Introduction:
Welcome to the Staples Computer Club. This club meets on Friday afternoon between 2:15 and 5 p.m. It is for students who have interests in computers and telecommunications. The Staples Computer Club maintains a First Class BBS and a World Wide Web server. Students are invited to stop by and ask questions. You may also visit Mr. Honeycutt
History
The Staples Computer Club evolved from a group of students who loved computers and had no real place to apply their computer interests in or around the school. In the late 1980's, students began to meet after school in the one Apple computer lab with Mr. Jim Honeycutt, one of the computer teachers.
Several students, Emily Reich and Kenn Messman, suggested that an electronic bulletin board be installed to permit the posting of messages, the downloading of shareware or freeware software, and the exchange of email messages. Using a donated, monstrous, ten megabyte hard drive, an old Apple IIe computer, a software program entitled Magic City Micro, and a newly installed telephone line, Staples On-Line was born. The Staples Computer Club had a raison d'etre! The "club" as it became known amoung its members met each week to maintain the bbs and perform routine diagnostic operations. The club received help from its first patron satin, Joan Hoffman, a Westport resident who ran was the sysop for the local AppleShare user group's bbs.
After serveral years, the Club switch from the Apple II computer to a Macintosh se30. The software naturally changed from Magic City Micro to TeleFinder, an excellent Mac bbs program.
In the fall of 1995, several students, Jon Von Kohorn and Randy Skattum, suggested that the Computer Club install a World Wide Web server. This would require more than a telephone line. This would require a substantial connection to the Internet.
Help came to Computer Club in two forms, people and grants. Bob Bernard and Nick Pizarro, two town residents and computer experts, offered to help the students set up a web server and update the bbs. The club was still running TeleFinder on the Macintosh SE30 computer over one phone line. Then Emily Reich, away at Amherst now, donated her old Macintosh II computer; this enabled the club to run expand to a second phone line.
An ISDN line was brought into Staples High School in the spring of 1996. Within 24 hours, Randy Skattum and Jon Von Kohorn, had set up a web server on the Macintosh II computer. For a while, the Staples On-Line bbs ran on the same server as the web server. Eventually, additional equipment would arrive.
By the spring of 1996, the Staples Computer Club was running a First Class (tm) BBS and World Wide Web server. The server is a Macintosh 7200 computer and was obtained through a grant with the Westport Education Foundation. This server was fast enought to allow multiple remote users to access the web server.
The Staples Computer Club continues to meet on Fridays. The club is run currently (spring 1997) by David Seltzer, Brett Lasloff, Nick S. Pizarro, and Richard Green. The club continues to be very informal in spite of its success.
All interested Staples students are welcome. Return to Staples home page