BTN:  Birmingham Telecommunications News
COPYRIGHT 1988

January 1989    Volume 2, Issue 1

Table Of Contents
-----------------
Article Title                                  Author

Policy Statement and Disclaimer................Mark Maisel
Editorial Column...............................Mark Maisel
Swiss Army Shell...............................Mark Maisel
Whatever Happened To...(A Response)............Bill Freeman
Styles Of Sysoping, etc........................David Shockey
Amiga On The Loose.............................Richard Foshee
Profile:  Jay Enterkin.........................Chris Mohney
The Dixie SysNet...............................Bill Freeman
Message Board..................................Barry Bowden
Known BBS Numbers..............................Mark Maisel

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Disclaimer and Statement of Policy for BTN

We at BTN try our best to assure the accuracy of articles and
information in our publication.  We assume no responsibility for
damage due to errors, omissions, etc.  The liability,if any for BTN, its
editors and writers, for damages relating to any errors or omissions,
etc., shall be limited to the cost of a one year subscription to BTN,
even if BTN, its editors or writers have been advised of the likelihood
of such damages occurring.

With the conclusion of that nasty business, we can get on with our
policy for publication and reproduction of BTN articles.  We publish
monthly with a deadline of the fifteenth of the month prior to
publication.  If you wish to submit an article, you may do so at any
time but bear in mind the deadline if you wish for your work to appear
in a particular issue.  It is not our purpose to slander or otherwise
harm a person or reputation and we accept no responsibility for the
content of the articles prepared by our writers.  Our writers own their
work and it is protected by copyright.  We allow reprinting of articles
from BTN with only a few restrictions.  The author may object to a
reprint, in which case he will specify in the content of his article.
Otherwise, please feel free to reproduce any article from BTN as long as
the source, BTN, is specified, and as long as the author's name and the
article's original title are retained.  If you use one of our articles,
please forward a copy of your publication to:

Mark Maisel
Editor, BTN
221 Chestnut St.
BHM, AL 35210-3219

We thank you for taking the time to read our offering and we hope that
you like it.  We also reserve the right to have a good time while doing
all of this and not get too serious about it.

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Editorial
by Mark Maisel

     I certainly hope that everyone has enjoyed the holidays.  I, for
one, am glad that they are over as I work for the Post Office and we
experience our peak of business at this time.  It is extremely difficult
to run and visit relatives every evening until late at night and be
expected to get up at 5 a.m. and go to work!  Sorry to be a bit late
with this issue but the holidays took its toll on our contributors as
well.  We hope that you will find this issue well worth the wait.

     We have an excellent selection for you this month which you should
find amusing and stimulating.  SAS or Swiss Army Shell, which has been
floating about on some local boards is reviewed by me in its latest
revision.  Bill Freeman has made two contributions this month.  One is a
rebuttal to Christian Minton's article last month on Pay boards and the
other is an invitation to a meeting that I will leave for you to
discover.  Suffice it to ask, is this an idea whose time has come? We
have some great humor from David Shockey in regards to the management
styles of some of our local sysops.  I am sure that you will find this
very amusing, providing you are not one of the victims! We have a plug
for the Commodore Amiga, a powerful graphics machine, from Richard
Foshee.  Jay Enterkin fell to the ProFile harvest of Chris Mohney this
time around.  Watch out as you could be next.  As usual, we close our
issue with Message Board from Barry Bowden and our Known BBS Numbers.

     In the upcoming year, I will be sharing editorial space with anyone
who wishes the opportunity.  I will be working on a series of articles
for BTN overviewing each system in town.  It will be a bit time
consuming so if you have something you want to say, then you have your
chance to do so in the editorial.  All you need to do is contact me on
EZNET and we can make necessary arrangements.  If you would like to help
with the series, I welcome any assistance and/or suggestions that might
come my way.  One other project that I am considering is the expansion
of our Known BBS Numbers list to include much more information than it
currently carries.  If you would like to give me your feelings on this
item, then please do so through EZNET.  Until whenever, have fun!

