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Text File | 1994-12-22 | 64KB | 1,033 lines

████████╗ ██╗ ██╗ ███████╥────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ╚══██╔══╝ ██║ ██║ ██╔════╝ ┌──────────────────────┐ ║ ██║ ███████║ █████╗ │DSNEWS27 JANUARY 95 │ ║ ██║ ██╔══██║ ██╔══╝ │VOLUME 4 ISSUE 01 │ ║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ███████╗ └──────────────────────┘ ║ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚══════╝ ┌──────────────────────┐ ║ ███╗ ██╗ █████╗ ███████╗ █████╗ │Located in the lovely │ ║ ████╗ ██║ ██╔══██╗ ██╔════╝ ██╔══██╗ │town of Port Orchard, │ ║ ██╔██╗ ██║ ███████║ ███████╗ ███████║ │The NASA MLP BBS *IS* │ ║ ██║╚██╗██║ ██╔══██║ ╚════██║ ██╔══██║ │ the definitive │ ║ ██║ ╚████║ ██║ ██║ ███████║ ██║ ██║ │educational experience│ ║ ╚═╝ ╚═══╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚══════╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ │ │ ║ ███╗ ███╗ ██╗ ██████╗ │ 206-871-3965 14.4 │ ║ ████╗ ████║ ██║ ██╔══██╗ │ 206-871-8089 14.4 │ ║ ██╔████╔██║ ██║ ██████╔╝ │Hours: Forever, Amen!│ ║ ██║╚██╔╝██║ ██║ ██╔═══╝ │ Jim & Mary Coleman │ ║ ██║ ╚═╝ ██║ ███████╗ ██║ └──────────────────────┘ ║ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚══════╝ ╚═╨───────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ ╓───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╖ ║ Dedicated to the sustaining influence of William A. Velez ║ ╙───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╜ MLPNet: (21:111/0) FIDONet: (1:350/111) MAXNet: (90:181/30) ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ This DSNEWS file is a monthly newsmagazine produced by the sysop of │ │ The NASA MLP BBS in Port Orchard, WA. The purpose of this magazine │ │ is to educate and inform, and keep everyone abreast of NASA MLP │ │ activities. It is invaluable to long distance callers who are not │ │ able to call as often as local callers. Please upload/post this │ │ where you can. Nearly 70% of NASA MLP callers are long distance, │ │ and it does them a favor when DSNEWS travels far and wide. Thanks! │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Letter from the Editor │ │ In a Nutshell │ │ Interesting Notes │ │ Current System Needs │ │ Jim Rice, The Science Guy profiles Jim Coleman │ │ Reflections, by Jim Rice │ │ EDITORIAL--You are *NOT* the Internet! │ │ A Tribute to Craig Stuart McNett │ │ Western Washington Earthquakes │ │ HUMOR--So, You Want to be a Sysop?? │ │ SPORTS--Endgame for our beloved Bills │ │ KBBS Progress Report │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐█ │ THE NASA MLP BBS │█ │ "The way things OUTTA be!" (Rush) │█ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘█ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐█ │ HEADLINES!!! │█ │ The NASA MLP thanks its newest subscriber, Jim Richards │█ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘█ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐█ │I NEED A FEW GOOD PEOPLE to sponsor THREE USGS earthquake/volcano│█ │ CDROMS for this system. Cost is $32 each. Have 0 Need 3 │█ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘█ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐█ │MLPNet and The NASA MLP got a GREAT writeup in this month's ONLINE│█ │ACCESS (December) magazine! Type MLP for info on joining MLPNET!!│█ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘█ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ┌───┐┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ √ ││ Letter from the Editor │ └───┘└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌────────────────────┐ │ ╓──┐╓──┐ ╓── ╓──┐ ║ Well, golly, hmmmmmm . . . Wonder ██╗ ████████╗ │ ║ │╟──┤ ╙─┐ ╟──┤ ║ if there's anything new to report ██║ ╚══██╔══╝ │ ╨ ┴╨ ┴ └──┘ ╨ ┴ ║ this month. Anything exciting? ██║ ██║ │ ╓─╥─┐ ╥ ╥──┐ ║ You'll remember last newsletter I ██║ ██║ │ ║ ║ │ ║ ╟──┘ ║ whined and complained that it had ██║ ██║ │ ╨ ╨ ┴ ╨──┘ ╨ ║ not yet sn-- OH, I REMEMBER!!!!!! ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╘════════════════════╝ ███████╗ ███╗ ██╗ ██████╗ ██╗ ██╗ ███████╗ ██████╗ ██╗ ██╗ ██╗ ██╗ ██╔════╝ ████╗ ██║ ██╔═══██╗ ██║ ██║ ██╔════╝ ██╔══██╗ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ███████╗ ██╔██╗ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ █╗ ██║ █████╗ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ██║ ╚════██║ ██║╚██╗██║ ██║ ██║ ██║███╗██║ ██╔══╝ ██║ ██║ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ███████║ ██║ ╚████║ ╚██████╔╝ ╚███╔███╔╝ ███████╗ ██████╔╝ ██╗ ██╗ ██╗ ██╗ ╚══════╝ ╚═╝ ╚═══╝ ╚═════╝ ╚══╝╚══╝ ╚══════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ ╚═╝ AND BOY DID IT!!! WONDERFUL! The entire area was sporadically dusted with a one inch layer of the delightful frozen stuff on a Friday night, but then the sun returned. Days lined up to pass in succession and we launched into another work week, unaware (for the most part) that an offshore low pressure zone was sliding stealthily in, tugging along a shallow, frigid bank of wintry Artic air. The snow started falling by seven o'clock Tuesday evening and three hours later, I was outside plodding through several inches of it. I had a delightful time in my private winter wonderland and didn't go to bed until two-something, despite having to be up early the next morning to go to work. Morning eventually came. The girls needed breakfast, Mary needed a ride to work . . . and the tires needed to be chained. I'm sure I don't have to paint the rest of *that* picture for you, but despite the hassles and the dangerous driving conditions, I still can't wait for a repeat performance. Hopefully, speculations of a recurring El Nino will prove to be false or, at the very best, a bit exaggerated. Snow is wonderful . . . it's just the cold I detest! ┌───┐┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ √ ││ In a Nutshell . . . │ └───┘└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ SOFTWARE CONVERSION CONTINUES!!! On Sunday, December 11, I wiped out EVERY TRACE of CDC's PCBoard software from my two hard drives and, for the first time, ran a TRULY dedicated KBBS system. Since CDC puked out several PCBoard versions in rapid succession, I've had problem after major problem with the software and with the lack of support provided by CDC when I addressed the specific problems. When a high-level CDC executive called and started yelling at me on the telephone, I decided that I'd paid this company HUNDREDS of dollars too many and it was time to find another software company that hasn't lost sight of who "the little guys" are and what we need. I started a dialogue with Keith Anderson about a month ago, and a new relationship was established. I don't want to get redundant here, so I'll simply mention that last month's newsletter (DSNEWS26.ZIP) contains more information on all this (and on KBBS software) for those interested. SPEAKING OF CONVERSIONS: I ordered the OS/2 WARP demo from IBM and am sufficiently impressed to very strongly consider converting operating systems AS WELL as BBS software. I plan