kingson@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Kingson Gunawan) (03/25/91)
I am planning to join either prodigy or compuserve. I know about the fact that prodigy censor their bulletin board but I don't really mind about that. What I need is the kind of service that I get for the amount of money I pay (in other word I need some sort of description of service per dollar paid ratio). Does prodigy has some sort of public domain programs for mac the way compuserve does thru zmac, etc.? -- ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ** Kingson@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu ** ** or try kgg6822@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu ** ** University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign USA ** ** Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering ** ** Electromagnetic and Communication Laboratory ** //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
peirce@outpost.UUCP (Michael Peirce) (03/25/91)
In article <1991Mar24.231240.7433@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, kingson@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Kingson Gunawan) writes: > I am planning to join either prodigy or compuserve. I know about the fact > that prodigy censor their bulletin board but I don't really mind about that. > What I need is the kind of service that I get for the amount of money I pay (in > other word I need somort of description of service per dollar paid ratio). Before you decide, check out America Online. It provides a very Macintosh-like user interface and has lots of Macintosh related information and files. I don't spend very much money each month and I'm on it a couple of times a week. Their rates are fairly reasonable. There is no email surcharge of any sort! Most of these services make it easy to sign up and usually will give you some free time. Use this time to see how much you like it and if you don't think it's a good value, cancel it. (Most modems include offers for free time on various services. If you haven't recently bought a modem - ask around for someoe who has...) -- michael -- Michael Peirce -- outpost!peirce@claris.com -- Peirce Software -- Suite 301, 719 Hibiscus Place -- Macintosh Programming -- San Jose, California 95117 -- & Consulting -- (408) 244-6554, AppleLink: PEIRCE
knapp@cs.utexas.edu (Edgar Knapp) (03/26/91)
In article <1991Mar24.231240.7433@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> kingson@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Kingson Gunawan) writes: >I am planning to join either prodigy or compuserve. I know about the >fact that prodigy censor their bulletin board but I don't really mind >about that. It`s people like you who, with their complacency, make me worry about the future of this country. >What I need is the kind of service that I get for the amount of >money I pay (in other word I need some sort of description >of service per dollar paid ratio). > >Does prodigy has some sort of public domain programs for mac >the way compuserve does thru zmac, etc.? No. There are no facilities for downloading anything from Prodigy. Prodigy so far has constitued the absolutely worst experience I have had with on-line services. Their interface sucks, their ads suck, their policies suck, their accounting sucks, the owners (IBM and Sears) suck, ... Edgar (knapp@cs.utexas.edu)
gsm@mendelson.com (Geoffrey S. Mendelson) (03/26/91)
kingson@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Kingson Gunawan) asks: >would you recommend prodigy or compuserve? NO! Seriously, * PRODIGY has no downloads. * The worst email in existance: Messages limited to 6 pages of 16 lines of 40 characters each, max of 10 people in a mailing list, the slowest online editor in the world, and to add injury to insult you pay 50 cents a letter for each one over 30 a month (1 a day) and each copy counts as a letter. * All boards are moderated. You are not pemititted to say anything commercial (such as I just bought a great ???? at ???? for ????), anything objectionable (to anyone or anything), anything negative or even not overwhelmingly positive about one of their advertisers. * Nothing can be saved on disk. If you spend 15 minutes typing a long post (4 pages of 16x40), send it off and get it kicked back because you typed something remotely offensive, etc... you have to retype it again from scratch. The worst part of it is since you are seeing the "beautiful" advertising graphics at almost all times, you end up taking minutes to read a 2 page letter. The system was so slow that I gave up. I can read 100's of usenet posts in the time it took to read 5 or 10 on prodigy. To look up 10 flights on EAASYSABRE took over an hour. And the information is usually inaccurate. It is slanted twoards American Airlines. Fares from other airlines are not listed or are so far in the back, that you give up. For example when I had prodigy, VS (Virgin Atlantic Ariways) had a $99 Newark (nj) to Gatwick (London, England) special. In order to find it on EAASABRE, you had to find the VS flights, (takes about 10-15 minutes) jot down all the fare codes, and look them up one at a time. This process would take almost an hour in the evening. And if you did not know what to look for, you would never find it. For example, the fare I mentioned above required the ticket to be purchased 24hrs or less before departure. If