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We hope that our users won't mind while we retell some of the amusing
or interesting tales gone by. This is for everyone's enjoyment and we
will keep the names anonymous or use an alias.
We've received calls and questions from people about all kinds of things.
Early in 2005, we got notification that a woman
from Florida signed up for a premium account. Excitedly, I searched the web
logs and found that she had found us through clicking on one of our google ads
while searching for "shell access". I quickly created her account and let her
know through email that I would be calling in a few minutes. When I called
her 10 minutes later, she didn't know who we where and became confused. I
thought at this point that maybe someone else had used her card, so I verified
her address and asked her if she had just signed up in the last hour for a suso
account. She was still confused. I told her that we recieved an account
signup that used her name, phone number, address and credit card and that I was
calling to give her the password.
At this point she responded "But I haven't even received the card yet" and
wondered why I would be calling with the password?
Card? What was she talking about?
"You don't mean a Shell gas station card do you?" I asked.
"Yes" she replied.
I went on to explain "Oh no, we don't have anything to do with Shell, the oil
company, we are a website hosting company that also offers something called
shell accounts. But that's a service for the Internet."
"Oh, well I already have internet access through BellSouth and I don't want
to change" she said.
This lady had searched google for "shell access", clicked on our google ad,
gone through our entire signup form, entered even her own credit card
information, all without realizing that she wasn't on a site that had anything
to do with petroleum products. Amazing! This goes to prove that there really
are people out there that are clueless.
In case its not clear, a "shell account" in the sense that internet services
companies use it, refers to a way of accessing the server so that you can run
commands. You are accessing a shell when you do this. Some people are interested
in having shell accounts, which is why we advertise it on google.
As an intro, Linux is an open source operating system that is not
controlled by a single company, but rather a community of folks around
the globe. Open Source in general a sharp departure from the tried and
true way that products come to market.
Marina and I were busy moving suso.org into our new office downtown and we are
working on getting the DSL setup through SBC. Anyways, when she called to find
out what the username and password was, they asked her which OS she uses. Her
words:
I am amazed how little people know about Linux. I was talking to the SBC
for an hour and they told me that they don't support Linux server, and
tried to sound like he new what he was talking about.
He said that we would need to contact Linux directly to get the username
and the password. I said that Linux is an open source software and
there is not a head company who manages it the way windows is. He said
that since Linux is an Operation System it must have a company behind it
with a 1 800 number. So he advised me to call to tech support at Linux,
he said that they just had another customer who called and asked for the
Linux 1 800 number. So obviously Linux has a tech support hot line.
So here I am writing to the Linux tech sup :):):):)
Ironicly enough, one of the things we do is Linux advocacy, promotion and support. ;-)
In 2000, suso.org was starting to grow. I had to start charging newer users
a monthly fee for their accounts to help offset my own costs of keeping it
running. Once in a while I needed to keep the pressure on people to pay
otherwise they let their account balances get out of control. One user, who
accrued a $20 balance wrote me saying:
"$20? Can I have some kind of payment plan"
I wrote back saying:
"Sure, the first payment is $20"
Modified: 2006-07-26 15:54:54
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