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BTN: Birmingham Telecommunications News
COPYRIGHT 1988
April 1988 Volume 1, Issue 1
Table Of Contents
-----------------
Article Title Filename
Policy Statement and Disclaimer................MUSTREAD.TXT
Editorial Column...............................EDITOR.TXT
1st Annual Breezin' Birmingham Awards Survey...SURVEY.TXT
PC-DOS 3.3: Whats' New........................DOS33.TXT
Starlan Networks...............................STARLAN.TXT
Sysops Are Not Gods............................SYSOP.TXT
Phone Lines....................................PHONE.TXT
Its' A Boy.....................................ITSABOY.TXT
Telecommunications And Women...................WOMEN.TXT
Gamer's Corner.................................GAMERS.TXT
Known BBS Numbers..............................BBSNUMS.TXT
====================================================================
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, ommisions, etc. The liability,if any for BTN, its
editors and writers, for damages relating to any errors or ommisions,
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.
Othewise, 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
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.
=====================================================================
Editorial (sort of)
by Mark Maisel
Well here we are. This collection of files you have before you is
the result of a culmination of forces and events. BTN started off as a
small idea I had some time ago. With the proliferation of boards in the
Birmingham area, I decided it was time to give it a try. Ed O'Neill and
I got together and talked it through and we decided to try our hand at a
newsletter to bring the telecommunications community here in Birmingham
closer together. I hope that we succeed. We have certainly given it a
good try. I posted a message asking for articles on most boards in
town. I received an amazing amount of response to that message and
managed to create a good newsletter with dedicated (to fun that is)
writers who share a vision of sophistication for Birmingham in the area
of telecommunications.
We have some humor, review, and instructional articles this issue
that are of an extremely high quality I know you will enjoy. Please take
the time to read them all and remember that it is all home grown. This
magazine is supposed to reflect US and for that to happen, WE must make
BTN all that it can be for US. We accept articles about any make of
machine, any software, any legitimate idea, and tutorials. Please don't
be shy about trying your hand at writing for BTN. Remember when you
first started computing. What would you have given to have a resource
like this at a local level. If you have any questions concerning
software, hardware, etc., we are planning to have an advice column. To
say any more would be to give away too much. Please post any messages
concerning this publication. Let us know what you think of it. If you
have questions for the advice column, let us know and we will answer
them in BTN so that anyone else with the same problem can get the answer
at the same time. If you have any suggestions or articles, please tell
us. Thanks for taking the time to read this far and please continue.
Hope you like it.
======================================================================
=======================================
THE FIRST ANNUAL BREEZIN' BIRMINGHAM
BBS AWARDS SURVEY
=======================================
Written by -----> TYROS <-----
--- Origin ---
This project started out as a kind of retrospective ceremonious type of
thing, kind of like the Grammys. I wanted to find out exactly what the
best and worst BBS's in Birmingham were during the year of 1987.
Unfortunately as it turned out, because the BBS world moves so fast,
most people didn't remember a whole lot of the BBS situation during
1987. It is hard, for instance, to try and remember all the BBSs that
were (and weren't) up in January of last year. (Can you?) So, this
survey sort of unofficially evolved into..um..well, just a survey, of
how people felt at the present time. (Besides, people were naming boards
which had only gone up in 1988.) So, with the help of ED O'NEILL, Sysop
of CHANNEL 8250 (phone number at end of this file), I got a <S>cript
questionnaire set up on his board. People immediately began pouring
their precious input in. For six weeks, I watched and scribbled. Many
people gave answers I had never heard of, but I wrote them all down
dutifully, and have compiled the results for you. So, without further
ado or adon't, let's have them!
--- A Note or Three ---
What follows is a listing of all the categories asked on the
questionaire, one by one. After each category, you'll see the winner in
CAPITALS, followed by the two runners-up. Then, maybe, a little insight
into the vote by yours truly.
Some folks gave uninteligible answers, like "????", or "jkljkl" or even
the imaginative "gah". I have, naturally, discounted those votes, but
counted the rest of the questionaire in question (so to speak) valid. If
I disqualified a questionaire every time someone didn't answer a
question properly, we'd have about 5 votes.
--- The Results! ---
BEST BBS: 1. CHANNEL 8250
2. America Online
2. Apple Valley (tie)
This race was hotly contested between the three front-runners, but that
was it. All the other systems seemed to have received a negligible
amount of votes.
WORST BBS: 1. SPERRY
2. Remote-PC
3. The Connection
Boy was this one tight! EVERYONE had their singular gripe. Misty
Mountain also received a few votes, no doubt due to a few personal
grudges.
BEST SYSOP: 1. ROCKY RAWLINS
(America Online)
2. Ed O'Neill
(Channel 8250)
3. David Alge
(Apple Valley)
Our own Ed was leading in this category until about halfway through,
when Rocky surged ahead. Rocky also is the sysop of the Birmingham BBS.
Also receiving a fair amount of votes was the Doctor, of FEAR AND
LOATHING.
MOST ADEPT SYSOP:
1. ED O'NEILL
2. Rocky Rawlins
3. David Alge
3. Omega Ohm (tie)
(Misty Mountain)
Oh what the heck - we added this one in for the fun of it. Many people
avoided this one, either because they felt they weren't qualified to
judge (as one user admitted) or because they didn't know what "adept"
meant (as another one admitted).
