################################################################ # # # BTN: Birmingham Telecommunications News # # # ################################################################ ---------------------------------------------------------------- COPYRIGHT 1993 ISSN 1055-4548 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 7, Issue 6 Issue #70 July 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------- edition 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- article title author ---------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer/Statement of Policy.............................Staff From The Editor.................................Scott Hollifield Letters to BTN.......................................BTN Readers Youth Speaks Out! Part 2...............A BTN "Instant Talk Show" Big Brother Ain't Watching You.....................Dean Costello Bad Boys, Bad Bouys!..................................Gary Hasty Oppression.......................................Shayne Hardesty Movie Review: _Blown Away_.........................Dean Costello Special Interest Groups (SIGs).........................Eric Hunt Known BBS Numbers...........................(sub).Richard Foshee ---------------------------------------------------------------- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ DISCLAIMER AND STATEMENT OF POLICY FOR BTN ################################################################ We at BTN try our best to assure the accuracy of articles and information in our publication. We assume no responsibility for damage due to errors, omissions, etc. The liability, if any for BTN, its *editors and writers, for damages relating to any errors or omissions, etc., shall be limited to the cost of a one year subscription to BTN, even if BTN, its editors or writers have been advised of the likelihood of such damages occurring. With the conclusion of that nasty business, we can get on with our policy for publication and reproduction of BTN articles. We publish monthly with a deadline of the fifteenth of the month prior to publication. If you wish to submit an article, you may do so at any time but bear in mind the deadline if you wish for your work to appear in a particular issue. It is not our purpose to slander or otherwise harm a person or reputation and we accept no responsibility for the content of the articles prepared by our writers. Our writers own their work and it is protected by copyright. We allow reprinting of articles from BTN with only a few restrictions. The author may object to a reprint, in which case he will specify in the content of his article. Otherwise, please feel free to reproduce any article from BTN as long as the source, BTN, is specified, and as long as the author's name and the article's original title are retained. If you use one of our articles, please forward a copy of your publication to: Mark Maisel Publisher, BTN 606 Twin Branch Terrace Birmingham, AL 35216 (205) 823-3956 We thank you for taking the time to read our offering and we hope that you like it. We also reserve the right to have a good time while doing all of this and not get too serious about it. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ FREEBIE!!! GET IT WHILE IT'S HOT! Systems That Offer Free BTN ################################################################ The following boards allow BTN to be downloaded freely, that is with no charge to any existing upload/download ratios. ADAnet One Alter-Ego Bone Yard Bus System The Castle Channel 8250 C.A.B. The Comfy Chair! Crunchy Frog DC Info Exchange Final Frontier The Guardian Hardware Hotline Homewood's Hell Hole Joker's Castle Leaping's Lounge Lemon Grove Lion's Den Martyrdom Again?! The MATRIX The Outer Limits Owl's Nest The Parthenon Playground Safe Harbor Southern Stallion Starbase 12 Thy Master's Dungeon Weekends BBS (This list includes some systems which are not local to Birmingham and therefore not included on our BBS Numbers list.) If you are a sysop and you allow BTN to be downloaded freely, please let me know via The Matrix or Crunchy Frog so that I can post your board as a free BTN distributor. Thanks. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ NEWSFLASH! NEWSFLASH! NEWSFLASH! ################################################################ YES, BTN IS LATE! Like it's not enough that we're free? IF YOU RECEIVED THIS ISSUE THROUGH THE INTERNET: The "From The Editor" column has something to say to you. READ IT! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ FROM THE EDITOR Scott Hollifield ################################################################ Three weeks. A long time, if you think about it. A lot can happen in three weeks. A lot can also not happen. One of the things that did not happen in three weeks was BTN #70 being released. I suppose I could make up some long, involved and passably entertaining story about how the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 threw us all off our schedule, but the truth is, I was nowhere near either Jupiter or the next best thing, my television set, when the fragments hit. So unless things in this great big cosmos of ours work in even more mysterious ways than I suspect they do, the comet is blameless. Instead, a large part of BTN's delay was due to the delay in getting our Known BBS List ready for publication. The List, as many of you are aware, is probably the most popular feature in BTN, and I didn't want to release the issue without it. Nor did I want to re-use another weak fallback, that of simply skipping a month, as I've done once or twice in the past. I really really hate having to do that. So that, in a rather compact and necessarily concise nutshell, is why BTN is coming out twenty days late, instead of five or six as is my usual standard. Now, those of you who paid attention in math class may now pipe up, "But August is right around the corner! Will we be seeing yet another issue of BTN in a mere eleven days? Or will the 20th be the new regular release date, henceforth to the end of existence?" The answer to both earth-shattering questions is a resounding NO. The next issue of BTN will, according to plan, be released a little less than a month from now. The next issue, a little less than that. The idea is eventually, hopefully no more than four issues away, we get the date back up to the top of the calendar. So, now that I've explained things to you in a clear, slow, condescending way, much as an irritable professor might exposite to a spoiled, precocious but nonetheless valuable pupil, let me go further and clue you in to what we've got to share in this month's issue. You know, the reason you download BTN! First of all, thanks to Richard Foshee for a late pinch-hitting job in the BBS list department. Our regular listmeister, Luke Whitley, was unable to compile the list this month, due to other, obviously far less important, events in his life, and we understand completely. Next, we received quite a bit of input in response to last's month's "Instant Talk Show". Printed here in are two missives in reply to the subject of the "new Matrix", one of them by the Matrix's sysop, Rocky Rawlins himself. Quite frankly, I'm rather pleased by all the dust that this thing has raised, and in that spirit, I'm proud to publish Part 2 of the Instant Talk Show, "Youth Speaks Out". (I also had a bit of positive response to the Instant Talk Show concept itself, and so I do indeed plan on making it a regular feature.) Dean Costello returns, yet again, like an addict to the needle, to our pages, with two features: one, a new installment in Dean's continuing series on What's To Come in the wierd but popular new thing some call the National Information Infrastructure. The second of Dean's two features is a review of the motion picture _Blown Away_, which he and I saw together. If you read really closely, you may well discover that these two articles are actually about the same thing. If this is the case, let me know so I can analyze your prescription. A face from the past, Shayne Hardesty returns to BTN with some words about the present state of education which may interest you. The esteemed Late Rev. Gary Hasty also makes his second appearance in these pages, direct from The Comfy Chair! BBS in Georgia. Little by little, we're eradicating the relevance of all *three* words in "Birmingham Telecommunications Newsletter". Not present in these pages, nor perhaps the next couple of issues as well, is Judy Ranelli's local music column. The nature of Judy's column is such that publication at the beginning of the month is a really good idea, so that she can deliver the goods on a whole month of mod musical events. Publication two-thirds of the way through the month is less of a good idea, for obvious reasons. When BTN returns to something more approximating an actual top-of-the-month schedule, Local Music in Birmingham will return as well. Until then, I'm going to try to bribe Judy into writing about something else, so who can tell? This issue, then: It may not be worth waiting seven weeks for, but we like it, and it's better than home movies, so sit up and read. It'll