BTN: Birmingham Telecommunications News COPYRIGHT 1991 ISSN 1055-4548 December 1991 Volume 4, Issue 11 Table Of Contents ----------------- Article Title Author Policy Statement and Disclaimer................Staff Publisher's Corner.............................Mark Maisel Notes From The Wenches.................Judy Ranelli & Deborah Bolen Music Revue For Those Without A Soul...........Joseph Ray My Origins Into BBS'ing........................Michael Davidson Not A BTN Party Review.........................Scott Hollifield Running From Remote............................Tim Straughn The Adventures of R.G. Strangemind & Herbert...Jeremy Lewis Notes From The Trenches........................Dean Costello ProFile: Kevin Hitt...........................Scott Hollifield Review: Quandary 4.65.........................Eric Hunt Reflections....................................Colby Gibson Windows & Diamond Speedstar Plus SVGA Card.....Eric Hunt Special Interest Groups (SIGs).................Barry Bowden Known BBS Numbers..............................Staff ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer and Statement of Policy for BTN We at BTN try our best to assure the accuracy of articles and information in our publication. We assume no responsibility for damage due to errors, omissions, etc. The liability, if any for BTN, its editors and writers, for damages relating to any errors or omissions, etc., shall be limited to the cost of a one year subscription to BTN, even if BTN, its editors or writers have been advised of the likelihood of such damages occurring. With the conclusion of that nasty business, we can get on with our policy for publication and reproduction of BTN articles. We publish monthly with a deadline of the fifteenth of the month prior to publication. If you wish to submit an article, you may do so at any time but bear in mind the deadline if you wish for your work to appear in a particular issue. It is not our purpose to slander or otherwise harm a person or reputation and we accept no responsibility for the content of the articles prepared by our writers. Our writers own their work and it is protected by copyright. We allow reprinting of articles from BTN with only a few restrictions. The author may object to a reprint, in which case he will specify in the content of his article. Otherwise, please feel free to reproduce any article from BTN as long as the source, BTN, is specified, and as long as the author's name and the article's original title are retained. If you use one of our articles, please forward a copy of your publication to: Mark Maisel Editor, BTN 221 Chestnut St. BHM, AL 35210-3219 (205)-956-0176 We thank you for taking the time to read our offering and we hope that you like it. We also reserve the right to have a good time while doing all of this and not get too serious about it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- F R E E B I E : G E T I T W H I L E I T S H O T ! The following boards allow BTN to be downloaded freely, that is with no charge to any existing upload/download ratios. The Connection LZ Birmingham Alter-Ego Channel 8250 Little Kingdom Joker's Castle Crunchy Frog Myth Drannor Posys BBS The Matrix Abject Poverty The Bus The Outer Limits Bloom County The Round Table DC Info Exchange Radio Free Troad Owlabama BBS Amiga Alliance ][ DataLynx Martyrdom Again?! Arkham Asylum Road Kill If you are a sysop and you allow BTN to be downloaded freely, please let me know via EZNet so that I can post your board as a free BTN distributor. Thanks. MM ----------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W S F L A S H I would like to apologize to David Roberts for taking so long to do what I said I would do. It is coming, I assure you. The project is larger than I'd thought and should materialize in January. You will see it prior though. MM Robin Newberry, sysop of Safety BBS, is thinking of putting up another bbs and is looking for your input. He is thinking of orienting it toward folk, bluegrass blues, gospel, and ethnic music. Please pass on your comments to him via The MATRIX. MM I don't know when I will be hosting another party. Kathy's health has not been stable for some time now, and we are hoping to get her a bone marrow transplant as soon as possible. We have a donor now, possibly two. At this time, we have no idea as to what our next moves will be, and as such, I will not make any plans I can't honor until I know more about what the next year holds for us. I appreciate your patience, and I assure you, this does not mean there won't be any more parties. MM ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Publisher's Corner by Mark Maisel Modem Talk This started out as a question I answered on The MATRIX, asked by someone who was shopping for a new 9600 baud modem. I will admit that there are many new things to learn when considering these modems that just don't come up when purchasing 2400 baud or slower modems. I read what I'd written to the person and thought it worthy of sharing with you. Perhaps it will help you if you are considering the purchase of a high speed modem. I've noticed modems that offer V.42, V.32, 9600, etc. What do these mean? HST - modulation (connection & transmission) standard that enables connect rates up to 14,400 baud and 38400 bps (bits per second; divide by 8 to get a realistic rate per character). HST is only good for connecting to another modem that supports HST. Currently, such modems are the US Robotics Courier HST and Dual Standard. V.32 - modulation standard that enables connect rates up to 9600 baud and 38,400 bps in some cases. Some V.32 modems prefer to limit you to 19,200 bps, or 9600 bps, but that is a function of any error correction and compression that may or may not be available. V.32 is not a proprietary scheme, so it is available from many vendors, and in many flavors. V.32bis - similar to V.32 except that the connect rate is 14,400 baud and all of these come with some error correction and compression allowing for a theoretical throughput of up to 38,400 bps. The above are modulation standards that you should consider when purchasing a modem. Below, I will summarize error correction and compression schemes available. None - just what it implies. This can be found on most 300, 1200, and 2400 baud modems. It may also be found on some V.32 modems. MNP - MNP is a proprietary, but widely licensed method of error correction and compression. MNP levels 1-4 were recently released to the public domain and many manufacturers have adopted it for use in their modems. It does not allow for any data compression, only error correction. MNP level 5 includes correction. There are higher levels of MNP to be found, but mostly these are limited to modems from the originator of MNP, Microcom. V.42/V.42bis - this is a non-proprietary scheme for "intelligent" correction and compression. The way it is supposed to work is similar to MNP but the modem's processor can be set to decide if data passing through will benefit or not from compression, and then it will act accordingly. Compression here, as well as MNP5, is said to be capable of up to 4:1. In summary, if you have the bucks, the best bet is a US Robotics Dual Standard as it supports everything listed above. It is not an inexpensive modem, but it will talk to everybody, nearly. HST modulation is wide spread on bbs' because USR has gone out of their way for a long time to get modems into the hands of sysops, thinking, and correctly, that users would follow suit. They have, and there is a huge base of HST modems installed. V.32 and V.32bis seem to be getting wide acceptance from manufacturers and business because they are non-proprietary, thus allowing anyone to implement it. The danger is the potential for poor implementation of the standard, possibly rendering such not very useful, as it may not connect to all other modems sharing its modulation. This is a rarity as it is not in the best interests of the manufacturer to not fully comply with a standard. Stay away from deals that sound too good to be true. They usually are, unless you are ready to trust or get guarantees from the seller. There are many folks out there making and selling modems that use any of the above methods. Among those are US Robotics, Hayes, Multitech, Practical Peripherals, Forval, Microcom, Intel...I'm sure there are others that I've forgotten to name, but they are out there. Good luck! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes From the Wenches (yet another view of the now-infamous Halloween Party) by Judy Ranelli and Deborah Bolen Our scene unfolds at a house in the midst of the mysterious kingdom known as Southside. We approach the scene of an eerie nocturnal ritual, heralded by three pumpkins etched with strange runes that spell out B T N. The night is electric with the promise of unspeakable things. The members of the elite cult approach this most hallowed of places. Meanwhile, a car full of new users parks in the shadows near the house as its occupants wonder if the cult will bid them welcome. There are werewolves and women of the night, ghouls and little girls, cats and cowboys, Trekkers and t-shirts, monsters and multiple personalities... But there is a presence lurking in the corners, hiding in the hallways, more ghastly and ghoulish than any of these. It is a force so fiendish as to strike fear and loathing into the revelers for many days to come. A strange, enigmatic shadow falls on the faces of the party-goers. They shift uneasily and sniff the wind, like the prey who sense the unseen predator. Yet, the figure goes about his business undiscovered, hidden in the shadows. He scribbles in his notebook. He whispers into his tape recorder, laughing silently all the while. Disembodied Voice: "No, no, Deborah. Trek talk is verboten!" Deborah: "Uh...since when? Besides, Judy, Scott and I are writing a Trek parody on the boards. We need to see where the story is going and..." DV: "No matter! Don't you know where you ARE?" Deborah: "I thought I was at a party???" DV: "Not just ANY party! Didn't you know that this is akin to a meeting of the U.N. Security Council?!? You may only discuss things of great importance here!" Later that evening.... High Priestesses Judy, Patsy and Deborah huddle around a huge cauldron, which bubbles menacingly and reeks of venomous fumes. They cackle wildly and begin chanting the magic words: "Ignore Dean! Ignore Dean!" Judy straightens up and pauses. "Which one IS Dean?" she asks her wicked sisters. They both turn and look at her incredulously. "Uh... never mind," she whimpers and they continue their spell. The three witches revel in the power they hold over the self-esteem of other guests. Meanwhile, the denizens of the night find themselves at the mercy of some strange force. Mark walks through the house and people slide across the floor with absolutely no control over their actions and stick to him like glue. He calmly and blithely scrapes them off as if nothing is out of the ordinary. Someone else walks across the porch, while like the parting of the Red Sea, people are pushed to either side from his path by a mysterious repulsing field that is invisible but compelling in its force. Several guests begin to exhibit these powers. The party is disrupted by the two forces until people are squashed against walls and ceilings and stuffed into sofa cushions head first. One poor soul has her head repulsed into a bowl of dip and finds herself attacked by potato chips. The sound of a clock chiming twelve releases the beleaguered guests, and the attractors/disrupters each retire to neutral corners. The new users, frightened out of their wits by this supernatural display, huddle together and try to muster up the courage to initiate conversations with strangers. A chill wind blows across the porch as the mysterious guest records his disapproval of the more ingenious costumes. He also curses the women present who choose to drink what they want and as much as they wish. It's a free country, but not a free party, in his estimation. Old friends of both sexes get together at the party, guilty of having every gesture and word misconstrued as a sexual come-on. As far as the evil entity is concerned, everyone present at the party is debauched. As the slavering ogre scrawls his evil notes, people find themselves grouped and ranked in formerly nonexistent patterns. Those with the fastest microprocessors find the speed written on their arms like some ghoulish tattoo. And pity the poor souls who have the audacity to own non-IBM computers. They are relegated to holding areas where they await their punishment. Guest x to guest y: "Gee, y, we've been friends for years, but now that I find that your processor is slower than my 486, I don't think I can associate with you anymore. And to top it off, you own an Atari!" X makes the sign of the cross to ward off the evil one. Y, now crushed and seeing that his life is thoroughly without meaning, goes off and loses himself in re-runs of Gilligan's Island. The evil entity, having studied his subjects like rats in a maze, now feels he has enough information for his thesis. Having talked to guests for as much as 10 seconds each, he judges himself informed enough to make broad generalizations about their character and motivation. He gloats as he realizes his two classes in social science have equipped him to sit and observe, god-like, over people who will not even remember encountering him later. He slinks off into the night clutching his notes against his chest as steam rises from his nostrils and his fangs drip some noxious and loathsome fluid. The thesis is circulated in a public magazine, available to those who have just discovered telecommunication. They download and read his conclusions, which come off like a B-Grade horror movie, complete with obligatory sex scenes and dime store psychoanalysis. They think, "Perhaps this isn't what I thought it was all about. I thought telecommunications would be a way to meet friendly, interesting people and a way to exchange information. It seems like I wouldn't fit into these well-entrenched cliques. Besides, I wouldn't want to end up shredded in one of these articles by people I don't even know yet. A pity; I might have had a lot to offer." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Music Revue for Those Without Soul by Joseph Ray Hi Ho! As you know, there was no music revue for last month. But, since I'm the one putting in the time and energy for this, you'll just have to live with it. It's not like I received a hell of a lot of comments anyway, so what do I care? Not a whole hell of a lot! I'm just doing this so I can have something interesting for my resume anyway, so screw off if you don't like it! Today, you worthless punks, I'm going to take a brief look at some albums that have been recently released. -Skid Row's "Slave to the Grind" - freakin' awesome! I had the luxury of seeing these 'heads open up for GNFR out at the slime track back in June. First impression tells you this is just another slash band with a pumpin' bass line. Listen to it a little closer next time. Don't be so closed minded and you'll see that Dave "the Snake" Sabo has just as many riffs up his sleeve as Eddie Van Halen. The only difference being that Eddie has forgotten how to put the rock into rock-n-roll. Ever since Van Halen stupidly let Diamond Dave split from the group, they've gone downhill. Its obvious that Van Hagar let their penises wrinkle. With "Monkey Business," its obvious that they still know how to let their hormones boil in their blood. "Well, Joey, Skid Row is nothing but a bunch of kids with guitars and a record contract" you say. Even if they are, what of it? They still provide insightful commentary into sociological dilemmas which this society faces. Just because someone is a young rock-n-roll star does not mean that their views and ideas are any less worthy than some hypocritical politician gnawing on jelly beans or fending off broccoli farmers. Listen to the words, and maybe you can understand that they are a legitimate band with legitimate claims and not just another "whip me, beat me" quintet of bad cross- breedings. -Dread Zeppelin's "5,000,000" - Ultimate Parody Basically, what this group is trying to say is "Led Zeppelin suxx!!!" But, the best part about their act is that they do it with such humility that no one is going to get pissed off. Dread Zeppelin knows that they cannot piss off too many people if they're going to make any money. To take the edge off their flaming message, they resort to gags. TortElvis, an Elvis impersonator, takes up the lead vocals with to mock those fans who have been brainwashed into