Path: newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!news-e2a.gnn.com!pop.gnn.com!JDonth From: JDonth@gnn.com (Joseph L. Donth) Newsgroups: comp.sources.testers Subject: Beta Testers Wanted Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 13:09:55 Organization: InfoBook Technology Lines: 251 Message-ID: <4j9fer$sr1@news-e2c.gnn.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: www-31-240.gnn.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-GNN-NewsServer-Posting-Date: 26 Mar 1996 19:10:19 GMT X-Mailer: GNNmessenger 1.2 InfoBook Technology is looking for Beta Testers for our latest product called ONE-PHONE-CALL. This post is in four parts: 1) What does a Beta tester do? 2) How Do I Sign-up? 3) How do I get chosen? 4) The product description The product description is quite lengthy. Feel free to bail on it when you have decided to be a tester or have decided not to be one. Note: Since the program includes encryption software, we are restricting our testing (and possible distribution of the commercial release) to people living in the USA. I will restrain from comment on governments, export licenses, the NSA and the like. If you decide not to be a tester, would you drop me a post and tell me why? This is our second posting of this request - our goal is to have at least one hundred testers - so far we have less than two dozen. If you have any thoughts on where else I might post this beta test request and meet with a favorable response please let me know that as well. Thanks and without further delay... ****************************************************************************** ** What Does a Beta Tester Do? Although we will not ask you to sign any agreements, we do ask that you honor the following conditions of our Beta Test Program: 1. The software being tested is not for commercial use. If you use it in a commercial fashion, you do so at your own risk. The software may have 'bugs' in it. The purpose of the beta test program is to identify those problems. 2. Don't give copies of the software (except when authorized) to other people. If you know of someone that you think might be a good beta tester, let us know and we will look at adding him or her to the beta list. 3. Please let us know when you have problems with the software. Don't assume that someone else has reported it. A written response sent to JDONTH@GNN.COM, is the requested communication method. 4. We also ask for comments on the whole package you received from us. Did it create a good first impression? Was it complete? Is the User's Guide clear? What would you change? Why? ****************************************************************************** ** How Do I Sign up? Please reply by EMail (JDonth@gnn.com) with the following information: 1. Full Name 2. Surface mail and preferred email address 3. City, State and Zip code 4. Attention Line 5. Telephone number 6. An "I agree to the terms of the Beta Test Program" statement 7. Computer system information 8. Computer expertise (optional) 9. Experience as a Beta Tester (no previous experience is required) 10. Why you want to test this product ****************************************************************************** ** How Do I Get Chosen? We will be choosing testers on a first-come, first-serve basis. You are not guaranteed a position as a tester of ONE-PHONE-CALL. If you are chosen you will receive an email confirmation, followed by the software, sent via fist class mail. The software will be a 30+ day version with all features and capabilities. You will be sent an email questionnaire about 30 days after shipment of the software. Your reply to the questionnaire will insure you a FREE copy of the software after it is released into retail sales. If you are not chosen you will be notified by email. If you have any questions, please contact me at JDonth@gnn.com or Joseph L. Donth InfoBook Technology 7660 Reed Rd. Azle, Texas 76020 ****************************************************************************** ** What is ONE-PHONE-CALL? ONE-PHONE-CALL is a PC-based software product that enables you to transfer electronic information such as a program, a scanned fax, a word-processing document or a spreadsheet to someone, in a secure environment, with just one telephone call. It features a simple installation, user-friendly interface, mouse support, a menu system, and easy-to-remember commands. First, Some Background More and more of our correspondence is electronic in nature. We use word processors to compose letters and reports. We use spreadsheets to do budgets and financial analysis and we use accounting programs to keep track of everything from the corporate books to our personal checking accounts. The power of these software tools is easily appreciated and the trend is to use our computers in meeting more and more of our daily needs. What is lacking, however, is a simple, easy-to-use method of sharing our electronic information with each other. Using the facilities of fax, EMail or floppy disks has problems. A fax can only transmit printed information, EMail is difficult to use and can be expensive, and mailing floppy disks is very slow. Also, none of these methods is very secure. The wrong people can read a fax, open business mail, or gain access to voice-mail or EMail accounts. Now with your modem equipped computer and ONE-PHONE-CALL you can addresses all of these issues. Let's illustrate with three examples: The first example demonstrates the simplest issue: sharing electronic information with someone else. You are working on a report at home and need to confer