be good for your eyes. Oh, one final note. It has come to my attention that a certain publisher whose initials are the same as Marilyn Monroe may have placed BTN's name in a national, Internet-distributed catalog, where it sits along with the names of a bunch of real online periodicals. While this is highly appealing to me in a sort of guerilla-media sense, it's caused me to receive several inquiries through the Internet on receiving sample issues or even (shudder) subscriptions. So, if anyone out there in infobahn-land is listening, let me make the following pronouncement: there is, as of yet, no facility available for receiving BTN automatically through Internet e-mail. No ftp site, no automated list server, no nothin'. I'm going to be sending a number of copies of this issue out, as samples, but I have to warn you, I'm not the cyber-Santa, and don't have the time nor inclination to e-mail BTN to a dozen or a hundred people every month. If you want BTN on a regular basis, one of two things are must occur: (1) You're going to have to call a BBS local to Birmingham, and download it like the rest of the masses, or (2) Something is going to have to happen. "Something wonderful," as they said in 2010. That is to say, circumstances are going to have to present themselves such that BTN *can* be made available to Internet users on a regular basis. At the rate that technology and net availability is progressing, it wouldn't surprise me very much if this were to happen, at some point in the not-so-far future. So watch this space. That's it. Auf weidersehen, buckaroos. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR From BTN Readers ################################################################ From: Rocky Rawlins BBS: The MATRIX Scott, I read the article in BTN of your chat session about our change of software and figured I'd take a few minutes to respond. What struck me more than anything else was the very hostile nature of many of the comments. For many years the BBS community here in Birmingham was a close knit group. People helping each other with everyone working toward something of a common goal; moving Birmingham into the world of electronic communications. Now it seems as if some of the folks look at it as if it were some kind of guerilla warfare. "We will BURY them!" one of the folks said about their BBS vis a vis Matrix? That's a pretty sad commentary of either the state of the local BBS Community or else of the individual making the statement. "We make a profit. Why can't they?" and then the same person complains that we charge too much? Perhaps the difference between that person and me is that I have devoted 14 years to providing a BBS service with one goal in mind: providing a BBS service. I didn't start a BBS to get rich. Anyone who does obviously has some serious misunderstandings of financial leverage. In one month I could make more money SELLING the equipment we run the system with than the system makes in that same time and spend a HELL of a lot less time working to make the same amount and then do it again the next month. I make more money consulting a few days a month than the Matrix does that whole month. I really don't understand the hostility of some of the folks. The folks who make up the staff of The MATRIX are, I think, justifiably proud of what they've accomplished and if they crow about it sometimes well good for them. They SHOULD be proud of the fine work they do. The past couple of months I personally have been so buried in programming ways around some of the limitations of Major that I've been pretty well invisible on the system even though I spend 10 to 12 hours online a day. Unfortunately I've usually been in the middle of debugging some new program and I stay in "Invisible mode" to get the work done. I'm looking forward to getting out from under some of that and getting involved again in the system as a User. And despite our problems with Major I still think it was a good choice. While we've experienced some real problems during the conversion I see a lot of potential for what we'll be able to do with the system as we modify it to everyone's needs. In the short run it's a pain. In the long run it will take us far beyond what we had before. As far as all the issues of subscription vs, free, the people who want to surpass The MATRIX, I say simply the best of wishes and if I can do anything to help, don't hesitate to call. If someone out there can put together a more affordable solution with more services and make a go of it, I'll be one of the first ones to subscribe. I would love to see someone surpass all the systems in town and provide the more services to all of us at less cost. Until then however we'll keep muddling along as best we can. From: "Immy" BBS: Genesis Online I read BTN "Youth Speaks Out" in the 69th issue and had to comment. About 30% of the article made a good point, Matrix has NOT changed for the better in the eyes of the local users, this much is true. But it seems to my like the rest of the article was a hype for Milliway's BBS. True enough, Matrix has gone to the LEAST user-friendly format possibile, they might as well be running a Apple // "TeleCat" BBS. It's also true that 90% of the time Jan Murphree is the only one around to talk to, and since she's not the 'tech' part of the team.....well, it's a nice gesture but it doesn't help much. I think a little light needs to be shed on another BBS in Birmingham, and that is "Genesis" BBS. The YSO article mentioned the name once, but what they didn't mention is that Genesis recieved just as many users from the Matrix turnover as Milliway's did. But wait, there is NO MORE Milli's so that bring into light the word "consistancy". It seem that Milli's again went off-line to pop up as "City Lights". Let us hope that City Lights stands more than three months and hope that their "900" number does them some better business. See, that's another thing i noticed when i called looking for Milliways. It seems that after the article they published in BTN #69 talking about The Matrix saying, "can't afford a dollar an hour", they are using a 900 line. Seems to me that they are following in the preverbial footsteps of The Matrix. Don't get me wrong. I know all too well that running a BBS costs money, but let's not talk about another board avoiding the public interest and then put up a 900 line. Tsk, tsk, that's a double-standard. If you're going to spotlight a BBS and harp on it, do it right. I think the article was written for a good reason from some points of view, but all of the interviewers [sic] are basically saying how great one BBS is compared to how the other sucks. I won't take shots at The Matrix because of their changes. I was a member for a LONG time, back in the early 80's. But, everyone knew this was going to happen who paid attention. With growth always comes some kind of change. This is the kind of change that has resulted. Be it for better or worse, we might as well accept it. Maybe one of the Matrix team will get tired of it all and decide to start over and run a new version of the "old" Matrix that all of us remember. Just give it time. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ YOUTH SPEAKS OUT! Part Two A BTN "Instant Talk Show" ################################################################ Item! The Matrix dumps longtime-favorite traditional software PCBoard for the far more expensive and controversial MajorBBS! Is this a good move for the Matrix? And what do the users of a young turk BBS called "Milliways" think about it? This month, we conclude "Youth Speaks Out", with part 2 of my conversation with the users of Milliways BBS. NOTE! Since this conversation was recorded, Milliways changed names to City Lights BBS, and subsequently went offline not very long after. ------------ BTN: So you think that the BBS is moving toward more of a social, community type environment? The Master: actually, here it already has been there Gradstud: Go to a millies party and see Die Hard: Further proof...we've all ready been there, done that..BEFORE others.. Bad Girl: As far as my understanding with the Matrix...they are wanting a different crowd...not just the chatters. BTN: This is a good point. As newer, less computer-literate people join the medium, they're going to be looking for more friendly humans. Cinnamon: people have enough other situations where it is cold and unfriendly...alien...they need activities that encourage....relax... The Master: many of us know each other...Milliways has parties, and softball games, etc BTN: The Matrix and BTN have also had parties in the past. The Master: True...but people with tuperware have parties? whats your point? BTN: You were making the point that Milli's social gatherings was part of what distinguished it. Cinnamon: the matrix wants to impress with their professionalism... Gradstud: (to Cinnamon) you can be professional and friendly at the same time Cinnamon: milli's people are the distinguishing factor... BTN: They used to say that about the Crunchy Frog, and before that, other boards... maybe there is something there. The Master: And that is true...except