fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:18:44 Page 1 Volume 2, Number 3 4 Feb 85 +----------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | - FidoNews - /|oo \ | | (_| /_) | | Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ | | Users Group | | \ \\ | | Newsletter | (*) | \ )) | | ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +----------------------------------------------------------+ Editor: Tom Jennings Publisher: Fido #1 Chief Procrastinator: Tom Jennings ......................................... Disclaimer or dont-blame-me: The contents of the articles contained here are not my responsibility, nor do I necessarily agree with them; everything here is subject to debate. I publish EVERYTHING received. You can take this to mean anything you want, but hopefully as an invitation to comment, make suggestions, or write articles of your own. ......................................... HOT NEWS Changes are a foot. Afoot. Let me start over ... You may have noticed there was no FidoNews last week. I was traveling, and busy also. When I finall yfound time to do it, it was Thursday, so I thought, why bother, there will be one on Monday. So ... FidoNews will be coming out biweekly. Thats every other week. It's just too much work to do once a week; missing two days (like last week) means its only five days til the next newsletter. On the same subject, please not the article submission changes. This is very important; I cannot handle text anymore that doesnt conform to the very simple format described. I spent three hours, formatting text to make this issue. Next week will be the last week I'll accept text from every possible word processor in the world, to let the word filter out. After that, a polite note requesting that you cange the format. fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:18:51 Page 2 I had to leave out a nice article on the SoCal network, the most complex so far, as it blows up my text formatter for some unknown reason. I'll try to get it working by next week. Bumper stickers are out; see the ad under "For Sale". fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:18:52 Page 3 NEWS ARTICLE SUBMISSION All articles you see in this issue are written by users and sysops, and have one way or another managed to consume disk space on Fido #1. In order to get rid of them, and free up my precious disk space, I include them here, then quickly delete them. Then they are YOUR problem. EDITORIAL CONTENT: Totally up to you; I publish anything at all. Article are generally Fido or BBS related; this is by no means a decision on my part, nor a requirement. FOR SALE, WANTED, NOTICES: Pretty much self explanatory. Commercial ads are welcomed, if of reasonable length. These will be run each issue, or until I lose them. (Dont laugh, Ive already lost a few.) SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE: Manage to get a copy of your article to Fido #1, preferably by Fidonet mail, or by uploading. If manual upload, please put it in the MAILFILE area, so that I can find them all at once. ARTICLE FORMAT: VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ! The requirements are a little tighter in this department, due to purely practical constraints. I cannot devote hours to converting every text format in the world to the one I use. 1. NO LEFT MARGINS! Flush left please. These are extremely difficult to remove. 2. RIGHT MARGIN AT COLUMN 60 OR LESS! Less is OK, more is definitely not. This includes fancy boxes, dotted lines, etc. 3. KEEP FUNNY CONTROL CHARACTERS TO A MINIMUM! This includes formfeeds and other oddities. These areent as dificult to handle, but on long files still takes a while. 4. WORDSTAR IS FINE IF THERE ARE NO LEFT MARGINS! 5. PLAIN ASCII (EDLIN, ED, etc) IS FINE IF LINE LENGTH IS UNDER 60 COLUMNS! 6. NO GRAPHIC CHARACTERS! Believe it or not, not every one in the world has an IBM PC. My computer understands printable characters from 20 hex to fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:18:58 Page 4 7e hex. (Space to tilde) This is ASCII; "American Standard Code for Information Interchange". We are "Interchanging Information". Everything else is GARBAGE. ASCII is universal; Graphics are not. 7. TOTAL ARTICLE LENGTH: Up to you; note, however, that I will probably avoid publishing dictionaries, bibles translated into NAPLPS, and ASCII encoded LANDSAT pictures of Russian wheat farms. 8. WHERE ON EARTH IS THIS ARTICLE FROM? Well ... good question! A good idea to identify yourself somewhere, unless you wish to remain anonymous. Thats OK too, but I may balk at publishing rude or otherwise racy submissions. 9. AN EXAMPLE: Article from Tom Jennings Fido #1 4 Feb 85 Here is what an article could look like for submission. Very simple: plain old dumb ASCII, WordStar, PMATE, Vedit, or whatever. WordStar Document mode is fine. Note no left column; that is done when FidoNews is published. Note the total width is only 60 columns; it looks narrow on your screen, but fine when formatted later. END irrational tirade on text files ... on to bigger and better things! BASCOM BUGS A number of errors discovered in IBM's BASIC Compiler version 1.00, by Tom Hanlin at the kind invitation of the Sysop of The Bear's Den (FIDO 74). Cursor control: BASICA allows the cursor to be moved right, left, up, and down, respectively, by PRINTing the following ASCII characters: 28, 29, 30, and 31. Thus PRINT CHR$(29);" ";CHR$(29); does a destructive backspace, which ought to be the job of CHR$(8), but for some obscure reason isn't. The BASIC Compiler will execute this example with no trouble--it can handle moving the cursor backwards and forwards, but not up and down. Interpreted BASIC programs which use the cursor control codes may have to be modified for this reason. File errors: In BASICA, if you try to open a file using a filename that's too long (for instance THIS-IS-TOO- LONG.TXT), you will get the error