you did not tell EAASYSABRE that you were looking for a flight today or tommorow when you asked for the cheapest fare, it would ignore the fare, as it was not applicable for booking today for a flight next month. All in all the prodigy system was slow, anoying (please read this commercial, wait, read this commercial, here's some display, read this commerical too, here's more, another commercial, and finaly, here's what you asked for) and due to all their silly rules, just too much time and trouble for what it was worth. As a personal observation :-) there seemed to be a higher percentage of objectionable personalities (a**holes) on prodigy than anywhere else. While flames are a major portion of usenet, and probably gives it its flavor, the slightest disagrement with a poster was considered a gave personal attack. It was mostly a forum for those people who "think they know everything" to show off. You know the type, the kind who sees you looking at the computer books, says "ah, I see you have a Mac" and spends the next hour explaining to you why windows 3 makes the Mac obsolete and why his ibm XT clone with 2 floppy drives and a cga blows away your Mac IIfx. We all have to deal with these people in life, but why search them out. The Prodgiy moderators seemed to protect and encourage these people. The thing that really bothers me about Prodigy is that they charge for their software. However, if you are on a computer related mailing list, you get "Free Prodigy Software" offers every couple of months. I get them, my wife gets them, I get them for a former girlfriend (makes my wife happy to see these), my kid gets them..... But they still sell it to anyone who will buy it. To be fair though, the "free" kits include no free time, but one month to cancel with no charge, while the $$ kits give you 3 months for free. I believe that if you cancel during your 3 free months you get no rebate or refund. BTW, a post like this would never be allowed on Prodigy (or my reply). -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As for compuserve, I think that it is better, but it is geared toward the business user. It's sort of usenet with high prices. I understand that Delphi and Genie have comperable services at lower prices. I personaly prefer usenet, although I personaly pay a heavy price for it. If you are not using it for a business, there are many FREE bbs's with usenet feeds. You get the advantage of a world wide, mostly unmoderated but self policing network. If you want P.D. software join a users group. Most users groups have everything that shows up on compuserve (as do many BBS's) and their per disk cost is less than the download costs. On the other hand, if you need the services that compuserve offers such as the online encylopedia, or the online airplane info, by all means buy it. Remember that you will be buying it. $10 an hour does not seem like a lot, but a hour goes quickly. One hour a night is $300 a month @ $10 an hour. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any online service. The above are my personal opions of my experiences with the above services. They are not reflections of how the services operate. "Your milage may vary"............................ -- Copyright (C) 1991, Geoffrey S. Mendelson. All Rights Reserved. Except for usenet followups, may not be reproduced without permsission. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Geoffrey S. Mendelson | Computer Software Consulting | Dr. | | (215) 242-8712 | IBM Mainframes, Unix, PCs, Macs | Who | | gsm@mendelson.com | | Fan too!| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | WANTED: PAL VIDEO TAPES (VHS or BETA) inquire within. | | Especialy "missing" Dr Who Episodes. | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
jwwalker@opusc.csd.scarolina.edu (Jim Walker) (03/27/91)
In article <1991Mar24.231240.7433@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> kingson@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Kingson Gunawan) writes: >I am planning to join either prodigy or compuserve. [stuff deleted] Why aren't you considering America Online? It's cheaper than CompuServe, has a nice Macintosh interface, lots of stuff to download, and so far as I know it's not censored. I do belong to CompuServe as well as America Online. In CIS's favor is a large user base and a bridge to Internet mail. -- -- Jim Walker 76367.2271@compuserve.com walker@math.scarolina.edu
rmitchel@bbn.com (Rob Mitchell) (03/28/91)
kingson@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Kingson Gunawan) writes:
IMHO: Check out America Online. Fixed monthly charge ~$6 and
one hour free per month. After that there is an hourly charge
with two different rates (daytime vs. nightime essentiall).
Tons of Mac software, Mac-like interface, email, interactive
conversions and learning sessions, some Apple Computer Inc.
support (they have a folder containing s/w that you can download).
Lottso pluses! If you would like more information, just email
me and I send you a packet (and get 1 hour free for signing you
up :)
Rob Mitchell Advanced Simulation Division
Unix & Macintosh Engineer BBN Systems & Technologies
Internet: rmitchel@vax.bbn.com 33 Moulton Street MS: 8/C
Primary Dwelling: 617-873-4041 Cambridge, MA 02138
Secondary Dwelling: 617-873-4071
FAX: 617-873-4315
These opinions are mine and mine only. They do not represent BBNs' opinions.