Ah, let me tell you of my experience with Earthlink.
Once upon a time, a long time ago, about a week to be exact, Nkuvu got a new iMac. Nkuvu had been using a local ISP with Windows 2000, but they were like a wicked stepmother when it came to support. Nkuvu would call and ask "Oh ISP support, why oh why can I not connect to your fair service?" Whereupon the ISP stepmother -- I mean support -- would reply " Nkuvu was irritated by the condescending attitude of the support people, but the local ISP
did offer free fruit, so Nkuvu waited, hoping that the connections would get better.
Then one day in a flash of light, Nkuvu's fairy godmother appeared and with a *poof* of her wand gave Nkuvu a brand new flat panel iMac. The fairy godmother only asked Nkuvu for some pieces of paper in return! Oh, joy! Nkuvu danced with delight. Since Nkuvu is and was an internet addict, Nkuvu immediately tried to connect to the internet. Lo and behold, the local ISP had apparently been eating their own poisoned fruit, for there was no response from the remote computers. Nkuvu called the evil stepmothers, and they said "Foolish young Nkuvu, this is not our fault. We are at the mercy of the poor phone lines, and can do nothing to ease your internet addiction. Here, eat this poisoned fruit." Nkuvu refused the fruit, and with sudden realization knew how to foil the plot of the evil stepmothers.
Nkuvu spoke to the fairy godmother, and she suggested finding a new ISP. "This local company is filled with buffoons" she stated. So Nkuvu tried to create an account with Earthlink. After all, Earthlink software was included on the shiny new flat panel iMac, so Nkuvu figured that the fairy godmother had placed it there.
Nkuvu went to the web page to create an account. The web page cried out "No! You cannot put any dashes or spaces in the phone number!" and Nkuvu replied "Silly web page, if you can see the dashes, why not remove them yourself?" The web page did not respond, so Nkuvu wearily removed the dashes from the phone number. Nkuvu examined the information, checked it twice, and pressed "Submit" After a long pause, the web page was reloaded with no information entered. Nkuvu sighed, then entered the information again. Once more the result was the same.
Now at this point, dear reader, keep in mind that Nkuvu has not had a working internet connection for
days. The local ISP can be coerced into connection on rare occasions, so Nkuvu was not completely starved. In frustration, Nkuvu sent an email to Earthlink support, pleading and growling for a new account. Minutes passed, and Nkuvu began to fear that all ISPs had been sabotaged by poison fruit. With a flash of light a message appeared in Nkuvu's Inbox. Nkuvu eagerly opened it up, only to find words similar to the following: "Dear Earthlink Member. We love you! You love us! To get more email inboxes, just go to our support page, and enter your member name and password where we tell you! Sigh! Aren't you happy? We're so happy!" Nkuvu knew that there must be a different brand of poisoned fruit at Earthlink. So Nkuvu searched briefly on the internet, found another ISP, and lived happily ever after...
The End
![Big Grin :D :D](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)