BIRMINGHAM CHRISTIAN BBS NEWSLETTER ISSUE #4 MAY, 1992 Table of Contents Title Author ------------------------------------ --------------------------- Yucky Technical Stuff Staff Announcement Staff Ricky's Mindless Mumblings Ricky Eanes New Age Music Artists Harry Jones Untitled Michael Davidson Hell: Suppose It's True After All... Computers for Christ The Igma Chronicles Brent Elliott Browsing Through the PC Larry Hardeman "Where Are Those Graphics"? Henry McGraw Electronic Soapbox Ricky Eanes Hardware Reviews Harry Jones In Closing... Staff ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Yucky Technical Stuff Purpose This newsletter was created as a way for the users of Birmingham's Christian BBS's to have their own publication to cover all the events, opinions, and general information of the various boards in Birmingham. We hope to provide the reader with accurate, interesting articles on a variety of topics, as well as dealing with modern Christian issues. Our staff works very hard on each issue, and we hope that you enjoy it. Disclaimer and Reprinting We at BCBN try to insure the accuracy and clarity of all information we publish. However, we cannot be held accountable for any damage as a result of errors or omissions in our publication. We want to have a good newsletter, and please let us know if you think that anything about it should be changed. Please also be aware that opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the opinions of the editors, other writers, or SysOps. If you wish to use any material in BCBN for your own needs or publication, please contact the author of the material or Ricky Eanes. In general we will let you reprint BCBN articles, but please notify us ahead of time and send us a copy of whatever you plan on using the article for. Rules for Submitting Articles Anyone can write an article for BCBN, and we do not turn down many articles. As long as it has meaning and would be interesting to other people, we will publish it. Our only rule for the subject of articles is that we will not allow anything "bad", or should we say "against the teachings of the Bible". You get the picture. We enjoy articles on Christian issues, computer hardware and software, editorials on many different subjects, and many other topics. If you have an article, please type it in an ASCII text file and upload it to the BCBN file area on Hardeman's Christian BBS. It is for BCBN text files only, and while anyone can upload to it, only our production staff can download the files. If possible, please leave a C)omment to the SysOp or a message to Ricky Eanes telling us that you uploaded your article so that we will be sure and see it. We do reserve the right to correct and reformat your submission in any way we see fit, but we will ask you before we make any major changes other than spelling corrections and the like. We WILL NOT change the content of your article or omit any of it in publication. BCBN has it's own conference on Hardeman's called BCBN Stuff. It should be used for any questions, comments, or anything else about our newsletter that you want to ask or tell us in a message. This would be a good place for you to tell us when you have uploaded an article. If Hardeman's is long distance to you or you can't call there for some reason, you may also leave your submission in a private message to Ricky Eanes on Medicine Man, Family Smorgas-board, or Pooh's Korner. I can also most likely be reached on whatever BBS you downloaded this issue from. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ***ANNOUNCEMENT*** The Second Quarterly BCBN Users Meeting is scheduled for May 16th. Unlike previous meetings, this one will be held at 5:00 P.M. to allow people who work on Saturday to be able to attend. The location will be in the Food Court at Eastwood Mall. This time, we will try to be near the middle of the Food Court. These meetings are becoming more popular each time, and is actually the forth gathering for us (but only the second "sponsored" by BCBN). We just sit and talk, and grab something to eat if you wish. There is no specified duration, and can last until the nice security guards kick you out. However, they tend to last around two hours, but you can drop it and leave at anytime. We would love for everyone to drop by, even if they can only come for a few minutes. WHO: The Birmingham Area Christian BBS Users WHAT: The 2nd BCBN Users Meeting WHEN: May 16th at 5:00 P.M. WHERE: Eastwood Mall Food Court WHY: To allow us to chat and meet each other in person HOW: By transporting yourself to the Mall, finding the heap of computer addicts, and having lots of fun ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ricky's Mindless Mumblings by Ricky Eanes Well everyone, this is our forth issue. We are finally beginning to establish ourselves as a Birmingham "institution". We have many exciting things in this issue, and in my opinion it should be the best yet. I would like to thank everyone that has written an article for BCBN once again. We are beginning to get enough articles each month without me begging, so I guess that is a good sign. With this issue, we get to print our first correction (way to go Larry!). We have our first piece for the "Electronic