Damn, that must be a hot picture you're trying to get a hold of!
Usenet seems to me about as useful as AOL. I used Usenet apps in UNIX then on my System 7 Mac (NewsHopper) for a while, before realising that news reading is a nightmare on a number of counts:
- Mac software like NewsHopper -- which offers rare features like "off-line" news reading -- are few and far between. NewsHopper also isn't properly threaded, and the author stopped updating the software when he got ME, poor guy. So cue the original license fee of £40 going down the drain...
- Micro$oft's Outlook Express is crap on the Mac compared with the PC version (which itself is pretty cack, but DOES do off-line reading).
- Ditto the news reader in Netscape's package
- Agar's Hogwash (another off-line capable newsreader) does the job quite nicely, but it also costs. And I've already been bitten
In fact, re cheap software, I've been bitten TWICE! Does anyone remember "Anarchie," which became Interarchy? **
- Anything you find on Usenet you invariably also find on a website.
- Usenet is just another way for spammers to pick up email addresses
- You can get porn everywhere now I believe
OK, so just my four penneth. Now read the woeful Interarchy tale. I think I'll write my own software from now...
** OK, so I should expand on this... I paid a fee for Anarchie. And then the software prompted to me to download Interarchy. So I did. Figured I'd try it. I liked it. BUT You have to pay again (albeit at a slight discount).
Well, I paid AGAIN, and used Interarchy quite happily for a while. It's well-written, useful software. Then one day it prompted me to download the next version (version 5), and I did.
Silly arse. Had I learned nothing?? Well, in my defence, the new version offered nothing particularly "earth-shattering," just a few bug fixes and carbonisation. Also, the downloader mentioned NOTHING about extra license fees.
"Useful for when I get OS X" I thought, and downloaded it. Well, I used this new Interarchy quite happily at the same session. Nice software. Stable. Looked OK too. Cool.
But then I made the mistake of quitting and restarting my Mac.
When I went to load up Interarchy for use # 2, I discovered it was disabled until I entered ANOTHER software key which I had to pay for. Well, that was the last stroke. I wasn't THAT desparate for the new features. Jeez, this is as bad as buying MS Office! Interarchy offered me no way of reverting to version 4, which I'd paid for and was happy with. Nor did Stairways Software respond to several (civil) email enquiries. So, I have junked it. Sad.
A lesson learned. Don't pay for software unless it's from big outfits!! (OK, so I'm joking).