🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep11.145101.7594@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> aburt@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu (Andrew Burt) writes:
>
>
>Today I just read in the Rocky Mt. News that it will be $15/month +
>$.15/minute for -- are you ready -- nothing more than an on-line
>phonebook.  (You get software, or for $300 flat or $12/month more, a
>simple terminal.)  Supposedly just unveiled for Minneapolis.

Minitel terminals are free in France, so is access to the online phone
directory. Commercial services are about 1 FF/minute ($.20/min).
>
>Reason #1: Maybe at $.50/month it would work.  Geez, I pay $14/month
>for one phone line!  Your average person is not going to shell out
>this much when phone books are virtually free (and mostly easier to
>use).  How often do you REALLY look things up in the phone book or
>call directory assistance?  If it were worth $.10 to look something up
>(about what it's worth to me on-line), this implies I need to look up
>150 items a month.  And if one search takes a couple minutes (to wade
>through the clunky menus) this is already at $.30 a search.  If I use
>this "a lot" and look up 100 items a month, I'm looking at $45/month
>for this!  Fubar.

One of the reasons of the relative success of Minitel in France is the
amazing amount of subsidies that went into the project. I think that France
Telecom is several billion Francs into the red because of this.

>Reason #3: Videotex.  Blech!  I think MS-windows and X have proven
>that even non-computer-geeks can read decently small size fonts on
>screens; we don't need to regress to the middle-ages here with 40
>character wide screens (which the picture showed; or is it 32?).  (As
>for the "transmission speed" argument, I'd rather it be just a
>straight ASCII text interface; either that, or use it as grounds to
>justify ISDN for homes.)

The screen is 24x40, with "semi-graphic" characters - uuuugly. Transmission
is an asymetric 1200/75 baud.
Some Minitel terminals support 80x24 but there's no way around the internal
modem. France Telecom plans a second generation "high-performance" terminal
working at a blazing 4800 bps. Wheee.

>
>Reason #4: Another Propietary Program.  Presumably we won't be able to
>dial in with Procomm, or telnet in via the internet.  Bag it right
>there.  It'll be too limited for real use (as they always are), buggy,
>clunky ...

Possibly the most FAQ in soc.culture.french: how do I get access to Minitel
from Internet (or vice/versa). The awful truth is: there is no public
gateway.