Volume 3, Number 48 15 December 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. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL Welcome to the Big League 2. ARTICLES DoubleDOS - Is it worth the trouble? Hard Disk Security & The Trojan Horse Computerfest '86 *** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** HUSITA Modem information needed IFNA is not International! Thinly Disguised Ad PC-WRITE NOW CHECKS SPELLING! 3. COLUMNS Doug's Column Nautical View Part 5: BBS Security 4. NOTICES The Interrupt Stack Fidonews Page 2 15 Dec 1986 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Welcome to the Big League I've just gotten back from the Electronic Mail Association conference for 1986, and I thought I should say something about it while it's still fresh in my mind (or as fresh as anything CAN be after 2 AM). The conference was held in Washington DC, and was well attended by all of the "biggies" in electronic mail. CompuServe and The Source were there, as well as Western Union, MCI Mail, AT&T, Telenet, and enough GEISCO people to sink a small battleship. I went in more than half expecting to be told to go run and play somewhere. Big surprise. My usual introductory line went something like, "I'm from the International FidoNet association; we're representing the amateurs." My friends, they'd heard of us. They knew we existed, and they usually knew something of how we worked, and they weren't laughing. Let me tell you why. I heard one speaker stand up and describe his network. He gave these numbers as if he were describing a large network, and people seemed to take it that way. He said they have 250 nodes across the country, with about 12,000 users, and that they transmitted about 10,000 messages a day. And here we sit with more nodes than he has users, at least ten times that many users (even by the most pessimistic estimates), and moving hundreds of thousands of messages a day. We are NOT a small network! I'll go further than that. Based on what I heard, we are probably one of the largest public electronic mail networks in the world! Oh, some of the real "biggies" are bigger than we are. The speaker for Western Union mentioned 2,500 nodes worldwide. But does that sound all that big to us these days? And they know it. By and large, they know it. Several times I got pulled into discussions with people who mainly wanted to know how we could get the kind of throughput we have. This sort of thing was not at all unusual. It seemed that I could hardly turn around without bumping into someone that had noticed an IFNA representative on the attendance list and who was hoping to meet me. They were all very interested and very supportive. This is understandable, I suppose, as it is really the amateurs that created the electronic mail industry. It's not that many years ago that electronic mail meant bulletin boards. Most of these companies are copying from us in a big way, and almost all of them are counting on us to educate people about the advantages of electronic mail. Fidonews Page 3 15 Dec 1986 But moving on, I felt that my reason for being there was to find out what I could about the legal issues facing sysops. Of primary concern, of course, is the recently passed Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA). The congressman who sponsored ECPA was a guest speaker, and I managed to buttonhole him and his aide as they were leaving, and he promised to send me some literature about it. But as a byproduct of my conversation with him, I quickly wound up in a conversation with two of the higher ranking officers of EMA, including one fellow who is a vice president and legal adviser of one of the major data networks, and who wrote better than two thirds of ECPA, so I can give some pretty certain assurances about how it affects us. In a nutshell, it doesn't. ECPA deals mainly with assuring the privacy of electronic communications over secure networks. Bulletin boards per se are not private, and hence are not affected. On the one hand, it means that the messages on your board are subject to the normal legal protections involving search warrants and such, without the much stricter controls on such things as wiretapping. But on the other hand, it also means that you are not legally responsible for the security of mail on your board. You see, ECPA makes it very difficult for anyone to legally gain access to private mail, but it also makes the mail system operator responsible for ensuring that private mail is kept private, even from the operator of the mail system. I've never seen a BBS program yet where the sysop couldn't read private mail, but that's a no-no under ECPA. But we're not a commercial system, and we're not a secure system, so it doesn't apply to us. One of the more gratifying aspects of this whole conference was the sheer power and magnitude of legal talent that was willing and eager to jump to our defense. I had to leave, but I was assured that a committee meeting the next day is going to consider our legal position in detail and draft recommended interpretations of ECPA to ensure that we can remain in operation. One of the earlier ideas is that they may draft for us a recommended disclaimer to help ensure that we are not held liable for misuse of our mail system by outsiders. I'm left with a very strong impression: The commercial mail systems know that we exist, and are glad that we exist, and intend to help us to keep existing. It's a good feeling. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 4 15 Dec 1986 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= DoubleDOS & Fido David Melnik 107/233 or 1/105 DoubleDOS Help Node As many of you may know there are quite a few nodes out there that can not have Fido using their systems 24 hours a day. There are some solutions to this problem, one of which is to run Fido only when you are not using the system. This method is the least desirable as users often get a no answer and don't call back. Also if you forget to put Fido back up you'll miss the mail period. The ideal way to solve the problem is to have two systems or even better to be able to multi-task on one PC. There are some excellent packages that can do this like Multi-link (See Allen Miller about this), but for those of us that did not want to pay the $500 for it, we tried DoubleDOS. The idea of DD is great except that the implementation leaves a lot to be desired. There are many problems with DD, some can be easily overcome while others may not be. What I'd like to do is first tell you of some problems that other users of DD have had and then ask you for help in solving these problems. 1. Fido does not work with DD version V. A sysop called SoftLogic and they admitted that Fido did not work with DD version V. Has anyone else been able to get DD to work with V? 2. The old problem of DD crashing when the SYSOP has used CTTY and then later switches sections and the system freezes. A fix for this was proposed by Gee Wong, he said that the way to handle this problem was to make sure that there was an odd number of CTTYs in effect. This solution seemed to work for some but not for all, so does anyone else have any other solutions? 3. Another problem that is very similar to the above one is running a communications program first, then starting DD and Fido. After doing this the system freezes completely and requires the BRS (Big Red Switch) to get going again. 4. Bill Bolton brought to my attention the fact that there are some problems with DD and FrontDoor. He did not articulate what these problem are, so Bill if you are reading this please respond with some details. I will collect and try to test the solutions you send to me (1/105 or 107/233) and put them into Fidonews as soon as I get them. Please when you send your additional problems and/or solutions please be very specific as to the nature of the problem and the system configuration. Fidonews Page 5 15 Dec 1986 If you have additional problems not mentioned here please send them in and we'll try to solve them together. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 6 15 Dec 1986 Dennis Director, 115/100 True Hard Disk Security and The GUTLESS Trojan Horse By now, most of you are aware of the Trojan ARC513.COM. It's story is the latest chapter in the history of vandalism against computers. The problems caused by this program have been discussed in BIX and FidoNews, and were recently printed in "Best of BIX" in the special edition Vol. 11, Num. 11 of Byte Magazine. According to participants in the MS-DOS conference of BIX, a program called "check4bomb" was unable to detect the dangers of ARC513.COM. In addition, several participants discussed attempts to patch DOS software to SIMULATE a write-protected disk by catching interrupts. Unfortunately, ARC513.COM has not been easy to second guess and the complicated interrupt catching often fails. I am pleased to announce that there is now a product to help bulletin board sysops STOP TROJANS DEAD! The device is call DISK DEFENDER. The DISK DEFENDER is a hardware add-on device that lets you write-protect any Winchester fixed disk on IBM PCs, PC/XTs or compatibles. Although there is a compatibility problem with the IBM PC/AT, DISK DEFENDER does work with most AT compatibles. It consists of a circuit board which fits into a short or long IBM expansion slot and a control box which connects via a ribbon cable (so it can be placed on top of you monitor or nearby). The box contains a three position switch that lets you choose between full protection, under which the entire hard disk is write-protected; zone protection, which allows for a single partition to be protected; or none, for full read and write capability. Status LEDs indicate when the disk is being accessed, when data writes are being attempted, and when write- protection is active. Software included with the DISK DEFENDER enhances DOS to permit two concurrent hard disk partitions, one of which can be protected using the zone method. Other operating systems, which support logical units, use DISK DEFENDER without additional software. An installation program displays a map on the screen to show where configurations switches are and how to set them. The Trojan nature of a program like ARC513.COM could be revealed easily. First, select FULL write-protection for your VALUABLE hard disk. Then run ARC513.COM with a floppy as the destination for files. When the program tries to write on your hard disk, you will see the WRITE LED flash, indicating that a hard disk write was "attempted". In addition, if and only if the WRITE was attempted through the DOS driver, you will get the message "Disk error writing drive