Soapbox", which will hopefully turn into a very popular section. I don't want to give anything away, so on to the correction. ***CORRECTION*** In BCBN #3, in Larry Hardeman's article entitled "Browsing Through the PC", line four of paragraph nine should read: --- ...number of sectors and all that by 512 (512 bytes per sector)... --- Notice it previously said "512k" instead of bytes. We apologize for any inconvenience or misunderstanding this may have caused. ***CORRECTION*** Now that the nasty business is done, let's get on to other stuff. We are expanding our writers base with each issue, and we do hope that this will continue through the months. In the "futures" department, we will have our first User Flashlight next month. Also, work is getting underway for a totally new indexed reader program for BCBN. More on this in a future issue. Thank you one last time for reading and/or writing BCBN, and enjoy! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- New Age Music Artists by Harry Jones As a follow-up to last month's article on New Age music, and in response to several requests, I am listing below the names of several artists whose music is classified as New Age by the music industry. Please note that I do not have personal knowledge of the specific religious beliefs of these artists. However, by allowing their music to be so classified, I have to believe that either they are knowledgeable of and support the New Age movement, or are at least "riding the current" of the popularity of this style of music. I had hoped to obtain a copy of Schwann's music catalog to provide a more comprehensive listing of artists, but was unable to find a copy (other than the reference copies in the music stores) that listed anything other than classical. So, my source is the latest issue of the Columbia House Music Club newsletter. The following artists are listed in the New Age section of that publication: Paul Halley Chuck Greenberg Mickey Hart Georgia Kelly John Tesh Vangelis Acoustic Alchemy Paul Winter Ben Tavera King Leo Kotke Tangerine Dream Andreas Vollenweider Yanni Mike Oldfield Ravi Shankar & Philip Glass Suzanne Ciani Benjamin Verdery Barefoot Shadowfax This is less than a third or so of the artists whose music can be found in the New Age music sections of a number of music stores here in town. Note that Vangelis wrote the music for the very popular movie "Chariots of Fire" which was, as you may recall, a pro-Christian movie. Also, note that Mike Oldfield wrote "Tubular Bells" and much of the music for the movie "The Exorcist". Also, according to the Columbia House Music newsletter, John Tesh is the host of the TV show "Entertainment Tonight". I can personally attest to the New Age flavor of Andreas Vollenweider's music. My wife and I attended one of his concerts in the Alabama Theater several years ago. The identification of his music with the spirit world was evident through the presentation of the music in the concert. At that time, I was very familiar with his music and owned several of his CD's. Some music labels have dedicated themselves to New Age. Among them are the Narada and the Private Music labels, as well as many of the titles published by the American Grammophone label. Well, that's about all for this month. Let me know if any of you are interested in more information. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Untitled Michael Davidson By now, if you don't understand the reasoning behind the title, then I suggest you go dig up your back issues like good little readers and find out. This month's topic is: Complexity and Godel's Incompleteness Theorem. Wait! Don't press yet! I can explain! This really will be interesting! First of all, I need to define complexity. The complexity of a sequence of numbers is the length of the shortest computer program used to generate that sequence. For instance, the complexity of the sequence 1109 would be fairly low, because all you would need to do is tell the computer to output the string "1109". Now if you wanted to have a string like 1109110911091109... you would tell the computer to do the aforementioned and then tell it to repeat itself an infinitesimal number of times. A sequence with even greater complexity would be 10100100101010100101010010100. You would have to tell the computer to start with a one and then put in either one or two zeroes. Now comes the essential part. Say we had a completely random string of zeroes and ones, like 1110010001111101010001101110001. The complexity of such a string would be infinity, because to output a completely random string of numbers that go on forever, you would have to type that exact string of numbers into the computer. You would never reach the end, therefore the complexity is infinite. Before I go into what could be the theorem that perhaps had the most profound effect on mathematics in the twentieth century, I will tell a short biographical sketch. Kurt Godel was born in Brunn in 1906 in what is now Czechoslovakia. He attended the University of Vienna in 1924, and lived in Vienna until 1939 when he came to the United States. (A completely irrelevant rumor is that Godel took a while to become a US citizen because he found a logical contradiction in the Constitution.) He