Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Boardwatch Magazine Volume VII Issue 5
$3.95
B O A R D W A T C H M A G A Z I N E
Guide to the World of Online Services
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor: Jack Rickard Volume VII: Issue 5 ISSN:1054-2760 May 1993
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1993 Jack Rickard - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Boardwatch Magazine is published monthly in printed form at an annual
subscription rate of $36. In most cases, the operator of the local system
carrying Boardwatch Online Edition can process your subscription order.
Editorial comment may be addressed to Editor, BOARDWATCH MAGAZINE, 7586 West
Jewell, Suite 200, Lakewood, CO 80232. (303)973-6038 voice, (303)973-4222
data, (303)986-8754 fax. This file may not be posted on electronic bulletin
board systems without written permission of the publisher.
SUBSCRIPTION VOICE ORDER LINE - 1-800-933-6038
EDITOR'S NOTES
==============
1 We're Growing Up
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
=====================
2 CBBS Back Online
3 More BBS Software Coverage
4 The Control of Infomation is Power
5 White House E-Mail Address
6 ZModem and TCP/IP
7 Sound and the PC
8 You Have Done it Again
9 Doing A Good Job
10 NAPLPS - A Long Time Ago
11 Software Blew Up My Monitor
TELE-BITS
=========
12 Mea Culpa - PKWare Fax Number
13 Long Distance Cost Breakdown
14 Macronix MaxLite 144/PC Enyrt in Cute Pocket Modems Lineup
15 U.S.Robotics Slashes Sportster Pricing up to 50%
16 Brinker Named President of Galacticomm, Inc
17 Garbage Dump BBS Announces Local Access Numbers Nationwide
18 Mustang Software Unveils Version 3.6 of Wildcat! BBS
19 Customs Service Warrants for Child Pornography
20 Exide Personal 200 UPS
21 Rusty & Edie's BBS Back Online
SOFTWARE NOTES
==============
22 Improving on Wordperfect
23 ANSI Music
24 FAX/OCR Software: Not Ready for Primetime
ARTICLES
========
25 Digital Imaginf and Marlboro Racing News
MACINTOSH BBS NEWS
==================
26 I'll Get You My Pretty, and Your LIttle Dog, Too!
27 NuBus ISDN Card
28 External NuBus Expansion for Modular Macs
29 More Modems
30 Storage for the Ages
31 Turn Me On, Turn Me Off
32 Mac BBS of the Month
LEGALLY ONLINE
==============
33 Steve Jackson Games Decision Stops the Insanity!
DIRECT COMMECT
==============
34 SFNet - Coin Operated Bulletin Board Invades Coffee House Culture
INTERNET NEWS
=============
35 Second Annual EFF Pioneer Awards
36 Book of Smiles
37 Full Text Federal Register Avbailable Online
38 Networking from St. Petersburg
BBS LISTS
=========
39 This Month's List: Product Support Systems
40 List of 358 Product Support Boards
41 Sysop Modem Discount Programs
42 BOARDWATCH List of BBS List Keepers
43 BOARDWATCH National List
44 Reader's Choice 100, 1993 Contest
==============
EDITOR'S NOTES
==============
I had to notice this month, that our little magazine seems to have a lot of
writers all of a sudden. This is a bit like watching a gang of young
adolescent males circle your 13 year old daughter. I don't suppose you would
want her rejected by her peers to the point of heartbreak, on the other hand,
there is a desire to turn the garden hose on them at the same time.
I started Boardwatch over six years ago and the only help I can recall was a
tremendous number of concerned people offering the very friendly advice that
I shouldn't do it that way, shouldn't do it on that subject, or shouldn't do
it at all. The BBS community in those days was viewed very much as you would
a group of people who got together every Tuesday night to exchange
toothbrushes. "They do what? To whom? With their computers? Why would
they want to do that?" So it's a little difficult at this point to "let go"
and allow others to fondle my baby in this intimate a fashion.
But things change. As it turns out, the online community will most likely be
the hottest development area in PCland, with most other PC applications
beginning to look like office equipment, and the White House itself singing
the praises of a national data highway, the BBS fringe is about to become the
national obsession. The real progress in computers over the next five years
will come in operating systems, internetworking, and BBS technology. We're
kind of set on making a passing stab at covering the interesting developments
in the latter two subjects.
And to face the world as it really is, one guy can't know all that is
happening online. Actually, one guy never could, but with a bit of paste,
scotch tape, and a lot of dialing, he could present the illusion of
authoritative coverage. No longer. Development of tools, networks, and
simply the number of pools of intense activity online have grown to the point
where if I hadn't done so before, I have now attained a satisfactory level of
incompetence. I am panicked by all the things going on that I should have
had covered in the last issue, still don't fully understand, and don't have
time or room enough for next month anyway.
We're now printing nearly 60,000 Boardwatch's per month. And even forsaking
the optimistic "pass-on" figures most magazines talk about with regards to
circulation, we've got to be hitting 150,000 sets of hands with each issue.
The text is distributed to over 200 bulletin boards now that license it for
online display, and we don't have a clue as to how many are actually reading
it there. Probably somewhere between 200 and 200,000.
So we've been opening up the doors a bit to contributions by other writers.
Some early experiments were painful, in that I've been just terribly
persnickety about what goes into Boardwatch. But an objective view would
indicate it has been worthwhile. So with this issue, we expand it a bit.
And despite the inflated value I place on my own text, I have to admit that
some of these guys do good stuff. Bill Gram-Reefer has been doing an
excellent job on covering the Mac stuff for our Macintosh readers, and Lance
Rose has developed quite a following actually with his Legally Online
columns. Bill even sounds a bit like Boardwatch, and Lance of course, sounds
like a lawyer - but he understands the legal complexities of some of these
developments and it is important that our readers do as well.
In this issue, we include contributions from Thom Foulks on Fax/OCR, Alan
Bryant on ANSI music, and Jim Thompson makes an extremely credible stab at
covering the emerging world of digital imaging from the front end of how
major news organizations get the images into digital format in the first
place. And reading through it, it's my estimation that these article
submissions are good stuff.
I'm hardly out of the picture, and any not otherwise attributed articles are
generally mine. But broadly, our growth reflects the growth of our subject.
As we move through the next phase of growth for Boardwatch Magazine, we plan
on expanding from the current 96 pages to about 140 by the end of the year
(and probably topping out there, I seem to have trouble finding time to read
these 400 page magazines). And as the online world grows and becomes more
varied, and as Boardwatch grows to try to cover it, it is perhaps appropriate
to include more voices, and more different points of view, in our editorial
matter. And so we will. In any event, I'll be there with the garden hose
just in case.
Jack Rickard
Editor Rotundus
=======
LETTERS
=======
Dear Jack:
Due to the encouragement from you and fellow BBS folks at the first ONE
BBSCON, Randy Suess, co-inventor of CBBS/Chicago, the worlds first BBS, and I
got the temporarily-down CBBS/Chicago back on line. It was down from about
06/07/92 to 09/12/92. We had gotten careless on backups, and Randy Seuss
physically opened the stuck hard disk, and manually spun it while applying
power - it WORKED, and he was able to back up! Randy recently put a couple
old Bernoulli boxes on CBBS so I can (remotely - it is at Randy's house - "in
Chicago" rather than in the 'burbs) back it up periodically.
Thanks for a great magazine and a great convention, and the nice award last
year! Keep up the good work.
Ward Christensen
Dolton, IL
ward@chinet.chi.il.us (chinet is Randy's unix system)
CIS: 76703,302
BIX: wardc
AOL: WardXmodem
Ward:
It is remarkable to me personally that CBBS/Chicago, the first BBS in
operation, still operates. It is an online monument both to how much things
change, and how much they stay the same. If we had any small role in
inspiring its resuscitation, I'm most pleased. And poignantly, from the
first BBS to the last, we once again find that backups still cause bonus
points to be awarded.
For our new readers, Ward Christensen wrote the very first BBS software
package, as well as the XMODEM file transfer protocol that in many ways got
us started in transmitting files conveniently. CBBS/Chicago is backup and
running at (312)545-8086. And Mr. Christensen will be hosting a special
session at the Online Networking Exposition and BBS Convention (ONE BBSCON)
scheduled for August 25-29, 1993 at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.
Jack Rickard
Hi, Jack!
I finally got your magazine, after seeing it once in its electronic format in
a BBS... I want to congratulate you for it, it's ALL a sysop or a
BBS-enthusiast needs. I want to know how much would it cost to subscribe to
it, as I live in Mexico, both in the electronic and the "physical" formats.
I also wanted to comment some things about it: I see you cover a lot of BBS
software, like WildCat, Omega, SuperBBS, Galacticomm and the sort. But, at
least here in Mexico and in some places in the states where I've called to,
there are lots of other BBSes, based on WWIV or VBBS. Here in Mexico, we have
11 BBSes (REALLY a few for a 20-million people city), which are: One in
Amiga, free, I don't know with which software; one in Atari ST, running
FoReM, also free; one in PC running TBBS, multiline, and charging US$20 a
month, one on PC running SuperBBS, free; one on PC, free running WWIV and
three running VBBS, also free. You see, it may seem somewhat strange for a
lots-of-BBSes-community like the USA, but it's enough for the few people who
use their modems.
What I wanted to know, being VBBS the fastest-growing BBS software and net in
the US, why doesn't it have more coverage? It's a VERY good program, VERY
easy and friendly for a Sysop, and also for the user, very powerful... I
mean, it's a very good BBS, which is not used as much as I think it should...
OK, then, thanks a lot for your reply!
Gunnar Wolf
gwolf@spin.com
Gunnar:
We try, but there is a lot going on in BBSland. But I agree, the WWIV
ommission has to be dealt with soon. We had contacted Michael Bell a year or
so ago trying to get an address for a list of BBS software vendors we
occasionally publish. The response was rather disinterested and we assumed
the software was nearly abandoned. I was stunned to learn there are now over
4000 bulletin boards in WWIVnet. We'll try to schedule it for a look
soonest.
We've recently revised our subscription prices for Canada and Mexico to the
usual $36 for the printed magazine. It still costs us a little more to mail
to those areas, but not as much as it had and we've had very enthusiastic
readership - particularly in Canada.
Jack Rickard
Greetings!
Just read your "Editor's Notes" in the Feb'93 issue of Boardwatch.
The closing paragraph "What happens when mass media changes [etc]" strikes
very close to home.
In my current position, employed by/consulting for an adult education program
in Detroit to establish an Electronic Communication system for the
students/public at large, I was *shocked and dismayed* to hear the director
open a dedication ceremony with words to the effect:
"The control of information is power"
Somehow, I thought such thinking was put in its place some 50 yrs ago. We, as
carriers of information, must remain ever vigilant to avoid and actively
prevent meddling with the thoughts of others. True, there are commercial
broadcasts and media wherein the message has to be the "company line", but
any interference with an interpersonal communication, insofar as "controlling
information", must be rejected hands down!
Just a thought on St. Patties day ... over morning bitters, Green Eggs and
Spam while testing a newly connected InterNet Email link.
Gary Groeller
gary.groeller@hal9k.ann-arbor.mi.us
Gary:
Well I agree with both of you. The control of information is certainly
power. And who has that power, and how it is used, is one of the primary
questions the online community faces.
This is complicated by the fact that some content control is almost required
- at some point in the process. Clear and usable channels are impossible in
a truly "free speech" forum. At the same time, the responsibility for clear
and usable channels should be moved to the farthest possible point down the
food chain - ideally those individuals communicating, but more practically,
at the level of individual forum moderators. Governments and those operating
large networks are virtually disqualified as controlling agents, and should
not under any conditions be allowed content review of any sort. Yes, this
includes Prodigy. They should not be allowed, as an organizational entity,
content control of their own forums.
Jack Rickard
Jack,
Thanks for the sample copy of your Magazine. I've read everything and found
it highly informative.
It was noteworthy that you provided the CompuServe e-mail address for the
White House, and then two days later there's a wire service story about it in
the local paper. BUT, the E-mail address was NOT given.
Hmmm....Maybe Rush Limbaugh was right, symbolism over substance. They've
taken on an E-mail account, but won't let out the address?? Too late, the
good folks at BOARDWATCH have let the cat out of the bag. Let the EMAIL
flow.
Donald McLaughlin
ahn@mentor.cc.purdue.edu
Donald:
It will be very interesting indeed to see how large governmental entities
deal with the fire hose of e-mail they face with each published e-mail
address. It couldn't happen to a nicer, or more deserving bunch of guys
(/guyettes).
Jack Rickard
Jack,
Just received my April issue of Boardwatch, and something in your reply to
Brad Clements' letter caught my eye ... I quote:
"File transfers can theoretically be handled quite well over telnet using
Chuck Foresberg's ZMODEM protocol ... I'll admit I don't quite understand why
there are problems with this."
I think I may be able to help shed some light on this. I have established a
test link with our Internet service provider whereby callers with Internet
access can telnet into our system, sort of ... the caller actually telnets to
our service provider, which then dials out to us and makes the connection.
It's not available for public use yet, and won't be until I can arrange a
dedicated connection to our service provider (the dialout system isn't really
optimal, and is also not without its costs since we have to reimburse our
service provider for the telco message units). All in all, though, it
doesn't work half bad ... except that so far no one has been able to get
ZMODEM to work, at least not at high speed (14.4K). "Interactive" protocols
like XModem and YModem seem to work OK, though the throughput is rather
anemic, on the order of 400-500 characters per second at 14.4Kbps.
In all likelihood the problem is probably packet assembly delays. TCP/IP
tends to wait a while (on the order of a tenth of a second) before sending
out a packet with only 1 character in it, or it may send out a packet after a
few characters are ready ... this appears to introduce unacceptable delays
that mess up flow control and also prevents the sender from getting timely
notice of errors and retransmission requests. Interactive protocols like
XMODEM don't have this problem since flow control and error notification work
by the definition of the protocol; a packet gets sent, and another doesn't
get sent until the first one is acked. This also accounts for the
XMODEM/YMODEM sluggishness; the delay would be all spent in the ACK cycle
between the packets while TCP/IP decides to go ahead and send the packet with
the single ACK character in it.
A good part of the problem is that our service provider has only a 56K link
to NEARnet; if they had a T1 line (which they may before too much longer) the
problem would be less and might even go away altogether, at least while
dealing with pathways that run at least at T1 speeds all the way.
Don't really know if the above is entirely accurate in all respects, but I
think it's pretty close.
Eric Poole
The New England Technology Information Service
epoole@leotech.mv.com
Eric:
ZMODEM was designed specifically for packet networks. We've had poor luck
with XMODEM/YMODEM as well and only Kermit seems to work reliably, if very
poorly, over telnet links.
What makes ZMODEM interesting is that it WAS designed specifically for packet
links. More interesting, telnets to sites using MMB Development's TEAMate
BBS software result in flawless ZMODEM transfers. Still looking for the
answer on this one I'm afraid.
Jack Rickard
Jack,
First, The April issue of Boardwatch is exceptional, can it get much better?
Consider this message a FYI for you or anyone who is suitably interested in
learning about sound and the PC, to be specific. On America Online, there is
a message thread titled 'Sound Board Advice' in the 'Music and Sound
Hardware' forum under 'Computing & Software' , which was created by Rich
Heimlich, the author of 'Sound Blaster - The Official Handbook'. Before Rich,
most of the controversy occurred in the Advanced Gravis Ultrasound thread,
which seems to have attracted the lion's share of devotees (mostly
Soundblaster critics). Since Rich started posting in 'Sound Board Advice',
there has been a wild donnybrook being waged with more information and
knowledge on sound technology that a single human can stand. Yet, I am
totally addicted, and my AOL bill has exceeded my monthly heating bill.
Unfortunately, AOL does not provide the feature, like CompuServe, to download
a forum for off-line perusal. So, Steve Case, president of AOL, must be
profiting from all the passion and fury dispensed by on-line voyeurs. Guilty!
Thanks, Alex Safer (aka FIBER) FIBER@AOL.COM
Alex:
Sound? We haven't gotten up to speed on digital images yet and already sound
is coming up.
A small, but notable correction. CompuServe didn't PROVIDE a way to download
forums for offline perusal. Some USERS developed software a number of years
ago to do so. If you are waiting for AOL to do so, while it would be
laudable and probably a good long term business decision to do so, it is not
in their short-sighted economic interest to do so. Why don't some of you AOL
guys build a TAPCIS or OZCIS type package to address forums?
Freedom, privacy, economic efficiency. These are all laudable goals, but
they are ALWAYS achieved by those who actively devise mechanisms to secure
them for themselves. Complaining and appealing to the powers that be almost
never work until they can see it is not technically feasible to resist. Self
reliance works. If you want lower AOL bills, you can have them. But Steve
Case isn't going to hand them to you. And I am not certain even that he
should.
Jack Rickard
God Bless You, Jack, you have done it again! In measured tones, you have
condemned what is patently unjust and tyrannical, where there is need for
such a witness and rallying cry!. As a lawyer and fellow American, I applaud
your stand on this abuse of governmental power. As a citizen, I will add my
voice to yours and, hopefully, others. It would be strange, indeed, if
police state tactics such a you recount in the April issue could flourish
here, now, after all we have been through.
Robert W. Muir
76665.111@COMPUSERVE.COM
Robert:
If we DON'T raise our voices, it can flourish here as easily as anywhere
else, Mr. Muir. We were warned early in our history that vigilance will
always be the price. Today, there are too many hoping someone, somewhere
will be vigilant, or taking false comfort in the uncertain knowledge that it
"couldn't happen here." News flash. We get the government we deserve.
Thanks for writing.
Jack Rickard
Dear Sir:
I think you and your staff are doing a good job with Boardwatch. I also see
that you like to feature a new area every month. Yes, I am a sysop! But we
would like the world to know that we have BBS's in South Korea.
I am in the U.S. Army and am stationed in South Korea. I am the sysop of the
Publishing BBS, running RBBS-PC Ver 17.4 with mods. I know of about 24 BBS's
running in South Korea with sysops who are in the military. How about doing
a story on us, sysops in South Korea?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and keep up the good work with
Boardwatch.
Michael Robinson
The Publishing BBS
011-82-351-869-3511
Dear Michael:
So many bulletin boards - so little time. We'll try.
Jack Rickard
Dear Jack,
Bravo for your editorial and story of NAPLPS in your December 1992 issue.
NAPLPS is such a tongue twister that it is no wonder there is so much
controversy about it.
So let me helpy you demystify this technology. My background in NAPLPS
stretches back over 10 years when I was the marketing manager for the first
manufacturer of NAPLPS terminals in the world. It was my job to build a
dealer network for a $1,500 box that had no commercial services which it
could access - how's that for a challenge!
I then moved on to a software company and accomplished the following:
- developed the first multi-user NAPLPS host server system (equivalent to
today's BBS system) based upon an Altos system that ran under MPM.
- travelled this system around the world for Canadian exporters exhibiting at
international trade fairs.
- enhanced the system to act as an interactive retail point-of-purchase
terminal which sold software in "The World's Biggest Bookstore", the flagship
store of Coles Book Stores, Canada's biggest book chain.
The innovation of using a microcomputer to host a NAPLPS service was unheard
of in 1983 when the concept was that you could only do it justice with a
mainframe. We proved that concept false.
The best thing we did, though, was to develop NAPLPS terminal software for
the Commodore 64 - a $200 toy with only 64K that was able to do splendid
graphics for its time. We were the first to suggest that a dedicated
hardware terminal was not the way to go for NAPLPS and tat the spreading
enigma known as the personal computer was a more reasonable approach.
I can't begin to tell you the controversy that arose, especially when we
announced our plan to license system operators to give the software away for
FREE! Can you imagine that one major system operator who was losing $9
million a year did NOT want to be included in our FREE program and threatened
me with a lawyer's letter? Amazing but true.
We even had a major telephone company commit an act of industrial espionage
to discover the secrets of our software.
So now, your publication will be the first to know that my secret weapon was
a single individual, (a U.S. citizen no less) who was committed and dedicated
to exploring advanced uses for personal computers. Starting this project in
1983 took a lot of courage. This single individual took a hardware device
the "experts" all laughed at and made it perform full NAPLPS functionality.
While preparing the software for Viewtron, the Florida system operated by
Knight Ridder Newspapers, we tested and retested the software against the
authorized NAPLPS test frames and you can be sure that we had to pass the
test in order for Viewtron to finally agree to distribute our product.
The NAPLPS chauvinist mentality which you refer to in both your editorial and
in your story when describing the Microstar approach has been at the top of
the obstacles to this interesting technology making any kind of headway in
the market. Peter at Microstar thinks that everybody should pay him what IBM
did for his software and has not subscribed to the theory that the widest
possible distribution is what will kickstart the technology. It is also
obvious that these type of software developers are out-of-touch with the
reality of the business, and demonstrate incredibly poor business acumen by
failing to understand how such an action would develop ongoing repeat
business down the road.
Its amazing how short the road can be. Bell Canada launched a consumer
NAPLPS service in Canada a couple of years ago. They spent millions on
developing an access device - you guessed it - a dedicated terminal which the
consumer would rent for $8 a month. Sure they also bought a cheap software
package which they initially distributed for free. The Microstar personality
package sold for either $149 or $99 (my memory fails me), and didn't have
half the stuff that a qualified terminal program should have.
Needless to say, it didn't take a full 2 years before Bell virtually
abandoned its service because the consumer didn't buy their terminal idea and
then left the 300+ service providers they had recruited to hang out to dry
while consumer access declined to bankrupt levels.
At any rate, all the rhetoric regarding NAPLPS functionality, compliance etc.
is all there to protect the paranoid nepotism of those who have stayed in
this business for so long. It is a narrow minded, short sighted attitude
that has been the primary reason for NAPLPS failing to make its mark.
So if there are software developers in the BBS community who want to commit
themselves to NAPLPS, then I will provide them with my NAPLPS expert (with
whom I continue to maintain a decade long association) so that they can
implement NAPLPS within their software.
Furthermore, the deal can be as affordable as adding another staff member to
their team. NAPLPS wasn't meant to cost big bucks - it was meant to generate
big bucks.
Once the news of this offer gets out you can be sure that I will once again
be labelled a heretic and excommunicated by the remaining hardcore NAPLPS
devotees. But I am big enough to withstand the insults of a half dozen
ragtag survivors - the reward of hundreds of thousands of online NAPLPS users
will be easy to bear.
Jack, I have watched your magazine grow over the past couple of years and
have admired your dedication to the truth and your unrestricted approach to
commentary. I hope that this letter will find its way into the pages of your
magazine because the BBS community as a whole needs to know more about
NAPLPS. I have tried to add perspective to your reporting. NAPLPS isn't a
scary or expensive technological approach to graphics that the OLD GUARD
would have everyone think. Now, if only NAPLPS could be renamed something
that one could pronounce without thinking they are uttering something smutty.
Sincerely yours,
Zal Press
Addison Information Systems
456 Glengarry Ave.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5M 1G1
(416)477-7141
Jack:
I once did, personally, "blow up" a monitor by purely software means.
It went like this. 1981/1982, working for Phoenix Software, Neil gives me an
IBM PC (not XT) to check out. In configuring it (or fooling around, I forget
which) I set the DIP switch for the monitor type wrong; mono vs. color. The
DIP switch is read by the ROM BIOS software, and determines how the 6845
controller chip is initialized. When I turned the machine on, it made a bad
noise and the monitor went out. I was petrified; it was not my hardware and
it was ugly alien machinery. Upon disassembly, I found a soldered-in fuse had
blown; the incorrect video sync caused excess flyback current, presumably,
and took the incorrectly-sized fuse with it.
This really happened. They certainly changed the design somehow, because this
never happens any more. It was a very early PC; I don't remember the exact
date, but I can date it to late 81 I think by where I was living at the time.
Tom Jennings
tomj@fido.wps.com
World Power Systems
San Francisco CA
=========
MEA CULPA
=========
In our March issue article on PKWARE, Inc., developers of the PKZIP data
compression utility, we included the wrong fax number for the company. The
correct contact information for PKWARE, Inc. is 9025 North Deerwood Drive,
Brown Deer, WI 53225; (414)354-8699 voice; (414)354-8559 fax; (414)354-8670
BBS. Note that PKWARE has since released version 2.04g of PKZIP which
addresses many of the minor problems noted in our article.
========
TELEBITS
========
LONG DISTANCE COST BREAKDOWN
----------------------------
The cost of long distance telephone connections has dropped by some 44% since
the breakup of the Bell System in 1984. During the same period, local
telephone service rates have risen. One of the reasons cited by local
telephone companies is that they often must provide flat rate service with
none of the opportunities for incremental charge business that the long
distance carriers have. We recently talked to several long distance carriers
and found that this entire line of reasoning has a bit of a problem.
As best we can tell, the breakdown of a basic 12 cent per minute long
distance telephone call is as follows:
Access charge paid to LOCAL telephone company at point of call origin 4.5
cents per minute.
Access charge paid to LOCAL telephone company at point of call termination:
4.5 cents per minute.
Cost of switching and hauling call across country by Long Distance Carrier: 1
cent per minute.
Administrative, accounting, and profit for Long Distance Carrier: 2 cents per
minute.
Why are we paying local telephone companies these access fees? Without them,
we would probably see long distance companies offering flat rate long
distance service - or at least LD connections in the $1.20 per hour range to
anywhere within the United States. The access fees were mandated by the
Justice Department as part of the Consent Decree that broke up the Bell
System. At the time, the 4.5 cents seemed pretty modest. But with advances
in technology, the cost of transporting a call across the country has fallen
so dramatically, that nearly 75% of the cost of a long distance telephone
call within the United States currently goes to local telephone companies.
The breakup of the Bell System offers a laboratory demonstration of
competition on the one hand in the long distance carrier market and monopoly
on the other in local telephone companies. We pay the price.
MACRONIX MAXLITE 144/PC ENTRY IN CUTE POCKET MODEMS LINEUP
----------------------------------------------------------
Macronix, Inc. may not be a very familiar name in the BBS community. But
after playing with their MaxLite 144/PC pocket modem, we think perhaps they
should be. For those on the road, this little pocket rocket makes the
connection in pretty good style.
The MaxLite 144/PC offers both 14,400 bps V.32bis data connections, and send
and receive 14,400 bps V.17 fax transmissions, in a tiny unit that more
closely resembles a mouse than anything else. The modem features
V.42/V.42bis error correction/compression as well as MNP 5.
The modem is very easy to use and works well at all speeds we tested. The
package includes WinFax Lite, by Delrina Software, allowing you to fax from
Windows. But it also includes a program titled MaxTalk that is a terminate
and stay resident (TSR) program that allows you to pop up the fax function
within any DOS program, and send the application file to a fax if it is in a
format for delivery to any HP laser printer (PCL format support. Graphics
and text arrive intact. The software also handles ASCII text, .PCX, or .TIF
files with ease.
The unit includes a tiny 10 watt AC power transformer, and will run off of 9V
alkaline batteries as well. Following a convention now common with pocket
modems, a cable is provided to link the 9-pin micro DIN connector to a 9-pin
AT style serial port.
The MaxLite is available in the MaxLite 144/PC model for PCs, and with
slightly different cabling for Macintosh users in the MaxLite 144/M. The
suggested list price for this unit is $449, but they are commonly available
for a street price of around $349. Since pocket modems normally go at a bit
of a premium for the size reduction, this is actually pretty attractive for
14.4 v.32bis and send/receive 14.4 fax. Enough software comes with it to
keep you puzzling through it for days, and it works quite well.
Our only complaint is that we've grown accustomed to pondering in amazement
the various cunning leather pouch designs pocket modem manufacturers are
devising since the introduction of the Telebit Qblazer. The MaxLite didn't
include one at all. But the light weight and small size (the modem unit
itself weighs 4.9 ounces without battery - and that's just 3.5 times the
weight of a 9v battery itself) in a flat, rounded corner package (2 7/8 X 4
1/2 X 1") makes this very easy to carry in a laptop case. It does include a
very clear speaker, and two LEDs to indicate on hook/off hook status, and
data activity. Documentation is quite clear. For laptop/road use, this one
looks like a winner. MACRONIX, Inc., 1348 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA
95131; (408)453-8088 voice; (408)453-8488 fax.
U.S. ROBOTICS SLASHES SPORTSTER PRICING UP TO 50%
-------------------------------------------------
As of March 15, 1993, U.S. Robotics announced dramatically reduced pricing on
its Sportster fax and data modems. The company reduced prices on the entire
product line with prices on high-speed Sportster models dropped 42 to 52
percent.
"U.S. Robotics is the only company that has lowered pricing to this extent -
in some cases, we've cut prices in half," said Marshall Toplansky, U.S.
Robotics vice president of marketing. "Continuing our history of strong
price leadership, we're boosting the overall market and stimulating growth by
making high speed modem technology accessible to a greater number of users.
This price reduction enables our home office, small business, and entry-level
customers to move up to high speed fax and data communications, at prices
comparable to what 2400 bps modems sold for just last year."
The product has also been redesigned with a much smaller, more compact case.
Additionally, U.S. Robotics has upgraded the fax capability to CCITT V.17,
increasing performance from 9600 bps to a maximum of 14,400 bps for fax
transmissions. They also include WinFax LITE, a special OEM Windows fax
package from Delrina Software, makers of WinFax Pro. The new products are
available now.
U.S. Robotics also has a 50% discount program on the COURIER line of modems
for qualified BBS operators. The Sportster models are not included in the BBS
discount program. They have also recently revised the program to allow
payment by credit card. They've also established a European point of contact
in France for sysops in Europe and an International 220v version of their
power supply. European BBS operators can contact 33 20-471210 voice; 33
20-919927 fax; 33 20-059945 BBS.
The company has also recently coverted their product support bulletin board
to PCBoard software at (708)982-5092. U.S. Robotics, (NASDAQ:USRX), 8100
North McCormick Blvd., Skokie, IL 60076; (800)-DIALUSR.
Model New Price Previous Price Discount
----------------------------------------------------------------
Sportster 14,400 Fax $299 $549 46%
Sportster 14,400 Fax/PC $259 $499 48%
Sportster 14,400 Mac&Fax $329 $599 45%
Sportster 14,400 $259 $519 50%
Sportster 14,400/PC $229 $475 52%
Sportster 9600 Fax $249 $439 43%
Sportster 9600 Fax/PC $239 $409 42%
Sportster 9600 $229 $399 43%
Sportster 9600/PC $219 $379 42%
Sportster 2400 Fax $169 $249 32%
Sportster 2400 Fax/PC $159 $229 31%
Sportster 2400 Mac&Fax $199 $329 40%
Sportster 2400 V.42bis $149 $229 35%
Sportster 2400 V.42bis/PC $139 $199 30%
Sportster 2400 $129 $199 35%
Sportster 2400/PC $119 $179 34%
BRINKER NAMED PRESIDENT OF GALACTICOMM, INC.
--------------------------------------------
Scott J. Brinker was named President and Chief Executive Officer of
Galacticomm, Inc., Florida-based developer of The Major BBS, a multi-user
bulletin board system supporting up to 256 simultaneous users on a single
machine.
Brinker has been with the company as Vice President since December 1990, when
his own company, Galactic Innovations, Inc., merged with Galacticomm. During
the past two years, Brinker has at various times led the marketing,
engineering, and sales departments of the company. More recently, he has
served as general manager, coordinating efforts of the entire business.
"I intend to lead the company with an aggressive development plan and a focus
on the success of our customers," says Brinker. "Immediate attention will be
paid to expanding our customer service, international business, and
third-party developer relations. I'm very proud of the team I'm working with
and thrilled about the opportunities before us."
Tim Stryker, founder of Galacticomm, has resigned as President and CEO,
although he does remain as Chairman of the Board. Says Stryker, "Scott has
been leading the strategic vision of Galacticomm for quite a while now. I
have total confidence in his success as CEO and for the continued growth of
the company. This is the beginning of a fantastic new era."
Recently, Galacticomm announced an alliance with two graphics and terminal
program companies, and continues to remain a leader in the commercial BBS
software industry. A new release of The Major BBS is expected this spring.
Galacticomm, Inc., 4101 SW 47th Ave., Suite 101, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314;
(305)583-5990 voice; (305)583-7846 fax; (305)583-7808 BBS.
GARBAGE DUMP BBS ANNOUNCES LOCAL ACCESS NUMBERS NATIONWIDE
----------------------------------------------------------
The Garbage Dump BBS announced February 22nd, their expansion to 63 lines,
with local access in over 500 U.S. cities. The Garbage Dump specializes in
real-time adult chat, uncensored message forums, ASP downloadable files,
online dating registry, casino-style games, and multiplayer adventure games.
The local access numbers will allow users to call The Garbage Dump with a
local telephone call to an X.25 network service provider. Previously, users
outside the local calling areas of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Denver,
Colorado, had to pay long distance fees in order to connect to the BBS. The
new access numbers will allow access at rates as low as $2 hourly for evening
and weekend use.
"We felt the addition of local access at an attractive rate during our
heaviest usage periods in the evenings and weekends would increase our user
base, as well as save our long distance callers a considerable amount of
money," said Dean Kerl, system operator of The Garbage Dump. "We were aware
that many of our users were limiting the amount of time they spent on The
Garbage Dump because of the cost of long distance. The response has been
overwhelming and we had to increase our incoming capacity from 47
simultaneous users to the current 63 since the local numbers came online
February 1."
The Garbage Dump BBS first went online on December 1, 1990 with 4 lines. The
service currently receives 1700+ calls daily from a user base of over 5000
callers. Data Safe Publications, Inc., PO Box 16032, Albuquerque, NM 87191;
(505)294-4980 voice; (505)294-8225 fax; (505)294-5675 BBS.
MUSTANG SOFTWARE UNVEILS VERSION 3.6 OF WILDCAT! BBS
----------------------------------------------------
Mustang Software announced on March 15 that they have begun shipping Version
3.6 of their popular BBS package - Wildcat! BBS. The update includes a new
program called wcDRAW, which allows sysops to easily create multi-colored
ANSI screens. wcDRAW is a menu-driven utility to create, edit, and manage
the various display files, menus, bulletins, and help files associated with
the Wildcat! BBS. It fully supports Wildcat! embedded control codes,
allowing operates to customize screens sent to remote callers. For example,
@FIRST@ would actually be replaced with the callers first name when the
screen is viewed online. Wildcat currently sports some 67 different
insertion parameters.
wcDRAW features full mouse support, block copy, move, fill, and stamp
ability. Line drawing capabilities allow sysops to select different line
types and weights. Because wcDRAW reads WILDCAT!'s configuration and
conference definition files, the sysop can see how the files look in each
conference.
"Our customers have always had to purchase a third party ANSI drawing program
in order to create powerful color screens for their BBS," said Jim Harrer,
President/CEO of MSI. "Creating screens was always a source of frustration
for our customers, so we decided to develop a program that would make it fun
again."
Version 3.6 was also enhanced to add a scrolling message text feature.
Header information such as FROM, TO, and SUBJECT remains fixed at the top of
the caller screen while message text longer than a single screen in length
scrolls beneath it. The .QWK mail door (TOMCAT) was enhanced to support Fido
Netmail messages and Wildcat! continues to be one of the few bulletin board
packages supporting file attachments in .QWK mail.
The upgrade is available to current Wildcat! operators at $20. The Wildcat!
software is available in a variety of configurations starting at $129 for a
single-line version. Mustang Software, Inc. (MSI) claims some 15,000
registered users of Wildcat! BBS software and over 80,000 registered users of
its Qmodem communications software. Mustang Software, Inc., PO Box 2264,
Bakersfield, CA 93303; (805)395-0223 voice; (805)395-0713 fax; (805)395-0650
BBS.
CUSTOMS SERVICE WARRANTS FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
----------------------------------------------
The United States Department of the Treasury U.S. Customs Service conducted
an early morning nationwide crackdown on bulletin board users March 4, 1993
serving 31 search warrants in 15 states and 30 cities. The warrants were
served by over 300 federal, state, and local law enforcement officials on
suspicion of illegal importation, distribution, sale, and use of
high-technology exchanges of child pornography.
The crackdown was the culmination of a year-long undercover Customs service
operation known as "Operation Longarm." It is the largest anti-child
pornography effort ever mounted in U.S. history. Between federal and state
search warrants, a total of 40 locations were presented with warrants. Over
100 customs service agents were involved in the investigation over the past
year.
Operation Longarm was conducted from the Custom's Service's Miami office and
is the held to be the first long term investigation by the service of
computer bulletin boards. The operation began in March 1992 when Customs
agents ran a sting operation against a man in Dade County Florida. As a
result of this operation, the service became aware of a bulletin board titled
BAMSE operated in Aalborg, Denmark by Kai Kanstrupt. BAMSE apparently was a
subscription service offering hundreds of GIF images of children involved in
sexually explicit conduct. On May 12, 1992, police in Aalborg seized the BBS
computer system, and all subscriber records along with hundreds of
photographs depicting child pornography.
Police in Denmark provided materials to the customs service in June 1992
which brought to light that over 100 subscribers to BAMSE were U.S. citizens.
The Customs Service subscribed to a second BBS in Denmark, titled SCREWDRIVER
and gained access to its membership lists which included names and addresses
of U.S. citizens. In September 1992, an undercover agent infiltrated a third
bulletin board in Denmark titled VESTBJERG where he downloaded several
hard-core child pornography pictures. On October 6, Danish police served a
search warrant at the residence of Mr. Carsten Lund, operator of SCREWDRIVER
and on October 14, they likewise raided the residence of Mr. Benny Mortenson,
operator of VESTBJERG. Additional information on U.S. citizens were obtained
in these raids. Of the warrants served here in the United States, few
actually involved bulletin boards - most were callers to the bulletin boards
in Denmark.
EXIDE PERSONAL 2000 UPS
-----------------------
We take electrical power for granted - until it is gone. Fortunately, 120VAC
power in the United States is fairly reliable - an enormous comfort if the
document you've been working on for the last four hours goes up in smoke
because of a 5 minute power outage. For bulletin board system operators, the
situation is even more critical. If you have 20 users online, and your power
goes out, they are dumped rather unceremoniously into the ether. Since power
didn't fail at their location in most places, they tend to get irritated if
the outage occurred 450KB into a 500KB download.
The answer is the Uninterruptable Power Supply or UPS. One of the least
exciting topics we are likely to address in Boardwatch, but for some
installations, a necessary one. Not only can power outages be inconvenient,
they can actually damage equipment in certain circumstances. A UPS typically
serves to filter out transient voltage spikes and noise from the AC waveform
- protecting your equipment from damage caused by line voltage variations.
Further, a UPS provides at least a few minutes of battery backup power. This
allows an orderly shut down of your equipment in the case of a long outage,
and often all you need is to save the current document you are working on to
make the difference between minor annoyance and a disastrous loss of work.
In the event of the more frequent 5-minute outage variety, a UPS will be
enough to keep you going right through the blackout.
We recently played with one of the best UPS we've seen. The Exide Personal
2000 Uninterruptable Power Supply, is almost overkill even for a multiline
BBS. The unit is rated at 2000 volt-amperes (VA) - about 1300 watts and
includes battery backup. An optional $149 serial communications card allows
you to set up your computer to monitor the UPS operation and perform an
orderly shut down if necessary. They do offer an automatic shutdown software
option called OnliNet that will actually monitor the port and detect a signal
from the UPS when the batteries run low, and perform an orderly shutdown of
all equipment before the battery backup runs out.
UPS are generally rated in watts and come in sizes from about 300 watts on
up. Basically, you add up the total wattage of your system and buy one a
little bigger than the total. The average PC consumes about 150 watts while
file servers with large drives etc. can run as high as 275-350 watts. A
color monitor uses about 60 watts. Modems typically use a small 200ma plug
in power supply - typically 15-20 watts each. A standard PC, monitor, and
modem would run about 250 watts.
Exide actually makes UPS systems rated at up to 1000 kVA (6,500,000 watts)
with their model 3800ES and down to 350 VA (250 Watt) unit with the Personal
Powerware Model 500. The Model 500 carries a list price of $649 while the
Model 3800ES typically lists for about $400,000. Actually, you can install
up to 13 of the 3800ES units for a 13000 kVA total capacity if power is what
you need.
The unit we looked at was the Personal Powerware Model 2000. It could handle
roughly 5 PC's with monitors and modems, or for our application, two PCs and
15 modems rather handily with room to spare. One of the overriding questions
everyone has about UPSs is "how long will it run the system when the power
goes out?" This is where having a bigger UPS than you need comes into play.
The 2000 will support a 1000 watt load for about 15 minutes, or a 400 watt
load for about 50 minutes.
The model 2000 with a 2000 VA capacity lists for $2699. Individual dealers
typically discount these list prices up to 20%. The unit is expandable in
that you can add extension batteries at $539 each. These do not extend the
maximum power rating of 2000 VA, but they DO extend the backup times by
providing more of the 48vdc batteries the system uses. Under a 750 watt load,
for example, this extension battery will add about 23 minutes to the backup
duration. You can very easily remove the side cover on this unit and slide on
an additional battery extension and these daisy chain more or less endlessly.
The battery extenders are packaged so that they blend completely into the
look of the overall unit. The overall package, though heavy, is sturdily
built with metal cabinet. It's a handsome enclosure - if that matters.
The batteries fully charge in about 8 hours. We had ours on for six when
coincidentally, the power went out for about 20 minutes - a serendipitous
test event under real world conditions. Our PCs operated without a single
dropped character with 10 people on the Boardwatch BBS. The green light on
the UPS went red, and a not terribly obnoxious chirping alarm sounded every
few seconds. No maintenance, no reset, no problem.
The UPS is available in configurations for 120 or 240 VAC. Our 120 VAC unit
posed a minor inconvenience in that it features an odd type of electrical
plug designed for 20 AMP circuits - one blade of the three prong plug is
turned sideways. A little investigation at a local hardware store revealed
that indeed there is a particular type of receptacle for this that is
supposed to be used with 20 amp circuits to differentiate them from the more
common 15 amp circuits. Unfortunately, most buildings, even those that have
20 amp circuits, use ordinary electrical receptacles. We actually had to
replace our receptacle to use this UPS.
We calculate we were putting about a 750 watt load on the Personal Power
Model 2000. After running the UPS for several days to ensure the batteries
were fully charged, we pulled the plug. Our system ran continuously on
battery power for one hour and 41 minutes (101 minutes). The chirping alarm
becomes more frequent as the batteries deplete until the system finally shuts
down completely, and rather suddenly. But we were impressed it delivered
considerably longer life than the system ratings indicated.
The company is a bit of an enigma. Like many corporations selling to the
computer community, they have a system of dealers who support the product.
As a result, we found they don't know what the price of anything is, and
don't know much else about it either. They prefer to refer you to a dealer.
Interestingly, the dealers we talked to don't know anything either. More
accurately, we're told that each sale is different depending on quantity and
installation. Translated - whatever price we think we can get from the boob
on the other end of the phone. Another interesting thing is that for years
we have heard of Exide batteries. This UPS uses batteries - from Yaesu.
Despite this, the Exide unit looks to be the Cadillac of UPS systems. They
carry a two year warranty, on everything except the batteries (???? - isn't
that what most of this thing is???). But it works well, and offers
connections to LANs or serial ports. Exide Electronics, 8521 Six Forks Road,
Raleigh, NC 27615; (800)554-3448 voice; (919)872-3020 international;
(800)75-EXIDE fax.
RUSTY & EDIE'S BBS BACK ONLINE
------------------------------
In our story last month on the seizure of Rusty & Edie's BBS, Russell by the
end of the month. True to his word, as of February 26th, Rusty & Edie's BBS
was back online with 32 lines. The system is available at (216)726-2620
sporting a whole bevy of new ZyXEL modems and a new location in Youngstown.
Rusty & Edie's BBS, 7393 Claifornia Ave. #7, Youngstown, OH 44512;
(216)726-4217 voice; (216)726-3595 fax.
==============
SOFTWARE NOTES
==============
IMPROVING ON WORDPERFECT
------------------------
By Jim Thompson
Western News Service
Word processors have been around for so long that they can no longer be
considered exotic or even exciting. But that does not mean they are not an
important weapon in your computer arsenal. Aside from the operating system
itself, Word processors are still the most used of all computer programs.
In the world of word processors, WordPerfect is among the top echelon.
WordPerfect is the best selling DOS word processing package for the PC.
Although the Windows edition of this program has been a bit slower in gaining
popularity, the newest version also promises to take a dominate role in the
word processing wars.
Here is a list of some of the best shareware programs for WordPerfect.
REAL LAW
This program provides a menu driven system for automating some of the more
mundane tasks in a legal office. Specifically, it helps in the handling of
forms and form letters.
Among the forms provided are affidavits, motions, depositions, orders and
petitions. REAL LAW allows you to load the forms in WordPerfect, fill in the
blanks and then print them. The demo version includes seven forms. If you
register the program, you will receive more than 110 forms -- virtually every
form normally required by a law office.
The real power of REAL LAW comes when you generate a client database. With
more than 70 fields, the database allows you to compile some very
sophisticated statistics about your clients. This same database information
is used to fill in any of the various forms automatically.
The database and forms are tied together with an excellent menuing system
which guides you through the entire process of creating the forms and adding
information relating to an individual client. When you call a form to be
filled in with information relation to a client from the database, all
related forms are also generated.
UMLAUTER (UMLAUTER.ZIP)
Typing special characters used in foreign languages can be a big problem in
WordPerfect or any U.S. word processor. If German is your language, then
UMLAUTER is what you need.
German and a number of other languages require an umlaut (two dots) above
certain characters. Umlauter consists of seven macros that allow you to
insert the special umlauted characters and the German double "s" character.
It's simple to use and free for the asking.
HEBREW MACRO AND KEYBOARD SET (HEBWPK.ZIP)
This program uses a combination of macros and WordPerfect's capability to
re-map the keyboard to create the Hebrew character set. If a character is not
available in the normal character set for the selected font, the character is
printed as a graphic of a size and style that matches the font being used.
The program also enters characters from right-to-left, as is normal when
writing in Hebrew. The one major drawback is that you cannot see the Hebrew
characters as you type. Instead of the Hebrew characters, token characters
are displayed. Switching to display mode (Shift-F7, 6), displays what was
typed.
The documentation is a bit on the light side, but with a little work it isn't
too hard to sort out.
MACRO CREATION AND EDITING TOOL (MACROADE)
Creating macros in WordPerfect is easy -- editing those same macros is
another story. WordPerfect's macro-editing tools are awkward at best. Since
macros are stored in a special format, they also cannot be edited as a text
file by WordPerfect or any other word processor. So, what do you do? Get
MacroAde.
MacroAde is a great little tool for converting WordPerfect macros into an
ASCII text file and for converting macros written as text files into
WordPerfect macro format. This allows you to use WordPerfect or any word
processor that creates ASCII text to create your macros.
There is also a utility which will check your macros for missing tildes and
one that imports external data for use as macro variables. You will also find
a list of all macro and keystroke commands and codes and a utility to convert
macros to version 5.1.
An easy-to-use menuing system takes all the mystery out of creating macros in
WordPerfect.
WPTOOLS 5.1
This package contains several useful programs. It is a must for anyone using
WordPerfect. Included in the package are the following:
WP5LOOK. This nifty little program allows you to view WordPerfect files
outside WordPerfect exactly as they will be printed. It recognizes
WordPerfect formatting characters and uses them. WP5LOOK also allows you to
search for text within a document and to display multiple documents.
LISTMACS. This program looks at the macro (.WPM) or keyboard (.WPK) files in
a directory and lists the names and descriptions of the macros in the files.
It can handle up to 1,000 macros -- a great way to keep track of the macros
you may have forgotten.
WPGSIZE. This provides additional information about .WPG graphics files. It
will tell you the dimensions of the "image coordinate space" and display the
width and height in inches.
FONTFILE. This will make a list of the downloadable font files used by a
specified .PRS (printer driver) file. FONTLIST. This program will look at a
WordPerfect document and list the names of the fonts it uses and the .PRS
file required. It's very useful if you receive a document from someone else
and are not sure how to print it.
WPSNOOP. This program provides a way to determine if a file was created in
WordPerfect or was produced by another WordPerfect product. It will also tell
you what .PRS file and printer are needed to get a printout.
COMPARE
COMPARE does a word-by-word comparison of two WordPerfect documents, then
creates a third document which indicates the differences between the two.
COMPARE marks individual words not just on a phrase level like Word Perfect's
own comparison feature. Any word added to the newer document are marked with
a double-underline, deleted words from the older document are shown in
redline.
You can also change the display if you wish. An additional program lets you
use strikeout, brackets or < > to mark deleted words and underlining,
double-underlining or boldface to mark new words.
COMPARE will not work with files larger than 64K. Despite this limitation,
its a great little program.
TRAINING FOR WORDPERFECT (WP50TUT.ZIP)
Although the name implies that this is a tutor for WordPerfect version 5.0,
it is equally useful for learning version 5.1. The full registered version of
this program consists of three volumes. You will get volume one, a fully
function, although limited version of the program, with the original download
and its yours to use at no charge.
Training for WordPerfect does not require that you own the word processor.
This is nice for those who want to get a feel of the program before they buy.
The package includes instructions on all aspects of document manipulation,
including how to move and copy text, the use of special printing effects,
formatting and the use of the Spell Checker and Thesaurus. The simple,
straight-forward menus will have you using this excellent program in a matter
of minutes, even if you don't read the documentation.