to do this almost immediately, once I can come up with the necessary money to do so. This will aid the BBS in MANY ways, speeding it up, providing some crash protection, not having to take it down so often, and MUCH more! Doug Williams and I have discussed OS/2 quite a number of times and he'd almost sold me on it before I even saw the demo, but now I'm VERY interested. I'll keep you all posted on this as it develops. RAIN!!! I mean, REALLY! We're quite literally drowning up here in the Pacific Northwest. As of today (Tuesday, Dec. 20) 9.58 inches have fallen in Bremerton in 5 days. Yesterday, 3.8 inches of rainfall in 24 hours set an all-time record as the RAINIEST December day in Bremerton history! And Port Orchard, just a few minutes away, had even MORE rainfall! It was incredible. Bridges are out, roadways have collapsed in places, landslides still block highways all over the area, and our ENTIRE apartment complex was under an inch-and-a-half of water at one point. MESSAGES: They weren't working for an undetermined period of time. It all started when I became *VERY* angry with Keith Anderson for (as it appeared then) not answering mail relating to software problems I was encountering with KBBS. As it turned out (after numerous phone calls and coming to some understandings) KBBS was taking the Net .REP packets, importing ONE MESSAGE, and THROWING THE REST OUT!!! Keith *was* responding; I just wasn't getting the mail. This was also true of normal MLPNet mail--I thought Jan Wallace and Gary Araki and others had left us to climb on Lord Al's bandwagon--or some equally desperate move--but it was just a pesky mail-tossing bug to blame. Sure is nice to have them back! :) I AM MOST IMPRESSED WITH AND APPRECIATIVE OF UPLOADS relating to earthquake and volcano topics, and views of Earth from space. I am PARTICULARLY looking for satellite images of the Pacific Northwest (Puget Sound) and space images of Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. The Endeavour took DOZENS of pictures of these mountains some months ago, but I've only seen one image as of this writing. I would probably give a free subscription to anyone with an armload of GOOD Rainier/St. Helens images and information that I don't already have. :) ONLINE ACCESS. The reporter contacted me about two months ago, asking numerous questions about the system, requesting a nodelist, etc. I gave her a copy of the current nodelist (BOY have we grown since then!) and almost forgot all about it. She told me to keep my eye out for the December issue . . . and I have it here in my hands now! If you've not yet seen the writeup, take a moment to look into it! CDMG and NASA MLP are listed on the same page, and I couldn't have written more wonderful things about both systems and networks myself! (Well . . . ;) This sysop is very appreciative of Dana's efforts in representing our system. Thank you! DOOR GAMES ARE WORKING!!! Yes, it's been a LONG, frustrating wait for many of you! I appreciate the patience MOST of you exhibited while waiting for things to come together on this end. Legend of the Red Dragon, TradeWars, Yankee Trader, Food Fite . . . these are just a FEW of the games I've once again made available! Non-Subscribers are WELCOME to play, but there is a reminder when opening or closing a door that this system CAN NOT survive without support . . . YOURS! SHAKER, CASINO and ONE-ARM BANDIT are still being rewritten from CDC's PPLC proprietary language to Keith Anderson's SEQ language. In addition, SHAKER programming continues in C. I just completed one of many two- hour programming sessions on CASINO and am confident that the game will return in the format you are familiar with once Keith gets the SEQ documentation upgraded, and he's working on that now! :) ┌───┐┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ √ ││ Interesting Notes . . . │ └───┘└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ FROM NEIL YOUNG TO EARTHQUAKES TO FOOTBALL to jokes, weather information, recipes, gossip and MORE, DSNEWS is the BBS Newsletter of CHOICE among Kitsap County adults. Each month, DSNEWS brings you a variety of information and entertainment ranging from silly social and hammster issues to serious editorials and provocative science articles. DSNEWS is downloaded 100-150 times per month and has international distribution, reaching countless thousands of people as it is passed from system to system across the United States and beyond. THANK YOU for making DSNEWS a success . . . 27 consecutive issues . . . and counting! JEEERS! To TIME magazine, for depicting Newt Gingrich on the cover as "Uncle Scrooge." Get real, guys. When are you going to realize that you have displaced yourselves so far away from mainstream America that you no longer have the first idea WHAT the average American thinks and feels? Rush Limbaugh terms it the "dominant media culture." Brings to mind a bad yeast infection. KHRISTA WEBB blasted back into our lives here recently. It was sure nice to get several phone calls from her and to see her name back in The NASA MLP message bases. Welcome back, Khrista, and hope to find you an MLPNet board out in or near Ellensberg, WA! ONE WORD OF WISDOM . . . I guess about the only brilliant words of wisdom I can give you (and ask that you keep in mind throughout the holidays) is that if you MUST fly, it'd probably be a good idea to avoid American Eagle commuter jets for awhile. Lightning DID strike twice . . . Stay home. Make mother-in-law fly to *YOU*! In fact, you could buy her tickets on American E--naw, that's not very nice! <VBG> Is BILL CLINTON changing parties??? That's what it sounds like to me! If he were a short-order cook, we could call the White House the WAFFLE HOUSE! <G> Funny, in his speech he said it's time to stop attacking and start working together. Hmmmmm. Last I knew, he was vociferously blaming Reagan for the country's woes. I think that if Clinton can't stand the heat, it's time to step out of the kitchen (pardon the pun!). SECRET THINGS progresses! A recent excerpt from Conference 04: December 10, 1994: SECRET THINGS is structured for the first time, from beginning through end. Those following this know that a half dozen chapters have been written but not placed in any sequential order, as they are like pieces to an overall puzzle and have to occasionally be shuffled around a bit for that perfect fit. I've found that perfect fit. SECRET THINGS will end up at 30 chapters, 26 of which have been written. I'm shooting for a completion date now six weeks from now, at which time I hope to start finalizing the marketing materials and fine-tuning some rewrites. There remain no unanswered questions in this manuscript, and it was with great relief today that I answered my OWN questions here. Eight weeks have been spent with various chapters outlined on Post-It notes, being arranged in varying orders on my desktop at work as I've worked very hard to find the perfect fit. Two complete chapters were thrown out and a new one started, one inserted, and one completely