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.