                       ***LAST MINUTE ADDITION***

     The Birmingham Business Board has been down due to hardware
problems.  It will be reincarnated as The Professional's Board and it
will begin operation 1/12/89.  Please be on the lookout for it.  When
you see it, please take the time to try the new BTN Reader Door.  This
door is the work of the sysop, Joe McDonald, and he and I both hope that
it will make reading BTN easier for his users.

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SAS:  Swiss Army Shell version 1.13x
An Overview & Review
by Mark Maisel

     Swiss Army Shell, hereafter referred to as SAS, is a DOS shell for
machines that use MS-DOS.  It is an easy to use shell that will not
limit an advanced user while also providing a simple method of
communicating with DOS for the neophyte.  SAS offers all kinds of file
manipulation allowed by DOS and does so in a flexible manner.  SAS was
written by a local programmer by the name of Steve Lee.  Steve placed
SAS onto the ST BBS as shareware and I highly encourage you to take a
look at it if you use a DOS shell of any kind.

     SAS, as previously stated, supports a variety of operations on
files that most shells will perform.  It has one more that I have not
seen in that it will manipulate ARC files.  Archive management is
extremely handy, especially for those who are afraid of or don't
understand the cryptic method of using an ARC program from DOS.  This
function makes handling ARC files as easy as possible.  If it were any
easier, it would have to be illegal.

     Once you call up SAS, it creates a file in your root directory to
help it work faster.  This file must be updated with a command each time
you make a change to your directory structure.  The display for SAS is
visually appealing and easy to follow.  Two panels, left and right
respectively, offer the names of your current drive's directories and
your current directory's files.  The left panel presents your
directories in a graphic tree form and the right presents your files
with filename.ext and no other information.  The bottom four lines of
the screen contain information on the current drive, directory, and
file.  This method makes viewing an overwhelming amount of information a
simple and understandable task.  To move between directories and files
requires a few keystrokes.  The response time is incredible when moving
around on a hard disk.

     There are two ways, aside from quitting the program, to run
programs from SAS.  If a file is one that can be run, highlight it and
press "X" and then "Enter".  If you must have the DOS prompt, then you
can shell back to DOS from SAS.  If you are working with files that are
not executables, then "H" is the only key I will mention specifically.
It calls up an extensive list of commands for SAS.

     Flexibility is another strong point of SAS.  Viewing, editing, and
finding of files is supported though none of these functions is coded
into SAS.  SAS allows you to choose your own favorite file viewer,
editor, and finder for use with it.  Recommended utilities for
performing these jobs are, Vern Buerg's LIST, your favorite text editor,
and PKFIND.  SAS uses PKARC and PKXARC to perform its tricks with ARC
files so you will need them as well.  SAS will behave just like any DOS
shell without any of these programs but in order to be fully functional,
you should have these other programs in your path.  All that is required
of you to use any of these programs from within SAS is to highlight or
tag the file(s) to be acted on and press the appropriate key for the
action.  The first thing I found in SAS that I did not care for, though
it is no big problem, is that you must use certain filenames for your
utilities in order for SAS to use them.  If you use other than LIST,
EDIT, PKFIND, PKARC, PKXARC, then those functions will not work.  I
would prefer to see a setup program where the names of the utilities can
be given to SAS rather than limiting me to certain names.  This is
picky, assuredly, but I often work from DOS and I am too lazy to
remember the names that SAS uses for my utilities.

     Without giving too much away, I think that SAS is a useful addition
to my software library.  I do use it on a regular basis and I think that
you will also find it worthwhile.  The ARC functions are particularly
nice.  I have only one complaint aside from the one I made earlier and
that is the lack of mouse support.  I am a heavily mouse dependent
person and I enjoy the quickness and flexibility they offer.  I have
been in contact with the author and he tells me that mouse support is in
the works.  He also says that macro capabilities will be added in the
near future.  This version I have been testing for the past two months
is not a release version and the most current version I have seen on
boards in town is version 1.1.  Be on the lookout for a version 1.5,
hopefully, very soon.  I will definitely grab one as soon as possible.

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Whatever Happened to... (a response...)
by Bill Freeman


     I beg your pardon, Christian. Most of the SysOps around town, both
PAY and Non-pay boards, still run their boards because of the enjoyment
that the hobby provides.  By classifying the boards the way you have,
you are being somewhat unfair. There are advantages and disadvantages to
having a "PAY" board, and I want to point some of them out to you.

