I’ve been restoring a 5150 model A. It has the second BIOS, Intel CPU, and a full 64KB on the planar. After having put the bits together and cleaned it all up I think I’m through with the hardware and can put in the two case screws. However, I’m still looking for some cork feet since the originals seem to have gotten scraped off. I’m also looking for another 16K memory chip, to replace the one I stole off another board so that I could get this one to work. There’s always some peripheral fallout to every project.

For those not familiar with the 5150, it is the original IBM PC which came out in August of 1981. Until then IBM did not make small, or affordable, machines. That is unless you count the 55 pound portable 5100. That one cost $9000 for the 16KB model and $20000 for the 64KB version. Regardless of the price, it was made for the scientific community and was not really suitable for an office, and certainly not for home use.

The 5150 was a completely new design. It was aimed at the emerging popular market. The included operating system was PC-DOS v.1.0, and thus was started a whole new world of computers. Yes, there were others on the market at the time, IBM isn’t known for being leading edge, but this one became the reference point. In fact it is really the starting point for the ubiquitous world of PC compatible computers.

There were two distinct versions of the IBM PC. The first one (which is what I’m talking about here) had 16KB on the motherboard and was expandable to 64KB. The second one had 64KB minimum, and was expandable to 256KB. I think there were also some minor variations along the way. Certainly there were three BIOS versions and machines were put together to suit the costumer.

There is much to know about these models and the DOSes that came with them. Suffice to say that DOS 1.0 was not very good, and gave way to a much better 1.1 in May of ’82. The next step was DOS 2.0 which was a complete rewrite and works like the DOS we know today. That was released March 1983 at the same time as the newer, and much more functional, IBM 5160 – also known as the XT.

I’m fairly comfortable with early DOS and the associated hardware, but the 5150 represents the formative period and I’ve learnt a lot of history from doing this. The first couple of years is when the stardards were set. That is one reason I’ve enjoyed this project so much. So, in order to avoid what I call “vintage creep” I’ve decided to freeze this machine at late 1983.

Rather than try for a machine that is “new in box” factory perfect, or a super-duper “loaded” setup that no one could have afforded back then, I’ve taken the approach of setting up something that a not so well off, but dedicated, computerist might have had. Something which is historically entirely possible but not what the average vintage buff collects. In order to do that I made up a story. Here it is:

Mr. Brown originally purchased an IBM PC in the spring of 1982 because he wanted to get stock market reports directly to his office. Although he didn’t go all out, he couldn’t resist taking advantage of, what was described as, the IBM’s “powerful color graphics”. The system included:

1 double sided floppy drive
Colour graphics adapter
64KB installed RAM
Asynchronous Communications Adapter
PC DOS v.1.1
Colour CRT display monitor
External modem

Soon finding the system limiting without either a printer or a second drive, Mr. Brown decided to sell it the next year when the IBM XT came out. However, he decided to keep the expensive colour monitor and the external modem.

Tom Mulligan was a willing buyer. He had a keen interest in the new bulletin board systems and jumped at the chance to buy a used IBM. He also decided to splurge on a fancy 1200 baud Hayes Smartmodem. He had had his eye on the flashy aluminum external version, but when offered a deal on the internal, decided that it was just as good, and besides, the now extra serial port could perhaps be used for a daisy wheel printer some time in the future. He also upgraded the system to 256KB RAM with an IBM memory expansion option that had 192KB installed. Of course he also purchased a copy of the newly released PC DOS v.2.0.

Having now spent almost a grand in addition to the computer, an IBM color display was just too expensive, so he decided to go with a cheap video monitor which he could use with the Color Graphics Adapter. He also wished he could afford a second floppy drive, but decided to wait.

It is now 2010 and that computer is mine. I’ve put it back to the state it was in when it was Tom’s and it now has all original IBM cards and the 1983 Hayes modem. I will display the computer with PC DOS v2.0 and try to make the best of that. My intention is to have an historical experience, not just a mythical “best of 8 bit” using software from 10 years after the machine was first announced. This is my idea of vintage. I want to relive Tom’s experience.

I’ve been collecting DOS software from 1981-83 and now I’m in the process of putting together a small selection of disks for various purposes. The 1983 “Exploring The IBM Personal Computer” disk is hilarious, but so is the PC DOS v1.1 with it’s BASIC programs. However, since I’ve found some excellent communications software and have plenty of room to spare on a bootable DOS 2.0 360K floppy, I can actually use this machine for BBS dialins, though only occasionally because none are local and there aren’t many of them. However, it does make for a bit of fun and an excellent demonstration.

