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BIRMINGHAM CHRISTIAN BBS NEWSLETTER ISSUE #2 FEBRUARY, 1991 Table of Contents Title Author ----------------------------------- --------------------------- Yucky Technical Stuff Staff Ricky's Mindless Mumblings Ricky Eanes Gospel Music Larry Hardeman Contemporary Christian Music Corner Andy Jones Is it What We Say or What We Are? Computers for Christ Reactions Mark Lawley Untitled Michael Davidson Utilities, Among Other Things Henry S. McGraw Browsing Through the PC Larry Hardeman In Closing... Staff ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Yucky Technical Stuff by BCBN Staff 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. 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 article 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 area "Y" of 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 edit and reformat you 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. The whole thing gets published or none of it gets published. We now have our own folder on Hardeman's called BCBN Stuff. It is folder "J" and 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ricky's Mindless Mumblings by Ricky Eanes Well everyone, we're back. The first issue of BCBN was quite successful so we are going to keep on making them. After all, I enjoy doing it so I'd do it even if it weren't popular. I would once again like to thank everyone who helped write and those that read BCBN. Your support has been great all through this project. I hope that everyone enjoys this issue and that it lives up the the standards of the first issue. Of course there is plenty of room for improvement, as we hope to get bigger and better with each issue. Time for another plead for articles. This issue is very late coming out. The reason: we didn't get enough articles to put out an issue. Hopefully this won't happen again, but if everyone that read it wrote just one article, we'd be in business for a long time. As you all know, we accept articles on anything, from computer insides to Christian ethics. We would LOVE to have some editorials from people, so dust off your soapboxes and get cracking. We have gotten many good comments, including some helpful constructive criticism, and we thank everyone for taking the time to read our literary contribution to the world. I would also like to especially thank Mark Maisel of Birmingham Telecommunications Newsletter for all of his help and suggestions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Gospel Music by Larry Hardeman In the first few issues of BCBN, I have decided to highlight some of the local showcases for Gospel music. They may be few in number in this area, but the quality of each one that I have chosen is tops. In this issue we will become acquainted with WDJC radio. In future articles, I hope to be able to tell about WURL radio, WVOK Sunday morning program and get more in depth about the Country Boy Eddie Sunday Morning Gospel Hour. Day by day people's taste changes and to go along with this change, radio stations are continuously changing their program formats to capture the largest audiences possible. Many stations have gone from country to rock, gospel to country, rock to country, gospel to rock and back again and again in the past couple decades. However, there is one radio station here in Birmingham that continues to be a blessing to the Christian Community. WDJC FM93 is one of the finest Christian radio stations in the country. I've have been enjoying their programs for the past 10 years and the only thing that has changed is some of the voices and sponsors. Bringing a balanced mixture of contemporary and gospel music as well as very good ministries to our homes and automobiles, WDJC ranks among some of the top Christian stations in the USA. My favorite program is the Dixie Gospel Caravan hosted my Mr. Wayne Wallace of McCalla. If you like gospel music this is definitely the place you need to be during the evening hours Monday thru Saturday. Wayne probably has the best insight on Southern Gospel music and artists as anyone in America and the best radio voice of any one I have ever listened. The week day programming of WDJC is as follows: Contemporary each morning from 5:00am - 9:30am with Bob Ratchford (in which at 7:00am is 1/2 hour with James Dobson), 9:30am - 12:00pm the Morning Bible College consisting of several pre-recorded messages, 12:00pm - 2:30pm is 93 Live with Hank Erwin, 2:30pm - 6:30pm is Heart Line with April Howell, 6:30pm to 10:00pm is Dixie Gospel Caravan with Wayne Wallace and the show continues on after that with bible reading and more contemporary music. Just another quick note before closing. During the daylight hours you can also tune into WURL AM760 and on Sunday morning at 6:00am on Channel 6 TV to the Country Boy Eddie show hosted by himself and Wayne Wallace and listen to such guests as Gold City Quartet, Kingsmen, The Perry's, The Spencers, Charles Johnson & the Revivors, Wendy Bagwell and the Sunlighters, The Bishops and many many more. On closing, I would like to thank Wayne Wallace for his patience with me in the past couple of weeks for bugging him to get this information. He will need to be more patient because he will be supplying us with more information as time goes by. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Contemporary Christian Music Corner by Andy Jones Well, It is approximately 5 p.m. on January 29th and I'm sitting here listening to the last broadcast of one of the best Christian DJ's around. Mark Congleton is leaving the music radio world and moving on to short wave radio. Mark has accepted a position with EWTN as a part of a new ministry which will translate the Bible on to shortwave radio. Mark has done an outstanding job as DJ of the afternoon segment, "The Heartline". Mark, I thank you for your dedication and faith and may God bless you and your family as you move on to bigger and better things. Now that the goodbyes are out of the way I have some exciting information for you Christian music lovers. We have some MAJOR concerts coming up this month and in March and especially spring vacation. So here they are: 1) "CARMAN" - the hottest name in contemporary Christian music is doing two concerts in the Magic City for free. It is very hard to believe. Carman will be here February 26 and 28 at Cathedral of the Cross in Center Point. I am almost positive that there will be a love offering but I am positive that you will have a BLAST. This will be my fourth Carman concert and believe me they are AWESOME. It doesn't matter if you like Christian music or not, this will be an exciting concert like usual. For more information contact Cathedral of the Cross at 854-7777. This is a once or four times in a lifetime event and you definitely don't want to miss it. You can bet I'll be there. 2) KIM BOYCE - Next to Amy Grant, this is the best female contemporary artist I know. This is a one concert event only and it is free. You will not leave this concert disappointed. I think Kim puts on one of the best stage performances I have ever seen. This concert is March 14th at Huffman Baptist Church in Roebuck. To add to the action, this concert is in conjunction with the DiscipleNow weekend of Huffman Baptist and Roebuck Park Baptist. For those of you who have never attended one of these weekends, you are truly missing out on a pleasure. This weekend is youth oriented and it reaches it peak at Saturday's night concert with Kim Boyce. For more information contact me at The Word BBS. Those are all of the major contemporary concerts in town for the next two months. I am going to predict Carman to be the best bet no matter who you are or your musical preference. Now that we are through with that let me move on to another matter. Sometimes our spring vacations can end up to be drags. Don't let that happen to you. Join me and hundreds of other youth as we travel to Auburn for one of the most exciting youth events of the season. In concert will be John Schlitt, lead singer of Petra, which just released a new CD and Newsong, one of the hottest groups around. The speakers for the week are Scott Dawson, an exciting teen speaker and Rick Ousley, also another great youth speaker. Also speaking will be crazy man Doug Sager; come and you'll see what I mean by crazy. So if your interested in spending the week in a luxury hotel in Auburn then contact me at The Word BBS. In my next articles I will do a review of the concerts mentioned here and also talk about the latest in contemporary Christian music. So until then, goodbye and God bless! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Is It What We Say or What We Are? by Charles Shelton (Computers for Christ, Chicago) When I first became a Christian, the people who led me to conversion gave me the standard "pep" talk about what I needed to do now that I was a believer in Christ. I call it a standard "pep" talk because of the fact that most of the various formulas of advice given to new believers have three things in common: Bible study, prayer, and witness. If one takes a healthy dose of each of these every day, one is supposed to grow into a mature disciple of Jesus. On the whole, the advice given to me was very profitable. Up until then the sum total of my knowledge of Bible content was Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Prayer was also something that I wouldn't have done much of if I had not had the constant encouragement and prompting of some older Christians. Therefore, diligent Bible study and regular dialogue with God in prayer served much to strengthen my character and renew my mind. In the area of witness, or telling others about Jesus Christ, I was also very diligent. I was excited about my new life and I wanted others among my friends and family to be able to share it. I was also exhorted by my elders that it was my responsibility to inform everyone that I could as to how they might be "born again" and come to experience God's love in Christ. So, I was on the street or in shopping malls at least two or three days a week, passing out gospel tracts and "witnessing." I must have passed out somewhere ten thousand tracts with my own hands that first year alone. I went with groups to witness and I witnessed by myself constantly while at work, with my family, or with unbelieving friends. "Boy!", you may be thinking, "He must have been a real pain to be around!" I must admit, I succeeded in alienating most of my family and friends, thinking to myself that it was simply persecution for the Gospel's sake. It's been sixteen years now, and my understanding of discipleship and Christian maturity has developed and changed in many ways. It's taken years, but I have corrected some of the damage that I did to my family relationships through my witnessing. This could not have happened if my understanding of witness itself had not changed. Through the years I have come to see that the times when I have had the greatest impact on other lives for Christ have been those in which I have been able to be comfortable with myself, unconscious of the need to fill the role of Christian "witness." It has been those times when I have been accepting of others as they are, and able to make them feel comfortable with me. As I have simply been concerned with being a friend, with caring and relating intimately on a personal level, others who were not "in the fold" have often responded positively and opened up to receive the love that I had to offer them. I have been able to affect others in ways that I never could when I utilized a "canned" approach to evangelism. People are not objects, numbers, or trophies to be won or collected so that we might have something to point to in proof of our Christian obedience and discipleship. They are not simply the means to our rewards in heaven. Not objects but, like ourselves, subjects of God's love and concern. And, like ourselves, unique, complex individuals with many deep needs, hurts and longings, and most of them are crying out inside for someone to care enough to want to meet those needs, to heal those hurts, and to satisfy those longings. But shallow approaches do not meet deep needs. I believe that is why my old "Roman Roadmap" type of approach often met with hostility and rejection. People were not persecuting me for the Gospel's sake, they were simply - and I believe rightly - rejecting an approach to them that did not take adequate account of who and what they were as human beings. Instead of having or following a particular "canned" approach to evangelism now, I am more concerned with BEING the person that God has created me to be. I believe that the most effective witness for Christian truth springs from what we are and how that comes across to others, and not necessarily any particular thing that we might do or say. So, as I have concerned myself with becoming a whole person in the image of Christ, I have found myself caring more deeply and sincerely for others as individuals, and I have thus also found them responding more positively to the message that I have to offer. In Acts 1:8, Christ states that "you will be witnesses for me". I don't believe that he meant that the disciples would simply act and speak on his behalf, but that they were going to experience such a change in their own character that what they became as a result would be for the whole world a testimony of what God could and would do for every individual who would accept his love in Jesus Christ. I think that we are most effective in our witness for Christ when we are concentrating on being the people that he created us to be, not necessarily on saying the "right thing at the right time." It's what you ARE that counts, not what you say. ***Editor's Note*** This article is available for download on Hardeman's Christian BBS as INSTas INST14.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*** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reactions by Mark Lawley I love to watch people. I love to watch the reactions of people. Much can be learned about people simply by watching their reactions to adverse situations. Take time to read Acts 16:16-34 right now. This is the account of Paul and Silas being persecuted for having done good. They were placed in a Philippian jail, which was little more than a cold, dark, damp cave. They were beaten and then had their hands and feet placed in stocks. What an injustice against two men who had done only good. Notice, however, the reactions of Paul and Silas. The 25th verse says "and at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God; and the (other) prisoners heard them." This is significant because of the Roman law that forbade anyone to be beaten after dark. Therefore, the time had to be several hours, probably about six, after the beating. All the while, Paul and Silas sang and prayed. What ever could they have prayed for? No doubt Paul and Silas prayed for other people, including the people who had beaten them. Most assuredly they prayed that God's will would be done, even at the cost of their very lives. The text says also that they sang praises. The words come to mind of that old familiar doxology; "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." What blessing could it be to have been beaten and cast into prison? Paul and Silas considered it a blessing to be counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. Paul and Silas sang praises even though they could not have known the blessings which were to come. These blessings are seen in two other reactions recorded in this scripture. The first reaction is that of God. God reacted by delivering His servants. The 26th verse says the very foundations of the prison were shaken, doors were opened, and everyone's stocks were loosed. God does not always send physical deliverance in such spectacular ways as He did for Paul and Silas, but His deliverance comes when His servants are in a right relationship with Him. Had Paul and Silas reacted in the way many of us would, griping and grumbling, they probably would not have received their deliverance. Notice finally the reaction of the jailer. Verse 27 says he was about to take his own life. We can understand why he may have been willing to do this when we examine the Roman laws and customs. Had the prisoners escaped, the jailer would have had to serve the sentence in place of the prisoner. It is only by keeping all of this in mind, and realizing that the jailer had been hearing the prayers and praises over several hours that we begin to understand the jailer's next reaction, asking, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" The jailer had seen the faith of Paul and Silas demonstrated. He saw their reactions to and adverse situation. He came to know Jesus Christ as his personal Savior by watching other people. Are you aware that other people are watching you and your reactions to the trials and tribulations of life? Are you aware that your faith in Jesus Christ is demonstrated in these reactions? Remember I said that you could learn a lot about people by watching them? When people see you, do they want to know your Jesus, or do they wonder if you know Jesus? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Untitled by Michael Davidson Well, for those few of you who might be wondering, I decided to keep the name of my article "Untitled" for the purpose of all of the new readers that I hope our newsletter will be receiving. Second, I would like to inform all of you who care, and all of you who don't, for that matter, of this month's topic: probability. Yes, the same probability that we use every day without even knowing it. For example, ever hear a weatherman give you the chance of rain? Probability. Ever read the odds on a ball game in the paper? Probability. The list goes on and on. Before we head on into the harder stuff, let's start off with the simple stuff. Probability is defined as being the quality or state of being probable, or the likelihood of a certain event. There is an easy way to find the probability of an event occurring: divide the total number of outcomes by the number of successful outcomes. For example, when you flip a coin, there are two possible outcomes. Heads or tails. If you call tails, then only one outcome is successful. Hence, the probability of a coin landing tails on one flip is 1/2. (The number of successes over the number of total outcomes, to state it more clearly.) If you try it, you will find that if you add all of the probabilities associated with one event, you will always get one. For example, if you add the probability of getting a head (1/2) to the probability of getting a tail (1/2) you will get one. Therefore, the probability of you NOT getting a head, is one minus the probability of you getting a head. (1 minus 1/2 = 1/2.) Now, say Joe wants to know the probability of him drawing a random card out of a deck and it being a spade. The answer would be 1/4, since 13 of the 52 cards are spades, and if you reduce 13/52 you will get one fourth. (An alternate explanation is that one fourth of the cards are spades, so the probability of getting one is one fourth.) Now let's talk about the multiplication principle. This states that if you want to find the probability of two or more independent events (the outcome of the first doesn't effect the outcome of the second), you simply multiply the probability of the of the events. For example (trust me, I'm getting as tired of that phrase as you are), if you wanted to find out the probability of you flipping two heads in a row (flipping one head does not make flipping the next more probable), you would simply multiply 1/2 times 1/2 to get 1/4. Therefore, the probability of NOT getting two heads is 3/4. (1 - 1/4 = 3/4, remember?) Now comes the goofy math term. To find the probability of two mutually exclusive events, you add their probabilities together. Mutually exclusive events basically means that you could either get one or the other. Say John wants to know what the probability of him getting a spade OR a heart is if he draws them out of a regular deck. You would take the probability of getting a spade (1/4) and add it to the probability of getting a heart (1/4) to get the answer, 1/2. Okay. Now to combine what you've learned. Now, you may wonder, "What is the probability of me getting a head and a tail when a flip a coin twice?" Then again, you may not, but I don't really care. There are two basic ways of finding this out. First, you could find the probability of getting two heads (1/4) and the probability of getting two tails (1/4). Using the law of mutually exclusive events, the probability of getting either two heads OR two tails is 1/2. (1/4 + 1/4) If you subtract this probability from one, you will get the probability of NOT getting two heads or two tails. This is another way of saying the probability of getting one head and one tail, which was the aforementioned question. The answer, then, is 1/2. The other way is to simply list all of the choices, and put all of them that yield a success over the number of total choices. In this case, the ways it could turn out would be HH TH HT or TT. There are four total choices, and two of them get you what you wanted. A few more examples to make sure you "get it". The probability of flipping three heads would be 1/8. (1/2 times 1/2 times 1/2, 1/2 being the probability of getting one head.) Likewise, the complimentary probability of NOT getting three heads is 7/8. (1 - 1/8 gives you the probability.) Now for something a little harder. What is the probability of drawing a red card OR an ace from a deck of 52 cards? The answer will be different from what you think. The answer is 28/52, or 7/13 once reduced. You derive the answer by taking the probability of getting a red card (26/52) and add to it the probability of getting an ace (4/52). But, from that you have to subtract the probability of getting a red ace (2/52), because you count those twice. (Once as a red card and once as an ace.) The resulting probability is 28/52 or 7/13. The probability of NOT getting a red card or an ace is 6/13, because all you have to do is subtract from one. Now let me touch on how probability is used in everyday life, and how you can put the aforementioned principles to use. The weatherman on TV says that there is a 50% chance of rain on Saturday and a 50% chance of rain on Sunday. What then, is the probability that it will rain on both days? This is just like the flipping of a coin, because each time there is a 1/2 chance of rain or no rain. Therefore, the chance of rain both days is 50% times 50%, or 25%. (In case you don't know, to find a percent as a fraction, put it over 100. 1/4 = 25/100 or 25%.) Coincidences are another way that probability enters into our lives. We say that something is not very probable, and we are amazed by its happening. But, if you think about it, the chance of NOTHING improbable whatsoever happening is very small. We also are amazed by things we perhaps shouldn't be. How many people would you think you would have to have in a room for the chance of at least two of them having a birthday on the same day be exactly 1/2? This means that their birthday may fall on ANY day, as long as it is the same one. This means that if you have this many people in the room, you can't ask whose birthday falls on May 21. The day of the two coinciding birthdays can be any day, not a specified one. The surprising answer is 23. If you use the multiplication principle, the probability of any two people NOT having their birthday on the same day is 365/365 times 364/365. Three people would be 365/365 times 364/365 times 363/365. If you continue this pattern up to 23, you will see that the probability of two people's birthdays NOT falling on the same day is 1/2. Therefore, the complimentary probability is also 1/2. Some people think that the probability of something is so small, then if it occurs, then they pass it off and say it couldn't have happened since the probability is so small. For example (one last time, I promise!), if someone told you that the probability of an event was one in 133,784,560 and that it had just happened to him, you probably wouldn't believe him. Yet this is the probability of being dealt a particular hand when playing a game like seven-card stud. (Don't try it with the multiplication principle above, it uses advanced methods that I might discuss in a later article.) I hope that this article has been helpful to you. If you have any comments, suggestions for future article topics, questions, math problems, or something new to say instead of "for example", call Hardeman's Christian BBS, join the Math Conference, and drop a line to me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Utilities, Among Other Things By Henry S. McGraw Hello again. Back with more news and reviews from Fractal Manor. Things have really been jumping since last I wrote. For one thing, my Word for Windows v.2.0 came in. What a program! On top of that, the tutorial is genuinely academic. You really do learn to use the program with this excellent instruction. The features list is enormous. The ease with which the program handles things like graphics, charts, envelopes, mail- merges, etc. is amazing. I only had one problem with it. First let me say I have a program called SCRAPBOOK from EIKON. This is a graphics utility. Actually it's a database using graphics files instead of record fields. So EIKON sent me the latest upgrade which included a new import filter for Windows programs. The install program would install the filter into all Windows programs that met certain standards for filters. Now while in a Windows program I can click on Import and choose the Scrapbook filter and Scrapbook runs, letting me import any graphics I have stored there. It worked great with Word for Windows v.1.1. It did not work with Word for Windows v.2.0. I was baffled. Then I realized that the filter was not where Word looked for filters. Also the win.ini file had not properly been set up to use the filter. Word v.2.0 adds an additional section to win.ini for graphics filters. Scrapbook did not know this. After I figured out what the program needed, I manually edited win.ini and restarted windows. I also crossed my fingers (couldn't hurt). It worked, and worked beautifully. Remember, if things don't go like you thought they ought to, don't panic. Think about what is not happening, and how you can get it to happen. You may surprise yourself. If anyone is interested, a new magazine came in January called MPC World. That stands for Multimedia PC World. It's all about multimedia systems and software. It is published every other month by the same people who publish PC World Magazine. It may be on newsstands by the time you read this. If you can't find it, leave mail to me, Henry McGraw c/o Hardeman's BBS; 205-640-6436. I will be happy to tell you how to subscribe. Although not classified Multimedia, I want to tell you about a game I have that is so alive with animation and music, well I just love it. It's called LOOM. It has been on the market for quite some time. Published by the people at LUCASFILM, this is a unique experience in gaming. Weaving magic spells with musical notes is great fun. The story line is explained on a cassette tape that comes with the program. The graphics and animation are second to none. If a SoundBlaster or Adlib card is present, the music is piped beautifully into the room. I enjoyed this game more than any other I have ever played. Maybe that makes me a wimp but I don't care. I will always look for other Lucasfilm games first when game shopping. Highly, highly recommended. Next month - Graphics, Graphics, Where Are Those Graphics? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Browsing Through the PC "Cracking the Case" By Larry Hardeman I will try to share some of my limited knowledge of inside the PC with all of you each issue until we all get tired of the rubbish. Since this is the first time this article is to be included in this issue, we will discuss cracking the case and taking a look see. Most folks are afraid to go inside their computers because of the fear of messing something up. That's rubbish. If you don't mess with anything while you are in there, then you won't hurt a thing. These amazing machines of ours sometimes need to be gotten into to do simple little tasks such as cleaning the 1/4" thick layer of dust off the motherboard so it will not run too hot, installing a new device such as modems, disk drives, video cards, etc. Most of this can be done by almost anyone and really doesn't require someone with any electronics experience. Just follow a few simple rules and all should go well. To get started, it is a good practice to unplug the machine from the power source, work on a non-carpet surface and to discharge any static electricity you may have in your body as some