690 lines
38 KiB
Plaintext
690 lines
38 KiB
Plaintext
BTN: Birmingham Telecommunications News
|
||
COPYRIGHT 1988
|
||
|
||
January 1989 Volume 2, Issue 1
|
||
|
||
Table Of Contents
|
||
-----------------
|
||
Article Title Author
|
||
|
||
Policy Statement and Disclaimer................Mark Maisel
|
||
Editorial Column...............................Mark Maisel
|
||
Swiss Army Shell...............................Mark Maisel
|
||
Whatever Happened To...(A Response)............Bill Freeman
|
||
Styles Of Sysoping, etc........................David Shockey
|
||
Amiga On The Loose.............................Richard Foshee
|
||
Profile: Jay Enterkin.........................Chris Mohney
|
||
The Dixie SysNet...............................Bill Freeman
|
||
Message Board..................................Barry Bowden
|
||
Known BBS Numbers..............................Mark Maisel
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
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
|
||
|
||
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
|
||
by Mark Maisel
|
||
|
||
I certainly hope that everyone has enjoyed the holidays. I, for
|
||
one, am glad that they are over as I work for the Post Office and we
|
||
experience our peak of business at this time. It is extremely difficult
|
||
to run and visit relatives every evening until late at night and be
|
||
expected to get up at 5 a.m. and go to work! Sorry to be a bit late
|
||
with this issue but the holidays took its toll on our contributors as
|
||
well. We hope that you will find this issue well worth the wait.
|
||
|
||
We have an excellent selection for you this month which you should
|
||
find amusing and stimulating. SAS or Swiss Army Shell, which has been
|
||
floating about on some local boards is reviewed by me in its latest
|
||
revision. Bill Freeman has made two contributions this month. One is a
|
||
rebuttal to Christian Minton's article last month on Pay boards and the
|
||
other is an invitation to a meeting that I will leave for you to
|
||
discover. Suffice it to ask, is this an idea whose time has come? We
|
||
have some great humor from David Shockey in regards to the management
|
||
styles of some of our local sysops. I am sure that you will find this
|
||
very amusing, providing you are not one of the victims! We have a plug
|
||
for the Commodore Amiga, a powerful graphics machine, from Richard
|
||
Foshee. Jay Enterkin fell to the ProFile harvest of Chris Mohney this
|
||
time around. Watch out as you could be next. As usual, we close our
|
||
issue with Message Board from Barry Bowden and our Known BBS Numbers.
|
||
|
||
In the upcoming year, I will be sharing editorial space with anyone
|
||
who wishes the opportunity. I will be working on a series of articles
|
||
for BTN overviewing each system in town. It will be a bit time
|
||
consuming so if you have something you want to say, then you have your
|
||
chance to do so in the editorial. All you need to do is contact me on
|
||
EZNET and we can make necessary arrangements. If you would like to help
|
||
with the series, I welcome any assistance and/or suggestions that might
|
||
come my way. One other project that I am considering is the expansion
|
||
of our Known BBS Numbers list to include much more information than it
|
||
currently carries. If you would like to give me your feelings on this
|
||
item, then please do so through EZNET. Until whenever, have fun!
|
||
|
||
***LAST MINUTE ADDITION***
|
||
|
||
The Birmingham Business Board has been down due to hardware
|
||
problems. It will be reincarnated as The Professional's Board and it
|
||
will begin operation 1/12/89. Please be on the lookout for it. When
|
||
you see it, please take the time to try the new BTN Reader Door. This
|
||
door is the work of the sysop, Joe McDonald, and he and I both hope that
|
||
it will make reading BTN easier for his users.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
SAS: Swiss Army Shell version 1.13x
|
||
An Overview & Review
|
||
by Mark Maisel
|
||
|
||
Swiss Army Shell, hereafter referred to as SAS, is a DOS shell for
|
||
machines that use MS-DOS. It is an easy to use shell that will not
|
||
limit an advanced user while also providing a simple method of
|
||
communicating with DOS for the neophyte. SAS offers all kinds of file
|
||
manipulation allowed by DOS and does so in a flexible manner. SAS was
|
||
written by a local programmer by the name of Steve Lee. Steve placed
|
||
SAS onto the ST BBS as shareware and I highly encourage you to take a
|
||
look at it if you use a DOS shell of any kind.
