FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet
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Copyright 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 at (314) 576-4067.
The EchoMail areas have become "Special Interest Group"
mail areas carrying help and information about various
interests to users around the "world." The IBM-PCjr is
just one of those Special Interest Groups. Here are some
"bits" taken from that echomail area: Jr-Msg.
There are about 400,000 PCjrs floating around the United
States and Canada. Many said "It'll never make it"..
"You can't do anything with it", "It's too expensive to
Expand".....etc..... Well, IBM continues to supply parts
and support for the PCjr. There are software packages that
make use of PCjr's superior graphics abilities (comparable
to EGA). Those with EGA can now see 16 colors in Hi-Res...
the PCjr owners have seen them since day one.
It was noted that the PCjr has a better monitor than the
regular PC and there have been discussions of how to
attach the PCjr monitors to PC and XT's. Possibly even to
an EGA card. No facts on the EGA card (yet).
During 1986-87, several developments occurred that
keep the Junior in the mainstream of the MS/PC DOS
world. These same developments have been discussed
in the echomail area called Jr-Msg.
The supposed maximum rate of data transmission for the
Junior was 4800 bps .. but, a data transmission rate of
over 10,000 bps using a NULL modem cable was discovered
by one of the users and posted in Jr-Msg. Nothing new for
a PC or XT owner, but supposed to be impossible for a PCjr.
One company released a 9600 baud Serial Card. Think we knew
about that last year. Telebit and USR, here we come!
The Jr's single disk drive caused many people to
ignore it when looking for an inexpensive 8088 based machine.
But, during the last year a way to attach Bernouli Boxes
to the Jr made it into an attractive starting point for
someone wanting to develop a system "a little at a time."
We already knew that we could put anything up to a 70Mb drive
on Jr. Now, how about the optical disk?
The 4.27 mhz clock speed made the Junior seem like the
slowest thing around, especially since the memory on the
motherboard has wait states bringing the Norton speed
rating to .7 of a normal PC. However in the last year
several people have discovered ways of increasing the
CPU speed. There are upgrade kits for less than $100
FidoNews 4-42 Page 2 16 Nov 1987
that will take the PCjr to 8 mhz and there are rumors
around that there are some jrs "out there" running at
20mhz! (Some of these were at IBM).
Software incompatibilities have been a bane to PCjr
users, especially those who wanted to bring their work
home. There have been notes in Jr-Msg (the PCjr echo area)
on fixes to run DBase III+, MS QuickBasic 3 and Auto-CAD
on the PCjr.
I think what we are getting at is The PCjr is alive and well
in the world of PC's, XT's and AT's (as well as all the clones).
If you have a PCjr and really WANT to know more about it, what
you CAN do with it or just what OTHERS have done with it....
we would like you or your PCjr users to "join" us on Jr-Msg.
Ask your Regional Echomail Co-Ordinator to "pick-up" Jr-Msg from
the National Backbone. - OR - Contact Matt Mayer at 115/212
or Phil Kaiser at 104/904.....and join us "Direct".
How often have you gone searching for a link to some conference
you've heard of? Even worse, have you ever painstakingly located
a conference link, just to find that someone you swap echomail
with daily had it all along? Don't you wish there was some easy
way to automate all that? Well, there is!
MGMlink was written to locate new conference links over existing
channels. It works on the assumption that you'd rather add some
more traffic to an existing phone call than to make another call.
MGMlink is essentially a query system for a remote data base.
The data base it queries is that massive, thinly-spread data base
on conference topology that is stored collectively in in
everyone's AREAS.BBS files. Here's how it works:
Let's say there's some conference called STAMPS dedicated to
stamp collectors. You, being an avid philatelist, would like
to get it. So you type the command:
mgmlink stamps
MGMlink will create a netmail message to everyone you now do
echomail with, asking for a path to the STAMPS conference.
