AOL 9.1

I am incompetent.

My wife registered to AOL in 1995, when I left my family in Warrenville to go back to Mexico. She kept connected to me through this service.

Through all these years she has kept the conversation going, whether I am there or not.

Today I tried to install AOL 9.1 on my desktop. I failed.

Of course I can connect through the web browser of my choice using our AOL account, I use mainly three. But somehow it piques me to connect like a real technical man, with my own AOL installation on my desktop.

You know what?

At first it worked, for a day or two; that was a good feeling.

Then all of a sudden, through a series of obscure messages I do not feel like printing here; the software informed me that it couldn't connect anymore. I did try, my regular simple minded tricks to no avail, I do not even want to tell you how many times.

I couldn't do it.

I have been posting here all kinds of "nice" AOL emails informing me how many services that I hardly used anyway, were going to be cut. I had even bought AOL stock when I had a job at Lucent.

You know what? I think that it is going to be a long time, before something like AOL, grows up again.

Maybe a year or two.

I'll have my eyes open for the new kid in the block. Google, Digg? I really don't know. But it will come, and Joe the Plumber will be able to enjoy the Internet experience with no hassle.