Chapter 35

The rest of the trip was busy. I talked to the guy at the dive shop, and suggested putting in a plaque with high altitude dive tables, in the event somebody that did not know the altitude wanted to dive there. He said that was a great idea, and he would do that. “Oh, and Lake Grant is one of our most popular spots in the area now. Go up there almost any weekend, and there are people in it. I’m even considering sinking a small boat in it for recovery training, if that’s OK.”

“Go ahead, and yes with the dredging also. Just remember that that tractor might be an issue.”

“Oh, we know that. We are going to secure it with some cables and then dig it into a hole before we dredge around it. Right now you really can’t go to the bottom, you get a silt storm if you are not careful. Mostly I want to dredge it out to put a stop to that.”

He liked the idea of having the store rent tanks and sell skin diving equipment, and said he would put together a proposal for the spring. I then headed to the Casino, and after meeting Jackie’s boss and the General Manager, they showed me around. And the convention space looked about perfect for a convention of the size we were expecting. As well as the theater. Brad had already signed on, and he was having Gloria come up to film it. My newest adventure was already approved and they were doing some final changes.

We then talked about the BBS, and I described how they had helped my business, as well as a dozen other businesses I had been doing them for. “For example, you can set up a calendar for the next year people could view, and see all the specials, events, and concerts you have planned. This way somebody thinking of coming up in say next June could click on it. And if you already have an act booked they can see who will be playing. Think of it as an interactive promotional guide. And you can add things like photographs of the rooms, of the theater, and things like that. And I would like to do cross-promotions if we can. Say if somebody is at my campground, they can get a coupon for meals here. Or the reverse, discounts on fishing pole rentals if they have a room here but want to go there and go fishing. Help each other out.”

They really liked that, and I said that when I came up in October I could have a presentation example I could show them. They handed me a bunch of promotional material, and I said I would scan that into the demonstration. When they asked how long it would take to set up, I told them to consider how many lines they wanted, and if they wanted the 1-800 service that Jackie had mentioned. “If you approve it in October, I think I could put it in by the end of November. I still need to set up a place here to run it, that will take some time to get set up. Then when I come up for Thanksgiving, I can get it all up and running, so you have it by no later than the end of December.”

They thought that sounded reasonable and would give me a call in a few weeks with some ideas of how they wanted to go with this. Jackie walked me to my truck, and said they seemed favorable. “The cross-promotion thing really got their attention. You are not trying to take business, but give the guests something else to do out here.”

“Well, most RV people would not stay in a casino hotel, and most who stay in a casino without an RV might like to do things like fishing. We can feed business to each other.” She kissed my cheek, and soon I was driving home. I checked in at Kent’s BBS, and it was busy. I then tried Dee’s, and it was busy also. I laughed and was about to grab a beer when Dee called and asked me to come on up.

Seems she had three requests to join GamerNET, so I spent the next hour showing her how to add new nodes, and how to configure a node structure. She was putting them in, and I told her to hold on a second. “345, that’s Boise, right?” She told me it was, one of the BBS there wanted to join in. I grinned and asked if she knew the voice number for whoever owned it. She did, and soon I was talking with a gal that ran a BBS up there. I talked both her and Dee through the procedure, and soon we had our first hub in Boise. “Now you can get other BBS to join in, and you are their mailbox. They get and send all messages through you. You then forward them to Dee, and she sends them to me. I am the network master, so you are only one removed. And like Dee, as a hub master you can have others tack on to you.” She liked that idea, and I grinned. I thanked her for joining, and handed the phone to Dee. They talked for a few minutes then hung up.

“Well Dee, we have now added another area. I noticed I tried to call a bit ago and the line was busy.”

“I’ll say! I had to turn off the sound, it was going off all the time. And both Kent and I have had a lot of messages to the new net, the gamers all love it.”

“Well, that is the entire idea. And I bet this will help bring more people to the convention also. Boise is not so far away that some will not make the drive out here for it. You might want to consider making a few calls to some BBS in Salt Lake. Announce you are the regional hub for GamerNET, and are looking for a Salt Lake regional hub.”

She said she would do that, and she was calling the first one as I headed back down the hill.

I drove home on Sunday, and Monday was right back at work again. The lines for the new BBS were up, and the computers were installed and configured. Bunny was busy scanning in some pictures as Sue was transferring about a hundred video clips from tapes to the new server. And the six lines at 9600 were all up and busy almost all the time, maybe I should have done that sooner.