Suppose one of those people is Gee Wong, who carries the
STAMPS conference. Every day he invokes MGMlink in an
external event. His MGMlink will automatically create a
netmail message to you telling you that he has STAMPS and can
pass it to you.
Let's make that example a little tougher. Suppose Gee
doesn't have STAMPS; now what happens? Well, if Gee has told
his MGMlink that he's willing to add new conferences if
people want them, then his MGMlink will create a new query to
everyone he does echomail with.
Suppose one of those people is Dave O'Shea, an ardent
philatelist who would not be caught dead without his STAMPS
conference. His MGMlink will respond to the query by sending
you a netmail message telling you that he has STAMPS, and he
can send it to Gee, who can pass it to you.
The harder case shows the real power of MGMlink. It can locate
an indirect link like that through any number of middlemen. What
MGMlink is actually doing is tracing backwards through your
echomail links until it finds a source.
This starts to sound like an awful lot of MGMlink query messages
floating around, but it's not that bad. Several things limit how
FidoNews 4-42 Page 4 16 Nov 1987
far an MGMlink query can propagate.
One, of course, is that not everyone is running MGMlink, but this
could change.
Another is that few people will be willing to act as a "backbone
node" and add new conferences just to pass them through to
others. If you tell MGMlink that you don't want to add new
conferences, then any query that reaches you will be stopped
cold.
Another is that MGMlink keeps track of "side chains", so that
nobody should ever get more than one copy of any given MGMlink
query message.
And finally you can tell MGMlink to send a query only to certain
nodes. Suppose, for example, that you get tons and tones of
echomail from three people, and then pass it on to a dozen
others, with very little going the other way. You can tell
MGMlink to limit queries to the three "upstream" nodes.
Who should run MGMlink? Anyone who wants to be a "backbone"
node, passing along conferences to help out those around them,
and anyone who is trying to promote a conference should look into
MGMlink.
Do you need to use MGM to use MGMlink? Of course not. We
believe in modular programming. Every program in the MGM system
is written to do a specific task, and to be useable as a stand-
alone utility to accomplish that task. MGMlink in particular
will work with any popular PC conferencing system (including
EchoMail, Confmail, Opus, and even TBBS), because MGMlink queries
and answers move as normal network mail.
Products mentioned in this article may be file requested from
1:107/6 at any time outside of National Mail Hour, or may be
downloaded from the SEA customer support board at (201) 473-1991.
And you thought your computer was flakey. Here is a story about
mans greatest probe ever launched into space and its flakes.
This is an actual account of Voyager 1 and the problems it
encountered December 13'th, 1979. Written by Fredric L. Rice,
August 1985. Original reference material may be found at
Griffith Observatory, located at 2800 East Observatorty Road, Los
Angeles, California. 90027. Request back issue of Griffith
Observer, May 1980. Page 11 for Stephen S. Fentress, "Lost In
Space". Direct requests to Dr. Edwin C. Krupp and staff. You may
aquire subscriptions to the Griffith Observer through the same
address. It provides a great quantity of understandable
information concerning astronomy.
---
There is a concept making the rounds describing the attitude of
electronic equipment when it decides to do something out of the
ordinary, by itself, without being asked to. The concept is
titled "Digi-nerds". It may include just about anything you care
to name. It strikes once, leaving much damage.
The cause of digi-nerds is not known. Perhaps cosmic rays, which
bombard us constantly, strike our equipment, mutating a zero into
a one, or a one into a zero. The result may never be noticed, or
it may spell disaster for your bank account.
When Voyager 1 completed its mid-course correction, December
13'th, 1979, it met up with a digi-nerd at 48,000 miles an hour,
and 619 million miles from home.
The course correction required a 37 minute burn to effect a
change in speed of eleven miles an hour. During that time, the
radio dish had to be turned away from its Earth-Line so that the
engine would be aligned according to its flight plan. The Voyager
vehicles were designed to carry out complicated maneuvers like
this without requiring any instructions from Earth.
All went according to plan; Saturn had been treated to a rare and
beautiful sight of a new star tracking through its distant skys.
After the main burn, an inhabitant of Saturn, (if he had had a
good telescope), might have seen some additional flashes as
Voyager attempted to realign itself to its Earth-Line using its
attitude control thrusters.
Voyager 1 regains its Earth orientation by locating the Sun and
the star Canopus. When the Sun tracker is locked onto the Sun,
and the star tracker is locked onto Canopus, the radio disk is
aligned exactly at Earth. When contact was not restored at 3:13
p.m. P.S.T. on December 13, it was known that something had gone
wrong.
To find the Sun, the vehicle rotates itself a few degrees at a
FidoNews 4-42 Page 6 16 Nov 1987
time until the Sun tracker lockes onto the Sun. There is only
one stellar object that can be as bright at the Sun, (even at 711
million miles the Sun is an impressive sight). When the Sun is
positivly identified, the vehicle rotates itself along another
axis until the star tracker locates Canopus.
The Deep Space Network Antenna located in Madrid heard a faint
signal from Voyager. This gave the scientist the idea that the
probe was basicly healthy but somehow simply misaligned. Even if
this be the case, if the device was too badly misaligned, it
might not be able to read a command from Earth telling it how to
find Earth again.
Voyager 1 was on the verge of being lost forever. Adrift in the
heavens with no possibility of being recovered. Unable to report
its posistion and the cause of its ailments.
Dr. Jones and his Spacecraft Team knew that Alpha Centauri and
Rigel could deceive the star tracker. Based on the possibility
that one of these stars was locked onto, the team beamed
instructions through the Deep Space Network at Madrid to the lost
spacecraft in the hopes that a strong enough signal could be
read. Dr. Jones directed the spacecraft to align itself with the
assumption that it was locked onto Alpha Centauri.
Voyager 1 did receive the instructions, and it did attempt to
realign itself according to its new instructions. Alpha Centauri
was the wrong star. Radio contact was not improved after the
spacecraft completed its instructions.
Next, Voyager was instructed to realign itself base on the
assumption it was locked onto Rigel. This did not improve radio
reception, causing much disappointment to the Spacecraft Team.
Though they did not know what star Voyager was locked on, they
did know that from its point of view the Sun and Earth appeared
eight degrees apart. If the spacecraft could be made to wobble
out an eight degree cone, the signal from the spacecraft could be
made to sweep accross the Earth every now and then, and they
would be able to learn more information about where the
spacecraft was pointing.
The maneuver worked. On December 16'th, almost complete contact
was regained through the Canberra, Australia, tracking station.
Total loss of signal time exceeded 71 hours. In order to learn
why the spacecraft has gone astray, Dr. Jones and his team
ordered it to replay all information it had on what had happened
for the last three days. Records showed an error in
communications between two on board computers, and there was
nothing showing to restrict another attempt to regain normal
contact. The spacecraft was instructed to go through its Earth-
Find maneuver December 19'th, and on December 20'th, Voyager was
again in full contact with the Earth.
Reconstruction of the detailed data Voyager offered showed that
the spacecrafts master computer had ordered a secondary computer
FidoNews 4-42 Page 7 16 Nov 1987
to shut down the engines at the end of the course correction.
Commands such as this are requested twice, and it was the second
instruction that got garbled between the two computers. The
first instruction had indeed shut down the engines yet the second
corrupted instruction was not understood by the secondary
computer. This computer reported the strange instruction to the
master computer who declaired an abort.
When a spacecraft abort is executed, all operations are thrown
away and the Earth-Find maneuver is executed. Voyager did this,
and in fact did find the Sun. It was while the spacecraft was on
its search for Canopus that another emergency was detected.
