1461 lines
74 KiB
Plaintext
1461 lines
74 KiB
Plaintext
BTN: Birmingham Telecommunications News
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COPYRIGHT 1992 ISSN 1055-4548
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September 1992 Volume 5, Issue 8
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Table Of Contents
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-----------------
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Article Title Author
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Policy Statement and Disclaimer................Staff
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Publisher's Corner.............................Mark Maisel
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Editorial......................................Lurch Henson
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Letters to the Editor..........................
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Of Cars, Toasters, and Computers...............Brian Anderson
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The Scene......................................Scott Hollifield
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Grocking The Gestalt...........................Scott Pletcher
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BBS Spotlight: Southern Stallion..............Eric Hunt
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untitled.......................................The Bishop
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The Amiga Connection...........................Jeff Vaughn
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Special Interest Groups (SIGs).................Barry Bowden
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Known BBS Numbers..............................Staff
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Disclaimer and Statement of Policy for BTN
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We at BTN try our best to assure the accuracy of articles and
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information in our publication. We assume no responsibility for damage
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due to errors, omissions, etc. The liability, if any for BTN, its
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editors and writers, for damages relating to any errors or omissions,
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etc., shall be limited to the cost of a one year subscription to BTN,
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even if BTN, its editors or writers have been advised of the likelihood
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of such damages occurring.
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With the conclusion of that nasty business, we can get on with our
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policy for publication and reproduction of BTN articles. We publish
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monthly with a deadline of the fifteenth of the month prior to
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publication. If you wish to submit an article, you may do so at any
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time but bear in mind the deadline if you wish for your work to appear
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in a particular issue. It is not our purpose to slander or otherwise
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harm a person or reputation and we accept no responsibility for the
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content of the articles prepared by our writers. Our writers own their
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work and it is protected by copyright. We allow reprinting of articles
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from BTN with only a few restrictions. The author may object to a
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reprint, in which case he will specify in the content of his article.
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Otherwise, please feel free to reproduce any article from BTN as long as
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the source, BTN, is specified, and as long as the author's name and the
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article's original title are retained. If you use one of our articles,
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please forward a copy of your publication to:
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Mark Maisel
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Editor, BTN
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221 Chestnut St.
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BHM, AL 35210-3219
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(205)-956-0176
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We thank you for taking the time to read our offering and we hope that
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you like it. We also reserve the right to have a good time while doing
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all of this and not get too serious about it.
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F R E E B I E : G E T I T W H I L E I T S H O T !
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The following boards allow BTN to be downloaded freely, that is with no
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charge to any existing upload/download ratios.
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ADAnet One Alter-Ego Arkham Asylum
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Channel 8250 Little Kingdom Joker's Castle
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Crunchy Frog Owl's Nest The Bus
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The MATRIX Abject Poverty Hard Disk
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The Outer Limits The Round Table Kiriath Arba
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DC Info Exchange Owlabama BBS Safe Harbor
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Amiga Alliance ][ Martyrdom Again?! Lemon Grove
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Medicine Man F/X BBS Thy Master's Dungeon
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Playground Teasers
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If you are a sysop and you allow BTN to be downloaded freely, please let
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me know via EZNet so that I can post your board as a free BTN
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distributor. Thanks. MM
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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N E W S F L A S H
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Crunchy Frog is moving! The new numbers are not
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yet available. As soon as they are, BTN will
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publish them and post them in prominent places.
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Monty tells me that the Frog may be down for a
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week or so during the move, but I doubt she'll be
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able to stand it for that long. MM
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Publisher's Corner
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by Mark Maisel
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THEN NOW
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America Online 300-2400 The MATRIX Nodes 1-10 300-2400
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Birmingham BBS Node 1 300-1200 The MATRIX Nodes 11-14 9600-14400
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Birmingham BBS Node 2 300-1200 The MATRIX Node 15 9600
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Amiga Alliance 1200 Southern Stallion 300-14400
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Bus System BBS 300-1200 Bus System 300-2400
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Channel 8250 300-2400 Channel 8250 Node 1 300-14400
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Channel 8250 Node 2 300-14400
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Magnolia BBS 300-2400 Magnolia BBS 300-14400
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ST BBS 300-1200 ST BBS 300-2400
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Sperry BBS 300-2400 Sperry BBS 300-2400
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The Connection Node 1 1200-2400 ADAnet One Nodes 1-3 1200-2400
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The Connection Node 2 1200-2400 ADAnet One Node 4 9600-14400
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"THEN" represents bulletin boards that were in the first BTN
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listing. "NOW" represents bulletin boards that are in this issue, #50.
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There have been some changes; names, baud rates, and in some cases, the
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number of lines. The first one, board(s) run by Rocky Rawlins and Tom
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Egan, have been through many changes that have lead to the current state
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of affairs with The MATRIX. Amiga Alliance, run by Richard Foshee, was
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up for a while, down for a while, and back up today. Channel 8250 was
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initially run by Ed O'Neill. Randy Hilliard, the current sysop, was
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Ed's co-sysop and took over the board when Ed decided to give it up.
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Magnolia is pretty much the same board it has always been as is Sperry.
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ST has gone through some changes too but it has remained through all
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this time. The Connection got new direction with the passage of the ADA
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and the entailing confusion it has caused among business and the
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disabled. ADANet has become a communications organ for the Disability
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Law Foundation to disburse information helpful to those on both sides of
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the disability issue. There were and are some bulletin boards that
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didn't make the first list that were up and running, but I wasn't able
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to collect them all for that first issue. Ziggy's comes to mind. That
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bbs has been around in Birmingham since before I can remember and Ziggy
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keeps right on plugging along.
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Things have changed quite a bit since that first list and the time
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before it. The audience is considerably more diverse than it was when
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issue #1 was released, and larger. Offline mail readers have given more
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people a voice, sometimes a much more voluminous voice than some
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oldtimers would like. The big message networks have changed the face of
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bbs use too. Competition is pretty fierce in most cities. Birmingham
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has not yet been particularly affected by this but the time is coming.
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Rocky Rawlins, sysop of The MATRIX, recently returned from a week long
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convention sponsored by Boardwatch Magazine, a magazine supportive of
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bulletin boards and similar services. Modem and bbs software vendors
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were there to "wow" sysops with their latest offerings. Various
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gimmicks for attracting users (read subscribers) were presented in
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conferences and on the showroom floor. Rocky told me about one company
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that sells equipment and software for a bbs to provide up to the minute
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weather information including color radar images. How'd you like to be
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able to call up your local bbs and get a GIF image of the weather in
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your area no more than a minute old? The networks are no longer enough.
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The race is on. BBS' are becoming businesses and sysops, in an
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increasingly competitive market, are looking for ways to increase their
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market share. Look for this in Birmingham soon. It has been happening
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for the past few years in other places, both smaller and larger than
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Birmingham. It is going to be interesting to watch. I can't say I
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entirely welcome it all as I'm used to my habits and like them. There
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are still plenty of boards in Birmingham where an oldtimer can keep up
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their telecommunications habit without being exposed to the new stuff
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coming along. They are becoming fewer, however, and will continue to do
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so. Adapting to the changing "scene" will be easy for some, irrelevant
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to the many new folks who continue to sign on each month, and tough for
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some of the folks who've been at it for a while. I remember several who
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have dropped out. One who seems to have come back is a fellow who goes
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by the handle, Bernie Starchaser. He caused a small stir on Crunchy
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Frog when he recently reappeared. Only a few folks knew who he was, or
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claimed to be. He appears to have adapted nicely to the new ways as he
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is using an offline reader, anethema to some of the folks who've been
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using the boards for a while. Not all of them will do so well.
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Speaking of change, most of you have either heard or read about the
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various changes going on around my house. I am finally moving. I will
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be getting into the new place around the end of September. It will be
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much more convenient for Kathy getting to and from work, and I'll have
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lots more space for my toys. I won't have any more time to play with
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them though. Business is still doing well. I've been talking with my
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regulars for the past few months and we've been talking about changes in
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BTN. I've made a decision on one of those and it has potential to be
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very interesting and entertaining. Scott Hollifield approached me about
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the editorship of BTN and offered his service. I thought about it and
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it seemed like it could work. Yeah, yeah, I know, Scott is the one who
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wouldn't know a deadline if it smacked him in the face... I am going to
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give him full rein and see what happens. I'll write articles just like
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anyone else and he will do what I've done for the past 50 issues. If
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you leave me messages and articles, they will be forwarded to him. You
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can save that step and send them straight to him. Crunchy Frog is still
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the best place to send articles, and if you are in BTNWA there, then
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upload publicly in there and let him know the article is ready. Nothing
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is constant but change so lets invoke some ourselves and see what
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happens.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Editorial
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B T N
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or
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Look who made it to #50!
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by Lurch Henson
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I haven't been in the BTN community as long as most of you (though
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many will say I've been here far too long already), but I've enjoyed the
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majority of the time I've spent here. When my trips to Birmingham began
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to look like they'd last awhile, and I brought my computer up here to
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sniff around the boards and see what's out there, BTN was one of the
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first things I stumbled across. It was BTN, it's parties, and Mark
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Maisel that made me feel most welcome here in Birmingham. Through Mark,
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and his BTN parties, I met most of the people that I've grown very fond
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of (as well as a few of you I'd rather not have met in the first place,
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but we won't go into that here) in the past two years, and made several
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friends I'll never forget. I even found a friend that I'd lost track of
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quite a few years back, and renewed my friendship with him. I met
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people that helped me get over a messy divorce that I didn't know was
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still bothering me at the time, and even met and lost the love of my
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life, all more or less through the existence of BTN, and Mark Maisel.
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For a long time it seemed like there was an attitude of "if it
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ain't a BTN party, it ain't a party", if that shows you anything of the
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effect this publication has had around here (and believe me, I've heard
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Mark complain a few times about that type of comment before, too).
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People tend to look forward to the next BTN party more than they do the
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Second Coming.....and based on some of the conversations I've had the
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pleasure to be involved in at a few of them, I don't blame them one bit.
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One thing you can say about a BTN party, it's rarely boring.....for
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long, anyway......
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I have no idea how Mark came about deciding to put out this little
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venture of his....why he decided to put up with the constant aggravation
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of hounding all the people that promise him articles, then never
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deliver.....or why he decided to donate such a large portion of his
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time, and space on his hard drive, to maintaining this beast (no, not
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Beast, that's Kathy) each month.....but for whatever the reason, here it
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is. Somehow, for ever how long this thing has run, it managed to climb
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it's way up to #50, something that several electronic magazines I've
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seen spring up here in Birmingham will never do, because I've watched
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many of them fold up after an issue or three, without ever being noticed
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by most of the people reading this now. BTN did "Something" right. It
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has that special "Something" that the others never quite seemed to
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manage to find. Whatever it is, I hope it never leaves...without it,
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BTN would be just one more thing people pass by rapidly on the way to
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the GIFs and games in the download section. Just another file taking up
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valuable space that could hold yet another version of "Tank Battle", or
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some other inane program I'll never download, ignored by all but the
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die-hard few that wait to see if "it" will ever come back. Too many
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things have passed away this year.....I hope whatever adds the fire to
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BTN isn't one of them.
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(Oops, getting a little "down" there, gotta watch that!) Something
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else BTN has been doing for quite awhile is this right here....what you
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are reading..... BTN makes people that wouldn't normally sit down at
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their computer and hack out stuff for "publication" (yes, this is REALLY
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being published, even if it IS just electronic (just try and take a
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clipping to send to a publisher, though)) do so. I myself write very
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little (could tell, couldn't you?), except for erotic tales on various
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Adult Networks out there, most of which have been well received, but
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Mark got me to write something non-sexual for a change. He got me to
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sit down and write up an article for BTN not too horribly long after I
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met him...then another after that. I like to think that both of them
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were at least passable. After that, there was a long break while I
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didn't write much of anything...had too many personal troubles to deal
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with, and then the Hannah Home article came out. I wasn't too happy
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with it at all, so I decided to try and make up for it with this,
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something closer to my style, a little lighter in tone. If Mark accepts
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this one, this will make four....four Published articles from someone
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that would never have bothered if it hadn't been for BTN, and Mark.
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Makes me wonder sometimes how many of the other names you see in the
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table of contents of this magazine would never have written anything if
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Mark hadn't asked them to, and how many of them will now, only because
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Mark got them to in the first place, go on to write elsewhere. I myself
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may FINALLY sit down and collect up all of the stories I've written and
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submit them somewhere. I already have with one of them, and though it
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was accepted for publication, it never made it into hard copy (never
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found out why, either). I never would have bothered if I hadn't gotten
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positive response from my first two articles in here. (Someone told me
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I made them smile, that was enough for me.) To a lot of people out
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there this might just be a text file.....to me, and many others, this is
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a magazine, and a real one, not just a simple jumble of bits & bytes.
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It's something dreamed up by a Hell of a guy, slapped together in his
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rapidly dwindling spare time, and spread around the world (at least as
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far as Scotland, from what I once heard) to a lot more people than I
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ever thought would be reading anything I wrote. And, as much as BTN,
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and Mark, Kathy, and Sarah have come to mean to me, I'm sure they mean a
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lot more to others out there, since I've only been involved them for
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such a short period of time........I'm glad they've been around, and
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hope they stay. I'm going to miss it all if/when I finally have to
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leave.
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So, Happy, Bloody, Number 50, Mark! Enjoy the Hell out of it, I
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know I have......
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Lurch Henson
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9208.16
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Letters to the Editor
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As promised, here are the responses I've received that seem to
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belong here. If you wish to make it here, please feel free to leave
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Scott Hollifield a message on either the main message base of THE MATRIX
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or in any EZNet message base. He'll get it one way or the other. MM
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You people must be utterly satisfied. We don't
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have any letters to share with you this month. MM
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Of Cars, Toasters, and Computers
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by Brian Anderson
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Wanna do something scary? Go through old magazines, like the
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Computer Shopper. And we ain't talkin' 1952 here. Year before last is
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just fine. I had loaned a Shopper to my almost-boss (his girl Friday),
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and some years later (1.5), she returned it to me. She felt it
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necessary, but that's another story. I was going to toss it, but I
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remembered that some articles were in it that I wanted to read again.
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Maybe. Anyway, I proceeded to turn the pages on this monster
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publication. The things I saw and refreshed in my mind were funny enough
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to make me laugh out loud, even though I was completely by my self:
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pg. 338 "286 SCREAMER!! Blows the competition away!!"
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pg. 20 "The Swan 386SX. The wave of the future."
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$1899 32meg drive, 1mb memory, mono graphics.
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pg. 138 "sim/sip 1MBX9-80NS only $155.00"
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pg. 48 "This Thoroughbred Is Built For SPEED!"
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16 MHZ 286 with 40 MEG HARD DRIVE
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Or how about the ad from APE (Applied Progressive Electronics) that
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headlines a "Battery Powered" laptop? As opposed to what? Or the Zeos ad
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with the headline "DAZZLING PERFORMANCE." A 286-12 machine, 32mg drive,
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512k mem (truly generous), mono display. And they list a clock/calendar
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as a "feature". The ad has a clip from a review of the machine that
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says, "If you're looking for one of the fastest rides around at a
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down-to-earth price, don't pass up the ZEOS. Solid construction,
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flexible design and escape-velocity performance make it a top flight
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choice."
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This is short term thinking at it's best. If a 286-12 has "escape-
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velocity" speed, what in GOD's name does a 486-50 have? I'm scared to
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find out. It must be illegal, whatever it is. To be sure, the people who
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wrote these ads back then were mainly trying to sell, seLL, SELL! But if
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they sold computers THEN with those types of phrases, what are they
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saying NOW to those same customers? "This comes with a drive bay air
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bag, nuclear mouse, and clocks in at warp factor 9. Don't buy it if you
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can't handle the wind generated by the display speed, although for a
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small additional amount, we can sell you the xturbo-super-zga-
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hyperstraps if you need them."
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Well, no. That's not what they're saying. At least, I don't think
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so. What they're saying is much the same as what they said before. Just
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different products, and a wealth of new buyers. So, is there a problem
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here? Not really, just the same old sales flap that people have to watch
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out for. But I wonder if people watch out for computer sales flap like
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they do when they are buying a car. Most people know that when they buy
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a new car, they have to have their guard up when they walk in the door.
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Car salesmen have a bad reputation for bull, and maybe it's justified,
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maybe not. I don't know, except for what I see on the TV. Judging from
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that, I think the rep is justified.
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What I'm afraid of is the future. Think of people buying computers
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as casually as they buy toasters. Actually, I think that is a nice
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progression of times in itself. But maybe the "toaster" salesman will
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trick you into buying whatever toaster makes him the most money, or
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whatever toaster he needs to move because he has a zillion of them.
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Maybe not. Are you ready to try and figure out the facts when it comes
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time to buy?
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If you thought computer purchasing would become easier as the
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popularity of the beast improved, guess again. Progress seems to
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naturally bring more options to consider. Sounds depressing, but there
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is hope. One difference in these analogies of cars, toasters, and
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computers is the attitude of most computing folks. I was recently on a
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BBS, and a fellow wanted to chat. I accepted the chat, and he was
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curious about ".fli" files, and how they work. I explained to him that
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he needed quickfli.exe to view these files, and he was appreciative.
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This exchange was short, but got the job done. Here was a person in
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need of info, and he got it. And the nice part is that this is not
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unusual at all. It seems that most "online people" are far more than
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willing to help than the toaster guy.
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The point here is that you probably have a lot more honest and
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knowledgeable help in buying a computer than you would buying a car, or
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other things. Of course, you can't go online to get help if you have no
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machine yet. But when you talk to people you know who are into
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computing, you will probably find help that you just can't get when
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trying to buy the ultimate vehicle. Why? I don't know for certain. Maybe
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there is something about computers that pulls people together. It could
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be that computing is something that crosses a whole lot of boundaries
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without really trying. Or maybe it's triumph over sales tactics we all
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hate that makes us want to help. Buying direct has done in a lot of
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computer companies and stores, and that might be because we know what we
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want, rather than the toaster salesman telling us what we need.
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Whatever the reason, people can and will help.
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I have always had a problem with advertising. It makes me cringe to
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know that someone would buy Diet Coke just because Ray Charles said
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"Uh-HUH". (Ray is my favorite singer, so it's not what you think.) I
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firmly believe we should make sure that the people who are buying Diet
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Coke because of this ad should pay extra, to cover the cost of the ad.
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The rest of us should get an "intelligence discount", and not have to
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suffer the higher product price resulting from any such advertising. In
|
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another example, certain heads of car dealerships will get in front of
|
|
the television camera and do non-car-related stuff, hoping to draw in
|
|
customers. But would you really buy a car from a guy that was on TV
|
|
wearing nothing but a barrel? Is this the guy you want to give over
|
|
$10,000 of your money? OK, now we have sales people doing crazy ads for
|
|
computers. Are you going to buy a machine from people in barrels saying
|
|
"EVERYTHING MUST GO!!! ALL UNITS 400% BELOW COST!!" I hope you don't
|
|
without proper consideration.
|
|
|
|
Check with your fellow computer users. They will most likely steer
|
|
you in the right direction, given your needs. Just don't believe all
|
|
the ads you read. Several times I have seen companies with multi-page,
|
|
full color ads disappear the next month. (I guess the lifetime guaranty
|
|
on those ZGA-Hyperstraps is null and void.) We find from this that some
|
|
claims are definitely too good to be true. Again, check with your
|
|
computer friends. If you don't have any computer friends, find some.
|
|
We're actually a pretty good bunch. And easier type of friend to find
|
|
than a toaster friend.
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
*****
|
|
|
|
THE
|
|
|
|
SCENE
|
|
|
|
*****
|
|
|
|
by
|
|
Scott
|
|
Hollifield
|
|
|
|
|
|
"How fitting that the universal convocation
|
|
to breach a passage, the word 'ENTER', should also be
|
|
the largest [key on a computer keyboard]."
|
|
|
|
allegedly attributed to an member
|
|
of the Dalai Lama's entourage while
|
|
touring an IBM facility in the 1970s
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------
|
|
|
|
It was the darkest and rainiest day of the year for the Scene.
|
|
Somewhere, nine-minute old water drops zinged like bullets into the
|
|
cables and antennae that powered the underspace of the Scene. A silvery
|
|
burst of line noise slashed through my report. I swore and muttered
|
|
something uncomplimentary about fiber optics.
|
|
|
|
I was filing my most recent dispatch for the Birmingham Telecom
|
|
Net, the first and last of the great floating infopowers in town. The
|
|
work in it, like any collection of information these days, tended to be
|
|
obsolete by the time someone bothered to type it, but BTN survived
|
|
gamely on its name and reputation. BTN didn't make it through the
|
|
Collapse intact; nothing did. But it was still around.
|
|
|
|
I put a pause-lock on my report and left to roam the scene for a
|
|
little while, to stretch my legs as it were. All around me, cyber-ruins
|
|
pulsed dimly and system kids built newer and flashier ways to tell you
|
|
what time it was. 16:52/081396 said the most eye-catching display; it
|
|
repeated the time and date, like an advertising sign, in hexadecimal and
|
|
Japanese.
|
|
|
|
Jesus, I thought suddenly. Tomorrow would be seven months to the
|
|
day since the Collapse. How can a place change so much in seven months?
|
|
|
|
I punched into a local system, Z-Slash Trader, for my mail. Three
|
|
pieces popped up; one was an automatically generated reminder from BTN
|
|
concerning my deadline, and another was a stodgy data catalog for some
|
|
old line of compressionware that everyone knew was an intelligence worm
|
|
for state law enforcement. The third piece made me pause. No header,
|
|
no tags, no system ID. Just raw text in the format of organized system
|
|
mail. It said:
|
|
|
|
MAHOGANY OMEGA LATERAL HUNGRY SAMIEL NOIZMONGERS SEAGREEN PIPES
|
|
SEVERED
|
|
PERIWINKLE BITTERSWEET OMEGA LAUNDRY HICCUP PLUSH WONDER
|
|
|
|
|
|
I frowned at the message as if it were an Escher drawing. If it
|
|
was some kind of junk mail, an advertisement for something, it wasn't
|
|
coming across. It could be a gang print of some kind; local system
|
|
gangs had been known to drop confusing mail in people's boxes as a lark.
|
|
But the lack of any tags, of any signature proclaiming its maker, was
|
|
decidedly non-gang.
|
|
|
|
The only word I recognized as significant was "omega", which
|
|
probably meant omegaModem, the transfer protocol that blew ZModem out of
|
|
the water and became the local standard literally overnight. It also
|
|
happened to be self-destructive over a gradual period of time, tethering
|
|
users to periodic updates. A couple of the other words sounded vaguely
|
|
familiar, like elements of a dream weeks old, but after staring at it a
|
|
full minute with no further recognition, I decided to save it for later.
|
|
|
|
After spending about three hours wandering the Scene, catching new
|
|
files, reading new graffiti and maintaining contacts, I tried to finish
|
|
my report, which was ostensibly a morphography of the offline mail
|
|
programs of the last year, but ended up, like most of my contemporary
|
|
writing, as rambling nonsense. Net-heads ate it up, particularly the
|
|
drug culture themes of the mail reader articles. Offline mail readers
|
|
began as a hyped and revolutionary way for users to spend less time
|
|
grounded in the Scene and more time in reality, but before long, it
|
|
became clear that all a mail reader really did was to trap the user in
|
|
the Scene even while he or she was standing in reality. The readers had
|
|
spawned a culture of mail addicts who kept a continual link with their
|
|
sites, calling six or seven times a day to get their packet fix. The
|
|
new thing in mail circles was retro-packing: constantly resetting the
|
|
conference pointers so that the system would always deliver new mail. It
|
|
didn't matter that the mail was old, used, and quite unhealthy; for mail
|
|
junkies, it was just another fix.
|
|
|
|
I sighed to myself as I wrote two more paragraphs. I had done a
|
|
lot of mail a few years ago, and even enjoyed it, back before The Matrix
|
|
collapsed, but when I became a serious BTN employee, I had to quit. Now
|
|
I only did mail when I had to, just enough to keep me going. I had
|
|
friends who did mail all the time, and there was never any thought of
|
|
doing anything about it. They were legal adults. Besides, it was
|
|
better than the door-fiends who spent their days and nights plugged into
|
|
Esterian Conquest. Those guys were *completely* gone.
|
|
|
|
I couldn't finish the article. My thoughts kept drifting back to
|
|
the cryptic message I had received. Hell with the report, I thought to
|
|
myself - the BTN computer wouldn't notice if I was a little late with
|
|
it; I'd just use an intrusion clock and set my official deadline ahead
|
|
by a few days. That never would have worked with Mark, I thought to
|
|
myself wryly. He never should have turned the thing over to a system.
|
|
|
|
In the meantime, I decided to call Birdie.
|
|
|
|
Birdie was the best source an infohound could want. He/it was a
|
|
floating data structure whom I had run into, quite by accident, a couple
|
|
of years ago. Whether Birdie was a powerful AI or simply controlled by
|
|
somebody who got around amazingly well, I didn't know, and didn't care
|
|
either, too much. He was a cybertectic chameleon, shadowy and
|
|
self-disguising; sometimes he'd pop up as an inconspicuous private
|
|
conference on one BBS, and be on another system the next day as an extra
|
|
hidden node. Supposedly he'd even floated for a short while, some years
|
|
ago, as one of the Matrix's USA Today doors. One thing was always
|
|
consistent - you didn't actually seek out and find Birdie. He found
|
|
you.
|
|
|
|
We'd worked out a kind of code, some time ago, in case I ever
|
|
needed his help. I logged onto what was left of the Bus System, still
|
|
running (barely) after all these years, and left a private message to an
|
|
imaginary user named Rita Smith, ostensibly for the purpose of a
|
|
romantic proposition. The more lurid the details in the fake message
|
|
were, the faster Birdie seemed to call back. I made it good.
|
|
|
|
The call came seventeen minutes later, nearly a record. The data
|
|
in it instructed me to log into a minor WWIV system out in the suburbs
|
|
somewhere. Minor was right - WWIV was nearly unheard of for years,
|
|
especially in the innerscene. Besides, I knew the system. It had a
|
|
user log of six people, and was part of a file-running ring that
|
|
distributed homemade game doors and system mods to the south Atlantic
|
|
coast. I'm sure it spooked the sysop whenever he saw me poking around,
|
|
which was rare, but somehow, my account still existed.
|
|
|
|
Such a system would make it too dangerous for Birdie to hide the
|
|
file section, so I picked the most obvious place, the spot in the board
|
|
which was least likely to ever be used: the mail door. Bingo.
|
|
|
|
BIRMINGHAM
|
|
INFORMATION
|
|
RETRIEVAL
|
|
DOOR
|
|
|
|
GREETINGS
|
|
GOT YOUR MESSAGE
|
|
FEELING IMAGINATIVE TODAY ARE WE
|
|
|
|
Up your bypass, I replied. I told him about the message, and
|
|
zapped him a copy of it. What do you think?
|
|
|
|
OMEGA IS PROBABLY OMEGAMODEM UNLESS DELIBERATE MISDIRECTION
|
|
INVOLVED
|
|
|
|
No kidding. Anything else?
|
|
|
|
SEVERAL KEYWORDS CORRELATE
|
|
MAHOGANY SEAGREEN PERIWINKLE BITTERSWEET
|
|
DESIGNATIONS OF INDIVIDUAL CRAYOLA CRAYONS
|
|
|
|
Hmmm. Might be something, might be nothing. What else?
|
|
|
|
NOIZMONGERS IS NEW GANG
|
|
FORMED FROM ASHES OF OLD AMIGA TERROPIRATES
|
|
RECORD PRETTY CLEAN SO FAR
|
|
NOTHING THEIR MOTHERS COULDN'T BAIL THEM OUT OF
|
|
|
|
Must have been pretty damn new, I thought. In Birmingham, a cyber
|
|
gang generally didn't consider itself the real item until its members
|
|
had slashed self-promotion graffiti across the face of every system in
|
|
town.
|
|
|
|
STAND BY
|
|
NEW DATA BEING PROCESSED
|
|
|
|
I jumped a bit. Birdie was quick enough that he rarely needed time
|
|
to process anything. He must be onto something, I thought. He was
|
|
silent for a full minute before beginning again.
|
|
|
|
HICCUP
|
|
PLUSH
|
|
WONDER
|
|
LAST THREE WORDS IN MESSAGE
|
|
|
|
Yeah? So what?
|
|
|
|
SAME THREE WORDS ENTERED IN FINAL MESSAGE ENTRY ON MATRIX
|
|
EIGHT THIRTY-SEVEN A.M.
|
|
JANUARY FOURTEENTH
|
|
NINETEEN NINETY-SIX
|
|
|
|
He paused for emphasis.
|
|
|
|
SEVENTEEN SECONDS BEFORE COLLAPSE
|
|
|
|
I shuddered. This was getting creepier all the time. I knew from
|
|
the start that it was going to be a strange one, but I had no idea it
|
|
was connected with the Matrix.
|
|
|
|
What was the conference, I asked. Who sent it? Was it online or
|
|
part of a packet?
|
|
|
|
UNKNOWN
|
|
|
|
I was silent again. Birdie must have snatched the reference out of
|
|
some data shrapnel he had lying around since the Collapse; stuff was
|
|
probably dustier than a 3.5" disk.
|
|
|
|
I started thinking about the Collapse again, how it had changed the
|
|
city. How it had changed everything.
|
|
|
|
By the end of 1995, Birmingham was the fifth largest data center in
|
|
the country. The number of local systems had just topped 250, and at
|
|
least a third of those were working off CD-ROM drives, with a dozen
|
|
nodes or more. It was a prosperous time.
|
|
|
|
I was working for BTN, of course. The Maisels had picked up and
|
|
left town under mysterious circumstances in mid-'94; no one knew where
|
|
they went. It's possible Mark saw something coming, something he didn't
|
|
like. The Scene was becoming more industrialized, bustling with life
|
|
and activity, but at the same time, it was also moving away from the
|
|
leisurely pastime of years past and transforming into something new,
|
|
something strangely impersonal and automated. Something big. So Maisel
|
|
turned BTN over to a self-sufficient data factory which needed no human
|
|
involvement to edit and publish. It didn't matter much, by that point;
|
|
systems without sysops were already becoming all the rage.
|
|
|
|
No one denied that the Matrix was virtually single-handedly
|
|
responsible for the Birmingham boom. It was a towering monolith, a
|
|
skyscraper of a system amid a cybercity full of other smaller
|
|
structures. It was the single biggest data station in the Southeast and
|
|
had been for some time. Towards the end, it was virtually a city unto
|
|
itself. Other systems were built around it by enterprising kids as
|
|
entry points and waystations; illicit groups of hackers and file pushers
|
|
made their nests inside the Matrix's mighty shelves of data, only to be
|
|
swept out in a matter of days by the system's ever-vigilant (and
|
|
expensive) security force.
|
|
|
|
Finally, on a cold sunny morning in January of '96, the Matrix
|
|
fell.
|
|
|
|
It was the work of a net bomb, expertly timed and tuned.
|
|
|
|
The resulting destruction of data was felt on systems for miles
|
|
around, as operators of boards that weren't even hit by the explosion
|
|
reported transmission gaps and file dropouts. The sheer force of the
|
|
shockwave surged outward and along the interstate lines of dozen
|
|
different networks; sites in Washington, Dallas, Atlanta, Detroit and
|
|
Chicago suffered peripheral damage caused by the outer ripples of the
|
|
blast's devastating inertia.
|
|
|
|
The Matrix itself was completely obliterated, leaving only a
|
|
smoldering ruin of garbled ANSI fragments and useless, burnt circuitry.
|
|
Nine other major systems announced retirement due to data loss on the
|
|
spot; countless others faded away without anyone realizing they'd been
|
|
there. In a matter of weeks, the Scene was changed from the para-urban
|
|
sprawl it had been into a hopelessly depressing modem ghetto, with
|
|
illegal data trading and other vice rising to the surface like scum in
|
|
an old glass of water, now that the Matrix could no longer run things.
|
|
|
|
It was the last time I saw Dean.
|
|
|
|
I'm still not sure why he came back, that one final time. It had
|
|
only been about eighteen months since he'd given up his dead-end career
|
|
as an environmental engineer and tried his hand at cleaning up a
|
|
different sort of environment, the data-choked ecology of the
|
|
cyberscenes. The change of jobs didn't seem to improve Dean's life any,
|
|
but at least the work seemed to suit his temperament now.
|
|
|
|
He petitioned for - and got - the assignment he wanted: to return
|
|
to Birmingham and investigate the Matrix's collapse. "Christ, Scott,"
|
|
he told me upon arriving, "can't you people keep a lid on your own
|
|
garbage?" He sounded despondent at having to come back to town, but I
|
|
knew that under other circumstances, he'd be quite enjoying himself. He
|
|
spent two weeks in town - had to stay in a hotel, of course, complaining
|
|
about it all the while - and finally arrived at the official conclusion
|
|
that the Matrix had in fact self-destructed because there was nothing
|
|
that seemed to link it to the outside.
|
|
|
|
"Ain't no traceables in that bad boy," he said. Dean seemed to be
|
|
of the opinion that the Matrix was experimenting with some new forms of
|
|
data warfare for the purpose of combatting the gangs or maybe some other
|
|
darker, more hidden agenda, and that it had simply, literally, blown up
|
|
in their faces. He seemed confident that the bomb program - "nukeware",
|
|
he called it - was detonated from the inside. It sure made HIS job
|
|
easier; he could fill out a two-page report and return to D.C. for a new
|
|
assignment. No messy loose ends.
|
|
|
|
And that left me, stuck in this shadow of a town, rambling away
|
|
into the void the way old-time foreign correspondents used to do. Only
|
|
now it looked as if there was a real story. It was beginning to look
|
|
like there was more to the Matrix's collapse than had been officially
|
|
reported.
|
|
|
|
Roused from my reverie a soft clicking noise, I noticed that Birdie
|
|
had left me, silently and without interruption. I didn't mind. Likely,
|
|
he had already told me as much as he could. Probably went off to some
|
|
old PCBoard dinosaur filebase to hide as a .GIF directory.
|
|
|
|
What next? I pored over the message again. I supposed that I
|
|
could try tracking down the Noizmongers, but my gang connections weren't
|
|
what they once were, and I'd be just as likely to get a credit strip for
|
|
my trouble if I knocked on the wrong doors. That had nearly happened to
|
|
me once before, when I was doing an expose' on the local Windows
|
|
underground; I'd come back home to find my Visa limit slashed and an MCI
|
|
pink note pinned threateningly to my bank accounts. Eric Hunt called
|
|
the next day to apologize.
|
|
|
|
Besides, I didn't know where to look. If this was a new gang, they
|
|
were being pretty coy about their debut. No, the only lead I had, if
|
|
you could call it that, was a corpse. I had to visit what was left of
|
|
the Matrix.
|
|
|
|
Not that there was anything left, just a burnt-out square of
|
|
blue-white jagged ruins in the middle of the Scene. People had already
|
|
combed through it a million times since the collapse, I knew; still, it
|
|
was the only option left.
|
|
|
|
When I approached the area upon where the Matrix had once set, a
|
|
restriction field flashed across my path. Transmission time slowed
|
|
down, meaning there was a crowd of users accessing the vicinity. Stopped
|
|
from going further, I popped into one of the outerlying boards. to see
|
|
if I could get some answers. It was a heavily modified Tenth Planet
|
|
set-up with layers of clumsily hung meta-ASCII in the intro to make it
|
|
look like an old Virtual system. The sysop's name was Doctor Plasma; he
|
|
was seventeen years old and like everyone else, had entirely too much
|
|
time on his hands these days. He sprang into sight like cardboard tied
|
|
with a rubber band, as soon as I came in.
|
|
|
|
>>What's going on here, I asked him.
|
|
<<big stuff going down. turf battle between lampreys and merc
|
|
rangers... k-net came in a little while ago to cut the area
|
|
off..
|
|
>>KNet? Since when does a network come in here and run things?
|
|
<<beats da fa outta me, man... they shut palomino's place down a few
|
|
mins. before you got here... i'm thinkin of cutting off before
|
|
they try pullin that shi with me
|
|
|
|
Privately, I didn't think Plasma had anything to worry about.
|
|
Palomino's system, just down the way, had strong gang ties and was
|
|
practically run at times by the Merculoid Rangers. Plasma's board on
|
|
the other hand had no such connection except for a snotty young former
|
|
co-sysop I ran into once, who did some part-time work for the defunct
|
|
ChristRapers a while back and hadn't been seen in a year. Still, times
|
|
were such that paranoia was a virtue if you ran a system in the Scene.
|
|
|
|
The network connection puzzled me, though; why KNet thought it
|
|
necessary, let alone appropriate, to run data fields all the way from
|
|
Missouri into Birmingham, was inexplicable. In fact, the whole
|
|
situation was downright bizarre. I'd been witness to gang skirmishes
|
|
before - mostly a lot of hit-and-run style slash files designed to
|
|
actively and unabashedly do serious disk damage, flying back and forth -
|
|
but having them fight over the site of the Matrix's demise was a bit of
|
|
a morbid coincidence. Before leaving the area, I asked Plasma one last
|
|
question.
|
|
|
|
>>Ever hear of a new bunch called the Noizmongers?
|
|
|
|
There was a brief and somewhat amused pause.
|
|
|
|
<<sure thing but they arent new... theyre one of the old groups,
|
|
from before the scene. phrackers who used to hang out around
|
|
apples and commodores back in the early 80s
|
|
|
|
My heart skipped a beat.
|
|
|
|
>>You're sure about that?
|
|
<<no shi, man... my uncle was one of em. they lasted about a week
|
|
before one of em was thrown in jail for b&e some guys trailer
|
|
|
|
I almost had to laugh at the kid's smarmy nostalgia trip. There were no
|
|
such things as cybergangs before the Scene; any groups that got made
|
|
were two-bit game-duping affairs by guys that played local league
|
|
baseball on Saturdays and went to midnight matinees. Then one day,
|
|
everyone looked around and realized that all the games had already been
|
|
played; all the good codes had already been used and all the movies
|
|
sucked. The scene became the Scene.
|
|
|
|
I thanked Plasma and returned to base, so that I could get another
|
|
look at the message.
|
|
|
|
Pieces of the puzzle swirled around in my head, but refused to lock
|
|
with one another. Birdie had deliberately misled me, but why? What
|
|
connection did the fall of the Matrix have to do with some wet-nosed
|
|
group of hacker punks fifteen years gone, or with me for that matter? On
|
|
a hunch, I pulled out an old box of disks which hadn't been opened in
|
|
over a year. I tried to find the earliest issue of BTN I could, and
|
|
settled on Number 4 without looking further. It wasn't quite as old as
|
|
what I was looking for, I guessed, but perhaps it would do.
|
|
|
|
I read through the thing without managing to grimace at the
|
|
antiquity of it all. Finally I got to the end, to the BBS list. I was
|
|
about to eject the thing when something in the list caught my attention
|
|
and held it.
|
|
|
|
Suddenly I knew the answer. It was incredible, unthinkable - yet
|
|
it was obviously the solution. It had to be.
|
|
|
|
Maintaining my gaze at the list, I punched in the last number on
|
|
the page: 996-5696.
|
|
|
|
It was perfect. Omega. Alpha and omega. The first and the last.
|
|
A and Z.
|
|
|
|
Z.
|
|
|
|
I made connection, and wandered in, through the dark musty
|
|
pathways.
|
|
|
|
/ZIGGY? MR. POWERS? HELLO?
|
|
|
|
/ZIGGY, I KNOW IT'S YOU! I KNOW YOU'RE BEHIND IT ALL
|
|
|
|
|
|
Then a small stereo click and an ANSI chuckle.
|
|
|
|
*Took you long enough, kid.
|
|
|
|
The personna of Steve Powers, the erstwhile construct known as Ziggy, or
|
|
perhaps a hybrid thereof, stepped out and spoke.
|
|
|
|
*What do you think? Have I made a mess of things or what?
|
|
|
|
/WHY DID YOU DO IT? *HOW* DID YOU DO IT? HOW DID YOU DESTROY THE
|
|
MATRIX?
|
|
/
|
|
|
|
*Ignorance is power, or haven't you heard? Other people's
|
|
ignorance... ignorance of ME.
|
|
|
|
/I DON'T UNDERSTAND...
|
|
|
|
*Yes you do! For years and years I ran a system, and it was a damn
|
|
good one too. It didn't need any fancy doors or mailreaders.... and
|
|
people abandoned me simply because I didn't keep up with the latest
|
|
fashion in software.
|
|
|
|
/SO YOU HIT THE MATRIX OUT OF JEALOUSY?
|
|
|
|
*No, no - by that time I was far out of my jealous stage. By that
|
|
time I had accepted my fate. By that time - well, let's say that I
|
|
managed to make a few mods on my own. In my spare time.
|
|
|
|
/THE BOMB -
|
|
|
|
*That's right, whiz kid. The Matrix - what a joke. It had
|
|
all that new-fangled security designed to stop this week's weapon, but
|
|
it didn't know Unix from squat. I practically walked in and out without
|
|
a peep. And you want to know why?
|
|
|
|
*Because I was bored. Because this thing you call the Scene had
|
|
gotten dull for me - once again. Because I'm hooked into this damn
|
|
machine and didn't know how to do anything else!
|
|
|
|
*I was a part of the original BBS scene, back when there were only a
|
|
half-dozen boards in town. Rawlins, Maisel, that bunch - they were
|
|
jealous of ME. And while they crippled themselves by strapping
|
|
themselves to networks and suffocated their message bases with offline
|
|
packet drivel, I watched, and waited. And built.
|
|
|
|
*It was I who kept punks like the Noizmongers out of trouble. It was
|
|
I who came up with omegaModem and shook up everybody's lives.
|
|
Virtually instantaneous file transfer - if you didn't mind a few side
|
|
effects. And remember the Project conference on Crunchy Frog? That was
|
|
Maisel's doing; he figured out what I was up to, and had the idea that
|
|
his little secret task force could shut me down. It took me a while to
|
|
deal with him, but eventually... no more problem.
|
|
|
|
/WHAT ABOUT THE MAIL I GOT IN MY BOX?
|
|
|
|
*Oh, that.
|
|
|
|
There was a pause, almost wistful.
|
|
|
|
*Well son, the state I'm in these days - it isn't all peaches.
|
|
Every now and then, I lose track of my intelligence paths, and a little
|
|
too much juice gets out to one of the subroutines. It breaks off and
|
|
gets a mind of its own, so to speak. That message in your mailbox was a
|
|
piece of me - hobbling and distorted, sure, but it came from me. Tried
|
|
to warn you in the only way it knew how, I guess. Your infodoor - the
|
|
one you call Birdie - that's another piece of me, broken off from way
|
|
back.
|
|
|
|
/BUT WHY ME?
|
|
|
|
*Why not you? Why not anyone? Look, when you've evolved as far
|
|
along as I have, you get to the point where even you don't know why you
|
|
do all the things you do. I expect I may even take a walk outside
|
|
today. Spook the neighbors a little.
|
|
|
|
*Look, kid - both you and I know that nothing's going to come of
|
|
this. Do yourself a favor. Take a vacation; see a little of the world.
|
|
The real world.
|
|
|
|
With that, he cut the connection.
|
|
|
|
The next day, I set my intrusion clock to run on a daily agenda, so
|
|
that my BTN deadline would stretch on infinitely into the future and
|
|
never be met.
|
|
|
|
Chris Mohney called me up to tell me that he was coming back into
|
|
town to put up a straight BBS - no messing around, no under-the-counter
|
|
stuff. It wouldn't be The Matrix, but it would be a start.
|
|
|
|
KNet publicly revealed plans to take over a couple of the larger
|
|
systems in town as sites, hence their interest in what happens out in
|
|
the Scene. Progess, I suppose.
|
|
|
|
Somewhere, there was a man, whose occupation had started out as a
|
|
hobby, and whom somewhere along the line was ignored. He was spending
|
|
his days proving everyone wrong about everything that mattered, and
|
|
mercifully let the world spin on, unaware of his work... a secret which
|
|
only I shared.
|
|
|
|
As for me, I shut the machine off and went to the movies for the
|
|
rest of the day.
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Grocking the Gestalt
|
|
by Scott Pletcher
|
|
|
|
"Whether you decide to go to college, enlist in the military, or
|
|
enter a skilled trade, strive to be the best you can be."
|
|
|
|
Ah...I remember it all too well. It seems like yesterday. <Well,
|
|
o.k...it WAS practically yesterday.> My high school principal was like
|
|
all other high school principals. They're all the same. Same
|
|
motivational speel. Same hair cut. Same clothes. Kinda makes you want
|
|
to say, "Hey cool cat, those are some -keen-<wink> duds, Mr.
|
|
<Principal's Name Here>!" and hope that he doesn't say "Why thank you,
|
|
student." I wonder if he is the best principal he can be. Probably
|
|
not.
|
|
|
|
With those words, Mr. Gary Quick dismissed the 1992 graduating
|
|
class of Gardendale High School. Immediately, people who never spoke to
|
|
you, except to bum a pen, are blubbering all over saying how much
|
|
they'll miss you. Yeah...right. They'll miss me about as much as I'd
|
|
miss that strange rash in my genital area. Well, I'm now a high school
|
|
graduate. Nowadays, high school graduates have five basic avenues of
|
|
opportunity.
|
|
|
|
1) Enter a skilled trade. Most people who take this avenue have
|
|
some form of vocational training. Many are educated by taking
|
|
vocational courses. This explains why three-quarters of all
|
|
malcontents in your class disappeared during your sophomore
|
|
year. They were experiencing a phenomena known as shop class.
|
|
Consequently, they will probably go to work this summer making
|
|
$20+ an hour. The money isn't bad as long as you don't mind
|
|
working like a Geritol vendor at an AARP convention.
|
|
|
|
2) Enlist in a Military branch. During your senior year, the Armed
|
|
Forces suddenly become immensely concerned about your future.
|
|
They harass (for lack of a better word) you to no avail via
|
|
mail, phone calls, and unsolicited front-door visits. Sorta
|
|
makes you wish you had actually gotten your mother to sign that
|
|
form excusing you from taking that military vocation test in
|
|
10th grade. This post-graduation route is not all that bad.
|
|
After all, you get free lodging, clothes, food, and they pay you
|
|
too. In exchange, you must give them your hair and four to six
|
|
years of your life.
|
|
|
|
3) Work full-time at Denny's. It doesn't necessarily have to be
|
|
Denny's to qualify. Krystal's, the Phillips 66 Quicky-Mart or
|
|
just about any place middle-aged bleached-blonde chain-smoking
|
|
women in red Firebirds frequent will suffice. This one has
|
|
always befuddled me. Sure, this is kosher to get money for
|
|
college or technical school, but as a profession? Well, I guess
|
|
someone has to do it. Huh?...oh, yes. I'll have the Grand Slam
|
|
breakfast and a large orange juice. Thanks.
|
|
|
|
4) Go to college. This concept is fairly simple. You pay a
|
|
college thousands of dollars to use their faculty and facilities
|
|
to "learn". After about four or five years of this, they hand
|
|
you a piece of paper called a diploma. Supposedly, you are now
|
|
entitled to a steady, well-paying job were you will use your
|
|
knowledge to improve/worsen the human condition--or so they
|
|
say......
|
|
I wonder if Denny's is hiring.
|
|
|
|
5) Become governor of Alabama. Hey, if Guy did it, so can I!
|
|
"To hell with state ethics laws!" That's what I always say.
|
|
|
|
Eighth grade. That age-old question presses like a can of Spam on
|
|
your frontal lobe..."What shall I do with my pathetic existence?" Well,
|
|
this is what I did. At the end of eighth grade after months of
|
|
consideration and conferring with my loving father ("Damn it boy, you
|
|
ARE going to college!"), I decided to register for all college-prep
|
|
courses.
|
|
|
|
In high school, I was christened the Official School Computer Guru.
|
|
Too many times, I would be summonsed to the office to fix their
|
|
"network" of two dumb terminals, similar to those seen on those outdated
|
|
PBS specials, linked to a 286. It's amazing how plugging-in some
|
|
coaxial cable can make you a deity to the office ladies. I hated this.
|
|
Do you know how embarrassing it is when office ladies ask you computer
|
|
questions when your scarfin' with your best buds at lunch?! I guess
|
|
this is one reason I have chosen to pursue Computer Engineering...to
|
|
make computers serviceable to office ladies so some poor high school
|
|
shmuck wouldn't have to be tormented as I was. Anyhow, I was popular.
|
|
"Hey Scott, can you change my F in Government to a B on that computer in
|
|
the office? Ten bucks?"--that's popularity, isn't it?
|
|
|
|
The University of Miami, Auburn and the University of Alabama in
|
|
Huntsville were the finalists for college.
|
|
|
|
Miami...expensive($18,000/year)...likely to be mortally wounded..nah.
|
|
Auburn..................................nope.
|
|
Huntsville....Cray.....Cray?......CRAY!............well, o.k.
|
|
|
|
Ok, I admit it. The Cray made me do it! The housing at UAH is
|
|
pretty kosher too. It's like this. You live in a 4-bedroom two bath
|
|
apartment. Each person get's his own bedroom, so you don't have to deal
|
|
with some guy's dirty underwear/turbans, snoring, or constant
|
|
female-felching. It also works in reverse. You can tack your socks up
|
|
on the bulletin board, and pick you nose and wipe it on the wall if you
|
|
want. Heck! You can even grow corn in your room for all I care.
|
|
Yep...I think I'm going to like college...
|
|
|
|
Look for monthly updates on "Scott Goes to College"
|
|
(Geez...sounds like the title of a cheap porno) in future issues of BTN.
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Bulletin Board Spotlight
|
|
Questions
|
|
|
|
1) Name of the BBS:
|
|
Southern Stallion
|
|
[Formerly Amiga Alliance II --EPH]
|
|
|
|
2) Name of the sysop:
|
|
Richard Foshee
|
|
|
|
3) BBS software used:
|
|
PCBoard 14.5A
|
|
|
|
4) How long have you been sysoping:
|
|
Seven Years
|
|
|
|
5) Are you a subscription only / completely free / hybrid of the
|
|
two BBS?
|
|
COMPLETELY Free
|
|
|
|
6) How many incoming phone lines and approximate disk space? Do
|
|
you support high speed modems? If so, what type(s)?
|
|
Single line, 300 Meg of disk space, and a ZyXEL 14400 V.32bis modem
|
|
|
|
7) Is your BBS primarily a files BBS, primarily a message based
|
|
BBS, or a combination of the two?
|
|
Combination of messages and files
|
|
|
|
8) If you've sysop'd more than just this BBS, briefly list previous
|
|
endeavors and their life spans.
|
|
Used to be CoSysop of Apple Valley (AKA Pinson Valley),
|
|
The Connection, and current CoSysop on Joker's Castle.
|
|
|
|
9) What made you decide to take the masochistic plunge and become a
|
|
sysop:
|
|
I needed a hobby, besides I enjoy meeting people and making new
|
|
friends. And I *LOVE* hard drive crashes!
|
|
|
|
10) What is the general 'thrust' or area of specialty for your BBS:
|
|
Thrust is a fitting word, the board is mainly dedicated to the Gay
|
|
community but the wider scope is adult entertainment both gay and
|
|
straight.
|
|
|
|
[Southern Stallion is also an excellent place for the general
|
|
public to go to for information regarding AIDS and AIDS
|
|
treatment. --EPH]
|
|
|
|
11) (optional) What is your regular job/career to support this
|
|
leeching hobby of sysoping?
|
|
I manage a medical supply warehouse
|
|
|
|
12) What are your plans for the coming year?
|
|
I plan to upgrade the size of the hard drive on the system,
|
|
and purchasing a new HST Dual Standard
|
|
modem. I'm also looking into carrying a national net
|
|
called GayCom.
|
|
|
|
13) Where would you like your BBS to go over the next 5 years?
|
|
I'm pretty comfortable with it as it is, just a group of
|
|
people having fun.
|
|
|
|
14) What do you feel the highlights of your BBS are?
|
|
If I had to pick one thing I'd have to say the vast selection
|
|
of .GIF files we have available.
|
|
|
|
15) What is your personal vision of the 'ideal user?'
|
|
Someone that enjoys getting involved in conversations and making
|
|
friends. And someone that's not afraid to ask questions if they
|
|
don't know something.
|
|
|
|
16) What is the thing you've enjoyed most about providing your BBS?
|
|
I've managed to meet all sorts of people (Some of them scary!),
|
|
but meeting people is the reason I started the thing after all..
|
|
|
|
17) What is the thing you've enjoyed least about providing your BBS?
|
|
Nothing really about the BBS, but the hardware problems that
|
|
crop up on occasion are my BIGGEST headache.
|
|
|
|
18) What is the funniest story you can tell about your BBS and/or your
|
|
users?
|
|
If BTN were an adult oriented newsletter, I could tell ya,
|
|
but I don't think I want to get BTN in trouble with THAT story!
|
|
|
|
Here's a space to write a paragraph or two to cover any
|
|
points/details/questions I missed, yet you feel should be addressed.
|
|
|
|
The board is a great place for people that just like to get
|
|
together and talk or maybe read some of the messages on the
|
|
ThrobNet network, or to make new friends. And we're pretty open
|
|
minded about it, we do allow heterosexuals also <<GRIN>>......
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
untitled
|
|
by The Bishop
|
|
|
|
It's been too long. I haven't slept in over 18 hours. I need it.
|
|
It calls to me, but I am unable to reply. It steals its way into my
|
|
head and implants the desire, but I am unable to muster the resources. I
|
|
know I will get it somehow. I must. It is what I seek. It is an oasis
|
|
in my desert of consciousness. I am merely a child -- a child so
|
|
innocent. Holding out my hand as if to grab something - anything. But
|
|
my hand comes back empty. I clench my fists to show my anger but my
|
|
strength has long since left my body. I look around. Things are not the
|
|
same as they were. Everything has taken on a hazy look, as though I
|
|
were gazing across a deep valley after a long rain.
|
|
|
|
I knew it once. There was a time when I could conjure it up almost
|
|
at will. Now, my abilities have diminished to the point where I can
|
|
only remember it and what it felt like. I knew it once. It evades me.
|
|
Like two children playing in a meadow, it runs away from me. I give
|
|
chase, but it is too quick. It is too elusive. I think that I shall
|
|
never see it again. But when my spirits reach their lowest, it returns
|
|
- begging me to play that insane game with it. It is the hunted, I am
|
|
the hunter. It is my prey, I must capture it.
|
|
|
|
I have been put into a game where the rules are made by my opponent
|
|
- not a person, not an animal, yet it is an entity. I talk with it
|
|
often. It speaks as though we will soon be one, but when I turn to
|
|
look, it fades away, like a vapor trail in the heavens. It taunts me.
|
|
It taunts me! It makes promises to me - promises that it will not keep.
|
|
Things that it knows that I want - I need - to survive. It is the host,
|
|
I am the parasite. I must feed off it in order to live, but it does not
|
|
give me enough. It mocks me! My need for it is its sole purpose for
|
|
resisting. I try to ask it why, but its reply does not come back. I as
|
|
again, hoping that my actions shall not be made in vain. Again, only
|
|
silence greets me.
|
|
|
|
It has taken cover in the shadows in which I am afraid to dwell. It
|
|
calls me from beyond my boundaries. It is free to roam - I am the
|
|
caged. It tortures me! It knows my lust - it has been my lover. A
|
|
thousand times I have known what it is to be one with it, yet it chooses
|
|
to leave me. I must wait until the night falls to meet this creature. I
|
|
have named it - I shall call it 'Vampyr', for it disappears with the sun
|
|
and returns with the night.
|
|
|
|
A light breeze sweeps away the dead leaves that have fallen from the
|
|
trees. The leaves are my life - both shall end and not return. I think
|
|
that I shall welcome whatever lays claim to my soul - be it good or bad,
|
|
it will be transferred to that which is not myself. It shall assume the
|
|
responsibility - I have competed my task. I must move on - I MUST! It
|
|
is the way of things, it is not my place to dispute it. I am pushing
|
|
the boundaries - I am exploring that which has been given to me. I
|
|
imagine that I am away - far away - from where I am. I am the emperor.
|
|
My kingdom is nothing more than my mind.
|
|
|
|
I must escape from its control. It tells me what to do - I am its
|
|
unwilling servant. I must find some way to capture it - to enslave it -
|
|
to make it mine. My emancipation must be quick, it must not know that I
|
|
am gone. I shall know soon, what is to come - what has passed. I shall
|
|
continue my quest until I can do so no longer, until my journey becomes
|
|
that which once was - until I am a distant memory.
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
__
|
|
/ / The Amiga Connection
|
|
/ /
|
|
/ / Written By - Jeff Vaughn
|
|
__ / /
|
|
\ \/ / Transmitted originally from Labyrinth BBS
|
|
\ /
|
|
\/ (205) 681-0002
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hello again. Jeff here. About four months ago, I bought an Amiga
|
|
500. I'll be 100% honest. I was thoroughly impressed. The machine I
|
|
bought had an internal 1 megabyte of RAM, 880k floppy, and other
|
|
impressive features. The system has built-in VGA, HIGH stereo quality
|
|
sound, voice synthesizer, and a windowing system years ahead of the IBM
|
|
compatible series.
|
|
|
|
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't intend this to be a "IBM is rank
|
|
and Amiga rulez!" article. Nope, that's not it. I just put up a bulletin
|
|
board system for Amiga people and I figured i'd write this little
|
|
article for all our followers to see. God, that sounds typical, doesn't
|
|
it? "Followers". I know Amiga users are smug, very arrogant. Not all of
|
|
them, but i've met quite a few.
|
|
|
|
A lot of us have a good reason for acting like that. The Amiga is
|
|
an incredible machine for a very user-friendly price. A lot of go around
|
|
saying "The Amiga blows the IBM". It one BIG way, it does, the price.
|
|
The Amiga goes right now for $299.00. Of course, that's the basic set-up
|
|
(512k ram, 880 floppy, etc). You can add-on another 512k and 1 more
|
|
external drive for $109.00. The big problem is the additional stuff like
|
|
a hard-drive controller. That runs about $219.00 on the norm. The
|
|
problem is the majority of Amiga's buyers are European (corporations,
|
|
etc.) and Commodore has decided not to dive into a big promotion in
|
|
America when they know their big buyers are in Europe.
|
|
|
|
Commodore computers have several software and hardware items that
|
|
make the Amiga extremely compatible and user-friendly. There are several
|
|
companies that have developed software and hardware to make the Amiga
|
|
emulate the Macintosh & the IBM compatible. Unfortunately, they're
|
|
experimental & don't work 100%.
|
|
|
|
The games on the Amiga are incredible. Amiga has several games
|
|
converted from IBM compatible, but they have ventured to make several of
|
|
their own games. Some of them make you think the programmers were on an
|
|
acid trip at the time. I've read that Amiga is on the way to %100 IBM
|
|
compatibility. Hopefully, we can get up there in the big time with you
|
|
PC people.
|
|
|
|
Oh yeah, the BBS will TRY to deal with questions any of you Amiga
|
|
people might have about the system and it's functions. We are working on
|
|
files sections for the BBS. Amiga public domain is getting to be quite
|
|
impressive. There is also an on-line Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
|
|
campaign going on. The BBS will be featuring Amiga's incredible Sky-Pix
|
|
(Pictures for the BBS while you're on-line).
|
|
|
|
%100 Amiga BBS in Birmingham :
|
|
|
|
Labyrinth 681-0002 running C-Net Amiga v2.17
|
|
The Missing Link 853-1257 running C-Net Amiga v2.18
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
SIG's (Special Interest Groups), Computer Related
|
|
-------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
BEPCUG CCS
|
|
Birmingham East PC Users Group Commodore Club South
|
|
Jefferson Sate Jr. College Springville Road Library
|
|
Ruby Carson Hall, Rm 114 2nd & 4th Tuesday (C64/C128)
|
|
3rd Friday, 7-9 PM 3rd Monday (Amiga)
|
|
Paula Ballard 251-6058 (after 5PM) 7:30-10 PM
|
|
|
|
BCCC BIPUG
|
|
Birmingham Commodore Computer Club Birmingham IBM-PC Users Group
|
|
POB 59564 UAB Nutrition Science Blg
|
|
Birmingham, Al 35259 RM 535/541
|
|
UAB School of Education, Rm 153 1st Sunday (delayed one week
|
|
2nd and 4th Sundays, 2 PM if meeting is a holiday)
|
|
Rusty Hargett 854-5172 Marty Schulman 967-5883
|
|
|
|
BACE FAOUG
|
|
Birmingham Atari Computer First Alabama Osborne Users
|
|
Enthusiast Group
|
|
Vestavia Library, downstairs Homewood Library
|
|
2nd Monday, 7 PM 1st Saturday, 1PM
|
|
Benny Brown 822-5059 Ed Purquez 669-5200
|
|
|
|
CADUB BGS/CIG
|
|
CAD Users of Birmingham Birmingham Genealogical Society/
|
|
Homewood Library Computer Interest Group
|
|
3rd Tuesday, 6:30PM-8:30PM Birmingham Public Library
|
|
Bobby Benson 791-0426 3rd Floor Auditorium
|
|
3rd Sunday, 2:30 PM
|
|
Robert Matthews 631-9783 or
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Bone Yard BBS
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RAHSPCUG
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Ramsay Alternative High School PC Users Group
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Ramsay High School
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1800 13th Avenue South
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last Wednesday of each month (September-April)
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from 3:02-3:35
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Lee Nocella 581-5120
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SIG's, Non-Computer Related
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---------------------------
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BBC Birmingham Astronomy Club
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Blue Box Companions Subject: Astronomy
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Subject: Dr. Who Red Mountain Museum Annex
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Hoover Library 4th Tuesday, 7:30PM
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1st Saturday, 2PM-5PM
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If you belong to or know of a user group that is not listed,
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please let us know by sending E-Mail to Barry Bowden on
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The Matrix BBS.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Known BBS Numbers For The Birmingham Area
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NAME NUMBER BAUD RATES MODEM BBS SOFTWARE
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SUPPORTED TYPE
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129 ADAnet One Nodes 1-3 854-9074 1200-2400 PCBoard 14.5
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129 ADAnet One Node 4 854-5863 9600-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
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1 Alter-Ego BBS 925-5099 300-9600 USR HST PCBoard 14.5
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4(0 Arkham Asylum 853-7422 300-14400 USR DS VBBS 5.50
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( Asgard 663-9171 300-9600 V.32 WWIV 4.11
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Baudville Node 1 640-4593 300-2400 Major BBS 5.3
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Baudville Node 2 640-4639 300-2400 Major BBS 5.3
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Baudville Node 3 640-7243 300-2400 Major BBS 5.3
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Baudville Node 4 640-7286 300-2400 Major BBS 5.3
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13 Bus System 595-1627 300-2400 PCBoard 14.2
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17+ Byte Me! 979-BYTE! 2400-14400 USR HST WWIV 4.12
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CM(ee) BBS Node 1 655-4059 300-2400 Oracomm Plus
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CM(ee) BBS Node 2 655-4065 300-2400 Oracomm Plus
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Camelot 856-679 300-2400 Telegard 2.5
|
|
16 Channel 8250 Node 1 744-8546 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
|
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16 Channel 8250 Node 2 744-5166 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
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$ Christian Apologetic 808-0763 300-14400 V.32bis Wildcat! 3.00
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13_ Crunchy Frog Node 1 956-1755 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
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13_ Crunchy Frog Node 2 956-0073 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
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DataLynx 933-1974 300-9600 V.32 WWIV 4.21
|
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Deep Space 9 980-1089 300-2400 Wildcat!
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Disktop Publishing 854-1660 300-9600 V.32 Wildcat! 3.02
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Drawing Room 951-2391 300-2400 Wildcat! 3.02
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EcoBBS 933-2238 300-2400 WWIV 4.21
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|
Elysian Fields 620-0694 300-2400 Telegard 2.7
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|
-^ F/X BBS Node 1 823-5777 300-14400 USR DS PC Board 14.5
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-^ F/X BBS Node 2 822-4570 300-14400 V.32bis PC Board 14.5
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-^ F/X BBS Node 3 822-4526 300-14400 V.32bis PC Board 14.5
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12 Family Smorgas-Board 744-0943 300-2400 PCBoard 14.5
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Final Frontier 681-6148 300-2400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
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Genesis Online 4 Nodes 620-4144 300-2400 Major BBS 5.3
|
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Graphics Zone Node 1 870-5306 300-2400 MNP4 TBBS 2.1(16)
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Graphics Zone Node 2 870-5329 300-2400 MNP4 TBBS 2.1(16)
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Hacker's Corner 674-5449 1200-2400 MNP4 PCBoard 14.5
|
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1 Hard Disk 987-0794 300-9600 V.32bis PCBoard 14.5
|
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$* Hardeman's BBS 640-6436 1200-2400 Wildcat! 3.02
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Hoots With Owls 520-9540 300-2400 TriBBS 3.0
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2 I.S.A. BBS 995-6590 300-9600 USR HST Remote Access
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( Infinite Probability 791-0421 2400-9600 V.32 VBBS
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Intruder Enterprizes 969-0870 300-9600 V.32 VBBS 5.5
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2 Island 870-4685 2400-9600 V.32 Hermes 2.0
|
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13 Joker's Castle 664-5589 300-14400 USR DS PC Board 14.5
|
|
Killing Fields 780-8845 300-2400 WWIV 4.21
|
|
4( Kiriath Arba 681-8374 300-2400 WWIV 4.21
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Labrynth 681-0002 300-2400 CNetAmiga 2.17
|
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Lemon Grove 836-1184 300-12000 V.32bis Searchlight
|
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Lion & Unicorn 856-2464 300-9600 V.32 WWIV 4.21
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15 Little Kingdom Node 1 969-0007 300-9600 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
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15 Little Kingdom Node 2 969-0008 300-2400 MNP4 PCBoard 14.5
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1- Magnolia BBS 854-6407 300-14400 USR HST PCBoard 14.2
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# Medicine Man BBS 664-5662 300-14000 V.32bis GTPower 17.00
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|
29 MetaBoard 254-3344 300-14400 USR DS Opus
|
|
Missing Link 853-1257 300-2400 C-Net Amiga 2.18g
|
|
^&* Night Watch 841-2790 1200-2400 TriBBS 2.11
|
|
+ Nirvana 942-6702 300-2400 WWIV 4.21
|
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# Owlabama BBS 856-2521 300-2400 GTPower 17.00
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13_ Owl's Nest 680-0851 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
|
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^&* Party Line 856-1336 300-14000 V.32bis TriBBS 2.11
|
|
&* Playground 836-4200 300-2400 TriBBS 2.11
|
|
Pooh's Korner 980-8710 300-14400 USR DS Wildcat! 3.5
|
|
% Pro-Electric 980-8836 300-9600 V.32 Proline 2.065
|
|
# Safe Harbor Node 1 665-4332 300-2400 GTPower 17.00
|
|
# Safe Harbor Node 2 665-4355 300-14400 USR DS GTPower 17.00
|
|
1!_ Southern Stallion 631-0262 300-14400 V.32bis PCBoard 14.5
|
|
Sperry BBS 853-6144 300-2400 PCBoard 14.5
|
|
1 ST BBS 836-9311 300-2400 PCBoard 14.2
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+ Teasers 987-0122 300-2400 WWIV 4.20
|
|
2 The Bone Yard 631-6023 300-9600 USR HST PCBoard 14.5
|
|
The Castle 841-7618 300-2400 C-Base 2.0
|
|
The Den 933-8744 300-9600 USR HST ProLogon/ProDoor
|
|
1378-% The MATRIX Nodes 1-10 323-2016 300-2400 PCBoard 14.5
|
|
1378-% The MATRIX Nodes 11-14 323-6016 9600-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
|
|
1378-% The MATRIX Node 15 458-3449 9600-14400 V.32 PCBoard 14.5
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|
The Monster 967-4839 300-2400 Telegard 2.7
|
|
2 The Outer Limits 425-5871 1200-9600 USR HST Wildcat! 3.01
|
|
The Quiet Zone 833-2066 300-9600 V.32 ExpressNET
|
|
The Safety BBS 581-2866 300-2400 RBBS-PC
|
|
The Song Remains ... 995-0794 300-2400 VBBS
|
|
! The Wanderer 836-0603 300-2400 Wildcat! 3.00
|
|
( The Word 833-2831 300-2400 WWIV 4.12
|
|
Thy Master's Dungeon 940-2116 300-9600 V.32 TriBBS 2.11
|
|
! Torch Song 328-1517 300-2400 Wildcat 3.01
|
|
+ Wild Side 631-0184 300-1200 WWIV 4.20
|
|
Willie's DYM Node 1 979-1629 300-2400 Oracomm Plus
|
|
Willie's DYM Node 2 979-7739 300-2400 Oracomm Plus
|
|
Willie's DYM Node 3 979-7743 300-1200 Oracomm Plus
|
|
Willie's DYM Node 4 979-8156 300-1200 Oracomm Plus
|
|
Ziggy Unaxess 991-5696 300-1200 Unaxess
|
|
|
|
The many symbols you see prior to the names of many of the bbs' in the
|
|
list signify that they are members of one or more networks that exchange
|
|
or echo mail to each other in some organized fashion.
|
|
|
|
1 = EzNet, a local IBM compatible network
|
|
2 = FidoNet, an international network, multi-topic
|
|
3 = Metrolink, an international network, multi-topic
|
|
4 = WWIV-Net, an international network, multi-topic
|
|
5 = Intellec, an international network, multi-topic
|
|
6 = Uni'Net, an international network, multi-topic
|
|
7 = ThrobNet, an international network, adult oriented
|
|
8 = ILink, an international network, multi-topic
|
|
9 = ADAnet, an international network dedicated to the handicapped
|
|
0 = VirtualNet, national network, multi-topic
|
|
- = RIME, an international network, multi-topic
|
|
= = TcNet, not certain at publication time
|
|
! = STUDNet, a local homosexually oriented network
|
|
@ =
|
|
# = GTNet, an international network, multi-topic
|
|
$ = WildNet, a national network, multi-topic
|
|
% = InterNet, an international network, linking businesses,
|
|
universities, and bbs', multi-topic
|
|
^ = City2City, a national network, multi-topic
|
|
& = TriBBS Net, a national network, multi-topic
|
|
* = Dixie Net, a regional network, multi-topic geared toward the south
|
|
eastern United States
|
|
( = MAXnet, a local network, connecting WWIV and VBBS systems
|
|
) = PlanoNet, a national network, multi-topic
|
|
_ = LuciferNet, an international network, adult oriented
|
|
+ = ANet, a local network, adult oriented
|
|
|
|
If you have any corrections, additions, deletions, etc., please let us
|
|
know via EzNet.
|