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
ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1/1.
Copyright (C) 1987, by the International FidoNet Association.
All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted
for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances,
please contact IFNA.
Table of Contents
1. EDITORIAL
Editor Unleashed!
2. ARTICLES
AMIGA Update
Update on Fido version 12
Reply to "Reply to GAGS Shareware Expenses"
An open letter to all SYSOP
Tax Program Developers Heed!
3. COLUMNS
An Irregular Column
4. NOTICES
The Interrupt Stack
WARNING: Phony PC-Write
I have a confession to make. I've been holding back.
You see, somehow or other I found myself on the interim Board of
Directors. One of three in the limelight, as it were; one of
three "targets" who gets to take the heat.
It's been uncomfortable, for a number of reasons. Mainly it's
been uncomfortable by choice. You see, during the whole recent
debate on the bylaws I felt that it would not be proper for me to
comment on the proposed bylaws one way or the other. Undue
influence, and all that.
But holding my tongue is an uncomfortable position -- for me more
than most, I suppose. No one who has ever known me has
considered me reticent, so far as I'm aware. But the election is
past now, so I am free to speak my mind. It may come as a bit of
a surprise to a few people.
I don't like the bylaws.
They are more suited to a major nation or a multi-million dollar
corporation than to us. They call for a 22 person Board of
Directors, which is ridiculous when you stop to think that IFNA
only has about 200 dues paying members. They mandate a half a
dozen or more standing committees, most of which oversee things
that a single person could handle better. Worst of all, they are
incredibly paranoid!
Here's one example of paranoia. The treasurer is not allowed to
chose a bank to put the money in. The Finance Committee has to
recommend a bank, and the entire board has to approve it. All
this for a few thousand bucks? My own inclination is to leave it
all up to the treasurer. In short, pick someone you trust, and
then trust him! It'll be hard enough to find anyone willing to
do the work anyway without hanging a dozen or so overseers on his
neck.
That's just one example out of many. Read the bylaws. Take a
good, long look at them. Does this sound like a bunch of sysops
getting together, or Megacorp Inc?
I've already shown you something I like better, though you
probably didn't know it was me. You probably didn't take it
seriously either, in spite of the fact that this is supposed to
be FUN! Why do we do it if it isn't fun? Do you remember the
alternate proposed bylaws for the Intergalactic FidoNet Alliance?
I wrote them, and I was dead serious.
The whole point of the Alliance was to remind us all that this is
supposed to be fun. We're doing this because we enjoy it,
Fidonews Page 3 2 Mar 1987
remember? So why not adopt bylaws that will remind us of that?
I've come to realize that even those bylaws were too restrictive.
I plan on revising them (i.e. chopping out even more manure) and
publishing them again. I'm hoping that I can at least get people
to use different terms. Why have a Board of Directors? That's
what businesses have. Why not have a Council of Lords instead?
I think "Grand Wizard" is a much better term than "Vice President
of Technical Operations." Instead of having a President, it'd be
much more descriptive of the actual job to call him a Whipping
Boy.
This carries through to other areas as well. The FidoNet
Technical Standards Committee sounds like a stuffy group of
people bent on maintaining the status quo. But call them The
Ironmongers Squad and it sounds like they have more room to play
in. Why have a Publications Committee when you can have the
Rumormongers Squad? The Membership Services Committee sounds
dull and boring; the Graft and Vice Squad sounds like a LOT more
fun!
I just got back from CES and Commodore did not show the new
machines that I predicted they would. Many people were upset and
disapointed. They DID however have the new machines there,
tucked away upstairs in their booth under guard. They were
showing them to a few people (very few) and only after a very
nasty and lengthy non-disclosure statement had been signed.
Unfortunately, I had to sign one of those agreements before being
permited up the magic stairs to mecca. I can't go any more in to
detail for obvious reasons and after all my word is my word (and
Commodore hasn't layed off their legal deptartment yet). BUT I
can tell you how I felt after I came back down the stairs.
It was a lovely day in Las Vegas. The kind of day that makes you
feel wonderful. The kind of day that makes you feel good about
the future. The NEAR future. I looked around the booth and
thought about how it was going to be a very good spring for Amiga
and a very bad summer for Tramiel & Sons.
