FidoNews is the official newsletter of the International FidoNet
Association, and is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, node 1/1.
You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in
FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file
FNEWSART.DOC, available from node 1/1.
The contents of the articles contained here are not our
responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them.
Everything here is subject to debate.
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL
How to Avoid Sysop Burnout
2. ARTICLES
ANSI on FIDO, Part II of III (Yes!! we do windows!!!)
Fido Utility Catalog -- Help!
Modifying Fido; Another Wish List
Fidograms - your link to everyone!
One of those Crazy Nuts
Pay BBS's - another point of view
Creating the political WILL to end hunger.
3. COLUMNS
Notes from Abroad
The Great Brown Bag Word Processor Hoax
4. FOR SALE
PC Hardware for Sale
Entertainment Software for your PC!
Public Domain Software Library Sale!!
Special Offer to FidoNet Sysops
5. NOTICES
The Interrupt Stack
Cartoon: Gruesome George
European time by Henk Wevers
Fido 17/0 (aka 138/3) uses DOUBLEDOS (1 year)
New Rainbow Fido in New England
Fidonews Page 2 14 Apr 1986
HOW TO AVOID SYSOP BURNOUT
By John Olson, SYSOP Third Coast Software Exchange
713-523-5000
In conversations recently, I have heard at least two other sysops
make statements to the effect that they were "burning out" on
being in charge of a bulletin board. I too, in the past, have
had similar feelings, and I began to wonder how I could help
others suffering from this affliction.
In my case, the feeling has typically accompanied problems with
the system. For instance: you sit in front of your machine,
which you purchased with hard earned dollars (and/or for which
you spent countless hours developing and maintaining software),
and listen to the squeaking bearings as one of your floppies (or
even worse, your hard disk!) gasps its last breath. You read
comments to the SYSOP where someone is complaining about getting
"read errors" on that drive. Then the final crushing blow; you
watch as a "Twit" tries to crash your security. Its sort of like
a half dead beetle being dragged away by ants.
The systems I run are typically for file exchange, with little or
no BBS facilities. Once in a while, someone will call up over a
period of several days, and download files for hours at a time.
They obviously are simply going down the directory, and have no
purpose in mind other than to fill up disks (or to keep others
from getting in). They never upload anything, and are usually
never heard from again. Hey! I accept uploads too!
What's the solution? In my case, I can trace my longevity (over
5 years as SYSOP of 5 computers) to the caring actions of maybe 3
or 4 people. These are the people who use my system and then
reciprocate in some way. Some of these people are responsible
for the vast majority of my uploads. One gentlemen ALWAYS leaves
a short message to say "Thanks" when he downloads a file. (Try
THAT sometime; you'll be amazed at the impression it makes on the
SYSOP!) Having an assistant SYSOP and donations of equipment are
more direct ways to relieve the grief.
The point is, if only a few people would express a little
compassion for the guy that runs their favorite board, it could
insure that it will be there a while longer. The acts of one
person (YOU!) might make the difference. Don't assume someone
else will do it. There have been some very fine boards that are
no longer around simply because of thoughtless users.
When last we left our faithful Fido, we had the basis for simple
ANSI cursor control and color changes....now, let's do a simple
trick that will leave 'em with their mouths open and their chins
in their laps...
Imagine a plain ol' text file, scrolling up off the screen, when
all of a sudden, a window appears in the middle of the screen and
"really important" information pops up. Not too impressed, you
say? Qmodem does it all the time.. but what if the caller's
software doesn't support windows, and what if you are tired of
people "missing" something really important in the bulletin or
welcome messages... well read on..
Once you think about it, there is nothing really difficult about
faking a window on the screen of the caller. (Please refer to the
previous article for explanations and examples of the ANSI
codes). All we have to do is:
1) Issue a SCP (Save Cursor Position) so that we can restore the
cursor to where it belongs.
2) Send the cursor to the location where we want the window to
display.
3) Send the contents of the window (complete with border
characters)
and last:
4) Restore the cursor by sending the RCP sequence.