The attitude control system reported a leak in the primary
thrusters. Actually, the master computer had requested from 1026
to 1094 "shots" from the attitude control thrusters, while the
attitude control computer interprets more than 1000 as evidence
of a leak. It reported a problem and the star search was aborted.
So there it stood, with only a minimal contact with Earth; its
star tracker not pointing at any known object. The spacecraft
was compleatly healthy but for no known reason a garbled
transmission from the master computer to the slave had triggered
an emergency.
There had been more than five hundred thousand instructions to
cross its data bus, and it had already executed six previous
Earth Find maneuvers.
Sometimes our failures turn out to be our biggest triumphs. To
defeat a problem which might end our achievements is a better
boost to our moral than the defeating of a known hazard,
(Remember Apolo 13 and the problems circumvented by those
aboard).
The space shuttle will no doubt encounter digi-nerds on one of
its many scheduled flights. We can only hope it wont be over 600
million miles away when it does.
---
Additional information:
1) Voyager 1 was 56 light minutes away when the emergency
started.
2) Using the Earth-Find maneuver, the entire sky can be
searched in about four hours, eighteen minutes.
3) Voyager 2 will encounter Uranus in 1986, and Neptune in
1989.
---
Stephen S. Fentress suggests additional reading:
FidoNews 4-42 Page 8 16 Nov 1987
1) Edelson, R. E. et al. , "Voyager Telecommunications: The
Broadcast From Jupiter", Science, 204, 913, (June 1979).
---
For information on the Holmann transfer, read:
1) Melbourne, W. G., "Navigation Between the Planets", Scientific
American, 234, 58, (June 1976). [Authors note: If you want to
read "Navigation", don't forget your calculator and paper.
This article offers simple formula that is fun to try].
---
Authors notes:
The Griffith Observer is a publication that everyone who is
interested in astronomy should subscribe to. At the time of
this articles release into the Public Domain, 12 issues of the
Griffith Observer were going for $5.00. This money, after
paying for the publication costs, goes towards the "Friends of
the Observatory" fund. Edwin C. Krupp, who manages the
building, (who also hosted the series "Project Universe" that
you have probibly seen on public television), uses the money
to maintain the observatory. If you want additional
information, contact Mr. Krupp by U. S. Snail, or send Fido-
Mail to Fredric Rice (200/3), and I can deliver informational
requests for you.
-- The Regular Irregular Column --
Dale Lovell
157/504
Well, this column has finally become a little irregular.
Unfortunately this hasn't been by design. Between trying out Fido
version 12 and some programming projects for local companies, I
just haven't had the time to write this long overdue column.
Hopefully things will become somewhat more regular over the next
few weeks.
Several weeks ago someone wanted an unbiased opinion on Fido
12, and in Thom Henderson's reply was a thinly veiled hint to me.
Thom was aware that I had picked it up from TJ at FidoCon and
here is the long overdue review.
-- Fido version 12 (Fido Software, $150.00) --
First off, Fido is no longer shareware. Up until FidoCon,
there were still some questions on how it was going to work
(software free but not the manuals for example). Everything is
now purchased from Fido Software. Registered owners of Fido will
be given a discount on version 12, but it will cost anyone else
$150.00. That includes the software and documentation, you will
not be able to download the software from any bulletin boards. I
am happy to report that the money is well worth it! Fido 12 is a
definite step forward for Fido, and at the same time retains the
flavor of Fido. Some of the most noticeable improvements are the
implementation of locks and keys, and ASCII files replacing
several BBS files and command line switches. In order to support
non-IBM users, Fido 12 does not directly support any of the
graphics like Opus. The graphics are still much the same as it
was in 11w, so some of you will be disappointed. I myself support
TJ in this, if for no other reason than graphics slow down a
system. I'm also more impressed with the content of a board
rather than how cute it can be made to look.
One of the first things I noticed is the ease in setting up
the message areas (file areas are just as easy). You no longer
have to keep bringing Fido up in the test mode or use SYSEDIT to
add, delete or change a message area. Everything is controlled in
an ASCII file called AREAS.INI. Since Fido 12 doesn't use the
SYSTEM??.BBS files it allows up to 200 message and file areas.