|
||
|
||
SAS, as previously stated, supports a variety of operations on
|
||
files that most shells will perform. It has one more that I have not
|
||
seen in that it will manipulate ARC files. Archive management is
|
||
extremely handy, especially for those who are afraid of or don't
|
||
understand the cryptic method of using an ARC program from DOS. This
|
||
function makes handling ARC files as easy as possible. If it were any
|
||
easier, it would have to be illegal.
|
||
|
||
Once you call up SAS, it creates a file in your root directory to
|
||
help it work faster. This file must be updated with a command each time
|
||
you make a change to your directory structure. The display for SAS is
|
||
visually appealing and easy to follow. Two panels, left and right
|
||
respectively, offer the names of your current drive's directories and
|
||
your current directory's files. The left panel presents your
|
||
directories in a graphic tree form and the right presents your files
|
||
with filename.ext and no other information. The bottom four lines of
|
||
the screen contain information on the current drive, directory, and
|
||
file. This method makes viewing an overwhelming amount of information a
|
||
simple and understandable task. To move between directories and files
|
||
requires a few keystrokes. The response time is incredible when moving
|
||
around on a hard disk.
|
||
|
||
There are two ways, aside from quitting the program, to run
|
||
programs from SAS. If a file is one that can be run, highlight it and
|
||
press "X" and then "Enter". If you must have the DOS prompt, then you
|
||
can shell back to DOS from SAS. If you are working with files that are
|
||
not executables, then "H" is the only key I will mention specifically.
|
||
It calls up an extensive list of commands for SAS.
|
||
|
||
Flexibility is another strong point of SAS. Viewing, editing, and
|
||
finding of files is supported though none of these functions is coded
|
||
into SAS. SAS allows you to choose your own favorite file viewer,
|
||
editor, and finder for use with it. Recommended utilities for
|
||
performing these jobs are, Vern Buerg's LIST, your favorite text editor,
|
||
and PKFIND. SAS uses PKARC and PKXARC to perform its tricks with ARC
|
||
files so you will need them as well. SAS will behave just like any DOS
|
||
shell without any of these programs but in order to be fully functional,
|
||
you should have these other programs in your path. All that is required
|
||
of you to use any of these programs from within SAS is to highlight or
|
||
tag the file(s) to be acted on and press the appropriate key for the
|
||
action. The first thing I found in SAS that I did not care for, though
|
||
it is no big problem, is that you must use certain filenames for your
|
||
utilities in order for SAS to use them. If you use other than LIST,
|
||
EDIT, PKFIND, PKARC, PKXARC, then those functions will not work. I
|
||
would prefer to see a setup program where the names of the utilities can
|
||
be given to SAS rather than limiting me to certain names. This is
|
||
picky, assuredly, but I often work from DOS and I am too lazy to
|
||
remember the names that SAS uses for my utilities.
|
||
|
||
Without giving too much away, I think that SAS is a useful addition
|
||
to my software library. I do use it on a regular basis and I think that
|
||
you will also find it worthwhile. The ARC functions are particularly
|
||
nice. I have only one complaint aside from the one I made earlier and
|
||
that is the lack of mouse support. I am a heavily mouse dependent
|
||
person and I enjoy the quickness and flexibility they offer. I have
|
||
been in contact with the author and he tells me that mouse support is in
|
||
the works. He also says that macro capabilities will be added in the
|
||
near future. This version I have been testing for the past two months
|
||
is not a release version and the most current version I have seen on
|
||
boards in town is version 1.1. Be on the lookout for a version 1.5,
|
||
hopefully, very soon. I will definitely grab one as soon as possible.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Whatever Happened to... (a response...)
|
||
by Bill Freeman
|
||
|
||
|
||
I beg your pardon, Christian. Most of the SysOps around town, both
|
||
PAY and Non-pay boards, still run their boards because of the enjoyment
|
||
that the hobby provides. By classifying the boards the way you have,
|
||
you are being somewhat unfair. There are advantages and disadvantages to
|
||
having a "PAY" board, and I want to point some of them out to you.
|
||
|
||
Our board is a "free" board that also has subscription accounts
|
||
available to its users, with all the users coming into the board for the
|
||
first time starting out on an equal footing. We use a file ratio system
|
||
to make sure that users are encouraged to replace what they take, so
|
||
that the system grows, the users can take more, and will (in a circular
|
||
way) have more to offer back to the board. Of course it doesn't always
|
||
work this way, as human nature drives us all to take more than we give
|
||
back. We do try to structure these ratios so that someone who can't pull
|
||
his weight in returning new files to the system (new users who are just
|
||
getting started) can enter the system and not be penalized while they
|
||
gather files.
|
||
|
||
One method that new users should use is to make master lists of the
|
||
files from all the bulletin boards they use, then compare these lists to
|
||
determine who has what, and then plan to play the role of broker:
|
||
downloading a file here or there and re-uploading it to another system
|
||
to build up a healthy ratio. This is a lot of trouble for the user,
|
||
though.
|
||
|
||
A justification for requiring users to help out in bringing new
|
||
files to the board is to prevent stagnation: to keep interesting new
|
||
things coming into the file areas of the board. This approach serves the
|
||
BBS community better than the "take what you need, we'll settle later"
|
||
approach because of the human nature aspect I mentioned a minute ago. As
|
||
you point out in your article, the subscription approach can be
|
||
confining and coercive. The people that most perceive these limitations
|
||
are the ones who do not follow the responsible user profile. Several
|
||
users on our system upload many more files than they take down, and I'd
|
||
bet they like the system of having a ratio. They have very high security
|
||
levels and extended access as a rule.
|
||
|
||
Now, what about the user that doesn't want to bother with "counting
|
||
calories" (oops, that should be files!)... Well, the subscription mode
|
||
of the board gives them an avenue to support the service that supports
|
||
them, not having to worry about counting anything. Our rates are low on
|
||
the average, only $25/year buys a subscription. A year is a fairly long
|
||
time, and $25 for 32850 minutes (547 hours) of potential use ain't bad
|
||
now, is it? The subscription accounts let users feel like they have a
|
||
vital interest in a board, and share a fraternal relation with the SysOp
|
||
in running the board.
|
||
|
||
You point out that "SysOps should either pay to run their own
|
||
boards or get out" of the kitchen. If the SysOp is running his board
|
||
with intentions of having FULL control over it, I guess you're right.
|
||
Problem is, when your board starts approaching a half gig (500
|
||
megabytes), it is difficult if not impossible for a single person on a
|
||
law students income (personal experience here folks) to run the system.
|
||
As I said earlier, when a system gets to be that size, a chunk of the
|
||
users want to have an elite status on the system, and a subscription
|
||
system is the most fair way to do this.
|
||
|
||
Does a SysOp get rich running a BBS? No, I don't think so. In fact,
|
||
we have a very hard time paying the bills most of the time. I'd be
|
||
guessing, but I don't believe ANY board in Birmingham would have a
|
||
windfall from subscription dues. They are, for us, barely enough to pay
|
||
for the phone lines. The equipment that runs our board, by and large,
|
||
was put there by a small group of three people that run The Connection,
|
||
and subscriptions don't even touch the cost of things like 225 Mb hard
|
||
disks (look them up in Computer Shopper!).
|
||
|
||
If running a big board is so much a hassle, why in the hell do you
|
||
do it? Because it is enjoyable. We have some extremely heated debates
|
||
now and then, and I get to see the newest software first-hand. Its also
|
||
very much like a coffee shop, and SysOps get to hear the gossip around
|
||
town first. This has its bad points too, especially when you end up
|
||
being the butt of the gossip. Was it P. T. Barnum that said he'd take
|
||
the bad publicity with the good? Sometimes I understand what he meant.
