Re: Nota BenekC=newlog

[adpf@xxxxxxxx]

hi 2u2 ...
me
Happy to hear from you, Carl! You've been out of touch too long.

Sympathies on your hardware disarray. I haven't had a 1.4" floppy drive
for months because I hate how time-consuming and frustrating doing
hardware is. ... Ah, so ... you're taking the ISP plunge too--same one
Robert uses, no?

All I know about Escape is first-hand. A recurring question in
nyc.general is "What's a good, cheap local ISP?" About a year ago, a
response grabbed my attention--from someone who owns one, Roman Kazan of
escape.com (est. '87). When a follow-up asked, "Can any customers confirm
whether this is for real?", a couple of @escape.coms answered, Yes, I use
it, it's OK. ... No one flamed or raved, and that impressed me.

To tell the truth, I liked the name. What sealed it was last summer's
PCExpo: Javits Center basement was an Internet extravaganza, all the big
players--some locals: glossy brochures, free tryouts, the usual.
*Outside* Javits Center doors, a young woman handed out xeroxed Escape
flyers. The opportunistic mom 'n' pop marketing charmed me. When I
finally called, that flyer was in front of me.

Fee is $20 a month for unlimited shell access plus 80 hours' slip/ppp (20
per cent discount for one-year advance payment). I paid in person
(apparently a first)--a story for another day. Learn a lot snooping like
that. (Did you ever take a look at the NB office at West Broadway and
Canal?)

Escape gives new users a bundle of all-'net-services Windows shareware; I
believe the browser is Mosaic. I've yet to unzip the files. The only
thing I expect to install is winsock, to replace the dubious one I have
now. Will dl a new Netscape to replace my year-old version. The Eudora
etc. Escape sent me then are still installed--and unused. I don't get
using a gui for text-based 'net services any more than I get using one to
write and edit.

Shell accounts, however, seem to be for new grads hip to unix (need no
help), thrust into the cold world after four years of free 'net. I had
just enough rusty unix experience to find the (default) menu overlay
Escape gives unix novices a nuisance. I disabled it and use csh (C
shell); other shells are at hand. So are elm, pine, and other mailers;
tin, nn, and other readers; pico and other editors; ftp, telnet--etc.,
etc. ... All were new to me. None of it's hard, probs are so much new
stuff at one time and the urgency of making it work. Heroic help from
Daniel Say has trimmed weeks off the time I'd have needed to get where I
am now.

Synchronizing elm and dosQModem scripts has been a "challenge" ;) but now
one keystroke logs me on, copies new mail to one file, uploads and sends
up to nine email msgs I've written in xyW. Another keystroke downloads
the new email file, erases it from server, and logs off. While online,
another keystroke can lynx me into www.nytimes.com (some www stuff just
lends itself to a text-based browser). Offline, I process email with the
same further-edited xpl kludge I used for AOmail, the NYPC bbs, and
Pipeline. Wotta mess! One routine I've had to add, I consider payback for
my hubris regarding CR/LF--an issue that's a yawn to anyone with
typographic experience. Yet I cannot for the *life* of me get my QM ascii
13/10 settings quite right. ...

After two weeks, at the end of January I cancelled AO, regretting only
that I didn't switch to Escape as soon as I read about it. I notified AO
that cancellation was because email service--my main reason for the
acct--had become so unreliable. A boilerplate thank you said, "We hope
you enjoy our service." ... What I enjoy is Escape's local scale. Only
complaints I can dredge up are that during evening peak hours, script
sometimes must dial a dozen times before it gets past BUSY signal, and
that calling the voice number turn on voicemail. The couple of times I've
called the wait has been short. "Tech support" dude (voicemail #2, M-F
10-6) turned out to be the "Sales" dude (voicemail #1) I'd arranged the
acct with.

I don't know CONNECT2. I guess my second choice would be Echo, the well
established (Franklin Street) Well wannabe that my friends who use
ISPs--all writers--all use. Lots of Well-wannabe local activity. I think
discussion of politics and social issues is what pubs--not computers--are
for. One old friend's son dropped out of college to found Mindvox,
another pioneer local ISP--a weenie inyerface scatology home base (how
else do you rebel against a dad who's a Freudian shrink/Village Voice
founder?). I find IDT commercials so offensive I'd rather use Mindvox,
but that's just me. You probably never hear them. If you're interested,
Escape (voice) is 212-888-8780, bbs is 888-8212.

Best luck. Glad you're back. If I can help with anything, holler. 	--diane

================================ dFisher  nyc