with a co-worker in the office. You place a telephone call to your co-worker and discuss the report. You decide he needs to see a copy of the report. Without ONE-PHONE-CALL it might go like this: To fax a copy of the report you might: ... Print out the report on your printer ... Dial his fax number ... Fax the report ... Call him back to tell him the fax has been sent ... Wait for him to get the fax and call you back! The result - at least three phone calls and who knows how much time wasted in printing, faxing, perhaps getting busy signals and so on. Or perhaps you decide to send him an electronic version of the report, via his EMail account. You might: ... Format the document properly for the EMail service to accept ... Dial the EMail service, connect, log-in, and all the rest ... Transmit the report ... Call him back to tell him the report is on the EMail service ... Your co-worker connects to the EMail service ... He downloads the report ... He calls you back. At least four phone calls! And who knows how much money and effort? Now with ONE-PHONE-CALL, you can accomplish the same task with your original phone call. You and your co-worker can stay on the phone and transfer the information back and forth as many times as necessary, without having to make another phone call! A second example demonstrates a more complex problem. The ability to transfer information when you don't know exactly what information needs to be transferred. You have just received a copy of a great new shareware game from the XYZ Software Company. Your brother shares your liking for this company's software and you have exchanged previous shareware games with him. It's a great game and you're pretty sure he'll want a copy too. Without ONE-PHONE-CALL, you have two obvious choices. First, you could upload all the software to his EMail account (see above!) and maybe call him to tell him it's there, or you could copy the software to a floppy disk and mail it to him. If you go the EMail route, you're out the upload time and several dollars. (So is he, on the other end.) If you go with the Postal Service, you're out a buck or so for a floppy and some postage and the software gets there days later. With ONE-PHONE-CALL, it's as simple as calling him, finding out if he wants the software, and sending it right then and there! ONE-PHONE-CALL will even figure out what software he needs (perhaps several of the files are the same as in previous games) and will only send the new files that he doesn't have, and update any files that are out-of-date. We can extend this example to many specific problem areas: You own a software company that operates a customer service line for help with your products. If your customer needs an updated version of the software, you can upload the new software to him immediately, sending him only what he needs, during the one phone call the customer has made to your company. Result! a happy customer. A friend is having a problem with his computer. You suspect he may have a problem with one of his configuration files such as CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT or one of his Windows INI files. Without using the capabilities of ONE-PHONE-CALL he is either reading you the text of the file over the phone (yea, right!) or he is printing it out to fax it or mail it to you. You get the listing (maybe days from now) and find the problem. You need him to edit his CONFIG.SYS file to fix the problem. "How do I do that?" he asks. You get the idea. With ONE-PHONE-CALL, he simply sends you the files, you edit them on your computer, and send them back, he reboots, and the problem is solved. All with ONE-PHONE-CALL. Our final example highlights the security aspects of electronic information transfer. Have you ever sent a fax and wondered if it went to the wrong machine? Did you dial that number correctly? Or did you wonder if it was "eaten" by the machine? or was read by the wrong people? or fell into the "black hole" of cyberspace? Have you ever wanted to send some confidential information but didn't "quite trust" your on-line service? Have you ever wanted to make sure the right person and ONLY that person sees your communication? Without ONE-PHONE-CALL, the electronic exchange of confidential information can be very difficult. With ONE-PHONE-CALL, your life just got much easier. Here's a hyperbolic example but it makes the point: You have been away at your summer retreat working on the company annual report and budget. It is FULL of confidential information. You need to send it to your CFO back at the office for review and the insertion of some background information that he has in his computer. How do you get it to him? With ONE-PHONE-CALL, you call his office, get him on the phone, and send the document! You KNOW you dialed the right number. You KNOW you have the right person on the line. And by using the encryption feature of the software, you can even deter access to your information in the event of a wiretap. How do you do that without ONE-PHONE-CALL? Minimum System Requirements ONE-PHONE-CALL runs under Windows 95, Windows 3.1 or MS-DOS. System Requirements: For operation under Windows 3.1 or higher: IBM-compatible PC (386 or higher) 4 mb of RAM memory, 8 mb recommended Mouse Hard drive with at least 1 MB of free space 1200, 2400, 9600, 14.4K, 28.8K modem For operation under MS-DOS 3.11 or higher IBM-compatible PC (8088 or higher, 80286 or higher recommended) 640 kb of RAM memory Mouse recommended Hard drive with at least 1 MB of free space 1200, 2400, 9600, 14.4K, 28.8K modem Best Regards, Joe JDonth@gnn.com