mwm@VIOLET.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike Meyer, I'll think of something yet) (02/27/89)
I found an interesting piece of paper in my cable TV bill this month. They're peddling a thing called X*change (* should be a hollow dot at about that height). It looks like the typical commercial conferencing system (from what little I've seen of them) - news, sports, weather, lifestyles, entertainment, tech talk, shopping, stock market quotes, on-line conferencing, etc. The thing that makes it noticable is that the service is delivered via the cable that brings me bad movies. There's a one-time fee for the hardware to connect it to my personal computer (except they don't sell software for MY personal computer), and no montly charges. It connects to the computer via a serial port or - maybe - an internal card for the PC. The software allows your PC to collect data while you're not running. It doesn't affect your cable reception. So, can anyone provide more information? Better yet, would someone care to speculate on how this is going to change the way things are done? <mike