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BTN: Birmingham Telecommunications News
COPYRIGHT 1993 ISSN 1055-4548
October/November 1993 Volume 6, Issue 10
Edition 1
*- Under Remodeling Issue-*
Table Of Contents
-----------------
Article Title Author
Policy Statement and Disclaimer................Staff
From The Editor................................Scott Hollifield
Letters to BTN.................................BTN Readers
The Big 3-0....................................Lurch Henson
Smiley's People................................Neal Stephenson
A Conservative Estimate, Part II...............Bernie D. Starchaser
Profile: Scott Kelley..........................The Bishop
Embryo of Light II.............................Gwendolyn Norton
Special Interest Groups (SIGs).................Eric Hunt
Known BBS Numbers..............................James Minton
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
BHAM, 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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
F R E E B I E : G E T I T W H I L E I T S H O T !
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 Channel 8250 C.A.B.
The Comfy Chair! Crunchy Frog DC Info Exchange
Final Frontier Hardware Hotline The Holodeck
Homewood's Hell Hole Joker's Castle Lemon Grove
Lion's Den Martyrdom Again?! The MATRIX
Milliways BBS The Outer Limits Owlabama BBS
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.
*IMPORTANT!* Beginning this month, BTN is adopting an official "favored
distribution policy" in regards to this list. Bulletin boards who offer
BTN as a free download, with no file penalties, are listed here and
receive each issue of BTN as soon after it goes to press as I can
possibly upload it. I will *NOT* be uploading BTN personally to systems
who are NOT on this list--instead, I now have a small staff of helpers
to do that for me, and they will likely not upload BTN as fast as I
will. We try to get BTN to all the systems we can, but if you would
like to receive BTN and you are not getting it, please leave me mail on
THE MATRIX or CRUNCHY FROG and let me know.
Back issues of BTN are available on those boards as well.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
N E W S F L A S H
ANSI AD CONTEST DELAYED
YET ANOTHER MONTH!
See "From the Editor" column.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Editor
by Bernie Starchaser, Guest Editor
Hi all! Bernie here, filling in for Scott so that he can get
a little well-deserved rest and catch up on some personal business.
This issue is a bit thin. You might say it's our "Under Remodeling"
issue. Scott is considering a few administrative changes that will
hopefully streamline future BTN issues and the production thereof.
In the meantime, please be patient with us.
Having found myself in this supremely important position,
even though it may be temporary, I would like to ask a question of
all you readers out there that I've been curious about for a long
time. Your answer to this is more important than you may think, as it
will help Scott and all his loyal assistants make a better BTN.
What I need you all to do is simple: Either on the Crunchy Frog,
The Matrix, or via Internet, send me a short message acknowledging
that you have read this month's issue of BTN. I'd just like to get
a feel for how big a readership this baby's got.
As for the ASCII AD contest, you guessed it! Delayed yet again!
Seems nobody sent anything in. If there are any entrants out there, let's
get cracking, folks!
Well, I've usurped enough of Scott's power and your time.
Enjoy this issue! And that's an order!
-Bernie D. Starchaser-
I may be reached via the following means:
Crunchy Frog: BERNIE STARCHASER
The Matrix : CHRIS PHILLIPS
Internet : chris.phillips@the-matrix.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Letters to the Editor
Well, no one wrote us any letters, so I thought I'd write us one!
Dear BTN,
You guys are really doing a terrific job! Keep up the good
work!
-Starchaser-
Now, if anyone out there wants to write us some REAL letters, send
your messages to:
Crunchy Frog BBS or The Matrix
and direct them to:
Scott Hollifield
Bye!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BIG 3-0
by Lurch Henson
Hello there everybody......been awhile, eh? Things happen,
believe it or not, and articles don't get written like they should.
Anyway, let's see if I can still do this.....
Usually all my articles are "raves".....I run across something
that pisses me off, and I use BTN to tell you all about it, and
hopefully make a few of you think a little (something that's too rare
these days), and maybe even get a few of you to change things when you
see they are going "wrong". This time there's not much you can do about
it, because what's bothering me now is personal..... What's bothering
me this time is something that bothers most people sooner or later, but
it's NOT bothering me in the way it bothers them. What's bothering me
is........my birthday.