you would expect: a "Bad File Name". The compiler sees things differently, and will fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:19:05 Page 5 give you a "Bad File Number" error. So, if you write a program with error trapping routines, be sure to trap for "Bad File Number" as well as the expected "Bad File Name" error. This will be important mostly in programs where the file name is entered by the user, or maybe generated by the program, rather than a constant value. Literal strings: The BASIC interpreter will allow you to use only two control codes as literal values in strings, ASCII characters one (CTRL-A) and four (CTRL-D). That is, while it's ok to use A$="x" where "x" is the control code for these two values, for any other control code (characters with ASCII values less than 32) you must use A$=CHR$(xx), where "xx" is the ASCII value of the control code. That is, of all the control codes, only CTRL-A (smily face) and CTRL- D (diamond) can be entered directly into the program without causing it to bomb out. This has to do with the way BASICA stores programs in memory. The point of all this is that BASCOM evidently doesn't expect to see any control codes directly entered, and will act strangely if you have them in the program. BASCOM Machine language subroutines: When doing a CALL ABSOLUTE, the memory location at the start of the routine should be entered as an integer variable at the end of the parameter list, if any, rather than being used as the name of the function, as BASICA does it. BASCOM does not check to be sure that this value is an integer, or even a numeric value! For instance, if you've made a mistake, and have a string variable at the end of the parameter list, BASCOM will not say a word. Your program, when it attempts to execute this function, will go off into never-never land. So be careful! Another problem is that an integer variable is required, whereas the value you want to use may often be greater than 32767, the maximum value for a string. This can be fixed by setting a single-precision variable equal to the number, then converting it to hexadecimal and back again, which converts the number into integer range so it can be used... the reason is a little to esoteric to discuss here, but it does the job. Like so: A!=START.OF.ROUTINE : A% = VAL( "&H" + HEX$( START.OF.ROUTINE )) : CALL ABSOLUTE( A% ) If you have any comments or questions, please send them to me at The Bear's Den (FIDO 74) via Fidonet and I'll do my best to get back to you. FINALLY! 1-20-85 The Results From the Survey by Linda Rene COMPUTER VS. FAMILY CO-SYSOP FIDO27 The majority of hours spent on the computer for the married person was 11-20 hours weekly. For a single person it was 21 hours and over. 55% of computer users had no problem with their spouse; 40% were not so lucky and definitely had problems with spouse; then there was the other 5% who had no problem.SOMETIMES! As for friends, they either like the computer or they don't. fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:19:13 Page 6 The ones who like the computer are usually the ones who know how to use one; the dislikers are simply nonusers and can't understand how a computer could be better than a party. The purposes for the personal computer range from business, word processing,programming,recreation,education and of course communication, etc... HOW DOES THE HOME COMPUTER EFFECT FAMILY LIVES? Being the wife of a system operator,I was curious to see if this 'computer craze' was going on outside of this house. I thought I was the only woman competing against a computer for a man. There was a time when I thought all I had to do was look pretty to keep my man; now I have to have brains too? I'll be honest with you. When I first began this survey some months ago, I wanted to scrape up all the garbage I could about computers. Why? I'll tell you why. I hated them. I was against them all the way. A person can get tired of being put aside all the time for a piece of machine. It gets pretty bad when you forget what your own husbands face looks like, although the back of his head was always there. I couldn't admit it then but I can now. I was jealous of our computer and on occasion I still am. And from some of the comments made in the survey I am not alone in these feelings. One man commented, " She hates it. Has unplugged it in an attempt to crash it". Another wrote " It ain't that great for your love life". I'm sure alot of us can relate to that. Okay I said what I wanted to say. But to stick up for all you computer widows as myself, I'd like to ask all computer users to at least remember us! PEOPLE HAVE FEELINGS; COMPUTERS DON'T. Now we get on with the better half of my opinion. I'm stuck! I can't find any garbage about home computers. They may be hard to walk away from and time consuming. Yet we can't ignore the fact that computers and families go together. For our childrens education as well as our own. Fun for the whole family. To help with the household finances and so much more. I never thought I would be saying this but in the long run, computers aren't that bad. I have met a few people from our system and I consider them friends now. To me, that's the special part of computing. Making new friends every day with people all over the world. And you can never have too many friends. Right? I HOPE YOU ENJOYED READING THIS AS MUCH AS I DID WRITING IT! From: Bob Spivack Sysop Fido #346 Subject: HP LaserJet Printer In response to an earlier article about setting up a printing service I don't really have a direct comment. But I would like to bring up an important point. In my opinion, the HP LaserJet is like a lot of other HP computer products, good idea, but flawed implementation (close, but no cigar). Specifically, the HP LaserJet is deficient in two areas: interface compatibility and graphics. As delivered by HP the Laserjet is only directly usable as a dumb, back-spacing fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:19:24 Page 7 line printer (to borrow the old Wordstar definition). It does not respond to any industry standard or de facto standard command streams for direct control over special features (like highlighting, underlining, bold printing, etc.) What a shame! Secondly, the resident ram in the controller is so small that the printer cannot: A. Download a complete character set for user defined fonts of any real complexity. B. Generate anything other than limited graphics. The graphics it can do can only be accessed by coding new routines in your software to create them. (Lotus 1-2-3 for the HP computer was recoded to use the LaserJet. Normal software that generates graphics cannot be used.) Not every software guy is a lucky as Lotus to get a multi-million dollar order from HP to justify converting to their view of things. Now, fortunately there is some good news. The HP LaserJet is based on an OEM laser mechanism known as the "Canon Engine" (named after the company that sells it [Japanese, of course]. This mechanism has been used in several other laser printers, the most prominent now being the just unveiled Apple MacIntosh companion. A small (relatively) company named QMS in Mobile Alabama also sells a laser printer based on the Canon. QMS manufactures special controllers for laser printers; they have been doing it for many years. They simply interfaced their existing controller (68000 with 2 megabytes of graphics memory) to the Cannon engine. This results in a great device (in the same ball park as the Apple but machine/computer independent). Unfortunately this printer with controller is about $10,000. The good news is that QMS just came out with a new version. This model, called the QMS Smartwriter, puts a subset of their big controller INSIDE the printer itself. The entire thing looks identical to the HP LaserJet (no big box controller plugged in like the other model.) This new printer controller was made with the right ideas. It provides full emulation of Diablo and Qume letter quality printers. Thus, your existing software can be configured as if driving a Diablo or Qume! Instant compatibility with the tons of WP and other software written. Secondly, this integrate controller has enough local memory to provide complete emulation of EPSON compatible graphics. This means that any program that generates graphics for an EPSON printer (which is the universal standard) can drive the Laser! fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:19:32 Page 8 Sounds like a winning product. I plan to get my hands on one soon to evaluate, if everyone is interested, I will report back the results. P.S. I have no vested interest in QMS, and if their product turns out to be flawed, I will be the first one to let you know. From: Matt Gertner, Sysop of Fido Node #210 Subject: Letters to the editor Several times while reading this newsletter I have thought of short, simple comments or questions which, although important, are not worthy of a full "article". This leads me to suggest that Tom add a new filename extension (.LET?) for use as letters to the editor. These could be printed at the beginning of each news letter, and any replys from Tom could follow. I think this would enrich the content of the newsletter and could hold all sorts of information that would be normally posted as a message (as opposed to a file) on a BBS. Met-Chem International Price List ---=---- ------------- ----- ---- Met-Chem International Corporation 2911 Dixwell Avenue Hamden, Ct 06518 (203)-248-3212 (* VOICE *) 1-800-638-2436 (* VOICE *) (203)-281-7287 (* DATA *) These prices are effective as of 1-21-85. Some of the items shown are available in limited quantities. All sales are on a first come, first serve basis. This list is a sub-set of the products we offer. If you have a special item in mind, which is not on this list, please contact Met-Chem and we will do our best to find the item for you. Diskettes --------- 3M Memorex SS-DD-RH ..... 2.00 EACH | SS-DD-RH (3481) . 1.90 EACH DS-DD-RH .... 2.70 EACH | DS-DD-RH (3491) . 2.20 EACH Tape Cartridges ---- ---------- DC 300XL .. 21.50 | DC 600A .. 25.00 Printers -------- C-ITOH DAISYWHEEL PRINTERS PW-50-001 132 COL STARWRITER F-10-40PU 40 CPS, P ... 1150.00 PW-50-003 132 COL PRINTER MASTER F-10-55PU 55 CPS, P ..... 1400.00 C-ITOH DOT MATRIX PRINTERS PM-50-001 80 COL 8510 A P, 120 CPS ...... 365.00 fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:19:42 Page 9 PM-50-003 136 COL 1550 P, 120 CPS ....... 625.00 EPSON DOT MATRIX PRINTERS EPSON RX 80, P .......................... 315.00 EPSON FX 80, F/T, P ..................... 500.00 EPSON RX 100, F/T, P .................... 525.00 EPSON FX 100, F/T, P .................... 725.00 FACIT DOT MATRIX PRINTERS 4511 (80 COL / SERIAL & PARALLEL / 160 CPS) ......... 500.00 4512 (132 COL / SERIAL & PARALLEL / 140 CPS) ........ 725.00 Tape Backup for IBM PC/XT ---- ------ --- --- ----- Cipher 5210 (25 MEG) ................................ 790.00 Hard Disk Subsystems (Drive, Controller, Cables) ---- ---- ---------- ------- ----------- ------- Full Height 10 MEG 675.00 | 15 MEG 750.00 20 MEG 1225.00 | 32 MEG 1525.00 Half Height 10 MEG 775.00 Winchester Drive (Drive Only) ---------- ----- ------ ----- Full Height 10 MEG 425.00 | 15 MEG 500.00 20 MEG (SAME DRIVE AS USED IN AT) 895.00 32 MEG 1095.00 Half Height 10 MEG 450.00 Miscellaneous ------------- 64 k RAM CHIPS (SET OF NINE / 4164-150) ............ 35.00 8087 Coprocessor Chip .............................. 175.00 130 Watt Power Supply for IBM PC ................... 