You can also set the colors, so that the window will REALLY be
noticeable, but then you are faced with a decision... Either
reset the colors to the defaults (which might not be the colors
that the caller or his/her software chose.... or just leave the
colors alone, which might be preferable if the caller's default
colors happen to be White on Black! If you do change the colors,
it is worth it to make the border appear in a different color.
Last item for the week, if you work it just right, you can pace
the text so that immediately after the window appears, the MORE?
prompt kicks in giving you a pause. Building on that thought...
why not do a Clear Screen, send out the "normal" text and build
the window, and after the MORE? prompt (since you have a fairly
good guess where everything is on the caller's screen) proceed to
'erase' the window by writing a copy of what was under the
window. This will make it appear that the window vanished, like
Fidonews Page 4 14 Apr 1986
good windows should...
The following should serve as an example. Explanations follow...
|+|+|
^[2JThis is a demonstration of a faked window. The only
dead giveaway is that the "window" is destructive and can
not restore what was underneath.... but we can fake that
also!!!!
This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
^[s
^[4;35H/-------------------\
^[5;35H| |
^[6;35H| |
^[7;35H| |
^[8;35H\-------------------/
^[5;36HThis is line one.
^[6;36HThis is line two.
^[7;36HThis is line three.
^[23;0H %
^[23;0H %
^[23;0H %
^[5;36HThis is line two.
^[6;36HThis is line three.
^[7;36HWe fake a scroll!!!
^[23;0H %
^[23;0H %
^[23;0H %
^[30m
^[4;35Hzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz^[0m
^[5;35Hen. This is just text
^[6;35Ht to fill the screen.
^[7;35Hen. This is just tex
^[8;35Ht to fill the screen.
^[uThis is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to
Fidonews Page 5 14 Apr 1986
fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen.
|+|+|
First, save everything between (but not including) the |+|+|'s in
a file.
Secondly, replace the ^ symbols with ASCII 27's (ESCape sequence)
Third replace the % symbols with non-printing characters (I use
an ASCII 8 which is a backspace.) Fourth, type it from DOS.
The lines with the %'s at the end are simply to eat up time. If
it wasn't for them and the time that they take to print, then the
window would appear, scroll, and disappear before you have a good
chance to see them.
In a nut-shell, what we do is clear the screen so that we know
where we are on the user's screen, print some of the text on the
screen, save our position, fake the window, make it go away by
printing over it with a copy of what was under it, and lastly we
restore the cursor position and continue to print...
If you notice, I used "plain normal" characters for the border
characters, instead of IBM graphics.... This allows us to show a
border to all the machines that do allow ANSI's but do not have
the same high-ASCII characters as IBM.
Next article, we will do some things with animation that will
make Disney turn in his grave!
I am compiling a Fido Utility Catalog for reference by all
current and new sysops. Henk Wevers submitted a similar project
to FidoNews several issues back; his was directed more at
recommendations, while mine is intended as pure reference.
The Utility Catalog is the first part of a planned Fido Files
Reference which will include Documentation Files, Utility Files,
Communications Packages and possibly a selection of miscellaneous
programs which would make up a downloadable base for new boards.
At this time I am asking the help of Fido utility authors and
sysops in verifying the version, date, author and home Fido of
the utilities in my listing. In addition, I would appreciate it
if authors and/or sysops would forward to me a description in
their own words of what the utility does. If you have Fido
utilities not on this list, please let me know.
Thanks for your help. If all goes well, I will complete the
Utility Catalog in mid-April and submit it to FidoNews. In the
meantime, a reasonably current draft will be maintained on my
board (106/2, I.T.C. BBS) in the FIDO file area.
I must acknowledge the following people for their help: Henk
Wevers, whose catalog format I found much clearer than my own
original draft; Allen Miller and David Reinsel, whose utility
libraries provided me with much of my starting base, and Kurt
Reisler at Wash-A-RUG who sent me the utilities I needed back
when I was still getting this board on its feet.
UTILITIES CURRENTLY LISTED
ADDQUOTE Bob Hartman 132/101
BBSSORT 85/11/22 Micro-Help Inc. $20.00 Unknown
BETWEEN Unknown 122/2+4
CDMON 1.1 85/12/31 Mathew Zilmer 102/1101
CHG2DATE Unknown Unknown
COPYX_D 1.2A Robert Grahm 130/439
CRUSH 3.0 85/07/08 Harold Barker 11/493 ??
