Volume 3, Number 39 13 October 1986 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | 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 ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1/1. Copyright (C) 1986, 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. 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. ARTICLES Ham Radio Oriented EchoMail Conference MAGICK EchoMail Conference Profile MAILCOST Review: A Reply from the Author On the Commercial Exploitation of FidoNet 2. COLUMNS dBASE Tips - Remember these basics FidoUtil revisited 3. WANTED Wanted: "Touchstone" software 4. FOR SALE Public Domain Software Library Sale!! 5. NOTICES The Interrupt Stack Fidonews Page 2 13 Oct 1986 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= John Dashner, WA4CYB Fido 133/10 Ham Radio EchoMail Conference With the increasing overlap of bulletin board interest and those with interest in Ham Radio, it is passing strange to me that someone has not started this conference long ago, but alas, as Thom Henderson has said before, it's almost always left up to someone taking the bull by the horns and giving it a tug, so here goes... Many of you presently run boards that specialize in some particular aspect of the Amateur Radio hobby such as Packet Radio, Contesting, VHF/UHF, etc. The greatest service you could do is to disseminate the great ideas, yes, even groundbreaking ideas that originate with your users. In turn, you would receive a like service funnelled into your board from all over the country and perhaps the world. Moreover, there probably isn't a problem you are experiencing that hasn't been solved by some fellow ham somewhere. If I can judge by the responsiveness of the National Technical Conference, I have seen multiple fixes for problems submitted there returned in as little as two days. You just can't ask for better service than that! Compare that to submitting it to "QST" or "Ham Radio" and awaiting some future issue for your answer. (You guys up there in Newington listening? Hope "QST" will sign up as a conference node quickly). To this end, I have established a National Ham Radio Conference anchored in the north woods of Atlanta, Georgia with the hope that I won't be left on my own to make it interesting, lively, informative and factual. The name of the conference is simply: HAM and as of this moment, -I- am the only official node in the conference. Although, very soon, I hope to have Marv Shelton, WA2BFW at 107/319 and Rene Champagne, VE2RI at 167/101, as additional distribution nodes (and, yes, Rene, you'll need to get EchoMail up to do this). This would take care of the southeast, mid-Atlantic and eastern Canada as a start. What is needed, is about 10 to 15 other nodes about the country (and the WORLD!) to step up to the bar and volunteer; what say you guys? To review what is needed, without going into an exhaustive EchoMail tutorial, is to: 1. Set up an appropriate directory to contain your conference. 2. Place a DIR.BBS in the directory identifying what the conference or message area is all about. Mine reads: National Amateur Radio Conference Fidonews Page 3 13 Oct 1986 3. Add an entry in your AREAS.BBS file something like the following: 9 HAM 107/319 167/101 _ \_/ \___________/ | | | | | +----> Nodes TO WHICH you | | distribute. | | | +--------------> The EchoMail Name. | +-----------------> The number of the SYSTEMnn.BBS file associated with your message or conference area. One important reminder. Since you can always receive EchoMail, unless you expect to distribute EchoMail to other nodes than your pickup node, do not list any other nodes. 4. If this is your first EchoMail conference, you will need to create a special event prior to and immediately after the National Mail Hour to run the EchoMail utilities, Scanmail and Tossmail respectively. Mine are: 4 ALL 03:55 1 X 4 5 ALL 05:30 1 X 5 Which instructs Fido to schedule an eXternal event of one minute duration at 03:55 with return code 4 and another one at 05:30 with return code 5 every day. 5. Add to your RUNBBS.BAT the following: if errorlevel 5 goto postmail if errorlevel 4 goto premail . . :premail *** EchoMail Preparation scanmail run >>echomail.log arcmail to 133/10 (pickup node) runbbs :postmail *** EchoMail Distribution arcmail from 133/10 tossmail run >>echomail.log runbbs Two matters I should note: If you haven't discovered it already, the errorlevel test is equivilent to "equal to or greater than" and as illustrated above, you must test in DESCENDING order to assure correct operation; Fidonews Page 4 13 Oct 1986 and, the ARCMAIL step in the batch file fragment above is optional but since -I- will be distributing it that way, you will at least have to unARC the stuff I send you and it does significantly reduce transmission times and thus LD moneys. I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to decipher the options used above by reading each utility's documentation. 6. Unless your daddy left you a sizeable fortune or your company installed a WATS line at your house, you probably wouldn't want to foot the bill for distribution to the nodes that you serve long distance. Also, since I too am poor, those of you picking up from my node will have to POLL 133/10 in order to get your nitely fare. In the ROUTE.? file that kicks off your nitely National NetMail period, you will have to insert the following (assumes that you are calling me for pickup and you are distributing to 999/100 and 998/2): NO-ROUTE 999/100, 998/2 SEND-TO ALL HOLD 999/100, 998/2 POLL 133/10 An analogous operation would be coded up by each of your distribution nodes substituting your node number for mine and less the NO- ROUTE and HOLD stuff if they in turn do not distribute. To quote from the EchoMail Manual: "...the best way to tie things together ... boards always POLL upstream and HOLD downstream." (If I err here or there is a simpler way to accomplish this, I humbly await the onrush of help that I am sure to receive [:-)} ). 7. Finally, after you're all set up, contact me or the nearest node to you by NetMail or phone and let us know when to hook you in and whether you want all messages then currently in the conference or just those originating thereafter. I started out by saying that I wasn't going to write an exhaustive tutorial on EchoMail but from the looks of it I waxed somewhat lengthy *grin* and I trust I haven't made it sound tougher than it is. As the topology of the conference develops, I will NetMail a Conference Directory to major distribution nodes and publish it Fidonews Page 5 13 Oct 1986 here from time to time. In this respect, I would appreciate NetMail anytime you make a new connection or one is dropped so that the directory can be kept accurate. You may contact me, John Dashner WA4CYB: via NetMail at 133/10 (404) 476-7970 via OldMail at 2792 Kenwood Dr., Duluth, Ga. 30136 via LandLine at (404) 476-1797 via 20 meters whenever I get my rig back from Kenwood! (Note the street address - doesn't do any good) In conclusion, I would like to thank Jeff Rush of the Rising Star Fido (124/206) for conceiving of and implementing EchoMail. He should be remembered by the networking historians for developing a utility that gives you just about everything that UseNet does without half the hassle. Without needing Jeff's permission, I am sure that I can speak for him in saying that the best way to remember him is to make shareware work by contributing $25.00 to him so that he will be encouraged to further shorten the gap between the EchoMail and UseNet functionallity. (Uh, Jeff, the check's in the mail!) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 6 13 Oct 1986 M A G I C K The FidoNet Neopagan Witchcraft and Magick Conference An Echomail Conference Profile by J. Brad Hicks, Sysop WeirdBase (100/523) MAGICK Conference Coordinator In November of 1985, several U.S. Senators and Congressmen began to introduce legislation which would have swept away nearly all of the Neopagan churches, and which could have been used as a weapon against any alternative religion. To combat these bills, Circle Sanctuary (in Madison, Wisconsin) mailed out thousands of flyers (all first-class mail) to everyone they knew of. The expense was incredible, but worth it--all three bills died in their respective committees (though the third one, HR 3389, was an uphill fight all the way to the end of the session). In order to reduce the expense, should the need arise again, the folks at Circle suggested something they called the Pagan Strength Web. It would be a mailing list designed to hit as many cities as pos- sible as quickly as possible, where each contact would be respon- sible for spreading the word within his or her city by phone and personal contact. As a Pagan Strength Web contact myself, I saw at once how FidoNet mail could be used to spread word quickly to many cities, and so I buried notices in my next few articles for FidoNews asking for fellow Crafters who use FidoNet to contact me at 100/523. About that time, Jeff Rush released Echomail. When my PSW FidoNet mailing list and Echomail came together, the MAGICK Echomail con- ference was born. Originally, the conference was built by merging message areas from three boards: my Neopagan Witchcraft area (on 100/523), Josh Gordon's introductory and miscellaneous area (125/93, now 161/93), Mizmoon's astrology area (101/27). In addition, Gene Clayton (12/4) expressed interest in polling for it, and was followed almost immediately by Tom Kenny (107/316). The growth of the MAGICK conference parallels the growth (and the growing pains) of Echomail itself. In the beginning, our message traffic was 2-4 messages per night (not per board per night, mind you), and so I encouraged people to use host-routing and to route all messages to all boards. This lasted for almost a month be- fore rioting broke out. Nets 125 and 107 refused to host-route Echomail, no matter how low the volume. Josh Gordon refused to send mail to some of the boards. Each new sysop has made d/e/m/a/n/d/s/ suggestions for what they wanted the topology to look like. This led us through a series of patch-work topologies to something approximating our current form. Then WeirdBase moved to new hardware and SEAdog came out with a new version, and lo and behold they weren't compatible, which meant we had to re- design the topology all over again. But in that same span of time, we settled down into a topology that works, more or less, and expanded beyond my wildest fanta- sies. The MAGICK conference now shuttles an estimated 430 mes- sages per month between 13 boards in 11 cities (in the US and Fidonews Page 7 13 Oct 1986 Canada), with no round-trip longer than 5 days. The topics have ranged from Discordian pranks to Thelemite texts, from distingui- shing ourselves from Satanism to (in)tolerance of Christianity, from Aleister Crowley to Laurie Cabot, from shamanism to UFOs and the pyramids. The conversation is occasionally thought provoking, often very funny, and almost without exception a Good Read for folk interested in any aspect of Neopaganism, Wicca, magick, Thelema, Discordianism, or any other aspect of New Age religion and philosophy. TECHNICAL SPECS: The MAGICK conference uses a stars-on-a-string topology, with 100/523 and 161/93 as the major hubs, and 163/5 as a secondary hub for Canada. All boards are using Echomail ver- sion 1.31 (1.30 with the no-? patch by Josh Gordon). Most boards are using ARCmail version 0.37 or 0.40. If you wish to connect to the Magick conference, send a note to Brad Hicks at 100/523. If you are not local to an existing MAGICK board, you will be expected to POLL either 100/523 or 161/93 for it every night. A nearly complete text of all of the discussions is available on WeirdBase (100/523) in file area 1, as MAGICKON.01 to 29. TOPOLOGY AS OF OCTOBER 2nd, 1986: 107/293 103/602 14/341 \ / / v v v 12/4 <-> 12/14 --> 161/93 --> 100/523* --> 163/5 <-> 163/7 ^ / \ / v \ 107/7 <-> 107/316 150/900 101/27 (The arrow-head shows which direction the call is made. If a link has arrow-heads on both ends, then it's a local call and is made both before and after--or should be. If a link has NO arrow-heads, then mail is currently host-routed.) AN OVERVIEW OF THE BOARDS IN THE CONFERENCE: 100/523 WEIRDBASE (St. Louis, Missouri) 1-314-389-9973 300/ 1200 baud. Hours: 24 hrs/day. Does not support SEAdog. Sysop: Brad Hicks. Magick Conference Coordinator. Magick conference may be read by any caller, including first-time. Only validated callers may enter messages. One of the largest magickal file collections in the country; mildly Discordian BBS. 161/93 THELEMANET (Berkeley, California) 1-415-548-0163 300/ 1200/2400 baud. Hours: 24 hrs/day. Supports SEAdog. Sysop: Josh Gordon. All callers may read and enter mes- sages in the Magick conference. "Official" BBS of the Ordo Templar Orientis (OTO), Boulaq Encampment. Many files on Crowley and thelemic topics. Fidonews Page 8 13 Oct 1986 100/27 DAVE'S FIDO (Gardner, Massachusetts) 1-617-632-1861 300/1200/2400 baud. Hours: 24 hrs/day. Supports SEAdog. Sysop: Dave Rene (MAGICK area sysop: Mizmoon). All callers may read and enter messages in the Magick conference. File area also features monthly horoscopes by Mizmoon. 12/4 MEGA-KAUAI (Kauai, Hawaii) 1-808-245-2080 300/1200 baud. Hours: 24 hrs/day. Does not support SEAdog. Sysop: Gene Clayton. All callers may read and enter messages in the Magick conference. Files include much of the contents of WeirdBase's magick area. 12/14 MEGA-KAUAI 2 (Kauai, Hawaii) 1-808-337-9280 300/1200/ 2400 baud. Hours: 6pm-7am. Does not support SEAdog. Sysop: Gene Clayton. Access only on request to 12/4. Repeater board for the above, used by Gene to move mail at 2400 baud. 107/293 BAPHONET-BY-THE-SEA (Brooklyn, New York) 1-718-499-9277 300/1200 baud (local callers may only be able to get through at 300 baud). Hours: 24 hrs/day. Does not support SEAdog. Sysop: Tony Iannoti. Access to the Magick conference only by request to the sysop. Also a Thelemic/OTO BBS, in conjunction with 161/93 above. 107/316 METATEK FIDO (Toms River, New Jersey) 1-201-286-2567 300/1200 baud. Hours: 24 hrs/day. Supports SEAdog. Sysop: Thomas Kenny. Access to the Magick conference only by request to the sysop. 14/341 TERRABOARD (Minneapolis, Minnesota) 1-612-721-8967 300/1200/2400 baud. Hours: 24 hrs/day. Does not sup- port SEAdog. Sysop: David Dyer-Bennett. All callers may read and enter messages into the Magick conference. Semi-official BBS of Minn-StF, a science-fiction club. 107/7 SEABOARD (Clifton, NJ) 1-201-472-8065 300/1200/2400 baud. Hours: 24 hrs/day. Supports SEAdog. Sysop: Kilgore Trout. Access to the Magick conference only by request to the sysop. 103/602 HOUSE ATREIDES (Rowland Heights, California) 1-818-965- 7220 300/1200 baud. Hours: 24 hrs/day. Does not sup- port SEAdog. Sysops: George Clayton and Jammer B. All callers may read and enter messages into the Magick conference. 