165.00 NetWare - Column 1 - 1/28/85 Synopsis: this article describes a Fido-Wide project encouraging the development of powerful, public domaing tools User-Supported software is a logical extension of the hacker movement. It is rooted in people who solve problems for themselves, who recognize the solution is of value to others, but that distribution it is a pain. However, some distribution probably helped in the development of the products. The synergy between user and developer is essential in the growth of any software product. Today, very little commercial software is produced by a single programmer. Even fewer are produced and marketed by a single individual. There are very few people with all the talents needed to address these needs, and the few that do probably don't have enough time and are probably being paid very well to do something else. fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:19:50 Page 10 The first major pieces of "FreeWare" were communications packages. Communications tools still dominate the freeware "market". Why people insist on re-inventing the wheel is slightly beyond me; that is part of the reason for this article. The first major departure in the individualistic approach was Kermit. (We will discuss the other major departure, the selling of "Freeware", another time.) Kermit was professionally designed, and is professionally supported, but is a totally open system. The individual implementations are handled by individuals or groups with no formal affiliation to the original developers. Unlike previous FreeWare, Kermit is exponentially more potent than normal comm tools because of the range of machines it addresses. [Ed. Note: Kermit is totally unsuitable as the main file protocol for micros; it should be used only where absolutely necessary, for mainframes. It is extremely slow, and has design problems. ] Fido is a perfect tool for the development of User-supported software. It has the ability to nationally organize a collective project, without supporting any large corporation doing it (except maybe The Phone Company.) The purpose of this document is to propose such a project. There are a number of possibilites; but the one that is most attractive seems to be a converter of tool formatted data. Communications tools allow the transfer of data between machines. The tool I propose will allow the conversion of data between various (PC-DOS) tools, like Lotus or Multi- Plan. Sure, most commercial tools have the ability to read one or two of the more popular data formats. However, they are not as all encompassing as we might like. How would this project work? Well, we would carefully define what our tool's internal data model is. Then, we would have to carefully define the overall structure of tool specific modules that convert data between our internal model and the model of the particular tool. A couple of obvious tools would be addressed during this process. Then, people with familiarity with particular tools would apply same to develop the input and output modules for their favorite tool. There are a couple of major questions that need to be addressed before that phase. First of all, what tools do we plan to address? Do we limit ourselvesto MS/PC-Dos tools? What development tools will be used? More important than this is a clear understanding of the fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:19:57 Page 11 ownership of this work. It is to be public domain in the purest sense of the word; it has to begiven the collective nature of the work. There are some obvious extensions to this particular tool. One is the development of a full-fledged, integrated package based on our internal transfer model. There are a number of other projects that are appropriate to this form of development. Future editions of this column will outline some of the preliminary specifications drawn up for this project, other potential projects, your reactions, and other stuff. Please respond to Fido336 Berkshire with any feedback. The number is (714) 632-9117. This is an open board. From...: Randy Berndt, Sysop, FidoNode 356 Subject: A suggestion for naming Fido News Files Is there any reason why the first part of the name has to be FIDONEWS? If you loosen that requirement, then a whole lot of names become available. If you put the volume and issue numbers in the first part of the file, then they won't be hidden by the Q, when squeezed. For Instance: Assume vv is volume number (why not plan ahead to volume 10!), and nn is issue number. Unsqueezed File Name Squeezed File Name -------------------- ------------------ NEWSvvnn NEWSvvnn.QQQ NEWSvvnn.BBS NEWSvvnn.BQS FIDOvvnn.NEW FIDOvvnn.NQW FIDOvvnn.NWS FIDOvvnn.NQS I think one of these (or something like it, would solve the problem quite well. --------------------------------------------------------- Ref: PC WEEK, January 29, 1985, VOL 2 NO. 4, pages 87-90 --------------------------------------------------------- +-----------+ | FIDONET | +-----------+ In Public Domain, It Offers More Than Other Electronic-Mail Systems ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:20:07 Page 12 Garry Ray The paperless office was a dream of the 1970s. Like the turbo-nuclear automobile of the 1960s, however, it walloped head-on into technological reality and became just one more pipe dream in the legacy of computing. The result? Paper, to all appearances, will be with us for quite some time. On a less noticeable front, however, there's a genuine revolution in the works. Electronic mail, an extension of the paperless-office concept, is taking off as no "expert" ever imagined. It seems that while the office of the future may not be paperless, the post office of the future certainly will be. Come to think of it, it's not going to happen in the future at all; it's happening here, now, today. At the forefront of the revolution are services such as MCI's MCI Mail and Western Union's EasyLink, both of which allow electronic composition, storage and transmission of all sorts of correspondence. But the guerrilla movement of electronic mail uses FidoNet. Borrowing concepts from high-powered systems such as ARPANET and Usenet, this free, public-domain system has no equal, commercially or technically, in the world of