arizona rockhounding
18 messages in this thread
As often happens in my work, I have an unexpected call to Phoenix, Arizona,
later this week. There's a decent chance that I may have time to do some quick
collecting in the area. Various texts describe zeolite localities around
Horseshoe Dam, which appears not far from Phoenix. Does anyone know anything
about this locality? Is it accessible, worthwhile, safe, productive, etc.?
Can anyone recommend any other mineral collecting localities in the Phoenix
area?
Thanks.
Nathan Schachtman
Hi Nathan,
You might try contacting FMS Regional Vice President of the Desert Region,
George Polman of Phoenix. His address is – 16645 South 13th St., Phoenix, AZ.
Phone: Res – 602-460-1959
Work – 602-968-5141
Rod
Rod:
Thanks for the suggestion. I will give George Polman a call today.
BTW, I now know my correct new email address! I can reached, in addition to
my CIS address, at: nschacht@omni.voicenet.com
This new address is with a net provider that gives me 90 hours per month of
PPP connection, unlimited unix shell access, for $20 per month. I feel as
though I am now really on the internet. The upcoming price reductions in CIS
will help keep me here, but most of my netting will be through the voicenet
connection.
Cheers.
Nathan
Can you get me info on 'voicenet'–youor new internet provider?
Robert,
Sure, I can give you some info on Voicenet. Their address is 17 Richard
Road, Ivyland, PA 18974. Telephone: 215-674-9290. They had an 800 number for
sales, but I have misplaced it.
In any event, they have several dialup nodes in the Delaware Valley area,
from Reading to Philadelphia to Cherry Hill, NJ. I have 90 hours of PPP
connection per month, and unlimited unix shell access, for $20. Extra PPP time
is about $1 per hours.
I get no commissions for any signups. 🙁
Nathan
With Internet providers becoming so inexpensive, the big networks will
certainly suffer. On the other hand, the quality here on Compuserve is much
higher than the Internet. Do you subscribe to the paleonet mailing list? You
should here whoops hear (old age settling in, never mind) the professional
bone-chasers worry and fuss about the appearance of a new news group for
paleontology, and whether they should keep the existence of their mailing list
a secret, to keep away the cranks and "what's this rock" amateurs.
I have a friend who started an Internet provider service… what an uncertain
proposition. It's lucrative now, but technological changes in the
infrastructure of information transmission could change their business
overnight. For example, radio modems are dropping in price, increasing in
transmission distance, and more and more Internet providers are using them for
short links. And ISDN sales are being driven by BBSes and Internet providers,
etc.
John,
You stated to Nathan that :…the quality her on Compuserve is much higher than
the Internet."
I am curious as to what is higher quality?
Personally, I have not been all that thrilled by Compuserve. This forum is a
great place to have discussions with other mineral collectors and geologists,
the Work at Home and Desktop Publishing forums have been somewhat interesting
but not really helpful. But mostly Compuserve has been big, slow and
incovenient. Each month they take my money and don't even provide me with a
readily handy guide to what is here and how to get to it. My only connection is
nearly glacially slow costs an extra $1.75/hr at off peak hours or $11.75 at
peak time, to upgrade to the latest version of MacCIM I had to pay $10 to
download it (and that was after logging on three times searching for it,
checking several forums and not finding anything with Mac file Finder) and only
now found out that the TCP pack so I can connect through the Internet at
reasonable speeds will cost $51 (whereas AOL sent me their new software free
including the TCP pack).
My Interenet connection is only $30 mo. for 100 hours (much less than CIS) with
a local access number, most of the software to use it is freeware or
inexpensive shareware (and works great and fast), the speed is up to 28.8 kbps,
I can connect to computers all over the world-reach them and get an opening
screen faster than I can connect with CIS, I can access computers with
information of all kinds on nearly every subject, there are newsgroups or
mailing lists with discussions on nearly every subject imagineable (and some I
couldn't have imagined)…
So, the only thing that now keeps me logging into Compuserve is this forum. So,
please explain what it is I am missing that is such high quality. 🙂
Lanny
I speak from the experience of reading the Internet since before it was called
the Internet, and of being on CompuServe since 1985. I came here for the
computer content, specifically, the Amiga computer, the market where I started
my software company. I also frequent the world's largest BBS, Exec PC.
To address your last question first, exactly what of "high quality" did you
find on the Internet? I think it's largely hype, and by sheer bulk, it's
dominated by discussions between snotty and inexperienced college kids.
I cannot dispute that there are some nice news groups that have no equal here
on CIS… after all, there's more than 10,000 newsgroups, including
non-English. And an academic professional is more likely to use Internet than a
for-pay service.
I think I appreciate the lower signal-to-noise ratio here on CIS. *If* your
particular interest is represented here, it'll have a better ratio of good
info, help and friendly people than an Internet group.
In truth, I use both Internet and CompuServe. I use a separate Internet
provider, I've never even looked at the Internet support here on CIS. And I
still "drive manually" on CIS, typing a half-dozen memorized commands at
prompts.
I read your note with interest, and echo your comments …
I also "drive manually" and run this forum via terminal emulation … (no
mouse!)