163/5 DATA/SFNET (Ottawa, Ontario) 1-613-726-1100 300/1200 baud. Hours: 8pm-8am, Tuesday thru Friday. Does not support SEAdog. Sysop: Farrell McGovern. All callers may read and enter messages in the MAGICK conference. 163/7 ELECTRIC BLUE (Ottawa, Ontario) 1-613-737-7994 300/ 1200 baud. Hours: 24 hrs/day. Does not support SEAdog. Sysops: Harry and Kathy. All callers may read messages Fidonews Page 9 13 Oct 1986 from the Magick conference, but only validated users may enter messages. 150/900 K-9 & COMPANY (Newark, Delaware) 1-302-738-1170 300/ 1200 baud. Hours: 24 hrs/day. Does not support SEAdog. Sysop: Mike Jacobs. All callers may read and enter messages in the Magick conference. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 10 13 Oct 1986 Tim Evans Fido 114/1 I would first like to thank Jerry Hindle of 123/6 for his comments on my program, MAILCOST. The lack of comments I have received (either good or bad) has been the most disappointing thing about writing the program. The major point Jerry makes is that mailcost accounting needs to be consistent with Fido's accounting. Why? Fido's accounting is inconsistent with the actual telephone bill accounting, even if a markup is considered to cover additional costs. (In Phoenix, a message to California costs the same as a message to New York). There was never any intent for the host or sysop to credit the individual users with the savings, but hopefully to lower the average cost per message for all users to all destinations. Whether this savings was passed on or is used to cover additional costs or even to make a profit was none of my concern. Regarding your repair shop example, the cost (if different from the original estimate) will always be at least half the estimate - never more! I don't think that will cause too many complaints. The other issue I see is whether MAILCOST should deal with individual user costs or not. I could be wrong on this, but my feelings are as follows: Fido handles all individual cost accounting between the users and the sysops. MAILCOST was designed to handle cost accounting between the host and the sysops (nodes). While the host may also be the sysop or the user, I think the 2 functions should be kept seperated. I don't think the host needs to be concerned about the individual user's costs - that is the sysop's job. I could be wrong on my impressions on how the host accounting should work. I will be writing an article for Fidonews to attempt to generate some discussion on this issue. Thanks again for your comments. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 11 13 Oct 1986 Kilgore Trout, 107/7 FidoNet Study Group A Modest Proposal for The Commercial Exploitation of FidoNet (Well it got your attention, didn't it?) Various people are now coming to realize the enormous potential in an electronic mail system based on PC's and autodial modems, and are attempting to cash in on it. Given that this is already happening, why don't we see what WE can do? In FidoNet we have a large and sophisticated mail network already in place which is capable of handling a large volume of mail traffic with a good success rate for overnight delivery. The key problem is how to take advantage of it, while not offending anyone. Certain criteria must be met: 1) We must not offend the amateurs who comprise the net. 2) It must be possible for any given Fido operator to choose not to participate. 3) Participating Fido operators must be compensated for their efforts and for the commercial use of their systems. 4) It must remain possible for amateur Fido operators to join the net and to operate without additional cost. 5) It must be possible to bill commercial users without depending on accounting data supplied by the local Fido operators. 6) In general, accounting and billing must be humanly possible in some way, preferably with a minimum of effort. I believe I have come up with an approach which will satisfy all of these goals. Implementing my method will call for certain changes in how Fido operates, along with certain changes in the FidoNet packet format. I will detail the required changes first, and then show what they can accomplish. Please bear with me. The most difficult part operationally is altering the FidoNet packet format. I anticipate a period of near total chaos while some Fidos are sending packets that other Fidos cannot unpack. This confusion may be unavoidable anyway, in view of Tom Jenning's avowed intention of implementing country support. Required Changes: Fidonews Page 12 13 Oct 1986 FidoNet currently understands two levels: nets and nodes. Implementing country support will require another level, zones, higher than the net number. To support commercial mail traffic, Fido should also have yet a fourth level added under nodes. This lowest level would consist of "subnodes" under a given node. I somehow ended up calling them "points", so I will continue to do so for lack of a better word. The final hierarchy would look something like this: Country 1 Net 100 Node 