keeper@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us (Ron O'Dell) (01/16/90)
I had a bit of a problem sending this before, as a followup, but it's in response to an article in which the author said that perhaps BBS's aren't in phone books because modem users might get charged more, and claimed that some sysops in New Jersey do indeed get charged higher rates. Here's my reply: Perhaps Pacific Bell is more lax about modems than New Jersey Bell (that's the right name, isn't it?). Pacific Bell seems to have an attitude of "So what? a modem, big deal, what do you want us to do about it?" regarding modems. If they work on the regular phone lines, they have no right to charge extra, and virtually no way to know if one is using a modem or not, anyway. Of course they >mention< that they can set you up with a better quality line, etc. Anyhow, in Santa Cruz, Pyrzqxgl BBS is in our phone book. There is another rather obscure system in there, too (you know the type, the mysterious BBS that no one calls yet remains running for some reason)^ s/b semicolon. However, I believe that it's only been spelled correctly once--though I haven't checked the new book yet. I'm not sure if Pac Bell knows that it's a BBS rather than some obscure name, though. but I'm sure that Pyrzqxgl's sysop, Tachyon, will read this and comment............
tachyon@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us (tane' tachyon) (01/17/90)
In article <1054@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us> keeper@gorn.santa-cruz.ca.us (Ron O'Dell) writes: > > >Anyhow, in Santa Cruz, Pyrzqxgl BBS is in our phone book. There is another >rather obscure system in there, too (you know the type, the mysterious BBS >that no one calls yet remains running for some reason)^ s/b semicolon. > >However, I believe that it's only been spelled correctly once--though I haven't >checked the new book yet. I'm not sure if Pac Bell knows that it's a BBS rather >than some obscure name, though. but I'm sure that Pyrzqxgl's sysop, Tachyon, >will read this and comment............ > Ahh, how can I disappoint such faith! Yes, Pyrzqxgl is in the phone book, but only in the white pages -- what they were talking about was a section in the yellow pages just for computer bulletin boards. Actually Stuart III (!) was once listed under "Time-sharing systems" in the yellow pages (or a title to that effect -- that section doesn't seem to be in the current phonebook). How did Pyrzqxgl get in the white pages? Well, a certain Mr. S. told them that "BBS Pyrzqxgl" was his weirdo girlfriend's name, so it winds up as "Pyrzqxgl B B S" as the last entry in the "P"'s. Yes, they got the spelling right this year.