microcomputing. FidoNet allows users to fashion their own public, private or semi-private electronic-mail network using standard PCs and conventional telephone lines. Differences and Similarities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Aside from its minimal operating environment -- IBM PCs -- FidoNet is only marginally different from the high- profile electronic-mail networks. As with those systems, FidoNet users can compose messages on a built-in text editor, address the messages to other users and forget about the rest of the process. Message and file packaging, addressing and transmission are totally transparent to the user. In other regards, however, FidoNet is vastly different from the other services. With its ancillary program -- called Fido -- FidoNet offers much more than just a mail system. The software can act as a complete central communications link to other Fido-equipped computers. But Fido and FidoNet, although they are part of the same system, perform different functions for different purposes. Fido is the software that constitutes a computer-based fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:20:14 Page 13 "bulletin board" system (BBS). Like other BBSs, it allows users to call in and gain access to message and file areas. In the message areas, they can leave messages for each other, for the general user community or for the system operator -- the "sysop". In the file areas, users can download programs -- be they business, entertainment or utility software -- for use on their own systems. ASCII text files can be handled as well. FidoNet is the feature that pushes this software into a class of its own. An integral part of the Fido system, FidoNet is a full-fledged electronic-mail network that links Fido users together. Any computer system capable of running the Fido software can become a part of the net. How It Works ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's how FidoNet works: Take, for example, the Acme company, with small satellite offices throughout the country. Acme needs to transfer documents and files to the home office on a daily basis. FidoNet might be the answer for them. Users at each local office write messages and address files to other users at other nodes throughout the day. At a time predetermined and agreed upon by each of the node operators, usually in the wee hours of the morning when long-distance chrages are lowest, each node automatically switches from Fido to FidoNet operation. Messages and files are bundled into "packets" and addressed to each of the other nodes. If there are four messages for station five, they are bundled into one packet; the six messages and three files for users of node 10 are bundled into yet another packet, and so on. Each node then begins a process of calling the nodes for which it has mail packets and waiting for calls that may come in from nodes that are sending mail. If a node is busy sending or receiving packets, the calling node either moves on to other tasks or waits a random length of time before trying to call again. In any case, the messages and files that make up a packet are eventually sent to the correct destination. At the end of the FidoNet timespan (usually one-half to one hour) all nodes return to Fido operation. Users with access to FidoNet can compose messages for transmission to users at other locations. Since FidoNet uses standard telephone lines and unadorned modem-equipped PCs, users of the net can be a room, a block or a continent apart. Once FidoNet is installed, expenses are minimal. fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:20:23 Page 14 Except for late-night long-distance charges -- the cheapest available -- FidoNet doesn't cost a penny. Messages can be sent across the country for a mere fraction of the costs charged by other carriers and in a much more timely fashion than the U. S. Postal Service provides. There are some minuses, however. First, FidoNet is not as time-sensitive as other electronic mail. Mail is only sent in "packets" to other nodes, and usually only once a day. The software can be configured to send mail more frequently, however. Second, FidoNet requires a high degree of operator maintenance, which varies with the complexity of the system. Maintaining a public system using all the FidoNet capabilities can become quite time-consuming; a private Fido system requires far less time and effort. FidoNet mail can include messages that are composed on the rather primitive line-oriented text editor, which allows a bare minimum of functions. All messages are edited line by line, and once the message has been completed and saved to disk, no more changes can be made. Fortunately, files generated by other word processors can be "attached" to Fido-generated messages, allowing some real power to be applied to the messaging portion of the program. Additionally, FidoNet can transmit binary files such as programs, spreadsheets or accounting data. The user need only attach the file to a mail message. The biggest chore facing a potential operator/user of FidoNet is getting the software. This can be done by contacting Fido Software through the mail or by calling a Fido node and downloading the software directly from that system. Fido-node telephone numbers normally can be gotten from many of the thousands of private BBS systems across the country. There are currently about 125 unrestricted Fido systems up and running throughout the United States, and lately, the rest of the world. (One node is running in Indonesia, another in England.) Each node has a unique, identifying number, which functions as both an "address" for electronic mail and a method for synchronizing the network during transmissions. Ease of Use ~~~~~~~~~~~ It took a few days for this system operator to fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:20:30 Page 15 understand and install Fido. Part of this is due to the hasty documentation, which has since been rewritten. Part, also, is because the design of the software begs a substantial amount of fine-tuning. The configuration that is developed on the first day of installation may be radically different a week later. As a systematized method for using Fido develops in an organization, the Fido configuration will change even more dramatically. Fido seems to be a comparatively secure system. This user was not able to break through any of the user interfaces established by the software, nor was I able to gain entrance to files or messages that were beyond my "privilege level" or security clearance. When the /M command switch was invoked, turning my board into a private system, I found no method for an unauthorized user to break in. When a new user logs onto the system, he is asked for a name, a password and the city and state from which he is calling. That information is automatically entered into a "user log", which maintains information on the user's first log-on date, most recent log-on and privilege level. The system operator can alter most of these specifications with the Sysop utility program that works in conjunction with Fido. The six privilege levels -- Twit, Disgrace, Normal, Privel, Extra and Sysop -- are a security provision of Fido, allowing the sysop to control access to the system. New users are generally given a privilege level of Normal, which allows a wide degree of flexibility in system use. At the other extremes, the aptly named "Twit" level allows virtually no use of the system, while "Sysop" allows total system control. In addition, all system commands can be assigned privilege levels. For example, the kill file command would usually be assigned to the Sysop level; general users would not be given the prerogative to recklessly erase files from the system. On the other hand, the message and file commands, which allow users to move from the main Fido area into the message and file areas, would be assigned the lowest possible privilege levels. Otherwise, low-level users would not be able to access anything on the system. System Construction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fido and its main operational files reside in a "root" directory, while the subsidiary message and file areas are actually MS-DOS subdirectories. Each subdirectory can have a general content name, such as "worksheet" for spreadsheet templates or "message" for messages to other fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:20:38 Page 16 users. Fido keeps track of which subdirectories are message areas, which are file areas and which privilege level is necessary to use a given area. In most ways, Fido is a self-maintaining system, able to continue 24-hour operation with little operator intervention. The program exhibits some minor idiosyncrasies, though none seems totally debilitating. Most "bugs" are promptly attended to by the developer of the software, Tom Jennings. New versions, updates and corrections are released constantly. A healthy group of longtime users constantly supplies the tyros with tips, fixes and news about the system. In other words, Fido has a healthy and growing support group that should be able to help answer many questions and solve the inevitable problems of getting the system up and running. Fido is a remarkably interesting example of public-domain software. It warrants attention because it is apparently the sole example of a PC-based electronic messaging and file-transfer system. It is the only software for microcomputers that uses some of the features found on larger electronic-mail systems such as Usenet. Certainly, FidoNet will not suit the needs of everyone. Sizable corporations would find this package laughably inefficient for their operations. On the other hand, small departments within those same corporations might find Fido ideal for certain tasks. For many, at the unbelievably low price of $0.00, FidoNet will certainly be worth a try. +------------------------------------------------------+ | PC WEEK DATABOX | +------------------------------------------------------+ | Product: Fido/FidoNet | | Category: Telecommunications | Price: Free from the public domain; $100 from Fido Software | | Distribution: Direct/bulletin boards | Description: Electronic bulletin-board system that incorporates | | electronic mail | Who Should Buy: Those with a need to send electronic mail, | | messages and files from one site to another | Copy-Protected: No | Requirements: DOS 2.X, 256K bytes of RAM, two double-sided, | | double-density disk drives (hard disk advised) | Company: | Fido Software fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:20:46 Page 17 | 2269 Market St. #118 | San Francisco, CA 94114 | (415) 864-1418 (modem only) +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ NOTICE OF PERMISSION TO COPY: Granted 2/1/85 by telephone/letter: PC WEEK Licensing, Jean Lamensdorf (212) 503-5448 To: Bob Klahn, SYSOP, Fido #211 P. O. Box 724 Wilmington, DE 19899 We are a company which provides computer consulting,software development ,training and other services. Some time ago we embarked on time/cost consuming research program to find the best database system for the IBM PC class micro. After evaluating many many databases REVELATION clearly came out the winner. The bottom line reasons, Upmost Flexibility,power, system approach of the software , and ease of use. We have since developed a great many applications using REVELATION. Revelation includes a very powerful query language, database design tools, a fully built-in language that resembles a combination of BASIC ,PASCAL and C which includes very powerful database commands as well as Trig ,and Log functions !, a Full- screen editor for programming or forms design, a telecommunications module and more. Revelation will use as much memory as your machine has to 640K. Minimum is 320K. Some great features: Variable length fields: when