Return-Path: <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g4UMQxO13798; Thu, 30 May 2002 18:26:59 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 18:26:59 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <005201c20829$81365c60$4c020fce@tp390x> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "ADALINE" <adaliner@prodigy.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2516] Re: Sad times on the internet X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 7822 Lines: 134 Your story is so well told and all too familiar. I have found myself in similar situations many times. How many times have you had someone rip the mouse out of your hand and leave you with gaining zero know-how? I've had to be assertive and say hey! I've got it! Back off! Anyway, keep the good fight, your expressiveness and articulation combined with a willingness to share will take all educators further down the road to greater effectiveness. a r ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Linberg" <steve@silicongoblin.com> To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 12:07 PM Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2515] Sad times on the internet > While doing a site visit / training at a nearby literacy program > yesterday, I had some experiences as a trainer that were kind of sad, > reflective of some trends in technology over the past few years. I > thought I'd just pass the story on, for whatever it's worth. > > -- > > One of the things on my list was to install a newly-purchased CD-burner on > one of the teachers' machines. Following this, she sat down excitedly and > wanted to see it do something. She said her daughter had told her about > getting music online, and thought her students might enjoy being able to > hear music from their home countries on the computer, and wanted to find > out how to do it. I said "Great, let's dig in and see what we find." I > always enjoy these kinds of trainings, helping new users learn about the > richness of the internet and the abilities of their machines. > > She asked where she could find music online; she had heard of Napster and > I told her of its demise at the hands of the RIAA. Furthermore, her > program was behind a firewall that would block the other peer-to-peer > systems (like Gnutella, Kazaa, and others) that are commonly used to find > music. (It's just as well that her firewall blocks Kazaa, since its > installer installs spyware on your machine without telling you and quietly > harnesses your computer's memory, storage, and CPU power for its own > unknown purposes.) So, we went to mp3.com on the web, where we saw that > it had transformed since I last saw it into a pay service with a limited, > mostly-independent-label selection. They did offer lo-fi samples you > could play for free, though, so she picked a random one to see how it > worked. She was told that they'd be happy to play the sample for her just > as soon as she registered for a free account (this message being delivered > with plenty of exclamation points). She rolled her eyes and sighed, but > was savvy enough to know to give the registration system bogus > information. She used her real AOL email address, in case they had to > send her a registration-unlocking code (as some sites do), saying that she > already got so much junk mail at her AOL account that it wouldn't matter > if she got more. After registering, we were allowed to hear the sample. > > Their samples were low-bitrate RealMedia files. Luckily, she had a recent > version of RealPlayer already installed on her PC, and it was launched > automatically when she clicked the link. The player came up, but never > got past the "connecting" message. After a few minutes' chatting while we > waited, she gave up and closed it, and went back to the site where she > tried another file. Same thing - stuck at "connecting". > > I suggested either that the site might be busy, or that the school's > firewall might be interfering, so we decided to go back to the web. She > recalled having seen something on msn.com, and after a few wild guesses at > URLs which turned out to be wrong, went to the main msn.com site and found > a "Music & Radio" link; we tried that. (Note: Microsoft will block you > from accessing the site unless you're using a Windows PC with Internet > Explorer, for reasons I'm too tired to speculate on now; Mac, Linux, > Netscape, Opera, etc. users are apparently not welcome). The page came up > with a lot of "free trial" links (I don't recall exactly, and since > Microsoft is blocking all of my machines, I can't get in to verify it) > among the forest of brightly-colored ads. She was becoming more annoyed, > and managed to click her way to a sample to try to listen to. It wouldn't > play because she didn't have the latest version of Windows Media Player > installed, and sent her to a download site instead. > > She was nearly at the end of her rope here, but decided to go ahead with > it. The 12-meg download, which would be an hour or so for a dialup user, > was actually quite fast for her, since her school has a good connection > (behind the firewall). The download quietly ended and she had to find the > downloaded file on her PC and run the installer, which quietly changed > some file associations on her machine and then came up with its own > pseudo-web-page inside, with its own music links. By now she was really > running out of patience, and had forgotten where she was on the web > originally. There were some "internet radio" links in the player, and she > clicked those. They all said "go to the web site to hear the music" and > gave a link to the website. The link re-opened the browser, replacing the > msn page she was trying to access in the first place, and went to the > station's page, which told her that she needed a DIFFERENT player to > access the music, plus she needed to do a (free) registration before > they'd let her listen. > > At this point she threw her hands up and said "forget it," and quit the > browser. And I looked on and really couldn't blame her. All she wanted > to do was play a little music sample on her PC, and after twenty minutes > of frustration and a hail of ads, whack-a-mole pop-up banners, > installations, configurations, broken connections, and incompatible > players, we had yet to hear a peep. She certainly wasn't going to try > this with her students. > > She then said at least she could bring in CDs and play them on the > computer. At that point I had to caution her that the new copy-protection > methods being used by some record companies can cause playing certain CDs > on a computer not only to not work, but could actually DAMAGE the computer > if she tries it. These discs are currently (I hear) being marked with > TINY fine print that warn you not to do this (and excusing themselves from > all liability if you do), but most people don't know about it and aren't > in the habit of scanning their CDs for fine print - when did that become > necessary? I also mentioned that this scheme can be defeated by making a > mark on the outer ring of the CD with a black magic marker, enabling you > to play your own CDs again, but that doing so is now a crime under the > Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which forbids and criminizes any use of > "technology" (even a magic marker) that can circumvent copy protection, > even if doing so is an exercise of your Fair Use rights and the Home Audio > Recording Act of 1992. > > Her enthusiasm and excitement about her new CD-burner and music over the > internet had been completely soured. As her co-pilot and trainer, I felt > responsible. I could certainly have wrestled my way to the controls and > fought my way through the configurations and installations and > registrations and customizations for her, but that wouldn't have fit with > the "teach someone to fish instead of giving them a fish" philosophy I use > in my trainings, and she didn't want things she didn't understand being > done for her on her machine, which is entirely sensible. > > I remember simpler times on the internet. > > > -- > Steve Linberg, Chief Goblin > Silicon Goblin Technologies > http://silicongoblin.com > Be kind. Remember, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. > >
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