🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <13696@netcom.UUCP> ergo@netcom.uucp writes:
>
>Be that as it may, CIS is not a practical solution for many people.
>I know a guy who accesses it only through TAPCIS during off hours, and
>still ends up spending $50/month.  That seems to be the bare minimum
>to do any serious participation there.  

I don't know what you mean by "serious participation", but $50 is about 4 hours
at 2400 baud, from what I recall of the connect rates.  If you only connect
on one day a week and use Tapcis, you probably only need to pay for about 5 or
10 minutes/week of connect time, and you'll easily spend less than $50.  
I end up spending about $5-10/month CIS charges, and about the same in LD
phone charges, for what I'd call less than "serious" participation.  (I
have to pay LD because I'm not near a local CIS number, and Datapac access is
horrible.)  I rarely download files:  that's where your friend may be running
up the big bills.

Oh, by the way:  Borland does give tech support over the net.  Send them an
email message (sorry, I forget the address), and they'll treat it as though
it was received by mail, if you ask them to and give a return address.  It's
too slow to be much use, though.  I just got a letter in the mail asking for
a sample illustrating my problem, and can't remember which problem it was that
I was complaining about.

>Perhaps some people get their
>money's worth (though I suspect most CIS users get corporate discounts
>and/or pass the costs on to their employers), but if a $99 compiler is
>your main development tool....

I'm not subsidized, and I'd rather not subsidize the people who want to 
spend a long time on a toll-free line.  I like to have the compiler cost
$99, not $500.
>
>ergo@netcom.uucp			Isaac Rabinovitch
>{apple,amdahl,claris}!netcom!ergo	Silicon Valley, CA

Duncan Murdoch
dmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu