Volume 3, Number 15 14 April 1986 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | - FidoNews - /|oo \ | | (_| /_) | | Fido and FidoNet _`@/_ \ _ | | Users Group | | \ \\ | | Newsletter | (*) | \ )) | | ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings FidoNews is the official newsletter of the International FidoNet Association, and is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, node 1/1. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file FNEWSART.DOC, available from node 1/1. The contents of the articles contained here are not our responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them. Everything here is subject to debate. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL How to Avoid Sysop Burnout 2. ARTICLES ANSI on FIDO, Part II of III (Yes!! we do windows!!!) Fido Utility Catalog -- Help! Modifying Fido; Another Wish List Fidograms - your link to everyone! One of those Crazy Nuts Pay BBS's - another point of view Creating the political WILL to end hunger. 3. COLUMNS Notes from Abroad The Great Brown Bag Word Processor Hoax 4. FOR SALE PC Hardware for Sale Entertainment Software for your PC! Public Domain Software Library Sale!! Special Offer to FidoNet Sysops 5. NOTICES The Interrupt Stack Cartoon: Gruesome George European time by Henk Wevers Fido 17/0 (aka 138/3) uses DOUBLEDOS (1 year) New Rainbow Fido in New England Fidonews Page 2 14 Apr 1986 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= HOW TO AVOID SYSOP BURNOUT By John Olson, SYSOP Third Coast Software Exchange 713-523-5000 In conversations recently, I have heard at least two other sysops make statements to the effect that they were "burning out" on being in charge of a bulletin board. I too, in the past, have had similar feelings, and I began to wonder how I could help others suffering from this affliction. In my case, the feeling has typically accompanied problems with the system. For instance: you sit in front of your machine, which you purchased with hard earned dollars (and/or for which you spent countless hours developing and maintaining software), and listen to the squeaking bearings as one of your floppies (or even worse, your hard disk!) gasps its last breath. You read comments to the SYSOP where someone is complaining about getting "read errors" on that drive. Then the final crushing blow; you watch as a "Twit" tries to crash your security. Its sort of like a half dead beetle being dragged away by ants. The systems I run are typically for file exchange, with little or no BBS facilities. Once in a while, someone will call up over a period of several days, and download files for hours at a time. They obviously are simply going down the directory, and have no purpose in mind other than to fill up disks (or to keep others from getting in). They never upload anything, and are usually never heard from again. Hey! I accept uploads too! What's the solution? In my case, I can trace my longevity (over 5 years as SYSOP of 5 computers) to the caring actions of maybe 3 or 4 people. These are the people who use my system and then reciprocate in some way. Some of these people are responsible for the vast majority of my uploads. One gentlemen ALWAYS leaves a short message to say "Thanks" when he downloads a file. (Try THAT sometime; you'll be amazed at the impression it makes on the SYSOP!) Having an assistant SYSOP and donations of equipment are more direct ways to relieve the grief. The point is, if only a few people would express a little compassion for the guy that runs their favorite board, it could insure that it will be there a while longer. The acts of one person (YOU!) might make the difference. Don't assume someone else will do it. There have been some very fine boards that are no longer around simply because of thoughtless users. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 3 14 Apr 1986 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Jim Lynn, 129/384 ANSI ART When last we left our faithful Fido, we had the basis for simple ANSI cursor control and color changes....now, let's do a simple trick that will leave 'em with their mouths open and their chins in their laps... Imagine a plain ol' text file, scrolling up off the screen, when all of a sudden, a window appears in the middle of the screen and "really important" information pops up. Not too impressed, you say? Qmodem does it all the time.. but what if the caller's software doesn't support windows, and what if you are tired of people "missing" something really important in the bulletin or welcome messages... well read on.. Once you think about it, there is nothing really difficult about faking a window on the screen of the caller. (Please refer to the previous article for explanations and examples of the ANSI codes). All we have to do is: 1) Issue a SCP (Save Cursor Position) so that we can restore the cursor to where it belongs. 