C:". Notice, the HARDWARE PROTECTION of the DISK DEFENDER guarantees that no matter where the WRITE came from, the LED would flash and NO DATA WOULD BE WRITTEN. Fidonews Page 7 15 Dec 1986 Of course, DISK DEFENDER is extremely well suited to protecting bulletin board computers during routine operation. A sysop can divide his or her computer into a read-write upload area and a write-protected area for all other files. HARDWARE protection means that NO dial-up user, NO "whiz kid" and NO software can penetrate your disk! Sysops of bulletin boards generously dedicate their time and their computers to others. It is ironic and even tragic that these Trojans strike out against those of you who provide this great service. At Director Technologies, we are very proud to provide such a powerful, defensive weapon in the war against the Trojans. The retail price of the DISK DEFENDER is $196.00 and special discounts are available for Fido sysops. For more information contact, Director Technologies, Technology Innovation Center, 906 University Place, Evanston, IL 60201 or call (312) 491-2334. Fido inquiries can be sent to Dennis Director 115/100. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 8 15 Dec 1986 Doug Mohney, 109/74, "The Bear's Den" Computerfest '86 Computefest '86 is designed to be a gathering of local area user groups and vendors in the Washington D.C. area, an event where everyone can benefit from attending, from the person who knows very little about micros to the hard-core "Give me assembly or give me death" hacking types. It will be on Saturday, October 25, 1986, from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM at the Adele H. Stamp Union at the University of Maryland, College Park. There will be representative from the user groups in the area, including Capital PC User Group, Washington Apple Pi, WARUG (I hope!), NOVAtari, AURA, Hyattsville C-64 UG, Baltimore Amiga User Group, FOCUS, and Rockville C-64 User group. They'll have members available to answer questions and public domain software available for purchase. Seminars: We currently are in the process of arranging seminars on the following topics: Small Business Computing, desktop publishing in three different flavors, Computers and the Disabled, MIDI, Enhancing MS-DOS, and BBSing and Society, with WARUG's own Kurt Reisler participating. Apple Computer has stated it will send out a speaker for our event. We also are working on getting someone from Atari; I'm hoping Sig Hartmann is able to do all that he's made reference. Unfortunately, Bruce Webster of "BYTE" magazine pulled out on us. He's apparently going to Hackers 2.0 instead. In addition, we'll have a number of local area vendors displaying their equipment and peripherials in the Grand Ballroom of the Student Union, for the whole range of personal computers currently available today, PLUS a "Swapfest" where users can get rid of their surplus hardware and legally acquired software. Why should you come? Basically, this event is designed for you to have fun and learn more about computers. It is a single day event, so I'd feel kinda guilty if you came all the way from New York or Florida just to say "hi". However, if you live within an hour or two of College Park, Maryland (this means Baltimore, large parts of Maryland, Northern Virginia), it should be worth your time. Admission is $6.00/general and $4.00/discount. Print a copy of this from your printer & you qualify for a discount. Xerox it, give it to your friend Fred & he can get in for a discount. Very easy to get a discount. For more information, contact me (Doug Mohney) at (301) 350- 1437 (U.S. phone) or send Fidomail to me at 109/74. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 9 15 Dec 1986 **** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** To All Sysops; With the sudden, unfortunate demise of The Star Chamber, node 151/10, as of 10/15/85, I am accepting mail and files destined for his node. Please make whatever changes are needed to your nodelist/routing files to effect this change. I have changed my alternate node number to 151/10. I will also be accepting BUG reports, questions, and comments concerning the Fido Utility and Smartman programs, and will attempt to provide support for these programs. Send Bug reports for Fido utility to FU BUGS, comments to FU CMT, and questions to FU QUEST. Bug reports about Smartman should be sent to SM BUGS, comments to SM CMT, and questions to SM QUEST. Please pass this information on to other nets and nodes. Thanks, David Bodman Fido 151/3 **** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** **** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** IMPORTANT **** ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 10 15 Dec 1986 HUSITA Birmingham, England September 7-11,1987 _________________________________________________________________ First International Conference on Human Service Information Technology Applicats. _________________________________________________________________ CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS The Computer Applications in Social Work and Allied Professions Editorial Group The Computer Users in Social Services Network, and the Computers in Human Services Editorial Computer Users in Social Services Network, and the Computers in Human Services Editorial Board are proud