|
||
|
||
The bad aspect I can see about the system we are using in running
|
||
our board is that it forces smaller boards to compete in more refined
|
||
areas. A small board usually is SysOp-supported because it doesn't have
|
||
the "oomph" to draw the subscription dollars. This makes these boards
|
||
less stable, and more likely to go down over the course of time. The
|
||
small boards often seem overwhelmed at the task of matching their
|
||
competition. Some boards fight this problem by being very specific in
|
||
their purpose, providing only a message base on a particular topic, or
|
||
limited files in a given area. I guess this can be as much an asset (to
|
||
an optimistic small board) as a liability. On the plus side of the
|
||
SysOp-supported BBS, the owner/SysOp has the freedom to do with his BBS
|
||
what he wants to. Subscription services give up much of this freedom.
|
||
|
||
The way I see it, those guys that are running a strictly business
|
||
BBS are even doing a service to the community. They are pushing back the
|
||
boundaries of the hobby (sometimes going too far and then hearing angry
|
||
cries from users - sometimes bringing a new service to the community
|
||
they serve). Now, I've tried to talk about the "why" of a subscription
|
||
BBS. Perhaps you believe that in the fraternity of BBS users, there
|
||
should be no subscription services. In a Utopian BBS community, I'd
|
||
agree with you, and it would be nice. In the real world, though, people
|
||
have to work together to accomplish great things, and in my opinion
|
||
running a subscription side to the "free" board we provide is a means to
|
||
that end.
|
||
|
||
Wouldn't the abolition of the large subscription boards be a
|
||
reactionary approach that would return us to smaller, more limited BBS
|
||
systems, instead of serving to increase the options available to users?
|
||
I think it would, and I don't think this would be in the best interest
|
||
of the BBS community. A subscription to a bulletin board is an option
|
||
for the user. Sometimes, if we accidentally encroach upon a person's
|
||
feelings by being too strict, it is up to that person to let us know. I
|
||
think that most people still believe that SysOps, even the subscription
|
||
ones, want to be nice guys too.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
STYLES OF SYSOPING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A USER
|
||
by David Shockey
|
||
|
||
Lately I have been doing extensive research on the styles of Birmingham
|
||
sysops and co-sysops. I have compared the styles of our sysops to those
|
||
in other parts of the country and I'm here to tell you that we users
|
||
have a pretty strict and boorish bunch to deal with. What we think is a
|
||
friendly sysop here in Birmingham would be considered intolerable in
|
||
cities like New York or San Diego. I think that after you read some of
|
||
the facts that I have gathered about our local sysops you will agree.
|
||
|
||
Take for instance, Ice Princess of the "Point of No Return". The Ice
|
||
Princess believes that all users, deep down in their hearts, want to be
|
||
abused. You realize this when you are greeted by the familiar "Do you
|
||
want graphics?" message. If you reply N to this seemingly innocent
|
||
query then her BBS program answers "Too bad worm!" and your screen fills
|
||
with garbage. If you are looking for files to download then the
|
||
Princess has many and she encourages you to try them all with no penalty
|
||
for your download/upload ratio. If you have ever read "THE DIRTY
|
||
DOZEN", the list of virus and trojan programs that is published and
|
||
distributed periodically by Eric Newhouse, then you have seen the
|
||
Princess' file listing. She sometimes changes her number without notice
|
||
so that she can determine who her most loyal users are. She feels that
|
||
only the users that have a sincere desire for humiliation will spend the
|
||
time and effort to get the new number and call again. Currently she has
|
||
changed to an unlisted number, has anyone tracked it down yet?
|
||
|
||
Then there is "The Pinson Valley Board" run by David Alge. David is
|
||
also something of a sadist but he can be dealt with, unlike the
|
||
Princess. The way to get around Dave is to leave a message every day
|
||
telling him how great his board is and how grateful you are that he has
|
||
allowed you to get on his great board. If you do not leave the messages
|
||
then Dave purges your name from the validated list. This may not sound
|
||
too bad at first, but, purged users on Dave's board get only 1 minute
|
||
per day when they return. Add to that the requirement to fill out the
|
||
137 question questionnaire for validation and you should get the point.
|
||
Copious begging via ECHO can usually get you back on within six months.
|
||
Dave figures that this process weeds out everyone but the users who
|
||
really want to be on the best bulletin board in Pinson Valley.
|
||
|
||
It couldn't get any worse than that right? Wrong! "The Connection BBS",
|
||
run by Bill Freeman, has the capability to switch languages. You might
|
||
think that this is great since now people that speak other languages can
|
||
use the board also. The truth is that absolutely no one uses this
|
||
feature but Bill, who uses it to punish users that write messages that
|
||
displease him. For instance, just because I said that Michael Dukakis
|
||
was a weenie I now have no choice but to sign on to his board using
|
||
ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. If I were a weenie like the Duke then I
|
||
would complain about it.
|
||
|
||
Speaking of complaints. How many of you that use "America Online" have
|
||
noticed what a nice guy Rocky Rawlins seems to be and what a vicious
|
||
Nazi Tom Egan is? Tom Egan's answer to most users that have a problem or
|
||
complaint is "go to hell!". Well I have it on good authority (a certain
|
||
redhead named Natashia who has a ummm ... dominant personality and a
|
||
leather fetish) that there is no such person as Tom Egan. Rocky just
|
||
uses the persona of the non-existant co-sysop when he wants to tell
|
||
someone to "go to hell!". She tells me that he even changes clothes and
|
||
speaks with a different voice when he assumes the Tom personality. Very
|
||
strange.
|
||
|
||
The most extreme case is Bob (psuedonymn) who runs a private board. If
|
||
you irritate Bob then he will have an FCC agent come out to your home
|
||
with a bonafide search warrant and they will confiscate your modem. Then
|
||
the FCC agents will roam around your neighborhood asking your neighbors
|
||
whether or not they have ever seen you doing anything strange such as
|
||
wearing clothing of your opposite sex. (Everybody lives close to some
|
||
old lady with binoculars, and the guys at the FCC know this.) I don't
|
||
know where he gets this kind of clout but I'm not so sure that I want to
|
||
know either. (Rumor is that he's ex-CIA.)
|
||
|
||
How about that "LZ Birmingham", hosted by Loren Levson and various other
|
||
ex-Hitler Youth? At LZ they have three levels of conferences. The
|
||
pretense is that anyone can use the main conference, only veteran
|
||
supporters get to use the Supporters conference, and only actual
|
||
veterans get to use the Veteran's conference. This is (if I may use the
|
||
words of Brett Thorn) "blatant bullshit". I had access to the other
|
||
conferences at one time and all they do in the other conferences is plot
|
||
new strategies for textually assaulting the unsuspecting "liberal pinko
|
||
fags" that sign on to the main conference. I was "exterminated" from
|
||
the higher level conferences when they found out that I once dated a
|
||
girl whose mother was present at a peace rally back in October of 1965.
|
||
How's that for strict?
|
||
|
||
I don't know about the rest of you but I think that we users should not
|
||
put up with this kind of abuse. I think that we should stand up for our
|
||
user rights and demand considerate treatment. A boycott is what we
|
||
need! We could arrange an hour of modem silence just as a warning. Let
|
||
me know what you think. My name is Fred Smith and I can be reached on
|
||
the "The Jokes on You BBS", 24 hours at 930-5689. The Joke BBS gives
|
||
unlimited time on all ten nodes with no bothersome upload/download
|
||
ratio. What is better, IT HAS NO SYSOP! You see, it runs on a
|
||
Timex-Sinclair 1000 that made its way to the the Jimmie Hale mission
|
||
after it was struck by lightning at a nuclear waste site that was
|
||
visited by extraterrestrials. But that's another story.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Amiga on the Loose
|
||
(c) 1988 by Richard Foshee
|
||
|
||
There seem to be a lot of people in the computing community that are
|
||
curious about this relatively new machine by Commodore Business
|
||
Machines, so here I am to try and help you all understand what the Amiga
|
||
is, and hopefully some information about it.