2) Send the cursor to the location where we want the window to display. 3) Send the contents of the window (complete with border characters) and last: 4) Restore the cursor by sending the RCP sequence. You can also set the colors, so that the window will REALLY be noticeable, but then you are faced with a decision... Either reset the colors to the defaults (which might not be the colors that the caller or his/her software chose.... or just leave the colors alone, which might be preferable if the caller's default colors happen to be White on Black! If you do change the colors, it is worth it to make the border appear in a different color. Last item for the week, if you work it just right, you can pace the text so that immediately after the window appears, the MORE? prompt kicks in giving you a pause. Building on that thought... why not do a Clear Screen, send out the "normal" text and build the window, and after the MORE? prompt (since you have a fairly good guess where everything is on the caller's screen) proceed to 'erase' the window by writing a copy of what was under the window. This will make it appear that the window vanished, like Fidonews Page 4 14 Apr 1986 good windows should... The following should serve as an example. Explanations follow... |+|+| ^[2JThis is a demonstration of a faked window. The only dead giveaway is that the "window" is destructive and can not restore what was underneath.... but we can fake that also!!!! This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. ^[s ^[4;35H/-------------------\ ^[5;35H| | ^[6;35H| | ^[7;35H| | ^[8;35H\-------------------/ ^[5;36HThis is line one. ^[6;36HThis is line two. ^[7;36HThis is line three. ^[23;0H % ^[23;0H % ^[23;0H % ^[5;36HThis is line two. ^[6;36HThis is line three. ^[7;36HWe fake a scroll!!! ^[23;0H % ^[23;0H % ^[23;0H % ^[30m ^[4;35Hzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz^[0m ^[5;35Hen. This is just text ^[6;35Ht to fill the screen. ^[7;35Hen. This is just tex ^[8;35Ht to fill the screen. ^[uThis is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. This is just text to Fidonews Page 5 14 Apr 1986 fill the screen. This is just text to fill the screen. |+|+| First, save everything between (but not including) the |+|+|'s in a file. Secondly, replace the ^ symbols with ASCII 27's (ESCape sequence) Third replace the % symbols with non-printing characters (I use an ASCII 8 which is a backspace.) Fourth, type it from DOS. The lines with the %'s at the end are simply to eat up time. If it wasn't for them and the time that they take to print, then the window would appear, scroll, and disappear before you have a good chance to see them. In a nut-shell, what we do is clear the screen so that we know where we are on the user's screen, print some of the text on the screen, save our position, fake the window, make it go away by printing over it with a copy of what was under it, and lastly we restore the cursor position and continue to print... If you notice, I used "plain normal" characters for the border characters, instead of IBM graphics.... This allows us to show a border to all the machines that do allow ANSI's but do not have the same high-ASCII characters as IBM. Next article, we will do some things with animation that will make Disney turn in his grave! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 6 14 Apr 1986 Richard Polunsky Fido 106/2 FIDO CATALOG AUTHOR SEEKS HELP I am compiling a Fido Utility Catalog for reference by all current and new sysops. Henk Wevers submitted a similar project to FidoNews several issues back; his was directed more at recommendations, while mine is intended as pure reference. The Utility Catalog is the first part of a planned Fido Files Reference which will include Documentation Files, Utility Files, Communications Packages and possibly a selection of miscellaneous programs which would make up a downloadable base for new boards. At this time I am asking the help of Fido utility authors and sysops in verifying the version, date, author and home Fido of the utilities in my listing. In addition, I would appreciate it if authors and/or sysops would forward to me a description in their own words of what the utility does. If you have Fido utilities not on this list, please let me know. Thanks for your help. If all goes well, I will complete the Utility Catalog in mid-April and submit it to FidoNews. In the meantime, a reasonably current draft will be maintained on my board (106/2, I.T.C. BBS) in the FIDO file area. I must acknowledge the following people for their help: Henk Wevers, whose catalog format I found much clearer than my own original draft; Allen Miller and David Reinsel, whose utility libraries provided me with much of my starting base, and Kurt Reisler at Wash-A-RUG who sent me the utilities I needed back when I was still getting this board on