thinking Robbie Plant had a voice. Many say this album is sacrilege, but that's placing Led Zeppelin into the meta-physical realm. Led Zeppelin is a band. Bands are composed of people. Led Zeppelin is nothing more than a bunch of people. And that, you bunch of losers, is Dread Zeppelin's point. Robert Plant is not a god and neither is Jimmy Page. They bleed just like any other human beings. Hopefully, you'll take Dread Zeppelin's message to heart and get your heads out of your asses. -U2- "Achtung Baby!" - A Transitional Stage Into a New Form of Greatness With "Joshua Tree" and "Rattle and Hum," U2 made their vision to become the world's best band come true. But, such as true artists do, they performed research and tested out new ideas with the experimental album "The Unforgettable Fire." "Achtung Baby!" is one of these experimental albums. This time, U2 tries out a little bit of funk mixed in with a plethora of new guitar sounds that Edge conjured from his superb, creative mind. "Joshua Tree" was U2's first real integration of keyboards into their sound, but "Achtung" takes this another step further by allowing even more of the key's sound come through on the playback. Guitar purists can whine and moan all they want, but there hasn't been a band to reach true greatness without the use of the keyboards. With "Achtung," U2 is letting the world know that they're going to be around for a long while, and that they're not going to be another long lost band of the eighties. You have a comment? Send something over EZNET... You have something you would like to see reviewed? Send something over EZNET... You want to kill your father and marry your mother? Do it to the sound of a wailing guitar!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- My Origins Into BBS'ing or An Addict in Retrospect by Michael Davidson Many people have recently been writing articles about their start into the marvelous world of BBS'ing, so I thought I'd try my hand. A little personal info. to set the mood: I'm a thirteen year old in the eighth grade who, by some stroke of misfortune, fell into a friendship with the one and only Ricky Eanes. I guess my origins with computing would start way back when I was, oh, five. One day Mom and Dad brought home a computer! Yup, a real live working computer! It was our very own Commodore 64, complete with one disk drive, a printer, and two programs. Facemaker, by Spinnaker (a truly classic game, for those of you who have never had the experience), and some word processor which would actually check the text you wrote! (Can you imagine?!?) My next experience would be learning how to (kind of) program in BASIC, the only programming language the C64 had. Needless to say, I wasn't very good. Give me a break, I was only 7 or 8 at the time. I wrote a few programs of my own, and typed in some from the manual. Wow, we were having some fun now! Then, a hint of things soon to come came in the form of a card describing things we could buy to add to our wonderful machine. One of them was a modem. They really existed! If we got one, then maybe I could find out all of the government secrets, like in War Games. Or at least use the encyclopedia on CompuServe for school projects. The valiant C64 never got to have a modem, but it was my first true computer, and it will always live in the playroom upstairs, that is, until we decide to give it to goodwill, trash it, or whatever. Anyway, about the same time, one of my neighbors got an IBM compatible. It was soooo cool. You didn't have to pop in a disk for each game you wanted to play! It had a "hard drive", whatever that was. They didn't have a modem, but that CGA system was all I needed to get hooked. Zoom ahead to age 10 and fifth grade. A new school, a new class, and a new friend named Ricky Eanes. One day, I went over to Ricky's house. What did I see before my eyes, but an IBM compatible like the days of ole' except this time with 16 colors. Shure enough, he had a modem, and a word processor that could utilize it. He had the numbers to two local BBS's, called Duck Pond and Crunchy Frog. Ah, my first experience with BBS's. Enter summer of sixth grade. My parents wanted a new computer for "business purposes" and they were debating between a Mac and IBM. It took a lot of conniving, and insulting of family members, but we finally got the IBM I'd always dreamed of, complete with a 2400bps modem. Ricky told me that he'd read a new magazine, called BTN, that listed TONS of BBS numbers for the B'ham area. A thirty minute session with my comm program Quick Link 2, and I was off. The rest is history. Now I know my way around computers and BBS's pretty well, although I'm not very active, due to my school activities. Ricky and I have come a long way since then, and we now host two conferences called CAAT on Joker's Castle and Nonsense on Hardeman' Christian BBS . Well, that's my story, like it or not. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Not A BTN Party Review or, Who Is Michael Walker and Why Would Everyone In Birmingham Like To Kill Him? by Scott Hollifield As the title says, this isn't a review of the October BTN Halloween party, and anyway, who ever heard such a ridiculous thing? It's December already, or will be by the time you read this, and besides, last month's issue of BTN provided us with two very lucid, if somewhat biased, articles covering the events at the already-infamous Halloween party. And let's face it, you don't write worth a damn anyway unless you show a little bias. That is, after all, what writing is all about (or so I've decided), and the key to good writing is in how you channel your bias. Dean did his usual bit with his party review; in fact, so usual was his review that I had already heard everything in the article before I even read it. But that's okay, because BTN is pretty much the only connection left to any real Birmingham audience for Dean, and like the most persistent of entertainers, Dean craves an audience, whether he admits it or not. We all do. No, Dean's article didn't tell me anything new, but there was another party review, sandwiched quietly in between Eric Hunt's Windows column and Bob Crawford's just-discovered-BTN "please allow me to introduce myself" piece. This party article was written by someone whom I've never heard of, a fellow named Michael Walker, and it was an eye-opener. It was the kind of bias that tries to make itself look like straight reporting, which is often the most entertaining kind. While reading it, my mind flashed back instinctively to Jet Thomas' quite interesting party review from BTN #24. Jet's coverage of that season's BTN party was a hair-raising illustration of how frightening and powerful the straight, blunt, camera-eye truth can be. I don't know if anyone was actually offended by Jet's article, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least. Michael's party piece was basically the same fare, but told from more of an "outsider's" perspective - someone who had never been to one of these things before. Jet himself even got the tables turned on him by being referred to in Michael's article as "a very weird little person who was trying desperately to be clever". And therein lies the rub: Michael's article was interesting because it was a raw grainy look at a BTN party from the point-of-view of someone who didn't know any of the unwritten rules or in-jokes. Anyone who knows Jet well (or as well as can be) realizes that Jet's weirdness isn't a pretentious attempt to be clever, although it might well come off that way to an amateur sociologist like Michael. Further on down the list, I noticed that Michael spelled "BTN" as "BTM", puzzled over Mark Maisel's legendary social status, and actually professed to have never heard of "some person named Dean" - the first time I've EVER heard Dean referred to in those words. (I laughed out loud at the image of Dean uncomfortably finding himself in the position of actually having to *introduce* himself to someone.) Michael even made the penultimate (and easiest) mistake an outsider could make in reviewing a BTN party: he concluded that computer-level actually determined social status, or to put it in his words, people are ranked by the speed of their microprocessor. Most of the computer users I know HATE talking about their machines, as do I, since all I do on it is