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Otherwise technically illiterate people used to be able to do this with AIM direct connect over 15 years ago. It still blows my mind that AOL had a near monopo

Otherwise technically illiterate people used to be able to do this with AIM direct connect over 15 years ago. It still blows my mind that AOL had a near monopoly in this space, and lost it by continually making the user experience worse.

24gttghh 9y ago
>and lost it by continually making the user experience worse. That does seem to happen more often than makes sense for many software/industrial/government organizations, doesn't it?
- tomc1985 9y ago
  It's people's relentless need to change things, and it's a trait that has ruined tech.
  - CaptSpify 9y ago
    I've often wondered if that is a side-effect of people needing to "prove their usefulness" in order to keep a job.
    - tomc1985 9y ago
      Rent-seeking seems to be on a strong upwards trend
orthecreedence 9y ago
I worked at AOL for a year. They have a way of taking a great idea/product and completely destroying it with idiotic features that nobody wants (but some exec thinks would be cool). It's probably catalyzed by their unfathomably stupid "matrix management" structure which optimizes for management bloat, confusion, and mediocrity.
- passivepinetree 9y ago
  Can you explain more about matrix management?
  - orthecreedence 9y ago
    Sorry, I missed your comment. If you've seen Office Space, comically it's kind of like that. I had four different direct bosses, each who were supposed to manage different aspects of what I did. What ended up happening most of the time was I had a "real" boss who would direct myself and a few other developers, and then we'd have random drop-ins of managers who had no clue what was going on and trying to change things to meet some ridiculous quota they had. Really the whole thing is set up to limit manager accountability (since managers can just point the finger at each other when something goes wrong) and increase worker frustration...it's not uncommon for two managers to tell you to do two different things.
empath75 9y ago
Aim was a potential multibillion dollar business that AOL just threw away. It was facebook before facebook existed.
- mac01021 9y ago
  How would they have earned those billions of dollars?
  - empath75 9y ago
    The same way Facebook did. All they had to do was persist away messages and they had a social network.
  - nl 9y ago
    Same way FB does now. The idea of FB status updates (and Twitter) literally came from the status line you could set in AIM.
acchow 9y ago
Could also send files over MSN Messenger
acheron 9y ago
AOL never liked or wanted AIM, and while "sabotaged it on purpose" might be too strong, it's not far off. http://mashable.com/2014/04/15/aim-history/ http://mashable.com/2014/04/15/aim-history/

24gttghh 9y ago

>and lost it by continually making the user experience worse. That does seem to happen more often than makes sense for many software/industrial/government organizations, doesn't it?

tomc1985 9y ago
It's people's relentless need to change things, and it's a trait that has ruined tech.
- CaptSpify 9y ago
  I've often wondered if that is a side-effect of people needing to "prove their usefulness" in order to keep a job.
  - tomc1985 9y ago
    Rent-seeking seems to be on a strong upwards trend

orthecreedence 9y ago

I worked at AOL for a year. They have a way of taking a great idea/product and completely destroying it with idiotic features that nobody wants (but some exec thinks would be cool). It's probably catalyzed by their unfathomably stupid "matrix management" structure which optimizes for management bloat, confusion, and mediocrity.

passivepinetree 9y ago
Can you explain more about matrix management?
- orthecreedence 9y ago
  Sorry, I missed your comment. If you've seen Office Space, comically it's kind of like that. I had four different direct bosses, each who were supposed to manage different aspects of what I did. What ended up happening most of the time was I had a "real" boss who would direct myself and a few other developers, and then we'd have random drop-ins of managers who had no clue what was going on and trying to change things to meet some ridiculous quota they had. Really the whole thing is set up to limit manager accountability (since managers can just point the finger at each other when something goes wrong) and increase worker frustration...it's not uncommon for two managers to tell you to do two different things.

empath75 9y ago

Aim was a potential multibillion dollar business that AOL just threw away. It was facebook before facebook existed.

mac01021 9y ago
How would they have earned those billions of dollars?
- empath75 9y ago
  The same way Facebook did. All they had to do was persist away messages and they had a social network.
- nl 9y ago
  Same way FB does now. The idea of FB status updates (and Twitter) literally came from the status line you could set in AIM.

acchow 9y ago

Could also send files over MSN Messenger

acheron 9y ago

AOL never liked or wanted AIM, and while "sabotaged it on purpose" might be too strong, it's not far off. http://mashable.com/2014/04/15/aim-history/ http://mashable.com/2014/04/15/aim-history/