defining a field in your database you need not define how many characters have to be in that field. Most other database require you to define how many characters will be in a field. So for instance if you defined your Zip code field to contain 5 characters and later changed to the 9 character zip code you would be in great trouble, in Revelation no problem you just input as many characters as you wish . Variable length fields can also save you lots of disk space. A client of ours had a DBASE application which took 38K of space on disk. After converting over to Revelation the same file only occupied 8K! Multi-valued fields allow you to save much disk storage as well as organize your data more efficiently. For example I know someone who had a file under DBASE that was 39K .After converting over to Revelation the same file was 8K! Multivalued fields allows you to have more than one value per field for the same record! I.E. Instead of: Company Address City State Zip Invoice# Clear Star International 203 East Mcmillan Cinti Oh 45219 A2347 Clear Star International 203 East Mcmillan Cinti Oh 45219 G4692 Clear Star International 203 East Mcmillan Cinti Oh 45219 H3212 fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:20:55 Page 18 You can have: Clear Star International 203 East Mcmillan Cinti Oh 45219 A2347 G4692 H3212 Symbolic fields allow you to have a formula in them that can be used for calculations, looking up information in other files or could contain a 34K RBASIC (Revelation's programming language) program! Joining of information of several files is done 'on the fly' no need to dump the data to another file before you can even see the data. Any command which Revelation has YOU can give your own name to. For instance instead of: List Customers ,you can have GIMME Customers. In fact you could have dozens of names for the same commands. This is also true of fields you define for your databases I.E. List Customers Name,List Customer Contact, List Customers Friend, Can all mean the same thing. An interesting approach Cosmos took was to contract customer support to a company calld ELF. They can be reached in the U.S. at 1-800-422-2511. The support they provide is incredible . I have found them able to answer questions for those who don't know a program from a database to those who want help on a specific application to altering Revelation source code itself etc.. Cosmos provides SOURCE CODE for parts of Revelation so that you can modify it. Another incredible fact about ELF if you call and they are tied up they will take your name and number and say they will call you back. Guess what they really do call you back! All in all I would say that of all the hardware and software products we have delt with Elf provides the best technical support I have seen yet. They also publish a monthly Journal called REVTECH that provides lots of interesting info and routines for Revelation including some undocumented features. Anyway because of our enthusiasm for the product and the support we began to show it to many of our clients who in turn wanted to order it and have us develope applications for them. Thus, we have taken a new direction with Revelation and actually sell it as well now. Our price for FIDONET Members is $735.00 plus shipping which is $215.00 dollars off list. Revelation also supports the 8087 chip (not required ) which we sell for $100.00. We also have provided training/education in addition to software development for many clients. The current Revelation version is release F. Version G in beta-test now will operate on LAN's using NOVELL NETWARE software.Which is the best of its kind. Also a new single user version is due out in April which will have lots of new features. Incidentally,Elf also markets Utility disks which contain programs to enhance Revelation. You can also interface Assembly language routines to Revelation. I find the documentation very thorough and easy to read. There are a few typos here and there but doc files on disk clear those fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:21:04 Page 19 up. The manual is divided into several sections Tutorials,Revelation commands,Rdesign,Text editors ,RNET and Rbasic. The tutorials correspond to sample database files provided on disk. Also several samples Rbasic programs are provided. Revelation itself IS NOT COPY PROTECTED IN ANY WAY another great selling point . Average learning time?? I would say this depends upon the scope of the applications you are developing. You can use Revelation within hours by following the menus. If you are developing complicated applications and need to use the actual programming language itself learning time will depend upon the depth of database/programming knowledge the developer has. I hope this Tip of the iceberg look gives you some conception of the capabilities Revelation has. If you require any assistance ,further information, etc. don't hesitate to contact me. Warmest Regards, Daniel Sternklar President Clear Star International 203 East Mcmillan Suite 12B Cincinnati,Oh 45219 (513) 561-0882 (513) 421-5452 Source BBY908 Compuserve 75115,73 FIDO 85 (513) 579-2587 *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* * * * : The : * * ::: Adventures ::: * * : : : of : : : * * : WANGMASTER : * * : : * *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* INTRODUCTION : These are the on-going adventures of The WANGMASTER. His five year mission, to seek out and educate naive young women, to explore strange new positions, to boldly do what no man has done before : find desirable MTV's Martha Quinn ! Once a shy and retiring 132 pound weakling in the hills of Maryland, Wang was inexorably drawn a few years ago to the fast lane in too cool California, where fate led him to that famous Tasmanian Guru, Swami Buster Rajneesh Horsedong Hyman. This great guru took little Wang under his tutelage and taught him the ways of Wangmastery, blessing him