51 Point 8 A full net address specifying all four levels might look like this: 1:100/51.8 Each existing node would double as "point zero". If no point is specified in an address, then the message would go to the node. One major aspect of points is that they are optional. A node does not have to have any points under it, and in fact does not even have to know that there is such a thing. All nodes would ignore points belonging to other nodes, and points would not be listed in the node list. A point would communicate only with its own node. It does not need (and should not have) phone numbers for any nodes other than its own. One may suppose that operators of points may swap phone numbers so that they may exchange files, but this need not concern us as far as operation of the net is concerned. The phone number for any given point would be needed only by the node which "owns" the point. No other nodes would need or should have it. Commercial Users: Commercial users of FidoNet would be set up as points. Accounting would be handled as a flat subscription fee per month for unlimited use of the network. The subscription fee would be split out among the participating nodes on a percentage basis. One possible way of doing this would be: 60% to the node which handles the point. 30% to the host which serves that node. 5% to the regional coordinator who handles that area. 5% to the national office. As one moves up the hierarchy the percentages get smaller, but the number of points covered increases, so total revenues should Fidonews Page 13 13 Oct 1986 increase as well. Per point returns are high for the local node, which should compensate him for dealing with the points on occasion as well as providing him with incentive to obtain more points. But as one moves up the ladder and becomes more involved with network operation, ones compensation increases accordingly. I envision the operation as working something like this: 1) A commercial user decides to sign up for FidoNet, either as a result of advertising, or from being canvassed by a node. He fills out an application and sends it to St. Louis. 2) The central office verifies his credit card number and informs the participating node closest to him (or the node who canvassed him). 3) The node handling the new user adds him to his "point list" and helps him get started. 4) Each month the central office charges a subscription fee to his credit card, calculates the payments to each participating node, and mails out the checks. 5) Whenever the point decides to leave, the central office stops charging his card and notifies his point that he has left. The node then drops him from his point list and no longer handles mail for him. Ramifications: With this system, all network and regional coordinators must be willing to participate. This may be a disadvantage, but may also result in a higher level of dedication among the coordinators. Local nodes, however, need not participate if they do now want to. In fact, it would be a mistake to involve any node who was not actively willing to join. The amateur network is preserved. Amateur Fido operators may still join at the node level, and may send mail without charge (other than phone bills). Commercial users may attempt to form their own nodes for this purpose. Participating nodes can be alerted to watch for this, providing us with policing at the local level. It is obviously in the interests of a participating node to do this. A commercial node in his area should rightly be a point under his node, so he is losing revenue. Since points will not be listed in the node list, we may want to publish a "point list" (sort of a phone book). This should probably be covered by the cost of a subscription. We should probably ask on the application form whether or not a commercial user wishes to appear in the point list. I have no idea how often such a thing should be published. Fidonews Page 14 13 Oct 1986 Selling It: This obviously won't work unless we can sell it to the present sysops. We don't have to get everyone to participate, but we don't want to get too many people upset, either. Fortunately, we have two recent examples to guide us. 1) US Robotics is selling us 2400 baud modems at a reduced price (comfortably above distributor cost), and is seen as a hero. 2) GTE is selling us long distance telecommunications at a reduced price (during their slack time), and is seen as a villain. Why is one a hero and the other a villain? Both are exploiting the BBS community. I believe that the reason is because USR is seen as practicing favoritism. They are singling out the sysop for special treatment, while GTE is not. (Indeed, a user might see the roles of hero and villain the other way around!) I believe that this approach will be palatable to Fido sysops because it is rank favoritism of the worst (best) sort. We are singling out Fido sysops and telling them, "We won't bother you in any way, but you can make some bucks if you want to." Conclusion: I like it. It gives us all a chance to make a buck, and gives something back to the dedicated amateur. I can envision people setting up nodes just to make money handling commercial mail, but the backbone of the idea is the dedicated amateur sysop. It's high time a sysop got something for his efforts. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 15 13 Oct 1986 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= DBASEII: CURES FOR SOME COMMON FRUSTRATIONS By G. R. Realmuto dBASE is noted for being a very powerful yet difficult program to learn. I love it for this very reason. Like a person who collects rare objects, I enjoy learning and mastering skills others choose to avoid. I've been frustrated many times. Error messages, syntax errors, and losing control of the keyboard can make you crazy. Below are a number of frustrations and how I cured them. Enjoy! Frustration 1: Don't forget to enclose print statements in quotes: "SUCCESS." Frustration 2: IF statements can be nested but must end with as many ENDIF's as there are IF's. Frustration 3: DO WHILE statements cannot be nested. Very important! Frustration 4: DO WHILE statements may have IF then ELSE nested, but remember to end with ENDIF then ENDDO. Frustration 5: You cannot TRIM numerical fields or memory variables. Frustration 6: You cannot add numerical data to character fields, etc. Use STORE VAL (string) to MVAR. Frustration 7: You lose control of the keyboard. Type SET CONSOLE ON. Frustration 8: ACCEPT TO statements with following IF's are character variables and need quotes. Frustration 9: INPUT TO statements with following IF's are numerical and of course do not require quotes. e.g.: ACCEPT "WHAT COMMAND WOULD YOU LIKE" TO CHOICE IF CHOICE = "QVB" QUIT to "vdo," "dbase menu" ELSE IF CHOICE = "DFA" DISPLAY files on A like *.* ENDIF ENDIF Or: INPUT "-1- END POSTCARD -2- NO CARD" TO CARD Fidonews Page 16 13 Oct 1986 IF CARD = 1 DO POST ELSE IF CARD = 2 RETURN ENDIF ENDIF Frustration 10: don't forget to put EJECT's at the end of REPORT's, etc. Frustration 11: SET EJECT OFF if you don't want one before a REPORT. Frustration 12: Don't forget ENDCASE statement with DO CASE! Computer goes to infinity. Frustration 13: Don't forget to write 'SET ESCAPE ON" at the beginning of your program so you can abort a "buggy" program with . ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 17 13 Oct 1986 Jerry Hindle 123/6 123/0 MemphisNet 901-353-4563 300/1200/2400 Hello again..... I bet your getting tired of seeing all these articles from me now, aren't you? Well guess what you got more coming your way. In this weeks installment I would like to share a few things with you that I have noticed since I wrote the FidoUtil article in Fnews 336. First and foremost, I (and the authors of FidoUtil) have had a pretty good response from that one, more so then the Mailcost review. The authors do request from both you and I that ALL BUG reports for FidoUtil be sent to 151/3 not 151/2 as I originally told you. For this I apologize. Now on to better things. The version I reviewed for Fnews was 1.10 and I have since (actually within hours of sending the article in) acquired version 1.20 of this tremendous program. In this version the authors have ADDED the following utilities: DTR TASK LOG SPACE DATEFILE & JULIAN NODEDATA They have also added an environment setting to it so you may configure FidoUtil to boot up the way you want it. They have also UPDATED the following utilities from version 1.10: LASTUSER RICOCHET USERLIST TWIX SCHED Now you may ask, just what did they do to update these utilities, well I'll tell ya ! THEY LISTENED to a user (ME) and made almost all the changes I requested in the original article, plus some I hadn't even thought about. While they were at it they added the utilities shown above. I will attempt to give you a brief rundown of what the NEW stuff does; DTR: This little utility will allow you to control the modems DTR from DOS. You may either turn DTR on (ie enable the modem) or OFF (ie disable the modem). TASK: This one is adds the ability to have a BAT file ask for user input and act on this input OR LACK OF INPUT. This will give you the ability to have a bat file branch on user input or continue or halt if no input. It is extremely flexible in use and configuration depending on the BAT file itself. LOG: Keeps a separate LOG file for use with either OUTSIDE or any other program once outside FIDO environment. You specify what goes into the log file as far as text goes. It will add the date stamp and time stamp to what you specify. Fidonews Page 18 13 Oct 1986 SPACE: This will do one of two things...either show you how much space is left in the default dir of the default drive in 100k blocks or if you add a number after the command on the command line it will return an errorlevel based on how much space is left OVER the amount specified. If no amount is specified it will return an errorlevel based on the amount in 100k blocks (ie 7.2 meg would