revamped. Writing has more to do with how well you cut rather than how well you add. I'm happy with this, and can now progress onward toward completion. (Gary and Marina are safely out of danger. Dr. Hargrove and Eagle Redfeather, Mettle and Jim Araki are smack-dab RIGHT in the middle of it. Tanks and armored vehicles are on the verge of moving in on Col. Luckinbill. This is mainly due to the President bowing to the pressure of the multi-national coalition headed by the Japanese to stop U.S. aggression toward the . . . well, you'll see. ;) Almost full-circle. Almost. [Excerpt:] "Suddenly, a tiny little Washington logging town most people in the same state knew nothing about was suddenly catapulted to worldwide stardom. Treasure seekers, entrepreneurs, sci-fi buffs, weirdos and whackos were flooding into Puget Sound communities by the thousands, giving the local economy a significant and needed boost but, at the same time, congesting some industries to a virtual stoppage. Within eight hours after the story broke on CNN, Sea-Tac airport was already at full-capacity with near-record numbers, and ferry delays were measured by hours rather than minutes. Both Seattle and Tacoma had no rental cars or hotel rooms available, and things were expected to get much worse before showing any improvement. "But, still, Talawanda remained sealed, isolated from the outside world. Its roads were empty and its sawmills silent; its townspeople hid behind shuttered windows, busying themselves with dark, secret things, oblivious to the world problems centered on and surrounding them. They were unwitting hostages in an escalating tug-of-war between Col. Luckinbill and the rest of the world, and stability in the region was deteriorating rapidly. Outside military analysts suggested that Luckinbill was at least as dangerous--if not more so--than any radical Mideastern extremist to have threatened a population of people in recent times." ┌───┐┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ √ ││ Current System Needs │ └───┘└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ It's not often I mention system needs in DSNEWS, but I do like to do so every now and then. After nearly three years of continuous operation, things wear out, break down, require upgrading, etc. Our creaking single speed CDRom drive is on its last leg (we can't even swap disks without removing it and taking it apart), our 386/40 motherboard REALLY needs to be upgraded to speed up the system, our 14.4 modems need upgrading to 28.8, etc. We have many needs and I keep a bulletin online detailing the most pressing. I'll list them briefly here and remind you that you wouldn't be enjoying our system if not for the continued support of people like YOU. It sounds like a cliche, but it is absolutely true. We appreciate you and your continued support of this system. 3 USGS Earthquake/Volcano CDRoms $ 32.00 ea. Internet NASAMLP FTP Account $ 65.00 Dbl. Speed CDRom drive $150.00 We're also saving for NASA MLP BUMPERSTICKERS!!! or NASA MLP Pocket Protectors (grin) ;) ┌───┐┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ √ ││ Jim Rice, The Science Guy profiles Jim Coleman │ └───┘└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ NOTE: I had planned to interview DOUG WILLIAMS this month, but a mail glitch or a miscommunication intervened. I hope to bring DOUG WILLIAMS to you NEXT month! Well folks, what a month. Ted Smith and Jim Coleman helped discover a minor glitch in KBBS that was dumping all but the first message from our MLPNet nodes. We were beginning to wonder if Gary or Jani had run away (a rumor was started that Gary had absconded with the *entire* MLP Hammster holdings! When asked, Gary denied all knowledge of ANY Hammsters, while guiltily wiping mysterious red stuff and little white bone chips from his mouth.<G>). I hope you all are looking forward to a very, merry Christmas, and that you all have loved ones to spend the holidays with. Also, if you know of anyone who *doesn't* have someone to spend the day with, please think about maybe having them over, if only for a short while. As some of you may have read in H2O_COOLER (or will read a bit later in this newsletter) I had an experience in my job that has made me look at these holidays in a different light. It may sound funny, but this may be one of my better Christmases in a long time. :) As you may have noticed at the beginning of my column, there is no profile of DOUG WILLIAMS this month, due to the mail glitches. It will be in the next one, or I'll eat a floppy disk in front of Jani and Gary. Lesseeee, I was thinking. I'm on deadline. Jim wants this out RIGHT AWAY, in time for Christmas. (I think he thinks someone will feel sorry for him and buy him a double speed CDRom drive. I sure hope so! <VBG> ;) Ohhhh, *I* know...Jim gave me something a long time ago. He said, "Jim, if something ever goes wrong and there's NO ONE to interview on short notice, you can use THIS! I'll even include an editorial piece!" Well, I guess there's no time like the present. Read on... (Interview with Jim Coleman, Rebel Nerd, creator and founder of MLPNet and The NASA MLP BBS and roughly 3/5ths of every Lord Al joke in existence :) Maybe we'll publish the TSCNot Tagline Collection someday. It'd take you all day to download, though!) HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN INVOLVED WITH COMPUTERS? Roughly . . . 8 years??? My God, has it really been that long? I needed a word processor to assist me in writing what later became my first complete novel manuscript. A good friend of mine, David Algeo, convinced me to abandon my Brother word processor idea and get a computer instead. He pointed out one could only process words on a word processor, but one could do practically ANYTHING on a computer. Those were wise words. I purchased an Osborne 1 and later graduated to a sleek Kaypro 10, one of the finest machines of its day. (I never COULD fill up that 10 meg hard drive!) HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE BBS BUSINESS? I bought Brian's board . . . 