with the Holy Oyster of Hugerodduperdam, before returning to his fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:21:11 Page 20 native land. Wang's duty : to educate as many women as possible and spread the Word of the Swami from the desert to the sea to all of southern California in preparation for the Coming : the day when Buster would move his Promiscuous Practice from Tasmania to So. Cal. The rest is history. Today, Wang is a 132 pounds of irresistable manhood : Allistair Cooke wrapped in a Tom Selleck body with a dash of Woody Allen thrown in for vulnerability and sensitivity. He is the James Dean of jacuzzis. Join us each week for....The Adventures of WANGMASTER. NOTICES As a matter of brief introduction, I am Bill Macneill, SYSOP of FIDO node #202 in Boston, Massachusetts (1-617-721-1688). Recently, one of the members of my Board (DEC-Line -- a DEC Micro oriented board) uploaded a game file known as JETSET.BAS...a jet plane simulator, and one of the great classic public domain games. The problem with JETSET, however, is that it is SOOOOOOO SLOWWWWWWW! I would very much like the readers of this newsletter to advise me as to whether JETSET has been compiled to operate directly as an 'executable' under the MSDOS operating environment. If one of you is familiar with such a file, please advise me where I can obtain a copy...or even better, why don't you just call and upload to DEC- Line?? Again, we are at 1-617-721-1688 in Boston.... Bill Macneill, SYSOP DEC-Line FIDO#202 FOR SALE I HAVE 2 NEW 20 MEG HARD DRIVES WHICH ARE EXTERNAL WITH CASE AND POWER SUPPLY, CABLES AND CONTROLLER CARDS. COVERED BY ONE YEAR WARRANTY. DRIVES MADE BY CMI. CONTROLLER-DTC CARD. EACH UNTIL IS SELLING FOR $1375.00 ALL ARE BRAND NEW IN THE BOX WITH FULL DOC'S CONTACT RICHARD LEVEY VIA FIDO 79. We now have the PC to XT upgrade chip in stock for immediate delivery. This chip allows your PC to emulate the XT in speed for both super fast disk access, and super fast memory access. The boot up time for a 640K machine complete with TOTAL ram check is a mere 20 seconds...not 3 MINUTES !!!!! The chip is a ROM replacement easily installed by any PC owner. We sell the chip for $145.00 shipping included. CONTACT SYSOP NODE 357 FOR DETAILS OR TO ORDER. DELAER INQUIRIES INVITED !!!!! I HAVE THE FOLLOWING FOR SALE AT THIS TIME. fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:21:18 Page 21 1 D.S.D.D. DRIVE BRAND NEW NEVER USED 2 S.S.D.D. DRIVES BRAND NEW NEVER USED ALL COVERED BY MANUFACTURERS WARRANTY. PACKAGE PRICE IS $200 (AMERICAN) CONTACT ME VIA NODE 79 UNTIL I GET MY NODE NUMBER.....RICHARD LEVEY The Pacesetter Company ---------------------- 11118 Cripplegate Road Potomac, Md. 20854 (301) 299-3228 > (301) 921-1011 > All data lines (202) 376-7732 > All data lines operating at 300/1200 -- 7 days / 24 hrs "7 % over wholesale" Prices are effective through Jan 31., 1985 The Pace - The Pacesetter Company (As Above) Conr. La - Conroy La Pointe (800) 547-1289 Pc- Conn - PC - Connection 1-800-243-8088 Softline - Softline 1-800-221-1260 GSL Comp - GSL Computing 1-800-545-2633 For complete description see below Item -- The Pace -- Conr. La -- PC-Conn -- Softline -- GSL Comp AST 6-PAK w/ 384K inst. 379.00 465.00 504.00 449.00 449.00 Hayes 1200 external 458.13 489.00 459.00 459.00 479.00 Hayes 2400 external 630.70 N/A N/A CALL N/A Quadram Q-Bd. w/384K inst. 369.00 525.00 494.00 469.00 459.00 Quadram Quadlink 354.24 449.00 N/A N/A N/A Quadram Quadmeg 1652.00 N/A N/A N/A N/A 256K chips per set of 9 140.00 N/A N/A CALL N/A 64K chips per set of 9 28.00 35.00 39.00 40.00 32.00 AST 6-Pak comes with 384K of 200 NS RAM, clock/calendar, one serial port, one parallel port, and software. This card is the industry standard. It is very reliable and the software performs well. Hayes SM 1200 is the de facto standard of the type 212A fidonews -- 04 Feb 85 23:21:25 Page 22 modems. Most of the communications programs available support the Hayes. It is extremely accurate. Hayes SM 2400 is a very new modem from Hayes. It operates at about two times the speed of the 1200. The only drawback is that it does not support 300 baud. Quadram Expanded Quadboard comes with 384K of 200 NS RAM, clock/calendar, one serial port, one parallel port, one game port, I/O bracket, and Quadmaster software. This cards performs as well as the AST 6-Pak and is slightly cheaper. Quadram Quadlink allows the IBM PC to emulate the Apple II line of computers. It comes with all cables and installation software. It is a great tool if you already own APPLE software. Quadram Quadmeg is a very new product out on the market. It allows a standard IBM PC to access two megabytes of memory. This price includes the full two megabytes of memory and software. 64K and 256K chips are industry standard. The 64K chips works with all boards that are compatible with 4164-200NS chips. The 256K chips are made for the new boards such as the Quadram Quadmeg. AST 6-PAK is a trademark of AST Research, Inc. Hayes 1200 and 2400 are trademarks of Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. Quadram Quadboard and Quadmeg are trademarks of Quadram, Inc. 64K and 256K are products of Micron Technologies, Inc. These prices were are taken from the February 5, 1985, PC Magazine. N/A means either the products is too new or the company does not sell this product. CALL means call them for the current price quote. PC Magazine is a trademark of Ziff-Davis Publishing, Inc. We welcome you to call these and any other mail-order firms. These are just a sample of products that we carry. Call one of our BBS's for the most current pricing on a complete stock of IBM PC and compatible hardware and software. Any suggestions welcome. The Pacesetter Company WANTED WANTED TO BUY: One used Gavilan computer. Send details (accessories, condition and price) to: Andy Meyer, FidoNet, Fido #317 - or contact Sysop of SMC-70 Citadel: (201) 930-6483 [24 hours, 300 baud]