lived in Princeton, NJ, and worked for the Institute for Advanced Study until his death in 1978. He did have a long marriage, but despite this, he was a very solitary man, and had few friends. He was, however, good friends with another physicist by the name of Albert Einstein. Kurt Godel's first incompleteness theorem states that any theorem that contains even a tiny bit of arithmetic will contain statements that cannot be proven true or false, and therefore, no theorem/axiom/formal system etc. can hold true for all mathematics, and none of the aforementioned can be really and truly proved without automatically assuming certain things. You might be getting the idea by now. Let's take a simple example. Let's try to prove 3x2=6. We can say that 3+3=6. Then we must prove that by saying 1+1+1=3, and that 1+1+1+1+1+1=6. We eventually will wind our way down to the simple equation 1+1=2. You then must prove this statement, which can be done by a number of means. Then, you must prove the statement you used to prove 1+1=2. Then you must prove that statement. We can go on forever, or in other words, infinitely. To prove everything in a formal statement of mathematics, we must prove an infinite number of statements, like we learned we had to do for even a simple equation like 3x2=6. The system would have an infinite complexity, and could never be completed, even if we used all of the sand in the Sahara to make silicon chips for storing the data. Therefore, nothing can really be proved without assuming something, i.e. 1+1=2. We all know that 1+1 does equal 2, but we just can't prove it. What relevance does this have to the real world? None whatsoever! It's just neat! Or at least I think so, and I hope you do to. Well, maybe it wasn't as interesting as I promised, but I had fun writing it, and I'm sure Ricky had fun publishing it, so at least two of us are happy. Next month, maybe I'll do something pertaining to real life. Then again, maybe not. Any correspondence/questions/comments/problems should be addressed to me or the sysop in the math conference at Hardeman's Christian BBS. I will only get messages addressed to the sysop in the math conference, so be sure you join it before entering your message. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Hell: Suppose It's True After All... by Robin Sheffield (Computers for Christ - Chicago) Two friends were discussing the possibility of life after death. "Hell is a myth," one argued. "How can a God of love condemn His creatures to everlasting punishment?" His friend nodded in agreement, and the matter seemed to be settled. The two sat silently for a moment until one of them looked up and said, thoughtfully, "Suppose it is true, after all?" Suppose it is true after all that Hell exists? Jesus Christ Himself described it as a place of "darkness" and a "furnace of fire" where there shall be "wailing and gnashing of teeth." (1) Some say there is no consciousness after death. But from Christ's words, it's evident that a person in Hell is just as aware of himself and his surroundings as when he was on earth! The Bible, God's Word, says Hell is an everlasting burning for the punishment of sinners and hypocrites, (2) a bottomless pit (3) where men have no rest, day or night. (4) It's a place where people pray, but their prayers are not heard, (5) where they gnaw their tongues and at the same time curse God. (6) Hell is a place where no one would want their loved ones to go. (7) Suppose it is true after all that God will punish sin? The Bible says, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (8) Suppose it is true after all the we cannot get to Heaven on the basis of good things we've done? The Bible says, "we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags." (9) Suppose it is true after all that Jesus Christ is the only Savior? Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (10) Be assured that God is holy and must punish sin. But He is also a God of love, "not willing that any should perish." (11) Therefore, He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins: "God commandeth His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." (12) But we must first recognize that we have sinned, ask God's forgiveness and receive Christ as our Savior. Then we can have the joy and peace of God's forgiveness, and the assurance that when we die we will be with Christ forever in Heaven. Have you received Jesus Christ as your Savior? "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." (13) The choice is yours. Bible References: (1) Matt. 13:42 (8)Heb. 9:27 (2)Isaiah 33:14 (9)Isaiah 64:6 (3)Rev. 20:1 (10)John 14:6 (4)Rev. 14:11 (11)2 Peter 3:9 (5)Luke 16:27 (12)Romans 5:8,9 (6)Rev. 16:10,11 (13)John 3:36 (7)Luke 16:28 ***Editor's Note*** This article is available for download on Hardeman's Christian BBS as as DOCT6.ZIP. There are many other files like it available by Computers for Christ. We will make an effort to present one every month in this publication. ***Editor's Note*** ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Igma Chronicles Part I: The Introduction by Brent Elliott Once upon a time, long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a man named Igma (actually he lived on Earth, it just depends