we know each other...i mean, Matrix has something like 1000 users...how many of them can actually say they know everyone else...? most of the Milliways bunch DOES know everyone else.. Zaphod: The point is, we get together, we talk, we hang out, we sort of KNOW each other... not just type, but real faces.. we are like a family in many respects.. we do favors for each other.. we help other.. an electronic village for real Die Hard: DAMN STRAIGHT! Zaphod: WELL SAID!!!! BTN: So Teleconference is the wave of the future, is it? Bad Girl: I agree with that Cinnamon: matrix hasn't realized that yet..if you are not part of the elite there, it can be a very cold place... Gradstud: damn straight..although I have found myself welcomed there in the TC BTN: So you don't think there's any cliquism on Millis? Zaphod: A little, but we TRY to avoid it. Die Hard: There are cliques everywhere, but it is at a VERY low minimum on here.. Cinnamon: the big difference is that i feel at home here...i can relax.. Gradstud: most everyone here seems to get along BTN: You know, this whole thing about the move toward a friendlier, more community-like environment kind of flies in the face of what the national media is telling us... that cyberspace will be you on your own with all the raw data you can handle. Zaphod: We try to welcome, and help out new users... we even put up with abrasive ones as long as we can.. If people wanted data, they would watch star trek, or go to a library BTN: But that's one function that the info highway is supposed to fulfull, being an electronic home library. The Master: i used to be on here about 400 minutes a day last summer.... Zaphod: People want to talk to each other, and meet new people, in a relaxed environment, can;t get more relaxed than your living room man... Gradstud: small communities in real life are not island...people always crave contact Cinnamon: I need the village...the friendly atmosphere... BTN: What about the argument that as people socialize more and more on their terminals, they're going to do less and less real life interaction? I know you guys have parties and play softball, but most people would rather stay at home and do it. Gradstud: I disagree..people are always asking when the next getogether is Buster: I'd love the oppertunity to meet others in the flesh..... Zaphod: I have hardly any files, hardly any games, but it does not matter, people come here, and spend HOURS in the TC, to talk , and flirt, and laugh, and cry, and tell their stories... much better than games or files... I could kill my file libraries, and hardly anyone would notice... The Master: 70,000+ calls in its first year is pretty damn good for a BBS with only about 300 users.. Cinnamon: we tend to be attracted to this because we can do it at home...when going out is not an option... BTN: Do you think that the info highway will ultimately be a multitude of local TC board-communities like this one? Zaphod: Yes, eventually the "info highway" will be a collection of roadhouses where people socialize. The REAL people,. not academicians, will want to do what we do here, not gather data, but to become more aware of the people in the world by contact with the people in it, in a safe, and secure manner... The Master: we have the best male/female user ratio of any BBS i have EVER seen Gradstud: (to The Master) Matrix is close though The Master: we have what is probably the highest sub rate per user of any BBS in town...something like 80 or 90% of our user base.. Gradstud: cause we have something people want The Master: and i have never EVER heard a user say that Milliways was not worth it.. BTN: So the emphasis on files is on its way out, you figure? Zaphod: There will ALWAYS be file leeches, UNTIL they learn about the TC, then Whoomp there it is.. they forget the files, and talk. BTN: Could be that "files" are mostly intended for the tech junkies who started the phenomenon... that very few of them are actually useful to the average newbie. Cinnamon: i have never seem such loyalty amoung users as i have for this bbs...it amazes me... Gradstud: I rarely go to any other bbs Zaphod: If you get people in here, and get them started, they are hooked, and forget files, and message bases, message bases are sort of dying in favor of real time debate like we are having now... The Master: i only call 3 BBSs regularly...and this is number one on the list.. BTN: I've talked to a few people who don't like TC... they say that the conversation is usually shallow and time-consuming. Zaphod: If it is, let it wander as is... if it is directed, it can be fascinating.. Cinnamon: TC is the easiest way to become familiar with computing... chat...learn...get help with whatever you need...i learned more from chatting than i could have from any file.. The Master: there will always be dissidents...but most of the cyberpunks out there would rather talk, not d/l BTN: I'm not sure "cyberpunks" is really an apt term anymore... a little trendy, don't you think? The Master: A cyberpunk is ANYONE who uses a modem to telecomunicate on BBSs... BTN: Uh-HUH. The Master: also, chatting is a great place to learn to type... Zaphod: I watch all the time... it is fascianting to watch new users approach, be checked out, eventually be accepted, and become part of us... part of our family.. Gradstud: my typing has gotten much faster Cinnamon: mine too... Zaphod: If you have a question, or NEED a file, there is usually ALWAYS someone in TC or online that can help you out, and be friendly too.. BTN: A local expatriate named J.R. Taylor wrote in Black & White that TC is essentially a high-tech 976-GABB line. What do you think about that? Gradstud: that is close but not all The Master: he needs to actually use a tc Cinnamon: if that's what you are looking for, you can find it...but for most of us, it's like Cheers...a friendly place...where our friends are.. Zaphod: So it is a gab line? People are talking and learning.. so what is so bad about that? BTN: I think the implication is that an awful lot of people call GABB lines to get sex. Zaphod: so? we are adults.. if we choose to meet and have sex, what is the big deal? We also get comfort when we are sick, or depressed, and we get help and info when we need it... BTN: That's just my point... why all the talk about how helpful and social it all is, if the primary function is that of a singles' bar? Cinnamon: it's just like in other areas of life....different needs... different versions of the same theme... Die Hard: Hey...you don't go to singles bars JUST to get laid..you go to make friends,as well.honest hard working joes like yourself worth a damn... Zaphod: No, the primary function, is to allow people to meet, and talk, and get to know more, without the pressure of computer salesmen, or singles bars... or the like... Cinnamon: not the primary function...one of many...it fills a need... if that's what someone calls for...why not.... Prophet: hell if there are two individuals who meet here and wanna go have sex it is their perogative Zaphod: They are users to Rocky.. and will always be I guess... BTN: So getting back to the Matrix, it's beginning to look like your advice is to concentrate on making the TC a friendly, social environment. Zaphod: Rocky, to be a success, and to continue to compete, needs to loosen up a bit, as it were... adding more lines as users need them, and STILL be friendly, even idf we get huge... it is working well so far... BTN: I'm going to wrap this thing up... anyone want to say anything as a closing summation? Die Hard: Yeah...Everything about Matrix is summed up in one finger! Cinnamon: it's hard to put into words...but calling here makes me feel better...i have met very few of the people on person, but i always feel at home...they are the most open and accepting group in bbs'ing... Zaphod: OKay, The way I see it, is that the info highway, is going to be a pipe to provide people access to other people... and the winners in the BBS world, wil be the ones that provide a comfortable, everyone is welcome atmosphere, and the losers will still be seeing people as USERS or dollar signs, and not as people... Cinnamon: people are social by nature...it's what we look for in others.. Zaphod: You and I, and everyone here is a person, worthy of respect, and fair treatment, and Rocky and everyone else needs to see that we are people, not numbers.. We WANT to know more about others, we are as Cin said, social by nature, partly out of curiousty, and partly out of the need to interact to grow. We are that.. a way to interact and grow, in a safe way. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ BIG BROTHER AIN'T WATCHING YOU Dean Costello ################################################################ #### OR #### A Little Knowledge Is Dangerous Over the last several months I have waxed eloquent about the wonders and joy that will be forthcoming in regards to the Information Superhighway (IS). I have to admit it: I am biased towards the success and advancement of the IS and the National Information Infrastructure (NII). I really want this thing to occur, and from a dead-selfish point-of-view, the faster I can get access to the system, the happier I will be in the long run. But all may not be sweetness-and-light. The possibility of abuse of privacy and security concerns is a bit of a problem that needs to be addressed. And herein are the concerns that I will address in this article. What kind of security is going to be employed that would protect your privacy from Naughty Folk? For instance, let's look at medical records. A part of the cost savings in some of the health insurance protocols I have read is that medical records are to be shared to some extent in order to save money in replicating procedures, and to expedite cures by sending the patient and records to the best/fastest facility for a desired procedure. Do you want your medical records read by any chump with a modem? I sure as shit don't. All in all, security is a very valid and timely question, especially if you are in the database management business, and you don't wish for your hard-earned data (even though all good felons [and civil libertarians who aren't in the business of gathering information] know that data wants to be free) to go willy-nilly to everywhere. In the course of my work as an environmental scientist, I get circulars from Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque describing ongoing research that is being conducted. One of the researchers at Sandia, Sharon Fletcher, is working on ways of securing databases from the roving eye. I asked her about the new stuff on the horizon. "Our current research effort is to develop a better way to assess risks in software systems, where risks can stem from security, safety, or reliability concerns (ie., a very broad definition of risks). We are striving for a methodology that could be used to make design decisions when a system is originally developed, and that could also be used to determine whether later changes to systems maintain an appropriate level of risk mitigation. This will be reported on at IFIP SEC'94 later this month, so you may want to watch for the proceedings of that conference. "Future work is uncertain, but we are thinking about research proposals in the following areas: - Security & access controls for applications such as medical records; - Better methods for software requirements elicitation (including ability to specify "surety" requirements), since the majority of software problems are attributed to unclear requirements or other requirements problems; also - Research on security standards for TCP/IP and ATM switched networks, and in encryption standards." I also asked her about how to keep confidential business information, well, confidential. One thing that comes up is in regards to confidential business information. We have a lot of contact with businesses that wish to invoke CBI restrictions on the release of data from their processes. She admitted that it was an area that required a lot of work, but she was unaware about anything that addressed that topic. As I think about security, I think about personal data security and privacy. And there is no doubt about it, the big topic, or at least the loudest topic, in regards to privacy is the mighty Clipper chip. Given the amount of rhetoric and silly statements, both in BTN and on the Internet, that I have seen in the near past, I can only chuckle. For instance, "If this Clipper monster isn't stopped soon, we are going to witness the criminalization of anyone who insists on complete privacy of personal communications on computer networks," or, "Beating Clipper is a crucial step in freeing ourselves from all the dark possibilities of an authoritarian national-security state." As a result of obvious lack of real information, or just flat-out ignorance, it appears that it falls to me, an environmental microbiologist, to explain computer topics to you yet again. Let us begin at the beguine, and consider the way encryption works for a moment, shall we? Codes and methods of encryption have been around since Thundarr the Barbarian didn't want the Bad Guys to know where he kept the village grain. [Editor's note: Thundarr is from the future, not the past, Dean.] Until 1976, all codes had a flaw in design: Each relied on a particular coding method that would allow the "text" to be coded into a "cipher" and then decoded later. The people sending and receiving the message would have to agree with each other as to the type of method that would be used. The need for two or more people to agree ahead of time leads to potential problems that I will let you ruminate upon. In 1976, two Stanford researchers presented a paper that described the concept of the "Public Key", in which a sender and receiver do not require agreeing on a secret coding system. In 1978, a paper written by MIT researchers describe exactly how a public key system might actually work. This generated what is called the RSA. Okay, how does it work? It is based on what is called a "virtual one-way function". That means that it is easier and less time consuming to perform an equation in one direction as opposed to another. It is easy to calculate 7 to the 6th power (7x7x7x7x7x7), but it ain't easy to determine the 6th root of 117,649. And this in turn is applicable to computers. They can add, subtract, and multiply numbers very quickly; significantly faster than their ability to determine factors for a number. For example, it is child's play for a computer to multiply 987 x 1,103, but if the computer starts with 999,831 it will take time for the machine to determine, through trial and error, that the factors of the number are 987 and 1,103. As the numbers get big, the CPU time required to solve the equation gets very big. For example, let's say you multiply two 100-digit prime numbers (numbers that cannot be divided evenly except by 1 and itself), you will get a number that is approximately 200-digits long, and it will take no time to get to that value. However, if you start at the 200-digit number, a top-speed supercomputer would require not milliseconds, or even minutes, but centuries to calculate the factors. To complete the task is referred to as "computationally infeasible". And this is where the wonderment of encryption lies. The key is not really secret, of course, since with infinite time an outsider can calculate the hidden numbers. In the RSA system, messages can be decoded by anyone who knows the two secret 100-digit prime numbers that were used to produce the 200-digit public key. Each person chooses their own secret prime numbers to generate a public key. Anyone wanting to send a message to that person applies their public key in the encryption formula. The original prime numbers that generated the public key are then used in a decryption formula to produce the original message. Only the intended recipient knows the original prime numbers; no one else can figure them out from the public key. The process is somewhat straightforward, but governments are worried. The party line for many years is that the various U.S. agencies that are in decoding have been confident of their ability to break a code if they really needed to. But now, public key encryption allows for secure communications that are available to almost everyone. Officials are concerned that as public-key coding programs become cheap and available, the government would lose its ability to hear what other governments, and in certain cases its own citizens, were saying to each other. Two agencies are most concerned about these events: The FBI (internal wiretapping) and the National Security Agency (NSA; they that intercept telephone and broadcast transmissions around the world). The NSA was the main force behind the Clipper chip. The reason is that the public-key coding system would become so cheap that everyone would routinely use them to scramble phone calls and data transmissions which in turn would make it virtually impossible to decode the transmissions. NSA, therefore, supposed the Clipper proposal so that a government-approved encryption system might prevent the spread of public-key codes. Lets talk about the chip for a moment. The Clipper chip is literally a chip (the MYK-78, programmed by Mykotronx, Inc.) that goes into communication devices, and it generates implausibly difficult encryption that is not public-key but through a coding algorithm called Skipjack. Skipjack works with several "keys", including unique numbers built into the chip supplied with each Clipper-equipped device. The Skipjack algorithm is very classified. That's fine (except for the all-so-slick, who believe that the can find the secret flaw in the code that any bureaucracy creates [I note that no one has cracked the Federal Reserve wire transfer center {Culpepper, VA}]), but the NSA and the FBI have a backdoor code to allow them access to unencrypt coded communications. Which leads to the other problem that people have with the chip: the "key escrow" plan. Unlike the public-key method of scrambling, the messages produced via Skipjack on the Clipper chip are vulnerable to anyone who somehow obtains their codes, including the ID numbers built into each Clipper-containing device. Under the Clipper program, the feds will maintain a master list of ID numbers for all Clipper devices ever sold. Each number - which is in effect the key to its phone's Clipper chip - will be split in two and be "escrowed" by a government agency (probably either the FBI or NSA). In the right circumstances, usually considered to be a legal order for wiretap, the two halves of the number will be combined and the wiretappers will be able to hear what is said on that phone. The government is happy since it has the keys to eavesdrop on conversations when required. But privacy advocates aren't too happy for the same reasons. Worse is the possibility that the bureaucrats guarding the keys could be bribed, etc., into turning the keys over to Bad People. Computer companies aren't happy since now they have to gear up to generate a foreign and a domestic version of their modems, phones, etc. The Clipper plan required no legislation and was put into effect by the Clinton administration earlier this year. Clipper now exists as a standard for government contracts and purchases. Most of the secure/encrypted communications equipment sold in this country is sold to federal agencies, and all of this equipment must be based upon the Clipper chip. Is this the end of Western Civilization? Hardly. People, I tell you three times, I tell you three times, I tell you three times: THE USE OF A CLIPPER DEVICE IS VOLUNTARY. From now on, anyone who talks on government-owned secure phones will be using the Clipper chip, but no one else is obliged to use a Clipper chip phone. No one is forbidden to develop, sell, or use other encryption schemes. The inventors of the RSA code sells public-key software. Americans are just as free to use them now as they were before the Clipper chip. Both sides of the debate avoid mentioning the voluntary nature of Clipper. The feds don't want to view since it is the basic flaw of their plan. They at least acknowledged the problem, and use two main arguments to support it, 1). Most criminals would never hear about Clipper chips, or would forget about them when they were making plans. An FBI agent said, "If the smartest segment of the population ever got into crime, there would really be a problem. Will some criminals catch on to the system and buy their encryption from a non-Clipper country? Yes, but it will be a substantially smaller problem than if we did nothing." 2). The ability to make markets. If big companies are producing Clipper products because that's what they make for the government, then in the long run Clipper encryption will crowd out rival schemes. Apart from the government, the largest markets for these kinds of products are banks and credit card companies. By establishing Clipper as a standard, the government hopes to keep encryption, especially public-key systems, from becoming so cheap that someone can walk into Computers 'R' Us and walk out with a perfectly secure phone. This attempt to shut off a market tends to make anti-Clippers annoyed, but it also illustrates the limits of Clipper's effects. It is guaranteed to be least effective against the most serious criminal opponents. Opponents have also downplayed the voluntary factor, because it makes adoption of the system seem less nightmarish. When pressed on this point, they have usually reverted to the "slippery slope" argument: Today voluntary; tomorrow mandatory and all other encryption outlawed. There is no peacetime precedent to suggest that Congress would pass such a mandatory measure with sweeping controls on forms of speech. The likelihood of abuse would be reduced if Clipper's "key escrow" plan were changed in one way. Under current guidelines, the two agencies each designated to hold half of the keys will be part of the executive branch; one is Treasury, the other is National Institute of Standards and Technology. On separation of power grounds, it would be safer for one of the escrow holders to be part of the Judicial System, insulted from direct executive control. Those who are worried about Clipper no matter who its escrow agents are can and should start using some other encryption scheme. Okay, you are paranoid, and there is no doubt in your mind that the FBI is listening to your calls to Domino's Pizza. What happens next? Well, AT&T Bell Labs has found that the NSA can eavesdrop on conversations, but that communications can be encoded so that the government, with decrypting keys in hand, cannot descramble the conversations. What's the point of having the descrambling protocols if the communication can be further scrambled? The aforementioned flaw goes something like this: 1). You have laptop with Tessera card. (The Tessera card is a small addition to the average laptop which is used to access a home mainframe. It generates one-half of a password that changes on a specific timetable which is in synch with the home mainframe that you are trying to access. So, between the generated password, as well as a user password that is constant; one can access the master computer). 2). Before computer sends encrypted e-mail, it transmits a 128-bit string that identifies the device (required for Clipper encryption) as well as a CRC check sequence. The two strings form the LEAF (Law Enforcement Access Field). 3). Receiving computer must be able to ID the LEAF as valid before decryption can take place. The LEAF also tells the court-allowed wiretapper which key to use in decrypting the data. 4). The court-appointed representative, LEAF in hand, goes to both the Treasury Department and NIST (they each have half of the decryption code), gets the code, and examines the data. The FBI are called in and the bad guys are marched right off to jail. 5). Ahh, but what if you transmit an improper LEAF? This is what Bell Labs has noted. And the NSA agrees. NSA states that it is "not practical in real-world applications to generate improper LEAFs. 6). Which is not necessarily true. All you have to do is download a rogue LEAF-generating program, and you have thwarted the finest minds at the NSA. Another thought that comes to mind is that if you use a public-key program, just continue to use it. People that are tapping the line can uncode the Clipper/Skipjack encryption, but that gets them no closer to uncoding the public-key program. Congressional hearings have been held on the mighty Clipper. On May 3, 1994, Senator Patrick Leahy, the Chairman of the Technology and Law Senate Subcommittee opened hearings on the Clipper Chip Key Escrow Encryption Program. As Senator Leahy says, "before American citizens and potential customers of American computer and telecommunications products will see this as the solution to privacy and security concerns, they must be assured that ironclad procedures are in place to guarantee that, absent a court order, no one will be able to decode their private communications, except the recipient they choose. Otherwise, even law-abiding users will not want to use encryption devices with Clipper Chip. The general tensions and fundamental questions posed by these challenges are the same ones that confronted the founders of our country. Our Constitution requires that we strike a balance between an individual's right to be left alone and conduct his or her own affairs without government interference, and our interest in a secure, safe society." I haven't been able to find the transcripts of the hearing as of the date of writing this (6/17). I will keep an eye out for it, and will report on same when I track it down. The nut on the mighty Clipper? Don't sweat this kind of stuff. It is very unlikely that anything you do is so important that you need any of these measures. You don't work for the government in a position that requires the use of secured communications, nor do you do any work that is so sensitive that it would require this kind of encryption. And, let's face it, it is even more unlikely that an investigating office would care so much about what you do/say/transmit that they will bother going through the steps to decode your traffic. Sure, there is machismo in these hyper-effective coding processes, but what do you really need them for? I will bet that most of the people who are screaming about the horrors of Clipper have already something like PGP, and set the key to "Military", or whatever the highest level of encryption is. Get real, people. This is no more legitimate than getting a 486-66 to run Word Perfect 5.1. And you won't get any chicks, either. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ BAD BOYS... BAD BOUYS! Gary Hasty ################################################################ [Note from the Editor: Rev. Hasty's intentional misspellings are kept intact by dint of an isolated and frankly unfair personal preference by yours truly. Other writers: Don't try this at home!] Ya know...I used to read BTN and the Frog's main board, and giggle (like a little party girwl) over the BBS-geek wars y'all seem to always have in Birmingham. Hell, who's Dean pissed off this month or who slept with who's livestock at the dentist office last Tuesday or who's lawyer will beat up who's lawyer today. Phunny stuff, guyz! Well...it *was* funny....then it hit home. It's happening here people. That's trouble...with a capitol 'P'. It started first with the rumours about moi. I started hearing thru the cyber-grape-line that a syslop in my area had some "problems" with me. I didn't know I'd had any trouble with anyone. No one let me in on the problem; and I assure ewe that if I want to be a problem...I would go about it in a more noticable manner. I dismissed this as just geek-talk (they don't get out much, ya know). The user who told me this was later destroyed by some of my loyal servants when he clearly demonstrated his lack of a sense of humor. Then came the rash of "trouble users". Whatever the hell that is. One caller downloaded a boards userbase (users fault?...) and went playing on the local boards. Some other syslops got very upset with moi because I refused to lock out their suspect. I've never locked out anyone in the three years I've ran a board so you've *really* got to piss me off *real* hard to become a twit. So naturally, the other boards have decided to go "registered users only" as of August 1, 1994 to stop this foolishness from happening...(Isn't this the stage right before shutting down?) Ahhhhhh, then I join FidoNet! When a sysop is not getting paid MONEY for his "services" there's always power to be had...enter Fido! All the horror stories I'd always heard about Fido really aren't true about the national/international area of Fido...but the local crap...JEEEEESSSSSSUUUUUUSSSS!!! Just beat me with a hammer before making me go to the next syslop meeting. AND SO...there I was minding my own business (sort of) this past Saturday and I get a call from one of the more paranoid syslops about another syslop. Seems a new 3-hour-online-a-day-my-folks-will-kill-me- when-they-see-the-phone-bill-ran-by-an-underaged-syslop board was giving out "adult" access to all callers and had a lot of nudge-nudge online. I had already mentioned to this nudge-syslop that he should watch it with the "adult" stuff in this little community and that if a user downloaded from him knowing he was underaged then they are "contributing to the blah-blah of a minor". So he changed his security a little. "Paranoid Syslop" tells me that he is locking this syslop out of his system because he lied about his age and wanted to warn me about him. Then two hours later I get a call from "Paranoid" that there are cops at "Pre-pubescent Syslop's" house confiscating his board, etc because a parent saw some nudge-nudge that li'l Billy downloaded. Hmmmm, so I get the next dayz paper...nothing! Then today I talk to another "pre-pub syslop" and find out that "paranoid" had threatened to call the cops on "naughty pre-pub" but that nothing had happened... SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT!!!!!!! Is there any wonder I'm thinking about getting one o' those satellite dish thingys so I don't have to fool with these people for mail...? It's just a damn hobby, folks! XXXOOOXXX The Late Rev. Hasty, COO ROAS Foundation and Oriental House of Pleasure The Comfy Chair! BBS 706-673-4436 Fido -> 1:362/844 Internet - > gary.hasty@f844.n362.z1.fidonet.org -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ OPPRESSION Shayne Hardesty ################################################################ Oppression; one word, one generation. We are a generation oppressed. Our graduating class of 1994 has been told so many times what we can and can't do to the point where we are brain dead. We can no longer think for ourselves. Society has given us its standards and told us to conform to them or else. But I say forget conformity; it is for people with no heart and soul, only ambition. And this is a devastating combination of qualities. By definition, oppression is "the act of being oppressed". Oppressed, means "being suppressed, hindered, or persecuted". In other words, conformity. Conformity looks good on paper or in theory, but it serves no purpose in the real world. Nature is based on disorder. Things naturally move from a system of order to a system of chaos. How many times have you seen a tornado come through and put a house back together, or mend the psychological problems of a city? Not very often. Nature produces chaos, and human beings thrive off chaos. Some of us are just more accustomed to order, but deep down we desire disorder. Think of the school systems. They take us (or our children) and put us in ordered rows, seat us in alphabetic order based on our last names, tell us what we can and can't wear, and assign us a number and move us through, taking no time to get to know us personally. They no longer even grade our tests, they have computers which take care of that now. They tell us when we can and can't talk, they tell us that we can't fight or show affection. What's next--can't be happy or be sad? They're probably holding a vote on that right now. I'm not saying that they should let us do as we wish. That only provides for anarchy. But there is a fine line they should follow. If they don't wish for us to talk during lecture time, they should give us spare time for talking. If they don't wish us to fight, they should let us show some affection and maybe more people would follow that example. They use their system of oppression so that they may have control over us. If they make us do something that we do not like, we loose our "feistiness". By doing this they can have their way with us. But what if they welcomed constructive criticism instead of banning "backtalk"? They might find that in some of us there are useful feelings, not just coldness and cruelties. The world is moving to computers; this no one will deny. These unique machines bring with them advantages too numerous to list. But they also produce disadvantages. There is no longer a personal interaction between faculty and students at school. A person can make a 25 on his ACT, and have an F+ in *one* class and still be prevented from graduating on time. Obviously this person is not lacking in intelligence, but for what ever reason he has not made a "passing" grade. But the computer never questions this. The computer can't know that his "bad" grade may be because his parents have gotten divorced during the school year, or maybe his girlfriend has left him, or maybe his parents or someone he cares deeply about has been killed. But the computer questions nothing. It averages four grades, and if they don't average out to 60 or higher, the counselor is on the phone to his parents. This is by far the worst way to oppress a senior. Because they know the most important thing we value in our life is our graduation, and it is held over us; we are not allowed to forget it all year long. This produces new fears and indescribable levels of stress throughout the year, and especially towards the end of the year. But at the end of the year the computer averages the four grades it is given, and makes some seniors happy, and for the rest of us, it shatters our lives. The personal touch in the school system has been lost. I'd wager to say that the principle of my high school couldn't even pick out half of the graduating class and tell you their first names. And if he doesn't even know our names, then how is he supposed to be a fair educator to us? Individuality and diversity should be encouraged in our schools, and not just acknowledged and filed away. People are different. We are created by God to be different, and by that we have different ways of learning, different needs, different desires, and different goals. But how many different diplomas are we offered? Five. How many different courses of study do we have? Five. One for each type of diploma. What if we are going into welding? We need a standard diploma. And by looking at the requirements for a standard diploma you will see that we are required to have three units of history during our four years of high school. Where will we need history in welding? On how many job applications will the question "What year was Hayes elected president?" appear? I'd wager to say not many. So we are thrust into conformity, and it upon us, and our souls deteriorate. For some of us we get out with some individuality left, for the rest of us, we jsut keep conforming to society so that we will be accepted. The drop out rate increases annually, as does the failure rate. Summer school, and night school have become increasingly popular. And the students are blamed. Everyone claims that society is growing worse because of the students. But the worse we get the more we are oppressed, and the more we are oppressed, the worse we get. The problem here lies not in finding the problem; but in solving it. The adults have their "values" and will not accept us for who we are, so they try to change us. Thus bringing on oppression. The only solution is for someone to bite the bullet and be the first to change. The students do not realize what they are doing. We are rebellious by nature, by our age. We are too numerous to change who we are or how we act as a whole. But the schools are less numerous, and are more capable of changing. Therefore the change will have to be in the schools first if things are to change. But of those people who see where the problem lies, or those who even see that there is a problem, no one wants to rock the boat. No one wants to stand up and say that change is needed. And even if they did, it would take either many people with the same opinion, or a handful of very powerful people to bring these changes about. In short, there are no easy or feasible solutions for the problems I have outlined. But maybe by studying the problems further, we can put the blame where it belongs rather than blaming the students who are acting the only way they know to act; rebellious. But we are not to be "broken" of our rebellion, we will grow out of it on our own. By trying to break us they are only repressing us further. No one person can solve the problems plaguing the students and schools today. But if the problem is acknowledged and studied further, maybe a solution will present itself. But until then many paths will be searched, and many lives ruined until a solution is reached. If there was a lasting legacy of the class of 1994, it would be this statement: We are a diverse group of individuals with individual needs, and we refuse to be oppressed. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ MOVIE REVIEW: _BLOWN AWAY_ Dean Costello ################################################################ I've seen some rough movies in the last fifteen years or so. You know what I mean by "rough" : lame plot, bad acting, poor production. For instance, a movie such as _Child's Play 3_ is right on the verge of rough. Its saving grace is that it is funny, albeit not by design. I haven't been to a movie in a while, probably since the last time I was in Birmingham, last Christmas, and saw _Addams Family Values_ with Scott Hollifield, who is a fiend for movies. _Addams Family Values_ was kind of clever, but it telegraphed the plot twists, so they weren't so much a plot twist as a curve on the gently winding Plot Road. And such was _Blown Away_. _Blown Away_ stars Jeff Bridges, who hasn't made a bad movie since _Against All Odds_. He is a not-at-all-bad lieutenant in the bomb squad of the Boston Police Department. Come to find out, a very bad IRA member had escaped from a nasty looking prison that reminded me of a cross between the fortress in _The Guns of Navarone_ and an airport from _Blade Runner_ Fourteen months later, he shows up in Boston, packing short hair, a love for explosions, and a very bad attitude towards our hero and his buddies in the bomb squad. Before you can say, "Fire in the hole!", half of the bomb squad has been killed by explosives planted by Tommy Lee Jones, the IRA fanatic. After one of the more implausible explosions, our hero picks up the cellular phone that was blown out of the hands of one of his now-dead buddies. Come to find out that Tommy Lee is on the other side and taunting our hero, and calling him Liam. "Liam? Who's Liam?" I thought. In a very confusing series of flashbacks and not-very-subtle exposition on the part of Tommy Lee and our hero, we find out that Jeff Bridges was actually a member of an IRA cell who made bombs for the cell. One bomb was going to be detonated in a crowded market area, and Jeff pull the trigger a little early, thusly saving the civilians, and killing all of the team except for himself and Tommy Lee, who was shipped off to the Jail of Navarone. There are also some vague references to fiance's, wives, and other assorted females, but they are casually ignored. Except, that is, for the wife of our hero, who is an annoying shrew, and who looks like a forty-year-old Briget Fonda who wields a mean fiddle. In a scene which just made me angry with the contempt that the filmmakers treated the audience, we see that the wife was at her orchestral rehersal (Boston Symphony, of course), and they were practicing for a concert that was to be held on the Fourth of July. After a quicky scene that showed how selfless concert musicians have to be for their art, we cut to a view from our hero, who was watching the rehersal with a smile on his lips, and love in his eye. After a scene like this, it doesn't take an environmental scientist to figure out that Tommy Lee will be planting a bomb at the concert. Other cliches include the young, cocky replacement for Jeff Bridges, Forrest Whittaker (who, after proving themselves to each other, become buddies of a sort) as well as the bomb squad captain who has to keep Jeff Bridges under control during the investigation of the deaths of the squad members, the fight to the death between our hero and Tommy Lee, and the crusty father (Lloyd Bridges) who spends the first two-thirds of the movie dispensing hogsheads of homespun wisdom. In the last scene, where our hero was trying to defuse a bomb in his wife's Jeep that was connected to the brake for no real good reason, I was hoping, beyond all hope, that something interesting would happen at this step, like the Jeep would explode and take Whittaker with it. But no, this is a Happy Ending, and we'll have none of that icky stuff occurring here. There were some good things about it, though. The wife's daughter was about eleven years old, but she wasn't wisecracking in the least bit. She appeared to be vaguely normal, in a whiny kind of way. And also, to be fair, the sound was good. Scott and I saw the movie in one of the special digital sound theaters, and I was very impressed with the way it sounded. My home stereo sounds better, but hey, this is the movies, and any advance in audio quality is appreciated. Final review: Crappy. Avoid it like the plague. Tommy Lee is probably the best character, but even that isn't saying much. Jeff Bridges switches accents from an off-Boston kind of tone to a sad attempt at an Irish sound, to something that sounded like it was generated outside of Wichita, Kansas, in view of the cattle yards. The wife was annoying, with fits of stupidity that left me breathless; the daughter was bearable; and Lloyd left my lungs aching for air. I didn't like this movie and I think that I am very annoyed with this movie. You see, there appeared to be a lot of promise here. This could have been a real good movie, something along the lines of say, _Dirty Harry_, where he has to get into the mind of the bad guy to get him. But it wasn't. The filmmakers took the easy way out at every step of the way. One scene, right after the phone call explosion, implied that the Bridges family was going to be blown up. The filmmakers looked at every little thing that could contain a bomb (a telephone, an oven, a telephone jack(?)), and by the time the scene was over, instead of feeling anxious with increasing suspense, the audience was laughing at every little trick the filmmakers were attempting. There's no excuse for this. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (SIG's) [COMPUTER RELATED] compiled by Eric Hunt ################################################################ BIPUG Alabama UniForum Birmingham IBM-PC Users Group Homewood Public Library UAB Nutrition Science Blg 1st Tuesday RM 535/541 Shawn Cleary 870-6130 1st Sunday (delayed one week if meeting is a holiday) Marty Schulman 967-5883 Birmingham Apple Core Informal breakfast meeting every Saturday, 9am - 11am @ Kopper Kettle, lower level Brookwood Village Mall Formal meeting held second Saturday of each month, location variable (to be announced at breakfast meetings and in the user group's newsletter "The PEEL".) President: Sam Johnston - 322-5379 Vice-Prez: Marie Prater - 822-8135 The SIG listing is being re-verified. If you know of an active Computer Related user's group, please let me know. I can be reached via Internet email at eric.hunt@the-matrix.com or drop me a note directly on the MATRIX. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ KNOWN BBS NUMBERS FOR THE BIRMINGHAM AREA ################################################################ Sysops, PLEASE check your listing to make sure everything is correct, especially the networks. Corrections should be mailed to either Luke Whitley or Scott Hollifield on The Matrix, Crunchy Frog, or Southern Stallion. ADAnet One (Nodes 1-3) 250-0013 1200-2400 PCBoard 14.5 [ez, fi, ad] ADAnet One (Node 4) 254-6050 2400-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5 [ez, fi, ad] Alcatraz BBS 608-0880 300-9600 PCBoard 15.0 [he, vi] Alter-Ego BBS 925-5099 1200-9600 USR HST PCBoard 14.5 [alt, ez, mn] Baudville (Nodes 1-7) 995-0013 300-2400 Major BBS 6.12 [none] Bloom County 985-4335 300-28800 VFC 28.8 PCBoard 15.1 [in,fr] BulletProof 668-1624 300-19200 ZyXEL Wildcat 3.90 *RIP* [none] Bus System 987-5419 300-2400 PCBoard 14.2 [none] Byte Me! 979-BYTE! 2400-14400 V.32 WWIV 4.12 [none] Castle, The 841-7618 300-2400 Image 1.2 [none] Cherry Tree 681-1710 1200-14400 TriBBS 4.01 [wm, ca] Christian Apologetic 808-0763 1200-14400 V.32bis Wildcat! 3.90 [ez, cp] Crocodile Country BBS 477-6283 1200-16800 USR DS Searchlight 3.5 *RIP* [sl, fi] Crunchy Frog (Node 1) 823-3957 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5 [ez, mn, lu, ll] Crunchy Frog (Node 2) 823-3958 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5 [ez, mn, lu, ll] Crystal Village 856-3749 1200-2400 VBBS 6.10 [cr, cs, al, ho, co, fn, vi] Den, The 933-8744 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 15.1 [ez, mn, il] Digital Publishing 854-1660 300-9600 V.32 Wildcat! 