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Birmingham Telecommunications News 067
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COPYRIGHT 1993 ISSN 1055-4548
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Volume 7, Issue 2 Issue #66 March 1994
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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article title author
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Disclaimer/Statement of Policy.............................Staff
From The Editor.................................Scott Hollifield
Submission Guidelines......................................Staff
Information Superhighway?..........................Dean Costello
An Internet Intro.....................................David Moss
Mark's Toy Box.......................................Mark Maisel
Jackboots on the Infobahn......................John Perry Barlow
Local Music in March................................Judy Ranelli
Nonprofits on the Information Superhighway....CCSD press release
Special Interest Groups (SIGs).........................Eric Hunt
Known BBS Numbers...................................Luke Whitley
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DISCLAIMER
AND STATEMENT OF POLICY
FOR BTN
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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
Publisher, BTN
606 Twin Branch Terrace
Birmingham, AL 35216
(205) 823-3956
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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FREEBIE!!!
GET IT WHILE IT'S HOT! Systems That Offer Free BTN
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The following boards allow BTN to be downloaded freely, that is
with no charge to any existing upload/download ratios.
ADAnet One Alter-Ego Bone Yard
Bus System The Castle Channel 8250
C.A.B. The Comfy Chair! Crunchy Frog
DC Info Exchange Final Frontier The Guardian
Hardware Hotline Homewood's Hell Hole Joker's Castle
Leaping's Lounge Lemon Grove Lion's Den
Martyrdom Again?! The MATRIX Milliways BBS
The Outer Limits Owl's Nest Playground
Safe Harbor Southern Stallion Starbase 12
Thy Master's Dungeon Weekends BBS
(This list includes some systems which are not local to Birmingham and
therefore not included on our BBS Numbers list.)
If you are a sysop and you allow BTN to be downloaded freely, please let
me know via The Matrix or Crunchy Frog so that I can post your board as
a free BTN distributor. Thanks.
NOTE! I misplaced my monthly "Freebies" notes. If you contacted me
to have your board placed on this list, and it's not there, my apologies.
Please notify me again! - s.h.
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NEWSFLASH!
NEWSFLASH!
NEWSFLASH!
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NEW AGE OF ENLIGHTMENT BEGINS!
**>> L U K E W H I T L E Y <<**
kicks off his benevolent reign on
the Known BBS Numbers List
this month.
See From The Editor and the List itself for details.
BTN SHAMELESSLY HOPS ON
YET ANOTHER BANDWAGON!
This issue is a special neat-o trendy Information
Superhighway edition of BTN.
See From The Editor.
THE PURPLE TOUPEE
finally makes it onto
our BBS List!
Sorry for the holdup, guys.
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FROM
THE EDITOR Scott Hollifield
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Tired of hearing those two words yet?
Information Superhighway. Makes you just want to spit, doesn't it?
Yeah, yeah, we have an understanding, I can see. You and I are part
of the real vanguard. We've been using modems out of our own personal
homes for months, or years; we've already got free access to more
information than we could ever possibly want or need; and we've been
getting along just fine without some big national movement that Al Gore
happens to like the sound of.
So what's the big idea?
That's what this issue, and subsequent issues of BTN will be
exploring. Not just the same old _Time_ magazine pap about 500-channel
cable, and how many colleges use the Internet, and how it's
revolutionizing the world of communications and all that dull stuff.
Sure, we're going to be talking about the Net, but we're going to be
dealing with it using a specific angle: how it can and will be affecting
YOU.
Not you, the American consumer or middle-class tech junkie. You,
local BBS user. You, citizen of Birmingham or surrounding
municipalities. You, reader of BTN.
You can pick up anything off the newstand about how the so-called
superhighway is going to be affecting daily life, but here's some
fastballs for you: What does it mean, here and now? What's coming?
What can *YOU* expect? How does The Matrix fit in? What's going on
while you sleep at night? Why are local BBSs likely to be left out
in the cold? What bizarre, unrecognizable cyber-construct will Bob
Crawford and Damion Furi transform into, years down the road? And most
importantly, WHY IS THE "INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY" GOING TO TURN OUT
NOTHING LIKE WHAT PEOPLE EXPECT?
Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, pick up a flag and march to the beat in welcoming Luke
Whitley to our cozy cyber-family. Luke is the new Ubermensch of the
BBS List as of this month. Hailing as co-sysop of Southern Stallion,
Luke loves to call BBSs and apparently has way too much time on his
hands; therefore, he's perfect for the job. Wish him luck!
Luke can be reached on The Matrix, Crunchy Frog, or Southern
Stallion.
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INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY:
What The Hell? Dean Costello
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No doubt that over the last couple of years, you have heard your
fill of something called the "Information Superhighway". It has been
mentioned everywhere from commercials for computer companies to a
recently aborted merger of Bell Atlantic and TCI (the king-hell cable TV
system of them all, centered here in DC) to proposed deregulation of the
Bells to Vice President Gore. The purpose of this article is to give you
an idea of what it may be, and the issues that surround it.
Many people have differing interpretations of what the Information
Superhighway will be. Telecommunication companies refer to it as the
"Land of Milk and Honey". Cable companies look at it as a convenient
way of getting pay-per-view into everyone's homes. Big computer
hardware and software companies look at it as the defense buildup of the
'90s. Acquaintences of mine look at it as a wonderful way of getting
entertainment pumped directly into the house. Scientific researchers
look at it as a way of both text and video information to be
disseminated very quickly. I *hope* that it will be a fast means of
getting a specific datum. The most cynical version of the proposed
system is from a friend of mine, Jet Thomas, who is developing
management systems for the government: "What I figure may very well
happen is that the current administration, after failing to create what
it really wants, will look at the Internet and say, 'Well, there you
go.'".
So, a good question to ask at this stage is, "What is the
Information Superhighway?" (I plan to use "IS" for "Information
Superhighway" from here on out.) So, I consulted a system called
"Fedworld" which I firmly believe will be the keystone of the entire IS.
Fedworld is a computer system that is run by the Department of Commerce,
and is a collection of, well, a lot of information centered around
government operations. And I do mean "a lot". You want to know what
President Clinton said at a press event on Sunday? This is the place.
You want a copy of the National Performance Review? This is the place.
You want to FTP to Fedworld? Come on in. It is on the Internet as well
as being hooked into approximately 150 other federal computer systems.
Anyway, I logged into Fedworld and searched out the IS. Imagine
my suprise when I came across a very fine document from December 20,
1993, entitled "Background Briefing by Senior Officials". It is
designed to give a background for the speeches presented by VP Gore and
Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown in December 1993 which formally
presented the IS to the country.
"...What the changes in technology to which the Vice President's
speeches and Secretary Brown's speeches will basically be
responsive to really mean is that for the first time since we've
had a telecommunications -- since telecommunications has been a
central part of the economy is that -- is the possibility for
absolutely pervasive competition in every single line of business
of telecommunications. And therefore the desired end point is
to move to -- is to move to a point ultimately where any company
can offer any services through any network to any set of consumers.
That's the desired end you'd like to reach to, and where all of
the facets of the industry are competitive."
"Obviously, the period that we're in at the moment is a period --
and it'll probably be a long period -- of transition between a
telecommunications and an information environment that was charac-
terized really quite differently, when technologies were very
different and when there were lines of business, when particular
technologies offered particular lines of business and there was
really no merging between the two...There are a whole set of
problems which derive from what are the kinds of services that a
company can offer. Can it offer local competitive services --
i.e., in the local loop where telecommunications go to the home?
Can a company offer long distance services? Can a company engage
in manufacturing? Can a company engage in what are called
'information services,' which is the offer to the home or to a
business of particular information."
And that's all she wrote, sports fans. The IS is designed to allow
everyone access to everything. So, let's say you run Scott's Research
Company. That means that you have the exact same access to materials
and, and this is the kicker, to a *market* that an organization like
Dialog Information Systems may have access to. It is up to you as
to whether or not you will be competitive. The means to be competitive
will be available.
And this is the Information Superhighway.
