💾 Archived View for gemini.spam.works › mirrors › textfiles › magazines › BTN › btn056.txt captured on 2022-06-12 at 10:33:15.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
BTN: Birmingham Telecommunications News COPYRIGHT 1993 ISSN 1055-4548 March 1993 Volume 6, Issue 3 Edition 1 Table Of Contents ----------------- Article Title Author Policy Statement and Disclaimer................Staff From The Editor................................Scott Hollifield Letters to the Editor..........................BTN Readers U.S. Robotics V.FAST Announcement..............U.S. Robotics BBSing In The Real World.......................Damion Furi Freedom........................................Lurch Henson Sysop >< Software >< User......................David Moss Local Music In March...........................Judy Ranelli Special Interest Groups (SIGs).................Barry Bowden BTN Profile: Billy Bob Crawdad.................Anonymous 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 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 Bone Yard Bus System The Castle Channel 8250 Crunchy Frog DC Info Exchange F/X BBS Gateway BBS Hardware Hotline Homewood's Hell Hole Joker's Castle Lemon Grove Martyrdom Again?! The MATRIX Milliways BBS Night Watch The Outer Limits Owlabama BBS Owl's Nest Playground Safe Harbor Southern Stallion Starbase 12 Teasers BBS T.G.U.E. BBS Thy Master's Dungeon Weekends BBS (Please note that 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. SH ----------------------------------------------------------------------- N E W S F L A S H NON-LOCAL READERS! Feeling isolated and alienated because you can't upload submissions or leave letters without paying long distance charges? God, I hope so, because if you have access to an Internet site, you can send me anything you want to through that method. My Internet address is: scott.hollifield@the-matrix.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From the Editor by Scott Hollifield Well, well, well, time for this stuff again already? Yep, past time in fact - BTN is late this month, partially due to a certain cycle of cosmic events beyond my portent or control, but also partially because I simply put off writing my editor's column until I just couldn't stand it anymore. That's right, whoever it is out there with the voodoo doll, you can stop now. Why is it so difficult for me to just sit down and crank this kind of thing out? I'm a champion procrastinator, true, as anyone who knows me even remotely will confirm (including the lady at the breakfast place every morning who stands tapping her foot while I fret over which precise combination of pocket change to give up). And yet, there's something else, something that's been sitting at the back of my brain, scratching and making little obnoxious comments, like Robin Williams as a cartoon bee. I think that this comes from certain vague guilt pangs I've been having concerning the end result of my efforts. Very slight, very vague, very marginal, but there nonetheless. I'm not talking about the task of filling Mark Maisel's shoes -- I got over THAT one the minute I volunteered for this job. And people have been kind; I was particularly pleased to see a lengthy positive review a few months back from Damion Furi, a relatively new local user of some opinionated note. (Of course, we're all now onto the real truth, that this was just buttering on Damion's part to smooth the path to becoming a regular BTN writer, but the joke's on him -- it's ridiculously easy to be a regular BTN writer, and I wish more people knew it -- but I'm glad he bothered anyway.) Still, take a steady gander at our tables of contents from the last few issues and you'll see a marked similarity. Not that I mind having guys like Damion Furi and Lurch Henson contribute regularly (in the sense that I wouldn't mind having ANYone contribute *regularly*), but I'd hate for BTN to devolve into five guys with five monthly articles entitled "My Opinions About Certain Things", "#1" through "5". And I know that more than once now, I've tried to make things seem a little more exciting by hinting of things to come, which haven't quite arrived yet (such as last month's hint of "a few [new] ideas" which were supposed to be in this issue). Truthfully, I DO have new ideas for BTN. It's just that I haven't yet found the time or energy to implement them. Rest assured, they are coming. Let's talk a little about what's in store for the BTN of the near future. Beginning next month, I'm going to drop my personal responsibilities concerning the much-loved "Known BBS Numbers List", and hand them over to a comrade. James Minton, current sysop of Outer Limits BBS and one of the longest-running, currently-serving sysops in Birmingham, has volunteered to take up this awesome duty (and unless you've ever called eighty bulletin boards in one evening, you don't know the meaning of the words "awesome duty"). I know that other people have volunteered for this task before, even back when I first became editor of BTN, and I do appreciate the thoughts of all who did. I'm not intentionally slighting anyone -- it's just that James happened to ask at precisely the right time, i.e. the time when I was actually beginning to seriously give the List to someone else. I hope he realizes what he's getting into with it. Also, something special is coming up soon: the fifth anniversary of BTN. That's right, it's been five years since that