I listened to the people that were complaining about the lack of
new hardware at the Amiga booth and the plethora of new vapor
machines at the Atari booth. I thought about how smart it is for
some companies to hold off announcing computers until they are
sure of delivery dates. How smart it is for some companies to
try to turn around their reputations by delivering on time with
new products. I had a big dumb grin all over my face. I thought
about how wonderful it is that technology can march forward and
yet compatability can be preserved. I wish you had been there.
I hope you've enjoyed my observations of Las Vegas. Many of you
have committed your time and effort to making the Amiga a success
with no possibility of personal gain, just because you believe.
I think that you deserve more than to be left in the dark
wondering if you've been abandoned. I thought I'd do my what I
could to let you know that all our futures are very, very bright
indeed.
I'm sorry that I can't go into more detail but keep the faith,
Santa's just going to be a little late this year but it'll be
worth the wait!
I had another chat with TJ about V12 yesterday and found out that
he has more problems, unrelated to Fido development, that will
unfortunately cause further delays. He is leaving APPLE in mid
January and going into business for himself. He is moving into a
San Francisco Warehouse with a number of others that will double
as a business office, and he is spending about one hour a week on
V12 development, which puts his current target date sometime in
second quarter of '87.
For those of us that have dealt with TJ over the past three years
this is disappointing, but not at all surprising. For those of
you beyond the 1200 node table limit in Fido we are hoping that
by telling the truth it will light a fire under a few more
FidoNet clone developers. SEAdog already has the limit problem
licked, OPUS development should consider a FidoNet Mail clone,
and hopefully others will follow suit. TJ may prerelease a
version of Fido with greater than a 1200 node limit, but I
wouldn't count on it happening very soon.
All I can suggest is that our friends in Regions 2 and 3 (Europe
and Australia) not give up hope since they are the most adversely
affected. Encourage new developers to pick up the FidoNet
Standards Documents and offer to assist the current FidoNet clone
developers when you find them.
by Mark J. Welch, Fido 161/459 [private SEAdog node]
Berkeley, CA
(415) 841-8759 (voice)
In the February 16, 1987 edition of FidoNews (Volume 4, Number 7,
Page 8), Jeff Sheese (Sysop, THUD BBS [Opus], 110/10,
513-890-0422 data) posed some quite understandable questions
about whether my Shareware program, the Generic Advenure Game
System (GAGS), has really been as unprofitable as I said in my
earlier FidoNews article. I'd like to reply briefly to his
comments and try to explain how I do my accounting, and why I
charge some expenses to GAGS and other expenses to other things.
Needless to say, I didn't post the categories and numbers without
having solid defenses to each of them. If I was stretching
things, I wouldn't publicize the numbers since I already have
strange enough returns that only the merest luck has saved me
from scrutiny by the IRS.
First off, the easy stuff: the expenses for books, development
software, other software, postage, and supplies are, in fact,
strictly limited to expenses related to GAGS. Yes, I did reuse
the compilers and some of the books in other [aborted]
programming projects. Heck, some of the books ended up not being
useful at all. The key is that I bought them for use with GAGS
and with the recognition that they were for use as software
development tools. On the other hand, I used many resources
(about $1,000 worth of books in my library and over $2,000 worth
of software on the shelf, for example) which were paid for by
other activities, but made no effort to retrospectively apportion
their value to GAGS. [Those estimates on books and software are
conservative: anyone who wants to challenge those numbers is
welcome to a copy of a list of the software on my shelf, and to a
copy of the list of over $1,000 worth of computer books I've
proposed to donate to a local university library to make room on
my shelves for more books.]
The "Cost of Goods Sold" figure includes all the disks I
manufactured and mailed, including free copies to the press, user
groups, and many sysops, and also includes mailing envelopes and
such. I have receipts for everything, and it's all genuine "cost
of goods sold." It doesn't include postage, which is lumped under
"postage" along with all other postage expenses (including
updates and press releases); the postage category doesn't exclude
anything: remember that each disk costs just 39 cents to mail
(except to Europe).
The miscellaneous category, always suspicious, is also absolutely
pure: it does not include all my memberships or all my
subscriptions even to computer magazines, only those that are
related to GAGS. (It also includes other bizarre expenses.) I do
not (and legally cannot) take a separate tax deduction for these
memberships or subscriptions.