MOST INEPT SYSOP:
1. BILL FREEMAN
(The Connection)
2. Joe Hardwick
(Joe's BBS)
2. Quinton McCombs
(too many to name)
2. Omega Ohm
2. Chuck Pritchett
2. Frank Richmond (tie!)
Here's another one where the masses just couldn't decide. Bill won
almost unanimously, but then the #2 spot was hotly contested by five
sysops, the last two whose BBS names escaped me. Sorry guys!
HARDEST BBS TO GET THROUGH TO:
1. MAGNOLIA
2. Sperry
3. Misty Mountain
3. Channel 8250 (tie)
Ever say to yourself "That BBS is ALWAYS busy!!" Apparently, many of our
voters have, because their votes swarmed around the above systems. Also
receiving a goodly percentage were the Connection and Apple Valley.
EASIEST BBS TO GET THROUGH TO:
1. AMERICA ONLINE
2. Music Alley
3. Willie's RBBS
A true sign of an idle system! Not quite, really, because our big
winner here has a total of three access nodes, and so it's pretty easy
to get on nearly any time of day. Not so for our placer and show-er :
one node apiece, but still the unbusiest. Tsk tsk. Birmingham BBS,
which, by the way, has two nodes, also received many votes.
HARDEST BBS TO GET MEMBERSHIP ON
1. THE CONNECTION
2. Misty Mountain
3. Commodore Club-South
3. America Online (tie)
Our voters must have experienced some major consternation with the
Connec- tion's member-verification process, because it won by a large
margin. Misty Mountain's controversial restriction-of -undesirables
policy won a lot of votes, but it's unclear why our 3rd place winners
did. Could it be because they both charge a membership fee? Hmmm...
BBS WHOSE NAME HAS CHANGED THE MOST
1. QUINTON MCCOMBS' BBS
2. Elite Fleet
3. Penny Arcade
Our almost-unanimous front-runner here has gone through close to ten
documented name changes, if my sources are reliable, among them Rocker's
Alliance, Marble Arc, the Dungeon, Hades & The Nine Hells and the Magic
Circle, just to name a few. Quinton is reportedly pondering a new one -
keep up the good work, Q! Curiously, the runner-ups have only gone
through one documented name change apiece - but, the voters have spoken.
BBS WHOSE SOFTWARE HAS CHANGED THE MOST
1. SOUTHERN SHORE LINE
2. Total Chaos
3. Remote-PC
I've never logged on to two of the above three systems, so I'll just
leave off saying that Total Chaos was ahead until almost the last
minute.
BBS DOWN THE MOST
1. THE CONNECTION
2. Apple Valley
2. Southern Shore Line
2. Willie's RBBS
Again, another one where most folks had simply one particular system in
mind about which they had fumed privately - until now. Others drawing
many votes were Fear & Loathing, which was supposed to be down (for
remodeling) and the Covenant, a BBS which hasn't been up since last
November.
BEST BBS SOFTWARE
1. PC-BOARD
2. Genesis
3. RBBS
Nearly everyone was in one of the two main competing camps, but the no-
nonsense programmer sect won over the younger more "fun-oriented" clan
(OK, YOU think of a better adjective). RBBS was the
Pat-Robertson-dark-horse, pulling up the rear. T-Pro RPB also received
a good many votes. Watch this.
MOST BORING SOFTWARE
1. GENESIS
2. PC-Board
3. RBBS
Want to see me pull a rabbit out of a hat too?
FAVORITE USER
1. MICHELE CAHOON
2. Nika Grammas
3. Osman Guner
This was a sharply divided one - EVERY- ONE had a different vote,
almost. Many voted for themselves. The recent Birmingham BBS Female User
explosion contributed the two topspot winners. Michele is active nearly
everywhere you look, but our placer is now nowhere to be seen! Come back
to us, Nika! Congrats to Osman as the surprise male leader (just
kidding, Osman).
LEAST FAVORITE USER
1. BLAKE HIGDON
2. John Motes
2. Quinton McCombs
Uh-oh! This one wasn't so sharply scattered. Oddly enough (or maybe
not so oddly at that), nearly half those voted are sysops.
USER WHO DOWNLOADS THE MOST
1. JOE HARDWICK
2. Chuck Pritchett
3. John Motes
Joe came out ahead by a comfortable margin here, boosted by voting for
himself, even. Now there's class. Everybody else in the known universe
received exactly one vote apiece. Many voters couldn't answer, because
they aren't in a position to know. Oh well...
USER WHO UPLOADS THE MOST
1. CHUCK PRITCHETT
2. Carl Grammar
2. Omega Ohm (tie)
Don't ask me how he did it! Maybe next year we should just have one
category, USER WHO TRANSFERS FILES THE MOST.
BBS WITH THE BEST DOWNLOAD LIBRARY
1. AMERICA ONLINE
2. Channel 8250
3. Sperry
AoL, with its diverse number of directories, easily swept this category.
Honorary mention goes to Fear & Loathing.