its feet. UTILITIES CURRENTLY LISTED ADDQUOTE Bob Hartman 132/101 BBSSORT 85/11/22 Micro-Help Inc. $20.00 Unknown BETWEEN Unknown 122/2+4 CDMON 1.1 85/12/31 Mathew Zilmer 102/1101 CHG2DATE Unknown Unknown COPYX_D 1.2A Robert Grahm 130/439 CRUSH 3.0 85/07/08 Harold Barker 11/493 ?? DATEFILE 85/10/08 Wes Cowley 137/19 DAYLIGHT 0.0 85/11/13 Randy Bush 122/4 DAYNBR 1.0 85/10/26 Ben Baker 100/76 DIST-KIT Unknown Unknown DIST-MIS Unknown Unknown DISTRIB Unknown Unknown ECHOMAIL 1.10 86/03/05 Jeffrey Rush 25.00 124/15 EDIFIDO 1.12 85/11/05 Bob Klahn 107/50 EDITNL 86/03/14 Ben Baker Unknown ERRORSET Unknown Unknown EVENT 2.0 85/12/02 Ben Baker $ 25 100/76 EXTRACT 2.00 Don Daniels 107/211 Fidonews Page 7 14 Apr 1986 FASDOC01 Unknown 106/102 FASTV01A 1.0 Unknown 106/102 FFM_V4 4.0 86/01/14 Butch Walker 10/620 FIDODISP 1.1 Robert Briggs 15/464 FIDOLIST 2.00 84/12/01 Alexander Morris 107/22 (Down) FIDOMLNK Allen Miller 108/10 FIDOMSG Don Daniels 107/211 FIDOQUES 2.5 Unknown Unknown FIDOREAD 1.25 85/12/16 Richard Polunsky 106/2 FIDOUSER 1.0 84/12/21 Allen Miller 108/10 FIDOUT01 Unknown Unknown FIDOUTIL 1.1 85/06/17 Robert Briggs 15/464 FIDOUTIL 1.0 85/11/06 David Strickler 101/45 FIDOUTIL 2.0 Michael Wyrick Unknown FIDOXREF 1.0 85/10/13 Bill Becker 16/209 FILEDATE 1.1 85/12/31 Bob Hartman 132/101 FILELIST 1.4 85/11/30 John Wulff Unknown FILER 2.1 85/10/29 Vincent E. Perriello 141/491 FILESBBS 3.4 85/06/30 David Strickler 101/45 FILEXREF Unknown 16/209 FIXDNLD Unknown Unknown FIXUSER Jim Ryan Unknown FSTAT 1.1 Alfred Anderson 14/61 INDX_BBS 1.21 86/01/28 Rob Barker 138/3 KILLROBT 2.0 86/02/15 Stephen Butler Unknown LISTGEN 1.05.86 86/01/05 John Warren $ 20 102/401 LOGFIX Unknown Unknown LOGSPLIT Don Daniels 107/211 MAIL Jeff Rush 108/10 MAILCALL 1.00 Don Daniels 107/211 MEF 1.0 Wes Cowley 137/19 MSGMOD 1.03 Mike Elkins 102/201 MYBBSLBL Unknown Unknown NEWTWIX Unknown 106/101 OUTSIDE 1.27 86/02/08 Don Daniels 107/211 PHILTER Unknown 107/16 PRGUSERS 1.1 85/08/05 David Horowitz 107/2 QSCAN 1A Unknown 110/74 READ Unknown Unknown READMSG 4.1 86/01/17 Kurt Reisler 109/483 READQUES 1.1f Robert Lederman 16/42 RENSYS 85/12/18 Doug Perkinson 106/102 RENUM 1.5 85/08/28 Bob Hartman 132/101 RESEND 1.1 85/07/25 Ben Taylor 102/411 ROBOFIXD Unknown 106/48 ROBOMAIL Unknown Unknown ROBOT 3.30 85/09/27 Systems Enhance. $ 20 107/8 ROVERMSG 2.16 86/01/30 Bob Hartman $ 15 132/101 ROVERTWX 1.00 85/08/13 Oscar Barlow 104/56 SCHED 2.0 Wes Cowley 137/19 SENDLIST 1.0 Ben Baker 100/76 SERVER 1.2 Unknown 122/2+4 SETUSER 1.0 Unknown 16/209 SHIPUSER 2.2 85/05/21 David Horowitz 107/2 SHUFFLE 2.00 85/11/17 Robert Lederman 16/42 SQLOG 1.0 Jack Liebsch 109/468 Fidonews Page 8 14 Apr 1986 STALLBAT 85/12/07 Doug Perkinson 106/102 SYSEDIT 1.0 Eric Ewanco 130/3 SYSLOG 5.2 86/03/15 David Strickler 101/45 SYSOP207 2.07 Mark. W. Buse $ 5 206-634-0122 SYSOP 1.62 David Purks 109/603 SYSREPT 1.43 Alfred Anderson 14/61 SYS_XXX 85/01/26 Tom Jennings 125/1 TESTLIST 1.2 85/10/23 Ben Baker 100/76 TIMECHNG 85/10/14 Dave Reinsel 106/343 TIMELOG 8d Tom Jennings 125/1 TIMEMAP Thom Henderson (SEA) 107/7 TWIX 85/09/08 Tom Jennings 125/1 TWIX35 3.0 86/02/15 Ben Baker 100/76 UP-DOWN Robert Briggs 15/464 UPLOG 1.1 Robert Briggs 15/464 USERFILE 1.0 Allen Miller 108/10 USERLIST 85/12/13 Allen Miller 108/10 USERLIST 1.0 85/07/08 Ben Baker 100/76 USERLIST 1.0 Jim Ryan Unknown USERLOG Unknown Unknown USERS 1.27 85/06/12 Thom Henderson 107/7 USERSORT 1.22 85/12/02 Lennart Svensson 501/4602 USERSORT 2.01 Unknown Unknown WAIT 85/10/13 Unknown Unknown WATCHDOG 1.1 84/08/15 James R. Reinders Unknown WEEKDAY 1.0 85/11/13 Ben Baker 100/76 WHATSNEW 1.1 85/11/28 David Strickler 101/45 WRITEMSG 1.3 Net Systems $ 10 115/396 XLATRGEN 1.4 85/12/09 Systems Enhancement 107/8 COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAMS PROCOMM 2.1 PIL Software 14/619 MINITEL Tom Jennings 125/1 QMODEM 2.0C The Forbin Project Unknown TERMULTR Unknown Unknown PC-TALK Unknown Unknown ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 9 14 Apr 1986 Mark Grennan, 147/0 MODIFYING FIDO or Some times the only way to get it done is to do it yourself. I have seen more than a few "wish lists" in FidoNews, directed to Saint TJ, asking for changes to Fido. I, too, have written that mystical person, requesting some simple mods. Don't get me wrong! I do understand that TJ is not only tied up with a full time job, but he is also busy with some of the more important Fido jobs, like making POLLing work. He probably just doesn't have time to tweak and tune Fido to suit the rest of us. Like most sysops, I get tired of asking callers to conform to the arrangement of my board. As a friend who is the president of software publishing firm once said, "people want well-written documentation, but no one wants to read it!" Analogously, on a bulletin board, people want multiple message areas, but no one wants to leave