REAL LAW PROGRAM (AUTOLAW.COM)
AA Computer Learning Center
101 N. State Road 7 Suite #7
Margate, FL 33063
Requires WordPerfect 5.1 -- will not work with earlier versions Registration
Fee: $59.00, plus $5.00 S&H
UMLAUTER (UMLAUTER.ZIP)
Available for donwload on American Online
Registration Fee: Free
HEBREW KEYBOARD (HEBWBK.ZIP)
Alan Z. Fromm
CompuServe: 72070,1427
Registration Fee: Free
MACROADE
Jeffrey S. Kane
Performance Sciences International
3001 Latta Drive, Suite 1250
Summerfield, NC 27358
Registration Fee: $25.00
(includes unlimited telephone support)
WPTOOLS 5.1
Jim Seidman
Software by Seidman
2737 Devonshire Pl. NW
Washington, DC 20008
Registration Fee: $25.00 for WPTOOLS
COMPARE
James H. White
Whiteware
8544 Bryan
St. Louis, MO 63117
Registration Fee: $20.00
TRAINING FOR WORDPERFECT (WP50TUT.ZIP)
James Dietrichs
R&D Associates
12228 Venice Blvd, Suite 467
Mar Vista, CA 90066
Registration Fee: $33.00
(Includes all three volumes of the tutorial)
[Jim Thompson is Managing Editor at Western News Service in Los Angeles,
California. He also operates the Philip Morris Racing Information System BBS
used by over 400 journalists to access up-to-the-minute automobile race
results and track-side reports. He can be reached by e-mail at
321-4127@mcimail.com - Editor]
ANSI Music
----------
by Alan D. Bryant
The online world is laced with numerous methods and approaches to
communicating by modem. One of the most obscure is so-called ANSI music, a
way to play basic music on a caller's PC online.
By today's standards, ANSI music isn't much -- if you're expecting stereo
high-fidelity music through your SoundBlaster card online, forget it. ANSI
music provides the online equivalent to a child's toy piano -- only a little
less complex than that. For all it is not, ANSI music is a well supported de
facto standard method to jazz up the online interface a modem user can enjoy.
Technically, ANSI music is a single-voice way to play simple melodies. A
"single voice" means that only one note can be played at a time, precluding
the use of chords or multiple overlapping music sequences. The sound
generated by an ANSI music capable terminal program is, therefore, not
anything stellar. Still, a well written ANSI music sequence can have a lot
of life to it, with quarter notes, whole notes, sharps, flats, rests, and
several octaves of range available.
ANSI music itself, as the name suggests, is sent as a variation of the ANSI
escape sequence -- the same type of mechanism used to control the cursor and
color attributes between a host (BBS) and the remote (a caller). Like any
other ANSI escape sequence, it begins with the escape character (ASCII 27),
followed by a left
square bracket ( [ ). ANSI music sequences are then
followed by a capital letter "M", an encoded music sequence, then a Ctrl-N
character (ASCII 14).
The encoded music sequence is a string of characters that conforms to the
format of the PLAY statement in the BASIC included with virtually every IBM
or compatible PC. If you have a BASIC manual that came with your computer,
you have the information you need to create a music sequence. The characters
used are shown in the accompanying table.
In ANSI music, "My Darlin' Clementine" looks like so:
^[[MFMNT150L8O3C.L16CL4C<GP64L8>E.L16EL4ECL8C.L16EL4G.L16G ^N
^[[MFL8O3F.L16EL2DP32L8D.L16EL4FFL8E.L16DL4ECL8C.L16EL4D<GL8B.L16>D ^N
^[[MFL2O3CP8L8C.L16CL4C<GP64L8>E.L16EL4ECL8C.L16EL4G.L16GL8F.L16E ^N
^[[MFL2O3DP32L8D.L16EL4FFL8E.L16DL4ECL8C.L16EL4D<GL8B.L16>DL2CP8 ^N
^[[MFP64 ^N
(^[ = Esc, ^N = Ctrl-N)
Although it's possible to create ANSI music "by hand" it's a fairly laborious
process. Enter Melody Master, a shareware music composition program written
by Russian emigre Alexei Efros, Jr. Using a graphical interface consisting
of the musical scales, Melody Master allows you to "type" notes and rests on
the scales in the same manner as a composer writes music. Sophisticated
single-voice melodies become an interesting and fun experience to create.
Melody Master exists primarily to teach children and adults alike the
principles of music notation and structure. The program comes complete with
100 music files to get you started, which you can simply listen to, view to
see how others put songs together, or edit to hear the subtle effects of
minor changes. Melody Master uses its own format for storage of music files.
Once you get a melody you like, exporting the file to ANSI format consists of
a few simple keystrokes. For people who want to generate ANSI music, the
only drawback to the program is that it can't read pre-existing ANSI music
files -- only its own native format (and that of a similar program, Piano
Man). If your goal is to create your own music (or to place one of the 100
stock songs online) Melody Master fits the bill nicely.
With no pre-existing knowledge of music, we were able to place some notes on
the scales and get something that vaguely resembles a melody of some sort.
The program's editing capabilities are somewhat klunky and non-intuitive, but
you quickly get the hang of it. After typing any number of notes, you can
easily play the tune from the beginning or from your current location in the
composition using "debug play" mode. For interesting musical analysis, you
can even play your compositions backwards. Registration of the shareware
package costs just $19 (plus shipping) for personal use; $49 for commercial
use. Registered copies include even more songs than the shareware version.
(Melody Master Version 2.1, by Alexei A. Efros, Jr., 4544 South Brockbank
Dr., Salt Lake City, Utah 84124. Sold by Shareable Software International,
P. O. Box 59102, Schaumburg, IL 60159; 800-622-2793 Voice.)
Once you have ANSI music, the next hurdle is enabling your users to hear it.
Many communications software packages support ANSI music, but many others
don't. Qmodem has long-supported the standard, and older shareware versions
as well as the latest Qmodem Pro feature it. GT-Powercomm is another choice.
The popular Procomm Plus and Procomm Plus for Windows, however, do not
include ANSI music support. Even if a program does not support ANSI music,
however, its presence is simply ignored in the communications software we
tested -- provided the program has its ANSI mode enabled.
One of the interesting effects of ANSI music is that the compositions are
generally small in terms of the number of bytes, and therefore transmit
quickly. The ANSI music implementations we've seen (such as Qmodem) play the
music in the background with proper timing, while the session online
continues normally. This allows for special effects, such as putting ANSI
music at the beginning of a screen display; the screen can be painted while
the music plays. It's an interesting way for BBS sysops to, for example, say
"Happy Holidays" in animated ANSI while "Jingle Bells" plays in the
background.
Table of Single-Character Commands Used for ANSI Music Sequences
A-G[#,+,-] - A-G are notes. # or + following a note produces a sharp; -
produces a flat.
L(n) - Sets the length of each note. L4 is a quarter note, L1 is a whole
note, and so on. "n" may be from 1 to 64. Length may also follow the note
to change the length for that note only. A16 is equivalent to L16A.
MN - Music normal. Each note plays seven-eighths of the time determined by L
(length).
ML - Music legato. Each note plays the full period set by L.
MS - Music staccato. Each note plays three-quarters of the time determined
by L.
N(n) - Play note "n". "n" may be in the range from 0 to 84, such as N45. In
the 7 possible octaves, there are 84 notes. n set to 0 indicates a rest.
O(n) - Sets the current octave to "n". "n" may be in the range 0 to 6, such
as O5. The default is 4. Middle C is at the beginning of octave 3.
P(n) - Pause. "n" may be in the range from 1 to 64, such as P25.
T(n) - Sets the tempo to "n". "n" may be in the range from 32 to 255, such
as T127. The default is 120.
. (period) - A period after a note increases the playing time of the note by
3/2 times the period determined by L (length of note) time T (tempo).
Multiple periods can appear after a note, and the playing time is scaled
accordingly. For example, A. will cause the note A to play one and one half
times the playing time determined by L times T; two periods placed after A
(A..) will cause the note to be played at 9/4 times its ascribed value; an A
with three periods (A...) at 27/8, etc. Periods may also appear after a P
(pause) and increase the pause length in the same manner.
>n - A greater-than symbol preceeding the note "n" plays the note in the
next higher octave.
<n - A less-than symbol preceeding the note "n" plays the note in the next
lower octave.
FAX/OCR SOFTWARE: NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME
-----------------------------------------
There was a little girl,
Who wore a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very, very good.
And when she was bad,
She was horrid. - Traditional limerick
By Thom Foulks
That's the current state of fax/OCR software, I've learned, after weeks of
trying to put it to productive use and learning how others are using it.
An author faxed to himself the typed manuscript of a 1970's book he needed to
update, then used OCR (optical character recognition) software to convert it
to word processor files. A Braille instructor is faxing pages of learning
materials to herself, using OCR software to convert it to computer text, then
other software to send it to a Braille printer.
Fax and OCR, especially computer-to-computer, are a marriage made in heaven
-- when everything works right. Fax and OCR, when dealing with older fax
machines and copying-machine copies, are a shotgun wedding at best...a
nightmare, at worst.
I've looked at five fax/OCR packages, and asked my BBS users how they've been
using this new coupling of super-sophisticated software and high-speed
faxmodems. The products are Intel's FAXability Plus/OCR, Calera's
FaxGrabber, Caere's AnyFax (in Delrina's Winfax Pro), Bitfax/OCR for Windows
(also AnyFax- based), and Ocron's Perceive Personal. Along the way, I also
checked the unique capabilities of Cardiff's Teleform, a forms-based system
that converts incoming fax images to database information.
(For those who may wonder what all this foofarah is about, remember that a
fax transmission is a graphics image, similar to that produced by a copying
machine. OCR software must be used by the fax receiver to convert the
black-and-white characters of the image into text usable by the computer for
word processing, spreadsheets, etc.)
Typically, reviews of such products play a numbers game: Comparing
percentages of accuracy in actual recognition of the graphic-image text
characters. The products in this marketplace are wont to promise accuracy of
"up to 99%" -- in fact, every one of the above products met or exceeded that
figure, under the right conditions. Remember, however, that "99%" means the
potential of one error character in every 100 characters; and a page of
correspondence well may contain 1,000 characters.
UNDER THE RIGHT CONDITIONS! Never has the time-honored "GIGO" (garbage in,
garbage out) computer-age acronym been so appropriate. As example, none of
the above did even a reasonable job of converting the text from a copier copy
of a triple-column magazine page that also contained a picture, a graphic and
a boxed ad.
On the other hand, all did well when the same magazine columns were scanned
(by Logitech's ScanMan 256) as individual columns, converted to the
appropriate input file format, and fed to the OCR software...a process almost
as time-consuming as simple fast-typist retyping of the text from the
magazine. With clipboard in hand, I tried to logically, methodically,
statistically compare the output of these various OCR packages. I could
throw a lot of numbers at you -- but the sheer fact is, don't let ANY one
tell you they can be analyzed in such a fashion. The problem is, too many
variables.
As example, I fed a 14-page computer-generated fax using common Arial (from
Word for Windows 2.0) to Winfax Pro's OCR mode. It scored close to 99%.
Then, I fed the same file -- with Times Roman as the font -- through the same
procedure, and the output ASCII text was pure gibberish. Yet, Perceive
Personal gobbled in the same Times Roman file and the output would have been
usable with only short editing. So, then I fed the same file to BitFax/OCR,
with similar results -- except for one classic omission: Every
sentence-ending period was lost!
From WordPerfect for Windows, I sent a fax of a help file -- Courier font --
to BitFax/OCR, and it found all the periods; but didn't recognize "b", "y" or
scattered other characters. From a distant city, a friend faxed me a 10-page
report from WordPerfect for DOS, via Intel's DOS SatisFAXtion software. My
name was in the report, several times, always as "Thrm Frulks" -- along with
inconsistent other missing characters.
Consistently, NONE of the products did a good job of handling margins.
Paragraphs with the first word indented would confuse the "recognition"
process, leaving a jumble of scattered words across the output page. WinFax
Pro 3.0 occasionally told me "an error had occurred" referring me to the
manual with NO clue as to WHAT error occurred. (All of the products are
heavy RAM users; my test machine, a 386DX/33, had 8MB of RAM.) The same
file, fed to Perceive Personal, came through with "w" recognized as "\i/" and
"y" consistently missed.
Sampling all the programs also revealed a welter of file formats to deal
with. Although each would accept PCX files, none of them receive fax
transmissions directly in a PCX format -- there's always a conversion step.
WinFax likes only its own files, FXR and FXS; FAXability wants DCX files, but
you must "save" SatisFAXtion's RCV files into the DCX format. Perceive
Personal (targeted more at scanner users) likes TIFF files. Only FaxGrabber
would handle PCX, DCX, and TIF. Etc., ad infinitum.
Teleform stands unique in this group, in that it doesn't deal directly with
text, and it expects that its input has been fax machine generated. In
practice, the user fills out a plain-paper form of checkboxes and sends it to
a Teleform-equipped receiving computer. The data is read from the boxes, and
inserted directly into a database. This is a slick business application,
although not text-based in the usual sense. My testing produced superb
results -- but it's not a product for OCRing a faxed letter.
OK, Thom, let's try to formulate some recommendations from all this. Here
they are.
1. Take those "up to 99%" promises for just what they are; and keep in mind
that the remaining 1% means one character wrong out of 100. That means you
might have read 60 or so errors up to this point, in this short article.
Editing the output is a must; and the potential of using OCR to read numbers
reliably is downright scary.
2. Computer-to-computer fax transmissions (avoiding the copying phase of a
fax machine) can't be expected to dramatically improve performance, as I had
hoped. The improvement was only slight, and some very common scalable fonts
produced mishmash output. Even under the most controlled conditions, OCR
success mysteriously varies.
3. The most versatile performer is FaxGrabber, which many users may have
received as part of a bundle with an earlier version of WinFax Pro. If your
OCR plans involve scanning, then opt for Perceive Personal -- easy to use,
easy to set up, and provides the best runtime display of the actual OCR
process. However, the Caere AnyFax module in BitFax/OCR appears to be the
fastest of the group; in fact, BitFax/OCR is a solid performer as a fax
handler, and supports the CAS standard of SatisFAXtion modems.
4. If you've read to here, you can understand why I suggest you may wish to
wait for the next generation of such software. This marketplace is really
not quite ready for primetime.
OCR PRODUCTS
BitFax/OCR for Windows 2.05
Bit Software
47987 Fremont Blvd.
Fremont, CA 94538
510-490-2928
510-490-9490 (fax)
MSRP - $129
FAXability Plus/OCR 1.0
Intel Corp.
5200 N.E. Elam Young Parkway
Hillsboro, OR 97124
800-538-3373 or 503-629-7354
503-629-7227 (fax)
MSRP - $249
WinFax Pro 3.0
Delrina Technology
800-268-6082 or 416-441-0774
416-441-0774 (fax)
MSRP - $129
FaxGrabber
Calera Recognition Systems
475 Potrero Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
408-720-8300
408-720-1330 (fax)
MSRP - $149
Perceive Personal for Windows 2.0
OCRON, Inc.
3350 Scott Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA 95054
408-980-8900
408-980-5100 (fax)
MSRP - $179
Teleform 2.0
Cardiff Software
531 Stevens Ave.
Solana Beach, CA 92075
619-259-6430
619-259-6450 (fax)
MSRP - $995
[Thom Foulks has served as a computer consultant, founding host of Computing
Success! radio show, and columnist. Foulks also wrote his own Message Hub
BBS software package and operates the Cache la Byte Hub BBS at (719)528-8545.
- Ed]
========================================
DIGITAL IMAGING AND MARLBORO RACING NEWS
========================================
By Jim Thompson
Western News Service
Digital Imaging offers a news promise for the future of on-line computer
systems. Digital cameras and scanners are opening the door to a brave new
world of high quality photographic images for both the professional and the
hobbyist.
Professional Digital cameras offer the ability to instantly capture 24-bit,
1524x1012-pixel resolution images. High-end scanners can deliver 4,000 DPI
quality from color negatives or transparencies. Once captured, the images are
immediately ready for transmitting anywhere in the world.
Of course, it will be sometime before the cost of most of this equipment gets
down to a point where it is available to the masses. But the technology is
available and in use today. Major news gathering organizations around the
world are rapidly converting their photographic departments to all-electronic
image processing centers.
The L.A. Times, for example, started assembling their electronic darkroom in
1986. Terry Schwadron, assistant managing editor for graphics spearheaded
what the Times calls "the Editor Color Project." According to Schwadron, the
goal is to "remove the walls between the photo, art and prepress
departments." Electronic cameras and scanners are making this a reality.
The day is quickly approaching when film, at least in the fast-paced world of
the photojournalist, will be nothing more than a curiosity of the past. But,
there are still many problems that must be overcome. The format fight is
raging and what we have is a technology in search of a standard.
As managing editor of Western News Service and Sysop of Marlboro Racing News,
I have been intensely occupied with creating a BBS system for the exchange
and display of high-quality electronic images.
As the Official IndyCar News Service, Marlboro Racing News provides news
coverage and statistics on IndyCar racing. It is open only to journalists,
major news organizations, Indy Car teams and sponsors. Currently, more than
400 journalists rely on this system for immediate and accurate information
about the world of Indy Car racing. We are concerned not only with Marlboro
Racing Team Penske drivers, Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy, but with all
teams, races and news concerning the IndyCar series. But information is not
always enough. To capture all the drama and excitement of this or any
sporting event, newspapers need full-color, action photos.
The hand writing was definitely on the wall. Since we began operation two
years ago, it was clear that we needed to offer color photographs along with
the editorial material. It certainly didn't take a genius to realize that we
needed to get into an electronic photo system right away. I am happy to
report that journalists tapping into Marlboro Racing News will have access to
full color photographs during the 1993 IndyCar season. This system is now in
the testing stage and will be officially unveiled in time for the 77th
running of the Indianapolis 500.
For the first time anywhere, journalists can see the pictures that will be
used to illustrate their stories, on their own computers, before their
newspaper or magazine is even printed. For the first time, newspapers will be
able to receive a full-color photo, ready for publication even before the
race has finished.
In this, and succeeding articles, I will pass along what I have learned about
capturing, distributing and displaying photos on-line. I will also discuss
solutions I found to some very vexing problems including image exchange
between PCs and MACs, interfacing with Associated Press proprietary systems
and displaying the images on-line.
This is a world of land mines and not for the feint of heart. I spent months
researching the current equipment on the market. Time and again, just when I
thought I had all the answers, a new wrinkle developed. Usually, the problem
was sales staff, company representatives or technical personnel who simply
did not know the capabilities or the limitations of their equipment.
In some cases, it was both shocking and disappointing. When an official
company brochure says one thing and the technical staff says another, one
quickly begins to question whether any of this equipment will ever work. It
is especially disheartening when you are staring at a bill that is pushing
the $50,000 mark! Yes, it will work, but one has to be extremely careful.
One of the problems is that so much varying technical expertise is required.
I found people who were absolute experts with Macintosh computers, but had
never touched a PC. Some knew all about the Associated Press system, but had
no idea about how to connect with anything else. In some cases, technical
representatives told me that their equipment was capable of connecting with
other system, but when confronted with explicit questions about how to do
this, finally admitted that they had no idea.
So, beware all ye who wish to journey to the land of the digital image, for
it is fraught with danger. It requires a thorough knowledge of what you want
to accomplish, the brass to ask plenty of questions and nerves of steal.
But let's take it a step at a time. Before you can transmit an image, you
have to first capture it. In this first article of the series, I'll look at
the major electronic cameras and scanners designed for the professional.
As I said earlier, it didn't take a genius to realize that digital imaging
was the wave of the future. What it does take is money -- lots of it.
Even in the world of professional photographers, the price tags will make
anyone shutter. The high-end cameras cost more than $25,000 and professional
film scanners will put a $10,000 dent in your bank account. Talk about
sticker shock!
There are low-end models available. The Zapshot from Cannon and Logitech's
Fotoman sell for under $1,000. The results from these systems, however, are
more like still frames from a cheap video camera -- not even close to what is
acceptable to a newspaper.
When it comes to electronic cameras for professional use, there are only two
choices -- Kodak or Sony.
KODAK DCS (Digital Camera System)
Kodak makes two lines of Digital Cameras -- the Professional DCS and the more
portable DCS 200. The professional DCS has six variations. The top-of-the
line is the Kodak DC3/32. It provides 32 megabytes of memory and the ability
to capture full color images. For the photojournalist, this the only unit of
the professional line that deserves serious consideration.
The Kodak DC3 consists of a Nikon F3 camera cabled to a Digital Storage Unit
(DSU) that is carried over the shoulder. The DSU is VERY bulky with a weight
of about 12 pounds. The system also includes a Kodak camera back that
replaces the standard F3 back and a Kodak camera winder.
The DSU is essentially a portable computer that captures and processes the
images and a built-in screen for viewing. It contains a 200-megabyte
Winchester drive which allows for storing up to 600 compressed images.
Typically, the uncompressed images are about 5.5 megabytes in size -
definitely not something you can use with that old AT with a 20-megabyte
drive.
The built-in screen allows for immediate viewing of the image. Unfortunately,
it is limited to black and white and is only about four inches square.
Although small, the image is clear and crisp providing you have the proper
lighting conditions. I found it extremely difficult to see the image in
bright sunlight. When working outdoors, choosing an image on the screen was
little more than guess work.
The 32 megabytes of memory and winder attached to the camera body make it
possible to capture sequences of 24 photos at a rate of 2.5 images per
second. Although the DSU is not light, the weight is on the photographer's
shoulder. It's also rugged. You could drive nails into the wall with this
baby and not lose a shot. The original model was designed so it could be
dropped from an airplane. The newer model is not as rugged, but it is also
not as heavy.
Connections to the DSU are available through a SCSI 25-pin, female
subminiature D connector with standard pin assignments for Macintosh II
computers. The unit is shipped with drivers for PhotoShop imaging software
for the MAC and PhotoStyler software for the PC. Sending an image from the
DSC directly (via attached cable) to a MAC or PC (equipped with the proper
SCSI controller card) was no problem. Sending an image via modem was another
story.
The DC3 has an RS-232 serial port and built-in DIT protocol which allegedly
allows for connecting to an Associated Press Picture Desk by Leaf Systems,
Inc. A technical representative for Kodak told me that at the time of this
writing, the DC3 could not transmit to an AP Picture Desk. According to him,
they are waiting for final technical information from the Associated Press
and hoping to make in work in the "near future."
Company literature also indicates that the DC3 can connect to a Macintosh via
modem. Although there is no mention of it, I made the assumption that a modem
connection to a PC was also possible. How wrong I was.
Kodak's technical staff says a connection to a MAC is possible but only if
the MAC is running Kodak's proprietary communication software at the time the
connection is made. This software is not available for the PC which means a
PC connection via modem is not possible.
After receiving a photo from the DC3, the software un-compresses the image
and transform it into a format readable by Adobe PhotoShop. This is workable,
but it means that you wind-up with a closed system. For Marlboro Racing News,
the requirement was for a system with the widest possible connectivity.
The electronic back looks like a roll of film to the Nikon F3 body. Instead
of film, the back contains a 1280x1012-pixel resolution CCD array for
capturing the image. With this camera and the smaller DCS 200, the camera
doesn't even know that the electronics array is attached. This has pluses and
minuses.
On the plus side, the system uses exposure indexes equivalent to film speeds
of ISO 100-1600. On the minus side, the CCD array is smaller than a full 35mm
frame (21mm x 16mm or approximately two-thirds the length and width of a 35mm
frame). This means you can't use the entire viewfinder. A replacement
viewfinder, however, makes the transiton easy.
Another result is that any attached lens will have a focal length 2.6 times
longer than normal. A 28-mm lens gives the same field of view as about a
70-mm lens. This is great for long distance shooting since the shorter focal
length lenses are much smaller and lighter. The disadvantage comes if you
need wide-angle shots.
United Press International (UPI) used the Kodak system to transmit instant
photos around the world during the recent Presidential Inauguration.
KODAK DCS 200ci
The DCS 200 is the newest of Kodak's digital camera and can be considered the
little brother to the DC3. It's built around the Nikon 8008. It's much
smaller and considerably cheaper than the DC3. The trade off is that it is
quite a bit slower and holds fewer pictures. With a sticker price of just
under $10,000, the DCS 200 has a hard drive attached to the bottom of the
camera. Like the DC3, the camera back contains a CCD array and processing
unit. The hard drive takes about three seconds to capture and transfer an
image from the CCD to the drive. Although much lighter than its big brother,
the weight is on the hands, not the shoulder, making it somewhat harder to
handle in tight situations.
After taking a picture, there is a noticeable delay while the camera records
the image on the disk. To view a captured image, the camera must be attached
to a computer. A SCSI cable allows for a connection to a Macintosh or a PC
with a Future Domaine 1660 SCSI adapter card. Included software allows you to
transfer images directly into Adobe PhotoShop on the MAC or Aldus PhotoStyler
on the PC.
The DCS 200 uses exposure indexes equivalent to film speeds of ISO 100-400
for black-and-white and 50-200 for color. It delivers resolution of up to
1012x1525-pixels.
Image transfer is easy whether you are using a MAC or a PC. In either case,
the camera sends a series of thumbnail views to the imaging software. After
you select a image, it is imported and expanded in the desired format. Like
the DC3, the image size is around five megabytes.
Like the DC3, the DC 200 uses a replacement viewfinder so you can't use
Nikon's acclaimed "matrix metering" mode. The attached hard dive holds 50
pictures. An additional drive can be easily attached to the camera for more
picture storage. The additoinal drive weights only about 2 pounds and stores
another 50 pictures.