to announce the First International Conference on Human Service Information Technology Applications or HUSITA, to be held in England in September 1987. CONFERENCE THEME "A technology to support humanity." Presentations with this theme will be favored. BACKGROUND Human Services throughout the world are utilizing new forms of information technology in their work. The Conference will pro- mote presentations which describe, define, share, or evaluate the ways that these technologies can be or are being used. We are interested in sharing and examining the roles that the human service worker takes in regard to these technologies, approaches to training workers to fulfill these roles, and ethical frameworks which providea context for these roles. Computing has altered thework situation and, in some cases, microcomputers have made computing power available to the worker and to the people that they serve. The Conference is a place to discuss changes in the work situation and to provide others with ideas about how systems are developed. Workers are particularly interested in the way that these technologies will impact the person who is receiving services: how will they access and use these technologies; what will be their impact; how will they meet their needs; how will they network with others or service providers. How can such technologies provide power to the powerless, minorities, women, the third world? We invite presenters to share points of view about the development of information technology applications in the human services. The Conference will provide a forum in which we can gather to examine and share applications, knowledge, and experiences, reassess our concerns, and provide direction to our futures. PARTICIPANTS: Human services are carried out by different professions in dif- ferent countries, but will commonly include social workers, psychologist, psychiatrists, social planners, the rehabilitation Fidonews Page 11 15 Dec 1986 professions, community educators, public and mental health work- ers, social service workers, the allied health professionals, community developers, public and social service administrators, neighborhood and personal social service workers, and academics working and training others in any of these areas. THE CONFERENCE IS ORGANIZED INTO THREE AREAS: * sharing and discussing experiences * listen and learn * vendor, product, and demonstration Fair Share and Discuss Presentation in this area can be organized as small groups, seminars, or any other presentation format suitable to informal discussion and sharing of the author's material. Listen and Learn Presentation in this area can be organized as workshops, lectures, or any other presentation format suitable to formal delivery of the author's material. The Fair Vendors and software developers from a number of participating countries will demonstrate their products. The largest collection of free software and demonstration programs in the world (over 1000 disks worth) will be available for coping at a low cost. Presentation proposals are welcome (but not limited) to the fol- lowing areas: * Use * Problems * Experiences * Directions * Choosing Systems * Finding Software * Worker Use * Empowerment * Community Change * Administration * Computer Literacy * Privacy * Networking * Gender Differences * Self-Help Groups * Testing * Client Assessment * Research * Client Evaluation * Accountability * Computer Program Development * Prototyping * Expert Systems * Creating an Information Center * Knowledge Engineering * Developing Information Resources * Data Base Design CONFERENCE PRESENTATION PROPOSALS A 500 word abstract is required by January 31st, 1987. Please send three copies typed double space to either: Walter LaMendola, Ph.D., Co-Chairman Professor and Director Information Technolgoy Center GSSW - University of Denver Denver, CO 80208-0274 U.S.A. Fidonews Page 12 15 Dec 1986 Tel. 303 871 2886 or Stuart Toole, Co-Chairman City of Birmingham Polytechnic Department of Sociology & Applied Social Studies Perry Barr Birmingham B42 2SU England 021-356-6911 (Ext. 303 or 301) TO RECEIVE FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT HUSITA '87: Send your name and mailing address to either of the above addresses. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 13 15 Dec 1986 Bill Allbritten, 11/301 Updates to FIDO modem compatibility information needed I have been maintaining FIDOMDM.ARC on 11/301 for some time. It contains user supplied info on modem usage with FIDO. As new modems come on the market, this information needs to be updated. If you are using any of the following modems, please send a short message to me containing info on: (1) Modem brand (2) baud capabilities (3) Bell and CCITT standards supported (4) Cost (5) switch settings (6) any special modem control file entries (7) your name, address and phone (optional) (8) problems you might have experienced (9) compatibility with other FidoNet systems (SEAdog, OPUS, etc) (10) any other comments you might have Specific information is needed on Leading Edge 1200 and 2400 units, IBM 1200 and 2400 units, Ven-Tel modems, any generics that have worked, Everex modems, Quibie 2400, and any of the new 9600 baud units that might have been tried with, say, OPUS, which I believe supports that baud rate. If you indicate usage