Now, you may have also come across information regarding the amount
of regulation (and deregulation) that is in the pipeline. For example, I
just read in _Newsweek_ about the fact that the FCC has enacted a 7
percent rate reduction for cable stations, and a bunch of whiners have
talked about how that wrecked the TCI/Bell Atlantic merger deal. Let's
see what the Feds have to say:
"So one area in which legislation is being considered and upon
which the Vice President will comment will be the loosening of
restrictions which affect what services a company can offer.
"Another whole area derives from the fact that because of the
history of telecommunications and the different history of
companies, companies with different kinds of history now offer
different kinds of services and are restricted in that way. So
a cable company offers one kind of services, broadcast television
offers another kind, now convergent mostly with cable television,
telephone companies offer another kind. And, again, another set
of legislation is increasingly -- moves in the direction of saying
that the past history matters less and less, and as long as there
is competition, companies can -- irrespective of their past
history -- can offer competing services. Both are responding to
the basic fact that the technology has changed fundamentally and
that all of these things are now convergent.
"Regulation -- let me make one point about laws and regulations.
The technology that changes that are occurring are going to change
and the changes are going to occur irrespective of what anybody does.
Technology has historically shown a tendency to move much more
rapidly than regulation. And what this does is catch regulation up
with where technology is and give it --and provide a capacity so it
can change much more flexibly...But what we can do is try to build
certain values into the system. And one of those values has got to
be a competitive environment and a competitive marketplace. And,
therefore, what the regulatory system has to do as it ushers us
through a transition like this, is provide for checks along the way
so that one can ask the question, is there, in fact, competition."
The idea that this gives me is that the government is going to try
and set up (or remove) laws that would control or limit the proposed IS,
with the ultimate idea being that competition and access will not be
sacrificed. Hell, I can live with this concept.
How does this effect the average person? Hard to say. White House
officials say that there are a couple of benefits. The first is a lower
price for telecommunications and information services (as a result of
the increased competition). The second is that there will be an
increased number of jobs in the information industry. The third will
change basic ways of work. The example that they used was video
conferencing. The first couple of changes, price changes and investment
changes will probably take place over the next very few years. The
longer changes of workstyle will probably take until the end of the
century.
"We're already seeing a situation in which education is reversed in
the home. Parents are learning computers from their children.
Parents are learning how to program their VCRs and their cell phones
from their children. The technology revolution is occurring more
quickly than the education system can handle it or the regulatory
system. And as a result, all of these changes that we read about
everyday in the paper are occurring -- they're running into the wall
of regulations and judicial restrictions, and they're all finding
little fish ladders around the dam so to speak. We're got to start
dealing with how to open up the dam in a controlled way to let these
technologies flow in a way that still protects universal service,
competition, open access and privacy."
One of the details that came out is the concept of the universal
access. What do this entail? Is there going to be a universal access
for poor people so they can get phones, and are they considering
television and cable television now, something that that should also be
available no matter how much money the individual has? Well, White
House officials again:
"The extent of how we define universal service is actively under
discussion. And the question of subsidies or rate subsidies is also
a very difficult one. As you know, the definition of universal
service has gone to having a party line phone to having an
individual line. Is call-waiting part of universal service? Is a
modem hook-up part of universal service? Those are some of the
questions that we have to answer. We don't expect to have all of
the answers, because the market will surprise us down the road in
terms of what's available.
"One of the issues we want to propose to deal with that question is
how to make the regulatory system more responsive more quickly to
technology changes. We can't wait 60 years at a pop to catch up
with technology. So that's one of the problems we're going to reach
is, how can we make the regulatory system more responsive to the
technological opportunities."
Again, regulation to allow for better exchange of information. I
personally have qualms about the system, and I am hoping that the
problems are addressed sometime in the future. For instance, if a
system like the Internet is privatized (don't laugh, corporations are
slobbering at the opportunity to take control of the Internet as it
currently exists), will there still be the same amount of interchange
between research scientists? According to the above, the access to the
system has to be there, but will the cost of access be so high that no
one can use it?
"The end result of all of that I stated in one way is the capability
to offer any set of services to any consumer through any network at
any time...And that's the end result, is a much freer, much more
competitive telecommunications and information marketplace that,
because it is that way, changes in quite fundamental ways the nature
of the economy."
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AN INTERNET
INTRO David Moss
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By now most people have heard of the "data highway". The current
administration even made it a campaign issue. Well, a form of the data
highway has been around for quite a while now. It is more commonly
referred to as the Internet.
More than one million computers have some type of access to this
behemoth, and more will become active participants since more and more
software companies are writing programs that will allow all bulletin
board services to gain access.
If you have been a long time participant of bulletin boards, you are
probably accustomed to sending and receiving mail to and from other
users on your local BBS. You may have even sent mail through some type
of echoed network to another city. If you are familiar with this
process, then you are undoubtedly familiar with off-line mail readers.
Off-line mail readers, or more commonly known as OLRs, make the task of
sending mail a lot easier. The use of an OLR also saves us valuable
on-line time since most BBS's charge a fee for the amount of time you
use. If you are sincere about learning how to use the Internet as a
mail source, I strongly recommend you learn how to use an OLR before you
begin sending Internet mail. There are several readers to choose from
that will suit your needs. If you are not sure which reader to try, ask
your sysop. He or she is very knowledgeable and will be happy to direct
you to an appropriate reader.
For those of you who are sincere about learning how to send mail via
the Internet, I will attempt to list the most common mistakes made by
users. These are the mistakes that are routinely made by the novice, as
well as the experienced user. I will also attempt to identify the
differences between message structure of local mail as opposed to
Internet mail.
Before you can send Internet mail, you must locate a BBS that has
Internet access. There are several in the Birmingham area to choose
from. You will need to contact the sysop to inquire about the fees of
such services. Once you find a site that you feel comfortable with, you
will need to find out what your address is. Yes, unlike local e-mail
that you send from time to time, Internet mail requires you to have an
actual address. It is this address that will insure that you will
receive your mail. The sysop will be happy to assign an address to you.
Do not assume what your address is; you may be right, or you may be
wrong. It is always better to ask.
One big difference between Internet mail and regular local mail is
Internet mail is *always* tagged private. This does not mean that the
sysop cannot read it. All sysops have access to private mail, but most
don't have the time nor the inclination to read all of the private mail.
What does private mail mean? When sending local mail on a BBS, it is
usually tagged public. If this is the case, then a user named John Doe
will usually see a message addressed to "Johm Doe" and assume that it is
a typographical error, look to see who it is from, and reply. Internet
mail is less forgiving. If you misspell a person's name, the mail will
not get to the user you intended.
Mistake: Misspelled names. Check your spelling. This is where the
use of an OLR is crucial, to my needs anyway. An OLR usually has an
address book that will allow you to enter an infinite number of
addresses that you will most commonly use. You simply enter the address
and the name of the person, check the spelling, and you never have to
look back.
This brings us to the second thing you will need to do. Who will
you send mail to? You will have to decide this on your own. If you
have a friend who is stationed in Germany, and this friend has Internet
access, then you may want to send mail to him. What you will need to do
is find out the correct address for the person to which you wish to
correspond with. Again, as you did with yourself, don't just assume
someone's address. Ask.
Mistake: Incorrect address. Users usually assume that because John
Doe is registered on America Online (tm), that his address is:
John.Doe@AOL.COM. This far from being accurate. Most commercial
services have a numbering system that assigns addresses. How do you
find out a person's address? Ask. Give the person a call. You will
only have to do this once. It is better to find out prior to sending
mail than to have several messages "bounced back" due to an improper
address. "Bounced" messages cost money. These messages do nothing but
contribute to the overall operating expense of the system you happen to
be on. Thus, the fees may be higher due to these type messages.
Addresses are unique to each system the user happens to be
registered with. I have seen addresses that have as many as fifty
characters. In most cases, your local BBS has a twenty-five character
limit in the "To:" field. The same is true with most OLRs. Well, what
can we do to get around this? On boards like The Matrix, Internet mail
offers the ability to use the first line of the message as an address.
This is where so many mistakes are made.
Mistake: Errors in the first line of a message.
If you have an address that exceeds the twenty-five character length
of the "To:" field you will have to enter the address in the first line
of your message. Before you can do this, however, most readers require
that you enter something in the "To:" field of the letter. What can you
enter here? UUCP. This is acceptable practice and will not affect the
letter's destination. Once you do this, drop to the first line of the
message and enter the word "to: " (without the quotes)
NOTE: There must be a space after the word "to: ". Then, simply
enter the person's correct address. You must also enter a blank line
after the first line. The only exception to this is if you decide to
enter the word "subject." A blank line must then follow this line.
Here is an example of each method:
____________________________________________________________________
to: john.doe@united.ags.ua.peg.org
Dear John,
I have received your quotes for the...............
____________________________________________________________________
The above is one way to correctly address the letter.
Spaces are not allowed and will only be returned as incorrect address.
Commas are one example of an incorrect separator, and the message will
simply be sent back.
Here's another way:
____________________________________________________________________
to: john.doe@united.ags.ua.peg.org
subject: quotes
Dear John,
I have received your quotes for the...............
____________________________________________________________________
Here is an incorrect way to address the letter.
____________________________________________________________________
to:john.doe@united.ags.ua.org
Dear John,
I have received your quotes for the..............
____________________________________________________________________
There are two things wrong with the above letter.
1. There has been no space left between "to:" and the person's address.
2. There has been no blank line left between the address and the letter
itself.
There are many ways to make mistakes when typing a letter on the
Internet. The fact that the Internet is less forgiving than most other
mail sources should be reason enough to spend a little more time to
learn the routines. It only takes an extra moment or two to proofread
your letter.
The Internet is the mail system of the future that is already here.
It is the most effective, cost efficient method of sending mail that
you will probably ever encounter. One only has to send mail to a person
in Russia, and have a reply the next day, to realize the impact this
mail system can have on society.
Newsgroups-
Newsgroups are groups that have been created by subject matter
similar to that of your local BBS. Just as on your local BBS, some
groups are public and some are moderated. A public conference, or
group, is available to the general public for public response.
Moderated groups, on the other hand, are not available for public
posting of messages. A user must send private e-mail to the moderator
of such a group, and submit the article he wishes to have posted in such
a group. If the moderator finds your submission acceptable, then it is
likely to be published. Therefore, do not post directly into a
moderated group.
NOTE: If the above paragraph is ignored, and you post directly into a
moderated group, then you will no doubt receive several pieces of
private e-mail reprimanding you. This is no laughing matter; the
Internet considers this to be a violation of tradition, which it is!
How do you know which groups are moderated? One way is to monitor a
group named news.announce.newusers. This is the group that publishes
the up-to-date list on a monthly basis. Actually, moderated groups are
supposed to be tagged as "read only", which will prevent someone from
posting directly into said group. However, with over five thousand
groups on the Internet, it may be impossible for your local sysop to
keep up with all of them. This is a very good reason to keep a list
handy for reference. I keep a list available at all times. I also keep
a list of moderators, and their addresses handy, just in case I need to
post into a moderated group.
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Summary:
1. Don't assume what your address is. Ask!
2. Don't assume what someone else's is. Ask!
3. Don't use high bit ascii characters. (characters above 127 are
considered high bit and may be interpreted as something entirely
different on some UNIX systems)
4. Do ask your sysop or sysadmin for help.
5. Do get in public message areas and seek conversation on messaging.
6. Do proofread your address.
7. Do enter your letter in the appropriate conference.
8. Don't post directly into a Moderated Group.
9. And last, but not least, Do have a good time!
If I can be of any help to anyone regarding the Internet e-mail
system, and how it works, I can be e-mailed at;
david.moss@the-matrix.com
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MARK'S
TOY BOX Mark Maisel
################################################################
Product: Adobe Photo Shop 2.5 for MS-Windows
Publisher: Adobe Systems Inc.
Requires: Intel 386, 486, or Pentium processor, MS-DOS 5.0 or higher,
MS-Windows 3.1 or higher, 4 megs memory, color VGA display
adapter, color monitor, mouse or equivalent
Recommended: Intel 486DX or Pentium processor, 8 or more megs memory,
24 bit color display adapter
Expect to pay: $549-up
Photo Shop is a professional level graphics tool. Its primary
application is to touch up photos, a digital dark room, if you will. It
has tools that duplicate the functionality of a photographic dark room.
It also offers many tools that cannot be duplicated in a dark room.
Photo Shop started life as a Macintosh application some time ago and
only found its way to the MS-DOS/MS-Windows world in the past year.
Photo Shop's tools and interface make good use of MS-Windows. The
feel of several features is reminiscent of the Mac version. The two
versions are functionally identical. Retouching, color manipulation,
duotones, tritones, quadtones, and numerous special effects can be
applied with only a short time at the controls. This is not to say this
software is without a learning curve. The biggest difficulty I
experienced is my ignorance of photography and dark room techniques &
terms. I'm overcoming that and having a grand time to boot.
Once you've created your masterpiece, the output options are pretty
extensive. PANTONE color control and automatic trapping are available
as is CMYK editing for four color proofing and separations. The file
formats supported are as follows: Encapsulated Postscript (EPS), Photo
Shop for Mac 2.5, Kodak Photo CD, TIFF, JPEG, Scitex CT, DCS, PCX, BMP,
TWAIN compatible, PIXAR, PixelPaint, MacPaint, Raw, Targa (TGA), GIF,
and Amiga IFF/LBM. I've never seen anything that supported so many
formats other than specialized file conversion utilities.
My favorite tools in Photo Shop are the "Variations" feature, and
the burn and dodge tools. "Variations" brings up a dialogue box
containing a thumbnail of the original image plus thumbnails with color
and brightness alterations. You simply pick one to replace the original
and it becomes the current pick. You can make that pick your new image.
This method of experimenting before applying color and brightness
changes is terrific. The controls in this feature are many and easily
manipulated. The burn and dodge tools allow selective brightening and
darkening of an image. This is invaluable for touching up images with
poor color or light balance, usually the result of a poor photo or scan.
Photo Shop is my current favorite graphics application. It knocked
off long standing favorite, Aldus Photo Styler 1.1. I'm told that Photo
Styler 2.0 compares favorably to Photo Shop but I've not gotten a look
at it yet. When I do, I'll let you know how they compare. Till then,
Photo Shop rules the roost and gets the nod from me.
Photo Shop is not without its drawbacks. It takes a long time to
load, even on a very fast system. It asks, nay, demands all of your
resources or threatens that it may suffer in performance. I've run
other programs in Windows with Photo Shop without problems but it was
idle when I ran other applications. I suppose the system would slow to
a crawl or worse were I to open something else while it was chewing on
an image. My test drive was made on a 486DX2-66 with 16 megabytes of
RAM, and a fast SCSI-2 hard disk. Performance is acceptable most of the
time. There are a few filters and effects that when applied, provide me
with a break of a few minutes. Expect this time to increase rapidly on
a slower machine and with less RAM.
There are so many things to talk about that I'm at a loss for next
month's column. Rest assured that there will be something. I do hope
you've enjoyed this information on Photo Shop. If you have any
questions, please don't hesitate to ask on Crunchy Frog or The MATRIX.
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<The following article was reprinted courtesy of WIRED magazine.
Everyone please read it!>
################################################################
JACKBOOTS ON
THE INFOBAHN John Perry Barlow
################################################################
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=-=-=-=-=-Copyright 1993,4 Wired USA Ltd. All Rights Reserved=-=-=-=-=
-=For complete copyright information, please see the end of this file=-
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WIRED 2.04
Electrosphere
*************
Jackboots on the Infobahn
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Clipper is a last ditch attempt by the United States, the last great
power from the old Industrial Era, to establish imperial control over
cyberspace.
By John Perry Barlow
[Note: The following article will appear in the April 1994 issue of
WIRED. We, the editors of WIRED, are net-casting it now in its
pre-published form as a public service. Because of the vital and urgent
nature of its message, we believe readers on the Net should hear and
take action now. You are free to pass this article on electronically; in
fact we urge you to replicate it throughout the net with our blessings.
If you do, please keep the copyright statements and this note intact.
For a complete listing of Clipper-related resources available through
WIRED Online, send email to <infobot@wired.com> with the following
message: "send clipper.index". - The Editors of WIRED]
On January 11, I managed to schmooze myself aboard Air Force 2. It was
flying out of LA, where its principal passenger had just outlined his
vision of the information superhighway to a suited mob of television,
show-biz, and cable types who fervently hoped to own it one day - if
they could ever figure out what the hell it was.
>From the standpoint of the Electronic Frontier Foundation the speech
had been wildly encouraging. The administration's program, as announced
by Vice President Al Gore, incorporated many of the concepts of open
competition, universal access, and deregulated common carriage that
we'd been pushing for the previous year.
But he had said nothing about the future of privacy, except to cite
among the bounties of the NII its ability to "help law enforcement
agencies thwart criminals and terrorists who might use advanced
telecommunications to commit crimes."
On the plane I asked Gore what this implied about administration policy
on cryptography. He became as noncommittal as a cigar-store Indian.
"We'll be making some announcements.... I can't tell you anything more."
He hurried to the front of the plane, leaving me to troubled
speculation.
Despite its fundamental role in assuring privacy, transaction security,
and reliable identity within the NII, the Clinton administration has not
demonstrated an enlightenment about cryptography up to par with the rest
of its digital vision.
The Clipper Chip - which threatens to be either the goofiest waste of
federal dollars since President Gerald Ford's great Swine Flu program
or, if actually deployed, a surveillance technology of profound
malignancy - seemed at first an ugly legacy of the Reagan-Bush modus
operandi. "This is going to be our Bay of Pigs," one Clinton White House
official told me at the time Clipper was introduced, referring to the
disastrous plan to invade Cuba that Kennedy inherited from Eisenhower.
(Clipper, in case you're just tuning in, is an encryption chip that the
National Security Agency and FBI hope will someday be in every phone and
computer in America. It scrambles your communications, making them
unintelligible to all but their intended recipients. All, that is, but
the government, which would hold the "key" to your chip. The key would
separated into two pieces, held in escrow, and joined with the
appropriate "legal authority.")
Of course, trusting the government with your privacy is like having a
Peeping Tom install your window blinds. And, since the folks I've met in
this White House seem like extremely smart, conscious freedom-lovers -
hell, a lot of them are Deadheads - I was sure that after they were
fully moved in, they'd face down the National Security Agency and the
FBI, let Clipper die a natural death, and lower the export embargo on
reliable encryption products.
Furthermore, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology and the
National Security Council have been studying both Clipper and export
embargoes since April. Given that the volumes of expert testimony they
had collected overwhelmingly opposed both, I expected the final report
would give the administration all the support it needed to do the right
thing.
I was wrong. Instead, there would be no report. Apparently, they
couldn't draft one that supported, on the evidence, what they had
decided to do instead.
THE OTHER SHOE DROPS
On Friday, February 4, the other jackboot dropped. A series of
announcements from the administration made it clear that cryptography
would become their very own "Bosnia of telecommunications" (as one
staffer put it). It wasn't just that the old Serbs in the National
Security Agency and the FBI were still making the calls. The alarming
new reality was that the invertebrates in the White House were only too
happy to abide by them. Anything to avoid appearing soft on drugs or
terrorism.
So, rather than ditching Clipper, they declared it a Federal Data
Processing Standard, backing that up with an immediate government order
for 50,000 Clipper devices. They appointed the National Institutes of
Standards and Technology and the Department of Treasury as the
"trusted" third parties that would hold the Clipper key pairs.
(Treasury, by the way, is also home to such trustworthy agencies as the
Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.)
They reaffirmed the export embargo on robust encryption products,
admitting for the first time that its purpose was to stifle competition
to Clipper. And they outlined a very porous set of requirements under
which the cops might get the keys to your chip. (They would not go into
the procedure by which the National Security Agency could get them,
though they assured us it was sufficient.)
They even signaled the impending return of the dread Digital Telephony,
an FBI legislative initiative requiring fundamental reengineering of the
information infrastructure; providing wiretapping ability to the FBI
would then become the paramount design priority.
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
Actually, by the time the announcements thudded down, I wasn't surprised
by them. I had spent several days the previous week in and around the
White House.
I felt like I was in another remake of The Invasion of the Body
Snatchers.
My friends in the administration had been transformed. They'd been
subsumed by the vast mindfield on the other side of the security
clearance membrane, where dwell the monstrous bureaucratic organisms
that feed on fear. They'd been infected by the institutionally paranoid
National Security Agency's Weltanschauung.
They used all the telltale phrases. Mike Nelson, the White House point
man on the NII, told me, "If only I could tell you what I know, you'd
feel the same way I do." I told him I'd been inoculated against that
argument during Vietnam. (And it does seem to me that if you're going
to initiate a process that might end freedom in America, you probably
need an argument that isn't classified.)
Besides, how does he know what he knows? Where does he get his
information? Why, the National Security Agency, of course. Which, given
its strong interest in the outcome, seems hardly an unimpeachable
source.
However they reached it, Clinton and Gore have an astonishingly simple
bottom line, to which even the future of American liberty and prosperity
is secondary: They believe that it is their responsibility to eliminate,
by whatever means, the possibility that some terrorist might get a nuke
and use it on, say, the World Trade Center. They have been convinced
that such plots are more likely to ripen to hideous fruition behind a
shield of encryption.
The staffers I talked to were unmoved by the argument that anyone smart
enough to steal a nuclear device is probably smart enough to use PGP or
some other uncompromised crypto standard. And never mind that the last
people who popped a hooter in the World Trade Center were able to get
it there without using any cryptography and while under FBI
surveillance.
We are dealing with religion here. Though only ten American lives have
been lost to terrorism in the last two years, the primacy of this threat
has become as much an article of faith with these guys as the Catholic
conviction that human life begins at conception or the Mormon belief
that the Lost Tribe of Israel crossed the Atlantic in submarines.
In the spirit of openness and compromise, they invited the Electronic
Frontier Foundation to submit other solutions to the "problem" of the
nuclear-enabled terrorist than key escrow devices, but they would not
admit into discussion the argument that such a threat might, in fact,
be some kind of phantasm created by the spooks to ensure their lavish
budgets into the post-Cold War era.
As to the possibility that good old-fashioned investigative techniques
might be more valuable in preventing their show-case catastrophe (as it
was after the fact in finding the alleged perpetrators of the last
attack on the World Trade Center), they just hunkered down and said
that when wiretaps were necessary, they were damned well necessary.
When I asked about the business that American companies lose because of
their inability to export good encryption products, one staffer
essentially dismissed the market, saying that total world trade in
crypto goods was still less than a billion dollars. (Well, right.
Thanks more to the diligent efforts of the National Security Agency than
to dim sales potential.)
I suggested that a more immediate and costly real-world effect of their
policies would be to reduce national security by isolating American
commerce, owing to a lack of international confidence in the security of
our data lines. I said that Bruce Sterling's fictional data-enclaves in
places like the Turks and Caicos Islands were starting to look
real-world inevitable.
They had a couple of answers to this, one unsatisfying and the other
scary. The unsatisfying answer was that the international banking
community could just go on using DES, which still seemed robust enough
to them. (DES is the old federal Data Encryption Standard, thought by
most cryptologists to be nearing the end of its credibility.)
More frightening was their willingness to counter the data-enclave
future with one in which no data channels anywhere would be secure from
examination by one government or another. Pointing to unnamed other
countries that were developing their own mandatory standards and
restrictions regarding cryptography, they said words to the effect of,
"Hey, it's not like you can't outlaw the stuff. Look at France."
Of course, they have also said repeatedly - and for now I believe them -
that they have absolutely no plans to outlaw non-Clipper crypto in the
US. But that doesn't mean that such plans wouldn't develop in the
presence of some pending "emergency." Then there is that White House
briefing document, issued at the time Clipper was first announced, which
asserts that no US citizen "as a matter of right, is entitled to an
unbreakable commercial encryption product."