on how you look at it). He was different from anyone else in that he had no arms or legs. But he never thought of this as a handicap because he had a job for the U.S. Postal Service. He sat all day in the Postal Service lounge, drank coffee, ate vending machine snacks, and played his nearly worn out acoustic guitar (he was very coordinated with his eyebrows). He liked his coffee the same way he liked his eggs: with two creams and a sugar. His favorite snack was "Captain Grungy's Cinnamon Swirls" (he never read the ingredients). When he returned home each day (an employee gave him a ride), he sat on his bed and played tunes on his guitar. You would be surprised to see how those eyebrows moved. But he didn't play the song for his own pleasure; he played for the other, unofficial member of his family, Bigear. Bigear was Igma's cat who had no difference in size between his two ears. They were normal, cat-sized ears that heard the music Igma played and sang along in his high cat-like voice. He sat in a cat-like way and had a cat-like purr. His only handicap was that he had a roach in his tail, but to make up for this shortcoming he learned to speak the language of the humans, French. But he soon found out that no one in America spoke French (but it broke the ice at parties). Because of this, he sat down with a book called "English Si Vou Play" and learned Igma's language. A year ago he started writing a series of articles for The New York Times called "Cat's Eye" which frequently spoke of petting and purring, and every now and then, the roach. Igma and Bigear lived in the small town of Verehousenbacher, Wyoming in a small studio apartment. It was built with seven foot ceilings since Igma had no arms or legs and didn't need a high ceiling. He equipped the floors with foot pedal light switches so he could perform at least some household tasks. When he was at home he watched TV and played more songs for his cat. This kept him busy until it was time to go to bed (usually after the syndicated episode of Matlock has fully sunk in). He led a boring life, which was typical of a man with no arms or legs. The surrounding town held all the essentials of life; a bakery, a grocery store, a post office, a bank, and a 7-11 complete with Wyoming lottery tickets (the jackpot last week was 23 cents). Life was really slow in the town of Verehousenbacher (maybe because it lies five miles away from a nuclear disposal center), but the people were still friendly. If you needed to borrow some NyQuill, the next door neighbor would give you some. They were just all around nice people. Every now and then, the paperboy would give Igma a paper he didn't pay for by mistake. When Igma started to read the small Wyoming newspaper, he noticed a headline that said "Scientists Discover Thing; Reads Mind Says Man". Igma read the article which was a chip which Japanese scientists designed (yes, they're ahead of us in fiction too) which can read the thought patterns of human beings and laboratory rats. Igma didn't know why he was so excited by this discovery, but he knew it could help him somehow. He thought that maybe he could build a device that would help him drink his coffee, or read the newspaper, or even drive a car. But he thought to himself "that's silly" and continued to read the boring articles. Igma and Bigear drifted off to sleep while the "Later Than Late Show" was running. The next morning Igma got up after having a very good dream about mashed potatoes. He gargled a glowing substance that was in his tiny bathroom, to get rid of morning breath. As he slid into the kitchen to get a frozen burrito for breakfast, he remembered that he had another dream. A smile came to his face and he flopped back and forth with glee - and then he stopped and said to Bigear, who was pandiculating while heading towards the kitchen, "I can have arms and legs!!!". This was certainly a miracle since he was a torso with a head. Bigear was definitely confused by this remark and thought Igma had been to a television evangelist. Bigear looked at him in a strange way and said "You've gone insane, man!" "No way," Igma replied, "Remember that article in the newspaper last night which spoke of that chip that can read your mind?" "No." "Well," said Igma as he went on to describe the article. Two hours passed and Igma finished telling Bigear about his plans. In short (I don't have two days to tell you everything he said, but transcripts are available for $12), the plans were that Igma could mobilize himself using this mind reading chip using the box of motors, steel, and electronic parts which were conveniently in his closet. He also instructed Bigear on how to draft. After days of training and a French translation, Bigear began taking orders on building this suit. The planning went on for days. There were many sleepless nights that month and Igma had to give up watching Matlock for a while. Pages of dark pencil drawings piled up in the corner of Igma's studio apartment. Exact specifications were written out for the limb simulator and everything was just going great until that one moment when everything stood still. The news announcer on the radio had announced that the Italian Dyslexic Garbage Men were in town. This was not