DATEFILE 85/10/08 Wes Cowley 137/19
DAYLIGHT 0.0 85/11/13 Randy Bush 122/4
DAYNBR 1.0 85/10/26 Ben Baker 100/76
DIST-KIT Unknown Unknown
DIST-MIS Unknown Unknown
DISTRIB Unknown Unknown
ECHOMAIL 1.10 86/03/05 Jeffrey Rush 25.00 124/15
EDIFIDO 1.12 85/11/05 Bob Klahn 107/50
EDITNL 86/03/14 Ben Baker Unknown
ERRORSET Unknown Unknown
EVENT 2.0 85/12/02 Ben Baker $ 25 100/76
EXTRACT 2.00 Don Daniels 107/211
Fidonews Page 7 14 Apr 1986
FASDOC01 Unknown 106/102
FASTV01A 1.0 Unknown 106/102
FFM_V4 4.0 86/01/14 Butch Walker 10/620
FIDODISP 1.1 Robert Briggs 15/464
FIDOLIST 2.00 84/12/01 Alexander Morris 107/22 (Down)
FIDOMLNK Allen Miller 108/10
FIDOMSG Don Daniels 107/211
FIDOQUES 2.5 Unknown Unknown
FIDOREAD 1.25 85/12/16 Richard Polunsky 106/2
FIDOUSER 1.0 84/12/21 Allen Miller 108/10
FIDOUT01 Unknown Unknown
FIDOUTIL 1.1 85/06/17 Robert Briggs 15/464
FIDOUTIL 1.0 85/11/06 David Strickler 101/45
FIDOUTIL 2.0 Michael Wyrick Unknown
FIDOXREF 1.0 85/10/13 Bill Becker 16/209
FILEDATE 1.1 85/12/31 Bob Hartman 132/101
FILELIST 1.4 85/11/30 John Wulff Unknown
FILER 2.1 85/10/29 Vincent E. Perriello 141/491
FILESBBS 3.4 85/06/30 David Strickler 101/45
FILEXREF Unknown 16/209
FIXDNLD Unknown Unknown
FIXUSER Jim Ryan Unknown
FSTAT 1.1 Alfred Anderson 14/61
INDX_BBS 1.21 86/01/28 Rob Barker 138/3
KILLROBT 2.0 86/02/15 Stephen Butler Unknown
LISTGEN 1.05.86 86/01/05 John Warren $ 20 102/401
LOGFIX Unknown Unknown
LOGSPLIT Don Daniels 107/211
MAIL Jeff Rush 108/10
MAILCALL 1.00 Don Daniels 107/211
MEF 1.0 Wes Cowley 137/19
MSGMOD 1.03 Mike Elkins 102/201
MYBBSLBL Unknown Unknown
NEWTWIX Unknown 106/101
OUTSIDE 1.27 86/02/08 Don Daniels 107/211
PHILTER Unknown 107/16
PRGUSERS 1.1 85/08/05 David Horowitz 107/2
QSCAN 1A Unknown 110/74
READ Unknown Unknown
READMSG 4.1 86/01/17 Kurt Reisler 109/483
READQUES 1.1f Robert Lederman 16/42
RENSYS 85/12/18 Doug Perkinson 106/102
RENUM 1.5 85/08/28 Bob Hartman 132/101
RESEND 1.1 85/07/25 Ben Taylor 102/411
ROBOFIXD Unknown 106/48
ROBOMAIL Unknown Unknown
ROBOT 3.30 85/09/27 Systems Enhance. $ 20 107/8
ROVERMSG 2.16 86/01/30 Bob Hartman $ 15 132/101
ROVERTWX 1.00 85/08/13 Oscar Barlow 104/56
SCHED 2.0 Wes Cowley 137/19
SENDLIST 1.0 Ben Baker 100/76
SERVER 1.2 Unknown 122/2+4
SETUSER 1.0 Unknown 16/209
SHIPUSER 2.2 85/05/21 David Horowitz 107/2
SHUFFLE 2.00 85/11/17 Robert Lederman 16/42
SQLOG 1.0 Jack Liebsch 109/468
Fidonews Page 8 14 Apr 1986
STALLBAT 85/12/07 Doug Perkinson 106/102
SYSEDIT 1.0 Eric Ewanco 130/3
SYSLOG 5.2 86/03/15 David Strickler 101/45
SYSOP207 2.07 Mark. W. Buse $ 5 206-634-0122
SYSOP 1.62 David Purks 109/603
SYSREPT 1.43 Alfred Anderson 14/61
SYS_XXX 85/01/26 Tom Jennings 125/1
TESTLIST 1.2 85/10/23 Ben Baker 100/76
TIMECHNG 85/10/14 Dave Reinsel 106/343
TIMELOG 8d Tom Jennings 125/1
TIMEMAP Thom Henderson (SEA) 107/7
TWIX 85/09/08 Tom Jennings 125/1
TWIX35 3.0 86/02/15 Ben Baker 100/76
UP-DOWN Robert Briggs 15/464
UPLOG 1.1 Robert Briggs 15/464
USERFILE 1.0 Allen Miller 108/10
USERLIST 85/12/13 Allen Miller 108/10
USERLIST 1.0 85/07/08 Ben Baker 100/76
USERLIST 1.0 Jim Ryan Unknown
USERLOG Unknown Unknown
