Blimey ... you've got mail
I take occasional ribbing for still using America Online as my primary email account. While I have upwards of 5 or 6 other email accounts, I have them all forwarded to the AOL address for convenience. The chief reason I have kept AOL for more than a dozen years is the ease of accessing mail while traveling, even internationally. Through a wacky set of circumstances, I now have a British version of AOL on my desktop that speaks to me with an English accent.
Back in the early 1990s, AOL was king of the email hill. They had huge market share and sold millions of new accounts based upon their easy interface and ubiquitous local dial-up presence (in a decidedly low bandwidth world). To gain more customers, they mailed and gave out billions of disks and CDs that became such a nuisance that a lot of people started using them as coffee coasters.
However, now that broadband has become more available, anyone with a browser can get free email accounts from Yahoo, Google, Hotmail and a whole host of other providers who make a profit from online ads and add-on services for a fee. As a result, AOL has steadily lost market share until they, too, now offer free email accounts to anyone with an Internet connection (though they still charge for dial-up services). The unfortunate byproduct of this shift is that the traditional AOL software is no longer available as a download, so unless you kept one of those billions of disks or CDs you are out of luck and have to settle for their screwy OpenRide browser interface.
When my traditional AOL software got corrupted, I tried AOL OpenRide and hated it. After rummaging through old boxes of software and failing to find an old AOL disk or CD, I began an Internet search for alternatives. Eventually, I came across a British version of AOL available as a download and voila ... English accented verbal greetings. As an added bonus, I get all those charming spelling variations such as favourites, and the full UK spell check for email. Even the ads are British and currency is shown in English pounds instead of dollars.
After spending several years on and off in Hong Kong, this is familiar territory. While working there, I had to change all my spell check dictionaries to UK English and even changed the print settings on my laptop for A4 sized paper (slightly longer and narrower than US letter size). And yes, Hong Kong has a local AOL dial-up in case an Internet connection isn't available.
I suppose at some time I will ditch AOL, but for now I have a charming workaround that speaks to me in a soothing female British accent. Serenity now !!!
Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com