Apollo BBS Archive - April 1988

Apollo BBS Archive - April 28, 1988


$tatus Club Bulletin Board command:$C


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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

SYSOP Cliff

Atari Bulletin Board command:EC

You chose Chit Chat

Subject:Virus

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

The outer COSmos Bulletin Board command:$C

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

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

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

Shut up already!

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

Press  to abort

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bulletin Board command:EC

You chose Chit Chat

Subject:Paul

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

VOID Bulletin Board command:$C


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

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

Rev. Beau

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

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

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

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

VOID Bulletin Board command:EC

You chose Chit Chat

Subject:Beau

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


Post Office command:S

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

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