Sponsor's Message

Firstly, it would seem that The Warehouse's recent sub-$1000 deal on a Dell computer package has sold like hotcakes. According to a number of reports, many stores are now running low on stock and the first units were literally flying out the door.

While this is a good thing for the penetration of reasonably well spec'd PCs into NZ's homes, I wonder if it might not knock around the pre-Christmas sales levels at more than a few local clone retailers.

Since they come with an internal 56Kbps modem, I guess a fair percentage of these PCs will also end being hooked to the Net, and some of those will have Net-newbies sitting at their keyboards.

What a shame therefore, that The Warehouse didn't consider bundling a little booklet on Net-basics and netiquette -- it might have made life a lot easier for all concerned.

Indeed, I've be advocating that ISPs provide all newbies with such a booklet for many years now -- but I don't see much indication that this idea has been taken up.

Perhaps letting Net-newbies know right from day one that they shouldn't open unsolicited attachments, that they shouldn't respond to spam, that they shouldn't send spam, that no offer received over the Net should be taken at face-value,etc, etc might just save them some money and embarrassment, while making life easier for the rest of us as well.

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I had hoped that InternetNZ would have gotten around to producing such a booklet for which ISPs could be offered a right to republish for free -- or even a small nominal fee. Surely this is the type of thing that would also give InternetNZ a much-needed profile boost.?

Oh well, since nobody else seems willing to, and since I may soon be in the employ of the taxpayer (on the dole that is), I figured I might as well do the job myself.

So, if any ISP or other vendor is interested in the completely no-charge, royalty-free rights to republish such a completely service/brand-agnostic booklet or any part thereof, please let me know. If there is any interest I'll go ahead and knock something up

Sky's The Limit
A reader tells me that Sky TV is pushing the Rialto Channel in what would appear to be a somewhat dubious manner.

Being a subscriber to the "basic" Sky TV package, the reader recently received a "piece of cardboard" in the mail urging him to take a look at Channel 23 and, sure enough, this normally blocked channel now appeared to be available.

This wasn't a big event however, since the reader didn't find the content appealing and apparently didn't bother watching again.

However, in the following month's mail he received his Sky bill -- which included the regular "basic" package *plus* an additional charge for the Rialto Channel.

After ringing Sky to complain about the charge, the reader was told that channel 23 would continue to be free until December 21st and that the extra charge was the first month's subscription in advance.

Now excuse me -- but isn't this a nasty and illegal little tactic known as inertia selling? In fact, the whole proposition looks alarmingly like the unethical tricks that Aussie domain name scammers have been using for years.

The Sky customer support person told the reader that they didn't have to pay the extra amount billed -- but there was certainly nothing on the printed account to suggest that this was an optional charge. Indeed, looking at an emailed copy of the statement I can confirm that it clearly says "Amount Due: $48.64"

Did anyone else get this clever little attempt to seemingly dupe the slow and indolent into subscribing to a channel they might not want?

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