Now why, if it's an ability they have no intention of contesting, do
they feel compelled to declare that it's not a right? Could it be that
they are preparing us for the laws they'll pass after some bearded
fanatic has gotten himself a surplus nuke and used something besides
Clipper to conceal his plans for it?
If they are thinking about such an eventuality, we should be doing so as
well. How will we respond? I believe there is a strong, though currently
untested, argument that outlawing unregulated crypto would violate the
First Amendment, which surely protects the manner of our speech as
clearly as it protects the content.
But of course the First Amendment is, like the rest of the Constitution,
only as good as the government's willingness to uphold it. And they are,
as I say, in the mood to protect our safety over our liberty.
This is not a mind-frame against which any argument is going to be very
effective. And it appeared that they had already heard and rejected
every argument I could possibly offer.
In fact, when I drew what I thought was an original comparison between
their stand against naturally proliferating crypto and the folly of King
Canute (who placed his throne on the beach and commanded the tide to
leave him dry), my government opposition looked pained and said he had
heard that one almost as often as jokes about roadkill on the
information superhighway.
I hate to go to war with them. War is always nastier among friends.
Furthermore, unless they've decided to let the National Security Agency
design the rest of the National Information Infrastructure as well, we
need to go on working closely with them on the whole range of issues
like access, competition, workplace privacy, common carriage,
intellectual property, and such. Besides, the proliferation of strong
crypto will probably happen eventually no matter what they do.
But then again, it might not. In which case we could shortly find
ourselves under a government that would have the automated ability to
log the time, origin and recipient of every call we made, could track
our physical whereabouts continuously, could keep better account of our
financial transactions than we do, and all without a warrant. Talk about
crime prevention!
Worse, under some vaguely defined and surely mutable "legal authority,"
they also would be able to listen to our calls and read our e-mail
without having to do any backyard rewiring. They wouldn't need any
permission at all to monitor overseas calls.
If there's going to be a fight, I'd rather it be with this government
than the one we'd likely face on that hard day.
Hey, I've never been a paranoid before. It's always seemed to me that
most governments are too incompetent to keep a good plot strung together
all the way from coffee break to quitting time. But I am now very
nervous about the government of the United States of America.
Because Bill 'n' Al, whatever their other new-paradigm virtues, have
allowed the very old-paradigm trogs of the Guardian Class to define as
their highest duty the defense of America against an enemy that exists
primarily in the imagination - and is therefore capable of anything.
To assure absolute safety against such an enemy, there is no limit to
the liberties we will eventually be asked to sacrifice. And, with a
Clipper Chip in every phone, there will certainly be no technical limit
on their ability to enforce those sacrifices.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
GET CONGRESS TO LIFT THE CRYPTO EMBARGO
The administration is trying to impose Clipper on us by manipulating
market forces. By purchasing massive numbers of Clipper devices, they
intend to induce an economy of scale which will make them cheap while
the export embargo renders all competition either expensive or
nonexistent.
We have to use the market to fight back. While it's unlikely that
they'll back down on Clipper deployment, the Electronic Frontier
Foundation believes that with sufficient public involvement, we can get
Congress to eliminate the export embargo.
Rep. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, has a bill (H.R. 3627) before the
Economic Policy, Trade, and Environment Subcommittee of the House
Committee on Foreign Affairs that would do exactly that. She will need a
lot of help from the public. They may not care much about your privacy
in DC, but they still care about your vote.
Please signal your support of H.R. 3627, either by writing her directly
or e-mailing her at cantwell@eff.org. Messages sent to that address will
be printed out and delivered to her office. In the subject header of
your message, please include the words "support HR 3627." In the body
of your message, express your reasons for supporting the bill. You may
also express your sentiments to Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana, the House
Committee on Foreign Affairs chair, by e-mailing hamilton@eff.org.
Furthermore, since there is nothing quite as powerful as a letter from a
constituent, you should check the following list of subcommittee and
committee members to see if your congressional representative is among
them. If so, please copy them your letter to Rep. Cantwell.
> Economic Policy, Trade, and Environment Subcommittee:
Democrats: Sam Gejdenson (Chair), D-Connecticut; James Oberstar, D-
Minnesota; Cynthia McKinney, D-Georgia; Maria Cantwell, D-Washington;
Eric Fingerhut, D-Ohio; Albert R. Wynn, D-Maryland; Harry Johnston,
D-Florida; Eliot Engel, D-New York; Charles Schumer, D-New York.
Republicans: Toby Roth (ranking), R-Wisconsin; Donald Manzullo,
R-Illinois; Doug Bereuter, R-Nebraska; Jan Meyers, R-Kansas; Cass
Ballenger, R-North Carolina; Dana Rohrabacher, R-California.
> House Committee on Foreign Affairs:
Democrats: Lee Hamilton (Chair), D-Indiana; Tom Lantos, D-California;
Robert Torricelli, D-New Jersey; Howard Berman, D-California; Gary
Ackerman, D-New York; Eni Faleomavaega, D-Somoa; Matthew Martinez, D-
California; Robert Borski, D-Pennsylvania; Donal Payne, D-New Jersey;
Robert Andrews, D-New Jersey; Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey; Sherrod
Brown, D-Ohio; Alcee Hastings, D-Florida; Peter Deutsch, D-Florida; Don
Edwards, D-California; Frank McCloskey, D-Indiana; Thomas Sawyer,
D-Ohio; Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois.
Republicans: Benjamin Gilman (ranking), R-New York; William Goodling, R-
Pennsylvania; Jim Leach, R-Iowa; Olympia Snowe, R-Maine; Henry Hyde, R-
Illinois; Christopher Smith, R-New Jersey; Dan Burton, R-Indiana; Elton
Gallegly, R-California; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida; David Levy,
R-New York; Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Florida; Ed Royce, R-California.
BOYCOTT CLIPPER DEVICES AND THE COMPANIES WHICH MAKE THEM.
Don't buy anything with a Clipper Chip in it. Don't buy any product from
a company that manufactures devices with Big Brother inside. It is
likely that the government will ask you to use Clipper for
communications with the IRS or when doing business with federal
agencies. They cannot, as yet, require you to do so. Just say no.
LEARN ABOUT ENCRYPTION AND EXPLAIN THE ISSUES TO YOUR UNWIRED FRIENDS
The administration is banking on the likelihood that this stuff is too
technically obscure to agitate anyone but nerds like us. Prove them
wrong by patiently explaining what's going on to all the people you know
who have never touched a computer and glaze over at the mention of
words like "cryptography."
Maybe you glaze over yourself. Don't. It's not that hard. For some
hands-on experience, download a copy of PGP - Pretty Good Privacy - a
shareware encryption engine which uses the robust RSA encryption
algorithm. And learn to use it.
GET YOUR COMPANY TO THINK ABOUT EMBEDDING REAL CRYPTOGRAPHY IN ITS
PRODUCTS
If you work for a company that makes software, computer hardware, or any
kind of communications device, work from within to get them to
incorporate RSA or some other strong encryption scheme into their
products. If they say that they are afraid to violate the export
embargo, ask them to consider manufacturing such products overseas and
importing them back into the United States. There appears to be no law
against that. Yet.
You might also lobby your company to join the Digital Privacy and
Security Working Group, a coalition of companies and public interest
groups - including IBM, Apple, Sun, Microsoft, and, interestingly,
Clipper phone manufacturer AT&T - that is working to get the embargo
lifted.
ENLIST!
Self-serving as it sounds coming from me, you can do a lot to help by
becoming a member of one of these organizations. In addition to giving
you access to the latest information on this subject, every additional
member strengthens our credibility with Congress.
> Join the Electronic Frontier Foundation by writing membership@eff.org.
> Join Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility by e-mailing
cpsr.info@cpsr
.org. CPSR is also organizing a protest, to which you can lend your
support by sending e-mail to clipper.petition@cpsr.org with "I oppose
Clipper" in the message body. Ftp/gopher/WAIS to cpsr.org /cpsr/privacy/
crypto/clipper for more info.