The video monitor is a bit unusual but it is from 1983. It is an Arrow 12 model DM-210G. It has both video in and out, so one can easily attach more monitors. It also has the added sophistication of having both a 75 ohm and high impedance input. The above picture shows the IBM PC DOS version 2.0 test screen. It’s actually pretty linear. The apparent problem on the right is just that it goes off the screen a bit. I can adjust it so it goes off on the left but decided to leave it this way until I can figure out which parts to adjust or replace since there is no internal pot for that.

The inside of the machine is noteworthy as well. I’ll elaborate, and put up some pictures of the cards in my next post.

That is the way the world is going. There are more and more computers around, and less and less people who are aware of what they are. They take advantage of them but don’t really “use” them. There are lots of devices on the market which are really computers. The trouble is, those devices are just doing their own thing. The user is doing something else. They are not in control of the machine. It’s not really theirs.

OK, with that little rant out of the way:

It is nice to see that some people do know what a computer is. Last year we saw an old PC with 64KB of RAM go for $4000 on eBay, and this year we saw a Kenbak (with 256 BYTES of memory!) go for $25000. Most people would throw something like that away, but obviously someone could appreciate the spice that an old computer can offer.

I’ve just been restoring an IBM PC for which I paid $40. Price wise, that’s more my speed, but I’m going to get my money’s worth. It has already added a lot of spice to my computing life. With only a single floppy running DOS 2.0 and a 1983 version (the first one) of Kermit, it will connect nicely to a BBS through a Hayes internal which is also from 1983. I’ll put up another story with a picture or two.

Now that I’m back to this blog, I apologize to jas for not responding to what I thought were really odd comments, but I’ll get to that. His board can be found here: http://eob-bbs.com/ To me, anybody who puts up a bulletin board deserves a boost.

Also, apologies to greg urbano whose comment sat for a long time in limbo waiting for approval. He wrote: “my friend is writing a blog on the old bbs still running, you can check it here – http://bbsing.wordpress.com/

Back shortly . . .

I feel like my BBS series should include information on how to access a BBS. Much of what I have written so far is aimed at people who do know how, but who I am trying to encourage to do so. That is, people who used to do it, but have forgotten or didn’t realize that the scene was still alive. There are many people who have vintage computers who are not using bulletin boards and whom I would encourage to add BBSing to their vintage experience.

Still, somebody who doesn’t know how to connect to a BBS might come along, so I will give some basic information with a few links for the details. If you’ve never done it, it’s easy.

The first thing to know is that there are two basic methods of connecting. Using dialup, or using the internet. Most people will use the internet and it is easer. For completeness I will give a rough description of dialup first, but unless you are really determined to try a retro experience, this is probably not for you.

In the “old days” of BBSing we all used a modem. Some people still do that for dialup internet and the same modem can be used here. What is needed is a piece of software called a communications program. There are many choices and they all work. Type in the number and it will dial the BBS and you will be presented with a login screen. If you want to go this route you probably know a bit about it already. If you don’t then I suggest you do a net search for “communications program“. Then append the name of a classic like “procomm” or “telix“. I use a program called LYNX, but that is probably not easy to find nowadays. These are for DOS but will work in MS-Windows as well. Windows will have others available as well and older versions will have one built in. Linux users can easily find a suitable program with their package manager.

Nowadays most bulletin boards are not dialup any more, although there are a few (usually older ones) which maintain that option. It is simply easier to use TELNET. This is an internet protocol which is available on all computers. In fact most have a telnet client built in already. Linux and other *nix systems, as well as MS-Windows 2000, XP and earlier versions have it right on the command line. You don’t have to do anything except use it. Vista and Windows-7 will need setup, but since you pay for those, the vendor will have help available, either on-line or through your usual support source. I haven’t tried it but mTelnet comes highly recommended, and for almost all operating systems, including Mac, SyncTerm is apparently excellent. If you are using DOS I recommend using Mike Brutman’s mTCP Telnet which, along with all the information you need to set up DOS networking, is available on his website. Note that this software will run on even the oldest PC. This is my own telnet client of choice.

So now what? Well, if you are using dialup, you start the communications program and dial the number of the BBS. The rest will be presented to you there. Sounds simple – it is. For telnet, you type “telnet boardaddress” on the command line. If you are using a GUI program, then you don’t type telnet, but rather put the address (eg. bbs.dmine.net) in the appropriate place there. Note that almost all boards use port number 23 and the software will take this for granted so you don’t have to think about it. A very few boards use a different port and you will have to type this after the above line, leaving a space in between.

So, in the end all you need is a telnet program, and if you have Linux or XP or older, you are good to go and can simply type one of the following lines to try out a BBS.

telnet bbs.dmine.net
or
telnet bbs.at2k.org

Both of those have a guest login so you can see how it works without having to sign up. The previous two blog entries have many more boards which you can use. Anyway, there you have the basics of how to use bulletin boards. There is much more to know, but all you really need to get started is to connect. If you’re still confused, I’ve given you enough catch words that a simple net search will show you the rest.

Like I’ve said in previous posts, this is a fun thing to do. Those who remember will have a great time reminiscing, and younger folks will see what their parents did before the internet became ubiquitous. §

I have continued my exploration of the BBS community and have more to report. Not all these boards are really great and not all are completely functional. This is because many boards seem to get old and disused after a while. However new ones come on the scene and old ones revive.

In prervious posts I have given links to lists of boards. These are useful, but the number of dead ends can make their use difficult. One organization which has a solution to that problem is bbs-scene.org. They maintain a list which is checked daily to make sure the boards are up and running. That, of course, doesn’t mean that they all work, but it’s a good start.

The bbs-scene.org does much more. In their own words:

“bbs-scene.org offers a collection of internet services to the bbs (bulletin board system) community. We offer an irc network and a nntp (or news) server.”

I am sure their efforts will help give more life to the community. Hopefully too, that will make it more attractive to newcomers.

I found another list which is up to date. I’ll let them explain:

“BBSfinder is based off of the concept used at SHOUTcast.com. A dynamically updating list of of radio stations (in BBS finders case, Bulletin Board Systems) that is never out of date. The idea was sparked due to two main factors… The Bulletin Board Scene has dwindled since it’s glory days in the 80′s and 90′s. While there are many BBS’s active, the caller numbers have lowered. This is a site to help raise awareness that BBS’s are still alive and kicking.”

You can find them at http://www.bbsfinder.com/


Here is a list of the ones I tried, along with my impressions:

1. Aleco Experience: Located in Prague, Czech Republic, they specialize in 8 bit computers. Although they have a rigorous signup procedure they do have a nice interface which also gives you choices. The site was fairly responsive and they offer a decent editor for those who want to post messages. There were no local messages and basically offered DoveNet only. I would recommend this as a good choice. telnet://alecoexp.dyndns.org Port:23

2. Defcon BBS is located in Norway and has local messages in Norwegian. The main message base in english is DoveNet. They have a guest login which only asks for your name, country, and e-mail address. That in itself makes it commendable. telnet://bbs.defcon.no Port:23

3. Diamond Mine Online is a US board and home to the BBS Corner which I have mentioned before. I was pleased to see that they have guest login, but it looks like this board is getting a bit neglected. A visit to the sysop’s web presence gets you a suggestion to catch up with the world and sign up for a Facebook account! It looks like Diamond Dave is tired of the BBS scene. telnet://bbs.dmine.net Port:23

4. Electronic Chicken is a Toronto based board. It is quite active because the sysop “echicken” makes an effort to keep things going. In the end a strong sysop presence is really what makes a board work. I found it to have a decent signup procedure and they carry Fido, Scinet, Zer0net, and Dovenet. I didn’t get to test the editor so I don’t know if it works well or not. One notable feature of this board is a large text file section. I look forward to going back and checking that out. telnet://bbs.electronicchicken.com Port:23

5. Masquerade is based in Overland Park, Kansas, and aims to be a revival of the community driven bulletin board systems of the 90s. They’ve got a good looking setup. Signing up is a bit funny though. You are asked to write a letter to “Blakdeth” which he/she will then review to determine if you “get accepted”. I noticed they carry Dovenet, Zer0net, and Scinet, but perhaps this is a better board for gamers. telnet://masqueradebbs.com Port:23

6. The Change OSP is in the Netherlands. The first thing I noticed is that they are running EleBBS software which is a little out of the ordinary. Signup didn’t actually work properly, but by putting everything on the first line where it asks for alias, I got in. They then ask you if want access to the “adult area” which it claims is extensive. I tried the message section and found only Scinet to be active in English. The Fido message area was in Dutch but I didn’t see any local messages. This board has a nice interface. telnet://thechangeosp.nl Port:23

7. Tiny’s BBS is an old classic board coming back to life. They claim lot’s of doors, Fidonet and Micronet, great BBS filebase. I also found Scinet, and Alternet. It has an excellent editor and easy login. I had a little trouble reading messages, but the board is still under construction so things will probably get sorted out soon. So far it looks really good and I particularly like the colour scheme. telnet://tinysbbs.com Port:23