BBS WITH THE WORST DOWNLOAD LIBRARY
1. MUSIC ALLEY
2. The Connection
3. The Bus System
There once was a time when everybody LOVED the Alley! Of course, there
were about three systems in Birmingham back then...
BBS WITH THE MOST INTERESTING MESSAGES
1. CHANNEL 8250
2. Apple Valley
3. Birmingham BBS
To THIS reporter, it's this that actually Makes a BBS. 8250 came out
way ahead. The Connection almost edged into 3rd; no one else was close.
BBS WITH THE LEAST INTERESTING MESSAGES
1. MAGNOLIA
2. Sperry
3. America Online
3. Music Alley (tie)
And it's the busiest? Sheesh, what do people do all day long there,
DOWNLOAD? If so, you'd think they'd show some gratitude by voting it
Best Download Library.
Finally, we have what I hope will begin a grand tradition: the honorary
FOXTRAP AWARD for BBS MOST FUN TO BE ON. For the unaware babes in
swaddling modems, Foxtrap 80 was one of the premiere BBS's in B'ham - it
was the first, several years ago, to feature hot menus, a warboard, and
online games, just to name a few. As an aside, Foxtrap sysop Bryan
Hutchens (The Zookeeper) is currently living out of town, but is busily
at work writing a Commodore 128 version of the 'Trap, for use for his
good friend and ours, Richard DeVaney (Cutter), who entertained us way
back when with Foxtrap's sister system, THE HOLT. Hopefully, by the time
you read the results of the 2nd Annual survey, Foxtrap will be up and
running again!
Anyhoo, the winner of the Foxtrap Award For BBS Most Fun To Be On is...
CHANNEL 8250!
Congrats go to sysop Ed O'Neill!
We hereby honor Channel 8250, for the warm spirited nature of its sysop,
conferences and users. I know I'm not alone when I say that logging
onto the Channel is always a highlight of my BBS day.
--- Cushy Ending ---
Well, that would appear to be that. I hope you've had as much fun
reading this file as I've had writing it. With any luck at all, this
time next year, you'll be reading the results of the Second Annual B'ham
Breezin' BBS Awards Survey. I'm not through here just yet, though...
--- Credit Where Credit Is Due ---
I'd like to thank the following persons:
First and foremost, Channel 8250's sysop Ed O'Neill, for his immense
help in getting the questionaire set up on his system, and for rewriting
and formatting the questions. Without his help, I think it would be
safe to say that this wouldn't have gotten done, or at least would have
been messed up pretty badly.
Also, a belated kudos to Apple Valley's sysop David Alge, for
establishing a questionaire on his board too. During the final weeks of
the survey, we got a lot of input from his users too, and I appreciate
his and their help.
To the still select group of special individuals known as The Breezers:
You were spawned from the Breezin' subboard on B'ham RCP/M all those
moons ago, and you did a remarkable job of migrating to 8250 when the
ol' stead was shut down. You'll always be special. A special tribute
goes out to two departed extra-special organisms who helped to shape the
Breezin' sect: Our dear friend the Jetteye Knight, who left the BBS
world for personal reasons; and that ever-cosmic guy Bernie D.
Starchaser*, who's gone on to bigger, if not better, things in
Tuscaloosa as a Radio Shack employee.
To all my friends and allies.
And, finally, to everyone who voted in our survey. This file would
literally not be here without you. Thanks a whole bunch.
--- Get Off My Back ---
I KNOW that "questionaire" is spelled wrong throughout this file.
--- A Final Addendum ---
Concerning the above results, some may not be aware that IRONGATE, a
system which was up under the steady hand of Omega Ohm, has changed it's
name to Misty Mountain (even though the popular Irongate game subsystem
is still kept on as a shell). So, if you voted for "Irongate", I
tabulated it as "Misty Mountain". This held true for any board which had
changed names; I regarded a board which had changed names 7 or 8 times
(Quinton!) as the same board.
--- Directory Assistance ---
For some fine fine discussion, ring up the following award-winning
systems:
CHANNEL 8250.........(205) 785-7417
MISTY MOUNTAIN.......(205) 979-8409
AMERICA ONLINE.......(205) 324-0193
FEAR AND LOATHING....(205) 985-9846
(down for remodeling until Apr 1)
--- The End - I Mean It This Time! ---
This is it! It's been fun - thanks again to everyone listed above, and
I hope to see everyone again next year. Good night.
------------<> TYROS <>---------------
*Editor's note: It was found that Bernie D. Starchaser has returned to
the Birmingham area and now works at Radio Shack in the Riverchase
Galleria in Hoover.mm
=====================================================================
PC-DOS 3.3: WHATS' NEW
by Ed O'Neill
IBM released the new 3.3 version of PC-DOS in April 1987. This
release has several new features and enhancements that you might use
but, depending on your applications and your existing utility library,
you probably don't need it.
The most significant change is the extension of the National
Language Support (NLS) from 5 to 19 countries. This was also extended to
two models of IBM printers. If you don't have one of the printers and an
EGA or LCD display, you can't use them. If you live in the United
States, you don't need them. I chose not to cover them within the scope
of this article.