'nuff said. I saw a big "hole" in the local BBS scene and stepped in to fill it. The system and its potentials exceeded my wildest dreams, and I've made numerous friends through it. We've literally gone through life and death together and in nearly three years, have only managed to alienate only a small handful of once-loyal users. The fact that most EVERY regular user three years ago is still with us on a regular basis speaks volumes to the friendliness and comfort of the system. CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR SYSTEM? I run an educational system, dedicated to science AND the arts, for I am convinced that our continued existence on this planet is dependent on both, in equal measure. I am a writer and musician, so there is a strong emphasis there, as well as in the earthquake/volcano/shuttle aspects. My political outlook tends to lean a wee bit toward the conservative (how could you NOT know that?!?!? ;) and that is self-evident as well when examining the system. WHO_CARES and MLP_HAMMSTER were created to answer the charge a competitor made when he foolishly stated that I "take myself too seriously." We're still here . . . . he's not. What . . . hardware? Oh, is THAT what you meant? I spent THOUSANDS on the hardware and software initially, but it's all just old junk now, since I can't afford to upgrade it. The system is run on a workhorse 386/40 (full tower, 6 bays) with a single-speed SSSSSLLLLLOOOOOWWWWW CDRom drive, 2 14.4 USR modems, tape backup, Epson LQ-570 printer and rubber bands, paper clips and duct tape! <VBG> I hope someday to replace the CDRom with a DOUBLE speed, a 28.8 modem on at least ONE node and a 486 board supporting the platforms currently exhausting the 386 CPU. WHAT ARE THE GREATEST JOYS YOU FIND IN BEING A SYSOP? You! Mail! Lord Al jokes! Keeping it all together for you on a daily basis gives me great joy . . . not to mention the great headaches! No one can ever know how valuable the system was to me when laid up for months after being hit by a car. In the 14 months I couldn't work outside the home, the BBS was literally the life raft I clung to as my physical and mental wounds healed. For quite some time there, it was practically my only window to the rest of the world. WHAT DO YOU FEEL IS/WAS YOUR BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT AS A SYSOP? MLPNet. Plain and simple. National and local media attention. MLPNet. WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR BBSing? I think the Internet is a giant steam-roller that is slowly crushing our industry, system by system. However, I'll be here as long as I *can* be here, and so long as people call. Like I mentioned in my editorial (elsewhere in this newsletter), some people do enjoy taking the "road less traveled." I'm just glad much of the media "heat" is off OUR backs and now singeing the Internet. Many folk disagree with me, but I also foresee a "taking back" of the Internet by the scientific and educational community, or a major branching off, etc. As the pornography and pirate-warez and commercial traffic increases over there, I believe we'll see a migration BACK to where it all started . . . your little system and mine. Jim will sign autographs with Elvis in the back of the building. <G> Please take the time to say hello to one another, as the mail has been real s-l-o-w, due to the time of year and other reasons. We should all see things really picking up now, as Jim gets a real handle on KBBS. I am one who hates change, yet have come to like this software. Having only had experience with PCBoard, it was a real struggle for me. Heck, up until 2 days ago, I thought all the other management team here had taken a looooong vacation. Turns out I had one of my mail pointers set wrong! <sheesh> So, hang in there, and WELCOME BACK!!! I think we are going to be a stronger board for the change, and I am really glad to see all those that have hung in there through it all, as I know Jim is. (That sound you all heard from Washington way wasn't St. Helens blowing again, it was the sigh of relief from Jim when ya all hung in there. <VBG> ) Thanks again. BTW, was given a family Christmas present from a co-worker, a years subscription to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, along with the IMAX theater and planetarium! Now.....gotta get the kids (and there dad) to the Jurassic Park display there. Supposed to be AWESOME!!! <G> Well, take care folks, have a very Merry Christmas, and talk at ya later. Jim Rice P.S. Jani......thanks for the <HUG>! <VERY BIG HUG BACK> :) ┌───┐┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ √ ││ Reflections . . . by Jim Rice │ └───┘└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Sometimes, I feel the need to share things I've encountered during the day, especially at this time of year. While most of us are busy with holiday plans, we pay little notice to those around us, except to realize how rude they were to cut in front of us in line, or get the last one of something we *had* to have, or perhaps, to notice a little extra kindness in a glance, a spoken word. The other day, I was faced with something in my job that brought everything to a crashing halt. Let me start by saying that in my job, I am faced with many stressful times; it goes with the territory. Yet this incident won't leave like all the others; maybe because of the season. Last Friday, I called one of my patients back for her CT scan; let's call her Mary......it seems appropriate. I had already read Mary's history, and was aware that she was 45, and was undergoing chemo-therapy for Squamas Cell Cancer, a fairly aggressive form. She had been suffering from headaches for a few weeks, and her doctor wanted to be sure everything looked all right. Mary was extremely nervous when I brought her back; see.......once you have this disease, you live with the reality of the chance of its spread. I tried to get her to relax a little, by just sitting and talking with her for a little bit, and it seemed to work. I did both sets of scans, both with and without the enhancing agent, and had the Radiologist look at the images. Neither of us saw much; even the small area of suspicion from a few months earlier was gone. Good News! I was able to let Mary know that on the preliminary findings, everything looked normal, and I was able to watch her leave, visibly calmer. About 10 minutes later, while filming the images, I saw it; a small, very slightly enhancing area. I had to adjust the image to be extra contrasty just to get a good look at it. It looked an awful lot like a tumor........ For the next three days, I kept going back to the scan, how this person had left feeling good, not knowing that her Dr. would be giving her news that would be devastating. All I could think about was that her and her family's holidays had just been ruined. Perhaps a selfish view, but the one I held, nonetheless. Yesterday, I re-scanned Mary, this time on an MRI. After doing the post contrast scans, I counted up to 15 separate enhancing lesions; the cancer had spread to her brain in a big way. As I said goodbye to Mary, she still smiled, though with a tightness that showed what she was really feeling. I'm not sure why I wrote this; perhaps just to let go a little. In this job, you can't become involved.......though most of us do, at one time or another. This incident has changed my Christmas just a little, made me look at those around me a little more, caused me to say a few more prayers. You see, there is a very good chance that Mary and her kids, her husband, and the rest of her family, will never have another Christmas together, never again. That is a terrible thing. So take the time to think of those you love, or those less fortunate than yourself, and try to make this the best Christmas they could have. I know it has become more precious to me, if only for awhile. ┌───────────┐┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ EDITORIAL ││ You are NOT the Internet! │ └───────────┘└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ By Jim Coleman, Sysop, The NASA MLP BBS (206)871-3965 "Why should I support your puny little system or even call it? You are *NOT* the Internet, you know, and you never will be. Spending time and money with you is a waste, since you ain't got what the Internet's got." Most Sysops reading this are probably chuckling, since we've all heard this (or numerous variations of its theme) many times in the past. Think about it--callers used to have a lot of fun on BBS systems, but now it seems that unless they can chat with four hundred and four people at the same time, grab files from a system in Great Britain and pick up a Milkweed Beanfart recipe from a Japanese university's culinary database without calling out of their own local calling area, modeming just ain't no fun anymore. Well, it's time to set the record straight. Actually, that's happening right now even as you read this, but progression is still in its infancy and I believe you are going to see a LOT more public awareness in the coming year. Awareness of WHAT??? Read on . . . True, the Internet is a vast and impressive machine, with enormous potentials still barely tapped. True, the Internet has shrunk our world and brought mind-boggling technology and availability down to the level of the common person. But, as my friends on Ted Smith's GEOInfo Net were recently discussing, there are problems looming on the horizon, problems which will ULTIMATELY work to the benefit the BBS operator. For far too many years, the media has made our existence difficult. Without even bothering to look past the opening screens, reporters have maligned the entire industry based on a few highly publicized pornography and pirate seizures. When I mentioned to a reporter at work that I was batting heads with the Clark Development Company and abandoning their PCBoard software, the first thing he said was, "Why, pirating?" Unfortunately, it's one of the first things that comes to mind when you mention BBS activity. I've seen report after report in the film and print media castigating individual System Operators for spreading pornography, harboring software pirates, infecting countless computer systems with crippling viruses, and so on. And, yes, there are isolated instances of criminal BBS activity, but they are just that . . . isolated. But try telling that to Bernard Shaw or any other prominent journalist and see how far THAT gets you. Now, however, the tides are turning. The Internet has expanded beyond ANYONE'S wildest expectations and has now become--in many ways--a crowded, polluted, overpopulated metropolis, choked with on-ramps, freeways and overpasses. Users, concerned parents and some in the media are starting to realize that amidst the glittering highways of information and on-ramps of availability lurk the street gangs, the thugs, the flamers, the pirates, the vandals, the pornographers. Now that the city limits are wide open and virtually anyone can "surf," a ten dollar modem is all you need to access tremendous resources, and do tremendous damage. No one is in charge, there is no significant police force and there are millions of potential victims. It's a perfect breeding ground for crime and a magnet for the criminal. The media is catching on to this, and some areas of the city are starting to get a bad reputation. Many folks are leaving town, returning to the small country roads leading to backwater BBS systems for a whiff of the fresh, invigorating air and a sip of the clear spring water. You see, in these little BBS "towns," most everyone is at least familiar with everyone else, there is far more control over who can and can not use the resources, and there is a Sysop "mayor" who cares very much about what happens in his or her town. The streets are kept clean, graffiti is cleaned as soon as it is discovered, thugs are jailed temporarily or run out of town and threatening, communicable diseases are not tolerated . . . because the mayor KNOWS that the town's existence and commerce are wholly dependent on its ability to lure passersby and keep them for a spell. Each BBS town is unique, offering its own blend of diversity, culture, entertainment and delights. Most are friendly, and carve a very unique, individual niche in the BBS scene. True, they're a far cry from the "big city" but, to many, that's a very welcome break . . . So, keep on traveling the back roads and byways and, as Tom Bodett so frequently says, "We'll leave the light on for you." (You may freely clip and post this section as a bulletin on your system and//or offer it for download so long as you credit the source and make no changes in the copyrighted editorial content ;) (The author is in NO WAY CLAIMING or SUGGESTING that the Internet is a bad thing. Indeed, it is a WONDERFUL thing . . . for the most part.) ┌───┐┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ √ ││ A Tribute to Craig Stuart McNett │ └───┘└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ by Brian McNett ============================================================================== Hi to all-- This is a very painful subject, so if you really don't feel like hearing about this,just skip over this message. On Dec. 4, while less than a mile from home, my brother Craig lost control of his '68 Barracuda, careened off the road and over an embankment, where he collided with a large tree. His body was not discovered until the next day. Our family figures that every one of use went past the site, not knowing there'd been an accident, let alone that it was Craig who was involved. Craig and I were never very close. We fought constantly. I always figured we were both just too much alike. He was only two years younger than I. We both enjoyed the outdoors. Me, I hunt mushrooms. Craig loved to fish, and could amaze you with his knowledge of edible wild plants. He loved to garden, and frequently did garden and yard work for the elderly, asking only minimal pay. A friend, unable to pay for the work Craig had done for him, made him a gift of some land in Ollala. He planned to start a garden. Years ago, my brother was hit by a drunk driver and left in the ditch to die. He survived, God only knows how, and had managed an utterly remarkable recovery. The insurance money had gone into a trust fund, the balance of which was due him on his 30th Birthday. Craig was counting the days. He planned to build a home, to repair guitars, and to build wooden boats. We were in the process of patching up a relationship that had always been a rocky one. It's all gone now. Craig lives on, only in our memories, and there's a great, horrible, wrenching, emptiness where he was in our hearts. --Brian ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ EDITOR'S NOTE--I've chosen to include Brian's tribute in │ │ this newsletter (with his permission) not only to pay │ │ tribute to Craig, but also as a reminder of how precious │ │ and fragile life really is, and that we are all just │ │ "candles in the wind." Jim Trull, an ad rep at work │ │ just lost his father and