8. AT2k Design BBS is another US board. This is the only board which has a really good guest login. I got the impression that I might be welcome, which unfortunately is not usually the case with bulletin boards. One can actually peruse the board and see how it works without having to fill out a long form with personal information. I strongly recommend this as a first board to visit. The interface is excellent. I didn’t try the editor because I logged in as guest. telnet://bbs.at2k.org

9. CarSo BBs is located in Beverly, England. They bill themselves as “The best since 1986″. It looks good and they claim to support a number of different terminal types. They have guest login which only asks for location, e-mail, and name. It doesn’t seem very active but it looks good. telnet://carso.synchro.net or telnet://carso.dyndns.org

10. datavase BBS hails from Edinburgh, Scotland. They carry Dove-Net, the new MusicalNet, and ASTRO-Net. The latter seems to be the focus of the board. If astronomy and astrophysics is of interest, then this is definitely the right board. They look friendly and have guest login. I think this is a class act. telnet://bbs.datavase.info

11. Chatsubo bills itself as an underground cyberpunk BBS. It is based in Torun, Poland, and is mostly in Polish. There is a menu choice of Polish or International but I only found one friendly message in the English section. Apparently the site is still under construction. The signup asks for name, city, email, and sex, but they also want more information in a message to the sysop if you want to get validated. telnet://chatsubo.servebbs.org:10024

12. LiveWire! Manilla, is from Mandaluyong Phillipines. This looks like it was a very active board at one time. Like many boards they insist on getting your phone number. After giving them enough additional information to get a credit card in your name, they ask you to email them at a Yahoo address to get your account upgraded. In case you lose your password they suggest you give them your mother’s maiden name. In this day and age, I would be very careful using real information on a site like that. Personally I dislike lying, but suit yourself. Perhaps it is best to stay away unless you have a good reason to trust them. telnet bbs.livewire.com.ph

It seems that the BBS survives mostly in North America but, as you can see from this list, there are still some in other parts of the world. That little round of telnetting was certainly an adventure and I found a couple of boards there which I might revisit. Particularly AT2k Design BBS and datavase BBS. Hopefully other people will too. ~

Update:
It looks like it’s going to be a baker’s dozen. I had not been able to find a BBS in Denmark, although Norway is close, but today there was the comment which you see below. Well, I immediately typed “telnet nightexp.no-ip.org” and was promptly greeted with the login screen of The Night Express BBS. What a treat! Sysop Bo Simonsen of Korsør was there for a late night chat and the software which he develops himself, ran like a charm. He is a BBS fanatic and it looks like he is single handedly keeping the Danish BBS scene afloat. If you are Danish, wish you were, or just tired of Synchronet, I can whole heartedly recommend this board. Give it a call and leave me, or Bo, a message. ttyl

As you can see from my first story on this subject, there are lists. It is a huge job to go through all the possibilities, so I tried to find ones that had some draw to me. I am not a gamer, so the ones that advertised that as top priority were not tried. There were a couple of exceptions to that because they looked particularly good for some other reason. My journey then, is partially random. It is interesting that eventually I did end up finding some of the most active and, in some way, important ones. Realize though, that there are very many more out there and I am sure there are some very good ones that I have missed.

One of the first that I looked at was called 1984 and I was drawn to it because it ran on BSD and had unique software. What I found was a welcoming sign up procedure and some innovative architecture. The bad part is that the messaging system was broken and I couldn’t even log off. I really hope that they get the energy to fix these things. It really looks hopeful.

Another common occurrence is that the sysop was simply unable to get enough interest in the board. Road Runner X was one such. The board was very well set up and looked great but, according to the sysop, was just a lot of work to keep up. The Valley BBS was another one which seems to have no visitors but actually is very functional.

Roughnecks looks active and good. They even have a guest login. Although they have a good interface and nothing seems broken, I was not able to sign up. The sign up routine promised a password but I have not received one. An e-mail to the system administrator got no response, so I assume that the board is dead. A funny thing is that I was listed as a member on their web interface. Thanks. :) (see update)

Entropy BBS looked interesting, if only because it was based in an exotic place – New Zealand. The sign up is really odd. They have a form which asks for things I had never heard of before like my “group” and my “111″. They ask that you check back again to see if you were accepted. I tried back every day, and after a week was finally able to log on. At this point I wanted to put in my location and clean up my personal information so that others would know who I was, but this did not seem possible – a problem with much BBS software. Anyway, I was able to look around and confirm that it is indeed a very nice looking board. Too bad they don’t have a realistic sign up procedure.

