I'm just bored and I was surfing through the archives and came across this article from my hometown newspaper, The Arizona Republic.
In November 1996, America Online announced, for the first time, that they would charge a flat rate for unlimited usage. Once that went into effect the following month, the results were disastrous!
You may notice that this article ran before high-speed Internet was available. If my memory is right, I don't think 56K modems existed back then either!
Also there is a reference to USWest, a Denver-based phone company which served mostly the western part of the United States (except California and Nevada). A couple of years later, it would be taken over by Qwest.
Anyway, here's the article on AOL's first public relations nightmare, which ran on December 11, 1996. Enjoy!
<< HUGE JUMP IN AOL USAGE KEEPS MANY OFF LINE
By DAVID HOYE, Staff writer, The Arizona Republic
America Online's success is spelling major headaches for customers, including many in the Phoenix area.
Since announcing a flat-rate pricing plan, which became effective Dec. 1, the world's largest commercial online service has added customers by the hundreds of thousands.
All those callers, coupled with the fact that customers are staying logged on longer, are swamping AOL's electronic network, which provides local dial-up numbers in major cities across the country.
In Phoenix and other cities, including Denver and Los Angeles, customers report constant busy signals or "all circuits busy" messages when they use the 28.8 kilobit-per-second lines to connect with AOL.
Callers using slower dial-up lines, such as those that provide service at 14.4 kbps, report fewer problems connecting with AOL.
"The surge in demand has been beyond belief," said Ann Brackbill, a spokeswoman for AOL's Network Division.
Brackbill would not provide specific membership totals, but said the company added about 275,000 new members in October alone, which helped push AOL's total membership to more than 7 million.
She attributed the spike in demand to AOL's unlimited $19.95-a-month pricing plan. Under the plan, a customer could remain online virtually all day and never pay more than $19.95.
AOL's old pricing plan, which is still available to existing customers, cost $9.95 a month, but included only five hours of online time. Each hour over that was billed at $2.95, which left heavy users with monthly bills of $30, $40 or more.
Brackbill sympathized with customers unable to connect, but said AOL is doing all it can to meet the increased demand.
Brackbill said AOL now handles 8.5 million online sessions each day, up from 3.8 million daily sessions a year ago. Additionally, she said, average call lengths have increased by 15 minutes.
She pointed out that AOL is in the midst of a $250 million upgrade, which should double the system's capacity by next summer.
The plan, announced Dec. 2 by AOL Network division President Robert Pittman, includes adding modems and other computer hardware and increasing the number of customer service centers around the country to five.
"We've been working around the clock. We've been adding tens of thousands of modems," she said. "We want people to use the system and continue to have a good experience."
That hasn't been happening in Phoenix, where AOL customers have had problems connecting with the system for up to a week.
For example, callers using one of AOL's 28.8 kbps lines serving Phoenix, 602-241-7800, report almost constant "all circuits are busy" messages. Other high-speed numbers appear to always be busy.
Jim Roof, spokesman for USWest in Phoenix, said the 602-241-7800 line gets so many calls that automatic safety measures have been kicking in to turn excess callers away.
Without such controls, he said, the AOL callers would overwhelm the telephone company office that handles the 602-241-7800 line, and would begin affecting non-AOL related telephone service in other parts of the Phoenix area.
"They've created a tremendous demand for their product," Roof said of AOL.
The situation has proved frustrating to many computer enthusiasts and businesses, which have come to rely on E-mail and other services provided by AOL.
Rich Motzer, who operates a computer consulting business in the Valley, said he was particularly upset because he has helped many of his customers go online using AOL.
Now, he says, they can't connect with AOL and they're turning to him for answers.
"I just don't think AOL was prepared," he said. "They should have foreseen the increase in people."
Brackbill called the situation temporary, but added that AOL customers should expect difficulties in connecting with the service to continue for at least two months.
Meanwhile, she urged customers to try logging on at off-peak times, avoiding the most popular period of 7PM to 11PM.
Brackbill also suggested that those able to get online check out the AOL Insider, using keyword: insider. The area provides tips on improving online sessions, and addresses the problems customers have had with busy signals.
