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Jan 4, 2002, 7:26pm

Hi all,

I just discovered that there is yet another consequence to be
considered. But I'll start at the beginning, and without getting (too)
angry because frankly I am beyond anger. My citizenship expired about
a week ago and I hadn't renewed yet. The day before yesterday I just
happened to log in (as a tourist) and heard the news. I considered
myself lucky and renewed right away. Today I wanted to log in again
but it seems they pulled another fast one because now I am confronted
with a forced upgrade to 3.2. The problem is that 3.2 won't run on my
old(ish) PC, all it does is freeze up and crash. And since it's right
after the Xmas holidays, I'm flat broke and even if I wasn't the
required hardware investment would still be considerable. So, now it
seems that not only the tourists are banned but the users of low-end
computers as well. For now I don't see any other alternative than ask
my money back and leave. It's sad that it has to end this way. Like so
many others, I have been a member of the community almost since day 1
and I have been a paying customer since the day they started charging.
I can still remember the day I was in the hall of the main hub of the
space station (Worlds Chat) looking out the window, and asking someone
about the blue planet. I was told it's called Alpha World, an entirely
new world powered by next generation technology. So I tried it, cits
were free so what the hell. At first I wasn't too impressed, it was
kinda slow, wasn't much too look at and there was only one avatar. But
in the end I decided I never wanted to leave. And now I have to.

ReneS

Jan 4, 2002, 7:49pm

Rene,

I was exactly in the same position as you yesterday. I was forced to take
the upgrade and when I upgraded there was no text at the sign-on screen,
only a sign-on box with round buttons and at the bottom the only option was
to cancel. I reinstalled with the same results. I wrote to Roland (poor
guy had to take my wrath) and he sent me this link. Try completely taking
AW off your computer, but before you do, save your teleports, contacts and
telegrams (back them up). Then use this link:

http://objects.activeworlds.com/downloads/awb32.exe

It should work for you, but if it doesn't try contacting
support at activeworlds.com and send a copy to roland at activeworlds.com

It worked for me, hope it works for you.

Sinew

[View Quote]

Jan 4, 2002, 8:20pm

Thanks for your support. I'll try this first thing tomorrow.

ReneS

[View Quote] >Rene,
>
>I was exactly in the same position as you yesterday. I was forced to take
>the upgrade and when I upgraded there was no text at the sign-on screen,
>only a sign-on box with round buttons and at the bottom the only option was
>to cancel. I reinstalled with the same results. I wrote to Roland (poor
>guy had to take my wrath) and he sent me this link. Try completely taking
>AW off your computer, but before you do, save your teleports, contacts and
>telegrams (back them up). Then use this link:
>
>http://objects.activeworlds.com/downloads/awb32.exe
>
>It should work for you, but if it doesn't try contacting
>support at activeworlds.com and send a copy to roland at activeworlds.com
>
>It worked for me, hope it works for you.
>
>Sinew

Jan 4, 2002, 9:30pm

Computers are just like that, who loves them knows how it is demanding
to upgrade regularly and keep updated, this isn't a problem of
activeworlds , this is a problem of the whole computer based
technologies. I am sorry to hear that and I hope that you will soon come
back, otherwise even the net itself will be soon a place that won't let
you in, not for charging but for your machine is getting old.
take care
icey

[View Quote] >Hi all,
>
>I just discovered that there is yet another consequence to be
>considered. But I'll start at the beginning, and without getting (too)
>angry because frankly I am beyond anger. My citizenship expired about
>a week ago and I hadn't renewed yet. The day before yesterday I just
>happened to log in (as a tourist) and heard the news. I considered
>myself lucky and renewed right away. Today I wanted to log in again
>but it seems they pulled another fast one because now I am confronted
>with a forced upgrade to 3.2. The problem is that 3.2 won't run on my
>old(ish) PC, all it does is freeze up and crash. And since it's right
>after the Xmas holidays, I'm flat broke and even if I wasn't the
>required hardware investment would still be considerable. So, now it
>seems that not only the tourists are banned but the users of low-end
>computers as well. For now I don't see any other alternative than ask
>my money back and leave. It's sad that it has to end this way. Like so
>many others, I have been a member of the community almost since day 1
>and I have been a paying customer since the day they started charging.
>I can still remember the day I was in the hall of the main hub of the
>space station (Worlds Chat) looking out the window, and asking someone
>about the blue planet. I was told it's called Alpha World, an entirely
>new world powered by next generation technology. So I tried it, cits
>were free so what the hell. At first I wasn't too impressed, it was
>kinda slow, wasn't much too look at and there was only one avatar. But
>in the end I decided I never wanted to leave. And now I have to.
>
>ReneS
>

Jan 4, 2002, 9:45pm

> Computers are just like that, who loves them knows how it is demanding
> to upgrade regularly and keep updated, this isn't a problem of
> activeworlds , this is a problem of the whole computer based
> technologies. I am sorry to hear that and I hope that you will soon come
> back, otherwise even the net itself will be soon a place that won't let
> you in, not for charging but for your machine is getting old.
> take care
> icey

The net requires nothing more then a web-browser (even text based ones still
exist! like lynx!!) and some form of connection to view. Some of the oldest
PC's can still view the web. Now if you're talking applications.. yes you
will need to update every so often to keep up fairly well.

--Bowen--

Jan 4, 2002, 9:48pm

Yep, unfortunately, it's almost impossible (but definately impractable) to
get something compatible with all hardware. There's just so many that
there's going to be problems along the way. I don't know why that would
happen since that update just made tourists disabled... I'm guessing your
computer is pretty fragile. It might be time to reformat. ;)

[View Quote]

Jan 4, 2002, 10:10pm

It depends when you bought your computer, and it depends what you what
from the net...it depends...

[View Quote] >
>The net requires nothing more then a web-browser (even text based ones still
>exist! like lynx!!) and some form of connection to view. Some of the oldest
>PC's can still view the web. Now if you're talking applications.. yes you
>will need to update every so often to keep up fairly well.
>
>--Bowen--
>
>
>

Jan 4, 2002, 10:11pm

This is why I like computers, it is a challange

[View Quote] >Yep, unfortunately, it's almost impossible (but definately impractable) to
>get something compatible with all hardware. There's just so many that
>there's going to be problems along the way. I don't know why that would
>happen since that update just made tourists disabled... I'm guessing your
>computer is pretty fragile. It might be time to reformat. ;)
>
[View Quote]

Jan 4, 2002, 10:14pm

It depends when you bought your computer, and it depends what you want
from the net...it depends... sorry


[View Quote] > It depends when you bought your computer, and it depends what you what
> from the net...it depends...
>
[View Quote]

Jan 4, 2002, 10:27pm

True for new applications. Not necessarily true for new programs.
New programs are often badly designed, cheap thrown together,
produced in a minimum of time or have "goodies" like skin,
animated buttons, grinning idiots that come up instead of the
help and so on.
Who needs a 30 seconds entertainment before he comes to the
web page where he finds his informations? Who really looks
at animated buttons - after the first week? Who has his
office assistant still enabled?

Microsoft says people need new stuff, idiots belive it.
Good standard software still is very fast on a 386/25.

It's true, new applications sometimes need new hardware, but
with new hardware the program developement even becomes worse,
because the program developers are too often used to use
ressources that are far above the standard.

(this does not mean that I want back to assembler)

[View Quote] --
"_
|
/\
\ /
__/ /_

Jan 4, 2002, 11:05pm

I don't think I could scream amen loud enough!

I absolutly can't stand the whole microsoft philisophy that the more usless
resource sucking bells and whistles it adds to it's products the better they
are. I'm still using win 98, and I saw a friend who has me or something.
Takes about 0.5 seconds to load every window because there is fancy
gradients and a background image. I think you can disable stuff like that..
but why even have it in the first place? Something can be user friendly and
efficient at the same time. Programs should go more for brutal efficiency.
Save the bells and whistles for games. (heck even some games go too far in
the animated interface department)


[View Quote]

Jan 5, 2002, 2:28am

"icey" <icey at altavista.net> a écrit dans le message news: 3C364293.5090602 at altavista.net...
> This is why I like computers, it is a challange

As is english spelling.

Fox Mc Cloud

Jan 5, 2002, 2:31am

LoL I was waiting for you to post this :)

> As is english spelling.

As is English grammar. :)

(notice english is not English in his post hehe)

--Bowen--

Jan 5, 2002, 2:33am

Me have excuse. Me poor foreigner, don't know good speak english.

Fox Mc Cloud

"bowen" <bowen at omegauniverse.com> a écrit dans le message news: 3c3681a7$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com...
> LoL I was waiting for you to post this :)
>
>
> As is English grammar. :)
>
> (notice english is not English in his post hehe)
>
> --Bowen--

Jan 5, 2002, 2:34am

LOL, you're better then a lot of people that speak English natively. ;)

--Bowen--

[View Quote]

Jan 5, 2002, 3:01am

I was once frustrated by the exact same idea. It will continue to nag at
your mind until you remember that 95% of people don't know jack about how to
use a computer. You have the mindset of a "power-user" (using that term
loosely). You know what's going on, what you want to get done, and how to do
it. You don't want any BS (I.a. Office Assistants popping up, performance
penalties b/c of "pretty" graphics, etc, etc, etc) standing in your way or
slowing you down. But when you're Microsoft, trying to produce a product
like Windowz, that's designed to be useable by someone dumber than a red
brick, all those graphics and things are good. Most people like all the
fancy graphics, neat animated office guys that spin around, and such.
(Prime example of this.. Have you ever seen the way IE will do transitions
between web pages? My dad loves these things and demands that I use them in
his website. I hover think they look stupid and waste time b/c it takes the
page 3 seconds longer to load. I want to design a *professional* site, he
just wants it to look cool and has no sense of what a pro site is.) These
things somehow make the computer "not so hard", or so it seems they can
understand it and tackle it better. The help provided by "clippy" the paper
clip in Office can be very useful if you're doing something very complex,
however there is no purpose for the paper clip. The same menus could be
launched by clicking the help button ( the one that shows clippy) or with
the help dropdown. So, you see.. Windowz isn't made with power-users in
mind...

