[SEL] An engine tale from 1916/webshots

[Jerry Evans]

At 07:00 PM 10/11/2006, you wrote:
>Message: 7
>Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2006 20:57:32 -0000
>From: "Dave Croft" <dave.croft at ntlworld.com>


><very big snip>



>Hi Jerry, I hope it isn't too big for you but I have posted it at
>http://www.oldengine.org/members/croft/Engineers%20diary.jpg
>Dave Croft

Hi Dave,
         Thanks for going to the trouble - I got it and enjoyed it. 300 
H.P. and 250 H.P. in 1916 must have been something to behold.
         In the meantime I had help and advice from Larry Evans and can now 
also get it off webshots  but it is still slower than a non advertising 
supported site.
         Dolly also gave me some advice a week or 2 ago and I went and had 
a look at the Firefox plugins page. I found an ad blocker there which 
installed very quickly and easily and does seem to help a bit with speed 
but I still cannot stand Webshots :-)
         As a point of interest Webshots shows up completely differently in 
Firefox to what it looks like in Netscape or IE. The main thing is that the 
small row of Icons at the bottom of the pic does not show at all in Firefox 
(mine at least) and this has probably been one of my main problems. Larry 
mentioned that he clicked on the magnifier to show the image full size 
(which also breaks it out of the "Flash" thing) and could then right click 
and "Save Image" so I looked around the page and found a text link in the 
top right that does the same - thereafter the pic loads and I can see (and 
save) it. In Netscape if I hover the pointer over one of these icons 
(mouseover) a small text description of the icons purpose shows yet this 
does not happen in IE unless I refresh the page. this may have to do with 
the ads trying to load

         At the bottom of one of these posts from SEL (I get the digest so 
it will be in the last 24 hours) I see someone in the States advertising 
broadband from $13.33/month. This is about 1/4 of what my slow dialup 
connection here in S.A. costs and then I still have the per minute rate to 
pay to the Telkom.
I estimate that it costs me approximately ZAR 900.00 ($125.00 approx) for 
the privilege of being able to access the Internet. Broadband will cost me 
about 3 to 4 times as much.
         Our problem is that there is only 1 fixed line telephone provider 
here and it is a monopoly (not only that but the government is the main 
shareholder) and they charge what they like. Our telephone charges have 
skyrocketed in the last 6 or 7 years for the simple reason that there has 
been pressure on the government to allow a second fixed line operator so 
the existing one has just pushed up prices to allow them to "improve" their 
network at our cost. They agreed to allow a second operator about 5 or 
6  years ago but the existing operator has been blocking and stalling them 
with legal action and court cases and suchlike. A second operator has now 
been named but it will still take them years to roll out their network and 
it will only start in the bigger centres so may take a very long time to 
reach us out here in the country.
         I've been connecting to the internet since 1991 when it was still 
just bulletin boards and a 14.4 Kbps modem on an XT. IE was not even around 
yet and spam was something that you ate from a tin. A local call cost about 
29c (thats 4c US at todays rates) irrespective of how long you were 
connected. Since then I (and all South Africans) have had to endure 
skyrocketing prices and a service that has been getting worse and worse.
         So please forgive me if I sometimes get cranky about internet 
connections. It's probably aimed at our rip off telephone company.

Keep the revs up (or down)
Jerry Evans
Near Johannesburg in Sunny South Africa.
Tel. (016) 365-5787
Cell: 083 293 7191
Visit our website for old engines in South Africa.
www.oldengine.org/members/evans  

---
[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus]