235 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
235 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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PKUNZIP (R) FAST! Extract Utility Version 1.1 03-15-90
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Copr. 1989-1990 PKWARE Inc. All Rights Reserved. PKUNZIP/h for help
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PKUNZIP Reg. U.S. Pat. and Tm. Off.
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Searching ZIP: AD-ART.ZIP
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Exploding: AD-ART.TXT <to console>
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Rusty n Edie's from Beginning to the Beginning.
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In 1985 I bought my first computer. I bought it to help in
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my insurance business, to tell the truth I had no idea what
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to do with it, but everyone said it would help, so I laid out
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over $4,000 for a Tandy 1200, a straight XT type machine with
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a huge 10 megabyte hard drive. I paid the extra money for
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the hard drive because I was told it would store everything I
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would ever need on one disk. I also went for the best color
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graphics, CGA in all it's glory, it was beautiful.
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I did manage to read enough docs to use the machine quite
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well in my business. In 1986, my company decided to supply
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me with an IBM XT with a 20 meg hard drive and mono, so I
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took home my beauty and wondered just what I was going to do
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with it.
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"Modem", my local Tandy salesman said I could get all the
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software I wanted free, I couldn't believe it, free. Well
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almost free, I would have to buy a modem, 1200 baud was the
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best money could buy and on sale for only $279 and of course
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software, PC-Talk which I could have for a $6 copying fee,
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SHAREWARE, ah a bit of what was to come, from now on free and
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as much as I wanted, now at last I could have millions of
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programs, and all free.
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That night I called the local BBS, I was told this meant
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Bulletin Board System. I was so excited, it was a great
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moment, then the nightmare began, I called and filled out a
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very long questionnaire, the system said thank you and I
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should call back the next day and then disconnected me. I
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couldn't wait, I called right after work and was welcomed and
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told to fill out a questionnaire, which I did, it seemed
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silly since it was mostly the same questions and I don't see
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what the name and age of my cat have to do with BBSs. I did
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as I was told and was advised I should DOWNLOAD a
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registration form. To be honest it took me 10 days to figure
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out how to DOWNLOAD, but I finally figured it out and got my
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form, which I printed and filled out, more questions, I
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couldn't figure out what my grandparents political party had
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to do with computers, but I answered every question, I was
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called and verified about a week later and accepted into the
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BBS. I called right away and found I could have 30 minutes a
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day it I kept up a 5 to 1 RATIO, that is I had to upload
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files, that meant I would have to call long distance to
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another BBS and go through the humiliation of various torture
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routines set up by sadistic SYSOPs, System Operators, it was
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a very humbling experience, but I was hooked a program junky,
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I downloaded everything, printed the docs and ran the
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program, oohed and aahed and threw it on my hard disk, which
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within a few weeks reported it was full, which I was sure
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meant it was broke, since it was impossible to fill. I Just
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couldn't stand it anymore, so I decided to open my own BBS.
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I told my wife, Edie, that I what I was going to do and why.
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I was going to open a no rules BBS, and I ask her if she
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wanted me to name it after both of us, she had never used a
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computer in her life, but she made the fatal error and said
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she would like that, she would live to regret the honor I was
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bestowing on her. Rusty n Edie's was conceived! I called
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the local BBS SYSOP and told him what I was going to do and
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he told me not to use the BBS software he was using, Opus,
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and he would help me get started, so I downloaded a shareware
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BBS program called TCOMM and proceeded to set it up. I called
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the local board the next day and found that I now had only 18
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minutes a day and wasn't allowed to download, I also found no
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mention of my board going up, so much for help, it would seem
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Edie and I were on our own. I had a 20 meg hard drive
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installed for $500 and bought a 2400 baud modem for $400 and
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had a phone line installed.
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Rusty n Edie's was born May 11, 1987. We made our biggest
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mistake that first day we adopted the motto "The Friendliest
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BBS in the World" and have regretted it every day since, more
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about that later. We printed up posters and passed them out
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to the computer stores and posted them in supermarkets. Our
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callers were greeted with our motto and our rules:
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1. Have fun
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2. End of rules
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We had no time limit, no questionnaires, no ratios, and most
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of all no hassles. I was told if I did that the callers
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would do terrible things to our system, they never did. We
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had about 50 files available for the callers to download (we
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have over 60,000, now). We decided we would make ourselves
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available, we posted our voice phone number and address and
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answered when we were paged. We turned up the sound so we
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could hear when someone called, we got 6 calls that day and
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watched everyone of them, we were thrilled. I'll never
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forget the first time anyone ever called us long distance, I
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was amazed anyone would call and pay for the time on line.
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We averaged 10 calls a day (we get over 3,000 calls a day
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now) till December 1987 when we switched to PCBoard, the most
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flexible and wonderful BBS software ever made. Things
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started happening then, our tiny system couldn't handle the
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calls so we bought a 386 and multitasked with Desqview and
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open a second line. For some reason, even though we have
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never demanded Uploads, we have always gotten a bunch (we get
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about 20 megs of uploads a day now), it would seem our
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callers wanted to help and uploaded a large number of files
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daily, we outgrew the 20 meg hard drive and installed a 160
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meg hard drive, by our first anniversary we were jammed with
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callers and files. Edie and I both agreed it was getting out
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of hand by June 1988 we were so busy, callers could not get
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on no matter how long they waited, we started getting real
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hateful phone calls, demanding we let them on line. Edie and
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I decided we couldn't afford to go on and we would post a
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bulletin, on July 4, 1988, asking for donations, we figured
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we wouldn't get any and would simply close. Much to our
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surprise the money poured in and we turned the money into new
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nodes, as fast we could.