USERS 1.27 85/06/12 Thom Henderson 107/7
USERSORT 1.22 85/12/02 Lennart Svensson 501/4602
USERSORT 2.01 Unknown Unknown
WAIT 85/10/13 Unknown Unknown
WATCHDOG 1.1 84/08/15 James R. Reinders Unknown
WEEKDAY 1.0 85/11/13 Ben Baker 100/76
WHATSNEW 1.1 85/11/28 David Strickler 101/45
WRITEMSG 1.3 Net Systems $ 10 115/396
XLATRGEN 1.4 85/12/09 Systems Enhancement 107/8
MODIFYING FIDO
or
Some times the only way to get it done
is to do it yourself.
I have seen more than a few "wish lists" in FidoNews,
directed to Saint TJ, asking for changes to Fido. I, too, have
written that mystical person, requesting some simple mods.
Don't get me wrong! I do understand that TJ is not only tied
up with a full time job, but he is also busy with some of the
more important Fido jobs, like making POLLing work. He probably
just doesn't have time to tweak and tune Fido to suit the rest of
us.
Like most sysops, I get tired of asking callers to conform
to the arrangement of my board. As a friend who is the president
of software publishing firm once said, "people want well-written
documentation, but no one wants to read it!" Analogously, on a
bulletin board, people want multiple message areas, but no one
wants to leave his messages in the appropriate message bases. My
wish list to TJ included adding the facility to Fido such that
some message areas could be configured to be private-only, some
mixed, and some to be public-only.
As the title suggests, I did it myself. With a little
effort, using Phoenix Software's Pfix-Plus (hooray for TJ - at
least he gives us the tools!), I traced down the section of code
that asks the user whether a message is to be private. With some
minor patching, I was able to make message areas zero and one
always private.
Here is the code for these changes in Fido Ver. 11q.
It's been several months since an article about the FidoGram free
telegram service has appeared in FidoNews. That, coupled with
the fact that the telegram rush of the holiday season has long
since gone by, makes me feel that it's time to review some of the
pertinent features of the service, and how you can make it work
best for you.
First, for those of you new to FidoNet, the FidoGram service is
brought to you as a free public service by the thousands of
Amateur Radio operators across the country who participate in a
network called the National Traffic System. The purpose of NTS
is to provide the public with a free communications service which
also serves to exercise our skills and equipment on a daily
basis. This exercising is necessary to insure our readiness for
times of emergency when normal communications lines are either
severely loaded or non-existant, such as during the Mexico City
disaster. To put it in perspective - we NEED your FidoGrams...
What type of messages can you reasonably expect to send via
FidoGram? Any non-business, personal message that does not
result in a profit for any party, and which is not contrary to
the laws of decency. You should be aware that youngsters and
little ole ladies are equally likely to be responsible for get-
ting your FidoGrams to their ultimate destinations.
