Freebie Updates
By Late Nite LeRoy
August 23, 2000
1800Discounts is giving out $10 for you to sign up for their free service which finds sales and discounts from local merchants near where you live. The string attached is that you have to refer 3 other people to do the same before they will send you the $10 they owe you.
The free pager I wrote about from goZing is history. They have canceled the program and are backpedaling if you try to ask them where your pager is at if you signed up months ago like I did. Maybe a few people got pagers, but they obviously found out they couldn't generate enough ad revenue to cover the exorbitant cost. Bummer. I got tired of waiting on them and bought a StarTac cell phone with a Verizon "no roaming, no long distance" plan. $35/month is a lot more than free, but the ability to use the phone anywhere without worrying about roaming is a definite plus. The StarTac is web enabled with a screen to read your e-mail. Verizon is offering 3 months of free web access for new customers. After the intro, it will cost $6.95 in addition to a basic plan. If you receive addresses or other data frequently while on the road, this bypasses the inconvenience of writing them down while you are driving. The StarTac has some other awesome features. It can be programmed to use up to 4 different numbers, so when you travel around the country, your clients can reach you on a local number for them. It can also store 99 groups of 4 numbers each, all with a picture icon and the person's name displayed. I currently have a source to get these for $100 each with a new Verizon plan, if you just ask me.
FreeDSL from Winfire is being installed now in various neighborhoods. They offer 3 speeds to those fortunate enough to be in a qualified location. The "free" one is 3 times faster than a 56k connection and requires an on screen banner. You also have to recommend 10 friends to get the $199 DSL modem free. They will sell it to you if you can't find 10 people who want it. But for $19.95/month they offer a DSL speed about 7 times faster than a 56kbps, includes the DSL modem without referral obligations and has NO banner on the screen. And for status seekers, they offer the blazing DSL 1.4 megbps (up to) high end system for $34.95/month, which also includes the DSL modem. DSL users tell me the free telephone services like DialPad and PhoneFree sound a lot better with a high speed connection. I look forward to trying it myself. Winfire also provides free 56k dial up service to anyone while waiting for DSL to arrive in your neighborhood. They have a lot of local numbers from which to choose. Check their list before committing though to make sure you don't encounter long distance charges to use it. The banner is so skinny, I'd prefer to call it a thin tool bar and is no where near as intrusive as many pay to surf banners or even NetZero's banner.
And ZDTV recently reported that someone tried to sell their vote on E-bay. The bidding got up to $10,000 before an E-bay official noticed it was illegal and pulled it off the board. So I must report your right to vote is still free, like it or not.
Links to all items mentioned are at my commercial site.
--LateNiteLeroy
You may send LateNite email at: leroy@commutefaster.com
LateNite Leroy is webmaster for http://www.commutefaster.com
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