3.60 [pl] Drawing Room, The 951-2391 300=14400 V.32/42 Wildcat! 3.90 [none] Electro-BBS 491-8402 300-14400 V.32/42 Maximus 2.01 [fi] Family Smorgas-Board 744-0943 300-2400 PCBoard 14.5 [ez, fi, mj, bc, fa, ic, cf, cd, ve, ad, wg, pt, ed, gn] Final Frontier 838-5634 300-14400 VBBS 6.11 *RIP* [al, he, re, fn] Free Enterprise 856-9809 300-14400 V.32/42 Remote Access 2.01 [fi,it,sz,br] Genesis Online(Nodes 1-6) 620-4150 300-14400 V.32bis Major BBS 6.11 [mr] Gone Fishin' 733-0860 1200-14000 V.42bis Searchlight 3.5a *RIP* [do, sl] Guardian, The (Node 1) 425-1951 1200-14400 V.42bis Synchronet 2.0 [dv, sp] Guardian, The (Node 2) 425-1956 1200-14400 V.42bis Synchronet 2.0 [dv, sp] KickAxis BBS (Node 1) 733-0253 1200-14400 USR DS PCBoard 15.0 [he] KickAxis BBS (Node 2) 733-0299 1200-14400 USR DS PCBoard 15.0 [he] Leaping's Lounge 856-2521 1200-14400 GTPower 18.00 [gt, ez, mn, wm, di] Lions Den 871-9688 300-14400 USR DS Wildcat! 3.90 [wi, fi] Lumby's Palace 520-0041 300-14400 VBBS 6.0 [he] Magic City (Node 1) 664-9883 300-14400 USR DS Wildcat! 3.90 [di, wm, wi, ca, cm, pe] Magic City (Node 2) 664-0435 300-2400 Wildcat! 3.90 [di, wm, wi, ca, cm, pe] Magnolia BBS 854-6407 300-14400 USR HST PCBoard 14.5 [ez, mn] MATRIX, The (Nodes 1-10) 252-9888 300-2400 Major BBS *RIP* [ez, mn, th, il, in, us, al, sh, sc, gl, ic, ri, fr] MATRIX, The (Nodes 11-25) 252-5566 9600-14400 USR DS Major BBS *RIP* [ez, mn, th, il, in, us, al, sh, sc, gl, ic, ri, fr] MetaBoard 854-4814 300-14400 USR DS Opus CBCS 1.73 [fi, ad] MetroMac BBS (Node 1) 323-6306 1200-28800 V.FC TeleFinder 3.1 [none] MetroMac BBS (Node 2) 252-0582 1200-28800 V.FC TeleFinder 3.1 [none] Milliways BBS (Node 1) 956-3177 1200-2400 Major BBS 6.11 *RIP* [none] Milliways BBS(Nodes 2-6)956-2731 1200-2400 Major BBS 6.11 *RIP* [none] Missing Link 853-1257 300-16800 USR DS C-Net Amiga 2.63 [cl, cn] Neon Moon (Node 1) 477-9352 9600-14400 TriBBS 4.0 [none] Neon Moon (Node 2) 477-5894 2400 TriBBS 4.0 [none] Owl's Nest, The 854-4852 300-38400 PCBoard 14.5 [ez, mn] Parthenon, The 678-9676 1200-28800 Wildcat 3.9 [fi, un, wi, ru, me] Party Line 856-1336 300-14000 V.32bis TriBBS 4.0 [cc, wm, di] Playground 681-5070 1200-14000 V.32 TriBBS 5.0 [wm, di, al, ez] Posys BBS 854-5131 300-9600 V.32 PCBoard [none] Programmer's Shack 988-4695 2400-14400 HST DS Renegade [ws, fi, it] Quiet Zone 833-2066 300-2400 ExpressNet [none] Safe Harbor (Node 1) 665-4332 300-2400 GTPower 18.00 [gt, ez, mn, lg, ae, fr] Safe Harbor (Node 2) 665-4355 300-14400 USR DS GTPower 18.00 [gt, ez, mn, lg, ae, fr] Sam's Domain 956-2757 1200-14400 SL. 3.50 [da, he] Safety BBS 581-2866 300-2400 RBBS-PC 17.4 [none] Southern Stallion 322-3816 300-16800 ZyXEL PCBoard 15.1 *RIP* [alt, ez, lu, th, rs, un] Sperry BBS 853-6144 300-2400 V.32/42b PCBoard 15.0 [none] ST BBS 836-9311 300-14400 HST PCBoard 14.2 [ez] StarBase 12 647-7184 1200-14000 TriBBS 4.0 [ez, mn, wm] Thy Master's Dungeon 940-2116 300-57600 V.32/42b PCBoard 14.5 [fr] Torch Song 328-1517 1200-14000 V.32/42b Wildcat 3.90 [pr, st, gn] Weekends BBS 841-8583 2400-16800 USR DS Wildcat! 3.9 [ca] Willie's DYM (Node 1) 664-9902 300-2400 Oracomm Plus [or] Willie's DYM (Node 2) 664-9903 300-2400 Oracomm Plus [or] Willie's DYM (Node 3) 664-9895 300-2400 Oracomm Plus [or] Willie's DYM (Node 4) 664-9896 300-2400 Oracomm Plus [or] Ziggy Unix BBS 991-5696 300-1200 UNaXess [none] *RIP* = BBS Software is RIP Graphics capable. You must be using a RIP compatible term software to view them. RIPTerm or QmodemPro v1.50 are the only two I know of that support it at this time. RIPTerm is shareware and can be downloaded from most BBS's. QmodemPro is a commercial product. The two-letter abbreviations you see on the line below 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. ad = ADAnet, an international network dedicated to the handicapped ae = Arts & Entertainment, a national network, multi-topic ag = AgapeNet, a national Christian network, multi-topic al = AlaNet, a local network, multi-topic alt = AlterNet, a local network, multi-topic an = The Annex, an international network, multi-topic at = AdultNet, a national network, adult-oriented bc = BCBNet, a local network, religion-oriented bh = BhamTalk, a local network, multi-topic bi = BitchNet, uncertain at press time br = BreezeNet, National network, multitopic ca = CafeNet, a local network, restaurant/dining, recipes, etc. cc = Coast2Coast, a national network, multi-topic cd = CDN, a national Christian network for file distribution cf = CFN, a national Christian network, multi-topic ch = ChristNet, a national Christian network cl = CLink, uncertain at press time cm = CompuLink, a national network, multi-topic cn = CNet, multi-topic co = ComicNet, a local net for comic book readers cp = CAPNet, a national Christian network, multi-topic cr = CrystalNet, uncertain at press time cs = ChaosNet, uncertain at press time cy = Cybernet, uncertain at press time da = DateNet, uncertain at press time de = DevNet, an international network for programmers and developers di = Dixie Net, a regional network, multi-topic geared toward the south eastern United States do = DoorNet, a national network for the distribution of BBS doors dv = DoveNet, uncertain at press time ec = EchoNet, an international network, multi-topic ed = EduNet, a national network devoted to homeschooling and Christian education er = ErosNet, an international network, adult oriented, files & messages ez = EzNet, a local IBM compatible network fa = FamilyNet, an international network, multi-topic fi = FidoNet, an international network, multi-topic fn = FrontierNet, a local network, multi-topic fr = FredNet, a regional network, political discussion fs = FSNet, uncertain at press time ga = GameNet, a local network, uncertain at press time gl = GlobalLink, an international network, multi-topic gm = GayCom, an international network, homosexually oriented gn = GlobeNet, an international network, multi-topic gt = GTNet, an international network, multi-topic gy = GayNet, a national network, homosexually oriented he = HellNet, a local network, multi-topic ho = HobbyNet, a local network for hobbyists ic = ICDM, an international Christian network, multi-topic ie = Intelec, a national network, multi-topic il = ILink, an international network, multi-topic in = InterNet, an international network of mail, linking businesses, universities, and bbs', multi-topic it = ITCNet, a national network, multi-topic lg = Local GT Net, a local network, connecting GT Power systems ll = LlamaNet, a national network, freeform correspondence lo = LocalNet, uncertain at press time lu = LuciferNet, an international network, adult oriented ma = MAXnet, a local network, connecting WWIV and VBBS systems me = Medieval-Net, uncertain at press time mj = MJCN, an international network for Messianic Jews mn = Metronet, an international network which echoes RIME, multi-topic mr = MajorNet, an international network, multi-topic nl = NewLife, uncertain at press time np = NPN, a national network for new parents or = OraNet, a national E-mail network pe = Planet Earth Network, a national network, multi-topic pl = PlanoNet, a national network, multi-topic pn = PoliceNet, an international network, law-enforcement only pr = PrideNet, a national homosexually oriented network pt = PRNet, a national network devoted to 2nd amendment rights rf = RF Net, a national network for ham radio users and hobbyists ri = RIME, an international network, multi-topic rb = RoboLink, a national network, multi-topic re = RealityNet, uncertain at press time rp = RPGnet, a local network for role-playing games rs = RoseNet, a national network, technically orient*ed ru = RushNet, a national network for Rush Limbaugh fans sc = Science Factor Net, a national network, science and technology oriented se = SEC, a regional network, homosexually oriented geared toward the southeastern United States sh = Shades N Shadows Net, a national network for role-playing games sl = SearchlightNet, a national network, multi-topic sm = SmartNet, a national network, multi-topic sn = ShadowNet, a national network for role-playing games sp = Sub-SpaceNet, uncertain at press time ss = SexSations!, a national network, adult-oriented st = StudsNet, a national network, homosexually oriented sz = SCN-Net, uncertain at press time te = TECHnet, a local network, hardware and utility oriented th = ThrobNet, an international network, adult oriented un = U'NI-Net, an international network, multi-topic us = Usenet, an international network existing on the Internet, multi- topic ve = VETLink, a national network for military veterans vi = VirtualNet, an international network, multi-topic wg = WGA, an international network devoted to genealogy research wi = WildNet, a national network, multi-topic wm = World Message Exchange, an international network, multi-topic ws = WishNet, uncertain at press time ww = WWIV-Net, an international network, multi-topic