FidoGrams should be kept short. That's simple enough to do -just
pretend that you were asking my employer (RCA) to send your
FidoGram to a ship at sea at the standard $.67 per word! If your
FidoGrams get lengthy, we will just break them up into multiple
messages, but 15 words seems about right. Stay clear of numeric
data such as "call me at 300/1200/2400 baud using X.25 protocol
at 9:30 PM" or messages of this nature - it is often confusing to
the relay stations (usually human) and may get garbled along the
way.
Finally, how do you actually send free FidoGrams? That, too, is
simple. Just send the following info to Luck Hurder at Fido
101/105, either direct at (617) 255-9465, or by FidoMail. Unlike
MANY nodes we've run across at much expense, Cape Cod Fido IS
available at the proper national mail time slot:
1. The SENDER'S complete name, address and telephone number.
(The Fido net and node is NOT sufficient. If we need to get
back to you with a response or a question, we don't wish to
spend money on FidoMail, when we can send it for free by
Amateur Radio!)
2. The complete name, address and telephone number of the
recipients of your FidoGrams.
3. The text of your messages.
Fidonews Page 11 14 Apr 1986
4. A signature.
You can send 20 FidoGrams in one piece of FidoMail if you like;
there's no limit to the number that you can send at once or as a
total.
If you need further information on FidoGrams, I recommend that
you scan your local node for the FIDOGRAM.ARC file, which, among
other things, gives you the list of countries that allow free
FidoGrams across their borders. If FIDOGRAM.ARC is not available
locally, don't hesitate to call Cape Cod Fido and download it
from the 4th file area - Fidfile.
Feel free to use and enjoy FidoGrams as often as you like.
Input, both good and bad, regarding the service is always most
welcome.
I would like to compliment the fellow that wrote the first
article in FidoNews 312. It just happened to follow the exact
problems I'm having at Elite Software. It seems that some bozo
has been hacking at the sysop password and messed with my system.
Oh well I guess immature people will be that way. Another one of
my problems is with 11 year old users. One of them has been
talked to by his father and the other? Well there isn't much I
can do about him.
For those of you who have been wondering, I have finally bought
my own computer! I got a Panasonic Exec. Partner a couple weeks
ago, its a great machine, even the built in printer is nice. It
uses both regular bond and thermal paper. I can switch between
4.77 MHz clock freq and a 7.16 MHz freq clock. The machine also
lets me switch to an external printer. My only gripe is I can't
find a way to turn off the stupid speaker.
Ok I know I've seen it somewhere in FidoNews but I'm not sure
where. Is PANGO.EXE pirated or not? I won't put it out till
somebody tells me it is or isn't.
Is there anybody out there that is interested in starting up
another one of the disk swaps? I'd like to do one before I leave
College Station. I'm interested mainly in one in Texas, but If I
have to go out side of Texas it's ok.
Once again things have seemed to come back to the pay/no pay
situation. I'm not really sure where I stand on the problem. I
barely have enough time to run Fido, and if it wasn't for Elite
Software giving me the machine, modem and 30 meg hd I don't think
it would be possible to run the system. My system used to be a
situation where you had to be validated, but I'm just plain tired
of having to go through and validate everyone so I opened it up.
Well this caused problems,(no doubt), every hacker and there
mother's dog felt they had to call the system so since I opened
the system I've had 5 break-ins and two of them where in the same
week. I ignored the first three and filed reports about the last
two. And one of the local newspapers picked up on the report
before the police talked to me, and that was about a week ago and
I still haven't talked to the Bryan Pd about it yet! Oh well I
guess there to busy trying to catch all of the locals speeding
through school zones or something. Someday I'll get there
attention but I'm not sure how.
This is in reply to Fred Berger's Editorial in FidoNews v.312
about the growing number of BB's that are starting to charge
either a membership or a registration fee, sometimes a "one time"
charge, other times a "per year" fee. The fees do bring in some
extra money to cover operating expense and also help maintain the
system by cutting down on the number of Users -and that's the bad
part.
Berger pointed out that he got quick answers to questions on
the pay board he subscribes to, and almost no response on the
free board. My experience is a little different; I've always
received responses to questions I've posted on local free boards.