SONY PROMAVICA MVC-7000
The Sony MVC-7000 is actually not a Digital Camera -- it is really an
electronic or still video camera. Like the Kodak cameras, it does capture the
image on CCD elements. The difference is that the captured image is not
stored in a digital format but as an analog still video image on a floppy
disk (special Mavipak Hi-band disks). Up to 25 images can be stored on a
single floppy.
Sony makes several versions of this camera. What makes this one special, and
the only one that could be considered for professional use, is that it uses
three separate CCD elements. These elements capture red, green and blue
information for each pixel separately. Sony claims that this method of
capture provides better color over systems, like Kodak, that use an RGB
filter over a single CCD array.
Since this is basically a video system, image resolution is dependent on the
quality of the monitor and is measured in lines. For example, a portable
camcorder or VCR playing through your TV set at home normally delivers about
200-lines of video resolution. Even with the professional quality equipment,
resolution is limited to the NTSC standard of 525 lines.
The MVC-7000 can capture and payback images at more than 500 lines of
resolution. Translating this into computer term means you can get an image of
up to 768x493-pixel resolution. This quality, however, is dependent on
connecting to a high-quality video-capture device. The camera's built-in
playback device allows for instant viewing if you have a monitor nearby.
Although this quality is considerably lower than that of the Kodak system, it
is good enough in some cases. USA Today and the Toronto Star use the
ProMavica in some deadline situations.
All the parts on the MVC-7000, including lenses, are completely proprietary.
There are adapters for some Nikon and Canon lenses but you certainly cannot
get the flexibility of the full range of Nikon lenses as you can with the
Kodak system. The camera is more like a cross between a video camera and a
film camera than a conventional 35mm.
Since the imaging area of the CCD chips is smaller than that of 35mm film,
the focal length of attached lenses is 5.3 times higher than with a
conventional camera. A 75mm lense would have the equivalent field of view of
a 387mm lens mounted on a 35mm camera. This factor, coupled with the weight,
about six lbs. with a Sony zoom lens attached, makes the MCV-7000 a unlikely
candidate for most hand-held shooting, especially if slow exposures are
required.
The camera itself has a list price of $7,500. The lenses are not cheap. An
8-to-48mm lens sells for about $1,500. A 7.8-to-78-mm will set you back more
than $4,000. You will also need a monitor to display the pictures, a computer
or a special playback unit ($9,000) and software to capture and manipulate
the images. A ten-pack of diskettes will cost you $105.
If you are looking for a lower priced solution to still video, Sony offers a
lower-resolution, single-CCD MVC-2000 priced at just under $4,000.
Because it uses diskettes, there is no problem with the storage of images.
The diskettes can be placed in the playback unit for continuous viewing (the
image can be display in rotation similar to a slide projector) or for
manipulation (adjustment of contrast, brightness or color enhancement). The
images can also be transferred from the playback unit to a computer for more
sophisticated manipulation and enhancement.
KODAK VS. SONY
Because of the use of a three CCD array, the Sony system delivers better
color saturation than the Kodak cameras. The single chip of the Kodak also
produces a slightly mottled effect on large areas of the same color. Because
the Kodak produces images that are digital as opposed to the video images of
the Sony, the color definition is much sharper. Also, the Sony system tends
to produce color bleed especially when two contrasting colors (red and white,
for example) are next to one another.
For the professional photojournalist working on deadline, Kodak appears to be
the best choice. Although there were compromises involved, we decided that
the DCS 200 was the best unit for Marlboro Racing News. Although somewhat
slow (1 frame every three seconds) it does produce a full digital image that
is easy to download to a MAC or PC. It also offers the advantage of being
light and easy to handle.
The DCS 200 is the most cost effective, but not dramatically. After adding
all the necessary support equipment, the cost of all the units is about the
same. The Kodak DC3 costs about $26,000 but includes everything you need to
capture and transmit the image from the field. Of course, this assumes that
you have a Macintosh running Kodak's software package in the office where the
images are to be sent.
By the time you add at least one lens, a playback unit, a monitor, and
various cables to the Sony MVC-7000, the overall price is up to more than
$20,000. If you want to do any compression or manipulation before
transmitting the images, you will also need to add an additional $4,000 to
$5,000 for a computer system.
The actual price of the Kodak DCS 200ci is up around $19,000 after you add a
computer, modem, software and various cables.
ELECTRONIC CAMERAS VS. SCANNERS
Not all newspapers have opted to use electronic cameras for photo
transmission. In fact, most are using standard film cameras and then scanning
the negatives into a computer. This process has several advantages.
It allows photographers to use equipment with which they are familiar. Most
photojournalists have put together a very impressive collection of cameras,
lenses and attachments that will get them through any situation. After
spending years to build up this stock of equipment, most are very reluctant
to make a change.
Also, the vast majority of photojournalists are independents and not actually
on the staff of the news organizations for which they work. Spending
$10,000-$20,000 on new equipment is simply not a possibility for most.
Scanning negatives also produces a much higher resolution electronic image.
Typically, a scanned image can yield an electronic photo that has a dpi
(dots-per-inch) of 2500-4000. This means better color and an image that can
be enlarged to full page without significant loss.
But the story is not all good news. There are trade-offs. The main
disadvantage is time. Scanning negatives can take anywhere from five minutes
to 20 minutes, depending on the scanner being used and the resolution
desired. Add to this the time involved in processing the film and then to
import it into an editing program and you have a significant time delay from
taking the picture to actually transmitting it.
Typically, it takes 50 minutes to one hour to develop the film and another 10
minutes to scan the negative, or a total of one hour before you are ready to
import the photo into a computer and transmit it.
A high quality, professional scanner costs about $9,000. The scanner can't
even be used unless it is linked to a computer which will set you back
anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000. This is certainly not what could be
considered a cheap solution. With one exception, professional scanners are
also anything but portable. This is not something you can carry in your
camera bag.
But, everything has its place. A high quality scanner is definitely one piece
of equipment that is a must for any news room involved in electronic imaging.
Any descent sized newspaper has an extensive photo morgue containing photos
that could not be duplicated. As modern papers move into electronic imaging,
these photos need to be digitized. if the negatives are available, the only
way to do this is by scanning.
Several scanners are available to the professional. Among them two from
Nikon, one from Kodak and a complete system, including CPU, monitor, modem
and scanner from Leaf Systems, Inc.
NIKON LS-3510 AF
The Nikon scanner works like most any other professional scanner. Basically,
light is beamed through the film and is picked up by a sensor on the other
side. A unique electric signal is produced according to the amount of light
received. The amount of light is regulated by the density of the film. The
signal is output by the scanner in digital code which describes each
individual scan segment, or pixel, which makes up a completed digital image.
In the Nikon scanner, the light source and reflector screen are fixed. The
film is moved between the two. Color images are scanned in three passes, once
for each of the primary colors of light (RGB). Black and white film requires
only a single pass. The resulting scan is of very high resolution -- 3,175
dpi. This is better than most drum scanners which are the standard by which
all others are measured. Drum scanners typically have a resolution of 2,000
dpi.
Using 12-bit color differentiation, you get up to 36 bits of color
information for each pixel (12 bits for each primary color). What it means is
that you will have higher resolution and more color information that most
systems can even handle, so high quality imaging is no problem.
The LS-3510 couldn't be easier to use. All you need to do is connect the unit
to a MAC via a SCSI cable or PC via a GPIB interface. The actual scanning
operation is controlled through the photo-editing software running on the
computer. The scanner comes bundled with your choice of PhotoStyler for the
PC, Aldus PhotoShop or Fractal ColorStudio for the MAC. The auto focus
feature (the "AF" in LS 3510 AF) makes the whole process painless and easy.
According to Nikon, it takes approximately 25 seconds for a prescan. The scan
itself takes approximately 30 seconds per color for an 2048x1365 image in
high speed mode. If you have high volume, there is an optional auto feeder
available which scans 300 slides unattended.
The unit is 11.3(W) x 14.41 (D) x 5.86 (H) inches and weighs 13.2 lbs.
The Nikon scanner is an excellent choice for any professional application and
is used by many of the major news organizations.
KODAK 35mm RAPID FILM SCANNER
The Kodak scanner works basically on the same principleas the Nikon. It has
automatic color balance and auto focus. Although it does notappear to be as
rugged as teh Nikon (it has an all plastic exterior caseas opposed to the
mostly metal case of the Nikon) it seems to be very substantial. The photo
editor fo the Denver Post says in test they conducted the Kodak was able to
take all teh abuse they could dish-out without any problems. At nearly 22
lbs., it is also considerably heavier than the Nikon. Its resolution of 1312
X 1024 (approx. 2000 dpi) is also lower than that of the Nikon.
On the plus side, the Kodak scanner is much faster than the Nikon. Kodak
claims with a Macintosh II and using its proprietary compression file format,
it will produce full color compressed images in just 18 seconds. Other file
formats supported include Jpeg/DCT, PICT, TIFF or Planar RGB.
The Kodak scanner includes proprietary image-compression software allowing
for storage of 300 images on an 80 megabyte hard drive (compression ratio of
15:1). A built-in optical zoom feature allows for image sizing and previewing
before doing a full resolution scan. To use it you will need a Macintosh II
with at least 5MB or RAM. It is compatible with Adobe PhotoShop, Letraset
ColorStudio and other high-end image-editing software.
NIKON COOLSCAN LS-10
The Nikon Coolscan represents a significant break-through in portable scanner
technology. Instead of a large, luggable unit, like the Nikon LS-3510 AF or
the Kodak Rapid Film Scanner, the LS-10 fits into a size of a 1/2 height disk
drive on a PC or MAC. The Coolscan gets it name from the ultra-low power
consumption and it low cost, and low heat, light emitting diode (LED)
scanning technology. This low power consumption and low heat allows the
scanner to operate without problems inside a computer and not overheat.
The LS-10 scans negatives and transparencies in color or black-and-white and
captures 24-bit images with a maximum resolution of 2700 dpi. It scans
information in a "multi-scan" one-pass mode. Instead of scanning an image
three times (once for each color separation - RGB) the LS-10 scans the same
line three times in succession so you get all the necessary data in a single
pass.
According to Nikon, using an LED for scanning is more reliable than other
light-source technologies. The LED strobe illumination system provides the
fastest response time (on/off cycles). Also, there are no filaments, tubes or
gas and the image is capture in one pass instead of three. With the Coolscan,
it takes approximately five minutes for a six to eight megabyte image scan.
The LS-10, however, does not provide auto-focus or an auto-feed option like
the LS-3510 AF. I cannot see this scanner being used for heavy usage, but for
field use, or even for limited home or office use, this seems to be the one
to have.
The Coolscan is available in two models. The internal version (which mounts
inside a desktop computer) has a retail cost of $2,195. The external version
which weighs 4.2 lbs. is $2,415.
ASSOCIATED PRESS LEAF TRANSMITTERS
With the clout of the Associated Press, the AP transmitters, manufactured for
the news agency by Leaf Systems, Inc., have become the de-facto standard for
the news industry. The Leaf system delivers higher resolution than others,
but that is not the reason for its popularity. The main reason is that it is
a closed system. With few exceptions, a Leaf system can only talk to another
Leaf system. The portable Leafax can only send to a LeafDesk. Since AP has
standardized on Leaf for all its transmissions, a major newspaper needs a
Leaf system. Recently, AP has softened its rigid approach to compatibility
and made interfaces available for the Macintosh.
For field use, Leaf makes the Leafax 35 and the Leafax IIId. The Leafax 35 is
smaller and lighter but produces a lower quality photo than the Leafax IIId.
Both include everything you need to scan and transmit an image in a portable
case.
With both units, the process involved is the same. A negative or 35mm slide
is scanned, digitized, with the built-in scanner, and then transmitted with
the built-in modem.
With a maximum scanning resolution of 4,000 dpi (6000x6000 resolution over
1.5x1.5 inch area of a negative) the Leafax IIId allows for the highest
possible scans of any portable unit. Basic image manipulation (image
cropping, toning, contrast and brightness balance) can be done with image
viewing on a 5.6 inch LCD color screen (610 x 48- resolution).
It compresses the images with Jpeg and allows for background transmission
during the scanning process. It also transmits in both digital format (using
DIT 3.2.Jpeg compression) or analog (using AP AM/FM 144 LPM, CCITT 60 and 120
AM, LPM and UPI AM protocols). Images can be transmitted at speeds of up to
19.2k. Approximately 200 photos can be stored on the internal hard disk. The
complete unit, in a single case, weighs 28 lbs.
The cost is not for the feint of heart, with a price tag of approximately
$28,000. But that's not all. Since the unit uses proprietary components and
software, you will also need to purchase a service contract and pay for
regular program upgrades.
The Leafax 35 is smaller but provides a lower quality scan. The maximum
resolution is 3000x3000 over 1.5 x 1 inch area of a negative with a dynamic
range of only 12-bit color as opposed to 16-bit on the Leaf IIId. It also
will transmit only in analog mode and has no internal storage. The cost is
approximately $20,000.
In order to transmit digital images, users of the Leafax 35 need to purchase
the Leaf Digital Compander. This unit (weight: seven lbs.) also compresses
the images before transmission via the built-in Trailblazer modem. Buying the
compander will add another $10,000 to the cost of the Leafax
transmitter/scanner package. Again, you will need to plan on paying for an
annual service contract and software upgrades.
The AP Leaf system does deliver the highest quality of any of the portable
units, but only at a substantial cost. It bothers me that the units are
specifically designed to keep out any form of competition. I made several
calls to Leaf System, Inc. and several visits to the Associated Press, both
in Los Angeles and to their headquarters in New York. Although the people I
spoke with were always extremely polite and friendly, they were unable (or
perhaps, unwilling) to give me any usable technical information about their
products and how one could connect to them with another system. Even
inquiries made through dealers did not turn up any information.
They seem to have gone to great lengths to select the oddest type of
protocols (at least as far as normal communcadtions programs and modems are
concerned) they could find and still call them a CCITT "standard." AP and
Leaf have also made it extremely difficult, if not in some cases impossible,
for any other type of equipment to interface with their units. Even their own
equipment is limited when it comes to connectivity. A Leafax, for example can
only communicate with an AP Leaf Picture Desk. This is basically a desktop
computer bundled with image manipulation software and a Telebit modem. With
all the necessary equipment, it will cost an additional $30,000.
Still, the AP system is the most widely used. The main reason is that, for
now, it is the most practical solution for any newspaper that is a part of
the Associated Press group -- and that is just about every major newspaper in
the U.S. The Leaf equipment is of extremely high quality and remarkably
reliable. They understand the needs of the press and the problems encountered
while working in far-flung locations around the world.
PHOENIX PORTABLE TRANSMITTER
The most serious competition to the AP Leaf system comes from a company
called T/One, Inc. makers of the Phoenix Portable Transmitter. Their system,
which is compatible with the AP Leafax and Leaf Picture Desk is built around
a lunch-box PC running Windows and a Nikon LS-2510AF scanner.
Although heavier and bulkier than the Leafax system, the Phoenix system
offers a much bigger and clear screen (10.4 inch color TFT flat panel
display), a faster CPU and an operating system that is compatible with the AP
system and the rest of the world. The company was started and is run by
former Associated Press employees, so they fully understand the workings of
the competition.
Although their system has advantages over that offered by Leaf, price is not
one. The Phoenix Portable Transmitter will set you back $26,000. The big plus
is that they offer free software upgrades for as long as you own the
equipment.
MAKING THE DECISION
So, after months of evaluating and testing, what equipment did we finally
decide on for Marlboro Racing News?
After much debate, we decided on the Kodak DC 200ci, color electronic camera.
It provides us with the widest range of possibilities with the highest
quality currently available for portable digital cameras. Although it
requires a computer to acquire and transmit the image, the camera itself is
light and easy for the photographer to handle in most situations. The one
problem may be with the time delay between capturing images, but this is
something that can only be fully assessed during use in actual field
conditions over a period of time.
Although scanning does produce a much higher quality, the camera became the
clear choice because of our need to meet the deadlines for major newspapers
across the US and overseas.
Typically, a race ends at approximately 3:00pm on a Sunday. Most newspapers
put their Monday edition to bed around 6:00pm Sunday evening. This only
allows a few hours following the race for the processing and transmission of
photos. The problems are compounded when you have a race on the West Coast,
like the Long Beach Grand Prix, and want to make the deadline for a New York,
or East Coast, newspaper.
In the past, the only practical way to meet these deadlines was to transmit a
black-and-white photo via the old drum transmitters. These transmitters can
also send color separations, but the process is very slow and requires time
consuming work by the printer. If the separations are not in exact
registration on the press, the result is a photo that looks out of focus.
The goal of Marlboro Racing News is to offer high quality, color photos and
still be within the deadlines of most newspapers. The digital camera has made
this a possibility for the first time ever.
If there is one thing I have learned in more than 20 years as a journalist,
is that when you are working in the field, things can and do go wrong.
Murphy's Law certainly applies here. So, we needed a back-up system in the
event our first line of defense failed.
The answer was the Nikon Coolscan LS-10. It's compact size, relatively low
price, and high quality gave us the back-up we needed. In addition, to
shooting with the digital camera, we will also be shooting with a
conventional film camera. Although showing its age in the world in breaking
news, film still has its place. Magazines still need the high quality that
only an original film image can provide and many smaller newspapers are still
not equipped to efficiently handle an electronic image.
Both the DC 200 and the Coolscan will be matched with a Macintosh PowerBook
165c, color notebook computer with 160 megabyte hard disk. The images from
the camera and/or the scanner are acquired into Aldus PhotoShop before being
compressed using Jpeg and transmitted via modem.
Although, I am a confirmed PC user, I decided on the Macintosh because the
MAC system is so widely used in the news industry. Most newspapers got into
electronic imaging several years ago, at a time when high quality graphics
were very limited on the PC platform. At the time, if you wanted to do
electronic imaging the only way to do it was on a Macintosh. Over the year,
the MAC has become the unofficial standard for the news industry. Like any
large organization, the news industry seens reluctant to make any changes
even though there are better and cheaper solutions currently available.
We are also adding the Nikon CP-3000 color printer. Using thermal sublimation
dye transfer, this printer produces a full color 5x7 inch print that looks
and feels just like a glossy photograph. The best part is that it takes only
about three minutes for a final print.
The images from the race sites will be sent to the Marlboro Racing News host
computer and then made available on-line for viewing and downloading. In
upcoming articles, I will discuss the other aspects of the Marlboro Racing
News computer system, including on-line display of photographs, image editing
software, image storage and archiving, and file exchange between different
systems.
Electronic imaging for the news industry is still in its infancy, but it is
maturing rapidly. Within three years, I believe, film will be a distant
memory for all deadline press organizations. Of course, this assumes that
some standards for image formats, compression and transmission are agreed
upon. For now, it is a place for pioneers -- and it's today's pioneers who
will establish the standards for tomorrow.
CONTACTS
Eastman Kodak Co.
U.S. Marketing Operations
343 State Street
Rochester, NY 14650
(800) 242-2424
(716) 724-6888
Sony Corp. of America
Electronic Photography and Publishing
3 Paragon Drive
Montvale, NJ 07645
(201) 368-9272
Fax: (201) 358-4942
Nikon Electronic Imaging
1300 Walt Whitman Road
Melville, NY 11747-3064
(800) 52-NIKON
(516) 547-4355
T/One, Inc.
180 Dublin Court
Petaluma, CA 94952
(707) 778-9282
Associated Press
Technology Marketing
50 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020
(212) 621-1500
Leaf Systems, Inc.
250 Turnpike Road
Southboro, MA 01772
(508) 460-8300
Adobe Systems, Inc.
1585 Charleston Road
Mountain View, CA 94042
(415) 961-4400
Aldus Corp.
411 First Avenue South
Suite 200
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 343-3277
MARLBORO RACING NEWS -- THE OFFICIAL INDYCAR NEWS SERVICE
Now in its third year, Marlboro Racing News is a computerized service
providing complete and up-to-the minute news and information on IndyCar
racing. The system is open to qualified journalists and those directly
associated with Indy Car racing such as team members and sponsors.
A team of reporters along with staff members from IndyCar and Philip Morris'
Marlboro Racing Program provide registered journalist with background
information and historical statistics along with the latest news and race
coverage. Regional media representatives affiliated with the Marlboro Racing
program in California, Colorado, Chicago and New York also supply material to
keep the system continually updated.
Designed by journalists for journalists, the main purpose of Marlboro Racing
News is to provide timely, accurate information to the media and to assist
deadline media in retrieving needed information in the quickest possible
manner.
Like any news service, it operates 24-hours-a-day, every day of the year. of
course, the prime usage is during the IndyCar season which runs from late
March to October. The 16-race IndyCar season includes events in Australia and
Canada as well as such famous U.S. locations as Indianapolis (Indianapolis
500), Long Beach (Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach), Michigan (Marlboro 500)
and Detroit (Detroit Grand Prix).
Among the material found on the system are current race results including
qualifying times, boxscores and statistical breakdowns showing current and
historical driver earnings, points, wins and poles. Each day during the
normal three-day race "weekend" full stories, notes and driver quotes are
also available.
Journalists can also find biographies on all drivers, detailed information on
individual race tracks, previews of upcoming races and events, and
information on IndyCar rules, regulations and history.
Weekly news updates by seasoned and highly respected auto racing journalists
are available along with information filed directly by IndyCar teams and
sponsors.
New material is filed every day on Marlboro Racing News. The latest addition
will be full-color photographs filed from the races. It is the intent that
these photographs will be available immediately following, and in some cases
during, the current race. Registered users will be able to view the
photographic images on-line and/or download the full images for later viewing
or publication.
Currently more than 400 journalists in the US and overseas access Marlboro
Racing News which is provided at no charge. However, the system is open only
to qualified journalists and those directly associated with IndyCar Racing.
The system is run like a news service. Its prime intent is to provide timely
information for publication in major newspapers and magazines and for
broadcast by television and radio stations and networks.
Due to a limitation on the number of incoming lines, it is not possible to
provide information to non-journalists and race fans. While fans are the most
important part of this or any other sport, it is more efficient to provide
them with news and results via major news outlets instead on an individual
basis. The final decision on who will have access to the system is determined
by IndyCar officials.
Those who qualify as journalists and who wish to gain access to Marlboro
Racing News should contact:
Jim Thompson
Internet: 321-4127@mcimail.com
MCI Mail: 321-4127 or RCN
Compuserve: 77727,2677
[Jim Thompson is Managing Editor at Western News Service in Los Angeles,
California. He also operates the Philip Morris Racing Information System BBS]
==================
MACINTOSH BBS NEWS
==================
by Bill Gram-Reefer
MACWORLD: THE SEQUEL (COLORIZED VERSION)
Last time we took a look at some of the software announcements coming out of
MacWorld Expo. This edition, we take off the rose-colored glasses and examine
hardware news of note for sysops.
I'LL GET YOU MY PRETTY, AND YOUR LITTLE DOG, TOO!
-------------------------------------------------
Because of the wonderful things it does, Sharp's Wizard has finally mutated
into a personal digital assistant (PDA) with the announcement of a
next-generation hand-held wonder, the OZ-9600. And they mean to sign you up,
come high Newton or not.
This new version of a product that has been waiting for its market to show up
for over four years combines touch-screen pen technology, an "advanced"
graphical user interface, an integrated filing system and a variety of
personal productivity applications including a calendar, scheduler, user
file, anniversary function, to do list, three telephone directories, business
card directory(!), outline processor, scrapbook, calculator, home and world
clocks, and a secret function to be revealed at a later date. Lions and
tigers and bears, oh my.
To prove there's no place like home, you can contact Auntie Em in the storm
cellar using the Wizard's modem accessory. When attached, the OZ-9600 can
communicate with remote mainframes and personal computers using built-in
terminal-mode software that provides both TTY and VT-100 emulation. In
terminal mode, the unit can receive electronic mail over most e-mail systems
including Easy Link, and MCI Mail, and can communicate with remote computers,
on-line data services such as the Lullaby League's BBS, CompuServe, Dow Jones
News, or the Official Airline Guide; and fax machines. An optional wireless
adapter allows Wizard information to be printed on a standard PC printer or
transferred to a PC or Macintosh computer using Organizer software, which,
being somewhere over the rainbow, is scheduled still to arrive by hot-air
balloon in the first half of 1993.
In case you need to hobnob directly with other Wizards, the wireless function
uses infrared technology to allow data on the screen or complete files to be
bidirectionally transferred between other like units. You'll definitely get
the feeling that you're not in Kansas anymore when cable-free data exchange
of business cards (sic), handwritten entries and other files, for example,
can be exchanged via this wireless link to be shared among gangs of
electronic organizers. So if you're in a room and everyone's laughing but
you, you're better off to see the Wizard.
To prop up the whole charade, Sharp has also announced that a number of
independent software developers, system integrators, and value added
resellers have committed to produce applications and market software for the
OZ-9600. Developments from these fellow travelers on the yellow-brick road
include telecommunications, customized integrated circuit cards, and
Macintosh- and PC-based software that will expand the Wizard's vertical
market, corporate and consumer applications.
