### Apollo BBS Archive - April 28, 1988

    $tatus Club Bulletin Board command:$C

    Message: 3423
    Author: $ Alan Hamilton
    Category: Chit-Chat
    Subject: Last...
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 06:39:37

    That's absolutely true.  Forgive me if I wasn't too clear on that.  There
    *are* certain areas that are exempted from providing equal access because
    their equipment can't be modified to provide it.  It will only be provided
    in those areas when they upgrade their central offices.
      You still can use the old dial-an-access-number method to use non-AT&T
    services, though.

         /
     /  *  /  Alan
    *     *

    $tatus Club Bulletin Board command:JN
    Atari Bulletin Board command:$C

    Message: 626
    Author: $ Alan Hamilton
    Category: Answer!
    Subject: Last
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 06:42:11

      That's "elves" not "elfs."
      It's just goes to show you how little what someone's wear has to do with
    their intelligence.  I've seen a lot of guys in suits and ties that are
    pretty dumb.

         /
     /  *  /  Alan
    *     *

    Message: 627
    Author: $ Apollo SYSOP
    Category: Bulletins
    Subject: VIRUS
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 14:58:36

         From the ST Informer May issue   "ST Virus reported in Europe, U.S."

         In mid-March, reliable accounts of a highly destructive computer virus
         affecting the UK and West German ST communities began making the
    rounds.  Within two weeks some American users had reported the virus showing
    up on this side of the Atlantic.  This virus is different from most other
    viruses in that it attacks floppy disks exclusively and does notapper to
    pose a threat to hard drives at all.
         Mr. George Woodside, a veteran, dedicated ST user, has developed a
    'boot sector' virus killing program that you can use to cleanse your
    library.  This program named PENICILN, along with it's C source code, and
    excellent documentation is available in ARCed form on GEnie, CompuServe and
    USENET.  (I hope that Doctor Lloyd or one of you users will [U]pload this
    file to Apollo)

    SYSOP Cliff

    Atari Bulletin Board command:EC

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    Subject:Virus

    Enter a line containing only an <*> to stop
     1:        Yes, it came into this counrty through Alan Hamilton who exchanged
     2:some programs with that fellow from Europe.  Way to go Alan.
     3:end

    The outer COSmos Bulletin Board command:$C

    Message: 1280
    Author: $ Ann Oudin
    Category: Answer !
    Subject: Yes Cliff ...
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 12:03:33

    ... she has, but small ones at best! Oh well, doesn't matter - if I succeed
    in totally corrupting her - little ones are alright. You can go along way
    with them. (Ha - no retaliations OK? Just funning!) So laugh already!
    =*--ANN--*=
    P.S. No drawings either!!

    Message: 1281
    Author: $ James Taranto
    Category: Cosmos-Chatter
    Subject: Everyone
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 20:41:58

    Shut up already!

    The outer COSmos Bulletin Board command:JN
    Bulletin Board command:$C

    Press  to abort

    Message: 51962
    Author: $ Paul Savage
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Rod/writers
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 05:54:19

    Don't blame the writers for the violence and garbage on the screen. Blame
    the people who watch such stuff and support it either with their money at
    the box office or their support of the sponsors of the trash on TV.
    If it wouldn't sell, they wouldn't write it.

    Message: 51963
    Author: $ Ann Oudin
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Beau Dog
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 11:55:46

    I Dukakis everyday! =*--ANN--*=

    Message: 51964
    Author: $ Ann Oudin
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Dean/book
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 11:57:30

    I'm almost done with the book. It is amazing that it was written in 1946. A
    lot has come to pass since then - not quite that much - but getting there
    step by step. =*--ANN--*=

    Message: 51965
    Author: Apro Poet
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Reality Club
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 17:37:49