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In economics we are told that their is economy in size, we
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have found that not to be true with BBSs, the larger we get
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the more the problems of size are exposed. Heat, static
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electricity, and speed are the main ones, our house is heated
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by the BBS and even then we have to open the windows in the
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dead of the Ohio winter to keep the heat under control, in the
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Summer it is much easier to keep cool, we simply installed a four
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ton air conditioning unit to cool our basement (this unit normally
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cools a 4,000 sq. ft. house, but works hard to keep the basement
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cool). We have our BBS in a basement, we moved from our apartment
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when the spare bedroom we were running the BBS out of, got so full
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we couldn't get in the place, it was so hot no human being could
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stand it, Baby our cat loved it. It must have been 120 degrees in
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that room. Baby's, favorite pastime then and now is running across
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the keyboards blowing callers away and sleeping on the computers,
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frying his brains on the monitors. we bought the basement with a
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house on top of it for it's space and beauty. We have 2 huge
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humidifiers running day and night trying to keep some moisture in
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the air, we can't do it well and still have down time caused from
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thunderbolts suddenly erupting out of our bodies paralyzing
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one of our nodes or servers. OK, now for the killer, keeping
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up the speed. Our setup is as follows:
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We have, 5 386 33mhz servers with 32 megs of memory each,
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they each have a caching controller, we need that memory to
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cache the 14, 780 meg SCSI drives and 2, 386 meg ESDI drives,
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the 16 drives format to something over 10 gigabytes. We have
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99 16 mhz 286s, one for each node, in addition we have 4, 20
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MHZ 386s, 1, 16 MHZ 386 (our original server, our original
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Tandy XT type machine died about a year ago.), and 5, 12 MHZ
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286s, these last 10 machines are so we can work on the system
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without taking it down. We have 16, Anchor 2400 baud modems,
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23, 14.4k v42bis US Robotics HSTs and 17 US Robotic's Dual
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Standards 14.4k V32, V32bis V42bis, 16 CompuCom 9600 baud
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Speedmodems, 3 Hayes V-Series V42bis modem, and 16 direct connect
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CONNECT-USA lines. We have all of this networked together
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with five copies of the wonderful Novell Netware 386, it works
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great. We have the whole thing hooked up to huge batteries that
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supply 10 KV of uninteruptible power.
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Even with all this the system started to slow a bit, so we
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installed 99, 20 meg hard drives, one in each node, with them we
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were able to take a lot of the work off the network and can now
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honestly say, we are very quick, almost like a one node system.
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We now have 2 of our sons and our daughter. Edie and I and of course
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our wondrous assistant SYSOP and friend Carl all working full
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time (and then some) on the system. We have worked very hard
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to keep our original intent stated in our motto, "We are the
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Friendliest BBS in the World". that motto has almost killed
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Edie and I, we still post our voice phone number and our
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address, we still answer pages, even so, no matter what we do,
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we hear the deadly "I thought you were friendly". Poor Edie,
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from the beginning every time I wanted her to help, I would
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nail her with "You wanted it named after you, you have to
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help." It works great, all you SYSOPs out there, if you
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want your wife to help you, name it after her.
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OK everybody, what can you expect when you call Rusty n Edie's BBS.
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A different kind of BBS, "We are the Friendliest BBS in the
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World" Our name says it all. Edie and I are a couple of burn
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outs from the 60's (Edie's 46 and I'm 53). We didn't like rules
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then and we don't now. Come on in and relax you will be among
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friends.
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We have a huge adult section, including over three gigabytes of
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adult graphics, as well as a fine selection of public domain and
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shareware programs, including over a gigabyte of family type
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graphics. But that's not what sets us apart. When you call the
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first time you'll know what no amount of words can tell you, you
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are home. that's right put up your feet and enjoy yourself, we
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have 15 on line interactive games and one of the most active chat
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and message sections in the world.
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With Edie's help we have made Rusty n Edie's a place for the
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whole family, including the ladies. Yes a large portion of our
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callers are from the fairer sex, they too can feel at home at
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Rusty n Edie's.
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We live by the three no's: No Censorship
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No Rules
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No Hassle
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You will find us like no other BBS:
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We answer your messages and comments
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We answer your on line pages
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We post our address
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We post our voice phone number
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That's it folks, that's why we call Rusty n Edie's BBS
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"the Friendliest BBS in the World"
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Russell & Edwina Hardenburgh
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1480 Fredricksburg Drive
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Youngstown, OH 44512
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Our Phone Numbers are:
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Voice: 216 758-8342
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Fax: 216 726-3595
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2400 baud 216 726-2620
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HST: 216 726-3589
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V32: 216 726-1247
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Compucom: 216 726-3620
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Hayes V-Series: 216 726-3619
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Starlink Node: #4909
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Connect-USA: RNEBBS
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*** 10+ Gigs *** *** 99 Nodes ***
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