|
||
|
||
Approximately 4 years ago, Commodore released this "fantastic" new
|
||
machine that was capable of amazing computing power never before seen in
|
||
a micro computer. These included, literally thousands of colors
|
||
(actually shades of colors), a multi-tasking operating system, and
|
||
multitudes of expandability options. At this same time, Atari was about
|
||
to release it's new machine, that would supposedly keep them up with
|
||
Commodore, but that's another article all together.
|
||
|
||
As the Amiga became better known, and Commodore's user base grew, rumors
|
||
began to surface about it, and a lot of these rumors were circulated as
|
||
absolute fact. Some of these rumors were, the Amiga was a nice GAME
|
||
machine, and was not capable of anything else, or that it was extremely
|
||
limited in a variety of other areas. But enough of the rumors, here is
|
||
some absolute fact.
|
||
|
||
The Amiga uses a Motorola 68000 chip, as it's central processor, and is
|
||
capable of producing 4096 shades of colors in HAM mode (Hold And
|
||
Modify), which is a special graphics mode that allows the machine to
|
||
display all 4096 colors simultaneously. It also has several other
|
||
graphics modes, in which, 32 colors are the maximum allowed. Although
|
||
now there are many paint programs that use what is called "Extra Half
|
||
Brite Mode" which will allow up to 64 colors to be shown.
|
||
|
||
All of the Amiga's, in addition to the 68000 chip, have three additional
|
||
chips, which each have a specific job to perform, totally independent of
|
||
the 68000 itself. Because of these chips, the 68000 can perform
|
||
whatever function is required of it, while the other 3 can perform there
|
||
own thing. These chips are, a graphics, animation, and stereo sound
|
||
chip, as well as a blitter chip, which assists in drawing graphics.
|
||
|
||
The Amiga has a clock speed of 7.16 MHZ, which is quite enough for
|
||
whatever tasks you may set before it. The Amiga, when first released,
|
||
could access up to 8.0 MEGS of RAM, this has since been upgraded to 9.5
|
||
MEG. All Amiga model's come with an internal 880K disk drive, and more
|
||
can be added fairly inexpensively.
|
||
|
||
For the first time, Commodore has used industry STANDARD ports on their
|
||
machines, a definite turnaround for CBM. Due to this change, Commodore
|
||
machines can now use a great many extras previously not available to the
|
||
earlier Commodore machines, such as hard disks, modems, and printers,
|
||
without having to spend that extra money on interfaces.
|
||
|
||
Well, I see this article is getting a bit long, so I will have to finish
|
||
up. There are currently 3 Amiga models in release, with more coming
|
||
soon. There should be at least one model in anyone's price range.
|
||
Ranging from $500 and up for the Amiga 500, or if you have an
|
||
extravagant taste, the Amiga 2000 starting at $2195 (Suggested retail).
|
||
If you get the change to see a demonstration of any Amiga, don't miss
|
||
it, you won't regret the experience.........
|
||
|
||
If anyone has any questions or comments, address your comments to
|
||
CoSysop One on the Pinson Valley BBS.......
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
PRO FILE
|
||
by Chris Mohney
|
||
|
||
The Pro File is a short, half-serious biographical sketch given to various
|
||
computer telecommunications personalities around Birmingham. Victims are
|
||
selected randomly from a group of names put into the notorious Hat. Anyone
|
||
who thinks himself brave or witty enough may petition for admittance to the
|
||
Hat by leaving E-Mail to me (Chris Mohney, most boards around town) to that
|
||
effect. Anyone who wishes to suggest more questions or sneakily nominate
|
||
someone without their knowledge may take the same route ....
