farber%pcpond.pc.udel.edu@UDEL-LOUIE.ARPA (David Farber) (02/12/86)
I have finally found a service with worse response time than Compuserve and more useless. (I want my registration back). The BIX service of BYTE is worse than useless. It is either overloaded or the guys at the University of Gueth (or something like that) are just poor designers. Both functionally and operationally BIX is UNACCEPTABLE. Their "database" part is slower than a Apple II and the "conferencing" makes Compuserve look just GREAT. As you can see I am not a fan of that mess. Dave
jsisi@trwrba.UUCP (Dan Jones) (02/15/86)
I agree 100% that BIX in it's current state is worthless unless you happen to be a fan of J.E.Pournelle's mad meanderings. My personal impression of BIX is that it was designed for a very different purpose than it is being put to at the moment. At the present time, even the worst message system on an old RCPM system is superior in ease-of-use and functionality. As an extended conferencing system, it certainly fares poorly even in comparison with USENET. You just thought there were a lot of pointless articles here. On BIX, there is no logical way to avoid the pointless drivel. (Maybe someday one of the system people at BIX will consider a system as well thought out as rn. Then again, probably not.) Let us hope that the system will improve, or that McGraw-Hill will decide it is hopeless and refund the sign-up fee. (Never again will I sign up for a system based on good reviews and a big-name backer. Get a demo ala Compuserv before signing up, especially if McGraw-Hill is involved.) Dan Jones ...trwrb!jcc-one!djones ...trwrba!jsisi
greenber@phri.UUCP (Ross Greenberg) (02/19/86)
Besides: Consider that you must pay a fee for what is free elsewhere, and the editors of BYTE will then use what *you* post as filler in their magazine. Pay for BIX? .....not me... -- ------ ross m. greenberg ihnp4!allegra!phri!sysdes!greenber [phri rarely makes a guest-account user a spokesperson. Especially not me.]
drforsey@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Forsey) (02/20/86)
In article <1833@trwrba.UUCP> jsisi@trwrba.UUCP (Dan Jones) writes: > >I agree 100% that BIX in it's current state is worthless unless you happen >to be a fan of J.E.Pournelle's mad meanderings. > >At the present time, even the >worst message system on an old RCPM system is superior in ease-of-use and >functionality. As an extended conferencing system, it certainly fares poorly >even in comparison with USENET. You just thought there were a lot of pointless >articles here. On BIX, there is no logical way to avoid the pointless drivel. >(Maybe someday one of the system people at BIX will consider a system as well >thought out as rn. Then again, probably not.) Back before BIX was available I had a "COSY" account at the University of Guelph where the original BIX system was developed. I had numerous discussions with people there about the form of the BIX user-interface and its functionality. The major problem seemed to be that the design was mainly controlled by people whose main experience seemed to be from Data Processing in the IBM tradition (i.e. people who view card punches as the ultimate in user interfaces and who give blank stares when you mention hierachial file systems), and by the fact that they wanted the system to run easily on anything. Thus because this lowest common demoninator was a goal, many things were sacrificed. It got to be so frustrating talking with these people that I ended up just posting an edited version of the man page for "rn" just to try and stir things up. No (as in nothing) response at all. Note that the person implementing the thing voiced similar complaints, but he had little say in what the final form of the system would be. Dave Forsey Computer Graphics Laboratory University of Waterloo Waterloo Ont. Canada.