Sign up is indeed a problem. For one thing, it is often impossible to find out anything about a board without signing up. A few have a “Guest” sign in which lets you look around and evaluate whether you are interested or not. Many ask for your full name, street address, phone number, birth date, and sex. That to me is outrageous. A great deal ask you for your state. Presumable they mean “conscious”. If not, perhaps they are assuming that you live in the USA. Doesn’t everybody? (sigh)

Other boards which had the privacy, and presumably security, issues were, Hysteria BBS, and the Electronic Chicken. These are likely very good boards, but I didn’t sign up. Regarding privacy, The Quickfox was unusual in that it had a note beside “name” which suggested it was OK to use anything you wanted. The Pharcyde does it better. They ask for name, location, and an e-mail address. Now you’re talking. It looks like a pretty good board too.

The ones I ended up really liking ranged from brand new unused, to very busy, to old as the hills. The following boards are recommended by me.

The Bandmaster is an old BBS which still has two dialup lines – although they recently added telnet access. They are very message oriented and carry only local and Fidonet. The software is Maximus which has been around for a long time and, especially in this case, has a most convoluted interface. That however is part of the fun, and certainly retro.

Omicron Theta is brand new. I noticed that I was only the third name on the list. However, the software that this board runs on is superior. The interface is the simplest that I have seen. Unfortunately the board only gets messages from one network. Sill, I strongly recommend it and really hope it does well.

Somewhere in between, age wise is Vertrauen. This board was around in the old days and has come back. It is also the home of the Synchronet BBS software. It is a very busy board and carries several message networks, including the popular DoveNet which also has its origins there.

The board with the most message networks available was Diskshop, operating out of Toronto. This is fast, gives you lots of time, and also runs the Synchronet software that seems to be becoming the standard for telnet BBSing these days.

Many other boards were tried in this run and, no doubt, I will find some good ones in the future. One can only use a few with any practicality, especially if the interest is messaging. Gaming is perhaps a different matter. The Ville in Nova Scotia also has dialup access, and so deserves a special mention, but other than that I think I’ll leave it there for now. Hopefully, the reader will make their own evaluation and also be inspired to go on their own exploration and discover their own favourite bulletin boards.

Here are the telnet addresses for the ones I’ve talked about. If you are using the command line, type “telnet” and then the name after the “//”. You don’t need to type anything else.

Omicron Theta telnet://robertwolfe.org Port:23
Diskshop telnet://bbs.diskshop.ca Port:23
Vertrauen telnet://vert.synchro.net Port:23
Bandmaster telnet://bandmaster.dyndns.org Port:23 (604-266-1977, 604-266-5271)
The Ville telnet://theville.vintagecomputing.net Port:23 (902-442-2725)

Electronic Chicken telnet://bbs.electronicchicken.com Port:23
Hysteria BBS telnet://hysteriabbs.com Port:23
Pharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org Port:23
Quickfox telnet://bbs.quickfox.net Port:23
Entropy BBS telnet://entropybbs.co.nz Port:23
Roughneck BBS telnet://bbs.roughneckbbs.com Port:23

The Valley BBS telnet://valley.darktech.org Port:23
1984 telnet://1984.ws Port:23
Road Runner X telnet://rrx.ca Port:23

Give a couple of these a try and see what you like. The first five are definitely good and the last three are questionable. Bon voyage!

UPDATE: I got an e-mail from the sysop at Roughnecks BBS with a password. After spending a bit of time on the board, I have to say that this is one of the best. It is fast, and carries two of the most interesting message networks, DoveNet and ZeroNet. Like I said earlier, I’m not a gamer, but it looks like this could be a good board if you are.
UPDATE 2: Today (Jan-22) I got an e-mail from The Ville BBS welcoming me aboard. This just goes to show how slow things are in the BBS world these days, but also that there really is a welcoming community.

In my area there were maybe 300 BBSs, so there was a lot to choose from. All major cities could boast the same – or more. However, by ’99 those numbers were way down. At this point in time, there are probably only about 50 BBSs in all of North America which are accessible via the phone line. The internet is just so accessible to everyone, that survival of the BBS became quickly endangered. Except for one thing – fanatics!

Some people, like me, were originally reluctant to leave the non-commercial, and democratic, world of networks like FIDO. We could communicate for free all over the world – without government intervention. Eventually, e-mail won, but not entirely. There is still a nostalgic draw, though there is much more than that. The whole idea of text only direct communication is as interesting now as it was when morse code first became popular with amateurs radio enthusiasts.

