Computer File
By Lawrence J. Magid
Los Angeles Times
August 14, 1983
One night I was watching the 11 o’clock news when a story out of Washington caught my interest. The 30-second clip didn’t do it justice, and I was eager to get more details.
Within minutes I was reading the story in the next day’s Washington Post. The paper hadn’t hit the streets of Washington, but an electronic edition was available throughout North America to subscribers of CompuServe Information Service.
I wanted more information, so I logged off CompuServe and dialed The Source, a competing information service, to search the United Press International wire. As long as I was connected to UPI, I checked some election results from Massachusetts. The Source allows you to tie into any state’s local UPI wire.
The Source and CompuServe are consumer information services available to users of personal computers. Almost any computer can be used to connect to the services, as long as the computer is equipped with a “modem.”
Modem, which stands for MOdulator/DEModulator, is a hardware device that serves as an interface between the computer and the phone system. It takes signals from the computer and turns them into audible tones that can travel through the phone line. A modem at the other end translates the tones back into signals that the computer can understand. All this is controlled by communications software, which either comes with the modem or is available separately from a computer dealer.
Predictions Coming True
Futurists have long predicted that citizens will someday routinely use home computers for such tasks as shopping, banking, making travel plans, checking the news and paying bills. Microcomputer users have a head start on the future.
Along with the news, CompuServe and Source subscribers have access to electronic mail, airline schedules, reference sources, games, computer bulletin boards, financial services, encyclopedias, electronic shopping and scores of other services.
The Source Telecomputing Corp. is owned by Readers Digest Assn. Inc. in cooperation with Control Data Corp. Located in McLean, Va., it uses 12 prime mainframe computers to serve an estimated 40,000 subscribers throughout the United States, Canada and 34 other countries, via a data communications network.
CompuServe Inc. is a subsidiary of H&R Block Inc., the income tax company. Its Columbus, Ohio, offices house 27 Digital Equipment Corp. mainframe computers. The company has more than 65,000 subscribers in the United States and Canada.
One of the most popular features on both services is electronic mail.
The Source has a sophisticated, easy-to-use electronic mail service. You type your message at the keyboard and enter “S” to send it on its way. Within seconds, it’s available at the other end, to be read as soon as the recipient logs on to check his or her mail. The person at the other end can respond immediately, encouraging a steady stream of correspondence.
I write for a British magazine and use The Source to deliver my articles immediately, for a fraction of the cost of overseas express mail.
CompuServe’s mail, though not as easy to use, provides essentially the same service. It is limited to the United States and Canada.
Both services keep users posted on computer news and information. The Source’s POST is like a giant electronic news group with sections for each brand of computer. People buy and sell equipment and keep each other posted on the latest software available for their machines.
Members of CompuServe’s so-called Special Interest Groups, or SIGS, can exchange information, news and even software. It’s possible to “upload” and “download” software from CompuServe to your microcomputer and use it immediately. Within weeks after Radio Shack introduced its portable Model 100, for example, dozens of programs were placed on CompuServe providing owners of the new machine with a constant source of free software.
Source subscribers pay a one-time sign-on fee of $100. The hourly rate is $7.75 per hour for evening and weekend use at a data transmission speed of 300 baud (300 baud equals 30 characters per second). Some modems allow you to operate at 1,200 baud, allowing you to access The Source at 120 characters per second for $10.75 per hour. That’s four times the speed for about 1½ times the cost.
CompuServe subscribers pay a one-time $39 initiation fee, which includes one hour of free time and a subscription to Today, a monthly telecommunications magazine. The evening and weekend rate is $5 per hour for 300 baud use and $17.50 for 1,200 baud.
Daytime Rates Higher
The two companies charge higher hourly rates from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. The daytime charges, about $20 per hour for 300 baud service, are low compared to those of most commercial time-sharing companies, but high enough to discourage most home users.
Both services are constantly adding features and informing subscribers of the changes through printed newsletters and on-screen bulletins. Finding your way around the services is made easier by a series of on-screen menus that allow you to select the desired feature from a list of available options.
The only trouble with using these services to follow up on the 11 p.m. news is that they are addictive and can easily draw you in for an entire night of terminal gazing. If you’re not careful, you might miss the start of “Good Morning America.”
Lawrence J. Magid is executive vice president of San Francisco-based Know How Computer Learning Centers.