102
Chapter
7,
Resources
Information
services
111ere
are two kinds
of
information services: general purpose and
specialized. General interest services usually offer numerous
features-the
latest news, sports, weather,
and
movie reviews.
Additionally, you
can look
up
airline schedules and make
reservations,
shop
from computerized catalogs,
exchange
messages with
other
subscribers, and
download
(have the service
send
you) public domain software.
Specialized services maintain informalion for
professionals-lawyers,
journalists, stockbrokers, physicians,
educators, librarians,
and others,
Catalogs
of
information services are available.
5ce
what interests
you and subscribe. Your dealer
can probably help you subscribe to
any
of
the more popular services. Your dealer can also tell you
how
to get your
user
ID, your
pas!>"",,'ord,
and the local phone number
of
the information service.
Bulletin
boards
Bulletin
board
!>,-stems appeared
in
1978
as a way
for
local user-
group members to exchange
messages with
each
other
and
share
programs by phone. Today there arc
over
300 computerized
bulletin boards in the United States. Bulletin boards
arc
popular for
three reasons:
• Most
are frcc. \,(/hen not free, subscription rates for full access
tend
to
be
reasonable.
You
don't have to pay for
connect
time
the
way you
do
with an information service.
• They're a source
of
free
software-some
of
it
profcssional quality,
However, no guarantees are made about its being free
of
bugs.
• People make new friends by leaving
messages
or
'talking'
to
each
other
through their computers.
Normally, you
don't
have to belong
to
a computer club to use a
bulletin board.
All
you need
is
the
phone
number
for a local
bulletin board system (BBS). Sources for
phone
numbers include
computer
clubs,
13I3S
articles that
appear
in
computer
magazines,
and computer dealers. Your dealer may
even
be
the
system
operator
(SYSOP)
of
a bulletin board.
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