with SEAdog, please include your modem initialization values. Many users will no doubt appreciate your taking a moment to do this. Best Wishes for a Merry Christmas to All, Bill Allbritten, sysop, 11/301 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 14 15 Dec 1986 Edward M. Rauh, 141/215 IFNA is not International! In my efforts to present the drawbacks of making the IFNA a truly International organization, I wrote a minority position paper suggesting that the IFNA limit itself to North American membership. This document, included in FidoNews, demonstrated why I felt that we should limit our International membership. It did not, in any way, represent the view of the vast majority of the By-laws and Rules Committee; in fact, I was the only one who took this position. I would like to clarify the position further. Please be aware that this was drafted by me without the consultation of the Board of Directors or the By-laws and Rules Committee; this document is my personal response to the issues at hand. 1) Why the By-laws document is unfair to International members. The document, as drawn up during the committee meeting in New Hampshire, assumes geographic representation in the Board of Directors. By grouping the International nodes into U.S. geographic areas, we denied those sysops outside of North America (aside from Europe, which was the basis of my legal objection) that representation. This was done for two reasons: first, to avoid gerrymandering (one suggestion, shot down early Saturday morning, would have attempted to create proportional representation, with all the border line disputes that entails), and second, to avoid an inevitable bloating of the Board of Directors. I feel that the second is the more important of the two; the Board that we recommended, with 22 members, was too large to work with as it was. A larger board, as would have been mandated by allowing each nation listed in the nodelist to have it's own representative, would have even less of a chance to take effective and timely action. 2) What my position paper really was. My commentary, added after the fact to present my case AGAINST trying to make IFNA a truly International organization, was drawn up to present my feelings on a significant issue. I cannot say that it was done to attempt to address the inequities cited above; it was, in fact, drawn up to attempt to limit the potential criminal liabilities that I perceived from the (possibly) illegal activities of some non-North American nodes. It did, indirectly, allow the International members to be associate members, and to create their own organizations, which, if operated within the laws of their respective nations, could petition for divisional status within the IFNA. 3) What can be done about the inequities. After receiving a letter from Alan Salmon of 155/229, I gave a great deal of thought to how to redress this problem. Mr. Fidonews Page 15 15 Dec 1986 Salmon suggested the following: a. That we rename the organization the North American FidoNet association. In view of the above arguments, I cannot contest this within the context of the current IFNA situation. b. That we take into account the International nodes, representing more than 10% of our current Net, and allow them a say in the operation of the Net. This again is reasonable. It is apparent that the International nodes, which have their own needs relating solely to their geographic areas, should have a say in how the Net works, and should be represented in the International Board of Directors. It may then be necessary to create a separate organization to administer each nation's nodes, and to treat International communications as a subject beyond the scope of the present organization. If this is the case, the present Board of Directors might recommend the following: a. That the administration of the nodelist be done outside of the scope of the IFNA as presently conceived; b. That the vote, to be taken on or about 1 January 1987, include a referendum on whether the organization as such should call itself the International FidoNet Association, or should indicate the geographic bounds of the majority of it's members to date; c. That each major geographic region outside of the North American continent form it's own national or geographic FidoNet Association (hereafter read national FidoNet Association); d. That a separate committee on International Affairs, including members from each of the major geographic areas outside of North America, be formed to consider how best to organize communications between national FidoNet Associations; e. That the creation and distribution of the International Nodelist be jointly funded by the national FidoNet Associations through the auspices of the International Affairs Committee. These suggestions would probably fragment the Net to some degree, at least until each member nation formed and funded it's own organization. In the interrim, I suggest that the present group maintaining Net communications continue to do so, for a period to be specified by a vote of the Board of Directors of whatever we decide to call ourselves. In summary, no matter what the organization is called, or how representation is accomplished, we ARE, for the moment an Fidonews Page 16 15 Dec 1986 International organization. There are inequities in the present