Still kickin...

Adam

unread,

Mar 15, 2004, 5:34:58 PM3/15/04

to

Ah.... the power of Google. Tonight, I was digging around in Google
search results and came across this very surprising site devoted to
TBBS.

I must say, I am quite impressed that the legend of TBBS carries on!

To answer the original question of "Where are they now?":

Alan Bryant runs his own marketing/creative consultancy called
Moonworks -- www.moonworks.com

Phil Becker runs a recently launched magazine called Digital ID
World. www.digitalidworld.com

Bob Hartman, I believe, still works at eSoft

And myself, function as the CTO/Founder of Data393 (www.data393.com)
and very much in the consutling side of the world in the areas of
networking and security (www.egenity.com).

I am pleased to say, that I still have frequent contact and conduct
current business with both Alan and Phil.

From what I hear, Bob is also doing well.

Adam Hudson
ad...@egenity-dot-com.absolutely-no-spam.invalid
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brought to you by http://www.tbbs.org

Tarix

unread,

Mar 15, 2004, 5:34:58 PM3/15/04

to

> Adamwrote:

Ah.... the power of Google. Tonight, I was digging around in Google
search results and came across this very surprising site devoted to
TBBS.
>
> I must say, I am quite impressed that the legend of TBBS carries
on!
>

Unfortunatly it is barely on respiration. A few of us have approach
eSoft and Phil about helping to support the site, but the
conversations always end abruptly.

Most recently I asked about rewriting TDBS so that we could salvage
the games. Although there was initially some interest I never heard
a final answer yes or no.

So if anyone else would like to see TBBS or TDBS preserved please let
Phil and eSoft know. I'm hoping that if enough former sysops show
their interest we can get eSoft to allow us to carry the TBBS torch.

David Rance

unread,

Mar 18, 2004, 6:46:53 AM3/18/04

to

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004, Adam Hudson wrote:

>I am pleased to say, that I still have frequent contact and conduct
>current business with both Alan and Phil.
>
>From what I hear, Bob is also doing well.
>
>Adam Hudson
>ad...@egenity-dot-com.absolutely-no-spam.invalid

Wow, the teenage author of Quickbbs! How are you doing then, Adam?

I'm still running TBBS but read messages on a message editor that uses -
yes - the Quickbbs message base system!

I wrote many times around 1999 to Bob asking if he couldn't possibly
sell or give us the source code for TBBS so that those of us who were
interested could update it. Sadly he just wouldn't. :-(

So, although TBBS is still running here, it's now a museum piece. While
museums shouldn't be closed to the public nevertheless I wonder just how
much longer I can keep the thing going.

Incidentally, does anyone remember Jeff Johnson from Little Rock,
Arkansas? He logged on to Ichthus a couple of weeks ago via the
Internet. Didn't leave a forwarding address, though.

Best wishes, David

David Rance

unread,

Mar 18, 2004, 6:50:10 AM3/18/04

to

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004, Tarix wrote:

>So if anyone else would like to see TBBS or TDBS preserved please let
>Phil and eSoft know. I'm hoping that if enough former sysops show
>their interest we can get eSoft to allow us to carry the TBBS torch.

No point. I pestered Bob four years ago and got precisely nowhere.

Incidentally, have you had time to have a look at TIAD for me, yet?

Kommer Kleijn

unread,

Apr 11, 2004, 8:40:15 AM4/11/04

to

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 11:50:10 +0000, David Rance
<david...@SPAMOFFrance.org.uk> wrote:

>On Tue, 16 Mar 2004, Tarix wrote:
>
>>So if anyone else would like to see TBBS or TDBS preserved please let
>>Phil and eSoft know. I'm hoping that if enough former sysops show
>>their interest we can get eSoft to allow us to carry the TBBS torch.
>
>No point. I pestered Bob four years ago and got precisely nowhere.

Yes David I remember well. But now that we are a few years further,
wouldn't it be worth to try once more again?

Best!,

Kommer

Puggs

unread,

Apr 11, 2004, 10:43:17 PM4/11/04

to

> Kommer Kleijnwrote:

Best!,

Kommer[/quote:52363b0054]

Ummm now would not be a good time for people to pester him, please
read http://www.tbbs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=296 for
more details

David Rance

unread,

Apr 12, 2004, 3:32:17 AM4/12/04

to

In message <e1fi701akiee430rj...@4ax.com>, Kommer Kleijn
<us...@computer.com> writes

>>>So if anyone else would like to see TBBS or TDBS preserved please let
>>>Phil and eSoft know. I'm hoping that if enough former sysops show
>>>their interest we can get eSoft to allow us to carry the TBBS torch.
>>
>>No point. I pestered Bob four years ago and got precisely nowhere.
>
>Yes David I remember well. But now that we are a few years further,
>wouldn't it be worth to try once more again?

Doubtful. The more time goes on the less likely we are to get anywhere.

Why don't you have a go?

Best wishes, David

Tarix

unread,

Apr 12, 2004, 4:23:57 PM4/12/04

to

> Kommer Kleijnwrote:
[quote:1335d1f5da]On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 11:50:10 +0000, David Rance

> <david...@SPAMOFFrance.org.uk> wrote:
>
> No point. I pestered Bob four years ago and got precisely nowhere.
>

Yes David I remember well. But now that we are a few years further,
wouldn't it be worth to try once more again?

[/quote:1335d1f5da]

We, meaning TBBS.org, are trying to work this out. The general idea
is to try and make it worth eSoft's time. That generally translates
to pay them to give up TBBS. We're going to have more information on
our website soon and we'll post an announcement here when that
happens.

Kommer Kleijn

unread,

Apr 17, 2004, 6:57:53 AM4/17/04

to

This may be of interest.

I am member of the IPAD user group. (www.ipadowners.org)

Approx 2-3 years ago eSoft made us understand that they would abandon
further development of the IPAD. As a group we then approached eSoft
and negociated. The result after some time was that we got acces to
the source code. (against payement of a lumb sum of money) They did
not sell us all the rights, but they sold us some rights. We got the
rights to update it and even sell the result. We do not have the right
to publish this source code. It stays copyright eSoft, only parts are
copyright IOA (Ipad Owners association). Included in the deal was help
from the original coders to start off our programmers. Now the IPAD
has had many updates and evoluated from 2.52 (which was the latest
eSoft version) to the actual 4.01, released only a few days ago. Also
are new IPADs are available again from IOA.

I will not say the same deal is good for TBBS. IPADs are still usefull
and used in productive environments while TBBS is merely a hobbyist
thing now. I only want to say that I think there may be possibilities
if someone really would want to take the time to think something out
with them. There may be other possibilities than only ask them to free
the sourcecode for free.

Just a thought,

Best!,

Kommer. (telnet://bbs.ibbbs.be)

On 13 Apr 2004 06:23:57 +1000, mi...@tarix-dot-net.no-spam.invalid

David Rance

unread,

Apr 19, 2004, 12:48:27 PM4/19/04

to

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004, Kommer Kleijn wrote:

>I will not say the same deal is good for TBBS. IPADs are still usefull
>and used in productive environments while TBBS is merely a hobbyist
>thing now. I only want to say that I think there may be possibilities
>if someone really would want to take the time to think something out
>with them. There may be other possibilities than only ask them to free
>the sourcecode for free.

Well, I didn't ask for it for free. I did suggest that a group of us
would be willing to pay money for some sort of understanding. Very much
what you outlined for the IPAD.

Best wishes, David

--
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Internet: david...@rance.org.uk | writing from |