geoff@pmafire.UUCP (Geoff Allen) (03/03/90)
A while back (sorry, news expires quickly here so I don't have
quotes/references), I posted why I hadn't tried GEnie. The basic reason
was that the information I had said that I could only access GEnie at
1200 bps and with a $2.00 surcharge, giving 1200 bps at $8.00/hour. I
get CompuServe at 2400 bps for $12.80/hour. More than half the price
for only half the performance with GEnie didn't seem like a good deal.
Norm Goodger (sp?) posted a follow-up to my article, stating that I was
wrong. GEnie should be available at 2400 bps just about everywhere, and
available directly. That, along with good words from several folks like
Chuq, and at least one person who told me that downloads go *much* more
smoothly from GEnie than CIS (it wouldn't take much! :-) ) prompted me
to take them up on their free signup offer I got with my modem.
So, I went through the whole signup routine. At the end, they told me
what access numbers were available in my area code. For Pocatello,
Idaho, the access number does indeed allow 2400 bps, but it still
carries a $2.00/hour surcharge.
So, the score (for 2400 bps access) is Compuserve $12.80, GEnie $12.00.
Wow. Some savings, eh?
I have yet to check it out (they said it'd take a couple of days to
verify my credit card). I might go on at 1200 bps just to look around,
but the cost differential doesn't provide much motivation.
--
Geoff Allen \ I don't want to yield to fashion and
{uunet|bigtex}!pmafire!geoff \ make the Macintosh as ugly as OS/2
ucdavis!egg-id!pmafire!geoff \ --Jean-Louis Gassee, Apple Computer