EchoMail junkies should love this feature as more and more
conferences become available. Fido 12 will be the only software
that will allow this many message areas. Also introduced into
Fido 12 is the concept of locks and keys. In addition to needing
a high enough privilege level, you also need to have the proper
key. You can assign each user his keys through the sysop utility
and they do not have to relate to specific privilege levels
(which would have been redundant). Their are 32 keys available
FidoNews 4-42 Page 10 16 Nov 1987
and this should help out immensely with maintaining a board. Keys
can be used on both file and message areas as well as the menu
commands. File areas are also set up in the AREAS.INI file with
just as much control.
All of the commands are contained in an ASCII file. Because
of this, you can change the command names (just make sure you
keep everything in order). The manual warns against changing them
for the obvious reason that it makes it hard on the users. With
all the Fido boards out there it would be inconsiderate to change
any of the commands without good reason. Once again I have to
agree with Fido Software, a standardized command set is an asset
to the bulletin board community. I've even made my TBBS commands
almost identical to Fido's (of course there were a few things I
changed to make things easier on me). If you do change the
command names, make sure you change the help files as well (there
are about half a dozen help files included). Right now the only
good reason I could think of for changing the commands is support
of foreign languages (I'm nearly positive that G)oodbye doesn't
mean a thing to many FidoNet users scattered throughout Europe!).
I'm very supportive of the locks and keys concept. I first
"discovered" this idea in the authorization flags in TBBS and I
feel they can be a great asset to a BBS program. Since locks and
keys don't affect things like download and time limits, it can
allow a sysop to create different levels of access without
granting them all out. A good example of this would be other
sysops calling your system. You might not want to give them any
more time than a normal caller, but you might want to allow them
access to additional message or file areas. Using a lock on these
new areas, you can give them the same privilege level as your
normal users but only give the other sysops the key needed for
these areas. This makes it easy for one system to become a local
center for sysops in some of the large sysop only conferences
without inviting additional trouble from them "hogging" the
bulletin board.
Bulletins can often be a great asset in a bulletin board
program. They can be used for an easy way to give users a list of
other local bulletin boards (without having to give them download
privileges), a community bulletin, a list board policies, giving
public notice of those who have contributed to a board,or even
help defray the boards operating expenses through advertising
(I've seen bulletins used for all of these purposes). Fido 12
makes a big improvement over Fido 11 by allowing up to 99
bulletins (as opposed to 1 in Fido 11w). Instead of just
displaying the EDTORIAL.BBS file, Fido 12 will lists the first
non-blank line of each BULLETIN.n file and gives the user a
chance to choose which bulletin he would like to read. I've
always viewed Fido's one bulletin limit as a serious limitation
and am very happy to see this go by the wayside.
Overall, I'm very pleased with how Fido 12 has turned out. I
was somewhat afraid that it would barely resemble the Fido many
of us have come to know. Fido Software has managed to enhance and
improve Fido, while keeping it familiar. Replacing the system
FidoNews 4-42 Page 11 16 Nov 1987
files and command line switches with the ASCII files will be one
of the biggest advantages of Fido 12 (there's a new command that
will let you override the file path if you want to do some remote
upkeep). The locks and keys are another nice addition to Fido. TJ
has made a product that is easily worth the asking price. If
you've been looking for an improved Fido and Opus just didn't
seem like the right thing, rest easy and get version 12 from Fido
Software. I don't think you'll regret the decision.