But the reason Berger is more likely to receive a reply on the
pay boards is because that board's Users are more likely to be
dedicated computerists while the freebee's user list may be made
up of a larger number of hobbyists with minimal experience, and
young people. They may not know enough to reply to anything, but
they are lurking there reading replies to other people's
questions and learning. And they are the people who might
benefit most from the information being exchanged on the pay
boards; boards that they will not subscribe to because they do
not know what they are missing.
The small subscription/registration fee itself isn't the
problem. But consider this: how many boards do you use regularly?
If each charged only $5 or $10 how much would the total be if you
kept using all of them? How about the boards you call long
distance once a month or so, just to see what's new. Would you
keep calling all of them if you had to pay each one? Do you
think all users can afford to subscribe to all boards? I don't
think so. You may remember TJ said "..not all users have
IBM's.." I'll add to that: Not all users are rich! Some are just
people who like to read messages.
And there are the young users. Kids who may not have the
money or any way to send it in if they had it or any knowledge of
why they should send it. Yes, kids are a problem; they often
don't know what they are doing and they leave silly messages. A
sysop in my net remarked recently "...I see no reason I should be
a nursemaid to other people's children who haven't been raised
properly." I can't disagree with him. But those kids will learn,
will grow up, and will buy "real" computers. And in time, they
will be the ones answering the questions.
When my bulletin board goes up a month or so from now, it
will be free. Yes, I will ask for donations. And, no, I won't
get any. My board will be aimed at the handicapped user who, as
a group, is more likely to be underemployed and I don't want to
do anything that might discourage them from using it. If you
feel you must charge a fee, so be it. But part of your out of
pocket operating expense is the telephone expense you incurred
Fidonews Page 14 14 Apr 1986
while getting files for your users to download. Your message
area cost you nothing. Instead of a subscription or registration
fee, how about just charging for downloading privileges AND LEAVE
THE MESSAGE AREA OPEN TO EVERYONE. So information can be
exchanged and others can learn.
RESULTS FidoNet is an experiment in public communication by the
Cincinnati RESULTS group. We hope that it will become a national
center for collecting and distributing hunger-related articles.
We HAVE the technology and resources to end starvation by the end
of the century. We MUST create and sustain the political will to
accomplish this goal.
RESULTS is a grass-roots citizen's lobby dedicated to the
knowledge that EACH ONE of us can make a difference. Against a
background of silent indifference, those of us who speak out can
make a profound impact. If we look around, we see that very few
of the people we know spend any time communicating with their
representatives about their concerns. RESULTS members educate
themselves so that they can write to Senators, Congressmen and
editorial writers about key issues. RESULTS is a national
organization with 57 groups in 33 states.
The purpose of RESULTS FidoNet is twofold:
1) To allow the efforts of different hunger groups and
organizations to be combined in a public forum of articles,
information and conferencing.
2) To educate the members of the electronic community about the
problems facing developing countries and what we as citizens
can and must do about it.
The system has only been up since 3/12, so we haven't collected
many articles yet. We would like to encourage other sysops to
redistribute any articles that are of interest so that more users
will be informed. Uploads would be greatly appreciated so that
we may expand our libraries.
"Each of the great social achievements
--------------- of recent decades has come about not
RESULTS FidoNet because of government proclamations
--------------- but because people organized, made
demands and made it good politics for
(513) 531-4654 governments to respond. It is the
300/1200/2400 Baud political will of the people that
makes and sustains the political will
"Creating the of governments."
political WILL
to end hunger." James Grant, Executive Director UNICEF
I feel like I'm shouting at a brick wall! I wonder can you tell
why? I have heard rumors that the Fido software contains a
network system. This network system is for sending messages
remotely from one FidoNode to another. I have been online for
about nine months now, I run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
I am also the only Fido node in Europe that is running two Fido's
concurrently. Do you know how many FidoNet messages I have
received in the last 9 months? 200? 100? 50? No! At last count
I have received the staggering total of FIVE !!!!!!!
Admittedly this is more than I have sent out, but it's still a
pretty bad figure.