good news considering that the IDGM used international food for weapons. Igma decided to get Bigear vaccinated because these guys don't play fair. The plans would have to wait. Everything must be stopped. Everyone must stop watching World League Football. Bigear had to go to the vet. Later that day, Igma arrived at the vet with his feeble feline and placed him in a waiting room chair. A doberman pincer came up to Bigear and began to beat him up. A cloud of smoke surrounded the two as in all cartoons, and you could see fur, noses, and blood everywhere. Squealing and barking emerged from the cloud as in any cat/dog fight. Igma tried to break it up but they wanted to fight too bad. And besides, the vet was loving it because the more injuries, the higher the bills. All of the noise went away and the violent cloud stood still. As it dissolved into the air, the other people in the waiting were saying things like "Poor cat" and "Good job fido!" and "Anyone have any popcorn?". But when the cloud was completely gone, Bigear stood tall and looked at Fido. When everyone else finally looked at Fido, they found that he was severely injured and tied to a chair which was never in the office in the first place. A few moments later, Igma asked Bigear, "What were you doing?!?!?". Bigear replied frightfully, "It wasn't me, it was the roach" (as you may recall, Bigear did have a roach in his tail). "You know how those roaches love to fight!". Igma thought for a minute and said "Well, I guess we'll just have to have the roach removed too". So Igma walked up to the counter and answered the questionnaire which asks about you and your pet. The list was long and Igma was offended by such questions as "Did you live near Chernobyl in 1986" and "How many fingers am I holding up". But after all of the questions were answered, the Vet picked up Bigear and took him back into the operating room. The last thing Igma heard before returning to his seat was "Gloves-Scalpal-Scissors-OOOPS!-Masking Tape". Time passed. Sixty minutes seemed like an hour. 24 hours seemed like a day! Five minutes later the vet came out with a smiling Bigear in one hand, and the roach in the other. After he handed Bigear to Igma, the roach began to beat up the vet. A cloud of smoke enveloped the two as Igma and Bigear walked out the door. Igma walked proudly down the street with Bigear until he almost ran into a small cart that said "Lemonade and Mindreading Chips" on the side. Igma pulled out two dollars and said to the rough looking man behind the cart "I'll have a lemonade and a mind reading chip". "Sure," the man said, taking the money from his hand. He handed Igma the change, lemonade and the chip. Igma immediately began to drink the lemonade and almost ate the chip before he realized what it was. "This is the chip we need to build my suit with!" he yelled to Bigear. "No kidding!" Bigear yelled back. "We've gotta get home fast to start building my suit!" Igma stated excitedly. "Will you help me Bigear?" "Well..." "I'll be able to pet you..." Igma said. Bigear replied "It's a deal old pal!" as they walked towards home, without the Italian Dyslexic Garbage Men on their minds. ***The big mystery is: How has Igma been walking all this time if he has no arms or legs??? Find out next time on The Igma Chronicles!!! To Be Continued... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Browsing Through the PC: Hard Drive Installation Tid Bits by Larry Hardeman Last issue I told a little about the construction of primarily MFM and RLL hard drives. Without taking up a lot of your time, we will assume you know the difference between MFM, RLL, and IDE type drives. Besides, Ricky already has other articles for this issue, so I can't take up too many pages. The following information will be based on the above type drives unless otherwise mentioned. To install a hard drive you will need the proper controller card, cables, and, of course, a drive. Let's run through the steps for installing a MFM or RLL drive. If you have an XT computer, a 8-bit controller is required and it must match the drive type. On a 286 and above you will need a 16-bit controller. The most common controller cards used are manufactured by Seagate, Western Digital and Adaptec. Two cables are needed to connect the drive to the card and you will also require a power connection coming from the power supply of your computer. Some drive bays in computers require rails to hold the drive into the computer which usually are supplied at the time of purchase of the machine. Unplug the computer and remove the case. Examine your controller card noting which pin on each connector is the #1 pin on both the 34 pin jumper and the 20 pin jumpers. Install the controller card in a empty expansion slot and fasten it down by first removing the associated plug in the back of the case. Making reference to your computer's user manual, install the hard drive in an empty drive bay, again noting the #1 connecting edge on the drive card edge connectors. I prefer using internal bays whenever possible. If you are using an exposed drive bay, your drive will need a bezel on the face of the drive. Plug the cables to the drive and controller card. The cables will have one of the edge wires colored