Yahoo locks out users from email....
Oh joy, yahoo access is back at the libraries! And we only lost a couple of weeks... Does this worry anyone except me?
Of late, if anyone has tried to contact me at my Yahoo address, you may be wondering why I'm not answering - at least immediately.
The answer is simple: Yahoo is blocking my email. Yahoo is blocking a lot of other people's email, as well - namely library users who log on to public library terminals, at least those at the main public library system of the OC. It seems that the particular newly installed configuration of the OC library system (23 libaries with approximately 200 public access internet terminals in continuous use) has the Yahoo software convinced that it is a single user - using a LOT! of Yahoo email bandwidth. Thus, Yahoo is cutting off several thousand trusting users at minimum, and this has been going on for approximately two weeks now.
Allegedly the library system is working to correct the problem. Right. I talked with the sysop for the library system of Orange County - the "2nd Silicon Valley" - on several occasions, such as when, for the first two years or so of their internet adventure, they disabled features such as copy and paste, meaning that you had to spend minutes writing down 100 character URLs and then typing them back in. This genius told me that he simply disabled everything non-essential, as he had lots of other jobs to handle, and simply disabling everything was the easiest route. So, maybe two years or so from now, who knows, maybe we will be able to retrieive our Yahoo mail.
Oops! I just remembered - I think - that Yahoo erases your account if you don't have any activity for 30 days or something - maybe 90, I forget. So, a lot of unhappy elderly or disabled libary patrons, who don't have all the other options that I have...
The library people here just informed me that their people ARE working on the issue and that the problem is with Yahoo. To wit: "Yahoo doesn't care." With that kind of attitude, I suspect that a lot of people won't care very much for Yahoo much longer, either. Now, so far, this is just the word of the libary personnel, but I note that it is virtually impossible to leave a message for any human being at Yahoo any more, and that I have not gotten any replies yet or even an acknowledgement from the remainging channels that appear to possibly have human monitoring.
Isn't socialism great! Isn't corporate capitalism great! Isn't fascism great!
Now what does that leave?
Your local friendly (except for today) anarchist.
Sentiment for the day: AARRRGH!