his messages in the appropriate message bases. My wish list to TJ included adding the facility to Fido such that some message areas could be configured to be private-only, some mixed, and some to be public-only. As the title suggests, I did it myself. With a little effort, using Phoenix Software's Pfix-Plus (hooray for TJ - at least he gives us the tools!), I traced down the section of code that asks the user whether a message is to be private. With some minor patching, I was able to make message areas zero and one always private. Here is the code for these changes in Fido Ver. 11q. ===( PRIVAREA.BAT )============================================== ren fido_ibm.exe f.x debug f.x < privarea.pat ren f.x fido_ibm.exe ===( PRIVAREA.PAT )============================================== ea2ce 83 3E 1B 51 01 7e 1c w q ================================================================= As new versions of Fido reach me, I will update these patches, and make them available on Remark - Fido 147/0. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 10 14 Apr 1986 Luck Hurder Cape Cod Fido 101/105 FIDOGRAMS - YOUR LINK TO EVERYONE! It's been several months since an article about the FidoGram free telegram service has appeared in FidoNews. That, coupled with the fact that the telegram rush of the holiday season has long since gone by, makes me feel that it's time to review some of the pertinent features of the service, and how you can make it work best for you. First, for those of you new to FidoNet, the FidoGram service is brought to you as a free public service by the thousands of Amateur Radio operators across the country who participate in a network called the National Traffic System. The purpose of NTS is to provide the public with a free communications service which also serves to exercise our skills and equipment on a daily basis. This exercising is necessary to insure our readiness for times of emergency when normal communications lines are either severely loaded or non-existant, such as during the Mexico City disaster. To put it in perspective - we NEED your FidoGrams... What type of messages can you reasonably expect to send via FidoGram? Any non-business, personal message that does not result in a profit for any party, and which is not contrary to the laws of decency. You should be aware that youngsters and little ole ladies are equally likely to be responsible for get- ting your FidoGrams to their ultimate destinations. FidoGrams should be kept short. That's simple enough to do -just pretend that you were asking my employer (RCA) to send your FidoGram to a ship at sea at the standard $.67 per word! If your FidoGrams get lengthy, we will just break them up into multiple messages, but 15 words seems about right. Stay clear of numeric data such as "call me at 300/1200/2400 baud using X.25 protocol at 9:30 PM" or messages of this nature - it is often confusing to the relay stations (usually human) and may get garbled along the way. Finally, how do you actually send free FidoGrams? That, too, is simple. Just send the following info to Luck Hurder at Fido 101/105, either direct at (617) 255-9465, or by FidoMail. Unlike MANY nodes we've run across at much expense, Cape Cod Fido IS available at the proper national mail time slot: 1. The SENDER'S complete name, address and telephone number. (The Fido net and node is NOT sufficient. If we need to get back to you with a response or a question, we don't wish to spend money on FidoMail, when we can send it for free by Amateur Radio!) 2. The complete name, address and telephone number of the recipients of your FidoGrams. 3. The text of your messages. Fidonews Page 11 14 Apr 1986 4. A signature. You can send 20 FidoGrams in one piece of FidoMail if you like; there's no limit to the number that you can send at once or as a total. If you need further information on FidoGrams, I recommend that you scan your local node for the FIDOGRAM.ARC file, which, among other things, gives you the list of countries that allow free FidoGrams across their borders. If FIDOGRAM.ARC is not available locally, don't hesitate to call Cape Cod Fido and download it from the 4th file area - Fidfile. Feel free to use and enjoy FidoGrams as often as you like. Input, both good and bad, regarding the service is always most welcome. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 12 14 Apr 1986 Mike Ringer, 117/1262 One of those Crazy Nuts I would like to compliment the fellow that wrote the first article in FidoNews 312. It just happened to follow the exact problems I'm having at Elite Software. It seems that some bozo has been hacking at the sysop password and messed with my system. Oh well I guess immature people will be that way. Another one of my problems is with 11 year old users. One of them has been talked to by his father and the other? Well there isn't much I can do about him. For those of you who have been wondering, I have finally bought my own computer! I got a Panasonic Exec. Partner a couple weeks ago, its a great machine, even the built in printer is nice. It uses both regular bond and thermal paper. I can switch between 4.77 MHz clock freq and a 7.16 MHz freq clock. The machine also lets me switch to an external printer. My only gripe is I can't find a way to turn off the stupid speaker. Ok I know I've seen it somewhere in FidoNews but I'm not sure where. Is PANGO.EXE pirated or not? I won't put it out till somebody tells me it is or isn't. Is there anybody out there that is interested in starting up another one of the disk swaps? I'd like to do one before I leave College Station. I'm interested mainly in one in Texas, but If I have to go out side of Texas it's ok. Once again things have seemed to come back to the pay/no pay situation. I'm not really sure where I stand on the problem. I barely have enough time to run Fido, and if it wasn't for Elite Software giving me the machine, modem and 30 meg hd I don't think it would be possible to run the system. My system used to be a situation where you had to be validated, but I'm just plain tired of having to go through and validate everyone so I opened it up. Well this caused problems,(no doubt), every hacker and there mother's dog felt they had to call the system so since I opened the system I've had 5 break-ins and two of them where in the same week. I ignored the first three and filed reports about the last two. And one of the local newspapers picked up on the report before the police talked to me, and that was about a week ago and I still haven't talked to the Bryan Pd about it yet! Oh well I guess there to busy trying to catch all of the locals speeding through school zones or something. Someday I'll get there attention but I'm not sure how. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 13 14 Apr 1986 Stu Turk, 129/17 Should BBS's be Free? This is in reply to Fred Berger's Editorial in FidoNews v.312 about the growing number of BB's that are starting to charge either a membership or a registration fee, sometimes a "one time" charge, other times a "per year" fee. The fees do bring in some extra money to cover operating expense and also help maintain the system by cutting down on the number of Users -and that's the bad part. Berger pointed out that he got quick answers to questions on the pay board he subscribes to, and almost no response on the free board. My experience is a little different; I've always received responses to questions I've posted on local free boards. But the reason Berger is more likely to receive a reply on the pay boards is because that board's Users are more likely to be dedicated computerists while the freebee's user list may be made up of a larger number of hobbyists with minimal experience, and young people. They may not know enough to reply to anything, but they are lurking there reading replies to other people's questions and learning. And they are the people who might benefit most from the information being exchanged on the pay boards; boards that they will not subscribe to because they do not know what they are missing. The small subscription/registration fee itself isn't the problem. But consider this: how many boards do you use regularly? If each charged only $5 or $10 how much would the total be if you kept using all of them? How about the boards you call long distance once a month or so, just to see what's new. Would you keep calling all of them if you had to pay each one? Do you think all users can afford to subscribe to all boards? I don't think so. You may remember TJ said "..not all users have IBM's.." I'll add to that: Not all users are rich! Some are just people who like to read messages. And there are the young users. Kids who may not have the money or any way to send it in if they had it or any knowledge of why they should send it. Yes, kids are a problem; they often don't know what they are doing and they leave silly messages. A sysop in my net remarked recently "...I see no reason I should be a nursemaid to other people's children who haven't been raised properly." I can't disagree with him. But those kids will learn, will grow up, and will buy "real" computers. And in time, they will be the ones answering the questions. When my bulletin board goes up a month or so from now, it will be free. Yes, I will ask for donations. And, no, I won't get any. My board will be aimed at the handicapped user who, as a group, is more likely to be underemployed and I don't want to do anything that might discourage them from using it. If you feel you must charge a fee, so be it. But part of your out of pocket operating expense is the telephone expense you incurred Fidonews Page 14 14 Apr 1986 while getting files for your users to download. Your message area cost you nothing. Instead of a subscription or registration fee, how about just charging for downloading privileges AND LEAVE THE MESSAGE AREA OPEN TO EVERYONE. So information can be exchanged and others can learn. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 15 14 Apr 1986 Chris Irwin, 108/68 Creating the political WILL to end hunger. RESULTS FidoNet is an experiment in public communication by the Cincinnati RESULTS group. We hope that it will become a national center for collecting and distributing hunger-related articles. We HAVE the technology and resources to end starvation by the end of the century. We MUST create and sustain the political will to accomplish this goal. RESULTS is a grass-roots citizen's lobby dedicated to the knowledge that EACH ONE of us can make a difference. Against a background of silent indifference, those of us who speak out can make a profound impact. If we look around, we see that very few of the people we know spend any time communicating with their representatives about their concerns. RESULTS members educate themselves so that they can write to Senators, Congressmen and editorial writers about key issues. RESULTS is a national organization with 57 groups in 33 states. The purpose of RESULTS FidoNet is twofold: 1) To allow the efforts of different hunger groups and organizations to be combined in a public forum of articles, information and conferencing. 2) To educate the members of the electronic community about the problems facing developing countries and what we as citizens can and must do about it. The system has only been up since 3/12, so we haven't collected many articles yet. We would like to encourage other sysops to redistribute any articles that are of interest so that more users will be informed. Uploads would be greatly appreciated so that we may expand our libraries. "Each of the great social achievements --------------- of recent decades has come about not RESULTS FidoNet because of government proclamations --------------- but because people organized, made demands and made it good politics for (513) 531-4654 governments to respond. It is the 300/1200/2400 Baud political will of the people that makes and sustains the political will "Creating the of governments." political WILL to end hunger." James Grant, Executive Director UNICEF ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 16 14 Apr 1986 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Notes from Abroad I feel like I'm shouting at a brick wall! I wonder can you tell why? I have heard rumors that the Fido software contains a network system. This network system is for sending messages remotely from one FidoNode to another. I have been online for about nine months now, I run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I am also the only Fido node in Europe that is running two Fido's concurrently. Do you know how many FidoNet messages I have received in the last 9 months? 200? 100? 50? No! At last count I have received the staggering total of FIVE !!!!!!! Admittedly this is more than I have sent out, but it's still a pretty bad figure. As far as I can tell I am the record holder for FidoNet messages in the UK. Why does no one send mail to the UK? Does anyone send mail at all? We have had problems with mail in the UK but we can all receive mail. There are more Fido's in the UK than in any other country in Europe. I would dearly love to know if I can contact anyone else in Europe with my USR modem, particularly the other country coordinators. I hear that some of you have "Bell Annexes". Could I have the details of these please? OK that's about it, I hope that we get some response in the UK from this. I will be polling the UK nodes for mail from now on so I hope to get the mail moving internally. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 17 14 Apr 1986 Mike Miller, Orlando Florida The Great Brown Bag Word Processor Hoax The April 15 issue of PC Magazine has a free disk enclosed - a full working copy of the Brown Bag Word Processing program with Mail Merge. Wow! What a great idea and what a great magazine! But what's this - there's something about "Unlocking" the copy protected disk for $85 - If I don't, it's going to suddenly stop working after a while. I couldn't resist the temptation to test their copy protection - sure enough, even the latest versions of COPYIIPC and COPYWRIT admit defeat in trying to make a copy. By this time I'm thinking that this program must really be something special - mass marketing it to everyone in the world who buys PC Magazine and incorporating the very latest copy protection methods. I'd better try this program out - maybe it's really worth it to unlock it for $85. I do a disk directory and recognize some familiar looking files - ED.EXE, HELPE.DEF, RULER.DEF, etc. I think, "this must be the wrong disk in the drive, because those are PC-WRITE files." Nope - it's the Brown Bag Word Processor alright. This can't be! I crank the program up and with the exception of an introduction screen identifying it as the Brown Bag Word Processor - it is PC- WRITE v2.55 - licensed by the author, Bob Wallace, to Brown Disk Manufacturing, Inc. What will they think of next? So - you get to try out this Brown Bag "mystery" program for an unspecified length of time, and just as you're starting to like it, it dies. You send off your $85 to get it fixed and you're happy again. But of course, you have to put up with the copy protection nonsense in the meantime. Wait! I have a great idea! Why not get a legal SHAREWARE copy of PC-WRITE v2.55 (if you are one of the .0001 % of the PC population that doesn't already have a copy), try it out for as long as you wish, and then register if you choose to do so. No copy protection, no "rigged" program that dies just as you are getting used to it, but the same program with the same capabilities. What do I think of this particular offer? (I'll bet you can't guess). Well, I think PC Magazine is an excellent magazine, the idea of putting a trial or demo disk in the magazine is a good one, and PC-WRITE is a very good editor (I am a registered owner). BUT - putting a copy protected, boobytrapped, identical clone of a readily available SHAREWARE program in a magazine with no reference to the fact that it really is just another program in disguise - well, that stinks! They'll probably make a ton of money from all of the people who don't know any better - and that makes it smell even worse! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 18 14 Apr 1986 ================================================================= FOR SALE ================================================================= Marv Shelton Fido 107/311 ITT XTRA PC HARDWARE FOR SALE I have the following pieces of hardware for sale for a reasonable price. Make me your best offer and the highest bidder will win the piece of hardware. All of it is in excellent working order and I will supply all original documentation and packaging. Shipping charges out of my immediate area ARE NOT included. The boards listed will work in any PC or PC compatible and are equivalen to their IBM counterparts. A message direct to the XTRA BBS or via FIDO-MAIL is preferred. Check the latest nodelist for phone numbers. 1. Princeton Graphics HX-12 Color Monitor 2. ITT Xtra Color Graphics Board with composite and RF modulator outputs, and a light pen interface. (equal to IBM Color Graphics Adpt) 3. ITT Xtra COMBO Board, a multifunction board with 384K of memory installed, clock/calendar, and parallel port. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 19 14 Apr 1986 ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR PC! SUPERDOTS! KALAH! Professional quality games include PASCAL source! From the author of KALAH Version 1.6, SuperDots, a variation of the popular pencil/paper DOTS game, has MAGIC and HIDDEN DOT options. KALAH 1.7 is an African strategy game requiring skill to manipulate pegs around a playing board. Both games use the ANSI Escape sequences provided with the ANSI.SYS device driver for the IBM-PC, or built into the firmware on the DEC Rainbow. Only $19.95 each or $39.95 for both exciting games! Please specify version and disk format. These games have been written in standard TURBO-PASCAL and run on the IBM-PC, DEC Rainbow 100 (MSDOS and CPM), CPM/80, CPM/86, and PDP-11. Other disk formats are available, but minor customization may be required. BSS Software P.O. Box 3827 Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 For every order placed, a donation will be made to the Fido coordinators! Also, if you have a previous version of KALAH and send me a donation, a portion of that donation will also be sent to the coordinators. When you place an order, BE CERTAIN TO MENTION WHERE YOU SAW THE AD since it also appears in PC Magazine and Digital Review. Questions and comments can be sent to: Brian Sietz at Fido 107/17 (609) 429-6630 300/1200/2400 baud ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 20 14 Apr 1986 Now available from Micro Consulting Associates!! Public Domain collection - 300+ "ARC" archives - 10 megs of software and other goodies, and that's "archived" size! When unpacked, you get approximately 17 megabytes worth of all kinds of software, from text editors to games to unprotection schemes to communications programs, compilers, interpreters, etc... This collection is the result of more than 10 months of intensive downloads from just about 100 or more BBS's and other sources, all of which have been examined, indexed and archived for your convenience. Starting a Bulletin Board System? Want to add on to your software base without spending thousands of dollars? This is the answer!!! To order the library, send $100 (personal or company check, postal money order or company