very special first issue of BTN, back in May 1988. We've been places, friends; we pre-date the election of George Bush, both Batman movies, and most of the Farm- Aids. So you can imagine that we must have a special issue to mark this special occasion, and that we must have a special number of special articles from our special friends. There are indeed plans in the works to make the May 1993 issue of BTN extra-special, but if you've got any ideas, drop me a line. Not only that, but I've gotten semi-solid article commitments from several people whose names are NOT Lurch Henson, Damion Furi, or Judy Ranelli. We love the members of our family, of course, but we'd like our family to grow! Isn't that a lovely metaphor? Ah, springtime draweth nigh. Well, I've beaten out my last column by 20 lines or so, and that's good enough for me. Let me remind you that if you're interested in submitting something for BTN, it's VERY easy -- just upload it as a private file to either the Crunchy Frog or the Matrix, and tell the sysop it's for me. Until next month, be kind to your fellow oxygen- breathers, and please use your turn signal when changing lanes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Letters to the Editor From: David Moss I've been meaning to take the time to write to BTN and comment about some of the conferences around town. My favorite, this last couple of months, has to be EZNet. In EZNet, you can find any topic of conversation you might want, anything from recipes to politics. The first of these, I won't touch with a ten foot pole. <grin> It is the second issue that I do wish to comment on. Primarily, "Gays In The Military". It seems to me, that with all the REAL issues facing this country, that the press could find a more urgent one to "sensationalize". But, since this topic appears to be the "hot potato", I'll take a shot at it too. There will come a time in this country, when "the draft" will have to be reinstated. With this in mind, how can we afford to have a system, by which, if a young man did not want to go, all he has to do is say, "Uh, gee Sarge, I'd like to, but I'm gay". I have a feeling that that line will be the longest at the recruitment center. For those who doubt a draft, remember this: man will always be at war with man. So it is inevitable that a war will flare up somewhere, a war that will require the young men and women of this nation to be called upon to defend it. I have heard all the hysteria about why homosexuals should not be allowed in the military, but I have not heard any REASONS, only excuses. There is no reason why a homosexual cannot serve a distinguished career in the military, if allowed to do so. If we as a nation attempt to take away fundamental rights, and I'm talking about "....and bear arms", then why not take away some more, like "taxes"? Considering the state of this nation, I feel there are a few more urgent issues that affect all of us. This issue will have very little effect on any of us. I am waaaaay past the age of serving, so it does not affect me, but I still find myself voicing opinions on it. Whichever side of the issue you take, then by all means, write your congressman and let him know. While you are writing him, ask what he plans to do about, unemployment, taxes, welfare, prison systems, social security, health coverage, drugs, children with guns, adults with guns, crime, stock brokers that bilk millions from us and walk away clean, Somalia, Cuba, Haiti, Bosnia, Iraq, and TV stations that mislead the public about BBS's. (I had to do that) There are many many more issues that face us (all of us) that, to me, should be acted on and publicized more so than this issue. This issue has made front page headlines across the nation. I ask you, is this a ploy to take our minds off the real state of this nation? I can be e-mailed at WEEKENDS, or any EZNet conference, and I should get it eventually. Congratulations to BTN for it's upcoming fifth anniversary. [David Moss is the sysop of Weekends BBS (841-8583) and is also a contributing writer to BTN as of this month, with an article you'll see later in the issue.] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [Editor's Note: The following article was scheduled to be included in last month's issue of BTN, but was accidentally left out.] Well, here is the U.S.R. announcement, in, I think, it's entirety, courtesy of the Internet: Following the anouncment is a discuession with US Robotics, Dale Walsh, one of the committee members of the CCITT study group developing the CCITT V.Fast Standard. U.S. ROBOTICS ANNOUNCES THE LAST MODEM YOU'LL EVER BUY Provides Migration Path to Forthcoming CCITT 28.8 Kbps Standard --------------------------------------------------------------- SKOKIE, Ill. -- June 8, 1992 -- U.S. Robotics today announced an upgrade program for the CCITT-proposed standard of 28.8 Kbps, previously referred to as V.FAST. The Courier V.32bis, Courier HST Dual Standard and Shared Access Modem Sharing Kits are the products currently included in the program. Field upgrades will be available for $299 as soon as the CCITT 28.8 Kbps draft recommendation is completed. Official approval of the standard is not expected until January, 1994. "The CCITT-proposed 28.8 Kbps standard won't be a reality for most manufacturers until 1994," said Jonathan Zakin, U.S. Robotics executive vice president, sales and marketing. "By offering modems ready for 28.8 Kbps now, we're providing insurance against technical obsolescence. Customers can purchase a Courier high-speed modem or Shared Access Modem Sharing Kit now and take advantage of the most updated technology available. When the 28.8 Kbps standard becomes available later, they'll already have a cost-effective upgrade option and won't have to re-invest in new equipment." "Key to the 28.8 Kbps program is the fact that the upgrade to the Courier high-speed modems and Shared Access Modem Sharing Kits can be completed by the end user at their worksite, which reduces their `down' time and eliminates excess costs like shipping and handling," continued Zakin. "You may hear about other 28.8 Kbps modems that are available now, but until the standard is defined, no one knows what hardware will be needed to comply. Our unique modem architecture makes future `field' upgrades a realistic and simple procedure." Because of U. S. Robotics' advanced modular modem architecture, the company's Courier V.32bis, Courier HST Dual Standard, and Shared Access modems are readily upgradable to 28.8Kbps. The modems are made up of a motherboard and a smaller daughterboard, which holds the modems' microprocessors and firmware. The current, high-speed daughterboard can easily be replaced with a new board containing the 28.8 Kbps CCITT standard. U.S. Robotics is the only modem manufacturer to implement this kind of flexible design. "In the CClTT, the previously called `V.FAST' standard has gained universal support at the 28.8Kbps speed," said Dale Walsh, U.S. Robotics vice president, advanced development and participant in the CCITT committee on the 28.8 Kbps standard, "This is how our modular architecture works. The data pump (which executes the modulation and demodulation of the data), and the key controller functions (which perform the data compression, error control and the AT command set) are on one board, making upgrades simple. We can easily make the data pump faster and upgrade the controller functions to keep up with the new speed. It's all in just one small plug-in card." Because compatibility with CCITT standards is crucial, U.S. Robotics' availability and implementation of the 28.8Kbps standard will depend on the CClTT's progress. At this time, the standard is expected to define a connect speed of 28.8 Kbps, two times faster than V.32bis, the fastest CCITT standard now available. U.S. Robotics is one of the first vendors to announce a program for 28.8Kbps compatibility. The company has a history of industry "firsts," including the first CCITT V.32bis modem from a major manufacturer, the first self-managing modem management system and the first portable CCITT V.32 modem. U.S. Robotics will upgrade any Modem Sharing Kit to 28.8Kbps. Current Courier models, which have the smaller footprint and a higher, 57.6 Kbps DCE to DTE (modem-to-computer) interface speed, are also upgradable. The company's upgrade program does not include WorldPort and Sportster modems. U. S. Robotics Courier modems offer a wide range of features, including fax, remote configuration, and synchronous capabilities. The Shared Access Modem Sharing Kits, which began shipping in March, 1992, allow for the pooling of modems on a LAN so that a LAN user can access them for dial-in or dial-out communications. The following products will be upgradable to 28.8 Kbps: Courier V.32 bis, internal and external (57,600 bps versions only) Courier HST Dual Standard, internal and external (57,600 bps versions only) Courier V.32 bis FAX, internal and external Courier HST Dual Standard FAX, internal and external Shared Access Modem Sharing Kit Single Port and Dual Port ------------------------------------------------------------------- BBSing In The Real World by Damion Furi :DISILLUSIONED I have a confession to make. I am a prejudiced snob. And a very disillusioned one, at that. Before those of you scenting blood attempt to charge for the kill, let me explain something. I am not your ordinary prejudiced snob. I care not a whit whether you are rich or poor, white or black, heterosexual or homosexual, male or female, physically handicapped or healthy, nor do I care about any other such label that normally attracts the prejudiced as sharks to blood. I am an intellectual snob, and I have a marked prejudice against the willfully ignorant and the arrogantly stupid. Yes, ladies and gentleman, Damion is going to rant. I am going to go on such a binge of ranting as you have rarely experienced. Allow me only a moment to pull my soapbox out from under my desk...Ah, much better. (I've always maintained that one simply cannot rant properly without a good old-fashioned wooden soapbox.) Now, where was I? Oh, yes; the willfully ignorant and the arrogantly stupid. I failed to recognize it until just very recently, but I realized that I suffered a severe disillusionment from the state of our BBSs. I did not - quite - expect an electronic ivory tower. But neither did I expect a digital reflection of the stupidities of the real world. For the most part, as I have said before, BBS users and sysops tend to be a breed apart, as helpful and generous as any you could wish to meet. And yet, they still carry over into our private worlds the attitudes of the outside world: the pettiness, the viciousness, and the unconscious lousiness of their small-minded prejudice and hate. It must be a lonely feeling, really, to be a two-cent Hitler from the warmth and comfort of their apartments and homes in the United States of America ("Land of the Free, Home of the Brave"). It must be a lonely feeling to be absolutely and unswervingly convinced that something must be "wrong" with "faggots," and that "niggers" are "so obviously" subordinate to "us masters," and that "bitches" are just "absolutely and unquestionably" good for nothing but "cleaning house" and doing certain other things that our Beloved Editor would be forced to censor if I were so crude and tasteless as to actually state the case in black and white in what is intended to be a "family" magazine (whatever that means). Am I really being so naive to expect better from a group that consistantly shells out thousands of dollars of hard-earned money to participate in a technological bonanza? Am I being so naive to expect intelligent, rational thought from a group that has spent millions of man-hours learning the various mysteries of a thing as opaque as the computer? So it would seem. I was naive, and now I am disillusioned. I have seen the nature of the beast, so to speak, and so walk on hurt, confused, and dazed. Please believe me when I say that little is so painful as having your illusions ripped from your mind and violently shredded in front of your eyes. I wonder how many share my views, and how many will continue to espouse the putridness of their souls? How many of you will continue to seek justification for your narrow-minded hate? How many of you will continue to harrass others politically, socially, or physically weaker than yourselves? How many of you will continue to voice of your despite of others that are, in the final analysis, as human as yourselves? And, regardless of whom you hate, they are indeed human. They bleed, they laugh, they cry, they fail, they succeed, they work, they play, they are members of families much like your own... They have human failings, human virtues, human goals, and human dreams. These whom you hate are as deserving of the chances you've had as you are now deserving of future chances - to do anything! Anything at all... ---- Damion Furi owns Freelance Support Services, an administrative and computer support service primarily serving other freelancers, which he runs from home. Services include OCR & color scanning, desktop & disktop publishing (including AutoDesk animation), managerial, and administrative services. For a current list of services, E-Mail your request c/o Nirvana, Owlabama, Teaser's, The Matrix, or Baudville. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Freedom or Will You PLEASE Grow Up?!?!?! by Lurch Henson I was laying in bed this afternoon, reading through the Sunday paper, when I found something that really ticked me off. I wondered why the comic strip that was usually on the last page was now on the second, and I certainly found out why..... Here's what I found when I turned to the last page of the funny papers..... "WE ARE OUTRAGED! And we're not going to put up with it any longer! We're a group of mothers, fathers, grandparents and other citizens who are outraged at how today's movies, TV-programs, music- videos and records are hurting our children, our families and our country. For example: We're DISMAYED that today 1.1 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19 get pregnant each year. We're SHOCKED when we learn that two thirds of all births to 15 and 19 year old girls are out of wedlock. We're FRIGHTENED at the way violence and crime are spreading everywhere and threatening our children, our families and our homes. We say it's time to put the blame where we think it belongs: SHAME on the music industry for letting singers who are the idols of our children put out RECORDS and MUSIC-VIDEOS which blatantly encourage sex and 'say' to our children that sex is proper at any age...that everyone is 'doing it'...and abstinence is old fashioned. SHAME on Hollywood for an endless stream of films filled with PROFANITY, NUDITY, SEX, VIOLENCE and KILLINGS. For example, the giant hit "Basic Instinct" features murders during orgasms, setting a new standard of perversion even for today's movies. SHAME on NBC-TV for allowing "Saturday Night Live", which is a favorite with young people, to put on skits about masturbation, morticians having sex with dead people etc., etc., ad nauseam. SHAME on TV programmers whose desire for ratings and profits results in the average child of 16 having seen more than 200,000 ACTS OF VIOLENCE AND 33,000 MURDERS. Is it any wonder violence is epidemic? SHAME on the film industry which long ago stopped reflecting the values of most families and has now abolished the "X" rating, replacing it with "NC-17" so sex-filled, erotic, bloody films will no longer be barred from community movie houses. SHAME ON TV Soap Opera producers whose standards of decency have sunk so low that one of them tells his writers, "Hot, make it hot", and another admits they are trying to see "just how far they can 'push it' on daytime"...when they KNOW that during the afternoon hours more than two thirds of all TV viewers are children! Yes, we are OUTRAGED at all this...and a great deal more. We say the tragic price our children, families and country are paying demands something be done to end what's going on. Alone we can't stop it. But together we think we can. The REAL CAUSE of the sex, violence, filth and profanity is with the writers, directors, producers, singers, actors, etc. But THEY can be controlled. All it takes is for the Boards of Directors of their companies to order them to stop! Remember when movies were wholesome family entertainment? That's when people at the top SET STANDARDS AND ENFORCED them. We're going to insist that happen again." Well, I agree with them in one place.....but ONLY in one place. I DO think it's well past time to place the blame for all the problems in the USA today....but it damn well isn't with the entertainment industry. It rests firmly, and solely, with the PARENTS! Yes, you HEARD ME! It's ALL YOUR FAULT! Wake up and smell the garbage you're shoveling, people! Have you got ANY idea where your kid was last night? Are you SURE? I'll bet you're WRONG! And the reason is that the VAST majority of the parents would rather find some other reason, ANY other reason, for why their kids are turning out so badly than to admit the simple truth, that THEY SCREWED UP. Get off it, parents! Accept the fact that you made a BIG mistake, and FIX IT! Don't look for scapegoats in Hollywood, you are the ones that are supposed to be in charge of the developement of your children. YOU handle their education. YOU design their world view. And YOU are the ones that are FULLY RESPONSIBLE for the beings you are turning loose on the world when they turn 18 (and yes, in the state of Alabama you are LEGALLY obligated to provide for them UNTIL 18. If you throw them out before then, because you can't handle the RESPONSIBILITY, they can take YOU to court over it, and WIN. A girl in Lower Alabama did just that, and now she charges her parents rent in the house she won from them in the settlement). But, let's look at this tirade that was a FULL PAGE AD on the last page of the Sunday Comics section of the Birmingham News. First off, I'm REALLY ticked off because of where they put it. I can just see it now....you've got a little girl that's just learning how to read, and is enjoying using the funny papers to do so. Into the kitchen wanders your little girl with the funnies, and sits down next to you at the breakfast table..... LITTLE GIRL: "Mommie, what's an ORGASM? And why do you kill somebody when they have one?" MOMMIE: "WHAT! Where did you hear THAT?!?!?" I'll tell you, Mommie....she read that out of her funny papers, right there on the last page, in the ad full of big words she was having lots of fun sounding out to herself a few minutes ago, where it was talking about a movie named "Basic Instinct". A movie which this little girl would known nothing about, because mommy probably didn't take her when she and daddy went to see it, before coming home and going to bed early and making all those nice, warm, loving sounds in the bedroom all night long..... But now, thanks to an ad which is trying to PROTECT this little girl, she wants to know from her loving mommie what an orgasm is, and why it's so bad that you have to kill someone that has one. Well, I don't know about YOU, Mommie, but I've NEVER had one that was that bad.......now look what you have to straighten out. Little early for that "talk" you planned to put off until she was 18, isn't it? Secondly, it REALLY upsets me when someone else wants to tell me what I can and can not watch, see, or WRITE. Yes, WRITE. You see, I'm also one of those TERRIBLE PEOPLE that are destroying this country by writing "erotica". So what? I DON'T go stand outside of a schoolyard and grab little boys and girls and make them read it. I DON'T take mine, or anyone else's, to ANYONE of ANY age and force them to read or view it. I don't know of ANYONE that has been tied down, their fingers broken and the battery taken out of their remote control (because everyone knows there is no other way to change the channel than by remote control) so they HAVE to watch these TERRIBLE things that are broadcast on TV every day. And I DEFINATELY don't know of anyone that has been forced to watch a Soap Opera...... Not too many years ago a preacher did something I'm never going to forgive him for. Some preacher here in this great state decided that he didn't like a satelite TV channel named American XXX-tasy. So what did he do? Not watch it? No, that would have been the intelligent thing to do. Instead, he decided that he'd have to get rid of it. He decided, for you, that he didn't want ANYONE to watch it. Maybe he just felt that if it were still being broadcast to this state, he'd be too tempted to go over to his friend's house and watch it, I don't know. All I know is that this man decided that *I* could no longer watch that particular satelite TV channel, and he managed to get it blocked from reception to all of the state of Alabama. How, I do not know. The mechanics of it is something that I puzzle over even today. I would REALLY like to know how it's done, but no matter, it's done, and now I CAN'T watch it any more. He made HIS choice, he doesn't watch it anymore. But he ALSO made the choice for every other person in this state. NO ONE in this state can now watch it, except for those few along the borders that can barely pick it up where it's being sent to the states around us. These people are trying to do the same thing, but to EVERYONE, not just the state of Alabama, and NOT JUST ONE CHANNEL, but ALL CHANNELS, as well as ALL MOVIES, VIDEO TAPES, RADIO STATIONS, BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, in fact, ANYTHING that can be determined to be ANYTHING that THEY don't like.....which basically can be interpreted to be almost anything that