Jim Lubin

 Jim Lubin was born in Hawaii in 1967 and from the

very beginning he had a passion for computers --

well, almost. He got his first one -- an Apple II+

with 300 baud modem -- at the ripe old age of 14.

  

He used his modem to log onto local bulletin

boards and that's all it took. "Once I got

online," he says with a smile, "I was hooked!"

  

Not satisfied in a passive role, he started his

own BBS while still in junior high school. He

maintained his fledging board for almost a year,

receiving calls from people all over the country.

  

When Jim graduated from high school in 1986, he

graduated to a new computer -- a Laser 128 with a

1200 baud modem. He also graduated from small,

local boards to the heady world of the big

commercial networks. "I remember reading in my

computer magazines about this new online service

called GEnie," he recounts. "It sounded really

neat and it was cheaper than the other services

that were available." He joined that spring.

  

The Hand of Fate

  

Life threw a nasty curve at Jim at a very young

age. In May of 1989 he was stricken with a rare

spinal disorder called Acute Transverse Myelitis.

He was only 21 years old.

 

It was touch and go for awhile. He needed to be

revived several times and was not expected to

live.

  

Fortunately, the prognosis was wrong. Jim

survived, but he was left almost totally

paralyzed. He underwent six months of intensive

physical and occupational therapy, and through it

all he refused to give up hope, refused to admit

defeat.

  

He turned to his first love -- computers. "While

in rehab, I learned morse code to be able to use

the computer," Jim says. "Because I'm  dependent

on a respirator to breathe, voice input is

difficult and not very reliable."

  

He uses a 'sip-and-puff' straw attached to an air

tube, which controls a pneumatic switch hooked

into the serial port of his computer. A

memory-resident program called EZMorse, translates

the sips and puffs into characters.

  

The GEnie in the Lamp

  

When Jim returned home in February, 1990, he

needed to upgrade to a more powerful computer, but

the cost was out of reach. So he built his own. "I

bought the rest of the parts I needed to finish

the IBM I had been building," he explains

modestly, "and walked and talked a friend through

assembling it." He taught himself the fundamentals

of DOS and was soon back online. Back on GEnie.

  

He heard of a program that automated navigation on

GEnie, and found the original shareware version of

Aladdin in the IBM PC RoundTable. It was still

hard to get around, but as always, he turned

obstacle into advantage. "I started writing

Aladdin scripts to automate some of the features I

used, to save me some typing," he recalls simply.

   

He started posting his scripts in the Aladdin

RoundTable, and soon began writing them for other

users. It wasn't long before he was noticed.

  

Aladdin

  

In March of 1991 Kent Fillmore asked him to write

a signup script for Aladdin, and Jim agreed. In

return, he received a temporary free-flag. "I

thought that was pretty neat!" Jim says with a

smile. His work grew in popularity. In November of

'91, David Kozinn invited him to become a beta

tester for Aladdin, and -- now considered by many

to be the 'Aladdin script guru' -- made him an

official member of the support team in March of

1992.

  

Although Jim's account of his activities is quite

humble, David Kozinn offers praise without

hesitation. "Jim is one of GEnie's greatest

assets," David says. "The scripts that he produces

for PC Aladdin are invaluable in automating the

parts of the service that Aladdin doesn't already

do automatically."

  

Wishes and Dreams

  

Jim hasn't limited his activities to the Aladdin

area. He's written scripts for sysops, log-on

scripts to help users in foreign countries,

scripts for virtually anything that can be

scripted.

  

When asked about his future ambitions, Jim

responds that it would be nice to be able to

breathe without the need of a respirator. "Other

than that," he adds, "just to enjoy life the best

that I can, learn as much as I can, and continue

to help others in any way I can."

  

You can't help but believe his wishes will come

true.