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70 lines
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Plaintext
70 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 08:16:23 -0700
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From: Russ Dale
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To: jason@textfiles.com
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Subject: APSNET BBS
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Hello Jason. I am revisiting my old BBS days and thought I would send
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along the history of Aurora Colorado's APSNET BBS (303-693-6737). I
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wrote the piece for an internal newsletter for the Aurora Public
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Schools back in 2003. APSNET is already on the CODEN 303 BBS list @
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textfiles.com and should be included. Thanks. I am also working on a
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narrative history for my BBS' Vision of Anarchy and The Bottomless
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Slurpee. I will send that when it is complete. Have a great New
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Year. --Russ Dale, www.radhole.com
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The History of APSNET (BBS)
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The BBS known as APSNET (Aurora Public Schools Net) was the creation
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of Glenn Blanco, Andy Yuan and Gary Sleap. It was a Master's Degree
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project that came online in the fall of 1985. The BBS (Bulletin Board
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Service) came online at Columbia Middle School in Aurora. The
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equipment used was an Apple IIe with a 20-megabyte hard drive. It
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used the GBBS Pro software package, which was the standard for Apple
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BBS software in the 1980s. APSNET was named by David Ladek, then an
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8th grade student at Columbia.
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APSNET was online from the fall of 1985 until the fall of 1994. In
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its ten-year history, the BBS, with only one phone line (303-693-6737)
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was averaging over 40 calls per day and well over one thousand calls
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per month. After 10 years, the final log of calls was well over one
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hundred thousand. During APSNET's tenure, thousands of users
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logged-in from all over the state of Colorado. APSNET even received
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long distance contact from a former user who was in the armed forces
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serving in Germany. APSNET was responsible for at least one marriage.
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Sysops received thanks from a user who met his partner while
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exchanging e-mail on the system.
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APSNET featured electronic mail, bulletin board posting, online USA
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Today News Service and a full menu of online games and simulations as
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well as educational downloads. The APSNET BBS was the first
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electronic mail service for the Aurora Public Schools. Most of the
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users of APSNET were students from schools around the Denver Metro
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area. Several teachers used the service on a regular basis.
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APSNET began with a baud rate of 500 bps in 1985 and progressed
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through 1200, 2400 and then 9600 bps in 1988. It was recognized as
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"Bulletin Board Service of the Month" in April of 1988 by the Colorado
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Apple Computer Users Group. Schools in APS, Denver Public, Cherry
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Creek and Douglas County used the service as a training model in
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middle and high school telecommunications classes. APSNET inspired
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the formation of other school Bulletin Board Systems such as the
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Gatekeeper BBS at Gateway High School
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APSNET endured as a successful BBS because of direct support for the
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Aurora Public Schools. The district provided the phone line and the
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equipment and software. Most importantly, the district kept the
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system free and open for all interested persons using the system. An
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eighty-megabyte hard drive was purchased in 1989 increasing the size
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and speed of the system.
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In the early 1990s, because of the oncoming use of the internet and
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the increased demand for communication by computer, APSNET became
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quickly out of date. In its ten-year history, APSNET became one of
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the most utilized and popular systems in the Denver Metro area. Even
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to this day, system sysops still receive thanks via electronic mail
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from former users. In the late 1990s the name APSNET was revitalized
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to become the name of the Local Area Network (LAN) of the Aurora
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Public Schools.
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.....article by Russ Dale, Denver, Colorado, January 2003
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