components are very sensitive to static. Next you need to remove the screws which hold the cover on, usually about 5 screws on the back. Refer to your owners manual if you are not sure which ones. Gently remove the cover, making sure that any screw tabs or extrusions inside the case doesn't grab hold of the wires or cables inside the machine and pull them loose. Lay the case aside. Now, look at all that dust. Hmmmm, we need to get that junk off there before we proceed. The best way to remove it is use a small vacuum with a soft bristle brush. Another way is low pressure air and blow it out of the machine and all over your desk top and floor. You can purchase small cans of air to do this from your computer supply house or if you have an air compressor use it, but turn the pressure down. All you need is just enough pressure to make the dust move. Be careful and blow away from your disk drives. Now let's just look at the components for the next minute or so and become familiar with them. You may refer to your users manual for exact location of components in your machine. My descriptions will be assuming you have a standard PC with a standard motherboard. The motherboard is the large board fastened to the bottom of the computer. If you will notice, it has a lot of chips that can be removed and replaced. The ones usually to the left front of the machine is your RAM and you may even have some empty sockets in that area for memory expansion. To the left rear you should have somewhere between 5 to 8 expansion card slots, of which most likely you already have a few of these in use. To the right rear is the power supply and between the power supply and the expansion slots you will most likely see the port for your keyboard and somewhere close to it will be your on-board clock. The purpose for expansion slots is to allow various types of hardware configurations, depending on the requirements for the usage of your computer. You can add serial ports, game ports, video cards, sound cards, scanner cards, memory expansions and the list is almost endless. Depending on the type of PC you have, some of the slots are 8-bit and some are 16-bit and if you have a 32-bit machine you may even have one or two 32-bit slots. Just because a slot is say 16-bits, doesn't mean a 16- bit card has to go there, you can plug an 8-bit card in a 16-bit slot but not visa versa. In later issues we will get into installing modems, hard drives and other devices. Somewhere on the motherboard you can locate your processor and BIOS chips. Since each board is different, I can't tell you where they are, but the processor will usually have the type of chip and speed on it such as "80386 16" or something of that nature with a similar looking slot very close by for the math coprocessor. The BIOS chips are the two chips usually with a piece of foil tape on the top of them and they look identical. These are EPROMS (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). These EPROMS have the BIOS programmed into them and they can be erased. That is the purpose for the tape. Behind the tape is a window for light to shine into the chip. Do not remove the tape. Most cases have between 3 and 5 drive bays and usually at least one of these bays is an internal 3-1/2" bay turned up sideways to the left of the 5-1/4" drive bays. If you are looking at a 286 machine and above, the floppy drives have rails fastened to the side and slide into these bays. Some snap into place, while most are attached on the front of the machine with screws. If you have two floppies, they will each be attached to the power supply and then there is a ribbon cable that either comes from the motherboard or a separate floppy disk controller card. Both floppies are attached to the same cable. Because of the way the cable is made, with twisted pairs of wires at the end (or drive A) connector, on a single floppy system the single drive is fastened to the end connector. Most hard drives will either mount in the bottom 5-1/4" bay or to the internal 3-1/2" bay. Some use rails to fasten them with others in the internal bay may be screwed directly to the bay. If you are using either MFM or a RLL hard drive it will have two ribbon cables while the newer IDE hard drives only have one ribbon cable. Also, there is a power connection from the power supply identical to the floppy drive power cable. The power cables have chamfers on two corners and it is almost impossible to plug these up wrong to the drives. But, beware of ribbon cables. In most cases you can plug these up backwards. Chances are it won't hurt anything, but it just won't work either. All ribbon cables have one of the edge wires either colored blue or red most of the time, this marks the wire to the number 1 pin. If you examine your drives and cards close enough, most have will have a number at either end of the connections to show where the number 1 pin is located. It is rather difficult to write an article of this nature and not get into too much detail. In later issues, as mentioned before, I will get into more depth on drives and expansion cards as well as memory upgrades and installing chips such as math coprocessors and RAM. Maybe we will get into some trouble shooting as well if Ricky and Michael don't discontinue this section. Have a nice day and happy computing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 (Rockin' Rev) The Family Smorgas-Board 744-0943 Randall Dickerson The Medicine Man BBS 664-5662 Jesse Massengill If you know of any other Christian BBSes around, please leave mail to the editors on Hardeman's, our support board. Thank you once again for continually supporting BCBN. We are still growing, but can only get better with your support. Keep those articles coming! Ricky Eanes and Michael Davidson The Management