telecommunicate and write (often merging the two, as I do here). As statistically unlikely as it sounds, the best conclusion that *I* can draw from this is that Michael did indeed talk to most or all of the wrong people, particularly if anyone actually asked him to trade software. Anyone who goes to a BTN party and talks primarily about computers isn't really experiencing the party itself, and is probably being laughed at by the ones who are. Personally, I don't remember talking to Michael at the party, and since I was sober the whole time, I either didn't catch his name or somehow missed him - strange, considering he was there (as was I) until at least 3 a.m. (from his account of Chris Mohney tipsily crooning "I like New York in June" in the front yard). I even got mentioned, albeit inaccurately and with my name misspelled, which indicates that Michael must've gotten my name from Dean after I left the vicinity to get a soft drink. But we can forgive that; I don't know about his background as a writer, but being a neophyte BTNer, Michael was certain to get a few of his facts wrong, and since we all know what happened anyway, Michael's article reveals as much about himself as it does what happened at the party. I actually didn't intend for this to develop into a full-blown review of Michael Walker's article, but while I'm at it, I might as well mention what he did manage to get right, which was a surprising amount. Dean impressed him as "standoffish and surly", which is just about perfect, considering that Dean may as well be the poster child for Surly People Local 251. Lurch Henson was denigrated anonymously as "some guy with a scraggly beard...dressed in black" who "just stood around and pretended to be cool". Being an outsider, Michael of course was obligated to see pretention in everyone, which doesn't really surprise me much. Michael reveals his own human desires and vulnera- bilities: he points fingers at the "nerds" who leered at the very unsteady Tiffany Griffin, while simultaneously letting us know that he too had noticed the "very fetching thighs" of Dave Stanton's date (Dave was the one dressed as a televangelist). A mistake Michael makes here is attributing the oglers' activity to nerdiness instead of drunkenness (there was much more of the latter than the former), and in the future, it might be a good idea for him to be watchful of any pokes at the social interaction of those around him. Even veteran BTN writers like Dean and I occasionally fall into the trap of trying to separate ourselves from the BTN scene in our role as "objective reporters"; Dean fails miserably at it, and personally, I've long since given up the illusion that I'm on some kind of plateau looking down at the masses. In other words, we're all in the same boat, even if some of us are hanging on to the masts. He's one of us now; to trample another metaphor, Michael should keep on eye on that developing pot-black coloration lest he start to slowly resemble the kettle he targets. I mentioned "in the future". Does Michael Walker, in fact, have a future as a BTN writer? Well, ultimately, that's up to him of course, and, indirectly, to the persons who may want to lynch him after having read his article. Michael himself touches on this very tangent in his closing paragraph, as he ponders the understanding that's coming; "maybe soon," he says, "but not yet." He realizes that he will learn more about what goes on as he spends more time on the boards and at the parties, provided he talks to the right people. I have to admit that he has potential, even though virtually anyone can make a party review interesting (parties are easy; the trick is finding other things to write about between parties). The thing that I'm wondering, though, is if Michael's polish may be a bit worn by the time his next article, if one comes, rolls around. By the next time he writes, he will have learned a bit more about the BTN scene; he will have become more integrated into the crowd, and the innocence that highlighted Michael's party article will be peeled away layer by layer. Only time will tell if there is a comparable level of insight lurking beneath. Michael, if you're reading this (and I have a feeling that word will eventually get around to you), then let me say this: some say that I may be easily impressionable, but you did actually impress me - not in the colloquial sense of "come off flatteringly", but literally made an impression, and in fact did that increasingly rare thing: you caused me to sit down and write a new BTN article. You've also increased the controversy level of BTN another notch, and as a fellow controversialist, I can't complain too much. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Running From Remote by Tim Straughn, SysOp, Bus System I have been operating a BBS for nearly 6 years now, and haven't really regretted a minute of it. It has given me some incredible challenges, and taught me a lot about dealing with other people and their 'isms. It's had it's ups and downs, and it's downs and ups, including massive hardware failures, being struck by lightning (resulting in the previous), major security screw-ups (disrupting the entire BBS community on Christmas day of 1988), and just plain ornery people sometimes, but over all, it has been a very enjoyable experience. From the day I first put in a private line for the system, it has been a daily task of keeping the board put together. I perhaps ran it in absentia a bit too much, and now, it isn't nearly as popular as it was the first few years I had the system. From the get go, I started hot-rodding batch files to take care of the mundane chores that other sysops have all the patience of Job for, because I hate repetitive tasks. I kept at it until the system could completely support itself with no intervention at all, including all the message base packing, user data base management, virtually everything except uploaded file directory management. I am a stickler for detail, and due to the limitations of PCBFiler, I haven't yet figured out a way to automate this process, and place the files in the right directories, but believe me, it isn't because I haven't tried. My goal, beginning in August, 1989, was to get the system to the point it required absolutely no human intervention, and that I could leave it and not come back to a disaster on the hard disks with humongous files resulting from old messages and other stuff. I finally got all details of the system worked out, including a timed registration. I worked hard at the batch files, getting the system to delete any new users that hadn't registered completely, and hadn't been back on for 10 day, as well as bumping off registered users that hadn't been on for 180 days. I was very pleased with myself, and worked more diligently and had the system packing the message bases every 7 days, killing off old traffic so that the new user on the system wouldn't have reams of mail to read which would be of little value. I was tickled pink because I wasn't spending tremendous amounts of time maintaining the system. I had some batch files that were called "batch files from Hell" by another local sysop who helped me set up and start the BBS. I was, at the time, at DOS's mercy, and knew little about batch programming. Now, I have nuclear powered batch files which all but eliminate any intervention from me, the fully self-supporting BBS. It offers very little trouble, and the only time I ever do anything to the batch files now, it's just something for finesse, nothing really functional. Why did I ever set this goal for my BBS? At the time I got the notion, I knew that I was going to become involved in a long-term project at the Saturn automobile plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. This meant that I would be gone for weeks on end, and I didn't want the system to die or take it down because of my absence. I wanted the users to keep it alive for me, and felt that if I wasn't interfering with the operation, that it would run more smoothly and become more popular. Since I wasn't having to take it down for long periods of time to answer mail and manage the file directories, I thought traffic would pick up and the system would become even more busy. At one time, traffic on my system was in the top ranks. Now, I think it probably would fall into