In his LA speech, Gore called the development of the NII "a revolution."
And it is a revolutionary war we are engaged in here. Clipper is a last
ditch attempt by the United States, the last great power from the old
Industrial Era, to establish imperial control over cyberspace. If they
win, the most liberating development in the history of humankind could
become, instead, the surveillance system which will monitor our
grandchildren's morality. We can be better ancestors than that.
San Francisco, California
Wednesday, February 9, 1994
* * *
John Perry Barlow (barlow@eff.org) is co-founder and Vice-Chairman of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group which defends liberty, both in
Cyberspace and the Physical World. He has three daughters.
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LOCAL MUSIC
IN MARCH Judy Ranelli
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Tues. March 8
JOHN HENRY/REMY ZERO at The Nick
John Henry sounds like (and performs some material from) Jimmy
Hendrix. Remy Zero broke up around a year or so ago, so what the...?
Once touted as future recording artists from the 'Ham, with rumors that
extended a record four years about companies giving them large amounts
of money, Remy Zero had a neat sound which may or may not be intact in
the current incarnation.
Thur. March 10
DANDELIONS at 22nd Street Jazz Cafe
Go hear Edward (leader of the Ticks) play some songs so sad you'll
be eating a certain anti-depressant soon thereafter. It was a joy to
watch the effects of his melancoly on the traditional peppy girls and
lawyers at the Back Alley awhile back. Inspires me to remain
untherapied.
Fri. March 11
LABREA STOMBERS/9 POUND HAMMER at The Nick
Rockabillyclub and 3 chords on 10.
Sat. March 12
JASON AND THE SCORCHERS/WEBB WILDER at Five Points South Music Hall
Jason & Co. put on a cool show at City Stages, and Webb Wilder
remains the same giant thing. I may not buy the albums, but I'd attend
and buy a beer or six.
Thurs. March 17
Bagpipers at Dugan's
*If* they're really bagpipers, I would attend for weirdness sake.
Even if they're awful, I'd rather have that than Cowboy Junkies at the
Five Pts. South Music Hall, which you might like. I recieved a Cowboy
Junkies t-shirt for working the show at Sloss some years back, and my
friend Marjorie recommended that I alter the back to read "Amboy Dukes".
I should have.
Fri. March 18
JOHNNY WINTER at Five Points South Music Hall
See albino man, real black tattoos.
Sat. March 19
Six bands at The Nick
Who are they? Who knows? It's free.
Sun. March 20
FUZZY SUNS/24th CENTURY QUAKERS at The Nick
Once upon a time, several years ago, I was in a band that did quirky
weird tunes and dressed in sorts of costumy things like nun habits. Now
we've got those in costume (Sugar La Las), and those in quirkness (see
above). I like this quirkness muchly, understand. But we also gave
away free prizes, and I've seen none of that. Is there significance?
Forget all of that. See the show. It features some guys who have
decided to be creative and different, and we need more of that in this
world.
Mon. March 21
SLIM DUNLAP/GARGOYLES at The Nick
Slim is an ex-Replacement and nice guy, and his album is cool. I
recommend this for those who like later Replacement stuff and appreciate
sincerity in music. (Now isn't that a pretentious thing for me to say.
But it's true--he's the real thing, someone who performs for the joy of
it.)
Tues. March 22
TINY LIGHTS/EVERY ALICE ON EARTH at The Nick
Tiny Lights is very strange, pretty melodies. Last time I heard
them, I bought an album the next day. I liked them better live than I
did the album, but all that means is that it will be a very, very good
show. Had a cello player when I saw them.
Okay, I admit, nothing else sounds very exciting to me for the end
of the month. After all, these are just my opinions, and even I end up
seeing the same bands twice a month (some play after the 22nd, you find
out which if you want). Besides, I've been up past my bedtime doing
this; it's three in the afternoon.
As you can see, I haven't listed many acts at the new Five Points
South Music Hall, because even though they are "big" acts, they aren't
my kind of music.
Here's a story: there was this very useful Shop-a- Snak on 20th and
Highland, which was torn down and left as a vacant lot. Someone had the
sense to open this lot as free parking, very useful indeed, because once
I had come to rely on it, they closed the lot and built a useless Ruby
Tuesdays. However, my veggie friends say the new restaurant has good
vegetarian burgers which they will devour, so my useful vacant lot/mini
mart is making someone happy now, even if it's not me.
Among the many stupid city decisions, Arlington Crest's abomination
and the Birmingham Green crap being my favorites, one of the lesser has
been the harassment of those who tack band flyers on telephone poles
around Southside. I quite understand the motivation to harass, but with
no *options*, most resort to the ol' staple guns. What's needed?
Kiosks around the fountain area and in Highland park areas.
A new and interesting bar is the Garages, located in the old Garages
of course, with pricey beer but nice atmosphere, including a courtyard
full of broken cement statues and benches to hide among in the dark.
Until someone cracks their skull on some unseen cemetary art, it remains
the best place to drink beer in peace. A friend who rents a great old
house in Southside inquired about buying the place. She was informed by
her rental manager (what else can I call it?) that the owner of the
property intends to "let the house rot (along with several he owns
adjacent) and build apartments". This is just the sort of thing that
will ruin one of the city's most interesting neighborhoods. I need to
get on one of those ambulance chaser commercials shaking my head at a
demolished white columned house while saying "There oughta be a law".
Because, personally, I think there should be some sort of protection
(good sense would do) against removing the grand old houses of Birm
ingham
and replacing them with roach infested apartment complexes in the
"Florida motel" style. And while they're at it, I want my favorite view
of the city back, removed by the Arlington Crest Abomination. Y'all can
keep the Shop-a-Snak.
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NONPROFIT AGENCIES ON
THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY press release
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[The following is a press release on behalf of Catholic Charities.
Thanks to David Almada for providing us with it.]
NONPROFITS NOTE ON INFO. HIGHWAY
Charities Work Together With Valuable Computer Resource
For Immediate Release
San Diego, California
Local nonprofit agencies have a unique way of communicating with
themselves, they send E-Mail. An Electronic Bulletin Board System
located at Catholic Charities provides electronic mail capabilities
for local agencies to send electronic mail. The 386 system uses
SCO Xenix Operating System and has numerous phone numbers for access
from differing areas. Nonprofit agencies in the central and north
counties have benefited from its use over the years but the system
had not generated as much attention or popularity until June of
1993 when the Internet Mail (UUCP) connection was established.
Connection of Electronic Mail from this computer system to other
networks, such as Prodigy, CompuServe, HandsNet, Connect, Universities
and numerous other computer networks has spurred increasing system
use. So much so that an additional 425MB hard drive had to be added
to meet increased use.
Bulletin Board System Menu
look jump print add find display expand shrink gossip
restore topic create workarea users options mail quit xadmin help
HELP(look):View topic selected with cursors, enter to
view, ESC returns
---------- Electronic Bulletin Board System -------------
Meeting Schedules, Agendas, and Events
Bed Availability, Homeless & At Risk Directory
Service Provider's ( Discontinued / New / Changed / Temporary )
Funding, Grants, Endowments, Resources, Donation (Need/Avail.)
Job Availability Information
Volunteer Needs and Ideas
Computer & EBB System Related Information
Individual User Directories
Health Care, Prenatal Care, & Medical Related
Seniors, Children, and Disabled
Computer & EBB System Related Information
Individual User Directories
Health Care, Prenatal Care, & Medical Related
Seniors, Children, and Disabled
Food/Hunger & Poverty Issues
F.E.M.A.
S.D. Community Back To Work Transportation Fund
Some of the resources available on this system are bed
availability information, inter-agency electronic mail, client
referral coordination and file transfer capabilities. The main
menu allows the users to send electronic mail or post
information in topic sections related to their organizations.
In addition, contact with agencies across the country and around
the world is accomplished via UUCP (UNIX-to-UNIX System Copy).