Martina lost her sister only │ │ yesterday. Be sure to celebrate life and living this │ │ holiday season, and the joy of having family and friends. │ │ But, PLEASE, do it safely and considerately. :) │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌───┐┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ √ ││ Western Washington Earthquakes │ └───┘└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Well, fortunately, not a lot of activity this month. Only a few noticeable quake events are worth reporting, and I'll throw in one or two since we missed one at the end of November. With DSNEWS being released early for the holidays, this list is not representative of ALL December quakes as the newsletter is being released on Dec. 22 (tonight). However, if there are any future noteworthy events prior to the onslaught of 1995, I'll be sure to include them as well next month! With no further ado or fanfare: 94/12/22 11:42:03 48.01N 119.76W 13.8 2.4 C 27.1 km NE of Chelan 94/12/20 19:56:10 46.81N 117.63W 13.5 2.6 D 36.7 km WNW of Pullman 94/12/13 05:44:33 46.95N 124.13W 35.1 2.0 B 25.1 km W of Aberdeen 94/12/13 04:44:39 47.41N 122.81W 0.1 2.0 B 20.8 km SW of Bremerton 94/12/12 06:23:06 49.13N 122.45W 10.0 2.4 C 39.6 km NNW of Deming 94/11/29 11:56:47 47.43N 121.81W 18.9 2.9 B FELT 7.6 km SSW of North Bend 94/11/26 07:32:06 42.35N 122.03W 8.0 2.1 A 26.6 km NW of Klamath Falls ┌───────┐┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ HUMOR ││ So, You Want to be a Sysop?? │ └───────┘└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ SO YOU WANT TO BE A SYSOP? by Wally Byczek WallyWorld BBS 1989 To start a BBS, you first need a computer. No matter what computer you currently have, it won't be large enough or powerful enough for what you intend to do. And since you can't take the board down (unless you run a kiddy board that bounces up and down or runs only between the time school lets out and Daddy comes home) to do your own work, you will need another computer that you can ill afford. Next you have to find a BBS software package. This can take months, or you can write your own if you are so inclined. This can take years. Next, unless you are starting a kiddy board, you will need a phone line other than the one that you normally converse on. Depending on the Telco's mood, personnel, and the imminence of a strike, this could be done in as little as 2 weeks or it may never happen. Next, if you plan to run doors on your board, you must now spend long distance dollars scouring other boards for evaluation and aquisition of these games. Naturally, your external file protocols don't come with your BBS software, so you have to again scour the countryside to find them. Utilities for your BBS are also an afterthought and have to be obtained in a similar fashion. All of these external programs have to be registered after a while, since most stop working after a while or have an annoying feature about them until they are registered. All of the above items take money--and plenty of it! While we are on the subject of money, you must obtain a modem. Whatever modem you currently have will not be supported by the BBS software. This is some sort of unwritten law pertaining to writing communication software. Be prepared to open your wallet wide. No, your old Hayes 2400 won't be good enough. People even hate 9600 baud these days, and the teenagers seem to have USR HST's these days and will complain vociferously if they can't access you at 14.4 or better. Now you pick a name for your BBS. Whatever you choose will be ridiculed by 20% of those who see it. Another 50% will offer suggestions that are worse than the one you chose. The remaining 30 won't care. Next comes the wonderful task of installing your board. You have your machine. If you just bought it, that means formatting your hard disk, installing DOS, and ANSI drivers and Lord knows what else that you need for your board. If you already have the machine, you may as well go ahead and reformat it anyway. Something will guarantee that you will have to do this before you are done. The manual for the BBS software was most likely written by the author's 10 year old and was mimeographed. It got wet in the mail and smeared as well, so at least 30% of the manual will be physically useless. The rest is just procedurally useless. Next comes the fun task of deciding on your board structure. Who can do what and when can they do it. You must design your menus and opening screens. You have to get a pretty good stock of files, because no one will upload to you unless you have something there for them to take first. (Not that it matters, I suppose, since even if you DO have files, they won't upload much anyway.) Next comes the security aspect. You can leave your board wide open so that users with the name of Benny Beanfart, Dr. Rape, Crack, Hack, File Attack, DR DEATH, etc. can come in and do anything they like. Or, you can lock it up so tight that no one will call. There is no compromise on this. Next you must build events or prepare to live at your keyboard. A BBS HAS to be backed up. If you can't afford a high density backup medium such as tape or cartridge, you will spend many many hours per week flipping floppies and slamming beers. Events are designed to allow the sysop the luxury of having the board do routine tasks at odd hours by itself--Backups, purges and so on. These never work as they come and will have to be extensively modified by you. And since they generally only run at 3 AM, you will have to be awake to see just how they die and then try to fix it. Alright... the big day is here. Your board is ready, your modem is ready, Telco finally hooked you up, and then you start up. This is when after 2 days of no one calling--despite your ad in Computer Shopper and having placed your number on every other BBS in existence--you discover that the init strings for the modem are wrong. You discover this by calling yourself from a friends' home. This takes calls to the author of the software, the manufacturer of the modem and finally gets resolved by asking another sysop how to do it. Oh Boy! Now we're in business! During your first caller's visit, someone will hit a telephone pole and you will lose power. Naturally, since the board is new, you didn't back it up. The power surge when the electricity was restored roached your hard disk. Go back to low level formatting... Finally, you're up and working. After about a week of gleefully seeing someone call, you will encounter Benny Beanfart or his like. He will leave public posts (always in caps and terribly mis- -spelled) about what a really lousy board this is and that the sysop is a three eyed twit with hammster on the breath. You automatically kill his account. But do you leave the message for the world to see? Hmmm... dilemma number 1. Killing Benny does no good because he will be back with another account such as SYSOP SUX or some such thing. Eventually he will tire of the game and go away, but he has given ideas to 30 of his friends who will also visit you