Juno’s moving into a computer near you soon!
Written: Mar 08 '01 (Updated Mar 09 '01)
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Pros: Its Free, for now!
Cons: Juno's new "Terms of Service" asks too much of "free Internet" customers.
The Bottom Line: This new Juno proposal drives the cost of the “free Internet” lunch too high for most users.
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| Schinjay's Full Review: Juno |
It may happen while you’re sleeping. It may happen while you’re awake. But rest assured if you are signed up for Juno’s “free Internet” service, some time or other one of the nation’s leading Internet service providers will be utilizing your personal computer’s storage and processing capacity to solve somebody else’s problems. I just thought you’d want to know. Hey, keep it down there Juno; we’re trying to talk here!
In announcing its “virtual supercomputer” plan February 1st Juno changed the face of free Internet access in hopes of staving off the .com grim reaper that claimed so many already. Only Juno, Net Zero and Blue Light have survived as major players following the carnage of the recent “free Internet” wars, and Juno thinks it has come up with the ideal plan for making something out of the nothing that a lot of people like paying for their Internet access.
The new plan is an ambitious one in which Juno will strike deals with commercial clients that require access to supercomputer capacity to execute computationally intensive programs for biomedical and research purposes. This might normally be cost prohibitive for many such customers.
The community minded Juno plans to harness the collective capacity of its “free Internet” client’s inactive computers and intertwine them into a “virtual supercomputer” offering its big commercial clients use of what might be considered the world’s fastest computer, approaching or breaking the petahertz barrier, with a hypothetical processor speed of approximately a billion megahertz. Wow! I didn’t realize what I had in that old brains box mine!
Juno officials claim that the project will be totally voluntary for participants. Their customers who don’t mind sharing their computer time will download special screen-saver software that will perform contracted computations while the computer is otherwise idle. They claim it will not interfere with the customer’s normal computer usage. Then the results of the completed computations will be downloaded to Juno at a later time.
It is projected that those commercial clients will be willing to pay big bucks for the services of its new “virtual supercomputer”. Just how long do we think it will take before Juno requires all of its “free Internet” clients to not only download their special software, but also leave their computers on 24/7/365 so that Juno can meet its big commercial computational obligations? Maybe a nanosecond? Maybe two?
Juno quietly posted its revised “Terms of Service” agreement in the middle of January, stating that its “free Internet” users must allow Juno to download software that would perform tasks not necessarily Internet related. If asked, those users must also leave their computer on all the time. The special “screensaver” could not be deleted or tampered with and Juno would have the right to initiate a “phone home” sequence from the client’s computer to its central computer whenever it saw fit. Now isn’t that special!
Internet watchdog groups are up in arms about the development and you should at least be aware of their concerns. First of all, a recent letter from Charles Ardai, President and CEO of Juno, to their online users went the extra mile in attempting to whitewash the situation and make it sound as benign as possible.
Ardai’s letter was sweetly reassuring that the entire project was totally voluntary, purely legitimate and would be highly beneficial to mankind. But don’t fool yourself, what Ardai stated in his warm and friendly letter is not legally binding, but the cold hard facts in Juno’s “Terms of Service” agreement are. And according to all of that legal mumbo-jumbo, the only thing voluntary about Juno’s plan is that you can choose to use Juno’s service, or choose not to. Somebody open a window, it’s starting to stink in here! Juno, what have you done now?
Gary Baker, a Juno spokesman, has downplayed the furor by assuring subscribers they wouldn’t have to leave their computers on 24/7. He stated that some of the computation work would be performed offline and “phoned home” later. He didn’t think their “free Internet” customers would mind this small inconvenience. After all, they’ve put up with Juno’s annoying ad-bar on their screen for years now. Who’s going to get all bent out of shape over a little trampling of their Fourth Amendment rights?
Watchdog analysts warn that this could open the door for government investigators to take advantage of weak wiretapping laws, gaining access to customer’s computer data via Juno’s software installed for “distributed computing” purposes.
Mr. Baker has alluded to the fact that people who use Juno’s “free Internet” service must agree to their policy that “may require you to leave your computer turned on at all times.” He also reminds that the 20% of Juno’s 4 million some-odd Internet customers that pay for their service would not be bound by this agreement. See there? You do have choices! Costly ones!
Well, whatever I have rattling around in my old computer, I ‘m not so sure I want Juno flitting around in there when I’m not looking. This idea may be OK for the bunch of SETI lovers that have been practicing “distributed computing” for years trying to discover extraterrestrial life out there. That was a voluntary deal. Juno’s plan may start out voluntary but don’t bet it won’t be long before all of its “free Internet” customers are required to join in on the new, exciting profit stream fun.
Oh, Juno, will you pipe down? I’m trying to type here!
That's my epinion! Mahalo for stopping by!
PS.
Thanks to epinions author aEnigma for sharing the following delightful little letter from Juno's CEO to her father who at one time enjoyed the use of Juno's $9.95/month unlimited ISP service. Not any more! Apparantly his 150 - 200 hour/per month usage was too much for them to handle.
Here's the letter via Juno provided by aEnigma's father....
Dear Juno member,
This message is to notify you that if you do not choose to cancel your service (see instructions below), the price of your Juno subscription will increase from $9.95 per month to $29.95 per month starting on your first billing date on or after March 1, 2001. Please read the rest of the message carefully for more information.
While most of our subscribers use our services in ways that are consistent with our current business model, we have found that a small percentage use our service abnormally heavily and impose a disproportionate burden on our technological, financial, human, and/or other resources. Because you are one of our heaviest users, we regret we cannot continue to provide you with access to Juno's premium dial-up service at your current discounted rate. Instead, we need to switch your service to a price point that is more appropriate given your usage history.
Starting with your next billing date on or after March 1, 2001, Juno will begin to bill you at the new price of $29.95 per month. If you would prefer to cancel your subscription rather than continue as a subscriber at the new price, you may do so by replying to this e-mail message and typing the word "Cancel" in the subject line of your reply. If you have questions but do not wish to cancel your service, please send a separate message to "billing@support.juno.com". Note that in order to avoid being billed at the new price, you would have to cancel your subscription before your first billing date at the new price. To check when your next billing date will occur, go to http://account.juno.com/ and click on "Account Summary." If you wish to cancel before getting billed at the new price, please be careful to make sure you cancel BEFORE rather than on or after the relevant billing date.
We hope you can appreciate why this price increase is necessary, and we apologize for any inconvenience.
Sincerely,
Charles Ardai, President and CEO
Juno Online Services, Inc.
NOTE: AS PER THE SERVICE AGREEMENT TO WHICH ALL JUNO SUBSCRIBERS MUST AGREE UPON CREATION OF THEIR JUNO ACCOUNT, JUNO RESERVES THE RIGHT AT ANY TIME TO CHANGE ITS FEES AND CHARGES FOR USE OF PORTIONS OF THE SERVICE, TO INSTITUTE NEW OR ADDITIONAL FEES, AND TO CHANGE ITS POLICIES, METHODS, AND PROCEDURES WITH RESPECT TO PRICING, BILLING, CANCELLATIONS, AND SURCHARGES, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION.
Check out aEnigma at Epinions.com. She does some good stuff!
Mahalo, Schinjay
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Schinjay
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Member: Steve Schindler
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Reviews written: 37
Trusted by: 58 members
About Me:
Steve Schindler writes his informative and humorous "Schindler's Cyber List" for epinions.com.
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