Space = Next Command F1 = Help CTRL X = EXIT
Agencies have supported the Electronic Bulletin Board by way
of subscription fees for several years now but the project was
initially started with donations and grants. The system does
offer incredible capabilities for its users and it is a very
valuable step to the Information Superhighway. David Almada
of Catholic Charities Says "I am very surprised by the
response. I have been receiving E-Mail from nonprofits in Moscow
and Argentina asking for information about our system. I had no
idea the computers connected that far! It is relatively simple
to connect users to the system, all they need is a modem,
Catholic Charities provides communications software.
The system has an international identification of spdn
which stands for service providers data network and electronic
mail can be sent to ccsd@spdn.cts.com from around the world. A
demonstration has been scheduled for nonprofit agencies on
Thursday, March 17, 1994. Nonprofit agencies that may not be
aware of the system or its new information highway capabilities
are highly encouraged to contact Catholic Charities for more
Information at (619) 231-2828 x234.
Some of the area agencies that have contributed to the
CCSD/Electronic Bulletin Board System by way of subscription fees:
AIDS Foundation, San Diego
Brother Benno's
Catholic Charities, San Diego
City of San Diego Community Services
Community Christian Service Agency
Community Connection Resource Center
County of San Diego - Community Action Partnership
Crisis House, Inc.
Ecumenical Service Center
Episcopal Community Services
Foundation for Educational Achievement
Info-Line of San Diego County
Interfaith Shelter Network
Logan Heights Family Health Center
Lutheran Social Services
METRO - United Meth. Urban Ministries
Neighborhood House Association
North County Interfaith Council
North County Lifeline Community Services
Rachel's Night Shelter
Regional Task Force on the Homeless
Saint Vincent De Paul Center
Salvation Army, San Diego
San Diego Food Bank
San Diego Hunger Coalition
San Diego Mental Health Services
The Presbytery Council of San Diego / Presbytery Crisis Ctr.
Traveler's Aid
United Way Labor Participation
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SPECIAL INTEREST
GROUPS (SIG's)
[COMPUTER RELATED] compiled by Eric Hunt
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BIPUG Alabama UniForum
Birmingham IBM-PC Users Group Homewood Public Library
UAB Nutrition Science Blg 1st Tuesday
RM 535/541 Shawn Cleary 870-6130
1st Sunday (delayed one week
if meeting is a holiday)
Marty Schulman 967-5883
Birmingham Apple Core
Informal breakfast meeting every Saturday, 9am - 11am
@ Kopper Kettle, lower level Brookwood Village Mall
Formal meeting held second Saturday of each month, location
variable (to be announced at breakfast meetings and in the
user group's newsletter "The PEEL".)
President: Sam Johnston - 322-5379
Vice-Prez: Marie Prater - 822-8135
The SIG listing is being re-verified. If you know of an active
Computer Related user's group, please let me know.
I can be reached via Internet email at
eric.hunt@the-matrix.com or drop me a note directly on the
MATRIX.
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KNOWN BBS NUMBERS
FOR THE
BIRMINGHAM AREA compiled by Luke Whitley
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IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT!
In case you're the type of person who skips to the BBS List every
month, be aware that we have a NEW Master of the List! His name is
Luke Whitley, and it is to HIM that you should address your
corrections, updates, etc. Sysops, PLEASE check your listing to
make sure everything is correct, especially the networks.
Corrections should be mailed to either Luke Whitley or Scott
Hollifield on The Matrix, Crunchy Frog, or Southern Stallion.
The following are new additions to this month's list. Note that
the information here is not entirely complete. Help will be appreciated
from anyone who can fill in the blanks; send mail to Scott Hollifield
or Luke Whitley.
BatCave BBS 744-0134 1200-14000 V.42bis VBBS 6.12
[fn, vi, bi, cr, co]
The Confederates BBS 967-6176
[?]
Heat Wave 436-4518 VBBS 6.12
[?]
Night Games 491-3332 300-14400 VBBS 6.12
[vi, bi, ho, cr, co]
The Parthenon BBS 678-9676 1200-28880 Wildcat 3.9
[ru, wi, uni]
Purple Toupee 631-4533 1200-14400 V.32/42bis PCBoard 14.5
[fi, mn, fr, ca]
NOTE: The Purple Toupee is not a new BBS, but we've been neglect in
adding it to the list. Our apologies to the sysop!
The following systems have been on the List for at least one month:
ADAnet One (Nodes 1-3) 250-0013 1200-2400 PCBoard 14.5
[ez, fi, ad]
ADAnet One (Node 4) 254-6050 2400-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
[ez, fi, ad]
Alcatraz BBS 608-0880 300-9600 PCBoard 15.0
[he, vi]
Alter-Ego BBS 925-5099 1200-9600 USR HST PCBoard 14.5
[ez, mn]
Baudville (Nodes 1-7) 995-0013 300-2400 Major BBS 6.12
[none]
Bloom County 985-4335 300-28800 VFC 28.8 PCBoard 15.1
[in,fr]
Bus System 987-5419 300-2400 PCBoard 14.2
[none]
Byte Me! 979-BYTE! 2400-14400 V.32 WWIV 4.12
[none]
Castle, The 841-7618 300-2400 Image 1.2
[none]
Channel 8250 (Node 1) 744-8546 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
[ez, un]
Channel 8250 (Node 2) 744-5166 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
[ez, un]
Cherry Tree 681-1710 1200-14400 TriBBS 4.01
[wm, ca]
Christian Apologetic 808-0763 1200-14400 V.32bis Wildcat! 3.90
[ez, cp]
Crocodile Country BBS 477-6283 1200-16800 USR DS Searchlight 3.5 *RIP*
[sl, fi]
Crunchy Frog (Node 1) 823-3957 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
[ez, mn, lu, ll]
Crunchy Frog (Node 2) 823-3958 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
[ez, mn, lu, ll]
Crystal Village 856-3749 1200-2400 VBBS 6.10
[cr, ho, co, fn, vi]
Den, The 933-8744 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 15.1
[ez, mn, il]
Digital Publishing 854-1660 300-9600 V.32 Wildcat! 3.60
[pl]
Electro-BBS 491-8402 300-14400 V.32/42 Maximus 2.01
[fi]
Family Smorgas-Board 744-0943 300-2400 PCBoard 14.5
[ez, fi, mj, bc, fa, ic, cf, cd, ve, ad, wg, pt, ed, gn]
Final Frontier 838-5634 300-14400 VBBS 6.11 *RIP*
[he, re, fn]
Genesis Online(Nodes 1-6) 620-4150 300-14400 V.32bis Major BBS 6.11
[mr]
Gone Fishin' 733-0860 1200-14000 V.42bis Searchlight 3.5a *RIP*
[sl]
Guardian, The (Node 1) 425-1951 1200-14400 V.42bis VBBS 6.11
[vi]
Guardian, The (Node 2) 425-1956 1200-14400 V.42bis VBBS 6.11
[vi]
Joker's Castle 664-5589 300-14400 USR DS PCBoard 14.5
[ez, mn, un]
KickAxis BBS (Node 1) 733-0253 1200-14400 USR DS PCBoard 15.0
[he]
KickAxis BBS (Node 2) 733-0299 1200-14400 USR DS PCBoard 15.0
[he]
Leaping's Lounge 856-2521 1200-14400 GTPower 18.00
[gt, ez, mn, wm, di]
Lions Den 871-9668 300-14400 USR DS Wildcat! 3.90
[wi, fi]
Lumby's Palace 520-0041 300-14400 VBBS 6.0
[he]
Magic City (Node 1) 664-9883 300-14400 USR DS Wildcat! 3.90
[di, wm, wi, ca, cm, pe]
Magic City (Node 2) 664-0435 300-14400 V.32bis Wildcat! 3.90
[di, wm, wi, ca, cm, pe]
Magnolia BBS 854-6407 300-14400 USR HST PCBoard 14.5
[ez, mn]
MATRIX, The (Nodes 1-14) 323-2016 300-2400 PCBoard 15.0 *RIP*
[ez, mn, th, il, in, us, sh, sc, gl, ic, ri, fr]
MATRIX, The (Nodes 20-23) 323-6016 9600-14400 USR DS PCBoard 15.0 *RIP*
