Marco Cimarosti wrote:

>
> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> > I registered with the New York Times once, years ago, and did not "get
> > an id" and do not have to use a password. AFAICT there has been no
> > undesired e-mail as a result.
>
> Maybe it has changed: yesterday I had to define an id and a password.
> However, I checked an option for automatic check-in, so I don't really have
> to type anything when connecting to the NYT.

As it happens, I didn't find out whether there has been a change,
because someone posted the entire article (quite illegally) to sci.lang.

It turned out to be less informative than some postings over the last
few days to Ancient Near East List, which made it clear that there is no
comparable material so that no conclusions can be drawn at all.

The BMAC (Bactria-Margiana Archeological Complex) is also not a new
discovery/interpretation; it features heavily in the "Mummies"
conference volumes edited by Victor Mair, pub. 98 of a 1996 Philadelphia
conference.

> I also had to enter all my personal data (including annual income, etc.),
> and that's a good reward for reading an article once in a while (databases
> with users data are sold by the millions).

! Usually most of those items are optional?

> For the sole purpose of demonstrating traffic to advertisers, logging the IP
> addresses of visiting computers could have been enough. That's what most
> on-line newspapers worldwide do.
>
> > Please note that by reading the Times at the website you have avoided
> > paying 75c for a copy of the paper ($3.50 on Sunday), and they are
> > entitled to let their advertisers know that readers are in fact being
> > exposed to the advertisements. That's what pays for the web access.
>
> Right. The save is much bigger, in my case. Overseas newspapers cost even
> 200% of the original price here in Italy. And I should have driven to a
> kiosk in the airport or downtown.
>
> But, it must be said, I cannot use that copy of the NYT to wrap up my
> pottery. :-)

But whoever you're shipping it to would much rather have your local
newspaper!
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...