I have always had interest in technology and it's potential benefits to humanity, even in my early childhood. As a side effect of this -- and the fact that my first computer was a Tandy 1000-XL, I developed a great interest in retro tech. This eventually led me to discover the wonders of the BBS. (I have even poked around on a few dial-up BBSs over the years.) Synchronet seemed to be the software of choice of most of the lively boards I discovered back in 1999. I disavowed in 2000 that -- against all odds -- development had been resumed by the author, Rob Swindell. I eventually decided to attempt the task of running my own BBS. (Note, this did not go over well with my family, as at the time we only had one telephone line and dial-up internet access.) My BBS, iQLand, came and went over the year, often being nothing more than a glorified offline mail reader for Dove-Net, an inter-BBS network that comes configured by default with every standard SBBS (Synchronet BBS) install. My most recent attempt at such involved the salvage of an old Pentium II 350 MHz box with limited RAM, an install of Slackware, and a compile and install via CVS. While this system served its propose quite well, I needed it to do some other things I could not quite accomplish with Slackware. (I suppose I just wasn't as in-touch with Bob as I needed to be to run Slack.) Anyway, on to what I really wanted to rant about....

I'm now working toward a functional install of SBBS on the same box but this time with Ubuntu; thus far, my work has gone well. Ubuntu installed on the first try! It even properly configured the box's sound card and monitor! I have been working on installing some of the extra components I want/need for what I intend to do with this system -- besides running SBBS that is, and I -- just last night -- won a spiffy new 400 MHz Pentium II on eBay for $0.01 USD plus a few bucks s'n'h.

I probably should let you in on the purpose of I intend for this new incarnation of my BBS, but I wont -- not just yet that is :-). I have a really good idea in mind, but I still have a few kinks to work out first.