Macintosh developers include Concentrix Technologies (Connections, a personal
information manager), Power Up Software (Address Book Plus), ON Technology
(Meeting Maker, a calendar/scheduler), and After Hours Software (TouchBASE, a
contact database). These new programs, new versions, or modules for existing
programs all run on the Mac and can export files that can be uploaded and
accessed by the Wizard.
I used to ignore the man behind the curtain. I always thought he would just
go away like IBM's PCjr. In fact, there was a time when Sharp used to have
kiosks in San Francisco's financial district where they'd try to give away
these things, but the guys handing out Benson & Hedges always had better
days. If I only had a brain, I might have figured out why I really need a
Wizard; electronic business cards, notwithstanding. But for now, I just want
to delay the inevitable obnoxious ad campaign in the major metro dailies.
Poppies! Yes, poppies will make them sleep.
Sharp Electronics, The Wizard Division, Sharp Plaza, Mahwa, NJ 07430; (800)
321-8877. After Hours Software, 5900 Sepulveda Blvd., Van Nuys, CA 91411;
(818) 780-2220.
Concentrix Technologies, 1875 S. Grant St. #760, San Mateo, CA 94402;
(415)358-5600.
ON Technology, 155 Second Street, Cambridge, MA 02141; (800) 548-8871.
Power Up Software, 2929 Campus Drive, San Mateo, CA 94403; (415) 345-5900.
NUBUS ISDN CARD
---------------
Designed and distributed by (get the caps right) EuRoNIS, Planet-ISDN is a
NuBus board that connects the Macintosh to national and international
integrated service digital networks (ISDN). Available in 18 countries,
Planet-ISDN is compatible with ISDN-1, the American standard adopted by AT&T,
Northern Telecom and Siemens Stromberg-Carlson, and has passed conformance
testing in Bellcore labs. Planet-ISDN is also fully compatible with Apple's
Communications ToolBox and Telephone Manager. Using Planet-ISDN and
connectivity and file transferring software such as Access Privilege's
TheLink and EasyTransfer administrators can interconnect up to eight
simultaneous remote sites.
The product provides a basic rate interface (BRI) of 64 Kbits/sec. on two B
channels, plus 16 Kbits/sec. on one D channel), access to digital PBXs
equipped with BRI outputs, management of ISDN supplementary services
including call presentation and identification, subaddress and DID
management, user-to-user information, and a BRI bus status control utility.
Planet-ISDN supports independent and simultaneous management of the two 64
Kbit/sec. B channels even where one B channel is dedicated to data and the
other to voice and other common, everyday telephony functions including video
phones and conferencing. Throughput adaption is provided to 56 Kbits/sec. for
communications in the U.S. EuRoNIS, 25, rue de Jeuners, Paris France 75002;
via AppleLink: EURONIS.
EXTERNAL NUBUS EXPANSION FOR MODULAR MACS
-----------------------------------------
Billed as a NuBus expansion chassis for the slow-to-market Duo Docks, Second
Wave's Expanse NB4 and Expanse NB8 are external boxes that house four or
eight NuBus slots. The chassis attach via a NuBus interface card and cable to
a Duo Dock or any modular Mac's NuBus slots. Each version contains its own
50-watt power supply, cooling fan, four- or eight-slot motherboard, and the
electrical and mechanical hardware to internally mount a 3.5-inch half-height
SCSI device. Not small or inexpensive, the NB4, which retails for $1,295, is
about the size of a Macintosh IIsi; while the NB8, which lists at $2,295, is
about the size of a IIvx.
So if your budget or software forces your BBS to make do with the slots on
your single existing CPU, here's an expansion opportunity to consider if you
need to make room for more multi-port serial cards. Second Wave, Inc., 9430
Research Blvd., Echelon II, Suite #260, Austin, TX 78759; (512) 343-9661
voice; AppleLink: D0864.
MORE MODEMS
-----------
Scheduled to ship in February, Supra announced its 144PB internal V.32bis
faxmodem for Apple's PowerBook. The size of a business card, the new modems
utilize Rockwell's new 144ACL. The 144PB comes in two flavors. Retail pricing
for the plain vanilla version is slated to fall from $349.95. The 144PB Plus,
which adds voice processing and flash ROM, was scheduled to ship in March and
fetch $ 449.95.
Additional features designed especially for PowerBook users include a
hardware wakeup feature that can "hear" the phone ring, then go from sleep to
active mode to answer the call. When used with supporting software, the
faxmodem can also be set to wakeup at predesignated times to initiate
a
connection and transmit a fax. FAXstf, which is bundled with the PB144s,
supports the wakeup feature. Also bundled comes MicroPhone 1.7 and CompuServe
Information Manager. The voice feature makes the modem into a full-featured
communication tool, and the flash ROM will enable field upgradeability via
software downloads that can update the ROM. MNP 10 is supported for cellular
data transmissions. All the usual protocols are supported, including V.17,
V.29, V.27ter fax transmission protocols; with Class 1 and 2 fax software
compatibility; and Group 3 fax compatibility.
Another optional implementation of this specific Rockwell chipset, and is
available from Supra for a price, is a silent answer feature which enables
the same phone line for voice and fax communication. If the modem detects the
fax CNG tones, it routes the call to the fax software. Otherwise, if it's
your girlfriend calling, the modem sits silently on the phoneline nodding its
head as the call is answered by you or your answering machine.
Meanwhile Hayes is shipping its special Macintosh versions of its OPTIMA
14400 FAX 144 Pocket Edition, a quite portable 8.5 ounce battery operated
faxmodem. V.32bis and V.17 are used for data transmission and Group 3 faxing,
respectively. It comes with Mac-to-modem cables, battery pack, wall
transformer, a carrying case, as well as Smartcom and Smartcom FAX for the
Mac. And, of course, it fully implements Hayes' U.S. patented (# 4,549,302)
escape sequence and guard time scheme. $549 list.
Supra Corporation, 7101 Supra Drive SW, Albany, OR 97321; (503) 967-2400.
Hayes Microcomputer Products, World Headquarters, 5835 Peachtree Corners
East, Norcross, GA 30092-3405; (404) 840-9200.
STORAGE FOR THE AGES
--------------------
One of the proudest moments any sysop will ever have is when he or she can
crow to all of his or her sysop friends that, "Hey--you think that's a boss
system, hell, I've got three CD-ROM players online with an additional 3
gigs-worth of public-domain files."
So in your wildest dreams, remember to back it up. To help you out in that
area, check out LaCie Limited. The company has added an 88 Mb version to its
line of removable media hard drives. The drive features SyQuest's new SQ5110C
mechanism with true interchange capability with 88- and 44-Mb cartridges.
According to the company's literature, this new drive can read and write (but
not format) existing 44-Mb SyQuest drives. Priced at $719 and packaged in a
zero-footprint case, each drive includes an AC power cable, SCSI cable,
instructions, one free 88 Mb cartridge (a $98 value), and LaCie's
Silverlining hard disk management software.
As for CDs, the CD Porta-Drive from CD Technology is still a popular choice
for sysops to consider. Fast (200 millisecond access time and 330 Kbits/sec.
throughput), reliable (50,000 hours meantime between failure--that's close to
6 years), and ready to go (device driver, caddy, power supply and Mac cables
included), the Porta-Drive is also affordable ($850 list). And the extra
added attraction for all of you clean freaks is that the Porta claims "zero
contamination" from dust using four hexes against bothersome air-borne
debris: external power supply, a garage door, a sealed drive mechanism, and
automatic lens cleansing.
Meanwhile, if you really want to hotwire the data throughput from your hard
disk, then you'll want to investigate the SCSI JackHammer from FWB. The SCSI
JackHammer is a RISC-based NuBus accelerator card that supports Fast and
16-bit Wide SCSI-2 hard disk drives which can transfer data at up to, take a
breath, 20 Mb per second. These drives should be hitting our streets and
wallets during 1993. Priced at $799 when purchased with one of FWB's Hammer
drives and at $999 when bought separately, the JackHammer supports all brands
of SCSI hard drives, ships with a customized version of FWB's Hard Disk
ToolKit SCSI utility software, and carries a two-year warranty.
Based on the NCR-53C720, a RISC-based 40 MHz SCSI processor chip, the
JackHammer features 128K of on-board static RAM, direct memory access at 33
Mb per second, and full implementation of NuBus block transfers. As a NuBus
bus-master, the device is able to control activity on the SCSI bus without
assistance from the Mac's own CPU. The SCSI port does not disable the Mac's
own existing SCSI port, effectively adding support for seven additional SCSI
devices. Other advanced features include active termination, universal
support for software, command queuing, and software support for duplexing,
data striping, read/write caching and turbo-charged DAT backup.
ATTO Technology also offers a Fast (only) SCSI-2 accelerator card, the
SiliconExpress 3D. The Express supports transfer rates at up to 10 Mb per
second, and allows cable lengths of up to 81 feet. Also using a bus-master
scheme, the Express frees the host CPU from data transfer chores. The card
also allows for true asynchronous I/O support, where multitasking software
such as AppleShare and QuickTime can simultaneously perform disk activity
while running applications.
Optional software includes ATTO's ExpressMirror, a disk mirroring utility
that continuously duplicates every write operation on up to four additional
drives; and ExpressStripe, which is used to speed data transfer by accessing
data from across several drives simultaneously.
LaCie Limited, 8700 SW Creekside Place, Beaverton, OR 97005; (800) 999-0143.
CD Technology, 766 San Aleso Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94086; (408) 752-8500.
FWB, Inc., 2040 Polk Street, Suite 215, San Francisco, CA 94109; (415)
474-8055.
ATTO Technology, Inc., 1576 Sweet Home Rd., Amherst, NY 14228; (716)
688-4259.
TURN ME ON, TURN ME OFF
-----------------------
From Radiant Enterprises comes PowerSwitch LT, an AppleTalk controlled power
outlet that can be used to turn your Mac and any AppleTalk-attached
peripherals on and off. You can stand there and watch it happen, or you can
perform far away feats of conservation using Apple's Remote Access. $199,
list.
Through the Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) connection, the PowerSwitch can be turned
on with the Mac's startup key, and turned off when the Mac shuts down. In a
networked environment, and about 65% of all Macs are that way, you can use
the Chooser to control any PowerSwitch on the network. PowerSwitch supports
AppleTalk protocols and works on extended networks and with Remote Access.
Users can password protect commands and control both the AC outlet and the
Macintosh ADB start-up key.
Let's say you've just finished a morning's rafting trip down the Mendenhall
and your beeper tells you to call your housesitter in Albuquerque. Sitter
says: "Dude(tte). I see smoke coming out of one of those black modern-things
with the funny lights. . ."
"Modem," you correct coolly.
"Whatever. It stinks! I think you want to better do something."
Not wanting to tempt fate, you whip out your cellular-equipped PowerBook,
dial your main computer's modem number, and using Remote Access, turn off the
agitated modem on the other side of the room. Now for that kayak trip across
Fritz Cove to the salmon bake on Douglas Island. Thanks to PowerSwitch LT
from Radiant Enterprises, Inc. 1714 Stockton St. San Francisco, CA 94133;
(415) 296-8040 voice; or e-mail to: radiant@applelink.apple.com.
MAC BBS OF THE MONTH
--------------------
MacNexus, based in Sacramento CA is an active, broad-based user group with an
equally active and diverse BBS. Major areas of the board include the
ScratchPad (club business), Classifieds, Hobby echoes including radio,
scanners, aviation, electronics, and my favorite conference, Zymurgy. The
Humor area includes general jokes and lawyer jokes like, "What do lawyers and
sperm have in common? Only 1 in 100,000 have a chance of becoming a human
being."
The Arts folder is full of local threads regarding the local symphony,
theater, live and recorded music. Sacramento being the den of thieves that is
California's State Legislature, it was no surprise to find the Political
conference section quite active, especially the Politics and Corruption
discussion. There are, of course, the obligatory files from Apple's PR
department. Why on Earth any sysop would want to waste disk space to carry
Apple's 4th QTR 10-Q report is beyond me. However, on the bright side, I can
report that I couldn't find even one Trek-related file; imagine that. There
was a Speculative Fiction area, though, full of toothsome Dracula and
berserker Saberhagen fans; so don't despair if you can't find 28 very
personal reviews of last week's episode of Deep Space Nine.
I was impressed with the apparent openness and lack of autocracy with which
the BBS, as an adjunct of the user group, is refreshingly run. A lot of the
daily business of the group, including reports regarding costs for group
stationery and other artwork are available for public inspection. It was
interesting to find that this full glare of public inspection extended to the
board's administrative files, including quarterly log activity, with names of
the top uploaders and freeloaders in view for all. It could be you, Claire
Poe. Finally, I was charmed by the absence of touchy-feely guile and power
trippiness with which the group's board presented it's growing-pain letter to
the group. One key issue of concern for MacNexus is how to best support local
members from outlying areas that must pay upwards of $60/year in toll calls
to the telco just to call their "local" BBS. The board is considering the
cost of upgrading its lines to include those callers and has faithfully
polled its members in what can only be described as a desire to serve.
MacNexus is operated by Sacramento Macintosh User Group. It has 5 lines
running at 14.4 Kbps or higher and runs 24 hours per day. Full access to all
the files is limited to members only. MacNexus dues are $30 per year. Dues
include 12 monthly newsletters, access to the groups' 24-bit scanner, digital
camera, BBS, and special user group promotions. MacNexus, P.O. Box 163058
Sacramento, CA 95816-9058; (916) 455-4MAC (voice) (916) 455-3726 (BBS)
1:203/933 (FidoNet).
[Bill Gram-Reefer, based in Concord, CA, is president of WORLDVIEW, a public
relations firm specializing in connectivity and communications. Bill has been
writing about Macintosh computers since 1984. E-mail Bill at:
wk05156@worldlink.com]
==============
LEGALLY ONLINE
==============
STEVE JACKSON GAMES DECISION STOPS THE INSANITY!
------------------------------------------------
by Lance Rose
The lawsuit by Steve Jackson Games against the U.S. government has resulted
in an important victory for the rights of BBS sysops and users. On March 12,
1993, federal judge Sam Sparks held that government agents can't just grab a
computer bulletin board and rifle through it looking for evidence of crimes.
They must respect the privacy rights of all system users. If there is
publishing or journalistic activity on the system, the government must also
recognize and respect that there is legal protection for those activities.
The Steve Jackson Games (sometimes referred to here as "SJG") decision comes
none too soon. Over the past few years we have seen bulletin boards seized
right and left under any half-baked pretext that came in handy, and the pace
is accelerating. Years before the SJG raid, Tom Tcimpidis had his BBS seized
because a credit card number was illegally posted on his system by a user
while Tom was on vacation. The Alcor cryogenics folks had their BBS seized
when cops were searching for a missing human head (maybe they heard there was
a head in the hard drive). Others have had their BBS' seized in connection
with claimed phone system hacking, pedophilia, copyright infringement, and
pornography, among other things. The latest seizures galvanizing the BBS and
computer network community are the seizure of several BBS' by U.S. Customs
agents in Operation Longarm, directed at domestic downloads of supposed child
pornography from three BBS' in Denmark, and the FBI's seizure of Rusty and
Edie's, a 100+ line BBS, on suspicion of software copyright infringement.
The modus operandi of the various government agencies getting in on the BBS
seizure game is fairly consistent: seize first, ask questions later.
The police and other government agents have a legitimate need to investigate
such matters. They are charged with protecting us from harm, even at some
risk to their own lives. If a computer running a BBS was no more than a
fancy calculator, its seizure by the authorities would fail to budge the most
sensitive eyebrow. But BBS' are in fact far, far more than that. They are
nerve centers for burgeoning new forms of social activity, involving millions
of people in the U.S. alone. When you take the computer running my BBS, you
also swipe a complete set of keyholes through which can be seen the private
lives of its many users; you board up a meeting place and psychic watering
hole attended daily and nightly by dozens, hundreds, or thousands seeking
company, cheer or solace; you close down a state-of-the-art publishing and
distribution center that dwarfs the publishing capabilities of its ancient
cousin, the printing press, at a fraction of the cost.
The facts leading to the Steve Jackson Games case have been described
frequently in the BBS literature, and a report on the trial was presented in
last month's Boardwatch, so the background will be only briefly recounted
here. Three or four years ago, a collection of Secret Service agents and
telephone company security officials chased across the country after youthful
"hackers' they believed had stolen some data on Bell South's 911 emergency
system, the "911 Document". They justified their pursuit outwardly on the
basis of estimates placing the value of the document near $80,000. However,
during the trial of one of the supposed hackers it eventually became public
that the true value of the document was closer to $14.00 - the price charged
by the phone company if you ordered the information directly from them. So
it turned out the financial damage from swiping the 911 document was
substantially less than would be caused by a couple of neighborhood thieves
sneaking an old black-and-white TV set out of an apartment in the projects.
Hardly the kind of thing that normally stimulates the expenditure of great
masses of public money on expensive federal agents. As the dust settled, the
escapades surrounding the 911 Document, including the nationwide crackdown on
hackers in 1990 known as Operation Sundevil, stood nakedly revealed as a
bunch of old guys with badges playing cops and robbers with teenagers,
without any major crimes to blame on the wayward lads. Nonetheless, the cops
got a good bit of prosecutorial mileage out of the 911 Document before it
finally sank out of sight.
The trail of the 911 document led, among other places, to Lloyd Blankenship
in Austin, Texas, who ran the "Phoenix" bulletin board as a suspected
"hacker" haven. By the time the cops went to investigate Phoenix, it had
been shut down. The trail was not quite cold, however. They found out
Blankenship had a day job at Steve Jackson Games, and that he was a co-sysop
of the SJG customer support bulletin board. SJG was, and still is, one of
the country's leading producers of role-playing adventure games.
Since Blankenship was a sysop of the SJG bulletin board just like he had been
sysop of Phoenix, the cops figured SJG must be harboring all of the evil
"hacker" material they imagined they would have found on the Phoenix system.
From this exceedingly slender thread they dangled a request to a federal
magistrate for a search warrant for the SJG BBS, and somehow they got it.
They promptly barged into SJG's offices and took every computer they could
find, including one lying in pieces on a bench.
Despite repeated protestations from Steve Jackson and his employees that SJG
really was in the game-making business just like it appeared, the government
kept the seized computers for many months. Just after the seizure SJG
informed the government that it used its computers for various publishing
activities, and that its BBS computer contained the private e-mail of many
different people. This apparently made little difference to the cops.
After widely publicizing its absurd plight and gaining the interest and
support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups, Steve Jackson
Games sued the U.S. government in the federal district court in Austin, Texas
for wrongfully raiding its offices and seizing its computer equipment. The
thrust of the suit was that the computers in SJG's offices were entitled by
law to special protection from government search and seizure for two separate
reasons: first, because the BBS computer contained the private e-mail of its
many users, and second, because SJG used its computer equipment as part of a
publishing operation. The e-mail privacy rights were protected mainly by the
federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or "ECPA"; the publishing
protection was created by the federal Privacy Protection Act, or "PPA". Each
of these laws creates special requirements which the government must meet
before it can search or seize private or publishing- related materials. In a
landmark decision, SJG won its case against the government on both privacy
and publishing-related grounds, establishing that federal agents must follow
the requirements of the ECPA and PPA when seeking materials contained in
BBS', and that the government will be liable if they fail to do so.
In his written opinion, Judge Sparks first addressed SJG's claim that the
government violated the Privacy Protection Act when it seized SJG's computer
equipment. The PPA is designed to promote freedom of the press. It protects
materials being prepared or maintained for publication from government
seizure, except where the government believes the publisher or journalist
himself was involved in a crime, and that the materials sought relate to that
crime.
The judge found that the Secret Service agents literally had no idea that SJG
was involved in any kind of publishing activity when they obtained the search
warrant and took SJG's computers. Within a couple of days, though, they were
fully on notice that SJG was deeply involved in publishing on several fronts,
all of which involved SJG's computers: SJG's own game books, such as the
GURPS Cyberpunk volume still in development on the computer system at the
time it was seized; articles for magazines and newsletters; and materials
made available to callers to SJG's computer bulletin board. By this time,
the agents were obligated to give all the seized computers and files back to
SJG to minimize their disruption of SJG's publishing activities. Instead,
they held on to the computer equipment for several more months before
returning it.
Judge Sparks held that the agents' unjustified retention of the computer
equipment was a clear violation of the PPA, entitling SJG to monetary damages
for all resulting losses to its business. The judge awarded SJG a total of
$51,040 on this claim. This was far less than sought by SJG, but the judge
was so unimpressed by the testimony of SJG's accountant on actual losses that
he threw it all out. Oddly, the judge accepted the government's contention
that SJG achieved national notoriety as a result of the improper seizure,
which actually ended up helping its business. Perhaps SJG should count
itself lucky the judge saw fit to award it any damages at all.
Next up was SJG's claim that the government "intercepted" BBS user's private
e-mail when it confiscated SJG's bulletin board system and read through its
contents, thus violating the anti-interception provisions of the ECPA. In
the case's major sour note, the judge denied this claim, citing to an earlier
case declaring that an "interception" does not occur when government agents
listen to voice conversations recorded on a cassette tape.
This part of the ruling is a real head-scratcher. If any of the e-mail on
the seized BBS was undelivered to the addressees at the time of the raid, the
Judge Sparks' analogy to a conversation recorded on a cassette does not hold.
A voice conversation on cassette is complete; there's nothing to intercept,
the discussion's over. In contrast, an undelivered e-mail message is either
a response to a prior message from another e-mail sender, a message seeking a
reply, or both. It is a discussion still in progress. Grabbing the latest
message in this discussion is clearly "intercepting" it, and fits easily
within the ECPA's statutory coverage.
Fortunately, SJG had another e-mail privacy claim under the ECPA. SJG
asserted that by reading the e-mail on its BBS, the agents also violated a
section of the ECPA securing privacy for "stored electronic communications"
(as opposed to intercepting messages in transit). Government agents can not
legally read private electronic messages unless they believe they are
"relevant to a legitimate law enforcement inquiry." Judge Sparks found the
Secret Service had no such belief. They just dragged the BBS back to their
office and browsed through it for interesting stuff. Even more outrageously,
the government kept the search warrant sealed for several months after the
raid, so that SJG's lawyers could not attack it in court during that period.
This gave the agents all the time they wanted to mull over the private e-mail
of the BBS users at their leisure, without interference from the victims of
their illegal conduct.
The judge got this second ECPA claim right, holding that the government
violated the privacy rights of Steve Jackson Games and of four individual
e-mail users who had joined the suit on SJG's side. In his words, "the
Secret Service in this case virtually eliminated the safeguards contained in
the statute." He awarded all the plaintiffs the statutory amount of $1000
each, but denied any additional compensation. Such a small amount hardly
stings the government's wallet. It is little more than a symbolic slap on
the wrist for the agents' atrocious intrusion into the private lives of BBS
users. On the bright side, the judge's readiness to award all e-mail
plaintiffs $1000 per head implies that class action suits may work quite well
in future struggles against BBS seizures. If all the e-mail users of the
Steve Jackson Games BBS had sued as a class, the total damage award against
the Government at $1000 a head could have added up to real money.
In all, not a bad few months' work by Steve Jackson Games and its attorneys.
They pried loose from the government a total of $56,040.00 in compensation
plus all attorneys' fees (the latter amount can easily exceed the
compensation damages in a lawsuit of this scope). More importantly for the
rest of us, they established that two different federal statutes can be used
to protect BBS' against government excess, even though neither the ECPA nor
the PPA was enacted specifically for the benefit of BBS'. This is an
important cornerstone in the work of securing dependable freedom from
government interference in the future development of BBS' and the computer
network community.
Though the results in the SJG case were very good on balance, a couple of
major BBS legal issues were left for better resolution on another day. One
is the judge's failure to find an "interception" of e-mail by the Secret
Service, based on his mistaken analogy of a not-yet-received BBS message to a
completed past conversation recorded on cassette tape. This mistake must and
shall be corrected at some point, either in another court or in explanatory
legislation. Another is the finding that SJG was a "publisher" for purposes
of the PPA. This holding was good and correct, but it leaves the
applicability of the PPA largely undetermined for other BBS'. Steve Jackson
Games was a print publisher, and its computers were used to support the print
publishing operation. What about BBS' that publish their information in
electronic form only? What about BBS' that do not publish anything
themselves in the traditional sense, but host public conferences? The SJG
case simply does not give guidance on when a non-printing BBS qualifies as a
publisher or journalistic operation for purposes of PPA protection.
One theme that surfaces frequently in Judge Sparks' 27-page opinion is the
government's "I Dunno Defense". According to the government's attorneys, the
Secret Service agents who made off with SJG's computers were just too
confused to do it right. All that newfangled technology, all those
complicated federal procedural laws - how could they know there were any
limits on their ability to take people's property? But they meant well, so
let's excuse all their blunders and conveniently forget the harm their
bumbling worked on innocent citizens.