organizational scheme for those nodes outside of the North American continent that may not give them adequate repesentation. We should try to address the needs of these International nodes in as fair a fashion as possible, while allowing some continuity of Net operations, and attempt to give them adequate representation in the International organization that the IFNA hopes to be. Respectfully submitted, Edward M. Rauh Sysop 141/215 IFNA By-laws and Rules Committee ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 17 15 Dec 1986 Dear Fido Sysop, We would appreciate your comments and opinions on this matter. Would you purchase a HIGH-QUALITY on-line adventure game which is ONLY available to IBM-based sysops such as yourself? If so, would you make this game(s) available to your users as either a free service or a subscription feature? Remember, this game(s) would be available ONLY for on-line use through utilities using the "Outside" option of FIDO. Any comments or opinions are greatly appreciated. Please respond to: No Shoes P.O. Box 145 Wakefield, MA 01880 or in Fido-Mail to: Dana Montgomery at Net 101/Node 27 Thank you in advance for your time. sincerely, Dana Montgomery ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 18 15 Dec 1986 John Herro, 107/211 User's Review of PC-WRITE With Spelling (The author has no connection with Quicksoft, the producers of PC-WRITE, except for being a registered user of that Shareware.) The long-awaited version 2.7 of the PC-WRITE word processor is out. Since PC-WRITE is Shareware, you can download it and try it for free. If you have an older version of PC-WRITE, it will def- initely be worth the time to download the latest version. Since I recently reviewed version 2.6 in FidoNews 330, I will discuss only new features here. The biggest new feature is the spelling checker. This is very handy not only for poor spellers, but for bad typists like me. I've used three different spelling checkers from bulletin boards before, but none of them compares with the one built into version 2.7 of PC-WRITE. For one thing, the PC-WRITE spelling checker handles words divided by a hyphen at the end of a line, and the other spellers I've tried do not. I was tired of being told that "tion" is not a word. Also, the dictionary resides in memory, so the checking is very fast. Finally, the dictionary is large: 50,000 words. I'm impressed that the program manages to squeeze 50K English words into fewer than 110K bytes of memory. Alternate-F2 brings up the spelling menu. You can check spelling in three ways. The program can check words as you type them, beeping at you like some of the newer typewriters. You can check an entire document, or check only the word at the cursor. When you check an entire document, the program highlights the first unknown word. You can ignore it, add it to a personal dic- tionary, edit it, or ask the program to guess the correct word. In the last case, I've found that some of the guesses seem to bear little relation to the word typed, while other guesses are very useful. After you select one of these four options, the program highlights the next unknown word, etc. The same four options are available when you check the single word at the cursor, or when you ask PC-WRITE to beep whenever you type an unknown word. You can have as many personal dictionaries as you like, but only one can be in memory at a time, along with the main 50,000-word dictionary. The personal dictionaries are not compressed like the main one. A separate program is provided to merge a personal dictionary with the main one, producing a new main dictionary. Dictionaries are lower case; the speller ignores capitalization. Working with a large dictionary in memory is a pleasure. I was surprised that the program accepted "Boise," "elaboration," "esc," "Hoover," "identifier," "Qatar," and "Terre Haute." The catch is that you can't use the speller if your computer has less than 320K of memory. Fidonews Page 19 15 Dec 1986 There are a few new features besides the spelling checker. You can now define a single keystroke to insert the current date and/or time in any format you like. (Date first, spell the day, abbreviate the month, two-digit year, 24-hour time, etc.) The help file is now loaded only when you need it, giving a fast startup. Word wrapping can be disabled without disturbing the right margin. More printers are supported, including those with XON/XOFF protocol. Finally, PC-WRITE can now "import" text placed on the screen by another program. PC-WRITE now includes a pamphlet, ready for you to print out, ex- plaining the differences between versions 2.6 and 2.7. This is in addition to the familiar tutorial manual and quick reference guide. If I may say so, some of you FidoNews authors out there urgently NEED a spelling checker! Version 2.7 of PC-WRITE can be found on Daniels-Fido 107/211, (516) 367-9626, 300/1200/2400 baud. I uploaded the program in two files, PCWRITE1.ARC and PCWRITE2.ARC. PLEASE download it and improve the appearance of FidoNews!! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 20 15 Dec 1986 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Doug Mohney, 109/74, "The Bear's Den" Doug's Column OOPS: My last column (#3) was delayed cuz I had exams & projects up the wall. Sorry if ya missed it, and if you didn't ya got a break.... FANS: I've gotten some fan (FIDO) mail and two phone calls; one of which I returned and lost the phone number for the other. Still no money or products or software to review . 