I told Sue to order another case of the 9600 modems, and to plan on upgrading all of my lines in the next week. I packed up all the new 2400 modems still in stock, and drove them to the original shop, and handed them off to Abe. “Here, these are all new. And don’t order any more 2400 modems. We will have a ton of them coming off the BBS systems soon, we are replacing them all with 9600 lines for mine at least.”

Julie then called out “Oh, and don’t forget. You have all of our techs and a bunch of others that are going to be here tomorrow night at 6.”

“Thanks, Julie, I didn’t forget. The Association of Computer Excellence has been on the back-burner for far too long, we need to get that going.” She agreed, and she called Abe over.

“Oh yes, we still run into projects the Boborov Brothers did before us. They are still doing garbage work, and grossly overcharging for the work they do. Maybe this can help put an end to people like them.”

I drove back to the data center, and worked until almost 10, finishing the BBS I had intended for the ACE. On it was the draft charter I had created, the code of conduct, and a bunch of technical documents I had collected over the years. This way other techs could use them to help solve problems they might have. As well as a slew of warnings about bogus scams floating around. Including one that claimed that by following the directions and buying parts from the guy that wrote it, you could upgrade a 2400 modem to a 9600 one, by simply replacing the UART and a few other chips. Of course it did not work, as Norm said when I first showed it to him. He actually built one, and it would not work at all. But the chips the guy sold cost $50. Quite a good scam he was running.

The next night I had both pizzas and chicken, and by the time we were to start, we had almost 60 techs and business owners in there. I knew most of them at least by sight, and after introducing myself I described the idea of this organization. That it was to be professionals, that followed a code of conduct to behave ethically and professionally. But also for networking.

“Say you have a job where somebody wants a new network done. You know servers, but not how to lay wire. By working together, you can ask us for help, and somebody will help. Maybe do it for you for a fee, or teach you how to do it yourself. Here, these are some slides of what we should not see.”

I had a slide projector set up, and started to go through them. First, I would show one of how a job should be done. Cards all screwed in, then the next slide showing a system where several backplates were missing and nothing was screwed in. “Now each of these photos was taken at a job site we responded to. These are all real-world examples.”

The next one showed a new computer, and a box of Novell 286 next to it. The next was an obvious first-generation XT, and copies of Novell 86. One of the guys in the audience shouted out “Boborov Brothers!”, and many others laughed. The next was of a wall panel jack with a patch cable running from that to a computer, followed by one with the cable that was terminated and just sticking through a hole in the wall. The same name was called out. Then a wall-mounted rack with a patch panel and rack mount hub, followed by a bunch of inexpensive five port hubs on a table. The same name called out again. And about a dozen more examples followed.

Abe turned on the light as the slides were done, and most of the room was laughing. “OK, I will not name names here, but I think that most of you recognized the fine work of some of those photos. What you saw was all completely real, as most of you who work in the field have probably seen. Now, if a customer is really cheap, and only wants cheap or used equipment, that is fine. But in each of these cases, they charged them for quality work, and new equipment. Even pirated copies of expensive software. That is unacceptable. And that is the idea behind this organization.”

I then went over the BBS I had set up, and I saw them all write down the phone number. “On there, you will find a lot of documentation, which you might find helpful. Beep codes for different motherboards, hard drive specifications, instructions on how to configure and set up everything from a DigiCom board to scams to avoid. Some of them I myself have made in the last few years, and you are all free to use them. There is no charge for this, all I ask is that you all sign the agreement that we have in the back saying you will operate ethically and honestly. I am sure most of you know me by reputation at least. I moved as fast and far as I have because that is how I operate at all times. And yes, sometimes I do crap jobs, but that is always understood because the customer is only paying me for crap work. You are all free to look around this entire operation, and see how I run things.”

I saw a lot of heads nod, and many had already walked around. “Oh, and for those like me that are into retail also, this is a suggestion. Put a price on everything you sell. If you look, everything here is priced. We do not play that game where we try to stick them for as much as we can. If I send a tech to Wilshire, his work and parts are the same rate as if he was in Pacoima. I do not do that sliding scale nonsense, where it goes up if I think I can charge them more. And trust me, you get more referrals that way. I have never done advertising, my entire business is based on word of mouth. But I want to thank all of you for coming.”

A bunch of us stood around talking, and one of the guys went to his car and came back in with a notebook. He said it was his data book, and we all laughed when he showed it to us. It was a red circle with a slash through it, but in the center it said “Boborov” in the center.

“I think most of us know of these guys.” He then called out and asked how many had hired at least one of them in the past. And surprisingly, about a quarter raised their hands.

