Re: [CANSLIM] OT Telecom Musings

From: "Bill Triffet" <btriffet@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [CANSLIM] OT Telecom Musings
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 12:35:42 -0700

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Anyone who's looking a Yahoo! should take a hard look here:
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,51461,00.html

I was one of those affected people. I gave them (not knowing what the
consequences were) my Earthlink address during the signup. I wanted to use
the Yahoo account as my return address for subscribed newsgroups as a decoy
for the spam bots'. I made sure all the boxes to receive direct mail were
set to NO.

Immediately following Yahoo's opt-in "policy change" ( they checked them all
for me)  I was inundated with 5 to 10 spams a day - to my Earthlink address
no less!
The FTC defines this as "negative input selection" and is trying to pass a
bill to stop it.

It has taken 3 months to reduce the horrendous amount of spam to my
Earthlink account using all kind of anti-spam tracking and complaints to the
listowners with Cc to the FTC and the IP owners.

I wouldn't bet a penny on the future of Yahoo!

- -Bill


- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Gasta, Jeffrey" <Jeff.Gasta@marriott.com>
To: <canslim@lists.xmission.com>
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 10:57 AM
Subject: [CANSLIM] Telecom Musings


> All,
>
> Have used many Yahoo services free for years.  One I especially like is
> their e-mail.  They have a service that allows me to use a Yahoo address
> (e.g. jeff@yahoo.com) and then have the messages auto-forwarded to my
> private (ISP provided) account (e.g. jeff@earthlink.com).  This is good
for
> two reasons.  One, Yahoo filters out the bulk of spam.  Two, my e-mail
> address remains the same no matter how often I change ISPs - a great help
to
> friends and family.  They now charge $10 per year and I gladly pay.
>
> Yahoo has a radio-like service called Launch.com.  I'm a jaded person, but
> am excited about this.  It is free, but allows each person to create their
> own, custom radio station.  I initially specified genres, artists, albums,
> and songs I like.  It then starts playing those selections plus others
mixed
> in.  For each song played, I can vote on the song itself, the artist, or
the
> album.  Votes go from zero (don't ever play again) to ten (love it).  Also
I
> don't have to vote at all, in which case a 5 is the default.  After a few
> hours of listening and voting on some songs, it "figures out" the type of
> music to introduce.  When a song is playing I can get biographical info.
on
> the artist, album, etc. It is advertiser supported, and you can buy music
> directly through their link.  I've stopped listening to the regular radio
at
> home and in the office.  I'm glad to listen to commercials on a station
> customized for me.  I think this service will take off.
>
> Also, I'm seeing stories about Web services offering plans that charge an
> annual fee and then reduce or eliminate advertising.  These are supposed
to
> be doing well, but I don't know for sure.  Disclosure: as a telecomm
> engineer and it is in my best interest to promote internet services.
>
> THOUGHTS ABOUT AOL. In general, the most desired on-line services (such as
> Yahoo's Launch Radio) work best with a connection faster than the typical
> home modem of 56K.  And, faster connections are now available in most
cities
> with 50,000 people or more for about $30-40 per month.  However, 56K
modems
> are AOL's profit center.  With telecomm infrastructure now available for
> pennies on the dollar, I bet AOL will swoop in and make some acquisitions
so
> they can sell faster connections.
>
> Here at Marriott Hotels, lots and lots of room reservations are made from
> our web site.  I am talking about figures like millions of dollars per
hour.
> So, no doubt the internet is not dead.  However, IBD is right about huge
> over capacity (I'm lucky to still have a job).  I sure won't be buying any
> telecomm stocks for the foreseeable future.  Hope this can provide a
little
> help (hopefully not too biased).  jg



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