No, I'm not getting old. Not in the way you'd think, anyway.
Yes, my body is in worse shape than it used to be. Big deal. That can
be fixed whenever I bother to get around to it. It's actually in a
little better shape now than it has been the past couple of years. Yes,
I do have more grey hairs than I did last year. That doesn't bother me
either, my mother was grey long before now. Some people even tell me
they like the grey I'm getting right up in front. Looks don't bother me
at all. Nope, it's not the "getting old". What bothers me about it is
harder to explain than that.
You see, to me the 30th birthday is the single most significant
one that you will ever have. To my way of thinking, to the philosophy
that I believe in and follow, the 30th birthday is the one where you are
now, truly, finally, 100% adult. As long as you are 20-something you
still carry the stigmata of childhood with you. No one in their
twenties is "truly" mature..... (I know this is not true, but it is
often the way things are interpreted.) Once you turn 30 you
(supposedly) shed your immaturity and take your place in society as a
mature, respectable, contributing member of society..... (Again, I know
this is not true, but it's the most often accepted (even if only
subconsciously) viewpoint.) You are judged continually based on age,
not ability. You are denied certain things because you are "too young"
or "too flighty to be dependable". You cross 30 and attitudes change.
It shouldn't be this way, but it is. People shouldn't pay women less
money simply because they have different plumbing systems either, but
they do (though that is a different gripe). But, this STILL isn't all
of why it's bothering me......
This magical change is approaching. It will be here before the
end of the year. (Here's the piece that bothers me.) When it arrives,
I will be alone.
Many years ago, I was a loner. Being alone was preferred. I did
not require the company of others to be happy. Then I came back to the
states, and ended up married. At the time I thought it was forever. I
loved her, committed to her, and was expecting to grow old with her.
Things didn't work out quite the way I expected, and I was alone again.
It hurt, yes. More than I expected, but it didn't kill me. Being alone
afterwards didn't either because it didn't last TOO long. After I came
to Birmingham, I was too busy to be lonely, and then was involved with
three lovely Ladies. One of them became much more to me than the
others, and I found I had never experienced love to the degree I thought
I had. In her, I truly found someone that was more important to me that
life itself. She and I had something unbelievable together, and I was
not lonely. I let myself believe that we would be together for a very
long time, and it did look as though we might. I should have known
better..... I still love her deeply, more than she will ever believe,
but I am alone once again.
When this time in my life arrives, it will be just another day.
It shall pass with little notice. Members of my family will call, some
will send cards, others will forget entirely, and the day will pass.
There will be no celebration to mark the passing of this day, the
supposedly most significant of my birthdays. If I have returned to
Lower Alabama, my mother will bake me a Devil's Food cake with chocolate
icing, make me a country-fried steak dinner, serve it to me and say
"Happy Birthday", just like any other. The friends that I once had down
there are either gone, or were too divided in the divorce, especially
since I had to come up here right afterwards.....that made it easy for
them to side with my ex-wife.....more comfortable for them. They will
not remember the day, and those that do will not remember the age, and
it's significance. A few will find out sometime near it, will remember
to say "Happy Birthday", and that will be it.
If I am still here in town, there will be no notice of it. On
my birthday this year I will be attending the wedding of a friend of
mine. Almost all of the people I know here in town will also be
attending. I also can not not attend, as this Lady is about the closest
friend I have left these days. If still here, I will be there..... I'm
not complaining about that, I doubt she planned to be married on my
birthday on purpose, I just find it ironic that the day which is
supposed to be so special to me is going to have me attending someone
else's "most special day". Other than the one I love, this Lady is the
only other that would think to do anything to make this day remarkable
for me in any way, and she will, of course, not be able to. On this
day, a day I should be spending with someone special, or even many
special someone's, I will be just another face in a crowd, taking up
space at a wedding. If it were happening in a movie it'd be enough to
make you smile.....and some of you probably will anyway.
I am tired. I am alone. I am sad. The one person I could talk
to about something as personal as this I can no longer talk to at all.
Oh, I have friends I've told my troubles to before. I've friends I've
told very personal problems to before. But to truly talk this
particular problem out requires someone with a connection to my heart,
and there is only one of those. Unfortunately, she has closed her
heart. Locked it down. Sealed it off from me. I lost more than the
Love of my Life, I lost the closest friend I've ever had, and that hurts
in ways you'd never expect.
The loner has been changed by the past three years. I now need
someone to hold close. I now need someone to share with. I now need
someone to be close to. And I am alone.
A moral? A message? All of my articles seem to have one, don't
they? Ok, if you need one here too, it can be a simple one. Don't do
this to someone close to you. Don't let things important to them slip
by you. Don't take them for granted, don't let them fade from your
life. Remember them. Be there for them. Support those who are special
to you. Love them.
Happy Birthday Monster........
Lurch Henson
9309.30
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Smiley's People
Neal Stephenson
The online world has its own cliches and truisms, none so haggard
and hackneyed as the belief that reliable written communication is
impossible without frequent use of emoticons, better known as the
'smileys'. Emoticons are nothing more than characters that look
like a face when viewed sideways. The original smily is :-), but
there are innumberable variations such as :-O, :-(, :-;, and each
can signify anything from facial hair to a particular emotional
state. Emoticons are the electronic equivalent of spin doctors;
commonly inserted at the end of a sentence that is meant to be
interpreted as sarcasm, or, in generation, whenever the writer
fears his or her prose may be about to jump the iron rails of
literalism.
With the eerie uniformity of airport cultists, emoticon users all
proffer the same rationale for the smiley tic: since the streams
of ASCII characters flowing across the Internet (usually described
as "cold", "mechanistic", etc.) cannot carry body language or
tone, the missing cues must be supplied through punctuation. The
tendency of writers to bungle their attempts at sarcasm, and of
the readers to bungle the detection of it, invariably leads (so
the arguement goes) to hurt feelings, which in turn leads to
network flame wars in which people insult each other in
extravagant terms that would never be used face-to-face. Irony,
it seems, is like nitroglycerin: too tricky to be good for much,
and so best left in the hands of fanatics or trained
professionals.
Never addressed by such people is the question of how humans have
managed to communicate with the written word for thousands of
years without crudely fashioned ideograms being strewn across
their parchments. It is as if the written word were a cutting-
edge technology without useful precedents. Some users actually go
so far as to maintain, with a straight face, a :-I, I guess, that
words on a computer screen are different from words on paper--
implying that writers of e-mail have nothing useful to learn from
Dickens or Hemingway, and that time spent reading old books might
be better spent coming up with new emoticons.
Other smiley partisans maintain that since many messages are
tossed off extemporaneously, the medium has more in common with
talking than writing, and hence the need for emoticons. This
neatly sidesteps the awkward fact that what these people are
engaged in is, in fact, nothing other than plain old writing and
reading, and that, as always, they may have to invest some time
and effort in the act if they don't want to mess it up.
Scott Fahlman, who is credited with inventing smileys, has been
quoted by "The Boston Globe" as saying that "I had no idea that I
was starting something that would soon pollute all of the world's
communication channels". The "Globe" does not record, however,
whether he terminated this statement with a smiley. Jeremy
Bornstein, a research scientist at Apple Computer's Advanced
Technology Group, thinks that a silent minority of people on
USENET belong to the anti-smily camp, but that "experienced users
realize that it's futile to rail against popular custom". Thus,
members of the anti-smily underground constitute something of a
secret subculture; they can find each other only through lengthy
exchanges of smiley-free messages, growing more certain with each
unadorned sentence that they have found a fellow traveler.
The irony is, Net culture was unusually literate. The pioneers of
the Net were hackers, people who routinely spend twelve to sixteen
hours a day editing text, and whose favorite leisuretime activity
is inhaling fantasy and science fictio novels by the palletload.
These people are supposedly no strangers to words. Much has
recently been made of the nascent revival of epistolary society
that is supposedly growing up online. Such optimism is not
entirely ill-founded, but innovations such as the smiley suggest
that media-age writers may have a ways to go before they can
compete with the average Civil War infantryman or Victorian
diarist. The very ambiguity that when properly used gives words
much of their expressive power is viewed by many Net denizens as a
glaring but ineradicable flaw in an otherwise promising system.
And this might be that which the hard-core users are rebelling
against, in that they are used to precision in their way of
communicating with things, either people or machines. Thus, in
hacker argot, the emoticon is a 'kludge', a hasty and inelegant
patch on a problem that's too difficult to solve just now.
Unfortunately, people that program on the bare metal are somewhat
on the rare side on Internet, so that explanation doesn't wash for
most users of the smiley.
Nearly all academic computers are on the Internet, so access is
open to anyone having an account on such a machine, which is to
say, any student who bothers. The Internet is, therefore, still
very much a college town, and shares much the same ambience as
Cambridge, Iowa City, or Berkely; a dysfunctional blend of
liquored-up freshmen and dippy but earnest deconstructionists.
The fact that these users should, for the most part, be the most
literate could be an interesting indictment of the culture, but I
am not prepared to discuss the disintegration of American higher
education.
The politically correct atmosphere may help to explain the
generally frosty stance toward humor exhibited on USENET, where
people either use it badly--at the level of toilet stall graffiti-
-or categorically reject it: USENET is the kind of place where
people can seriously (without smileys) discuss the proposition
that humor is an intrinsically aggressive, nonconsensual act. In
such an atmosphere, the very ability of the smiley to destroy a
joke must be comforting. The addition of a smily can somehow turn
even the sharpest bon mot into a clanking jape straight out of
"Reader's Digest"; it is the written equivalent of the rimshot in
a sad Borsch Belt routine.
Some hope is to be found beyond USENET, in relatively literate
lands such as the WELL, where it costs money to get in; the
entry fee cuts down on the number of feckless grad students
wanting to air their sexual peculiarities and leads to an air that
is at once more diverse and more serious. On the WELL, I have
actually seen smileys used in a way that made me laugh out loud,
usually in an ironic sense that would confuse or irritate any
dyed-in-the-wool smiley-slinger.
It would be comforting to think that the smily will be eradicated
from online culture, just as the genuine smily face has for the
most part been vacuumed from popular culture. I am not
optimistic, though. Most people, I suspect, go on the Net because
its the only ticket to cyberspace. As today's ASCII-based
hardware is replaced with broadband switched networks and
telecomputers, many users may desert what they see as the limited
capabilities of prose for the supposedly more expressive medium of
video. If so, they may be in for a shock. As many a political
candidate has discovered the hard way, the ability to emote on-
camera is for most people no more natural than writing smily-free
prose.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
A CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE
by Bernie D. Starchaser
Hello again, everyone! As this begins to look as though
it may become a habit with me, I have decided that I ought to
preface each column with a disclaimer. Therefore:
WARNING! This column contains material not suitable for the
closed-minded, shallow, weak-principled, or for socialists
or die-hard liberals. Read at your own risk!
Also note: The opinions expressed by the author are his own,
and may not neccessarily reflect the views of the editors.
(How's that, Scott?)
That said, here goes...
I believe I wound up last month with an application of a
scenario intended to demonstrate the potential damage of the
new tax increase to small businesses, jobs, and the economy
in general. I wish to finish that by reminding everyone that
the Liberal Agenda is far from complete. I guarantee there
will be more to come! Now, I want to bring my thoughts a
little closer to home.
In August, the Alabama Legislature was called into a
special session on Campaign Ethics and Finance Reform. I
have a lot to say about this issue. Indeed, it is my belief
that it is this issue which will have to be the catalyst for
any sort of improvement in government in general.
I wish to begin by expressing my profound disgust for
the results of the special session. They go in there and
spend however long it took them and what do they give us? At
best, a watered-down version of what we already had!!! WAKE
UP, GUYS! I am tempted to mail each Legislator a copy of the
page in Webster's which contains the definition of the word
REFORM. It most certainly does NOT mean "make it easier to
cheat."
Here, for your viewing pleasure, are MY proposals for
Campaign Ethics and Finance Reform. First, Finance. Here
are the rules I would impose, in no particular order:
1. Only private citizens may make political
contributions. Corporations, non-profit organizations,
political action committees, labor unions, etc. may NOT make
political contributions, although their individual members
certainly may.
2. The maximum allowable political contribution which
may be made by any one person to any one candidate in any one
campaign is $50.00. No exceptions.
3. Candidates must maintain a list of all political
contributors. This need not be a matter of public record.
4. In the event that there are unused funds remaining
after a campaign is completed, the candidate must offer to
divide these remaining funds among all contributors, provided
such a division would not result in shares less than $1.00,
and except in the case of a contributor indicating in writing
at the time the contribution is made that he or she does not
wish to receive a refund. In the case of the exception, the
candidate may convert those funds to his personal use.
Next, campaign ethics. My proposals all center around a
single assumption: A person running for political office is
no different than a person applying for a job. Thus, these
rules would be applied:
1. It is absolutely prohibited to even MENTION YOUR
OPPONENTS NAME in any speech or political advertisement.
2. The only media available for political advertising
are:
A. Newspapers
B. Mass Mailing
C. Handouts
TV & Radio may not be used.
3. All candidates are required, in addition to any other
advertising, to mail or publish in a newspaper a brief
listing consisting of educational history, military service
(if any), prior offices or employment held, and any other
information which would demonstrate the candidates
qualifications for the job/office in question.
These ideas are all geared toward removing several
aspects of the campaign process which are, in my opinion,
quite negative. These are:
1. Campaigns as they are resemble beauty pageants more
than they do job interviews.
2. With Radio and TV advertising, candidates are no
longer required to meet large numbers of their constituents
personally, thereby distancing the candidate from those he is
to serve.
3. The candidate with the most money usually wins.
Next Month: Reinventing Government (My Version)
As always, your comments, criticisms, questions, and
rebuttals are welcome, and may be directed to me at:
Bernie Starchaser on The Crunchy Frog BBS, Argument Conf.
Internet: chris.phillips@the-matrix.com
GEnie: C.PHILLIPS1
Compuserve: 72633,1640
Until Next Month...BE INFORMED, BE INVOLVED, BE PART OF THE
SOLUTION AND NOT PART OF THE PROBLEM.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ProFile
by The Bishop
-----------
The ProFile is a light-hearted attempt at allowing the BBS community
to get to know the selected user or sysop better. The harassees...er...
candidates for the ProFile are selected purely by random(or maybe not -
read up on 'chaos'). If anyone has any suggestions for questions to be
included in the ProFile or for users to be harassed by the ProFile, then
feel free to E-Mail them to me(The Bishop on Crunchy Frog, or Aaron Dees
on most other boards in town)...
-----------
PRO FILE: Scott Kelley, author of several small programming utilites
and YAMR.
Age: 22, or thereabouts. It depends on when you read this.
Birthplace: Your typical boring hospital room, in Mobile, AL.
Occupation: Grad. Student / Computer Consultant / Programmer / Network
Installer
My hobbies include: Sleeping, eating -- no, those aren't hobbies. Hmm.
Can I include programming here, too? Doesn't
matter, I'll include it here anyway. I like writing
programs which never get released. :) Not to mention
playing pinball. I also like roller coasters. One
summer, I'm going to go to all of the classic roller
coasters in the US.
Years telecomputing: Close to 5 years.
Sysop, past/present/future of: Not a sysop, never a sysop. Perhaps, one
day, I will open a hobby shop system,
with a SLIP connection to the Internet, a
UseNet interface, a MUD client, and make
it private use only. It just depends.
My oddest habit is: Writing alpha-test programs that never make it to
beta.
My greatest unfulfilled ambition is: To be a sucessful software writer,
with several large packages on the
market. Or just moderately
successful, living comfortably.
However, I'll probably end up poor
and discontent, like the rest of
the masses. And that's being
optimistic. :)
The single accomplishment of
which I am most proud is: Graduating from college. And getting into
the Master's degree program at UAB.
My favorite performers are: Martin Kolbe, Ralf Illenberger, Michael
Hedges
The last good movie I saw was: I don't watch many movies; however, I
recently went to the opening of _Jurassic
Park_. Great movie, but don't sit too
close to the speakers.
The last good book I read was: I've read several books, but none were
great. Terry Brooks is now a hack writer,
so I stick to old SF. Jet Thomas had
several good SF books I read, of which
all the titles escape me.
If they were making a movie of my life,
I'd like to see my part played by: So, who does dry wit well? One
of the Monty Python brothers,
because my life should have been
a comedy.
My pet peeves are: Wot's a pet peeve? Ah. People who act like complete
fools, just to get the attention. Microsoft
software. Buggy programs. Unstable system
configurations. Crashed hard drives, mine
especially. Flaky motherboards. I'll stop.
When nobody's looking, I like to: Do the exact same thing I would do
when they were looking, but pretend
I'm doing something horrible.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Embryo of Light II
The woman crouched protectively over her cubs, her lips curling
slightly back to reveal her sharpened teeth. Still, the
mudskippers approached, intent on their feast to the great
goddess of the river who ever so generously afforded them the mud
which allowed the to beat out their pathetic existence. They
must sacrifice the biped invader's children to appease her so
that she would not flood them out with one great condescending
monsoon. The human woman was attempting to slowly back away, but
the mudskippers were confident of their territory, and knew that
she could not successfully flee in that direction, or any other,
for the land wanted flood no more than they, and would prevent
their escape. The offspring made several pitiable cries and
fought one another viciously for the position closet to their
shared mother. Just as their capture and subsequent sacrifice
seemed imminent, the mother in one great galup swallowed her
entire litter. The mudskippers paused in confusion, allowing her
just enough time to knaw off all of her extremities, including
her own head. The mudskippers, sensing defeat, began to flee to
escape the ensuing monsoons but found themselves hopelessly
entangled in vindictive vegetation. The woman's torso began to
squeem and pulse upon the muddy bank. In one frantic heave, the
stomach burst open to reveal the children, who had been saved
from their mother's digestive acids by a mucus membrane that she
had managed to encase them in in their way down her esophagus.
The children broke out of their shells by using egghorns that
their bodies, thanks to a rarely witnessed instinct (the same one
that had served their mother) that had formed egghorns upon their
noses. Just as the offspring began to crawl about, still in
great peril of the up coming floods, the torso once again began
to heave. After several minute of carrying on in this fashion,
the torso at last managed to give birth to the mother, who had
already begun to form a new torso while in gestation. Feeding on
her own afterbirth, the woman was once again whole and filled
with just enough energy to make a raft out of the remained of her
former shell, and to place herself and the children in it and
push them off into the river. Her energy, and thusly her life,
soon expired and she died content in knowing that she would
afford she children a food supply. And so she did. For many
days down the river, the unwise children feasted, throwing her
bones to the fish. The children once again faced starvation as
the had hurriedly diminished their nourishment supply. As they
lay listlessly starving, one of them caught the aroma of their
mother's skin and began knawing frantically on the sides of the
raft. Within minutes of their newfound feast, the hull was
punctured, and the unwise children slowly drowned, save for one
who was found by a kind hearted family of aardvarks as they were
drinking in the jungle's waters and continued to raise him to
maturity. The boy, forever confused as to his origins, finally
traveled up the river as an adult. Finding nothing but a lake,
he grabbed a bird's nest making himself a crown out of it, and
grabbed a hollowed vine, and fashioned himself a wife out of it,
and proclaimed himself king of the lake and mastrobated for weeks
to come until he died of dehydration in the same style of the
shoemaker's children running barefoot.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIG's (Special Interest Groups), Computer Related
-------------------------------------------------
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 to
James Minton or in a Sysop Comment on Outer Limits.
*IMPORTANT* Starting this month a new BBS must be up and running for 60
days before being included in the list. I'll still take the information
and verify the board as usual.
Also, if anyone has any information about networks listed at the bottom
with "uncertain at press time", let me know.
NAME NUMBER BAUD RATES MODEM BBS SOFTWARE
SUPPORTED TYPE
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 VBBS 6.0
[he, vi]
Alter-Ego BBS 925-5099 1200-9600 USR HST PCBoard 14.5
[ez, mn]
Baudville (Node 1) 980-1089 300-2400 Major BBS 6.10
[none]
Baudville (Node 2) 991-2095 300-14400 Major BBS 6.10
[none]
Baudville (Node 3) 991-9144 300-2400 Major BBS 6.10
[none]
Baudville (Node 4) 995-0013 300-2400 Major BBS 6.10
[none]
Bus System 987-5419 300-2400 PCBoard 14.2
[none]
Byte Me! 979-BYTE! 2400-14400 USR HST WWIV 4.12
[ez, th, al]
Castle, The 841-7618 300-2400 Image 1.2
[none]
Channel 8250 (Node 1) 744-8546 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
[ez, un]
Channel 8250 (Node 2) 744-5166 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
[ez, un]
Cherry Tree 681-1710 1200-14400 TriBBS 4.01
[none]
Christian Apologetic 808-0763 1200-14400 V.32bis Wildcat! 3.55
[ez, wi, bc, ru]
Crocodile Country BBS 477-6283 1200-16800 USR DS Searchlight 3.0 *RIP*
[sl]
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 ???
[none]
Den, The 933-8744 300-9600 USR HST ProLogon/ProDoor
[ez, mn, il]
Digital Publishing 854-1660 300-9600 V.32 Wildcat! 3.01
[pl]
Electro-BBS 491-8402 300-14400 V.32/42 ??
[fi]
Family Smorgas-Board 744-0943 300-2400 PCBoard 14.5
[ez, fi, mj, bc, fa, ic, cf, cd, np, ag, ve, ad]
Final Frontier 838-5634 300-14400 VBBS 6.10
[al, he, re, fn]
Flip Side, The 798-3961 300-2400 Renegade 8.27
[none]
Genesis Online(Nodes 1-6) 620-4150 300-14400 V.32bis Major BBS 6.11
[mr]
Guardian, The 425-1951 1200-14400 V.42bis VBBS 6.0
[vi]
Hardeman's BBS 640-6436 1200-14400 Wildcat! 3.51
[wi, di, bc]
Hardware Hotline 631-6629 300-14400 V.32/42 PCBoard 14.5
[mn, fi, ca]
Homewood's Hell Hole 987-7823 2400-14440 V.32bis VBBS 5.6
[he]
The Holodeck BBS 663-7229 1200-9600 V.32 TriBBS 4.02
[cc]
Intruder Enterprizes 969-0870 300-9600 V.32 VBBS 5.6
[vi, al]
Joker's Castle 664-5589 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
[ez, mn, un]
KickAxis BBS 733-0253 1200-14400 USR DS VBBS 6.0
[he]
Lions Den 969-5733 300-14400 USR DS Wildcat! 3.60
[none]
Lumby's Palace 520-0041 300-14400 VBBS 6.0
[he]
Magic City 664-9883 300-14400 USR DS Wildcat! 3.55
[cc, di, tr, wi]
Magnolia BBS 854-6407 300-14400 USR HST PCBoard 14.5
[ez, mn]
MATRIX, The (Nodes 1-14) 323-2016 300-2400 PCBoard 15.0 *RIP*
[ez, mn, th, il, in, al, sh, sc, gl, ic, ri, fr]
MATRIX, The (Nodes 20-23) 323-6016 9600-14400 USR DS PCBoard 15.0 *RIP*
[ez, mn, th, il, in, al, sh, sc, gl, ic, ri, fr]
MATRIX, The (Node 25-26) 458-3449 9600-14400 V.32bis PCBoard 15.0 *RIP*
[ez, mn, th, il, in, 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 1200-14400 V.32bis TeleFinder 3.1
[none]
MetroMac BBS (Node 2) 252-0582 1200-14400 V.32bis 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 477-5894 300-14400 TriBBS 4.0
[dx]
Optical Illusion 995-9145 1200-14400 V.32bis VBBS 6.0
[al]
Outer Limits (Node 1) 426-5611 1200-16800 ZyXEL Wildcat! 3.90 *RIP*
[fi, do, ec, er, pn]
Outer Limits (Node 2) 425-5871 1200-16800 ZyXEL Wildcat! 3.90 *RIP*
[fi, do, ec, er, pn]
Outer Limits (Node 3) 426-2939 1200-16800 ZyXEL Wildcat! 3.90 *RIP*
[fi, do, ec, er, pn]
Owlabama BBS 856-2521 1200-14400 GTPower 17.06
[gt, ez, mn, cc, tr, sc, ab]
Owl's Nest 680-0851 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
[ez, mn]
Party Line 856-1336 300-14000 V.32bis TriBBS 4.0
[cc, tr, di]
Penny Arcade 699-4625 300-2400 Running Force! 3.75
[none]
Playground 681-5070 2400-14000 V.32 TriBBS 4.0
[tr, di, cc, ez, al, fr]
Posys BBS 854-5131 300-9600 V.32 PCBoard
[none]
Programmer's Shack 988-4695 1200-9600 HST DS Renegade
[ae, di, ws, fi, it]
Quiet Zone 833-2066 300-2400 ExpressNet
[none]
Razor's Edge 995-0412 1200-2400 VBBS 5.6
[he, al]
Safe Harbor (Node 1) 665-4332 300-2400 GTPower 17.06
[gt, ez, mn, il]
Safe Harbor (Node 2) 665-4355 300-14400 USR DS GTPower 17.06
[gt, ez, mn, il]
Sam's Domain 956-2757 1200-14400 VBBS 6.0
[da, he]
Safety BBS 581-2866 300-2400 RBBS-PC 17.4
[none]
Southern Stallion 322-3816 300-16800 ZyXEL PCBoard 15.0
[an, ez, lu, pr, th]
Sperry BBS 853-6144 300-2400 V.32/42b PCBoard 14.5
[none]
ST BBS 836-9311 300-2400 PCBoard 14.2
[ez]
StarBase 12 647-7184 300-2400 TriBBS 4.0
[ez, mn, cc]
The Light 979-0368 300-14400 V.32bis PCBoard 15.0
[ch, nl]
Thy Master's Dungeon 940-2116 300-57600 V.32/42b PCBoard 14.5
[fr]
Torch Song 328-1517 300-9600 V.32 Wildcat 3.6
[pr, se, st, do]
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 = ANet, uncertain at press time
ag = AgapeNet, a national Christian network, multi-topic
al = AlaNet, a local network, multi-topic
an = AnnexNet, 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
ca = CafeNet, a local network, restaurant/dining, recipes, etc.
cc = City2City, 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
cn = CNet, multi-topic
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
ec = EchoNet, an international network, multi-topic
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, uncertain at press time
fr = FredNet, a regional network, political discussion
ga = GameNet, a local network, uncertain at press time
gl = GlobalLink, an international network, multi-topic
gt = GTNet, an international network, multi-topic
he = HellNet, a local network, multi-topic
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, linking businesses,
universities, and bbs', multi-topic
it = ITCNet, uncertain at press time
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
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
pl = PlanoNet, a national network, multi-topic
pn = PoliceNet, an international network, law-enforcement only
pr = PrideNet, a local homosexually oriented network
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 oriented
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
st = StudsNet, a national network, homosexually oriented
te = TECHnet, a local network, hardware and utility oriented
th = ThrobNet, an international network, adult oriented
tr = TTN, a national network, multi-topic
un = U'NI-Net, an international network, multi-topic
ve = VETLink, a national network for military veterans
vi = VirtualNet, an international network, multi-topic
wi = WildNet, a national network, multi-topic
ws = WishNet, uncertain at press time
ww = WWIV-Net, an international network, multi-topic
The following boards were unable to be verified and were dropped from
the list:
Asgard The Bone Yard Boy's Room
Lemon Grove Nirvana Venus BBS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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