP when down in the middle of, say, a long download -- yeah, obviously my bad.)
And then came Earthlink. Adding Scientologists to the mix proved too much for my tiny mind, and I jumped ship immediately. I don't care if they're actually right and Hubbard *is* god -- god himself couldn't fix that pack o' grits.
Re:Hmmm.... (Score:1)
The only other problem was a DNS f-up a few weeks ago that lasted, like, ten minutes. No biggie.
Living in an area--actually just a part of a city--where nothing faster is available for a decent price, and the local dial-up ISPs are overburdened to the point that it's like going through AOL's proxies, Earthlink's been nice. And cheap.
But I've heard Mindspring totally blows. Odd.
Hmmm.... (Score:1)
How good of an ISP was Earthlink/Mindspring anyway? I've never used them myself but I know a lot of people who do.
Re:GREAT ISP!! (Score:1)
Correction!!! We'll see how good/bad this new company is. I guess I disregarded the foot icon and took it as fact. Oh well, my comments still stand. Mindspring is/was an awesome ISP.
Now that I think about it. The article did read rather oddly and the quotes did not sound like something someone would say to the press. Oh well, that was fun!
Welcome to Slashdot. Please do not feed the trolls.
GREAT ISP!! (Score:1)
Well, first there was Compuserve. They then had this little ISP branch called Sprynet. Sprynet later merged with Mindspring. Everything was cool. I'm not really sure how good/bad the Mindspring/Earthlink thing would be, though. It didn't last long enough.
I haven't had much/any experience with national ISPs other than Sprynet/Mindspring/Earthlink but I would suggest them as they are reliable and they have awesome tech support. They're also pretty cool people. I guess some of them have roadrunner (cable modem) at home, too and when my uncle called to tell them that he was cancelling his account, they were like "Oh, you got roadrunner, eh. Pretty nice!"(Well, something like that. Similar to a[n] MS employee saying "Oh, you're putting Linux on that box? Spiffy!").
Welcome to Slashdot. Please do not feed the trolls.
Re:It's FICTION! Laugh. Or not. (Score:1)
Did you realize it was a fake before or after you read it?
Don't get me wrong, I thought it was hilarious - in the same way I think The Onion [theonion.com] is hilarious - but only after I found out it wasn't real. With The Onion, you know the stories aren't real (usually). I didn't know that when I first read the article, so I'm thinking, "What the hell is up with this journalism?"
I certainly am not without a sense of humor. And I'll most likely keep going back to FNwire for more "funny" financial news. I just don't think the original posting was very well presented.
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Microsoft spel chekar vor sail, worgs grate !!
Re:divided they fall, (Score:1)
Re:divided they fall, (Score:1)
The bandwidth is another issue altogether. To make this service worth spending the extra money, you'll have to get speeds significantly faster than 56k. While your downstream may be right around ISDN (depening on the fraquencies useable), without some bulky tranmitter attached to your car for travelling, your upstram data really isn't going to rival dial-up at all, so it's not going to make it worth spending the extra money to go with one of these systems.
I'm sure in a few years, wireless technologies will advance somewhat, but I don't see any major changes in the technology today to truly bring an end to dialup. Again, for dial-up to be dead (in my eyes), I have to have 1) a high speed connection 2) that goes where I go 3) without having to lug equipment along for the ride.
I still think it'll be a while...
Re:It's a hoax, folks... (Score:1)
Thats also humor ;-))
Slashdot moderation lotto:
Next post to get 'informative': NUMBER 7!!!!
And now for the bonus 'troll'........
Darva??? (Score:1)
DOS Ain't Dead -- Dialup Ain't dead. (Score:1)
EarthLink went down the tubes (Score:1)
However, recently (read: starting a couple months ago) the quality dropped significantly. Bandwidth got worse and worse, and I was always getting disconnected. Finally, I ran into a problem where the downloads of certain files would just fail. Executables, game data files, whatever. Network geography had nothing to do with it; I think certain bit patterns were just freaking out their routers.
I called tech support, and they estimated a 20-minute wait. They had several options, Mac, Win95, WinNT, and "other" or maybe "UNIX" or something. I pushed "other" and waited. After waiting an hour, someone finally answered, and it turned out I had been transferred to "Windows".