When I first brought up 3.3, I had been running 3.2 so the install
was as simple deleting the old files, backing up the rest of the
software, booting the floppy, typing FORMAT C:/S/V and putting my
AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS back in the root directory. I like to keep
the external commands in a pathed directory named DOS so I created it,
copied the files into the sub-directory and rebooted. The new system
came up without modification to the old batch and configuration file. I
though that was a good sign so, in anticipation, I typed CD DOS and then
DIR.
The first new file that caught my attention was FASTOPEN. This new
external is to help you avoid those long time consuming path searches.
It keeps the disk location of up to 999 levels of the most recently
opened files in ram which allow DOS to go directly to the file instead
of the normal top down search.
The next new name I noticed (other than the .SYS and the .CPI files
for the NLS) was APPEND.EXE. This is a strange command that is similar
to JOIN but doesn't include all the sub-directories under the JOINed
one. APPEND would be useful in a multi-user system where the individuals
have data stored in different directories for security purposes. The
application software directory could then be APPENDed to their data
directory and ran. With a word processor, for example, each user could
have the running code, spelling checker and forms directory APPENDed to
the one that contains their exclusive storage directory.
Everything else in my DOS directory looked familiar so I had to
start looking in the manual for enhanced commands. Here the enchantments
exclusive of the NLS functions:
ATTRIB provides the ability to modify file attributes on a single,
multiple, selected or all files below a directory level but will still
only modify the read and archive bit. Come on IBM, we want to hide
subdirectories and files too!
BACKUP and RESTORE now work without pre-formatted diskettes and
create a log file. They use a faster and more efficient storage method
and will use the date/time stamp. You can even restore deleted files
only. These are substantial improvements but if you are like me, you
have already overcome the limitations of this procedure with a backup
utility. If not, you will find them faster and more useful than the
previous releases.
BATCH COMMANDS now include an output suppression switch. If you
precede any command with the @, the output is not sent to the standard
output device. This is my personal favorite because I got so tired of
seeing ECHO OFF come across in my batches. You can now reference the DOS
environment values and CALL another batch and continue without evoking a
secondary command processor.
DATE and TIME now actually set the hardware clock and the system
time. I assume that is only on an AT or a PC/XT clock that uses the same
register locations and formats as the AT. In other words, this may not
work on older clock cards.
FDISK now has a built in logical disk creation for up to 4
partitions per physical drive. You no longer need special management
software to break the 32 meg limit. You can divide up a smaller drive
into logicals if you need to emulate a larger system with more drives
and you can FORMAT the logicals independently of one another. Each
logical drive has it's own FAT and if you lose one you don't lose the
whole drive, only the files in the one partition.
MODE has extended communication device support and baud rates up to
19200. It seem strange to me that MODE still supports bauds down to 110
while most new communications packages have jumped to 115,200 bps.
Another curious option I've seen is the addition of Fail to the
Abort, Retry, Ignore error message. I had to do a little investigation
to decipher this one. It appears that there is little difference between
the two for most system calls. The manual says that Fail actually aborts
the current DOS call while Ignore will disregard the error and continue
within the call. I think this means that if your hung in an endless
error loop with Ignore, you can Fail out of it.
If you're considering the upgrade and can use the National Language
Support then, by all means, buy PC-DOS 3.3. If you're using the BACKUP
and RESTORE procedure, you might want to borrow a copy and test drive
the enhancements before you pay for another backup utility. I found them
reasonably fast and efficient and the retail price of $129.00 is
tolerable if you are considering paying $99.00 for FastBack Plus or
FullBack. If you just like having the newest version of everything that
hits the market, don't waste your time and money. There are not enough
differences to justify the cost.
========================================================================
The following article is from the March issue of LAN magazine. It is
reprinted here with permission of the author.
StarLan Networks:
Creating a Symbiotic Relationship with the Telephone System.
By Rick Curl
Vice President of Research and Development
Postron Corporation
Birmingham, Alabama
NOTE: This article does not address the issues of network software or
the actual installation of hardware into the PC's. Many articles have
been written on those subjects.
After several disasters and aborted attempts with other systems,
our company selected Western Digital's StarLan for our internal network.
We connected it in the daisy-chain configuration using two additional
pieces of 4-conductor telephone station wire pulled to each user's
workstation. As the company expanded, this system became difficult to
maintain since a single card failure could cause the whole system to go
down (known as the Christmas-tree-light "when one goes out they all go
out" syndrome). Our company's move into larger quarters provided a
golden opportunity to clean up the network, install a central hub, and
utilize StarLan's ability to share twisted pair wiring with the
telephone system.
I thought I had done my homework. I studied the very skimpy
documentation provided with the StarHub and specified 4-pair (8-
conductor) wire to be pulled to each workstation and terminated in 8-
pin RJ-45 type modular jacks. The ends of the cables in the equipment
room were terminated on two rows of 66-type telephone punch blocks
mounted a couple of inches apart. The first two pairs of each wire
(blue/white and orange white) were terminated on the right-hand row of
blocks, the other side of which was connected to the telephone central
equipment, or KSU. The second two pairs (green/white and brown/white)
were terminated on the left-hand row of blocks. The other side of this
block was connected to modular pigtails plugged into the input ports of
the StarHub. Bridging clips placed between the left and right rows of
each block provide a simple way to open either the telephone or network
pairs for diagnostic purposes. The color code for the network punch
block is:
Cable to keyset Pigtail to hub Hub connector
White/Green Black Pin 1
Green/White Red Pin 2
White/Brown Green Pin 3
Brown/White Yellow Pin 6
The telephone system initially worked just fine, but the first
time I plugged in a StarCard, several of our phones went out. The
trouble proved to be a blown fuse in the KSU. A check with an ohmmeter
showed a 1-ohm resistance between pins 3 and 6 of the network card (the
same pins which carry 24 volts D.C. to the telephone sets). Closer
inspection of the StarHub documentation revealed that both the telephone
system and the network were trying to use pins 3 and 6 of the modular
jack. Most all multi-line electronic key telephone systems use the
center four pins of the cable; on an 8-conductor cable that means pins
3,4,5, and 6.