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeremy Booker
JTech Web Systems
(www.JTechWebSystems.com -- Coming Soon)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[View Quote]

Jan 5, 2002, 3:37am

ya but righ tnow i have no chose becuase over 90% of the games and software
are geered towards widnows only and theres now way im using a mac. linux
would be ok for me but then i couldnt play any of my games. rgight no dual
booting would be really inconveinient for me.

I wish there was a new OS that had the more computer-smart people in mind.
No extra fancy grahpic things and things to make the windows look pretty.
and i cant stress anything more then this word: CRASHING and this one:
SUCKS!!!! Tha would be great but the thing is i don't know hwo much support
it would get from software comapnies unless they were convinced that a lot
of people use it.

Until then. I gotta stick with winblows and the crashing and security
problems (i dotn hae any but theres a heck of a lot of patches for me to
consider this safe) but i heard XP crashed rarely and isnt a bloated
multemedia crap whatever like ME is.

-Cozmo

[View Quote]

Jan 5, 2002, 4:09am

nah, just my black gansta homies speak like dis homes... (tryin to act
black)

--
TrekkerX
Commatron & Athnex
http://www.commatron.com
http://www.athnex.com
[View Quote]

Jan 5, 2002, 4:12am

You sure wrote that black on white

Fox Mc Cloud

"trekkerx" <zac at commatron.com> a écrit dans le message news: 3c36988b at server1.Activeworlds.com...
> nah, just my black gansta homies speak like dis homes... (tryin to act
> black)
>
> --
> TrekkerX

Jan 5, 2002, 7:27am

You're right XP is super-fast, and can be customized for the "power-user" or
the "red brick guy". The only problem with XP is that it ruins the AW
graphics for some reason. They all become distorted. Other than that XP
works great, very stable.

LilAlpha Phalpha

[View Quote]

Jan 5, 2002, 1:30pm

I've got XP... graphics aren't ruined... perhaps it's the combination of =
XP with whatever video card is being used?

=C1ine

[View Quote]

Jan 5, 2002, 4:05pm

Thanks, it seems to be working now. I haven't yet tested it
extensively but I did walk around for about 10 minutes without any
problems. Funny thing I noticed about awb32.exe is that it no longer
requires the upgrade, so I imagine this is a new executable but with
the same name. I also changed to software mode (which is surprisingly
fast compared to 3.1) and lowered the frame rate and visibility.
Textures still take forever to load (it took 2 visits to AWGate to get
them right) but at least I can still get there.

ReneS

[View Quote] >Rene,
>
>I was exactly in the same position as you yesterday. I was forced to take
>the upgrade and when I upgraded there was no text at the sign-on screen,
>only a sign-on box with round buttons and at the bottom the only option was
>to cancel. I reinstalled with the same results. I wrote to Roland (poor
>guy had to take my wrath) and he sent me this link. Try completely taking
>AW off your computer, but before you do, save your teleports, contacts and
>telegrams (back them up). Then use this link:
>
>http://objects.activeworlds.com/downloads/awb32.exe
>
>It should work for you, but if it doesn't try contacting
>support at activeworlds.com and send a copy to roland at activeworlds.com
>
>It worked for me, hope it works for you.
>
>Sinew

Jan 5, 2002, 4:21pm

I just did that about a year ago, when I replaced my harddisk. After
that I never had any problems with any software, not even with AW 3.1.
But for 3.2 the specs of my PC are just too low (from my point of view
this was an upgrade from 3.1 to 3.2). A P200 with 32 Mb RAM and a 2 Mb
(PCI) video card just doesn't do the trick (or barely, as it seems to
be working now, more or less).

ReneS

On 4 Jan 2002 18:48:42 -0500, "blasto" <GovDion at subdimension.com>
[View Quote] >Yep, unfortunately, it's almost impossible (but definately impractable) to
>get something compatible with all hardware. There's just so many that
>there's going to be problems along the way. I don't know why that would
>happen since that update just made tourists disabled... I'm guessing your
>computer is pretty fragile. It might be time to reformat. ;)
>

Jan 5, 2002, 7:01pm

well...I've tried 3 different cards. A S3 Savage4 32MB 2x AGP
A Nvidia Vanta LT 8MB 2xAGP
And a Diamond StealthIII S350 Xtreme 32MB 4x AGP

the graphics mess up on all 3 of them, what kind of card are you using?

Lil


[View Quote] Áine

[View Quote]

Jan 6, 2002, 12:13am

It's just an OEM Intel video card that came with this HP Pavilion 7915.
4mb vid memory.



[View Quote]

Jan 6, 2002, 9:19am

I am not English

[View Quote] >"icey" <icey at altavista.net> a écrit dans le message news: 3C364293.5090602 at altavista.net...
>
>
>As is english spelling.
>
>Fox Mc Cloud
>
>

Jan 6, 2002, 9:18pm

Sorry icey, it really wasn't meant in an insulting way :)
I just can't resist being sarcastic sometimes ;)

Fox Mc Cloud

"icey" <icey at altavista.net> a écrit dans le message news: 3C3830F1.2070504 at altavista.net...
> I am not English

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