I looked around, and sighed. “Now I am not going to name any names here, you all are doing that for me. I got this idea shortly after working on a big project they had done a horrible job on. Including that pirated copy of Novell 86, and the XT. Which by the way they sold less than a year before for over $2,500. A few days later, one of them came in and gave me a resume. I thanked him and said I was not hiring, and threw it in the trash. I suspect that is part of how they operate. One of them gets hired inside a company, and they use that to get a line on projects to bid on, or other things.”

“They are thieves also!” one gal called out. “My husband and I hired Greg, and we not only lost two bids to his brother, but a bunch of parts also turned up missing. We can’t prove it, but he was our only employee at that time, and I know neither my husband nor I stole the stuff.”

Almost everybody signed the sheets. The few that did not said they wanted to think about it first, which I said was reasonable. “And if anybody has any suggestions, feel free to send me a message on the BBS. I would like to hold these every month, and in a few months create a charter and administration body. With a President, and all the others based on Robert’s Rules of Order.”

“With you as President!” One guy shouted out, and I shook my head.

“No, once this is going I am stepping completely down. I am so busy this would take more time than I can really put into it. Somebody else, I do not even want to be on the board. I want to see this started, but after that, I want to step back and have you all run this. This organization is for all of you, not for me.”

The meeting ended shortly afterward and almost everybody was strongly in support of the ideas. I put Blake in charge of the administration of the BBS, and told him that at the next meeting he was going to be the chairman. “I am completely serious there, I do not want to run this thing. So long as it is made, I am happy.”

Then came a call from Brad the next week. He really wanted a test run of “The Thunderbird” before the presentation in October, and said he had lined up a room for a private exhibition at a convention in San Diego at the end of the month. I finally agreed, and he said the hotel that he would be putting me up into. I took a weekend off of work, and it was an easy drive down. On Friday I was pulling into the city, and found the hotel without much problem.

I got my room and my badge and was walking through the convention floor. It was kind of nice not being recognized, but also lonely as I did not have my “posse” with me. However, one thing caught my eye, when I was in the vendor area and saw one guy had a bunch of different modules in a glass case. A piece of paper taped to it said they were all first editions or signed copies. I looked through them, and six of them caught my eye.

A copy of each of the Kaos adventures, and several others. Each signed by me, and priced at $200 dollars each or more. But the problem was, that was not my signature! It was not even close, I had always signed my adventures as “Peter Culver”, never once as “Pete Culver”. And I saw some similarities between several of the signatures on other copies. I immediately left and went to the front desk and saw Brad. I simply told him to follow me and had him follow me to the sales area. Without saying a word I pointed to the case, and he glanced and then looked at the other copies. Then he went back to mine and looked closer. The guy selling them asked if we were interested.

“I’m interested in that signed Pete Culver one,” Brad said. “Do you have any others, or just these six?”

“Oh, I have others back at my shop, but this is all I had room for here. Which are you interested in?”

Brad said he wanted one of Spillikan’s, and the guy said he would have one here the next day. Brad thanked him, and we walked out. “Now I know what you were pointing at. That’s not your signature. How many copies of Spillikan’s have you signed?”

“Just a few dozen. At my shop of course, and some for Kent in Idaho. That’s it. And you can spot them, I signed all of them in silver pen on the bottom right corner, I could not use black because the cover is so dark.”

We went back to the desk and asked to speak to the manager in charge of the convention. A few minutes later a gal about Brad’s age came out and asked how she could help us. Brad insisted we go to a private room, and we told her what we had found. “Forged copies of Pete Culver adventures? I know the guy, he has been selling those for years. How do you know those are forged?”

“Ma’am, because I’m Pete Culver. I have never signed anything as Pete Culver, only as Peter Culver. It’s not my handwriting either. Brad here asked him for a copy of a book less than a year old, one I have never signed other than at my store and one other in Idaho. I can tell you now, if it is legitimate it will be signed in silver ink, like this one.” I pulled my own copy out and handed it to her. “See, Peter Culver, in silver ink, in the bottom right corner. I have only signed maybe two dozen copies of this. And all in silver, because black would not show up. I keep this because if you look, right above where I signed it you can see the first signature in black. This is the only copy I ever signed that is not in silver.”

She nodded and asked us to wait. A few minutes later she came back with a guy she introduced as the head of security for the convention. We repeated what we had said, and he nodded. “I thought he was kinda shady. He has been selling them for years, and never seems to run out of copies. What do you want to do about this?”

