Wed Sep 11 18:33:23 UTC 2002

To the reader:

Its almost been 8 years since this post was made by Steven Parker.  I feel
all of these texts should be made public (mainly the private emails) just so
the issue can be made clear.  I did not respond to him publically, which
alot of my peers felt was a very good show of restraint.

First the people involved:

Ted Uhlemann   - Started the SDF in 1987, left in 1992 to form Texas Metronet
Daniel Finster - SDF user, sysadm in 1991 left in 1992 to form Texas Metronet
                 (dismissed) and returned to SDF for a bit of 1993.
Stephen Jones  - co-sysop of SDF 1989, full operations in 1992 to present
Steven Parker  - helped 'killer', helped 'sdf' 1992-1993,  ex-Texas Metronet
                 employee/share holder (dismissed).  
                 05-MAY-03:  df, srl and I had dinner and srl told us that
                 'sp' was paid $10,000 of Texas Metronet's start up cash
                 to leave.  df and I did not know that.
Roy Neese      - Operated 'adaptex', a host that fed SDF USENET news from
                 1991-1996 (adaptex was shutdown when Roy left to form a
                 commercial ISP)
Alan Gwinn     - Cox School of Business, SMU.  Threatened to have the Secret
                 Service called on SDF in 1993 until I met with him and 
                 convinced him I wasn't like Daniel Finster.
Charlie Boykin - SMU UNIX administrator, ran 'killer' 1985-1990
Mohit Goyal    - SDF user who donated $100 to SDF in 1993
SDF            - The SDF-1 or SDF Public Access UNIX System.  An electronic
                 bulletin board system established in 1987
killer         - killer.dallas.tx.us or 'attctc'.  A Public Access UNIX system
                 run from 1985-1990 by Charlie Boykin.

In all honesty, I don't have any bad feelings toward Steven Parker.  We
shared alot of things in common.  Love of a particular car, operating
systems and music .. 

About his messages .. yes, its not just me saying this, but everyone 
involved including members of the Texas Lunch Bunch (lonestar.org) agreed
that he was very delusional and painted things up to be much different
than they were.  

My personal view/points:

1. Ted left SDF in 1992 to form Texas Metronet, a commercial ISP.  Both he
   and Steven Parker were share holders in that corporation.  Daniel Finster
   also left SDF to work for Texas Metronet, but I don't believe he owned
   shares.  I don't know the details, but Steven Parker was basically fired
   by Texas Metronet in 1993 .. and thats when he started getting more
   involved with SDF.  He had ideas, good ideas .. but I didn't agree with
   what he was asking to do.  The point being that, I felt that SDF would
   fail if I didn't personally put the effort that I did in to sustain it.
   I think this has since been proven .. and if you look at his main USENET
   post, he stated in 1994 he 'still believed in a truely public run system'
   and offered to help form one .. . he *never* put as much commitiment into
   such a project like I have for SDF.

2. Ted, Daniel and I used 'killer' .. Steven Parker worked on that system
   and developed many utilities for it.  When this post was made, I had 
   just been getting to know Charlie Boykin and Rich Andrews personally.
   (They were both working at SMU and I later went there on a full artist
   merit scholarship at the Meadows school for the Arts).  Charlie told me
   that Steven Parker was partially to blame for killer's demise.

3. Daniel Finster has alot of problems.  I bought him a car (used) about 2
   years ago trying to help him .. (his thinking was if he had a car, he
   could get a job).  Ted has loaned him money as well .. though I don't know
   how much.  In 1993 I did ask Daniel to help me out with SDF once again.
   I wanted Ted to be involved too, but he was busy with Metronet and wanted
   to make money.  I realise that to most outsiders Daniel Finster is just
   a complete loser .. maybe a Kevin Mitnick type .. but I've known the guy
   so long I couldn't criminalize him like others have.  Ted and Daniel are
   are co-dependent on each other and are heavy drug users (LSD, speed,
   pot and alcohol).  That makes no difference to me, they are my friends.

4. Steven Parker talks about this last meeting .. I remember going to his
   office at Shared for that last meeting.  I returned a 700mb ESDI drive
   that he was trying to get me to buy for SDF for $550.  The drive had a
   bad spindle motor.  I even had it tested out by a tech to be sure that
   was the case.  I was really quiet and he was introgating me.  I really
   felt uncomfortable in 'business offices' .. at the time I was working
   in a donut shop preparing cake donuts at 4pm-7pm, then returning at
   11:30pm-7:30am to prepare yeast donuts .. at 4:30 I would begin my
   delivery shift.  I did this from 1990-1993 and at many times 7 days
   a week because I was a reliable employee.  He did ask me about donations
   and I told him that SDF got more than I had previously told him .. however
   this was not true.  I felt so intimidated by him that I wanted to tell him
   what he wanted to hear.  He opened up his wallet before I left and said
   "Sue wanted me to give this to you" (his girlfriend) and he gave me a
   $5.00 bill.  I took it and then promptly mailed it back to him after I
   left.  In retrospect, I can understand my behaviour.  I was basically a
   kid and he was a middle aged adult.  I respected and feared him and could
   not confront him directly.

5. Ted was kicked out of his mother's house and moved in with me in 1991.
   Ted did not have a job, though I tried to get him to work at the donut
   shop.  He quit after 1 day.  So, I was involved for paying rent, food
   and of course SDF.

6. I did delete Steven Parker's files from SDF.  He had about 60mbs worth of
   files in /u which was a lot at the time.  I tried to tar up his directory
   and compress it, but I was nervous and wasn't careful .. I finally
   just ended up blowing it all away.  I do regret this, not for his
   personal files but the fact that we probably lost a bit of killer
   with this as well.

7. There was no 'administrative council' .. it just didn't exist.  It was
   in Steven Parker's mind.  I was so passive to anything he tried to do.
   There was another individual, Larry Clark .. Steven Parker didn't mention
   him at all .. I think Larry was just so confused by it all that he 
   opted out.  Ted, Daniel and I talked to him on the phone at one point
   in 1993 and he was a bit discouraged by what was going on with Steven
   Parker. 

If anyone has info or questions, you can contact me:  smj@sdf.lonestar.org