GEnie

GEnie is a service provided by General Electric. Its original push for popularity was based on the low cost of connection, although other services have since lowered their rates to be more competitive. GEnie is the only large system which pays much attention to the Atari ST, so ST users have tended to congregate there. As of March, 1995, GEnie had approximately 75,000 users.

GEnie's basic rate is $8.95 per month ($10.95 Canadian), which includes up to four free hours of connect time at standard rates. The Standard hourly connect charge is $3.00/hour ($4.00/hour Canadian.) The surcharge (on top of the standard rate) for use during prime times (08:00-18:00 local time to the user within most of North America) is $9.50/hour ($12.00/hour Canadian.) There are also extra charges for connecting at 9600 bps, or for GEnie Premium Services, such as Charles Schwab Brokerage Services, Dow Jones News/Retrieval, GE Mail to Fax, The Official Airline Guides Electronic Edition Travel Service, QuikNews clipping service, and Investment ANALY$T(SM). GEnie has a network of local access numbers, and is also accessible through an "800" number, SprintNet, and Datapac. All Billing for GEnie services is done monthly through Visa or MasterCard.

GEnie has a free graphical user interface shell program called Aladdin for MS-DOS, Atari ST, and Amiga computers. It is available for download on GEnie.

There is E-mail service between GEnie and the Internet. Users on the Internet can address mail to username@genie.geis.com. To send a message from GEnie to an Internet address, put the Internet address, followed by @inet# (thus, to send a message to me from GEnie, you would address it to: "greg.slade@mydomain.com@inet#".) It is also possible to telnet to GEnie from the Internet. Telnet to hermes.merit.edu. When you get the "Which host?" prompt, enter "sprintnet-313171" and you should get the GEnie "U#=" prompt. By going through Sprintnet you're going to get the $2.00/hour surcharge, but if you live outside of the U.S. or Canada that's much cheaper than alternative means of access.

GEnie's special interest sections are called "RoundTables" (or "RT" for short.) The Religion and Philosophy RoundTable on GEnie contains quite a diverse group of members. Categories for discussion range from Fundamentalist Christians to Pagans to Skeptics with just about every major religion in between. There are public areas where people from across the religious spectrum can interact. There are also private areas where people within a particular religious tradition can meet apart from those of other faiths. There is a library with numerous text files, religious programs and newsletters from religious groups. The RoundTable has regular live conferences for members to meet "real time". One night, Father Driesbach, a noted scholar who has studied the Shroud of Turin for over a dozen years, met with members for over an hour. For more information on the Religion and Philosophy RoundTable, contact Art Werry <a.werry@genie.geis.com>.

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