     Our board is a "free" board that also has subscription accounts
available to its users, with all the users coming into the board for the
first time starting out on an equal footing. We use a file ratio system
to make sure that users are encouraged to replace what they take, so
that the system grows, the users can take more, and will (in a circular
way) have more to offer back to the board. Of course it doesn't always
work this way, as human nature drives us all to take more than we give
back. We do try to structure these ratios so that someone who can't pull
his weight in returning new files to the system (new users who are just
getting started) can enter the system and not be penalized while they
gather files.

     One method that new users should use is to make master lists of the
files from all the bulletin boards they use, then compare these lists to
determine who has what, and then plan to play the role of broker:
downloading a file here or there and re-uploading it to another system
to build up a healthy ratio. This is a lot of trouble for the user,
though.

     A justification for requiring users to help out in bringing new
files to the board is to prevent stagnation: to keep interesting new
things coming into the file areas of the board. This approach serves the
BBS community better than the "take what you need, we'll settle later"
approach because of the human nature aspect I mentioned a minute ago. As
you point out in your article, the subscription approach can be
confining and coercive. The people that most perceive these limitations
are the ones who do not follow the responsible user profile. Several
users on our system upload many more files than they take down, and I'd
bet they like the system of having a ratio. They have very high security
levels and extended access as a rule.

     Now, what about the user that doesn't want to bother with "counting
calories" (oops, that should be files!)...  Well, the subscription mode
of the board gives them an avenue to support the service that supports
them, not having to worry about counting anything.  Our rates are low on
the average, only $25/year buys a subscription. A year is a fairly long
time, and $25 for 32850 minutes (547 hours) of potential use ain't bad
now, is it? The subscription accounts let users feel like they have a
vital interest in a board, and share a fraternal relation with the SysOp
in running the board.

     You point out that "SysOps should either pay to run their own
boards or get out" of the kitchen. If the SysOp is running his board
with intentions of having FULL control over it, I guess you're right.
Problem is, when your board starts approaching a half gig (500
megabytes), it is difficult if not impossible for a single person on a
law students income (personal experience here folks) to run the system.
As I said earlier, when a system gets to be that size, a chunk of the
users want to have an elite status on the system, and a subscription
system is the most fair way to do this.

     Does a SysOp get rich running a BBS? No, I don't think so. In fact,
we have a very hard time paying the bills most of the time.  I'd be
guessing, but I don't believe ANY board in Birmingham would have a
windfall from subscription dues.  They are, for us, barely enough to pay
for the phone lines.  The equipment that runs our board, by and large,
was put there by a small group of three people that run The Connection,
and subscriptions don't even touch the cost of things like 225 Mb hard
disks (look them up in Computer Shopper!).

     If running a big board is so much a hassle, why in the hell do you
do it? Because it is enjoyable. We have some extremely heated debates
now and then, and I get to see the newest software first-hand. Its also
very much like a coffee shop, and SysOps get to hear the gossip around
town first. This has its bad points too, especially when you end up
being the butt of the gossip. Was it P. T. Barnum that said he'd take
the bad publicity with the good? Sometimes I understand what he meant.

     The bad aspect I can see about the system we are using in running
our board is that it forces smaller boards to compete in more refined
areas. A small board usually is SysOp-supported because it doesn't have
the "oomph" to draw the subscription dollars. This makes these boards
less stable, and more likely to go down over the course of time. The
small boards often seem overwhelmed at the task of matching their
competition.  Some boards fight this problem by being very specific in
their purpose, providing only a message base on a particular topic, or
limited files in a given area. I guess this can be as much an asset (to
an optimistic small board) as a liability. On the plus side of the
SysOp-supported BBS, the owner/SysOp has the freedom to do with his BBS
what he wants to. Subscription services give up much of this freedom.