sometime in the next week. Then you will be visited by the "smart kid" who can tell you everything that's wrong with your machine, your software, etc. It doesn't matter that he's calling you on a Timex Sinclair. He knows more about your 486 than does Intel. His name is usually Brian. By now, your name has spread around. Probably, if you are in Worcester, the college kids have your name and number. If it is September or January you are in trouble. You will probably be bombarded with file requests for commercial software. Some will assist you by uploading Lotus 123 Ver 3 that has the copy-proofing removed. Whoever uploads this to you will then call Lotus Development Corp and tell them that you have a pirated version on your board (anonymously of course). If you imposed an upload/download ratio such that users must upload one file to get X numbers of files in return, then you will recieve 2K text files from them. They will download 2Mb of Gif files in return. By now, you are disappointed with your message bases. You perhaps have (if you are fortunate) two or three users who post messages outside of private mail. These three users are symbionts who, if one of their number does not call for 2 weeks, will not post because they miss their friend. Your message bases will starve. You set up many areas for messages, all carefully listed by topic. No public post will ever go into the area that it should be in. You will find a raunchy joke posted in the Bible topics area, technical questions asked in the political opinion area, and a message from one of Benny Beanfart's croney's in the technical section, gay-bashing in the seismology area. You will next encounter the user who can't do anything right. He will make you feel terribly guilty that you are running this system that seems to rudely exclude him from enjoying it, because he cannot master the concept that M means Message, F means Files, D means download etc. He DOES however know how to leave Comments to the sysop! At first you will be responsive to all the user complaints and will make a valiant effort to obtain the special game that was requested as a door. You discover it on a board in the Fiji Islands and the off peak call cost you 32 dollars to download it. You find then that the game was written for a board other than the BBS that you run. You search the countryside for a conversion interface. You find one in Omaha. Add another 40 dollars in phone bills from the search. You discover now that the game must be registered with the author. This is another 69 dollars. You discovered this because after the game was installed, you called from a friend's house to test it. You find out that while the console looks wonderful while it is being run, the user sees a screen that informs him that the sysop is a cheap bum who didn't even bother to register this wonderful piece of software. Since the sysop is such a creep, why do you call there? Naturally, you register it so the annoyance screen goes away. After it has been on the board for 2 months you discover that only 1 person ever used it and he only went in there once, dropped carrier and hung up the board because you later discovered that this "wonderful" piece of software doesn't monitor carrier. Do you now register Watchdog so this won't happen again or do you just scrap the game? The work load is getting heavy on the board. Wow! It takes at least 2 hours per day to stay up with things. Answering mail, hunting down Benny Beanfart's latest account, changing screens, moving messages back to the areas that they truly belong in, adding new things, paying Telco, arguing with your spouse, etc. You decide that perhaps it's time to enlist some help in the form of an assistant sysop. This is a mistake. The assistant will pay LITTLE attention to the needs of the board, but WILL experiment with things like remote drop to DOS. Hehehehe! I think this needs little elaboration!!! By now, you are conversant with the many user complaints. WHY aren't you around to answer the sysop page at 2:45 AM? Why does your message editor use A for abort instead of Q for quit? How come there aren't any nice ANSI screens? How come these crummy ANSI screens slow down the board? Why can't I stay online for 3 hours at a time? Why can't my C64 see your graphics...It must be your crummy board! I never post messages because no one else ever does! What do you mean you killed my upload of Dbase IV? I did upload something a year ago...so how come I can't download more than 100 files now? How come my friend has access level 50 and I only have level 40? Boy...do you have a bad attitude! I think the Silicon Sarcophagus is 100 times better than this board! This is a free country...I can say ANYTHING I want in public messages. What are you...Hitler or something? How come nobody ever sends me mail? I used a bit editor on Procomm and now it won't work...tell me how to fix it! That GIF file I downloaded didn't run...this stinks...you really must be a lousy sysop if you don't check to see that it would work for me... How come you're always asking for money and when ya gonna get a faster CPU, by the way? Then you will discover the wonders of sysop to user interactive chat. You will find this to be a most opportune time to get things done. Since the majority of users who will page you into chat type at about .000001 baud, you can have a conversation with the user and get things done like mowing the lawn, making a three course meal, and cleaning out the garage before the user has stated his request. Generally, the chat request was for something such as How do I get out of a file listing or something similar that is well covered in the user manual that you have both as a file for downloading and as a bulletin for online reading. That, and the "How old are you?" chats really add a glow to the evening. :) One admonition is to not get angry about carrier drop by the user. Remember that the user is calling you through the Telco. Chances are that no matter how malicious or inept the user may be, the Telco probably did it anyway. Next comes BBS software upgrade time! Such fun! You will find that the author no longer supports your version. You have to upgrade. This means once again opening your wallet. The new version will not have the same reserved file names, nor will the file structures be the same. The author generously supplies you with a conversion program. This program is designed to assist you in making all the little changes needed to perform the upgrade. It will automatically convert your file names and structures. There are two types of these programs. One that requires that you have 5Mb more free space than you do, and the other that will abort halfway through the conversion because of a bad disk sector read and didn't have a corresponding error trap. Of the two, the latter is the more catastrophic, because now your data can't be read by either version of the software. Since you successfully upgraded your software, you now discover what the word Beta Site really means.. Now since you've done so