Copyright 1996 Phoenix Newspapers Inc. >>
Friday, July 29, 2005
Review of new John Singleton movie "Four Brothers", starring Mark Wahlberg.
("Four Brothers" is an action/crime film from Paramount Pictures, starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by John Singleton. The film is rated R for strong violence, pervasive language and some sexual content and is 1 hour and 50 minutes long. It will open in the U.S. August 12.)
Link to "Four Brothers" site: http://www.fourbrothersmovie.com
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/four_brothers/large.html
This critic was never a fan of any film John Singleton has directed. The only quality film he has made was 1991’s “Boyz n the Hood”. Since then, all his other films had been mediocre at best. “Four Brothers”, which is scheduled for release in the U.S. on August 12, has been one of his better efforts, although not perfect.
The film focuses on four adopted brothers in Detroit: Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Angel (Tyrese Gibson) Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin) and Jack (Garrett Hedlund), abandoned and raised in foster care as children. At some point in their childhood, they meet Evelyn (Fionnula Flanagan), a woman who had a big heart for inner-city youth who decided to take them under her arm. She is the only mother the four brothers have ever had.
Late one night, Evelyn is murdered by armed robbers at a convenience store. After the funeral, the four get together at her house where they spend the night. A detective from the Detroit Police meets up with them to investigate the shooting, but they are not helpful as they have absolutely no faith in law enforcement to get to the bottom of this crime. Later, all of the brothers, except Jeremiah, decide that revenge is the only justice they’ll accept and take it upon themselves to find the perpetrators. They return to the scene of the crime where they view a surveillance video of their mother’s last moments and find out from the store owner what the detective didn’t tell them, that someone else from law enforcement had already interviewed a witness for a lengthy period of time. At that point, Bobby concludes that there was a cover-up and suspects that their mother was not the victim of a random shooting, but was actually set up.
Throughout the film, the brothers (without Jeremiah’s blessing) go on an armed rampage at a house party, a basketball game, a housing project and at a restaurant casino looking for the killers. At one point, an insurance claims analyst shows up unexpected at the house. There, it’s discovered that Jeremiah had been helping their mother pay premiums on a life insurance policy neither Bobby, Angel and Jack were aware of, adding to their suspicions. To add to the confusion, the lead detective investigating the case discovers that a separate police report of the murder was made without his knowledge. As the brothers try to learn the identity of the killers, they eventually get caught up in a net of corruption that involves gangsters. Toward the end, the film takes a bit of a stretch when there is an explosive event that would have one think that the police would have reasonable suspicions to make arrests, but they don’t which will have the viewer asking why.
Mr. Wahlberg is superb in the role of Bobby. One would think that Mr. Singleton selected him for the part as it was 15 years ago that he was better known as Marky Mark the rapper. His past reputation as an urban street tough makes him right for this role.
Like all of Mr. Singleton’s films, “Four Brothers” will not be liked by everybody as this film is made from the point of view that institutionalized racism is a fact of life, that authority is rife with corruption and that no one really cares about improving the quality of life in the inner city. Filmgoers may not agree with the message, but at the least, they would need to approach this film with an open mind on Mr. Singleton’s perspective on life in general.
Link to "Four Brothers" site: http://www.fourbrothersmovie.com
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/four_brothers/large.html
This critic was never a fan of any film John Singleton has directed. The only quality film he has made was 1991’s “Boyz n the Hood”. Since then, all his other films had been mediocre at best. “Four Brothers”, which is scheduled for release in the U.S. on August 12, has been one of his better efforts, although not perfect.
The film focuses on four adopted brothers in Detroit: Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Angel (Tyrese Gibson) Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin) and Jack (Garrett Hedlund), abandoned and raised in foster care as children. At some point in their childhood, they meet Evelyn (Fionnula Flanagan), a woman who had a big heart for inner-city youth who decided to take them under her arm. She is the only mother the four brothers have ever had.