return an errorlevel of 72, since there are 72 100k blocks available on the drive) DATEFILE & JULIAN: These two will rename any file based either on the JULIAN date or the SYSTEM date. If you use system date then you must add a new extension for the filename. If you use the JULIAN then you need to specify a new filename. NODEDATA: This is the best of the additions. If you want to know the information on an entry in the NODELIST.BBS file then you simply type in the net/node number and it will present you with the information on that entry in the nodelist. A HANDY ITEM !!! ENVIRONMENT SETTINGS: In this version of FidoUtil the authors have added the ability to customize the environment to your liking. While this is GREAT I can't go into detail here since there is simply to much info to present here. I would recommend you get this utility since it will make life vastly easier for any Fido sysop around. As a note to other shareware authors out there who may be reading this. The authors MARSHALL PRESNELL & BEN MANN have BOTH been in voice contact with me since I wrote the original article. This is a FIRST for me since I started writing articles along these lines. I have written articles on a few other utilities and in all fairness I must say that although some of them contacted me (via fidomail) NONE except BEN and MARSHALL offered to discuss in detail on VOICE connection their programs. Both of these authors have given me their voice numbers as they are genuinely interested in producing a QUALITY program. They have listened to my suggestions as well as my complaints. They have made corrections where needed and where corrections were not easily possible they have stated they will make the needed additions or corrections or suggestions as soon as possible. This is a first !!!!!! Every other author that even bothered to contact me has simply said they intend to keep it the way it is (not in so many words but that was the general idea from the message sent to me). MARSHALL has also stated that he will be releasing soon as a COMMERCIAL PROGRAM ONLY an AUTOMATIC SYSOP ! I have seen what this program can do and if you have gotten a version of FidoUtil version 1.1 from 151/2 then you too have seen just a minute sampling of its capabilities. I am testing a DEMO version of this little GEM even as I type. I will let you know what I think as soon as I have given it a fair trial. To other shareware authors.....KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK ! If I have written about your "baby" and given it a terrible review then please contact me with an update...who knows maybe I will like it, BUT in ANY EVENT I will make it available for downloading here in the exact same state I receive it (barring transmission errors or bad file Fidonews Page 19 13 Oct 1986 transfers). If you would like to add you "baby" to the growing list of FIDO support software available here, simply let me know and we can work out a means for me to get it from you. Well I guess I have rambled on long enough for this week.. Stay tuned to this station next week same time (except on the south coast where it will be later) for more on the utilities as I find them. Jerry Hindle 123/6 123/0 MemphisNet 901-353-4563 300/1200/2400 24hrs daily ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 20 13 Oct 1986 ================================================================= WANTED ================================================================= Kent Leonard Boulder Fido 104/77 Wanted: information and a source for a microstrip design program called "Touchstone". Rumored to be for IBM PCs and VAX/VMS, either would be acceptable. Unknown if Shareware or commercial. Please address Sysop, Fido 104/77. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 21 13 Oct 1986 ================================================================= FOR SALE ================================================================= Now available from Micro Consulting Associates!! Public Domain collection - 550+ "ARC" archives - 20+ megs of software and other goodies, and that's "archived" size! When unpacked, you get approximately 28 megabytes worth of all kinds of software, from text editors to games to unprotection schemes to communications programs, compilers, interpreters, etc... Over 66 DS/DD diskettes!! This collection is the result of more than 15 months of intensive downloads from just about 150 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 166/1 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... The following format choices are available: - IBM PC-DOS Backup utility - Zenith MS-DOS 2.11 Backup Utility - DSBackup - Fastback - ACS INTRCPT 720k format (Requires a 1.2m floppy drive and PC-DOS 3.2) - Plain ol' files (add $50) 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 22 13 Oct 1986 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 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. -----------------------------------------------------------------