There is also the fun of running really minimal equipment. A computer from the early 80s running at 4MHz and having less memory than it takes to render a web page, can dial a modem and connect to a BBS. Actually, there are some people who make a point of running a BBS on old kit. The Commodore 64 is more than adequate and that’s what Borderline BBS, for example, runs on.

The BBS is not dead yet. In fact I think it is slowly becoming increasingly popular. Yes, there are very few that are accessible via the phone. That, after all, costs money for extra phone lines. But using the venerable old telnet protocol on the internet is saving the day. For those that never put down the mouse, telnet is a simple protocol which looks a lot like a regular communications program interface. In other words, the land of ASCII and ANSI. There are now quite a few BBSs in North America which are available with telnet – and I think their numbers might be growing. Have a look at some of the links in the sister post to this one: BBS lists – Telnet and Dialup

Last night, I went looking on the net for some interesting boards so I could test a new telnet program. I discovered that one of my old BBS favourites was now reachable from the net. The Bandmaster BBS was started in 1986 by Dallas Hinton, and has never given up. All these years it has been available by modem but now also via the net. I just typed in the telnet address (bandmaster.dyndns.org) and there it was in front of me. It said, “login:”

I put in my name and it responded with “password:” . . . Now what! After staring into space for a minute, I typed in something I found in a hole at the far reaches of my mind where old passwords go to die … and I was in! What fun! Up came that old welcome screen. Talk about nostalgia. :)

Of course, had I not had an old account, I could have registered one. I could have also opted to use dialup and enjoy that special satisfaction of hearing the ring at the other end being interrupted by the pleasant sound of two modems doing their negotiation and then settling into a steady stream of communication. However, telnet being an internet protocol, doesn’t incur any long distance charges or tying up of the phone.

I can run telnet from the command line in any of the modern operating systems that I use. I hear that even MS-Windows has some good telnet clients, but you might have to install it yourself in that case. Personally, I prefer DOS for this kind of thing. Being text only, it just feels right. Actually, to me, text only always feels right.

The program that I was testing is written by Mike Brutman and is part of a suite of TCP/IP programs that he authored. Up until he wrote this, the only programs readily available for DOS were the classic (but peculiar) NCSA telnet, the (much better) derivative lxtelnet, and Morley’s unfinished MiniTelnet. Mike’s telnet program is called mTCP Telnet, is only 90K and is definitely the fastest and best written that I’ve seen for DOS. It will also run on as little as an 8088 and 150Kb of RAM. For all DOS-heads, I strongly recommend you check it out. http://www.brutman.com/mTCP/mTCP_Telnet.html

Even if you’re not into vintage computers and don’t want to hunt down a real modem, I strongly recommend that you give telnet BBSing a try. If you’re under 25 and weren’t there, you will not appreciate the nostalgia – but you’ll benefit from the history lesson. I’ll be back on the BandMaster BBS tonight. Maybe I’ll see you there!

I actually have an old copy or two sitting in my archives. But the world has changed and almost all of those bulletin boards are gone now – almost, but not all.

In looking around, I found that there are quite a number of lists. Unfortunately some of them are out of date and others are just there for historical reasons. There are some which have been updated in recent years and still have live listings. I thought I’d share what I found so as to give others a jump start on the same path.

The BBS experience can be especially enjoyable on old machines where text still rules. One of the sites I found deals specifically with this, and is a fantastic archive and documentation of a period in popular computer history. Check out textfiles.com for a good time.

Dialup is getting rare but there is still some life in those quarters. Telnet is surprisingly common. Old machines, of course, generally support a serial connection so a modem is usually easy to set up. TCP/IP is sometimes more difficult, or impossible to get going on old kit, but either way there are still live BBSs out there.

BBS lists – Telnet and Dialup

The BBS Corner is quite extensive:
http://www.dmine.com/bbscorner/bbslists.htm

Here is The BBS Corner dialup list:
http://www.telnetbbsguide.com/dialbbs/dialbbs.htm

Here is The BBS Corner telnet list:
http://www.telnetbbsguide.com/

This is a recent BBS list for Canada:
http://www.hackcanada.com/hackcanada/oldsite/bbs/index.html
It covers both telnet and dialup.

USBBS covers both US and Canada:
http://www.usbbs.org/
It has been going since 1984, but I’m not sure how much deadwood it contains.

In the world of telnet only, there is Synchronet:
http://synchro.net/sbbslist.html
This is modern stuff, so it should be mostly good.

The last two links are not lists but are closely related and very interesting.