The I Dunno Defense works best with judges who feel a bit befuddled by the
new technology and new statutes themselves. Look at it from the judge's
point of view. If he has a hard time figuring out BBS' as a new social
phenomenon, how can he possibly expect the law enforcement folks to
understand the stuff any better? In an ideal world, the I Dunno Defense
would be swiftly slapped down as the disrespectful, condescending ruse it is.
Unfortunately, it worked sufficiently well for the government to avoid the
real pasting it deserved in this case.
I Dunno Defense #1 was that the Secret Service agents did not know about the
Privacy Protection Act when they first requested a warrant to take the SJG
equipment. What kind of excuse is that? If ignorance of legal limits is
officially accepted as a valid excuse for the government to overstep its
authority, then we officially have no real protection against the government
at all. I Dunno Defense #2: at the time of the raid, the agents had no idea
that SJG used the seized computer equipment for publishing. Under this
theory, government agents are supposedly incapable of imagining that a
computer bulletin board might be involved in "publishing" of any sort. These
very same agents doubtless use information published by a plethora of online
information services regularly to investigate every kind of suspect and
situation. Yet it never crossed their minds that the computers and online
information service run by Steve Jackson Games might do some sort of
publishing?
Judge Sparks accepted both of these I Dunno Defenses when he refused to find
that the initial seizure of SJG's equipment by the Secret Service was
improper under the PPA: "The Court does not find from a preponderance of the
evidence that the admitted errors in Foley's affidavit were intentional and
so material to make the affidavit and issuance of the warrant legally
improper. . . The affidavit and warrant preparation were simply sloppy and
not carefully done." Wow! Under established law, when warrants are sought
to search businesses protected by the First Amendment, government agents and
courts are supposed to be especially careful! Sloppy searches are simply
illegal. Moreover, if the agents had kept their slop in check and looked
into whether SJG was engaged in publishing, they might not even have seized
the computers in the first place. The judge's decision on this point is flat
wrong. The answer to wrongful searches is not to excuse gross blunders by
uninformed agents, but to slap those agents down hard enough to give the
government a real incentive to educate itself far better on how to protect us
all.
To Judge Sparks' credit, at least he refused to accept the same government
excuse for the Secret Service's undue retention of SJG's equipment after the
initial seizure. When the agents became fully informed about SJG's
publishing operations within a day or two after the seizure, they became
obligated to back up the information they needed for their investigation and
return the computers unscathed to Steve Jackson Games. The judge also showed
superior judgment when faced with the government's truly astounding I Dunno
Defense #3: in this variation, the government claimed that even though the
Secret Service agents were aware of the special warrant requirements of the
Electronic Communications Privacy Act (as well they should be, since it is
the entire basis for their involvement in the computer crime business in the
first place) and failed to mention these requirements to the magistrate when
requesting the warrant, the resulting improper warrant and seizure should
still be excused because they relied on that warrant in "good faith". The
judge mercifully dispensed with that circular argument with forehead-slapping
swiftness.
The government's shameless deployment of the I Dunno Defense and Judge
Sparks' partial acceptance of that defense to temper his findings of
government misfeasance confirm the need for a simple defensive strategy
recently devised by Steve Jackson himself: the use of warning labels on all
computers and related equipment in any place where a BBS is running. The
basic label should boldly and expressly warn government agents that the
computer equipment is used for publishing, private messages, and as a public
meeting place. It should also mention the basic laws governing search
warrants for BBS' - the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Privacy
Protection Act, and that old standby the Bill of Rights. Slap the labels on
your equipment, then photograph the equipment with the labels on it to retain
proof that labels are indeed on the equipment. You never know what might
happen after it's hauled back to the raiding agent's office. The
government's use of ignorance to avoid its legal limits will be sharply
curtailed if BBS owners display clear references to all the pertinent legal
limits on governmental search and seizure emblazoned on their boxes.
The Steve Jackson Games case is only a trial court decision, giving it
limited authority with other courts, and it may yet be appealed. Even so,
the decision is a key event in the development of BBS law, and shows that it
is going in the right direction. It is one of only two major court decisions
to date on major issues of BBS law. The other was Cubby v. CompuServe,
discussed in these pages in the past, which recognized 1st Amendment limits
on a sysop's duty to monitor message traffic. Happily, both the SJG case and
the Cubby case were decided in a way that expands the acknowledged legal
protection for BBS'. We have not yet seen any clunkers setting back the
cause for BBS legal protection, and hopefully we'll continue to be spared the
displeasure.
The SJG case also shows that BBS privacy rights against the government
piggyback on the privacy rights of individual BBS users, in much the same way
as the BBS First Amendment rights recognized in the Cubby case piggybacked on
the free speech rights of individual users. The sysop still wields power
over who may use his BBS, but the fundamental relationship between sysop and
BBS user is not like that of landlord and tenant; it's symbiotic. The
still-common practice among sysops of denying users any privacy on the BBS is
revealed more clearly than ever as a mistake. Now, denying user privacy no
longer merely shows lack of respect for users' affairs. It actively removes
the BBS' strongest defense against government seizure under the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act, by removing the user privacy rights on which that
protection is based.
The user privacy point has an additional complication. While we need genuine
privacy of user messages for strong ECPA protection against search and
seizure, the SJG case shows it is also important to identify the users
affected by a raid in order to successfully pursue the ECPA claim. Only
identified e-mail users were awarded damages by the Judge Sparks, even though
many other BBS users affected. Ironically, assuring maximum privacy
protection under the ECPA means that user e-mail should be kept private on
the BBS, but all users should be identified at least to the sysop, so their
injuries can be counted for increasing the penalty against the government in
the event of an improper raid.
Without taking away from the SJG victory, there is a final disturbing aspect
to the case, reaching back to the essential nature of what lawyers call our
"adversarial system of justice". The legal game in the U.S. allows the
parties to a lawsuit to take entirely opposed positions, tell completely
conflicting stories and deny any shred of validity in the other party's view.
The government heartily played this game to the hilt in defending itself
against Steve Jackson Games, denying in every possible way that U.S. civil
rights laws protect computer bulletin boards or their users. Luckily for us
all, the government lost. But why didn't the government just admit it made a
big mistake in raiding Steve Jackson Games, and go back to chasing its
"hacker" playmates? Why was it so important for the government to try and
justify its grossly improper and entirely mistaken intrusion into Steve
Jackson Games' business?
Some might guess the government was craftily playing devil's advocate, trying
to help create protective case law for BBS' by raising anti-civil-rights
positions just so they would be refuted decisively by the judge. Such a
possibility is highly unlikely. Going into the trial there was a very real
chance Judge Sparks could have found the government's raid entirely
justified, and left Steve Jackson Games without a remedy. We must assume the
government lawyers meant what they said when they argued that the PPA and
ECPA did not protect BBS', and that even if they do, a raid violating those
laws will not be improper if the agents had no idea that BBS' have special
legal protections. There's a serious attitude problem on the part of the
people employed by our government to protect us. Hopefully, the lawyers for
our U.S. government will carefully read and learn from the judge's opinion in
the case they just lost against Steve Jackson Games, and properly instruct
their field agents and magistrates about the rights of those who run BBS' and
those who use them.
[Lance Rose is an attorney practicing high-tech, computer and intellectual
property law in Montclair New Jersey, and is available on the Internet at
elrose@well.sf.ca.us and on CompuServe at 72230,2044. He works with shareware
publishers, software authors, system operators, technology buyers,
interactive media developers, on-line database services and others in the
high technology area. He is also author of the book SYSLAW, a legal guide for
bulletin board system operators, available from PC Information Group
(800)321-8285. - Editor]
===========
DIRECT DIAL
===========
SFNET - COIN OPERATED BULLETIN BOARD INVADES COFFEE HOUSE CULTURE
-----------------------------------------------------------------
After a career as a produce distributor, general contractor, and real estate
salesman, Wayne Gregori had yet to find his place in the world. He did
dabble in computer consulting, and so encountered the world of bulletin
boards. In 1990, he started an interesting, but unprofitable BBS called the
Compact Disk Exchange in San Francisco. The system allowed callers to swap
and trade Compact Audio Discs and did gain some popularity. But the
procedures to transfer funds and discs were awkward, and the system evolved
to become lots of work and little cash flow.
In the summer of 1991, Gregori hit on a different approach to make operating
a bulletin board profitable. He designed and built a coin-operated terminal
and placed it in a San Francisco coffee house. Today, he operates SFnet, a
30 line TBBS system offering a mix of features to callers in the San
Francisco area, including patrons of some 18 coffee houses.
San Francisco features dozens of coffee houses offering pastries,
gingerbread, cappuccino, coffee, and latte of industrial strength. Patrons
use the coffee houses to meet, relax, and often just to read a book and have
a cup of coffee. The culture vaguely resembles the coffee house culture of
the late 'sixties, with poetry, occasional musical performances on a small
scale, and a general underground feel. Today's culture includes "slackers" -
young people who have basically avoided the rigors of school and work,
working just enough to survive on the edge of society, and hanging out.
Gregori designed a reasonably vandal-proof terminal table constructed largely
of plywood painted with Zolotone - a fibrous paint mixture used to coat the
interior of automobile trunks. The table serves admirably as a coffee house
table, but features a monochrome monitor shining directly up through a glass
inset set in the center of the table. An ordinary PC keyboard, covered with
a "keyboard condom" plastic shield is mounted on the edge of the table. A
coin box allows coffee house habitues to swap quarters for time.
The terminal, which Gregori has termed an "RJ11 Table", consists of a power
supply, a very smallish XT motherboard with two serial ports, a 3.5-inch
floppy drive, the monochrome monitor, and a modem. The coin box is connected
to one serial port while a modem is connected to the other. A specially
written terminal program monitors the coin box and keeps the time meter
internally, while allowing users to connect to the SFNet BBS. The device
resembles nothing so much as the old PAC-MAN tables that became common in
bars and night clubs in the mid-eighties.
Users, can view an information file about SFNet, a help file on how to use
it, and by putting in a couple of quarters, logon to the BBS without any
technical knowledge or even the telephone number. Additional time can be
purchased in quarter increments essentially the equivalent of about $3 per
hour.
The system automatically dials the SFnet BBS and each table has its own
dedicated port on the BBS. After an incident where hackers wardialed to
determine the telephone numbers of these ports, Gregori, and his programming
assistant Dave Lahti, modified the proprietary terminal software so that it
did a little handshake between the table and the BBS before allowing access.
The system features a number of message conferences covering politics, social
issues, and so forth, an Internet mail function, and some interactive games
like Chat Chess and Chat Poker. Indeed, the multiline chat function seems to
be the most popular activity among the coffee house crowd - though many do
maintain personal mail boxes on the system. With the Internet mail function,
people who do not even own a computer can receive and send e-mail world wide
- for the price of a quarter - from a local coffee house.
And there are plenty to choose from. Gregori has persuaded some 18 coffee
houses in the area to feature his table. Basically, they get a free piece of
furniture perfectly suitable for knoshing on a bran muffin with double latte,
along with 10 to 15% of the monthly haul of quarters. According to Gregori,
some of the less active sites generate as little as $150 per month, while the
better spots generate as much as $600 monthly. Gregori supplies the
telephone line necessary to connect the table.
Since we have a bit of a weakness for coffee anyway, we visited several of
these clubs during a recent visit to San Francisco. We found the coffee a
bit strong for our tastes, but the RJ11 tables in more or less constant use.
Curiously, one of the main features of all of these coffee houses is a
conventional cork bulletin board on the wall - plastered with layers of
notices for roomates wanted, places to rent wanted, various music and poetry
festivals and events, One of the side effects of the RJ11 tables is that at
any given time in the evening, as many as 18 people in coffee houses are
actually talking to each other via this multiline chat network. They can be
as anonymous, or as intimate as they wish. And if they do decide they want to
meet, they can usually travel over to the other coffee house to consumate the
face-to-face portion of the meeting.
The BBS itself is located in a very pleasant house on Noe street in San
Francisco where Gregori lives with his wife, Jill, and two sons Ben, age two,
and Devin, age four. The BBS is actually in their kitchen. And this has to
be one of the neatest BBS installations we've seen. Two monitors and
keyboards occupy a counter at one end of the kitchen. The PC and all the
modems are held in a rollout box Gregori designed that has RJ-11 jacks,
serial port connectors, power supplies, etc. all on a unified rack mounted on
wheels. The unit sits under the counter, but slides out easily for
maintenance.
The system uses eSoft's TBBS software, and the entire rack is filled with US
Robotics Sportster 2400 bps modems. File downloading doesn't seem to be a
big draw on the system, with most of the usage given to mail conferences,
Internet mail, and chat. Gregori does have one dedicated V.32bis port for
those using offline QWK mail readers. Table manufacture occurs in a room
over the garage.
Aside from the 18 lines for the RJ11 Tables, the system does sport an
additional 12 lines for a regular clientel of people dialing from home. They
access the system at a modest $7 per month. The primary access number is
(415)824-8747 but there are local access numbers in South San Francisco,
Sausalito, Burlingame, San Leandro, and Oakland.
SFNet is innovative in several ways, but most notably in that it brings the
activity and culture of bulletin boards to a group that wouldn't ordinarily
encounter it. With coffee as high as $4 a cup, the 50 cents needed to access
the system doesn't seem too high a price to pay. Coffee house patrons are
drawn to the activity of the BBS callers, and BBS callers likewise seem
attracted to a BBS with users scattered among San Francisco's coffee houses.
They do seem to be two distinctly different groups.
Gregori also plans on extending the concept to other cities. He views it as
a community building project and this summer he intends to manufacture the
RJ11 tables and sell them to BBS operators around the country at about $2600
each. We here from BBS operators with this type of concept continually, but
all seem stymied by the lack of availability of a rugged, coin operated
terminal. It would seem there finally is one. SF NET, PO Box 460693, San
Francisco, CA 94146; (415)695-9824 voice.
SFNet Coffee House Locations
----------------------------
Brain Wash 1122 Folsom St., San Francisco (415)861-3663
Horseshoe Cafe 566 Haight St., San Francisco (415)626-8852
Ground Zero 783 Haight St., San Francisco (415)861-1985
Club Coffee 920 Valencia St. San Francisco (415)821-7112
The Coffee Zone 1409 Haight St. San Francisco (415)863-2443
Muddy Waters 521 Valencia St. San Francisco (415)863-8006
Jammin Java 701 Cole St. San Francisco (415)668-5282
Jammin Java 9th & Judah. San Francisco (415)566-5282
Laundry Cafe 570 Green St. San Francisco (415)989-6745
Caffe Roma 526 Columbus Ave. San Francisco (415)296-7662
Monday Blu's 3821 18th St. San Francisco (415)255-7556
Cafe Nefeli 1854 Euclid St. Berkeley (510)841-6374
Cafe Milano 2522 Bancroft Way Berkeley (510)644-3100
Espresso Roma College / Ashby Berkeley (510)644-3773
Coffee Source 2404 Telegraph Berkeley (510)644-3045
Central Park Books 32 E. Fourth St. San Mateo (415)579-4900
Royal Ground Corner 4th/B St. S. Rafael (415)455-0107
Mama's Royal Cafe 387 Miller Ave. Mill Valley (415)388-3261
========
INTERNET
========
SECOND ANNUAL EFF PIONEER AWARDS
--------------------------------
The Electronic Frontier Foundation presented it's second annual Pioneer
Awards in a March 10 ceremony at the Computer's Freedom and Privacy
Conference at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel in Burlingame, California.
The five recipients were judged to have made significant and influential
contributions to the field of computer-based communications. The judging
panel consisted of Jim Warren, pioneer award recipient from 1992 and founder
of the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference, Steve Cisler of Apple
Computer, Esther Dyson, editor of Release 1.0, and Bob Metcalfe, Editor of
Infoworld.
Award recipients included:
PAUL BARAN
Paul Baran was the original inventor of the concept of packet switching, a
technology of fundamental importance to data networks and eventually led to
the TCP/IP network protocol used by the Internet. Baran also founded several
communications companies including Telebit, Packet Technologies, Equatorial
Communications, Metricom, InterFax, and Com21.
DR. VINTON CERF
Dr. Vinton Cerf led the research project which developed the TCP/IP protocol
suite, the open system interconnection protocol used today by schools,
government, corporations, and individuals to communicate over the Internet.
Dr. Cerf also participated in development of ARPANET host protocols, Internet
management, and network security programs for DARPA. He led development of
the MCI Mail service. He is currently vice president of the Corporation for
National Research Initiatives, and he founded the Internet Society.
WARD CHRISTENSEN
Ward Christensen developed the software for the first microcomputer dial-in
system which he christened a Computer Bulletin Board System or CBBS. He also
wrote a program MODEM.ASM which evolved into XMODEM, one of the earliest file
transfer protocols and one which became so ubiquitous that it became a
defacto standard for the transfer of files between computer users.
DAVE HUGHES
Hughes has been an outspoken and effective grassroots evangelist and
spokesperson for popular computer networking and electronic democracy for
over a decade. He fashioned his own computer system at Old Colorado City
Communications in 1985, and soon brought the municipal elected government of
Colorado Springs online. He helped design and implement a personal computer
network connecting one-room rural schoolhouses in Montana to worldwide
information resources. He continually brings network connections and new
applications to new populations both here and abroad.
TOM TRUSCOTT AND JAMES ELLIS
Usenet is a distributed bulletin board system with approximately two million
readers worldwide. It came into being in late 1979 through the inspiration
of Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, combined with the design and programming
efforts of Steve Bellovin, Stephen Daniel, and Dennis Rockwell. Following
USENET's introduction in 1980, the resulting and ever-expanding collection of
"newsgroups" began to be carried and circulated by a growing number of
networked sites. The ongoing work of numerous individuals has allowed Usenet
to survive its increasing popularity. Daily traffic now approximates 20,000
articles, totaling 50 MB, posted to over 2000 different newsgroups.
Tom Truscott is currently a distributed computing professional at IBM in
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. He has authored a number of
UNIX-related articles, and is a member of ACM, IEEE, and Sigma Xi.
James Ellis is currently the Manager of Technical Development at the Computer
Emergency Response Team, created to assist Internet sites with computer
security incidents. He is responsible for analyzing UNIX system
vulnerabilities and for developing security tools for the Internet.
The EFF also held a board meeting at the Computers Freedom and Privacy
Conference and continues to struggle to define its role as a lobbying
organization, and its relationship to local organizations and the network.
Jerry Berman, named Executive Director of EFF was prominent at the convention
and very much trying to appear "non-suit" and "online."
The EFF has apparently had a change of heart regarding their distancing from
the network and BBS communities. Mike Godwin, who has done most of the work
with BBS operators regarding legal issues, was reaffirmed with the EFF and
will be joining the Washington office under Jerry Berman. And Cliff Figallo,
briefly director of the now closed Cambridge office, is relocating back to
California but will now take charge of online communications - working with
the eff.org site, the CompuServe EFF forum, and other online forums.
At the Pioneer award ceremony, co-founder Mitch Kapor again reiterated the
need for backing and support of the EFF from the online community through
memberships. Memberships are fully tax deductible at $20.00 per year for
students, $40.00 per year for regular members, and $100.00 per year for
organizations. You may, of course, donate more if you wish. Memberships can
be forwarded by mail to The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc., 666
Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC 20003; (202)544-9237 voice; (202)547-5481
fax; Internet: eff@eff.org
BOOK OF SMILES
--------------
O'Reilly & Associates publishes smallish books of a very technical nature,
but usually on subjects that we find very useful as the world of bulletin
boards and the world of the Internet move toward a merge. We've reviewed a
number of their "Nutshell" series books in the past.
But we recently received one that serves little purpose beyond cute - with a
very modest $5.95 price tag that makes cute obtainable. The book is titled
SMILEYS, by David Sanderson, and consists of over 650 emoticons (smiley
faces) compiled by Sanderson. In 93 pages, Sanderson covers most of the
smileys you may have encountered, and a great many others you may not have
thought of. Emoticons are little faces designed using keyboard characters
that you view sideways. They are used to impart some sense of humor or
context in message text that could be viewed as humorous, or just as easily,
as an attack if it did not include a "smiley". The basic :-) smiley has
evolved into hundreds of variants including:
;-) winking smiley
%-) confused smiley
8-O schocked smiley
&:-) curly hair
B-) with glasses
%-{ sad/confused
In recognition of the publication of "Smileys", O'Reilly & Associates has
announced "The Best New Smiley Contest." The person who submits the best
smiley not already found in SMILEYS, will win $500. People interested in
submitting their best smileys should do so before the contest closes October
1, 1993. Compiler David Sanderson will be one of the judges. Submit your
smiley to smiley@ora.com or by street mail to "Smiley Contest," O'Reilly and
Associates, Inc., 103 Morris St. Sebastopol, CA 95472. (800)998-9938 voice;
(707)829-0515 International; (707)829-0104 fax. David Sanderson can be
reached at dws@ssec.wisc.edu.
You do not have to purchase the book to enter the contest. A list of
smiley's included in the book is available by telnet at telnet
gopher.ora.com. Item 1 on the menu is NEWS FLASH! and contains the entire
list.
To promote the book, O'Reilly is also featuring a "Smiley Contest". Anyone
can submit new smileys, and author David Sanderson will pick the best new
smiley (not currently included in the book). The winner will receive $500.
Smiley entries can be e-mailed to smiley@ora.com before October 1, 1993.
FULL TEXT FEDERAL REGISTER AVAILABLE ONLINE
-------------------------------------------
Commercial providers of government information are in an awkward position.
For most of the online community, these are the "unclean." They take
information we've already paid for, and then try to sell it to us, usually
for fairly proud prices. The information itself is in most cases simply not
copyrightable, and the value added component they put into their product is
hard to differentiate, and easy to appear to remove.
The government is part of the problem. True enough the information is there
and it should belong to us. But bureacrats have a million ways to justify
fairly enormous prices for information - almost entirely dedicated to making
people go away so they can deal with the minimum number of consumers. The
net effect is that anything can be had for a price, but only very large
companies can afford it.
Each day, Congress publishes a book called the Federal Register. Available
by 08:30 each morning, this is the official book of record of activity in the
Federal Government and an enormous amount of information is contained in it.
Actually, anyone can subscribe to the printed book at $1000 per year for 1st
Class postal delivery, or $400 per year sent book rate. The Government
Printing Office DOES make it available in data format on 9-track tapes in
ATEX format - a popular publishing system format from sometime around the 3rd
century BC. But daily delivery of these tapes runs a cool $40,000 per year.
Counterpoint Publishing has been developing a niche in info-land by taking
the GPO tapes, stripping out the control codes to get down to ASCII text,
indexing the various articles and information bits, and providing them on a
weekly CD-ROM complete with access software. Subscriptions to this weekly
CD-ROM service run $1950 per year. They also have archives of the Federal
Register going back three years.
But for some customers, even weekly access is too slow. And in response to
customer requests, Counterpoint began looking at ways to put the service
online. They found a company in their own office building titled The
Internet Company (internet.com) and reached an agreement to put the Federal
Register online via Internet.
They've done a pretty thorough job of it. It's offered a variety of
different ways. A full feed of the days register comprises about 2.5 MB
daily on average - though it can run 5-6MB on days were the bureaucratic bees
have been busy. It can be routed to your Internet site in a format for
Gopher or WAIS access at between $2000 and $6000 per year depending on the
number of users at your site.
They also make the Register available in NNTP (Usenet News) format as a
series of some 17 newsgroups:
agriculture
commerce
defense
education
energy
environ
finance
foreign
govern
health
humanserv
legal
science
transport
misc
These are available for $500 per year per newsgroup or $2000 per year for
the full set. There is a 50% discount for educational institutions.
While these prices may be feasible for institutions and large commercial
services, they're a bit proud for individual users. But the company does run
a service you can access by telnet at a price of $10 per hour MC/VISA/check
at netsys1.netsys.com. And they're fairly open about letting you try it out
before committing to use. If you telnet netsys1.netsys.com and logon as
FEDREG with password REGISTER, you can browse about the system a bit and
sample the wares.
The system is actually extremely well done compared with most services we've
seen on the Internet. It uses the Internet Gopher Information Client Version
1.1 and it actually makes things quite accessible. The system can handle 60
simultaneous users.
The main menu lists: Information About This System, The Federal Register,
Commerce Daily, and The New Republic Magazine.
Commerce Daily is a publication covering various government contracts,
requests for proposal, solicitations for bid, and so forth. It is pretty
much required reading for government contractors.
The New Republic Magazine actually isn't a government publication at all, but
rather a magazine about government with mucho editorial.
But the heart of the system is the Federal Register. You can access the
register by government agency, by topical area, or with a pretty handsome
full text keyword search. This last is most useful. We entered the word
MODEM and retrieved easily 40 entries - various notices by government
agencies of software and electronic filing requirements by modem. But we did
find one interesting note about the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Commission Issuance Posting System (CIPS) a BBS operating at (202)208-1781.
The listing by agency basically sorts all Federal Registry daily articles
into 117 different categories based on who's ox got gored.
One feature of this Gopher version we immediately found fascinating was the
e-mail deliver service. Any article of interest you find on the system can
be delivered to your e-mail box. Simply select <m>mail and the system will
prompt you for an e-mail address. The system will then "deliver" that
document to your mailbox anywhere within the reach of the Internet. Very
handy.