different than the other wires. This is your #1 wire and must be connected to the #1 terminals of each the controller card and hard drive. Next, plug the power supply cable to the drive. This connector has 2 corners of it with a 45 degree chamfer so it can't be plugged backwards. Now it is time to configure your system if you are using an AT class computer. Your drive has a certain number of tracks, heads, sectors per track and sometimes a landing zone and pre-comp zone. Find the drive in your CMOS drive table which matches your drive. If your are using a XT class computer, most cases you don't have to worry about this, but some XT's do have a CMOS setting and require a setup program supplied with your machine when purchased. Again, refer to your users manual. The setup programs will ask you for if you want to enter data into the bad tracks table. If your drive has a label on it showing bad tracks from the factory, you better key this information into the bad tracks table. If you don't, you are risking losing data later on or having DOS lock out more tracks than necessary when you do your DOS formatting of the drive. Now there are a few steps we must take to get the drive to function properly. These are low level format, partitioning, and high level formatting the drive. This sounds awful, but it is really rather simple if you follow directions. I am going to assume that your drive has never been low level formatted with the particular controller card you have. MFM and RLL drives must be low level formatted before they can be used, to establish communications between the controller card and the drive. This is different from the DOS high level format. There are some special utilities to low level a new drive and most controllers have a program in their ROM that you can use by using the DOS Debug Program from your DOS floppy disk. In addition, some AT BIOS's have a low level format utility as well. Whichever you use, it must be done unless you purchased the drive and card together already low level formatted. If you get the error "No drives found", or similar, then the controller card is unable to find the drive. The most probable cause is that you are using a twisted pair cable and have your drive jumpers set to DS1. A drive can be configured DS1 thru DS4. If you are using a cable with no twist in it, set your jumper to DS1 and if you are using the end connector of a cable with a twisted pair, set the jumper to DS2 (refer to illustrations provided with your drive documentation). Now, once you get the drive low level formatted, it is still not yet usable. Depressing isn't it! You next have to install partitions on the drive. A hard drive is referred to as a physical drive, and you can install multiple logical drive partitions. If you are using DOS 3.3 or below and a drive larger than 32Meg, it is necessary to install more than one logical drive. DOS will assign logical drive letters beginning with C and up thru Z if your drive is that large. This is only in most of our dreams that our drives would be this large, that is, unless our name is Rocky Rawlins. To install partitions and logical drives, you will need to run the DOS FDISK program from your DOS floppy disk. Due to the length of this subject, read the DOS manual. Finally, we get to high level format the drive with the DOS format program. Each logical drive will need to be formatted. This is a simple task. The command is "format drive: " for all logical drives D and above and "format c: /s " for drive "C" (the /s forces system files to be copied so you can boot from drive "C"). Once you have the drives formatted by DOS, you are off to the races. The drive should boot and you can install your favorite communications software and call your favorite BBS. I know all of this sounds complicated, but it really isn't. It does take a little time though. There are areas not covered which I may do later on, like installing a second drive. I would like to mention something though. If you are installing an IDE drive, you only have one cable from the controller card to the drive and it is a 40 pin cable. Also, if you don't have special software from the drive manufacturer, NEVER LOW LEVEL FORMAT an IDE drive. I mentioned in my last article that I had a little experience with an IDE drive that was not quite as fascinating as Mark Maisel's trip to Tom Eagan's house, but here it goes. I sold a computer to a customer and got it in here one Saturday afternoon. When I went to partition the drive with DOS 3.3, it wouldn't work because the company I bought the drive from had formatted the drive with DOS 4.01. So, being used to MFM and RLL drives, I said to myself "I'll fix that, I will low level format this baby and start from the beginning". So, I got the low level format started and then picked up the documentation that came with the drive. At the very top of the paper it said "Caution: Do Not Low Level Format!". Well, this was a 120 megger and quite expensive at the time. After that I tried everything to get the drive to work, but the only thing accomplished was I got sick. The drive was trashed and had to be returned to the factory to be repaired. Generally, all you need to do with an IDE drive is plug it up, run DOS FDISK and FORMAT programs and you are in business. My experience with IDE drives is that they seem fail more often than I would like for them too, but they are excellent performing drives. I have seen numerous bad Western Digital 40 Meg drives. Don't know if it is because there are more of these in circulation than any other drive or what, but there are a lot of Seagates out there too. I hope you learned something from this, because it took me an hour to type it. Maybe Ricky will check this one for errors before he publishes it? Oh well, next month we are going to discuss floppy drives. I need a break! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Graphics, Graphics, Where Are Those Graphics? by Henry McGraw Well hello again! Sorry I didn't make it last month, but hey, stuff happens. Anyway, a lot has happened to me in the last month. But that will have to wait for another day. I promised to talk about graphics files this month and that is what I am going to do. So here goes. Have you ever been getting a newsletter or flyer together on the computer, and decided you'd add that special graphic, oh you know the one, the one you saw last week while you were cleaning old files off the hard drive? Let's see, was that in the CLIPART directory?..No I don't see it in there...I think it was named JHS%;66.PCX, but I could be wrong. Maybe it was in my paint program.. hmmmmm...no, don't see it. Sound familiar? Well you need a graphics bloodhound. A program that will let you see your graphics files in thumbnail view, so they can be found quickly. There are several of these programs out there. They all do a good job. If you want to see what I mean, download the shareware version called PIXFOLIO.ZIP available on your friendly neighborhood BBS. Many programs allow you to view a file before you import it to the application. Word for Windows v2.0 has this feature. The programs I am really talking about, however, are Scrapbook and Pixfolio and are, in essence, databases of graphics files. You view the graphics in what is called thumbnail view. There are 10 or more graphics displayed at one time on the page. There are multiple pages. This makes locating a particular file extremely easy. Other programs are coming onto the market with this ability built into them. One that comes to mind is Corel Draw! In case you don't know, this is my favorite program in the whole wide world. The program that keeps Corel'S files together is called Mosaics. But again it is a database of graphics files viewed a page at a time with 10 or more files displayed at once. If you're like me you want your graphic right now. You sure don't want to have to close your draw program and go searching all over creation for it and lose your train of thought. I mean it's not often I get a whole train. This month's best game is Kings Quest V on CD-ROM. This is like going to an interactive movie complete with sound. Fantastic! Next time, what online services are worth and why. See ya then. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Electronic Soapbox Welcome to the BCBN equivalent of the editorials. Here is where anyone can voice their opinions and arguments on whatever topics they wish to discuss. These can be sort of like essays, debate-style papers, or whatever the author wishes to make his point with. We especially encourage responses to articles in this section, either on the local Christian BBSes, or, better yet, in a "rebuttal" article for this section. Please keep in mind the regular BCBN article submission rules when writing for this section. ------------------------- Why Register Shareware? by Ricky Eanes Out of all the thousands of BBS user's around, how many of them do you think register every single shareware program that they use? Sure, there are some that register many of them, but it is unlikely that anyone could even think about registering all of their programs. In a perfect world, everyone could and would pay for all of their programs. But this world is far from perfect, and as a result many people have never even registered a single program. I myself have only registered a few of the many programs I use, and that's something I'm not proud of. Shareware authors spend countless hours coding and debugging their programs, and they deserve something in return. Commercial authors get plenty for their work. In many cases, shareware programs are actually better than their commercial counterparts, mainly because of the easy user support. Let's just stop and think a minute about where BBS-land would be if shareware didn't exist. One would have to buy every program they use, even those little utilities that you use about once a year. BBSes might not even exist, for if you think about, the whole BBS system we have today more or less centers around shareware. Many bulletin board programs are themselves shareware, as are nearly all of their doors, files, and add-on products. Shareware authors are not going to go bankrupt, be forced to live on the streets, and turn to a life of crime just because you didn't send them $10 to register one of their programs. But after all, it's the thought that counts. If you wrote a shareware program, and you knew that many people were using it, but received no registrations, wouldn't you feel