This seemed to indicate a grievous blunder on the part of whoever
decided which wires would do what in the IEEE 802.3 specification. I
called IEEE to contact the authors of the specification, and eventually
spoke with Bob Campbell, Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at
AT&T. He explained that the accepted pinout is the only one the
committee could agree upon. It was selected with an eye to the
future--to be compatible with the ISDN T1D1 spec. Great. But this
doesn't help me much in my immediate application. ISDN isn't generally
available yet, so this means that most anyone attempting to integrate a
multi-line electronic key system with StarLan is in for some surprises.
After much midnight oil-burning and teeth gnashing, I found a way
to make the two systems co-exist peacefully. The "fix" involves two
modifications: (1) rewiring the 8-pin wall mounted receptacles, and (2)
making special modular cables for the keysets.
I used RJ-45 type data jacks for the wall mounted connectors (although
any 8-conductor modular jack will do). The color code is:
Normal Modified for StarLan
1- White/Green 1- White/Green
2- Green/White 2- Green/White
3- White/Orange 3- White/Brown
4- Blue/White 4- Blue/White
5- White/Blue 5- White/Blue
6- Orange/White 6- White/Brown
7- White/Brown 7- White/Orange
8- Brown/White 8- Orange/White
Beware of the jacks intended for use with Merlin systems, which use a
non-standard numbering scheme and must be wired differently. Their color
code should be:
1- White/Blue
2- Blue/White
3- White/Green
4- Green/White
5- White/Brown
6- Brown/White
7- White/Orange
8- Orange/White
The modular cables provided with the StarLan hardware will work without
modification between the OUT jack of the network cards and the wall
jack.
So much for the first part of the fix. To make the special keyset
base cords, you might as well go ahead and purchase 4-pin and 8-pin
modular crimp tools. Using 4-conductor modular cable, attach the
4-conductor connector in the traditional way, with yellow on pin 1,
green on pin 2, red on pin 3, and black on pin 4. The trick comes on the
other end. Attach an 8-conductor connector to the 4-conductor cable
using the following pinout:
1- No connection
2- No connection
3- No connection
4- Red
5- Green
6- No connection
7- Black
8- Yellow
With these two fixes, the system should come up without too much
trouble. Note that it is permissible to plug the keysets either into the
PHONE jack on the StarLan or StarLink cards or directly into the wall
outlets using the special base cord. Do NOT plug any network cards into
unmodified wall jacks--you will probably wreak havoc with the phone
system if you do.
One final word of caution: Remember if you have occasion to work on
one of your PC's (even though you have turned off the AC power before
removing the cover), the power to the telephone system may still be
present on pins 7 and 8 of both modular jacks on the network board. This
is generally around 24 volts, and while it presents little personal
danger, if it's inadvertently shorted you can foul up the telephone
system.
=====================================================================
SYSOPS ARE NOT GODS
by Tim Straughn
While being a user of the plentiful selection of local BBS's, I
often wondered if the sysop had a 5 pin DIN plug on the end of their
index finger for direct keyboard connection. I noted in several Chat
Sessions that these guys are not much better at typing than I am, as a
general rule. This got me to thinking, which is no small chore for me,
that perhaps these guys are indeed human just like the rest of us. Well,
now that I am a sysop myself, I know for fact that we are human, and
very subject to the same mistakes in computing as anyone who ever gets
past a hand held calculator.
When going through the woes and throes of creating a system to add
to the already large list of BBS's in Birmingham, I soon found that this
is not for the weak hearted, nor for the programming addict with only
one system. Nor is it a very profitable way to play with computers
either, except for the fact it does allow for a very large collection of
software, which in many cases, is better than some of the commercial
products.
First came the "fun" experience of setting up the software and
hardware for the system. At times, I was pulling my hair out, calling
the computer and modem names that would have made a long-shoreman blush,
or I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The software I started
with was PCBoard ver. 10.0 as many of the boards in existence today
started with. Version 10.0 in it's time, I'm sure, was the greatest
thing since shirt pockets, however, version 12.1/D has spoiled me
rotten. With version 10.0, you better have a darn good file manager such
as XTREE, PathMinder, or any one of a multitude of PD and commercial
packages. Then, if you have a good file manager, you'd best be very
careful of what you do with it. I for one learned a very valuable
lesson about renaming a large subdirectory with archives in it with
PathMinder. I destroyed approximately 40 of the files I'd accumulated
by trying to take a shortcut, and got shortcut right off the hard disk.
