Dec 1999
Soft Serve Direct
Box 389, Magrath,
Alberta, Canada T0K 1JO |
Phone (403) 388-4332
Fax (403) 758-3505
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 he Price of Free
Most of us are familiar with the practice of trading 180 seconds of
watching advertising for up to 15 minutes of 'free' entertaining entertainment. We do it
for hours each week and call it TV. Local calls on the telephone are 'free' .. after you
pay the monthly line charge, and how about the 'free' gift you get when the vacuum saleman
calls on you?
On the Internet, the no man's land of the free, we have access to
bizillions of 'free' stuff. You just have to have pre-invested in an internet capable
computer and pre-paid a monthly ISP access fee. After that, it is mostly 'free'.
First, there are all those freeware and shareware programs (see www.download.com). You the user, can get very usable
software for 'free'. As for operating systems, although not overwhelming popular, there
are choices (see www.freeos.com). And how about all
those free email and webportal services (see www.staroffice.com)?
So what is it costing you?. We think you often get what you pay for. Since
these services are 'free', what recourse do you have if they don't work or function
irradically. You can't very well phone anyone up and demand technical support or even any
helpful information. You sure can't turn around and sue anyone for anything more than you
are out of pocket.
The bottom line? We love free. We just can't see how they make any money
off of it .. but Merry Christmas anyway!
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