last place, though it is getting better. I actually thought I was doing my users a favor by ducking out and leaving the system to them. I actually thought that a "sysopless" system would prosper beyond the wildest dreams of any sysop because I wasn't getting worked up over some message that a user left, or a file that shouldn't have been uploaded for whatever reason. I truly thought that the users didn't want a sysop watching the BBS like `Big Brother'. I have learned over the past few months, however, that this is not true. In the past 12 months, I have seen entire weeks go by without a single message being entered on the system. Every message that was in the message bases was coming from remote systems. Even with the networking to other boards, the system was dying a very slow and painful death, and I couldn't figure out why. I was dismayed, and even considered having the phone line removed because there wasn't much point in keeping the extra phone line if it wasn't being used. I even left a message to that effect. Lo and behold, I got a message! I left another, and got two responses. Hmmm, what was happening here. Since I finally got a message, and even started a conversation with one of the users, and that user extended the conversation to another, the message activity has been picking up. Then it dawned on me, perhaps the users don't really want a board that supports itself. Perhaps the users want a board with a personality? I found this to be a bit intriguing, so I put the old Sysop's personality back into the flow of things on the system (though maintaining all of the automated maintenance functions that I worked so hard to develop). I just started getting more involved with the system, and actually interacting with users. I started leaving messages to those that were bending or breaking the policies I set up for my system, and some of them have even turned into regular users. I have re-established a few cross-town connections with other users via EzNet, and some of them have started calling my system direct. This was so enlightening. Folks don't want just a machine to answer their phone call and provide them with a library of files and the same messages they can find elsewhere. They want that individual personality of the person running the BBS. They want to `talk' with the person paying the phone bill for their enjoyment. I found, in the long run, that one cannot be a REMOTE sysop in the sense of not being involved with the system. A BBS operator cannot disassociate himself/herself from the system, even if there are networked message bases. The system will die, unconditionally. My involvement with the Saturn facility lasted for 20 months,and at first, I couldn't see the degradation in activity because the system was always busy. As the time wore on, though, I realized that the system had a terminal disease, and was going down the tubes, no matter how hard I tried to make sure it was always available. The more I tried to keep it available, the more available it became. I took drastic measures such as operating without file libraries at all. I lost several regular users because of this move, because there were several that depended on the file libraries on my system to be accurate, and clean, and completely tested and categorized properly. I saw the error of my ways, but not until it was nearly too late. Perhaps I got bored with the system, or most probably, I was too tired to try to take care of it on weekends while involved with the Saturn project. Perhaps I was tired of spending hours of mail reading on Saturdays and not having any time for myself. I don't know exactly why I stopped taking part in the operation of my own BBS, but I know that I didn't make a very wise choice. Since I have returned to routine service work at my job and am home much more frequently, I have worked toward a happy medium, working for something that I enjoy, without cutting off any privileges, or adding anything that would further belabor me with the system and cause it to lose favor with me again. I reorganized the system considerably, and adopted some new policies of operation, and modified other standing policies. So far, putting a little personality back in the system is paying off. What I hope to avoid, though, is allowing the system to again become overbearing, to the point of taking anything personally from some people that I don't even know, and having real problems separating the board life from the real thing. The users didn't do anything to the board. I killed it by removing that which the users expect to see, the Sysop. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Adventures of R.G. Strangemind and Herbert by Jeremy Lewis Copyright 1991 by Jeremy Lewis no reprints without the permission of the author Part IX In a dark room, in a dark place somewhere, really really dark, a voice spoke. "We should be approaching them at any moment sir." Another, deeper voice was heard in the darkness. "Ahhh...That is as it should be." The other voice spoke. "Sir, why are we chasing the large gray spaceship?" The Deeper Voice was heard again, this time quite impatient. "How many times must I tell you. Toastus' essense is on that ship, and when we reach it, we shall take care of him." The other voice spoke once more. "Sir, who is Toastus?" In the depths of space, a large glistening fist-shaped vessel shot towards an ususpecting large gray spaceship quite unaware that behind it dwelt two beings with the power to destroy the universe itself. Back on the large gray spaceship, herbert was waking up when he felt himself being pushed out of his body. It then turned to him. "I AM TOASTUS!!!" Herbert, as usual, was at a loss for words. R.G. was very worried. he couldn't find Herbert and the SHip's Computer, no matter how many times he called for him, would not respond. He had a very terrible feeling...a premonition of things to come, for a fleeting instant, he had seen the universe swirl around him and, although it sounds rather silly, toasters surrounded him. Voices had spoken out to him. "Save us!!! Save Us!!!" then a sudden "NOOOOOO!!!" and then all exploded. When he could think again, he found himself running helplessly down the coridoors of the ship, screaming wildly that he had not meant to hurt them. Now, now he was frightened...frightened and alone. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes From the Trenches by Dean Costello "My Computer Can Beat Up Your Computer" People who know me come up to me and say, "So, Dean, I hear that you are active in computer bulletin boards. What kind of IBM do you use?" Ahh, another person who feels that IBM is the default computer. I suppose, though, that in the region where I lived, Birmingham, AL, this kind of assumption is probably fairly accurate. As far as I know, there are a couple of ST people, but they aren't that active except on the Atari board, a handful of Amiga-types, a Mac person or two; everyone else drove IBMs. So, I suppose, the bias is for the most part an accurate one. Party dialogue: "Atari? Are they still in business?" Yes, they are. They even have put out a new computer or two since the 400. "Get out of here! You really have an Atari computer? Does anyone make cartridges for that type anymore?" The ST doesn't run on game cartridges, though there are nice games for it, as well as application software and programming languages. "You mean like that Basic cartridge for the 800?" Yeah, something like that. Pardon me while I go get something to drink. For a while I used to attack the PC-Slaves, those users that feel that the MS-DOS-based machines are the end-all, be-all of computer technology. "Slots? What do you need them for? You mean to tell me that you need some kind of outboard dohickey just for a floppy drive?" But even if this leads to short-term catharsis, the expression "banging ones head against the wall" coming to mind. And they always say, "Well, I have a '386, which is better than yours", or words to that effect. I guess it is a more powerful computer, but when it is only used for games and looking at X-rated GIFs, what's the point of spending the bux? Status? So, I have gotten to the point that I have become comfortable about my choice of computer. I even accept the PC-types that like to brag about their system. One person in Birmingham has spent lots of money in order to say,"I have the fastest BBS in the city". Well, it's down now, but that's probably another story. I discovered that by making appropriate "Oooh" and "Ahh" noises, he is happy that I 'admire' his technical prowess. Kind of like when someone you know has a gold credit card, and when you make the appropriate noises, they will be inclined to show it off by buying you meals, but I digress. I would like to say to people like this, "Oh yeah, well look at this! I have 17 gigabytes of HD space! 2480x1920 resolution, with 6.02E23 colours!", etc., etc. But I cannot at this point. I merely have a 1040ST, circa 1987, an old Supra 20MB hard drive (250K/sec, a strong 88ms access time), a Syquest 44Meg removable HD, a stock color monitor, and a 2400bd Supra modem. I like my ST, I don't regret buying it, and it does everything that I need a computer to do. It is difficult to be an Atari prophet in such an IBM-heavy world. But I am still in there...slugging away... making my converts where I can... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ProFile by Scott Hollifield Okay, I know I said I was going to change the ProFile questions some, and a quick cursory glance of this month's offering will reveal that the questions are still the same old pasty white-bread politically-correct ones. The reason for this is two-fold: first, in the true spirit of a BTN writer, I waited until the last minute to even try to do anything about this month's feature. Second, I'm simply having trouble thinking of any good questions that don't sound stupid, seriously deranged, or both. So, in light of this, I am quite willing to go the lazy route and take suggestions. If you have an idea for a ProFile question, or indeed, any way to spice up this feature at all, leave me mail on the Crunchy Frog. Be sure to spell my name right or I may not get it. And thank you in advance. You've probably seen this month's victim if you hang around Alter Ego. His name is Kevin Hitt, and he's a hep cat for no better reason than the fact that he bares his soul right here in BTN. The answers are four months old, though, so I apologize if he's improved upon himself in the time since. --------- ProFile on KEVIN HITT --------- Age: 32 Birthplace: Poplar Bluff, Missouri Occupation: Physician My hobbies include: Raquetball, golf, reading Years telecomputing: 1 My oddest habit is: BBS'ing when I should be studying My greatest unfulfilled ambition is: to have my kids grow up with their heads on straight The single accomplishment of which I am most proud is: my family My favorite performers are: James Taylor, Dan Fogelberg The last good movie I saw was: Jungle Book (my kids took me) The last good book I read was: Treasure by Clive Cussler If they were making a movie of my life, I'd like to see my part played by: Mel Brooks My pet peeves are: Chronically late people When nobody's looking, I like to: sing at the top of my lungs ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Quandary File List Manager v. 4.65 D'Vise Software A Review by Eric Hunt Quandary is primarily a program for those of you out there who do lots and lots of uploading. It also has a couple of features that a BBS Sysop would be interested in as well. Quandary's main purpose is to compare lists of files, and noting the discrepancies. That means it can be useful in many different situations. The intended use for the program is this: You can't remember what files you've uploaded to what bulletin boards. So, you download the most current ALLFILES list for the BBS in question, and also create a listing of the files you wish to upload. Run both files through Quandary, and the program will tell you which of your files are not found in the BBS allfiles list. It's that simple. Quandary will also take your list of files and consult an ALLFILES list in order to attach descriptions to your list. Finally, Quandary will search lists of files to find duplicates. This is handy for sysops. They can run their allfiles through the program, with a detailed report listing duplicate file names produced. From there, the sysop can trek into his filebase, report in hand, and decide which files get the axe (and which users, too! [g]) Now, my reflections and opinions on the program itself: As the program comes out of the archive, you must first run an 'install' program that allows you to use the program in a fully functional shareware environment. Those of you who blindly start running things without reading the READMEs and such take note of this. If you don't run the install program, Quandary runs in DEMO mode, which is quite useless. The documentation for the program is very well written. It is easy to read and follow. All options and functions in the program are clearly explained. Best of all, the docs are SHORT! Slightly over 300 lines, which is not bad. However, the order form is reminiscent of those 'bubble' sheets and data entry sheets you used as a child in school. One other minor oversight in the documentation was the omission of where one can contact the authors ELECTRONICALLY. There is a snail mail address, but this is really unnacceptable, especially for a product that is geared exclusively towards the online community. For those of you who are not in the Birmingham area, this omission might be crucial. However, I was able to contact the developers because the program is local. And I can say they were *very* responsive to comments and suggestions I had about the program. Operation of the program is easy as well. Everything is presented to the user from a series of menus. Navigating the menus is easy, and they are laid out in a visually appealing pattern, none of that drop down menu stuff. There is context sensitive help available at all times, an F1 key away. The help screens are concise, and informative. A list of 'hotkeys' is available by pressing F2. All of the major features of the program, comparing files, adding descriptions, importing and preparing file lists, etc, are explained onscreen with F1 help available at any time. The help is invaluable the first few times you use the program. Quandary requires that you run your personal files listing through a utility that removes extranneous information from the listing and prepares a Quandary-friendly listing. You can even take a file listing from the popular CATDISK disk cataloguing program and use it as your personal files list. I did feel that this extra step of converting your list to an internal format manually was cumbersome, and possibly could be confusing to the neophyte computer users. However, it is not hard to do at all, and takes very little time. It is a crucial step, however, as Quandary will not accept files for processing that have not been converted. Also, Quandary requires that you split long file listings into chunks. This is done very easily, however, by a semi-automated process. Tell Quandary what file to split, and it will be split into 32k chunks sequentially. This splitting is necessary for speed, as most of the functions of the program are done directly from memory and not from disk. This last fact also makes Quandary FAST. The speed is impressive. Add a hefty disk cache to the system, and it gets even faster. Very nice. Next, one of the best features of Quandary is the ability to take your list of files and slap descriptions onto it via a BBS ALLFILES listing. This is very handy for creating disk catalogues without having to type in those long descriptions for every file. Finally, there is a nice internal text viewer for the program, and hooks to use an external one. This viewer is a nice touch, and it will view files up to 32k in size. Quandary is $15, an excellent value considering the features of the program. It is extremely easy to use, has excellent online context sensitive help, and has clear, concise documentation. The learning curve is very short, and once mastered, the program can be a wonderful timesaver. If you are in need of help in managing your uploads, this program just might be your answer. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Reflections by Colby Gibson I think it is time to reflect a bit more on the past and see what has happened as of late. I missed writing anything for BTN last month because of the workload our teachers seem to "love" to throw upon us at inopportune moments, especially when they are certain that no other teacher could possibly have any work for us to do. Such is life. I find it necessary to recount what stands out in my mind for the past year and see what I come up with. I wrote another reflection file a year ago and so much has happened since that here I am again. I find it funny that a company such as AMD could pull off something like they did and bust Intel a good one in the head. I have been looking at the stock market reports and AMD seems to be going up and Intel is just going down and down. I believe Computer Shopper had a good rendition of the story for those that collect the huge monsters of magazines. It is in the past year that I have had the opportunity to attend the BTN get-togethers with more impunity than before. Being one of the youngest users in the city and not quite old enough to drive a car without a guardian present, life can be pretty brutal. But, I was able to effect a ride to several of the extravaganzas with the Sullivans, who I find generally nice people. I must put a part in here about them. They are some of the nicest people I have met in a long time, even in their own way. Patricia is always willing to lend a hand (I don't know about the deal with her and Dean, so don't even...) to those that need it and she did so with me. Erica is a good friend that just about anyone can have. Nathan and Shane are good guys but you have to keep them entertained. I have met a whole lot of new people in the past year, national and local. After finding out that the MATRIX carried ILink, I figured I might as well go and shoot myself in the foot and talk to people. Wow, it's neat to get mail from people in Florida and California. Public opinion of me is still one that I could use if it was better, but trying to be friendly in one place and abusive in another hasn't proved good to anything. I can say one thing to anyone who has not yet gone to the Denny's run in the early morning hours of the BTN parties. Don't go. That is, unless you love food that is better being fed to leeches than people. You can sit there and throw sugar packets next time. I learned quite a bit about software in the past year. One of them is when you install DOS5 you don't go installing 8 year old TSRs in High Memory. I see that young people still have quite a bit to learn. School is hell, but that can be dealt with if you look at it right. Most of the people that go to my school are full of themselves and they need a good whack across the head. But, socialism isn't my strong suit and I try to stay as neutral in that as possible. Life unfolds itself more and more as I get older and older. I have spent the last couple of months in a pseudo-depressed state because of social circumstances that I never knew existed. I guess that someone had better hit ME in the face and tell me what is going on in the world. Computer prices still fall and fall, but that doesn't help me because I can't legally work yet. That is a bitch when you have RAM that blows up in your face in the middle of the night and wires seem to just touch each other by ACCIDENT. Every day I have to work with Windows, and as much as Eric Hunt sits there and praises it I cannot see one useful application of that software that would merit it the space and memory that the hog consumes when it is operating. Not to mention the time that the thing takes to load software and the mouse clicking thing that is always getting on my nerves. Arrrghhhh!!!! I don't call many systems during the week because I am rarely home long enough to do that. I am fairly active on Crunchy Frog, so if you want to come out and yell at me, do it there. I can see where the BBSing thing is going. It is not just something you do as a hobby. It's a way of life. This is not good. I have spent the last 6 years of my life in front of a keyboard typing away at people that I could not see and I could not hear. But now, all of these things are coming together. The bulletin board population has grown. No, not the amount of people that call them but the boards THEMSELVES. Legitimate systems come and go, because usually the Sysop will see what hell it is to run a system and he or she will get rid of it. But, hardrock systems have stayed in there and according to BTN, the systems have grown from a good number of 47 systems to that of 64. That is a substantial increase in a year considering the number of systems that come and go in a week. One problem I have found with BBSing since I was forced to live in the wonderful city of Trussville is the damn phone system. I swear, it is the most redundant system I have ever seen in my life. GTE (Formerly Contel) should realize these things, but they are making a killing off of the people in the area. Consider this. Douglas Griffin runs Baudville which is basically 1 mile down the street from me. I rode my bike (Really mature transportation) to his store the other day. I can call someone out at the Fairgrounds in Ensley but I can't give Doug a call because the "line" happens to run about 200 feet in FRONT of his store. That sucks. It's not all that bad, I guess. I have little use for the phone outside of calling systems within my range and talking to the occasional friend that might deign to call me. But, I digress from the subject here. Our very own Chris Mohney left us and so did Dean, and I am quite sure we are all crying over it. I know I am. But, I wish Chris well in Tuscaloosa and Dean well in whatever point between states he might be in. Mark Maisel spent a great deal of time on the road sucking in information from Comdex, and we have had great amounts of people from Hotlanta coming to the parties. Raymond Hugh even came down from New York to see us. I guess what I am trying to say here is that the Birmingham BBS community sure does change fast and you had better stay glued to the station in order to keep up with it. I was away from home for 2 weeks visiting my father and trying to leach money out of him for purposes up here and when I got back, It was data shock trying to get back in the saddle. Only 3200 messages on the Frog to read, and I just said forget it about the national nets I was pulling down. I would like to say several things in closing. Computer freaks are not geeks as most people make them out to be. The MATRIX will get bigger and bigger until the table that Rocky has holding the machine up collapses. Depressed people don't need to stick their hands in a candle flame. And last, the faster you move the more you will get out of it. Make your own judgement from that. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Windows, Video Cards, and You more specifically, the Diamond SpeedSTAR PLUS VGA card with a little extra discussion thrown in for good measure. by Eric Hunt After a title like that, you're afraid to read the article, right? Don't worry. Windows 3.0 has always had its foes and its supporters, each one having his/her own reason for liking or disliking the product. Unfortunately, many of the solid arguments AGAINST Windows 3.0 centered around the abysmal video performance one could expect using many of today's SuperVGA cards. Good news is here, though. Video cards are entering their second generation, and video performance in Windows is proving it. Historically, the VGA video subsystem has not had too much 'intelligence.' In other words, the host CPU was given the task of computing all pixel movements instead of the card doing it. This leads to extremely slow screen redraws and image displays, especially when in a complex environment like Windows 3.0. The next step is to take these housekeeping duties away from the host CPU and place them on the video card. This is called a 'coprocessed' video card. The XGA and 8514/A video adapters from IBM are the best examples of this. However, the card I'm going to discuss in this article is not a coprocessed card, but an example of the last category of SVGA adapters, second generation. The 'dumb' VGA adapters have gone through several years of fine tuning, and the latest crop have improved their overall speed quite a bit, and can therefore keep up with the CPU better. Also, the video drivers that Windows 3.0 uses to talk to the card are of a better quality than some of the initial SVGA drivers that appeared. Better quality = better speed. Now, with all that boring background information out of the way, my impressions of the Diamond SpeedSTAR PLUS SuperVGA card in the Windows 3.0 environment. The card came prebundled with an entire computer system already, so I cannot give you any thoughts on the quality of customer service Diamond gives direct-purchase customers. In addition, the manual for the card had been made homogenous with the manuals for the system as a whole, so I can't even discuss the quality of their manuals! I can, however, tell you about the card's performance and what it will do. That's the easiest! As the card came in the system, there was a set of Windows 3.0 drivers already. In addition, there was 1 meg of DRAM installed. A closer inspection revealed that these were not the latest drivers available, and a call to the support BBS for the computer system produced a copy of the latest ones. Let me tell you, these drivers make this card HUM under Windows. The card supports modes from standard 640x480x16 VGA all the way up to 1024x768x256, with everything else inbetween. The most startling performace came from the 256 color modes. Simply put, they were as fast as the generic 16 color VGA driver that Windows uses. On a 386-33 running 800x600x256, there was no perceptible decrease in speed. And a 386sx-16 using the 640x480x256 mode was again as fast as the regular 16 color VGA driver. One can only imagine how fast they would be on a nice 486-33. And this card/driver set finally fixed a bothersome quirk that almost every other 256 color driver set has had. Blue menu bars. Under 16 colors, the menu bars are nice and black, the way they should be. Under other 256 color cards, they've turned an eye-straining shade of light blue. Well, with the Diamond card, they are now again black. I don't know if this is a function of the card, or just a fix in the 256 color drivers, but I like it. While I'm primarily a Windows person, I did have some DOS applications that were SVGA, so I tried it with them. No real noticeable difference, but I did have to figure out what SVGA chipset the card uses, as 'Diamond SpeedSTAR' was not a choice on most anything I had. TSENG ET-4000 did the trick, however. Finally, when I moved the Diamond card to the 386sx, which was a different brand than the PC the card arrived in, there were some dip switch setting problems. They were soon fixed, however, and everything worked fine from then on. Diamond sells this SVGA card for approximately $350-400, depending on how much RAM you purchase it with initially. If you are tired of your slow SVGA card now, but don't really have the money to upgrade to a true coprocessed SVGA card, this is one to look at. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SIG's (Special Interest Groups), Computer Related ------------------------------------------------- BEPCUG CCS Birmingham East PC Users Group Commodore Club South Jefferson Sate Jr. College Springville Road Library Ruby Carson Hall, Rm 114 2nd & 4th Tuesday (C64/C128) 3rd Friday, 7-9 PM 3rd Monday (Amiga) Paula Ballard 251-6058 (after 5PM) 7:30-10 PM BCCC BIPUG Birmingham Commodore Computer Club Birmingham IBM-PC Users Group POB 59564 UAB Nutrition Science Blg Birmingham, Al 35259 RM 535/541 UAB School of Education, Rm 153 1st Sunday (delayed one week 2nd and 4th Sundays, 2 PM if meeting is a holiday) Rusty Hargett 854-5172 Marty Schulman 967-5883 BACE FAOUG Birmingham Atari Computer First Alabama Osborne Users Enthusiast Group Vestavia Library, downstairs Homewood Library 2nd Monday, 7 PM 1st Saturday, 1PM Benny Brown 822-5059 Ed Purquez 669-5200 CADUB CAD Users of Birmingham Homewood Library 3rd Tuesday, 6:30PM-8:30PM Bobby Benson 791-0426 SIG's, Non-Computer Related --------------------------- BBC Birmingham Astronomy Club Blue Box Companions Subject: Astronomy Subject: Dr. Who Red Mountain Museum Annex Hoover Library 4th Tuesday, 7:30PM 1st Saturday, 2PM-5PM If you belong to or know of a user group that is not listed, please let us know by sending E-Mail to Barry Bowden on The Matrix BBS. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Known BBS Numbers For The Birmingham Area NAME NUMBER BAUD RATES MODEM BBS SOFTWARE SUPPORTED TYPE * Alter-Ego BBS 744-7733 300-9600 USR HST PCBoard 14.5 * Amiga Alliance ][ 631-0262 300-2400 PCBoard 14.5 ^ Arkham Asylum 853-7422 300-2400 WWIV 4.12 Baudville Node 1 640-4593 300-2400 Oracomm Plus Baudville Node 2 640-4639 300-2400 Oracomm Plus &)*}Bloom County 856-0587 300-9600 USR DS PCBoard 14.5 -* Bus System 595-1627 300-2400 PCBoard 14.2 *% Byte Me! 979-BYTE! 2400-9600 USR HST WWIV 4.12 CM(ee) BBS Node 1 655-4059 300-2400 Oracomm Plus CM(ee) BBS Node 2 655-4065 300-1200 Oracomm Plus Camelot BBS 856-0679 300-2400 Telegard 2.5 -*# Channel 8250 Node 1 744-8546 300-9600 USR DS PCBoard 14.5 -*# Channel 8250 Node 2 744-5166 300-9600 USR HST PCBoard 14.5 { Connection Node 1 854-9074 1200-2400 PCBoard 14.5 { Connection Node 2 854-2308 1200-2400 PCBoard 14.5 { Connection Node 3 854-0698 1200-2400 PCBoard 14.5 { Connection Node 4 854-5863 9600 USR DS PCBoard 14.5 * Crunchy Frog Node 1 956-1755 300-9600 USR DS PCBoard 14.5 * Crunchy Frog Node 2 956-0073 300-9600 USR DS PCBoard 14.5 DataLynx 322-3425 300-2400 Oracomm5.L.30 Disktop Publishing BBS 854-1660 300-2400 MNP4 Wildcat! 3.01 Downgrade Evolution 823-4858 1200-2400 Vortek 1.49 *+{ Family Smorgas-Board 744-0943 300-2400 PCBoard 14.5 Flip Side 798-3961 300-2400 Telegard 2.5i Graphics Zone Node 1 870-5306 300-9600 MNP4 TBBS 2.1(16) Graphics Zone Node 2 870-5329 300-9600 MNP4 TBBS 2.1(16) Hacker's Corner 674-5449 1200-2400 PCBoard 14.5 Hardeman's BBS 640-6436 1200-2400 Wildcat! 2.55s I.S.A. BBS 995-6590 300-9600 HST Remote Access -* Joker's Castle 664-5589 300-2400 MNP4 PC Board 14.5 *& Little Kingdom Node 1 969-0007 300-9600 USR DS PCBoard 14.5 *& Little Kingdom Node 2 969-0008 300-2400 MNP4 PCBoard 14.5 *} Magnolia BBS 854-6407 300-9600 USR HST PCBoard 14.2 +{ MetaBoard 254-3344 300-2400 Opus @ Missing Link 853-1257 300-2400 C-Net ^ Myth Drannor 699-5811 1200-2400 MNP4 WWIV 4.11 Night Watch 841-2790 300-2400 Optical Illusion 853-8062 300-1200 C-Net Owlabama BBS 833-7176 300-2400 GTPower 15.00 Owl's Nest 680-0851 300-2400 PCBoard 14.5 Paradise City 853-1439 1200-2400 PCBoard 14.5 Pooh's Korner 980-8710 300-2400 *- Road Kill 987-0794 300-2400 Safe Harbor 665-4355 300-9600 USR DS GTPower 15.00 Sperry BBS 853-6144 300-9600 Hayes PCBoard 14.5 * ST BBS 836-9311 300-2400 PCBoard 14.2 Teasers 987-0122 300-2400 WWIV 4.20 + The Bone Yard 631-6023 300-2400 PCBoard 14.5 The Commodore Zone 856-3783 300-2400 Image1.2 The Den 925-0707 300-9600 USR HST ProLogon/ProDoor ^ The Dragon's Hoard 833-3790 300-2400 WWIV 4.12 ^ The Edge of Oblivion 520-0230 300-2400 WWIV 4.11 The Madhouse! 428-3061 300-9600 USR V.32 Telegard 2.5i -*$(The Matrix Nodes 1-4 323-2016 300-2400 PCBoard 14.5 -*$(The Matrix Node 5 251-2344 2400-9600 USR DS PCBoard 14.5 -*$(The Matrix Node 6 323-0799 2400-9600 USR DS PCBoard 14.5 The Monster 967-4839 300-2400 Telegard 2.5i + The Outer Limits 985-1725 1200-9600 USR HST Wildcat! 3.01 The Quiet Zone 833-2066 300-2400 ExpressNET + The Round Table 938-2145 300-2400 Telegard 2.5i The Safety BBS 581-2866 300-2400 RBBS-PC The Word 833-2831 300-2400 WWIV 4.12 Willie's DYM Node 1 979-1629 300-2400 Oracomm Plus Willie's DYM Node 2 979-7739 300-2400 Oracomm Plus Willie's DYM Node 3 979-7743 300-1200 Oracomm Plus Willie's DYM Node 4 979-8156 300-1200 Oracomm Plus Ziggy Unaxess 991-5696 300-1200 Unaxess The many symbols you see prior to the names of many of the bbs' in the list signify that they are members of one or more networks that exchange or echo mail to each other in some organized fashion. * = EzNet, a local IBM compatible network @ = Image network, a national Commodore network + = FidoNet, an international network, multi-topic - = Metrolink, an international network, multi-topic ^ = WWIV-Net, an international network, multi-topic & = Intellec, an international network, multi-topic # = Uni'Net, an international network, multi-topic % = ThrobNet, an international network, adult oriented $ = ILink, an international network, multi-topic ( = TheoNet, a national network, multi-religious { = ADAnet, an international network dedicated to the handicapped ) = USNetMail, a national network, multi-topic } = RIME, an international network, multi-topic If you have any corrections, additions, deletions, etc., please let us know via EzNet.