     The way I see it, those guys that are running a strictly business
BBS are even doing a service to the community. They are pushing back the
boundaries of the hobby (sometimes going too far and then hearing angry
cries from users - sometimes bringing a new service to the community
they serve). Now, I've tried to talk about the "why" of a subscription
BBS. Perhaps you believe that in the fraternity of BBS users, there
should be no subscription services. In a Utopian BBS community, I'd
agree with you, and it would be nice. In the real world, though, people
have to work together to accomplish great things, and in my opinion
running a subscription side to the "free" board we provide is a means to
that end.

     Wouldn't the abolition of the large subscription boards be a
reactionary approach that would return us to smaller, more limited BBS
systems, instead of serving to increase the options available to users?
I think it would, and I don't think this would be in the best interest
of the BBS community.  A subscription to a bulletin board is an option
for the user. Sometimes, if we accidentally encroach upon a person's
feelings by being too strict, it is up to that person to let us know.  I
think that most people still believe that SysOps, even the subscription
ones, want to be nice guys too.

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STYLES OF SYSOPING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A USER
by David Shockey

Lately I have been doing extensive research on the styles of Birmingham
sysops and co-sysops.  I have compared the styles of our sysops to those
in other parts of the country and I'm here to tell you that we users
have a pretty strict and boorish bunch to deal with.  What we think is a
friendly sysop here in Birmingham would be considered intolerable in
cities like New York or San Diego.  I think that after you read some of
the facts that I have gathered about our local sysops you will agree.

Take for instance, Ice Princess of the "Point of No Return".  The Ice
Princess believes that all users, deep down in their hearts, want to be
abused.  You realize this when you are greeted by the familiar "Do you
want graphics?" message.  If you reply N to this seemingly innocent
query then her BBS program answers "Too bad worm!" and your screen fills
with garbage.  If you are looking for files to download then the
Princess has many and she encourages you to try them all with no penalty
for your download/upload ratio.  If you have ever read "THE DIRTY
DOZEN", the list of virus and trojan programs that is published and
distributed periodically by Eric Newhouse, then you have seen the
Princess' file listing.  She sometimes changes her number without notice
so that she can determine who her most loyal users are.  She feels that
only the users that have a sincere desire for humiliation will spend the
time and effort to get the new number and call again.  Currently she has
changed to an unlisted number, has anyone tracked it down yet?

Then there is "The Pinson Valley Board" run by David Alge.  David is
also something of a sadist but he can be dealt with, unlike the
Princess.  The way to get around Dave is to leave a message every day
telling him how great his board is and how grateful you are that he has
allowed you to get on his great board.  If you do not leave the messages
then Dave purges your name from the validated list.  This may not sound
too bad at first, but, purged users on Dave's board get only 1 minute
per day when they return.  Add to that the requirement to fill out the
137 question questionnaire for validation and you should get the point.
Copious begging via ECHO can usually get you back on within six months.
Dave figures that this process weeds out everyone but the users who
really want to be on the best bulletin board in Pinson Valley.

It couldn't get any worse than that right? Wrong! "The Connection BBS",
run by Bill Freeman, has the capability to switch languages.  You might
think that this is great since now people that speak other languages can
use the board also.  The truth is that absolutely no one uses this
feature but Bill, who uses it to punish users that write messages that
displease him.  For instance, just because I said that Michael Dukakis
was a weenie I now have no choice but to sign on to his board using
ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.  If I were a weenie like the Duke then I
would complain about it.

Speaking of complaints.  How many of you that use "America Online" have
noticed what a nice guy Rocky Rawlins seems to be and what a vicious
Nazi Tom Egan is? Tom Egan's answer to most users that have a problem or
complaint is "go to hell!".  Well I have it on good authority (a certain
redhead named Natashia who has a ummm ...  dominant personality and a
leather fetish) that there is no such person as Tom Egan.  Rocky just
uses the persona of the non-existant co-sysop when he wants to tell
someone to "go to hell!".  She tells me that he even changes clothes and
speaks with a different voice when he assumes the Tom personality.  Very
strange.

