AOL created a column called "The AOL Insider" -- a woman named Meg who helps users cope with flat-rate pricing. (Sample comment: "if AOL is the information superhighway, I'm your AAA.") "Meg" offers helpful tips like "chat during offpeak hours" and "Avoid email for the time being". Now she's looking for a theme song...Using special AOL-only URLs, the columnist points users to four AOL sound files. Choice number one was described simply as "Meg. The Freshmaker." It's a 79916 byte file called "FRESH.WAV" -- "a 7.24 second sound bite from the TV commercial for Mentos mints," prompts the helpful file description. "The lyrics are, 'Fresh goes better, mentos knows freshness, fresh goes better with Mentos, fresh and full of life!' " Keywords: Jingle, Mints, Advertisement, Sound, Music, Win 3.1, PD.
Choice number two was the Welcome Back Kotter theme. "WBKOTTER.WAV is a 13.18 second sound bite from the theme to 'Welcome Back Kotter' as performed by John Sebastian. The lyrics are, 'Welcome back. Your dreams were your ticket out. Welcome back. To that same old place that you laughed about.' " Keywords: Tatman, TV, Show, Comedy, Sitcom, Sound, Music, Song, Win 3.1, PD
Sound file three: a 3.85 second sound bite of a conga drum, taken from the album "Erotic Sound Effects". ("Note: This clip was sampled at 22,050 Hz, which makes the WAV file size larger than those sampled at lower rates, but results in a cleaner sound, especially on higher-end boards.") And sound file four was--I kid you not--the Macarena. The 198K file (Keywords: Pop, 90s, Line, Dance, Spanish, Sound, Music, FD) has been downloaded 5493 times. "The complete recording can be found on the RCA 'Club Cutz' CD."
The fun thing is: we can all vote! Meg's web page has the complete list of choices -- and the instruction to "Vote now! Vote early! Vote often!"
On a completely unrelated note...one of the 18 areas in Love@AOL is "Heckler's Online Romance"--which offers downloadable pictures of regulars. Until they click on AOL's "More" button, users only see 20 file names, so the staff created a file named ***DON'T FORGET TO USE "MORE"***, and put it in the first slot. Its description read "don't waste your time downloading THIS file.. it's just a text version of what you've already read... save your time for the REAL stuff!"The file had been downloaded 5376 times.
Life on AOL - Part I
Life on AOL - Part II
Sneak Preview: Part III
Sneak Preview: Part IV
Life on AOL - Part V
Life on AOL - Part VI
Life on AOL - Part VII
Life on AOL - Part VIII
Life on AOL - Part IX
Life on AOL - Part X
Life on AOL - Part XI
Life on AOL - Part XII
Life on AOL - Part XIII
Life on AOL - Part XIV
Life on AOL - Part XV
Life on AOL - Part XVI
Life on AOL - Part XVII
Life on AOL - Part XIX
Life on AOL - Part XX
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