As far as I can tell I am the record holder for FidoNet messages
in the UK. Why does no one send mail to the UK? Does anyone
send mail at all? We have had problems with mail in the UK but
we can all receive mail. There are more Fido's in the UK than in
any other country in Europe.
I would dearly love to know if I can contact anyone else in
Europe with my USR modem, particularly the other country
coordinators. I hear that some of you have "Bell Annexes".
Could I have the details of these please?
OK that's about it, I hope that we get some response in the UK
from this. I will be polling the UK nodes for mail from now on
so I hope to get the mail moving internally.
The April 15 issue of PC Magazine has a free disk enclosed - a
full working copy of the Brown Bag Word Processing program with
Mail Merge. Wow! What a great idea and what a great magazine!
But what's this - there's something about "Unlocking" the copy
protected disk for $85 - If I don't, it's going to suddenly stop
working after a while. I couldn't resist the temptation to test
their copy protection - sure enough, even the latest versions of
COPYIIPC and COPYWRIT admit defeat in trying to make a copy.
By this time I'm thinking that this program must really be
something special - mass marketing it to everyone in the world
who buys PC Magazine and incorporating the very latest copy
protection methods. I'd better try this program out - maybe it's
really worth it to unlock it for $85.
I do a disk directory and recognize some familiar looking files -
ED.EXE, HELPE.DEF, RULER.DEF, etc. I think, "this must be the
wrong disk in the drive, because those are PC-WRITE files." Nope
- it's the Brown Bag Word Processor alright. This can't be! I
crank the program up and with the exception of an introduction
screen identifying it as the Brown Bag Word Processor - it is PC-
WRITE v2.55 - licensed by the author, Bob Wallace, to Brown Disk
Manufacturing, Inc. What will they think of next?
So - you get to try out this Brown Bag "mystery" program for an
unspecified length of time, and just as you're starting to like
it, it dies. You send off your $85 to get it fixed and you're
happy again. But of course, you have to put up with the copy
protection nonsense in the meantime.
Wait! I have a great idea! Why not get a legal SHAREWARE copy of
PC-WRITE v2.55 (if you are one of the .0001 % of the PC
population that doesn't already have a copy), try it out for as
long as you wish, and then register if you choose to do so. No
copy protection, no "rigged" program that dies just as you are
getting used to it, but the same program with the same
capabilities.
What do I think of this particular offer? (I'll bet you can't
guess). Well, I think PC Magazine is an excellent magazine, the
idea of putting a trial or demo disk in the magazine is a good
one, and PC-WRITE is a very good editor (I am a registered
owner). BUT - putting a copy protected, boobytrapped, identical
clone of a readily available SHAREWARE program in a magazine with
no reference to the fact that it really is just another program
in disguise - well, that stinks! They'll probably make a ton of
money from all of the people who don't know any better - and that
makes it smell even worse!
=================================================================
FOR SALE
=================================================================
Marv Shelton
Fido 107/311
ITT XTRA PC HARDWARE FOR SALE
I have the following pieces of hardware for sale for a
reasonable price. Make me your best offer and the highest
bidder will win the piece of hardware. All of it is in
excellent working order and I will supply all original
documentation and packaging. Shipping charges out of my
immediate area ARE NOT included. The boards listed will work in
any PC or PC compatible and are equivalen to their IBM
counterparts. A message direct to the XTRA BBS or via FIDO-MAIL
is preferred. Check the latest nodelist for phone numbers.
1. Princeton Graphics HX-12 Color Monitor
2. ITT Xtra Color Graphics Board with composite and RF
modulator outputs, and a light pen interface.
(equal to IBM Color Graphics Adpt)
3. ITT Xtra COMBO Board, a multifunction board with 384K of
memory installed, clock/calendar, and parallel port.
Professional quality games include PASCAL source! From the
author of KALAH Version 1.6, SuperDots, a variation of the
popular pencil/paper DOTS game, has MAGIC and HIDDEN DOT
options. KALAH 1.7 is an African strategy game requiring
skill to manipulate pegs around a playing board. Both games
use the ANSI Escape sequences provided with the ANSI.SYS
device driver for the IBM-PC, or built into the firmware on
the DEC Rainbow. Only $19.95 each or $39.95 for both
exciting games! Please specify version and disk format.
