################################################################ # # # BTN: Birmingham Telecommunications News # # # ################################################################ ---------------------------------------------------------------- COPYRIGHT 1994 ISSN 1055-4548 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 7, Issue 7 Issue #71 September 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------- edition 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- article title author ---------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer/Statement of Policy.............................Staff From The Editor.................................Scott Hollifield Submission Guidelines......................................Staff What Do I Think?.....................................Mark Maisel Notes From the Trenches............................Dean Costello The Internet and the Anti-Net........................Nick Arnett No Beer Blues........................................Damion Furi Epilogue..............................................Gary Hasty Special Interest Groups (SIGs).........................Eric Hunt Known BBS Numbers..........................................Staff ---------------------------------------------------------------- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ 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 Bus System The Castle C.A.B. The Comfy Chair! Crunchy Frog DC Info Exchange Final Frontier Free Enterprise The Guardian Leaping's Lounge Lion's Den Martyrdom Again?! The MATRIX The Outer Limits Owl's Nest 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! ################################################################ YEAH YEAH YEAH Late again. See From The Editor for more grousing. I NEED PASSWORDS!!! If you're the sysop of either LUMBY'S PALACE or METROMAC BBS, please either call me or leave me mail on The MATRIX giving me my password, since I've forgotten or lost it. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ FROM THE EDITOR Scott Hollifield ################################################################ Remember last month when I said the following? "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." Well as you've probably guessed by now, things didn't work out quite that smoothly. (If you can call the original idea smooth at all.) I won't bore you by detailing the list of things that put me off my schedule and delayed the arrival of the September issue of BTN (thereby saving me from having to come up with such a list). Suffice it to say that you did *not* miss the August issue of BTN, as there was none. What can I say? I think we're back on schedule now, and the October issue should also come out more or less on time. Next month's issue will also mark the beginning of a promising young career; I'm talking about the naive young grasshopper who will take over the task of compiling the Known BBS Numbers list as of next issue. His identity will be revealed next issue; in the meantime, pray to whatever gods you find fruitful that he is prepared for the labors ahead of him. As for this month, yet another "less-is-more" feast awaits your hungry eyes and minds... Dean Costello is back with another very relevant article on the current attitudes regarding computer techonology and the government. Our esteemed publisher, Mark Maisel, actually wrote something this month in what will hopefully be a semi-regular series of commentaries. We have an article from outsider Nick Arnett, who also has some cogent things to say on the culturalization of the Internet. Gary Hasty concludes his telling of the trials and tribulations he's immersed in as a sysop in Dalton, GA. And finally, we showcase Damion Furi's rarely-seen tender, musical side, in the first of what may alarmingly be a series of... song lyrics. (Longtime readers will recall that *I* myself tried this angle in an early issue of BTN, #5 to be exact. And you can see where it got me.) One final addendum: Despite us being forced awkwardly back to our old top-of-the-month schedule, Judy Ranelli's Local Music column is taking a vacation this issue. I would say that hopefully she'll be back next month, but who knows what kind of world we'll have by then? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ SUBMISSION GUIDELINES ################################################################ I. ARTICLE LENGTH Right now, there's no strict enforcement of a length restriction, but if your submission is somewhat short, I may request that you make it longer. Anyone can sit down and type out a screen's worth of stuff. I have yet to encounter an article that was too *long*, so don't worry about that. II. SUBJECT MATTER Again, there's no hard-and-fast rules about subject matter. I'm interested in seeing material on a wide variety of topics. That includes BBSs, politics, music, books, or better yet, something that doesn't neatly fall into any one category. Next to that, my favorite articles are the ones that have something to do with BBSing, since that is supposedly what we're sort of about. Technical reviews are also good. I tend to kind of frown on fiction, but I'm willing to take a look at anything you've got. If it's interesting enough, your chances are good. Politics is fine, but try not to rant--and make whatever you have to say original. I can go out and find ten Rush Limbaughs if I want. Also refrain from "This Is What Happened To Me Today" slice-of-life articles unless it's leading somewhere good. Reviews should be both informative and opinionated. Don't be too objective, but still tell us about what you're reviewing. III. FILE FORMAT Plain and simple ASCII is preferred, but we can convert WordPerfect files if need be. IV. STYLE GUIDELINES 1. Use a right margin of 72 columns. 2. Indent paragraphs at the fifth column. 3. Put two spaces after each sentence. 4. Skip a line after each paragraph. 5. Refrain from using BBS-specific devices like "" and ":-)". 6. Be sure to give your article a title. 7. Try to use correct grammar, spelling and capitalization! My staff proofread as best as we can, but a well-typed article makes our job easier. 8. The dash is correctly typed as two hyphens, like "--". Use it to set apart phrases and clauses--as with this sentence. 9. To emphasize a word, place a pair of asterisks around it, like *this*. This takes the place of italics (except for titles; see 12). 10. If you have to emphasize a group of words, use capitals, AS IN THIS EXAMPLE. I generally don't like the way that looks, so use it sparingly, if at all. 11. If you're unsure whether to spell out a number or not, leave it in numeral form. 12. Titles of books, films, plays, albums and works of art are surrounded by underlines, like: U2's _The Joshua Tree_. This takes the place of italics in this regard; I call it "title-cizing". On the other hand, television shows, songs, poems, article titles and short stories are surrounded by quotation marks. V. HOW DO I SUBMIT AN ARTICLE? The easiest way is to upload it as a private file on one of two systems: The Matrix and the Crunchy Frog. (Their phone numbers are listed at the end of this feature.) To upload a file privately, begin your file description with a slash ("/"). Then leave me (SCOTT HOLLIFIELD) a private message telling me what the file name is, so that I can have the sysop make it available for me. Another way is to leave me the article as a private message, or a series of private messages. If you become a regular contributor to BTN, you can get access to the private BTNWA conference, which is for BTN writers. There we discuss articles, policy, ideas, etc. The BTNWA conference also contains a private file directory which I can access more easily than a private file outside BTNWA. Finally, as an alternative, if you live outside of the local Birmingham area and you don't wish to call long distance, you can submit an article via Internet e-mail. My address is scotth@the-matrix.com. That's it! Get to work! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR From BTN Readers ################################################################ None this month! I spit on you all! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ WHAT DO I THINK? Mark Maisel ################################################################ "1.) On 05/24/94, Steve Smith said to Damion Furi: This brings up another question that seems to be brewing in my mind. The options you refer to above are attractive, to the extreme for me. By only short extension those options allow me access to information that is not available via mainstream media. Some are predicting that the "information superhighway" concepts, ie, wideband interactive TV, will overshadow then leave BBS technology in the dust. Others say no, that BBS software and the hardware to run it is just now coming into it's own. What's your read of this?" The above was posted as noted. I was sitting here and thought it high time I addressed this issue. I've discussed with a variety of folks over the years, at least what the future holds for BBSs. I've not given much thought to any conglomeration of TV, digitally stored and produced information, and the notion of "Information Super Highway". To start, BBSs began as the domain of hobbyists. I'd like to have been around when it occurred to the first one that the thing might make money, even were it only to pay for itself. I've always preferred BBSs as a hobby, though I certainly don't hold anything against anyone who wishes to cover their costs or even attempt to extract a profit. It is difficult to prognosticate but here goes... A year or two ago, I wrote a piece about BBSs in change. In it, I suggested that BBSs would adapt in order to compete against much more sophisticated services. To cover the increased costs of such changes, most would either have to charge, give up, or continue in hopes of attracting folks who prefer the simpler bbs offerings or are simply "old timers" a la Brett Thorn. [Brett is quite the curmudgeon regarding the shift over the years of BBSs from the domain of hobbyists to the new "CB Radio". I've spoken extensively with him about these changes and our mutual feelings about them. Thanks to him for his insight before I continue.] So far, my thoughts have come to pass, at least locally. The trend started much sooner throughout much of the country, but I gathered that much of the charging elsewhere was done solely to discourage children and adolescents from participating with the "grown-ups". A few months after I wrote that piece, The MATRIX placed greater emphasis on subscriptions and shortly thereafter went subscription only, though some free time is offered as an introduction to new callers. Other boards have changed their policies toward charging that had previously been free and new boards have sprung up expressly to charge for access. I do not call these systems, being satisfied these days with the few systems I do call. I gather they do well, at least well enough that they continue to appear in the BTN BBS List each month. The older boards and the new ones are offering much wider variety of services and openly competing against each other, though most of this competition has been friendly. Other boards have either languished or gone down. There are several local examples of these changes. The boards that have gone down over the last several months are of interest to me. In particular, Joker's Castle and Channel 8250 come to mind. The former only recently ceased service and I have not yet talked to the sysop to find out why he took it down. From having called it for years prior to its end, I can tell you that it became a less busy place with the passage of time. I do not know if this was a factor. The latter is a story I know better. The sysop had not been active for a year or two though he was infrequently and irregularly spotted on another system. I suspect he was simply waiting for an event to give him an excuse to pull the plug. Things have changed...for both people and BBSs. Both sysops were hobbyists. Neither, as best can be told, had any interest in charging for access or adding services beyond what they already offered. From this I conclude that lots of folks see some money to be made dishing up information and related services. From here, much depends on what the phone, utility, and cable companies are permitted to do in regards to offering same. If they become players, all bets are off and I suspect that most BBSs will decline back to the realm of hobbyists. If these companies continued to be hobbled by the government and their own corporate trappings, BBSs will continue to grow until they resemble larger siblings such as The Well. They'll have to make lots of money to do it. Expect price increases and increased services, availability, and speed. I gather that the "big boys" are working toward getting services online. I suspect that they will, in time. For this section, you'll have to accept my possibilities rather than a single possibility. This leads us to what the future of online holds. Currently, many projects are underway with many hoping for a piece of the action from the so called "Information Super Highway". Movies on demand seem a popular notion and experiments are under way to make them a reality. Other entertainment and educational opportunities that will rely on interactivity, high bandwidth, etc. will come in time. A hybrid of TV and our desktop computers seems a reasonable delivery device for homes. But, is this what the "ISH" is supposed to be? Is this what the Internet is supposed to be? Before I go on, I'll define some terms. Interactivity means that you are an active participant rather than an inert viewer taking in whatever is broadcast to you. Bandwidth refers to the capacity for the medium and how much can be crammed onto it at any one time, and the speed at which it travels. For example, let us take the DC Beltway, designated as US Interstate 495 (Yes, there are several roads designated with this number. I don't know why.); it was designed for high speed travel by automobiles and commercial vehicles. Once upon a time, it was sufficient to carry the number of vehicles expected in a reasonable time from point a to point b. As time went by, the number of vehicles increased until it reached a point of saturation, leaving the road choked with vehicles moving at a crawl, if moving at all. The result is that US 495 lacks bandwidth for the traffic on it. To define Internet, I again talked with Dean as his efforts give him insight here as well. Technically, the Internet defies definition because it is such a "mish-mosh" or conglomeration, if you will, of research facilities (private and government), universities, businesses, and libraries. Historically, the Internet was set up for researchers to quickly and easily share data from their research. From there, graduate and undergraduate students got hold of it and got us where we are today. It was never intended to be especially user friendly, having been geared for researchers rather than for casual electronic correspondence and file hunting. To define the "ISH", I conferred with Dean Costello, who has given much energy to research regarding this and related topics. Keep in mind that we are going to be talking about government defined terms and the like. As such, the definition is, shall we say, sorta vague. The closest the government has come is HR-1757 or The National Information Infrastructure Act of 1993. The preamble of this law basicly sets out a wish list for a wide area network with several public and not so public databases for use by the public and governmental agencies. Its purpose is to make more information available for education, research, commerce, and individual enlightenment. The "NII" is supposed to be technologically neutral so as to not favor any particular vendor or vendor standards over another. There are four elements composing "NII". The first is data. Information exists and is produced daily in many places. The second is software, that is the actual tools for retrieving, processing, and using the collected data. The third is standards. These are the network transmission standards that facilitate interconnectivity and interoperation between networks to insure privacy and integrity of data. The fourth element is people. The people that generate the information, develop the tools, construct the hardware, and train the rest of us to use it all. Is the Internet the basis for the "NII"? I don't think so, though it may start off that way. The Internet was not designed for "us". As such, it will crumble under our collective weight when we try to load it down too heavily. Already, research institutions, government agencies, and private concerns are building their own private networks so they will not have to rely on the Internet as they did at one time. Enjoy it while it lasts. I certainly intend to do just that. Don't worry about its potential for demise as something just as good or better will be available by the time it can no longer carry us. It may carry a higher personal price tag and be policed, but that is the price of progress, or so history tells me. Is the "NII" going "leave bbs technology in the dust"? Probably. It will do so in the same way as the automobile did this favor for the horse and buggy. The result may well be similar in that BBSs will become quaint and entertaining vehicles for leisure time, much as they are now...much as riding horse is a leisure time activity for most of the folks who do so. The entertainment Americans crave will be at the forefront of any private efforts to build any "NII" in which entrepreneurs and corporations take a stake. The government will attempt to build to its advantage whatever it can from "NII". The preamble to HR-1757 clearly spells this out. The speed with which this will happen depends upon many variables, some of which have already been described here. This speed will determine much of how BBSs will fare. In closing, I can't say that the "NII" is what we'll plug into when we want to watch some new flick or grab that new game, but whatever that turns out to be will benefit from "NII" and vice versa. If you have a particularly sentimental attachment for BBSs as they currently exist, you'll probably still be able to find the old diehard hobbyist carefully tending to their system. More likely, you'll find someone trying to be a part of what the future holds, bearing the attendant costs, and possibly passing them along to you for the privilege of access. I really can't get worked up about it in any event as I intend to adapt as I always have to whatever comes my way. I hope this helps. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ NOTES FROM THE TRENCHES: Me Hablo Computadora Dean Costello ################################################################ I am sitting here, high above I-66 in metro Virginia, and I got to thinking about things like the difference between ideas and words. George Carlin, several decades ago, made a statement along the lines of, "All we have are ideas, which are ephemeral. You take an idea and tag it with a word, and boom, the idea is locked to a specific word, and that's all there is to the idea." Which vaguely reminds me of the first couple verses of John, which go, "When all things began, the Word already was. The Word dwelt with God, and what God was, the Word was. The Word, then, was with God at the beginning, and through him all things came to be...", etc., etc. The basic progression appears to be, then, Idea -> Word -> Man. I like this; it appeals to something in my soul, especially since misinterpretation can occur at any step of the progression. But anyway, enough of vague spiritual philosophy. I learned in my world civics class (1982-1983, Cambridge-South Dorchester High) that many trades liked to keep the teeming masses away from their particular trade by using a specific language that only those initiated in the trade have learned. This kept the number of riff-raff who were trying to crash the trade to a low level. The above was the major reason for the existance of trade guilds: If any Thomas, Richard, and Henry could manage to perform a task, than the cost for performing the task will drop through the dirt floors of the High Medieval age. So, primarily as windowdressing, guilds created a language to surround a particular trade. As a general rule, if you (the Archbishop of some bishopric in Cornwall who was trying to build a cathedral, for the betterment of God and trade) hired someone who sounded like they knew their trade, you would feel better about hiring them. This is never more true than today. When I was in high school, I took a class in human anatomy and physiology which taught the fundamentals of medical terminology. For instance, I could say things like "This tissue appears to exhibit sarcomic behavior, limited to ciliated- pseudostratifiedcolumnarepithelium," and everyone (who knows medical terminology) would immediately understand the above statement to mean, "hmm, looks like we got some cancer stuff running around in cells of the trachea (sarcomic - like sarcoma (type of cancer), ciliated - cells that have cilia (small hairs for filtering air), pseudo- stratified - appear to contain nuclei that are layered, columnar - cells that are tall/column shaped, epithelium - cells that are on the outside of something). Neat, huh? And this is the basis behind a branch of medicine called Histology (the study of tissues), which is what a medical examiner (ie. Quincy) has to be a master of. As a result of the training I have received over the nineteen-odd years of education I have participated in, I have a pretty good grasp of many different trade languages, which I would argue is the major component of learning a particular craft. The trade that I spend most of my time on these days, environmental protection, has a unique language all of its own. Above and beyond the basic things ("What in the hell is a molten-salt incinerator with preburner?"), I also have to deal with acronyms. As a function of what I do and who I do it for (ie. the U.S. Government), I have to not only know the catchwords that show that I am an acredited member of my guild, but I also have to know the abbreviations that are used. The use of acronyms is so prevalent, that I am exposed to phrases like this: "The ROD for OU-II was predecisional, so using an RI/FS to support an RD/RA is a no-go, even though the ARAR MCL/MCLGs noted during the EA/EIS allowed a FONSI." This will take a minute or two to explain... ROD: Record of Decision. This is the rememdy that was agreed upon by all of the parties concerned with a particular site. It is signed by the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) RA (Regional Administrator), and has, more or less, the force of law. OU-II: Operable Unit Number 2. Oftentimes at the average Superfund site, one particular part of a remedy needs to be implemented before another. For instance, if you have contaminated soil which is contaminating the groundwater, there is no point of establishing a groundwater cleanup system until the soil is cleaned or removed. As a result, OU-II means the second functional part of a cleanup. As a matter of interest, each OU usually has its own ROD (see the way these acronyms start piling up?). Predecisional: Not necessarily an acronym, but it is still a vocabulary word in my guild. This means that a particular method of site cleanup is already in the minds of the decisionmakers, regardless of what is determined during later onsite work. For instance, if you have a wood preserving plant that used creosote to treat railroad ties, you already know going into it that either onsite incineration or bioremediation is the way to go (onsite incineration: Using an incinerator on the grounds of the plant to 'burn' the contamination off the soil using very high temperatures, bioremediation: Using bacteria to 'eat' the contamination in the soil). One project I worked on a couple of years ago is designing some kind of decision document so that if you know a couple of things about a site, you can start the cleanup using a pre-specified technology. Advantages: Fast as the dickens. Disadvantages: May not clean stuff to protect the health of locals, takes a long time. RI/FS: Remedial investigation/feasability study. The RI determines what kind of contaminants are at a particular site and where they are located (usually referred to as "amount and extent of contamination"). The FS determines what type of technology should be used for cleanup. This is not as simple as it sounds, since there are currently about 250 different technologies available for remedial work. RD/RA: Remedial design/remedial action. The RD determines how the cleanup will actually be built. The number of reactor chambers, the size of the piping, the amount of backfill; the nuts and bolts of the cleanup. The RA is the actual work. This is where the bulldozers and front-end loaders are used. ARAR: Applicable, relevant, and appropriate regulations. Basically, what kind of regulations are in place that are effected by the site in question. For instance, there is something called LDRs (land disposal restrictions) which determine the maximum concentration of a contaminant that can be sent to a hazardous waste landfill. Sometimes, you can just ship the hazardous stuff off to the landfill, and sometimes you have to treat it. Are there any local regulations? State regulations? Does the DOT (Department of Transportation) have anything to say? If you are shipping waste to another country, does the Department of State have any complaints? This can get sticky, as one can imagine... MCL/MCLG: Maximum contaminant level/maximum contaminant level goal. These are the limits of contamination that can be found in a water source. Let's use the wood treating plant example above. If the amount of, ummm, benzene in the groundwater is above the MCL, then the groundwater has to be cleaned to at least the MCL. Mind you, this is a general rule, and the groundwater may have to be cleaned to a lower level than the MCL. The MCLG is a goal for a particular contaminant, basically meaning that it would be nice if the contamination is below the MCLG. EA/EIS: Environmental assessment/Environmental Impact Statement. These are studies that are conducted to determine the effect that a certain project would have on an area. An EA is the first step, almost a quicky kind of thing to determine if there are any problem areas like wetlands, or historical sites, that would be adversely effected. If there is no significant effects, a FONSI (finding of no significant impact) is registered, and the project continues. If there is a finding of significant impact (no acronym as far as I can tell), than the EIS is conducted, which is much more involved. It is unlikely that these studies would be conducted for a Superfund site, but it is possible that they were conducted prior to the discovery of contamination. So, let us go back to the original statement and decode it: "The ROD for OU-II was predecisional, so using an RI/FS to support an RD/RA is a no-go, even though the ARAR MCL/MCLGs noted during the EA/EIS allowed a FONSI." Okay, it means something along the lines of: "The cleanup technology for the second part of the site was decided ahead of time, so there is no reason to conduct sampling and determine the best technology to support the design and implementation of the cleanup strategy, even though groundwater contamination limits that were examined during an initial study showed that they were not a problem." Welcome to the environmental field. "Dean," you say, "how does this effect me? I drive computers for a living." Simple. Computer users have just as a confusing and silly lexicon as the doctors or the environmental folk. Take the following sentence: "Well, I just bought a PC, 486dx2, 525Meg SCSI, 16megs RAM, SVGA with a meg, and PS2 mouse". Most of you probably have a pretty good feel for what this means. But for the uninitiated, it means no more than "toxic insult to the medial pyramidial tracts" (some kind of poisoning to an area of the brain/spinal column). I have this article that I found on a local BBS in Washington, D.C., which I will extract from (apoligies to Irving Kind). It is basically 115K of various terms that as a computer user you are expected to know, but may very easily not. Let's take a look at some: AASP ASCII Asynchronous Support Package AAT Average Access Time ACDI Asynchronous Communications Device Interface ADP Automatic Data Processing ADPCM Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation ADR Address ANSI American National Standards Institute AO Analog Output AS3AP ANSI SQL Standard Scalable and Portable .ASC ASCII text (file name extension) ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange EDOS Enhanced DOS for Windows EDP Electronic Data Processing EDPM Electronic Data Processing Machine HPPI High Performance Parallel Interface HPW High Performance Workstation [Sun] HRIS Human Resource Information System HRG High Resolution Graphics ISO/OSI International Standards Organization/Open Systems Interconnection (model) LGDT Load Global Descriptor Table .LIB Library (file name extension) LZW Lempel-Ziv-Walsh (algorithm) mA Milliampere MMIS Materials Manager Information System MMPM Multi Media Presentation Manager NMOS Negative Channel Metal-Oxide Semiconductor NMS Network Management System [Novell] PABX Private Automatic Branch Exchange PACS-L Public Access Computer Systems List [Internet] PAD Packet Assembler/Disassembler RARP Reverse Address Resolution Protocol RAS Random Access Storage + SEC Single Error Correction SECAM Sequentiel Couleur Avec Memoire TQM Total Quality Management TR Terminal Ready VGC Video Graphics Controller VHS Very High Speed + Virtual Host Storage VHSIC Very High Speed Integrated Circuit An impressive list of terms, I have to admit. I would assume that most of you (since you are reading this via a computer and therefore have at least some passing knowledge of the subject) know about half of these statements. I picked them as close to random as I could, since there were about 1000 lines of text, and I didn't want to spend the time to pick "good" or "bad" examples. I took a quick gander at the aforementioned list, and I knew about six of the terms, but I have never claimed to be a master of computers. The point being that the computer types have just as specialized a vocabulary as other particular guilds. I would say that people that use computer as a hobby, or use them for word processing and such do not have the grasp of the vocabulary, the same as someone who goes to General Nutrition Center (GNC) for vitamins do not have the same grasp of biochemistry as I. Since I am an environmental scientist, I have had a lot of people ask me about certain topics: The steps of the Superfund process, how different technologies work to clean soil, sampling protocol, regulations, etc. I have to think about the answers that I give, not because they are "good" or "bad", but because I have to gear the response to the audience. To examine my prior sentence about OU-II and RODs and MCLs and such, people I work with would have no problem with understanding what I am saying. When a civilian asks me a question, I have to respond in a way that is 1). Informative; which answers the question at hand, and 2) Not technical; which means without the acronyms, and explaining other concepts on the fly. I have been answering questions about asbestos for a person in the Birmingham community over the last couple of weeks. I love spreading the knowledge around, as it is good to educate people and it also sharpens my knowledge of a particular field (to paraphrase Bruce Sterling, data may not be free, but knowledge is). But it is very easy, especially with a guild such as mine, to swamp the auschlanders with either too much information or with information with no context. I have not noted the above constraints with the average computer user. From what I can tell, they (on the whole) love nothing more than to wow the questioner with their knowledge of arcane factoids. Do I really care what a HD interleave is? Is it really important that I learn about compression on my modem to ease another 3 cps out of my transfer times? .INI files? Memory on graphics card? GIF compression routines? Oh, stop it. I'm not impressed. In all of my wandering of the computer countryside, questing for knowledge, one person so far has routinely and successfully explained computer (and statistics, but that's another matter) topics to me without getting lost in the cool verbiage: Brett Thorn. Others do to a lesser extent, and I assume it is less a function of their ability and more that they assume I know more about stuff than I do and can then strut their vocabulary to a greater extent. But, far and away, the average user appears to like nothing better than to swamp people with their way-awesome vocabulary. It is time to face facts: Until you (the personal computer user) get over the love of the computer lexicon, you will not be accepted by the general population. When your aunt, who is thinking about buying a computer, comes up to you and asks what kind of computer she should buy for keeping her recipes in order, you don't swamp her with (in her eye) meaningless questions about hard drive space, VGA, RAM, EISA, or anything like that. For the most part your audience is not impressed, and will simply ignore you and/or wander off and either not fool around with the purchase or ask someone else who does know the exact same stuff you do, but is able to translate from Guildspeak to English better than you do. This is not a Good Thing. You have either successfully driven someone to not use a computer, or to not be happy using a computer since they believe that they will never master the intricies that you obviously are familiar with. The upshot: Think before you spout information. The questioner usually has a genuine desire to learn something. Take the extra 10 seconds to spell out an acronym and to define a term. The person asking the questions will not walk away more confused than they were before, and you get the warm satisfaction of passing Knowledge to another person. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ THE INTERNET AND THE ANTI-NET Nick Arnett ################################################################ Two public internetworks are better than one Networking policy debates tend to paint a future monolithic internetwork that will follow consistent policies despite a number of independent operators. Although that's how the interstate highway and telephone systems--favorite metaphors for network futurists--operate, historical comparisons suggest that it is probably not what the future holds. Two distinct, interconnected publicly accessible digital internetworks are likely to emerge, which is surely better than just one. One of the future internetworks will grow out of today's Internet, whose roots are in the technology and scientific/academic communities, funded by government, institutions and increasingly, corporate and individual users. Although the Internet will support commercial services, they rarely will depend on advertising. The other great internetwork will grow out of the technology and mass communications industries, especially cable and broadcast industries. The "Anti-net" will rely on advertising revenue to recoup the cost of the infrastructure necessary to create cheap, high-speed bandwidth. (I call this second network the Anti-net not to be a demagogue but to make a historical allusion, explained shortly.) All three communities -- technology, science and academia, and mass media -- will participate in many joint projects. The most successful new ventures often will arise from three-way collaborations; skills of each are essential to create and deliver network-based information products and services. The Internet community reacts with profound anger and resentment at Anti-net behavior on the Internet -- in net-speak, "spamming" advertising messages into hundreds of discussions. The outrage is based in part on the idealistic traditions of academic and scientific freedom of thought and debate, but there's more behind it. Anger and resentment fueled by the world's love-hate relationship with the mass media, particularly television, surface in many other contexts. Nearly everyone in the modern world and large segments of the third world watches television; nearly all think broadcast television is stupid, offering a homogenized, sensationalized point of view that serves advertising interests above all others. In competition with television's hypnotic powers, or perhaps simply due to the high cost of distribution, other mass media have followed suit. Idealistic defenders of the Internet's purity believe they are waging a humanitarian or even a holy war that pits a democracy of ideas against the mass media's empty promises and indulgences. Television and its kin offer the false idols and communities of soaps, sitcoms and sports. The mass media tantalize with suggestions of healing, wealth, popularity and advertising's other blessings and temptations. Internet idealists even question the U.S. administration's unclear proposal of an "information superhighway," suspecting that the masses will be taxed only to further expand the Anti-net's stranglehold on information. The same kind of stage was set 500 years ago. The convergence of inexpensive printing and inexpensive paper began to loosen the Roman Catholic church's centuries-old stranglehold on cultural information. The church's rise to power centuries earlier had followed the arrival of the Dark Ages, caused in Marshall McLuhan's analysis by the loss of papyrus supplies. The church quickly became the best customer of many of the early printer-publishers, but not to disseminate information, only to make money. The earliest dated publication of Johann Gutenberg himself was a "papal indulgence" to raise money for the church's defense against the Turk invasions. Indulgences were papers sold to the common folk to pay for the Pope's remission of their sins, a sort of insurance against the wrath of God. Indulgences had been sold by the church since the 11th century, but shortly after the arrival of printing, the pope expanded the market considerably by extending indulgences to include souls in purgatory. Indulgence revenue was shared with government officials, becoming almost a form of state and holy taxation. The money financed the church's holy wars, as well as church officials' luxurious lifestyles. Jumping on the new technology for corrupt purposes, the church had sown the seeds of its own undoing. The church had the same sort of love-hate relationship with common people and government that the mass media have today. The spark for the 15th-century "flame war," in net-speak, was a monk, Martin Luther. Outraged by the depth of the church's corruption, Luther wrote a series of short theses in 1517, questioning indulgences, papal infallibility, Latin-only Bibles and services, and other authoritarian, self-serving church practices. Although Luther had previously written similar theses, something different happened to the 95 that he nailed to the church door in Wittenburg. Printers -- the "hackers" of their day, poking about the geographic network of church doors and libraries -- found Luther's theses. As an academic, Luther enjoyed a certain amount of freedom to raise potentially heretical arguments against church practice. Nailing his theses to the Wittenburg door was a standard way to distribute information to his academic community for discussion, much like putting a research paper on an Internet server today. In Luther's time, intellectual property laws hadn't even been contemplated, so his papers were fair game for publication (as today's Internet postings often seem to be, to the dismay of many). Luther's ideas quickly became the talk of Europe. Heresy sells, especially when the questioned authority is corrupt. But the speed of printing technology caught many by surprise. Even Luther, defending himself before the pope, was at a loss to explain how so many had been influenced so fast. Luther's initial goal was to reform the church. But his ideas were rejected and he was excommunicated by his order, the pope and the emperor, convincing Luther that the Antichrist was in charge in Rome. Abandoning attempts at reform, but accepting Biblical prophecy, Luther resisted the utopian goal of removing the Antichrist from the papacy. Instead, as a pacifist, he focused on teaching and preaching his views of true Christianity. Luther believed that he could make the world a better place by countering the angst and insecurity caused by the Antichrist, not that he could save it by his own powers. Luther's philosophy would serve the Internet's utopians well, especially those who believe that the Internet's economy of ideas untainted by advertising must "win" over the mass media's Anti-net ideas. The Internet's incredibly low cost of distribution almost assures that it will remain free of advertising-based commerce. Nonetheless, if lobbying by network idealists succeeds in derailing or co-opting efforts to build an advertising-based internetwork, then surely commercial interests will conspire with government officials to destroy or perhaps worse, to take over the Internet by political and economic means. Historians, instead of comparing the Internet to the U.S. Interstate highway system's success, may compare it with the near-destruction of the nation's railroad and trolley infrastructure by corrupt businesses with interests in automobiles and trucking. The printing press and cheap paper did not lead to widespread literacy in Europe; that event awaited the wealth created by the Industrial Revolution and the need for educated factory workers. Printing technology's immediate and profound effect was the destruction of the self-serving, homogenized point of view of a single institution. Although today's mass media don't claim divine inspiration, they are no less homogenized and at least as self-serving. The people drown in information overload, but one point of view is barely discernable from another, ironically encouraging polarization of issues. Richard Butler, Australia's ambassador to the United Nations, draws the most disturbing analogy of all. Butler, a leader in disarmament, compares the church's actions to the nuclear weapons industry's unwillingness to come under public scrutiny. Like the church and its Bible, physicists argued that their subject was too difficult for lay people. Medieval popes sold salvation; physicists sold destruction. Neither was questioned until information began to move more freely. The political power of nuclear weapons has begun to fall in part due to the role of the Internet and fax communications in the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The truly influential and successful early publishers, such as Aldus Manutius, were merchant technologists who formed collaborations with the scientific/academic community and even the church, especially those who dissented against Rome. Out of business needs for economies of scale, they brought together people with diverse points of view and created books that appealed to diverse communities. The Renaissance was propelled in part by books that allowed geniuses such as Copernicus to easily compare and contrast the many points of view of his predecessors, reaching world-changing conclusions. Today we are at a turning point. We are leaving behind a world dominated by easy, audiovisual, sensational, advertising-based media, beginning a future in which the mass media's power will be diluted by the low cost of distribution of many other points of view. Using the Internet is still something like trying to learn from the pre-Gutenberg libraries, in which manuscripts were chained to tables and there were no standards for organization and structure. But like the mendicant scholars of those days, today's "mendicant sysops," especially on the Internet, are doing much of the work of organization in exchange for free access to information. Today, the great opportunity is not to make copies of theses on the digital church doors. It is to build electronic magazines, newspapers, books, newsletters, libraries and other collections that organize and package the writings, photos, videos, sounds and other multimedia information from diverse points of view on the networks. The Internet, with one foot in technology and the other in science and academia, needs only a bit of help from the mass media in order to show the Anti-net how it's done. _________________________________________________________________ Nick Arnett [nicka@mccmedia.com] is president of Multimedia Computing Corporation, a strategic consulting and publishing company established in 1988. Comments about this article e-mailed to [antinet@mccmedia.com] will be linked to a copy of this essay on Multimedia Computing Corp.'s World-Wide Web server: Recommended reading: "The printing press as an agent of change: Communications and cultural transformation in early-modern Europe," Vols. I and II. Elizabeth Eisenstein. Cambridge University Press, 1979. Copyright (c) 1994, Multimedia Computing Corp., Campbell, Calif., U.S.A. This article is shareware; it may be distributed at no charge, whole and unaltered, including this notice. If you enjoy reading it and would like to encourage free distribution of more like it, please send a contribution to Plugged In (1923 University Ave., East Palo Alto, CA 94303), an after-school educational program for children in under-served communities. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ NO BEER BLUES (Song lyrics) Damion Furi ################################################################ It's one fifty-eight on a Saturday night, All the bars are closin', and I'm real uptight, No beer in the fridge, and I'm outta luck, Got no money and it really sucks, All the bills are paid, got nothin' for fun, Got my bullets, can't find my gun, C'mon, pal, lend me a five, I got two minutes, and I wanna get live, Got the no beer blues, Got the no beer blues, Got no beer and I'm feelin' abused, It's Saturday night and time for a beer, I'm not a Baptist, so hand it here, I don't wanna be ramrod straight, I've got enough on my mind, and on my plate, Does anybody know a place to go, Gimme a beer, don't tell me no, Got the no beer blues, Got the no beer blues, Yeah, you heard what I said, C'mon, anybody, and gimme some head, Got the no beer blues, Got the no beer blues, Got no beer and there's no excuse, Well, I'll know better next time, But that's what I said the last time, Got the no beer blues, Got the no beer blues, Got no beer and I'm feelin' abused, I wanna get with it, I'm no good without it, I want another beer, There's no doubt about it, Give me a bottle, a mug, or a case, I just want to shove another beer in my face...! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ EPILOGUE Gary Hasty ################################################################ "What happened next, Uncle Rev?", screamed the violent children. "Well, I'll tell ya...", I sternly shrugged... GAWD...This week has been phun! The little wars in my little Cyber-area had gone from phunny to boring and now they were just pathetic. So I scripted an "Open letter the the local BBS community" using snipets from messages I had received and posted it in the local echo. (oh, BTW, this is the local echo that I had been twitted from because I wouldn't lock out a 'trouble user' from my board...not just this echo). Then the mail started to flow...J0y!!!! ======================================================================= BBS: WILD WHEELS LATE NITE BBS Date: 07-29-94 (20:16) Number: 20 From: TOM ROBERTSON Refer#: 1037 To: GARY HASTY Recvd: NO Subj: Open Letter to BBS Wo Conf: (20) Chats/Dalt ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- GH>This is crap, folks....this constant bickering and whinning can get GH>on a person's nerves. This is a BBS not some damn conspiracy for GH>paranoids...it a hobby. PERIOD! I do this because I like doing it. GH>PERIOD! These little wars used to be phun to sit back and watch but GH>now they're just pathetic. N time I hear that someone "heard GH>something I said about blah-blah" I'll freakin' puke. Who the HELL GH>do I talk these things over with? I have no idea...I have a GH>life...remember! FIRST OFF if ya want to post to everyone about whats going on between the local BBS POST IT ON YOUR OWN BOARD were hackers can call useing any name they want YOUR WORDS TO ME! Yes this is a HOBIE I spend MY MONEY on and don't want MY computer tore up by a VIRUES Tim Smith has already uploaded to other boards. When I told you about this and other stuff he was doing Like calling up useing his user data file to gain access to other area BBS you said fine doen't bother me its just a hobie. That users can do what ever they want. And as for you talking to Tim Smith this is what he said and wrote a message to him from you stated you even gave him your home voice number to call you and you'd talk to him. So quite your two faced lies and eaither help the other BBS stop people from hacking there systems or just play in your own world. You have a reputation of haveing trouble users on your board ORC and the Old N. W. GA bbs both had problems with you telling users that were locked off there boards to just call your you don't care what users do. YOU EVEN TOLD ME THAT. GH>So....I'm taking a well deserved rest from this crap and will only be GH>accessable locally via The Chair!, Hi-Tech and Ft Mtn...and hopefully GH>the Chatsworth/Dalton echo. Have phun in yar wars...and don't GH>include moi! No you wont have access to this or any other conf. on this board gary aND THANKS FOR TRING TO COME BETWEEN THE LOCAL BBS WE WERE WORKING TOGETHER TO STOP HACKERS BUT THANKS TO YOU POSTING A MESSAGE TO ALL WHEN WE WERE KEEPING IT PRIVETE WAS CHILDISH AND STUPID AND I DO HOPE WE MEET SOMETIME AGAIN! ======================================================================== ...then came this jewel in the local Fido Sysop Chat conference... ======================================================================== From: Tom Robertson Posted: 29 Jul 94 To : All Subj: Gary Hasty Listen up Sysop's thought ya might want to know what kinda sysop Gary Hasty is: 1: we had a user in dalton who ran and still is a bbs and was useing his user.dat to gain access to other bbs. I run my board reg. users and he was accessing there time they pay for so the other bbs Except Gary locked the user out he griped and complained and even sent up a VIRUS to two local boards caousing one to go down for good. Any way gary refused to follow suit said users can do that on his board HIS WORDS to ME. So I no longer allowed him acces (his board) to my local echo conf. 2: Now this was all just between sysop's of the local area only but Ol gary left a message on my borad denounsing the problem calling it a bbs war to all users of my board and I have since had two local BBS drop there feeds and 5 users say they won't be calling back. So thanks to Gary I'm out $100 and a local echo conf. that was doing good. 3. He stated this is just a hobie But Hell I pay money to run this board and dont want a user messing up my computer by uploading a virus thru a message as already done to one board. Just thought you'd want to know what a fine fellow Gary Hasty is. Tom Robertson. =========================================================================== ...at this point I'm blushing like a li'l party grrrl...Hi!! I'm Satan! Then of course the paranoid syslop was bombarded by other syslops... =========================================================================== Message #447 [NetMail (FidoNet)] From: Mike Hill (1:362/112) Posted: 1 Aug 94 To : Gary Hasty (1:362/844) Received: 1 Aug 94 Subj: Advance copy, message in SYSCHAT to Tom Robertson Gary, I saw the messages from Tom Robertson, and wanted to send you an advance copy of one I posted today in the SYSCHAT echo: Mon 1 Aug 94 12:12a By: Mike Hill To: Tom Robertson Re: Gary Hasty St: Local ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >@MSGID: 1:362/112@@Fido 6a17c6c0 >@PID: FM 2.02 Tom, it seems to me that you tried the same little tactics with Gary Hasty that you tried with me. You tried to make another sysop do something you wanted, you tried to make him dance to your tune, and to your rules. When you did not get your way, you went crying off to your corner. With no warning to Gary, you passworded him out of your system. You DEMANDED that he lock a user out of his system. The moderator of your local echo could have banned a user, and could have made the ban stick. For you to arbitrarily password Gary Smith out, you prevented him from connecting to you. You also prevented an intelligent adult conversation about the thing, and instead lied to Gary as he sought guidance in our sysop echo as to why his system could no longer connect to yours. Gary Hasty has grounds for filing an "excessively annoying" complaint against you for your actions. You should also realize that I also have grounds to file the same complaint, and for the same reason. Two such complaints could very likely cost you your node number in FIDO. Is this what you want? Now you have the audacity to complain that Gary's actions cost you $100 in fees to your precious board! You seem to be presenting a shining example to the public on what NOT to do with a BBS, and on just how backwards and behind the times that the for-profit Dalton systems can be. How dare you bring your whining drivel to this echo and complain about Gary Hasty! Go home, turn off your computer, drink a couple of Pepsi's and mellow out for a bit. Learn some manners, learn to spell, learn what Fido is really about, and then come back and use your node number for something besides tossing insults at everyone in sight. Don't bother replying to this message for a couple of days, as I will not argue with you. If you want to have a reasonable discussion with no flames, I am willing to listen, but if you want to rant and rave at me like your last few netmail messages, then save your breath! ======================================================================== Message #269 [SYSCHAT (FidoNet)] From: Michael Lewis Posted: 30 Jul 94 To : Tom Robertson Subj: Gary Hasty Hello Tom! 29 Jul 94 20:28, Tom Robertson wrote to All: TR> Listen up Sysop's thought ya might want to know what kinda sysop TR> Gary Hasty is: 1: So far so good. TR> we had a user in dalton who ran and still is a TR> bbs A user is a BBS? He used to run a BBS and now he still *IS* a BBS? TR> run my board reg. users Regular users? Regal users? Users named Reg? TR> and he was accessing there time they pay Their time, their money. TR> for so the other bbs You lost me here. TR> Except Gary locked the user out he griped TR> and complained and even sent up a VIRUS to two local boards TR> caousing one to go down for good. Causing. TR> Any way gary refused to follow TR> suit said users can do that on his board HIS WORDS to ME. You owe us three commas. TR> So I no TR> longer allowed him acces (his board) to my local echo conf. Cool. TR> 2: Now this was all just between sysop's of the local area only TR> but Ol gary left a message on my borad denounsing the problem TR> calling it a bbs war to all users of my board and I have since TR> had two local BBS drop there feeds and 5 users say they won't be TR> calling back. Three more commas and two periods. Are you sure those two boards dropped their feed, or did you password them out? :-) TR> So thanks to Gary I'm out $100 and a local echo TR> conf. Thanks to Software Creations, I'm out thousands. TR> that was doing good. No that was doing bad, doing good would be using capitalization. TR> 3. He stated this is just a hobie Hobby. You owe us one period. TR> But Hell I pay money to run TR> this board Same here. TR> and dont want a user messing up my computer by TR> uploading a virus thru a message as already done to one board. Same here. TR> Just thought you'd want to know what a fine fellow Gary Hasty is. Man, I can't believe someone hasn't burned a cross on his front yard already! TR> Following is his message he left to all users on my TR> board. Oh goody. I hope it makes more sense than this one. :-) =========================================================================== Then, of course, comes... =========================================================================== Message #438 [NetMail (FidoNet)] From: Tom Robertson (1:362/881) Posted: 31 Jul 94 13:5 To : Gary Hasty (1:362/844) Received: 31 Jul 94 22:0 Subj: Look I am Sorry Gary I'm sorry I blew up in Syschat It just made me mad when You posted a messages about what was going on between the sysop's that was being keep (on my part anyway) priveat. I had to vent my anger sum way and didn't want to involve the users of your's or my BBS this was between us and I seen no need to involve them. Again I am sorry for my part in this and Wish to put it behind us. Its just after Warren sent me messages you were suppose to have writen to Tim Smith I assumed when He said He would get us thru the messages you allowed him to echo I reacted. Bad on my part but From what I have seen and heard of Tim Smith He would do it. Again hope we can put this behind us. Tom> =========================================================================== ...just an update, folks... =========================================================================== -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ################################################################ 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 on the Matrix or Crunchy Frog to Scott Hollifield. 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] 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] Birmingham Online 870-0305 300-2400 Major BBS 6.2 [none] Birmingham Online 870-5400 300-19200 Major BBS 6.2 [none] 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] 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 Synchronet [fi, sz, br, tr, dv] GenesisOnline (sign-up) 620-9076 300-14400 V.32bis Major BBS 6.11 [mr] GenesisOnline (Nds 1-8) 620-4150 300-2400 V.32bis Major BBS 6.11 [mr] GenesisOnline (Nds 9-16) 620-9076 300-14400 V.32bis Major BBS 6.11 [mr] 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] The Island BBS 631-0184 300-2400 WWIV 4.23 [none] 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] Knight's Castle 631-6668 300-14400 WWIV 4.23 [qu, dd] Leaping's Lounge 856-2521 1200-14400 GTPower 18.00 [gt, ez, mn, wm, di] Lions Den 871-9668 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! 4.0 [di, wm, wi, ca, cm] Magic City (Node 2) 664-0435 300-1400 Wildcat! 4.0 [di, wm, wi, ca, sk, yr, ms] 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] 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 300-2400 TriBBS 4.0 [none] Outer Limits 985-1078 300-16800 Wildcat 4.0 [fi, pn, it] 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] Pirate's Cove 665-7924 300-14000 PowerBBS [us] 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 5.02 *RIP* [ez, mn, wm, sx] Torch Song 328-1517 1200-14000 V.32/42b Wildcat 3.90 [pr, st, gn] Virtual Football 823-2029 300-2400 Hermes II v.3.0.2 [none] 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 dd = DeadNet, 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 ms = MSI SupportNet 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 qu = QuadNet, uncertain at press time 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 sk = SeekNet, uncertain at press time 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 sx = SeXXXnet, an 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 tr = TrekNet, a national network for Star Trek fans 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 yr = YourNet, uncertain at press time