purchase order) to: Micro Consulting Associates, Fido 103/511 Post Office Box 4296 200-1/2 E. Balboa Boulevard Balboa, Ca. 92661-4296 Please allow 3 weeks for delivery of your order. Note: No profit is made from the sale of the Public Domain software in this collection. The price is applied entirely to the cost of downloading the software over the phone lines, running a BBS to receive file submissions, and inspecting, cataloguing, archiving and maintaining the files. Obtaining this software yourself through the use of a computer with a modem using commercial phone access would cost you much more than what we charge for the service... Please specify what type of format you would like the disks to be prepared on. The following choices are available: IBM PC-DOS Backup utility Zenith MS-DOS 2.11 Backup Utility DSBackup Fastback Plain ol' files (add $50, though, it's a lot of work and takes more diskettes...) Add $30 if you want the library on 1.2 meg AT disks (more expensive disks). There are no shipping or handling charges. California residents add 6% tax. For each sale, $10 will go to the FidoNet Administrators. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 21 14 Apr 1986 SEAdog Electronic Mail System Special Offer for FidoNet Sysops System Enhancement Associates, the makers of the popular ARC file archive utility, are proud to announce the release of the SEAdog electronic mail system. SEAdog is a PC-based electronic mail system which is fully FidoNet compatible. In addition to all the functionality of FidoNet mail, SEAdog adds the following: o User directory support, for automatic lookup of node numbers o Return receipts o Audit trails o Message forwarding, with or without a retained copy o Twenty four hour mail reception o High priority mail for immediate delivery o The ability to request files and updates of files from other SEAdog systems. o No route files needed! o A full screen user interface that our beta test sites fell in love with! SEAdog is NOT a bulletin board system, but it can be used as a "front end" for Fido (version 11q or later), allowing you to add the full functionality of SEAdog to your existing system. SEAdog normally sells for $100/node, but for a limited time only we are offering SEAdog to registered FidoNet sysops for only $50! Orders may be placed by sending a check or money order to: System Enhancement Associates 21 New Street, Wayne NJ 07470 Or by calling (201) 473-5153 (VISA and MasterCard accepted). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 22 14 Apr 1986 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 19 May 1986 Steve Lemke's next birthday. 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Bruce White, 109/612 +-------------------------------------------------+ |No I'm NOT! IF you're bored THEN GOTO the store,| |ELSE READ WHILE I'm USING the computer. AND NEXT| |TIME CLOSE the door WHILE you FIX dinner. | | \ | |George, you're addicted \ | |to BASIC! You spend more time \ ____\__ | |with that machine than with me! \ |_| \ | | / _____ |\ | | __/ | _ | | | | ______ | |_| | | | | __(______)_|_____|___ | | | || || | | | ______ || || | | | \ / || || | | |(c) 1986 bawhite \__/ ||_________________||__|__| +-------------------------------------------------+ ----------------------------------------------------------------- European Time It's all very simple, really. The clock moves one hour further. So it looks like it's an hour later. But it is one hour earlier. Because we subtract one hour in the evening and so it's longer light. But then again, we add that in the morning so it will be dark longer. But not in the UK, they keep their own time. Ah, well, what is time anyway. I hope all of you in europe made the time change in the right direction. Fido sysops measure time by the mailslot, don't they? Henk Wevers ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 23 14 Apr 1986 FIDO 17/0 (PROBUS INTERNATIONAL, INC.) has been using DOUBLEDOS for a year now. To those who wish to know such things, be aware that there are several FIDO nodes in the Seattle, Tacoma (Washington State) area that are using DDOS. --Steve Butler, Region 17 Coordinator. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Thomas Fido 132/225 ====================== * SeaCoast Fido * * 132/225 * ====================== * (207) 439-9367 * ====================== There is a new Rainbow-based FIDO Board in New England. SeaCoast Fido welcomes all new callers. Right now the board provides special interest areas and files for: o Digital Rainbow Software o MSDOS Turbo Pascal for Rainbow & IBM o Open to Adding Special File Areas to Support Frequent Callers' Special Interests. HOURS OF OPERATION Weekdays - 24 Hours Weekends - Midnight to 10am Currently at 1200 baud (soon be 2400). CALL SEACOAST FIDO TODAY AT (207) 439-9367. -----------------------------------------------------------------