While the bulk of the information on this system is government information,
the indexing and search features of the system really are quite well done and
comprise a significant added value worth the $10 per hour connect fee for
many who might need the information. Given that much of what happens within
our government does show up in the Federal Register daily, this comprises an
invaluable research tool. Counterpoint Publishing, 84 Sherman Street,
Caimbridge, MA 02140; (800)998-4515 voice; Internet: fedreg@internet.com.
Gopher Information Client v1.11 Federal Register by Agency Name
---------------------------------------------------------------
1. Administrative Conference of the United States
2. African Development Foundation
3. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research
4. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
5. Agricultural Marketing Service
6. Agricultural Research Service
7. Agriculture Department
8. Air Force Department
9. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
10. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board
11. Arms Control and Nonproliferation Policy Office
12. Army Corps of Engineers
13. Army Department
14. Census Bureau
15. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
16. Children and Families Administration
17. Coast Guard
18. Commission on Civil Rights
19. Committee for Purchase from People who are Blind or Severely Disab.
20. Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements
21. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
22. Community Planning and Development Agency
23. Consumer Product Safety Commission
24. Copyright Royalty Tribunal
25. Customs Service
26. Defense Department
27. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board
28. Drug Enforcement Administration
29. Education Department
30. Employment Standards Administration
31. Employment and Training Administration
32. Energy Department
33. Environmental Protection Agency
34. Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Office
35. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
36. Export Administration Bureau
37. Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Agency
38. Farm Credit Administration
39. Federal Aviation Administration
40. Federal Communications Commission
41. Federal Crop Insurance Corporation
42. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
43. Federal Election Commission
44. Federal Emergency Management Agency
45. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
46. Federal Grain Inspection Service
47. Federal Highway Administration
48. Federal Housing Finance Board
49. Federal Maritime Commission
50. Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission
51. Federal Railroad Administration
52. Federal Reserve System
53. Federal Trade Commission
54. Federal Transit Administration/
55. Fiscal Service
56. Fish and Wildlife Service
57. Food and Drug Administration
58. Food and Nutrition Service
59. Foreign-Trade Zones Board
60. Forest Service
61. Fossil Energy Office
62. Health Resources and Services Administration
63. Health and Human Services Department
64. Housing and Urban Development Department
65. Immigration and Naturalization Service
66. Indian Affairs Bureau
67. Interior Department
68. Internal Revenue Service
69. International Trade Administration
70. International Trade Commission
71. Interstate Commerce Commission
72. Justice Department
73. Labor Department
74. Land Management Bureau
75. Legal Services Corporation
76. Management and Budget Office
77. Military Traffic Management Command
78. Minerals Management Service
79. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80. National Assessment Governing Board
81. National Credit Union Administration
82. National Endowment for the Arts
83. National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities
84. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
85. National Institutes of Health
86. National Labor Relations Board
87. National Marine Fisheries Service
88. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
89. National Park Service
90. National Science Foundation
91. National Transportation Safety Board
92. Navy Department
93. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
94. Overseas Private Investment Corporation
95. Patent and Trademark Office
96. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
97. Personnel Management Office
98. Postal Rate Commission
99. Presidential Documents
100. Public Health Service
101. Railroad Retirement Board
102. Rural Electrification Administration
103. Securities and Exchange Commission
104. Small Business Administration
105. Social Security Administration
106. Soil Conservation Service
107. State Justice Institute
108. Thrift Supervision Office
109. Trade Representative
110. Transportation Department
111. Treasury Department
112. United States Fire Administration
113. United States Information Agency
114. Veterans Affairs Department
115. Victims of Crime Office
116. Western Area Power Administration
117. miscellaneous
NETWORKING FROM ST. PETERSBURG
------------------------------
by Arcady Khotin
Dear Jack!
I'm so sorry for being so procrastinate with my reports! Well, better late
then never. Just one more thing to lift a burden of my guilt a bit :
January's issue was brought to me only in mid. February! Apparently, KGB guys
were too busy making copies of your interesting articles <g>.
I will try to catch up a bit, describing what is going on in the three main
telecommunications areas we have:
- FIDO,
- Internet/Relcom, GlasNet, Sprint and others
- Commercial Networks and business activities
Please, correct me, if this is not the topics you'd like to hear from
St.Pete.
Just the day before yesterday, on Saturday, Mar. 6, I talked with Dave Hughes
from Colorado (He was in Moscow, and I went there to meet with him). What a
great guy! Full of energy, able to energize everybody around. Geez, I'd like
to spend some time in his favorite computerized bar <g>. As he said -
physically, I'm here, but my mind is there. If only we'd have free access to
IP links...
Was shown his TELEDRAW. I'm a bit envy with the Moscow guys - why should they
always be choosen, but otherwise am very glad with their results and proud,
that this program was written in Russia. Hope to bid for MAC version of his
TELEDRAW.
FIDO:
Fall and Winter were good seasons for our FIDO community, we managed to add
several more echo areas to the vast amount the ones we are supporting in
St.Pete ( can send you a full list on request). Half a dozen more
BBS added
since your last report in February's issue of Boardwatch.
The more FIDO gets wider and wider appreciation in Russia (and CIS
countries), the more we need something as developed, but based on some other
technology, like RIME, for example. You guys are lucky to have almost all of
the Networks easily accessible - it gives you the power to choose the best
one, most suited to ones needs. Over here - we are doomed to have FIDO, and
only FIDO, because of our inability to arrange links with the outside world.
Either we have to beg with the Networking community to poll us every night,
or have to rely on our own enthusiasts, who'd manage to force their company
to pay for their calls abroad.
As far as I know, all Russia is using practically two or three tiny dial up
links with the West - Yury Zaitsev from Tallin polls Finland, Peter Kvitek
from Moscow also calls Finland and Michael Pogrebniak from St.Pete polls
Germany. There were some guys in Novosibirsk, who used to get calls from
Holland, some other guys from Minsk, who'd get some info from Poland, but the
three of the above links are the main ones.
As usually, our FIDO conferences are full different stuff - from Esther
Dyson's recent RelEast 1 issue, to discussions about the underground
infrastructure we allegedly have in St.Pete and Moscow.
The structure of FIDO users is quite different in Russia and US, BTW. Our
users are mostly corporate, only tiniest part has computers at home,
available day and night. As a result - heavy load on BBS during office hours
( and with several time zones, as we have, it could be almost around the
clock for the popular boards, like JV Dialogue 1st, in Moscow, or Kronverk or
Spider's Nest in St.Pete.). Different structure is responsible for some
commercialization of our FIDO, unlike you have in your country. Corporations
wants their computers to work and bring profit, that's why most of our FIDO
boards have to carry SU.business, or SPB.business, or ???.business echoes.
Those echoes aren't free, they were created to promote some goods, to promote
some services and they have to cover corporate expenses for the BBS handling.
Even being poor, as we are, some of us do manage to get their bosses to buy
them expensive high speed modems, like US Robotics HST DS, or ZyXel. They
become our backbone nodes automatically. New feature of ZyXel to handle
speech becomes very hot topic here. We are trying to invent different ways to
utilize it. How about US? Do you people use these fancy features?
Phone lines quality keeps going down, while prices tend to rise. Only a few
of us could enjoy using electronic telephone stations - most of others are
connected to the very old ones, with stepping relays. It is most frequent
cause of the carier drop when one is connected to the other's modem and third
pary calls. What we'd do without ZMODEM?
INTERNET
Internet/Relcom grows even more rapidly then FIDO. These guys know what they
are doing, and despite some minor problems, we all are very grateful to them
for opening us a window to the rest of the world.
Prices, as in all of our country are rising, but not as far as consumer
good's ones, thank God! I can provide your readers with current prices on
request.
Services are also growing. There are already a number of independent mail
servers, ready to provide some additional regional info. GPNTB - the biggest
technical library in the Russia, now offeres its services as a source of the
article titles for about a hundred of different technical Western magazines.
Some servers offer access to their specialized data bases - on Law, Taxes,
etc.
New network started -Relarn, based on Relcom as a carrier. This network
supposed to be for the scientists and scientific institutions. Unfortunately,
all I know is that it has to be much cheaper then Relcom, but it's commercial
use is totaly restricted.
GlasNet got a new popularity after adding USENET newfeed and, especially,
becoming available through x.25 link from St.Pete. Company named TransInform
is providing this link at very low cost for GlasNet users. As attractive as
it is, it still well far from working properly. TransInform guys still have
no rotary number, are ofen busy and hand when connected.
Sprint is still hiding from an ordinary public behind the high fence of the
central telegraph building. How do they work, how do they attract customers
is an enigma for me. I've been several times to their office, talked with
them, used their services, about the very existence of some of them they
didn't know! But, alas, there is only Sprint, or VNIIPAS in Moscow, or direct
dial - for all of the ones, who'd like to use Compuserve or MCI Mail services
from St.Pete. Being almost monopoly, they can afford to be that dumb <g>.
COMMERCIAL NETWORKS
Commercial networks are quietly mushrooming over here! Young guys, with just
a couple of month's experience of running FIDO board, are hired with great
salaries to run closed commercial networks. This is because most of the money
are being done now in commerce. To be able to have price list from St.Pete,
Novosibirsk and Vladivostok at the same time becomes essential, and these
guys keep installing pirated Max and FD on their 286 clones to enable them to
get this info. < FAX is almost useless on a distance more then several
hundreds of kms in Russia, alas>.
Some of these networks started gating each other, some even dare to gate
Relcom, which, compared to their tiny leak is an avalanche of info, with it's
great relcom.commerce.*** groups, responsible for almost 90 % of the traffic.
More and more business proposals find their way to our Relcom groups. Guys
offer to run newsletter, another one offers cheap cigarettes, third one talks
about software being developed in Russia for his company. This is great, this
shows that we become known to world Internet community and give us some hopes
for the future.
Well, Jack, this is about all for today. Hope to hear your critics and your
questions if any. My apologies again for the delay and great thanks for your
great magazine! In April of 1991 I had my small letter printed in PC World.
Do you know how many answers it got me? 11! And your one brought me well over
twice that amount!
Till the next report.
Arcady Khotin
agh@nwpc.spb.su
=================
THIS MONTH'S LIST
=================
This month we present a list of 358 technical support/product support
bulletin boards courtesy of Gary Barr, of Evansville, Indiana. Mr. Barr
updates this list each month as the SUPRT BBS List and makes it available in
the file SUPRTnnn.ZIP where nnn equals the last digit of the year and a two
digit month (March, 1993 is SUPRT303.ZIP). Barr operates a Remote Access BBS
titled Digicom 1:2310/200 at (812)479-1310 and also compiles the Remote
Access BBS List.
Product Support Bulletin Boards
===============================
3Com 408-980-8204 NETWORK CARDS
3rd Planet Software, Inc 213-841-2260 NETWORK ASST PLUS
Abacus Concepts 616-698-8106 STATVIEW,SUPERNOVA MAC
Abaton Technology 415-438-4650 LASER PRINTER,SCANNER
Accolade 408-296-8800 GAMING SOFTWARE
Acer America 800-833-8241 COMPUTERS & MONITORS
Adaptec 408-945-7727 CONTROLLERS
Addstor 415-324-4077 SUPERSTOR
Advanced Digital Corp 714-894-0893 SCSI CTRL,TAPE BACKUPS
Advanced Logical Research 714-458-6834 ALR COMPUTER SYSTEMS
All Computer 416-960-8679 MOTHERBOARDS
Alloy Computer Products 508-460-8140 STORAGE DEVICES
Allied Telesis 415-964-2994 NETWORKING
Alpha Software 617-229-2915 ALPHA DATABASE
Altima 510-356-2456 LAPTOPS
Altsys 214-680-8592 FONTOGRAPHER
Amdek Corporation 408-922-4400 MONITORS
American Megatrends (AMI) 404-246-8780 AMI BIOS, MOTHERBOARDS
Apogee Software 508-365-2359 GAMES,KEEN,SECRET AGENT
Applied Engineering 214-241-6677 FAX/MODEM,FASTMATH
Artisoft 602-293-0065 LANTASTIC NETWORKING
Artist Graphics 612-631-7669 COMMAND CENTER
Ask Sam Systems 904-584-8287 ASK SAM LAN
Asymetrix 206-451-1173 MULTIMEDIA SOFTWARE
AST Research 714-727-4723 COMPUTER SYSTEMS
ATI Technologies 416-756-4591 VIDEO CARDS/MODEMS
AT&T Computer Systems 201-769-6397 COMPUTERS
Automated Design Systems 404-394-7448 WINDOWS WORKSTATION
Award 408-371-3139 BIOS
Beagle Bros 619-558-6151 BEAGLE WORKS,TIMEOUT
Blackmond Software 505-589-0319 RAMAIL, CCTRX
Boca Research 407-241-1601 MEMORY CARDS,MODEMS
Borland 408-439-9096 C,QUATTRO,DBASE
Bourbaki 208-342-5823 FRACTOOLS
Brightbill Roberts 315-472-1058 LAN SERVER/NET REMOTE
Brightwork Development 914-667-4759 NETWORKING UTILITIES
Brown Bag Software 408-371-7654 POWERMENU
Buerg Software 707-778-8944 LIST SOFTWARE
Buttonware 206-454-7875 PCFILE,PCCALC,PCWRITE
Calcomp 714-821-2359 DIGITIZERS
Calera Recognition Systems 408-773-9068 OCR SOFTWARE
Campbell Services 313-559-6434 ONTIME SCHEDULER
Cannon Printer Division 516-488-6528 LASER/DOT MATRIX PRNTRS
Cardinal Technologies 717-293-3074 CARDINAL MODEMS/FAXS
Cardz 604-734-5400 FRACTERM COMM SOFTWARE
CBIS, Inc 404-446-8405 NETWORK OS
cc:Mail 415-691-0401 CC:MAIL E-MAIL
Central Point 503-690-6650 PC TOOLS
Certus 216-546-1508 SUPERNOVI
Cheyenne Software 516-484-3445 NETWARE TAPE BACKUPS
Chipsoft 619-453-5232 MEMORY
Chwatal Development Co 318-487-0800 ULTRABBS
Citizens America Corp 310-453-7564 PRINTERS
Citrix Systems 305-346-9004 NETWORKING SOFTWARE
Clarion Software 305-785-9172 REPORT WRITER
Clark Development Corp 801-261-8976 PCBOARD BBS SOFTWARE
Clear Software 617-965-5406 CLEAR, ALL CLEAR
CNET 408-954-1787 NETWORKING
Coconut Computing Inc 619-456-0815 COCONET BBS SOFTWARE
Codenoll 914-965-1972 NETWORKING BOARDS
Colorado Memory Systems 303-679-0650 TAPE BACKUPS
Columbia Data Products 407-862-4724 SCSI DRV'S FOR WD-7000
Communications Research 504-926-5625 TERMINAL EMULATORS
Complete PC 408-434-9703 MODEMS,FAX,SCANNERS
Computers International 213-823-3609 ONLINE SHOPPING SFTW
Computer Peripherals 805-499-9646 MODEMS
Computer Support 214-404-8652 ARTS & LETTERS SOFTWARE
Computone 404-664-1210 INTELLIGENT SERIAL CARD
Comtrol 612-631-9310 INTELLIGENT SERIAL CARD
Conner International 408-456-4415 HARD DRIVES
Continental Software 1-9-386-5218 REMOTEACCESS BBS
Core International 407-241-2929 HARD DRIVES
Corel System 613-728-4752 COREL DRAW
Cornerstone 408-435-8943 SINGLE/DUAL PG MONITOR
Corvus System, Inc 408-972-9154 NET SOFTWARE
Creative Labs 408-428-6660 SOUNDBLASTER MUSIC CARD
Cross Communications 303-444-9003 CROSS CONNECT
Cumulus 216-464-3019 MEMORY, BOARDS
DAC Software 214-931-6617 DAC EASY ACCOUNTING
DAK Online Resource Center 818-715-7153 ALL DAK PRODUCTS
Dariana Technology Group 714-994-7410 SYSTEM SLEUTH
Darwin Systems 301-251-9206 DARWIN BBS LIST
Data Access 305-238-0640 DATAFLEX
Datadesk/Prometheus 503-691-5199 KEYBOARDS/TRACKBALLS
DataEase Int'l 203-374-6302 DATAEASE,GRAFTALK
Dataproducts Corp 818-887-8167 DATAPRODUCTS PRINTERS
Datastorm 314-875-0503 PROCOMM PLUS
Data Technology 408-942-4197 HD CONTROLLERS
David Systems 408-720-0406 NETWORKING HARDWARE
Dayna Communications 801-535-4205 LOCALTALK,E-NET FOR MAC
DCA 404-740-8428 CROSSTALK/IRMA
Dell Computer Corp 512-338-8528 DELL MAIL ORDER CLONES
Delphi 800-365-4636 DELPHI ONLINE SERVICE
Diamond Computer 408-730-1100 VIDEO BOARDS
Digiboard 612-943-0812 INTELLIGENT SERIAL CARD
Digital Communications 513-433-5080 10-NET
Digital Research 408-649-3443 DR DOS
Digital Vision 617-329-8387 VIDEO IMAGING
Disk Technician Corporation 619-272-9240 DISK TECHNICIAN GOLD
Disston Ridge Software 813-327-0822 PCGLOSSARY & TELEMAGIC
Distibuted Processing Tech 407-831-6432 CONTROLLER CARDS
D-Link Systems, Inc 714-455-1779 NETWORK PRINT SERVER
DNA Networks, Inc 215-296-9558 MICRONET NETWORK
Dove Computer 919-343-5616 MODEMS/FAX BOARDS
DTK 818-333-6548 DTK MOTHERBOARDS
Dudley Software 615-966-3574 DOORWAY SOFTWARE
Dynamic Microprocessor 516-462-6638 COMPUTER CPUS
EagleSoft 812-479-1310 SHOPPERS ASST,CALLAWAY
Elite Business App's 410-987-2335 RAMJET
Emac/Everex 510-226-9694 TRACKBALL,MODEM
Emerald Systems 619-673-4617 DATA MANAGEMENT
Enable Software 518-877-6316 ENABLE BUSINESS SOFTWARE
Epson America, Inc 408-946-8777 EPSON COMPUTER PRODUCT
Equinox Systems, Inc 305-378-1696 MULTIPORT COMM PORTS
eSoft Inc 303-699-8222 TBBS BBS SOFTWARE
ETS Incorporated 801-265-0919 GUI & LASER PRINTER APPS
Exis 416-439-8293 TELIX COMM SOFTWARE
EZX Publishing 713-280-8180 EZ-FORM, EZ-DISKCOPY
Family Scrapbook 904-249-9515 FAMILY SCRAPBOOK
Fifth Generation Systems 504-295-3344 FASTBACK,LONDON BRIDGE
Folio 801-375-9907 MAILBAG
Foresight Resources 816-891-8465 DRAFIX CADD SOFTWARE
Frederick Engineering, Inc 301-290-6944 DATACOMM ANALYZER
Fresh Technology 602-497-4235 MAP ASSIST, NETWORK SFTW
Fujitsu America, Inc 408-944-9899 PRINTERS,HARD/FLOPPY DRV
Future Domain 714-253-0432 TAPE BACKUPS
FutureSoft Engineering 713-588-6870 DYNACOMM
Galacticomm 305-583-7808 MAJOR BBS SOFTWARE
GAP Development Company 714-493-3819 GAP BBS SOFTWARE
Gateway BBS 605-232-2109 GATEWAY COMPUTERS
Gateway Communications 714-863-7097 NETWORK HARDWARE
Gazelle Systems 801-375-2548 BACKIT,OPTUNE,Q-DOS
GEcho 316-263-5313 FIDO MAIL PROCESSOR
GEnie Information Services 800-638-8369 GENIE ONLINE SERVICE
Genoa Systems 408-943-1231 TAPE BACKUPS
Gensoft Development 206-562-9407 SUPERCALC
Gibson Research 714-362-8848 SPINRITE
GigaTrend, Inc 619-566-0361 HIGH CAPACITY HARD DRIVE
Global Village Comm 415-390-8397 TELEPORT,POWERPORT
Goldstar Technologies 408-432-0236 MONITORS & COMPUTERS
Great American Software 603-889-7292 ONE-WRITE PLUS ACCNT
Gupta Technologies, Inc 415-321-0549 SQL WINDOWS
GVC Technologies 201-579-2380 MODEMS
Hayes Microcomputer 800-874-2937 MODEMS
Hayes Microcomputer 404-446-6336 MODEMS
HDC Computer 206-869-2418 WINDOWS ENV SOFTWARE
Headland Technology 415-656-0503 COMPUTERS
Hercules Computer 510-540-0621 MEMORY EXP, VIDEO CARDS
IBM 404-835-6600 IBM COMPUTER PRODUCTS
Intelligent Graphics Corp 408-441-0386 VM386,MULTITASKING
IMC Networks 714-724-0930 LAN NETWORK EQUIPMENT
IMSI Software 415-454-2893 DESKTOP PUBLISHING
Infinity Computer Services 215-965-8028 BAR CODE PRODUCTS
Infochip Systems 408-727-2496 MEMORY
Informix 913-492-2089 SMARTWARE, INFORMIX
InfoShare 703-803-8000 FALKEN BBS SOFTWARE
Innovative Data Concepts 215-357-4183 TCXL
Inset Corporation 203-740-0063 HIJAAK GRAPHIC CONVERSN
Insignia Solutions 415-694-7694 ACCESS PC, SOFT PC
Intel 503-645-6275 MATHCO,MODEM,FAX,CHIPS
Intracorp 305-378-8793 TRAVEL PARTNET
Iomega 801-778-4400 TAPE BACKUPS
Irwin Magnetics 313-930-9380 TAPE BACKUPS
Jetfax 415-324-1259 JETFAX BOARDS
Jetform 613-563-2894 JETFORM DESIGN
JDR Microdevices 408-559-0253 MAIL ORDER COMPONETS
Kent Marsh 713-522-8921 MAC SECURITY SOFTWARE
Kodiak Technology 408-452-0677 NETWORK HARDWARE
Kurta Corp 602-243-9440 DIGITIZER BOARDS
LAN Master 817-771-0233 REMOTE ACCESS SOFTWARE
LAN Systems 801-373-6980 NETWORKING HARDWARE
LAN Works 416-238-0253 PROMS
Laser Go 619-450-9370 GOSCRIPT
Lattice 708-916-1200 LATTICE SOFTWARE
Leading Edge 508-836-3971 COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Lexmark 800-453-9223 PRINTERS, KEYBOARDS
Liant Software 206-236-6485 LANGUAGE SOFTWARE
Logical Connection 504-295-3344 LOGICAL CONNECTION
Logitech 510-795-0408 MOUSE,SCANNERS
Lotus 617-693-7000 LOTUS SPREADSHEET
Lotus 404-395-7707 LOTUS WORD PROCESSING
Mace, Paul Software 503-482-7435 MACE UTILITIES
Madge Networks 408-441-1340 NETWORKING HARDWARE
Magee Enterprises, Inc 404-446-6650 AUTOMENU/TREEVIEW
Magitronic Technology 516-454-8262 MOTHERBOARDS
Magnavox 310-532-6436 COMPUTERS/MONITORS
Main Lan 407-331-7433 MAINLAN
Mannesman Tally 206-251-5513 PRINTER ACCESS
Manx Software Systems 201-542-2793 AZTEC C
Marstek, Inc 404-424-3146 HAND SCANNER
Matrix Technology 617-569-3787 SOFTWARE
Maxi Host Support 209-836-2402 MAXI HOST BBS SOFTWARE
Maxtor/Miniscribe 303-678-2222 HARD DRIVES
Maynard Electronics 407-263-3502 TAPE BACKUPS
McAfee Assoc 408-988-4044 VIRUS PROTECTION
Media Vision 510-770-0968 MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTS
Micro Display Systems 612-438-3513 MONITORS
Microcom 617-762-5134 CARBON COPY,WORKMAN.