well to this point, it's time for the hardware to find something to compensate for all this good effort. Generally, the hard drive controller is the most likely device to make this decision to fail. It will not, however, abruptly die. It will instead, gradually mis-write to disk over a period of several days before deciding not to work at all anymore. This has the advantage that your last backups will be no good at all once you replace the controller and reformat the drive. Hehehe, and we've barely scratched the surface! Still want to be a Sysop? ┌────────┐┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ SPORTS ││ Endgame for our Beloved Bills . . . │ └────────┘└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ by John Babiarz A moment of silence, please . . . Well, it had to end sometime, but I wasn't expecting it quite this quickly nor quite so ugly. It was a great run for 4 years (actually 6, as they missed out in Cleveland & Cinci in the playoffs just prior to the 4 SB run). It appears there will be some major overhauling to take place this winter. Ralph Wilson (owner) gave the GM authorization to do what it takes in the free-agent market to help rebuild. My guess is the 1st priority is a QB in the draft. The Bills profess to favor McNair, Kerry Collins and Chad May - May looks a lot like a Jim Kelly clone & may be the guy, if he's available. At least we won't be 2nd last in the draft order & should get a reasonable pick. The big rumors are that Bennett is gone (unless they declare him a franchise player) due to salary (& a pretty dismal season), talley might be gone, plus a whole host of others that are free-agents. They have 16 unrestricted ones, I believe, & it won't be pretty. I will supply a complete rundown on them when I get a chance. My opinion is the first place they should start is dumping Walt Corey, as he has proven beyond a doubt that he has no clue as to how to stop a passing attack. He refused to make adjustments and teams just shredded the Bills. Their secondary is actually going to be quite good, but when you get no pass rush (other than Bruce Smith, who had perhaps his finest year) and the linebackers are nowhere to be found, you have to expect what happened to them. I'll check in w/ more on the post-mortem when I have time. I have no doubt they will be back next year, and improved considerably. Merry Christmas to all. Quite a different note from our early December jubilation: December 05, 1994-- Awesome win for the Bills yesterday as they squished the fish. It looked bleak at halftime, down by ten, but every bounce went their way when they needed it & they stormed back to scored 35 unanswered points in the 2nd 1/2 until the fish scored w/ 10 seconds left against the reserves! It was probably Kelly's best game of the year (the Green Bay outing was also excellent), and certainly the 2nd 1/2 was his best of the year. I cannot explain to you how much joy I get out of watching Shula on the sidelines when things fall apart for him. I suffered through an entire DECADE (the 70's) of watching Miami beat the Bills, so this is sweet. It also must make them question just how good they really are when they can't beat their biggest division rival. The fish looked like they were completely stunned by the time the game ended - no dancing & gloating for them. Overall, a terrific performance by the passing corps & Thurman had a good day also (no 100 yards,but he made the big plays when they needed them). I hope you were able to see the game, as it was probably the highlight of the season so far. Now the task is to keep it together against the Vikings this week at Rich (the Bills should be sky high for this one), then at home against the Patriots & closing on the road against the Colts. Things don't look The football gods have been kind this week.... Will check in with more later this week. Gotta root for those Bolts tonight, as they can help put a nail in the Raiders coffin for us. ┌───┐┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ √ ││ KBBS Progress Report │ └───┘└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ I provided a LONG list of KBBS hints in last month's newsletter, and mention this in case there may be some who could still benefit from them. There are several more I'll include here, and give you a very brief progress report. **The BIG NEWS is that an AGGRAVATING message tossing bug was discovered by Mr. Ted Smith and I, reported to Keith Anderson and PROMPTLY fixed. I had a new version of KBBS on my hard drive the following morning and all appears to be working. (WHEW!) Bugs like that are no fun at all . . . This was a bit more serious than it might at first appear, and I was very relieved to see it fixed so quickly. **When using the File, Conference and//or Door areas, it's not necessary to go through all the descriptive screens to arrive at your final destination. It amazes me how many still see the main menu, type 'A,' read THOSE descriptions, then make a choice. If you know LEGEND is #2 and RPG is #12, you may just type in the 2 or the 12 at the FIRST screen instead of wading through all the rest. **MORE BYTES are *NOT* awarded for uploads! I stopped doing this years ago because of the sheer volume of junk uploaded. I SURE DO appreciate good uploads, but they won't get you more bytes. The only way to get more download bytes is to SUBSCRIBE. It *is* a fact that bytes are awarded automatically to frequent message posters, so those INVOLVED with more than just the file aspect of this system aren't the ones whining about bytes. :) Additionally, the TIME BANK is now online for non-subscribers, but how long it remains up depends entirely on my mood. They've come and gone before. :) **Keith and Co. are still working toward FTS, and we hope to make this available online soon. MLPNet has temporarily lost ALL FTS nodes and NetMail capability, and we are most anxious to get them back. I have TONS of advertising out there instructing interested systems to FREQ NASA_MLP and DSNEWS. This can't be done right now. Hang in there, all. Turns out I keep bugging Keith for other KBBS needs that FTS slides further and further behind as he works to alter the current code. **The NASA MLP DOES carry select ARINet conferences (courtesy of Mr. Ted Smith, CDMG & Mtns West BBS'). ARI is the company that PRODUCES KBBS, so you can communicate DIRECTLY with the software developers in the KBBS and SEQ conferences. Of course, Keith Anderson is also an active MLPNet participant and has been spotted frequently in MLP_HAMMSTER, so your chances are pretty good of catching up with him most anywhere! ┌───┐┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ √ ││ Until next time . . . │ └───┘└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ May you be richly blessed with a safe holiday season and a very prosperous new year. DSNEWS27.* (c)1995, Jim Coleman III Feel free to distribute but do not alter contents. This entire document may be posted for download or as online reading material, so long as the contents are not altered.