I made the mistake of mentioning that I run Linux. He instantly went into the "that's not supported" mode, which I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with, except that he knew nothing about the Internet, or networking in general. I repeated numerous times that hostnames were getting resolved and that the problem was common across different sites. All the poor guy could suggest was changing my DNS servers and "contacting the administrator of the site in question". Argh.
I dumped Earthlink and switched to Dimensional [dimensional.com], an ISP local to Colorado. $25/month gets me a static IP, a shell account, and a reliable connection. They actually say to call if you ever get a busy signal, so they can add more modems. With Earthlink, I was lucky if I could get past the busy signals.
I guess they just got too big...
Re:Hmmm.... (Score:1)
Perhaps it was a dumb mistake; but now they have reversed the mistake and kept the national attention, perhaps they have gained more attention with this "annulment".
Oooo! Does this mean Netcom is back? (Score:2)
-AC and former Netcom user (1990-1999).
He already knew that. (Score:2)
Re:Oooo! Does this mean Netcom is back? (Score:2)
Oh well..
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Re:MindSpring is gone. (Score:2)
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Re:MindSpring is gone. (Score:2)
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Re:divided they fall, (Score:2)
2. yes, they hang things on light and utility poles... you are limited, but it's getting better all the time, apparently
3. thy're coming out with 128k service "sometime this summer." I'm waiting for that before getting anything... otherwise it'll be DSL into a gateway machine and a wireless network in the apartment... assuming, however, that I get a nice girl geek as a roomate...
4. it's not really a bulky transmitter... it's a smallish box, and you don't attach it to your car. there seem to be some companies going for PCMCIA sized ones, which would be absolutely ideal.
disclaimer: I don't work for this company, never met anyone who does, etc. I do, however have a laptop that I would really, REALLY like to have mobile access on, at least in the Bay Area. I know one guy with this service, and the modem isn't all that large (think portable floppy drive for a thinkpad), and he seems satisfied with the service and convenience, if not the speed.
Lea
Re:divided they fall, (Score:2)
I was sorta under the impression that packet radio didn't involve dialing. I think we have a good chance of ending up on that instead, at least in the short term. Ricochet [ricochet.net] is coming out with 128k service this summer -- they won't tell me exactly when, or what it will cost, but they seem to be very devoted to having a flat-rate plan... (hopefully it won't be too expensive for this poor student!)
Lea
Is this a joke . . . ? (Score:2)
"God is Dead"
--Nietzsche
Nietzsche is Dead"
Re:It's FICTION! Laugh. Or not. (Score:2)
I didn't mean to imply that you don't have a sense of humor, just take into account the context of the story... if it has a big smelly foot, then I wouldn't get too hot and bothered by it 8^)
Re:It's FICTION! Laugh. Or not. (Score:2)
It's FICTION! Laugh. Or not. (Score:2)
How about some funny REAL news?
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Microsoft spel chekar vor sail, worgs grate !!
Re:divided they fall, (Score:2)
Re:divided they fall, (Score:2)
Re: Hmmm..... (Score:2)
MindSpring is gone. (Score:3)
Decision (Score:3)
thank you,
the Pope
ps, tithes will be considered duely
Still a bad move (Score:3)
fast free fast free false
Nevertheless, not explicitly mentioning it in the front-page article is a poor move. The readership is a very diverse group, with non-native speakers of English and people from a wide variety of subcultures even among the native speakers.
Like sarcasm, subtle hints that something is a hoax or a joke (rather than, say, being true but very funny) will not get across to a significant fraction of them. They may believe the posting, be burned by it, and end up distrusting or with enmity toward the poster and the site.
Even those who get that it might be a hoax right away will likely waste time checking - time that might have been spent on subjects they were MUCH more interested in.
I've seen this sort of posting several times on Slashdot, and they have annoyed me every time. But this is the most egregious. I'm a long-time Netcom subscriber, so it affects me enough that when an ambiguous posting about it comes up, no matter how ridiculous it seems, I need to check it out.
Today, between checking this and commenting about it I wasted the rest of the time I could have spent doing what I wanted to to - check the IMPORTANT news. So to me, it's NOT funny.
What I'm wondering is... (Score:3)
I don't know, though. This anullment might have to go all the way to the Pope! Somebody get Kurt on the phone!
Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams