BTN: Birmingham Telecommunications News COPYRIGHT 1989 April 1989 Volume 2, Issue 4 Table Of Contents ----------------- Article Title Author Policy Statement and Disclaimer................Mark Maisel Semi 'Guest' Editorial Column..................Randy Hilliard S.E.A. ARC 6.00 vs PKWARE PKZIP 0.90...........Rocky Rawlins Top Ten Users Peeve List.......................Chris Mohney Our Local BBS Systems..........................Mark Maisel BBS Security Update............................Steve Turner & Joey Bruno Profile........................................Chris Mohney From The Kitchen...............................Chez Stephan PC-SIG Files Found.............................Barry Bowden Message Board..................................Barry Bowden Known BBS Numbers..............................Mark Maisel ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 Editor, BTN 221 Chestnut St. BHM, AL 35210-3219 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Semi-Guest Editorial by Randy Hilliard It's that time again, Boys and girls! I have once again been asked [spelled BLACKMAILED!] into writing the guest editorial for this month's BTN. It seems that when Mark 'crowned' me guest editor that he had put super-glue on the interior of the 'crown'. I hereby formally swear that I will never again drink heavily at a BTN meeting; it is too incriminating and Mark tends to take notice of things that benefit him. Meanwhile, back at the ranch... IT IS BTN'S FIRST BIRTHDAY! I once had a woman show me a mutated dog with two heads. She proudly told me that "He is one year old today! Isn't he pretty!" Yeah... Sure. I'm real impressed, lady. Well, some people are proud of it anyway. In honor of this great occasion, Mark, has promised to give away a brand new 1989 Cadillac Seville from the monies he has garnered from BTN (as soon as he gets some). This issue should prove to be a goodie: Rocky Rawlins has written an interesting article on the SEA version 6 vs PKZIP version 090. Chris Mohney has compiled a list of top ten user peeves about Sysops as well as the ProFile this month, which is on Keith Cahoon. The Sysops of the ST BBS have provided us with a revelation in BBS security. Barry Bowden has an article on another source for PD software as well as his regular Message Board. Mr Extortion is back with the local BBS Profile and the Known BBS List. Chez Stephan is also back with some nice recipes on grilling either filet mignon or veal chops. I'd like to take a moment to point out that this issue of the BTN is Volume 2, issue #4. Our resident Idiot-in-Chief apparently cannot count from one to four correctly and the March issue of BTN was incorrectly labeled as Volume 2, issue 4. He has promised to make restitutions which as yet are unspecified and to always remember that three comes between two and four. Mark also asked me to inform all of our readers that in order to increase BTN revenues and therefor acquire the Cadillac even sooner, that as of this issue, BTN has doubled in price... I didn't have the heart to tell him. Maybe next month we'll teach him a little multiplication to go with his addition. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Last Minute Info For You! If you are a regular caller to Amiga Alliance, then please don't be alarmed or impatient. The sysop is testing some new software and is having a troubles. Among them is a problem with the modem answering and connecting at 2400 baud. Please be patient and try to help the sysop by commenting on the new software. If you have trouble connecting at 2400 baud, please switch down to 1200. If you have not done so, please take the time to call one of the new boards in town, Sparta PCBoard. This is one huge system and it appears to be well organized and run. All four nodes are on rotation and calling the first will get you into the first available one. The first threee nodes have HST 9600 baud modems and fourth has a Hayes V-Series 9600 baud modem. America Online has a HST 9600 baud modem on node four and would appreciate it if you would help them to evaluate its usefulness. If you have one of these modems, please try to connect using node 4 so they can determine if they need to keep the modem. There will be an open house at the end of this month. If you are interested in meeting some folks face to face, then keep a lookout on EZNET and a few other systems for details. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Comparing S.E.A.'s ARC 6.00 and PKWARE's PKZIP 0.90 by Rocky Rawlins, Sysop of America Online As some of you may know, there has been a great deal of controversy in the last few months over the Systems Enhancement Associates' (SEA) lawsuit against Phil Katz ("author" of the PKARC series of compression programs). There has been a lot of hearsay, innuendo, name calling and mudslinging by both sides and by a lot of third parties. The background of the suit in a nutshell is this. SEA developed a series of programs several years ago to compress and combine files. They used several different publicly available and well known algorithms written in a reasonably easy to use program and then distributed it widely as Shareware. It of course caught on quickly in the BBS community and there are few of us that haven't used it at one time or another. They made a point of making the file format and the source code easily available to everyone. Several other folks used this source code in variations of the ARC program and other specialized applications. Some time later, Phil Katz released a program series called PKARC which always seemed to be a step ahead of the SEA ARC program in speed features and efficiency. It was not long before the PKARC program eclipsed SEA's ARC program almost entirely. Late last year, SEA brought a lawsuit against Phil Katz alleging that he was using their source code in his program and that he had failed to obtain either a license or to respond to their requests that he license the code. The case went to trial and allegedly at the point that an expert witness testified that the PKARC program did indeed contain much of the SEA code verbatim, Phil Katz settled out of court and asked that the record be sealed. Part of the settlement was that he would no longer use the code in question and would no longer develop programs to access the ARC file format. After the trial, there was a flurry of accusations,counter- accusations, charges, and slanderous remarks thrown in all directions by everyone with an opinion, informed or otherwise. The general impression was that big, bad SEA was using the courts to put tiny little Phil Katz out of business for fear of the competition. Interestingly enough, Phil Katz's company is many times the size of SEA and primarily from the sales of PKARC. After the fury had settled down a bit, I began to do my own investigating. I found the SEA folks to be courteous, helpful, friendly and quite pleasant to deal with. I found the people at PKWARE to be hostile, aggressive, unfriendly, and quite unpleasant. This was true in all dealings with the two companies. At this time in late 1988 and early 1989, SEA was touting their new release of ARC (Version 6.00) which was to be released shortly and was said to be quite superior to older releases. Katz was putting out some beta releases of a compression utility that was quite poor in just about every respect. Based on the situation at that time, we on America Online made what seemed to be the only reasonable and ethical decision; we chose to continue using the ARC format as our standard compression format. Well, so much for good intentions.... Another month rolled by and SEA released ARC 6.00. PKWARE released PKZIP 0.90. Then the fun began. On a whim expecting to see blinding speed and efficiency from ARC 6.00, I ARC'ed several large files. After 10 minutes I rebooted the machine because I had decided that it had gone off to Never-Never Land. I began to test it on some smaller files and found out that is was not as efficient in terms of compression as the six month old PKARC and was decidedly slower. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I tried PKZIP. I was done so quickly that I knew there had to have been a problem However when I checked, sure enough, there was a .ZIP file with the right name and when I Un-Zipped it, the file restored quite nicely. That is when I began to have some serious reservations about the decision we had made. Over the next few days, I ran a series of tests comparing the two programs on a variety of file types and sizes and in the case of PKZIP, with various levels of compression efficiency. The following chart displays the results: ARC 6.00 vs PKZIP 0.90 Comparison (using Maximum and Default compression switches on PKZIP) File DOS size ARC ZIP % of ZIP % of (Default) ARC (max) ARC Test0 5,962,222 4,039,586 3,888,639 96 3,403,011 84 Test1 976,534 598,957 579,373 97 488,831 82 Test2 973,368 729,030 721,514 99 656,917 90 Test3 1,560,647 1,146,857 1,101,871 96 972,204 85 Test4 524,597 360,649 358,016 99 299,631 83 Test5 847,723 488,355 477,496 98 408,068 84 Test6 47,744 47,775 47,866 101 47,866 101 Test7 486,069 347,069 333,773 96 277,477 80 Test8 57,753 52,022 54,701 105 46,421 89 Test9 329,716 99,996 91,086 91 87,199 87 TOTAL 11,766,373 7,910,296 7,654,335 97 6,687,625 85 ARC ZIP ZIP (default) (max) Bytes Saved: 3,856,077 4,112,038 5,081,748 % of Original: 67% 65% 57% Compression: 33% 35% 43% TIME (Minutes) Compression 48 21 80 (All) Uncompress (Test0) 12 7 8 There are a couple of things you need to know to fully understand the above figures. PKZIP has variable compression efficiency parameters. The default setting are level 2 (out of 4). As the efficiency of compression increases, the time required also increases. The default level of 2 provides in almost all cases a marginally superior compression ratio to ARC and takes about half the time. It provides overall about a 2% improvement in overall compression with about a 50% reduction in time. The higher levels of compression efficiency in PKZIP were markedly superior to ARC but as can be seen in the results requires almost twice the time. So the results are pretty clear: the SEA product, the newest and best of a long line was soundly trounced by the PKWARE program in it's first release. I was, quite honestly, a little shocked and was disappointed that the SEA product was so poorly done. It was only marginally better than the earlier versions and in fact was not able to perform all of the operations that earlier versions could. All in all, it was a great disappointment. The results of our study was a decision to reverse our earlier stand and move to embrace the .ZIP standard on our board. First and foremost, the .ZIP standard is quite clearly superior to the .ARC standard both in compression efficiency, flexibility, and in speed. Second is the less obvious factor that in the microcomputer industry the "good" guys don't always win. It is a fact of life that the better program usually prevails and in this case, there is little question as to which is the better program. So, our plans on America Online now encompass taking the board down for about 2 days and doing a wholesale conversion of over 6000 files from the .ARC format to the .ZIP format. While the conversion itself will be simply a matter of automated brute processing for a lot of hours, the task of updating over 6000 DIR entries with new names and new file sizes promises to be a real treat, but we have automated as much of it as we can. We are currently planning to switch over in late March or early April. Regardless of which format you personally prefer, you are going to have to become accustomed to working with both standards since files are beginning to show up on most boards in both formats and there is no way to prevent it. Most of the board around the area now have copies of the PKZIP programs which are distributed as an .EXE file which un- ZIPsitself. There is also a very convenient file out called ZIPQUIK5 which will convert from just about any compression to any other format. This one is definitely a good one to have in a multi-format world. Whichever way you choose to go, you are going to be different from someone else. As things look now, the .ZIP format seems to have the best future, but like most standards in the microcomputer industry, those calls can really only be made in hindsight. never with reliable foresight. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- TOP TEN LIST by Chris Mohney This feature is an unashamed copy of the regular sketch of the same name on "Late Night with David Letterman". The entire thing is a joke, and should be seen as such; no offense is ever intended, it's just something to laugh about. If you do have any complaints, write them on the back of a postage stamp along with return address and I will do my best to ignore them. Thank you. TOP TEN THINGS USERS HATE ABOUT SYSOPS 10 - They're gutless, overblown, bourgeoisie slime tyrants. 9 - They always disappear when there's heavy lifting to be done. 8 - None of the Birmingham sysops really exist; they're just facets of Rocky Rawlins' multiple personalities complex. 7 - If you hang around them long enough, you might become one. 6 - Some will attempt to blackmail you into doing favors for them by holding their own BBS hostage until you give in. 5 - They all have brain damage from staring at CRT's too many hours per day. 4 - Some of them are tightwads who won't give away 120 minutes a day or free downloads. Sheesh! 3 - They won't answer their phones at 3 AM just to answer a simple question! 2 - They weeble and they wobble but they won't fall down. And now, the #1 thing that users hate about sysops: 1 - They're high in cholesterol, carcinogenic, and they promote the exchange of bodily fluids! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Local Bulletin Board Systems Number Three In A Series by Mark Maisel Name: ST BBS Sysop: Steve Turner Software: PC Board 12.1/D (working on conversion to 14.0/D) Been Around: 1 year Baud Rates: 300-2400 Bulletins: General System Information Conferences: EZNET - local message echo Diplomacy - 2 online Diplomacy conferences for playing strategy game of the same name Computers Supported: IBM & Assorted Clones, Commodore 64 & 128, and Amiga Files Available: variety of shareware and public domain offerings, selection of adult oriented text and graphics files Doors Available: ProDoor, Card Guppies, Bay Street Bulls, 2 Trade Wars, MOTU, and Star Trek Special Information: another great place to call for information, files, and online games Q. Why did you start your BBS? A. I got involved with telecommunications and became extremely interested. I was looking for a hobby and decided to set up my own board. Q. What has been your greatest reward from running your BBS? A. Meeting some extremely interesting people through messages and in person. Q. What are your greatest regrets and annoyance associated with running a BBS? A. I have not really had the problems that other sysops have had. I have only had to trash can a few folks for rules violations and that is about all I have had. Q. What are your future plans for the BBS? A. I am going to upgrade to PCB 14.0/D. I probably will be adding a second line for subscribers only. I hope to do this within the next two months. Q. What is the funniest thing that has happened on your BBS? A. With Joey Bruno as co-sysop, most everything ends up being funny. Q. What is your favorite hobby/pastime outside of your BBS and computers in general? A. I like to go camping. Getting away from it all is very relaxing. Q. What do you think your system offers that might cause someone to prefer your board over others? A. A wide variety of doors to use and a diverse message base. Some of the opinions of our users keep the board always interesting. Q. Why? A. Lots of users call here because I don't exert pressure on them to leave messages or files. I try to stay in the background as the boss and interact more as just another user. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- BBS Security Update By Steve Turner & Joey Bruno BBS security has been a problem, not only in our area, but around the country for years. Too often have well established boards been crippled and even taken down because some, too-big-for-his-britches, wise guy, hacker has broken down a boards defenses. This leaves the Sysop and his or her board in a dangerous position. The worst case would mean losing another board, or at least, many a long evening trying to rebuild what is left of a well fragmented system. But have no fear, help is on its way. In the late seventies the U.S. Government, in an effort to increase security and identify valid users, developed a program named Algorithmic Process Redundancy Intelligent Logic File Output Operator Location System. ( We will refer to this as A.P.R. ) A.P.R. had the ability to identify it's users by the style of type input by the user. We aren't talking about fonts, but rather the characteristics of a user's typing; ie. spacing, speed, wording etc. These factors were combined and were recognized as a "fingerprint" to the computer. The main system, through a very complex artificial intelligence scheme, could deduce who was accessing its information and from where. Today A.P.R. has been introduced into the public domain as a support file for P.C.Board and R.B.B.S. This file resides with the other watchdog files as a mainline for security. When you log onto a system, the board you are calling will go through its regular NAME & PASSWORD checks. Once this clears, A.P.R. goes into action. It will monitor your activities and update the system log, while also checking your "fingerprints". If all checks out, then you will continue on with no problem. The program is invisible to the user and lightning fast, so no major slowdown should be evident. If, however, A.P.R. does suspect foul play, it will first alert the sysop that a security violation has occurred. The board will drop offline while maintaining the modem connection. The computer is then instructed to call the local authorities, which will trace the connection that is being held open. The police and F.B.I. will then proceed to the location of the originating call and take what actions are necessary. The BBS computer would then download all it's information on the user in question, reset itself, and then continue it's operation. Total downtime for the BBS is only three minutes. So the next time you are planning to do a little hacking for fun or profit, or are just trying to show off for your friends, think about Algorithmic Process Redundancy Intelligent Logic File Output Operator Location System. Or just remember " A.P.R.I.L. F.O.O.L.S. " ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PRO FILE by Chris Mohney The Pro File is a short, half-serious biographical sketch given to various computer telecommunications personalities around Birmingham. Victims are selected randomly from a group of names put into the notorious Hat. Anyone who thinks himself brave or witty enough may petition for admittance to the Hat by leaving E-Mail to me (Chris Mohney, most boards around town) to that effect. Anyone who wishes to suggest more questions or sneakily nominate someone without their knowledge may take the same route .... --------- Pro File on KEITH CAHOON --------- Age: 33 Birthplace: B'ham,Al. Occupation: Electronic Engineer Specialist My hobbies include: writing and playing music, woodworking, romancing my wife, target shooting and reloading bullets Years telecomputing: 10 years Sysop, past/present/future of: Co-Sysop of my wife's bbs, Point of NO Return My oddest habit is: playing the guitar My greatest unfulfilled ambition is: to write a song which sells. The single accomplishment of which I am most proud is: my family My favorite performers are: Edward Van Halen, Eric Clapton,Jimmy Page, Steve Vie, Lesley West The last good movie I saw was: Clint Eastwood in the Dead Pool The last good book I read was: C Programming for the IBM PC by Microsoft Press (Charles Prezold) If they were making a movie of my life, I'd like to see my part played by: Clint Eastwood My pet peeves are: dishonesty, messes, and brown nosers. When nobody's looking, I like to: act goofy.... being myself. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- From The Kitchen by Chez Stephan I just can't seem to put my grill up and the weather is getting to be such that I really don't have to. So here we go again and this time we're going to something a little more special. Step #1: Go to the store (I recommends either Mr. P's Market in Bluff Park or Vincent's at the Brookwood Convenience Center) and purchase either 2 nice Filet Mignon or 2 nice Veal Chops. Each should be about 2 inches thick and somewhere in the 1 pound range. Act like you know what your doing and what you want and they'll work with you a lot more at Vincent's. At least that is what I do. Step #2: Get yourself a nice bottle of red wine. Actually I suggest getting 2 bottles because the first one always seems to go so fast. In this range I suggest a Stag's Leap Cabernet Savignion, it's a little expensive but well worth the evening I'm going to cook up for you. Step #3: Get your mother or mother-in-law on the phone early in the week and let her know she will be getting the kid's on Friday afternoon. Grandparents never seem to mind this so try for the whole weekend but settle for the night. Step #4: Friday afternoon leave work a couple of hours early and get the kids on their way. Step #5: Put 2 large potatoes on to bake and open a bottle of the wine. Red wine should always be allowed to breath for 30 minutes or so before drinking. Try this at a restaurant, sometimes it will impress the hell out of your waiter. Step #6: Fry 3 strips of bacon and set aside to drain. Chop 1 medium onion and saute in the bacon fat until clear. Peel 1 small tomato and finely chop; put in a cup and set aside. Shred 1/2 cup of sharp Cheddar cheese and set aside. Step #7: Get the grill going and put on one of those old Righteous Brothers albums so that you'll be ready when the wife wheels in the drive. Pour her a glass of wine and send her to get into something that will be fitting for a meal and wine but not dressy. Say, oh, blue jeans and a T-shirt. Don't worry about the clothes. The music and the wine will handle all those details. Step #8: Lightly salt and pepper the steaks. Put them on the grill and flash grill them over HIGH heat to sear. Turn the grill down low and get back to the kitchen. Step #9: When the potatoes are ready squash them up real well and slice the tops. Take a spoon and dig the shells out and place in a large bowl. Add all the ingredients from step #3 and mix well. If you want you can leave a little cheese out to garnish the tops with. After every thing is thoroughly mixed put the mixture back into the potato skins and place them in a warm oven. Step #10: Pour the wife another glass of wine. Comment on the way she looks and check the steaks. If you burn these suckers you might as well go get the kids and bring them home. Please do not over cook the meat. Either selection should be cooked no more than medium. Step #11: Bernaise Sauce. 4 egg yolks; 2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar; 4 tablespoons heavy cream; 3 tablespoons freshly chopped herbs; 1 shallot finely chopped; salt and white pepper to taste; one half stick of butter melted. Combine vinegar, shallots, herbs and reduce slightly over heat. Put in a double boiler and add egg yolks. Whisk vigorously till mixture begins to thicken. Gradually add butter and cream, whisking until light colored and THICK. Step #12: Retrieve steaks and place on dinner plates with potatoes. If you want you can have a salad and some bread that you picked up when you bought the meat. Slice the meat across the grain and pour on sauce. Light the candles, put on the Marvin Gaye album , pour two glasses of wine and serve dinner in the living room at the coffee table where you have placed 2 pillows for you each to sit on. Step #13: After dinner, if you need to, pull out a Mrs. Smith's pie for dessert. By this time you'll be able to get away with anything so don't worry if you forgot to get ice cream or something to cover the pie. Enjoy and Ciao, Chez Stephan ----------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-SIG Files Found by Barry Bowden While calling several BBS's one morning, I discovered a note someone left about free software at the downtown Birmingham Library. Being the cheap,err I mean bargain hunter that I am, I had to investigate this mystery. I had never been to the downtown branch before, yet I was impressed with the library overall. I began looking for clues as to the whereabouts of this free software. My search took me to the third flour where I found a PC sitting on a table all by itself in the business department. I said, 'This looks tempting' and proceeded to sit right down and play with computer. I noticed a small sign on top of the monitor and on the keyboard which said, 'This Laser Disk Contains Only Disks 1-1000', to which I started getting excited. I found a book laying next to the computer entitled, 'PC-SIG Library Disks' and started leafing through it to see what goldmine I had found. What I had found was the library has purchased the first laser disk with program disks 1 through 1000 for the popular PC-SIG library. It has several hundred (probably thousands) of public domain and shareware programs for our free use and all you need do is bring a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk to copy it on. The system allows you to format disks there although you can save time by formatting them at home first. If you do be sure to format your disks as Double Sided/Double Density. The program is pretty straight forward to use. It will first ask whether the files are to be copied ARCed or UnARCed to your disk. I would suggest ARCed because it takes up less space. If you do not have a program that UnARCs a program, then get PKARC by Phil Katz from this