Another absolute necessity is a good, and I mean really good, user
friendly text editor or word processor which will allow editing of very
large files stored as ascii text. Otherwise, you wind up spending more
time on the system than your users looking over the callers logs, user's
file, script questionaires, etc. If your editor does not like large
files, find yourself a program which will split up the files small
enough to be stored within 64 Kb of memory so that you can use some of
the less well developed text editors.
Now you're ready for the hardware lessons. The first piece of
hardware to consider is your printer. Get plenty of new ribbon
cartridges, because you have some printing to do. If you haven't
printed the documents, and are considering using a piece of software
which has no printed documentation, then my best advice is DON'T! If you
are not ready to do a lot of printing and reading, you are not ready to
set up a Bulletin Board. If you don't read it, then you shouldn't be
surprised if your favorite sysop becomes your worst enemy when you start
bugging him at 3:00 a.m. because your modem won't answer, or the silly
software goes into an infinite loop because of the setting of a dip
switch on your modem. Follow the instructions very carefully, and read
them several times before attempting to follow them, because in most
cases, programmers wrote the docs, and real programmers believe that if
it was hard to write, then it should be hard to understand. Once you
have printed all the documents, made sure the tech manuals are available
for your various system peripherals, and have all the necessary files to
make the program run, you are almost ready to get started. Another
consideration you will need to do is to set up a budget and purchasing
schedule for the purchase of floppies. Believe me, you are gonna need a
bunch of them. I started out with less than 25 floppies, and in 3
months, I now have nearly 250. Without a good efficient backup and
restore utility, you're gonna pull your hair out or maybe even commit
suicide if you make some of the same mistakes I have made while
attempting system improvements. Some of them can be quite disasterous.
Now that you have thouroughly confused yourself with the modem
switch settings, and the various and sundry directories needed for
security, you are now ready to begin setting up a model system. Got
some blank paper handy? You are going to have to decide how you want to
run your system. I offer no advice here, because this is purely a
matter of personal choice, and also depends on how you feel about the
uploads you will receive from the users. I personally feel that they
belong to the users, and use a very liberal up/download ratio. I do
however despise a leech, because I consider it bad manners to take
advantage of someone's generosity by not trying to make it worth his
efforts to provide the general public a fair chance at a given file, and
providing another place to get it. My best advice here is to decide
what you want in a system before you ever run the setup routine, because
believe me, you will change your mind at least a dozen times, until the
board finally becomes a part of your personality.
Now, comes the time for a registration procedure. Again, this will
be something that will change with time as you familiarize yourself with
the various utilities available for the system management. If you are
starting out with Version 10.0, there are numerous utilities to make
life much easier, because the manual way of moving files around and
maintaining the users database from within the board is a real pain, and
incredibly slow. Decide in advance whether or not you want new users to
have full access or not. This choice I leave entirely to the new sysop,
but with some words of warning. Unless being attacked by immature
people who have no business with a modem is like water off a duck's back
to you, you're in for a real treat. Just as there are those malicious
misfits who would hide a "FORMAT C:" within an otherwise useful and
attractive program, there are those who live for giving a new sysop a
hard time. I tried it, but after several attempts to make my ulcers
overactive, I reduced the priviledges of the new user to getting
registered, and that's about it.
So now, what kind of files do you want to support? Pirated wares? PD
only? Shareware and PD? IBM only? All machines? I do not advocate the
support of pirating software, particularly if it is an individual's
efforts to make a commercial product which has taken a large portion of
his time and they are asking a reasonable price for the software. If
you choose to do so, then that is your business.
Trust me when I say that supporting anything you cannot run on your
own system will have it's drawbacks also. You will wind up answering
never-ending complaints that the file is bad, and that you shouldn't
have it, blah, blah, blah. For this reason alone, I have elected to
support IBM only files, and pride myself on at least checking the
integrity of the archive with utilities to make sure it wasn't pure
garbage before the reciever got it. Besides that, with limited disk
space, I can't afford the space a garbage file takes up.
Since we intend to further this newsletter into additional issues, I
will close with the achieved facts and pointers already purveyed, only
to say that the article will be continued in the next issue. I intend
to expand on the topics more as requested, but for now, I need to close.
=====================================================================
PHONE LINES
by Tom Moore
Writing my first article(review) for the BTN newsletter guided me
down the straight and narrow to Interlink, a terminal program for the
Atari ST. What better way for me to make my splash for BTN(Birmingham
Telecommunication Newsletter). It is through this mode of communication
that we hackers burn the midnight oil downloading, uploading and buffer
capturing of screen text. So why not review a program that focuses on
telecommunication.
For those readers who are not familiar with Interlink I think you
will be impressed at the power without the price this program has to
offer. Now where have we heard that coined phrase before? I will not
bore you with minute details of this terminal program. Of course
Interlink does what terminals should do and that is download, upload,
capture text and print text. What makes Interlink unique is how it uses
these features.