The most extreme case is Bob (psuedonymn) who runs a private board.  If
you irritate Bob then he will have an FCC agent come out to your home
with a bonafide search warrant and they will confiscate your modem. Then
the FCC agents will roam around your neighborhood asking your neighbors
whether or not they have ever seen you doing anything strange such as
wearing clothing of your opposite sex.  (Everybody lives close to some
old lady with binoculars, and the guys at the FCC know this.) I don't
know where he gets this kind of clout but I'm not so sure that I want to
know either.  (Rumor is that he's ex-CIA.)

How about that "LZ Birmingham", hosted by Loren Levson and various other
ex-Hitler Youth? At LZ they have three levels of conferences.  The
pretense is that anyone can use the main conference, only veteran
supporters get to use the Supporters conference, and only actual
veterans get to use the Veteran's conference.  This is (if I may use the
words of Brett Thorn) "blatant bullshit".  I had access to the other
conferences at one time and all they do in the other conferences is plot
new strategies for textually assaulting the unsuspecting "liberal pinko
fags" that sign on to the main conference.  I was "exterminated" from
the higher level conferences when they found out that I once dated a
girl whose mother was present at a peace rally back in October of 1965.
How's that for strict?

I don't know about the rest of you but I think that we users should not
put up with this kind of abuse.  I think that we should stand up for our
user rights and demand considerate treatment.  A boycott is what we
need! We could arrange an hour of modem silence just as a warning.  Let
me know what you think.  My name is Fred Smith and I can be reached on
the "The Jokes on You BBS", 24 hours at 930-5689.  The Joke BBS gives
unlimited time on all ten nodes with no bothersome upload/download
ratio.  What is better, IT HAS NO SYSOP! You see, it runs on a
Timex-Sinclair 1000 that made its way to the the Jimmie Hale mission
after it was struck by lightning at a nuclear waste site that was
visited by extraterrestrials.  But that's another story.

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                           Amiga on the Loose
                       (c) 1988 by Richard Foshee

There seem to be a lot of people in the computing community that are
curious about this relatively new machine by Commodore Business
Machines, so here I am to try and help you all understand what the Amiga
is, and hopefully some information about it.

Approximately 4 years ago, Commodore released this "fantastic" new
machine that was capable of amazing computing power never before seen in
a micro computer.  These included, literally thousands of colors
(actually shades of colors), a multi-tasking operating system, and
multitudes of expandability options. At this same time, Atari was about
to release it's new machine, that would supposedly keep them up with
Commodore, but that's another article all together.

As the Amiga became better known, and Commodore's user base grew, rumors
began to surface about it, and a lot of these rumors were circulated as
absolute fact. Some of these rumors were, the Amiga was a nice GAME
machine, and was not capable of anything else, or that it was extremely
limited in a variety of other areas. But enough of the rumors, here is
some absolute fact.

The Amiga uses a Motorola 68000 chip, as it's central processor, and is
capable of producing 4096 shades of colors in HAM mode (Hold And
Modify), which is a special graphics mode that allows the machine to
display all 4096 colors simultaneously. It also has several other
graphics modes, in which, 32 colors are the maximum allowed. Although
now there are many paint programs that use what is called "Extra Half
Brite Mode" which will allow up to 64 colors to be shown.

All of the Amiga's, in addition to the 68000 chip, have three additional
chips, which each have a specific job to perform, totally independent of
the 68000 itself.  Because of these chips, the 68000 can perform
whatever function is required of it, while the other 3 can perform there
own thing. These chips are, a graphics, animation, and stereo sound
chip, as well as a blitter chip, which assists in drawing graphics.

The Amiga has a clock speed of 7.16 MHZ, which is quite enough for
whatever tasks you may set before it. The Amiga, when first released,
could access up to 8.0 MEGS of RAM, this has since been upgraded to 9.5
MEG. All Amiga model's come with an internal 880K disk drive, and more
can be added fairly inexpensively.

For the first time, Commodore has used industry STANDARD ports on their
machines, a definite turnaround for CBM. Due to this change, Commodore
machines can now use a great many extras previously not available to the
earlier Commodore machines, such as hard disks, modems, and printers,
without having to spend that extra money on interfaces.

Well, I see this article is getting a bit long, so I will have to finish
up. There are currently 3 Amiga models in release, with more coming
soon. There should be at least one model in anyone's price range.
Ranging from $500 and up for the Amiga 500, or if you have an
extravagant taste, the Amiga 2000 starting at $2195 (Suggested retail).
If you get the change to see a demonstration of any Amiga, don't miss
it, you won't regret the experience.........