Contact old BBS friends
http://bbsmates.com/default.aspx
is an attempt to connect with the past.

Remembering text at: http://www.textfiles.com/ is a worthwile experience.
Go to http://www.textfiles.com/history/ for some very good history and stories from the golden age of the BBS.

As you see, there are still some phone line boards out there and some of those are old and hardcore – not even supporting telnet or having any other kind of web presence. However, at this point in time it is obvious that telnet is the dominant protocol. If you are reading this on a modern computer your browser might not support clicking on a telnet link, but you probably have access to a terminal window so why not type “telnet” and one of the very many names listed in the links above? The BBS lives!

There are some common words which are often used in such a random manner that it can be a tedious task to read what was presumably intended to be a communication.

It looks like what many people do is use some kind of phonetic representation of how the words are spoken in their local dialect. Why is that? In a Californian dialect, pan pin and pen could easily be confused when talking, but I don’t see people using those words interchangeably when writing. You might think that is obvious because it’s not how written English works and it would be very confusing if it was. Yet why would someone use to instead of too or two when that would be substituting direction for degree or quantity? The confounding of those concepts by people who successfully write computer code is particularly puzzling.

To me that is a situation which needs to be addressed. If words are supposed to be English, then you shouldn’t have to do any kind of translation if you are an English speaker. Spoken English uses sounds and written English uses letters. Sounds and letters are generally not equivalent. That is one of the reasons you cannot write down what your dog says, or pronounce license plates.

Another strange habit is the substitution of the letter i for the personal pronoun I. The capitalization of the pronoun has been standard since the 15th century and was already common 200 years earlier. I guess some people just take a while longer to catch on. For those that are used to looking at code, please remember that the pronoun is ASCII 73, and not 105, nor anything else. If you prefer binary it is 01001001 but you can’t substitute any numbers when you write the code, just like you can’t substitute letters when writing English.

Spell checkers seem to be ubiquitous now. Perhaps they could be used to help people communicate with words. I see nine common words which I think should be flagged by all spell checkers every time they come up so that people can make sure that they have the right one. Here they are:

to, too, two (direction, degree, quantity)
i, I (letter of alphabet, personal pronoun)
their, there they’re (possession, place, description)
then, than (chronology, comparison)
your, you’re (possession, condition)

Although English is my second language I have gotten pretty fluent over the years, yet I still make some strange mistakes. This article is not about perfection. It is about improvement and consideration for others. Some people are obviously struggling. Everyone makes typographical or other errors and I feel it is OK to do so. I really don’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings if they are genuinely trying to communicate.

The important thing is to respect your readers. Do your best to make yourself understood and not make your reader do extra work. If you are meticulous about the numbers and letters you feed your spreadsheet, compiler, or accounting program, then you obviously have respect for those programs. If you are not equally careful about the letters and numbers you use in your communication, does that mean you have less respect for people? Think about it.

(Slightly drag a pictures to see all of it.)

Here is my newest computer. It’s a server, so that’s why there’s no console shown. I think it is so beautiful that it belongs in the sitting room. It runs apache, proftpd, and telnet servers. ALSA sound system utilities provide a complete sound recording and playback facility. Telnet allows me to control everything from any other computer. I played with this for a few days and thought others might be interested in how such an odd looking machine came into being.

All computer problems can be made easy, or even completely transparent, by spending money – but where does that end? Simple, it ends where you just ask someone else to do the job for you. If you have to spend a lot of money on computers then you don’t understand the concept. What I’m trying to say here, is that this machine has cost two bucks so far and that is a very important aspect. The hardware may be very limited by some people’s standards – but it is still very powerful. For those that want to know, here is the rundown:

MB: ASUS P4S333-M
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 478 1.6GHz /512cache
RAM: 512MB DDR
HDD: WD 8.4GB
SOUND: Pre AC97 SB128 w/ES1370 Ensoniq chip

Yes, the HDD is small, but plenty big enough for a full Ubuntu Linux install with LAMP, which on this machine took 537MB. I partitioned it with 6GB root, 1GB swap, and 1.4GB /home. When everything proves itself, I will add a 500GB drive as a /home. Yes, I know that I will probably have to pay for that.

To make the sound system more reliable, I set the audio priorities to rtprio 90 and a nice of -10. This can be set in the /etc/security/limits.conf file. I also compiled the ALSA system from fresh sources. All that stuff can be found on the net so I won’t get into more details now. To me the important piece of hardware here is the sound card. I am looking forward to exploring the ES1370 which supposedly doesn’t have the automatic resampling of the 1371 and later chips that was introduced by the implementation of AC97.