Late one night, Evelyn is murdered by armed robbers at a convenience store. After the funeral, the four get together at her house where they spend the night. A detective from the Detroit Police meets up with them to investigate the shooting, but they are not helpful as they have absolutely no faith in law enforcement to get to the bottom of this crime. Later, all of the brothers, except Jeremiah, decide that revenge is the only justice they’ll accept and take it upon themselves to find the perpetrators. They return to the scene of the crime where they view a surveillance video of their mother’s last moments and find out from the store owner what the detective didn’t tell them, that someone else from law enforcement had already interviewed a witness for a lengthy period of time. At that point, Bobby concludes that there was a cover-up and suspects that their mother was not the victim of a random shooting, but was actually set up.
Throughout the film, the brothers (without Jeremiah’s blessing) go on an armed rampage at a house party, a basketball game, a housing project and at a restaurant casino looking for the killers. At one point, an insurance claims analyst shows up unexpected at the house. There, it’s discovered that Jeremiah had been helping their mother pay premiums on a life insurance policy neither Bobby, Angel and Jack were aware of, adding to their suspicions. To add to the confusion, the lead detective investigating the case discovers that a separate police report of the murder was made without his knowledge. As the brothers try to learn the identity of the killers, they eventually get caught up in a net of corruption that involves gangsters. Toward the end, the film takes a bit of a stretch when there is an explosive event that would have one think that the police would have reasonable suspicions to make arrests, but they don’t which will have the viewer asking why.
Mr. Wahlberg is superb in the role of Bobby. One would think that Mr. Singleton selected him for the part as it was 15 years ago that he was better known as Marky Mark the rapper. His past reputation as an urban street tough makes him right for this role.
Like all of Mr. Singleton’s films, “Four Brothers” will not be liked by everybody as this film is made from the point of view that institutionalized racism is a fact of life, that authority is rife with corruption and that no one really cares about improving the quality of life in the inner city. Filmgoers may not agree with the message, but at the least, they would need to approach this film with an open mind on Mr. Singleton’s perspective on life in general.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Hi everybody! I'm back! What I have been doing all summer.
Hi everybody! I'm back! My apologies for not updating my blog more often. Mostly it's because my summer up until now has been mostly uneventful and that I really had nothing new to report. However, over the last couple of weeks, things have been picking up and I now have some new things I'd like to share.
A couple of weeks ago, I agreed to help out a classmate with her film shoot. I volunteered to be the sound person, where my job is to make sure the audio is being recorded properly on the audio reel tapes on the Nagra (Hollywood uses the DAT, which stands for digital audio tape, but for now we're using the Nagra). We actually began shooting last weekend and we'll be shooting again this weekend. One of the things that I like about this shoot is that I get to work again with an actress that I directed on my first short film a couple of years ago.
One of the hardest things about this assignment is that on Sunday, we had to shoot outdoors from early morning to late afternoon. For those of you not familiar with Phoenix/Central Arizona weather, it is a desert here and the temperatures hit 105 degrees Fahrenheit/40 degrees Celsius. Plus, since we're also in the early stages of the monsoon season, it was also a little humid, about 30%-35% humidity. That might not seem too humid, but anytime the temperatures hit 100 Fahrenheit/38 Celsius, anything over 20% is considered humid. This means that I had to wear a hat and slap on lots and lots of sunblock with an SPF of at least 45, as the Arizona sun can be deadly. I read in a travel book ten years ago that Arizona has the second highest rate of melanoma (skin cancer) cases in North America. We shot that day on a bridge where the sidewalks were pretty narrow, we also had to compete with auto traffic.
The film is also (how should I say this?) "adult" in nature, meaning that here in the States it would be "R-rated", or in the U.K. "15" and in Australia "MA 15+".
Since early July, I began work on the film I shot last Spring. The nonlinear editing online editing system I'm using is Final Cut Pro, which can only be worked on the Mac. Two leading editing systems that can be used on Windows PCs are Avid Xpress Pro and Adobe Premiere. There are also Mac versions for both.
Here's a link to a GIF shot of a Final Cut Pro page:
http://static.userland.com/tower1/images/dvforteachersManilaSitesCom/FCPshot1.gif
This is the official link to Apple's Final Cut Pro:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro
Apple also has an expensive program called Shake, which works together with Final Cut Pro where you can create visual effects, especially if you're into science-fiction! Here's a link:
http://www.apple.com/shake
It carries an expensive price tag of US $3,000/UK £1,730/AUS $3,980/Euro €2,505.