|
||
|
||
---------
|
||
|
||
Pro File on JAY ENTERKIN
|
||
|
||
---------
|
||
|
||
|
||
Age: 30
|
||
|
||
Birthplace: Panama City, Florida
|
||
|
||
Occupation: System Support Analyst
|
||
|
||
My hobbies include: Reading, tennis, hiking, frisbee, photography,
|
||
strategy games, coin collecting, and of course BBS's and computers.
|
||
|
||
Years telecomputing: less than one year (since 3/88)
|
||
|
||
Sysop, past of: NEMESIS Private Host
|
||
|
||
My oddest habit is: I have too many unusual habits to single one out.
|
||
|
||
My greatest unfulfilled ambitions are: to be an outstanding parent,
|
||
to get in top shape (physically fit) and to write a book.
|
||
|
||
My favorite performers are: Rolling Stones (at least thru 1981).
|
||
|
||
The last good movie I saw was Windwalker.
|
||
|
||
The last good book I read was The President's Wife (about Rachel Jackson).
|
||
|
||
If they were making a movie of my life, I'd like to see my part played by:
|
||
Ben Murphy, in de-elevator shoes, or Michael J. Fox in elevator shoes.
|
||
|
||
My pet peeves are: bureaucratic red tape, network television, arrogance,
|
||
crowds, waiting in line, parents who behave worse than their children but have
|
||
no patience with them.
|
||
|
||
When nobody's looking, I like to: rock out with 60s and 70s music.
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
The Dixie SysNet
|
||
by Bill Freeman
|
||
|
||
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
||
% Dixie SysNet SysOp Meeting %
|
||
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
||
% %
|
||
% For ALL Bulletin Board System Operators %
|
||
% %
|
||
% Saturday, January 14th 9:00 AM %
|
||
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
||
% %
|
||
% Shoney's Restaurant %
|
||
% 412 18th Street South %
|
||
% Birmingham, Alabama %
|
||
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
||
% Topics to be discussed: %
|
||
% %
|
||
% Bulletin Board Publicity: How to %
|
||
% Let Users Know Your Board is There. %
|
||
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
||
|
||
The Dixie SysNet: what is it? All who have seen the welcome screen
|
||
to The Connection BBS have seen it proudly proclaimed that it is a
|
||
member of The Dixie SysNet. Until now, it has not been a whole lot.
|
||
After meeting with several sysops and users at a BTN gathering and
|
||
contacting several local boards, The sysop of The Connection, Bill
|
||
Freeman, is going to try to establish a formal organization for local
|
||
sysops. Just what this organization will provide is still to be
|
||
answered, hopefully by a consensus among those present at the
|
||
aforementioned meeting. There have been several good ideas tossed
|
||
around for discussion at the meeting. Sharing information on bbs
|
||
related subjects and providing advice and assistance to new sysops are
|
||
but a few of the topics that have been mentioned by Bill and others who
|
||
have expressed an interest in his idea.
|
||
|
||
If you have any interest in this idea, please make every attempt to
|
||
attend this meeting as its outcome may vastly improve the potential for
|
||
telecommunications business and fun in Birmingham. If you just would
|
||
like to meet some sysops, yes they are human, for the most part, then
|
||
you may attend for that reason alone. Keep an open mind and see what
|
||
happens!
|
||
|
||
PLEASE TRY TO ATTEND! IF YOU CAN READ THIS, THEN YOU ARE INVITED!
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
MESSAGE BOARD
|
||
by Barry Bowden
|
||
|
||
|
||
J A N U A R Y
|
||
|
||
1 9 8 9
|
||
|
||
|
||
S M T W T F S
|
||
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
|
||
!1 !2 !3 !4 !5 !6 !7 !
|
||
!New Year's! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
!Day ! ! ! ! ! ! BAC !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
|
||
!8 !9 !10 !11 !12 !13 !14 !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! BCCC ! ! CCS-C64/ ! ! ! ! BAC !
|
||
! ! ! C128 ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
|
||
!15 !16 !17 !18 !19 !20 !21 !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! !Martin ! CSS-Amiga! <20> ! BEPCUG ! BAC !
