This column will be my monthly opportunity to keep everyone up to date in the world of telecommunications, especially with respect to the SMUG Bulletin Board Ssytem (BBS). Brooks Greene will be helping me out with this column, and you'll see her comments from time to time. Let me know if there are some telecommunications
topics you would like to see covered here. As this is my first column, let me bring you all up to date on where we are now.
BIG NEWS
The big news lately is the reorganization of our BBS. When MacExpress (MacExpress is the name of our BBS just as MacMonitor is the name of our newsletter) was first established more than a year ago, AIS Computers made it happen. They sponsored the necessary hardware and the telephone line to set the system up. SMUG contributed the TeleFinder software and the BBS in a Box CD-ROM disk. Many of you have enjoyed those services to participate in conferences, download software, and send e-mail to other members. Now SMUG has grown to the point that we can manage the BBS ourselves, and in the spirit of experimentation that is a users group, we should.
Brooks Greene has volunteered (thanks Brooks!) to house the hardware and perform the duties of Sysop. I'll be the Assistant Sysop. We will work closely together to make the BBS into SMUG's own image of what a BBS should be. Input from our members is welcomed; let us know, in person or by e-mail, just what you want to see in your BBS.
WHAT WE'VE GOT
MacExpress runs on a Macintosh Plus with 4 megabytes of RAM and an 80 megabyte external hard disk. The CD-ROM drive is an NEC-36 portable, and our modem is a 14,400 bits per second unit from Supra. We are running only one incoming line now. The future may require a second line, but the cost of adding it means we must wait until we really need it and can afford it.
The BBS Host software is TeleFinder from Spider Island Software. It offers all the BBS features you need such as e-mail, conferences, uploading and downloading files, custom messages, and system management. Although access can be gained via a plain text terminal emulator application, its real face shows when using the supplied special graphical user software, TeleFinder User. This software allows the user to see a Finder-like representation of the BBS and operate it by clicking and dragging, just as it should be.
WHAT'S SPECIAL
What makes MacExpress worth using? I guess my opinion may be a little biased, but you'll find a wealth of things to do there. First there is the Public Domain and Shareware library. The CD-ROM drive will always have a CD mounted that you can browse and download from; it will be different from time to time, but the main CD is BBS in a Box. This CD is a collection of files of every sort, thousands of them, all compressed, organized, and provided with short comments describing then. Old Disks of the Month are archived on the BBS, and you can find dozens of the latest in publicly available software that doesn't ever make the Disk of the Month. Updates to popular commercial software titles are online too.
Second, you can participate in the conferences. These discussions range from computers to music to politics; just jump in at any time. If you have a question, you can post it and someone who knows can answer or start a series of notes discussing the topic. There's a message thread going on now for proposals for a new name for the BBS; be sure to post your idea. Classified ads are free; a conference area for sale items has several items in it already. Right now there are topics on alternative music, Clinton's health care policies, desktop publishing, and BBS operations.
E-mail is a wonderful thing! The SMUG officers use it frequently to keep in touch and handle group business. Contributions to MacMonitor can be mailed to Jim Alley online. If you'd like to make a private response to something you've read in the conferences, send the writer a message.You may even negotiate the purchase of a used computer.
HOW TO JOIN?
If you're a SMUG member and not a member of our BBS, give it some thought. All you need is a Macintosh (you do have one, don't you?), a modem (see the special modem deal for SMUG members from AIS elsewhere in this issue), a little time, and some curiosity. I can get you a copy of the latest version of the TeleFinder Uset software for $1, and Brooks or I can get your account opened on the BBS in no time. Contact her or me for details at the next meeting.
THE FUTURE
MacExpress will be growing and changing. How it changes and what features it offers is to some degree up to you. Brooks and I can go only so far; we need to hear your needs and find more and more SMUG members online. Watch this space to keep up with it all.