CD, but have the program UnARC it first. Then when you are finished getting it, tell the program to ARC all your other files. I was told by one of the librarians that the main branch may be buying the next CD when it becomes available, but not until it has disks 1001-2000 because they are expensive. I urge everyone who has thought about ordering from the PC-SIG library and go to the library and use the computer set up there. It is free (you do not even have to have a library card) and if they know the computer community is using this service, they will be encouraged to offer more services for our use. While you are there, be sure to browse the collection of computer text and manuals. All systems are represented: Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS compatible, Commodore 64's and Atari computers are a few I have seen. Topics range from programming, to the legal aspects of copyrighting your software. Whether you check out a book or copy a few disks, tell the librarians that you like what they are doing and please feel free to give helpful hints or suggestions to better improve this idea. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- MESSAGE BOARD by Barry Bowden A P R I L 1 9 8 9 S M T W T F S +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ !1 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !April ! ! ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ Fool's! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !BAC ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+ !2 !3 !4 !5 !6 !7 !8 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+ !9 !10 !11 !12 !13 !14 !15 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ¡BCCC ! ¡CCS ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ! ! ! ! (64/128) ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+ !16 !17 !18 !19 !20 !21 !22 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ¡ ¡ ¡CCS ¡ ¡ ¡BEPCUG ¡ ! ! ! ! (Amiga) ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !BACE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+ !23 !24 !25 !26 !27 !28 !29 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !BCCC ! !CCS ! ! ! !OPEN ! !----------! ! (64/128) ! ! ! !HOUSE ! !30 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+ BEPCUG CCS Birmingham East PC Users Group Commodore Club South Jefferson State Jr. College Springville Road Library RUBY Carson Bldg. 1st Floor-Computer Lab Huffman, Alabama 3rd Friday of Every Month 2nd and 4th Tuesday (C64/C128) 5:30PM to 9:00PM 3rd Monday (Amiga) Paula Ballard 853-1200,ext 1463 (Days) 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM Maurice Lovelady 684-6843 BCCC BAC Birmingham Commodore Computer Club Birmingham Apple Corps P. O. Box 59564 POB 5542 Birmingham, Alabama 35259 Birmingham, Alabama 32555 UAB School of Ed. Bldg. Room 153 Regular meetings - 1st Sunday 2nd and 4th Sundays UAB Building #2, Rm 115 at 2PM Starts at 2:00 PM Informal get-every Saturday Emmett Ferretti 823-3987 morning at 8:30AM at the Rusty Hargett 854-5172 Kopper Kettle in the Brookwood annex next to AC3 BACE Birmingham Atari Computer Enthusiasts 3rd Friday 7:00 PM Vestavia Hills Library If you belong to or know of a user group that is not listed, please let us know by sending E-Mail to me, Barry Bowden, on EzNet. Please leave the following information : User Group Name Meeting Place Meeting Time(Day/date,Time) Contact Person Any Other Important Information ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Known BBS Numbers For The Birmingham Area NAME NUMBER BAUD RATES SUPPORTED MODEM TYPE 68FREE 933-7518 300, 1200 America Online Nodes 1-3 324-0193 300, 1200, 2400 America Online Node 4 251-2344 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 HST American BBS 674-1851 300, 1200, 2400 Amiga Alliance 631-8367 300, 1200, 2400 Bus System BBS 595-1627 300, 1200, 2400 Channel 8250 744-8546 300, 1200, 2400 Club Phoenix 942-0252 300, 1200, 2400 Crunchy Frog 956-1755 300, 1200, 2400 D3 Systems BBS 663-2759 300, 1200, 2400 Duck Pond BBS 822-0956 300, 1200, 2400 Fortress BBS 664-9040 300, 1200 I.S.A. BBS 995-6590 300, 1200, 2400 Jim's Place 787-5512 300, 1200, 2400 Joker's Castle 744-6120 300, 1200, 2400 LZ Birmingham 870-7770 300, 1200, 2400 Magnolia BBS 854-6407 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 HST Pinson Valley BBS 854-9662 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 HST Primary One 853-1175 300, 1200 ProSoft Systems BBS 853-8718 300, 1200, 2400 Role Player's Paradise 631-7654 300, 1200, 2400 Smitty's BBS 849-7349 300, 1200 Sparta PCBoard Nodes 1-3 979-0193 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 HST Sparta PCBoard Node 4 979-0196 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 Hayes Sperry BBS 853-6144 300, 1200, 2400, 9600 Hayes ST BBS 836-9311 300, 1200, 2400 The Connection Node 1 854-9074 1200, 2400 The Connection Node 2 854-2308 1200, 2400 The Outer Limits 969-3262 1200, 2400, 9600 HST The Islands BBS 870-7776 300, 1200 The Professional's Board 856-0679 300, 1200, 2400 Twilight Zone 856-3783 300, 1200 Willie's DYM Node 1 979-1629 300, 1200, 2400 Willie's DYM Node 2 979-7739 300, 1200, 2400 Willie's RBBS 979-7743 300, 1200, 2400 Ziggy Unaxess 991-5696 300, 1200