Fidonews Page 7 2 Mar 1987
The phone category so aggressively challenged by Mr. Sheese hurts
most. I established my bulletin-board in an effort to create
goodwill so I could expand distribution of GAGS. My BBS, like
BBSs sponsored by computer stores and other software publishers,
had other programs on-line, and I sent FidoMail mostly about GAGS
but also about lots of other things. The BBS was established to
support GAGS, and whenever conflicts occurred, GAGS won. The BBS
was instrumental in distributing GAGS: FidoMail requests, file-
attaches (40 minutes on my dime), and regular callers allowed
GAGS to become available nationwide in a matter of weeks. When I
realized that GAGS would never pay the BBS expenses, I closed it
down (Fido 161/459 is a private SEAdog node to exchange FidoMail
only), saving the expense of the second phone line which had been
installed especially for GAGS and then relocated (a second $100
installation charge) when I moved.
Of course, I've held the most controversial category for last:
computer equipment. The $2,400 in that category is essentially
what turns an otherwise nearly-breakeven operation into a huge
loss. Again, I have other computer equipment here, and this
equipment was purchased for the single purpose of developing and
supporting GAGS. GAGS development and maintenance has accounted
for far more than half of the system's use, with GAGS-related
business activity accounting for another quarter. I have used it
for other things, and those "other things" (like writing
freelance articles) thus are not properly "charged" for the
expense of the computer, but neither is GAGS charged for the
publicity that results from my writing nor for the hardware and
software that predated GAGS or was acquired for some other
purpose. Another note: the computer equipment for which I paid
about $2,400 now has a resale value of about $500 to $750.
When I buy another system this year, as I certainly will, I will
"charge" it to some other activity, even though I will probably
use it part of the time for GAGS-related activities. And more
than likely, I will spend even more on the new system. (In the
unlikely event that I sell the old system, I would "credit" GAGS
for any income from that; I credited GAGS when I sold some
equipment in 1985, and that credit is incorporated into the
figures.)
Mr. Sheese is surely right about one thing that makes my numbers
easy to challenge: the "crossover effect" between activities is
substantial. It goes even further: I buy games for personal use
(Starflight, etc.), and although the games provide me with
insight into game development I wouldn't dream of calling those
purchases "expenses" for GAGS. Of course, neither do I allocate
10 percent of the system cost because I spend that amount of time
using it to play games, or 10 percent of the system time to the
"enterprise" of being a BIX [BYTE Information Exchange]
moderator, which is a quite enjoyable but unprofitable thing to
be. Before 1985, I spent a lot of time developing earlier
programs that were ancestors of GAGS, and GAGS wasn't "charged
back" for those expenses. Nor have I ever charged GAGS for any
portion of my trade show expenses, even though I spend a quarter
to a third of my time talking to publishers and the press about
Fidonews Page 8 2 Mar 1987
GAGS. (I did charge GAGS for admissions to computer "swap meets"
when I was shopping around for my XT clone.)
My practice is to charge all current expenses to the current
projects. All my software development expenses were "charged" to
GAGS for the past 18 months because GAGS was my only published
product. Those aborted projects involved a total of perhaps ten
percent of the system use. Virtually all my computer and phone
expenses are now charged to my freelance writing activity,
because it produces the most income and activity.
For the IRS, because the activities are so overlapping, I lump
all freelance writing, programming, and consulting activities
together as a single "enterprise," which lost a couple grand in
1985 (because of GAGS) and made a fair amount of money in 1986
(because of growing freelance writing income). I broke out the
GAGS results only when I was making the decision to move GAGS
from Shareware to commercial distribution.
So, what does all this come down to? I think the numbers I used
are very close to reality. Surely, if I sat down and allocated
each fraction of an hour spent at the computer, and computed the
precise market value and cost of the hardware and software used
to develop GAGS, I could come up with a more secure number, but
I'm confident that the resulting number would be quite close to
the loss I mentioned in my earlier article.
This is an open letter to all SYSOPs. My eleven year old
son managed to download a file probably called SEX.ARC which
contained several rather crude pornographic animated graphics.
One of the files was PORNO.EXE. This file is possibly of German
origin.
OK. I am not really excited about this. At that age I
would have downloaded it but also I might have been smart enough
to keep it on a well hidden floppy.