GEM INTERFACE
Since we have a computer that utilizes the mouse & window
environment I feel it is important that the software supports this
format. It is easy to see that Intersect the authors of interlink have
done a very good job supporting Gem. After loading Interlink you are
presented with the standard Gem format of menu bars, windows and a mouse
pointer via the mouse. Unlike other terminal programs that I have seen
for the ST, Interlink does not present you with the generic interface of
MSDOS terminal programs. Sorry IBM'ers but there is nothing like a good
mouse & window environment. Of course many people who hate the plastic
rodent will be at home too with Interlink. You have keyboard equivalents
in most of the drop windows. Also, you are a help key away from a master
sheet of all the key commands so fear not you keyboard commandos.
TEXT EDITOR
Among the many features that are available in Interlink I really
like the TEXT editor that is built into the terminal. This really makes
it nice because it is a holding tank of all the information you capture
when you use the buffer. You can edit information with the text editor
or you can create letters and memos in this mode. With interlink you not
only get terminal program but you also have a mini word processor to
edit and create documents via downloads or uploads.
MACROS
This is a feature that really gives the power Interlink deserves.
Macros with Interlink are not like macros you might be accustom to in
Lotus 123. Interlink uses a recording process much like on a tape
recorder. How nice it is to just select record option from the record
menu, call your favorite BBS service, download the latest stock quotes,
print out the data and log off the service. "So what?", you say. Well,
the next time you want to play the same scenario you will not have to go
through all the mouse and keyboard sequences. Goto the record menu
select "play now" and select your record file you created. Low and
behold you will see Interlink playback the keyboard sequences you made
earlier. What's even better is that you can set a timer with your
record(macro) file and log on busy bbs's in the wee hours of the
morning. Yes, you can set Interlink to call, download, upload, print
information, log off then print information with no one at the keyboard.
My only peeve with the record menu is small but still a peeve and that
is the inability to edit your record file. But that problem is being
corrected. Intersect has said they will be able to offer editable record
files in version 2.0 of interlink. Other features that are related to
macros is the feature of autolog on prompts. Also, you have macro keys
that you can assign to Alt-F1 to F10 and Ctrl-F1 to F10. This makes it
nice if you want to assign passwords and names to certain function keys.
EXTRAS
Under the EXTRAS menu you will find the last menu prompt called
ANSWER MODE. If you select this option you will turn Interlink into a
mini-BBS. You can be away from your office set up Interlink to answer
mode call Interlink and log on like any other BBS system. Download or
upload information you need and log off your computer. Of course not
anyone can log on. Interlink sets the system up for access by way of 3
different password levels. Each level being assigned an access level
from low to high. When setting the ANSWER MODE you can edit the systems
password prompts for each level.
TRANSFERS
In the area of program and text transfers it is important that you
have a program that offers you a multitude of protocals. Interlink
offers you 4 buttons with the first three dedicated to ascii, xmodem and
ymodem. The fourth button is unique because it is a wild card button.
This wild card button allows you to load in other transfer protocals.
Using this type of design eliminates the possibilities of Interlink
being outdated with transfer protocals. When new protocals are designed
all you have to do is point and click the mouse on the ???? button and
you will have a directory of protocals to select. Here are some of the
protocals supported. Kermit, Ymodem batch, IBM graphics, Multi.TXF.
Multi.Txf is a protocal that will allow you to download or upload
programs in the background. What this means is you can download a long
file and load let's say a spread sheet for number crunching at the same
time. WOW!
SUMMARY
Working with Interlink for the past 9 months I have grown to
respect this as one of the best piece of software ever created for the
ST. It is so complete and powerful. Anyone familiar to GEM and terminal
programs will find they will not have to refer to the manual very
often(It's so easy). On a scale of 1 to 10 I would grade interlink a 9.9
because it's complete, easy to use and affordable. If you do your home
work you should be able to buy via mail order for around 28 dollars. The
suggested retail is 39.95 for a great hack on the telecommunication side
of computing.
=====================================================================
Its' A Boy
by Gary Godsey
Day 1: The Baby Comes Home. We brought the little thing home today. It
was only 4k but we really do love it. The gray color was a bit alarming
but it seems do be doing just fine.
Day 14: The little Thing Can Count. Little COCO ran his first
amortization schedule today.
Day 56: He Plays So Many Games. He has a total of about 28 games he can
now play. If I had known the little thing was going to be so much fun we
would have gotten him long ago.
Day 108: It Talks. COCO said, "I love you Daddy", today. My heart just
melted.
Day 244: He Spoke to Someone Else. His cute little modem and first
software for telecom'ing was installed today. He spoke with his uncle in
Columbus, Ohio.
1 Year: He's getting Stronger. He went from 4k to 16k today. He was so
excited.
14 Months: He Gets Floppies. Mom and I bought him his first floppies
today. It was as if he had transformed right there before our eyes. He
was so proud he couldn't say a word.
16 Months: He Learns to Write. He just kept begging until his mom
finally bought him a printer. It was only a low grade Dot Matrix but it
was his and he was proud of it.
20 Months: He Goes to OS-9. His new operating system was put in today.
Another giant step for machine kind.
2 Years: He's been Bad. He has been a bad little boy and played with
fire and lost a circuit or two. We have taken him in to be checked out
but the prognosis is not very good.
Stay tuned because he will almost certianly die and what will become of
Mom?