I love the ALSA sound system. I can record, play, and set mixer controls from the command line and from any computer on the network. Isn’t that cool? To complete the concept of remote operation, I set the BIOS to wake-on-lan and installed a little piece of software to make that work in Linux. Now I can also turn the box on and off from anywhere. Anyway, this posting is supposed to be about a case mod, so here’s the story:

The “situation” started with me getting a micro ATX mainboard which wouldn’t fit any of the old cases that I had. Really, all I wanted was to use it, so I was almost ready to just pile the parts together. Finally, I decided to use any kind of holder to fasten the major parts together in one clump – à la “system unit”. There was a largish tower case destined for the dump and it occurred to me that a piece of it would tie together the PS and a drive bay. All I had to do was bolt the MB to one side. It turns out that the case was exactly as wide as the MB so here is how I did it.

I cut the case in half using my skill saw which turned out to be a quick and easy procedure. I used a thin abrasive blade and the edges turned out fairly neat and only required a bit of dressing.

The side was riveted in, so I drilled out the rivets on the extra piece which was then used as the bottom for the half that I wanted. It just took four pop rivets to install it.

I also drilled out the standoffs and used them in the new pattern which I had to mark and drill. I just used 8-32 bolts from the hardware store. I was prepared to use any kind of spacer or fastener since it’s difficult to get the real thing around here, but I was lucky that things worked out easily.

Here we have the PS, drive bays, and MB all mounted. The arrangement turned out to be pretty practical since there was no plan to use any cards. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a problem.

The on-board sound chip is a SI7012 by Silicon Integrated Systems and they don’t use adequate filtering on the DAC and none on the record ADC side, making the chip useless for audio. That meant that I had to add a PCI sound card – and that, in turn, meant that I needed a bracket to hold it in. I had not held in the video card while testing, but a permanent installation needed some rigidity.

I played with the idea of using a piece of 1/2″ angle aluminum from side to side, but finally settled on the bracket you see here. It is made from a piece of 3/16″ by 2″ aluminum and just bent in the vice. I had to drill and tap the case holes, and also tap the two holes for the cards in the bracket. I decided to make it able to accommodate two cards since it needed some width for stability anyway, and expandability is always a good idea. The extra space is over the AGP slot, but I could move the bracket to the right fairly easily if I wanted to use another PCI slot. As you can see, things are pretty tight, and the RAM is stuck way in the back. It is, however, quite easy to get your hand in there.

On the bottom right you can see the slot on the back which was cut in half. This is half the slot which was originally for the ports. Now it turns out to be handy for installing the ram. One can just get a couple of fingers in there to operate the levers and push the sticks down. What luck!

On the left side panel you can see the drive connectors. These would have been difficult to install without a considerable amount of swearing, so I cut that little window. That was a simple solution and makes is a dream to install or change cables.

The optical is an LG R/W drive, but if I find another use for it, I might replace that with a read only drive. It was just handy.

The HDD was put in the FD slot. That might be a bad idea since there is perhaps limited cooling with its metal enclosure. I don’t expect the drive to get hammered, but it would be easy to modify the holder for better cooling. The other full width slots are available for expansion. This is where I plan to put a larger capacity HDD for serious storage.

Here it is turned on. I love the yellow light on the blue background. Very Swedish!

Actually, I should say something about the blue face plate. I needed a place for a light and a switch. Some existing holes in the case were in a suitable location.

The problem is that I had to find some relatively neat way of holding the parts in there. I took a piece of blue acrylic and drilled it with minimal sized holes and then just used a couple of dabs on the back with the good ol’ glue gun. The hole for the switch is recessed from the front to provide protection from accidental operation. Both the light and the switch are those typical pre-wired ones that you rip out of old cases.

That little face plate took a significant amount of work compared to the whole project, but was absolutely necessary to make things complete.

Well, it looks great in the sitting room, but it’s probably handier on my regular stack of computers by my computer chair downstairs. So I set it up there and proceeded with my plans for server heaven and other coolness.

Big mistake! Luck had been with me despite minimal planning. Now there was a serious problem – the CPU fan was unbearably loud next to my ear. For a machine which was supposed to play and record sound as a major part of it’s duties, this would simply not do.

Closing the box was not an option. Nor was buying a quiet fan – or buying anything, for that matter. This was supposed to be a use-what-you-have project. What was I to do?

It took a bit of thinking – and one more hole to drill. Now the machine is going down one more storey. To run the wires, I drilled a hole in the floor by my chair and stuck the unit in the basement. Project completed.