[ez, mn, th, il, in, us, sh, sc, gl, ic, ri, fr]
MATRIX, The (Node 25-26) 458-3449 9600-14400 V.32bis PCBoard 15.0 *RIP*
[ez, mn, th, il, in, us, sh, sc, gl, ic, ri, fr]
MetaBoard 854-4814 300-14400 USR DS Opus CBCS 1.73
[fi, ad]
MetroMac BBS (Node 1) 323-6306 1200-28800 V.FC TeleFinder 3.1
[none]
MetroMac BBS (Node 2) 252-0582 1200-28800 V.FC TeleFinder 3.1
[none]
Milliways BBS (Node 1) 956-3177 1200-2400 Major BBS 6.11 *RIP*
[none]
Milliways BBS(Nodes 2-6)956-2731 1200-2400 Major BBS 6.11 *RIP*
[none]
Missing Link 853-1257 300-16800 USR DS C-Net Amiga 2.63
[cl, cn]
Neon Moon 477-5894 300-14400 TriBBS 4.0
[none]
Party Line 856-1336 300-14000 V.32bis TriBBS 4.0
[cc, wm, di]
Playground 681-5070 1200-14000 V.32 TriBBS 5.0
[wm, di, ez]
Posys BBS 854-5131 300-9600 V.32 PCBoard
[none]
Programmer's Shack 988-4695 2400-14400 HST DS Renegade
[ws, fi, it]
Quiet Zone 833-2066 300-2400 ExpressNet
[none]
Safe Harbor (Node 1) 665-4332 300-2400 GTPower 18.00
[gt, ez, mn, lg, ae, fr]
Safe Harbor (Node 2) 665-4355 300-14400 USR DS GTPower 18.00
[gt, ez, mn, lg, ae, fr]
Sam's Domain 956-2757 1200-14400 SL. 3.50
[da, he]
Safety BBS 581-2866 300-2400 RBBS-PC 17.4
[none]
Southern Stallion 322-3816 300-16800 ZyXEL PCBoard 15.1 *RIP*
[ez, lu, th, rs, ss, it]
Sperry BBS 853-6144 300-2400 V.32/42b PCBoard 15.0
[none]
ST BBS 836-9311 300-14400 HST PCBoard 14.2
[ez]
StarBase 12 647-7184 1200-14000 TriBBS 4.0
[ez, mn, wm]
Thy Master's Dungeon 940-2116 300-57600 V.32/42b PCBoard 14.5
[fr]
Torch Song 328-1517 1200-14000 V.32/42b Wildcat 3.6
[pr, st, gn]
Weekends BBS 841-8583 2400-16800 USR DS Wildcat! 3.9
[ca]
Willie's DYM (Node 1) 664-9902 300-2400 Oracomm Plus
[or]
Willie's DYM (Node 2) 664-9903 300-2400 Oracomm Plus
[or]
Willie's DYM (Node 3) 664-9895 300-2400 Oracomm Plus
[or]
Willie's DYM (Node 4) 664-9896 300-2400 Oracomm Plus
[or]
Ziggy Unix BBS 991-5696 300-1200 UNaXess
[none]
*RIP* = BBS Software is RIP Graphics capable. You must be using a RIP
compatible term software to view them. RIPTerm or QmodemPro v1.50 are
the only two I know of that support it at this time. RIPTerm is shareware
and can be downloaded from most BBS's. QmodemPro is a commercial product.
The two-letter abbreviations you see on the line below the names of
many of the bbs' in the list signify that they are members of one or
more networks that exchange or echo mail to each other in some organized
fashion.
ad = ADAnet, an international network dedicated to the handicapped
ae = Arts & Entertainment, a national network, multi-topic
ag = AgapeNet, a national Christian network, multi-topic
an = AnnexNet, an international network, multi-topic
at = AdultNet, a national network, adult-oriented
bc = BCBNet, a local network, religion-oriented
bh = BhamTalk, a local network, multi-topic
bi = BitchNet, uncertain at press time
ca = CafeNet, a local network, restaurant/dining, recipes, etc.
cc = Coast2Coast, a national network, multi-topic
cd = CDN, a national Christian network for file distribution
cf = CFN, a national Christian network, multi-topic
ch = ChristNet, a national Christian network
cl = CLink, uncertain at press time
cm = CompuLink, a national network, multi-topic
cn = CNet, multi-topic
co = ComicNet, a local net for comic book readers
cp = CAPNet, a national Christian network, multi-topic
cr = CrystalNet, uncertain at press time
cy = Cybernet, uncertain at press time
da = DateNet, uncertain at press time
de = DevNet, an international network for programmers and developers
di = Dixie Net, a regional network, multi-topic geared toward the south
eastern United States
do = DoorNet, a national network for the distribution of BBS doors
ec = EchoNet, an international network, multi-topic
ed = EduNet, a national network devoted to homeschooling and Christian
education
er = ErosNet, an international network, adult oriented, files & messages
ez = EzNet, a local IBM compatible network
fa = FamilyNet, an international network, multi-topic
fi = FidoNet, an international network, multi-topic
fn = FrontierNet, a local network, multi-topic
fr = FredNet, a regional network, political discussion
fs = FSNet, uncertain at press time
ga = GameNet, a local network, uncertain at press time
gl = GlobalLink, an international network, multi-topic
gm = GayCom, an international network, homosexually oriented
gn = GlobeNet, an international network, multi-topic
gt = GTNet, an international network, multi-topic
gy = GayNet, a national network, homosexually oriented
he = HellNet, a local network, multi-topic
ho = HobbyNet, a local network for hobbyists
ic = ICDM, an international Christian network, multi-topic
ie = Intelec, a national network, multi-topic
il = ILink, an international network, multi-topic
in = InterNet, an international network of mail, linking businesses,
universities, and bbs', multi-topic
it = ITCNet, a national network, multi-topic
lg = Local GT Net, a local network, connecting GT Power systems
ll = LlamaNet, a national network, freeform correspondence
lo = LocalNet, uncertain at press time
lu = LuciferNet, an international network, adult oriented
ma = MAXnet, a local network, connecting WWIV and VBBS systems
mj = MJCN, an international network for Messianic Jews
mn = Metronet, an international network which echoes RIME, multi-topic
mr = MajorNet, an international network, multi-topic
nl = NewLife, uncertain at press time
np = NPN, a national network for new parents
or = OraNet, a national E-mail network
pe = Planet Earth Network, a national network, multi-topic
pl = PlanoNet, a national network, multi-topic
pn = PoliceNet, an international network, law-enforcement only
pr = PrideNet, a national homosexually oriented network
pt = PRNet, a national network devoted to 2nd amendment rights
rf = RF Net, a national network for ham radio users and hobbyists
ri = RIME, an international network, multi-topic
rb = RoboLink, a national network, multi-topic
re = RealityNet, uncertain at press time
rp = RPGnet, a local network for role-playing games
rs = RoseNet, a national network, technically orient*ed
ru = RushNet, a national network for Rush Limbaugh fans
sc = Science Factor Net, a national network, science and technology
oriented
se = SEC, a regional network, homosexually oriented geared toward the
southeastern United States
sh = Shades N Shadows Net, a national network for role-playing games
sl = SearchlightNet, a national network, multi-topic
sm = SmartNet, a national network, multi-topic
sn = ShadowNet, a national network for role-playing games
ss = SexSations!, a national network, adult-oriented
st = StudsNet, a national network, homosexually oriented
sz = SCN-Net, uncertain at press time
te = TECHnet, a local network, hardware and utility oriented
th = ThrobNet, an international network, adult oriented
un = U'NI-Net, an international network, multi-topic
us = Usenet, an international network existing on the Internet, multi-
topic
ve = VETLink, a national network for military veterans
vi = VirtualNet, an international network, multi-topic
wg = WGA, an international network devoted to genealogy research
wi = WildNet, a national network, multi-topic
wm = World Message Exchange, an international network, multi-topic
ws = WishNet, uncertain at press time
ww = WWIV-Net, an international network, multi-topic