|
||
! !Luther ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! !King, Jr. ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! !Day ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
|
||
!22 !23 !24 !25 !26 !27 !28 !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! BCCC ! ! CSS-C64/ ! ! ! ! BAC !
|
||
! ! ! C128 ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
|
||
!29 !30 !31 ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
|
||
+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
|
||
|
||
|
||
BEPCUG CCS
|
||
Birmingham East PC Users Group Commodore Club South
|
||
Jefferson State Jr. College Springville Road Library
|
||
RUBY Carson Bldg. 1st Floor-Computer Lab Huffman, Alabama
|
||
3rd Friday of Every Month 2nd and 4th Tuesday (C64/C128)
|
||
5:30PM to 9:00PM 3rd Monday (Amiga)
|
||
Paula Ballard 853-1200,ext 1463 (Days) 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM
|
||
Maurice Lovelady 684-6843
|
||
|
||
|
||
BCCC BAC
|
||
Birmingham Commodore Computer Club Birmingham Apple Core
|
||
P. O. Box 59564 POB 5542
|
||
Birmingham, Alabama 35259 Birmingham, Alabama 32555
|
||
UAB School of Ed. Bldg. Room 153 Regular meetings - 1st Sunday
|
||
2nd and 4th Sundays UAB Building #2, Rm 115 at 2PM
|
||
Starts at 2:00 PM Informal get-every Saturday
|
||
Emmett Ferretti 823-3987 morning at 8:30AM at the
|
||
Rusty Hargett 854-5172 Kopper Kettle in the Brookwood
|
||
annex next to AC3
|
||
Boris Datnow, Bill Bankson
|
||
P. O. Box 5542, Birmingham,
|
||
AL 35255
|
||
Thomas Woods 664-0708
|
||
|
||
If you belong to or know of a user group that is not listed, please let
|
||
us know by sending E-Mail to me, Barry Bowden, on The Bus System BBS.
|
||
Please leave the following information :
|
||
|
||
User Group Name
|
||
Meeting Place
|
||
Meeting Time(Day/date,Time)
|
||
Contact Person
|
||
Any Other Important Information
|
||
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
Known BBS Numbers For The Birmingham Area
|
||
|
||
NAME NUMBER BAUD RATES SUPPORTED
|
||
|
||
68FREE 933-7518 300, 1200
|
||
America Online Nodes 1-3 324-0193 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
America Online Node 4 251-2344 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
American BBS 674-1851 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Bus System BBS 595-1627 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Channel 8250 785-7417 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Club Phoenix 942-0252 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
D3 Systems BBS 663-2759 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Duck Pond BBS 822-0956 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Elite Empire 967-8479 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Fortress BBS 664-9040 300, 1200
|
||
Joker's Castle 744-6120 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
LZ Birmingham 870-7770 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Magnolia BBS 854-6407 300, 1200, 2400, 9600
|
||
Nouveaux BBS 871-5551 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Pinson Valley Node 1 854-9661 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Pinson Valley Node 2 854-9662 300, 1200, 2400, 9600
|
||
Primary One 853-1175 300, 1200
|
||
ProSoft Systems BBS 853-8718 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Role Player's Paradise 631-7654 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Smitty's BBS 849-7349 300, 1200
|
||
ST BBS 836-9311 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Sperry BBS 853-6144 300, 1200, 2400, 9600
|
||
The Connection Node 1 854-9074 1200, 2400
|
||
The Connection Node 2 854-2308 1200, 2400
|
||
The Outer Limits 969-3262 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
The Professional's Board 856-0679 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
The Realm Of Tarot BBS 870-7776 300, 1200
|
||
Twilight Zone 856-3783 300, 1200
|
||
Willie's DYM Node 1 979-1629 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Willie's DYM Node 2 979-7739 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Willie's RBBS 979-7743 300, 1200, 2400
|
||
Ziggy Unaxess 991-5696 300, 1200
|
||
|
||
|