The point of this message is this. If you think the GOV has
been interested in cracking down on BBSs because of potential
copyright infringement, just imagine what is going to happen if
some parent reports this file to The Moral Majority. Arguing the
law is one thing, arguing against a bunch of half-crazed puritan
parents is another. If files like this can be down-loaded by
people who are not legal adults and it hit the papers, BBSs are
asking for a crack-down that will not quit.
Books have been banned and burned for less than this.
Now legally, the person called and asked for the file and as
such I think that BBS operators are legally safe, just as the
phone call sex talk business is safe as long as the buyer calls
for the service. I am not a lawyer but I think that this is
correct.
The problem is some Oral Roberts (may he not collect his
$4.5M) gets his hands on this and starts condemning all BBSs and
all downloading because of one or two files. Those kinds of
fools do that sort of thing.
Please pass this message on. If you carry such files, try
to find a way to restrict access to 18 year olds. At best do not
carry such files at all. If you carry sexually oriented files,
then do you best to screen out the gross ones -- the kind that
will get public attention. Gross is what gets the public's
attention and no one will come to your defense. If the file is
artistically interesting, a well done nude then fine, the
Liberals will come to your defense and you will win politically.
But crude porn has few defenders.
Consider strongly,the control or removal of all crude/vulgar
sexually oriented programs, particularly grafix programs.
For further information, and for the file if you want it as
an example, you may contact me at 109/483.
Note that I will not upload the file simply to have it
listed for downloading. This sort of thing should not be on any
board for the reasons stated above.
Tax Program Developers Heed!
by Ben Baker -- 100/76
Someone from the IRS made an interesting statement in an
interview I heard on the radio this morning on my way to work.
If you develop and sell tax computation software, you are a
"tax preparer" in the eyes of the IRS. If a taxpayer's tax is
understated because of an error in your software, YOU are subject
to a "preparer's penalty" ammounting to 75 % of the ammount of
understatement.
I know there are a lot of you out there, so I thought I
should pass along this interesting little tid-bit. If you
distribute your s/w as "shareware" via the BBSs, your exposure
could be quite large, so MAKE DAMN SURE ANY ERRORS ARE ON THE
HIGH SIDE!
The First of an Irregular Column
Dale Lovell
157/504
Even before I read Thom Henderson's comments on how small
FidoNews was becoming, I noticed how there didn't seem to be that
much in it anymore. I had been considering writing an irregularly
appearing column, but had been putting it off for a variety of
reasons. When I got and read FidoNews this week (Volume 4 Number
7) I decided it was time to finally do something. If things go
well, I should be sending off at least one column every month. If
anyone can come up with a cute, catchy name for it let me know
because I haven't been able to think of anything. I'll be giving
everyone my views and opinions on events, software and hardware
that come to my attention. If you have any comments on my column
either write an article for FidoNews or send me a message, I'll
try to go over any netmail in the end of future columns. That out
of the way, on to the column.
Finally got a copy of the Microsoft C last week and have
been looking over the docs and playing around with it. First off,
I didn't believe what anybody had to say about Codeview and was
surprised. It really is a great program. For the first time I was
able to watch the program execute (in my C source code) and the
programs output at the same time. Even back in the days when I
used BASIC I couldn't do it this easy. Since I've got two
monitors I had one monitor tracing the program and the other
"running" the program. For a lot of people that alone might be
worth the price of the compiler.
Another thing that I noticed much earlier is the size of the
documentation. Microsoft gives it to you in 3 of the IBM size
manuals. I spent over a day just going over it, and to me it
seems rather complete. I primarily dabble in programming and
don't consider myself a professional programmer yet so my
evaluation may not be perfect, I also haven't done that much
compiling. It did handle some programs from a UNIX system without
any problems (my old C compiler hated most of the stuff off UNIX
systems) and everything seems to run properly so I'm fairly
satisfied with it. My biggest complaint is Microsoft's function
key templates. I've got a 5151 keyboard and while they provide a
nice template for Codeview, it only works with function keys on
the left side of the keyboard, not on the top like mine.
Please note that this is NOT the package for someone
interested in learning a little about C or dabbling in it, this
is meant for someone doing professional software development or
at least something close to this. For someone interested in
learning C, I'd say you're better off with something like Let's C
or the new Turbo C from Borland. I haven't seen these packages,
but both have been recommended by others. I've also heard good
things about the DataLight C compiler, but unfortunately haven't
Fidonews Page 13 2 Mar 1987
had a chance to see it yet. DataLight's current ad challenges
Microsoft to a speed test on compilation, linkage, and execution
time. If they lose, they won't advertise their product for 2
months. There's no reason for Microsoft to respond, but if anyone
tests these two compilers side by side drop me a line and let me
know how they stack up against one another.
