:) It appears you have better connections with them - you might have better luck. Javascript is powerful enough as it is, there's no need to use IE- specific stuff...
I'd second that.
And yet, Mapa chose to charge 204 shekels per year for an online subscription. Compare that to about 160 shekels for their Gold Atlas book, which I've been using for 5 years after buying once. Similarly, Rav-Millim costs 112 shekels
If you still trust your Gold Atlas from five years ago then you would easely get lost with it by now. My 2000(2001?) edition of Gush Dan atlas
was less and less useful by the time I bought the 2003 edition. It's not
to say that you don't need it, I need it the most while I'm driving (and
still held myself back from buying that iPaq with a GPS and Mapa's
navigation software, forgot its name), but it's nothing like the online
site.
In addition, the online service is there all the time - many people at the office ask me to check a route or find a place or lookup a pharmacy, I wouldn't be able to do that (including that pharmacy's telephone number) from the printed map.
a year for their online Hebrew dictionary - compare that to 90 shekels I paid for the good Milon Hahove dictionary or about 350 shekels for the 5-volume printed Rav-Millim - both of which will still be useful for a few more decades.
Nobody forces you - I also startted paying subscription to Babylon for use by me and my (Ola Chadasha) girl friend. I also pay them because I like their service and want them to be around later when I need them (it was easy to find stolen licenses floating on the net, but I decided against it).
Nobody forces you to pay, just like nobody forces others to pay you for your services.
Maybe when these companies will realize that to us, their service is just one of *dozens* books and information sources we use in day-to-day life, they will come up with down-to-earth pricing and the masses will actually start using them. They will probably even make more money this way.
Maybe but, for instance in the specific example of Mapa, it's the best mapping interface I've seen yet - not just for Israel, it beats the hell out of services like MapQuest or the other half a dozen they have in Europe.
Consider this: I have about two-dozen dictionaries (of various languages) on my shelf. I must have paid over 1500 shekels for these dictionaries, but this will supposedly serve me many, many years. Would I pay 24*95= 2280 shekels a year for having all these dictionaries online? Not likely.
You can pay something like 50$ for a life-time Babylon account. I think it beats your shelf (price, updates, convenience).
I'm not *that* desperate for having online access to my Dutch and Japanese dictionaries. Frankly, I'm not even that desperate about a online Hebrew dictionary. And I already have free access to an excellent English one (m-w.com).
I know these (try http://www.bartleby.com, while you are at it), but still the option to CTRL-RightClick and get a translation in English-Hebrew or English-English with dozens of other dictionaries a click away (English-Brazilian-Portuguese) beats it for my needs.
And imagine that I had to pay more yearly to access the map books I have at home, trip idea books, cookbooks, encyclopedia, phone book, or who knows what else. The kind of prices that the online services expect simply do not make sense when you consider this in the context of the numerous books you use in daily life.
Speaking of phone books - how long ago have you opened a phone directory vs. how long ago have you just dialed "144" to get a number?
When I finally DID open a yellow pages to fidn a business near my house it wasn't as convenient even as much as their site.
--Amos
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