A couple of issues have come up as I was editing my film. First, the sound person who was working on shooting the final shot at my house accidentally recorded over the audio recording of the football stadium shot. I was able to salvage only one recording of the stadium shot. As for the rest, I had to ask two of my actors over to my house to do ADR (audio dub recording) of the stadium shot. That went smoothly, so no harm done. As for the audio sound recording that took place at my house, for some reason, I was having trouble getting it to sync with the film shoot part. The audio was going slightly faster than the film part. I was able to correct this with Final Cut Pro by slowing down the audio part by 2% to bring it in sync with the film and at the same time I couldn't tell the difference of the tone of the sound at 98% or 100% so there are no "slow deep voices".
In any case, I hope to have a rough cut finished by the end of August and have the final product ready by Christmas. I'm not making any promises, since I do not have 100% technical knowledge, but assuming that I have my film ready for release by Christmas, I hope to convert it to Quicktime and post it right here on my blog for all of you to witness my work!
I promise to update my blog more frequently.
A couple of weeks ago, I agreed to help out a classmate with her film shoot. I volunteered to be the sound person, where my job is to make sure the audio is being recorded properly on the audio reel tapes on the Nagra (Hollywood uses the DAT, which stands for digital audio tape, but for now we're using the Nagra). We actually began shooting last weekend and we'll be shooting again this weekend. One of the things that I like about this shoot is that I get to work again with an actress that I directed on my first short film a couple of years ago.
One of the hardest things about this assignment is that on Sunday, we had to shoot outdoors from early morning to late afternoon. For those of you not familiar with Phoenix/Central Arizona weather, it is a desert here and the temperatures hit 105 degrees Fahrenheit/40 degrees Celsius. Plus, since we're also in the early stages of the monsoon season, it was also a little humid, about 30%-35% humidity. That might not seem too humid, but anytime the temperatures hit 100 Fahrenheit/38 Celsius, anything over 20% is considered humid. This means that I had to wear a hat and slap on lots and lots of sunblock with an SPF of at least 45, as the Arizona sun can be deadly. I read in a travel book ten years ago that Arizona has the second highest rate of melanoma (skin cancer) cases in North America. We shot that day on a bridge where the sidewalks were pretty narrow, we also had to compete with auto traffic.
The film is also (how should I say this?) "adult" in nature, meaning that here in the States it would be "R-rated", or in the U.K. "15" and in Australia "MA 15+".
Since early July, I began work on the film I shot last Spring. The nonlinear editing online editing system I'm using is Final Cut Pro, which can only be worked on the Mac. Two leading editing systems that can be used on Windows PCs are Avid Xpress Pro and Adobe Premiere. There are also Mac versions for both.
Here's a link to a GIF shot of a Final Cut Pro page:
http://static.userland.com/tower1/images/dvforteachersManilaSitesCom/FCPshot1.gif
This is the official link to Apple's Final Cut Pro:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro
Apple also has an expensive program called Shake, which works together with Final Cut Pro where you can create visual effects, especially if you're into science-fiction! Here's a link:
http://www.apple.com/shake
It carries an expensive price tag of US $3,000/UK £1,730/AUS $3,980/Euro €2,505.
A couple of issues have come up as I was editing my film. First, the sound person who was working on shooting the final shot at my house accidentally recorded over the audio recording of the football stadium shot. I was able to salvage only one recording of the stadium shot. As for the rest, I had to ask two of my actors over to my house to do ADR (audio dub recording) of the stadium shot. That went smoothly, so no harm done. As for the audio sound recording that took place at my house, for some reason, I was having trouble getting it to sync with the film shoot part. The audio was going slightly faster than the film part. I was able to correct this with Final Cut Pro by slowing down the audio part by 2% to bring it in sync with the film and at the same time I couldn't tell the difference of the tone of the sound at 98% or 100% so there are no "slow deep voices".
In any case, I hope to have a rough cut finished by the end of August and have the final product ready by Christmas. I'm not making any promises, since I do not have 100% technical knowledge, but assuming that I have my film ready for release by Christmas, I hope to convert it to Quicktime and post it right here on my blog for all of you to witness my work!
I promise to update my blog more frequently.
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