=====================================================================
Telecommunicating and Women
by Michele Cahoon
There are not very many women involved in telecommunications. I have
asked several sysops about the percentage of women on their boards, and
the response was close to the same. 3 to 4 percent of the users were
women. The average board has anywhere from 200 to 500 regular users. I
would like to get more women involved in BBS-ing, but how? I suspect
that there are more women on boards than we realize. Perhaps they are
using a man's name as an alias. Why, you might ask. For one thing, there
are too many teen-age boys going through turbo hormone changes and some
are trying to hit on every female in sight. Another reason might be
that they are intimidated by computers. There are numerous reasons but
I would like to find some solutions. When I decided to write this
article, I posted messages on several boards in town trying to get women
to tell me about themselves, hobbies, and their experiences of BBS-ing.
I had only one response. Thanks Lupe Tingle. She is a school teacher and
really enjoys using the boards. Her husband intially got her into it,
now we see her everywhere. Hang in there girl! I hope that we will be
able to get more women involved and get the hormones of these kids under
control. Part one of ?
editor's note: Michele welcomes responses to this article. If you agree
or disagree, have suggestions, etc., please post them on Channel 8250.
See the Editor's Notes if you do not use Channel 8250 and also if you
need instructions for submitting your articles. mm
=====================================================================
GAMER'S CORNER
by Osman Guner
TIPS ON TRADE-WARS
------------------
Software Supporting Boards Status
------------- ----------------------------- ---------------------
TradeWars-200 Apple Valley (205) 854-9661
(205) 854-9662 Up
Magnolia (205) 854-6407 Up
TradeWars-500 America-Online (205) 324-0193 Down indefinitely due
(3 nodes) to software problems.
TradeWars-2 Willie's (205) 979-1629 Up
Well folks, in this corner we are going to evaluate the ins and outs of
a popular BBS game in every isuue. This month we will start with
TradeWars-200...
TIPS FOR THE NOVICE: First of all, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!... The game
is based on trading and making credits (money?) with which you can buy
cargo-holds, fighters and make some planets. When you acquire 50 cargo
holds (which is the upper limit), you can only buy fighters from then
on. Having the maximum amount of holds is advantageous because it will
increase your trading capacity and there is a limit on turns per day. By
killing another player, one can obtain one fourth of an opponent's
cargo-holds with their contents (until one has 50 holds). After that
killing other players have no advantage other than eliminating an
opponent temporarily. It is a good idea to systematically develop a map
of the universe, noting the locations of the ports and their stock. In
fact, this is relatively easy too, since the TradeWars universe is
(unfortunately) designed in a two dimentional space. NEVER carry more
than 25000 credits on you. If you do, you'll spontaneously end up
paying 5000 credits wealth tax...
TIPS FOR THE ADVANCED PLAYERS: It may be worthwhile to remember or note
which sectors sell material for less and which pay more. For example,
port at '73' sell equipment and port at '183', organic. They are
located side by side which means that more trading can be done in a
limited number of turns. However, port located at '71' which is only
two sectors away from '73' pay more credits for the same amount of
equipment. Another example; Port at '19' has the cheapest equipment in
the universe. Within two sector distance there are four organic ports,
namely '10', '17', '37' and '38'. On the other hand, port located at
'157' is only four sectors away from '19', pay much more credits for
equipment than any of the previous four. Making planets is an excellent
long term investment. Find yourself a remote part of the universe, make
a few planets within the vicinity of a few well paying ports, increase
their productivity according to the demand. Then within a few weeks,
you will be invincible...
HOW TO INVADE THE CABAL EMPIRE: The headquarters(!) of the Cabal Empire
is located at sector '85'. To reach there you may first have to
eliminate about 500 Cabal fighters at sector '83'. Then upon entry to
'85', you will have to destroy typically 1000-1500 more Cabal fighters.
So I would not recommend you to attempt such an invasion unless you have
at least 1500-2000 fighters in your fleet... What happens when you
invade the Cabal Empire? I will leave this to you -brave adventurists-
to find out...
Next month: Tips on power struggle...
=====================================================================
NAME NUMBER BAUD RATES SUPPORTED
Penny Arcade 226-1841 300,1200,2400
America Online 324-0193 300,1200,2400
American BBS 674-1851 300,1200,2400
Amiga Alliance 631-2846 1200
Apple Valley Node 1 854-9661 300,1200,2400
Apple Valley Node 2 854-9662 300,1200,2400
Birmingham BBS Node 1 251-2344 300,1200
Birmingham BBS Node 2 251-8033 300,1200
Bus System BBS 595-1627 300,1200
Channel 8250 785-7417 300,1200,2400
Commodore Club-South 853-8718 300,1200,2400
Magic Star BBS 591-1571 300,1200
Magnolia BBS 854-6407 300,1200,2400
Music Alley BBS 969-2416 300,1200,2400
Point of No RETURN 664-9609 300,1200,2400
Raven BBS 674-6214 300,1200,2400
ST BBS 836-9311 300,1200
Sperry BBS 853-6144 300,1200,2400
The Connection Node 1 854-9074 1200,2400
The Connection Node 2 854-2308 1200,2400
Beltron BBS 836-3846 300,1200,2400
68FREE 933-7518 300,1200
This is hardly a complete list of local bulletin
board systems but these are good start. If you
have any to add, please let me know.
=====================================================================
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