If anyone has any questions or comments, address your comments to
CoSysop One on the Pinson Valley BBS.......

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PRO FILE
by Chris Mohney

The Pro File is a short, half-serious biographical sketch given to various
computer telecommunications personalities around Birmingham.  Victims are
selected randomly from a group of names put into the notorious Hat.  Anyone
who thinks himself brave or witty enough may petition for admittance to the
Hat by leaving E-Mail to me (Chris Mohney, most boards around town) to that
effect.  Anyone who wishes to suggest more questions or sneakily nominate
someone without their knowledge may take the same route ....

---------

       Pro File on  JAY ENTERKIN

---------


Age: 30

Birthplace: Panama City, Florida

Occupation: System Support Analyst

My hobbies include: Reading, tennis, hiking, frisbee, photography,
strategy games, coin collecting, and of course BBS's and computers.

Years telecomputing: less than one year (since 3/88)

Sysop, past of: NEMESIS Private Host

My oddest habit is: I have too many unusual habits to single one out.

My greatest unfulfilled ambitions are: to be an outstanding parent,
to get in top shape (physically fit) and to write a book.

My favorite performers are: Rolling Stones (at least thru 1981).

The last good movie I saw was Windwalker.

The last good book I read was The President's Wife (about Rachel Jackson).

If they were making a movie of my life, I'd like to see my part played by:
Ben Murphy, in de-elevator shoes, or Michael J. Fox in elevator shoes.

My pet peeves are: bureaucratic red tape, network television, arrogance,
crowds, waiting in line, parents who behave worse than their children but have
no patience with them.

When nobody's looking, I like to: rock out with 60s and 70s music.

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The Dixie SysNet
by Bill Freeman

           %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
           %             Dixie SysNet SysOp Meeting         %
           %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
           %                                                %
           %     For ALL Bulletin Board System Operators    %
           %                                                %
           %        Saturday, January 14th 9:00 AM          %
           %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
           %                                                %
           %             Shoney's Restaurant                %
           %            412 18th Street South               %
           %             Birmingham, Alabama                %
           %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
           %           Topics to be discussed:              %
           %                                                %
           %        Bulletin Board Publicity: How to        %
           %       Let Users Know Your Board is There.      %
           %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

     The Dixie SysNet: what is it? All who have seen the welcome screen
to The Connection BBS have seen it proudly proclaimed that it is a
member of The Dixie SysNet.  Until now, it has not been a whole lot.
After meeting with several sysops and users at a BTN gathering and
contacting several local boards, The sysop of The Connection, Bill
Freeman, is going to try to establish a formal organization for local
sysops.  Just what this organization will provide is still to be
answered, hopefully by a consensus among those present at the
aforementioned meeting.  There have been several good ideas tossed
around for discussion at the meeting.  Sharing information on bbs
related subjects and providing advice and assistance to new sysops are
but a few of the topics that have been mentioned by Bill and others who
have expressed an interest in his idea.

     If you have any interest in this idea, please make every attempt to
attend this meeting as its outcome may vastly improve the potential for
telecommunications business and fun in Birmingham.  If you just would
like to meet some sysops, yes they are human, for the most part, then
you may attend for that reason alone.  Keep an open mind and see what
happens!

   PLEASE TRY TO ATTEND!  IF YOU CAN READ THIS, THEN YOU ARE INVITED!

