[ale] AOL "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain"

[Robert Karaffa]

hi folks,
	a few evenings ago my pop and i were testing my VoIP (Vonage) 
connection.  he's in Fla., i'm here in decatur.  very good connection, 
inexpensive for all the features offered compared to BellSouth.  i'm 
very happy with it so far.  hooked the VoIP hardware behind my Linux 
firewall (Comcast broadband), gave it an IP address and away we go.
	the interesting part of all this is that i gave my dad the web address 
of Vonage (Vonage.com), to which he went.  he started reading aloud the 
content of the webpage, which was radically different than the vonage 
page i was reading at the same time.  after some scratching-of-skulls, 
we discovered that he was using the blasted AOL browser rather than, 
say, Mozilla, or <insert browser of choice>.  what made me see red was 
that he typed "vonage.com" and the AOL browser took him to an ad for 
Vonage (something about "back-to-school savings and etc.".  i've been 
trying to convince him to drop AOL like used dental floss, and until 
that evening he was resistant.  now that his eyes have been opened, 
he's starting to ask pointed questions about how AOL operates.  he 
finally realized that the AOL browser was "filtering" the content for 
him, and only allowing him to see what it wants him to see (unless, of 
course, he figures out how to get around that and still use their 
browser...not likely).
	anybody else up against this kind of crap?  not looking for legal 
advice, mind you.  just thoughts and ideas how to deal with this.

-Bob K.


-- 
**************************
Robert E. Karaffa, II
Technical Director
Emory University School of Medicine
Flow Cytometry Core Facility
1364 Clifton Rd. N.E.
Box 82
Atlanta, Ga 30322
voice: 404/712-4429
fax:  404/727-8993
e-mail: rkaraff at emory.edu
web:  http://www.corelabs.emory.edu/home.cfm#flo
**************************