Rick
John,
I'm jealous–having wanted to be connected to the Internet (or CIS) since the
early 80s, and having just made it in 94.
And yes, the Interenet, even a fair percentage of many scientific (or what one
would expect as "mature") newgroups do have a lot of "snotty and inexperienced
college kids." who seem to have nothing substantial to say but talk everything
to death.
But, it apparently just gets down to you have found things of use on CIS more
than on the Internet, whereas it is the opposite for me. With the exception of
this forum, those on CIS that I have sampled for help and fun have been a big
disappointment–mostly the same questions and advice over and over again that
I've already read in the magzines. As in the recent episode trying to find out
how to connect to CIS through the Internet (a simple thing with AOL-they even
gave me the software with the new version of the free AOL software). It took a
lot of work, then found out the software was another $51 after paying $10 for
the CIS upgrade… I think CIS doesn't really want its customers.
Lanny
Lanny,
I concur in your sentiments about CIS versus Internet. The internet is big,
and looks disorganized at first. After I began to learn my way around, it
seemed rather foolish that I paid to download various programs from CIS
libraries, when the programs are freely FTPable from many servers around the
world. Some of the value of CIS is the ease and organization it brings to the
neophyte, which I still am. So CIS still has me, for a while.
There is also a familiarity factor at CIS, which is diluted on the newsgroups
and mailing lists because of their size. In some instances, the cost to speak
on CIS seems to make the conversation more valuable.
The upcoming price reduction on CIS is just in time. CIS prices are
outrageous! They are out of line with other comparable services, and they are
rediculous for accessing internet newsgroups, mailing lists, etc. I am getting
90 hours of PPP connection at 28.8k for $20 a month. On top of that, I get all
the unix shell connection I want. (This isn't even the best deal in town, but
the provider is the longest in business, which was worth another couple of
dollars each month.) Although I like this new provider, I am sure that others
are getting better terms elsewhere in the country.
The new price structure will probably keep me on line here for a while.
Some of the basic services (like Consumers Reports, US News and World Report,
etc.,) are worth a few dollars each month for the rest of the family. For my
part, I have unsubscribed all my mailing lists at CIS, and resubscribed at my
new address, where I don't have to gag when I get a big message from the 'net.
Nathan
Very nicely stated.
Lanny
Hi, Lanny–
My impression of the Internet vs. CIS response time is the opposite of yours.
I do not pay much attention to the arrival time of the first screen, usually
whizzing by in automatic to somewhere else – that final destination takes me a
lot longer in my few attempts at the Internet (outside CIS).
I suspect this part of your impression, and those extra costs, is largely due
to your lack of a local CIS node, which may change in time. Give it a try from
Tucson if you get a chance – no comm charges and it behaved itself for me last
time I was at the show. Here are the numbers from GO PHONES (I go in there and
capture the whole list every so often – that file makes life a lot easier when
I set up at an unexpected location).
Tucson AZ 602/745-8745 300 1200 2400 CPS 224MNP Tucson
AZ 602/750-9575 1200 CPS VADIC Tucson AZ
602/571-0207 9600 14.4 CPS V32bis
Your difficulty finding MACCIM and lack of a services list makes me wonder if
you ever got the full package with manual. Those little kits that come with a
modem may not make it obvious enough that you really ought to order the full
kit (sent to you via snailmail) at least the first time – it pays for itself
with usage credits, gets a more current manual, and spares you that comm charge
for the download (it is free of connect charges, at least).
–Doug
Doug,
Your message explained it very well at the end. (There must have been a major
frustration problem for you guys who connected back in the days of 100 and 300
bps!) I connected with the "free" software (MacCIM) that came with the modem.
And frankly, didn't know the kit you could pay for had any significant manual.
I will admit that I know there is a book, but not an official one from CIS, but
that's another $xx for which I haven't seen any real indication that it would
be money well spent (haven't gone looking for things often, part of the reason
being the slownes–expense of this connecton.
Unfortunately, this guy does not have a portable computer (maybe after my
college attending daughter, and high school son) are out of college, or you
guys buy a whole lot of this mineral data program…so I won't be connecting at
Tucson (you will have to wait until Monday the 13th for any uploaded info from
me).
Unless someone comes up with another forum or feature of real use, you will see
me in this forum and on the Internet.
Lanny
Hi, Lanny–
That extra cost and slowness from your indirect connection does indeed make a
big difference. I was almost ready to drop my CIS account when a connect
charge reduction and CIM arrived – suddenly I was able to make much faster and
cheaper hunts for things, and could afford to blunder about until I ran into
unsuspected goodies, which kept me around until I discovered this group.
–Doug
Lanny:
I must agree with you regarding CServe. There is so much more variety on the
Internet and my cost is $15/mo with 5 hrs free (evenings). And, with a mail
and usenet reader, my online time is very low unless I'm searching for
something. In addition, I am figuring out how to download all the files for
Mosaic and hope to be hooked up there with my own home page soon. CServe can't
do much to help me with the Mining Business Digest but the Internet sure can!
Regards,
Frank Ludeman
Editor, Mining Business Digest
Frank,
Sounds good, please let me know how things go setting up your own web home
page.
Lanny