These games have been written in standard TURBO-PASCAL and
run on the IBM-PC, DEC Rainbow 100 (MSDOS and CPM), CPM/80,
CPM/86, and PDP-11. Other disk formats are available, but
minor customization may be required.
BSS Software
P.O. Box 3827
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034
For every order placed, a donation will be made to the Fido
coordinators! Also, if you have a previous version of KALAH
and send me a donation, a portion of that donation will also
be sent to the coordinators. When you place an order, BE
CERTAIN TO MENTION WHERE YOU SAW THE AD since it also
appears in PC Magazine and Digital Review.
Questions and comments can be sent to:
Brian Sietz at Fido 107/17
(609) 429-6630 300/1200/2400 baud
Public Domain collection - 300+ "ARC" archives - 10 megs of
software and other goodies, and that's "archived" size! When
unpacked, you get approximately 17 megabytes worth of all kinds
of software, from text editors to games to unprotection schemes
to communications programs, compilers, interpreters, etc...
This collection is the result of more than 10 months of intensive
downloads from just about 100 or more BBS's and other sources,
all of which have been examined, indexed and archived for your
convenience. Starting a Bulletin Board System? Want to add on
to your software base without spending thousands of dollars? This
is the answer!!!
To order the library, send $100 (personal or company check,
postal money order or company purchase order) to:
Micro Consulting Associates, Fido 103/511
Post Office Box 4296
200-1/2 E. Balboa Boulevard
Balboa, Ca. 92661-4296
Please allow 3 weeks for delivery of your order.
Note: No profit is made from the sale of the Public Domain
software in this collection. The price is applied entirely to
the cost of downloading the software over the phone lines,
running a BBS to receive file submissions, and inspecting,
cataloguing, archiving and maintaining the files. Obtaining this
software yourself through the use of a computer with a modem
using commercial phone access would cost you much more than what
we charge for the service...
Please specify what type of format you would like the disks to be
prepared on. The following choices are available:
IBM PC-DOS Backup utility
Zenith MS-DOS 2.11 Backup Utility
DSBackup
Fastback
Plain ol' files (add $50, though, it's a lot of
work and takes more diskettes...)
Add $30 if you want the library on 1.2 meg AT disks (more
expensive disks). There are no shipping or handling charges.
California residents add 6% tax.
For each sale, $10 will go to the FidoNet Administrators.
SEAdog Electronic Mail System
Special Offer for FidoNet Sysops
System Enhancement Associates, the makers of the popular ARC file
archive utility, are proud to announce the release of the SEAdog
electronic mail system.
SEAdog is a PC-based electronic mail system which is fully
FidoNet compatible. In addition to all the functionality of
FidoNet mail, SEAdog adds the following:
o User directory support, for automatic lookup of node numbers
o Return receipts
o Audit trails
o Message forwarding, with or without a retained copy
o Twenty four hour mail reception
o High priority mail for immediate delivery
o The ability to request files and updates of files from other
SEAdog systems.
o No route files needed!
o A full screen user interface that our beta test sites fell in
love with!
SEAdog is NOT a bulletin board system, but it can be used as a
"front end" for Fido (version 11q or later), allowing you to add
the full functionality of SEAdog to your existing system.
SEAdog normally sells for $100/node, but for a limited time only
we are offering SEAdog to registered FidoNet sysops for only $50!
Orders may be placed by sending a check or money order to:
System Enhancement Associates
21 New Street, Wayne NJ 07470
Or by calling (201) 473-5153 (VISA and MasterCard accepted).
It's all very simple, really. The clock moves one hour further.
So it looks like it's an hour later. But it is one hour earlier.
Because we subtract one hour in the evening and so it's longer
light. But then again, we add that in the morning so it will be
dark longer. But not in the UK, they keep their own time. Ah,
well, what is time anyway. I hope all of you in europe made the
time change in the right direction. Fido sysops measure time by
the mailslot, don't they?
FIDO 17/0 (PROBUS INTERNATIONAL, INC.) has been using
DOUBLEDOS for a year now. To those who wish to know such
things, be aware that there are several FIDO nodes in the
Seattle, Tacoma (Washington State) area that are using DDOS.