      Autopoiesis is a prerequisite to reproduction: if life is
    defined as a system that reproduces and mutates, then a
    barren woman is not alive.  Of course, fertile or sterile, a
    woman is an autopoietic system.  But autopoietic systems are
    interdependent and connected.  Because of these connections
    an autopoietic sytem smaller that Gaia may not exist.
    Components of autopoietic systems reproduce.  The
    reproduction of autopoietic systems depends on the
    autopoiesis of the components of such systems.
      Machines reproduce.  Alone, they do not self-assemble.
    They do not self-maintain: machines alone are insufficient
    *parts* of autopoietic systems.  Despite our machineless
    past, however, our autopoiesis now depends on machine
    organization in much the same way that cells of our body
    depend on human organization (anatomy and physiology).
      Biological precedents for machine reproduction abound.
    For instance, when proteins are produced on mitochondrial
    rhibosomes, protein synthesis is part of the autopoiesis of
    the cell.  When cells reproduce, their reproduction is part
    of the autopoiesis of the animal.  When animals reproduce,
    their reproduction is part of the autopoiesis of a
    technological society.  The reproduction of technological
    societies and their components is part of the autopoiesis of
    the biosphere.  Indeed, if technological societies as part of
    a phenomenon of global life reproduce, the machines within
    them, as well as the people, also reproduce.  Only DNA and
    RNA can replicate, but we are surrounded by machines.
      Samuel Butler, whom Gregory Bateson called "Darwin's
    ablest critic," expressed some compelling ideas on the
    evolution of machines.  Because they were written under the
    pen name of "Cellarius," we believe Butler's original
    intentions were clearly ironic; however, his comments strike
    us as timely.  "There is nothing which our infatuated race
    would desire more than to see a fertile union between two
    steam engines."  Butler explains that the mechanical engines
    are more efficient at converting raw materials into energy
    for work and that they generally require less maintenance
    than draft animals.  Today, of course, the prowess of
    machines and their interdependence with human beings is far
    greater than it was in Butler's time.  From a biospheric
    view, machines are one of DNA's latest strategies for
    autopoiesis and expansion.  The classification of machines
    as non-autopoietic and nonliving does not negate the fact
    that they reproduce, and reproduce with mutation, as avidly
    as viruses.  Like beehives, termite mounds, coral reefs, and
    other products of the activity of life, machines - if
    indirectly through DNA and RNA - make more of themselves.
    Through us they make other machines.

    Bulletin Board command:EC

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    Subject:Paul

    Enter a line containing only an <*> to stop
     1:        Yes, we live in a so-so world.

    VOID Bulletin Board command:$C

    Message: 1304
    Author: $ Beauregard Dog
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: last
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 08:23:30

    I'm still afraid to meet you and your kin.

    Rev. Beau

    Message: 1305
    Author: $ Ann Oudin
    Category: Question?
    Subject: Ed Sharpe?
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 12:17:14

    Have youse guys started a story without me? Sound like some fantasy
    character this Ed Sharpe. =*--ANN--*=

    Message: 1306
    Author: $ David Burkhart
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Carol/Sharpe
    Date: 04/28/88  Time: 19:41:01

    Sharpe didn't write the software the system used.  Some of it came with the
    computer, some of it Glenn Gifford wrote.  I remember one instance when Ed
    wanted to make a minor change in the program, and he kept coming into chat
    and saying "there!"  But when I checked it, there was a bug in it.  He was a
    lousy programmer.

    VOID Bulletin Board command:EC

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    Subject:Beau

    Enter a line containing only an <*> to stop
     1:        WHy don't you drop in for din-din some evening, we like jugglers.
     2:WHy is the Phx. Skeptics meeting on a Friday evening?
     3:end

    Post Office command:S

    To send mail to operator use
    First name:JAMES
    Last name:TARANTO
    Send mail to James Taranto:Yes

    Enter a line containing only an <*> to stop
     1:        I received a plea for funds from Reason Magazine today, are they
     2:really in need?
     3:        Also I received strange mail from Cervelli, addressed to you and the
     4:whole thing sounds like a put on.  Adkins is a crazy person and Peter should
     5:not fuck around where he does not belong unless he can help the situation.
     6:There just may be a murder over this and Adkins blames Hawley, Christian and
     7:me.
     8:                                Rod