Borland, incidentally, has been busy the past few months,
with the release of Eureka, TurboBASIC and TurboC. From what I
can tell from the ads, Eureka is supposed to be like MathCADD
(also known only from ads), mainly you enter equations the way
you wrote them in various math classes and it can solve, graph,
and do other nice things with the equation. TurboBASIC is a
competitor to Microsoft's QuickBASIC, which was a response to
TurboPascal. TurboC is an extension of the idea and it will be
interesting to see how Microsoft responds to it. If they release
a Quick C, they may be cutting their profits on their current
compiler; yet they could lose more sales by not releasing
anything, and let Borland take some of their C sales. I think
they'll release a Quick C within the next few months which will
be very similar to their current C compiler with a few changes.
Mainly no Codeview, smaller libraries, and a complete
environment. As to how it will stack up, let's wait and see what
the reaction is to Turbo C.
On the lighter side, I've started playing Leather Goddesses
of Phobos from Infocom. It's as hilarious as Hitchhiker's and
possibly even more bizzare! If you liked Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy, you will love Leather Goddesses. It's also the first
adventure I've seen that doesn't assume your gender. Their
approach to asking you is unique. Very early in the game you must
visit a restroom, I leave it to the reader to determine how , I
leave it to the reader to figure out how the game determines your
sex. There's also three levels of play, varying from something
you wouldn't mind your five year old playing to lewd, which
supposedly uses most of George Carlin's seven words you can't say
on television.
The best computer book I've seen in the past few weeks is
"Supercharging MS-DOS" by Van Wolverton. It is a fairly good
introduction on what is considered advanced topics by many
people. It does a very good job of teaching someone about things
like ANSI.SYS, printer control codes, batch files. You are also
guided through redefining a key, and how to create your own menu
system. The book is available from Microsoft Press for $18.95.
Once again I welcome your own comments on anything I've
written about, or something you think I should see (and possibly
write about). My US mail address is below along with my net/node
number. If you're a user of a BBS please mention to your sysop
that mail to me must be routed through either 157/0, 157/502, or
157/1, he'll understand what that means. Sysop's take note of the
previous sentence if you send me mail yourself. Those nodes will
also accept a file for me and are running SEAdog so you shouldn't
have to worry about mail schedules.
Fidonews Page 14 2 Mar 1987
Dale Lovell
3266 Vezber Drive
Seven Hills, OH 44131
17 May 1987
Metro-Fire Fido's Second Birthday BlowOut and Floppy Disk
Throwing Tournament! All Fido Sysops and Families Invited!
Contact Christopher Baker at 135/14 for more information.
24 Aug 1989
Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
If you have something which you would like to see on this
calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1/1.
A system operator of a Los Angeles bulletin board has found a
bogus version of PC-Write. The "trojan" version, when invoked,
destroys the fat of a user's hard disk and initiates a low-level
format, destroying the hard disk's data, according to system
operator Tom Wilkinson.
The bad version of the program masquerades as a "newer" release
of Version 2.71 and is 98,274 bytes long, said Wilkinson. The
real Version 2.7 is 98,242 bytes long, and the real Version 2.71
is 98,644 bytes. The version posted on compuserve is the real
version, he said. Quicksoft, PC-Write's developer, is offering a
$2500 reward for the first person who identifies the creator of
the bogus program and a $5000 reward for the person who provides
proof that convicts the perpetrator. Those with information can
contact Quicksoft at (206) 282-0452.
Membership for the International FidoNet Association
Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that
pays an annual specified membership fee. IFNA serves the
international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to
increase worldwide communications. **
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Send your membership form and a check or money order for $25 to:
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Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to
insure the future of FidoNet.
** Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization
in formation and Articles of Association and By-Laws were adopted
by the membership in January 1987. An Elections Committee has
been established to fill positions outlined in the By-Laws for
the Board of Directors. An IFNA Echomail Conference has been
established on FidoNet to assist the Elections Committee. We
welcome your input on this Conference.