bad? Just think how they feel. There has probably never been a shareware program that never got any registrations, but I'm sure that there are many that gave up the concept because of lack of response. Just think where we would be today if, say, Phil Katz (author of PkZip, etc.) had bombed out with the initial release of his program and never tried at it again! On the other hand, some programs obvious get almost too many registrations. When this happens, the program goes commercial, i.e. Telix and Qmodem. However, these programs are living proof that the shareware system still works. Take, for example, offline readers. Go through an active message base on some board and find a percentage of the taglines you see that were registered. You could perhaps get 10% on a good day. Don't think I'm just shunning everyone because I registered mine. I just did so recently, and only did it after I took some criticism for not doing so. I do think that having a registered reader may give you more respect from online people you meet for the first time. If they see that you spent the money to register it, they'll know you're serious about this thing. The shareware concept is a great one that I know will survive for years to come. It always has and will continue to give we the people quality programs from authors who wouldn't otherwise be able to release them. If we all do our part and support it, our BBS world will be just that much better. *This copy of BCBN is unregistered. Please send $10 to.... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Hardware Reviews The Intel 14.4ex Modem by Harry Jones Back in January, I decided to depart the world of 2400 baud and invest in a high speed modem. After reading several articles, I decided on the new Intel 14.4ex external modem. The discount price for it is around $500. I have heard that Intel offers it to BBS Sysops for around $400. This little jewel has both V32bis and V42bis, giving it a rating of 14,400 baud (50% over a 9600) with a theoretical throughput of 57,600 characters per second. I never have seen that kind of speed over phone lines, though. I regularly achieve 1650 to 1675 characters per second transfer rates on file uploads and downloads on boards that will connect at 14,400 baud. The first time I downloaded a large file at these speeds, I was simply amazed - seven times faster than 2400! By the way, YMODEM-G is a little faster (20 or so cps) than ZMODEM due to its lower "overhead". So, what boards can I connect to at 14,400? Well, all of them that have the USR Dual Standard modems, including Pooh's Korner, Crunchy Frog, and The Matrix (nodes 5-7). I have even called a couple of out of state boards and have connected reliably at 14,400. Other boards with 9600 modems, such as the USR non-dual standards, connect at 9600 with file transfers at 1050 or so characters per second. Connects with boards using 2400 modems are reliable as well. The modem is housed in a case similar to the Hayes Smartmodems, with a black face and brushed aluminum cover. The front panel has a full complement of LEDs for status indication, including a red one that indicates a connection at high speed. The power supply transformer is on the line end of the power cord and the power switch is on the back. One annoyance is the lack of a speaker volume control - the volume can only be adjusted with the ATL command. The modem does run a little warm, but Intel must not be worried - they give it a 3 year warranty. Setup is a snap with no DIP switches to set. A modem diagnostics program is included to run tests and to modify the default ROM settings, if needed. However, I have found no need to change the factory settings. Intel packages the modem with a copy of "Crosstalk Communicator" communications program. I loaded it on the hard drive just long enough to take a look at it, then went back to my old favorite, QMODEM. By the way, QMODEM does not have a modem definition for the 14.4ex. But, configuring it using the Intel 9600ex works just fine - all you have to do is set the default connect speed at 57,600 instead of 38,400. The documentation that comes with the modem is quite complete, and includes a quick reference card for the AT set commands. Although I have not had to use it, customer support and product support is likely to be good, considering the Intel name. Intel offers a 24 hour BBS and a FaxBack order line for obtaining up- to-date technical support information. Well, as you can tell, I am quite pleased with this little jewel. Now, if only all the boards had high speeders... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Birmingham Christian BBS Numbers Name Number SysOp Hardeman's Christian BBS 640-6436 Larry Hardeman Pooh's Korner 980-8710 Eddie Dake The Word 833-2831 Rod Lewis The Family Smorgas-Board 744-0943 Randall Dickerson The Medicine Man BBS 664-5662 Jesse Massengill The Christian Apologetic Board 808-0763 Jeff Brumlow Thanks once again for reading this issue of BCBN. Remember, if you missed any of our back issues, you can always get them at any of the above boards. We'd love to hear your comments, so please let us know what you think of our literary contribution to society. Ricky Eanes and Michael Davidson The People Who Fix Your Typos