80386 IS HERE: BIG WHOOPIE: Microsoft is still working on an OS to take advantage of the '286; best guess when we'll see '386 programs which even challenge the current crop of souped-up Super-AT clones will be in 1987, earliest. Besides, do you really need a '386 to do word processing, database work, or most normal spreadsheet calculations? C'mon. DEEP THOUGHT: My friend Mr. Bill is overjoyed to have an Apple LaserWriter Plus to play with. He says it is the most powerful computer Apple currently sells. Think about it. Bill is disappointed they didn't put a diskdrive. 80386 IS HERE: YAHHHHH!!!!!!: If you crunch numbers and want to run *practical* multiuser/multitasking systems, the '386 will allow you to do it, abet in a glorified AT fashion. The '386er is a boon to CAD/CAM, statistical users, and fanatic spreadsheet freaks. Even though you won't be able to run ADOS on it (Advanced DOS), you can get either UNIX(TM), XENIX (a UNIX(TM) run-alike), and VM/386. UNIX is a de facto mini/micro/mainframe operating system standard; General Motors is going to adapt UNIX as a company standard. The last time GM adapted standards was with the MAP manfacturing protocols; lotta MAP products out there now. Although I think VM is the most grotesque OS written for a mainframe, it is a standard and there are a lot of mainframe based programs running under VM which would be quite handy to port down to a VM/386 PC. WHILE WE TALK OF UNIX: I will stick my neck out on a block and say UNIX is the future of operating systems. Sort of. UNIX has been ported to more chips and machines than any other OS on the face of the earth. If you don't believe me, why did Digital come out with UNIX, and why do you find UNIX running on IBM mainframes? However, you won't have the mystical UNIX command set; instead, a user-friendly, graphics-based icon shell will sit over UNIX; if you want C or Bourne Shell, it'll be a window option. Hopefully, UNIX will be reworked so it will be less of a disk Fidonews Page 21 15 Dec 1986 hog. The standards of UNIX will come from AT&T, but innovations will come from Berkie and other Universities. BITNET BURNOUT: BITNET is a network of over 1,000 mini & mainframe computers stretching from Japan to Canada to Europe to Israel -- with most of the machines on the network in the U.S. I've been recently spending many a late evening on BITNET's version of CB, called RELAY. RELAY has a bunch of jobs which take messages from individual sites and forward them to the proper locations. I've been able to "talk" to females in Ottawa, Italy, Texas, Washington State and Portland. Awesome. However, this form of chatting is ADDICTIVE. You can lose track of time all too quickly, intending to leave at 10:00 PM, and suddenly find it is 2:30 AM. OUCH! I've read of people on CompuServe and the Source who get turned on by CB -- only to be introduced to $300+ bills the next month. After my BIT experiences, I'm not surprised. NOT ALL APPLE, INC PPL: are weasels. Had an excellent chat with Kathy Kinsburg of Apple's Higher Education division. It turns out she was down in Texas with Ed Romson (an Apple person who spoke at Computerfest) for a while, then went West to the Main Drag. Kathy was in town to chat with U. of Maryland ppl about "Maryland in the Apple University Consortium", and MY GOD! she actually seemed to listen. Was very nice. One of the things I said was "Gosh, I bought this Apple //e and once I get to college, I find all they support here is Macintosh." She told me they were working on the problem. A TALE OF TWO USER GROUPS: Capital PC User Group came out whole hog to support the computer show our user group (PCA) put on in October, with a number of speakers and volunteers to answer questions at a CPCUG table. CPCUG, based in Bethesda, has done some *great* things with the D.C. community, including sponsoring programming contests, helping out other non-profit organizations like National Center for Missing Children, and is currently offering a BBS grant program. I love CPCUG. It is very rare I love anything. On the other hand, we have Washington Apple Pi. WAP members have been running around over the past year preaching the idea of "user group cooperation" and an ultimate formation of a "Washington Computer Society" a la Boston. WAP voted to come to our computer show, but didn't. Nary a one. We're 20 minutes away from their Bethesda office. However, they do manage to make it to close places like Boston, Chicago, and San Fransisco, showing what leaders they are. But wait, there's more: After our show, we went to them with a request to update our Mac public domain software library. PCA Fidonews Page 22 15 Dec 1986 is composed of a bunch of u-grads (ie: poor college students) at Maryland. The request got bounced around and they finally came back and said "Well, you are already established, so we don't have to help you. Besides, you could end up competiting for our public domain software sales in the future." Oh. They really are promoting cooperation there, yes sir. I guess they have to protect their cash-cows as much as anyone does. OK, YOUR TURN: If you want to reach me, send me FidoMail to Doug Mohney at 109/74. Or call me at (301) 350-1437. Good gossip or demo copies of anything welcome. Money not refused (although if I get real successful, I may have to give a cut to my SYSOP at 109/74). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 23 15 Dec 1986 Joe Lindstrom TC-Link Fido (134/7) Calgary, AB +-------------------+ ! The Nautical View ! +-------------------+ Part 5: BBS Security (The View From Calgary) Hi ho, 'tis Joe from Calgary (that's in Canada, eh?) again. I'm here this week to address a problem that has recently cropped up here in Calgary (again) that has no doubt cropped up EVERYWHERE: BBS security. This issue has two major points of view, with a wide range of variance in each: the SysOp's view, and the user's view. I'll try to address each, since I'm one of each (did that make any sense at all?) The board from which this junk (not the FidoNews of course) spouts is called "TC-Link Fido", based here in Calgary. Recently, a user logged on under the name "Cherry Pepsi", and proceeded to verbally lambaste the sysop and users. Needless to say, the sysop was NOT impressed. Nevertheless, he left the message (an edited version) online, and tacked onto the end an appeal to the users of the board to help him make a decision: should he continue running an open system? Or should he set it up so that all users must be verified before full access is granted? Or should he do the drastic thing, and limit the board to current members only? We've had quite the debate on this. Many ideas were broached. From the user's perspective, the idea was that an open system is a desirable thing. However, the solutions offered to the "Cherry Pepsi" problem were far from viable. From a few sysop's point of view, the idea was that the system should be run on a verified-user-only basis. Both sides have merit. After all, a sysop puts a board online so that everyone can have access to it and use it to its potential. This is limited by making people wait while their memberships are checked out. Further, some users resent having to divulge information such as address, phone number, and real name. However, a sysop wants some form of control on what happens on his BBS. He does NOT want his BBS to get a bad reputation, which has happened ALL too often here in Calgary. So where does that leave us? Fortunately, Fido just may have a solution. First off, it is up to the sysop how much information he/she requires from the user. If an open system is desired, the sysop can limit this to things like terminal parameters, etc. However, from this point, the user can be allowed anywhere in Fido EXCEPT the message bases if the sysop so desires it. THIS is how people like "Cherry Pepsi" get their kicks: calling up boards that are "open", wreaking a little havoc, and never showing up again. Requiring that second call will rid a sysop of most of these problem Fidonews Page 24 15 Dec 1986 callers. I've seen this work, and work well, on 2 Calgary area boards. My question to you, the readers of FidoNews, is this: What do YOU think? I am very interested in publishing some of your responses in an upcoming issue of the FidoNews in this column. If you want your views known, write to me. I can be reached on TC-Link Fido (Calgary, Net 134 Node 7). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 25 15 Dec 1986 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 17 May 1987 Metro-Fire Fido's Second Birthday BlowOut! All Fido Sysops and Families Invited! Contact Christopher Baker at 135/14 for more information. 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 26 15 Dec 1986 __ The World's First / \ BBS Network /|oo \ * FidoNet * (_| /_) _`@/_ \ _ | | \ \\ | (*) | \ )) ______ |__U__| / \// / Fido \ _//|| _\ / (________) (_/(_|(____/ (jm) Charter Membership for the International FidoNet Association Membership in IFNA is open to any individual or organization that pays an annual specified membership fee. IFNA serves the international FidoNet-compatible electronic mail community to increase worldwide communications.** Name _________________________________ Date ________ Address ______________________________ City & State _________________________ Country_______________________________ Phone (Voice) ________________________ Net/Node Number ______________________ Board Name____________________________ Phone (Data) _________________________ Baud Rate Supported___________________ Board Restrictions____________________ Special Interests_____________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Is there some area where you would be willing to help out in FidoNet?_______ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Send your membership form and a check or money order for $25 to: International FidoNet Association P. O. Box 41143 St Louis, Missouri 63141, USA Thank you for your membership! Your participation will help to insure the future of FidoNet. ** Please NOTE that IFNA is a general not-for-profit organization in formation and BYLAWS are presently being prepared by an International Rules Committee. Membership requirements and fees are subject to approval of this Committee. An IFNA Echomail Conference has been established on FidoNet to assist the BYLAWS Committee. We welcome your input on this Conference. -----------------------------------------------------------------