Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!nuchat!texhrc!rls
From: rls@texhrc.UUCP (Bob Simmons)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: PRODIGY?
Summary: It still needs work
Message-ID: <349@texhrc.UUCP>
Date: 10 Nov 89 20:43:05 GMT
References: <19530001@hpsemc.HP.COM>
Organization: Texaco Houston Res. Cntr Hou, Tx
Lines: 29

In article <19530001@hpsemc.HP.COM>, gph@hpsemc.HP.COM (Paul Houtz) writes:
> I am considering buying PRODIGY, because Wells-Fargo allows electronic
> banking via PRODIGY.
> 
> Does anyone have it?  Is it worth it?
> 
> Thanks in advance.

I too received one of Prodigy's startup kits and tried the service for a
month for free. It was worth it.

Others have mentioned the fluff and heavy emphasis on advertising, and I
can do no more than echo their disappointment. One of my chief complaints
was that the bulletin board software still leaves a lot to be desired. You
can see only three headers per page and each page takes several seconds to
rewrite (even at 2400bps). Messages you select to read are presented to you
in little bites of 11 40-character lines (with, again, the delay between
pages). Doing the equivalent of vnews' "l" would take hours. I was hoping
somebody would give Compuserve enough competition to bring their rates down
a bit, but if I were CI$, I would only chuckle at this pretender.

Summary: if Prodigy offers to let you try it for a month for free, take 'em
up on it. But don't go out and buy a starter kit.


Bob Simmons    (posting for myself)
Exploration & Production Technology
Texaco Inc
Houston, Texas