robertj@tektronix.UUCP (Robert Jaquiss) (10/24/83)
Here is a notice that I thought would be of interest. This is not an endorsement. In the beginning, there was the Telecomputing Service. Now there is... +-----------------------+ ! *** G E N E S Y S *** ! +-----------------------+ Telecomputing Service InterComp Associates is pleased to announce that the ultimate home telecomputing system, GENESYS, is now accepting advance Charter Subscriptions. From now until January 1984, we are offering a Charter Subscriber Package at a special discount rate. Our normal rates are as low as $10.00 per hour for daytime use, from 8:00am until 6:00pm; and $3.50 per hour for evening and nighttime use! But for our Charter Subscribers, we are offering one hundred hours of evening time for the low price of only $250! But that isn't all! If you subscribe to GENESYS before January 1, 1984, you will also receive: * Lifetime discount of 10% off all GENESYS services! * Our comprehensive, easy to understand manual, with pages of instructions on how to use the many features available on GENESYS, with a handy reference card for quick reminders. The manual is updated regularly as changes are made, and new features are added to the system. (Available 7/84) * Use of GENESYS during our initial beta testing period. During this three month period, we will be testing and modifying our software to best suit YOUR needs. For any use during this period, you will be billed only for Telenet fees - which are only $5.00 per hour daytime, and $1.00 per hour evening and nighttime! (Period begins 6/84) * FREE terminal program - our programmers are designing terminal programs which will allow you to use some of the more sophisticated features of GENESYS easily by allowing your home computer to recognize the powerful VT102 special character sets. (Available 9/84) * All in addition to the 100 hours of evening and nighttime useage, for the low price of only $250!!! We hope to be operating by May or June of 1984, but if, for any reason we are delayed and do not begin full operations by the end of 1984, we guarantee to offer to you not only a FULL refund of your payment, but we will add 5% annual interest to your payment! GENESYS will offer such services as: * Electronic Mail - one of the most sophisticated, and easy to use EMail systems available, our electronic mail facility allows you to send mail to any number of users, file your mail in searchable files, forward your mail to other users, reply to your mail, and acknowledge receipt of a message. Mail messages may be as long or as short as you like. * Online Conferencing Systems - we have several different conferencing subsystems available, including a character at a time transmit, line at a time, and a powerful split-screen subsystem which allows up to 8 users to type at the same time, with everything each user types appearing on the others' screens almost instantaneously - in separate areas! * Bulletin Boards - a selection of different public-access message systems, which allow you to post messages, delete messages, scan message titles, read all new messages, retrieve messages by subject, date, user, or even by searching the text of the message for a specified string! Also we offer a hierarchial 'tree structure' message base for an alternative message system. * Games - we offer several different types of games, including: A series of public-domain games of all sorts, which you can download to your own home computer to play. Many excellent games which utilize the power of a mainframe computer to its fullest - for the most exciting games available! Multi-player games, which you can play interactively against other users, or against the computer. * User Directory - you may enter almost ANY information about yourself into our user directory, which other users can access to find people with similar interests, in their own area or anywhere in the world! * Online Users Groups - users of Apple, IBM, Atari, TRS-80, and Commodore computers can trade information and public-domain programs with each other via our online users groups. * Newsletters - user groups, special interest groups, and just about any other type of organization can publish online newsletters - available either to members only, or to every user on the system! * Programming - for the programmer, we offer several different computer languages, including BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL BLISS-32, and MACRO, and the use of powerful line- and screen- oriented editors and debuggers to help you design your own programs. If your programs are useful to others, you may sell them using our online user services message base, or publish them online in our user publishing section. We also hold regular contests for the best program written by a user. * Easy Access - for new users, there are helpful, user-friendly menus to help you to find your way around the system. Once you become more familiar with the system, you may skip the menus, and jump directly from place to place in the system. For the advanced programmer, all system functions may be accessed directly by user programs, or by special procedures which you can write. * User Friendly - our system features HELP functions throughout! If you do not understand a command, in most cases typing HELP instead of a reply will give you instructions on how to use that part of the system. If the first few lines do not tell you what you wish to know, there is even more help available by simply asking for it. * Customer Service - a trained customer service representative is online 24 hours a day to help you with anything you might have trouble with. Any comments, suggestions, or gripes will be reviewed daily by our management and programming staff, and useful suggestions will be implemented in many cases within one or two days! GENESYS is for YOU, the user, to use, and we aren't about to forget it! If you are interested in becoming a charter subscriber to GENESYS, or if you desire further information, please contact us at: +----------------------+ ! InterComp Associates ! ! 7512 Lisburne Road ! ! Baltimore, MD 21208 ! +----------------------+ or send Delphi EMail to username 'TORGARTH'.