-- more on TBBS 2.0(S/M) --
In playing around with TBBS, I discovered a command that
many of you may find appealing. eSoft calls it a combined message
board read, I call it gang reading. In all their are three
commands; a select, a scan, and a read. Every time a user calls
up, TBBS "selects" all the message areas for combined reading and
scanning. Using the select command, they can turn off (and back
on) any of the "ganged areas". If they choose to scan the
combined areas, they can mark messages they want to read later
(by telling the combined read to only show messages that have
been marked). Some of the different ways to read messages include
forward, reverse, new messages, and marked messages. Echomail
junkies should love this feature as they can see everything with
only a few key strokes (assuming they don't pause, but have a
capture buffer filling somewhere). I've been using it myself for
the past week and it does make it convenient.
The only drawback I can see is that it could allow someone
access to a message base they normally wouldn't see. The combined
message base commands work off of the minimum privilege levels
and necessary authorization flags you created in the
configuration editor. I can see how someone might accidentally
block off a menu with the authorization flags and not worry about
the message bases that could branch off. If the flags weren't
duplicated in the message area definition, it could create a
loophole for the users. Of course this could also be a kind of
semi-hidden or undocumented part of a board, but I'd consider it
bad form.
The other new feature I discovered is in the pseudo
directory files. Pseudo-directories are lists of files that can
be downloaded. One of the first advantages I discovered is that
you can define where a file is, and how it should be listed. This
has allowed me to put ARC at the top of every file area with the
message "You will need this program to use any of the files
listed below" without having to have duplicate copies of ARC. You
can easily have the same file listed several times (and under
different "names" to your users) in different areas. It could
also be used to create a master download command on any menu. If
you copied all of your pseudo-directories into one large pseudo-
directory, someone could download any program without having to
remember which file area they should be in. This way you'd get
the benefits of having organized file areas, but still allowing
someone to download any file without having to worry if they're
in the correct file area. For awhile this seemed to mean some
extra work, until I discovered a real gem in how TBBS manages
FidoNews 4-42 Page 12 16 Nov 1987
pseudo-directories. It seems that they are self-cleaning. If you
delete a file on the hard drive, when TBBS next lists the pseudo-
directory it will remove any filenames and descriptions if the
file does not exist. No more checking to see what lines have to
be deleted, it's all done for you. I'm still discovering things
about TBBS, and so far it has only enhanced my appreciation of
it. I'm even more convinced that it's the only way to go for
multi-line operation.
-- Winding down... --
Sierra On-Line recently released an new arcade style game
they imported from Japan. When I made one of my regular visits to
a local computer store, I was able to see a demo of the game.
Needless to say, I left the store with a brand new game. It's
called Thexder (Sierra On-Line, $34.95) and can be very
addicting. It works with any color graphics card, but doesn't
really shine unless you have an EGA adapter. Under EGA the colors
are phenomenal, yet it runs well on any speed machine. The object
is to get through 16 different levels. Each level has no
resemblance to any of the other levels (at least up through the
first four levels) and you have to use unique strategies to
successfully complete each level. You refuel by completing a
level without using your shields and by destroying certain
denizens of the place. Knowing when to run and when to shoot is
almost half the battle (the other half is knowing what to
ignore). If you have a joystick Thexder will let you use it, but
I'd advise sticking to the keyboard. My only complaint is that it
doesn't support Hercules monochrome (thankfully I've got the EGA
Wonder to take care of things for me). Arcade game fanatics
should get many days of enjoyment out of it. Next time around
I've got another of Sierra's new programs that's a little more
text/adventure based.
As always I would like to hear your reactions and comments
on my column. If there's something you think I've missed in a
review or something you believe I should look into just drop me a
line. I try to answer all of the mail that I receive, although
sometime it may take awhile. Below you'll find my home, Usenet,
and FidoNet addresses. If you're sending me a message through
FidoNet, please mention to your sysop that mail to me must be
routed through 157/1 since I'm a private node.
Dale Lovell
3266 Vezber Drive
Seven Hills, OH 44131
Utility authors: Please help keep this list up to date by
reporting new versions to 1:1/1. It is not our intent to list
all utilities here, only those which verge on necessity.
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