Possibilities - Letter From Phil 10/92

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LETTER FROM PHIL 10/92
----------------------

*** From October 1992 Possibilities Newsletter ***
*** Copyright 1992 by eSoft, Inc.  All Rights Reserved ***

Letter from Phil
by Phil Becker

Wow! There just isn't a better word to describe the first ONE BBSCON.  It 
really was worth all the work that Jack and I put into it.  In this issue I 
spent the time and money to print two full pages of color photos of ONE BBSCON 
because I didn't think the story could be told without them.  That's also why 
this issue is late.

The title "Publisher" by my name on this newsletter means that I get to figure 
out how to do each new thing we try to print.  I know it's all easy, but when 
you have no clue, it takes time and money to find out.  I'm no different in 
that regard, and learning how to get those pictures in this newsletter took 
more time than I had allocated for this newsletter's production (it also broke 
the budget for this issue, but that's another story). 

One side effect of the delay is that it has been a while since I wrote the ONE 
BBSCON report that appears in this issue.  As I read it now, it looks a bit 
"giddy" and I was tempted to re-edit it.  But I decided that the fact that I 
sounded like an excited teen-ager talking about his first date it is really a 
good indication of how this show affected me (and nearly everyone else who 
attended) -- so I left it as it was. 

One of the most eagerly anticipated TBBS add-ons ever will ship next month.  
QSO is going to cause a lot of excitement as it adds QWK off-line reader 
capability to TBBS.  I have had to do a lot of technical innovation over the 
past year to make this product possible.  It stretches the TBBS structure to 
its limits because it requires real-time compression and de-compression.  The 
memory model of TBBS makes this very difficult indeed, but QSO has 
accomplished it.  On page 6 you will find details of QSO.  You may place 
advance orders for it immediately for $99.95 plus shipping. 

With the release of QSO next month eSoft will have met two out of three of the 
promised release dates I announced at ONE BBSCON (TDBS 1.2 and QSO).  TIMS 1.1 
is moving into beta testing this month and I see no reason at this time why it 
won't also be shipping before the end of the year. 

Even though this issue is expanded (16 pages vs. the normal 12) I have left 
out the "Stupid QAL Tricks" and "Realities" columns this month.  Instead I 
have elected to run an edited version of some technical information from the 
TDBS developer's conference at ONE BBSCON.  I am doing this because I think it 
has a lot of information that is not easy to obtain, and also because I think 
that it shows the kind of information exchange that took place over and over 
at ONE BBSCON.  The technical columns will return next issue. 

Making the ONE BBSCON happen has been a dream of mine for over two years.  It 
began when I saw the good that the original TBBS symposiums (1988 and 1989) 
did for my customers.  At that time I felt that the best thing that could ever 
happen for everyone who uses BBS technology was to create an industry show 
that had both information seminars and product demonstrations.  For this type 
of access to products and developers to happen, it had to be a trade show (but 
one with a twist or two).  I knew if everybody could win by being part of it, 
the BBS world could finally get what it most needed -- one place to see 
everything and everyone and learn about every aspect of BBSing.  When I talked 
Jack Rickard (editor of BoardWatch magazine) into trying it out two years ago, 
I knew we could make it happen.  Now it has happened and it is changing the 
BBS world. 

You will soon begin to see new products and changes in existing products in 
all areas of the online world because of what happened at ONE BBSCON.  You 
will also see sysops who gained the confidence to try out their ideas find 
success with them and show us the way to new applications. 

The online world has always been a world that promised many things.  Often the 
promises were wild dreams; rarely have they been delivered.  ONE BBSCON has 
started many of those dreams on a course to becoming reality.  I'm thrilled 
that it has finally happened and I thank each of you who supported it more 
than you'll ever know.  I hope to see you there next year so I can thank you 
personally... 

- END -
PS1092-1
Rev. 10/92

Copyright (C) 1994 eSoft, Inc., All Rights Reserved.  Permission granted
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