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:  [email protected]

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