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MESSAGE BOARD
by Barry Bowden


                                  J A N U A R Y

                                     1 9 8 9


      S          M          T          W          T          F          S
 +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
 !1         !2         !3         !4         !5         !6         !7        !
 !New Year's!          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !Day       !          !          !          !          !          ! BAC     !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
 !8         !9         !10        !11        !12        !13        !14       !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 ! BCCC     !          ! CCS-C64/ !          !          !          ! BAC     !
 !          !          !     C128 !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
 !15        !16        !17        !18        !19        !20        !21       !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !Martin    ! CSS-Amiga!          ¡          ! BEPCUG   ! BAC     !
 !          !Luther    !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !King, Jr. !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !Day       !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
 !22        !23        !24        !25        !26        !27        !28       !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 ! BCCC     !          ! CSS-C64/ !          !          !          ! BAC     !
 !          !          !     C128 !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+
 !29        !30        !31        !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 !          !          !          !          !          !          !         !
 +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+---------+


 BEPCUG                                       CCS
 Birmingham East PC Users Group               Commodore Club South
 Jefferson State Jr. College                  Springville Road Library
 RUBY Carson Bldg. 1st Floor-Computer Lab     Huffman, Alabama
 3rd Friday of Every Month                    2nd and 4th Tuesday (C64/C128)
 5:30PM to 9:00PM                             3rd Monday (Amiga)
 Paula Ballard 853-1200,ext 1463 (Days)       7:30 PM to 10:00 PM
                                              Maurice Lovelady 684-6843


 BCCC                                         BAC
 Birmingham Commodore Computer Club           Birmingham Apple Core
 P. O. Box 59564                              POB 5542
 Birmingham, Alabama 35259                    Birmingham, Alabama 32555
 UAB School of Ed. Bldg. Room 153             Regular meetings - 1st Sunday
 2nd and 4th Sundays                          UAB Building #2, Rm 115 at 2PM
 Starts at 2:00 PM                            Informal get-every Saturday
 Emmett Ferretti 823-3987                       morning at 8:30AM at the
 Rusty Hargett 854-5172                       Kopper Kettle in the Brookwood
                                                annex next to AC3
                                              Boris Datnow, Bill Bankson
                                              P. O. Box 5542, Birmingham,
                                                AL 35255
                                              Thomas Woods 664-0708

If you belong to or know of a user group that is not listed, please let
us know by sending E-Mail to me, Barry Bowden, on The Bus System BBS.
Please leave the following information :

                 User Group Name
                 Meeting Place
                 Meeting Time(Day/date,Time)
                 Contact Person
                 Any  Other Important Information

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Known BBS Numbers For The Birmingham Area

NAME                                    NUMBER   BAUD RATES SUPPORTED

68FREE                                933-7518   300, 1200
America Online Nodes 1-3              324-0193   300, 1200, 2400
America Online Node 4                 251-2344   300, 1200, 2400
American BBS                          674-1851   300, 1200, 2400
Bus System BBS                        595-1627   300, 1200, 2400
Channel 8250                          785-7417   300, 1200, 2400
Club Phoenix                          942-0252   300, 1200, 2400
D3 Systems BBS                        663-2759   300, 1200, 2400
Duck Pond BBS                         822-0956   300, 1200, 2400
Elite Empire                          967-8479   300, 1200, 2400
Fortress BBS                          664-9040   300, 1200
Joker's Castle                        744-6120   300, 1200, 2400
LZ Birmingham                         870-7770   300, 1200, 2400
Magnolia BBS                          854-6407   300, 1200, 2400, 9600
Nouveaux BBS                          871-5551   300, 1200, 2400
Pinson Valley Node 1                  854-9661   300, 1200, 2400
Pinson Valley Node 2                  854-9662   300, 1200, 2400, 9600
Primary One                           853-1175   300, 1200
ProSoft Systems BBS                   853-8718   300, 1200, 2400
Role Player's Paradise                631-7654   300, 1200, 2400
Smitty's BBS                          849-7349   300, 1200
ST BBS                                836-9311   300, 1200, 2400
Sperry BBS                            853-6144   300, 1200, 2400, 9600
The Connection Node 1                 854-9074   1200, 2400
The Connection Node 2                 854-2308   1200, 2400
The Outer Limits                      969-3262   300, 1200, 2400
The Professional's Board              856-0679   300, 1200, 2400
The Realm Of Tarot BBS                870-7776   300, 1200
Twilight Zone                         856-3783   300, 1200
Willie's DYM Node 1                   979-1629   300, 1200, 2400
Willie's DYM Node 2                   979-7739   300, 1200, 2400
Willie's RBBS                         979-7743   300, 1200, 2400
Ziggy Unaxess                         991-5696   300, 1200