Brad smiled. “Well, I asked for a specific book, he said will be here signed tomorrow. I already called my lawyer, and he is drafting a cease and desist order forbidding him from selling any other copies of our games. What I want to do is catch him tomorrow. I will present him with the order, and I want the police here to confiscate all his signed copies as evidence. This is an easy case of fraud, possibly felony level.”

They looked at each other, and the security guy grinned. “Oh, you got it. I’m here as a volunteer, but I am actually a Detective Sergeant with the San Diego Police Department. When do you want to do this?”

We agreed that as early as possible, at 9 after the floor opened. He smiled and said he would have two uniform cops and two detectives standing by. “We will need you to buy this book, then we will arrest him. And with that and statements we can get a search warrant for his business, I bet he has a ton of them there also. I want this scumbag bad now, he has probably done this to hundreds of people over the years.”

We gave them our information and phone numbers. And after shaking hands, we agreed to meet in the dining area at 8:30 in the morning. We went up to Brad’s room, and he shook his head. “People like that make me sick. And I have been wondering why in the last year your books have taken a spike in value. I bet it is because of him. You sign thousands of copies for free, but it only takes one to set an artificially high price, and it throws the market into chaos.”

“And on top of it, they are fakes. We are going to have to look closely from now on, I bet there are others doing that.” He nodded and said he would get with some other publishers, and see if they could collect a bunch of signatures to use in comparison in the future. We then discussed the adventure, and he said it would be tomorrow at 4. He also told me that he loved the GamerNET system, and he had an open slot for the last day. “How about instead of me doing one on upcoming things we are going to sell, you use it to push GamerNET? Do you even have a node here?”

“No, actually I don’t. Orange County is as far south as we have reached so far. But I can call the Sysop of that BBS, see if I can get him here also. I bet he can have a node list made out and just hand them out and he can operate as the hub down to here.”

Brad thought that was a great idea, so I called Sue, and had her give me the name and phone number of our Orange County hub. I called, and his roommate said he was in San Diego that weekend, but he would take a message. I thanked him and hung up. I used the phone in the room and asked for Robert to be paged and to report to room 215. Ten minutes later there was a knock on the door, and Brad answered it. And I met Robert.

He was around 19, with long hair and a shirt with a 20 sided die on it, with a 1 displayed which said “Did I make my saving roll?” I liked him already. Brad and I both introduced ourselves, and he was more than a bit shocked. “But why do you want to see me?”

“Well, you probably do not know this Rob, but I am also the founder of GamerNET. Of which you are my most southern system hub in California. On Sunday I am doing a presentation on GamerNET, and I want you there also. I want to establish a new system hub after that, to split off of yours. Then they can sign up new members down here right on the spot, and maybe you can add some more nodes where you are. You can even give out your number, so other people in your area can know and access your system.”

Needless to say, he was stoked. Brad then asked what he was doing the next day, and invited him to be one of the participants in my test play. “Now remember, you will be under a do not disclose order. You can say what you thought of it in general terms, but nothing specific. You can spread that on GamerNET, that you gave a presentation with Pete here, and got a special peek at his newest adventure.”

“Oh, that will be awesome! We have met before actually, at my first convention in Anaheim. I have three of your adventures now, all signed.” Brad and I then asked him to meet us in the dining area at 8:30. “This is another exclusive you can break. We found a guy here selling forged copies of Peter Culver signed adventures. He is going to be arrested and would like you to see and report it. Do you have a camera?” When he admitted he did not I told him he could use mine. He was thrilled to death, and soon we all left.

I went downstairs and was just ordered a steak dinner when somebody waiting for a table caught my eye. She was short, with long black hair, dressed very professionally in a sharp-looking pair of slacks with a dark blue blouse. The dining room was almost full, and I had waited 20 minutes for a table, and saw her take a seat in the waiting area.

She was sitting with her back to the counter, so I walked over and looked at the appointment book and saw the name I was looking for. I grinned, and when the gal looked over her shoulder at me and scowled, I grinned. “I was just checking something, she is an old friend of mine and I was making sure. Excuse me.”

I stepped in front of her and called out “Table for Doctor Kimberly Nguyen. Doctor Kimberly Nguyen, your table is ready.” I saw her put a book in her purse, and turn around with a look of confusion. Of course, she had not identified herself as a doctor or given her last name. The entry simply said “Kim”. She was walking to the counter, then stopped and looked at me. “Oh my god, Peter? Is that you?”

“Yes it is, hello Doctor Nguyen, would you care to join me for dinner?” She came up quickly and gave me a big hug, then kissed my cheek. “Yes, I would love to. I can’t believe it’s you!”