Microdyne 703-739-0432 NETWORK HARDWARE
Micron Technology 208-368-4530 VIDEO BOARDS
Micronics 510-651-6837 COMPUTER,MOTHERBOARD
Micropolis Corp 818-709-3310 HARD DRIVES
Microrim 206-649-9836 R:BASE
MicroProse 301-785-1841 GAMING SOFTWARE
Microsoft 206-637-9009 WORD,WINDOWS
Microsystems Software 508-875-8009 CALANDER SCHEDULER
Microtech 203-469-6430 MAC MEMORY
Microtest 602-996-4009 LANPORT
Mitsubishi 714-636-6216 MONITORS
Mountain Network Solutions 408-438-2665 TAPE BACKUPS
Mouse Systems (MSC) 510-683-0617 MOUSE
Multi-Tech Systems 612-785-9875 MODEMS
Mustang Software 805-395-0650 WILDCAT,QMODEM,OLX
National Semiconductor 408-245-0671 ETHERNODE,MAINLINK
NEC Technologies 508-635-6328 COMPUTER,PRINTERS
NetWorth 214-869-2959 ETHERNET CARDS
New Media Graphics 508-663-7612 VIDEO CAPTURE BOARDS
Night Owl BBS 716-881-5688 NIGHT OWL CDROM DISK
NISCA 214-446-0646 SCANNERS
Norton-Lambert 805-683-2249 CLOSE-UP/LAN
Novell 801-429-3030 NOVELL NETWORKING
Novell Desktop Systems 408-649-3443 COMPUTERS
Number Nine 617-497-6463 ADVANCED VIDEO
OCR Systems 215-938-7245 READRIGHT
Okidata 800-283-5474 PRINTERS
Omen Technology 503-621-3746 DSZ - ZMODEM PROTOCOL
Ontrack Computer Systems 612-937-0860 HD PREP SOFTWARE
Open Network 718-638-2239 NETWORKING
Orchid Technology 510-683-0327 VIDEO CARDS
Origin 512-328-8402 GAMING SOFTWARE
Pacific Data Products 619-452-6329 LASER PRINTER PRODUCT
Packard Bell 818-773-7207 COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Palindrome 708-505-3336 NETWORK SOFTWARE
Panasonic 201-863-7847 PRINTERS,SCANNERS,CPU
Paperback Corporation 415-644-0782 SOFTWARE
Paradise Systems 714-753-1234 VIDEO CARDS
Patton & Patton Software 408-778-9697 FLOW CHARTING SFTW
Pentax Technologies 303-460-1637 SCANNERS, LASER PRINTER
Phoenix Technologies 405-321-2400 MOTHERBOARD BIOS
Pinnacle Publishing 206-251-6217 DGE
Pinpoint Publishing 707-523-0468 MICRO COOKBOOK
PKWare 414-354-8670 PKZIP COMPRESSION
PLI 510-651-5948 REMOVABLE MEDIA
Plus Development 408-434-1664 HARD DRIVES
Practical Peripherals 805-496-4445 MODEMS
Priam Systems 408-434-1646 HARD DRIVES
Princeton Graphic Systems 404-664-1210 MONITORS
Prometheus Products 503-691-5199 FAX/MODEMS
Proteon 508-366-7827 NETWORKING BOARDS
Public Brand Software 317-856-2087 SHAREWARE SOFTWARE
Pure Data 214-242-3225 NETWORKING BOARDS
Qmail 901-382-5583 QMAIL OFFLINE READER
QMS 205-633-3632 PRINTERS
Quadram 404-564-5678 MEMORY SOFTWARE
Qualitas 301-907-8030 386MAX & BLUEMAX
Quantum 408-894-3214 HARD DISK STORAGE
Quarterdeck Office Systems 310-341-3227 QEMM386
QuickBBS 407-896-0494 QUICKBBS BBS SOFTWARE
Racal Interlan/Rabbit Soft 508-264-4345 NETWORKING CARDS
Race 305-271-2146 RACE USER EDITOR (RA)
Rams' Island Software 303-841-6269 INCONTEXT
RelayNet National 301-229-5623 RELAYNET MAIL SYSTEM
Remote Control Int 619-431-4030 TELEMAGIC
Revelation Technologies 206-641-8110 ADVANCED REVELATION
Rix Softworks 714-476-0728 PAINT SOFTWARE
Rybs Electronics 303-443-7437 MEMORY MANAGER
Saber Software 214-361-1883 SABER NETWORK MENU
Salt Air BBS 801-261-8976 PCBOARD BBS SOFTWARE
Samsung Info Systems 201-691-6238 COMPUTERS/MONITORS
SEAboard 201-473-1991 ARC,SEADOG,AXE
Seagate 408-438-8771 HARD DRIVES,CONTROLLER
Searchlight Software 516-689-2566 SEARCHLIGHT BBS SFTW
SemWare 404-641-8968 QEDIT DOS EDITOR
Sharp 404-962-1788 SCANNERS/COMPUTERS
Shiva Corporation 617-621-0190 FASTPATH 4, BRIDGES
Sitka Corporation 415-769-8774 TOPS NETWORK OS
Sierra Online 209-683-4463 GRAPHIC ADVENTURE
Sigma Design 510-770-0111 VIDEO BOARD, MONITORS
Silicon Valley Computers 415-967-8081 COMPUTERS
Sitka 510-769-8774 FLASHCARD
SMS Technology 510-964-5700 HARD DISK CONTROLLERS
Sofnet 404-984-9926 FAX SOFTWARE
Softklone 904-878-9884 MIRROR III, TAKEOVER
Softlogic Solutions 603-644-5556 DISK OPTIMIZR,DOUBLE DOS
Softronics 719-593-9295 SOFTERM PC
Software Products Intl 619-450-2179 OPEN ACCESS, WINDOW
Software Security 203-329-7263 SOFTWARE COPY PROTECT.
Software Venture 510-849-1912 MICROPHONE SOFTWARE
Solutions Systems 617-237-8530 BRIEF SOFTWARE
SparkWare 901-382-5583 QMAIL DOOR/READER
Spectra Publishing 408-730-8326 POWERBASIC SOFTWARE
SprintNet 800-546-1000 NETWORKING, PC PURSUIT
Stac Electronics 619-431-5956 STACKER HD SOFTWARE
STB Systems 214-437-9615 VIDEO CARDS
Storage Dimensions 408-944-1220 STORAGE DEVICES
Sunrise Software 404-256-9525 SUNRISE DOOR SOFTWARE
Sunriver 512-835-8082 UNIX SYSTEMS
Supermac Software 408-773-4500 SPECTRUM BOARD,MONITOR
Supra Corp 503-967-2444 MODEMS
Sydex 503-683-1385 SHEZ
Symantec 408-973-9598 NORTON,PCANYWHERE
Sysgen 408-946-5032 DRIVE CONTROLLERS
Systems Compatibility 312-670-4239 SOFTWARE BRIDGE, TOOLKIT
Syquest 415-656-0470 REMOVABLE MASS STORAGE
Swan Technologies 814-237-6145 SWAN COMPUTERS
TEAMate 213-318-5302 TEAMATE UNIX BBS
Tecmar 216-349-0853 TAPE BACKUPS
Telebit 408-745-3803 MODEMS
Telix Support 416-439-8293 TELIX COMM SOFTWARE
Template Garden Software 914-337-2008 THE DOCUMENTOR
Texas Instruments 512-250-6112 PRINTERS,CPUS
TheSoft Programming 415-581-3019 THEDRAW ANSI SOFTWARE
Thomas Conrad 512-836-8012 NETWORKING CARDS
Thumper Technologies 918-627-0059 EZ-READER
Tiara Computer Systems 415-966-8533 NETWORKING CARDS
Timeline Software 415-892-0408 SCHEDULERS
Timeslips 508-768-7581 TIMESLIPS SOFTWARE
Tops microsystems 510-769-8774 NETWORK OS/EMAIL
TopSoft Software 502-425-9941 BBS DOORS,TOPED
Toshiba Printer Products 714-581-7600 PRINTERS
Trantor Systems 415-656-5159 PARALLEL PORT SCSI
Traveling Software 206-485-1736 LAPLINK, BATTERY WATCH
Trident Microsystems 415-691-1016 VGA CARDS
Trius 508-794-0762 ASEASYAS SPREADSHEET
True Vision 317-577-8783 DISPLAY ACCELERATOR
TSR Systems 516-331-6682 PALCOM-PARADOX COMPILER
Turbo Tax 619-453-5232 TURBOTAX SOFTWARE
Turtle Beach 717-845-4835 WINDOWS SOFTWARE
Unicorn Software 317-784-2147 UNICORN SOFTWARE
US Robotics 708-982-5274 MODEMS
US Sage 417-331-7433 MAINLAN NETWORK
Ven Tel 408-922-0988 MODEMS
Ventura Software 619-673-7691 VENTURA PUBLISHER
Vermont Microsystems 802-655-7461 HIRES VIDEO BOARDS
Video Seven 510-656-0503 VIDEO CARDS
Visual Business Systems 404-953-1613 VIDEO
Volkswriter 408-648-3015 VOLKWRITER SOFTWARE
Vortex Systems 412-322-3216 RETROCHRON BACKUP
Wacom 415-960-0236 GRAPHIC TABLETS
Walker,Richer, & Quinn 206-324-2357 TCP/IP SOFTWARE
Wallsoft Systems 212-962-1923 THE DOCUMENTOR
Walt Disney Software 818-567-4027 CHILDRENS SOFTWARE
Wangtek 805-582-3370 TAPE DRIVES
Weitek 408-522-7517 MATH COPROC
Western Digital 714-753-1068 CONTROLLERS,HARD DRIVE
White Water Systems 708-328-9442 ZORTECH, ACTOR
Windows Tech Support 206-637-9009 WINDOWS/MICROSOFT
Word Perfect Corp 801-225-4414 WORDPERFCT,DRAWPERFCT
Wordtech 415-254-1141 DBXL,QUICKSILVER
Wyse 408-922-4400 TERMINALS/COMPUTERS
Xebec 702-883-9264 HARD DRIVE
Xircom 818-878-7618 NETWORK ADAPTERS
Xyquest 508-667-5669 CORRECT GRAMMER
XTree 805-546-9150 XTREE/XTREE GOLD
Zenographics 714-851-3860 PIXIE, SUPER QUEUE
Zoom Telephonics 617-451-5284 MODEMS
Zsoft 404-427-1045 PAINTBRUSH
ZyXEL 714-693-0762 MODEMS
BBS Modem Discount Programs
===========================
Vender Model List Sysop BBS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AT&T Paradyne Dataport 14.4/Fax $555 $222 No BBS
ATI Technologies 9600 ETC-E $499 $275 416-756-4591
Cardinal Technologies 9600V42 V.32 $349 $219 717-293-3074
Cardinal Technologies 14400V32bis $449 $249 717-293-3074
Computer Peripherals Viva 9624e V.32 $349 $249 805-499-9646
Digicom Systems ScoutPlus V.32bis $389 $210 508-262-1412
Digicom Systems Scout V.32 $299 $195 508-262-1412
Galaxy Networks UFO V.32bis $999 $299 No BBS
GVC Technologies FM-9696/144V V.32bis $689 $413 201-579-2380
GVC Technologies SM-96V V.32 $599 $329 201-579-2380
Hayes Microcomputer Ultra 144 V.32bis $999 $499 404-446-6336
Hayes Microcomputer Optima 144+Fax $519 $299 404-446-6336
Hayes Microcomputer ISDN System Adapter $1199 $650 404-446-6336
Image Communications Twincomm 9600 V.32 $299 $279 No BBS
Intel Corporation 14.4EX V.32bis $549 $269 503-645-6275
Intel Corporation 9600EX V.32 $599 $299 503-645-6275
Multi-Tech Systems MT932BA V.32 $869 $435 612-785-9875
Multi-Tech Systems MT1432BA V.32bis $899 $450 612-785-9875
Practical Peripherals PM14400FXSA V.32bis $549 $250 805-496-4445
Practical Peripherals PM14400FXMTV.32bis $399 $200 805-496-4445
Quadralink Technologies 1496V+ $360 $320 416-538-9999
QuickComm Sprit II V.32bis $249 $220 408-956-1358
Supra Corporation SupraFAX V.32bis $399 $249 503-967-2444
Supra Corporation SupraFAX V.32 $299 $199 503-967-2444
Telebit Corporation T3000 V.32bis $949 $399 408-745-3229
Telebit Corporation WorldBlaze $1049 $429 408-745-3229
Telebit Corporation QBlaze $549 $299 408-745-3229
U.S. Robotics Courier DS V.32bis/Fax $1295 $449 708-982-5092
U.S. Robotics Courier V.32bis/Fax $695 $299 708-982-5092
U.S. Robotics Courier HST V.32bis/Fax $995 $349 708-982-5092
Ven-Tel EC96 V.32 $699 $439 408-922-0988
ZyXEL U-1496 +V.32bis $989 $549 714-693-0762
ZyXEL U-1496E+V.32bis $649 $399 714-693-0762
ZyXEL U-1496E V.32bis $469 $299 714-693-0762
BOARDWATCH Magazine List of BBS List Keepers
============================================
96 List - 9600+bps BBS Downtown BBS (213)484-0260
AC 516 Free Shareware BBS Long Island Exchange (516)385-7882
Airline Pilot/JUMPSEAT BBSs ChicAAgo Hangar (708)980-1613
Alaska AC 907 Alaska Pirate Soc. (907)562-1854
Apple II BBS with Internet con pro-sol (619)670-5379
Area Code 517 - Mid-Michigan Wolverine BBS (517)695-9952
Arkansas Area 501 The Gaslight BBS (501)444-8420
ASP BBS Member List PBS-BBS (317)856-2087
Astronomy/Space BBS Starbase III BBS (209)432-2487
Atlanta Area 404 OASIS (404)627-2662
Atlanta Area 404 INDEX System (404)924-8472
Austin Area BBS List AC 512 -=ACE*BBS=- (512)258-9553
Autocad Related BBS SAUG BBS (206)644-7115
Baltimore Area 410 Network BBS (410)247-3797
BBS With Handicapped Focus Handicap News BBS (203)337-1607
Black Run/Oriented BBS BDPA BAC BBS (707)552-3314
Business/Professional BBS Delight The Customer (517)797-3740
California AC 310 Illusions BBS (310)804-3324
Central California AC 209 Zen Den Systems (209)675-8436
Central California Area 805 His Board (805)652-1478
Chicago HURK BBS (708)801-0823
Chicago Stillwaters (708)403-2826
Cleveland Area 216 Wine Cellar (216)382-2558
Commodore 64/128/Amiga BBS Night Gallery (818)448-8529
CompuCom Modem BBS List Referral Market BBS (803)297-4395
Connecticut AC 203 Creative Edge BBS (203)743-4044
Conservation/Nature BBS List Coin of the Realm (301)585-6697
Dallas/Ft Worth Area 214/817 Second Sanctum (817)784-1178
Darwin National USBBS List Bob's BBS (916)929-7511
Desktop Publishing BBS Infinite Perspective (301)924-0398
Detroit Area 313 Tony's Corner (313)754-1131
Ecology/Conservation BBS EarthArt BBS (803)552-4389
Engineering Related BBS Computer Plumber (319)337-6723
Geneology Related BBS NGS-CIG (703)528-2612
Graphical User Interface BBS The Gooey (GUI) BBS (212)876-5885
Ham/Amateur Radio BBS 3WINKs BBS (301)590-9629
Handicapped Issues BBS HEX BBS (301)593-7357
Houston Area 713 Atomic Cafe BBS (713)530-8875
Kansas City Area 816/913 Sound Advice (816)436-4516
Kitsap County Washington Quicksilver BBS (206)780-2011
List of Gay/Lesbian BBS S-TEK BBS (514)597-2409
Macintosh BBS Fort Mill Tabby (803)548-0900
Medical Issues BBS Black Bag (302)731-1998
Milwaukee Area 414 Priplanus (414)442-0170
Minnesota Twin Cities AC 612 Abiogenetic BBS (612)489-7983
National 800 Number BBS List Hayes Online (800)874-2937
National Adult BBS List Titan BBS 1:3612/140 (904)476-1270
National BBS List Ameriboard (412)349-6862
New Jersey AC 609 The Casino PCBoard (609)561-3377
New Jersey Area 201/609/908 Praedo BBS (609)953-0769
New Orleans BBS List Southern Star BBS (504)885-5928
Ontario Area 705 Cottage Country BBS (705)835-6192
Open Access UNIX Site List LGNP1 (login:BBS) (215)348-9727
Orlando Florida AC 407 London BBS (407)895-1335
OS/2 BBS Systems OS2/Shareware BBS (703)385-4325
OS/2 Related BBS LiveNet 1:170/110 (918)481-5715
Pennsylvania AC 215/609/302 DSC/VOICENET (215)443-9434
Pinellas/Tampa Florida AC 813 Mercury Opus (813)321-0734
Pittsburgh AC 412 Quad-Tech Systems (412)262-4794
Portland Oregon BBS DawGone Disgusted (503)297-9145
Raleigh NC Area Code 919 Micro Message Svc. (919)779-6674
Republic of South Africa Catalyst BBS (041)34-1122
Rhode Island Area 401 Eagle's Nest (401)732-5292
Rochester NY AC 716 Logan's Run (716)256-2659
San Diego AC 619 General Alarm (619)669-0385
San Diego, CA AC 619 ComputorEdge (619)573-1675
San Francisco Area 408/415/510 Bay List BBS (510)339-1045
Seattle AC 206/West Washington Eskimo North (206)367-3837
Selected BBS J&J's BBS (513)236-1229
South Florida Area 305/407 Silicon Beach BBS (305)474-6512
Southern California SOCAL Corner (213)422-7942
St. Louis AC 314 Fire Escape's Dir (314)741-9505
Tacoma Washington AC 206 AmoCat BBS (206)566-1155
Technical Support BBS List Digicom BBS (812)479-1310
Tulsa Oklahoman Area BBS List Access America (918)747-2542
U.S.S.R. BBS List Court Crimson King 7-3832-356722
Virginia AC 703/804 TOSOR BBS (703)366-4620
Washington DC BBS List Interconnect (703)425-2505
Wildcat! BBS Wildcat! HQ (805)395-0650
Wisconsin 608 JW-PC Dataflex.HST (608)837-1923
B O A R D W A T C H M A G A Z I N E
Announces the
Boardwatch 100 Reader's Choice Bulletin Board Contest
for 1993
WIN A FREE HIGH SPEED MODEM
Boardwatch Magazine is sponsoring a contest to find the 100 most popular
bulletin board systems in North America - and the ONE BBS most popular
among callers. The contest will run from January 1, 1993 through July 1,
1993. Winners will be announced at the Online Networking Exposition and
BBS Convention (ONE BBSCON) held at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs
Colorado, August 25-29, 1993. The Boardwatch 100 list will be published in
subsequent issues of Boardwatch Magazine and distributed in electronic
form world-wide.
PRIZES FOR BULLETIN BOARD OPERATORS
1ST PRIZE: Air fare, hotel accommodations and registration at ONE BBSCON
for one is awarded to the system receiving the most votes. Additionally,
the system will receive a free full-page black and white advertisement in
Boardwatch Magazine for a period of three months. An award trophy will be
presented at the ONE BBSCON and a feature story on their BBS will appear
in a subsequent issue of the magazine..
TOP TEN: The ten most popular bulletin boards selected by the voters will
each receive an award trophy during a special presentation at the Online
Networking Exposition and BBS Convention (ONE BBSCON) August 25-29,
1993. Additionally, a story describing their system will appear in
Boardwatch Magazine, they will be included in a special TOP TEN BBS listing
in the magazine, and they will receive a free quarter-page black and white
advertisement in three successive issues. Finally, they will be listed in
the Boardwatch 100 BBS list.
TOP ONE HUNDRED: The 100 bulletin boards receiving the most votes will
each be listed in the Boardwatch 100 readers choice BBS list. This list
will be published in Boardwatch Magazine and freely distributed
electronically on thousands of bulletin boards world-wide.
PRIZES FOR VOTERS
All valid ballots submitted by voters will be entered in a random
sweepstakes drawing. As of the opening date of this contest, prizes
include TWO U.S. ROBOTICS COURIER DUAL STANDARD 16.8K MODEMS, two HAYES
OPTIMA 14400 + FAX 144 modems, and two ZyXEL U-1496 14,400 bps modems
- and more are on the way. A minimum of six valid ballots will be
selected from all entries and each will receive a free modem - from the
most popular modem manufacturers in the world.
RULES FOR CALLERS
Each voter can vote once, for a single bulletin board system. Each ballot
must be fully completed, and individually mailed by each voter. One vote
per address, and we will verify ballots as necessary. There are three ways
to vote:
1. Printout and complete this ballot and mail to:
BOARDWATCH MAGAZINE
READERS CHOICE BBS CONTEST
5970 South Vivian Street
Littleton, CO 80127
2. Print out, complete this ballot and FAX to (303)973-3731.
3. Or, dial the Boardwatch BBS at (303)973-4222 and complete the online
ballot provided on the main menu.
Balloting closes at 23:59:59, June 30, 1993.
This contest is not limited to Boardwatch Magazine subscribers, and no
purchase of any kind is required to participate in this contest.
NOTE: We held this contest during 1992 and it generated 11,152 votes by the
close of balloting for some 1250 different bulletin boards. The TOP system
received about 450 votes. Your individual vote can have a tremendous impact
on the outcome of this contest. Further, the odds of winning a modem in
last years contest, were 1 in 1394 (8 modems awarded).
RULES FOR BBS OPERATORS
Bulletin Board Operators may encourage callers to vote for their system
by offering whatever inducements/encouragements they like. There is one
rule to this contest for BBS operators. YOU MAY NOT HANDLE ANY VOTE AFTER
THE CALLER HAS COMPLETED THE BALLOT. YOU MAY NOT HANDLE IT IN ANY WAY.
You may provide callers with anything you like, including postage paid
envelopes, printed matter, solicitations, etc. But once they have
completed a ballot, if you touch, handle, or otherwise deal with the ballot
in any way, your BBS will be disqualified from the contest without appeal
or recourse.
If you wish to post an electronic ballot on your BBS, you may post this file
IN ITS ENTIRETY. You may post any additional information you feel is
appropriate, but this entire rules file must be available to all callers.
Despite the fact that this contest has a minimum of rules, this one rule
does cause problems each year. You cannot post online surveys or doors
to allow voters to vote online. This is vote handling. You cannot accept
ballots from callers and mail them for them. You cannot accept ballots and
fax them in for callers. The rule of thumb is pretty clear: You can provide
anything you like TO callers to induce them to vote. There is NOTHING you
can accept FROM callers in any way pertaining to this ballot at all. THEY
must complete the ballot and forward it to us themselves.
We actually received FEDEX packages on the final day of the contest last
year from BBS operators who claimed to have collected a hundred or so
votes. Infractions are dealt with quite economically - the BBS is summarily
disqualified without recourse or appeal.
One new element introduced in the 1993 contest is date scoring. All ballots
received from 1 January 1993 through 30 June 1993 will receive a date score
based on the date of receipt. Date scores will range from 180 for votes
received 1 January down to 1 for votes received on June 30. These date
stamp values are cummulative for each BBS and will be used to eliminate ALL
ties in the TOP 100. Since ties are quite common in this contest, it pays
to get your votes in early.
This contest is open to all bulletin boards worldwide with the sole
exception of the Boardwatch Magazine BBS - which is ineligible.
Commercial services such as Prodigy, America Online, CompuServe, are
considered to be networks and not bulletin boards for the purposes of this
contest. HOWEVER, individual forums, roundtables, or special interest areas
moderated by a specific human SYSOP on those services and allowing callers
to post messages in that specific area ARE considered to be bulletin boards
for the purposes of this contest and may participate.
*************************************************************************
BOARDWATCH 100 READERS CHOICE BBS CONTEST
1993 BALLOT FORM
**************************************************************************
BBS INFORMATION
TITLE OF BBS YOU NOMINATE AS BEST BBS:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRIMARY BBS ACCESS TELEPHONE NUMBER:
-------------------------------------
VOTER VERIFICATION INFORMATION
Voter information will be used to verify a selected sampling of caller
ballots. Responses to certain questions will be used to produce
aggregate statistical information on BBS callers to be published in
Boardwatch Magazine in future issues. All information required.
Incomplete ballots will be discarded.
VOTER NAME:
--------------------------------------------------------
STREET ADDRESS:
---------------------------------------------------------
CITY: STATE/PROVINCE:
------------------------------------ ----------------
ZIP OR POSTAL CODE: COUNTRY
------------------ ----------------
VOTER VOICE TELEPHONE NUMBER:
------------------------
AGE: SEX: PROFESSION:
------ M[ ] F[ ] ----------------------------------
COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE USED:
-------------------------------------
HIGHEST MODEM SPEED YOUR MODEM SUPPORTS? [ ] 1200 bps [ ] 2400 bps
[ ] 9600 bps [ ] 14,400 bps
MODEM MANUFACTURER AND MODEL
--------------------------------------------
PERSONAL COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE:
MS-DOS -IBM PC/Compatible [ ] Apple Macintosh [ ] Other [ ] (specify)
DO YOU REGULARLY USE MICROSOFT WINDOWS? yes[ ] no[ ]
HAVE YOU INSTALLED A SECOND TELEPHONE LINE FOR DATA USE? yes[ ] no[ ]
ESTIMATED TOTAL NUMBER OF CALLS YOU MAKE TO ALL BBSs PER MONTH
_______
ESTIMATED AVERAGE CALL DURATION:
---------------
GUESTIMATE THE DATE OF YOUR FIRST MODEM CALL -------------
SIGNATURE: DATE:
------------------------------- -------------------
For more information on ONE BBSCON '93 - call (303)693-5253 voice or
the ONE BBSCON BBS at (303)693-5432.
For more information about Boardwatch Magazine, dial (303)973-4222 by
modem - or to subscribe by voice using MC/Visa (800)933-6038.
Boardwatch Magazine is published monthly at $36 per year.
-Press Any Key-
