gardner@sri-spam.ARPA (10/19/85)
From: gardner@sri-spam.ARPA (David Gardner) If you are interested in looking into the 'Byte Information Exchange' Amiga conference.... Dial up your local TYMNET access number Login as> BYTENETI;MGH At next prompt type> BIX next prompt> BIX User> NEW And answer the questions. I understand that the system is under test and therefore free until the 1-Nov. They are accepting comments on the format plus there is LOTS of Amiga discussion going on. Once you are on type "JOIN AMIGA" to get bombarded with stuff to read. Have fun! David Gardner
jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) (10/21/85)
In article <4090@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> gardner@sri-spam.ARPA writes: >From: gardner@sri-spam.ARPA (David Gardner) > >If you are interested in looking into the 'Byte Information Exchange' >Amiga conference.... > >Dial up your local TYMNET access number > >Login as> BYTENETI;MGH > >At next >prompt type> BIX > >next prompt> BIX > >User> NEW > >And answer the questions. I understand that the system is under >test and therefore free until the 1-Nov. They are accepting >comments on the format plus there is LOTS of Amiga discussion >going on. Once you are on type "JOIN AMIGA" to get bombarded >with stuff to read. > >Have fun! > >David Gardner David: BIX is not yet open to the public officially. As a moderator of BIX I asked specifically whether I should invite people onto BIX for test purposes and to add to discussion in my Conference. The answer was that I should use my discretion. IT COSTS MONEY to run BIX and as you noted it's not being charged at this time. As such, I've specifically invited a small handful of OS-9'ers onto BIX which is currently being tested by about 1000 theoretical users (most of whom are members of the Boston Computer Club, who are there by special invitation). Did someone authorize you to post this? For everyone else 'here' please do *not* use BIX unless you have been invited on by a moderator. The programmers are trying hard to clean up he system for openning soon and the current software/hardware is still not up to snuff. As such, tempers are running a bit high and system overload is a real possibility. If David reports back that he has had permission to post this, I won't complain. I don't necessary hear everything on BIX, but until then I emphasis, MG.H has been spending a lot of money to get the system up properly. Show your appreciation by not draining that money at this time. -- James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura Byte Information eXchange: jimomura Compuserve: 72205,541 MTS at WU: GKL6
bwebster@crash.UUCP (10/21/85)
From: crash!bwebster@SDCSVAX.ARPA
It is with some trepidation that I do this, but the following set of
instructions tells all of you how to log onto BIX, McGraw-Hill's new
conferencing system. BIX is still in beta test, so there is no charge
for connect time, etc. I'm doing this out of self-defense; there is a
lot of technical info here that I may have to miss, since my net node
is now a long-distance call (Utah to CA) for me [I moved a month or
two ago]. The Amiga conference on BIX is quite active and includes
as participants several people from Amiga (including RJ Mical, author
of Intuition). When you get onto BIX, please don't abuse the system
(or the participants). And if you want to get into some heavy Amiga
vs. ST debating, join 'ask.webster/m68000' [an unabashed plug].
..bruce..
(0) Put your term software into half-duplex. Yes, it's a pain,
but you'll get better response.
(1) Call Tymnet. If you're calling at 1200 baud, you'll get
a lot of garbage (Tymnet trying to talk at 300). When the garbage
(or prompt) is done, type an "a".
(2) You will now get a user name prompt. Type "^Hbyteneti" (yes, that's
a Ctrl-H followed by "byteneti" followed by <CR>).
(3) You will now get a bizarre password prompt. Type "mgh<CR>".
(4) After some rumination, you will get a message says something like
"LDS LEXINGTON DATA SERVICES UP" followed by "login:". Type "bix<CR>".
(5) It will then ask you "Name?". Reply with "new<CR>". Bix will then sign
you up, asking you for an ID and password. Ignore questions/comments about
money and connect time; this is a preliminary version of the sign-up
software.
(6) Once you are on the system, you can join the Amiga conference by saying
(surprise!) 'join amiga'. If you don't really feel like reading all
the messages waiting for you there, the "skip to last" command will
skip over them all.
(7) After you've been on bix once, you can log in directly by giving your
ID the "Name?" prompt.
(8) The four commands you need to know on bix are "show", "join", "?", and
<CR>. Bix is set up to take you through just about everything via
repeated carriage returns. "?" will show you your current command
choices. "join" lets you join a particular conference/topic. "show"
shows you information; e.g., "show all" shows you all the conferences.
(9) You will undoubtedly find a number of things about bix that you don't
like; you may even find some honest-to-goodness bugs. The conference
"bix.talk" has topics for those purposes; the man (yes, just one) to talk
to is "al" (Alastair Meyer). Be aware that Al has written bix almost
single-handedly, and that he has a long list of corrections/features
to implement, so be kind and courteous in any comments you might make
to him.
(10) Have at it and have fun!
Bruce F. Webster, Consulting Editor, BYTE Magazine
ARPA: crash!bwebster@ucsd
uucp: {ihnp4, cbosgd, sdcsvax, noscvax}!crash!bwebster
BIX: bwebster
CIS: 75166,1717
MCI: Bruce F. Webster
USPS: P.O. Box 1910, Orem, UT 84057jmw@sdchema.UUCP (John M. Wright) (10/26/85)
If BYTE/MG H want the unannointed "rest of us" to stay off of BIX until it is ready for use to their satisfaction, they might: A) Apprise us of this in the pages of BYTE, instead of making an initial advance announcement in glowing terms, followed by silence; B) Restrain Very Poursmell from taking most of his November column to wax enthusiastic over BIX; C) Ask you and others to refrain from flaunting your BIX addresses at us. Certainly one of the rest of them, John Wright Chemistry (B-014) UCSD La Jolla, CA 92093 (619)452-3049 ....sdcsvax!sdchem!jmw
lenoil@mit-eddie.UUCP (Robert Scott Lenoil) (10/29/85)
In article <467@sdchema.sdchema.UUCP> jmw@sdchema.UUCP (John M. Wright) writes: > >If BYTE/MG H want the unannointed "rest of us" to stay off of BIX... >B) Restrain Very Poursmell from taking most of his November column >to wax enthusiastic over BIX; > >C) Ask you and others to refrain from flaunting your BIX addresses >at us. I'm no avid fan of Jerry's (in fact, I think he should be writing for Popular Computing, not BYTE), but it WAS his NOVEMBER column, and BIX will be open for business on NOVEMBER 1. As for "flaunting" a BIX address; if my signature includes my ARPANET address and you're not on ARPANET, am I "flaunting?" As a separate issue, I just want to say that I'm glad Commodore-Amiga will be posting to USENET as well as BIX. Yes, the amiga newsgroups on BIX are receiving very heavy traffic now, but I wager that said traffic will diminish substantially when BIX goes commercial on Friday, to the tune of $14/connect hour. I know that I won't be using it again. Robert Lenoil USENET: {ihnp4,decvax!genrad,harvard,allegra}!mit-eddie!lenoil ARPANET: lenoil@eddie.mit.edu CSNET: lenoil@mit-mc.csnet BIX: lenoil [if you want it to sit there for eternity]
freed@aum.UUCP (Erik Freed) (10/30/85)
> on BIX are receiving very heavy traffic now, but I wager that said > traffic will diminish substantially when BIX goes commercial on > Friday, to the tune of $14/connect hour. I know that I won't be > using it again. > I have tried Bix, and I must agree that there asking price makes it too dear for me, especially when you compare it to the better Usenet which is free (for me). They either need to lower their price or improve their software and content by quite a bit. It is a great idea however and I will be interested in how it evolves. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Erik James Freed Aurora Systems San Francisco, CA {dual,ptsfa}!aum!freed
jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) (11/02/85)
In article <467@sdchema.sdchema.UUCP> jmw@sdchema.UUCP (John M. Wright) writes: > >If BYTE/MG H want the unannointed "rest of us" to stay off of BIX >until it is ready for use to their satisfaction, they might: > >A) Apprise us of this in the pages of BYTE, instead of making an >initial advance announcement in glowing terms, followed by silence; On average most magazine articles and editorials are written about 4 months in advance. The 1st schedule arrival of BIX was put off. The 'glowing reports' were genuine interpretations of the overall reception of BIX to it's 1st users. After they used it for a while, a lot of minor problems and a couple of majors showed up. Thus, the intro date was pushed back, but the magazines hit the stands. C'est la vie. In the mean time, some of the moderators (myself included) invited people on so that we could build up some experience doing what we were supposed to be doing. The worst problem we-->me. Before *I* knew that it was still a semi-secret, *I* had already spread it around to a number of OS-9'er. I then checked with MGH and found out that it was their policy that to allow this to be done as long as we were reasonable about it. No real harm was done, since only a couple of OS-9'ers showed up. I later asked around 'here' in UUCP for more OS-9'ers. Some of them showed up. This didn't make much difference either since they remained relatively silent. But, yes you are quite right. The policy was never all that clear (or I wouldn't have made any mistakes -- which I did). > >B) Restrain Very Poursmell from taking most of his November column >to wax enthusiastic over BIX; Like I said. Jerry wrote the truth as he saw it. Problems *did* show up later. Such as the difficulty following long exchanges (which the early people rarely had to deal with). Others appeared fairly minor, but became major as time went on. Overall, the early users were happy with it. Incidentally. Most of the noted problems have been cleaned up. Others will be dealt with in time. The last couple of free days were jammed. That was what I was hoping to avoid. I couldn't get on to do my work (which wasn't much, but I wanted to get it done). > >C) Ask you and others to refrain from flaunting your BIX addresses >at us. Flaunting? I've never looked at it that way. My addresses listed are *Not* complete. I'm on many more systems then these. It's just that if you want to reach me within a reasonable time, then these are the ones to use. In fact, I'm probably going to drop my CIS address because I no longer login there on a regular basis (no time). Many people 'here' *were* involved with the BIX test. Seeing as *they* were there legitimately and could reach me faster through BIX, I'd say it was proper to list it. Nobody's stopping you from tacking on a private (limited access) BBS address to your signature file are they? > >Certainly one of the rest of them, > >John Wright >Chemistry (B-014) >UCSD >La Jolla, CA 92093 >(619)452-3049 See what I mean? "Chemistry (B-014) UCSD" Oh wow! Impressive! Rediculous argument. It's just your address. Unless you really *are* just putting it here to be impressive. I wouldn't have thought so. > >....sdcsvax!sdchem!jmw Anyway, everyone is welcome to BIX now. Unfortunately, I'd hoped that there would be a *general* free or cheap access period for newcomers. There isn't. That wasn't my choice. If you want access to BIX, then you'll have to leave a *valid* credit card number. Cheers! -- Jim O. -- James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura Byte Information eXchange: jimomura Compuserve: 72205,541 MTS at WU: GKL6