jafo@miranda.UUCP (Sean Reifschneider) (12/09/90)
I was just wondering what people thought of OnLine? I personally think that
the net is a better source of information, but since my boss paid $700 to
get OnLine, we feel kind of compelled to use it. But tonight just pissed me
off...
I've been having some problems with printing (just posted an article about it).
I figured I'd use OnLine and the net to see what kind of response I could get,
and kind of rate the two sources ($700 for online, + $$$ per hour vs. a $30
donation to the sysop of NCUUG (my feed site)).
I spent an hour tonight finding out how to send a service request (and was
never able to get one sent). It seems that the "bt50.zif" file got lost
somewhere, and I can't find the origional OnLine disc (probably missed it
since all of Microsofts discs look the same, and we have 2 copies of the
compiler, SDK, Excell, and a copy of Word for Windows).
My question is: "How easy do you think this thing is to use?" I've got to
find some way of getting the "Service Request" Icon to come up on the
screen before I can use the thing. It's slow, but it's just enough faster
than you can read at, so if you're getting a long document, you can only
read 30 or so lines, before it scrolls off the window, and you have to wait
for the whole thing to get transfered, and scroll back.
I'd rather they just set up a standard BBS, then trying to use these nifty
icons. Or maybe if they set it up so you were able to send requests through
several different means like UUCP mail, any articles in comp.windows.ms that
were the right format, etc... It's a real shame that we have a 9600bps modem
at work, but have to connect at 1200bps because the local telnet hub only
has 1200bps modems.
So what does everyone think? Am I just being pissy, or does OnLine really suck?
Sean
PS: I probably won't be able to follow this thread on the group. My feed of
comp.windows.ms is not reliable at all. If you have something you NEED
me to read, send me mail. That's the only way I can be sure I'll get it.
--
From the desk of Sean Reifschneider. Isn't Amiga UUCP great? Thanks Matt.
uunet.uu.net!ccncsu.colostate.edu!ncuug!miranda!seanrfpa@qualcomm.com (Franklin Antonio) (12/11/90)
jafo@miranda.UUCP (Sean Reifschneider) writes: >I was just wondering what people thought of OnLine? I personally think that >the net is a better source of information, but since my boss paid $700 to I think Microsoft Online is a GREAT service. Of the multitude of possible ways to send questions or bugs to Microsoft, (telephone customer service, forums on Compu$erve, usenet newsgroups, etc) Online is the one where you get the most professional response. >I spent an hour tonight finding out how to send a service request (and was >never able to get one sent). It seems that the "bt50.zif" file got lost The software they give you to access Online is terrible. Cutsy. Lots of icons and stupid nonsense. Once you figure out how to use it, it works. (sort of) >screen before I can use the thing. It's slow, but it's just enough faster >than you can read at, so if you're getting a long document, you can only >read 30 or so lines, before it scrolls off the window, and you have to wait >for the whole thing to get transfered, and scroll back. Yep. Fortunately, there's nothing very useful in the knowledgebase, so you needn't bother reading all that stuff! Lots of drivel. I think if you use the service to submit bug reports, and just download your answers you'll like it a lot better. When i do want to read the knowledgebase, I do it on Compuserve.